Yoga is to dance without a reason || Acharya Prashant, on Bhagwad Gita (2017)

Acharya Prashant

‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquir...  ⚡ Want Acharya Prashant’s regular updates? Join WhatsApp Channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Va6Z...   Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books? Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...   Want to accelerate Acharya Prashant’s work? Contribute: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/contri...   Want to work with Acharya Prashant? Apply to the Foundation here: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/hiring...  ➖➖➖➖➖➖  Video Information: 6th Myth Demolition Tour, 16.3.17, Rishikesh, India  Context: कर्मण्य कर्म यः पश्येदकर्मणि च कर्म यः । स बुद्धिमान्मनुष्येषु स युक्तः कृत्स्नकर्मकृत्‌ ॥  // 4.18 //  He who recognizes inaction in action and action in inaction is wise among men; he is a Yogi and a true performer of all actions.   ~ What is Yoga? ~ How to dance? ~ How to go beyond reason? ~ Who demolishes all myths? ~ What does it mean to act in a way where nothing changes internally?  Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~

Transcript

00:00:00You would see that I am repeatedly stressing on fishing as the demolisher,

00:00:27on Krishna as someone who not only not accepts our prevalent definitions of right, wrong,

00:00:51true and false, humility, authority, right action, non-violence, but in fact unabashedly

00:01:17and actively demolishes them.

00:01:24It is one thing to come up with a revised version of the same old stuff and it is totally

00:01:38another thing to come up with something that was totally fresh, original and unprecedented.

00:01:54That's what fishing is and fishing deviates from the established definition and concept

00:02:07of something.

00:02:09It is not a minor deviation, it is not an incremental change, it is not a little bit

00:02:20of correction, it is a total explosion.

00:02:29We cannot even say that it is a 180 degree turn, we cannot even say that Krishna speaks

00:02:37the opposite of what we have usually heard because even if we say that Krishna stands

00:02:50totally against our concepts, we are still somehow relating Krishna to our own stand.

00:03:06We are still saying that Krishna is giving us another concept which is opposed to our

00:03:10concept and thereby related to our concept.

00:03:16So, it's neither a minor deviation nor a major deviation and not even a total deviation.

00:03:24It is a dimensionally different space into which Krishna takes us.

00:03:31I repeat, it's a dimensionally different space into which Krishna takes us.

00:03:40So, yesterday and day before, we have looked at a few yoga verses.

00:03:52The clarity on yoga that Krishna is bringing to us cannot be had unless one is prepared

00:04:08to totally give up that definition which had been resting and established in our mind.

00:04:24We do not give that up, we won't be able to go to the space, to the dimension Krishna

00:04:30is calling us to.

00:04:39Demolition is the word, not deviation, demolition, not deviation, dissolution, not development.

00:04:58We will enter the next verse with the care that we do not look at it as coming from the

00:05:28from our own established knowledge.

00:05:33If we do that, then Krishna, Yoga, Gita, all will elude us.

00:05:51He who recognizes inaction in action and action in action is wise amongst men.

00:06:05He is a yogi and a true performer of all actions.

00:06:12Chapter 4, verse 18, He who recognizes inaction in action and action in action is wise among

00:06:31men.

00:06:32He is a yogi and a true performer of all actions.

00:06:38Krishna is taking us to the very essence of yoga.

00:06:48He who sees inaction in action and action in inaction is a yogi, a wise man and a true

00:07:00performer of all actions.

00:07:06He who sees action in inaction and inaction in action is wise, a yogi and a true performer

00:07:21of all actions.

00:07:26What does Krishna mean here?

00:07:33What does action mean to us?

00:07:39When you say action, what does it mean to you?

00:07:54When you say action, what does it mean to you?

00:08:23I like the way you related action to intention.

00:08:51Our action is always intentional and physical, as you said, and begins and ends, its assumed

00:09:06end is supposed to come when the intention has been fulfilled, when the action achieves

00:09:14its result, then it is supposed to come to an end, result, intention, end.

00:09:30Now how do any of these really relate to action?

00:09:41You see, you lift your hand, action has taken place.

00:09:55This simply is action, you lift your hand and that is action.

00:10:02You let this fall and action has taken place, some sort of change.

00:10:13When you lift your hand or when something falls from a position, where is the question

00:10:23of intention in the mind of the doer?

00:10:44So for us, action is not merely a physical happening, it is much more psychological.

00:11:01It's a psychological event in which an end must be fulfilled, something must be gained,

00:11:11some purpose, some result must be achieved.

00:11:18In other words, the position of the actor must change.

00:11:28Action must result in improvement or betterment or fulfillment of the actor, the doer.

00:11:43So something appears to move in the physical space and along with that something else must

00:11:56also move in the so-called internal space.

00:12:06As the legs climb a mountain, not only must the legs go up, not only must the body be

00:12:18taken up the mountain, something within must also rise, something within must also improve

00:12:27its position, something within must be now able to claim that it is better at the top

00:12:38of the mountain compared to when it was at the bottom of the mountain.

00:12:48Not only has the body been hauled up, self-worth too has been hauled up.

00:13:00Something internally too has gone up a few notches.

00:13:05Transformation has taken place at two levels.

00:13:14At one level there is the world, at the other level there is the seer of the world, the

00:13:32subject, the individual ego.

00:13:38Though our action pertains to the outside, yet it is essentially meant to cater to the

00:13:49welfare of the inside.

00:13:55If you really know, for example, that a particular action is not going to result in an improvement

00:14:08of the I-worth, would you indulge in it?

00:14:17What determines the intensity with which one engages in any action?

