Forget God. Who are you? || Acharya Prashant, on Saint Kabir (2017)

Seen a bubble in the sea? That is our story.

You came with the hands empty, empty, and nothing will you carry.

So why be caught in misery? Make merry, make merry!

Who is your family? Who is a lover really?

You are deep in illusion, happily, happily fooling yourself with books, sex and brandy.

Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, the clock is ticking and you are tipsy.

You breathe so you think that you are alive, but dead are your face and dead is your eye.

Your mind is dreamy, the world is the sea.

Wake up, or you sink— that is Kabir’s prophecy.

~ Kabir

Acharya Prashant (AP): Those who are serious about their spiritual pursuit must look very carefully; there is a very important lesson to be had here. See and tell me what is it that you do not find here. The art of seeing is not merely about seeing; it is also about seeing what is not to be seen. What is it that is missing here? This is supposed to be Kabir’s composition, right? Kabir, the king of spiritual compositions. Much more voluminous spiritual, devotional literature than any other author, poet, composer in the world; still the most widely quoted spiritual author across the world, even more quoted than Rumi. What is it that he is not saying here? And mind you, this is supposed to be spiritual, Godly. Look at it carefully. What is he not saying here?

Questioner (Q): Is it that you are not only the body?

AP: Not in that direction. What is it that he is not touching? What is it that he is not even referring to?

Q: What to do?

AP: No, no. Alright, this is supposed to be a Godly composition—and that’s a hint.

Q: God?

AP: Ha! That’s the big elephant that is not there in the room. Kabir is talking, and he is not talking of God. Shame, shame, potty shame! Kabir is not talking of the Beyond. Nothing transcendental here, nothing metaphysical; only the physical, only the body. Nothing metaphysical. Is there heaven mentioned anywhere? Mokṣa (liberation)? Paramātman (Supreme Self)? He forgot, lost his attention! It’s a wonder and a disgrace—a saint poet is not talking of God. Bad, so bad. And he is talking of the body!

Now, what do you see? It is very, very important. You must take this learning very seriously. He is not talking of God. God is talking through him, but he is not talking of God. God is in the background. We don’t want to look at God. Anybody who is looking at the air here? Anybody who is without air here? The dead ones, please raise your hands. Anybody who is looking at air here? Anybody who is surviving without air here? So, God is like…?

Q: Air.

AP: Forget about air—it is present. It is present, and the proof is that you are surviving, alive. Your existence proves God’s existence. “ Har saans ye kehti hai, hum hain to Khuda bhi hai (Every breath says that if I am, then God also exists).” Now you don’t need to talk about God. So, if you don’t need to talk about God, what is it that you need to talk about? God must be forgotten. Kabir has so easily forgotten God. Spirituality is not at all about God. What is spirituality about?

Q: The body.

AP: Bad! But that’s what we don’t want to look at. And what is Kabir talking of? The body—can you see the urges of the body? The mind—can you see that the mind is dreamy? The books—can you see that the books are just intoxication for you? Can you see how the body is craving to protect itself in all ways? No need to talk of God; it is not spirituality.

Today I received a comment on YouTube—I forwarded it to everybody, maybe you can ask someone to show it to you—and it is talking only about how the Ātman meets Paramātman and then how small Brahman becomes bigger Brahman and such things. Is that spirituality?

I don’t want to know whom you worship; I want to know who is it that worships. What is the quality of the worshiper? What is your quality? Who are you? Forget God; who are you?

Dirty hands remain dirty even if they are folded in front of a deity. Dirty hands—there is no need to fold them in front of a deity. Go to a wash basin, use a physical soap. Metaphysical prostration will not help you cleanse your hands; use a physical soap. That’s what spirituality is about, and that’s why Kabir is so unique and so lovable: he doesn’t take you to a fictitious world. In the name of spirituality, he doesn’t give you more dreams and more desires. He talks of your… What is he talking of?

Q: Daily life.

AP: Daily life, everyday life—how you are living, what are you doing, what are you saying, what is the stuff of your day-to-day conversations, what is contained in your gossip, to whom are you relating, what are you attached to, what are your real intentions, what are you after. Tell me, what are you really chasing? That’s spirituality. That’s Kabir. And that’s why your Acharya keeps on saluting Kabir.

I keep on quoting from various sources, but I have quoted Kabir five times more than all other sources combined. I can’t help it; I am in love with him. And that’s why this is Studio Kabir. There were many other luminaries, many other deserving names, but what to do of the heart? The heart belongs to Kabir. The others are great, no doubt, but one is entitled to be a little biased; one is entitled to have a bit of a personal deity.

Be ruthless. Be absolutely ruthless. Core-splitting honesty—that’s what you need. No mumbo-jumbo—core-splitting honesty. Don’t talk nonsense. Don’t lie to yourself. Don’t deceive yourself. And only you can have that. To me, spirituality is another name for honesty. Can that be taught?

I hate to see so-called spiritual people leading mediocre lives. If you are indeed spiritual, your face will have the glow of a Krishna. It is not possible that you are spiritual and yet a tame and tepid loser. It is an insult to the verses of the Upanishads if those verses emanate from the mouth of a liar and a deceiver and a drunk. If you are taking even baby steps into spirituality, your life, your eyes, your face will change. The way you talk, your very walk would change. You gain a certain aloofness, a certain purity, and that is so visible. You are now not easily hurt; you do not allow your hurt to turn you into somebody else; you do not allow your pleasures to turn you into somebody else.

Have you noticed how hurt gives you a rebirth? Hurt makes you become another man or woman; you are no more the same. That’s reincarnation. Same with pleasure. Have you seen how in the rage of your pleasure you become somebody else? Your hurt and your happiness both dominate you, and that does not happen with a spiritual person. He does not allow himself to ever become somebody else. He abides as himself. Just as you would usually not allow your clothes to make you become somebody else—do you allow that?—similarly, the spiritual man wears all his moods but never becomes his moods. He wears everything.

You too keep on changing your clothes, don’t you? So, there is sometimes a solemn mood, a grave mood, a jovial mood, an inquisitive mood, happiness, sadness, frustration, anger, hope, despair—these are clothes that you wear. You don’t become your moods; that’s the mark of the spiritual man. He wears everything without fear, but he never becomes what he wears.

Your life must be a proof of your spirituality. Kabir fought against hypocrisy. He was a great crusader against the doublespeak of the priests, Hindu and Muslim alike. And we are champions of doublespeak. Earn the right to say God, and then you won’t need to say God. Most of us keep on talking of God without having any rights. We haven’t earned the right to say G-O-D. And those who have the rights generally lose the inclination to say G-O-D. They abide in God; they don’t talk too much of God, like Kabir. It’s not as if he avoids the word ‘God’, but he is not besotted with it. He sometimes would talk of Rama, but many more times he would talk of the world, the body, the mind, matters mundane, things of this world. Life, life, life. Not ideals, not words, not verses—life!

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