Honestly watch your actions, and you'll be liberated || Acharya Prashant,on Adhyatma Upanishad(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: Shastra Kaumudi Live, 15.07.2019, Advait BodhSthal, Greater Noida, India   Context:   "The destruction of actions leads to that of thought;  thence results the dwindling of innate impulse (to act).  The obliteration of innate impulse is liberation;  it is held to be freedom in life."   Adhayatma Upanishad (Verse 12)   ~ What are the thoughts?  ~ Are actions the manifestations of thought?  ~ How to be free of restlessness?  ~ What is the path of realization?  ~ Who can understand the Upanishads?   Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~~~~~~~~ .

Transcript

00:00Adhyatma Upanishad, verse 12, Anisabhuta.

00:20The destruction of actions leads to that of thought, then results the dwindling of innate

00:27impulse to act, the obliteration of innate impulse is liberation, it is held to be freedom

00:36in life.

00:37Dear Acharyaji Pranam, I am not clear on the verse above.

00:44I am aware that I have innate impulses like anger, greed, pride, fear and attachments.

00:52Kindly help me understand what is this process of dwindling of innate impulses as mentioned

00:57in this verse.

01:04It is the path, the method, Anissa, that proceeds from the gross and goes towards the subtle.

01:15This method is for those who cannot begin from the subtle most.

01:24There is the path of realization.

01:31The path of realization says, begin from your center, begin from your heart, Atma, let that

01:48guide and dictate your mind, let that which comes from your heart shape your thoughts

02:02and then let your mind dictate your actions, let your thoughts seamlessly transform into

02:11your actions.

02:15Flow is from the center radially outwards.

02:21You start from the heart, you go to the mind and then you go to the gross actions.

02:29The movement is from the most subtle to the gross.

02:37And then contrasted to that is the path, the way, the method that is mentioned in this

02:44verse.

02:48Why is a contrasting method needed?

02:52Because most people cannot start from the heart.

02:57Most people are so out of touch with their heart that they cannot listen to the heart.

03:03They are no more in sync.

03:05You tell them, please start from your heart.

03:13Do what God says.

03:14They will be perplexed because they have lost the faculty to listen to their heart.

03:23So if you just leave them with the instructions or the advice that they must do what their

03:32center says, they will not be able to do anything at all or they will mistakenly construe some

03:43random voice of the mind as the voice of the heart and proceed as per that random voice

03:53and harm themselves.

03:57So the way of the heart is not for everyone.

04:00It is only for those who are in touch with their heart.

04:06It is only for those who are in touch with the subtle most.

04:16And then there is the opposite way that this verse is talking of.

04:23It is the way of the gross.

04:26So you start from your actions.

04:30You look at your actions.

04:42You proceed backwards.

04:43You see where your actions are coming from.

04:46You come to your thoughts.

04:49Your thoughts then lead you to look at your deep tendencies.

04:55You negate the tendencies then.

04:58And when all these are gone, then you are left with nothing but pure truth.

05:05So the verse says the destruction of actions leads to that of thought.

05:09You look at your thoughts, you look at your actions to begin with, you look at that which

05:13is the most gross and what is that?

05:17Actions.

05:18You look at your actions and you find them horrible.

05:22You negate your actions.

05:26The verse says destruction of actions.

05:28You destroy your actions.

05:29You say no.

05:30The moment I pay attention to my actions, I see that I cannot continue with them.

05:40And if you can freeze your actions, then the thought that leads to those actions will

05:48start shrinking.

05:52Please understand the theory here.

06:06Thought feeds upon its manifestation into action.

06:13If you have a thought and you do not favor it, support it, energize it, you do not turn

06:22it into action, then that thought gets weakened.

06:28It loses its power because it is not gaining any sympathy from you.

06:38So the thought is arising and the thought is prompting you to act in a certain way.

06:44And you refuse to go by the demand of that thought.

06:49You refuse to act.

06:50You freeze the action.

06:51As the verse says, you destroy the action.

06:53You do not let the thought turn into action.

06:57The thought itself will die down because thought requires your support.

07:05How do you express your support to the thought?

07:09By turning it into action.

07:11When you do not turn the thought into action, what have you told the thought?

07:16I do not respect you.

07:19You have come to me and you are saying act this way and I have not gone by your advice.

07:23I do not respect you.

07:26I will not fuel you.

07:29I am not your ally.

07:33And the thought, humiliated and de-energized, falls down.

07:44Similar is the relationship between the latent tendency that gives rise to thoughts and thoughts.

07:53Thought demands action.

07:56Tendency demands thought.

07:58So the tendency comes to you, demanding that you think in a particular way.

08:05But if you do not support the tendency, if you do not let the tendency turn into active

08:11thoughts, then the tendency too will gradually shrivel.

08:23You are not energizing the tendency.

08:25From where will it continue?

08:31So action is destroyed and that destroys thoughts.

08:34Thought is destroyed and that destroys the tendency.

08:37And when false action, false thought, false tendencies are all gone, then you are left

08:44with nothing but the truth.

08:49This is the way in which you proceed from the gross to the subtle.

09:11Nisa is saying, I am aware that I have innate impulses like anger, pride, greed, fear, attachments.

09:18What is the process of dwindling of innate impulses as mentioned?

09:22The process of dwindling of innate impulses is the process of not letting the impulses

09:27turn into thought or action.

09:31How do you dwindle the innate impulses?

