On YouTube
हंस अकेला जाई || आचार्य प्रशांत, संत कबीर पर (2014)
13K views
5 years ago
Kabir Saheb
Innocence
Maya (Illusion)
Truth
Mind
Conditioning
Gautam Buddha
Chadariya (The Sheet of Life)
Description

Acharya Prashant begins by explaining a couplet by Kabir Saheb, which states that everyone is born clean and pure, but they get soiled by the world. He quotes, "Servant Kabir wore it with care and returned the sheet as it was," explaining that this means to live life in such a way that you return the 'sheet' of life just as pure as you received it. This is the essence of living: to remain as innocent, pure, and simple as a child, without becoming clever, cunning, or deceitful. One should not learn the ways of the world like deceit and shrewdness but remain like a child. When a questioner asks how one can remain uninfluenced while learning from the world, Acharya Prashant clarifies that Kabir did not absorb the world's conditioning. He uses two analogies: our minds are like sponges that soak up everything, or like a blanket that absorbs all water. In contrast, Kabir's mind is like a delicate flower petal from which a drop of water simply slides off without leaving a mark. The advice is to keep the mind delicate and uninfluenced by external conditionings. When the questioner expresses doubt about Kabir's truthfulness, Acharya Prashant compares this to a blind person doubting the existence of light. He says we are not inherently blind but have been taught to keep our eyes closed, which we call 'life.' When someone like Kabir opens their eyes, we call them a fraud. Acharya Prashant emphasizes that one cannot judge Kabir from a lower level of consciousness, comparing it to someone in a pit trying to understand someone on a mountain peak. Instead of speculating about Kabir, one should look at their own 'sheet'—their life and mind—to see if it has become dirty. He states that the very realization that one's sheet is dirty is the beginning of the cleaning process. The process of purification starts the moment one recognizes the impurity. Addressing a question on how to know the Truth, Acharya Prashant explains that there is no specific 'knowledge' of the Truth. Instead, knowing the Truth is about attaining freedom from all false knowledge that one has accumulated. It is not about acquiring something new but about getting rid of the old. He gives the example of Gautam Buddha, who, after enlightenment, did not escape from the world but took on the immense responsibility of establishing and managing the Sangha. The one who knows the Truth becomes the true king of the world, living in it with a different understanding and not as an escapist.