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What does man really want? Why does he not get it? || Acharya Prashant, on Guru Kabir (2019)
Acharya Prashant
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10/15/2024
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Video Information: Shabdyog session, 16.01.2019, Advait Bodhsthal, Greater Noida, India
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .
Category
📚
Learning
Transcript
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00:00
Lust and ire, two enemies dire, Plunge one in the sea of vice,
00:18
And when all the five in jealousy join, You lose all your zeal for him,
00:24
Says Kabir, O gentle folk, do ponder, Can leaf once detached, re-join the tree?
00:38
Pranam Acharya ji, kindly help me understand these lines.
00:43
Kabir seems to be giving the reasons for losing the zeal for one's beloved.
00:52
Does this mean everyone has the yearning already?
00:55
Obviously, your movements throughout the day, your gossip, your work, your pastimes, your
01:08
pleasures, your sadnesses, your goals, your targets, it doesn't matter what you are thinking
01:19
of, it doesn't matter what you are wanting, you are wanting nothing but fulfillment, aren't
01:30
you?
01:31
God is the name for the final fulfillment.
01:35
What do you want when you wear a new dress?
01:39
What do you want when you watch a movie?
01:42
What do you want when you try a new dish?
01:46
That's God's name, fulfillment, nobody has ever wanted anything but that, it's just that
02:06
we are creatures of flesh and blood.
02:14
So even as we want that, we want that in flesh and blood, in material, because we know of
02:27
nothing else, given our physical condition, given our mental limitations, we cannot want
02:40
God the absolute, we cannot want God the infinite, God the formless.
02:50
So we keep wanting a thousand miscellaneous things in a thousand forms, but actually we
02:56
are wanting just one, you know, I don't know whether you have seen,
03:10
newborns, kids, the very small ones, you know, their language is very limited, all they know
03:28
is crying, so that's our situation, we may want anything, but our expression is very
03:55
very limited, the little kid wants to be comforted, he will cry, the little kid wants
04:05
his diaper to be changed, he will cry, he wants milk, he will cry, the temperature is
04:10
too high, he will cry, the humidity is too high, he will cry, the expression is very
04:24
very limited, such are we.
04:31
Even when we want God, we shop, the little kid wants milk, it cries, the little kid wants
04:44
the mother to be beside him, he cries, the kid wants the fan to be turned on, he cries,
05:00
same is with us, our expression is limited to worldly exchanges, so we keep exchanging
05:12
stuff in the world, assuming that one of those exchanges would give us what we are
05:27
really looking for, unfortunately that does not happen.
05:35
Kabir Sahab has listed the reasons, lust and ire, two enemies tire, basically desire,
06:01
be it lust, be it ire, both are related to desire, you want something and you desire
06:17
something else, how will you ever get what you really want, that's the thing with desire,
06:27
it never fetches you what you really want, alright I will make it more palatable, you
06:37
need something and you desire something else, how will desire ever fetch you what you really
06:44
need, desire is such a bad servant, it is always present at your disposal, but it doesn't
07:05
give you what you need, it gives you what it can give, it's like having a servant who
07:24
knows only the shopping mall, you ask the servant to get you some love and quickly it
07:54
gets on with the project and fetches you some tomato ketchup, you ask him to fetch some
08:08
contentment and the servant says, yes sir, thy bidding be done and in no time the servant
08:30
comes to you with a pair of shoes, the servant of yours knows only shops and material, he
08:50
appears very obedient, he never refuses your commands, but have you ever noticed that anything
08:59
that he brings to you is never really of any use, what do you want to do with such a servant,
09:07
one likes to keep such a servant, having such a servant is a great ego boost, you can boast off,
09:15
you can say, you know I have a servant who never says no, you know I have a servant who
09:22
always fetches me goodies, you know I have a servant who has at his disposal all the material
09:31
of the world, that might be the case, but is your servant really giving you that one thing that you
09:42
need, that's the question to be asked. Lust and ire, two enemies dire, plunge one in the sea of
09:58
vice and when all the five and jealousy join then you lose all your zeal for him, all the five relate
10:10
to the world, lust, ire, desire, the five, all point to the expanse of the sensual universe, this is where you
10:33
are seeking solace, this is where you are not getting it, this is where you are insistent you
10:42
would get it, this is where you are going wrong, and do not forget that Kabir Sahib has mentioned
10:55
jealousy separately, jealousy must be something so important that it deserves a separate mention,
11:09
Wow, must be holding a prime position in the list of the reasons that take you away from truth,
11:23
jealousy, yes, you know what jealousy does, it fills your mind up with someone you despise,
11:43
how good is that, how pleasant is that, the mind that should have been the abode of truth, the house
12:01
of peace, is now being occupied by someone you hate, someone you disgust, that's jealousy.
12:19
In jealousy you make the despised one your God, who is God, the one who deserves to have the prime
12:38
position in your mind, and what is the jealous mind always thinking of, the object of his jealousy,
12:46
look at the honor you have given to the one you are jealous of, you think you are bringing him
13:01
down, no, you have turned him into your God, you have made him so important that you are
13:12
constantly letting him occupy the topmost position, the center most position in your consciousness.
