With the eyes, you see something; with the I, nothing || Acharya Prashant (2016)

Listener (L): You talk about being devoted to seeing till the seeing is gone and the seer is gone.

Acharya Prashant (AP): The seer is gone – is all right; the seeing is gone – is not all right.

Seeing is the nature of the Absolute; it can not ever go away. The seer is the game of the absolute; the game can change, the seer can go away.

The child that has gone out to play can return home and sleep. So, the game can come to a pause but the seeing can never stop. But why do you feel that the seeing can stop and why do the teachers advise that the seeing must stop?

Because they equate seeing with seeing through a seer; because there is a deep notion that if there is no seer then, obviously, there can be no seeing. It is the notion that our eyes give us, it is a matter of common experience that if there are no eyes then there is no eyeing, there is no vision, no seeing.

So, we feel that an agency is definitely needed for an action to occur, we feel that an actor is definitely needed for an action to occur; just as eyes are needed to see. So, we feel if the eyes are gone then the vision is gone and if I cannot see anything, then it is a proof that the eyes are gone.