00:14:33What determines one's interest and energy in any particular action?

00:14:45The promise of the quantum of self-improvement, the increase of self-worth that would result

00:14:59from that action.

00:15:03If something does not promise anything at all, if an action does not hold the hope of

00:15:17internal improvement, one feels very indifferent to that action.

00:15:23One asks, why must I act?

00:15:27One says, what do I get out of it?

00:15:32And remember, it is not the result of physical action that one is seeking, one is seeking

00:15:41something else.

00:15:42Let us say you climb up a mountain and on top of the mountain there is a flower that

00:15:54you meet and a small restaurant where you can sip some hot coffee.

00:16:04These are the tangible, perceptible results of external action.

00:16:09I climbed up the mountain, what did I get?

00:16:12The flower and the coffee.

00:16:19But is it the flower and the coffee that one acts for?

00:16:25It may appear that physical action is resulting in the attainment of something physical.

00:16:34So, the equation is neat.

00:16:37You work physically and you get something physical.

00:16:42But don't be deceived by this neatness.

00:16:44It is not so neat.

00:16:47What you are obtaining from physical action is something non-physical.

00:16:53That is the real pull, that is the bait.

00:16:58You work the entire month, at the end of the month you get a salary check.

00:17:05The input-output equation appears to be balanced.

00:17:1230 days you put in your work and 30th day you get the fruit of your work in the form

00:17:24of a salary check.

00:17:26But is it so neat?

00:17:37It is what that salary check means to you that matters.

00:17:47What kind of value does that hold internally?

00:17:58One wants to rise.

00:18:02One wants to feel a little better, improved.

00:18:06One wants to feel more complete, more fulfilled.

00:18:09The salary check by itself does not mean much.

00:18:12It is that which the salary check causes within that has meaning.

00:18:31So, there is action and action, there is movement and movement.

00:18:39Movement where?

00:18:41Outside and movement inside as well.

00:18:45Every successive check adds something to the I-sense.

00:18:55Any incremental figure helps inflate something within.

00:19:07When you get a little more in terms of money, it is not only a little more money that you

00:19:14are getting, a little more something else is also becoming available.

00:19:20What is that something else?

00:19:27I said we work the entire month and then one earns a check.

00:19:34Is it only money that you have earned?

00:19:39And when you earn a little more money, is it only a little more money or does it change

00:19:46something within, something psychologically?

00:19:52Does not one's own self-concept change depending on how much one earns?

00:20:02Ego is growing.

00:20:03Not only is the bank balance growing, along with the bank balance, the ego is also growing.

00:20:13Who is this one who is getting satisfaction?

00:20:20That psychological entity is called the ego.

00:20:24That which you call as the growth of satisfaction is the growth of this psychological self.

00:20:34The evidence that it is merely psychological is that it feeds upon the external.

00:20:39It has nothing of its own.

00:20:43It measures its self-worth depending on external conditions, the ratification and the acceptance

00:20:54of others.

00:20:57That is why people who do not get their checks for many consecutive months or years start

00:21:08feeling low about themselves.

00:21:11The reason why they feel low about themselves is not merely that now they do not have enough

00:21:17money to buy their grocery.

00:21:20The reason is the world looks down upon them.

00:21:24And because this ego sense has very little of its own, it very quickly absorbs the opinions

00:21:32of the world.

00:21:38So it's a strange thing.

00:21:43One acts in order to change himself.

00:21:50One acts so that just as the action takes place outside, some action also takes place

00:21:56inside.

00:22:03One is improving the state of his house.

00:22:08And ostensibly, it is a house of brick and mortar that one is seeking to improve.

00:22:15But it is not only the house that one is seeking to improve, through the house one is seeking

00:22:21to improve himself.

00:22:29And if it were established, known that the improvement in the house will not bring about

00:22:37an improvement in the self, then there would not be much energy left to invest in the house.

00:22:45One would say, why am I working so much?

00:22:50Why am I investing in this house?

00:22:54Even after all my efforts, I am going to remain the same.

00:22:59The house was shine, I would not shine.

00:23:02So what is the point in having the house shine?

00:23:06If that shine is not going to reflect upon me.

00:23:13One does not buy a new car, one buys a little more self-worth.

00:23:21One does not merely enter a new relationship with a man or woman.

00:23:25One enters a little more polished and beautified ego.

00:23:37Who am I?

00:23:38The one related to that nice man or woman.

00:23:43Who am I?

00:23:44The one related to that nice man or woman.

00:23:48Now some of the niceness of that man is going to rub off upon me.

00:23:56I would shine by way of association.

00:23:59That is the way of the psychological self, it does not have any roots within.

00:24:05So it seeks improvement only through its association with the world.

00:24:11Hence it constantly tries to do something in the world that would give it something.

00:24:19May I have better grades in college?

00:24:26May I have a better reputation?

00:24:33May I prove something to myself?

00:24:36May I prove something to others?

00:24:41If we are not careful, we would be deceived into thinking that these actions have something

00:24:48to do with the world.

00:24:49No, they don't have anything to do with the world.

00:24:51The world is just being used as a medium.

00:24:56The world is just being used as an instrument.

00:25:03External achievement is being used as a tool to achieve something internal.

00:25:16The funny thing is that which one is seeking to achieve internally hardly ever gets achieved.

00:25:30Because the starting point itself says, I am inadequate, so I need improvement.

00:25:40Hence improvement has come because you are inadequate.

00:25:44The effect can never change the cause.

00:25:50You start from some point, now wherever you reach that point cannot change the point you

00:25:59started from.

00:26:05The foundations of a building cannot be changed by the third floor or can they be?