13:18
So, Kabir Sahib says when the five and the jealousy join, you lose all your zeal for him,
13:26
he is gone, he is gone, and do not forget that even when you are being jealous,
13:37
you are really, really looking for God, just as we said that when you are desirous,
13:52
then what you really want is God, similarly when you are jealous of someone, you want to be bigger,
14:06
you want to be better than him, don't you, that is because you actually won't be contended till
14:20
you are so big, so good, so great that you are beyond comparison, you compare because your need,
14:29
your deep need is to go beyond all comparisons, but it is such a foolish way to get what you want,
14:43
you want to go beyond comparison and to achieve that end, you are indulging in comparison,
14:49
would this method give you what you want, that's the thing with the mind, it's not as if it does
15:01
not want the right thing, it does, but it wants the right thing through self-appointed ways,
15:06
it insists that it is clever enough to devise ways to reach the truth and that's where it fails,
15:14
it's not as if it doesn't want to reach the truth, it does, but it has great confidence
15:21
in its own ability, it says I am the one who will decide how to get there, this is where calamity
15:33
strikes, it is very paradoxical, on the other, on the one hand you say that the one I want to
15:50
reach is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving, extremely compassionate, if he is really how you
16:08
describe him, then is he not fit enough to be left with all the responsibilities pertaining to your
16:19
welfare, if he is really all-potent, if he is really unconditionally loving, then why don't
16:33
you leave the matter of your welfare to him, which means why don't you leave the matter of finding
16:43
right way to reach him to him, let him decide how you would reach him, this is such a central and
16:52
a common mistake, it is like trying to reach light using your darkness, how do you reach a
17:13
lighthouse, using your darkness or using the light of the lighthouse, please, but you say
17:27
that you are in love with light and in the same breath you say that you will reach light using
17:37
your darkness, your darkness implies your methods, your cleverness, your calculations,
17:43
if you really want to reach the lighthouse, let the lighthouse dictate your path, no,
17:52
isn't that commonsensical, but you keep looking at the lighthouse and keep consulting and referring
18:06
to your own cleverness to devise a way to suggest a path, it is extremely foolish, he knows the way
18:31
to reach him and only he can tell, you reach an unknown city, your beloved resides there,
18:41
how do you reach his house, you ask him the way to his house, don't you, because it is his city,
19:00
only he knows how to reach his house, but on one hand you say that you love him, on the other hand
19:10
you distrust him so much that you do not want to follow the map that he provides you, it is so
19:16
paradoxical, so paradoxical, it's like this, you love him and you have just deboarded from the
19:31
train, it's 2 a.m., call it 2 in the night or 2 in the morning, whatever, thick fog, a January night,
19:46
and all the way you have been singing that your lover is all yours, truly yours, he is so very
20:04
caring, sensitive, compassionate, he has been calling you since midnight to ask you when
20:27
the train would be arriving and you refuse to tell him, you say no, I'll figure out.
20:43
Now you have deboarded, the train is gone and you are on the platform, his house is
20:54
at a fair distance and he again calls you up and says, I'll come to pick you up, you
21:00
say no, no, no, I'll manage, I'll figure things out, he says fine, if you want to do that,
21:11
but let me at least tell you the way, I'll tell you where to get the cab from, I'll tell
21:19
you the route and you say no, who do you think I am, a fool, I'll determine the path.
21:35
Now are you in love with him or are you suspicious of him? If we go by your conduct,
21:45
it appears that you are really suspicious that he wants to misguide you and the fact
21:54
is you cannot reach him, it's his city, it's a special city, without his support how will
22:03
you reach him, but you are a very self-confident person, aren't you?
22:16
You like to boast that you are self-made, what's more you do not want to give the beloved
22:28
a chance to ever tell you that he helped you because that hurts your ego, why does
22:42
that hurt your ego? Even in that, is there an insight? You must pay attention.
22:53
You have not come to the beloved taking him as your Lord, you come to the beloved taking
23:01
him as your equal, now if you accept his help then it would be proven that he is not your
23:08
equal but your Lord, so you do not want to take his help, you are genuinely afraid that
23:15
if you take his help then the secret would be out, the ego wants to get the truth but
23:22
it does not want to merge into the truth, it does not want to merge and dissolve and
23:29
disappear into the truth, it wants to get the truth, you know the difference between
23:35
getting and dissolving? The husband gets the wife, the wife gets the husband, they get
23:45
each other because even after they have had each other they still retain their personal
23:52
identities, they don't disappear, whereas the seeker must disappear into the sort, the
24:01
seeker doesn't want to disappear into the sort, the seeker wants to retain himself,
24:09
therefore the seeker looks at the sort as some kind of peer, as some kind of equal and
24:17
if your beloved is equal to you, why must you accept his guidance, so you continuously
24:24
defy him, you continue to defy him even if you are lost in his city and he keeps calling
24:32
you, allow me to guide you, allow me to guide you and you will say no, are you any superior
24:40
to me that I should accept your guidance, you are not superior to me, we are both one,
24:49
now why must you insist that you and he are one, one not in the sense of oneness, one
24:56
in the sense of being equal, why must you insist that because you are again afraid and
25:09
insecure, what is the insecurity, the insecurity is if I take him as my Lord rather than my
25:17
equal, then I would be obliged to follow his instructions because the devotee must follow
25:28
the Lord and you are suspicious that if you take him as the Lord, then one day he may
25:36
instruct you to leave him and you do not want to let that situation come, why?
25:43
Because you love him a lot, so because you love him a lot, you ensure that you do not
25:49
love him, that's the cycle, stupid cycle, but still a very poignant story because this
25:59
cycle is the cycle of all human suffering, on one hand you do not trust anybody as much
26:12
as you trust him, on the other hand you are deeply suspicious of him and whatever opinions
26:20
you have with respect to him have very little to do with him, those are all products of
26:26
your own insecurities.
26:33
You want me to take the story forward, now you are lost in a city and who do you blame?
26:43
Says Kabir, O gentle folk, do ponder, can leaf once detached rejoin the tree, Shweta
26:57
is asking do the tree and leaf represent the individual and the source, no, no, no, here
27:06
Kabir is talking of the limited lifetime that the person has, once you are gone, you are
27:17
gone, life won't return, so make best use of your time.
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