Man has love for light but is habituated towards darkness || Acharya Prashant (2018)

Questioner (Q): Acharya Ji, why do we avoid looking at the source of our thoughts and actions? Why does man choose darkness in spite of being fully aware of it? How to live the Truth?

Acharya Prashant (AP): Going to the Source is such a great method. If you want somebody to quit flesh-eating, just take them to the source from where the flesh comes. Just take them to a meat factory, take them to an animal farm.

Once you have seen the source of rubbish, rubbish becomes unacceptable. And that is why we avoid seeing the source.

Now you know why sex is performed in a dark room? There are a few things of which the source must be left unseen, otherwise, the fun of titillation goes out.

Knowledge is dangerous. Self-knowledge is even more dangerous. It is not that we are incapable of seeing the Source of our thoughts, our emotions, actions, motivations. We are not incapable, we are just unwilling.

We are just unwilling because the Jalebi (a sweet) is so damn tempting, and we have totally spoiled our taste buds.

Some people won’t even look at the expiry date of their favourite food items because that knowledge might mean that they have to dispose-off that knowledge item. Just eat it, and remain blind.

Certain pleasures can come only in blindness, that’s why so much blindness exists. Pleasure necessitates blindness.

Now you also know why it is difficult to teach. Not that people cannot understand, it’s just that they do not want to understand.

Once I said, “We have a great interest in not understanding. Understanding is dangerous.” To most people it is not ignorance that is dangerous, it is Understanding that is dangerous.

The funny thing is that you know that the knowledge is dangerous, which means that you also know that you are living in a sandcastle. You also know that you are living in a city of delusion, you also know that you are living in darkness, and that is why you are so afraid of the Light.

And that’s counter-intuitive.

You think that somebody living in darkness would pray for Light. Wrong. Those who are living in darkness are mortally scared of Light.

Often Love gets trumped by habit. Habit wins, Love loses. Man has Love for Light but is habituated towards darkness. And habit defeats Love. Who is a Saint? Whose Love is greater than his habit.

And everybody has a love for Light, everybody is born habituated towards darkness. What will you let win – Love or habit? That decides everything for you.

Q: Acharya Ji, in moments of deep pleasure, what is the way to remember the Source?

AP: No, there is no real way. I have been helpless before this question.

Honesty is the way. I mean, your dishonesty will defeat all the ways that a Teacher can suggest. I can suggest you a way to reach somewhere, but you are the driver of your car. If you don’t want to reach there, would any way be useful?

So Honesty is the way.

It’s a very tactless answer, and many people would say that it is a very useless answer. But I have never known any other answer.

To me, it boils down to that one, innocent, little word – ‘Honesty’.

You already know of it. And if you don’t know of it, I am there to remind you of it. But after you have known, you have been reminded, the ball is in your court. Now, what can the Guru do? Now, what can the Scriptures do? Now, what can any kind of help or helper do? When you don’t want it, it can’t be pushed down your throat.

Honesty – if it’s there, it’s there. If it’s not there, it’s not there.

And sometimes I have been asked, “How to bring about that Honesty?” That’s the same question about ‘ways’ just rephrased. So then I say, “Prayer.”

“In what ways can we become more honest?” Pray. There is no way, just pray. Just pray. And pray in the most heart-rending way possible. Beat your head on the wall. Express your desire.

Just as you express all your other desires, your desire for money, for pleasure, for prestige, for sex, for all the attractive objects of the world, just as you express your desire for all these things in the world, express, manifest your desire for Liberation as well.

Go, beat your head on the wall.

Where is the expression of this desire? Or is this desire meant to be latent till your death? Do you ever feel shy of expressing all your foolish, carnal desires? No. You want pani-puri , you go and express all your desire. “Please give paani-puri .” You want Liberation, go and express your desire, “Please give Liberation.”

But that you never say.

If you really want it, then clamor for it. Create a scene, go wild. If your God doesn’t listen to you, bring down the Temple. Tell Him, “I can’t withhold it. I want it. Please give me Liberation.”

Be honest at least in wanting Honesty. Even the want to be honest, is such a dishonest want. What do you want? The thing is – you don’t exist to want.

There is just the want.

So much effort and energy you put in nonsense, if you could put even a tiny fraction of that in demanding Liberation, I assure you that you would get it. One percent – one percent is all that is needed. Budget one percent of your life and its resources towards Liberation, and miracles will happen.

Honest one percent. Not the one percent of the kind, where you say, “I will devote one percent of my monthly salary to some noble cause.” No, not that kind of a thing.

First of all, you will have to measure the depth of your wastefulness. First of all, you will have to really measure the unlimited extent to which you are sold-out to nonsense. And then, of that unlimited investment, you will have to measure one percent. Now one percent of something unlimited is also unlimited.

Your foolishness is unlimited. And if your devotion has to be one percent of your foolishness, then your devotion has to be infinite. But it would require a lot of humility to firstly acknowledge that our stupidity is infinite. The moment you acknowledge that your stupidity is infinite, the right investment has been made.

Boundless nonsense.

One day has infinite time, you know. You are able to say, “It has twenty-four hours”, only because you have defined the hour in a particular way. A day has just twenty-four hours. But how many minutes does a day have?

Q: Fourteen hundred forty minutes.

AP: See how the time has increased. You want even more time? See how many seconds does a day have? See how time has further increased. Now even a second has a billion fractions. Has it not? See how time has increased.

One day has infinite time. And see how you devote this infinite time to total stupidity, even a billionth part of a second is precious. Saints have told this again and again to you.

Be very mindful of time. See where it is going. The billionth part of the second is Life, and you just dump it away. Common men live by years, Saints live by the billionth part of the second. That’s the difference.

Those who are a little more conscious, they live by the hour. For them, the day has just twenty-four opportunities. If you live by the hour, how many opportunities does the day give you? Just twenty-four. But if you can live by the billionth part of a second, then the day offers you unlimited opportunities.

And all of them are being wasted.

Such a colossal defeat.

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