How to abide in the Shiva Truth? || Acharya Prashant, on Ribhu Gita (2018)

Acharya Prashant

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Transcript

00:00Namaste Acharyaji, what is the screen, Satchitananda, Shiva Self, is the absolute a state?

00:13How can a thinking mind know about Shiva?

00:20How will the mind become still in order for the Shiva state to appear spontaneously?

00:29Can we still the mind?

00:33Who has to be still, we or the mind?

00:37And how?

00:40Satchitananda, truth, illumination or awareness and joy.

00:53This is not the absolute, Satchitananda is not a characteristic of the truth itself,

01:11though it is variously referred to as verily nothing else but the truth.

01:22Satchitananda is the relaxation of the mind into the truth, Satchitananda, yes you could

01:36say is the final state of the mind, whether you want to call it a state depends on you.

01:53If you are speaking from a dissolved point, then you need not call Satchitananda a state.

02:04But if you are speaking as a seeker, then you can call Satchitananda a state because

02:13you are yourself still in a state, Satchitananda is the final state.

02:20What is meant by the final state?

02:22After this there are no states.

02:29It is existence merging into non-existence.

02:39It is like water merging into water, mixing with water.

02:49It will be very difficult for you to tell apart the waters.

03:00How do you judge a person's health?

03:12One of the first things that you do is you measure the blood pressure, you measure the

03:22temperature and then if you want advanced tests, then you take blood sample or urine

03:34sample and get it tested in a pathology lab, right?

03:49Tell me when are you testing health?

03:53You are just testing temperature, blood pressure, sugar, blood.

04:03When are you testing health?

04:08Go into this.

04:11Health is that which keeps the body regularly functional.

04:22Health cannot be tested, only the body can be tested.

04:26Similarly, the truth cannot be known, but whether or not you abide in the truth can

04:41be known by looking at the condition of your mind.

04:51Health cannot be known, but whether the body is abiding in health can be known by testing

05:01the body, right?

05:04Similarly, truth cannot be known, but whether the person, the ego, the little self is abiding

05:16in the truth can be known by looking at the characteristics of the person, the mind.

05:27Satchitanand is a sure-shot characteristic that the mind is abiding in the truth and

05:40equally there are very certain signs that the mind is not abiding in the truth.

05:53If you remain infected with fear and jealousy and comparison, if you keep feeling small

06:04or big, if you keep feeling the need to defend, if you keep feeling lonely, if you feel insecure

06:19in front of a new concept, then it is a sure-shot sign that the mind is not abiding in the truth.

06:41If the waves of happiness and sadness just carry you away and you start talking of yourself

06:53as nothing but the experiencer of pleasure and pain, then it is a sure-shot sign that

07:03the body is not abiding in health.

07:12You could even say it is a sure-shot sign that the Deh is not honestly abiding in the Prana.

07:26Have you ever seen Prana?

07:30It is not to be seen and I am not talking of Prana in the classical sense, I am not

07:36talking of the various kind of vayus, I am talking of the spirit, the life force.

07:50Have you ever seen something escaping a dead human body?

08:02But for sure, the Prana and the body are no more united.

08:13Some link has broken and that is what you call as physical death, don't you?

08:19And it is very obvious that the link has broken.

08:21It is so obvious that you cannot confuse a dead man with a living man.

08:29You commonly use the expression that the Prana has gone out of the body.

08:33I don't want to use that expression.

08:35But I will still say that the link between Prana and the body has been severed, right?

08:44And it is obvious then that the link has been broken.

08:47Similarly, when you look at a mind that is dissociated from its origin, from the truth,

08:56then it is very easy to tell.

09:01Not as easy as telling a dead body apart from a living one, but still not very difficult.

09:14Even the grossest fool will say this man is dead and he will be right.

09:21But it requires some wisdom to point out that this person's mind is dissociated from the

09:35truth or distanced from the truth.

09:40It can be however told.

09:43It is not beyond recognition.

09:46Absolute is not a state, but all your states keep crying aloud for the absolute.

09:58All the states want to turn into the absolute state,

10:03which means that as long as you belong to a particular state,

10:08you will look at the absolute as a state and that is all right.

10:12No problem.

10:15Call the absolute whatever you may, but move towards it.

10:19Let it be your sharp and powerful inspiration.

10:29You can even call the absolute as the best state if you want to.

10:33And if that is useful, please do that.

10:38But irrespective of what name you give it, move towards it.

10:45Make it your only goal.

10:47I am weighing my words.

10:49I know what I'm talking of.

10:51I'm saying make the absolute your only goal.

10:56Why am I saying that?

10:57Because you will not be able to live without goals.

10:59Even if you agree at this moment that the absolute cannot be a goal,

11:06you will find that you are helpless due to your own constitution.

11:14You need goals.

11:16Make the helpless, make the absolute your goal.

11:22You have no option.

11:23How can a thinking mind know about Shiva?

11:29A thinking mind can know and that knowing is called Shiva.

11:36You cannot know about Shiva, but you can know, right?

11:41And whatever you know,

11:44you can know about Shiva.

11:46You cannot know about Shiva, but you can know, right?

11:50And whatever you know is due to the blessings of Shiva.

11:56The knowing itself is Shiva.

12:01Shiva is anyway not a person,

12:08not a deity, not a figure, not an object.

