Why does one suffer in the world?
Question: Why does one suffer in the world?
Acharya Prashant: Even to reach the sanctroum of the temple, one has to pass through the peripheries, the stairs, the doors. The peripheries, the initials are all important as mediums, as methods but they must be given only that much significance. One must be able to use them and go past them. That is their rightful purpose.
What you call as the Upanishads are in the first glance, just books and words that is what is apparent. You can pick up the book and you can read the words. What you meet and come across in the Upanishads are words and characters that too again are visible and apparent. But the books of the Upanishads, the words, the aphorisms, the characters, the tales, they all must be taken as the peripheries, the gateways, the stairs. One must go into them and go past them; one must not stay there. You have with you, this beautiful text, which I hope all of you have read.
The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad and we have picked for discussion today, an occurrence between sage ‘Yagyavlkya’ and his consort ‘Maitreya’. You can take it as a tale. You can assume that what you are reading are words. You can conclude that you are coming across a man and his wives. All that is easy, as easy as missing the point. But if you are careful then you would not see the sage as a man, the wives as persons. You go so deeply into the story that you will be able to go beyond the story, go beyond the narrative, the fiction, and enter into something that no fiction can ever touch.
Who is the Yagyavlkya? The Rishi here represents the truth, the heart. The story says that he had two wives ‘Maitreya’ and ‘Katyayani'. Just forget the facts, just ignore the question of whether he actually had two wives. Take the two wives as one. Just as every person is two, similarly it is wise and useful as a pointer to represent the one fact of the mind as two different entities.
The two wives represent the mind and because the mind lives in two parallel and possible dimensions, hence it is alright to say that the mind is two and hence the wives are two. The one wife his two wives, just as one mind is two minds.
The mind can exist either as a lover of the heart, as a follower of knowing and realization and truth, and that dimension of the mind is represented by the name ‘Maitreya’ or the mind can exist as the text says, "As attached to the qualities, ‘the gunas of Prakriti’." Hence, ‘Katayani’ has been described as someone bonded to her feminine attributes.
Maitreya and Katyayani represent together the human mind. The mind, the self-same mind when it is a lover of truth, it is Maitreya and when it is attached to the world, to the physical nature, to the body, to appearances, to forms, to persons, then it is Katyayani.
So, Yagyavlkya the heart, the truth the representative of ‘Brahm’, had a wife called Maitreya, Katyayani.
The husband is the heart, the mind is the wife. And that is why Saints and Rishi's and Gurus have incessantly called God or Truth or ‘Paramatma’ or ‘Rub’, as the Lord, Swami, the husband, the ‘Pati’, literally meaning the ruler, the master.
The mind is the perpetual seeker, the mind is the lover, always aspiring for its beloved, its master, its Lord.
The mind has been in the traditions of ‘bhakti’ and otherwise always represented as a female and the truth has been represented as the ‘Purush’, the male. The mind has been a representative of feminine ‘Prakriti’. And the truth has been the ‘Sakshi Purush’. So, goes even the expression of ‘Sankhya Yoga’. It is in that light that one must look at Yagyavlkya and his wives.
So, when the opportunity presents itself in front of the mind, what are the options the truth, the Lord, the husband is asking?
What do you want, Oh mind? What do you want, my beloved?
The mind has two options, the mind can ask for all the riches of the world, the sage is offering, which is. The sage is saying, "O Maitreya, I want to settle all my property between you and Katyayani." And the mind can ask for worldly riches, for material, for things that are sensual and attractive or the mind can ask for the very essence itself, for the truth itself.
If the mind is in the Maitreya dimension, it will do what Maitreya did. The mind will say, "Oh husband, Oh Lord, Oh truth, with all the riches of the world, give me immortality." And if the mind is in the Katyayani dimension, the mind will say, “Yes, yes, I want to extract as much of wealth and sensual enjoyment from you, as can be possible.”
