Want to Learn True Meditation?
Questioner: Hi sir, my name is Nikhil Rane. I'm a software developer. So you have played a major role in increasing the clarity with which I perceive life. So, thank you very much for that. Also you just said that dispassionate observation is the key for right action to emerge by itself so that right action will happen. So, when I hear the word observation, the first thing which comes into the front and center of my mind is meditation. Like it's been years now I heard about some gurus who say that meditation is about observing our thoughts.
Then there are others who say that, “Don't observe, just chant something a particular number of times per day.” And then there are some western gurus who basically propel this idea that, “you don't have to do meditation and act per say. You just have to observe something with the utmost of your attention.” Like even if you are going through a park, you see a flower and then give it 100% of your attention and that is the highest most meditation you can possibly be. So I want to ask, does this link between observation and meditation exist? What exactly is meditation?
Acharya Prashant: Technically some of what you have said is proper, but practically there are great problems and entire humanity has suffered out of those problems. See, we said that when you look at yourself, it's not your greatness you will see shining forth, right? You'll see squandered opportunities, you'll see bondages, you'll see greed, lust, all kinds of lies, fears. That's what you'll see, right? And those things are not pleasant to see, are they?
There's a thief within us who does not want to be caught. He is the one we are calling as the liar. He is the jealous one. And since he is a thief, he is also always afraid.
He sits within all of us, each one of us. Do you intimate a thief in advance that you are coming to observe him? That's the practical problem. When you sit down to meditate, you already know that you are meditating and meditation that is known as meditation is no meditation at all. If you know you are meditating you are fooling yourself and therefore I say meditation has to be a continuous thing like your heartbeat, like your breath. Otherwise you have told it yourself in advance you know this is time to meditate, sit down close your eyes let there be no noise.
The thief has already gone into hiding or the thief will now come across as a saint suitably dressed. You have to catch yourself red-handed and therefore there can be no appointed time or method or place for meditation. Else what you will see within will be a projected thing not an actual one. Isn't that obvious? And that's why meditation succeeds only superficially. It succeeds to the extent that for a while the thief will be forced to come across as saintly for a while. So for that duration there would be no theft.
But then you cannot meditate that way all the time, closing your eyes. You have to drive your way to the office and your meditation requires you to close your eyes. How will you drive? And have you seen, What kind of thoughts swarm your mind when you are driving your way to the office? Seen all kinds of ugly and evil thoughts. Can't I punch the boss today? Why do I have to necessarily swipe the card? All kinds of thoughts. Mornings are a tense time in a place like Bengaluru, aren't they?
Look at the morning traffic. And the kids have to be packed off to school and everybody is behind schedule. Everybody irrespective of what your schedule is or who you are. Now that's the point to look at yourself. But you are already done with your meditation at 7:30 a.m. So, how will you look at yourself at 9:00 a.m.? Tell me. That's a box you have already ticked off. Meditation done. And I'm not denying that there would be some beneficial effects.
Beneficial effect you can get even if you sit silently anywhere for 10-15 minutes. Even for 5 minutes if you can just sit silently anywhere there would be some benefit. But let's not call that as meditation. Meditation is something sacred. Let's not bring it down to that level. You watch a flower and that is meditation. Why just a flower? Why not all the trash that is sprayed on the road? Why flower? Think of it. Why this bias? Why is spiritual imagery so obsessed with the reproductive part of plants? I mean there are other things about plants, right? Why not leave? Flower, Flower, Flower. That way, human beings do have flowers in their bodies, equivalence nothing more than that. Is it vulgarity? Are you getting it?
Since the one within is at work all the time is the thief. He is the one called Maya. * Maya* is never at rest. How do you afford to take your eye off? It rises within and you should be able to know, yes this is happening. Yes, this is happening. Yes, this is happening. I see it is happening. You don't have to say it should not happen. You don't have to abet it and say yes it must happen. But if you know it is happening then the right consequence follows. What is the right consequence? You don't have to know it in advance. It just happens and that's called faith.
To know yourself and allow the right thing to happen even without knowing what the right thing is. I don't know what the right thing is nor do I know what the consequences of that right action might be. Yet because it is right I submit myself to it. That's faith. That's also nishkam karma desireless action. Do you get this? This is meditation sir. Is it not? Or should I rather stop speaking and sit here down and you like me on my legs not on my hunches? Right. Should we meditate together? Let's do that. Play some beautiful music.
When I first heard that I said, "This is psychedelic." I was coming out from college. So this is psychedelic. Why are they doing this to meditators? Then I discovered that's just another form of intoxication. So it suits that the music itself sounds so psychedelic and all fanciful imagery. Imagine you have landed on the moon and there is a great pool of fresh water in front of you. Sir, there is no water on the moon but you imagine. Okay, I'm imagining. Now you can see the image of the moon in the water. But I'm on the moon. All right, you imagine it's the image of Jupiter. Sir, from the moon.
