Kumbh: Truth Beyond the Myth
Questioner: Acharya Ji, Greetings. This time Mahakumbh is happening. A lot of preparations are going on. So I have made up my mind that this time I will tell people the true meaning of our religion. The true meaning of Mahakumbh.
I searched a lot for your video on YouTube but couldn't find it. But I read your article. So on behalf of my entire Prayagraj team, I request you to please explain its Vedantic meaning in a better way, so that we can explain its essence to people and educate others.
Acharya Prashant: Kumbh is mentioned in two or three texts in the puranas. So there are two or three different stories. But, the common thing in all these stories is that drops fell at four places. Let us take the most popular story. Let's discuss it.
The most popular story is that there are gods, there are demons. But no matter how much difference there is between the two, no matter the animosity, there's one common wish that somehow they should be safe from dying. Somehow they should be safe from dying.
Who are these gods and demons? Both of them are forms of ego. Gods are also egoistic. Demons are also egoistic. The ego wants to avoid death. The dying person is in danger. So the only difference you can say is that the gods, they are having a self-oriented ego who keeps a distance from the truth but their face is towards the truth.
So at least when they are defeated, it is said that all the gods run and take refuge in Mahadev. So at the very least, when they are defeated, they get some wisdom as their face is towards the truth but they themselves are not the truthful. They maintain distance from the truth. So you can find all kinds of demerits that even gods can have in them.
So gods also cheat. Gods also have greed. Gods also have fear. And sadly even gods steal. There are multiple stories of even gods becoming victims of their lust.
And demons are also egoistic. But demons, you can say that they are narcissistically egoistic. They have a misdirected ego. So when demons are defeated, we don't often read that the demons are taking refuge. They will never go directly to Mahadev or Lord Vishnu. This will not happen. Their guru is different.
What is the name of the guru of demons? Shukracharya. So their guru is also different. Asuracharya.
Shukracharya. I found a cool name by the way. I will use it. This name says it all about you, not me. So actually there used to be fighting among them but on this one issue they reached a compromise. They now say we will cooperate to become immortal. So they went ahead to become immortal and Lord Vishnu told them that there is nectar somewhere beneath.
This vast ocean, the seabed. What does that mean? The deception is small and the submerged area is large. Both the gods and demons had enjoyed all the things on land and even after that they had greed in them. So having greed in them, also they had the fear that one day they would die.
So the bigger realm is not outside which both the gods and demons had enjoyed but it is inside. So the churning of the ocean which they were about to start now is the ocean within that is bhav sagar. That means the gods and demons, whatever they could possibly achieve in the world- wealth, power, position, prestige, women, men and they had achieved everything but they still did not get any satisfaction.
So God tells both of them that now both of you should start self-reflection together. So the churning of the ocean is actually self-reflection and self-reflection is more difficult than any external search.
Just like what is 30% on earth? Land. And what is the other 70%? And the height of Everest is 9 kilometers but the depth of the deepest point in the ocean is 11 kilometers. Every area of land, every point, we have now measured it through cartography, through satellite, we have put it on the map.
But do you know that our ocean bed mapping is still not complete? And we do not know the complete map of the ocean at all. Remember what was MH370? Malaysian Airlines. It had taken off from Malaysia and then it disappeared. It has not been found till date. It has been almost 10 years now. If it had fallen on land, it would definitely have been found. If it had fallen in the sea, it would not have been found because even today we don't have a complete map of the ocean.
We have reached the moon. We have reached Mars. But we do not have complete information about the oceans. That which is not known is called an ocean. The meaning is, ’Both gods and demons know the world, rule over the world but do not know themselves. You do not know these things which are inside. Nectar will be found here. So start churning. Do you understand this?
The ocean is indicative of whom? Of the mind, of the entire realm of the ego. So it looks small but the world is very big and and usually we mean by that it's very small. The world is very big. No, it's much bigger than the world. It is easy to search through the whole world but it is very difficult to know this. Apart from this, even if you search the entire world, you will not find immortality.
Immortality will be found only after screening this. It is much more difficult to screen this. So this is the meaning of churning the ocean. Do you understand this?
