Why Guru-Disciple relationship is so special? || Acharya Prashant (2023)

Acharya Prashant

‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquir...   Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books? Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...  ~~~~~  Video Information: 09.04.23, Bhagavad Gita, Greater Noida  Context:  ¬ What to do if one doesn't know the problem? ¬ Why don't we come up with a false problem? ¬ Why we are so ignorant? ¬ When the teacher is helpless? ¬ How to define true love to acquire knowledge of the subject that is worth it?  Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~

Transcript

00:00Pranam Acharyaji. There could be several factors that may prevent an individual from posing

00:09the appropriate question such as lack of clarity of the problem at hand, insufficient knowledge

00:17of the subject matter, apprehension about appearing ignorant in front of others, a language

00:23barrier or the complexity of the issue leading to confusion about how to formulate the correct

00:29inquiry. What we have seen in the verse today, it became quite apparent that Arjuna's queries

00:35stem from his preconceived notions, which Krishna being an astute teacher immediately

00:41discerns to be a result of Arjuna's attachment to his kith and kin. This leads to biases

00:47and prevents him from posing the correct questions. Now it begs the question whether a realized

00:53guru or a master can accurately perceive the situation and provide the correct guidance,

00:58even when the disciple is unable to ask the relevant question due to any of the aforementioned

01:04reasons. Is it necessary for a teacher to have a personal understanding of the disciple to

01:10comprehend the underlying reason behind their question or can a perceptive teacher identify

01:16it regardless of their familiarity with the disciples inquiry into the subject?

01:21It will require a certain intimacy with the student, right? Because even if the student

01:32were not to pose his real problem accurately, the student must at least come up with the

01:41false problem. For lack of intent or understanding, the student cannot come up with the real problem.

01:53But is the student intimate enough with the teacher to come up with at least the false

02:00problem? It is the description of the false problem in chapter 1 that allows Krishna to

02:10come up with the greatness of the discourse in chapter 2. Remember an entire chapter is

02:16devoted to Arjuna's narration of the problem as he perceives it. It's not without reason

02:25that chapter 1 exists. So the student has to come up with something, if not everything.

02:32You may not know what the real problem is and that is okay. But you in your own world do know

02:43something about your problem or at least you think you know something about your problem, right?

02:47Present that, lay that out. And Arjuna has done that in sufficient detail. That detailing is

02:56needed and that detailing in some sense becomes the eligibility of the student to receive a

03:05solution. I do not know a bit as a student, I am ignorant, right? I do not know a bit about where

03:13I am coming from, what my real problem is, what the solution looks like, what the nature of the

03:18ego is, what the nature of my inner entanglements is. I know nothing. But still I have some vague

03:25feeling, a nebulous perception of the problem I have at least. That much everybody has, right?

03:31There is nobody who will say, oh, I do not know a bit about my situation. So whatever you know,

03:38just present it. Just present it. Needless, irrespective of how it would look to the

03:50teacher, irrespective of the kind of impression you would cast on the teacher. And that sounds

04:04simple but is quite rare to find. The student has his own need to look good. So even if he

04:20comes to the teacher, he presents a very sanitized and decorated version of the problem or the

04:31situation. And even if the teacher, as you said, is perceptive enough and smells a rat and therefore

04:42tries to dig deeper into the student's interiors, the student often responds with resistance.

04:50A bit of resistance you find in Arjuna as well, correct? But that resistance is limited. So there

04:59are no absolutes here. It is all a relative thing. Who knows what would have happened had Arjuna

05:06offered stiffer resistance. So the teacher obviously is prepared to somehow bear some

05:18kind of resistance. But the teacher also honors the very principle of Maya. The principle of Maya

05:27is founded on free choice. And that kind of wild card Maya always has. That's the very condition

05:45behind her existence, which is that I will disappear only when I choose to. You cannot,

05:56she addresses the truth, you cannot just come to me and declare me to be false and ask me to vanish.

06:02I will disappear when you lure me, when you convince me, when you lovingly embrace me,

06:12when you make me consent in my own free will. Are you getting it? So that kind of consent the

06:26student has to provide. Otherwise, the teacher is helpless, irrespective of whether you want

06:34to call the teacher as realized or illuminated or perceptive or whatever, antaryami, doesn't matter.

06:43The point is not the capability of the teacher. The point is the consent of the student. The

06:54teacher might be very capable, but if the consent is not forthcoming, the teacher would not operate.

