What is liberation from the cycle of birth and death? || Acharya Prashant, on Nitnem Sahib (2019)

Acharya Prashant

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Transcript

00:00By good deeds, the saropa, which is this body, the robe of honour,

00:29is obtained, and by his kindness, the door of salvation opens.

00:39The question is, looks like it's indicating a mechanism of reincarnation and a way to

00:49get out of it.

00:51Acharya ji, please clarify on what's liberation and freedom from cycle of birth and death.

01:05It is by his grace that the human body is obtained, and by his kindness, the door to

01:34salvation opens.

01:54The human body, the human birth, the human life is an opportunity.

02:06It's a great opportunity to be thankful for.

02:15However, it is merely an opportunity.

02:32Human birth does not guarantee salvation.

02:42As a human being, you have a definite and a great chance to look at yourself, to detect

02:56your patterns, to put a finger on your weaknesses and bondages, and thereby know them, falsify

03:15them, fight them, eliminate them.

03:34You are saying, Abhilash, is there a process?

03:44What is liberation from cycle of birth and death?

03:51The process is honest self-observation.

04:02The process is not to deceive oneself.

04:18A process can obviously help only those who want to take the process to its end.

04:41It is the end that makes the process not only tolerable but actually enjoyable.

04:57Freedom is our nature.

05:02When you love freedom so much that you cannot tolerate living in foolish confinements, then

05:31the process has begun.

05:39What does it mean to be liberated from birth and death?

05:57The meaning holds relevance only for a human being.

06:06If you look at an animal, it has no consciousness of bondage or very little consciousness.

06:15Therefore, it has very little incentive to rise in consciousness or gain freedom from

06:28consciousness.

06:31In some sense, the animal is blessed.

06:37It feels alright just as it is.

06:43It does not really have to attain anything.

06:48It does not feel an inner dissatisfaction.

06:55Therefore, you do not find animals ponderous or ruminating.

07:12But man stays dissatisfied and being dissatisfied, man keeps trying one thing after the other.

07:27This endless sequence of trials and errors is called the sequence of birth and death.

07:41So birth of a new hope and then the hope got smashed, death.

07:52And then another hope, another journey and the journey again ends blindly.

08:09And then you invest yourself in some other opportunity and that attempt to fails, death.

08:27Attempt failure, attempt failure, attempt failure.

08:32Freedom from these endless attempts and endless failures is success and that success is the

08:42object of all spiritual process.

08:46If there is something that you so keenly want that you are endlessly trying for it, why

08:52don't you actually attain it?

08:57That actual attainment, that actual success is spiritual liberation.

09:03You are now liberated from trying again and again.

09:09Every successive trial is a new birth.

09:18Every successive failure is a new death.

09:25Why keep trying and failing?

09:27Why not try rightly and succeed?

09:36You are anyway investing so much time, so much energy, so much of yourself in all these

09:43daily struggles.

09:46You are anyway not living very peacefully or comfortably.

09:52You are anyway embattled and besieged.

09:58If you are indeed fighting a war, why not fight rightly?

10:09If you are indeed getting so tired, why not invest your energy rightly?

10:19So spiritual practice is not about making additional effort.

10:25It is about acting wisely, not acting additionally.

10:39Actors we already are.

10:41There is hardly anybody who is having a paid holiday here.

10:51We all are laborers.

10:53Life is making each one of us toil and if toiling we indeed are, then we better toil

11:07with some discretion.

11:13Alok Bhute has quoted, Nanak says the answer is to stay in the will of God.

11:34Then what should we say that on hearing it he starts loving us and then early in the

11:50morning think about and recite the greatness of the true name, Vaheguru, God.

12:03Recite his name.

12:07So he asks, Dear Acharyaji, Pranam.

12:12From the above verse, Nanak Saheb says to attain God, one needs to stay in God's will.

12:25In another verse, Nanak Saheb emphasizes on reciting God's name and His greatness.

12:40What is the importance of recitation?

12:48Is reciting one of the ways to stay in God's will?

12:58What does he mean when he says, what should we say that on hearing it he starts loving

13:07us?

13:18Recitation, Alok here refers to constancy in remembrance, constancy in remembrance.

13:37Recitation could either be mental or physical depending on what kind of personality you

13:49are.

13:53If you are thought identified, mind identified, then you may recite within, but if you live

14:06on a gross plane and are more body identified, then you better recite physically, verbally.

14:22It is important to commit yourself to the act, the commitment and the constancy is important.

14:36You are investing yourself, you are saying I could have thought of a thousand things,

14:46but in my thoughts is his name and therefore I am displaying how much I value him.

14:57You are saying I could have uttered a thousand things, there are a thousand words and a thousand

15:09topics keen to be spoken of, but of all these I chose the name of God and that is a proof

15:24of my commitment towards him.

15:31This throat, this tongue, these lips, they could have been used in the service of anybody,

15:41but here look I am committing them to the service of the one truth and that commitment

15:57is what makes him love you because that's the next part of your question.

16:06You are asking what do we say that can make him start loving us, do not say anything that

16:20does not include him, that's all.

16:27Say whatever you want to, but let him be present in all your utterances.

16:38Think of whatever you want to, but let him be present in the stream of your thought,

16:55like scented water, there is scent in the scented water everywhere and water is water,

17:14it would serve its ordinary purposes, you can use it to quench your thirst, you can

17:24use it to take bath, so all the ordinary functions of water are there to be performed,

17:38but nevertheless the water is scented.

17:48Let your thoughts and actions be like scented water.

17:57Let them fulfil their perfunctionary duties, let them meet their usual purpose, but even

18:15as they meet their usual purpose, they should continuously carry the scent of the beyond,

18:26so this is just tea, but in the process of making the tea and sipping the tea, there

18:43still can be the scent of the beyond.

18:54You meet a friend, obviously there is going to be conversation, friends converse, the

19:04conversation is there, like any two usual friends chit-chatting, but can that conversation

19:15carry the scent of the beyond?

19:20So there is the conversation as usual and there is the fragrance of heaven, the husband

19:33and the wife, they will eat meat and fight, let them fight, but can the fight have the

19:47scent of the beyond?

20:04That's recitation, that's recitation, a continuous presence of the holy within which everything

20:29is happening and because everything is happening within the continuous presence of the holy,

20:41everything is rendered holy by the presence.

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