Have you saved enough for the return fare? || Acharya Prashant, on Saint Lalleshwari (2019)

Acharya Prashant

‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant?  Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquir...    Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books?  Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~   Video Information: Advait Learning Camp, 29.09.2019, Advait BodhSthal, Greater Noida, India   Context:   What is the highway that is being talked of?  What is the entire spirituality all about?  What does sadhana mean?  What is Maya?  How we born?   Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Transcript

00:00In today's satsang, many questions that we have received have come up from the mystical

00:14poetry of Lal Dede.

00:18Another one is asked by Vandita.

00:22She has quoted Lal Dede, By the highway I came, but by the highway I return not.

00:32And so I find me still on the embarkment, not having gone even half the way.

00:39And the day is gone, the light has failed.

00:43I search my pockets, but not a kodi find.

00:48What shall I pay for the ferry fee?

00:54The seeker Vandita inquires, By the highway I came, sorry for interrupting the question,

01:03it doesn't matter.

01:09By the highway I came, what is the highway?

01:17The womb and the birth canal are the highway.

01:22What is the highway?

01:24That is used every day by millions.

01:29Everybody is using the same road.

01:32The birth canal is the highway.

01:34By the highway I came.

01:37I came through the root of flesh and blood.

01:41I came through the root of mortal birth.

01:48But she says, By the highway I do not want to return.

01:51I do not want to die the same way I was born.

01:56I do not want to die the same way I was born.

01:59I was born like everybody else.

02:03Just as everybody else is travelling on the highway.

02:11By the highway I came, but now I want to fly away.

02:15Is there a flyway, somehow possible, close to the highway?

02:25Probably there is, but it is very expensive, very expensive.

02:29So she says, I don't even have two kodis.

02:34What is a kodi?

02:35It is an old unit of measurement of money.

02:42Just as you say, I don't even have sixpence.

02:49If I keep using the highway, I will die the same way I was born.

02:55How are you born?

02:56You are born very, very unconsciously.

02:59Anybody who remembers his or her birth?

03:03Anybody?

03:06You don't even know how you came here.

03:10So even that is a second-hand account.

03:15What if you never came here?

03:17What if you are always here?

03:18How do you know that you were ever born?

03:21How do you know?

03:22Because everybody else is born?

03:25Because you are shown pics of your childhood and a certificate from the hospital?

03:30How do you know that you were ever born?

03:31Please tell me.

03:33Any first-hand experience, recall, memory, anything?

03:38Nothing.

03:39And when you die, are you conscious in the moment of death?

03:43Is there anybody who is conscious right in the moment of death, in the last moment of

03:47death?

03:48Anybody who is going to remember his death?

03:56We die the same way we take birth, unconsciously.

04:04Unconsciously we are born and unconsciously we die.

04:08And that implies that everything in between is also going to be necessarily unconscious.

04:16How can there be pure consciousness between two points of unconsciousness?

04:22That's the highway, you know.

04:23It's a highway of deep unconsciousness.

04:26Dalai Lama is saying, by the highway I came, by the highway I will return, not I am determined

04:33because it's a very bad highway.

04:37It's a highway through which only the dead travel.

04:51I want to take the flyway but the tariffs are steep and I have nothing in my pocket.

04:57What do I do?

05:02What is the tariff?

05:03What are the charges?

05:09Sadhana is the charge.

05:14Deep and real work is the charge.

05:24That is what you have to pay and hence that is what you have to firstly earn.

05:34That's what this life is for.

05:37Earn the airfare, else you will be condemned to stay on the mortal highway.

05:55Daldeit is grieving, she is saying, you know, a lot of my ears are already behind me and

06:05I haven't yet earned much.

06:09Any day the flight can announce its departure.

06:15Have I saved enough for the fare?

06:18She says, no, not yet, so I have to hurry up.

06:24That's what the entire spiritual process is about, collecting the airfare so that you

06:34can rise up, otherwise you stay crawling on the highway.

06:46Life is not so that you just remain a crawler, a creeper.

06:53Life is so that you can take off and taking off, as you know, is expensive.

07:02It is not for the ones who keep squandering money.

07:14You have to be a spendthrift.

07:18You have to save, you have to conserve, what time, resources, attention.

07:31If you keep spilling all these needlessly, mindlessly, you will not take off.

07:52And remember, we do not know the flight schedule.

07:57We do not know when the boarding call might come.

08:05Do we know?

08:10And if it's getting too late for Lal Dede, what does that tell about us?

08:22If Lal Dede says that she has not been able to save enough for her upward journey, what

08:30do you infer about your own spiritual account?

08:35How much have you saved?

08:40The reference is Lal Dede, her account is not yet par.

08:53Can you infer something about your own account?

08:55What zilch, oh no, overdraft, minus.

09:07If Lal Dede's account says 2 kauris or 6 pence, our account says minus 1000 dollars

09:17and then we want to pay from this account to take the flight.

09:29Not only is it in negative, we are spending from it again and again and adding nothing

09:37to it.

09:39Every minute that you waste in an unworthy talk is a stress upon your spiritual account.