00:26:13When the foundation itself says I am inadequate, then based on that foundation, whatever you

00:26:20do is not going to make you inadequate.

00:26:24One primarily remains with that internal sense, feeling of inadequacy, incompleteness.

00:26:34One constantly feels there is a little more left to achieve, well, you know, I need to

00:26:39be a little better, you know, something needs to change about me.

00:26:47So, there is action outside, which is just a method, a tool, not of really much value.

00:26:59The ego is rather attaching value to its own advancement, its own inflation.

00:27:08Krishna is saying one must see action in inaction and inaction in action.

00:27:29Is it possible to live in a way where what you do outside is purely a thing of the outside?

00:27:39Where you are not acting so that the action may improve your self-worth?

00:27:48Is it possible?

00:27:49Is it possible that there is inaction inside and yet a lot of action, suitable action,

00:27:57even vigorous action outside?

00:28:00Is it possible to live that way?

00:28:03Krishna is inviting us, even challenging us.

00:28:07And Krishna is saying, can you also see that there is a lot of action contained in your

00:28:20inaction?

00:28:21When we began, you said that the definition of action for us is mostly physical.

00:28:30So if there is no physical action, we say action has not taken place at all.

00:28:37Krishna is saying, now come on, do not be duped so easily, even if not, the slightest

00:28:50movement has taken place, still action takes place because action is far more subtle.

00:29:01Gross action is seen physically, subtle action is called thought.

00:29:09Even when the eyes cannot catch action happening, if the mind is moving, action is happening.

00:29:21It is just that the ways of the world are such that they will not classify the movement

00:29:25of mind as action.

00:29:28You hit someone, you will be caught and punished.

00:29:30You think of hitting someone, nobody is going to catch you.

00:29:38But that is not how the seers look at it.

00:29:42They say that the action has been committed just with the thought.

00:29:52Now even if nobody is able to detect it, now even if you are not put to task, still something

00:29:59has happened.

00:30:03How is it proven that something has happened?

00:30:05It is proven because you will now be bearing the result.

00:30:14The thought has come to you, so something within you has changed.

00:30:19The result would come upon you.

00:30:22So even if nobody else is there to inflict a result upon you, you have yourself inflicted

00:30:28a result upon yourself.

00:30:31Your thought might not be seen by anybody else, but you know that you have thought.

00:30:36Because you have thought, so now you will have the consequences of the thought.

00:30:42Christian says, please see that even your inaction includes a lot of action.

00:30:50In fact, often external inaction is because there is too much action inside.

00:31:01The mind is so active and so very contradictorily active that all its energy gets neutralized.

00:31:21One part of the mind fights against another part and there is nothing left to show up

00:31:30on the outside.

00:31:31If someone does not really have eyes, he would look at you and say that you are sitting still.

00:31:42But inside you know very well that there is a battle raging.

00:31:51It's a world war and because the world war is all-consuming and very severe, so you have

00:32:00been paralyzed.

00:32:04You have been left with no direction to go.

00:32:08You have been left with no sense to advance.

00:32:12There is no single center within from where to move.

00:32:20Krishna is saying, you must know that even when most of us do not act, they are always

00:32:33acting because the actor is on.

00:32:38This actor surely must be a very confused actor.

00:32:42This actor surely must be a very divided actor.

00:32:48Had he really been clear about what he wants, he wouldn't have wasted so much of himself.

00:32:55He wouldn't have indulged in self-defeating fights.

00:33:06What does it mean to act in a way where nothing changes internally?

00:33:19Nothing is sought to be changed internally.

00:33:23Nothing is sought at all and yet action happens.

00:33:28How is it possible to display action while remaining totally inactive?

00:33:41And Krishna is saying, if you know that, you are a yogi.

00:33:44If you know that, that is yoga.

00:33:57What would that look like?

00:33:58What would that feel like?

00:33:59What does that mean, not to act as a person?

00:34:27You see, if you will not act like a person, then you will act like someone else.

00:34:34You would still be there to act.

00:34:39The thing with not doing something is that you are still the doer.

00:34:48The thing with remaining a non-doer is that you still remain.

00:34:57And that is as much of action as qualified action.

00:35:05I am a non-doer, but you still are.

00:35:10The I am still remains, remains silent, but you still remain.

00:35:22You were talkative earlier, now you are silent.

00:35:29Just because something has been put on the silent mode, does not mean that it has lost

00:35:35its fundamental characteristics, its basic tendencies.

00:35:38In fact, now it is hiding, now it has become more dangerous.

00:35:46The same thing is now wearing a different colour and a different name.

00:35:52The face has changed.

00:35:53The man is the same, more dangerous, because more holy.

00:36:05Now the mischief is spiritually sanctioned.

00:36:12Now you can claim for yourself that which you do not really have, that which you are

00:36:19really not.

00:36:30So letting action happen is not at all about you remaining as a person or you not remaining

00:36:39as a person.

00:36:42The more you will talk about the I, the more relevant the I will keep becoming.

00:36:51That is something that is often missed.

00:36:57And that is something that requires a teacher of the status of Krishan to clarify.

00:37:13Even if you refer to the I to negate the I, you have still empowered the I.

00:37:22The more you talk about the I, whether in inquiry or in negation or in exploration,

00:37:30you are still confirming that there exists something called the I.

00:37:38Even when you say I does not exist, what is the centre of your statement?

00:37:43The I smiles nicely from behind, he says, well done, yes, I do not exist.

00:37:49I raises its hand and says, I do not exist.

00:37:5210 times you asked who am I and ultimately you said, well, you know what, the I does

00:37:57not exist.

