Video Information: Month of Awakening, 25.06.2019, Naukuchiatal, India
Context:
~ What is the real intention behind a real teacher's saying?
~ How should one understand a teacher?
~ How can one come to see the truth?
~ How to avoid self-deception and bring inner honesty into life?
~ How to understand Khalil Gibran's philosophy?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EATING AND DRINKING
Then an old man, a keeper of an inn, said, Speak to us of Eating and Drinking.
And he said:
Would that you could live on the fragrance of the earth,
and like an air plant be sustained by the light.
But since you must kill to eat, and rob the newly born of its mother’s milk to
quench your thirst, let it then be an act of worship.
And let your board stand an altar on which the pure and the innocent of forest
and plain are sacrificed for that which is purer and still more innocent in man.
When you kill a beast say to him in your heart:
‘By the same power that slays you, I too am slain; and I too shall be consumed.
‘For the law that delivered you into my hand shall deliver me into a mightier
hand.
‘Your blood and my blood is naught but the sap that feeds the tree of heaven.’
And when you crush an apple with your teeth, say to it in your heart:
'Your seeds shall live in my body,
‘And the buds of your tomorrow shall blossom in my heart,
‘And your fragrance shall be my breath,
‘And together we shall rejoice through all the seasons.’
And in the autumn, when you gather the grapes of your vineyard for the wine-
press, say in your heart:
‘I too am a vineyard, and my fruit shall be gathered for the wine press,
‘And like new wine I shall be kept in eternal vessels.’
#acharyaprashant #khalilgibran #truth #honesty
Context:
~ What is the real intention behind a real teacher's saying?
~ How should one understand a teacher?
~ How can one come to see the truth?
~ How to avoid self-deception and bring inner honesty into life?
~ How to understand Khalil Gibran's philosophy?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EATING AND DRINKING
Then an old man, a keeper of an inn, said, Speak to us of Eating and Drinking.
And he said:
Would that you could live on the fragrance of the earth,
and like an air plant be sustained by the light.
But since you must kill to eat, and rob the newly born of its mother’s milk to
quench your thirst, let it then be an act of worship.
And let your board stand an altar on which the pure and the innocent of forest
and plain are sacrificed for that which is purer and still more innocent in man.
When you kill a beast say to him in your heart:
‘By the same power that slays you, I too am slain; and I too shall be consumed.
‘For the law that delivered you into my hand shall deliver me into a mightier
hand.
‘Your blood and my blood is naught but the sap that feeds the tree of heaven.’
And when you crush an apple with your teeth, say to it in your heart:
'Your seeds shall live in my body,
‘And the buds of your tomorrow shall blossom in my heart,
‘And your fragrance shall be my breath,
‘And together we shall rejoice through all the seasons.’
And in the autumn, when you gather the grapes of your vineyard for the wine-
press, say in your heart:
‘I too am a vineyard, and my fruit shall be gathered for the wine press,
‘And like new wine I shall be kept in eternal vessels.’
#acharyaprashant #khalilgibran #truth #honesty
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Then an old man, a keeper of an inn, said, speak to us of eating and drinking.
00:19And he said, would that you could live on the fragrance of the earth, and like an air
00:30plant be sustained by the light.
00:37But since you must kill to eat, and rob the newly born of its mother's milk to quench
00:45your thirst, let it be then an act of worship.
00:54And let your board stand an altar on which the pure and the innocent of forest and plain
01:05are sacrificed for that which is purer and still more innocent in man.
01:14When you kill a beast, say to him in your heart, by the same power that slays you, I
01:21too am slain, and I too shall be consumed.
01:27For the law that delivered you into my hand shall deliver me into a mightier hand.
01:34Your blood and my blood is not but the sap that feeds the tree of heaven.
01:42And when you crush an apple with your teeth, say to it in your heart, your seeds shall
01:49live in my body, and the buds of your tomorrow shall blossom in my heart, and your fragrance
01:58shall be my breath, and together we shall rejoice through all the seasons.
