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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Video Information:
Myth Demolition tour, 20.2.20, Rishikesh, Uttarakhand, India
Context:
~ Who is Guru?
~ What to learn from wise one?
~ How to identify right guru?
~ What is absolute freedom?
~ Who is fake guru?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .
Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquiry-gita-course?cmId=m00051
📚 Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books?
Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?cmId=m00051
📝 Read 3 handpicked wisdom articles, just for you: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/articles?cmId=m00051
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Video Information:
Myth Demolition tour, 20.2.20, Rishikesh, Uttarakhand, India
Context:
~ Who is Guru?
~ What to learn from wise one?
~ How to identify right guru?
~ What is absolute freedom?
~ Who is fake guru?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00So a question that comes up for me is Ramana Maharishi says that one of the best ways to
00:14stabilize is to eat more sattvic food and give up meat and then I like his words and
00:23his teachings and then Nisargadaraj Maharaj who also his words penetrated me very deeply
00:29someone asked him the question why do you eat meat and he says my body has these habits
00:35so what of it and I find myself for me personally I just have no desire to eat
00:41meat anymore I'm just curious what Nisargadaraj Maharaj meant when he said
00:46my body has these habits so what. These are coming from two different points
00:54these two statements that you have just quoted. Ramana Maharishi is advising a seeker.
01:09Ramana Maharishi's counsel is for someone who is still on the way so he is offering you
01:19a method to be lighter on your way
01:30so that your journey is less loaded against yourself
01:38Nisargadaraj Maharaj is saying from the point of one who has already reached
01:53and he's saying I am at a point where there is complete separation between me and the body
02:02now that kind of a separation does not exist for the one who is still on the way
02:14so Nisargadaraj Maharaj says let the body do what it wants to do the body is anyway a conditioned
02:19mechanism and situated where I am if I interfere with the body even to bring
02:36some purity some correction some sattvikta to it that would again be a kind of entanglement
02:46a kind of identification so I don't want to touch the body not even to correct it
02:56not even to bring sattvikta to it I don't want to meddle with the body anymore
03:06but that statement remember is possible only to someone who has
03:16arrived at that complete distinction therefore the statement that Nisargadaraj Maharaj is making
03:25is wonderful but not useful
03:28it has very little utility because all utility has to be for someone who is still struggling
03:40still on the way is still trying to make his way through the various challenges that the body and
03:48mind offer liquor consumption or flesh consumption or other kinds of
04:05unwise gratifications of the body merely
04:11increase the obstacles that one faces
04:20so therefore those kind of things
04:26must not be practiced even if it is observed that a realized man
04:36is practicing them Nisargadaraj Maharaj by the way was also
04:43an avid smoker not only would he smoke
04:53himself he actually owned several little shops that would dispense
05:09local handmade cigarettes called bidis
05:17in the locality where he stayed he was famous as Bidiwale Baba
05:24but then does that mean that you have to smoke to be enlightened no those kind of things
05:34even if they are documented recorded observed in a realized man must be
05:44respectfully kept aside as the idiosyncrasies of the realized man Ramkrishna Paramhans
05:54would run after fish
06:02being a Bengali he found it very difficult to resist fish
06:15Jesus seemed to have his
06:17affinity towards meat and wine
06:29there is
06:34much else that can be learned from the wise ones not these aspects
06:40their inner force their urge for liberation
06:49surely was so strong that they could arrive at their destination in spite of these obstacles
06:59are you getting it and for sure all these are obstacles there is no doubt about it
07:03but they were extraordinary people in spite of liquor or flesh
07:18or cigarettes
07:23they could overcome those obstacles that only proves the strength of their love
07:33their resolve their determination
07:37the common man does not have that kind of resolve
07:43he is unable to overcome even the ordinary and commonplace obstacles that life places
07:53why add to your challenges why add to your troubles by
08:03you know indulging in avoidable stuff
08:10are you getting it there have been all kinds of stories associated with saints
08:19and many of those stories must be factually correct undoubtedly
08:24there have been
08:34saints who have been womanizers
08:40there have been sages who have been
08:47shown to have their own fascination for their several kinds of passions
08:54that's not something we are to learn from them or emulate from them
09:03if anything what these stories tell us is that there is nothing called absolute liberation
09:16are you getting it that the stranglehold of maya on the body
09:21and the mental tendencies always remains therefore even at the so-called end point
09:31what you can have is complete separation but not complete purification
09:39these two are very different things
09:43liberation therefore is the word not purification liberation implies separation
09:49you say the i-sense is now liberated from the body and mind you do not say that the body and
09:55mind are liberated do you say that do you say that so when you say liberation who is liberated from
10:04whom we must go into that and the very emphasis on the word liberation proves that ultimately
10:16you have no option but to distance yourself that alone is liberation
10:26but in the process of liberation
10:31purification is important and that is what is satvikta so ramana maharishi is talking of
10:37purification he is talking as a counselor to someone who is on his way and therefore his words
10:50are useful here nisargadatta maharaj is truthful here but not useful