00:37:58I said, of course, I do not exist.

00:38:03The more you talk about something, the more that something gets deeply embedded in the

00:38:12psychological space.

00:38:13The only way to forget is forget.

00:38:21You cannot forget by remembering again and again.

00:38:27You cannot forget by remembering the opposite of what you want to forget.

00:38:33But that is something that we all try.

00:38:35You want to get rid of the I, so you start remembering that the I does not exist.

00:38:41Nice.

00:38:42To forget, one just forgets.

00:38:49Or does one say that I have forgotten that I am hurt?

00:38:57When you forget your hurt, does anybody remain to say that I have forgotten my hurt?

00:39:05You even forget that you must mention that you have forgotten.

00:39:10That is the meaning of really dropping.

00:39:13That is the meaning of really coming out of it.

00:39:15You do not remain to talk about it.

00:39:19And that is also the meaning of action in inaction.

00:39:26That is also the meaning of not having anything within that is related to action outside.

00:39:35You do not say that I am acting as a non-person.

00:39:40You do not say that I am acting as a pure self.

00:39:43You don't talk about the action.

00:39:48You don't even let the action happen because action is anyway happening, whether or not

00:39:56you let it to.

00:40:01You become absorbed in your own world, in your own space.

00:40:08The body does what it must, the mind does what it must, the intellect does what it must.

00:40:15And everybody is nicely settled doing what they must and what their fundamental nature is.

00:40:26The I is so absorbed in its own rightful space that it does not even bother to claim that I am not the doer.

00:40:40There is a birthday party in your neighborhood.

00:40:47Do you gate crash into the party?

00:40:56Go to the center and declare there, I am not the birthday boy.

00:41:02There is a birthday party in your neighborhood.

00:41:07Do you gate crash?

00:41:10Make your way through the crowd?

00:41:13Go up to the birthday cake and loudly declare, I am not the birthday boy.

00:41:20What do you do if you're really not the birthday boy?

00:41:24You stay away.

00:41:25You simply mind your own business because you have ten things of your own to do.

00:41:30You don't declare there, I am not this, I am not that, I am negating this, I am negating that.

00:41:40When you are really free of something, you are free even of the obligation to announce your freedom.

00:41:54If you have to constantly assert your freedom, it means you are still bonded.

00:41:59When you are really free, then you don't even consciously know that you are free.

00:42:05If consciously you have to repeatedly tell yourself that you are free, then the chains still remain.

00:42:14So, what has to be done gets done.

00:42:24And the I sense does not really come into the picture.

00:42:31It does not even come to assert that this action is not going to affect me.

00:42:41The I sense remains healthy, total, alright within itself.

00:42:50And these are then two spaces disjoint by way of cause and effect.

00:43:01How are they joint? We will look into that later.

00:43:04But what joins them is no more cause and effect.

00:43:09Usually, some cause outside leads to an effect inside.

00:43:15Does that happen or not?

00:43:17What is the cause? Somebody praised me.

00:43:19What is the effect?

00:43:21Somebody outside praised me.

00:43:23What is the effect?

00:43:25Inside me.

00:43:27I get a little?

00:43:29Depends on who the person is.

00:43:31Sometimes, depending on the person, if you get praised, you may even go down.

00:43:36But something happens.

00:43:39The cause there has an effect inside.

00:43:45Now, these are two separate spaces.

00:43:48Whatever happens outside shows no effect inside.

00:43:55We will see later whether there is any relation then between this so-called inside, the center and the so-called outside.

00:44:05But one thing is established.

00:44:07In nice, neat, pure action, the effect, the relation is not of cause and effect.

00:44:15Whatever be the cause outside, it cannot show up as an effect inside.

00:44:24It sounds nice.

00:44:26Because now, nobody who condemns you from there can make you feel bad about yourself.

00:44:34But that also means that now nobody who praises you from there can make you feel good about yourself.

00:44:44One becomes free both ways.

00:44:54You are now no more a slave of the world.

00:45:00Nothing outside can now make or break you.

00:45:07Nothing outside now can add value to you or devalue you.

00:45:16So, things keep happening.

00:45:21Movements keep happening where they must happen.

00:45:27But they do not happen where they must not.

00:45:36Success happens, failure happens, but nothing inside succeeds or fails.

00:45:48This is a totally different way of living.

00:45:52Neither is now one running after success and failure, nor is one abhorring success and failure.

00:46:02One is only putting success and failure in their rightful place.

00:46:09Success, you belong there.

00:46:13Failure, you too belong there.

00:46:17Success there is not success here.

00:46:21And failure there is not failure here.

00:46:25That does not mean that I am not acknowledging that something has succeeded or something has failed.

00:46:34Something has surely succeeded.

00:46:36One worked and the results have been of a certain quality.

00:46:43So, one can determine whether there has been success with respect to intention of the work or not.

00:46:49I worked and the results have again been of a certain other quality.

00:46:54So, one can again determine whether or not there has been failure with respect to the intention.

00:47:02But whether there is success or failure, there is no success, no failure here.

00:47:09The cause effect link has been broken.

00:47:13Action outside, inaction inside.

00:47:16And when there is action outside and inaction inside,

00:47:22then one becomes capable of great action.

00:47:31Because now the actor is not at the mercy of results.

00:47:36Because now the actor is free to be in his own space and has also left all the physical apparatus to act in its own way.

00:47:55There is freedom both ways.

00:47:58The intellect can now, without hesitation, without bondage, play its own game.

00:48:09The eye will not come to lord over the intellect.

00:48:12The eye will not tell the intellect, you know what, if you go beyond this point,

00:48:17then the world will say that I am a bad man.