02:08And in the autumn, when you gather the grapes of your vineyard for the winepress, say in
02:15your heart, I too am a vineyard, and my fruit shall be gathered for the winepress, and like
02:24new wine I shall be kept in eternal vessels.
02:31Dear Acharyaji Pranam, while reading the above text from Khalil Gibran, it seems to me that
02:42the poet is giving justifications to kill an animal, to eat or drink milk from a cow
02:52or other animals, as if we do not have a choice being a human.
03:01In today's time when the whole world is suffering due to man's aggravated sensory pleasure addictions
03:08in terms of unimaginable consumerism, how can I justify what poet seems to be trying
03:17to say here?
03:19Could you talk about this poem for everyone to understand its hidden meaning in the right
03:27spirit?
03:29Thank you Acharyaji with my own gratitude.
03:34Alok Bhute, USA.
03:37Alok, note all utterances by wise men.
04:06Wise men are utterances of the absolute truth.
04:36The aim is to help.
04:54In fact, very few statements even in the cardinal scriptures
05:20can be taken as absolutely pure.
05:29Even in Vedanta, from the eleven principle Upanishads and the hundreds of other Upanishads
05:53and the dozens of other texts, only four statements have been called as the Mahavakyas.
06:19Only four have been called as the Mahavakyas.
06:31Obviously, some difference was seen between these four and the other thousands of statements
06:53contained in the Upanishads.
06:59These thousands are not false.
07:03In fact, to call them true or false is to miss the point.
07:14The objective of the Rishis is to help.
07:26And many a times, it is not helpful to bring the absolute truth to the listener.
07:38Not that this is a shortcoming with the truth.
07:54It's just that the listener is often, rather usually, not in a position to appreciate, gather and benefit from the purest of statements.
08:20So most of what you find as wisdom literature is just statements made with respect to the position of the listener.
08:41They do not intend to take the listener to the absolute heights.
08:55They just seek to shake up the listener from his deep sleep.
09:21Now if someone is to travel a long distance, and instead he is busy sleeping, and if you
09:38go and shake him up, then prima facie you are not assisting or encouraging the person
09:59in running up to the destination.
10:02He will reach the destination when he leaves the bed and starts moving.
10:18Whereas whether he is sleeping or whether he has just woken up, he is still on the bed.
10:26When you go and wake someone up, he probably still would remain on the bed for 5 minutes.
10:33So someone who considers only travel and movement as an indicator of progress towards the truth,
10:47would probably find himself justified in saying that the so-called helper is not helping at all.
11:00Before the help, the sleeping fellow was on bed.
11:06Even after the help, the fellow has woken up but is still on the bed.
11:14The distance between the fellow and his destination is still the same.
11:24When he was sleeping, the distance between him and the destination was 1000 km.
11:32Now that he has been woken up, still the distance between him and the destination is 1000 km.
11:47So what point is the help?
11:52No, there is definite help taking place.
12:06When such a thing is being done, when help is being rendered in this form,
12:15then the criteria should not be with respect to the absolute.
12:21You cannot say, oh he is still very far from the absolute truth.
12:28That would be an unfair way of assessing the help.
12:37A fairer way of assessing help would be with respect to his current condition,
12:46not with respect to his targeted condition.
12:53If you measure progress with respect to the targeted condition,
12:59you will be deluded into thinking that no progress has taken place at all,
13:06or that no help has been offered at all.
13:11But when you look at the effectiveness of help with respect to the current condition of the seeker,
13:31then you realize that help indeed has been effective.
13:38Please get this.
13:41So, let's look at the current condition of the practitioner, the seeker.
13:50What was he doing 5 minutes back?
13:54He was deeply absorbed in sleep on the bed.
14:02What is he doing right now?
14:06After being helped, he is still on the bed.
14:11But he has at least partly woken up.
14:17So, with respect to his condition 5 minutes back, is there improvement or not?
14:24There is improvement, right?
14:26And that is what the wise man has sought to achieve.
14:29Improvement with respect to your current condition.
14:34Incremental improvement, not absolute improvement.
