Why does spiritual sadhana take long to complete? || (2019)
Questioner: Pranaam Acharya Ji. Why does spiritual sadhana take long to complete?
Acharya Prashant: The condition you have come to, is not sudden. It has taken millions of years of evolution for you to come to this state. It’s a very, very old habit. It is like dust that has settled over something, since centuries, millennia, aeons.
Time has brought you to your current condition. And that which time has given you, takes time to go away. After all, whose liberation are you talking of? In your question, when you say that 'I want to dissolve and live as Truth only', whose dissolution are you talking of?
The one whose dissolution you are talking of, is he the Truth? Obviously, he cannot be the Truth. Why would one demand the dissolution of the Truth? Why would one think that the Truth can be dissolved at all?
So, you are demanding the dissolution of the one, who is not the Truth. Who is he then? He is a product of time. Truth is not a product of time, and therefore Truth does not bother you. And therefore, you are not demanding the dissolution of Truth.
You are demanding the dissolution of that which is false. Now see, now see - you are demanding the dissolution of the false. Just as it is silly to demand the dissolution of Truth, isn’t it equally silly to demand the dissolution of the false?
Truth cannot be dissolved, because Truth is timeless. And false cannot be dissolved, because the false does not exist at all. But surely, you are asking for the false to be dissolved, which means you take the false to be Truth.
Because you take the false as Truth, therefore you stumble, and get deceived, and get hurt. The false one is too accustomed to its falseness. The false one is too sure about himself. He is right now not in a condition, to immediately, spontaneously declare – I am false. If you could do that, then liberation would have been instantaneous.
But you are in no position to immediately declare that you are false. You are in no position to declare that the one who is feeling hurt actually does not exist. To you, he exists, which means that to you, the false exists as the Truth.
Such is the condition of the one who is asking this question. Even asking the question proves that you identify with the false, and therefore, you are asking for the dissolution of the false.
If you identify with the false, is a quick movement into the Truth possible? No. It will take time. ‘Sadhana ’ is the way. You will have to be constantly embattled against yourself. And you will have to be constantly engaged with the ones, who appear closer to the Truth. These are the only two ways of sadhana . There is no third way.
Fight against yourself, and side with the Saints – both are needed. In fact, just proceeding on one leg of the sadhana , without bothering for the other, is more dangerous than not beginning with sadhana at all. You have to fight both against yourself, and side with the Saints.
If you side with the saints, without fighting against yourself, then you will use the Saints, to fatten yourself. And if you fight against yourself, without siding with the Saints, then you will go mad, because you will keep destroying who you are, what you are, without finding anything.
You will keep declaring all is false, without getting a glimpse of the Truth. This will wreak havoc on you. This will disappoint you so much. This will turn your life so dry that you will lose all the courage to fight any further. And you will just go bonkers.
You need to have both – a determination to defeat yourself, and devotion to be with the lovers of Truth. And both these things take time because you are firmly convinced that you are a product of time. Not that time is a necessity in the process. It’s just that you have declared yourself at a position that makes time a necessity.
If you could change your declaration, then time would no more be a necessity. But your very declaration is that – you are the false one, posing as Truth. With that position, with that identity, you are going to take time. And time you have. What else is this life for? Time you have, just invest this time rightly.
What does this mean, when I say, “Invest the time rightly”?
Invest that time in two things: in fighting against yourself, and in being in the company of Saints and lovers of God, Truth.