Now they had never done this work before. Otherwise, all the types of worlds that exist and this and that, all these were conquered by the gods, demons. What else did they have to do? There are thousands of stories of them one after the other. There is such and such demon. He did this, he did that. Even the most impossible thing that existed in this world, they had witnessed it. And even after that, how were they? Oh, completely shaken, scared. Then they were told to start self-reflection. Now whatever happens further in self-reflection, all these are symbols of internal events.
So Mandar, Mandrachal Mountain- what was made out of it? A rod. A Churning rod and the king of snakes- vasuki. How did he help? He became a rope and they put him in the ocean so that after churning it, something will come out.
Now this should not be taken as a fact that with the help of a mountain and a huge snake whose mouth was held by the demons and its tail was held by the gods- they were pulling it and in this way churning was taking place. Understand the meaning.
That is going inside oneself, what is it? Seeing it is so difficult that one needs a big mountain and the biggest snake meaning the biggest rope is needed. It is a very difficult task to go inside oneself. Anyone can roam around outside to see but what is going on inside, self-observation is the most difficult.
So they had started all this. And it is said that to protect the mountain so that it doesn't slip and fall on the rope, Lord Vishnu sat below in the form of a tortoise. That if it slips and falls, I will protect it from below. Which means that the biggest power- one has to take its support then its internal process gets complete.
What does it mean? The one who is sitting in the form of a tortoise is sitting still to support the mountain on his back, what is the meaning of that? If there is no support of the greatest, there's no loyalty and dedication towards it. Then self-observation, self knowledge will never be possible. Meaning that in Vedantic terms, there should be love and respect for truth. And in terms of ethics, one should not love anyone except the truth. It shouldn't happen.
So when you reject all other supports, that support becomes available automatically from which nectar is available. The one who has held on to all of the supports, that support itself is death. Then how will you get the nectar? Those who want the nectar, you should first let go of the support because the support itself is death. The one you have held on to is itself mortal. Then how will you survive by relying on it?
So they started their churning with great effort. The problem came right in the beginning. What was the problem? What came out? That means when you start your inner process, the greatest danger is right in the beginning. What came out first? Halahal. Halahal came out and it was so hot burning and such smoke fumes were coming out of it that it seemed that the whole world would burn because of it.
So everyone got worried but Lord Vishnu was already supporting them. He was sitting under the ocean. To whom did they run to then? They ran to Mahadev. They said that we have extracted the poison by churning the ocean and it is burning the whole world. What should we do?
Mahadev must have said, ‘Are you doing all this on my instructions?’ But he would never say that. He said bring it on now. You destroy the whole universe. It would be a violation of my rights. The job of destroying the universe is mine. I will not allow you children to do these things. I will do it when there is a need. He said, "Bring it on." So he drank it and the elements got accumulated in his throat.
That is why we know him as Neelkanth. That means he is the one who can bear the poison without allowing the poison to touch our center or our life. This is shivatva. We are not afraid of poison. The one who is afraid is actually afraid of dying. He gladly asks for it to save the world. That is shivatva. Are you understanding?
Dirt. He willingly accepts dirt. The dirt that the world is afraid of, he says, "Bring it on. I will accept it. I will accept it." Because others are afraid that they will become dirty. Others will become dirty because they are dirty. He's not afraid because no matter how much dirt he accepts, he cannot become dirty as he is Shiva. So that's why he fearlessly accepts the dirt. Are you getting the gist of this?
The ego gets affected but not the Atman. Right? So who has to take care of the company? The ego has to. The one who is self-sufficient deliberately chooses bad company. What for? To clean up. So he said bring it on. Give all the poison to me here. So their lives were saved, they ran away.
Now what does it mean? That the poison came out in the beginning itself. This means that whenever you start any spiritual process, the greatest danger is in the beginning itself. The strongest poison will be found right in the beginning.
I will give you an example. 90% of the people who leave Gita samagam and run away are those who are in their first or second month. Those who are in their first or second month or at the most in their third are in the greatest danger. They are the ones who run away. There is a very strong recoil, very strong. For the one who has withstood it, the danger now becomes very less. But the one who has to die, fall, break, he will break at the very beginning. This is the most likely thing.