Visualize, Arjun and Duryodhan, sitting by a sleeping Krishna. You can either have Krishna as Krishna mandates or you can have his entire army ‘the Narayani Sena’. There is always the choice available to the person, the mind and that is also the choice available to Maitreya, Katyayani.
If the mind is in the Maitreya mode or the Arjun mode, it will choose Krishna. If the mind is in the Duryodhana mode, the ‘Prakriti’ mode, it will choose all that Krishna has, not Krishna.
Kabir puts it very-very scantly, he says;
Prabhuta ko sub koi bhaje, Prabhu ko bhajay na koi;
Jo Kabir Prabhu ko bhajay Prabhuta cheyri hoi.
प्रभुता को सब कोई भजै प्रभु को भजै न कोय।
जो कबीर प्रभु को भजै प्रभुता चेरी होय।।
You want all that the Lord gives, ‘Prabhuta’ but you do not want the Lord Himself. Kabir says, “Prabhuta Ko Sub koi Bhaje.” You want everything that he has, all his world, the universe belongs to him, all the wealth belong to him. You want all that which springs forth from him but you do not directly and straightforwardly and staunchly, aesthetically want him.
You want to ‘beat around the bush’. You want to enjoy all that proceeds from him. Wanting all that which proceeds from him, you are scared of the source from which everything proceeds. And then he brings out the absurdity of the general approach of the mind, by saying, “Jo Kabir Prabhu ko bhajay Prabhuta cheyri hoi.”
Had you really bothered to submit yourselves to the truth itself? Then, anyway, you would have obtained all that which proceeds from the truth. Had you really been in particular about going right to the source? Would you have really missed all that which is a product of the source? But we want the products, we do not want the source itself.
Maitreya is a wise one. Maitreya would not be fooled. Maitreya would not go for the property of Yagyavlkya. Maitreya would not go for even the intellectual knowledge of Yagyavlkya. Maitreya is really a wise wife, a wise mind.
Maitreya could so easily have been Maitreya. Remember that ‘Maitreya and Katyayani’ are in some sense one. Do not think as if Yagyavlkya has many wives. He has just one wife that one wife can either be ‘Maitreya or Katyayani’. Just as we can either be ‘Maitreya or Katyayani’. And that single choice decides the course of our life.
Who are you, the lover of truth or the lover of riches?
Jesus says, “No man can parallelly love God and Mammon.” Who are you? A lover of God, a lover of Yagyavlkya, or a lover of Mammon, a lover of Yagyavlkya‘s wealth?
Who are you?
What do you want from the husband? The husband can offer you both, what would you rather have? God can give you whatever you want.
Krishna puts it very beautifully, He says, “Either you can come directly to me or you can come to my Maya. What do you want? You can either have me or you can have my Maya, what do you want? In either case, you are getting something related to me but in one case your thirst is immediately quenched and in the other case you take the most roundabout route possible.” Where does wisdom lie, how do you want to proceed?
Maitreya asks a very pertinent question, she says, “Sir, you have offered me a choice, very kind of you. Now tell me, if I take everything that you offer me as physical possessions, would that eliminate my fears?” When she is asking for immortality, she is fundamentally asking for freedom from fear. Immortality means freedom from death, freedom from time.
That is the one and the only curse of living, fear. In fact, all religious scriptures aim at only one thing and that is ‘psychological healing’. They want to rid the mind of fear and to rid the mind of fear faith and wisdom and devotion are the only solutions. If you don't have God, you'll surely have fear.
Maitreya knows the only thing that is valuable, that is worth asking for. She knows that even if she obtains, the entire ocean of the world's riches still would not take away fear from her mind. She knows very well that even the biggest will come and go. There is nothing in mind that beats time. Everything that originates in time is also destroyed by time and the mind knows that.
So, even if it possesses and owns a lot, it is still worried and shivering. It knows that the next tide will sweep away everything, nothing goes past death, nothing goes past time, nothing goes past change. So, she wisely asks, “Sir, can any of your offerings give me peace? Can you give me anything that will prevent me from obliteration?"
