The Difficult Call of Dear Love

Questioner: Acharya ji, today I realized that without love in my heart, I cannot find joy in my life, however wonderful my external situations are. Just listening to, and singing a Kabir bhajan brings me so much joy, love, and tears, I really want to know this Love, and what it means to stay in Truth. Please hold my hands and help me reach these, reach there. Please do not leave me even if I stumble and fail. I now want to taste it.

Acharya Prashant: It’s actually easy, you don’t have to go too far, you don’t have to go any far. Start with that which is close to you. Start from the faintest flicker available to you, even if you are in deep darkness. Something must be available, and that something is your only hope and very sufficient support, start from there. There is nobody whose life is so barren, that there is not even a faint ray of Truth in it. To each of us irrespective of our conditions, some hope, some support, some light is provided, use that. It may not appear scintillating, brilliant, or overpowering. It may not announce itself as the ultimate thing for you, but still, it is that which would redeem you, and you have no other way but to be committed to that little thing.

Why do we ignore that little thing? Two reasons — first, it is not explosively radiant, it is just a faint flicker. So, it is not very distinguishable from the various kinds of darkness within and without. It does not shine very brightly; it is not easy to spot it, that’s the first reason and the second reason is, that we have concepts about absolute luminosity and we live in constant expectation of nothing short of that. We believe that when help would come, it would arrive in a huge chariot, carrying some effulgent God, and the God would descend and declare himself to me and then, I would know that help has arrived. So compared to this picture of help, compared to this concept of brightness, the little ray actually available to you appears very insignificant, very dim, fit to be contemptuously ignored and so you ignore it.

It’s a part of the ego you see. The ego considers itself eligible to receive the highest help. It wants an extreme; if help is coming to me, the highest help should come to me. If light is coming to me, then the very Sun should land in my courtyard. Little flickers are not welcome; because they are so small and I consider myself quite big, what does this big one have to do with small helps? So, even those who are expectant of help and demanding help might go through their entire lives actually refusing help and why would they refuse help? Because help is not coming in the glorious way you demand it to come. So, you keep refusing it, you don’t even acknowledge it, you don’t even say that you refused help, you say, “It never came to me” and the real helper keeps wondering; but help did come to you, help was sent to you, you turned it back.

Don’t keep demanding the loveliest, just start with that which is lovely. Fine, you don’t find anything lovely about your world, everything is ugly, then start with that which is the least ugly. Hold it firmly, follow it, commit yourselves to it, and then this thing which is just about lovely, will take you to something a little more lovely than itself. You have stepped upon the next rung and when you hold the hand of that which is lovelier than the one preceding it, then it brings you to something that is just a bit, more lovelier than the preceding thing. So on and so forth you keep graduating. That’s the way and that’s an easy way because you can start out right now, do not search for God absolute to love. Given who you are, given your littleness, how will you ever welcome, acknowledge, and tolerate, God absolute?

Just begin with whatever Godly is available to you right now. Take that as your God; worship it, and this God, that is God only relatively will one day take you to God absolute. But if you just continue to wait, then you may just keep waiting. This is the reason Saints have very practically said, that they do not care much for the absolute Truth. They rather care more for the one who can help them in this mortal land in a very mortal way and that is love.

India, has had this tradition and it’s there in the entire world, if you can allocate even the footsteps of the prophet or the saint or the teacher, that place becomes a teerth, a center of pilgrimage. Bharat could not get Ram to return to Ayodhya, So, Ram’s sandals were worshipped and this has been a very useful way. Do not wait for God absolute. Worship whatsoever is available to you; because the absolute is not going to come down and you have limited time. You better start of using whatever you have. So, here in Goa, they have preserved the mortal remains of a saint, a few hairs, body and this works. That’s love; to be so very enamored by the Sun that you keep watching the Moon all night. You know it fully well you cannot watch the Sun, you don’t have it in your eyes, it is not within your mortal capacity to stare at the Sun, you keep watching the Moon all night. That’s love.

