Is liberation (Mukti) really possible? || Acharya Prashant (2017)
Questioner (Q): Is there any way possible to attain Mukti?
Acharya Prashant (AP): Give-up what you have, taken upon yourself. It’s as simple as that. Yours is the pitiable insistence, of a man with fetters that he wants to be liberated along with the fetters. You have blocked your mouth; you have capped it solidly with something.
Now you ask me, “How do I satisfy my hunger?” I say, “Remove the blockage-the obstruction.” You say, “It is a part of me. It is an integral part of me. It is what defines me, I can’t remove it. This will remain. Now feed me.” How do I feed you?
If I plaster food all over your body, would it ameliorate your hunger? You can have best of the food, pasted on your face, would it take away your hunger? But you keep insisting and you are so stubborn. This is a piece of burning coal, red-black (indicating with hands) and I am requesting you, “Kindly heal me doctor. Heal me even as I, keep holding it.” How do I heal you? You will say, This is what defines you. You will say, this is your life. This is your workplace, your family, yourself, your attachments and you want to heal along with them. You can’t be healed along with them. To be healed means, just let go of them.
Once they are gone, then their effects can be easily healed. So, it is possible to attain Mukti , but you will have to unattained Amukti . Are you prepared to unattained? Attainment of Mukti is not needed, but un-attainment is surely needed. Are you prepared to let go?
Now the moment this is said – a silent wall of resistance comes-up, now you aren’t coming forward anymore. Now all the willingness comes to stop! You are saying; you want to be cured, along with your disease. “Please, I love my tumor but heal me, there is just a little condition, the tumor must not be taken away.”
Now, how do I advise you? “Alright doctor, I see that you are quite helpless, I will take some pity on you. And to help you doctor, I allow you to treat my hair.” The Tumor – is here (pointing towards the body) and you are allowing me to treat your hair, how will it help you?
Happens with kids, if they are hurt at some particular place and you want to apply a little ointment there, they will allow you to apply everywhere else, but that place. They are hurt on the knee, you apply the ointment here (somewhere else) and you keep inching towards the knee, the resistance will keep growing. The moment you are anywhere close to the knee, they will jerk your hand away.
No, no, no…not that, apply the pain reliever, where the pain is not! Cure the disease, where the disease is not! And if you touch the spot, where it’s pains the most, “I tell you, I can fight even with pain, even when I am in pain, I can deliver a sound blow on your face. So, don’t mess with me.”
Q: Acharya ji, how to unlearn the things?
AP: By seeing that by holding on to them; you aren’t doing yourself any favor. Unlearning is the same as dropping off garbage. There is a waste bin in a room, do you ever ask, how to drop things there? The moment you see that they have exceeded their time, the moment you see that they have lost their utility, what do you do? You just drop them, that is called unlearning. That which I had, came to me for some reason; now I have gone beyond that reason, I don’t need that thing anymore.
There is a beautiful line here in Khalil Gibran’s poem-“Tonight”, he says – “In their fears, your forefathers gathered you too near together.” So, you come to see that, this that we call as nearness – had a utility once upon a time. And what was the utility? It served as some kind of deterrent against fear. When you are in a huddle, you tend to feel more secure. You feel enemies might pound upon you or some animal might attack in the ted of the night. So, you must be together or in a tribe. That’s the beginning of the tribe and the family.
In their fear, your grandfathers-your forefathers brought you, too near together. Now that the fear has gone, does the hurdle need to remain? The hurdle has out-lived its utility, so you drop it. That’s it!
Am I with something out of understanding? Or, am I with that thing out of pure inertia and habit, and past? That is the question you need to ask. Do I still need it or am I just continuing with it because of the momentum of the past? I have been with this thing since so many years, so I have become used to it. The thought that I must get rid of it, doesn’t even occur. That is called unlearning. Unlearning is not an act, unlearning is rather the cessation of needless action.
