How does the face of God look? || Acharya Prashant, on Saint Kabir (2017)

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?...   Read 3 handpicked wisdom articles, just for you: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/articl...  ~~~~~~~  Video Information: ShabdYoga Session, 22.10.2017, Advait BodhSthal, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India   Context:  Quote:   “You are the cage, I am your parrot in it but I cannot see your face at all.”  ~ Saint Kabir   ~~~~~~~~  Music Credits: Milind Date ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Transcript

00:00.

00:29So, says Kabir,

00:36.

00:43You are the cage,

00:46I am your parrot in it,

00:51but I cannot see your face at all.

00:59You are the cage,

01:02I am your parrot in it,

01:04but I cannot see your face at all.

01:09So, this,

01:14Rosemary says, puzzles her,

01:18is asking how is God a cage?

01:28Conventionally,

01:31God has been thought of,

01:35depicted,

01:38realized as a liberator,

01:42someone who gives freedom from bondages,

01:49someone who would rather liberate you from a cage.

01:57So, this kind of imagery

02:02is therefore a little shocking.

02:09Kabir is calling God a cage

02:12and himself a parrot in the cage.

02:16And he is saying,

02:19I am inside the cage

02:22and yet I cannot see God's face.

02:31If we can forget

02:37all the troubling associations

02:44that are there with the word cage,

02:51what actually is a cage?

02:57Forget for a while

02:59the association that

03:05cage means slavery.

03:09What is, in fact, a cage?

03:13Something that contains another thing

03:19and contains it so properly,

03:25so completely.

03:29She already got the hint and smiled.

03:39And so, unexceptionally,

03:42that that which is contained

03:45has no way of breaking out.

03:50A cage is just a foolproof container.

03:55You cannot just go out

03:58or fly out on your own wish.

04:01That's what a cage is.

04:04And that's what the one truth is.

04:12That's what God is.

04:15God is that which envelops you,

04:19which contains you

04:22all the time and everywhere.

04:28You can move in the cage

04:35but not to the cage.

04:40The cage that you see and visualize

04:45is a small cage

04:48and therefore the bird is troubled.

04:55But even if you open the door

04:58of that small metallic cage

05:04that you generally see,

05:06what happens to the bird?

05:09It flies off to the sky.

05:13Fine, that you call as liberation.

05:16Now tell me, can the bird fly out of the sky?

05:24So, hasn't the bird just gone from one cage to the other?

05:29And this second cage

05:32is very, very unforgiving.

05:39A million birds, a million flights,

05:42a million directions,

05:44there is no way out.

05:47The sky is the cage

05:50that Kabir is referring to.

05:54That great space, that great sky

05:57is truth, God.

06:04That great space

06:07has certain characteristics.

06:15You can never corrupt or pollute it.

06:24All kinds of clouds keep

06:30appearing, disappearing in the sky.

06:35Often there is smoke, filth, dirt, smog

06:39and so much more.

06:45But the sky

06:48can never be called as unclean.

06:54Air can get polluted,

06:56the sky can never get polluted

06:58because the sky,

07:00even though it contains everything,

07:03is yet not a thing by itself.

07:07Only things can get polluted.

07:14The second characteristic is

07:17all things move in the sky

07:20but the sky itself

07:23never moves.

07:26Not only do winds and clouds

07:29gently move about in the sky,

07:32there are tornadoes, hurricanes,

07:38all kinds of

07:41tempestuous disturbances.

07:47Whom do they disturb?

07:49They disturb other things,

07:51other beings, other objects.

08:01Buildings might collapse

08:05under the impact of all that

08:08which moves in the sky.

08:10The sky

08:13is neither shaken nor hurt.

08:19This skyness

08:22is really

08:25our nature.

08:33We may choose not to abide in it,

08:36that is another matter.

08:39But it is always available

08:41and if we do not abide in it,

08:44we remain restless.

08:50Please see that skyness

08:52does not mean inactivity.

08:55Skyness means

08:58stillness in the middle of activity.

09:05Stillness that is not only

09:07in the middle of all activity

09:09but stillness that envelops all activity.

09:16Stillness is not the opposite of activity.

09:19Stillness is not inactivity.

09:25Stillness is a great vastness

09:28that cannot be touched by activity.

09:38Activity keeps happening

09:40in its own place.

09:44Activity

09:47is not to be blocked.

09:55Clouds are beautiful,

09:57the sun too is beautiful,

09:59so are the moon and the stars.

10:07The sky has no

10:10problems with them.

10:13They do what they must do

10:16and the sky is what the sky is.

10:19There is no conflict.

10:22They are together.

10:25This togetherness

10:28is the harmony of living.

10:31You move to

10:34either extreme

10:37and you have created trouble for yourself.

10:40If you are someone

10:43whose life

10:46is besotted with just movement,

10:54if you are someone who is identified

10:57merely with activity,

11:00you will end up

11:03feeling

11:06unanchored,

11:09centerless because all

11:12that you are seeing and experiencing

11:15is movement. If there is only movement

11:18then there is no anchor

11:21and if there is no anchor there is no security.

11:26Fear will take control of you.

11:31You will feel rootless.

