• 2 days ago
Video Information: Shabdyog Session, 24.12.2018, Advait BodhSthal, Greater Noida, India

Context:

~What is life?
~How to understand death closely?
~How to celebrate life?
~What is spiritual death?
~How to live and celebrate life without fear of death?

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

"You will meet God when you die.”

~ Jesus Christ.

#acharyaprashant #life #sprituality #fearofdeath

Category

📚
Learning
Transcript
00:00Upon hearing from Lokesh Ji about today's Christmas celebration, even though we are
00:13in a Hindu surrounding, I inquired and he said that here in the foundation there is
00:23no particular emphasis upon any particular organized religion.
00:29To this I asked, I meaning Anna, to this I asked that if this is so, then are all the
00:38national holidays celebrated here?
00:41He didn't reply.
00:43And when she says he didn't reply, she ends with three dots.
00:50And you know what these three dots mean whenever you see them?
00:54To be continued, there is something left unsaid, either it is unclear or it is of a nature
01:05that cannot be discussed or good question and thanks that will enrich the whole thing.
01:22So what she's saying is that, Sirs, friends, I'm surprised you're celebrating Christmas.
01:34I'm glad you're celebrating Christmas, but I want to trust you.
01:38I want to be certain that your celebration is authentic.
01:44How do I be certain that you really have something for Jesus?
01:51Because in general such a thing is not seen.
01:55She says we are in a predominantly Hindu surrounding and yes, of course.
02:03And she says that the foundation prides itself on Advaita and Advaita is fundamentally Indian.
02:20You could even say Hindu.
02:26The texts that we are seeing here are mostly Indian and Hindu texts.
02:39The entire ecosystem appears to be Indic and Hindic, both.
02:52Even the language is Hindi.
02:57So how is it so that this fellow has come over?
03:06It doesn't happen this way in the rest of the world or at most places anywhere in this world.
03:18Then she says fine, if it is not only with the Hindu scriptures or Hindu deities or the
03:25Hindu pantheon that you are concerned.
03:27If you say that you have an universal outlook, that you look forward to the teachings of
03:36all religions, then why is it only Jesus selectively that you are celebrating?
03:45So she asks a pointed question.
03:47She is saying do you celebrate all national holidays?
03:50By national holidays, you probably mean all the holidays relating to the various organized
03:58religions of the world.
03:59That's what you mean.
04:00Okay, that's what she means.
04:02Now is the doubt clear?
04:05And the doubt is if you have so much for Jesus and this relates to you all because
04:12she has seen everybody in the festive spirit throughout this day.
04:18If you have so much for Jesus, equally do you have for Moses and Muhammad and Confucius
04:27and Lao Tzu?
04:29Are you getting it?
04:34Do you really cherish Buddha and Mahavira in the same way?
04:44That's the question.
04:45What's the answer then?
04:52You see, technically no, technically no, but if the answer is no, it is not because
05:10the teachings from certain religions are valued more than or over the teachings of a few selected
05:21religions.
05:22That is not the case here.
05:26It is for a very simple reason.
05:30You can celebrate somebody's birthday only first of all you know him factually.
05:42With all due respect to the foundation and the people present here, most of us do not
05:49even know the principal figures even in the Indic stream.
06:08You know we sing of a particular saint a lot even as this session is going on another parallel
06:17session is happening in Delhi where the songs of that saint are being sung.
06:29Who is being referred to?
06:32Kabir.
06:34How many of us celebrate Kabir Jayanti?
06:40But surely there would be hardly anybody here who is not in love with Kabir.
06:55But do we celebrate any particular day in the year relating to Kabir Saheb?
07:02That is not because of lack of love.
07:05That is simply because of lack of knowledge.
07:10To celebrate somebody's birthday, first of all you must know his birthday.
07:18People here do not belong mostly with a few exceptions maybe to the scholarly category.
07:32They won't have too much knowledge.
07:38Many of us may have depth of understanding but if you will quiz them about facts, they
07:48will not know.
07:49They will just not know.
07:52With Christmas, things are a bit more convenient.
07:59Even if you do not know, the market tells you.
08:07You don't need to even remember.
08:10In fact, if you will know a lot, if you will gain in knowledge, then it will become difficult
