Finally, What Takes the Seeker to the Truth?
Acharya Prashant: A quiver full of the best of arrows but no bow, how do you fight the battle of life? Can you imagine the amusing as well as tragic situation of the person who has a great arrow without a bow? He will be sharpening and sharpening his weapon, and the sharper the weapon is, the greater is his frustration. So much could have happened, nothing happened. So much was possible, nothing materialized. This is often the predicament of those, who under the influence of some fancy notions, refused to take the help of the scriptures or the Guru. Their principle is that we will make it on our own, after all we have a very sharp arrow. We will make it on our own, look at our arrow, how sharp it is, and it indeed is sharp. You require both, inner one pointedness and external support.
You getting it?
Which of these two comes first? First comes Grace. When that is there, because that is there, that’s why both of these can happen. So, not much merit in discussing which of these come first, or is more important. Your openness to grace, your receptivity, your honesty in acknowledging your suffering, that’s the first thing. And when that happens, then both happens. Inwardly you start losing all attraction and affiliation to nonsense, which means you become one pointed, and outwardly you start feeling drawn towards places and sources that would illuminate you. So, the Upanishads come to you and you become available to them.
But for any of these to happen, first of all there has to inner honesty that says, “I need to be better, I need to be somewhere else, I am not at my destined place, I am not realizing, not meeting my destiny, the target is there, I don’t need to penetrate so much into the trivia, that engulfs me from all sides, I rather need to penetrate the target.” That honest admission, that desire to give up and be away, is the first thing. And when that desire arises, then you find means to get what you desire, that is one pointedness. I want that and I want only that. And then you search for the sources that can power your journey, illumine your path. And that when you say, “Wah! The Upanishads are fantastic, they have both power and light.” They energize me and they illuminate me, both. If something only energizes you then the energy can just be a blind force and if something illuminates you without energizing you then it’s a very phony kind of illumination that leads to nothing, that remains divorced from action. Means nothing, doesn’t help.
Getting it?
Questioner: To reach the Truth, what is more important: Grace of Truth, or effort of the seeker (Tapas)?
Acharya Prashant: No, Grace is always there. Grace is first and timeless. So, the first, you don’t even have to worry about. When we said, Grace is first, then we said it is your openness and receptivity to Grace that matters. And that's why, the first thing really we said is, your honest admission that you do not belong to the place you are languishing at. Still, you must always acknowledge, that it is not your desire that takes you to peace, it is peace that takes you to peace. So, only the destination makes the journey possible. So, while we know that tapas and your desire to be liberated, are really primary, yet if you think that you gain liberation because you want to be liberated, it still smells of the ego.
What you are saying is — “I gained it because I wanted it.” Therefore, it is important to remember, that you gain liberation firstly, because of the help of liberation itself. Had that not been there, your desire would have been of no avail. Else, there is the egoistic inflation within, “I was suffering and I wanted to be liberated so I performed austerities, I paid the price and I reached there.” Who did it? “I did it.” What did you do? “I lost the ‘I.’ I dropped the ‘I’ and I did it all on my own, I tell you.”
So, there is that problem. So, even though, all that is in your hand is to do your best, to be really honest to your highest desire, yet it must always be remembered that no desire, no thought, no action of yours, is in itself sufficient to take you there.
Are you getting it?
Suppose, you have to go and enter a light house and it’s a very dark territory all around. And what is the place you need to reach? A light house. You need to reach a light house and it is all dark all around. How do you reach the light house? And you are very, like 20 miles away, how do you reach?
Audience: By following the light.
Acharya Prashant: You reach the light, only by the grace of the light itself. Had light not been there, would you have managed to reach light? That’s what. So, don’t swell up. You reached light, because there was light. What if the light house has no light? Would you still manage to reach the lighthouse? Assuming that it is still worth it to reach the lighthouse, in the first place. If the lighthouse has no light, firstly, would it be worthy to reach it? Secondly, would you manage to reach it? So, that’s how it operates. You reach there because that is showing the way. You reach there because the light from there is showing the way.
Do you get it?
But the light is not actively doing anything. The light won’t do it for you. Who has to perform the action, who has to make the effort? You. So therefore, sometimes I say, “All that you should remember, is that everything depends on you, do not rely on anybody else, do not believe in magic, only your hard work will take you there.” Sometimes I say that, when do I say that? I say that, when a fellow says, “Now that the light is there, why do I need to exert myself? You see, the light is omnipotent, so illuminated, the light will take me there.”
No, the light will not take you there, the light creates an environment in which you can reach there. The light at best, facilitates your movement. But move you will, the movement has to be yours. The light will not pick you up, and carry you there to itself, no it won't. So, those who do not seem to be in a mood to put in the hard work, I say, “Everything depends on your hard work.” And then there are those, who believe that all happens only due to their own personal hard work, to them I say, “With all your hard work, where would you reach, had the light not shown the way.”
Are you getting it?
So, these two things have to be remembered. Right? But, if you are really someone who knows how things are, you will realize, that between these two, really, if one is the highest, is the higher one, it is the light itself. It is the light itself. In some way even your desire to reach the light, is fired by the light. Think of it. Had you never really known any light, would there be desire for light? So, who stoked your desire to reach light? Light itself. So even if you say —"It is my desire that takes me to light” — “what is behind that desire?” Light itself.
So, there are two things, there are people who say, “That it’s my desire that takes me there”, and there are people who say, “It’s the light that takes me there.” Those who say, it is the light that takes me there, I am fine, to them I say, “Light is there, now you work hard.” Now you are talking to those who say, it’s my desire that takes me there, to them I am asking, “Would there be any desire sans the light?” So, even if it’s your desire that powers you, the desire itself is powered by the light. So, ultimately what’s primal? Light itself. But I won't say that to lazy bugs, who would say, “Now that the light is there, let the light take care of stuff.” No. To them I say, “No, light won’t do anything, light is there but passive (akarta), light is a non-doer light, all the doing must happen through you.”
