Questioner (Q): Acharya Ji, in a recent session one has heard from you that the binary of going up and down in life, it will continue. It would never happen that you would have either only highs or only lows. So, somebody had asked that the person was experiencing these highs and lows very frequently. So, I could relate to this question and I was in a way anticipating a response, but what you said was very radical for me. You had said that such a movement will exist, it would not cease, what you have to ensure is that this movement is upward and not downward. So, your lows have to be higher lows and you move upward. If you could say something about it.
Acharya Prashant (AP): You are talking of the spiritual journey?
Q: In general living from day to night.
AP: My response would only be in the context of spiritual movement.
Q: Yes, yes, of course. Like you had said that this image has stuck in my mind- you moving your hand and saying, “Not this, but this.” So, if one can hear a little more about it, it would be helpful.
AP: This is the superimposition of two curves. This is the curve, y= sin (x). It really never attains any height. It moves centered on the Y-axis. The highs and the lows both are predetermined and dualistic in a sense. You know of the sine curve, right? So, y=sin(x). Now add to this the curve y=x. How does the curve y=x, look like? It is the straight line passing through the origin, at 45 degrees to both the X-axis and Y-axis.
These two when added, give the curve that you are talking of.
What does the addition of these two curves mean? Man is both Prakṛti and something else. Prakṛti is y=sin(x). You are confined within duality- ups and downs, ups and downs, leading to nothing. The up will not remain up, forever; the down will not remain down, forever. Crests and troughs, crests and troughs; that is Prakṛti .
In a state of endless movement: day and night, summer and winter, dry and wet, here and there, yesterday and tomorrow. That is y=sin(x). Man is usually just Prakṛti . So, his life too remains confined within the limits of that curve. A lot seems to be happening, nothing really happens. The curve of life seems to be going up, going up, going up, and then it comes down. Goes down, goes down and then, there is a great apprehension that it will go down into some kind of an endless pit and then suddenly there is a revival, and there is celebration. "Yeaaah...!"
The curve has taken some inflection. So, instead of going forever down, what does the curve do?
“Celebration, celebration, the economy has revived.” And now it goes up. And then what happens? Now as it is going up and your hopes are soaring, suddenly tragedy strikes and the curve takes again a downward turn. And you remain interested, it’s all so gripping. You are never allowed to lose interest because always something is happening, something is changing. Either hope beckons you, or tragedy threatens you. But all in all, what is happening? Nothing. You are not allowed to rise beyond a point. Worse still, you are not even allowed to fall beyond a point.
Life just keeps moving, moving, moving, like this, like this, like this (indicating a sinusoidal wave). Do you see this? Now this will keep happening because you are identified with the body. Even to ask this question, there has to be a body.
But life is life, only if there is another curve as well. That, I am calling as y=x, a curve that takes you upwards. It’s a very separate thing. It is the curve of consciousness, that is not satisfied with merely being Prakṛti — merely eating, farting, excreting, sweating, reproducing. No? What is there in it?
All the time you are inhaling, exhaling, blinking your eyes, moving your hands and limbs, combing your hair, brushing your teeth. Is that what you are living for? And then sometimes you have diarrhea. That’s what life is, right?
Anybody who has never had diarrhea? Anybody who has never had measles or chickenpox? That’s life. That’s life as a body. Is there anything more to life as a body? Anything more? Maybe a running nose. And if you don’t have all the vaccinations done, then the bacteria and viruses will tell you what it means to be a body. Every part of your body would be infested by some pathogen. That is y= sin(x).
“Oh...! I am healthy, healthy, healthy.” Disease strikes. But, most diseases are self-limiting. So, even as your condition is deteriorating, after a point you find that the fever is ebbing off. Doesn’t that happen with most fevers? Let’s say, malaria. There is a time duration. Health keeps falling, falling, falling, the fever keeps rising, rising, rising. And then one day you find that the fever is gone. So, you are not even allowed to just keep falling indefinitely. That’s life as a body, things come and go, nothing really happens.
And then there is a curve of consciousness. The curve of consciousness. It is not satisfied lying flat in the ‘X’ dimension. It wants to rise up. It wants to have a ‘Y’ movement. But it is helpless and constrained because our consciousness cannot operate free of the body. Ours is a body-dependent consciousness. Even our consciousness depends on the brain, does it not? Hit the brain hard and where is consciousness. That’s such a debilitating thing with being human, even consciousness depends on the body. So, the body cannot just be kept away or thrown away. So, the two must go together.
Hence your life curve must be y= sin(x) + x. Then the curve would be? Ups and downs would be there, but those ups would keep getting progressively higher. And even the lows would keep getting progressively higher. So the body will keep doing its own thing, but you will find that all in all you are rising.
You are not merely y=sin(x). You are now y= sin(x) + x. Hell, make it x². y= sin(x) + x². And if you can make it y= sin(x) +x raised to the power ‘n’, ‘n’ tends to infinity, you are done right now, irrespective of the body. Depends on your intent, the strength of your desperation, and determination.
Never think that the bodily curve will let you free. The bodily curve will remain. You just have to superimpose another curve on that. “Let the body do its thing, I will do my thing. I cannot stop the body, but I won’t let the body stop me either. If you won’t listen to me, am I going to listen to you?”
The curve of the body will be there, that is the curve of Prakṛti . And the curve of consciousness is also there. Just ensure that the curve of consciousness is steep enough to carry, and rather override the curve of the body.