00:48:20So, don't think in those areas.

00:48:22They are not sanctioned.

00:48:23They are immoral.

00:48:25The intellect can now freely pan out.

00:48:30One thinks freely.

00:48:34That is what is called as free thought.

00:48:36Thought that is free from the tyranny of eye.

00:48:40Thought that does not serve to boost the ego.

00:48:47Thought at the center of which does not lie your personal welfare.

00:48:54That is free thought.

00:49:01So, not only are you the eye sense free,

00:49:08even the intellect has been left free.

00:49:10Even the body has been left free.

00:49:13Even the intellect has been left free.

00:49:14Even the body has been left free.

00:49:16The body can now do what it must and the body has great intelligence of its own.

00:49:22Now the intellect knows how to draw from the memory and the memory is also not inhibited.

00:49:31Usually our memory is highly inhibited because the eye decides what to highlight in the memory

00:49:37and what to suppress in the memory.

00:49:39Of course, you know that we do not remember everything equally.

00:49:43Some parts in the memory are always magnified and some parts are always suppressed.

00:49:49We do not want to remember a few things.

00:49:52And we want to place excessive weightage upon a few other things,

00:49:56depending on what suits the eye sense.

00:50:04Whatever is ordinary about you gets quickly forgotten.

00:50:06Whatever is special and extraordinary gets registered very deeply.

00:50:13Great pleasure, great registry.

00:50:15Great pain, great registry.

00:50:16Ordinary movements, no registry.

00:50:24Now that kind of a thing won't happen.

00:50:28The memory is free to operate impartially.

00:50:35The memory is now free to operate without the eye burden.

00:50:40The eyes are also free now.

00:50:44The eyes by themselves now know where to look.

00:50:47Our eyes are not free.

00:50:50The eye dictates where the eye would look at.

00:50:57As you walk through a market, do you look at everything equally?

00:51:02Of course not.

00:51:03Nobody can do that nor is that something that must be done.

00:51:08But you must observe the process of determining the object of sight.

00:51:19You look at that which feeds the eye sense.

00:51:24So the eyes are now hand-capped, chained.

00:51:32The ears do not hear everything.

00:51:35The ears do not hear everything.

00:51:37Do our ears hear everything?

00:51:39No, they don't.

00:51:40They only hear what the eye loves to hear.

00:51:44That which the eye does not want to hear.

00:51:47The ears are compelled to ignore that.

00:51:54We do not listen through our ears.

00:51:56We listen through our ego.

00:51:59The ears are needlessly often blamed.

00:52:03You say I didn't listen.

00:52:05Actually that's a terrific statement and absolutely true.

00:52:09When you say I didn't listen, it is actually the eye that didn't listen.

00:52:14It is not as if the ears didn't hear.

00:52:16The ears heard but the eye didn't listen.

00:52:21The ears too are unnecessarily suffering.

00:52:25Because that thing within interferes with all that is.

00:52:34We do not know what the world is like.

00:52:36Because the eyes have not been permitted to look directly without prejudice at the world.

00:52:47Mind stuff, knowledge.

00:52:51The mind has not been left free to really have natural and free flowing mind stuff.

00:53:03One has knowledge only in the direction and only in the space that benefits the ego.

00:53:11Don't you see that our knowledge is all purposeful?

00:53:14Do you ever feel eager to have purposeless knowledge?

00:53:19Rare are those moments.

00:53:21Otherwise, if you are a doctor, you want more knowledge in medicine.

00:53:23Why?

00:53:24Because that would make you a better doctor.

00:53:29So even the knowledge is compulsory.

00:53:37Knowledge is compulsorily pushed into the mind by the ego sense.

00:53:45The ego sense decides what must you know.

00:53:49And what you know becomes your consciousness.

00:53:53You start floating in that reality.

00:53:56What else is consciousness?

00:53:57Nothing but the sky of all your knowledge.

00:54:01Knowledge, tendencies, intentions that is consciousness.

00:54:07Our consciousness therefore is not at all a free consciousness.

00:54:14Our consciousness is a consciousness that is dictated and lorded over by this petty suffering eye sense.

00:54:24The eye sense dictates what our entire system would be like.

00:54:29It dictates what our eyes would be like, our face would be like, our body would be like.

00:54:34Our consciousness would be like, our life would be like.

00:54:44To dissociate these two, your internal sense of well-being from external happenings is to live healthily in all ways.

00:54:59Always, internal, external, total.

00:55:02In fact, when you are living in a healthy way, then the distinction between the internal and external gets deleted.

00:55:15Health is total.

00:55:22Are you getting me?

00:55:24Now we have someone whose actions rise and fall that one doesn't rise and fall.

00:55:36Now we have actions where the actions succeed and fail, the actor doesn't succeed or fail.

00:55:46Now we have a situation where the eye looks and does not look because the eye cannot look at everything.

00:55:56The eye must focus.

00:55:58Now we have a situation where the eye looks or does not look.

00:56:03You neither look nor do you not look.

00:56:09You leave it to the eye.

00:56:12Go ahead.

00:56:14Coordinate with the intellect.

00:56:17Don't come to me.

00:56:19The intellect will tell you what to look at.

00:56:23So the eye is looking, you are neither looking nor not looking.

00:56:27You have left the eye, the mind, the intellect to decide on these matters.

00:56:34You have become very, very powerful by your absence.

00:56:41You are not there anymore to counsel anyone, guide anyone or have authority over anyone.

00:56:52You are relaxing, you are settled, you are total and free in your own space.

00:56:58The eyes witness a murder that does not really do anything to you.

