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Lover of Truth versus beggar of world || Acharya Prashant, on Guru Kabir (2019)
Acharya Prashant
1.6K views
6 years ago
Kabir Saheb
Duality
Liberation
Happiness
Simple Harmonic Motion
Truth
Ego
Worldliness
Description

Acharya Prashant explains that for a lover of truth, the world is a single, unchanging entity, whereas a worldly person perceives it as an infinite spectrum of experiences. He uses the metaphor of a ball oscillating between the North Pole of happiness and the South Pole of sadness to describe the human mind's captivity in duality. This simple harmonic motion ensures that every pursuit of happiness is inevitably followed by sadness, yet the worldly mind remains deluded by the false hope that life is 'new' every moment. He critiques spiritual teachers and advertisers who promote this idea of constant novelty, arguing that human tendencies, fears, and hopes remain fundamentally the same despite changing external forms. Referring to the words of Kabir Saheb, Acharya Prashant describes the world as 'dry bread pieces.' While the common man distinguishes between 'salty' (happiness) and 'saltless' (sadness) bread, the saint recognizes that the base—the world itself—is dry and unsatisfying regardless of its 'toppings' or superficial variations. He emphasizes that the purpose of life should not be the pursuit of happiness, which is inherently dualistic, but rather liberation. The world should be viewed not as an end in itself, but as an opportunity to find the 'secret tunnel' or crack in the wall that leads out of the prison of worldly existence. Finally, he interprets Kabir Saheb’s instruction to 'sever your head' as the necessity of destroying the ego or the intellect that acts as a mole within. He explains that the head is the real enemy because it misguides the individual into looking for enemies outside while protecting itself. In the path of love and truth, the lover becomes so focused on the beloved that they must slaughter anything that impedes their progress, even if it is their own head. True relaxation or 'sleep' only comes when one drops all worldly conditions and pendencies, realizing that the world has nothing more to offer.