Let Life Be a Celebration of Intelligence

सूरा सो पहिचानिये, जू लरै दीन के हेत। पुरजा पुरजा कटि मरै, कबहु न छाडै खेत।।

कबीर

soora so pahichaniye, ju larae deen ke het

purja purja kati marae, kabhu na chadae khet

Kabir

(The real warrior fights for the sake of deen – religiousness.Even if he is destroyed to pieces, he does not quit)

Acharya Prashant: The real warrior, the really brave one, is the one who lives his life based on his understanding. This sacred understanding is what Kabir is calling as ‘deen’ .

In this understanding, one is choiceless. Even the thought of escape does not cross one’s mind. One knows that this is the only way possible for him, that only this is right. When one sees no options, is fully and completely committed to his love, then it becomes a simple matter to give up everything else.

Kabir says that the warrior, the intelligent man, the lover, finds it simple and obvious to loose all material possessions, including his body – purja purja kati marae . It’s a small price to pay, he knows, for something infinitely more precious.

This warrior fights eternally and unconditionally. There are no compromises and he never quits the battlefield – kabhu na chadae khet . He knows that this is all that there is; escape is not an option.

Acharya Prashant

(22nd Jan, 2013)

बिरह भुवंगम तन डसा, मंत्र न लागै कोय। रामबियोगी ना जिए, जिए तो बाउर होय।।

कबीर

Birah bhuvungam tan dasa, mantra n laagae koy

Raambiyogi naa jiye, jiye to baaur hoy

Kabir

(The snake of separation has bit, and there is no cure for it.The one separated from Ram lives not, and goes mad if he does)

Eating, walking, sleeping, working, dying – these alone surely cannot mean being alive. Life is much more than the physical and mental processes. Machines can walk, eat, work. The programmed analysis that computers do is no different from what we call thinking. Machines have no role in their formation, just as we have no role in our birth. And machines can be programmed to self-terminate after a certain time, just as we die.

What is life?

No machine can ever understand that it is programmed. No machine can ever go beyond its programming. No machine can ever know, and respond to, that which it has not been programmed for. This is what is the essential difference between man and machine.

This essence can be called as intelligence. Innate, intrinsic intelligence that does not come from anywhere, is not gifted by anybody and cannot be taken away either.

However, man has a dual nature. Most people live their life in a conditioned way, programmed like a machine, unable to act freely. Their intelligence remains hidden beneath their conditioning. They are, in a way, separated from their essence- intelligence. Kabir calls this separation as बिरह. Such a person lives a monotonous, repetitive, unfree life of a slave. No cure exists for him – मंत्र न लागै कोय.

In keeping with his times, Kabir has called this intelligence, this real Self as राम. This Ram is surely not a historical, mythical or fictional character. This is the essence of every individual.

Kabir says that the one separated from his essence actually does not live at all. He appears alive, but is defacto dead. He moves, eats, walks, sleeps, so the world may think that he is alive, but this mechanical life is of no avail. Life can be called life when there is the free, joyful dance of intelligence in it. The ones who do not have freedom, joy, love in life must be called as dead. To call them ‘alive’ is an abuse of the word ‘alive’.

बाउर means mad. Who is a madman? A madman is one whose mind is tremendously distracted by random influences. A madman is one who lives a life of illusion. A madman is one who sees what is not, and does not see what really is. In short, a mind bereft of intelligence is a mad mind.

So, in case, we have a problem, calling our mechanical slave a dead man, Kabir liberally gives us an option. He says – Alright, don’t call him dead, just call him mad!

Dead or mad, life is not worth living.

Let life be a celebration of Intelligence. Only in intelligence is there love, joy, celebration. We all deserve that, don’t we?

~Acharya Prashant

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