Stop searching for Truth, look for the false || Acharya Prashant, on Vivekachudamani (2018)

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?...   Read 3 handpicked wisdom articles, just for you: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/articl...  ➖➖➖➖➖➖  Video Information:  Shabdyog Session, 27.06.2018, Advait Bodhsthal, Noida, India   Context:   ~ Where to search for the Truth? ~ How to live as a witness? ~ How to look for the false? ~ The truth is not sought, the lies are removed. ~ Who are you? and why you are not different from prakrati?  If the shadow of a person is touched by heat or cold, good or evil, it does not in the least affect the person who is other than the shadow. ~Vivekachudamani (Verse-505) .  Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~

Transcript

00:00Jyoti is there from USA and she is saying Dear Acharyaji Pranam, verse 505 of Vivek

00:19Chudamani says, if the shadow of a man is touched by heat or cold, good or evil, it

00:27does not in the least affect the man who is other than his shadow. Dear Acharyaji, I understand

00:36very well when I read the scriptures and while listening to you, I am not a shadow. I miss

00:43and forget this understanding in my daily living. What should I do Acharyaji? Please

00:49help me understand. Thank you very much Jyoti. Jyoti, why do you act contrary to your own

01:00understanding? You are saying that Adi Shankaracharya has told you that you are just a

01:07shadow and now you are saying that you miss and forget the understanding. Does a shadow ever miss

01:19anything or forget anything? What is the job of the shadow? The job of the shadow is to shadow.

01:28The shadow is not supposed to do anything. The shadow is just supposed to shadow and what does

01:37the word shadow mean? Shadow means follow. When you say you are shadowing somebody, that means

01:43you are following him. You are just supposed to follow and here you are you are asking what

01:50should I do? Has a shadow ever asked this question? How do you feel if one day your

01:58shadow springs up from the ground and asks you what should I do? I feel the same way when you

02:07ask me this question. I'm surprised. How is the shadow attributing doership to itself? Why is the

02:20shadow determined to take on the role of an active agency? Shadows don't talk. Shadows don't do.

02:39And remember Jyoti, shadows don't even understand. It is not your job to understand. Then how can

02:56it be your job to remember the understanding and here you are. You are saying I miss and

03:03forget this understanding in my daily living. If you feel that you are the one who misses,

03:07if you are feeling that you are the one who understands, then you are not taking yourself

03:15as a shadow. Then you are taking yourself as the active doer and the active doer is just one. You

03:23are trying to act like that one. That is not good. Not good at all. The job of man is to just shadow.

03:35It is not given to man to do, decide or understand. Real doing happens in your

03:49absence. Real understanding happens in your absence. You're not supposed to remember anything.

04:01I repeat you are not even supposed to understand anything.

04:06Relieve yourself of all burdens. You're not obliged to act or even know. Such is your freedom.

04:23Such is the freedom of the shadow. The shadow is free of all responsibilities,

04:32all burdens. The shadow has to follow just one dharma and the dharma of the shadow is to shadow.

04:41That is also what is called as discipleship. Just follow the discipline of being a student.

04:56Just stay behind. Just follow. Do you see that following and shadowing are just the same thing?

05:07What does the shadow do? It always follows you. And the shadow has no will of its own,

05:18no direction of its own, no decision of its own. If you turn left, will the shadow say,

05:25no, I want to turn right? Will the shadow say? You turn left, the shadow turns left.

05:32Jyoti is also called as surrender. You turn right, the shadow turns right.

05:39You are now letting things happen. You're not causing them to happen. You are letting them

05:57happen. Are you getting it? Getting it? So, when the active internal agency called

06:26as the ego is prepared to take itself as just the shadow, then the one that you are is not

06:36the shadow. Please understand this. There is the Atma and then there is you.

06:50Jyoti. Atma has no name. Ego has a name and we will call the ego as Jyoti. So,

07:01there is Atma and there is Jyoti. Jyoti tries hard to act like Atma. Jyoti tries hard to take

07:17the place of and this she doesn't want to do by merging into the Atma. Jyoti wants to remain Jyoti

07:28and yet be one with the Atma, even supplant the Atma. Abhi Shankaracharya is telling Jyoti,

07:40let Jyoti be the shadow. When Jyoti is the shadow and when Jyoti realizes that she is only and she

07:52must only remain as the shadow, then Jyoti does not try to act as the doer. Then the real one,

08:18who is so purely Jyoti that he can't even be called as Jyoti, acts and nobody else acts.

08:30Ordinarily, in the usual run of the day, Jyoti acts, Jyoti decides, Jyoti understands,

08:41remembers and all of that is no good. Abhi Shankaracharya is requesting Jyoti,

08:51reminding Jyoti to give up that which she is not entitled to have or handle.

09:00You will not understand by trying to understand and you will never be able to remember any

09:17understanding. I suppose I have been repeating that since a very long time and still you say

09:24that you do not want to forget the understanding. You still feel that you are the one who understands.

09:33The one who understands is the real one. The shadow neither understands nor is supposed to

09:43understand. So, Jyoti, if you do not understand, that is fine. Not only do you not understand,

09:54you also cannot understand. There is a great, great pleasure in lying flat on the ground like

10:15the shadow. That pleasure is called joy. Joy is the pleasure of lying flat on the ground,

10:25not having your head up. Have you seen a shadow on the ground? When a man ordinarily stands,

10:37then his head is higher than his feet. But look at a shadow, the head and the feet are both at

10:43the same level. That's joy and that can come only in total surrender. No burden now. The

10:58head and the feet are one and I don't mind where the master goes. I just shadow. And where are the

11:13shadow and the master connected? At the feet, not at the head. That's the task of Jyoti,

11:32to be connected to Atma, the master, at the master's feet. No other relationship is possible.

