The core matter of all your matters || Acharya Prashant, on Guru Kabir (2018)

The moon shines in my body, but my blind eyes cannot see it. The moon is within me, and so is the sun.

~ Kabir

Questioner (Q): What does Kabir mean by moon and sun here? What does he mean when he says that they are within him, and that the moon shines within his body but his blind eyes cannot see it?

Acharya Prashant (AP): Not only are the moon and the sun within the observer, the entire universe is also in the observer. Even the observer is in the observer. Not one moon, not one sun—millions of moons and billions of suns.

Q: “Ya ghat andar saat samandar, ya hi me naulakh taara (The seven seas are in this body; even the most precious of gems is here within)…”

AP: “…Avadhu, andhadhun andhiyaara (Avadhu, there is darkness everywhere).”

The first half an hour today, the subject is the object. There is nothing outside of you that is not a function of who you are. Man does not see moon; man is moon, moon is man. It’s a man-moon system. It’s a man-moon system in which the moon appears to be throwing light on the man and the man appears to be watching the moon. It’s a system; it’s one composite unit.

Now, kindly do not think that you are standing somewhere and watching the moon and it’s one system. No, it’s a man-universe system. There is man, and he is projecting the entire universe—no, not willfully, not consciously; just by the virtue of him being a man he is projecting everything.

Kabir Sahib says, “All is here, all is here, all is here; and yet I am unable to understand this. I am unable to know anything because I know through the brain and because I look through the eyes. I am the ego enmeshed with the universe, when I am really the witness of the universe.”

And the ego is such a dependent entity. It has eyes of flesh to look with and it has a brain of flesh to comprehend with. Obviously, it neither sees anything nor understands anything. That’s how the ego fails—its instruments are limited. The ego is a drunken soldier fighting with substandard weapons. Will he win? Why is it amazing, then, that this soldier is always found beaten and complaining? He is drunken because he is fighting against himself. His weapons are substandard because he is using the senses. All he needs is a wonderful gun that shoots at the shooter.

You know, there was this movie that I saw. It was a comic flick, Andaz Apna Apna . So, there are these two rascals in that, the villains, and they are trying to bring down the two heroes. And the heroes are always one up, somehow managing to foil the evil plot of the villains. Finally, the elder villain manages to get a secret weapon. And these two heroes are frolicking with the heroines in some park, and the two rascals come sneaking from behind the trees, and they both are immaculately dressed in white, from top till bottom. And the elder villain hands over a special gun to the younger one and he says, “Use this! This will definitely kill both of them, rather all four of them.”

The younger one asks, “This thing, this gun looks very odd. What is it?”

The elder one says, “It is Vasco da Gama’s gun.”

The younger one says, “Whose uncle’s gun?”

He says, “Vasco da Gama’s gun! You just shoot!”

And the younger bugger shoots. And in the next frame the two are wearing black—black that is torn and exposing their intimate body parts that have gone black too.

We all need Vasco da Gama’s bandook (gun), because willingly we will never shoot at ourselves. We need a gun that deceives us. It is meant to fire at this and that, but it fires rather at us.

Q: Kabir Sahib says, “Within the supreme Brahman , the worlds are being told like beads. Look upon the rosary with the eyes of wisdom.”

In the Bhagavad Gita , Krishna says something similar: “Everything rests in Me, as beads strung on a thread.”

What is this rosary that Kabir Sahib is referring to? How to look with eyes of wisdom?

AP: (Picks up a cup from the table) Why does it sit still here? Why doesn’t it just topple over this way, that way, any which way? You will say, “Oh, this is a law of Prakṛti (physical nature).” Why does Prakṛti stick to her laws?

Don’t be so habituated to just seeing things this way. Why is this fly walking the way she is? Why do you think man must exist the way he does? You are just habituated to looking at man the way he exists. Otherwise, it is so very odd, you know. Neither circular nor rectangular; these things (showing his fingers) , like protrusions in an octopus’ body. Do you think the monkeys consider us handsome? But when you look at human beings, you feel as if that’s what humanity is like, that’s what is normal.

The other day I asked you, “Where must you be found, and why are you found where you are?” And I was told that you said, “It’s a dangerous question to ask.” If it’s dangerous to ask where you must be found, it must be super dangerous to ask whether you should be found at all!

What are these eyes and why do they keep blinking? Why do you wake up every morning? What is this thing called morning at all? Why is the Earth going round and round, circling some random star? What are these men and women doing together? What is this? What are kids? What is death? Why do hair fall?

You will come to no answer to these questions, or rather you have come to a common answer to these questions. What is the common answer? “I don’t know. I cannot know.” That’s the string through the pearls; that’s the common binding feature—you cannot know. The more you go into an issue, the more you see that you cannot know. When Krishna says, “I am the thread in the middle of the pearls,” that’s what he means: “I am the common binding element.”

And what is the common answer to any deep enquiry? “I cannot know.” Alternatively, you could say the common answer is, “It depends on me. It is my perception.” What is certain is, you will not have diverse answers. Whenever an enquiry digs deep enough, it will come to a point that several other enquiries coming from several other directions have reached. It’s a shared center. That shared center is called Krishna.

Why must you be curious? And if you say you are not getting me, why must you clamor to get me? What is this thing called listening? What do you hope to get by listening? Obviously, you can give some answer, but that’s like the mud that gets thrown up in the process of digging. None of these answers are deep enough. The mud is not deep enough; that is why it gets shoveled out, does it not? You could satisfy or entertain yourself with superficial enquiry, as most people do—that’s one option—or you could go deep down and see that man is incapable of enquiring. As long as man retains his man-ness, his enquiry will remain incomplete.

Enquiry comes to its conclusion with the dissolution of the enquirer. That is the common thread; that is the rosary that Kabir Sahib is referring to. Apparently, many, many different things, like the many, many different beads, many pearls, many stones, and when you look at it from a distance, all that you see is the different pearls and stones and the beads, right? But if you are not particularly dimwitted, you would want to ask what keeps them together, and you won’t get to know from the outside because the thread runs through the center. You will have to go very, very close; you will have to go right till the center. That center is Kabir’s Hari, Kabir’s Rama, or Gita’s Krishna.

All kinds of stones are there, but not many threads are there. At the center of every issue that the mind can come up with is Rama. The core matter of all your matters is Rama. That is why all your matters are only outwardly different; inwardly, all matters pertain to just the one matter.

It is like different patients rushing to the hospital or found within the hospital; the names of their diseases are very, very different, but that which they are seeking is exactly the same. If you look at their reports or their diagnoses, they will be remarkably different, right? But that which they are after is one. The world is a colossal hospital; all are diseased and the diseases are diverse and different.

What you want and what you do not want—even that is one. At the center of all your attractions and at the center of all your repulsions is the same matter.

For Him you love, and for Him you hate.

For Him you earn, and for Him you spend.

Towards Him you run, and from Him you run.

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