This is the meaning of halahal appearing in the beginning itself. If someone is sitting inside you, he knows that something dangerous is starting. He says don't let it start. Stop it in the beginning itself. So the initial months are the most dangerous, the most sensitive. If you survive in the initial months then you are saved. The one who will fall will fall in the beginning itself. And the one who survived 6 months, 8 months, a year now, even if you take him, he will come back. He won't leave and says, ‘I don't want to go.’ Are you understanding?
That was happening then and it is happening even today. What to do? You will start self introspection in the beginning itself. You will find this hot boiling poison and the poison will scare you. You will say that we don't want to do this. Look, we got poison in the beginning itself. In the beginning, we're getting poison. Who knows what will come in the future. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Don't stop.
If you cross that initial hurdle, then there will be a blissful journey ahead. What kind of bliss? Oh my god, what did we get? The Airavata elephant came out. Lakshmi Goddess came out. Apsaras came out. Kamdhenu came out. Kalpavriksha came out. All kinds of gems and stones, pearls all came out. That Dhanvantri came out. And who is that architect guy? What is his name? Vishva karma. Architect of god. Vishva karma came out.
All of them are coming out one after the other. Goodies. These are just two or four. There must be more. Yes, there was a horse: Uchchaihshravas. It was amazing. It came out. All kinds of amazing things coming out. 14 Airavata elephants. 14 types of these things. These divine things appearing. Now what does this mean?
See there is Maya sitting inside. When you start introspection, first she stops you by scaring you. So what did she give you in the beginning? Poison. After that she stops you by tempting you. Then she gave wonderful things. She gave us a cow. She gave a horse. Gave money. She said stop at this. Stop at this. Don't move ahead. Stop at this. You already got some wonderful things. What is there beyond this? What will you do with the nectar?
The nectar means Atman. Mrityo Ma Amritam Gamay. The amrit in this amrit means Atman. Only that is amrit. There is no other amrit. So maya stops in the process of self-reflection by scaring. And the ones who turn out to be smart do not get scared or find some solution or find someone like Mahadev who says bring it to me. The poison is yours but I will still accept it. I will drink it. If you find someone like him or with any such help, if one escapes from fear then Maya stops him by luring him. So all these things are coming out. Wonderful interesting things are coming out. It is good. The gods are happy. The demons are also happy.
In the end comes the kumbh. Kumbh means- vessel, pitcher, utensil. This comes out. Now that was the real thing. It came out. So then the fight started. Now both are egoistic. All the tendencies are present in both the gods and demons. So Indra signaled his son Jayant to take the Kumbh and run away. Everyone is clapping now. Mission successful. He takes the kumbha away and the gods also leave.
The demon saw how the gods had deceived them. They chased him and eventually caught him. When they caught him, Jayant was the son of Devraj Indra. So all the gods came, stood in his support. So they started fighting. Their fight continued for 12 days. It is said that there are 12 Kumbhs and not four. It is said that four are here on earth eight are above. It is said that the fight continued for 12 days and one day of gods is equal to one year of humans. So there are 12 kumbhs and you get only four. The rest eight are there. VIP. So the battle is still going on.
Now wherever the battle used to take place the demons usually win. The gods were defeated again. Sometimes the goddesses came to save, sometimes someone else. This was the routine. So by now even Lord Vishnu had become a little free, liberated. What was he till now? Tortoise. Now all the valuable stuffs came out. So he also came out and saw that they were fighting again. The gods are still fighting.
Then from the tortoise he became Mohini. All of them together cheated the poor demons. These demons were deceited. After that he became Mohini and eluded them and then he started dancing. Now when he started dancing all the demons also started dancing and meanwhile he slid the pitcher towards the gods and said that you drink it at once. In the meantime I'm making them dance. There was one among them. What was his name? Yes?
The guy responsible for the eclipse. So he saw that this was a fraud. So he said if you can become Mohini then I can become god. So he went as god and he drank the nectar. Understand the meaning of all this. One who has learned Vedanta, he will see the meaning of each and everything right. So he said that I will drink. So he picked it up and drank it and he thought he would make the rest of the asuras drink it too. So the god started to chase him.