07:00Acharya ji, love can be seen as a means of acquiring knowledge. When we love a particular

07:16topic, we may read books, watch videos and seek out experiences that allow us to deepen our

07:23understanding of that topic. In a way, knowledge can deepen our experience of love. When we have

07:29knowledge and understanding of something, we are better able to appreciate and love it. As love and

07:34knowledge leads to the path of freedom, how can we define the true love to acquire knowledge on

07:39the subject which is worth acquiring for self? It begins from an inner point. True love does

07:49not just stretch out its hands to acquire something from the world, whether it is knowledge or wealth

07:55or a person or fame or somebody's body, no. Love in its in its right form starts from an inward

08:09glance. It's a very, very inner cry. I do not like the way I am. And hence I am looking out

08:28towards the world. I want to be helped or I want to extend help. So, there is love that is just

08:41desire and desire is blind towards the self. Desire says, I do not want to see where I am

08:51coming from. I have no interiority. I just want to look outwards and feel fulfilled.

09:04I have no real knowledge of my own constitution. I do not know who I am. But I have some vague

09:13idea that if I get that thing there in that market, then I'll feel better.

09:22That's desire. Now that's not love. We said love starts from a very inner point. Desire

09:29does not start from an inner point. Desire from its very inception is looking outwards.

09:35If you ask the desirous one, but why exactly do you want it? Please tell me about your inner state

09:40first. The desirous one will find it awkward. No good salesman would ever ask a prospective

09:49customer this question. If you go to a shop and you say, I want that particular item,

09:56no salesperson would risk the sale by asking you, but why exactly do you want that?

10:03Chances are if that question is posed, the deal would be lost.

10:07Right? That's the thing with desire. It can operate only in an environment of

10:14inner ignorance. It does not look at itself. The intent is not there. The very honesty to first

10:21of all know where I'm coming from and who am I and therefore, why do I want that thing?

10:26That is not there. True love begins by looking at oneself. I'm not all right. I want to be okay.

10:35Now I'm looking at all the resources possible to me. How can I be okay?

10:42So that's the distinction between love and love.

10:48Have I succeeded in? Yes, sir. Pretty much. Thank you.

10:53I was a little bit confused. Now it's clear. Thank you so much. I'm glad. Thank you.

10:58I have something related to the first part of the previous question where you said that the thing is

11:05about consent from the student side. And I guess this is confusing to me because sometimes I feel

11:20like that in some sense, my problem is just that I just need to give my consent and

11:26come to you. It's not about some particular problem or something like that. But then it's

11:34a strange thing because then I just have to do it. But I never know what to come with,

11:39like in particular. Then you can just make something up and come. That's how lovers operate.

11:50That's how lovers operate. They are great liars, all lovers, don't you know?

11:57The man never goes to the woman quoting a genuine reason.

12:02Why have you come to me today? Oh, because it is sunny.

12:07Why have you come to me today? Oh, because it is cloudy. So fake a reason. How is that a problem?

12:15Yeah, it's true. But it has to do with what you said earlier about

12:23you want to seem like you're on top of things, so you have a good question.

12:28You see, we said that Krishna in some sense kidnaps Arjuna. That implies a lack of consent,

12:39does it not? But then you need to grant your consent at least to the degree of

12:49allowing yourself to be kidnapped. It's a complicated thing.

12:56Had the consent been absolute, you would not need to be kidnapped.

13:00You'd come walking on your own, correct? But you need to be kidnapped because the consent is

13:08partial. So it's an in-between thing. The student has to provide at least

13:22as much confidence as the teacher needs to kidnap him.

13:27And it's not about the teacher's own well-being. It's about, as we said, the law of maya,

13:34the law of free will. The willingness has to come across at least to a certain extent,

13:43even if there is not complete consent, at least something. Otherwise,

13:48the teacher will say, no, no, no, no, the law of choice forbids me from touching this student.

13:54Yeah, and it's, I mean, when we look at the whole context of the Gita, I mean, in some sense,

14:08Arjuna is very, sometimes when I read these verses, I get the feeling that he's just there,

14:15you know, but as we've spoken about it, it's not like he's very willing. It's almost like

14:22just lucky to be there in some sense. I mean, yes, he has chosen Krishna, but

14:29sometimes it seems like kind of a, well, he's lucky to have had that choice, you know.

14:37And both these things go together, please see. Irrespective of how daring or how wise your

14:46choice is, if as a result of a choice, you get the right teacher, you should still consider

14:52yourself lucky. Because none of your choices can be so meritorious that they actually deserve to

15:04bring the teacher to you. So on one hand, yes, it is extremely important that the student makes

15:11the right choices. On the other hand, if he gets the teacher, it is not really because of his choices.

15:18There is serendipity and grace involved.

15:24So we have talked of that a lot of times and it's such a beautiful thing to dwell into the

15:33interplay of grace and choice. They do not operate independently of each other.

