Love is Enough. Hari Om!
Acharya Prashant: The disappearance of sound into silence, as it happens in Om , is analogous to the disappearance of the arrow mind into the Brahman target. What is Om ? Sounds finely dissolving into, tapering off into silence. That's how it happens.
And then figuratively, we say that Om , comprising of a, u, m, (akār-ukār-makār ), representing the three states of consciousness, dissolves into silence. And silence is the target. Similarly, the mind, leaving behind all its three states, the various three thousand states possible to three states, disappears into the target. So, that's how Om sends the mind rushing into the target.
Pass through all that you can experience — all that is possible in waking, dreaming, sleeping, and then cross over, jump over, transcend. Into what? Into non-being, into your absence, because your presence is only within the three states. Now, within the three states, you are you. And what happens when you leave the three states behind? You have not left merely the three states behind, you have left your self behind. And when there is no you, then there is no mind, no ego. That is. That is.
It's beautiful how our elders, the seers, were so much in love with realization, and liberation, and attainment of Truth. They were so insanely in love with this thing that they turned their entire lives into simply a process of liberation, or, more poetically, they turned their entire lives into a love song. So, two people meet, and these are just normal rustic villagers, and they say, "Hari Om !" Even if they are meeting to borrow and lend money, even if they are meeting for a very materialistic purpose, they still begin with “Hari Om !”
Now, money was the agenda, but the whole thing has begun with transcendence: "Om , go beyond money, go beyond money." And the whole affair, the whole meeting ends as well with Hari Om . Not ‘good morning’, or ‘how is your sister-in-law doing?’ — none of that.
The fellow yawns and says, "Hey Ram !" There something happens with me as well. Doesn't feel well, says, "Hey Ram !" Is aghast or dismayed — Haye Ram ! Whatsoever is happening, Ram has to be there. The entire life has been impregnated by Ram, as if there is nothing else to do, as if there is nothing else at all, just Ram.
“Ram-Ram!” And you can have your version, you can have your particular flavour, you can say, “Sita-Ram”. On one hand, life is devoted to that which is being connoted by Ram here. On the other hand, there is such an omnipresence of Ram in your daily worldly activities that you are already with Ram. You wake up with Ram, you sleep with Ram. Now, where is the distance between you and Ram? You are already there.
You step out of your house, and what do you see? There is that temple. Even before you step out of your house, what is it that wakes you up? The sound of the bells from the temple. So, you've reached, already reached. Your life, every grain of it, is imbued in the colour of that.
So, in one sense, you have already reached. In another sense, there is an infinity still between you and Ram.
Gayab bhi hai, hazir bhi; tad dure, tad vantike.
So, on one hand, the entire passage of life is just a game, a child's play. On the other hand, nothing is to be taken casually. Even a casual greeting has to be Ram-maee . Now, this is something that a mind trained in duality alone cannot comprehend. Because duality says, "If you are near, then you cannot be far, and if you are far, then you cannot be near." Only someone who has had a flavour of Advait , non-duality, will know what we are saying here.
On one hand, everything is just Leela — it's like a game. On the other hand, be extremely careful that you do not miss out on Ram, even in the mundane acts of everyday life. And these two go together. Far from being opposites, far from being even complimentary, they are concurrent; they always go together.
When you remember Ram in every breath, I hope, I'm not confusing you, when I say Ram here, I mean Ātman , Brahman , that which is being spoken of in the lines we have at hand. So, only when you remember Ram in each breath — when such is the intensity of love, when such is the one-pointedness of devotion, only when this is there — life becomes a game to be enjoyed. Else, life is your albatross, life is your burden — a cross to be just carried till you die, and not like Jesus, by the way, but like a punishment.
Questioner: Acharya Ji, you're saying that on the one side, we have to live life like a Leela , to do the Karma . And on another side, to do it very specifically and carefully. It will happen with love. Love will be the cause for it or anything other?
Acharya Prashant: Yes. Love is enough. Love is enough.