14:38Improvement relative to where you are standing right now.
14:43Improvement not relative to the absolute because the absolute is so far away.
14:51Any movement towards the absolute would appear so small
14:56that you would end up saying, oh, I am still as far from the absolute as I was 2 years back.
15:06Alok, would it be unjustified to say that the absolute is infinitely far?
15:14Yes, we say many things about the absolute.
15:17We do say that the absolute is infinitely close as well.
15:22But you won't contest it if I say that the absolute is infinitely far, right?
15:27Now, if the distance is infinite and even if you cover a thousand miles towards the destination,
15:40have you made any progress?
15:43And that assessment with respect to the absolute would totally dishearten and demotivate you.
15:51You will say the absolute is like the horizon.
15:56It was infinitely far away before I began seeking.
16:02And it is still infinitely far away after 5 years of seeking.
16:08So why seek at all?
16:11Stop all seeking. Stop all effort.
16:21So the right way is to look at the current condition of the listener or seeker or audience
16:36and take it up from there.
16:44So, who is the person the author is addressing?
16:53He is saying, go to his words,
16:58Would that you could live on the fragrance of the earth and like an air plant be sustained by the light.
17:13So he says, well, that would have been the most preferable condition.
17:21In other words, that would have been absolutely great.
17:26Could you live in a totally nonviolent manner?
17:30Could you live in a way where you simply didn't have to have any relationship with other organisms
17:39in order to just physically survive?
17:48And then he says, mark the words, but since you must kill to eat,
17:53so let's speculate about the kind of person he is speaking to.
18:01He's saying, but since you must kill to eat, he's talking to someone who is adamant on killing.
18:09Who is the person being spoken to?
18:11Someone who is adamant on killing.
18:14Maybe centuries of conditioning.
18:19Maybe deeply and widely prevalent cultural norms.
18:26He is speaking to such a person.
18:30But since you must kill to eat and rob the newly born of its mother's milk to quench your thirst.
18:35He's talking to people who take it as a given that the milk of the calf's mother has to be necessarily had.
18:58It has become a staple food in the region.
19:03It has become unimaginable for people of that region that they can live without flesh or milk.
19:10Such are the people to whom Gibran is talking.
19:17And he must have really tried very hard to first of all convince them to do that which is perfectly right.
19:37That he does not state in this text.
19:46But that you must take as a given.
19:48If the man is wise, why would he want anything short of the absolute for himself?
19:56And therefore, why would he want anything short of the absolute for the others?
20:01So, first preference would surely have been to bring the ultimate to the audience as well.
20:11But the audience is stubborn.
20:16The audience has been possessed by Prakriti and aeons of social cultural conditioning.
20:34So, what he now says must be taken not as the speaker's first preference but as a compromised statement.
20:48And there is no option but to offer this compromised statement because it is humanly impossible for the best thing to be executed.
21:09The wise man is practical. He says, I see that you are not in a condition to reach the absolute in one go, in one jump.
21:21But that does not mean that I'll leave you to your state and to your fate.
21:30If you cannot have the best, I'll ensure that you have at least the second best.
21:37If you cannot progress absolutely, I'll ensure that you progress at least relatively.
21:45I see that my efforts to prevent you from consuming flesh have all fallen flat.
21:57You will take time. Not that I'll be defeated.
22:01It's just that the victory will take some time coming.
22:07In the meanwhile, I'll keep fighting. I'll keep gaining ground.
22:16Before the final victory comes, I'll keep winning a series of small battles.
22:26So, he says, fine, if you have to eat flesh, eat it this way.
22:32If you have to drink milk, drink it this way.
22:39But remember that such a thing is to be said only after absolute efforts have been made and seen to be inadequate.
23:01Are you getting it?
23:11Because it is a compromised statement, so the philosophy being conveyed here is obviously compromised.
23:24Do not measure these words for wisdom. You'll not find much wisdom here.
23:34Do not assess these words for perfection. You'll not find much perfection there.
23:39Because there is no perfection really here.
