On how to really live by his teachings || Acharya Prashant (2016)

Question: How do we bridge the gap between knowing and believing? Because, with due respect, all that has been said is correct, but am I following it in my real life? Do I know it well enough, that I start believing it? Should pain and suffering be the only catalyst for making Knowing, a believing?

Acharya Prashant: Yes, Yes, Yes. Good.

The assumption is, that knowing is not sufficient, you should also believe in it.

First of all, believing is needless. Secondly, even knowing is redundant, needless. You know what is redundant? That which is a duplication, that which is not quite warranted. Not only do we not need to believe in anything, even knowing is a burden. Whatever is essential, is already quite well known to us. What more do we want to know?

You are saying that my words ring true to you. How is it possible that you come to resonate with them, so quickly and so easily? It is because I am not saying anything that you are not familiar with. I am not saying anything that is alien to you. I am only saying that which you are deeply aware of. And that is why it is so easy for you to consent to it.

In some sense, I am your heart, speaking to you in front of you. The heart keeps speaking to you from within you also. But then it’s voice is quite feeble and coded, we are unable to hear it. I am just saying in a louder way, and in a more decoded language to you, which your heart is anyway always telling you. Now, do you need to believe me? Now, do you think there is any need to know something new?

A portrait of a night sky is hung in front of you, and you immediately fall in love with it. All it shows is the night and the stars and the moon. Is there anything new there? There is nothing new there. You fall in love with it because you are already in love with the night. It is just that the portrait has become a method of bringing your attention to something that remains obfuscated under rubbish.

Nights keep coming and going, we don’t even raise our heads to look at the moon. The portrait has made it possible for you to more conveniently look at the moon and the stars. You like them because you have always liked them. The painting has not induced a liking, it only reveals the liking. Are you getting it?

So, you can comfortably forget what I am saying. Because I am not saying anything that needs to be remembered. You already know whatever I am saying. What I am saying is like an echo. If I am echoing something, then you must know that your own heart is the source of that echo. I am just a reflection. It is originating from you, being reflected through me. I am not the source. You are the source. In some sense, you all are speaking right now. I am a mirror. I am just reflecting what you are saying. Superficially it might appear that I am the speaker here. I am not. You are talking. Such are the paradoxes of Truth. What to do?

We are already loaded with so much. Don’t make my words another load, by trying to remember them. Whatever is happening, is happening right now. I am not giving you stuff to memorize, whatever is happening is happening right now. So, just be here with me. And stop bothering what you need to carry out from this hall. You don’t need to take away anything from here. No, take aways.

Listener: So, I can understand everything. I can understand the laws of energy. I can understand that yes, why do I need to speak Truth. So, what is it that is not understandable by the mind? Why do you always say that this is something that cannot be understood by the mind? What is not understood by the mind?

AP: That it does not need to understand anything.

All that you have been understanding so far, is needless. That is what mind cannot understand. Because if the mind understands that, then the mind is in mortal danger of sublimation, passing away. So, the mind will be happy, ‘understanding’ a lot of things. When the mind says it understands something, it only means that it has gathered knowledge of that thing. The mind will be happy gathering knowledge of a lot of things, the mind will never be happy realizing that all that knowledge is superficial. The mind will be very happy proclaiming to itself and to a crowd, about how much it knows, but the mind would tremble realizing that whatever it knows has not helped it.

Realising that, is called surrender.

The mind will gather knowledge, never give up its confidence in knowledge. Giving up that confidence is called surrender.

(Smilingly, looking at the questioner)

L: Yes, I mean, finally one says, that whatsoever you said, or scriptures said, or God said is absolutely true. You surrender. But today also, my question is, if I know this, why there are a few things that I don’t get. I am still longing for those things. Why is it that I am longing?

AP: You are not longing for anything. You are only longing for freedom from things that you know. You are not longing to get any new thing, you are longing for freedom from the old things.

It is a grave misconception that we want God, or enlightenment, or some divine knowledge. We do not want anything. All that we want is freedom from our burdens. How can you want God? Is God an entity, a person, a thing, a thought, an object? How can you want God? Do you have any definite idea of God? Where will you get God? God cannot be an object of desire. You are not really wanting God, you are just wanting liberation from the self-inflicted wounds. From the self-built prisons. Nothing new is needed. It is only the gathered mass that is crying out for redemption. Let the old go. That’s all that is needed. Because with the old, whatever you are searching for, the searcher remains the old one. When the old goes the search also vanishes. Because the searcher is, gone. The searcher was so old, he went away with the old.

Spirituality is not about finding something new. Nothing new can be found. The eternally new is already sitting in your heart. Spirituality is about having the confidence to not be a slave of the old. When you are not tied to the old, then you find that the new is coming upon you. And you also find that quite funny, because you see that the new was anyway always ready to come. Your various defenses were blocking the new. You get rid of the defenses, the new is ever present.

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