11:46Have you ever found a shadow hugging its master? No, that can't happen. Have you ever found a

12:00shadow disobeying its master? No. Does that happen? Have you ever found a shadow having

12:14an individual or personal will of its own? Does that happen? Have you ever found a shadow

12:28threatening to leave the master? That too doesn't happen. The shadow never goes away. Never. That is

12:40as long as there is light, sunlight. But in total darkness, yes, the shadow can go away, disappear.

12:53As long as there is light, as long as there is the light of truth, the shadow refuses to leave

13:07the master. The truthful ego refuses to leave the Atma. Nor would it leave, nor would it try

13:29to climb up the master. It stays connected. It stays there. And it stays at the feet. I will

13:57not go away, nor would I forget my real position and try to act too high. That's the dharma of the

14:16shadow. Man must remember that his job is to just shadow. And then he would be

14:46joyfully guided by the real one. You must be wondering because Adi Shankaracharya

15:11seems to be telling you that you are not the shadow. He is telling you that all those things

15:25that are happening to you are happening actually only to your shadow. So don't mind them. You are

15:35untouched by all happenings. That's what Adi Shankaracharya seems to be telling you. And here

15:46am I telling you that you are purely the shadow. Don't take these two approaches as contradictory.

16:04Adi Shankar is telling you that you are the pure Atma. I am telling you that you are just the ego.

16:20And if you can say that you are just the ego, then in the intensity and depth and truth of

16:32that declaration lies the Atma. You can never directly say or claim that you are the Atma.

16:40Atma is light. You can perceive it only in a reflected way. So when you truthfully declare

17:04that you are just the shadow, the ego, in that declaration lies the truth. On the contrary,

17:16if you try to declare that you are the Atma, then in that declaration lies the ego. It's

17:24strange. When you say that you are the ego, then in your saying lies the truth. But when

17:38you swell up and say that you are the Atma, the truth, then it is nothing but the ego talking.

17:46Unfortunately, spirituality for long has been a victim of ego masquerading as Atma. Therefore,

17:58I greatly desist from telling you that you are Brahm or Atma or truth. I rather want you to

18:09acknowledge that you are continuously functioning as the ego. And I see nothing wrong with the ego.

18:20It's just that the ego should be a servant ego. The ego should be a shadow ego. The ego should

18:29be a well-directed ego. Because the ego alone is the doer. The material doer is the ego. The

18:43servant doer is the ego. The Atma is the master. The master orders the servant to do stuff. In this

18:55world, anything and everything that is done is done only by the ego. The greatest of works have

19:05been done by the ego and the most debauched of crimes have been committed by the ego. High or

19:18low, good or bad, left or right, it is the ego in action everywhere. Without ego, there is no action.

19:31It's just that the ego should not feel like an actor. The ego, as I said, must be a servant ego.

19:42The ego must say, though I seem to be doing, the real doer is my master. That should be the ego's

19:55humility. Remember, though I seem to be doing, the real doer is my master. And that would not be wrong.

20:09If a shadow seems to be running, who is actually running? The master is running or is the shadow

20:16running? If a shadow appears to be climbing steps or stairs, who is actually climbing? The master

20:27is climbing. So you are the ego. And please remain as the ego, but remain as a servant ego,

20:41as a surrendered ego. As long as there is the body, there would remain ego. Because till there

20:55is the body, you will differentiate between your hand and the table. The moment there is this

21:02differentiation, there is the ego. The moment there is a differentiation between oneself and

21:10the world, there is ego. Ego means I. And I exists only in context of the world. The moment you say

21:18this is me and this is the cup, it's the ego talking. So you can never say I am the pure

21:24Atma. You will have to honestly accept that you are the ego. Man does not have a choice in choosing

21:36between ego and Atma. Man is the ego. If he says I am the Atma, then he is lying. But man does have

21:45a choice in choosing between a stubborn ego and a servant ego. That's where your real choice lies.

21:54Are you getting it? The true man is not the one who keeps saying I am Atman. The true man is the

22:07one who keeps saying I am the servant ego. If someone says I am the Atman, then he is more

22:19false than false. Please be very cautious of people who keep uttering that they are Brahm or

22:26Atman or truth or whatever. You are born as the ego. You may even say you are condemned to live

22:38as ego. What is the best that then you can be? A servant ego. Don't try to act as the truth. That

22:49is beyond you. Just be contended to act as the servant ego, the shadow ego. And when you are

22:58acting as the shadow ego, then you are in the loving and benevolent and compassionate custody

23:05of the master, the Atma. The moment you have accepted that you are a servant, you have allowed

23:15the master to lord over you. The moment you have accepted that you are just a servant,

23:23you have gained the company of the master. That's how one reaches the Atma. If you are

23:33searching for the truth, then rather search for the false. If you can successfully see the false,

23:44then in the seeing lies the truth. But in the name of spirituality, man since ages has been

23:54searching for the truth and man can never find the truth. It is beyond man's capacity to find

24:02the truth. What should man rather hunt for? The false. Now it is a strange thing. The lives of

24:10people are full of falsehood and they cannot see even that which is immediate and false. But what

24:18do they claim? We are searching for the truth and we are going to India, to the hills, to Himalayas,

24:28to Rishikesh, to the great places, north, south, everywhere, looking for the truth.

24:40You can't even see the false. How will you find the truth? First of all, please see the false as

24:52false. The day you say I am false, I am repeating this, the day you say I am false, that declaration

25:07is powered by the truth and now the truth is yours. Rather now you belong to the truth. Now

25:18you have surrendered yourself to the truth. So Jyoti, please, please just remain as the shadow

25:29and remember that the shadow has total freedom because it is always prostrating at the feet of

25:41the master. That's what we need, an ego prostrating always at the feet of Atma, the truth.

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