23:42Being perfect is probably not even the intention of the author.
23:52These words are coming from a practical need.
23:56So, you may not find wisdom, but you'll find compassion.
24:03The author is deliberately compromising on himself.
24:07You could say he is ensuring that he lives to fight another day.
24:17The fellow has been shaken up and woken up and now there is a possibility that you can lure him about the destination.
24:32And after some time he'll be found actually moving towards the destination.
24:39But before he moves towards the destination, you are doing something that is ensuring that more time is being wasted on the bed.
24:52What is that?
24:53First of all, you woke him up.
24:55That was time spent on the bed, not time spent in covering the distance.
25:01Then after he woke up and sat on the bed, you started talking to him.
25:08In an absolute sense, this is wastage of time.
25:11Because even as you are talking to him, the clock is ticking away.
25:15He is not making any tangible progress.
25:18You are just talking to him, luring him, motivating him.
25:21And that may take one hour, two hours, that may take one month, two months, that may take years.
25:27And an onlooker might say that the helper is actually assisting the fellow on the bed to waste away his time.
25:38That is not really happening.
25:39The ground is being laid.
25:41The foundation is being laid.
25:46But I see, Alok, what you are saying.
25:49These things can become great excuses.
25:58And it is only the purity of your intention then that can be the real judge.
26:07You can very well keep consuming flesh and milk and such things and say,
26:16you know, I am just preparing myself to leave all these things.
26:24It's a great self-deception.
26:27Many will fall for it.
26:28They say if I leave everything all at once,
26:34then there will be a recoil.
26:37So I am trying to gradually drop stuff one by one.
26:42You know, this year, maybe I will drop cheese.
26:45Next year, maybe I will drop paneer.
26:48And then I will drop butter and ghee.
26:58Only they know whether they really mean what they are saying.
27:10Finally, you have to answer yourself.
27:16Delaying the assault can mean either of the two things.
27:27It could mean you are gathering strength so as to launch a vigorous assault.
27:35Or it could mean that you are so frightened that you are just somehow
27:43whiling away time to find an opportunity to retreat and run away.
27:52What is your intention? Only you can tell.
27:58The things that Jibran says here are all philosophically quite weak.
28:12They do not have much relation with the truth.
28:18This poetry has any value only in terms of the relative assistance it can offer
28:38to an adamant flesh eater.
28:43Beyond that, it has very little value.
28:47In fact, it can be dangerously misused by someone in order to remain what he already is.
29:00In assisting someone towards freedom, there are no rules.
29:18Sometimes, you push him.
29:49To cover the entire distance in one go,
29:58sometimes you say, let's take it step by step.
30:03Sometimes, you contradict what you previously told him.
30:08It has to be a situation, an approach, where the destination is clear,
30:23the strategy is flexible, and the tactics, they keep varying almost moment by moment.
30:41And even that is not certain.
30:49In certain cases, you will need to stick to one strategy followed by one tactic.
30:58No real rules work there.
31:04Only love works.
31:07You must know in your heart that you are honestly trying.
31:13You are doing your best.
31:17That is the only criteria.
31:25Any rule can become a tool for self-deception.
31:29So, it is best if one's inner honesty is the only rule.
31:40But then that's a great danger.
31:44If there are rules, they keep you straight.
31:49If there are no rules and your own honesty is the only judge,
31:55then that's an incentive for you to just cheat and lie to yourself and to others.
32:03A lot of what is contained in wisdom texts, Alok, is just with reference to the time and the situations and the people.
32:34And the contingencies, they are not at all absolute statements and they must be read as such.
32:46Only very few statements correspond to the truth.
32:54And that too, let me add, conditionally,
32:57that too only if you read them in the right spirit and you have someone who can bring the right spirit to you.
33:09Otherwise, everything that is there in wisdom texts, in the holy scriptures,
33:18is actually just relative, relative to the prevailing conditions of the time.
33:28It demands a certain intelligence on behalf of the reader to draw the real essence out of those words.
33:50After all, words are just words.