And hence those who have worshipped light have written great poems to the beauty of the Moon, knowing full well that the light of the Moon is actually the light of the Sun. They say, “We love light, and though the source of light is the sun but we can’t have the sun. So, in fact, practically the Moon is more lovable to us because at least we can look at the moon, we can have it, there is peace, there is coolness.” The moon is the one who brings the Sun’s light to you in a way you can write poems about. Love is not puritan, love is practical. Either you can go crazy after the Moon or you can spend all your life trying to develop eyes that will lock horns with the Sun. What do you prefer? The Moon and the Moon is something you already have. Start, start. There is nobody who does not have the moon. It is just that some people have a full Moon, some have a crescent, some have half a Moon, and some have a barely visible arc, but everybody has something, start from there. That’s your Sun.

Also, mind you, all Moons have imperfections, that is another reason why man keeps waiting for the Sun rather than start off with the Moon, because moons have imperfections and those imperfections are very visible because moons can be stared at. Maybe the suns too have their imperfections but they are never exposed, why? Because, you can anyway never look directly at the sun and say, “Ah, there I see, some kind of a dark spot.”

Moons can always be accused of being less than perfect. Now don’t use that as an alibi. Don’t say, “No, no, no, I would rather wait for the sun, this moon is carrying spots.” What are you in love with, light or spots? Light. So why can’t you ignore the spots? Light is there and spots are there, what would you rather look at, depends on what I am in love with. What are you in love with? If you keep talking of the spots and the darkness. What does it show? That instead of the light you are actually more concerned with the sports and then you can have nothing. Then you will be a professional faultfinder all your life and there are many such people. 90% of their waking time is spent finding faults with the world. They only keep proving to themselves that they do not know any love because when you know love you do not concern yourself with darkness. Then your primary concern is light, you say, “I am in so much love with light that I don’t want to waste time on darkness. Who wants to talk about darkness, there is so much to talk about.”

If you really love perfection, then, you must set out right now with all your imperfections. It’s a strange thing, the lover of perfection stops having problems with imperfection. The ego is so choosy, even in matters of love, it wants to choose the bestest Truth. It doesn’t look at its own state, its own sorry, weak, blemished, dilapidated state. It wants to judge the Truth. “I want a perfect Truth,” and “Who are you? Look at yourself, are you eligible for the perfect Truth?” “No, that I do not want to talk about. I just want the perfect Truth, anything short of that; I am not willing to entertain.” But the thing is, given your state, the perfect Truth would be of no help to you. You can be helped only by somebody who has a bit of your imperfections, but the ego doesn’t want to accept imperfections, so imperfect it is; like a pig, just emerging from the local sewage bath with the aromatic paste of divine soil all over it, walking into the room of a five-star hotel and complaining to the housekeeping, ”Your linen has that spot there, I like my linen to be spotless” and “Sir, who are you?” ”Don’t you dare ask that question, I like my linen Spotless.”

Be very honest about your state, and your difficult predicament, don’t be so choosy. Accept whatever help that comes to you in whichever form. Be grateful for anything that relieves you even a little of your divine soil.

Questioner: Acharya ji, how do I believe that I will reach the destination?

Acharya Prashant: You cannot afford to doubt. How do I believe that I will reach the destination? Don’t believe it. If that helps you. It’s not a matter of belief or disbelief, it’s a matter of your situation.

What option does the thirsty one have? Look for water. It does not have the luxury of sitting and deliberating, whether water exits at all or whether you are qualified to reach water. Only one thing matters right now; you are thirsty. If you are thirsty, look around, in every way possible. No discussion, no conclusion, no concept, no principle, matters. You are thirsty, that’s all. If conclusions can alleviate your thirst, go ahead, and conclude.

That’s why I am saying, “You cannot afford doubt”, will doubt quench your thirst? Then, why are you doubting?

The thirsty one needs no principles, concepts, or discussions, but you are the thirsty one and people come to you and say, “Most thirsty ones die.” Only one in a million is able to get water and he is called enlightened or rather enwatered. So, would you halt your search? You have been told that only one in a million reach enwaterment. So, why should you continue hunting? Just sit down and relax. Can you relax in your current condition? Can you? You cannot afford to. So, keep searching, you have no option. hmm?

You have a loved one, who has met an accident, and the doctors say, “Death is certain, the only hope is a particular surgery; but the probability of success is 0.1%.” Now would you proceed with the surgery or not? You can’t afford to not to. Even if the probability of success is slim, you still would. So go ahead. It’s you who is in the ICU, give your thumbs up to the doctors and tell them I can’t afford to, I know you all are rascals, fools and I am going under your knife. That’s the only option, what to do?

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