00:57:04Well, it does something to the mind.

00:57:07It may also do something to the emotions, but it does nothing to you.

00:57:12And the eyes look at a most beautiful sight that too does nothing to you.

00:57:18Well, that does do something to the poet inside you.

00:57:24That does do something to your hands.

00:57:27They pick up the camera and start clicking.

00:57:30That does do something to your face.

00:57:35It moves into a smile.

00:57:39So the sight of a beautiful mountain or waterfall does something to all those

00:57:48who are the rightful recipients of action.

00:57:56You remain a non-recipient of all action.

00:58:02Eyes look at mountains, the hands rise in exclamation.

00:58:10Eyes look at the mountain, the legs run about in excitement.

00:58:15Eyes look at the mountain, the mouth calls to your friend, come over, what a beautiful sight.

00:58:22Eyes look at the mountain, the memory may move to relate that to something else that you have seen or read elsewhere.

00:58:31But even as all this game is being played out, you remain what you are.

00:58:39And what is that? Well, nothing.

00:58:42So you do not remain. You are wonderfully healthy in your absence.

00:58:49You are not there.

00:58:51The eyes are there, the legs are there, the mouth is there, the voice is there, the sight is there, the entire world is there.

00:58:57You are not there. You have nothing to do with this drama.

00:59:00Then this show proceeds very, very smoothly.

00:59:07Then the actors are not unnecessarily pressurized.

00:59:13You know of those taskmaster directors?

00:59:18When the show is going on, they stand just behind the curtains

00:59:25where the audience cannot look at them, but the actors know their presence.

00:59:29And from there they keep asserting their presence.

00:59:35What do they do to the actors?

00:59:39They traumatize them.

00:59:42In their own minds, probably they are trying to help.

00:59:46But because of their unrequired, useless, unsolicited presence,

00:59:53they are only unnecessarily spoiling everything.

00:59:58In fact, if they go away, then the actors would be more free to act, to dance, to express themselves.

01:00:06And that is a beautiful word we have come upon, expression.

01:00:09When you are not there to burden your entire system and the world with the expectations of I,

01:00:18then you express yourself.

01:00:20And that is one of the reasons, rather the most important reason,

01:00:25why our life remains unexpressed.

01:00:30We live mostly unfulfilled, unsaid, undone, unlived, unexpressed lives.

01:00:43Like a kid who won't play because he is afraid that he would be laughed at.

01:00:53Like a little girl who won't speak up in her school because she is afraid that she would be mocked at.

01:01:04That's how we live unexpressed.

01:01:07Who mocks at us?

01:01:09Who mocks at us?

01:01:10Our own I mocks us.

01:01:14The I says, I expected you to perform.

01:01:17Legs, I expected you to perform.

01:01:19Intellect, why didn't you perform?

01:01:23You owe it to me to perform.

01:01:25You know what, I am suffering.

01:01:26I am the ego.

01:01:27I am always suffering.

01:01:28I am always burning.

01:01:30I wanted you to give me something through which I can be healed.

01:01:34And you didn't do that.

01:01:35You failed me.

01:01:36You disappointed me.

01:01:38And all your life, you lived under the burden of that guilt.

01:01:45Oh, I couldn't do enough to assuage the wounded self.

01:01:50Oh, I couldn't do enough to heal my inner wounds.

01:01:56Mind you, you would never be able to do enough.

01:02:00The more you do, the more your wounds are deepened because the wounds are false.

01:02:06You perpetuate the wounds by treating them as real.

01:02:16When you don't have a sickness and still the doctor prescribes something to you, then he is helping you remain sick.

01:02:26Helping you remain sick.

01:02:29Because now the idea that you are sick would become deeper and validated by an authority.

01:02:39To live without burdening yourself with the result of action is to live freely.

01:03:02That is the fulfillment of life.

01:03:06That is the blossoming of your entire self.

01:03:09Only then can you say that you have really lived.

01:03:14Because if you are not expressed, how are you alive?

01:03:22The ego says the purpose of life is to get fulfillment.

01:03:31But your entire system and existence says the purpose of life is just expression, not fulfillment.

01:03:38Fulfilled you already are, now express your fulfillment.

01:03:43Joyful you already are, now express your joy.

01:03:48On the other hand, if you convince yourself that you are not yet joyful, then you won't take the liberty to express yourself.

01:03:58You will say first things first.

01:04:00First of all, I have to obtain joy.

01:04:02Only after I obtain joy will I move into expressing joy.

01:04:06What do I express? I still don't have joy.

01:04:09And if you don't have joy, you can never, never, never get it.

01:04:15Expression is something that can happen right now.

01:04:19Achievement is something that can never, never happen.

01:04:22It has been drilled down deep in our minds that we live in order to achieve, that we live in order to become.

01:04:32We do not live in order to become.

01:04:35We live so that we may just express, manifest, talk, sing, walk, read, write.

01:04:49Let the entire system dance.

01:04:55Dance for no reason, for no purpose, for no end.

01:05:00Not to obtain anything, but just to say thank you.

01:05:05Well, everything is so beautiful, I must dance.

01:05:08I am not dancing so that you may pay me something.

01:05:11I am dancing because I already feel very well paid.

01:05:15And these are two different things.

01:05:18The ego says dance.

01:05:20Maybe the dance will fetch you something.

01:05:23Existence says dance because you already have everything.

01:05:30Do you see what yoga is?

01:05:32Yoga is to dance without a reason.

01:05:38Yoga does not mean following particular patterns.

01:05:43Yoga means to move about patternlessly.

01:05:47And to not to bother if you come across a pattern.