09:53Every rupee that you waste upon your personal carnal pleasures is a criminal withdrawal

10:07from your spiritual account.

10:16By the highway I came, but by the highway I return not.

10:38And so I find me still on the embarkment, not having gone even half the way.

10:45When the day is gone, the light has failed.

10:48I search for my pocket, but not a kauri find.

10:52What shall I pay for the ferry fee?

10:55I said airfare, Lal Dede says ferry fee.

11:03That is the classical Indian representation.

11:06What I am talking of is something more modern, a flight into free space.

11:12Lal Dede says ferry fee, crossing the Vaitarani, crossing the Bhav Sagar.

11:21So the boat is needed rather than the highway.

11:24Be it the aircraft or the boat, both demand their fares and you have to save.

11:35Have you saved?

11:37Are you saving or are you expending more and more?

11:59Yes, question.

12:01Jain Swaraj Acharya ji, today you sent this beautiful verses of Leshwari Bai, just touched

12:14the heart and this was one of actually my favorite because I know it contains a lot

12:23of stuff which I need to know that how do we earn, how do we earn this spiritual money

12:35or the spiritual.

12:37You don't have to really earn spiritual money.

12:42You already have a certain balance available to you when you are born, but then you also

12:52have to live and living also consumes a lot of resources, living entails expenses.

13:02So you have to decide whether you want to spend what you have for the purpose of materialistic,

13:15pleasurable living or do you want to spend it towards a higher purpose.

13:26Nobody needs to give you time.

13:27Don't you have time?

13:28Time is your biggest resource.

13:32But we squander away our time in unworthy pursuits, don't we?

13:41Nobody is short of time.

13:43It's just that people use their time unwisely.

13:48Similarly, don't you have the capacity to know and understand?

13:55Don't you have the power to attend?

13:58You have all these.

14:00But then we start attending to all the trivial things in life, don't we?

14:13The power to attend is such a blessing.

14:19You can lock yourself upon a thing and come to understand it.

14:25But then the thing that you choose to understand is rarely the right thing.

14:44You have the power to choose your company, your place, your relationships, but the place

14:54you choose to be present at is hardly ever the right place.

15:00Nobody needs to give you something additional.

15:04You just need to make discrete use of what you already have.

15:17You know how to read, right?

15:19You know how to read.

15:22But just see what you choose to read.

15:30Using your ability to read, you can read a Krishna, a Krishnamurti, a Kabir, a Christ.

15:44But then what is it that most of us prefer to read?

15:54All kinds of rubbish, no?

15:59Now do you need to be taught to read that you already know of?

16:10You don't need to be taught to read.

16:14You need to decide better what to read.

16:20And that's sadhana.

16:22Sadhana does not mean earning additional powers.

16:27Sadhana simply means making wise use of what you already have.

16:37And the one thing that you already have and waste mercilessly is yourself, your time,

16:49your attention, your energy.

16:56Everything that you have is a resource to be used towards accumulating airfare.

17:03Memory is a resource, is it not?

17:06Is it not?

17:07Memory is a useful resource.

17:09But see what our memory is cluttered with.

17:14Is our memory cluttered with things that would enable our redemption?

17:21Yes, do we remember only stuff that would facilitate our salvation or do we remember

17:34all kinds of nonsense?

17:37Right stuff that should have been forgotten long back.

17:41What is it that we choose to remember?

17:49That's what Lalishwari is pointing at.

17:57The ego loves to proceed on adventurous pursuits.

18:04Sadhana means going out and earning something additionally and then proclaiming to the entire

18:09world, see this is what I have and you don't have this.

18:17Sadhana does not mean that.

18:18Sadhana is much much more in the sense of negation.

18:25Don't spend yourself where you are already invested in.

18:31Avoid, avoid, avoid.

18:35In many senses Sadhana is another name for avoidance, upeksha, avoid, avoid.

18:44It's such a great mantra.

18:45It can rival any other mantra.

18:49It can compete with the most effective mantras that mankind has known.

18:54Just avoid.

18:56A-V-O-I-D, avoid, that's Sadhana.

19:08Avoid what?

19:09Avoid yourself.

19:11Stop being yourself.

19:12That is the biggest favor you can do to yourself.

19:25Come out of your own role.

19:30This role that you have chosen for yourself is awfully bad.

19:37Drop this role.

19:43That's Sadhana.

19:46Avoid being yourself.

19:53How do I do that, Acharyaji?

19:56How do you manage being somebody that you should not be?

20:03That's much more a difficult thing to do and you coolly manage that.

20:10But when it comes to a far simpler task, you so innocently ask me, how do I do that, Acharyaji?

20:23Like my driver, Ashok Janardhan Kulpati.

20:33He drives so very smoothly, almost in trance, at speeds bordering on the velocity of light.

20:52But when I ask him to drive at 60 or 80 or maximum 100, he similarly, very innocently

21:04probes me, how do I do it, Acharyaji, if you can do what you have been doing since the

21:11last two hours and breaking my back and neck.

21:16Why can't you drive at 60?

21:19This is not a question.

21:21This is dishonesty.