08:15for you to celebrate Christmas.
08:18Because this day 25th of December every year is not at all the day of birth of Jesus Christ.
08:30Those who have a background in history know of this.
08:40If you will know about Santa Claus, from where did the figure come and how exactly did he
08:48become popular?
08:49It will become difficult for you to look at him the same way as you usually do.
09:00So that's how Christmas is being celebrated.
09:04It is incidental that on this day people are displaying their festive spirit.
09:20What is essential is that people have love and regard for anyone, be it Jesus Christ
09:31or anybody else.
09:35Anyone who loves the truth, declares himself to be the son of truth and with compassion
09:47works for the liberation of the world.
09:53Are we loving, respecting, celebrating a particular person called Jesus Christ?
10:05Not at all.
10:09If you are looking at these festivities, they are dedicated to anyone who says that I come
10:21directly from there and coming directly from there he works hard and pays with his life
10:34to pull people up to there.
10:45The name of such an agency, the name of such a person, such a force, such a manifestation
10:54could be Jesus Christ, could be Krishna, could be Ram or could be anybody.
11:03We are just celebrating divinity.
11:09We are just celebrating avatarhood.
11:12Are you getting it?
11:17It is incidental that it is being celebrated in the name of Jesus and it is being celebrated
11:22in the name of Jesus because Jesus is easy to remember in this age of Santa Claus.
11:31Are you getting it?
11:37Simply this gathering will not be able to celebrate the birth, the life, the deeds of
11:50each and every saint that has been or that is for the simple reason of lack of knowledge.
12:06We do not know.
12:11If we are not celebrating them, it is just because we do not know of them and if we are
12:15celebrating this, you should know that this celebration is dedicated not to one person
12:24but to all saints of the world.
12:27It is dedicated to sainthood itself.
12:32It is dedicated to spirituality itself.
12:36This celebration is dedicated not to the Christian Jesus Christ, not the Jesus Christ
12:46of the Christians.
12:47This celebration is dedicated to that within man that aims to be one with the truth.
13:00So kindly drop the notion that these are Hindus here who are surprisingly celebrating
13:09a Christian festival.
13:12That seems to be your assumption and that is why you are perplexed.
13:17What are these Hindus doing?
13:19They are celebrating a Christian festival.
13:22That's too good to believe.
13:25So the mind feels like doubting it.
13:28Maybe there is something fishy somewhere.
13:30Are these people really genuine?
13:35I have anyway always doubted the wisdom of this chap, Sandeep and if he is connected
13:44to these people, that is all the more reason all of them should be doubted.
13:50Had they been really admirers of Jesus, then they should have admired all the other prophets
13:58as well.
14:00You know what, if you ask them that in the tradition of Abraham, what are the prophets
14:11that have been?
14:12They will not be able to tell.
14:14How will they celebrate?
14:17And nobody out here is even interested in knowing the names of prophets.
14:21Are you interested?
14:22To us, spirituality is going beyond the load of name, time, date and form.
14:30Who wants to remember dates?
14:33Time is the load of the head.
14:38Names are what keep us in bondage.
14:40Today was easy, we did not need to remember anything.
14:46I remind you, today was easy, we did not need to remember anything.
14:51It was shouted in our ears that Jesus is coming.
15:00The market was the alarm that Jesus is coming.
15:04You know what, my hotel charged me thousands extra right at the time of chicken.
15:15They said, the duration of your stay includes the Christmas Eve.
15:21I said, yes, probably it does.
15:23So what?
15:24You have to pay up.
15:28There would be a gala dinner and for that they really squeezed out hard-earned money
15:39from my pocket.
15:42How will I ever forget this day?
15:55Having lost so many thousands, I am not going to forget this day for another century.
16:04So I am relieved of the load to remember.
16:07I don't have to remember.
16:08The market is making me remember.
16:12But if I ask you to celebrate Sant Raidas Jayanti, it will be difficult for you, though
16:18I know that many of you would be greatly in love with Sant Ravidas.
16:28Rohit with us here, sings beautifully of at least one particular verse from Raidas, but
16:38ask him, when is Raidas Jayanti?
16:43We don't love to remember dates.
16:46We don't.
16:48This date we remember because of the gala dinner.
16:55Getting it?
