Attainment of Truth is not the purpose of Upanishads || Acharya Prashant on Ishvasya Upanishad(2020)

Acharya Prashant

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Transcript

00:00The purpose of the Upanishads has to be remembered.

00:29It is commonly said that the purpose of the Upanishads is attainment of the truth.

00:47But it is not really so.

00:53If you say that the purpose of the Upanishads is attainment of truth, then you are actually

01:03going against the Upanishads.

01:10Only something with attributes can be attained.

01:18Otherwise how will you know that you have attained it?

01:24Have you ever attained anything that is attributeless?

01:32Can you even conceptualize attaining something sans attributes?

01:50Attainment necessitates attributes, and all attributes are limitations.

02:02The truth, therefore, is not at all the direct objective of the Upanishads.

02:25The direct objective is cessation of the mind.

02:40And cessation of the mind implies cessation of falseness.

02:51Even the Upanishads fall silent at this point.

02:58They work really hard to bring falseness to its end, and thereafter they don't say much.

03:21For practical reasons, if they still have to say something, they just excuse themselves

03:32by offering very subtle indicators.

03:43Very profusely the Upanishads will weigh on what one is not.

03:59Verse after verse, page after page, the Upanishads will pour over this matter.

04:09This you are not, that you are not, and when it will come to declaring what you really

04:19are, the Upanishads will just gently say, Tattvamasi, that thou art.

04:35They will not explain or elucidate much, because if they do, then they will be going

04:45against their own core.

04:54So it has to be understood that the mind is being addressed.

04:59The mind is being addressed about itself, that's the objective.

05:10If you tell the mind too much about truth, then the truth too becomes just another mind

05:20object and the mind will be only too happy swallowing the truth as well as just another

05:35object with attributes.

05:40The Upanishads obviously were not composed to please the mind.

05:51Now let's go into this verse, one unmoving, swifter than mind.

06:05So you see who is being addressed here?

06:13One, when there is nothing called oneness in the realm or experience of the mind, swifter

06:30than mind, but the mind has the faculty of imagination.

06:37So the mind can reach anywhere instantaneously.

06:42Is it possible for something to be swifter than mind?

06:46The mind is being told its place.

06:51The mind is being taught a lesson in humility.

07:00The mind is being pinched where it will hurt it the most.

07:06The mind is so proud of its speed, is it not?

07:13Tell me where you want to reach, Saturn, some galaxy, some star, millions of light

07:26years away, where do you want to go?

07:32The mind just reaches there in no time.

07:39So if there is one thing that the mind is especially proud of, it is its speed and pride

07:47keeps the mind going.

07:52This self-belief upholds the mind.

07:56The mind says I am somebody, see what all I can do.

07:59I can imagine, I can travel, I can conceptualize.

08:05This entire world exists in me, it's quite a tall claim, but the Rishi simply punctures

08:16the balloon.

08:17Rishi says in your entire world, is there anything called oneness?

08:23The world exists precisely because it is divided and fragmented.

08:29The world exists only on the foundation of duality.

08:32So you may have lots, but you don't have one.

08:39That hurts, is it not?

08:41You have so much, but you don't have one.

08:44You have two, three, four, right till infinity, but you don't have one.

08:49What's the point in just climbing the numerical ladder when that ladder has no base on ground?

09:02The base is one.

09:05Do you see what's happening?

09:10It's a method here.

09:14It's a careful experiment being done.

09:18They're not merely words.

09:24You could call it a technique.

09:28That is the reason why verses, mantras have been held to be so sacred.

09:39They're as sacred for the mind as are medicines for the body.

09:51You keep taking them in regularly and they heal.

09:57Are you getting it?

10:02The gods cannot catch it as it goes before.

10:06Standing still it outruns others that are running.

10:11It's an expansion of the same theme.

10:14Swifter than mind, the gods cannot catch it as it goes before.

10:19Standing still it outruns others that are running.

10:23Mind is being dealt blow after blow and at the same place.

10:29You're not speedy enough, you're not fast enough, you're not swift enough, lazy fellow.

10:37Not swift enough?

10:38But what about imagination, imagination?

10:42What about desires?

10:44What about thought?

10:47Isn't thought great?

10:50Using thought, don't I dream of unseen worlds?