33:53It's your light that shines upon them, first of all, before the words can fill you up with light.
34:02It's almost like searching for the switchboard with a little torch.
34:11Once you have reached the switchboard, then the entire house can be illuminated.
34:19But before there can be so much light, you must at least have a little light, a little torch to reach the switchboard.
34:27If you do not have even a little light, then the great light will remain elusive.
34:33And that's a major tragedy that has befallen religious people.
34:53They expect the scriptures to give them a lot of light, which is fair.
35:04But they do not go to the scriptures with any light of their own, which is very, very unfair.
35:14The scriptures will give you a lot of light, but first of all, use whatever light you have to reach the scripture and read it properly.
35:24How will the scripture give you anything if you can't even apply basic sense to the verses or the stories or the injunctions?
35:38What does light mean to somebody who is blind or has stubbornly closed his eyes?
35:58Some light must be there within already before you can benefit from the wider light.
36:05Some work must be done in one's isolation, in one's solitude, before one is in a position to benefit from the teachings of others.
36:31Someone who does no homework gains very little even from the best of classrooms. Don't we know that?
36:47Don't we know that?
36:48And often
36:59it so happens that the more quality a classroom has,
37:21the more intensive is the homework that it requires of you.
37:32Is it not so?
37:33That's a price that you have to pay from benefiting from a high text or teacher or institution.
37:53You have to come prepared. Without due preparation, the texts will not benefit and may even backfire.
38:03So you are right. It is quite possible that this particular text from Gibran is used by the flesh eaters to justify what they are doing.
38:28They will say we do slaughter the animal and as we are slaughtering the animal, we just recite the poem that Gibran has advised us to recite.
38:39We tell the animal, you know, by the same power that slays you, I too am slain and I too shall be consumed.
38:46For the law that delivered you into my hand shall deliver me into a mightier hand.
38:50Your blood and my blood is not but the sap that feeds the tree of heaven.
38:55Glorious poetry. Glorious poetry that would enable the mindless, senseless, merciless slaughter of billions of more animals.
39:11It is quite possible. But I assure you that was not Gibran's intention.
39:18So much nonsense is happening in the name of religion.
39:26I assure you that was not the intention of the founders of those religions.
39:33The catch is they will give what they can. You take what you want to.
39:50So there is always a great difference between what the great ones are giving and what the receivers are receiving.
40:01And unfortunately even the great ones are helpless in this matter.
40:07They have discretion and control only over what they give.
40:16They have really no power over what we selectively receive or what we selectively interpret.
40:25When you said these lines, there was a line where it was said that.
40:41You didn't exactly say that but it can be interpreted in a way that it's okay to kill somebody with lower consciousness.
40:52It can be interpreted like that and people do that.
40:56They find reasons to justify what they are doing.
41:01And in the last question by Alok Ji as well.
41:07Khalil Gibran can be misquoted, can be misused.
41:15So what question was coming into our mind was that when a Guru is saying a few things.
41:24Guru is an idol for us and whenever he is speaking something or doing something, we try to copy it.
41:33We try to understand it in our own ways and then follow it.
41:38So how responsible these words should be?
41:43How responsible a Guru is when he is speaking these words?
41:48And I'm asking this again because there are many many Gurus who are talking about these kinds of things which are actually misleading people.
42:01So this is what I wanted to know.
42:06The words of the Guru are always going to be imperfect.
42:10That's his helplessness.
42:16You have to resonate with his intention.
42:19You have to resonate with the source he is coming from.
42:24Anybody who is dealing in words is dealing in imperfection.
42:29Let that be clear.
42:33If you want the Guru to be perfect, then don't insist him to speak.
42:42Let him live in his own silent domain.
42:46The moment the Guru is to take a human form and open his mouth to speak, imperfection is bound to creep in.
42:57That is why it would not be entirely misplaced to say that no word ever spoken really represents the absolute.
43:18It is relatively a high utterance but not an absolutely high utterance.
43:24It still has imperfection.
43:28So whatsoever any teacher says is bound to have limits.
