It is a deep bondage to live in differences

Acharya Prashant

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It is a deep bondage to live in differences

Question: Sir, I have observed that if I have someone to blame, then my anger gets energy. Otherwise, it subsides with time. Why does this happen?

Answer: Isn’t it true that even our anger expresses itself only at the relatively weak? Can we dare to be angry at everybody? Calculated emotions.

When one is sure from within, then spontaneous action occurs. Nothing is prohibited in it, and there is complete freedom to act anyway you like.

So, there is then so much freedom to act (in any and all ways) that one does not need to fake.

E.g., there might be a time to display anger on someone. When I know that this is the right time to be angry, then I need not feel guilty for being angry. I can freely be angry. There is no need to fake calmness. Anger is alright.

Similarly, there may be a right time to walk away. Then you need not fake that you want to still stay. When you are sure, then you are free of pressure and guilt, and then you do not fake.

Question: Sir, is this decision of being angry and to walk away decided by the person on basis of his knowledge or on the basis of intelligence?

Answer: This inner sureness comes from two parallel sources:

  1. An attentive observation of life.
  2. An in-depth reading of wisdom literature.

Both 1 and 2 are simultaneously needed.

1 is the path of intelligence. 2 is the path of surrender.

Both are parallely needed.

The observation game that you all are playing and enjoying is 1.

The sessions that we have at Advait Sthal are 2.

1 is about ‘you’ seeing, observing, trying to understand.

2 is about you disappearing, melting.

If only 1 is there, then ego will feel proud ‘I observed’.

If only 2 is there, ego will feel proud ‘I surrendered’.

But when 1 and 2 are together, then 1 kills 2, and 2 kills 1. Then the cunning ego cannot hide anywhere.

1 and 2 are like two wings of a bird. You can fly high only when both wings are there.

Not a balance of both. Balance is compromise. Rather, 100% of both.

———————————————————————————————————————————–Question: Sir, we often distract and wander from the origin. How to stay there?

Answer: Ask this question exactly at the moment when you are distracted.

At that moment of distraction, you will forget to ask this question.

So, the real problem is that we forget.

How to remember?

  1. By having reminders (like this group)
  2. By getting rid of those who make us forget

Question: Sir, as experienced earlier when I feel distracted i.e. feeling jealous, feeling frustrated, feeling depressed, all I do is I start blaming that I am becoming careless of myself. I don’t know what to do. How to stop these feelings?

Answer: Exactly in your moment of deep anger, do you ask, ‘why have I come away from my origin?’

Nobody asks. We forget in that moment.

Try living in remembrance as much as possible. Practice it. Catch yourself slipping as much as possible.

Slowly you will find that forgetting is reducing.

So, now we know something about a severe bondage of the mind: emotions.

Can we go a little deeper into it?

Is it not possible that most of what we call sadness and happiness are just social concepts?

What one feels happy about, the other feels sad about, depending upon their conditioning.

When we say ‘Be happy’, are we not inviting sadness?

Law of Duality: Happiness can come only on a background of sadness. To be happy, go ahead and be sad.

We take books and sports differently because we take everything differently.

We take happiness and sadness differently, we take success and failure differently, we take friends and strangers differently, men and women differently, Hindu and Muslim differently.

Imagining differences and living in differences has become a deep habit with us. This habit is the basis of lovelessness and all violence in the world.

So we see books and sports too differently.

Question: And Sir how can we see them as one? Is it possible?

Answer: If we will look only at the name and shape and form, obviously we will see only the differences.

Can we, to begin with, look at a human being just as a human being?

NOT as:

– male or female

– family or outsider

– young or old

Can we try? Then we may begin to see that it is a deep bondage to live in differences.

Try. It will be good fun as well.

-Based on my interactions on various e-forums.

Dated : 4th December,’14

This article has been created by volunteers of the PrashantAdvait Foundation from transcriptions of sessions by Acharya Prashant
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