Bondage, freedom and fear of death || Acharya Prashant, on Yogavasishtha (2016)

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, 21.01.2016, Sivanand Ashram, Noida, India   Context:  ~What is bondage? `What is freedom? ~What is fear?  Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .

Transcript

00:00The mind is the field of the I, the ego.

00:15What is the mind?

00:16All this that you see spread around and within yourself, right?

00:21At the center of it lies the feeling of I.

00:25If the aham, the ahanta is well placed, then the mind is beautiful.

00:36Kindly see what is your self-definition.

00:41I decides the mind.

00:44You know, you say, I'm looking at this wall and this and this and this, and all this is

00:48mind.

00:50But depending on who you are, what you're looking at totally changes.

00:58This wall could inspire surrender in you, or it could provoke jealousy in you, depending

01:06on who you take yourself to be.

01:11So pay attention to what you have been thinking of yourself, pay attention to what your acts

01:19reveal you to be.

01:21If all the time you are only thinking of your work and job, then for sure you have taken

01:34yourself to be an employee, a worker.

01:43So pay attention, if 18 hours of the day I'm totally identified with promoting the interests

01:50of the shareholders, then Koham has been answered for me and totally falsely answered for me.

01:59I'm saying I am an employee.

02:02If all the time my wife is dominating my mind, I'm thinking of her, I'm thinking of my relationship

02:09and I'm afraid and I'm somehow trying to salvage things.

02:14It's very clear that Koham has again been answered for me.

02:18I need not say aham brahmasmi, that statement is no more possible.

02:23I have already said aham.

02:35So just pay attention to what this I is.

02:38If the I is rightly understood, if the I is immersed in Brahman, in nothingness, then

02:53the mind will be a beautiful expanse.

02:57That beautiful expanse of the mind is also called paradise.

03:01Paradise is nothing but a vast field having a surrendered I at the center, the world itself.

03:15The world in general, scared of death, it's like we see people literally shivering, but why?

03:31Because we cannot die.

03:32We are so afraid of the death because we cannot die.

03:37Nobody likes death because you are immortal.

03:42How can you like something which is not your nature?

03:47Not only do you not like death, you also do not like bondage.

03:53You also do not like ignorance.

03:55You also do not like falseness.

03:58How do you feel when somebody lies to you?

04:00How do you feel?

04:02You do not like lies because truth is your nature.

04:07Similarly, you do not like death because immortality is your nature.

04:15Immortality is your nature, but the world is telling you, you were born and you will die.

04:21So you don't like this.

04:23You don't like this.

04:26This dislike is expressed as the search for security and as fear.

04:32Nothing else.

04:49It is an expression of facts of life, facts of life.

04:53I am bound.

04:54I want to go, but I cannot get up and go.

04:56So I'm bound.

04:57I'm bound.

04:58It is an expression of facts.

04:59I must become free.

05:01Of that you don't know anything.

05:03It is not a fact at all.

05:05Please pay attention.

05:06Sage is saying that the one eligible to read the scriptures is the one who says I am bound.

05:13I must become free.

05:14Pay attention to two parts of this statement.

05:18I am bound comes from the facts.

05:22Facts, the very facts.

05:24I cannot lift a stone weighing 200 kilograms.

05:28I am limited.

05:29I am bound.

05:30I cannot be here and there simultaneously.

05:33I am bound.

05:36I want to help you and convince you.

05:39I am failing.

05:40I am bound.

05:43Are you getting it?

05:44These are the facts of life.

05:45The second part, I must be free.

05:49This is not a fact.

05:50No fact will ever inspire you to be free.

05:57This is the mystic urge of the heart.

06:01You will never know from where it comes, but it keeps coming.

06:05I want to be free.

06:06I want to be free.

06:07I want to be free.

06:08This is what makes man sing.

06:10This is the passion of the artists, the poets.

06:13I want to be free.

06:15Give me freedom or give me death.

06:17Yeah, this is not a fact.

06:19This is not logical.

06:20This is not rational.

06:21This is coming from the heart.

06:30Sir, if truth is beyond this unlimited space and time, mind cannot understand it.

06:39So, what are we trying to understand actually?

06:41I mean, what is everybody pursuing?

06:44What are we trying to understand?

06:47We are trying to get rid of our condition.

06:50That's all that we can say.

06:52We are in a particular condition or we take ourselves to be in a particular condition

06:57and we don't like it.

06:58That's the maximum we can say.

07:00So, the mind does not like itself.

07:05What are you trying to get rid of?

07:07Yourself.

07:08Nothing else.

07:11In this condition, if you say that there is something definite, positive, affirmative

07:15that you are trying to achieve, then it would just be a blabber.

07:20Sir, then this who am I query is also at a mental level?

07:26Yes, of course, at a mental level.

07:28The ego asks this to itself.

07:31What do you think?