12:12There is only Shiva, Shiva-ness.

12:17And that Shiva-ness expresses itself in your knowing.

12:22So, no, don't try to know about Shiva.

12:27Shiva is not furniture.

12:29Shiva is not a tree.

12:30Shiva is not a cloud, not even the sky.

12:34How will you know Shiva?

12:37Do you know of anything that has no shape, no form and is eternal?

12:42How will you know Shiva?

12:43But no, do know.

12:44What can you know?

12:46This world and yourself, know that.

12:48That knowing is Shiva-ness, Shivatva.

12:57How will the mind become still in order for the Shiva state to appear spontaneously?

13:03The mind becomes still when it sees that movement is foolish.

13:09There is no other reason for mind to become still

13:14and the mind is captive of reasons.

13:21You will have to give the mind a strong reason to not to run.

13:29The mind will never agree to be still.

13:32It can only agree to not to run.

13:34And this is not merely wordplay.

13:36There is a great difference between being still and not running.

13:40You can never take the consent of the mind for stillness.

13:47It's like a traveler who is intent on moving and he is standing at crossroads.

13:56He is a traveler.

13:57That's his definition.

13:58That's his self-identification.

14:02You cannot tell him to not to travel.

14:05That would be stupid.

14:06Then how do you tackle this situation?

14:09He's standing at the crossroads.

14:11He wants to move north.

14:12You tell him, no, no, no, north is not the way.

14:14So he can't move.

14:15Immediately he wants to move east.

14:19You tell him, no, no, east is not the way.

14:21He stops.

14:22Then he wants to move south.

14:25You tell him, no, no, south is not the way.

14:27He wants to move west.

14:28You tell him, no, no, west is not the way.

14:29He is still constantly trying to move.

14:32Constantly trying to move.

14:35But you are constantly able to show him that all his movements are wrong, stupid.

14:42They will not take him to the destination.

14:45And that is the only way he can be still.

14:47The mind has to know moment after moment what is stupid for it.

14:56And if you can constantly keep the mind in this realization, only then it will be still.

15:01The stillness of this man, this traveler is not the stillness of the monk

15:07who is standing just at a little distance,

15:13intent on going nowhere, and is just standing.

15:17If you look from afar, then you will say that these two are just the same

15:22in the sense that both are just standing.

15:24But there is a great difference.

15:28The monk intends to stand.

15:32The mind intends to travel.

15:37Your saving grace is that the mind intends to travel rightly.

15:43The mind doesn't intend to just travel.

15:45It wants to travel with a purpose.

15:48It wants to travel to reach somewhere.

15:50Use the intent of the mind to stall its travel.

15:56Tell the mind, north is not right.

15:59See, you just don't want to travel.

16:01You want to travel rightly.

16:04And north is not right.

16:07So fine, can't go north.

16:09Okay, you want to travel east or west?

16:13See, you just don't want to travel blindly.

16:16You want to travel rightly.

16:18And west is not right.

16:21So the mind is still trying to move but can't move.

16:24That is the only kind of stillness that will come to you.

16:28Not the monk's stillness.

16:32It will take long for you to come to a point

16:37where even the tendency to travel disappears or gets burnt out.

16:45Till the time that tendency remains, only discretion can help.

16:51Apply discretion.

16:59Tell yourself, yes, of course, I'm going to smoke.

17:01I'll smoke only a cigarette that doesn't harm.

17:07Of course, I'm free to smoke.

17:08And then smoke.

17:11If you can find a cigarette that doesn't harm, do smoke.

17:15That is the only way you can come to terms with the traveling mind,

17:20with the desirous mind.

17:22Give it what it wants.

17:24But also tell it that you don't merely want.

17:27You want rightly, don't you?

17:30And that's something that the mind will have to, you know, unwillingly agree to.

17:45Then you have asked, can we still the mind?

17:47I have taken this up.

17:49Who has to be still?

17:50We or the mind?

17:51Who has to be still?

17:52The one who is moving.

17:52If you are moving, you be still.

17:54If the mind is moving, the mind will be still.

17:56Why do you want to get into such verbiage?

17:59We, the mind.

18:00Are you any different from your mind?

18:04If you are different from the mind, if you are a witness of the mind,

18:09then all these questions will be absorbed in the witness.

18:14You and the mind are one, totally one.

18:17You are so completely identified with the mind

18:22that there is just no differentiation possible right now.

18:29You asked, who moves?

18:32Or rather, who has to be still?

18:34You said, who has to be still?

18:36I said, the one who moves.

18:38If you want to say that the mind moves, then the mind has to be still.

18:41If you want to say that you move, then you have to be still.

18:45It's merely wordplay, doesn't matter.

18:50And then you say, how will the stillness come?

18:52I have answered it.

18:53Stillness won't come.

18:55Only foolishness will have to be seen.

18:59If you move, you get hurt.

19:01So better don't move.

19:03And there would be times when you would not know

19:05that movement can be dangerous or harmful.

19:12Then in those occasions, you will move and get hurt.

19:16And that is all right.

19:19Such experiences are good.

19:21But don't repeat those experiences.

19:24Getting hurt one time is acceptable.

19:28Probably even good.

19:30But don't get unnecessarily hurt the second time.

19:33For the same reason.

19:34In the same way.

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