11:01hmm the seeker must look for that which is useful even if it is not absolutely truthful
11:15getting it and that is also the reason why one must avoid
11:22you know peeping too much into personal lives of people like nisargadatta maharaj
11:31or for that matter any sage they can afford what they do
11:42we will probably not be able to afford what they do
11:46we will probably not be able to afford what they do
11:50and the knowledge the undue information that we will gain by looking into their personal life
11:59will only prove to be our own
12:05detriment
12:12far better to go by their advice
12:16acharya ji you um i have something more on this you mentioned useful even if not truthful
12:25and that a seeker should look for can you elaborate please you see the absolute truth is not useful
12:35in fact the more you want utility the more you will have to
12:43hmm dilute the truth absolute truth in a sense is absolutely useless
12:51because absolute truth is nothing silence avoid it doesn't speak to you
13:01are you getting it it has no value no purpose no utility whatsoever
13:13therefore when the
13:19liberated ones have spoken
13:23they have been forced to
13:28say things that have an iota of falseness in them
13:36so if you detect falseness in the words of a liberated one
13:46kindly do not take it to mean that the liberated one could not tell
13:55truth apart from the false it merely means that he wanted to be of help
14:07hmm the brahma sutras are
14:12quite truthful though not absolutely because the moment something is expressed in words it ceases
14:19to have any absolute truthfulness to it but still brahma sutras they come as close to truth
14:34as words can possibly come but then
14:41very few people find them of any use very very few people
14:50of far greater use are let's say the parables of ram krishna paramhans
14:58hmm simple stories for the common people
15:14and far greater number of people have benefited from these stories
15:20then have benefited from the brahma sutras
15:22hmm are you getting it
15:38but there is a there is an amusing ironical part to it
15:43if the one who knows want to be of use to you
15:53he will have to
15:57mix it up a little
16:02dilute his teaching a little in fact to teach is to dilute
16:09there can be no teaching without dilution
16:16but the moment there is dilution
16:21the teacher becomes vulnerable
16:30against charges of falseness
16:35you can now indict him you can say here this is what you have said this is what you have done
16:45and i can conclusively prove that a lot of it is false
16:51yes of course a lot of that is false for your sake had it not been false
16:58would you have been able to make any sense out of it
17:05hmm
17:20all these
17:23prayers you hear these these mantras being recited uh somewhere in the city
17:28they take you towards the truth but they are not the truth get the distinction straight
17:39they are very useful assistants but they are not the real thing itself
17:49you could say they are the secretaries that would take you to the
17:53boss's cabin but they are not the boss
17:59and do not confuse the secretary for the boss
18:08so then the concept fake guru is invalid the concept of fake guru there is nothing like
18:15fake guru by the same logic a fake guru then is someone who can't even be of help
18:26there are three categories there is the realized one who will not budge from his absolute heights
18:35hmm he is sitting right atop mount everest the highest peak possible to consciousness
18:48right and he won't move an inch and since he won't move an inch you have no access to him
18:59he is absolute and therefore absolutely unreachable
19:03there up there so he is great you can worship him but you cannot benefit from him
19:13keep worshipping him and he does not bother even for your
19:18worship he does not care for anything because he is beyond all care now there is that one
19:25then there is the one
19:26who has been to the mountaintop and for some unknown reason
19:39decided not to stay there
19:43having known what that absolute height is like he has still descended
19:50to the ground to the valleys to the cities and villages
20:03and he brings to you something
20:07of that absolute height and narrates that to you in your language and obviously your language is
20:15the language of the false therefore when the truth is expressed in your language for your
20:22sake for your benefit it does not retain its absolute purity anymore it cannot but it becomes
20:31but it becomes to you it becomes useful it becomes useful to you
20:38so this fellow takes the blame upon himself there is no doubt that first of all he has
20:54disrespected
20:58the invitation of the absolute by being there and yet not staying there lodging there
21:08and secondly he is bringing to you something
21:14that does not quite belong to your world that cannot quite be expressed in your language
21:28but is being somehow
21:35perforce
21:39made to be expressed in your language this is the second category that we have talked of
21:49then you used the term fake guru this is the fellow who has never been to the mountaintop
21:58he belongs to the
22:01mountains and the
22:06lanes and the crossings
22:13maybe he has seen some
22:18photo or two or has heard some description from someone who has gone up some distance
22:27and is using all that to
22:38further his own ego and little self-interests this third chap is the fake one
22:47the third chap is necessarily harmful the first fellow is not useful
22:55it's the second one who proves useful
23:04but is also the one who has been
23:08blamed insulted and derided the most in the history
23:14often he earns flack from both sides
23:26the ones who care only for the absolute
23:33they blame him for mingling too much with the masses
23:40and the masses after they have learned a bit from him
23:48start using the teaching given by him against him and then they tell him you know
23:58what you are doing goes against your own teaching so he receives it from both sides
24:09but this second fellow is the one who proves useful
24:22incidentally the really fake guru is quite unlikely to be detected as a fake guru
24:31the title of fake guru is usually reserved for the
24:39fellow of the second type