Sir, Why are you so dissatisfied? || Acharya Prashant, Vedant Mahotsav at IISc Bangalore (2022)

Acharya Prashant

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Transcript

00:00Pranam Acharya ji. I have been in a part of the last Delhi camp, IIT Delhi camp. During

00:14those three days I have seen that you have spoke to the participants continuously for

00:19six hours and then later in the evenings with hostel students for another two to three hours

00:27till 2 a.m. in the morning and we also get to hear it from the volunteers that you have a

00:36very rigorous work schedule. So I wanted to put forth this question which I came across on Twitter

00:44directed to you and I quote, what kind of dissatisfaction do you have in you that makes

00:53you teach Vedanta and offer yourselves in the service of other people to ease their suffering?

01:00A witness will not intervene or will he? This is not a question, it is a taunt. What kind of

01:12dissatisfaction do you have in you that makes you teach Vedanta and offer yourselves in the

01:17service of other people to ease their suffering? A witness will not intervene or will he? This is

01:24more of a baab. What kind of dissatisfaction you have that you do these things? A witness

01:34will not do anything. Obviously the witness is not doing anything. Whatsoever is done is done

01:40by this form in Prakriti. Who told you that the hand can be the witness? My hand moves. When you

01:51say I am doing so much, who is doing so much? The Self, the Atma is a non-doer. It does not do

01:59anything. When you say I am doing something, who is doing something? The lips move, the tongue moves,

02:08the throat is working, the brain is working. These are moving and in the middle of all this

02:15bodily movement, surely there is something immovable and it is by the virtue of that

02:24immovable thing. Whatever I am saying is coming. The fellow is saying, why do you work so hard?

02:33A witness is not supposed to work. It's a smart taunt. The only problem is that wherever you

02:45learn this from, it's not the place or you have not learnt it rightly. You said a witness does

02:52not do anything. The body is not the witness. The body is working. Eyes are seeing and the

03:02body will get tired and fall off one day. The witness remains. The witness ever was. The witness is beyond time.

03:15What to say? These are just botched up spiritual concepts that float in the mediocre kind of spiritual market.

03:27I think I have spoken on this witness concept no less than a hundred times. When people are afraid

03:36of the right action, they seek refuge in such concepts. They say, but you know, we are supposed

03:44to be the witness of everything. Why work? Just witness. Why can't you witness yourself not working

03:54and know how you are using the concept of witness to evade the right action?

04:03Further, if witness is really a witness, how are you talking so much about the witness?

04:10A witness is supposed to be hidden by definition. A witness is someone who sees but cannot be seen.

04:23If the witness can be seen, then somebody is witnessing the witness as well.

04:28So, the witness is not a true witness. There is a witness behind the witness.

04:34But then people don't exercise the kind of basic intellectual rigor that is needed to

04:42go into these concepts. They just shabbily, hurriedly pick something up from some pop book

04:54and start tossing it around. Witness.

05:01The only witness is the Self itself, Atma. And that's why nothing can be said about

05:09the witness, the Atma.

05:11The witness is the centre with no existence of itself in time and space.

05:18Around the witness is the entire universe. And the universe is constantly in motion.

05:31The point of the witness is the entire universe.

05:35The point is that your motion must be centred on the witness.

05:45Not that you must become motionless.

05:51Our friend here seems to imply that if you are the witness, then you should not move at all. No.

05:57The knowers told us of the witness so that our lives are centred on the witness.

06:06The witness is at the centre, immovable and everything else is moving in the right way,

06:12in the right force, in the right direction around the witness.

06:17The witness is like the eye of the cyclone.

06:22There has to be tremendous activity around the witness.

06:28In your entire being, the witness is the point that always remains untouched, unblemished,

06:36unmoved and because there is something within you that remains untouched,

06:42and because there is something within you that remains untouched,

06:47it enables you to accept all kinds of daring challenges. That is the witness.

06:56In fact, if you do not have that point of absolute stability and certainty within you,

07:03you cannot move freely.

07:06Because you know that there is something within that will never be touched or corrupted or destroyed.

07:13So you can plunge into situations that threaten to corrupt and destroy you.

07:22You can plunge into any kind of worldly fire knowing fully well

07:25There is something within that will not be destroyed even if that sharir is.

07:31That is the witness. Witness does not mean you will avoid the worldly fire.

07:36Witness means you will plunge into the worldly fire because

07:43it will never be lost. And if the body goes, let the body go, the body is anyway supposed to go.

07:50The real thing will never ever die. So why should I be afraid? That's the witness.

08:02The witness is somewhat like the, very, very broadly put, the axis of the ceiling fan.

08:13Does it move? Because it does not move, therefore the fan can move with all its speed.

08:21What happens when the axis itself starts moving?

08:26You run out of the room. Because now anything, any mad thing is possible. That's the witness.

08:34The centre around which all the worldly motion, all the activity of life can take place.

08:42That centre should never move. The point is to ask yourself, do you have something in you

08:48that the world can never ever touch? Or is everything within you vulnerable to touch

08:55and exploitation and influence?

08:58You must have something within you that the world can never touch, let alone master. That's the witness.

09:08Something within that will never participate in anything in life or in the world.

