When a Guru eats meat || Acharya Prashant, on Raman Maharshi and Nisargadatta Maharaj (2020)

Acharya Prashant

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Transcript

00:00So a question that comes up for me is Ramana Maharishi says that one of the best ways to

00:14stabilize is to eat more sattvic food and give up meat and then I like his words and

00:23his teachings and then Nisargadaraj Maharaj who also his words penetrated me very deeply

00:29someone asked him the question why do you eat meat and he says my body has these habits

00:35so what of it and I find myself for me personally I just have no desire to eat

00:41meat anymore I'm just curious what Nisargadaraj Maharaj meant when he said

00:46my body has these habits so what. These are coming from two different points

00:54these two statements that you have just quoted. Ramana Maharishi is advising a seeker.

01:09Ramana Maharishi's counsel is for someone who is still on the way so he is offering you

01:19a method to be lighter on your way

01:30so that your journey is less loaded against yourself

01:38Nisargadaraj Maharaj is saying from the point of one who has already reached

01:53and he's saying I am at a point where there is complete separation between me and the body

02:02now that kind of a separation does not exist for the one who is still on the way

02:14so Nisargadaraj Maharaj says let the body do what it wants to do the body is anyway a conditioned

02:19mechanism and situated where I am if I interfere with the body even to bring

02:36some purity some correction some sattvikta to it that would again be a kind of entanglement

02:46a kind of identification so I don't want to touch the body not even to correct it

02:56not even to bring sattvikta to it I don't want to meddle with the body anymore

03:06but that statement remember is possible only to someone who has

03:16arrived at that complete distinction therefore the statement that Nisargadaraj Maharaj is making

03:25is wonderful but not useful

03:28it has very little utility because all utility has to be for someone who is still struggling

03:40still on the way is still trying to make his way through the various challenges that the body and

03:48mind offer liquor consumption or flesh consumption or other kinds of

04:05unwise gratifications of the body merely

04:11increase the obstacles that one faces

04:20so therefore those kind of things

04:26must not be practiced even if it is observed that a realized man

04:36is practicing them Nisargadaraj Maharaj by the way was also

04:43an avid smoker not only would he smoke

04:53himself he actually owned several little shops that would dispense

05:09local handmade cigarettes called bidis

05:17in the locality where he stayed he was famous as Bidiwale Baba

05:24but then does that mean that you have to smoke to be enlightened no those kind of things

05:34even if they are documented recorded observed in a realized man must be

05:44respectfully kept aside as the idiosyncrasies of the realized man Ramkrishna Paramhans

05:54would run after fish

06:02being a Bengali he found it very difficult to resist fish

06:15Jesus seemed to have his

06:17affinity towards meat and wine

06:29there is

06:34much else that can be learned from the wise ones not these aspects

06:40their inner force their urge for liberation

06:49surely was so strong that they could arrive at their destination in spite of these obstacles

06:59are you getting it and for sure all these are obstacles there is no doubt about it

07:03but they were extraordinary people in spite of liquor or flesh

07:18or cigarettes

07:23they could overcome those obstacles that only proves the strength of their love

07:33their resolve their determination

07:37the common man does not have that kind of resolve

07:43he is unable to overcome even the ordinary and commonplace obstacles that life places

07:53why add to your challenges why add to your troubles by

08:03you know indulging in avoidable stuff

08:10are you getting it there have been all kinds of stories associated with saints

08:19and many of those stories must be factually correct undoubtedly

08:24there have been

08:34saints who have been womanizers

08:40there have been sages who have been

08:47shown to have their own fascination for their several kinds of passions

08:54that's not something we are to learn from them or emulate from them

09:03if anything what these stories tell us is that there is nothing called absolute liberation

09:16are you getting it that the stranglehold of maya on the body

09:21and the mental tendencies always remains therefore even at the so-called end point

09:31what you can have is complete separation but not complete purification

09:39these two are very different things

09:43liberation therefore is the word not purification liberation implies separation

09:49you say the i-sense is now liberated from the body and mind you do not say that the body and

09:55mind are liberated do you say that do you say that so when you say liberation who is liberated from

10:04whom we must go into that and the very emphasis on the word liberation proves that ultimately

10:16you have no option but to distance yourself that alone is liberation

10:26but in the process of liberation

10:31purification is important and that is what is satvikta so ramana maharishi is talking of

10:37purification he is talking as a counselor to someone who is on his way and therefore his words

10:50are useful here nisargadatta maharaj is truthful here but not useful

11:01hmm the seeker must look for that which is useful even if it is not absolutely truthful

11:15getting it and that is also the reason why one must avoid

11:22you know peeping too much into personal lives of people like nisargadatta maharaj

11:31or for that matter any sage they can afford what they do

11:42we will probably not be able to afford what they do

11:46we will probably not be able to afford what they do

11:50and the knowledge the undue information that we will gain by looking into their personal life

