Duality

Acharya Prashant: Man is both Prakriti and something else. Prakriti is y=sin(x). You are confined within duality- ups and downs, ups and downs, leading to nothing. The up will not remain up, forever; the down will not remain down, forever. Crests and troughs, crests and troughs; that is Prakriti .… read_more

Acharya Prashant: We need a mind that is not eager to react. That does not mean that it does not act. It acts beautifully, but it does not react. In fact, these two things go together: the ability to act beautifully, and the lack of tendency to react. The more… read_more

Acharya Prashant: I know it's a fad currently, “the in thing” to say, be your own light, don’t depend on anyone, decide for yourself, whatever. It's a very ignorant thing to say with all due respect to the Buddha.

Such advice is meant only for very selected disciples. And even… read_more

Question: What are the ways in which we can maintain a balance between the real centre and the false centre?

Speaker: What is the false centre?

Listeners ( in unison): Opinions of the society about us!

Speaker: What is the real centre?

Listeners (in unison): Intelligence!

Speaker: Can anything have… read_more

Comfort! Comfort the treacherous, the deadly! Comfort that cheats our senses and makes us slaves to the passing hour!

~ Khalil Gibran – “Lazarus and His Beloved”

Speaker: So, what does Khalil Gibran has to say?

*Comfort! Comfort the treacherous, the deadly!Comfort that cheats our senses and makes us*… read_more

Question : Sir, for some time now, throughout the day, I see that I really don’t know anything. What is ‘knowing’?

Speaker: Yes, yes. This is it. This is it. This, this sincerity, this try.

Do you see that two paradoxical activities are happening right now, at the same time?… read_more

Question : Sir, is truth necessarily cruel and dangerous? Whenever I listen to you, I feel fear of losing something. Why is it so?

Speaker : Who is losing something? If you unnecessarily identify yourself with somebody who has possessions, only then you feel that you are losing something. We… read_more

पौर्णमास्यां यथा चन्द्र एक एवातिनिर्मलः। तेन तत्सदृशं पश्येद्द्विधादृष्टिर्विपर्ययः।।

There is only one very clear moon on the full moon night. One should perceive That (the Self) like the moon. Seeing duality is perversion.

Avadhuta Gita (Chapter 2, Verse 21)

Speaker: This one is from The Avadhuta Gita.

It says, “There… read_more

Drunks fear the police but the police are drunk too.

~ Rumi

Speaker: We are prone to thinking that a ‘thing’ is cancelled or neutralized by its opposite and our superficial experience in the world supports this kind of thinking. When cold water is mixed with hot water what you … read_more

Speaker: Parts change, the whole remains unchanged.

First of all, this whole, that is being talked of, is not a sum of the parts. Usually, when we refer to a whole, what we mean is, that there are the parts and when they are taken together, we get the whole.… read_more

Speaker: The real meaning of deceptive behaviour or false behaviour is that it is arising not from a pure mind but from a conditioned mind. Now, from a conditioned mind, whatever behaviour arises, even if it is morally sound, it deserves to be called a fake behaviour.

See, spirituality makes… read_more

*सत्यमेव* जयते नानृतं सत्येन पन्था विततो देवयानः *। * *येनाऽऽक्रमन्त्यृषयो* ह्याप्तकामा यत्र तत् सत्यस्य परमं निधानम् *।। *

The True prevails, not the untrue; by the True the path is laid out, the way of the gods, on which the old sages, satisfied in their desires, proceed to … read_more

Speaker: ‘*If you want to love, you have to love a man with all his limitations.*‘ That’s the quote.

‘If you want to love, you have to love a man with all his limitations.’

The question is that, ‘This has been said, but it is so difficult to do.’… read_more

Question : What do you understand by ‘failure’ and ‘success’? What is the relation between them?

Speaker : When do you call something a ‘success’? You call yourself successful when you have a goal, and you reach it. It is this attainment of that goal that you name as ‘success’.… read_more

True words are not beautiful. Beautiful words are not true. (Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching)

Speaker: Lao Tzu says, “True words are not beautiful. Beautiful words are not true.”

What could he mean probably? “True words are not beautiful. Beautiful words are not true.” And I would also want to… read_more

When you reach the Heart of Life you will find yourself not higher than the felon, and not lower than the Prophet.