01:05:50Well, it is a part of patternlessness to sometimes follow patterns.

01:05:54If I refuse consistently to follow patterns, even that refusal becomes a pattern.

01:06:02So, sometimes I will be alright following patterns, at other times I will follow no pattern.

01:06:09Now you decide whether that is living by pattern or patternlessness.

01:06:17Moving ahead, Krishan says only such a one is the true doer of all actions.

01:06:33Now, that perplexes us.

01:06:37Because on one hand he is saying that you are a yogi when you hardly have anything to do.

01:06:47You let your actions be.

01:06:49And now Krishan is saying when you leave your actions free, then you are the true actor.

01:06:58Then you are the true doer.

01:07:03What does he mean?

01:07:05Surely if he is talking about true doing, he also has false doing in his mind.

01:07:15We would rather go into what is false doing, what is this false actorhood.

01:07:24We take ourselves as the actor.

01:07:29But are we really actors?

01:07:33Do our actions originate from us?

01:07:38Do our likes, dislikes, thoughts really originate from an internal point?

01:07:45And when I say internal, I mean that the world is external.

01:07:49And the world includes the body, past knowledge, experiences, everything.

01:07:55Anything that is a part of the world is the world.

01:07:59So, your body too is the world.

01:08:01Are we really the authors of our actions?

01:08:05No, we are not.

01:08:09We live mostly in a second-handed way.

01:08:15We wear what we have been told to wear.

01:08:19We eat what is the tradition to eat.

01:08:23We speak a language that society has taught us.

01:08:27We think thoughts that society has given us.

01:08:32We live in a way that is sanctioned by religion, custom, time, age, our economic status and the rest of it.

01:08:43We are not really the doers.

01:08:46The doer is the advertisement on the TV screen that makes us do something.

01:08:52The doer is all the elements of our education that have shaped our consciousness.

01:09:03So, the doer is always somebody else.

01:09:07We unnecessarily keep feeling that we are doing something.

01:09:14One feels attracted to food.

01:09:16One says, I am going to the food.

01:09:19If you would ask Krishna, he would say, wait, there is a little mistake here.

01:09:24You are not going to the food.

01:09:26You are being compelled to go to the food by your biology.

01:09:32You are not going there.

01:09:34You are being compelled to go to the food by your biology.

01:09:39By your biology.

01:09:42You are not going there.

01:09:44Do you have an option to go or not?

01:09:46You don't have an option.

01:09:48Just as your heart does not have an option to beat.

01:09:53Or not.

01:09:56You get attracted to a man or woman.

01:09:59Krishna would not say that this is your sovereign decision.

01:10:02He would say, oh well.

01:10:04Again, the same old story.

01:10:06I know where it comes from.

01:10:08It comes from your biology.

01:10:10It's very, very predictable.

01:10:13In fact, looking at your physical and mental constitution,

01:10:18even the approximate form of the man or woman you would be attracted to can be predicted.

01:10:25It is so very mechanical.

01:10:30You are not the doer of your action.

01:10:33Situations are determining your life.

01:10:37The funny thing is, you are existing thinking that you would somehow change or manipulate the situations.

01:10:50Do you get a link here?

01:10:52When you live with respect to situations, then situations get a stranglehold over you.

01:11:00Then the purpose of your existence is to do something with the situation.

01:11:05Then you do not even know that you have allowed the situations complete control over yourself.

01:11:12In your own wisdom, you are glad that you are fighting the situations.

01:11:17You are not fighting the situations.

01:11:19You have now located yourself with respect to the situations.

01:11:23And that's a defeat.

01:11:25That's a defeat right in the beginning.

01:11:27You are saying, the purpose of my life is to change the situations.

01:11:31So now your life is definitely linked to situations.

01:11:36The situations have won even before the war has begun.

01:11:41Now the situations will keep determining you.

01:11:44Keep determining you.

01:11:46This determination of the self by situations is called conditioning.

01:11:53This is called conditioning.

01:11:57And when you are conditioned,

01:11:59you unnecessarily burden yourself with actorhood.

01:12:03You are not the actor anymore.

01:12:05The world is acting through you.

01:12:09All the external forces are acting through you.

01:12:12Your mother is acting through you.

01:12:14It's another matter that the mother's mother is acting through her.

01:12:20The priest is acting through you.

01:12:25The TV stars, the movie stars are acting through you.

01:12:27The big politicians are acting through you.

01:12:29Your role models are acting through you.

01:12:31The myths and the gods are acting through you.

01:12:34You are living somebody else's life.

01:12:37And it is not even one person's life.

01:12:39You are living the life of every single person

01:12:44that you ever came across or did not come across.

01:12:47The world has come together

01:12:51to define you rather undefine the real you.

01:12:55You are no more the true actor.

01:13:00You are the true actor only when you are not the actor at all.

01:13:05Which means the world has its influence

01:13:10on that which the world can influence.

01:13:14You remain secluded.

01:13:18You remain in your own groove.

01:13:23You remain nicely ensconced in your own little chubby hole.

01:13:29Nobody can pull you out of it.

01:13:32Dopanishads call the heart as the little cave of the Atman.

01:13:40The image is that of a yogi ceaselessly meditating.

01:13:45Ceaselessly meditating in a tranquil dark cave

01:13:49where he just cannot be ever disturbed.

01:13:55You are constantly meditating in your heart.

01:14:00The world cannot disturb you.

01:14:03The world does what it can do to the world.

01:14:09So the world does something to your hands.

01:14:11The world does something to your body.

01:14:13The world does something to your eyes.

01:14:15The world does something to your stomach.

01:14:17The world can do something even to your life.

