You are already alright || Acharya Prashant (2016)
“In awareness whatever is chosen will be beautiful.
In awareness whatever gets done is divine.”
~ Acharya Prashant
Acharya Prashant: In awareness whatever is done is right and beautiful and divine – that’s what you want to understand?
L1: Yes, I saw that in the poster. “Whatever is chosen”
AP: Yes. In awareness, whatever is chosen is the right choice, is the right decision.
L1: Yes, something like that.
AP: To know this, we will have to first know, what is meant by being in awareness. We know consciousness – you are perceiving me, you are perceiving this candle, you are conscious of these things – this is consciousness. To see as something separate from you, to see something out there, to see something with the help of the senses and find it registered upon the mind – this is consciousness.
In consciousness, you are always separate from what you see. In consciousness, you are always dependent upon what you see, because what you see has an effect upon you. If you look at a big dog vs if you look at a mouse vs if you look at a large lion – your own state will change. So, the subject is dependent on the object – that is the normal process of consciousness.
We look at the world and looking at the world changes us. So, the perceiver changes along with the perceived. And what you perceive depends on who you are – the perceiver. If you look at something in an angry mood, is that things the same as when you look at it peacefully? So the world depends on you; you depend on the world – that is how it happens normally. This is when we operate in consciousness.
In consciousness, because you are dependent on something, you want that dependence to go away. Remaining dependent, remaining kind of enslaved, is not your nature. So, you are in a constant need for freedom. And you are in a constant consciousness of bondage. In fact, the more you perceive your bondage, the more you look outwards to get rid of that bondage. You say, that all I know of is the world and something in the world-only the world-can come and liberate me of my bondage. You see, if all I know of is the world, who else can liberate me – the world. So, in consciousness, there is a constant affixation with the world; a constant search; a constant movement. Are you getting it?
All your decisions happen, so that you may get something. That something can be called as freedom, liberation, completion. You are always driven and purposeful; you are always hungry. We are looking at the state of the conscious mind. It is a hungry mind, it is a probing mind, it is a mind that wants something from the world. And when you want something from the world, you decide ‘where’ that thing can be obtained. So your decision is – “*that is where I will get my bread*” – that is how you decide.
“…that is where I will get my bread.”
Now, in deciding that, ‘that is where you will get your bread’, you have again reinforced your assumption about yourself and your assumption about yourself is that you are hungry. That is the nature of all decisions of the conscious mind. In its own eyes, it makes very smart decisions. It is a purposeful mind, we said. It wants something and all its decisions are made in order to get that particular thing. And sometimes, it actually manages to get the things it wants. It wants success, sometimes, it does get success.
It wants a big house; it does get that. There are many other things it wants, sometimes it actually manages to get them. But, whether it fails in getting them, or whether it succeeds in getting them, the underlying assumption remains the same, the underlying assumption is that it wants them. It wants them because it lacks something, that is the underlying assumption.
So, in normal consciousness, it does not matter what is your decision, what is always wrong is the basis of your decision. The basis of your decision is that you are petty and hollow and hungry – which you are actually not. You are petty and hollow and hungry, you appear that way, only because you have assumed yourself to be that. All this craving is just an assumption that you need something.
In awareness, again you make choices, but you do not make choices out of this inner desperation. Now you are not saying, that you are going somewhere because you are in a terrible inner need of fulfillment. Now, you go from one place to another, now you decide one thing over the other just because decision making came your way. It is not an existential exercise anymore; it is just circumstantial. No decision now can reduce or enhance you. It can have no bearing upon your being; upon that which you are. You are not making a choice in order to be fulfilled, you are making a choice as the one who is already fulfilled.
So, now in awareness, whatever you do is right. It does not matter what you choose, the basis of assumption is, the basis of choosing, the fundamental assumption – which, now is no more, remember, an assumption – is right. And that assumption is that- I need not assume anything about myself; I am beyond all assumptions – this is a realization.
In consciousness, what you have about yourself is just an imaginary assumption.In awareness, you have no assumptions about yourself; in awareness, you ‘are’ just yourself. In awareness, you are ‘Total’, clear, empty, silent.
And now, whatever you do can have no effect upon the doer. It is from silence and peace that you are operating and none of your actions can affect that silence or peace. Are you getting this?
I am operating from fulfillment; I am already alright. Now, I go around looking, searching, meeting, experiencing, going up, coming down; I am doing all of these. I am doing all of these as the one who is alright with himself, healthy and contented. So, whatever I do, I do as the contented one. I go up in contentment; I come down in contentment. Now, is going up right? Who bothers?
The question of right or wrong arises only when there is a purpose to be served. Now, there is no purpose. The final purpose has already been attained. I am at peace. So, I go up and that is very right because, in going up I am peaceful. I come down, and that too is right because in coming down I am peaceful. I may decide to eat and that is right; I may decide not to eat, that too is right because in eating, I am eating as the satisfied one. In not eating, again, I am not eating as the satisfied one. Eating or non-eating – I remain full.
So, whatever decision I make is the right decision. Which means that now I am liberated from the burden of making the right decision. Ordinarily, we are under so much pressure to make just the right decision, why? Because something is at stake. If you do not choose rightly, then you will miss something. In awareness, there is nothing left to be missed, because the highest obtainable goal has already been obtained. So, what can you miss now? And what can you even achieve now?
So, you are now liberated from the pressure of making the right decision. You can just make any decision playfully. Which means, that you no more decide, you just let things be. You have nothing at stake. You do not sit, rankling your brains, trying to come to that one particular right decision. Now, whatever gets done through you is the right thing. And mind you, when you are under that pressure to achieve, whatever you do is a violence against the world and against yourself, because, you are now looking at the world as an object to be manipulated. You are saying, “I want to go out there and fulfill a particular need. I am going out there to get something.”
In awareness, your relationship with the entire world is a peaceful, loving relationship. You are now not driven. So, the whole nature of your decisions changes. In awareness, your decisions are not the same as they are in ordinary consciousness. And this is quite strange, because in ordinary consciousness, your decisions very deliberate and studied decisions. Your decisions come out of careful analysis and planning and yet they are tremendously wrong. Your decisions come from all the calculations of your intellect and yet, they are horribly violent. In awareness, your decisions just come out of nowhere. You could even say that they come casually without planning, without too much interference of the intellect and yet they are just right.
So, decide not so that you can get peace; decide in peace.
In awareness, you decide in peace. So, whatever gets done is peaceful.
Do you see this? Between awareness and consciousness, there is a difference of the doer. In consciousness, the doer is an assumed entity – an assumed, hungry entity. In awareness, the doer is unlimited; is a nobody. You cannot put your finger on the doer. You cannot call the doer by a name. The doer has no boundaries; the doer has no reason. The doer is just delighting in his own completion; In his own completion he goes about playing.