09:35By not letting them turn into thoughts and then actions.

09:45That's the highlighted portion.

09:53How do you enfeeble a thought?

09:56By not acting on it.

10:07Let the thought keep coming.

10:09You keep disregarding it.

10:13Then the thought will not find any traction with you.

10:18It will feel insulted and will retreat.

10:27Let your impulses keep raging.

10:32Do not let them occupy your mind.

10:35Do not start actively thinking on their lines.

10:42Then the impulses will gradually fall silent.

10:52You have the choice.

10:57Nothing happens to you without your consent.

11:00Impulses appeal to you.

11:03Thoughts appeal to you.

11:07You are the judge.

11:08You decide whether to accept their appeals.

11:11Do not say, oh, what do I do?

11:16I am a slave to my thoughts.

11:17You are not a slave to your thoughts.

11:19You are the one who decides that you will go by your thoughts.

11:25And if you have decided, you can also reverse the decision.

11:32That power is there.

11:35Exercise that power judiciously.

11:42That thought can be any good thought?

11:50Do you ever have bad thoughts?

11:53If you know that a thought is bad, it will not remain anymore.

11:58According to the thinker, all thoughts are good.

12:02We said thought requires your support to survive.

12:07So if there is any thought that is surviving in you, according to you it is a good thought.

12:13Otherwise how could it have survived?

12:19Survival of thought requires that you consider it beneficial for yourself.

12:24If you know that a thought is not beneficial for you, then you will not support it and

12:28then it cannot survive.

12:30If a bad thought is preserving in your mind, continuing in your mind, then it means that

12:38you are just calling it a bad thought, deeply you are supporting it.

12:44Deeply you think that it is a good thought.

12:47Maybe for reasons of moral necessity, you are superficially calling it bad.

12:59But deeply you are quite pleased with it.

13:05Had you really honestly thought that the thought is bad, then the thought would have gone.

13:14But our minds are all full of so-called bad thoughts.

13:18What does that mean?

13:20We call them bad.

13:23We actually do not consider them bad.

13:34And your minds are not at all full of good thoughts.

13:38What does that mean?

13:39You call them good, but you consider them very very bad.

13:43So even when those thoughts come to you, you do not support them.

13:49What do you support?

13:51All the so-called bad thoughts, because they are all quite nice, lovely, attractive.

14:00Then let us have a little honesty.

14:03Why call them bad at all?

14:33There was this Bengali story, so Bengali gentleman, Bhadralok, he was very fond of visiting brothels.

15:03And he was a Brahmin, a Brahmin II of the highest Gotra.

15:21So he will go to the prostitute and coil the sacred thread around his ear, do what

15:37he wanted to do and leave.

15:46One day when he was leaving, the woman saw that he was exhausted, all in sweat and huffing

15:57and panting, must have been quite intensely in the act.

16:10So the woman brought a glass of water for him.

16:18He must have been a regular patron, so just for client relationship management, she probably

16:25bought some water.

16:26Please take some water, you are sweating a lot sir and you are losing your breath.

16:33So the bugger says, I am a high caste Brahmin, will I drink water from your hands?

16:53The woman was a bad thought for her, such are our bad thoughts.

16:59We enjoy them and then we say, will I touch you?

17:03You low caste, low class prostitute, will I ever touch you, will I accept water from

17:16your hands?

17:19That is our relationship with our bad thoughts.

17:46We are able to see the thoughts, we can stop the thoughts turning into actions, but how

17:51to see tendencies, how to catch tendencies not becoming thoughts, because they are very

17:56subtle.

17:57No, tendencies are subtle, thoughts are not.

18:03Thoughts are not as imperceivable as tendencies, so they are not very subtle.

18:08Don't keep thinking.

18:10You know how to stop thoughts, right?

18:13You very well know how to fuel thought.

18:18You also know how to de-energize thought.

18:25Go, occupy yourself constructively, don't give yourself the time and the space to think

18:36so much.

18:39That is how you block the flow of thought.

18:43That is how you interrupt the momentum of thought, don't you?

18:48The moment you interrupt thought, you have weakened the tendency behind the thought.

18:54Tendency you cannot see, but thought you can.

18:57So work on the thought.

18:58By working on the thought, you are indirectly working on the tendency.

19:08And if you can work on your thought long enough and consistently enough, you will find

19:15that your tendency has weakened down a lot.

19:22While we sit in the satsang, usually we have a posture to take, so the actions are being

19:33dumbed down.

19:34So we are able to do that.

19:35But I think this is a very right time when we are able to see our tendencies as well

19:39rising.

19:40So you are not moving your body because you are following some discipline, but then tendencies

19:45keep on pushing up.

19:47Something keeps on coming up.

19:48So like for example, the last question when you were talking about how to strangulate

19:53the maya, there were some film movie shots coming up like the Gangs of Wasseypur last

19:59scene.

20:00He is pushing bullets again and again.

20:04And it kept on coming even when the second question came, that he is pushing bullets

20:08even when Ramadhin is dead.

20:11So that thing was coming up and some other thing.

20:15So at that point of time, listen to the next answer.

20:28The movie will stop.

20:36How do you stop a particular action?

20:38Man is forever acting, then how do you stop a particular action?

20:44Do something else.

20:45Not doing anything is anyway not possible.

20:47What does it mean then to destroy action as the Upanishad says?

20:52It means to do something else, go, get busy with something more fruitful, more sane.

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