10:56Isn't every achievement, first of all, a subtle thought in the mind?

11:05The mind is screaming, Rishi is smiling, Rishi is saying, listen dear, why do you run so

11:16much?

11:17Why do you run so much?

11:23You run so much because you have a burning need to reach somewhere.

11:31You run so much because you have a burning need to reach somewhere.

11:36Or you might be lightning quick.

11:40But still you will take the smallest fraction of a second, right?

11:49Because you live in time.

11:51You might minimize time, but still time you will take.

11:58It's a race.

12:05You have to reach somewhere, therefore you keep running.

12:08Running is your standard mode of operation.

12:12But how about the one who is already there where you want to reach, who won the race?

12:22How about the one who is the one you want to reach?

12:34How about the one who is the one you want to reach, who won the race?

12:39You want to be there where he is.

12:43Now who reached there first?

12:47You want to be there where he is.

12:51After all, you are desiring something, right?

12:56And all desire actually is for the ultimate, is it not so?

13:07Do small desires satiate you?

13:13In the world whatever you desire can be quantified.

13:16Is there any particular quantity beyond which desires cease?

13:27Desires continue till infinity.

13:32So it is infinity that you want to reach.

13:38How about the one who is already infinite?

13:41Has he not already won the race?

13:45Has he not already won the race?

13:48You may have great desires, but you have great desire so that your desires may ultimately vanish, right?

13:57You don't want to keep desiring because desiring is not really a joyful state of mind, or is it?

14:06When you are desirous, do you want to stay desirous or do you want to obtain the object of your desire?

14:14So desiring is an unstable state of mind.

14:17You don't want to stay desirous.

14:23That state cannot continue forever, the state of desire.

14:30You will do something about it.

14:35And you want to do something about it so that that state of desire is no more.

14:40So ultimately you desire to be desireless, don't you?

14:45You desire to be desireless.

14:48How about the one who is already desireless?

14:50Who has won the race?

14:54You will do a lot to reach desirelessness.

14:57How about the one who is so complete that desire is too small to touch him?

15:07Who has won the race?

15:14Reminds me of a video title some six or seven years back maybe.

15:30Those days I used to title my videos with a lot of impractical passion.

15:42So the title was, the race was won by the one who did not run.

15:51Standing still it outruns others that are running.

16:00This is how.

16:04You run because you want to reach somewhere.

16:09I'm already there.

16:10Why do I need to run?

16:12Are you getting it?

16:15You run because you are not happy being what you are.

16:20I have dropped everything that keeps me unhappy.

16:24Why should I run?

16:27You run because you are running, carrying everything that keeps you happy, unhappy.

16:35That's the standard mode of running, is it not?

16:38While we run towards happiness, we are running, carrying the load of all our unhappinesses

16:50fasted to our back.

16:56And with all the unhappinesses fastened to our backs, how can we be happy?

17:10In fact, would you require to be happy had you not been carrying these unhappinesses

17:18on your back?

17:19What is really then needed?

17:25Running or unfastening?

17:31I don't need to run because I have nothing fastened to myself.

17:36I am the one who is attributeless.

17:43Anything that is added to me, anything that is affixated to me is just a cause of misery.

17:55I am the one to whom nothing can be added or fastened.

18:05Are you getting it?

18:10Nevertheless, the objective of the verse is not to prompt you to start imagining about

18:20that which has nothing fastened to itself.

18:28The objective is to rather make you turn towards yourself so that you can look at all that

18:42you are unnecessarily carrying.

18:46You don't need to imagine how it would be to live without the load of miseries.

18:56Because even that imagination would be happening along with the load of miseries.

19:08The fellow is carrying all that nonsensical load on his back, on his head and carrying

19:19that load, he is imagining how it would be to be without that load.

19:25The problem here is imagination is a function of your current state and if your current

19:33state is one loaded with misery, then your imagination would be carrying the imprints of misery.

19:49So no point imagining freedom when you are in a state of bondage.

19:54It looks counterintuitive.

19:55We say if you are in a state of bondage, then you should visualize how it would be to be

20:02free.

20:03Wrong.

20:04Totally wrong.

20:05The imagination of a person in bondage would be imagination in bondage.

20:17If that person imagines freedom, it would be very very bonded freedom.

20:27What is this freedom?

20:29Freedom in bondage.

