• last year
🧔🏻‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant?
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: Shabdyog session, 19.11.2018, Advait Bodhsthal, Greater Noida, India

Context:

~ What is fakeness?
~ What are seven masks?
~ How to find out our mistakes?
~ How to get rid of all illusions?
~ How to drop all fakeness and masks?

Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .

Category

📚
Learning
Transcript
00:00You ask me how I became a madman.
00:04It happened this.
00:05One day, long before many gods were born, I awoke from a deep sleep and found all my
00:11masks were stolen.
00:13The seven masks I have fashioned and worn in seven lives, I ran maskless through the
00:19crowded streets shouting, thieves, thieves, the cursed thieves.
00:24Men and women laughed at me and some ran to their houses in fear.
00:29And when I reached the marketplace, a youth standing on a housetop cried, he's a madman.
00:35I looked up to behold him.
00:37The son kissed my own naked face for the first time.
00:41For the first time, the son kissed my own naked face and my soul was inflamed with love
00:44for the son.
00:45And I wanted my masks no more.
00:49As if in a trance, I cried, blessed are the thieves who stole my masks.
00:54Thus, I became a madman.
00:58And I found both freedom and safety in my madness, the freedom of loneliness and the
01:03safety from being understood.
01:06For those who understand us, enslave something in us.
01:09But let me not be too proud of my safety, even a thief in a jail is safe from another thief.
01:18Your masks are stolen because only when you are a little careless about them.
01:28How can somebody steal away your masks if you keep them safe in your deep lockers?
01:40Become a little careless, give the thieves a chance.
01:52And if they still do not respond to your invitation, tempt them, hang your masks out
02:15on your gate.
02:25It is never accidental that you lose your masks.
02:32It requires a certain frustration, a certain disappointment.
03:00You need to turn heedless.
03:05You must become unconcerned with the value of the masks.
03:16Thought comes to you and says, oh, your masks can be taken away and you say two hoots.
03:25It is then that somebody would support you by robbing you of your masks.
03:55A mask that is right and tight on the face, ever heard of it being stolen?
04:13If you are wearing a mask right on your face, tight.
04:40Who will dare to touch you?
04:49Your mask will remain secure.
04:56You have plastered it to your face.
05:06You have used all kinds of adhesives.
05:14It is well stuck and you are wearing it to perfection.
05:28It's your face.
05:30Who will take away your face?
05:38You must become a little forgetful.
05:44Go visit a jungle.
05:48And then because you want to watch the birds and it is not possible through the tiny slits,
05:59of the mask, you take the mask off.
06:10And you keep the mask under the tree and you are engrossed watching the birds.
06:21And the birds are birds, they fly.
06:23And as they fly, they take you further and further away from that tree.
06:28Captivated by the birds, you keep following them and following them.
06:41And now it's sunset.
06:42The birds decide to go home.
06:45And it's then that you remember that you have come very far away from your mask.
06:50Now, there is some possibility that the mask would be taken away by somebody.
07:00You will have to enable the thief.
07:05You will have to encourage the thief.
07:14Or if you really fall in love.
07:21Really, madly.
07:26And the one you are in love with has no taste for things fake.
07:34And she says, the mask won't do.
07:40I need real lips.
07:43And you say, no, you know, this is all I have.
07:48And it's quite a handsome face, is it not?
07:51That's what I've been told.
07:56And I tell you, you know, these lips, they're not plastic, they're real.
08:03Let's proceed to kiss.
08:06She says, no.
08:09Fakeness just doesn't go with me.
08:12I'll have to go.
08:15This mask thing and I do not sit well.
08:25And now you have to make a choice.
08:30It's either the mask
08:35or her.
08:37And she just won't tolerate
08:40fakeness.
08:52So you have to
08:55pull off the mask.
09:00And then you have to
09:01let go of the mask.
09:07And then the sweet kiss turns into a long embrace.
09:13And then from there, you
09:16keep sinking
09:19into the
09:20depths of memorylessness.
09:26And after many long hours in trance,
09:29when you recover,
09:32you find that
09:35you have had bliss and lost the mask.
09:43Some
09:47fellow came over,
09:53found you lost in union.
09:59And did away with the mask.
10:03Oh, wait.
10:10Was it you who
10:18invited the theft?
10:20Was it you who
10:26did not want to ever
10:32be out of the union again?
10:34Did not want to ever
10:39be out of the union again?
11:04It feels strange
11:07in the beginning as it felt to the man in the story.
11:20Your skin has become accustomed to protection.
11:24It has become
11:26thin and tender.
11:29When you
11:32pull off the mask,
11:34the wind touches your face for the first time.
11:41The sun shines on your face for the first time and it feels very odd.
11:47You want to return to the safety of the mask.
11:58It's then that you
12:04require somebody like the youth in the story.
12:10Somebody who gives you
12:13a cute quaint name.
12:19Then you require somebody who without
12:24repugnance,
12:26without rejection,
12:30calls you the madman.
12:33You love the name.
12:37You love your maskless face and you love your new name.
12:49And now who are you?
12:51You are nobody.
12:53The masks were somebody.
12:56They are all gone.
12:57You are nobody.
12:58And then there is great freedom.
12:59Why?
13:02Because the world knew only the masks.
13:07And because the world
13:09knew the masks, the world was able to manipulate the masks.
13:18Your own face is so entirely new and unexpected.
13:23Nobody knows it.
13:25And since nobody knows it,
13:27nobody can own or possess or comprehend it.
13:34Freedom from masks is freedom for yourself.
13:39Ah, freedom from masks is freedom for yourself.
14:06So because it is not a matter of luck,
14:08it is a matter of love. First of all, you must love something, somebody so much
14:20that you are forced to take off your masks and then you must love your
14:27maskless state so much that you decide to remain maskless. The first step is
14:47typically the love for the guru or a mortal beloved. The second step is the
14:55love for truth. The first step has been called as Ishq-e-Majazi and second
15:06step is Ishq-e-Hakiki. First of all find someone on this earth who makes you drop
15:17your masks by any means. Since you understand the language of temptation
15:22and fear, so he will have to sometimes tempt you, sometimes threaten you. But
15:33whatever be his instruments, he succeeds. You do away with the masks. But that is
15:46not sufficient because the masks can be put back. You may still decide to return
15:58to the old masked self. Therefore, then you must develop a great love for
16:10maskless nothingness. Unless you have a great love for the nothingness that
16:21your unmasked face is, you will find back your old masks or maybe new masks to put
16:31on. Love, difficult love, demanding love, that's what is needed. Easy love is puppy
16:53love of no avail. May you choose a very very difficult one to fall in love with.

Recommended