Acharya Prashant responds to a question about the birth of the universe by stating that the only correct answer is "Right now." He explains that the universe is born in the present moment because the past and future exist only in relation to the "now." They do not have an independent, objective existence. The entire flow of time is an illusion; nothing has happened, is happening, or will happen. What is, simply is. The entire past and future are contained within the present moment. Addressing a follow-up about the age of dinosaurs, Acharya Prashant clarifies that the world is perceived according to the consciousness of the perceiver. When dinosaurs existed, their world was as they perceived it, which would be different from how a human perceives it. To know that world, one would have to be a dinosaur. He points out that the mistake scientists often make is trying to view another time, like the past, with the mind of today. The mind and time cannot be separated; the state of the universe at any point is the state of the consciousness that is watching it. The world is a projection of the mind. He further explains that all suffering arises from taking this illusion as truth. The mind, which is a product of time and evolution, enjoys being in illusion, much like a person pays to watch a movie and believe it's real. The fundamental illusion is believing that the phenomenal world is real. When one understands that all phenomena are mental projections, a sense of lightness and freedom from the burdens of the past and the challenges of the future arises. The speaker concludes by quoting Kabir Saheb: "Those who consider the Guru a mere human are blind. They will suffer in the world and face the noose of death," illustrating that the Guru is not a person in the conventional sense.
