Stop Asking These Spiritual Questions
Questioner: Shri Acharya Prashant Ji, as a child, I always had this question and this question was, ‘Where does The Universe end?’ ‘How can we get out of this birth and death cycle and merge with The Supreme Consciousness or The Golden Light?’
Acharya Prashant: See, it’s great that you want to reach those great heights and you are talking of Supreme Consciousness and these things. But what’s really more practically important in this moment is to see where we are acting in very, very limited ways. Let the Supreme wait; keep the Supreme aside. First of all, let’s talk about the present, the imminent, what are we doing right now?
The Supreme means the highest, the ultimate. Are we committed to ‘the highest’ in the action that we are doing right now? Because that’s the only thing that you can control. That’s the only thing that decides your level of honesty. Otherwise, it makes not much sense to target the Absolute; while remaining willfully committed to small things in your daily life.
How will you get the immense, if you are so committed to the small, to the petty? So, one has to weed out pettiness from his life and there are layers of pettiness, one after the other. As one keeps peeling off those layers, one keeps peeling off his inner ego. When a lot has been peeled away, then the question about the Supreme itself disappears.
When you have no questions to ask with respect to the Supreme or the ultimate or the Truth that’s when you realize that there is hardly anything to be realized and there is hardly anybody who can realize. You see, and that’s linked to the universe thing you used to wonder about as a kid. You used to think, ‘what’s beyond the universe?’ There is more universe beyond the universe. There is more universe beyond the universe. Where does the universe stop then? The universe stops where the thinker of the universe stops.
Questioner: Your thinking expands the universe. Either way, what you believe in, as they say, ‘Aham Bramhasmi.’
Acharya Prashant: Yes, your thinking is the universe, so therefore, there is no limit to the universe as such. The universe stops only at the point, where the perceiver of the universe stops. Otherwise, you could say, “Well, I’ve come to the boundary of universe.” And then, you wonder what’s beyond the Universe and if you can wonder about something it is still a part of the Universe.
Maybe it’s another kind of Universe but nevertheless, it’s still Universe or you could start calling it a multiverse kind of model where you say, “Well, there is one Universe, there is another Universe, there is third Universe.” But even if you are talking of multiverses, you are the one talking of them. It’s all within the domain of your thought. So as long as there is thought, there is one Universe after the other.
So, one has to think of oneself. Think of yourself. Even the Supreme or the Absolute that you think of is just something within the universe, so stop caring or wondering so much about it. Think neither of the universe so much, nor should you concern yourself with the Supreme so much.
Look rather at your own life, your own daily actions. What do you work for? Who are the people you relate to? What do you like? What do you dislike? Where does your bread come from? Why have you chosen a particular kind of livelihood? These are the questions that matter much more than any of the traditional, spiritual queries or you could say that these daily mundane questions are the ‘Real Spiritual’ ones.
Questioner: Thank you so much, Acharya Prashant Ji.
