The simple, continuous, ubiquitous call of Truth is easy to miss|| Acharya Prashant on Khalil Gibran
H e may be here, and he may call her.
But like many others she may not hear.
-Khalil Gibran
Question: Why can’t he hear? What stops him from hearing?
Acharya Prashant: He is asking, “When there is the Call and the Caller, why can’t the Caller himself make the Call heard?”
How do you know that you are not hearing?
Is it possible that the Truth calls and the sons of Truth refuse to hear? Is it possible?
How are you so sure that you do not hear the call of Truth?
I am asking you, “How do you know that you are not hearing his call?”
You do not know.
All you have is images about the call. All you have is images about the response to the call. When you find that what is happening in your life does not correspond with the images, then you end up concluding that the Truth is not calling you. And you have fantastic images.
You have an image that when the Truth calls, then you have visions in the night, that a grand ray descends from the heaven and enters your mind or that there is some kind of twinkling up your spine, and it reaches *Sahasrara o*r that your face develops some kind of glow or aura. Then you say, “You know, probably I have been called by the Truth.”
And if none of these happen, then at least some few basic things must happen. Snakes must stop biting you. Scorpions must start dancing around you. And if even these cannot happen, then at least a few more internal things must happen. For example you should become free of thirst, hunger and lust. These images are there, right?
That is what you have read about those who were ‘called’. So fantastic images you have. And you say, “I am still lustful, that proves that I am not hearing the call.” That’s what you say.
How do you know?
All is His call. It’s just that you misinterpret. You misinterpret because you expect the call to come differently.There is nothing in this world that is anything except the call of the Truth.There is nothing here at all.
But you, I repeat, expect the call to come only in specific ways. You have images. And when it doesn’t happen that way, you call yourself ‘unfortunate’. It is such a clever trick of Maaya . It is not that it is not happening. The amusing part is that what must happen is always happening, and yet you keep saying, “It is not happening!”
Kabir must have laughed his heart out. “Paani me meen pyaasi. Mohe sun-sun aave haansi (The fish complains of being thirsty in the middle of the ocean. I am laugh at this)”
He is shouting right in your ears, that too from the inside. What more do you want now! If he shouts any louder, you will become deaf and you are saying, “Why doesn’t the call come to me?”
Stop having images.
Your disappointment comes from your fantasies. You want even Truth to behave as per your expectation. You want the doctor to prescribe medicines as per your demand and if the medicine does not taste right, you say, “The medicine is not right.”
You have been told that the lovers of God become peaceful, and their eyes are always half-closed, and they are smiling even as you slaughter them, and they can go for two-thousand days without food. You have read all these things and you do not find them in your life. So just by comparison, you burn yourself in frustration.
We have so many books in our library here. One day one of us picked up a book, looked at the cover, and the feeling of envy and disappointment came immediately on the face. The cover had the image of a saint. The saint was relaxing so artistically!
Artistic relaxation – with one hand hung in thin air, one finger pointing heavenwards. And this fellow who is looking at that image, he is thinking- “I never relaxed this way. When I sleep, I don’t even know where my hands go. And look at this grand old man. Even when he is sleeping, his fingers are pointing towards the heaven.”
He will wake up with a severe pain in his arm.That is all he will get, this saint.I assure you!
The body has laws of its own. It obeys no spiritual laws.
But you feel so inferior. “It is not happening to me. Why it is not happening to me?” So many of your saints have had families and have begotten children. Did they do this without lust? Is it possible to come to a physical orgasm, without sexual arousal? But when you encounter the same feelings within yourselves, you feel so disheartened, and low, and reduced.
Why?
No, I am not advocating that you start feeling grand about yourself when you have sexual arousal. Kindly do not jump to the other end.
Life is what life is.
It has no obligation to conform to your images and whatever is happening around you is a gateway to the Truth.
Pay attention to it, come close to it, and you see a way opening up to you.Just come close.
The magic lies in not rejecting life. Come close to whatever is happening, and see whether or not a road opens up for you. Just try.
And when I say, “Whatever is happening,” it is all inclusive: good, bad, pleasant, ugly, whatever is there. Just see what it is and you will only hear the call of the Truth.
There is nothing else that is there.
Listener 1: Sir, this is a bit confusing. Last night when we were talking about abstinence, you said that one needs to be away from a few things. You said that nobody is so brave that he will indulge in something and still come out clean from it. And now you are saying that it’s not about rejecting things.
AP: I said that. And after I had said that have you been able to abstain? I might have asked you to abstain, that was two days back. Since then, have you abstained?
Listener 1: No.
AP: No. You will not abstain, right?
Life is total. Life consists of me telling you to abstain, and you not abstaining.
Come close to the entire happening. Come close to me when I am saying something and come close to yourself when you are not listening to what I am saying.
Not getting it?
When I am saying something, come close to me. And after I have said, obviously, you will forget what I had said!
Come close to yourself in the moments when you have forgotten what I have said. You will hear the same Truth in your forgetting, as you hear when you are listening to me. The magic lies in coming close and paying attention. Pay attention to what I am saying, and you will hear the Truth. And pay attention to your waywardness, you will only see the Truth.
Listener 1: Sir, with me mostly what happens is that when I forget what you say, so when the opposite happens, it has to happen, just because you have said doesn’t mean that it won’t happen, it happens in larger degree than those voices of yours. So in moments when they are there in front of me, I don’t experience them.
AP: Your self-worth drops totally. You become a sinner in your own eyes.
Listener 1: Yes. But I don’t experience them. Going close is so very far.
AP: You are so afraid of the happening that you do not come close to it. Again see what is preventing you. You have an image of ‘the good disciple’.
Life is total.
It does not respect the distinctions that you create.It has no respect for the boundaries that you create.
Life has brought me to you, and life has also brought lust to you. You cannot avoid me, I chase you. You also cannot avoid lust, lust chases you. It’s not your fault at all. You come here because I pull you. Similarly, lust pulls you. See you are living in choicelessness!
So when lust pulls you, pay attention to lust. What else can you do? Why don’t you realize this simple matter? Do you have the power to abstain? Do you have the power to abstain? You are what you are, and given what you are, just pay attention what you are. Simple!
When I am there, pay attention to me. When lust comes, and it will come without being invited or do you invite it? No, you don’t invite it. It invites you.
Have you not understood this?
You do not invite lust, lust invites you. When it invites you, pay attention to the invitation. See how it operates; see what the whole game and its mechanisms are all about.
Just see and you will hear that same call.The same call!
