With the sky in the Heart, Chasing horizons is Joy || Acharya Prashant (2016)
Question: Sir, do you ever get tired of all those questions that people ask you?
Acharya Prashant (AP): There are not many questions; there is just one question always.
I have good fun in answering the same question in multiple ways.
Listener 1 (L1): Can we talk about real love? Is there a definition of the Truth? Or the definition takes us away from the real love.
AP: You can surely talk about it, you can sing about it, you can write books, you can do everything. Truth gives you complete freedom to play around. The redeeming part is, that you can continue to describe Truth. I repeat: “You can continue to describe Truth without ever coming to an end.” That is why I don’t get tired.
You can keep singing the name of Truth in one thousand ways and the names never exhaust. That’s what makes Truth such a beauty, and such a mystery! You continue to speak about it and still, you have left with something more to say, which means that you must never have the false confidence that you have been able to finally capture Truth in your words.
You may continue to say. You may continue to speak in devotion, you may continue to speak in love and Joy but you must know that you must still ‘continue’ because the Truth doesn’t ever finish. And that is why in the east, particularly in India , there is the tradition of repeating . One verse will be taken and it would be repeated ten thousand times. And if you come to India then you’ll see and wonder that why is that man repeating same few words over and over, again and again, that is because it doesn’t ever end; that is because layer after layer there is more. Because every time you do it you are enriched a little more, because that is what infinity means, because that is what meant by it being ever expanding. And that is also what is meant by Love.
It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been together, it doesn’t matter how frequently you’ve heard someone, you want to hear a little more, you want to be with that entity a little more.
The more you listen the more your capacity to listen increases;
the more you are with That the more you want to be with That.
It is not like a goal post that you come to it and that is it. It is like the horizon — you keep running towards it and you find it is still very-very distant. You can sing of it and you can sing as much as you want. The Truth will never exhaust, neither would you.
And yet it is not something that disappoints you. It is not that as if you feel that ‘Oh! I kept running for so far and it is yet very distant’. No! It doesn’t disappoint you. It’s not that as if it leaves you with a heart break. The running itself is Love. The very sight of the horizon is your energy.
L3: The ego is disappointed from the point of view of the expectation to reach somewhere.
AP: It is disappointed only when it thinks of it. Sitting here, on this couch, if you think how would it feel to run but never reach, then you would be disappointed. But when you are actually running then you won’t be disappointed. Before running, you may be disappointed if you plan it, conceptualize it. Then if someone comes and tells you, “Even after running for two thousand years, you will never reach.” Then you are immediately disappointed and you won’t even start running. But if you are running then you are reaching not that horizon, still, horizon after horizon. There are an infinite number of horizons that you cross to reach that one final horizon. Now I leave it to you to wonder whether there is something really called as the one final horizon, or it is all about crossing these thousand horizons one after the other.
L4: Is it so because when I am running, all my energy is put into running only. There is no energy left to think?
AP: It is not your energy; it does not really exhaust. It is being sustained by the running. Do not be very particular about having a very worldly metaphor. When you run in the world, when you put your foot on the ground while running, there is loss of energy.
In what we have just said, when you put your foot on the ground, the ground gives you energy. There is a gain of energy. The running itself fills you up with energy. It is not your energy, it is the energy of the run. Do it, and then you’ll know how it invigorates you. Your own energy will be very limited. It is exhausted in no time. The running itself provides energy. Unlocks it.