07:33You can ever get a truthful answer to who am I?

07:36No.

07:37Who am I consists of seeing the facts of your life.

07:41Who am I does not mean that you will come up with a ready-made answer.

07:46I am Atma Brahma.

07:50Aham Brahmasmi.

07:51No.

07:52Who am I means seeing that right now you are just a greedy man.

07:57So, the answer is I am greed.

08:00Who am I?

08:02Lust.

08:03Who am I?

08:04Anger.

08:05Who am I?

08:06Insecurity.

08:07Who am I?

08:08Ignorance.

08:09And in that seeing both lust, ignorance, insecurity and the I, the question, the questioner,

08:18all dissolve.

08:20That is truth.

08:21This dissolution is truth.

08:32So, the mind is the problem and the mind is the tool.

08:36Yes.

08:37So, both the tool and the problem with respect to the mind itself.

08:42Yes.

08:43So, when it is said that man samajam loki.

08:47Yes, yes, yes.

08:48What do you mean by that?

08:50Simply, look at yourself.

08:53Just as you are fond of looking at everything.

08:57Look at yourself and looking at yourself by grace happens to be a rational activity as

09:04well.

09:05Why?

09:06Because I am the one I claim is suffering.

09:11If you have a wound here, won't you look at it?

09:15If you have a wound here, won't you look at it?

09:18So, look at the wound.

09:20Look at the wound.

09:22The world may have given you a wound, right?

09:25A stray stone came from somewhere and hit you here.

09:29And now this is bleeding.

09:31Now, do you look at the stone?

09:33Do you look at the stone or do you look at the wound?

09:36Wound.

09:37That's who am I?

09:38The world may have given you all this suffering, but right now I need to look at the sufferer.

09:43The world is the stone that is giving me all the suffering, but right now I need to look

09:48at the sufferer.

09:49So, who am I happens to be a mystical as well as a rational question.

09:54But I am the sufferer.

09:59I am the sufferer.

10:02I am the sufferer.

10:03When you are saying that look at the wound.

10:06Yes.

10:07Everywhere.

10:08Everywhere.

10:09Everywhere.

10:10So, look anywhere.

10:11So, look anywhere.

10:12You are suffering from head to toe, so look anywhere.

10:14That makes things easy for you, right?

10:16Look anywhere.

10:19Look at any aspect of your life.

10:22Look at any experience that you have.

10:25Every single experience is teemed in ignorance.

10:28So, you need not be choosy or selective.

10:31You can look at anything and whatever you will look at, you will only see your foolishness

10:37without exception.

10:39That makes it easy, right?

10:42Easy for the looker.

10:44Easy for the one who is suffering but does not want to suffer.

10:48Easy for the one who is saying I want to know what is this?

10:51Why is this happening?

11:01If it is your condition, then you wouldn't have asked this question.

11:14So, it cannot be your condition.

11:16And if it is not your condition, why are you bothering?

11:20Why are you asking imaginary questions?

11:23If the mind becomes such a sadist that it loses all sensitivity, then what should the

11:28mind do?

11:29Are you that one?

11:30If you are that one, then how can you ask this question?

11:35This question can be asked only by the one who is suffering.

11:40Not by someone who is negating the fact of his suffering.

11:46No, the person is suffering.

11:49Who is that person?

11:50Let's say I am that person.

11:51Why should we say let's say?

11:53Are you that person?

11:54You couldn't be asking that question then.

11:56Don't you see that?

11:58No, because I recognize that I am suffering but I don't take actions to check it.

12:04Then there is a deep underlying belief that actions are not possible or that no action

12:13will suffice.

12:15If I am suffering and I see that I am suffering and I am not happy with the suffering, yet

12:20I don't act to give some sakkar to me.

12:24It only means that I am saying that, well, you know, no hope, no hope son.

12:37Go close to it.

12:39Had there been no hope, then you would have become perfectly aligned with whatever is

12:46happening.

12:47If you are still uneasy with it, it means that there is hope.

12:51See, this is what happens.

12:52Now you are telling me something, that go close, but nothing really works.

12:58You are saying that there is hope, but it does not touch me.

13:03Go close to your situation.

13:05You are saying nothing really works, yet there is something which is saying that something

13:11will work.

13:13Had there been nothing within you which was promising you liberation, you would not even

13:19be asking the question, you would not even be present here.

13:22That is hope, but hope is a bad virtue.

13:26No, it is not a hope about the future.

13:29It is a hope into the unknown, the future.

13:32Whenever you think of the future, you have an image in mind, you want to predict it.

13:37Here you don't know anything, right?

13:40Here you have no idea, no concept of what is liberation and who can liberate you, yet

13:50you have hope.

13:51So, this is not hope of the ordinary kind.

13:56This is not a hope of an object.

14:02This hope itself is the proof and the instrument of liberation, both together.

14:32.

Category

Transcript

Recommended