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Step back and find God || Acharya Prashant, on Jesus Christ (2016)
Scriptures and Saints
534 views
2 years ago
Non-doing
Surrender
Witnessing
Involution
Spontaneity
Grace
Action
Choice
Description

Acharya Prashant explains that human effort and doing often only strengthen the ego rather than connecting one to the divine. He interprets the words of Jesus to mean that a special kind of participation is required, which is actually non-participation, witnessing, or surrender. He suggests that instead of a forward march or searching for God in front of us, one must step back or involute. By stepping back and ceasing the constant effort to control, one allows grace to work through them. He emphasizes that our habitual ways of functioning have not brought true resolution, and continuing them is futile. Using the analogy of sleep, Acharya Prashant describes relaxation and surrender not as choices, but as inevitable destinies. Just as a tired person eventually must sleep regardless of their attempts to stay active, mankind is tired of constant choosing and striving. He asserts that choosing leads to more choices, whereas surrender is the end of all choosing and the disappearance of the chooser. He argues that fighting against this natural relaxation is a lost war, as the need to stop is pre-scripted and inevitable due to our limited energy. He further clarifies that the end of being an 'actor' does not mean the end of action itself. Instead, it means the end of the anxiety-ridden question, 'How must I act?' When one stops being the personal doer, action happens spontaneously through them rather than by them. This shift removes the need for decision-making, weighing alternatives, or seeking justifications. Complexity is replaced by simplicity, and one acts from a right center without needing conceptual clarity or intellectual explanations. He concludes that living rightly means giving up the unnecessary responsibility to choose and allowing right action to happen even without conscious knowledge or conceptual realization.