A questioner, who identifies as being in a state of duality, asks how the Avadhuta Gita, which speaks of a state beyond both qualities (guna) and formlessness (nirguna), can be of help to her. Acharya Prashant explains that the purpose is simply to convey that it is not necessary to remain stuck in duality. There is something beyond duality, something greater than it, that exists or can exist. He advises not to be too concerned with what lies beyond duality or beyond qualities. One should not ask what non-duality (advaita) is or how to reach it, or how to go from qualities to formlessness and then even beyond that. These questions are not very important. Whenever there is talk of the 'beyond', it is not so that you will necessarily reach it by transcending your qualitative life. The purpose is to break the notion that your current state is the ultimate reality. It is enough to have the thought that the things we are stuck in, the things that seem so important to us, and the matters that have become our very life, are not the final or the highest state. To have this notion broken—that what we are doing is the ultimate and the pinnacle—is that not enough? He uses an analogy: if you are trapped somewhere, it is enough for someone to whisper to you that there are windows and doors. This gives you hope. The dimension changes. You wouldn't ask where the train is going or what the map outside the door looks like. Those questions come much later. For the one who is trapped, it is enough to know that it is not necessary to remain trapped. The talk of the 'beyond' is not for you to create an image of it while sitting inside your prison. We do this mischief: we create an image of God, a story about the beyond, and all sorts of knowledge about liberation, all while sitting inside the walls of our prison. The scriptures, whether the Avadhuta Gita, Upanishads, or Bhagavad Gita, talk about the 'beyond'—sometimes calling it God, liberation, or Truth—to encourage you to break your doors and tear down your walls. The talk of the formless (nirguna) is a method to free you from the grip of qualities (gunas). It's not that you will find something called 'nirguna' standing outside your window. The definition of 'nirguna' is that which cannot be grasped by the qualities, which is the material of our mind. That which is beyond nature is 'nirguna'. The talk of 'nirguna' is done repeatedly in the scriptures to give you the courage to peek outside the prison of qualities. God or Truth is that lollipop which, though it may not exist, is very useful because, without it, you will not leave your home. Without talk of the sky, you will never rise from the earth, from your earthly activities, from wallowing in the mud. There is nothing in the sky, but it is necessary to rise from the earth because you are suffering there.
