Question: “ Listening without effort, and if there is truth in what you hear, there is change and transformation. And then Truth becomes the master.” Sir, is that so?
Acharya Prashant: There is hardly ever any Truth in what you hear, Gunjan (addressing the questioner) , hardly any Truth in what you hear, because hearing is your own domain. Hearing is your own personal and private area. How can the Truth lie there? You can hear only words.
Right now as I am speaking, the same words are coming to all of you. Do you really think everybody is in Truth? For one person, these words can be very calming, very soothing, relaxing, source of peace; the other one may be agitated, and panicking within, cringing; that too when both of them are hearing the same words. What is there in words?
Truth is not in words. Truth is in your own quality. Truth is in the quality of your own mind. Yes, what can happen is that if the words that you hear, are themselves emanating from the right centre, then it becomes more possible for you to surrender to them.
But even then, what you hear is your own domain. Whether have you decided, is your own discretion. You see, the Buddha had said, “The spoon in the soup lives all its life in the soup, and yet it never tastes the soup,” because ‘tasting’ is your own domain. The soup is all the time available, but you are closed, what can the soup do? What can the soup do?
And look at the irony, the soup will be brought to others by that same spoon. That same spoon will bring the soup to others, but itself it will never be able to taste the soup. Can there be a bigger misfortune? You have to decide, you have to give permission.
One of the things about Truth is, it is not interested in anything; it is not even interested in your enlightenment. It will not force you. It will say, “You take as much time as you want to. I will come to you only when you are ready, I will come to you only when you say that I am ready. I will stand at the door, waiting patiently. For an infinite time, I will wait, but I will come only when you open the door.”
You have to open the door. That is your domain, your area. Otherwise, even the most sublime words are of little use. And the more you open yourself, the more you will find that your need for words is reducing. The more you open yourself, the more you find that your need for words is reducing.
Why does a Master speak? He speaks because you cannot hear his Silence. So it’s a compulsion that he must speak. Could you listen to him, without his words, he would not want to speak, because he is the first one to know that words do not matter much.
But you need arguments, you need words, you need a particular structure, so he would speak. Do not think that there is Truth in his speaking. There is Truth in his presence, that much is alright, but not in the words. And that presence is not bodily, that presence is not sensually appreciable. You cannot say, “This body is That.” Your eyes cannot see him, your ears cannot hear him.
The word that is used traditionally, is Satsang. You see, sat-sang does not mention speaking or words at all. It only says, “The right company, being with the Truth. Being immersed in the Truth is Satsang . Sat-sang , Sat is – that which IS, Truth. Sat means – that which IS, the Present, the Truth. Being with That is enough.
Satsang is not Samvaad , Satsang is not an exchange of words. Satsang is just being together, that particular quality of intimacy which does not require the use of senses.
The ones who can read, read from life itself. You are talking of the Master. A life of the Master is available, if you could read it. His every moment is available. But because you refuse to read it, so he speaks. Otherwise, it’s there, in his everything, in his every breath.