~ Khalil Gibran

Speaker : “When you reach the Heart of Life you will find yourself not higher than the felon, and not lower than the Prophet”. At… read_more

आचार्य प्रशांत: देखते हैं दुनिया को; उसमें पहली डुएलिटी (द्वैत) तो पैदा होने के साथ ही आ जाती है। पहली डुएलिटी है कि — ये मैं हूँ और ये रहा संसार, और ये दोनों अलग-अलग हैं। पैदा होने के कुछ ही समय बाद शरीर का बोध आ जाता है, और… read_more

दृष्ट्वा मां त उपव्रज्य कृत्वा पादाभिवन्दनम्। ब्रह्माणमग्रत: कृत्वा पप्रच्छ: को भवानिति।।

“मुझे देखकर सनकादि ब्रह्माजी को आगे करके मेरे पास आये और उन्होंने मेरे चरणों की वन्दना करके मुझसे पूछा कि आप कौन हैं?”

~ हंस गीता, श्लोक २०

इत्यहयं मुनिभि: पुष्टस्तत्त्वजिज्ञासुभिस्तदा। यदवोचमहं तेभ्यस्तदुद्धव निबोध मे।

प्रिय उद्धव! सनकादि परमार्थतत्त्व … read_more

आचार्य प्रशांत: हम जैसे जीते हैं, हमारे लिए दो हैं, एक संसार और एक हम। संसार और एक हम, कुछ हम संसार की बात करते हैं, कुछ हम अपनी बात करते हैं। जब हम अपनी बात करते हैं तो भी हम अपने आप को देखते उन्हीं उपकरणों से और उसी… read_more

तत्व क्षेत्रं व्योमातीतमहं क्षेत्रज्ञ उच्यते। अहं कर्ता च भोक्ता च जीवनमुक्त: स उच्यते।।

पृथ्वी, जल, अग्नि, वायु, आकाश इन पंच तत्वों से बना ये शरीर ही क्षेत्र है तथा आकाश से परे अहंकार ही क्षेत्रज्ञ है। ये ‘मैं’ ही समस्त कर्मों का कर्ता और कर्म फलों का भोक्ता है, इस … read_more

Questioner (Q): First of all, Acharya Ji, you are very focused on scriptures, especially the authentic scriptures—Upanishads, more specifically. So, what do you consider more important, spiritual knowledge or spiritual experience?

Acharya Prashant (AP): See, there is nothing called as spiritual experience. Experience by itself is a thing in duality… read_more

Questioner: What is the purpose of human life?

Acharya Prashant: See, we ask this question assuming that there is a purpose.

We ask this question assuming just as everything about us is purposeful so life must also be purposeful. Is there any validity to that assumption?

Purpose means a finality;… read_more

Acharya Prashant: Can intelligence be wrong sometimes?

Tell me, all of you, “What is right and what is wrong?” How do you know what is right? And how do you know what is wrong? Someone told you what is right and someone told you what is wrong and not only… read_more

Acharya Prashant : Nancy has asked: “How to get rid of negative thoughts?” She wants to keep all the positive thoughts and just get rid of the negative ones: “Let me please, please, have all the positive ones and throw away all the negative ones.”

Positive and negative are two… read_more

Questioner: What if the ocean, we are thinking of as so immense, is not so immense?

Acharya Prashant: Good question!

The moment the ocean is a thought, it cannot be immense at all.

But you see, how you take things—I mentioned the ocean as a metaphor, as a dualistic image… read_more

Questioner: I am seeing Shiva’s statue here, how it is dual? How duality is there?

Acharya Prashant: You close your eyes, this statue would no more be there.

And if there is nothing then even your eyes will not be there.

Do you know if the universe disappears then your… read_more

Questioner: Dear Sir,I have been following Nisargadatta Maharaj. I have read all his dialogues, books, and watched most of his videos. But I feel I have been just sticking his words as knowledge in my mind. What you bring to me is something alive, I ‘see’ and I ‘feel’ whatever… read_more

Speaker: Breaking the question into two simpler parts, one is- all of us have positives and negatives, strengths and weaknesses. How to enhance the strengths and diminish the weaknesses. We will look into this.And second is- I know what is right but when it comes to the moment of happening,… read_more

Questioner: If positive and negative, good and bad, beauty and ugliness are all a matter of personal perspective, then can universal positivity, universal goodness, or universal beauty exist? If it is the majority that decides, then is the majority the judge of the deeds to be done by one in… read_more

Question: Is Ego the opposite of true self?