16:57But at the same time we love the manifestation of truth whenever it happens, wherever it
17:05happens, in whatever name it happens.
17:16We needed a reason to celebrate, we got the reason, the reason is incidental.
17:24If you'll come to the place where the foundation is, there is one chap whose birthday is celebrated
17:31at least half a dozen times every year.
17:36We just need a reason to kick his butt.
17:40That's it.
17:43When you really want to do something, does it matter what the day or time is?
17:49Does it matter?
17:52He deserves to be kicked.
17:54So every second month he gets a birthday, counting the number of birthdays, he must
18:02be centuries old now.
18:09I know this is a very incapable answer.
18:13Does it assuage your doubt a bit?
18:25When we say we are alive, we mean our typical ways of living.
18:36That's what is meant by being alive.
18:43So when Jesus says that you will meet me when you die or when you'll meet God when you die,
18:50what he means is that unless you die to your existing ways of living, there is no possibility
18:58of Godliness for you.
19:09For us life is not physical, it is much more psychological.
19:19Life is much more psychological.
19:28That's why you talk of a good life and a bad life.
19:36Does your elbow get better when you are living a good life?
19:43Does your knee get worse when you are living a bad life?
19:53Today you say you are having a bad life, tomorrow you say you are having a good life, your body
20:00has remained much the same.
20:05What has changed?
20:10The inner life and when I say inner life, I do not mean the soul or the Atma.
20:19By inner life, I mean the mental life.
20:37By dying then is meant the discontinuation of the mental life, the beliefs of the mind,
20:50the very basis on which the mind is operating, the core principles that you have taken as
20:58the truth.
21:04Unless they are challenged and defeated, there is no possibility of something new coming
21:10to you.
21:25The core principles have to be challenged, they have to be defeated, they have to be
21:32questioned.
21:37You said you want to introduce this to your friends from the West.
21:45You want to explain this to them.
21:54Explain to them that there are things that are far more valuable than the material.
22:09Tell them that they must learn to really value.
22:22Redoing their calculation mathematics would be the same as the expiry of the old life
22:33and the initiation of a new life.
22:40Because calculations we anyway do, valuations we anyway attach to things.
22:49But unfortunately we attach valuations only to things, at best thoughts and ideas.
23:00You pay for tea because it satisfies your palate, your stomach.
23:16You can probably also pay for a book because it gives you thoughts.
23:26When you value tea, you value a thing.
23:31When you value a book, you value a thought.
23:39But there is something far more valuable than these, far more valuable.
23:47And if they don't agree, then ask them, is love a thing?
23:56Surely they'll say no, it is not.
23:57Then ask them, is it a thought?
23:59Now there would be a debate, they'll say no, love is a feeling, this, that.
24:07Here science will come to help you.
24:10Because if love is a feeling, then science has conclusively proven that all feelings
24:15are merely the action of chemicals in the brain.
24:26So if they insist that love is not a thing, but nevertheless it is a feeling or a thought,
24:31then say, do you mean that love is merely a chemical?
24:39They would want to say yes, for the sake of defending their argument.
24:45But it would be such an indignified yes, that they would refrain from saying it.
24:54To say that love is dopamine or some other chemical sounds very abusive, does it not?
25:09So what is love then?
25:15What is love then?
25:18I am talking specifically of love.
25:22Because if I say joy, they will conflate joy with happiness.
25:26And happiness is surely linked to the secretion of hormones, chemicals.
25:32So they'll say, of course, joy is happiness and happiness is hormones.
25:37But love is accorded a sacred status in our culture, in all cultures.
25:45So it becomes a little difficult to hold the position that love is merely a hormone.
25:57They'll say, no, it is not a hormone because if love is merely a hormone, then your relationship
26:02with your wife is merely hormonish.
26:07Then do not say that you love your kids.
26:10Your kids are nothing but products of hormones.
26:13Ask them what is love?
26:16And if they really abide by the truth, if they are really interested in an honest discussion,
26:22they'll come to admit that yes, love is something, neither a thing nor a thought, yet very valuable.
26:33Challenge the valuation.
