Video Information: 26.08.2023, Sant Sarita, Goa
Context:
~ Why do people commit suicide?
~ What is the end of suffering?
~ Are we actually living?
~ What is the worst that happens when I die?
~What does Acharya Ji mean by "bigger battles" in life?
~Why does the ego fear the truth, according to Acharya Ji?
~What is the relationship between truth and love as discussed in the video?
~How does Acharya Ji view the concept of suicide in relation to life's struggles?
~What does "dying before death" signify in Acharya Ji's teachings?
~What role do desires play in our perception of life and happiness?
~Why is it important to pursue a higher purpose rather than succumbing to nihilism?
~How can understanding the nature of life help in overcoming feelings of despair?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
#acharyaprashant
Context:
~ Why do people commit suicide?
~ What is the end of suffering?
~ Are we actually living?
~ What is the worst that happens when I die?
~What does Acharya Ji mean by "bigger battles" in life?
~Why does the ego fear the truth, according to Acharya Ji?
~What is the relationship between truth and love as discussed in the video?
~How does Acharya Ji view the concept of suicide in relation to life's struggles?
~What does "dying before death" signify in Acharya Ji's teachings?
~What role do desires play in our perception of life and happiness?
~Why is it important to pursue a higher purpose rather than succumbing to nihilism?
~How can understanding the nature of life help in overcoming feelings of despair?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
#acharyaprashant
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Pranam Acharya ji. You said that we should only pick bigger and important battles and
00:13ignore the small battles. But I know somebody who is kind of nihilistic and we can say suicidal
00:19as well. So he says, I don't want to pick even the bigger battles because even if I
00:25pick bigger battles, I'll have to go through a very difficult path, the path of truth as
00:29we say, it is difficult. And even though I walk on that, there is still a possibility
00:33that I might not win. And even if I win, there is a lot of trouble. So why not I just commit
00:39a suicide, end my life, because in the end, nothing matters. After life, there is no after
00:44life, there is no concept of Paap Punya. So why can't I just end my life right now? And
00:50why should I choose to walk the path of truth and knowledge?
00:55This simply means that one does not know the bigger battle. The bigger battle is either
01:07not known or if it is known, it does not leave you with a choice to not to fight it. If you
01:18are not fighting the bigger battle, that does not mean that you understand what the bigger
01:25battle is and are yet choosing not to fight it. If you are not fighting the bigger battle,
01:34that simply means that you are too obsessed with all the small things in life, so obsessed
01:40that the big, the great, the immense has remained unknown to you. And how can you choose to
01:49not accept something that is unknown to you? You can accept or reject only the known. The
02:03thing, the condition with the big is that once it is known, it overpowers you and that's
02:13called love. So you cannot say, I know the great and yet I choose not to move towards
02:23it, not to be enchanted by it, not to be dedicated to it. That's not possible. If the immense,
02:37if greatness do not call you, do not appeal to you, appear disinterested to you, it simply
02:58means you do not know them, full stop. Truth and love go together. To know the truth is to fall
03:11hopelessly and irrevocably in love with it. You cannot know the truth and say, oh I know it but
03:20I reject it. And you will feel a lot of such people, you will meet a lot of such people. Because
03:27it pleases the ego to say that I know and it pleases the ego to say that it has the power
03:33to reject even the truth. Both of these things are quite pleasurable. I know the truth, you know,
03:41I know the truth and then I am such an authority that I can even reject the truth. This is the
03:49statement of ego deeply steeped in ignorance. Neither do you know the truth nor can you ever
03:58reject the truth. Rejection of truth is simply an ignorance towards the truth. Truth leaves you
04:08choiceless. Truth leaves you choiceless and that's the reason the ego is so afraid of the truth. It
04:16knows that once it is seen, it cannot be unseen. So let me choose never to see it at all. Now that's
04:24something the ego can possibly do. Wear blinders, wear blinders so that you never see the truth.
04:38The truth is immense, it cannot be avoided. But to the ego the avoidance is possible. How?
04:46Wear blinders. Even the thought of suicide, if you will see, with great sympathy and compassion
05:05towards those who are in that kind of misery, I am saying even the thought of suicide is something
05:18of the ego. The ego says I am prepared to let the body die then be disidentified with the body.
05:34Even that is a kind of stubbornness. A greater death is when you let the body be and attain
05:55your own true self. Let the body be for what it is. The body has its own mechanisms, its own
06:07dynamic nature, works in a certain way, came about and will fall. I'll do my own thing. I
06:21cannot stop the body and the body cannot stop me. I cannot stop the body, can I? I can't. But I
06:36find that the body is stopping me. So what do I do? I say if I can't stop you, I'll kill you.
06:42That's not the way to stop interference. That's interference doubled, redoubled. Instead of saying
06:58I'll stop the tendency of the ego to be identified with the body, I say I'll stop the body itself.
07:10Why stop the body? That's why the knowers have repeatedly talked of dying before death. They
07:21call it the great death. They say the death of the body is a very small thing. Happens to
07:26everybody, to all insects. There is no being here that does not die. So death is such an
07:35ordinary and a very common thing. What is the great thing about dying today? You will anyway
07:41die tomorrow. You will anyway die tomorrow. So what's the great thing about pre-poning your
07:48death in the way of suicide let's say. The great thing is about dying before death. The great
07:59death. And if you go into philosophy, yes over the last century that's been one of the more
08:09important questions. Why to live at all? Why not commit suicide? They don't like when we use the
08:16word commit anymore. So they say why not die by suicide? So why not die by suicide? And wisdom
08:28has the answer. Because if you choose suicide, you are giving up on something much higher. You are
08:40closing the possibility. What is the possibility of living as a Jeevan Mukt? Of living joyfully
08:56as the dead one. Who is the Jeevan Mukt? Who is the dead one? And in death there is great joy.