15:42Grace obviously is far, far, far bigger than the choice and the chooser. At the same time,

15:48if you do not exercise your choices daringly enough, and may I say lavishly enough,

16:00you have not provided your consent. So your choices have to indicate your openness.

16:10I often take the example of that little chap, five years of age, who wants that huge chocolate box.

16:21And the chocolate box costs, because it's a huge one and imported one and a lot of things,

16:28maybe it has a golden foil or something. So it costs 10,000 rupees.

16:35And the little one can gather at most rupees 150. But this 150, he has gathered

16:46with all the resources he could muster. So his little piggy bank he broke and he borrowed from

16:57this, that, and he saved money from whatever little pocket money he used to get and such

17:02things. And after two months, he was able to accumulate 150.

17:09And he takes this 150 and goes to the shopkeeper and he says, here, now give me that box.

17:18Now that shopkeeper is Krishan. He knows very well that the

17:22price of the box far exceeds anything that the little one can keep on the table.

17:27But what he sees is not the amount on the table, but what you have done to bring that amount.

17:36The little chap is little. So whatsoever he does, even the biggest thing that he does would be

17:41little. But has he done his best? That's the word. Have you done your best? It's not a matter

17:48of an absolute benchmark. Have you done the best possible to you? Have you done the,

17:54have you done the, have you risked everything that you have? That's what is needed. And when

18:00that happens, then grace descends. So grace, you could say in some sense is something that you can

18:09make happen. Grace is not something that happens coincidentally, randomly. Grace is a function of

18:18your own willingness. They say it may rain, but you have to keep your umbrella aside.

18:27The willingness to at least receive, be a recipient has to be there.

18:33Otherwise, you will remain dry and untouched.

18:37That's a strange point also, because when we talk about doing as much as we can do,

18:47but then there's the other side of it also, which is that for in my case, for example, that

18:55I threw myself to the work very blindly and very consistently. And you know, it does work,

19:02but at some point, I realized that I had been very unmindful of the center I was working from.

19:10But in some sense, that was the whole point, because it was working so well,

19:14that it felt like I didn't have to question it, that I thought I was doing the right thing because

19:20the partial result was there. So, what exactly is your definition of something

19:28working well? How do you know that it is really working well? And if it is, then for whom?

19:42Well, I guess the thing is that it feels like there's no even space to doubt anything, you know.

19:49But what if, first of all, the doubts have to be scrapped from the bottom,

19:56the sticky bottom of consciousness so that they can be cleaned?

20:02What if there are no doubts, that only means that the doubts are

20:07sticking very closely to the surface of the mind container?

20:13Yeah, I get what you mean.

20:15And when you come to the right environment, then there is somebody with a scrubber,

20:21and then there is a lot of motion and friction, which involves sometimes a bit of pain,

20:26sometimes a bit of fun. And the doubts are made to arise.

20:34What if the unavailability of doubts simply means that the doubts have gone latent or dormant?

20:46Well, that's what it probably is in most of the cases.

20:50Yeah, yeah, yeah.

20:54You're convincing though, because…

20:56That's a little bit of advice. Just because everything feels well, do not turn complacent.

21:08Do not turn complacent. Because we are all, without exception, tough nuts and chronic cases.

21:23Quick redemption is just too good to last.

21:30It just cannot come so quickly and so easily to anybody.

21:35When we were writing the JEE, which is an entrance exam to the institution I did my engineering from,

21:47if we could solve a problem too easily, that meant that we have done it wrongly.

21:55This one carries four marks or five marks.

22:04It's just inconceivable that I could crack it in three minutes flat.

22:10Not possible. If it's happening too easily for you, then it's not happening.

22:18One has to pass through a lot before even the slightest gain can be made.

22:26Yeah, and it feels like that you have to actually want to know even when you don't want to know.

22:41You have to have, if I may say, an obsession with detecting Maya.

22:51Because she's lurking, she's around. And if she's invisible, that's a bigger problem than having her in plain sight.

23:03If the enemy stands right in front of you, that's a problem, but a manageable one.

23:09At least you can situate the enemy and do something. What if the enemy is around but not visible?

23:16That's what. So, when you feel everything is all right and there is no enemy just because you cannot see her,

23:22know that you are in deeper trouble.

23:29And she will be around. Let nobody be smug about that.

23:36Even those who have dealt with her all their life have gone on to say,

23:45even in their last breath, that she is, she still is.

23:53And that's the thing about their proximity with the truth.

23:57They will be truthful even about Maya. They will not say that she is no more.

24:05Even if they have worshipped the truth all their life, in their last breath, they have said,

24:11Oh, she still is. She still is.

24:30Yes.

24:34I think I can work with this for now.

24:38Yes, we can. We will see you again.

24:42Thank you.

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