And a great laughter arises in the skies || Acharya Prashant, on Vedanta (2021)

Acharya Prashant (AP): Duality is about thinking that you who is just a chemical — a prakritik product of your past, is a sentient entity looking at a largely insentient world of things. That's the dualistic illusion we usually live in. It’s false, obviously. As we are, there is nothing in ourselves that's not material. That which we call as our consciousness, is just a function of the brain. And the brain is just material. Therefore, there is really no difference between the material and the conscious. Therefore, there is no point calling ourselves as living or alive or conscious or sentient. We are processes, not consciousnesses. We are mechanistic not sentient. The moment you see that, the ego cannot live.

The ego lives on an imagined division. The ego says, “You see, even as I arise from the material, I have something of the para-material within me.” No sir, you're just molecules. The moment you see the molecular as just molecular, a great laughter rises in the skies. Now everything is molecular and you are free of the molecules. It’s only now that you are really conscious.

So, how do you become conscious? By giving up false consciousness. The consciousness that we have, I repeat, is purely biological, chemical, mechanical — insentience masquerading as sentients, hormones acting as feelings, influences acting as thoughts, robotic inferences acting as wisdom. When you see all of that as just dead, then you come alive. And then you don't come alive as a body, then you come alive in an immortal way.

No point coming alive as the body, the body is going to be dead. Then, I said, there is a laughter in the skies. Now, you have immortally come alive. Now, there is going to be no end to life. But that's not the life you know of.

The first step to come alive is to first of all call the living as dead. If you will not call the dead as dead, if you'll keep calling the dead as the living, your punishment will be that you will never come alive. Life will just elude you. See how dead you are. See that only ghosts operate within. You're not alive at all. You're just a bunch of ghosts living in a sack of skin. How lively does that sound? There's your skin sack and inside there is an entire bunch of ghosts! Millions of them visit. They're all sitting within, and you call yourself alive. No, you’re not. You are completely dead and just potentially alive. How does that potential matter? That potential is the only thing that matters.

Be entirely disrespectful towards yourself. The only thing that deserves respect is consciousness, and you are not conscious at all. Who minds kicking a stone away? Or do you? A stone is a stone. Or if you respect yourself so much, then you must respect a stone as well. Don't be a hypocrite; because you're a stone. Either respect the next piece of shit you come across or totally disrespect yourself. Because the two of you are one. That's duality — to see differences where there are none. When you see yourself as dead and completely dead, then you have gone beyond duality.

Questioner (Q): So if crying is also chemical, then why is the sage helping?

AP: Because the crying has begun. And if the crying has begun, the crying can come to an end. In iron (metal), the crying has not even begun. Therefore, there is no possibility of any closure. The iron will continue now as ferric sulphate or ferrous sulfate, whatever. In you, there's something that suffers, therefore, there is something that can come to an end. In iron, that possibility has still not risen. A point will come when the iron will cry out. You know when? When the iron will enter you as hemoglobin, then the iron will cry out. If you are totally chemical and you are crying out, what is it that is crying out? It’s iron that is crying out, and the magnesium, and the zinc, and the calcium. All of that is crying out. But all of that cries out when it takes the form of this kind of a body. That doesn't cry out when it remains as ferric oxide. Then, it doesn't cry out.

Q: Even if they are crying out, when we are saying that the whole world is chemicals, everything is just there, so the one who comes to know that everything related to the world is dead…

AP: Don't speculate, don’t try to be so smart. Look at yourself, not at the condition of the one who has realized everything. You're trying to enter his mind. Don't try that.

Q: How does one develop the appetite to suffer?

AP: No, you don't have to develop an appetite to suffer. Suffering is like oxygen; suffering is like the blood flowing in our veins. I said, it's the grain of our reality. You don't have to have an appetite for it. It's there. You need to have an appetite only for stuff that is alien to you. Right? You need to have an appetite for brinjal, or cucumber. Because there you have a choice between brinjal and cucumber. Suffering is your very essence, suffering is your oxygen, suffering is your blood, suffering is your heartbeat. What do you mean by having an appetite for your heartbeat?! It is there, you don't need to have an appetite towards suffering. You need to have loss of appetite towards happiness. That's your problem. You're not placing the problem rightly.

Suffering, I repeat, is not the problem. Suffering is the situation. The problem is the false hope of an imagined state called happiness.

Q: If one lacks their ability to endure suffering, and as you said, “Bear it or pass through it with dignity, courage, and a smile,” does it indicate that one has a strong appetite for pleasure?

AP: Greed towards happiness! There is some corner, somewhere in one's life or mind that is calling, enchanting with the promise of happiness. And therefore, in comparison, in a foolish comparison, suffering becomes unpalatable. Otherwise, suffering would be very much acceptable. We said, it’s our core reality, why would it be unacceptable? But it becomes unacceptable when that chimera comes calling.

Remove that illusion, remove that fancy hope. And then you will find that suffering is a purifier, suffering is an energizer, suffering is an elevator, suffering is Love, suffering is depth, suffering is creativity, suffering is great songs, verses, śloka .

But suffering will reveal its splendor, its beauty to you only when you first do away with happiness. As long as happiness remains an option in your mind, suffering will remain a problem. And if suffering remains a problem, then suffering will never disclose to you the bountiful beauties it contains in itself.

Q: How to strike out that option totally?

AP: You have to see that it is false, it does not exist. It's not as if happiness does exist and you are discarding it. That option does not exist, so you don't have to strike it out. It anyway does not exist. You’re not getting it.

You're taking happiness as real. It’s too much for you to totally discount it. You're believing too much in those who stand for happiness in your life. You are believing just too much in them. You're not able to strike them out. I repeat, as long as happiness remains a hope, suffering will remain a problem.

Q: You just gave an answer to a question that the crying is also a chemical phenomena. So, most of the times crying is just chemicals, but sometimes we cry for no reason at all. Because we don’t understand things or because sometimes it happens that it is not for any selfish purpose but just tears comes. So is that also a chemical thing?

AP: You see, my right eye has been shedding tears since a month now. There is no reason that I know of. But the doctor knows. In your limited capacity, you think you are crying for no reason. Go to a doctor, he'll tell you there is a reason. Similarly, in an emotional way, when you cry and say, “You know, I am crying reasonlessly”, there is a reason. It’s just that you do not know that reason. There is a reason, you do not know that reason — subconscious reason.

You see, ‘purposelessness’, ‘reasonlessness’, these are not things that are very cheaply attained. Poets and all kinds of lowly spiritual gurus have marketed these terms so much that we start feeling as if those things are within our easy reach. Without knowing why, you are doing something. You do something, and then you say, “You know, my actions are purposeless,” your actions are not purposeless. You are just unconscious about the purpose. “My love towards you is totally selfless.” No, sir. It's just that you do not know about your selfishness. Or maybe you do, but you're not honest enough to admit that. So, ‘selflessness’, ‘purposelessness’, these are not play things.

You are given a dopamine shot and you start feeling delighted, so that must be reasonless joy. Call that as reasonless joy, please. That's not reasonless joy. It's just that when you were asleep, somebody came and jabbed your behind. And you didn't even know that there is now excess dopamine in your system and you wake up, and you start saying, “I am experiencing purposeless joy! Joy without any reason. I am spiritually delivered now!”

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