The demons were chasing him from the other side. Both of them were chasing him together. So the poor fellow got very scared. He got so scared that his hands started trembling. So he was flying through the sky, when it is said that the drops fell here and there at four places on the banks of the river. That is why Kumbha is celebrated at four places.
Then he was caught. But what happened to him by then?
He became immortal. He became immortal. He was caught and cut in half. And when he was stealing all this, the sun and the moon went there and threw light on him. They lit torches and caught him. So when they cut him into two pieces, he said that just as you cut me, I will also cut you. So then he causes eclipses, solar eclipse and lunar eclipse. You got me caught. So one day of the year I will eat you. This is the story. This is its whole tale.
Now what does this mean? Amrit is at the center of the story. Amrit is in the center. And where can we get Amrit from? By self introspection. The more a person knows himself, the more he will become free from himself. Free from death. What we have become is known as death. What you think of yourself is known as death. And the more you look at yourself, the more you understand that what I think of myself is all futile. I'm actually not that. Negation, Neti Neti. Amrit does not mean gaining something. Amrit means being free from death.
This is the element of amrit. To be free from death. One who stopped at poison will also not be able to get free from death. And one who stopped at gems, kamdhenu and kalpavriksha will also not be able to get free from death. Anyone who stops at any of his false identities and the desires that arise from it, will remain trapped in death. So this is the true essence of the story of kumbh.
What you are and what your desires are- that is death. Although your wish is to never die. But whatever you have become is death itself. That is why it tries many ways to escape. Whatever you associate yourself with, whatever the thing is that you desire, all of them are all something that is constantly changing, firstly. And secondly, they're not what they appear to be. That is death.
Death means that what is there now will not be there tomorrow. And whatever topics we associate with, they are all the same. So what is there right now will not be there tomorrow. It is not like that even today itself. This is called death. So Amrit means cutting away your ignorance. The search for Amrit is to cut away all the beliefs we have in our minds about ourselves and the world. This is what it means.
And this inner search can happen only when there is devotion and love towards the truth greater than self. The only difference between gods and demons is that gods listen to the truth. They listen to Mahadeva more than themselves. So that is why they are gods. Otherwise they are two sons of the same mother. You know all this right? They are two sons of the same mother. One god and one demon. Is this becoming clear?
Not all parts of the story are such that their essence can be given to you. Now you ask, ‘Why are there only four drops? Why not six?’ So it does not mean anything. Four means four. Someone thought of it and said four. Now don't think that four means it is Turiya. Don't force the outcome. As far as the essence of the matter was concerned that has been told. The rest remains as it is.
It is said that in everything there is something that is time relative and there's also something that is timeless. Now you can ask, ‘There are so many mountains. Why did they take only Mandarachal? It could have been anyone else. There is no answer to this. All these are time relative things. All these are just contextual things which have no timeless essence or past.
The thing which has timeless significance is only Amrit. And that Amrit comes after poison. Amrit comes after temptation. In the one who gets scared, it's good for them. Whoever gets scared dies.
See, it's written in the puranas and Gabbar was just repeating it and getting happy.
(Everybody laughs.)
Questioner: Acharya Ji, you have just explained the Vedantic point of view. Since childhood I have been hearing in the family that if you go to Ganga Ji, your sins will be washed away. Now this whole concept has ended…
Acharya Prashant: Ganga Ji is within us.
Questioner: Yes.
Acharya Prashant: The same song that the saints have sung again and again. How many songs are there on rivers? Tell me. Only when you cross the river that is within you, can you meet your beloved, that is Ganga Ji. It is not possible by going there. The stream of emotions flowing inside has to be cut off. So whether it's the samudra manthan or it is Gangasnaan, the meaning of both is purely internal.
If you go somewhere Gujarat, Goa, Kerala and then take a huge churner and start churning there, will Amrit come out? Just like when Amrit cannot be obtained by churning the ocean similarly sins cannot be washed away by taking a dip in a river. Are you getting what I'm saying here?