26:37Challenge it.
26:38If somebody can admit that even one valuable word is not a thing, then he has admitted God.
26:52Because what does godlessness say?
26:54Godlessness says there are only things and thoughts.
27:00If you can admit of even one bit outside the province of things and thoughts, then you
27:07have effectively accepted the transcendental.
27:15You have effectively admitted that which is beyond.
27:19Are you getting it?
27:24Valuation has to be challenged.
27:27All life is nothing but the art of valuation, you see.
27:33Just the art of valuation.
27:36We don't know how to value.
27:45Because we are terribly body identified and body is material.
27:48So we value only the material, whereas the fact is that our heart is all the time yearning
27:56for that which is beyond material and it is so strange.
28:01You want that which is beyond material and yet you are valuing only the material.
28:07Rohit would probably be remembering this, we were at a particular college, five six
28:19years back and this girl gets up and says, I was holding a seminar with the students
28:26and so she's like this and she says, sir, we are paying 800 rupees for a semester long
28:37program.
28:38Is it not too much?
28:40800 rupees for a semester long program.
28:43Is it not too much?
28:44I said first of all you are not paying 800, you are paying 1100.
28:48Secondly, when was the last time you had a pizza?
28:53Pretty recently.
28:55How much did it cost?
28:57400, 500.
29:00How many times a semester do you have a pizza?
29:03How many times a semester?
29:04Sir, you should ask how many times a week?
29:10So you think that this self-development program is not worth two helpings of the pizza?
29:23That's our valuation.
29:25Pizza is valuable because you can feel it in your hands and you have identified with
29:28your hands, because you are bodily identified, so a thing is valuable.
29:38Even a thought is valuable, but that is not valuable.
29:46So it's okay.
29:49If it's in the name of Christmas gala dinner, that hotel charges me thousands extra for
29:57food because food can be eaten.
30:06When I said enough of observation, I clearly meant act now.
30:36Act now.
30:44I said the bird has been observing the spikes of its cage since too long now.
30:57No more observation is needed.
30:58What is it that you do not know of?
31:06Act.
31:07Now you are asking how about japa, how about reciting the name of God, how about reciting
31:15the various mantras and verses and shlokas, how will it help the bird to keep reciting
31:22the name of the sky?
31:31Earlier she was busy observing the spikes.
31:40Nice I am in the cage and this is what keeps me caged, one, two, three, four, and I am
31:47observing them, yes, observing and now she is busy reciting and singing the name of the sky.
31:59Akash Sahasranam, the hundred names of the glorious sky and who is reciting them?
32:11The caged bird.
32:12How will it help?
32:15Junk, all junk.
32:19Work, Jyoti what do you find me doing?
32:27I am working and in the process of working the name of God is getting recited an infinite
32:38number of times.
32:40I am working not merely reciting, this is work and when I say work, I mean action that
32:51intends change, action that intends change, solid action.
33:11Ultimately you want change, don't you?
33:16All the stuff that you do in the name of spirituality is just a means, is it not?
33:25A means to attain some change or do you want to stick to the means?
33:39What is Jap for?
33:42What is observation for?
33:46Now let that happen, make that happen.
33:52The bird cannot wait for the cage to dissolve and the cage would never just dissolve on its own.
34:03One has to fight, one has to fight, one has to fight with all her might knowing fully
34:14well that her wings are no match for the strength of the cage.
34:24She should still fight and say I am fighting.
34:28This is my decision with complete onus upon herself with a total sense of doership.
34:33She should fight knowing fully well that it is a doomed fight.
34:42Such doership is called non-doership, are you getting it?
34:56When you fight with the intention to win or gain, then it is doership.
35:05When you fight with the intention to perish in the battle, it is non-doership.
35:18Work with this intention, act with this intention, work is needed now.
35:27There have been waves after waves of people, Jyoti, who have kept sitting comfortably in
35:41their warm corners, reciting the various names of the Lord, the truth, a million times.
35:57They are still found in the merry-go-round of Chaurasi.
36:17Show with your life what you want life to be.
36:26Show with your action the depth of your love.

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