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Sir, are you liberated? || Acharya Prashant (2022)
16.9K views
3 years ago
Understanding vs. Knowledge
Liberation
Ego
Intention
Vidya
Desire
Inner Voice
Satsang
Description

Acharya Prashant addresses a question about how to attain the state of bliss or separate consciousness from physical nature, beyond merely understanding it intellectually. He explains that no practice can bring one to understanding. Even if you intellectually absorb something, it does not attain the level or status of understanding. To know something intellectually is like having a handkerchief; what you do with it depends on your intention. You could use it to wipe your forehead, as a mask, or even to smother yourself and die. Similarly, the one who is going to use the knowledge you have attained is what matters. Knowledge is not understanding; to be knowledgeable is not the same as to be a knower or to be in knowing. Knowledge is just a resource, and it will not liberate you from knowledge itself. The speaker elaborates that the ego has a huge appetite and can consume and digest anything, including the best of methods, which can be co-opted by Maya (illusion). The usual worldly knowledge one takes in will always become food for the ego. This knowledge will not liberate you because the ego has to be liberated from itself, and feeding it knowledge only strengthens it. Understanding is the dissolution of the ego, and worldly knowledge will not lead to that. However, there is a special kind of knowledge, called 'Vidya', which the ego finds difficult to use as its own ammunition to secure or fatten itself. With this knowledge, the probability of being liberated increases, but it is still a game of probabilities. Ultimately, it all boils down to whether you truly want liberation. If you want it, you will get it. If you do not, no amount of knowledge can help. The only method is a pure, childlike desire for it. When asked about the inner voice, Acharya Prashant explains that the mind is a fragmented entity with many voices, each a separate center. These voices emerge from the past, from experiences, biological drives, and conditioning. Therefore, all voices from the so-called inner space are false. To want something entirely new, like liberation, one must not listen to these old voices. The only unknowable is the Truth; everything else is knowable. Never surrender in front of anything here, as it can be known.