The stream of emotions is here.
Questioner: Greetings Acharya Ji. Just like a demon drank the nectar similarly there is something inside us, ego which has drunk the nectar. I guess this is what it means because the whole story is related to us.
Acharya Prashant: Relate it if you want to. Some other day, in some other mood, maybe I will also relate to it I guess. But I don't think there's any point in thinking about it.
Questioner: But you told us that…
Acharya Prashant: That whole thing about all the gods and demons chasing him together and four drops falling at four places, then Rahu Ketu eclipses- some meaning can be derived from it.
But you should just focus only on the core of the story. There are many things in the rest of the story but one has to complete the story too, right? The story also has to be completed. So there are many things in it.
But the mind is creative and the Vedantic perspective can be added.
What is that? That's not a mic in your hand. It's a weapon. And these three people sitting here and there are your companions. You can stretch it as much as you want. Right? There will be no harm in it. Rather it will be good if Vedantic perspective is seen everywhere, in every part of the story then it is a good thing there's been nothing wrong in it.
Questioner: So we can draw a conclusion as you told….
Acharya Prashant: Yes. Yes. I want you to draw meaning to everything. Even in glasses, even in spoons. So you can say that everything is symbolic, everything should become symbolic. It is a very good thing that everything is symbolic. Ego, Love, Truth, Atman. No problem in that.
Questioner: Thank you.
Questioner: Hello sir, this Mahakumbh is being organized in which fifty crore people are going to participate. So the river on the banks of which it is being organized is Ganga river.
So there was a report by NGT that 85% 85% of the creatures that washed their bodies in the river have died between 1970 and 2015.
So can't this country which has been a spiritual country teach how to give respect to the river in the right way?
Acharya Prashant: Who will do it? You do it. Then everything can happen. You do it. I can do it too. But all my time is spent in ensuring that the way things are going right now somehow continues to happen.
Sir, I have received an invitation from a TV channel to do a program on kumbh but I cannot go.
Questioner: The thing is there is a report of NGT that came out saying the water of Ganga in it is not fit for bathing.
Acharya Prashant: Why are you telling me this? Everyone knows this. What will happen by telling this?
Questioner: Still why is this much population attending?
Acharya Prashant: I am not responsible for it. Why are you asking me? You're asking me why people are going and making the river dirty. What should I tell you? Why are they doing it?
You should ask me, ‘Acharya Ji, why are you not able to stop them?’ Yes, I can stop them.
How can I stop them? How can I stop them? Tell me, how can I stop them? With all the fear you're living with, it may happen that someday you have to face the acquisition that you had the opportunity and you lose that opportunity.
One is to lose the opportunity and the other is to kill it out.
Questioner: Sir, we were talking about population and growth. So there is a prominent person who said that the 2.1 fertility rate which is going down is not good for Hindus…
Acharya Prashant: Why are you asking me all this? I am unable to understand. I am unable to understand. The one who said that, why did he say that? You already know why he said that in this. What should I tell you about this?
Yes, I can probably stop and explain all of that if I get the time and resources. If you come to me and express anger and outrage on my issues, what will you achieve by doing this? That two people are telling each other that something is going very wrong. Something is going very wrong. What will be achieved by this?
The issue that you are telling me, what are you telling me about? I have already told you about that issue. It's me who told you that the river is dirty. I told you that stupidity happens in the name of religion. Why are you telling me?
You tell me whether you will be standing with me? Instead of that, you are saying the world is a very bad place. You would not even have found the world bad. I am the one who told you that the world is bad.
What will you gain by bringing my words back to me and telling them to me? I am addressing you. Why am I not addressing the United Nations? Why not? I'm asking you. And there are some fools who stand up one after the other and address the parliament, the British Parliament, the American Parliament. Why am I not addressing them?
Because they don't look at the person. They look at the people behind them. They see what kind of people are standing with him. How much strength they have, how much power and with how much boldness they're coming forward and saying that yes, we are with you.
Will it be more beneficial to the planet if I say this to you or will it be more beneficial if I say this at the United Nations? So, how should I say this? Tell me.