11:59will only prove to be our own

12:05detriment

12:12far better to go by their advice

12:16acharya ji you um i have something more on this you mentioned useful even if not truthful

12:25and that a seeker should look for can you elaborate please you see the absolute truth is not useful

12:35in fact the more you want utility the more you will have to

12:43hmm dilute the truth absolute truth in a sense is absolutely useless

12:51because absolute truth is nothing silence avoid it doesn't speak to you

13:01are you getting it it has no value no purpose no utility whatsoever

13:13therefore when the

13:19liberated ones have spoken

13:23they have been forced to

13:28say things that have an iota of falseness in them

13:36so if you detect falseness in the words of a liberated one

13:46kindly do not take it to mean that the liberated one could not tell

13:55truth apart from the false it merely means that he wanted to be of help

14:07hmm the brahma sutras are

14:12quite truthful though not absolutely because the moment something is expressed in words it ceases

14:19to have any absolute truthfulness to it but still brahma sutras they come as close to truth

14:34as words can possibly come but then

14:41very few people find them of any use very very few people

14:50of far greater use are let's say the parables of ram krishna paramhans

14:58hmm simple stories for the common people

15:14and far greater number of people have benefited from these stories

15:20then have benefited from the brahma sutras

15:22hmm are you getting it

15:38but there is a there is an amusing ironical part to it

15:43if the one who knows want to be of use to you

15:53he will have to

15:57mix it up a little

16:02dilute his teaching a little in fact to teach is to dilute

16:09there can be no teaching without dilution

16:16but the moment there is dilution

16:21the teacher becomes vulnerable

16:30against charges of falseness

16:35you can now indict him you can say here this is what you have said this is what you have done

16:45and i can conclusively prove that a lot of it is false

16:51yes of course a lot of that is false for your sake had it not been false

16:58would you have been able to make any sense out of it

17:05hmm

17:20all these

17:23prayers you hear these these mantras being recited uh somewhere in the city

17:28they take you towards the truth but they are not the truth get the distinction straight

17:39they are very useful assistants but they are not the real thing itself

17:49you could say they are the secretaries that would take you to the

17:53boss's cabin but they are not the boss

17:59and do not confuse the secretary for the boss

18:08so then the concept fake guru is invalid the concept of fake guru there is nothing like

18:15fake guru by the same logic a fake guru then is someone who can't even be of help

18:26there are three categories there is the realized one who will not budge from his absolute heights

18:35hmm he is sitting right atop mount everest the highest peak possible to consciousness

18:48right and he won't move an inch and since he won't move an inch you have no access to him

18:59he is absolute and therefore absolutely unreachable

19:03there up there so he is great you can worship him but you cannot benefit from him

19:13keep worshipping him and he does not bother even for your

19:18worship he does not care for anything because he is beyond all care now there is that one

19:25then there is the one

19:26who has been to the mountaintop and for some unknown reason

19:39decided not to stay there

19:43having known what that absolute height is like he has still descended

19:50to the ground to the valleys to the cities and villages

20:03and he brings to you something

20:07of that absolute height and narrates that to you in your language and obviously your language is

20:15the language of the false therefore when the truth is expressed in your language for your

20:22sake for your benefit it does not retain its absolute purity anymore it cannot but it becomes

20:31but it becomes to you it becomes useful it becomes useful to you

20:38so this fellow takes the blame upon himself there is no doubt that first of all he has

20:54disrespected

20:58the invitation of the absolute by being there and yet not staying there lodging there

21:08and secondly he is bringing to you something

21:14that does not quite belong to your world that cannot quite be expressed in your language

21:28but is being somehow

21:35perforce

21:39made to be expressed in your language this is the second category that we have talked of

21:49then you used the term fake guru this is the fellow who has never been to the mountaintop

21:58he belongs to the

22:01mountains and the

22:06lanes and the crossings

22:13maybe he has seen some

22:18photo or two or has heard some description from someone who has gone up some distance

22:27and is using all that to

22:38further his own ego and little self-interests this third chap is the fake one

22:47the third chap is necessarily harmful the first fellow is not useful

22:55it's the second one who proves useful

23:04but is also the one who has been

23:08blamed insulted and derided the most in the history

23:14often he earns flack from both sides

23:26the ones who care only for the absolute

23:33they blame him for mingling too much with the masses

23:40and the masses after they have learned a bit from him

23:48start using the teaching given by him against him and then they tell him you know

23:58what you are doing goes against your own teaching so he receives it from both sides

24:09but this second fellow is the one who proves useful

24:22incidentally the really fake guru is quite unlikely to be detected as a fake guru

24:31the title of fake guru is usually reserved for the

24:39fellow of the second type

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Transcript

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