In the middle of conditioning, how do I get real freedom? || Acharya Prashant, with youth (2015)
Question: Acharya Ji, every thing that we develop, comes from conditioning. How do I then find my real identity?
Acharya Prashant(AP): Pallavi (the questioner) , had everything been coming from outside, then this question could not have arisen.
If everything comes from outside, then we are a system, like a machine. A machine never has the urge for self-enquiry. A machine will never feel uncomfortable, or befuddled at the fact that it does not know it’s true identity. In fact, the question of identity itself is not relevant to a machine.
So, what happens, yes we realise that a lot what constitutes our psyche comes from what we have read or heard, assimilated directly-indirectly, consciously-subconsciously; we realise that. And the more we realise, the more we become free of that which is just an external layer upon us.
How do I know? *Just by enquiring; just by seeing.***
And this ‘seeing’, is very simple, very straightforward.
“The environment is noisy, and I find it difficult to concentrate.”
“In the morning I get a few compliments, and my mood cheers up.”
“My favorite team loses a match, and I feel down.”
These are the simple, routine, every day events, which if observed, give freedom from the power of the outside to control us, from the power of the outside to become our identity.
Are you getting it?
So, no real action has to be taken. You know, you do not really need to ‘do’ something, or go anywhere, or actively negate your thoughts. You just have to be little more thoughtful, conscious, and it becomes very clear that – “O! It happened there, and it is effecting me ‘here’ (pointing at the mind) .”
The more clearly you see this, the more frequently you see this, it starts becoming awkward then to let your control remain somewhere else. It won’t be very nice, right?
Every second minute you are realising, that the world is controlling you through a remote system. Does it remain pleasant? Would you feel nice that way?
But we all, the people around us, the entire world, allows that to continue, only because we are not present to that fact. We do not realise that. That realisation itself is – Liberation. Nothing else needs to be really done (emphasizing on the word ‘done’) .
It is kind of a slight, kind of an insult, to frequently keep on seeing that my strings are being pulled by the world in all directions. And whosoever pulls my strings, succeeds.
One does not feel good with that fact. This ‘not feeling good’, is your Freedom. Because after all, there is no real string; the string is only mental. The string is ignorance. You realise, and you are free.
In a physical sense, however, that mental freedom may take time to show up, time to materialise. You might have a physical location, you might have a concrete timetable, you might have a certain routine. Realisation does not mean, that immediately your physical whereabouts will also change.
One might be there, trapped in some kind of enclosure, practically a jail, without ever knowing that he is trapped, that he is a de-facto slave. And then, he starts seeing that where he is, every single thought and action, is commanded by somebody else.
At the psychological level, this is instant Freedom. You see that you are being commanded, and you are free from the command. However, that does not mean that physically too, he will become instantly free.
Whatever is physical, is a result of time, and comes from a process that extends over time. And hence, the physical manifestation also takes time.
So, do not be worried, and do not start doubting what I just said if you do not see your Freedom expressing itself in a very material way. That material expression may take time.
For example, you might be with somebody since years. And now, because you are with that person since years, the company of that person is meshed in your daily program. You go and catch the bus with him, you take your dinner with him, you watch movie with him. Probably, you have a joint membership with that person in some club. It is a result of your long standing association. Then one day you realise, that the fellow has actually been domination you, controlling you. That does not mean that the next day he will disappear from your life.
There is a long past, and that long past has its own residue.
It will take time to be cleaned away.
But rest assured, that once the process starts, it also expresses itself materially.