And unless that is assured, life is not worth living. If you don't have anything, you are afraid that you may not have anything, ever. And if you have something then you are again afraid that what you have might be lost any moment. What is the point in living such a life?
So, she says, “Give me your essence, Oh Lord! Oh, truth! Oh physical manifestation of God! Give me the only thing that is worth giving. I'll ask the only thing that is worth being asked for. Give me your very essence. Give me the heart of Yagyavlkya. Give me God almighty himself. Nothing less than that will satisfy me.”
Look at the beauty of the mind when it is in the Maitreya mode. Is she an ordinary wife? Had she really been a person of flesh and blood, should have started beating her chest, like a person does? Should have looked at her husband as a mortal body. Should have said, “Oh my man Yagyavlkya! Why are you deserting me?”
None of that for Maitreya. Maitreya at no point calls Yagyavlkya as a man. And Yagyavlkya can be very easily called a man. Nobody can deny that he is indeed a person in flesh and blood as well. But it depends on, how you look at him?
If you don't have eyes, there are Jesus, a Buddha, a Krishna, a Yagyavlkya, is just flesh and blood for you. Especially so if he is your relative or son or husband because then the very relationship between you the body and the other one is that of the body. It is very difficult for a usual wife to accept the husband as the teacher. It is very difficult for a usual father or mother to accept the son or the daughter as a teacher.
But Maitreya is extraordinary, she's not crying. She's not asking Yagyavlkya the reasons, why he is forsaking the ‘Grahasth Ashram’? She knows very well that if the wise Lord has decided the time must have come. He must have seen something that others are unable to see.
So, she does not plead, she does not intervene, she does not beg, she does not try to influence her husband's decision. Instead, she aims directly at that which carries value. She's sharp, she knows what to aim at. She will not ask for trivia. She will not bet on valueless things.
She immediately asks, "Give me the self, Oh Lord!" Because to me, you are valuable only because you represent the self. Because I see that gleam in your eyes. Because you are no ordinary teacher, you are the sage, Yagyavlkya.
And Yagyavlkya is Yagyavlkya not because of his face or his nose or his body or the skin. He is Yagyavlkya because he is a messenger of God. Because from him the Upanishads flow forth.
So, give me that which makes you what you are. Give me your essence, give me ‘Brahman Gyan’. And that is the only thing that you too must ever ask any worthy person. Never ask for anything less than that, if you are asking for anything less than that then you are selling yourself very cheap.
The teacher is not to be looked at as a body, the teacher is not to be looked at as a person or as a personality. You must never ask for anything short of godliness from the teacher. And it really does not matter what your particular and personal relationship with the teacher is. That relationship fades into irrelevance, into oblivion, compared to the immensity of what the teacher really stands for.
Asking for trivia from the teacher is like going to a mine full of diamonds and collecting only filth. Do you want to be so unfortunate? You could have walked away with the most precious diamonds that the teacher can offer. Instead, what you chose to collect from him was rubbish.
And it is very possible to be near the teacher and still collect rubbish. It is very easy to be a Katyayani.
What do you want to be a Maitreya or a Katyayani?
What do you want from the person of the teacher, his body, his physical company, his looks, his touch, his smell, all his manly attributes? Or do you want that from him which goes beyond personality? What happens after this does not carry much value.
The decision is already made. Yagyavlkya has already smiled. The ways of God are instantaneous. He does not wait for things to happen, there is no time lag or processing time there. The moment Maitreya makes this choice, she is already in Bramah . Now, Yagyavlkya can proceed with his words but his words do not matter much now. Even looks would do, even pointers would do, even silence would do because the right beginning has been made. Because the beginning has been from the right-center. Because Maitreya is asking from the right point, for the right thing.
And when you begin rightly, you have already ended rightly.
You cannot be led astray when you begin in God. God will ensure that you end in God. Just begin rightly and leave the rest to God.
Maitreya has begun rightly. Now, Yagyavlkya's role is anyway secondary. Kindly do not be misled into thinking that she is illuminated by the words of the sage, no. Even before Yagyavlkya speaks the first word, Maitreya is already illuminated. Had she not been illuminated how could she have made such a choice? God has already blessed her and that is why such a choice has been made.
