No spirituality is needed || Acharya Prashant, on Vedanta (2021)

Acharya Prashant

Video Information: 22.11.21, Shastra Kaumudi, Rishikesh, Uttar Pradesh  Context: ~ How to break our comfort zone? ~ What gives power to change life? ~ What is love? ~ Who dare to take risk in life?  Music Credits: Milind Date ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Transcript

00:00Jaya ji, the next question comes from a software programmer.

00:07He has also been listening to you for a very long time now.

00:11He says that, is penance a mandatory step in spiritual process?

00:18If the mind is such that there is no attachment or suffering involved in relating with objects,

00:25then should it still practice austerity or abstinence?

00:31Austerity is needed because you are suffering in company of your objects.

00:46If you are not suffering at all, then let alone austerity, even spirituality is not

00:54needed.

00:56If you are not suffering at all, even Vedanta is not needed.

01:00Vedanta begins with suffering.

01:06If there is no suffering, congratulations, you do not need Vedanta.

01:13And if you are indeed suffering, then austerity is needed because suffering is nothing but

01:19the company and attachment involving wrong objects.

01:36Austerity always involves going against oneself.

01:47It is never pleasant because objects are not merely present in your life.

01:55Objects become a part of our being.

01:59So when you want to drop the objects, it's not merely like, it's like tearing away a

02:13part of your flesh, not just opening a fist.

02:25Dropping appears such a convenient word.

02:28Drop it.

02:29It's not like dropping it.

02:33It's about tearing it away.

02:38An object is really not present in your life if it has not become a part of your personality.

02:46When an object is present in our life, kindly see that it gains a certain permanence.

02:59When an object enters our life, it's almost like a seed dropping on earth.

03:13We have just established company.

03:18There is still no relationship there.

03:23The seed is sitting on the surface of earth.

03:29Therefore, if the two are to be pulled apart, there would be no suffering because till this

03:39point there is no attachment.

03:44What happens after two months?

03:50The roots have gone deep into the soil.

03:57Now there is attachment.

04:03Now the plant and the soil are one.

04:09Now the plant is a part of soil.

04:12Now the soil is a part of plant.

04:20So the separation would always involve pain.

04:29This is austerity.

04:36To not to be in company of things that would become a part of you.

04:47If you are to remain the pure self, nothing should become a part of you.

04:56Nothing at all.

05:01Anything becoming a part of you is something alien becoming a part of you.

05:16It's like the stone in your kidney becoming a part of you.

05:26Don't you carry the stone in your kidney?

05:31Don't you?

05:36You stand on the weighing scale and it says let's say 68 kg and you say my weight is 68

05:49kg.

05:50What does that 68 kg include?

05:53The weight of the stone.

05:54The stone has now become a part of you but it's an alien part of you.

06:01Something foreign.

06:06Something that's non-self has become self.

06:10I'm not saying that the body is self.

06:13I'm just using a metaphor.

06:20Just deal with the example, any example in a way that makes it useful.

06:36No example can be perfect.

06:50That's the thing with attachments.

06:53They grow upon you.

06:54They become a part of you.

06:57But it's a bad meeting.

07:01It's a bad wedding.

07:09It's a bad union.

07:13Two things that can never be united enter a strange union and that is suffering.

07:32Just as you suffer when you have a stone in your kidney.

07:37Remember you never opted to have a stone as such.

07:46You just ate something delicious.

07:53You never ate a stone, did you?

07:57You ate something delicious.

08:11So austerity will always be needed and if you find that no austerity is needed then

08:18either you are liberated or not even close to being liberated.

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