01:14:20But even if the world does something to your life,

01:14:24let's say it takes away your life,

01:14:26it still does not do anything to you.

01:14:28You are in your own little dark cave ceaselessly meditating.

01:14:34Tranquil, silent, absent.

01:14:41Now you are the true doer because you are not at all the doer.

01:14:46You are doing your own thing and your own thing is not to do.

01:14:56Hence you are the true doer now.

01:14:58When the non-doer starts doing then he becomes a false doer.

01:15:03You are a non-doer.

01:15:07When you take over action upon yourself,

01:15:11then you become a false doer.

01:15:13You are the non-achiever.

01:15:15When you take upon yourself the obligation to achieve,

01:15:19then you become a false achiever.

01:15:24You have to do nothing.

01:15:27You have not been born with the responsibility to reach anywhere or go anywhere.

01:15:35You are born at the highest point.

01:15:39You are born at the destination.

01:15:42You will die at the destination.

01:15:45So what has changed with birth and death?

01:15:48Born at destination.

01:15:51Gone at destination.

01:15:53Always at destination.

01:15:55Before birth.

01:15:57During life.

01:15:59After life.

01:16:01Hardly at destination.

01:16:02During life.

01:16:03After life.

01:16:04Hardly anything has changed.

01:16:11When you do your true thing,

01:16:15then you are the true doer and your true thing is to relax.

01:16:23In non-doing, you are really doing.

01:16:26In relaxing, you are doing what you must.

01:16:29And when you relax,

01:16:33then the body is let loose to fly.

01:16:37And when you try to fly,

01:16:40then the body is tied down with a thousand chains.

01:16:44Now it cannot fly.

01:16:47You relax, your life will fly.

01:16:50You try to fly, your life will collapse.

01:17:03Yes.

01:17:05So this sounds for me as like I have this thing.

01:17:13It sounds like I possessed my body

01:17:20and I'm suffering as a bad person.

01:17:24And with you,

01:17:26that you, you,

01:17:28you just like let it go.

01:17:30Just let the body go for once and for all.

01:17:35And just see.

01:17:38Just don't interact with anything.

01:17:40Don't be the body.

01:17:42You are again committing the same mistake.

01:17:45Don't be the body and don't not be the body.

01:17:50Be what you are.

01:17:51Stop talking about the body.

01:17:53Why are you meddling in the body affairs?

01:17:56Again, you're doing the same thing.

01:17:57I am not the birthday boy.

01:18:06Do you trespass into somebody's wedding in the church

01:18:10and go there and hold the woman,

01:18:12shake her up and say,

01:18:13I'm not your husband.

01:18:22There is no need to explain.

01:18:27You were not born with the obligation to explain to any teacher.

01:18:35Express.

01:18:38That's not the same as explaining.

01:18:43You can express by being random.

01:18:46You can express by just throwing about your limbs.

01:18:48And that's all right.

01:18:51You don't need to express by looking wise.

01:18:53You don't need to express in a coherent way.

01:18:56You can appear totally foolish and you have expressed.

01:19:00So give yourself the freedom to be foolish.

01:19:04And you have expressed.

01:19:10When you try to explain,

01:19:11then you unnecessarily try to act wise.

01:19:15You just want to express, right?

01:19:18Yeah.

01:19:19And I just want to say what I have.

01:19:21So just say aloud.

01:19:23You have expressed.

01:19:26That's it.

01:19:31That doesn't quite explain

01:19:33to those who are fond of explanations.

01:19:36But those who know how to listen

01:19:38would have heard what you said.

01:19:46You don't need to

01:19:47because you yourself are a foreigner,

01:19:49an outsider to yourself.

01:19:52What you are is not what you perceive yourself as.

01:19:58Don't take yourself as the meditator within.

01:20:01That which you think you are is a foreigner,

01:20:04is an alien.

01:20:06Your consciousness is not what you are.

01:20:08So you don't need to actively know.

01:20:11Your knowledge is far, far deeper

01:20:13than what you consciously know.

01:20:15So even if you feel that you don't consciously have knowledge,

01:20:17you still know.

01:20:20Because in meditation,

01:20:21everything is already known.

01:20:25You don't need to assure and secure yourself

01:20:28by way of conscious knowledge.

01:20:36You don't need to.

01:20:37What makes you a little upset,

01:20:39what makes you a little nervous

01:20:40is the fact that you cannot put it together

01:20:42in a nice worldly form.

01:20:46You don't need to.

01:20:48The ego is saying I must know.

01:20:49And you know why the ego must know?

01:20:51Because knowledge adds to the self-worth of the ego.

01:20:56The ego says I have moved up a notch

01:20:58because now I know.

01:21:02There is no need to know.

01:21:03There is no need to know.

01:21:06There is not even the obligation to understand.

01:21:08There is no obligation.

01:21:13I mean, I'm like doing this,

01:21:15but at the same time I'm doing that.

01:21:39You don't have an obligation

01:21:40You don't have an obligation to be the watcher.

01:21:42You don't have an obligation to witness.

01:21:45You don't have an obligation to be enlightened.

01:21:47You don't have an obligation to understand.

01:21:51You don't have any obligation.

01:22:02All obligations turn you into somebody else.

01:22:07Never take up an obligation upon yourself.

01:22:09Never.

01:22:16Even when you are accepting responsibilities and obligations,

01:22:21you must remain insulated from them.

01:22:26Never take it up upon yourself.

01:22:40With all the responsibilities of the world,

01:22:43remain free of responsibilities.

01:23:41No part of this recording may be reproduced

01:23:43without Mooji Media Ltd.'s express consent.

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