After the choice whatever happens is incidental. It is just a play, it is Lila. Yagyavlkya too knows that fully well. But once the game begins it has to be carried out. These are formalities. These are rules, basic etiquette.
Now, that you have started talking. For the sake of it, we will talk a little. But as soon as you utter the first syllable, I knew, who was talking through you? As soon as you made the beginning, I knew that the end was traveling through you.
But still, let's talk. So, Yagyavlkya then says a few things. Those things are not of much use to Maitreya but are of good use to the reader. Had those things not being said then what would the Upanishad have contained? So, gratitude to Yagyavlkya that he says all these things.
Remember that Maitreya needs none of them. Kindly do not think that enlightenment proceeds via aphorisms or words or teachings. No, it does not. Those words are for us. Let's read them, sip them, and be benefited.
Yagyavlkya says, “Dear Maitreya, ‘Whatsoever one ever seeks, he is seeking only That.’” If you seek a wife, do you know what you are seeking? If you seek wealth, do you know what you are seeking? If you seek a Brahmin or a Kshatriya or anybody, the distinction does not matter, do you know what you are seeking?
Yagyavlkya beautifully, very scantly puts it, he says, “Maitreya, if you want immortality, as you have expressed then you must know what we all are always seeking.” Because immortality is freedom from change, freedom from seeking, freedom from traveling, freedom from desires. It is coming to a point that is so complete that you do not want to budge from it, that is immortality.
Only when you have come to a place which is so fulfilling and so total and so final that nothing remains outside of it to be sought, to be desired then you are free of change, then you need nothing more.
And ‘what is That?’ To come to that he says, “Please see what you are really seeking. If you know what you are really seeking? You have already obtained it." Wonderful aphorism. If you know, really know, what you want then you already have what you want.
We run after shadows, we do not know what we want. We run after proxies, we do not know what we want. When we want X, we are actually running after Y and that is why even after obtaining all the Y's in the world, contentment eludes us. Because we do not know what is it that we really want?
Yagyavlkya is taking his beloved wife to the want behind all wants. Want, but want intelligently. Know what is it that you really seek? He says, “Maitreya, we all desire, the end of desire.” And that is why desire continues till it does not come to an end. What else does desire want? Desire wants to come to a point where it does not want anything more, it is so fulfilled, Braham is that point.
And how does one come there? One comes there through the route of negation. The route of negation is the route of observation. It is the route of looking at life. Look at life and see that whatever, whatsoever is small, little, work targeting is something that is never going to give you contentment. And your goals are always going to be small.
What is the definition of small, that which can be thought of, that which is limited? So, you will see property or prestige or company or a house or riches or sons and daughters or wives or knowledge. But whatsoever you seek cannot really be bigger than you. The proof of that is that once you get it, it will be contained within your tiny mind. So, how is it bigger than you?
You may have great knowledge but where is all that knowledge contained? In your limited mind. So, how can that knowledge really be great?
You are looking for greatness and if you are looking for greatness you cannot get it through a narrow route.
If you want an elephant in your house, would you want it to enter through the keyhole? How intelligent are you if you try that, please? If you want to have an elephant in your house, would you beg the elephant to enter through a keyhole? No, absurd, alright. Through a window, through even a door.
And what if you want immensity, would any route suffice? Can any route be wide enough? A route by definition is a road, a passage. How wide is the road? How it can be a passage? What all can it accommodate?
Can it really accommodate the immensity?
Which means those who really want the limitless and immense Truth, must never try methods. Because all methods are gateways and all gates are narrow. If you want the entire sky in your house, you better demolish your house. First of all, no gate is large enough to allow the sky to enter your house. Secondly, no house can be large enough to contain the sky. The only way to have the sky is to demolish the house itself. The house is ego, the house is our person.
Are you getting it?
