Shri Prashant: What is a flow? A flow implies change. Yes, the river indeed does look like a flow, change. But is there any тАШrealтАЩ change? Water is being substituted by water, but it looks like flow, and if one thinks that there is тАШchangeтАЩ, then that is good entertainment for the mind, is it not?
One could keep saying тАУ the thing is changing, and when it is changing, something тАШelseтАЩ is coming тАУ тАШelseтАЩ by definition, must be тАШnewтАЩ. If the тАШelseтАЩ, the substitution, is the same as what it substitutes, then there is no change, right?
It has been classically always held that river is a metaphor for life, but wonтАЩt it be wonderful to see that what we call as тАШlifeтАЩ is not a series of changes, but that actually nothing changes in life. Mind keeps flowing and the flow is all assumed change, but what really changes? Attraction for one thing becomes attraction to another thing; mother is substituted by wife, wife is substituted by daughter; one job is replaced by another job; one pair of clothes is replaced by another pair of clothes; one wife goes, another wife comes; one breath goes, the next breath comes; one meal is done, the next meal is coming; water replaces water. If we think that change is real, then there is an expectation of what is coming next. If the assumption is that there indeed is change, I do not know you have to figure it out, whether wisdom lies in seeing that all this just the same old stuff, the same ancient water that nothing is really changing and if nothing is really changing then there is no point waiting for the next gush of water. There is no point waiting for the next big event. You can keep sitting by the river all day, and all that you would get is the same old..?
L1: Water.
