Prakriti, Attention and Truth
Questioner: Acharya Ji, if I look at Prakriti with a lot of attention, will I be able to get hints towards the Truth?
Acharya Prashant: Obviously, and you need not confine your observation to flowers or birds. You may even look at man's building, whether you look at a bird's nest or a man's house, this or this, or even this (pointing to the objects in the surrounding).
You'll come to know a lot about this thing called 'Little Self'. All is the same; why to say that Prakriti is only about the jungle? The concrete jungle, too, is Prakriti.
Questioner: So, the quality of attention has to be energized?
Acharya Prashant: You have to be receptive. When you say that quality of attention has to be at its highest, it scares me a bit because it smells of tension. The feel that I get is of tension rather than attention. Something has to be at its highest.
You rather have to be relaxed and just receptive. It comes to you. You don't have to chase it. You simply have to unlock your door, and these two are very different approaches. What does the devotee do? He just opens his doors and waits, calmly waits. He doesn't want to enforce his will. There is no resistance from my side, and that's the utmost I can do. Non-resistance. Active pursual would all be within yourself. You are actively pursuing the beyond within yourself. What will you get?
It's like looking for a hippopotamus in the inner circle of Connaught Place, and you are very alert. You are checking out every man, woman, and child—"Are you the one?" But all that you are doing within a self-declared periphery, the inner circle of Connaught Place, and you are saying, I must find hippopotamus here. You won't get it there. Instead, let yourself loose. Get out of this boundary. Feel free. Chill out.
Questioner: Is that also, in another way, referred to as abandoned?
Acharya Prashant: Abandon, yeah, obviously, obviously—gay abandon, carefree abandon. It comes to you when you are not looking for it. That's its nature. It doesn't like stalkers. Comes to you on its own. Just don't be occupied elsewhere; patiently, silently, peacefully, devotedly, just wait. Abandon the search. The active search, at least.
You're reading Krishnamurti; he calls it 'passive awareness'. The stress is on 'passivity'. Ego loves activity. The Bhakt is very passive. The pursuer of knowledge is very active.
The best example is the session itself. If you try to do anything with my words or with your reception, then you will make a mess of everything. You just have to passively receive. And that's a lot of work. But that's a lot of inner work.
When you are hunting, that's external work. You are going out to hunt. When you are going out to hunt, then you are trying to shoot down the Truth. When you are hunting within, that's a lot of work. But now, who is being shot at? —You.
So, instead of trying to shoot down the Truth, hunt within and shoot down everything that resists the Truth. That's a lot of work. Passivity, too, requires a lot of effort. That's right effort.
Yesterday we were talking of work, right? And it's not introspection. It's higher than that. You have to very honestly admit that within you, which stands in fear of and in opposition to the real thing. And then? —bang, bang, bang, what the hell are you doing within?
Questioner: Acharya Ji, if you're passive, that means you tend to receive anything which is said to you by any Guru?
Acharya Prashant: No, that can't happen. Being passive means being very, very receptive to the real thing and, therefore, actively hunting down all that which would oppose the real thing.
If you are listening to something that arises from falseness and would rather corrupt or pollute you within, then passivity would mean that you hunt this very thing down. Because what is it that you hunt down in passivity? —the barrier against Truth.
And many a times, the barrier against the real thing is that which poses as the real thing but is not. What is the barrier against the right teaching? —the wrong teaching. So passive receptivity would mean hunting down all the wrong teaching.
Passive receptivity is not like opening your door. No, it is open to everything. But it is not about opening your door and going off to sleep and thereby allowing just anybody to enter. No, it is about keeping the door open and waiting with a garland and a gun. This is passive receptivity. The door is open, and I am waiting with a garland and a gun. Garland is for my beloved, and the gun is for those who pose as the real thing.