43:35There are bound to be gaps, contradictions.
43:40And those gaps and contradictions as you said can always be played upon, picked up and misutilized.
43:49That is possible.
43:51So it depends on you.
43:53If you want to benefit from the teacher, resonate with him.
44:01You have to have a certain connectivity so that you know where he is coming from.
44:08If you just feast upon his words, then you will only be pleasing yourself.
44:24Now the thing is if you really were so fond of the source the Guru is coming from,
44:29you would not have wanted the Guru to be formally and physically present in front of you.
44:34You would have said the source is sufficient.
44:38So in your desire for a physical Guru, anyway some kind of malice is hidden.
44:50I am asking you, you see, to resonate with the source the Guru is coming from and not to be too particular about his words.
45:02But then had you really wanted to resonate with the source, the source is formless,
45:08then why would you have desired a physical, formal, personal Guru in front of you?
45:16Asking for a personal Guru is almost like asking for a bit of imperfection.
45:21Because the moment the source takes a physical form, the source has assumed imperfection.
45:28What else is form?
45:30Can any form be perfect?
45:32Can any body or any person be perfect?
45:35So the moment the teacher comes in front of you as a person, the teacher is already imperfect.
45:42And that is what you have asked for.
45:45If you really valued perfection, then you would have said I do not need any physical teacher.
45:56But if you do not need any physical teacher, if you value perfection so much that you do not value physicality at all,
46:02then first of all you would have not valued your own physicality.
46:06But then you do exist as a body happily.
46:09Which means you value your own physicality.
46:12If you value your own physicality, you will want a physical teacher.
46:16In wanting a physical teacher, you have valued imperfection.
46:24So the student, being a physical student, cannot really ask for a perfect teacher.
46:31Physicality is imperfection.
46:34And the student is physical.
46:36So the student will deliberately ask for a physical teacher and a physical teacher is bound to be a little helpless.
46:42Because to be physical is to be incomplete.
46:45To be physical is to be a little imperfect at least.
46:52You can be relatively far ahead of the world.
46:58But in the absolute sense, even the best of teachers are going to carry some imperfection.
47:04And that would reflect in their words.
47:08So that's the thing with words.
47:12They help you, they elevate you.
47:14But do not expect perfection in words.
47:18Use words carefully.
47:20Know very well that what the teacher is saying is not contained in the words.
47:24Be one with the teacher.
47:28If you like the teacher's words too much, is that not a way to avoid the real teacher?
47:36And that's what so many people do, don't they?
47:40They stick to the scriptures.
47:42They'll say we don't want the teacher.
47:44The scripture is sufficient.
47:46They'll stick to the videos.
47:48They'll say the video is sufficient.
47:50We do not want the teacher.
47:56If you stick to the video, you must know that the video is always going to be a little imperfect.
48:00If you stick to the words, you must know that the books are always going to be a little imperfect.
48:06And you will somewhere be deceived by the same glorious book.
48:10And I'm saying that with respect to even the holiest books.
48:14Even they are a little imperfect.
48:16And that is not their intention.
48:20That is their helplessness.
48:22Because they are dealing in black and white.
48:24They are dealing in paper and ink.
48:26Wherever there is paper and ink, there is bound to be a marginal imperfection.
48:32Despite the best attempts of the teacher.
48:34Because the teacher is receiving something in silence.
48:38What the teacher has received has come to him in silence.
48:42But he has to translate it in your worldly language.
48:47Now silence is not really translable into words.
48:51So words would always carry some noise.
48:55And that noise, I repeat, is not the intention of the teacher.
48:59It is his helplessness.
49:02What does he do?
49:04And you are insisting that you will not read silence.
49:07You are insisting that no, we do not read formlessness.
49:10We do not read silence.
49:12We only read a physical body.
49:16We only read words.
49:17We only read books.
49:19So you insist that you are fond of imperfection.
49:27What is the way?
49:32Even if the teacher is physically there in front of you,
49:39you will have to do a tightrope walk.
49:44On one hand, you will have to see that the body is there and you will have to pay due respect to the body.