09:04So when you choose suicide, you are closing on yourself the tremendous possibility of that joy.
09:14Jeevan Mukt implies you are still alive and blissful. Alive and blissful. And if you are
09:28no more alive, where is the bliss? Where is the bliss? So that potentiality has been forsaken.
09:39If you die, you probably can claim that you have avoided the misery now. But now you have also
09:49closed the possibility of joy. What joy is there after death? And those who have known have said
10:02that it's not a bad deal if you choose the torment of life for the sake of that joy. That joy is so
10:16immense because it comes from the immense. It comes from that greatness. That joy is so immense
10:23that it makes all the torment worth it. Know that your problem is not life. Had your problem been
10:45life, suicide might have been helpful. Your problem is your notions about life. Don't drop
10:54life. Drop the notions. Animals typically don't choose suicide. There might have been one odd
11:08case and when those cases are there, then they make headlines precisely because they are rare,
11:13exceptional. So the general rule is that animals do not take that option. Why don't they? Because
11:25they don't have notions. They are creatures of Prakriti. They don't have a future. They don't
11:36have expectations. They don't say my life should be my way. To them life is as it comes to them.
11:44Life is as it comes to them. Man lives in his notions and expectations and then a great betrayal
11:58is experienced. You feel you have been let down by life. You wanted something and life has not
12:09been up to that. The problem is that which you want is not so big that it will enable you to
12:18bear all the pain that is caused in the process of attaining it. This is that which we usually
12:35all of us want. What is it? Name it. Liberation. Who wants liberation? Come on. What is it? This is
12:49your next black shirt. This is your next car, next girlfriend, next raise. What else? Whatever.
13:04Promotion, foreign visit, whatever you want. Yes? Desires. So all the desires. This is that. The
13:17thing with the world is nothing is served to you on a platter. Nothing comes for free. So if you
13:25want to have it, what do you need to put in? Effort. If you want pleasure, you will have to go through pain,
13:34to go through pain. So there is pain involved in coming to this. I am here. There is pain involved in
13:43coming to this. So I come to this bearing a lot of pain. That pain is on the debit side in my ledger.
13:51Correct? Debit. Nuksaan. This is the cost that I have incurred in trying to come to this. And I
14:01now come to this. And having come to this, what do I discover? This appeared quite lucrative.
14:10What do I discover? But what is the nature of this one? It didn't deliver what it promised. So
14:25let's say the cost that I incurred in coming up to this is 100 units. And what do I get from this?
14:34Let's say only 10, 20, 50 units whatever. Whereas it had promised 500 units. Now the promise of
14:41500 made me spend the 100. But I come to this and how much do I find? The worth is just 20 units.
14:51So I have lost 1,000 something. But having come here, something else appears here. And this one
14:59says 1,000. So you will recoup all your losses. Now I am already in debt. My debit side is already
15:07high. And it's saying come to me. Plus 1,000. So I expend another 200 in going to this. And how
15:18much I find on reaching here? Let's say 50 or 80. So my losses accumulate. And a point comes when
15:29it becomes clear that if I pursue the next desire, I will only gather more pain. Also I do not see
15:40any option except pursuing my desires. So what do I say? I am giving up. I am giving up. That's
15:47like declaring bankruptcy. Now if you declare bankruptcy, obviously all your accumulated
15:54losses are offset. Nobody is now going to come to you to collect his dues. Equally having
16:04declared bankruptcy, where is the possibility of any future profits? If you have declared
16:12bankruptcy, where is the possibility of future profits? Please tell me. No possibility. Because
16:20the concern itself is now gone. Just as in suicide the body is gone. So this is the corporate body.
16:26Declared bankrupt, it's gone. So fine. One great thing about this is that now you don't have to pay
16:34those you owed some money. But also the great potential of profits is now gone. On the other
16:47hand there is this. This is that which we are actually meant to pursue. The immense that we
16:58are talking of. The immense that we are talking of. The wonderful thing with this is that it
17:08delivers many times more than what it promises. Many many times more. Equally the cost it extracts
17:23is also many times more. So you remember in going to this, it promised 100. It promised 500 and the
17:33cost you incurred was 100 and it turned out to be 20. That was the equation. Here this will promise,
17:43let's say you know this is another goal. It promises let's say as much as this one or a
17:49little more. It promises 1000. It promises 1000. You want to go to this. The cost that you took
17:56here was 100. The cost that you bear here is 500. Therefore people will not take this path.
18:06Because the cost is much higher here. But then if it had promised 1000 or it had remained ambiguous,
18:16just silent about what it will give you, once you reach here you find this delivers you 10,000.
18:21Just that reaching here is difficult. The cost that it asks for is higher. But then
18:30what it gives you is many times more than what you can expect. So this is what makes the cost
18:42bearable. That cost is the daily process of life. All the trials and tribulations in our daily
18:52living. Unless you are pursuing this, the costs will build up to such an extent that you will
19:03have no option but to declare bankruptcy or to keep piling up the costs by going after hopping
19:11from one target to the other. This is where the real deal is. But also this is where the real
19:23costs are. Now you can, there is this one in Hindi. Sasta rohe, baar baar. Mehnga rohe, yeh mehnga
19:38sauda hai. But here what you get is assured. It says that you are needed to surrender everything
19:50that you have. The investment is yourself. Invest it. It requires a heart. You do not
20:08build a company to declare bankruptcy, do you? Somebody is starting up, you go to them and ask
20:19them why you are starting up and they say to get bankrupt. How does that sound? Similarly you do
20:26not live to die by suicide. It's as absurd as that.
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