20:30Are you getting it?

20:32Your imagination is a function of your current state and if your current state is one of

20:37bondage, then your imagination, can it ever be free?

20:41But we talk of things like free thought, free imagination, don't we?

20:47He is a free thinker.

20:49His entire life is in bondage, how can his thought be free?

20:52But that's the illusion that we nurture.

20:56We say no no, his life might be in bondage, but his thought is free, impossible.

21:05The imagination of an enslaved person would be an enslaved imagination, to no point trying

21:19to imagine what freedom would be like.

21:22Far better is to look at your bondages and address them.

21:28Are you getting it?

21:34So the mind is being told, you are not fast enough, why not fast enough?

21:40Because there is something that you are carrying on your back, drop it, drop it.

21:46The drop it is subtle, unwritten, you have to read it in the Rishi's silence.

22:00It's almost like poking fun at the mind.

22:10When he stops, then you have to listen to the greatest words he is not uttering.

22:27Are you getting it?

22:37One, unmoving, swifter than mind.

22:49Unmoving yet swifter.

22:53What have you been doing all your life, moving, moving, moving and I beat you without moving

23:02an inch, go die.

23:11That's the message, go die.

23:14What did you do your entire life?

23:16You kept doing, doing, doing, I did nothing and I won, go die.

23:32Brutal compassion, go die, that's in your best interest.

23:45The gods cannot catch it.

23:47You and your gods, both lousy fears, gods cannot catch it.

23:56Your gods are all your own imagination, your creation, your gods are part of the baggage

24:02on your back.

24:06Your gods have no feet of their own, your gods go only as far as you carry them.

24:12How can your gods be able to catch the truth?

24:23You have caught your gods, you are swifter than your gods.

24:30Your gods cannot catch even you, how will your gods catch the truth?

24:42Which gods are being talked of?

24:45The gods that the mind fondly worships.

24:51Some god representing wealth, some god representing knowledge, some god representing power, some

24:57god representing victory, fame, fertility.

25:03These are the gods that we commonly worship, don't we?

25:08And the Rishi says, the gods cannot catch it.

25:15Your gods are no good.

25:21You think your gods are better than you, fine.

25:25Then the best way to show you down is to bring your gods down.

25:36Fact is, your gods are no better than you because they are your own creation.

25:44You will not reach there with the aid of these gods.

25:54You will not reach there with any positive or constructive process.

26:04The only way to reach there is the way of self-demolition.

26:12You cannot remain yourself and yet be that.

26:19It has to be a ruthless process of self-annihilation.

26:25That's the only way.

26:36Your gods are there to answer your desires.

26:47Truth is to demolish your desires.

26:54That's the difference between gods and truth or devta and brahm.

27:08Gods exist to fulfill your desires and truth is there to demolish your desires.

27:22That's why there is no temple dedicated to brahm because brahm has no care for your desires.

27:38Brahm doesn't listen, brahm doesn't talk.

27:44Truth is just as indifferent as it is all-encompassing.

27:54The mind will not be able to make sense of it.

27:56That's the intention exactly.

28:00If the mind makes sense of something, then the mind chews it, tears it apart and digests it and fattens upon it.

28:22Are you kidding?

28:26Standing still, it outruns others that are running.

28:36Isn't it so absurd?

28:38You're running to stop running.

28:43You're running to stop running.

28:48And if you're running to stop running, then surely you are running on something that is not running.

29:02That which serves as the foundation of all your running is exactly the one you are running to reach.

29:21Are you getting it?

29:24If you are running to attain something, would you run on a treadmill?

29:30Running is running only if you are running over something or against something that is perfectly still.

29:41And stillness is what you want to reach.

29:44Is that not your highest desire to ultimately reach stillness?

29:49You want to reach stillness.

29:51Don't you see that you are running all over stillness in order to reach stillness?

29:56Stillness is the foundation, the base on which you are running in order to be still.

30:07Had you not had a still foundation, you could have never been able to run for stillness.

30:19But you are so busy running that you have no space, no time to really see that stillness is not attainable through movement.

30:44If there is one movement that you need and there is only one movement that you really need, it is against your movement.

30:56That is the method of the Upanishads, Neti Neti.

31:00Movement against your movement so that all movement comes to a standstill.

31:09Are you getting it?

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