49:51At the same time, you will have to consciously remember, deliberately remember, constantly remember
49:56that there is something beyond the body.
49:59Unless the student is able to do that tightrope walk,
50:04he will miss the teacher.
50:06He will maybe gather the words, but he will miss the teacher.
50:13Don't hear a story.
50:18So the teacher is dying.
50:21The teacher is dying.
50:23The teacher is sick and the teacher is dying.
50:29And his favorite student is by his bedside.
50:33And the teacher says, so I am going now.
50:37Show me what you have learned from me.
50:41The student keeps standing.
50:44Does not do anything.
50:48The teacher says, I am going.
50:50He roars.
50:53The cup containing the teacher's medicine is there by the teacher's side.
51:03The student pushes the cup a little towards the teacher.
51:09The teacher maybe has not taken his medicines.
51:13And the teacher is saying, show me what you have learned from me.
51:17The student pushes the cup towards the teacher.
51:22Now the dying teacher roars even more loudly.
51:27He says, is that all?
51:28Is that all you have learned from me?
51:32The student withdraws the cup from the teacher.
51:37The teacher laughs, deeply laughs and joyfully dies.
51:45That must be your approach towards the teacher.
51:49In pushing the cup towards the teacher, the student demonstrated, I care for your body.
51:55That is not sufficient.
51:58In withdrawing the cup from the teacher, the student said, but I know that you really do not need any medicine.
52:06In pushing the cup towards the teacher, the student said, I care for your body.
52:14I do give weightage and regards to your body.
52:17Because your body is very important.
52:18Without your body, you would have been no help to anybody.
52:23It is because you have taken a bodily self, so you have been able to help so many people.
52:31So your body must be taken care of.
52:33Here is the medicine, please take the medicine.
52:36The teacher says, no, this is not sufficient.
52:39Just taking care of the teacher's body or just taking the teacher as a body, it is not sufficient.
52:45What more have you learnt?
52:46And the student withdraws the cup.
52:48The student says, on one hand, I am offering you medicine.
52:51On the other hand, sir, I continuously remember that you are someone who does not need any medicine.
52:57I remember that you are the great white, you are the true self and the true self is Niramai.
53:05It does not need any medicine.
53:07The teacher says, now you know.
53:10And that must be the attitude of every student.
53:14That must be the attitude of every reader who picks up a scripture to read.
53:19On the one hand, you must be highly respectful towards the words.
53:23On the other hand, you must know that the real thing is a little beyond these words.
53:27And the real thing will not come to you through the medium of words.
53:31The real thing comes to you when there is no mediator.
53:34The real thing comes to you only in love.
53:37So you must have a love for the real thing.
53:39Words are like an introduction.
53:43Words are like a common friend who introduces the two of you.
53:49The common friend is needed.
53:50But the common friend must also go away in due time.
53:53Otherwise, there is no union really.
54:00I am getting it.
54:06The imperfection is needed.
54:10So that the two are brought together.
54:12Who is the imperfection?
54:13The common friend.
54:14The mediator.
54:15The words.
54:17So till a point, imperfections are good.
54:20Words are good.
54:23But after a point, they must go away.
54:25So that there is only the two of you and hence there is union.
54:36Somebody is saying it is imperfection.
54:39So the one who is saying that he has an image of perfection.
54:44No, you need not have an image of perfection.
54:47You only need to humbly remember that this is not that.
54:51You need not say that I know what that is.
54:56You only need to say this is not that.
55:00This is not that.
55:05And yet be respectful towards that.
55:07Because this is the utmost that anything in the world can do to help me.
55:15These words are the highest thing that the world can offer me.
55:20But all of a sudden, they are the highest that the world can offer me.
55:25There is...
55:28Purest imperfection.
55:31These are the purest imperfections that can be there.
55:36So have deep regards for them.
55:38Do offer the medicine to the teacher.
55:40Do not say you are not the body, so why do you need the medicine?
55:45But you must also remember that the truth does not need any medicine.
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