Krishna's Grace vs. Arjuna's Willingness—Which Matters More?
Questioner: Pranaam Acharya Ji. Acharya Ji as you mentioned, it was Arjuna who stood in front of Shri Krishna like a baby standing in front of his mother. Arjuna is about emotional outburst of lot of emotions such as humility, openness, surrender, trust and total giving up to all his resistance.
So, my question is, Is there a disciple who eliminates his masculated identity by exhibiting these emotions or is it that the emphasis is on teacher’s grace and that is teaching’s flow freely to the disciple who is ready to receive them with an open heart and mind.
Acharya Prashant: What is it that you are trying to ask? Explain it very simply as you would explain to a five-year old or something. I don’t have any IQ beyond that anyway, so.
Questioner: Sir, there are two aspects of it here. One is the outpouring of all the emotions coming from Arjuna and Arjuna is really open to have the Gita poured onto him by Shri Krishna.
Acharya Prashant: Arjuna does not know that the Gita is on its way. Arjuna is just helplessly expressing his situation to Shri Krishna. Arjun does not know what’s what’s going to come next. Yes, so that’s one thing. Next?
Questioner: Correct. And, Shri Krishna as an ardent teacher, he sees the student in him and he’s willing to give him the knowledge of the Gita and it actually shows the grace of Shri Krishna. So, the question is Shri Krishna’s grace versus Arjuna’s willingness to surrender in front of Shri Krishna, which one is better in comparison? Or which one is the one which seems to be more..?
Acharya Prashant: No, the question should be which one is relevant to you? What will you do by enquiring about Shri Krishna’s grace? That’s Shri Krishna’s prerogative, right? Shri Krishna will take care of his grace if he has to offer grace. Whatever he has to do, we do not know what grace is. We do not know who Shri Krishna is. How does it concern us to go into matters of his grace? What is it that’s in your control? Your own preparation, your own willingness. So, you take care of that. Let Shri Krishna take care of his own things. Shri Krishna is; I suppose, capable of that. We have to take care of our own situation. And there, that’s a lot to take care of.
I mean, do we have spare time to worry about Shri Krishna’s portfolio? To each his own. To Shri Krishna, what he has to take care of. To us, what we have to take care of. We have to take care of our honesty, our courage, our discretion. Let’s say, you expose yourself to some kind of an imposter, who’s named Shri Krishna but is not actually Shri Krishna. Correct? What would come out of it? You have in your complete honesty with the sole aim of liberation from sorrow, exposed yourself, right? That’s the only thing that you now want. I am so full of sorrow, I want to be freed.
And if the fellow to whom you have exposed yourself, the person in front of you, if he’s a fraudster, you will not get the liberation that you desire, correct? So, the decision would be made instantaneously. You very strongly went to that person wanting just one thing, what is that? Liberation. And that fellow proved incapable of delivering that one thing. So, the decision is made, you need not remain with that person for long. You are liberated. And what has liberated you? Your own capability. Your own solid and solo burning desire, which was to just be liberated.
So, if you just take care of your own side, that is sufficient. If you meet a Shri Krishna, you will receive grace, if you don’t meet a Shri Krishna, you will atleast be saved from imposters. So, that is, that is sufficient. And, and if you were not Arjuna, if you do not have the right pre-requisites from your side, then even a Shri Krishna cannot save you. Even a Shri Krishna would not even open up.
We said that he’s not going to try to save undeserving and unripe people who are still sticking to prakriti. He says, “You take your time. I’m not going to pluck you away from your mother.” So, the method of Shri Krishna is just the method of wait, the method of patience. It does nothing. It just waits. He waits for the ripe one. And when the ripe one is there, his ripeness itself becomes the grace of Shri Krishna.
So, even in the matter of grace, Shri Krishna actually is doing nothing at all. Shri Krishna is a witness, a timeless witness. If you are ripe, grace is yours. What have I done? I have done nothing. It’s like a law, if you are ripe, grace is yours. And in this law, Shri Krishna’s personal intervention is not even needed. So, grace is nothing. Grace is your own ripeness. Your own ripeness is the grace of Shri Krishna. You are ripe and what is your ripeness? It is not an event in prakriti. It is a choice. Your ripeness is not like the ripeness of a mango. Something with which duly & necessarily happens in time. No, your own ripeness is a choice. You make that choice, grace is yours. You don’t make that choice, nobody can help you. Shri Krishna would just stand watching you.
Questioner: Sir, all these emotions, I mean if I put myself in the Arjuna’s shoe, I continue to exhibit these emotions myself but I find myself in a very difficult situation to be open about all these emotions in front of the real teacher.
Acharya Prashant: Because you have self-respect to defend. We addressed this point. We said that Arjuna can express himself so openly only because he’s no more competitive. You know what is it we do? We compete even with Shri Krishna. We do not want to be left too far behind Shri Krishna. We do not want to be shown up as pigmes in front of Shri Krishna. We say, “If we expose ourselves to Shri Krishna, Shri Krishna would know our secrets and laugh at us and that would hurt our self-respect.” In that way, you are treating Shri Krishna as somewhat of an adversary. And how can he offer you his grace if in your eyes he’s an adversary?
On one hand we call him a God. On the other hand, we treat him like, an enemy. You compete only with enemies, right?
If you find it difficult to open up in front of someone, for sure you are competing with that person, for sure you are afraid of that person, for sure you do not want to be shown up as insufficient or small in front of that person. That’s the only reason why one does not want to expose himself. If I expose myself, he will know all my secrets. If he will know my secrets, he will know how small I am. If he will know how small I am, I will feel bad. Why? Because I want to be seen as big. I want to be seen as big by? Him. Why do you want to be seen as big by Shri Krishna? If you know who you are, of course Shri Krishna knows who you are. Nude dude Nude. That’s the way.
Questioner: Right, Got it.
Acharya Prashant: Drop it.
Questioner: Sir, if I drop all the egos and emotions, now, would that mean that I will be able to do my prescribed duties that are?
Acharya Prashant: No, you don’t have to drop something, all that is moralistic non-sense. You have to realize that all those things exist and you have to see that very sharply. As sharply as you can see my physical shape on your screen, not just a vague feeling. A very clear realization of the process and contours of desire, existence, fear, greed and a very-very sharp seeing. That’s what you need.
Without that seeing, even if you try to drop or something, doesn’t help. Don’t have it in your mind, that there’s something to be dropped. We do not need to drop anything. You need to realize. Realize. And after that; certain things, for your own good, happen on their own. Realize, your job is not to do this, do that, pick that up, drop that, all that is childish. No.
Questioner: Right Sir. Thankyou Acharya Ji.
Acharya Prashant: Welcome.
