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स्वेच्छा से समर्पण || आचार्य प्रशांत (2014)
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5 years ago
Surrender
Listening
Doubt
Love
Ego
Free Will
Silence
Kabir Saheb
Description

Acharya Prashant begins by stating that the benefit one gets from visiting thousands of pilgrimage sites can be obtained simply by listening. It is better to listen than to go on seventy pilgrimages. Responding to a question about a line, "I cannot even once be a sacrifice to you," he elaborates that this signifies a state of profound surrender where one feels they do not even have the status to be sacrificed for the divine. To even claim to be a servant at the divine's feet would be an exaggeration. One feels they are not even worthy enough to be offered as a sacrifice or to touch the divine's feet. When asked how one can know if they are truly listening, as opposed to a mechanical process of reacting from memory, Acharya Prashant explains that the very doubt about whether one is truly listening is proof that one is not. This doubt and the need for security or confirmation will only exist as long as one is not truly listening. The moment one is truly listening, the desire to confirm it will not remain. He uses the analogy of love: the one who does not have love is the one who keeps trying to confirm if love exists. For the one who has it, the question does not arise. Therefore, if you have a doubt about love, your doubt is correct—there is no love. The existence of the doubt is proof of its own validity. Acharya Prashant further clarifies that if someone doubts whether he is an alien, they are thinking correctly, because 'alien' means unknown, and if one truly knows him, there would be no doubt. He explains that the 'Name' being referred to in scriptures is not the name of a person but the Supreme. He addresses a previous statement that the most 'beatings' are received in love, explaining that it is the ego that gets beaten or cut down. This can be experienced as pain by the ego, but it is also the process of the ego's removal. After a certain point, academic discussions about whether the ego gets hurt or feels good are useless. One must experience it directly. The speaker concludes by emphasizing action over intellectual debate. The path is simple and has two components: one's own free will (swechha) and the Guru's word. The words of the Guru are available, but one must also have the readiness to let something happen within, to enter into the words. He clarifies that 'letting it happen' means not trying from one's own side. The purpose of the word is to lead to silence, and if one only clings to words without being ready to move towards silence, the words will cause more harm.