You know of these things. This is called guided meditation. To meditate is to see who sits within and keeps misguiding you. Instead you are choosing another one to misguide you. You already have one within. getting it? Yes. Bring it closer to yourself. Bring it to the very ground of life. Anything in spirituality that takes you away from the immediate realities of life is just I wash. It has to be related to me, my cup of tea, the time I spend in the kitchen, the time I spend driving, my kids, their state, their education, the decisions I have to make. what I see on the road.
Why do I like certain birds and I'm worried? Well, summer is approaching. I need to keep some water for them. Yeah, my cat is wonderful, but why do I dislike stray dogs? This is spirituality. These are the questions one has to engage with. It's not about a particular kind of behavior or attire or intonations or sacred marks. No, none of that. This is deliberate. I want to make a point. It does not have to do with your attire. Are you getting it?
The truth that we all inwardly love without even knowing we are in love.
That truth is independent of time. It is independent of everything that's temporal, geographical, spatial, cultural. Spirituality has nothing to do with the clothes that you choose to wear, the language you speak, the way you behave, whether you address someone as this or that. facing a particular direction while eating or sleeping. No. What nonsense spacetime go to Advait Vedanta and says just a space time Maya, nothing more than that. when Maya is Maya whether left or right, go to modern science they'll say yeah the entire universe is a space time how do you differentiate? and It's a very symmetrical universe which means irrespective of where you stand in the universe the universe will look alike. So what do you mean by directions? Directions themselves are just human constructs just like the calendar is.
I hate that February has 28 days and is sandwiched between two months of 31 each because that disturbs all my calculations. Why can't you have 3 months of 30 each? The number of days remains the same. No? but February has 28 days. No, it does not have 28 days. You decided that it will have 28 days and therefore you can change it. And that brings us to something very important about real Adhyatm, it empowers you.
Because it does not take you to some other worldly power, some creator sitting in the skies. Therefore, it gives you the right to change. If I did it, I can undo it. And how do I undo it? By just knowing that I did it. Once you realize you have done it, the change happens effortlessly on its own. But if you think that 28 days of February are a divine mandate, then you will never change. You have to see you did it. And then you say this is nonsensical. This makes no…. illogical. seeing that there is this thing called ego, which is in the absolute sense fictitious but in its own frame of reference it thinks it is only truth. this thing called the ego and this thing believes itself to be the doer. It is doing this, doing that, doing this.
You observe its actions. You observe its mechanisms. So, is it so simplistic? This is all. What about all the great scriptures, then? The entire libraries of religious literature. If it is truly religious, it will boil down to nothing but this. And let me take the liberty of saying that most of that which passes off as spiritual or religious literature is not religious at all. Story books and sometimes very toxic stories. There's nothing religious about them at all.
Spirituality is not about having a belief system. It is not about trusting in something.
Astha, Vishwas, Manyata, Dharna, but you know we all believe in this. We have a great faith in that. That particular tree will lead us. beyond the stratosphere. So we said anything that comes to you masquerading as spiritual you ask where is “I” in it? Where is the self in it? How is it related to the intimate facts of my life? Don't tell me something that happened in the 16th century. Don't tell me how the world was created. Don't give me your cosmological beliefs. This is how God sat down and then he made. Don't give me all that. I'm not concerned with that.
My concern is this life, this single life that I'm living. This ephemeral life in an infinite and uncaring universe. think of the vast silence of the universe. It's unnerving. And in that vast uncaring silence, here we are with our dreams and ambitions and hopes. When was the big bang? Oh! they said so many billion years back. What's your lifespan? How many nanoseconds in the cosmological scale? The second thing you must always ask When you come upon something that claims to be religious or spiritual, does it involve belief?
The first one you must test for presence. The second one you must test for absence. If it is really spiritual, it must involve you and your life. And the second one has to be tested for absence. If it is really spiritual, then it should not involve belief of any kind. No beliefs, please sir. Because if we have to trade in beliefs, then my belief is as good as yours. If we have to trade in dreams, then you have your own thing to say, I have my own thing to say. And that's what leads to so much religious antagonism. No? you believe your god is the best. That one believes his god is the best. You believe yours is the last prophet. He says mine is the greatest one. And then there are crusades ,beliefs.
Anything that has even an iota of belief is not fit to be called religious. Religion is not belief. Beliefs are never your own. They keep changing anyway. Today you believe in one thing. Then some new Baba enters the market and he reaches something else and you start believing in that. If it is my own then it is not called belief. It is called understanding or realization. All beliefs are important things. They come from elsewhere. if it is truly mine, then we won't call it a belief. Then we'll call it my own realization. I know. I don't believe. I know. Belief by definition is something that just very inadvertently, very unconsciously either enters you or is implanted within you. Those are the things that we deal with. Those are the important questions. Are we on this? Are we together?