09:12Never a participant. I am not involved. Even if the mind is involved and the body is involved,

09:18something within should never be involved. Something just happens.

09:22Even if the mind is involved and the body is involved, something within should never be involved.

09:28Something just sits, just sits untouched. It's not interested even in watching.

09:33To say that the witness watches is also an infringement on the nature of the witness.

09:40The witness is not interested even in watching. The witness just is.

09:52Are you getting it? So, these are like

09:58adolescent quips. Why are you working? The witness never works.

10:08Teenage, pre-college kind of stuff. I have had enough of it

10:14several years back, till several years back. No, I get it even today as well.

10:22You have done the worst kind of injustice to yourself when you have corrupted even the holiest.

10:34You have all kinds of random things in your kitchen and you get sick because you consume them.

10:44And then somebody gives you a bottle of medicine

10:47and even in that bottle you fill up your regular stuff. Now, is there any hope left?

10:55The one thing that could have redeemed you, even that you have lost to yourself.

11:04It is tragic when there is an intoxicant in the bottle and you gulp it down. Obviously, it is bad.

11:11Obviously, it is bad. The thing is poisonous. But it is absolutely a thing of sorrow

11:24when in the bottle of medicine you fill in an intoxicant and take it in.

11:35Even to the words, the holiest words, we start according to mediocre, lowly, worldly meanings.

11:47We have corrupted great medicines like Atma, like Turiya, like Sakshi.

11:56Each of these words stands corrupted in the worldly market of mediocre spirituality.

12:04Prem, Satya, Anand. Every third person and every single Guru is touting these words with pure impunity.

12:27Nobody comes and seeks accountability.

12:34And because these things are not mathematical, therefore you cannot instantly prove someone wrong.

12:40The fellow can speak for two hours, let's say, on Anand and he is talking pure crap.

12:49But it is not possible for most people to prove that he is talking crap.

12:55So he continues without any punishment.

13:04Atma, Brahm, Ishwar.

13:17Great renowned person, I was reading him recently and it was such a shock.

13:21He was equating Atma with Ishwar.

13:30How can you do this?

13:34And the results have been massive.

13:42It's not that these are small mistakes that go unnoticed or unpunished in existence.

13:48For all the misery that mankind is experiencing today, it is this misrepresentation that is responsible.

13:57It will sound strange to you. But yes, this is the fundamental reason because spirituality

14:01is the last resort, the ultimate medicine.

14:04We have corrupted the ultimate medicine as well. Now tell me, what will save us?

14:13The worst offenders are these spiritual writers and pop gurus.

14:31Observation is not the same as witnessing.

14:38You sit here and you watch me speaking.

14:46In ordinary language, it is permissible to say that you witnessed me speak.

14:54And you will say that. You will say, there was this Mahotsav organized at IISc

14:59and we witnessed Acharya Prashant speaking. That is permissible in ordinary parlance.

15:06In pure spirituality, in technical Vedanta, you cannot use the word witness this way.

15:14Yes, you observed me. You didn't witness me.

15:20You observed me. You observed me because

15:23the observer and the observed object both were present. It was an act in duality.

15:29The two were there. Did you disappear internally while watching me? That hardly happened.

15:34So, you didn't witness. To witness is to not to be. When you are not, then you are the witness.

15:43But you constantly are. So, how can you witness?

15:48Observation and witnessing are not the same thing.

15:50But Gurus tell you, oh, you must be a witness to everything that is happening in your life.

15:55What nonsense? And it's not just a matter of word play. It has severe implications

16:05because it is a technical thing. Just as in physics, force and power are not the same thing.

16:10But sometimes we use these words interchangeably in ordinary language, don't we?

16:15Sometimes you say, he hit me with great force. Or you say, he pushed me with great power.

16:21But a student in physics, basic Newtonian physics will tell you,

16:24force and power are not the same thing at all.

16:27Similarly, the observer and the witness are dimensions apart.

16:32How are you using these two words interchangeably?

16:34How are you using these two words interchangeably?

16:57That's what. That's a more practical usage. The observer is there and the observed is there and

17:01that's the way the worldly duality functions. Witness is a very sacred word. It has to be used

17:08with caution. Remember that the language of Vedanta proceeds via negativa. So, witness does not mean

17:28actively witnessing. It is not a word that affirms an action. To witness only means

17:35a negation of participation. Do you get the difference? So, when you say somebody is a

17:41witness, that does not mean that he is actively witnessing. Rather in the tradition of Vedanta,

17:46it means that he is not participating. That's all. To witness is not to do the action of witnessing.

17:56It is to not to do the action of participating. That is witnessing. That's all. You must have

18:02something within you that is so contended in itself, so joyful, so peaceful, so absolutely

18:09complete that it does not seek to participate in anything. Great party going on, oh I am alright,

18:15I won't participate. A great sorrow has fallen, oh I am still okay, I won't participate.

18:22That's the witness within you. That's called as Atma. Atma alone, true self alone is the witness

18:31and that's the endeavour of the entire spiritual process to reach internally where

18:38Aham meets the Atma. The ego meets the true self and then so many things happen on the

18:45periphery. Internally, you remain blissful, okay, alright, healthy. Even in the moment of your death,

18:55okay. That's the purpose of the spiritual process and the purpose of life.

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