11:37You will always feel like reaching somewhere

11:40because you are homeless.

11:44That will be the fate of those

11:47who have

11:50no relationship

11:53with their absolute nature,

11:56with their own stillness.

12:00And then there are those

12:03who

12:06form a concept of stillness.

12:12They have heard from teachers

12:15and read from scriptures

12:18that blind activity

12:21is dangerous,

12:24that one must

12:27be rooted and centered and still.

12:35So they train themselves to be still

12:42and they bring about a cultivated stillness

12:45and when you train yourself to be still

12:48all that you can

12:51force to be still

12:54is just

12:57your gross body.

13:04So you will bring about

13:07the stillness of hands and feet.

13:11You may even master

13:14breath control.

13:17Even breath is gross.

13:25But that stillness

13:28will be a fake stillness.

13:34Deep within turbulence would

13:37continue.

13:40Not only would the turbulence continue,

13:43you would

13:46be in no position

13:49to miss stillness

13:52because you are happily

13:55engrossed in the thought that you are

13:58already still.

14:04You have trained your hand to be still

14:07for hours altogether. You keep it here

14:10and you have trained it.

14:13Six hours your hand won't move.

14:16Six hours you can rest on some asana

14:19without any physical movement and what

14:22do you think of it as?

14:25You think of it as the stillness of the sky.

14:33Obviously all this

14:36only leads to misery,

14:39violence.

14:45Kabir says what a funny

14:48thing it is that I am inside

14:51the cage. The cage is now the

14:54sky.

14:57And yet I cannot

15:00see the face of God.

15:03It's not as if you are near

15:06God. It's not as if you are facing God.

15:09You are

15:12inside God and yet

15:15you cannot see the face of God.

15:18What to do?

15:21Should one rejoice?

15:24Should one

15:27repent?

15:39That does not mean that Kabir

15:42is eager to put a face

15:45on God.

15:48It is not a statement of complaint.

15:51It is a statement

15:54of celebration.

15:57Had you had a face

16:06there would have been spaces

16:09where your face would have been absent.

16:12All of us over here carry faces, don't we?

16:15And that is the reason when I have to

16:18look at you, I have to turn this mortal

16:21face in your direction.

16:24So if I have to look

16:27at you, I must look this particular

16:30way and the moment I look that way you

16:33are absent. Where are you? Gone. Finished.

16:36It's a matter of celebration

16:39that God has no face.

16:42Faceless beings

16:45have a tendency to be limited

16:48and to disappear.

16:51Faceless beings are

16:54found only in one direction at one location

16:57and faceless

17:00beings can deceive because faces change.

17:03God has no face.

17:06Look whichever way you would

17:09or not look at all.

17:12He is present.

17:18By giving God a face

17:21you do yourself a disservice.

17:24Now you would be able

17:27to see God only in that

17:30particular face.

17:33So you miss God in all his

17:36other faces including his

17:39non-faces.

17:45That is the face of God. So this cannot be the

17:48face of God.

17:51Now

17:54Godliness has been turned

17:57into something that excludes.

18:00That is not universal.

18:03That is not all-encompassing

18:06but something that is partisan.

18:09Limited.

18:15Bad.

18:18Bad.

18:21If there,

18:24there is God

18:27and here there is no God

18:30then what have I

18:33constructed here?

18:36What is absence of God?

18:39Not empty.

18:43Even.

18:50Emptiness is the very

18:53environment of God.

18:56Where there is God there is emptiness.

18:59Emptiness means being free of

19:02yourself, being empty of your concepts.

19:05That is the flavor of Godliness

19:08not the opposite of Godliness.

19:12So there you have God

19:15with that particular face and here you don't have

19:18God.

19:21Bad. And now you know why the world is so

19:24full of evil. Because our Gods

19:27have particular

19:30faces and when we don't

19:33find those faces

19:36we act as if there is no God

19:39and to act as if there is no God is called evil.

19:42Not as if God is not there

19:45but we would then act as if

19:48there is no God and therefore there is evil.

19:51What else is evil?

19:54The forgetfulness that

19:57there is God here and there

20:00and everywhere in Him

20:03and even in the dust

20:06and the mountain and the river.

20:18Clear?

20:21In

20:24talking of God

20:27as the envelope

20:30that contains you

20:33Kabir is also debunking

20:36a popular myth

20:39and that popular myth is that

20:42God

20:45or the godly spirit

20:48or the essence

20:51or the Atma

20:54resides within you.

20:58It is very

21:01important to reject this myth.

21:09Atma does not

21:12reside within.

21:15Atma

21:18or God

21:21is the

21:25very blanket,

21:28the very space in which

21:31all happenings

21:34occur.

21:37Atma is not

21:40located somewhere within the body.

21:43You are located within

21:46Atma.

21:49Atma is

21:52therefore not yours, not personal.

21:55You cannot say my soul.

21:58You belong to the soul. The soul does not

22:01belong to you.

22:12Mind is personal.

22:15Truth is not.

22:18Thoughts are personal. Realization is not.

22:22Analysis is personal.

22:25Understanding is not.

22:32Anything that is real

22:35is just not personal.