We look for routes. When you take a woman as your wife, you are using the woman as your route. You are saying, “She will give me that kind of satisfaction and pleasure which can be equated to godliness.” The Bliss that I will get in her company is probably the Bliss of 'Samadhi'
You do not really want the woman; you want God through the woman. The woman is a very narrow route, the woman is the keyhole. The elephant, God cannot enter your house through the woman. The woman is a very very narrow passage and so is the man.
If the woman looks at the man as the medium through which ultimate contentment can come to her, the woman is bound to be disappointed. And that is why we all spend our lives in disappointment and frustration because we want the unlimited through the limited and the limited can never-never carry the unlimited.
So, Yagyavlkya says, “Maitreya, you know whenever you have desired, you have desired only ‘That’.” But you have desired it through some worldly means and that is why you have failed. You have thought that ‘That’ is so distant that you require some intermediary to bring that to you. The problem is that that which you think of as the helper, the medium, the intermediary is itself the blockage, the obstruction, the barrier. That which you think of as your friend is actually your biggest enemy.
If you could drop your mediums, if you could drop your cleverness, if you could drop all your efforts, probably that which you want is already there.
Ultimately you want to stop, but you want to stop through running. You are saying, I am running very hard so that one day I may stop.
But why did you start running in the first place?
It's wise to take the direct route that is the only difference between wisdom and foolishness.
Foolishness is to take oblique routes, opposite routes when that which you seek is in front of you and immediately available.
All our life we refuse that which is simple and present and direct and here and within and free. Because the ego wants to take credit, the ego wants to say, “If it is free and available and here then what have I achieved? Then how will I claim myself to be great?” So, I want to do something which proves that I ran against obstacles and reached some great destination. I did that.
But if you just take what the Lord offers as blessings then you cannot claim credit for it. And that is why we so foolishly and continuously keep refusing the benediction that Life offers to us. Because in accepting that the ego shrivels. The ego says, “Will I just accept things without having worked for them?” That would prove that I am nobody. Obviously, that is the fact. The ego is a nobody but that is also the only fact that the ego is scared of.
Yagyavlkya says, "Maitreya if you can know that you really seek the end of seeking then that which you seek does not need to be sought. You are done. You are home. We all already arrive."
Yesterday I said, "We are like clouds that think that they are missing the sky." The Saints have called human beings as thirsty fish. Fish running hither-thither for water.
The fact is wherever you go you cannot miss that which you are looking for.
Even when you think that you have totally missed the Truth, even when you think that you are in complete darkness still there is light behind your thought otherwise, you wouldn't have been able to think.
Just a few verses, limited words, a few Sutras, and it's all over, done. And Yagyavlkya leaves home. What does that mean? Has the husband gone away? What has really happened?
When the teacher, the Guru is able to bring the student very-very intimate to himself then obviously no difference remains between the teacher and the student. The student is now the teacher. Maitreya is now Yagyavlkya.
Why bother yourself with forms? Why think that one is a man and one is a woman? Both are now one, both are now the same essence, the same heart. Nobody is a man and nobody is a woman.
And when Maitreya is now Yagyavlkya, Yagyavlkya can retire that is the beautiful role of the Guru.
Do not exceed your stay.
When you are needed, be there even if the student dislikes you, be there forcibly. And when you are not needed do not be there even if the student begs you and holds you by your feet.
In both the cases, you disappoint the student but if needed disappoint you must.
When the student needs you then be with him, even if he does not consciously know that he needs you. Then the student would say, “Why have you get crashed into my life? Why have you entered uninvited? Why are you offering your unsolicited advice? Who needs these teachings?” But you continue to harangue him.
You are the teacher, you do your duty. And the point comes when the Upanishads has been said and now only silence remains. What would you do now? The student is home, the student is the teacher, the teacher is the home. The teacher departs.
Has he really departed?
That's for you to decide, either answer that you give would just be wordplay. If you care for appearances, you would say, “Yagyavlkya has departed.” If you live in the essence, you would say, “Who has departed?” Yagyavlkya is Maitreya and both are one and both are God.
Who can ever depart?