21:27Janardhan bhai never seeks my counsel to drive at 140.

21:35He just waits for me to doze off.

21:41If I doze off and wake up after an hour, I find myself in a transatlantic location.

21:55Then he doesn't need to take my counsel.

22:02But if I advise or I shout, why can't you drive like an ordinary human being, like me?

22:13Then he says it is very difficult.

22:1560 or 70, I will necessarily crash the vehicle.

22:2480 means a heightened chance of accident.

22:2960 means a definite accident.

22:38This is the kind of inquiry most spiritual practitioners have.

22:44How do I do that which is easy and simple?

22:49I can only do that which is most convoluted, most complex, most terrible, most sense-defying

23:07that I can do.

23:14Do you understand how much it takes to live the life that most of us live?

23:21It is awfully difficult and yet we manage.

23:30We must be congratulated.

23:40We deserve commendations.

23:46The murkier the life you are living, the more entitled are you for a great medal or something.

23:58Because it is very very difficult to live a murky life, is it not?

24:05But we have practised for long and we have gained great expertise.

24:16So simple things, they do not appeal to us now.

24:26We must do the impossible.

24:35Have you seen the extent to which people go just to defend their ego?

24:44Have you seen?

24:45Have you seen the kind of pains people take just to defend their falsenesses?

24:51Have you not seen, please?

24:54Have you not seen?

24:56Is it not much simpler to drop the false?

25:03But we will go to any extent, take on any kind of suffering just to defend the false

25:12ego.

25:13We will not do that which is obvious and simple and natural.

25:20That we will not do.

25:23We are prepared to live a life of torture on the rack and that's how we live, a tortured

25:36life every moment.

25:41But we are not just willing to bow this stupid and stubborn head down and admit that we have

25:55been fools.

26:13I can show you how you are executing yourself.

26:43Torturing yourself by leading an unnecessarily stupid and evil life.

26:57And that is the only way I can convince you to return to simplicity.

27:03How else?

27:05But instead you ask me, Acharyaji, what is simplicity?

27:09How to be simple?

27:10How to be simple?

27:11By dropping the complex.

27:12That's all.

27:13No.

27:14You know what?

27:15Maya is not an abstraction.

27:16Maya is not a construct.

27:17Maya is not a construct.

27:18Maya is not an abstraction.

27:41Maya is not a construct.

27:44Maya is not even in the mind.

27:52Maya is flesh and blood.

27:55Maya is human.

28:00When I say these things and I look at your eyes, you know what I see?

28:04I see resistance and defiance.

28:09It's not you in those moments.

28:12We are Maya.

28:17Maya is not just an idea.

28:19Maya is a human being.

28:24The human being that looks at me when I have made matters extremely obvious and extremely

28:34simple for you and she looks at me as if she has understood nothing.

28:44That's Maya.

28:47Even after the thing has been made irresistible for you.

28:56If you have heard it, you cannot deny it.

28:58You cannot resist it.

29:01You have to take it.

29:02You have to bow down to it.

29:05But you look at me as if I'm talking some alien language.

29:08That is Maya.

29:09This face is Maya.

29:12How is it possible that you are hearing this, comprehending this, and yet refusing to acknowledge

29:18and change your life?

29:23How is it possible that your eyes are still hollow and barren, like the eyes of a robo

29:34that just gathers information and changes not?

29:45These are eyes of defiance.

29:47Yes, yes, yes.

29:49You can keep saying whatever you want to.

29:51We are what we are.

29:52We will hear you out, but we will not listen.

29:58Forget about any change.

29:59We won't even acknowledge that there is a need for a change.

30:13These eyes that look at me as one looks at a wall, in the usual dull, bored, indifferent

30:26way.

30:47Isn't that a great horror?

30:52You can tell all that you can.

30:58And yet you are faced with somebody who will just not understand.

31:09And beyond a point, you move from just telling to pleading.

31:18Now you are not telling.

31:19You are pleading.

31:21And the fellow is sneezing.

31:32And you are almost on your knees.

31:33You are saying, please listen.

31:35And the thing in front of you just refuses to understand.

31:40It's adamant.

31:41I will not understand.

31:45I think that is the most horrible spectacle in the entire universe possible.

31:56And you couldn't have simplified it any further.

32:00It's 2 plus 2, 4 now.

32:02And the fellow is saying, I will not understand.

32:32I will not understand.

32:33I will not understand.

32:34I will not understand.

32:35I will not understand.

32:36I will not understand.

32:37I will not understand.

32:38I will not understand.

32:39I will not understand.

32:40I will not understand.

32:41I will not understand.

32:42I will not understand.

32:43I will not understand.

32:44I will not understand.

32:45I will not understand.

32:46I will not understand.

32:47I will not understand.

32:48I will not understand.

32:49I will not understand.

32:50I will not understand.

32:51I will not understand.

32:52I will not understand.

32:53I will not understand.

32:54I will not understand.

32:55I will not understand.

32:56I will not understand.

32:57I will not understand.

32:58I will not understand.

32:59I will not understand.

33:00I will not understand.

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