22:45You will have to give up your claims on it.

22:51And as long as

22:54you feel like laying claims on something,

22:57it is not real.

23:00Which means all that is available

23:03for possession,

23:06ownership,

23:09association or control

23:12is not worthy of

23:15being associated with

23:19because it is not

23:22real.

23:25That which is real

23:28would always be bigger than you.

23:31Hence you cannot own it.

23:34And if you can own something,

23:37it is not worthy of being owned

23:40because it is anyway smaller than you.

23:43What is the point in owning something,

23:46in getting associated with something

23:49which does not challenge my limits,

23:52which does not enlarge me,

23:55which does not enrich me?

24:10So, dissociation

24:14or letting go

24:17or renunciation

24:20is not just good morality.

24:23It's actually smart.

24:26It's intelligent.

24:43.

25:07Are we together?

25:11.

25:20It's a cage in which

25:23you must be joyfully contained.

25:26It is one cage

25:29that you must surrender to.

25:32And when you are surrendered to this cage,

25:35then you get freedom from all the other little cages.

25:38Other cages mean misery.

25:41This cage is so vast

25:44that you can never ever reach its boundary.

25:47So, it is never going to cause you suffocation.

25:50Why does the bird

25:53dislike the cage?

25:56Because whenever she takes flight,

25:59her wings hit the bars of the cage.

26:02Right?

26:05God the cage is so vast,

26:08so infinitely vast that you are anyway

26:11never going to reach the bars,

26:14the limits. So, you can keep flying.

26:17The cage accommodates you

26:20wherever you go.

26:23Never do you reach a point where there is a sign board

26:26saying the limit of God.

26:29Beyond this is ungodliness.

26:33Venture no further.

26:38It's not a cage at all.

26:45In the sense that it contains you.

26:48In the sense that you can never

26:51go out of it.

26:54That is one limit that is put upon you.

26:57You can never go out of godliness.

27:00Call it a limit placed upon you

27:03or call it a gift of love.

27:06God says wherever you go,

27:09you will never be outside of me.

27:12Doesn't matter who you are, what you have done.

27:15You might be the worst criminal, yet you are always inside me.

27:21You are as much inside me

27:24as the most pious saint.

27:27You have all the freedoms

27:30but one.

27:33You cannot escape

27:36away from me.

27:47You figure out why do we say all that.

27:50Not only is the soul

27:53not his, is the soul

27:56ever in disquiet,

27:59in trouble?

28:02Is the soul ever restless?

28:05Why do we wish

28:08peace for the soul?

28:11The soul needs no peace

28:14because it is anyway always peaceful.

28:20There is not just one but actually

28:24two gross errors here.

28:27First of all his soul is not his

28:30and secondly

28:37why are you trying to contribute

28:40pennies to the billionaire?

28:46God has tons of peace.

28:49Why do you wish him more peace?

28:52Why are you wishing?

29:10So these are all popular misconceptions.

29:13They appear trivial

29:16but they are the foundation

29:19of our psyche.

29:22The way we live, the way we operate,

29:25the way we have raised the world

29:28and its institutions

29:31is very much based on these

29:34popular concepts

29:37which are misconceptions.

29:43If you can get rid of them, reject them

29:46then your entire life changes.

29:53But the rebellion has to be

29:56against your own deep seated

29:59concepts.

30:02Otherwise no point

30:05rebelling against trivia.

30:08Rebelling against trivia

30:11even if you gain freedom

30:14would be a very trivial freedom.

30:17Rebel against your real bondages.

30:32Do not give particular faces to God.

30:35You see,

30:38if you want to worship Krishna

30:41worship Krishna

30:44like the gopis did

30:52there are

30:55instances that say

30:58that Krishna was dancing

31:01parallely with a thousand gopis.

31:04Now what is happening?

31:07What is happening really is this

31:10face that the gopi is dancing with

31:13is seen as Krishna.

31:16So now every face is the face of

31:19it doesn't matter who you are

31:22dancing with, he looks like.

31:25If you really want to worship Krishna

31:28then see Krishna everywhere.

31:31If you want to give him a face

31:34then give him all possible faces

31:37of men dead, men alive

31:40and men yet to be born.

31:43Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna.

31:49Go there the

31:52statue in the temple is also

31:55So what is the problem in going to the temple?

31:58Is that statue not Krishna?

32:01It's Krishna, go there, fine.

32:04But don't come out of the temple, look at the little impoverished kid standing outside

32:11the temple and ignore him as if he is not Krishna.

32:16Coming out of the temple, when you look at that feeble kid, you should see Krishna in

32:24him.

32:25That's what the temple is there for.

32:30The temple is not the place where God is.

32:34The temple is the place returning from where you would see God everywhere.

32:44That's why you go to the temple, not to meet God just there.

32:49You go to the temple so that when you return from the temple, you meet God everywhere.

32:55That's the purpose of the temple.

32:57So you must go to the temple.

32:59Unless you are already seeing God everywhere, are you?

33:05If the moment you are seeing God everywhere, wherever you are, that place is a temple.

33:11So you are anyway in a temple.

33:13How would you avoid the temple?

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