Speaker: Whenever something has an opposite, it means the thing is in itself dependent on its opposite. Black has its opposite as?

Listeners(everyone): White

Speaker: This means that there can be no ‘Black’ without ‘White’. You will not be able to identify… read_more

Listener: What is Reality?

Speaker: What is reality? That which includes- that which appears real and that which appears unreal. Real is directly real; unreal is indirectly real. Everything is real. The real is directly real, the unreal is indirectly real but everything is real. Even when we say it… read_more

Question: Why has man labelled things as superior and inferior. Why does this division exist?

Acharya Prashant (AP): This division too can be false, useless or a very relevant division. Usually tasks, activities are divided into superior and inferior based on convention, morality, things that have nothing to do with… read_more

Questioner (Q): I like being in your Satsangs but what I want to say is, I just find it a big challenge to fly back to everyday life. You know, you’ve got a job, you’ve got to make plans and it’s tough.

Acharya Prashant (AP): If you really like this,… read_more

Question: How does one deal with orthodoxy, stupidity and foolishness? How does one deal with orthodox parents and spouses?

The foolish will always hunt the wise. If the wise recede to the forest, the foolish will condemn them for that. If the wise stay and fight, they shall be condemned… read_more

Acharya Prashant: Māyā and Brahm are beginningless for you. ‘For you’ because the question is coming ‘from you’. So, to you, these two are beginningless. Why are these two beginningless? Why can’t their origin be known? Because Māyā does not comprise of an entity called ‘Māyā * ’. * … read_more

Acharya Prashant: Not only do we give value to experience, we also give value to learning. And because the valuer is the same, so we put these two at the same level – ‘experience’ and ‘learning’.

We want to value everything; we want to attach some kind of a quantifiable… read_more

Questioner: Sir, where does the mind get power from?

Acharya Prashant: Power is always in the context of doing something, achieving something, acting upon something.

What does the mind want?

Peace.

So, all the power that the mind has is directed towards getting peace. What can reach peace? Can disturbance… read_more

Question: Sir, what does the name of the group ‘You belong here’ signify?

Speaker: The name ‘You Belong Here’ signifies that our real home cannot be at a disturbed point. ‘xyz’ means others and ‘t’ means past and future.

When the mind is free of the conditioning of others and… read_more

Question: Sir, I have observed that if I have someone to blame, then my anger gets energy. Otherwise, it subsides with time. Why does this happen?

Answer: Isn’t it true that even our anger expresses itself only at the relatively weak? Can we dare to be angry at everybody? Calculated… read_more

Question: Sir, everybody has been programmed in the same way which we call as ‘conditioning’. And if everything is happening because of this conditioning, if every action is programmed then all our happinesses and difficulties should be same. But it is not the case. Everyone has his/her own problems and… read_more

Questioner (Q): I want to know, essentially, the relationship between the material world and consciousness. Is the body, you know, just like putting together a few chemicals? And, how does consciousness come from an unconscious body? Or.. is it the other way around?

Acharya Prashant (AP): Obviously. Yeah, yeah! Obviously,… read_more

Acharya Prashant (AP): Aloneness is to see that alone, to see that alone is love. As we are configured, as the mind is conditioned, it only works in differences. It works only in differences. It looks at nothing but the differences. Its very world exists because of differences. It perceives… read_more

Questioner: I have fear and greed, thus a life of duality. How long to live like this? Should I try to force a change?

Speaker: There is no other life and duality is wonderful. Duality is sacred. There is nothing reprehensible about duality. Can there be duality without the non-dual?… read_more

Questioner: If I do deeply understand that the bliss of consciousness or Brahm is truly greater by manifolds, then what motivation would I have to perform the mundane duties, chasing worldly desires like wealth etc.? I cannot just sit doing nothing, thinking that my kids will have an education and… read_more

Questioner: Is there any action that is bad?

Acharya Prashant (AP): No, there is no action at all that is inherently bad.

I repeat this with emphasis: there is no action that is inherently bad.

The only bad action is a misplaced action.

At the right time and right place,… read_more

Acharya Prashant (AP): Duality is about thinking that you who is just a chemical — a prakritik product of your past, is a sentient entity looking at a largely insentient world of things. That's the dualistic illusion we usually live in. It’s false, obviously. As we are, there is nothing… read_more