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(गीता-36) सच और 'मेरा सच' दो बहुत अलग-अलग बातें हैं || आचार्य प्रशांत, भगवद् गीता पर (2023)
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1 year ago
Truth vs. My Truth
Dharma Yuddh (Righteous War)
Ego (Aham)
Shri Krishna
Buddha
Kabir Saheb
Maya (Illusion)
Counterfeit Medicine
Description

Acharya Prashant explains that true war has rarely occurred in human history; what we see are scuffles and quarrels. He defines a true war, or a righteous war (Dharma Yuddh), as the moment when one's personal truth confronts the ultimate Truth. When one person's truth clashes with another's, it is not a war but a squabble. He quotes Kabir Saheb, comparing such worldly conflicts to two donkeys kicking each other, even if fought in the name of religion. This, he calls a "donkey war," not a righteous war. The speaker draws an analogy with medicine, stating that more people die from counterfeit medicine than from a lack of it. Everyone receives some form of medicine, but one must be vigilant against receiving a fake one. Similarly, he emphasizes the vast difference between "Truth" and "my truth," and between "Krishna" and "my Krishna." There is no relation between the real Krishna and the personalized "my Krishna." To illustrate this, he narrates a Zen story about a female practitioner who was deeply attached to her small Buddha statue, which she called "my Buddha." When she visited a large temple with grand Buddha statues, she felt it was wrong that her small Buddha was not the center of attention. She placed her statue in the middle and offered all the incense to it. Later, she found her statue had turned black from the soot. The moral is that when the Buddha becomes "my Buddha," the possibility of learning from him ceases. The possessive "my" stems from the ego (aham), which is incomplete and always seeks to claim things as its own. The speaker concludes that by making Truth personal, we tarnish it. The battle of Truth is not against falsehood but against "my truth," which is a false truth. Truth does not compromise or adjust. When Truth enters one's life, it creates an upheaval, destroying all pre-existing structures. The real Krishna is one who, upon entering, leaves no room for anything else. The problem is not the absence of truth, but the presence of counterfeit truth.