Truth is not for those who want pleasure || Acharya Prashant, on Ashtavakra Gita (2019)

Acharya Prashant

‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquir...   Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books? Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...  ~~~~~ #acharyaprashant   Video Information:   Context: This awareness of the truth  makes an eloquent, clever and energetic man dumb, stupid, and lazy and therefore truth is avoided by those whose aim is pleasure.  Ashtavakra Gita, Chapter 15, verse 3  ~ What is truth? ~ What truth does to the mind? ~ What happens to the world when truth comes? ~ What is cleverness? ~ What is a clever mind?  Music Credits: Milind Date ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .

Transcript

00:00Truth makes the eloquent man dumb, Ashtavakra is saying.

00:29Truth makes the eloquent man dumb, The clever man stupid,

00:39And the energetic man lazy.

00:42And therefore those whose aim is happiness in life, they avoid the truth.

00:56If you have been eloquent, you talk too much, then truth puts a lid on your mouth because

01:10you start seeing the foolishness of your words.

01:18You used to yak so much.

01:26And a little touch of the truth, awestruck, what to say, the words have been stolen away.

01:41It feels stupid to express the nonsense within.

01:50Similarly, if you have been clever, truth makes you see how stupid your cleverness is.

02:08So you give up on cleverness.

02:20Giving up on cleverness is not stupidity.

02:26But in the eyes of the world, only two states exist, cleverness and the opposite of cleverness.

02:35Cleverness and absence of cleverness which the world calls as stupidity.

02:42The spiritual one is certainly not clever.

02:50The saints have said and repeated and repeatedly emphasized that even a moron can reach there

03:02but not a clever mind.

03:06The ones who have a lot of belief in their tricks and methods and personal wisdom and

03:19intellectual strength are never never going to reach there.

03:30Truth is for the innocent ones.

03:35Similarly, the one who keeps running about here and there starts seeing the futility

03:54of his efforts, incessant movement ceases.

04:09In the eyes of the world, the energetic man has become lazy.

04:14He has not become lazy, he has actually just become restful.

04:21But the world does not know rest.

04:23The world will call rest as laziness which does not mean that rest and laziness are one.

04:39There is laziness that is very very restless and there is rest that looks like laziness.

04:49These two should not be conflated, they are not one.

04:52But if you do not have discretion then you may conflate these two.

04:59You may start talking of the relaxed person as lazy.

05:11So when the world looks at the disappearance of eloquence, the disappearance of cleverness

05:24and the disappearance of the running around, the world says, oh terrible, spirituality

05:37has left this fellow totally useless.

05:43Earlier he was in fine fetter, he was an impressive speaker, he was a sharp thinker and he was

06:06a high achiever, surely in fine fetter, we looked up to him.

06:19But this thing called spiritual realization has made him totally worthless, useless.

06:36Now he doesn't talk too much.

06:40Now he doesn't come up with clever ideas to win the world or gain pleasure or prestige

06:48or riches and now he is not seen making frantic efforts to rise up the social ladder.

07:05He has become absolutely worthless and having seen and concluded that spirituality turns

07:17a fellow worthless, the worshippers of happiness and pleasure start abhorring spirituality

07:25even more.

07:28They were already scared of the scriptures and the teachers.

07:33Now they may actively start hating the scriptures and the teachers.

07:39They will say don't talk to me of Ashtavakra, I know what he did to my brother.

07:48My brother was such a nice man.

07:56And now he is of no use to anybody.

07:59Do you see what the society wants?

08:03That you remain useful, you remain useful, useful to and spirituality liberates you from

08:20being a useful slave to others.

08:30Therefore the others will really dislike it when you turn spiritual.

08:40The spiritual man is of not much worldly use to others.

08:45The fact is that now he becomes really useful to others.

08:49But the real use is not what the world wants from you.

08:55The world wants from you a worldly use and the worldly use you will now refuse to provide.

09:05Therefore the world will get angry.

09:23He is now incapable of committing himself to

09:34stupid pleasures.

09:39He now has deep and high pleasures.

09:54So that's why in Bible it says that only those enter in the land of God who are innocent like children.

10:20Don't be scared.

10:23There are pleasures beyond pleasures.

10:27I did not speak on this to scare you away.

10:35If the spiritual man no more cares for happiness or regular pleasures, it is because now he

10:44has a deeper and higher pleasure, a pleasure that abides, a pleasure that does not come

10:55along with displeasure, a happiness that does not come along with sorrow.

11:08What do you want?

11:09A small pleasure that comes along with displeasure or a huge pleasure that comes only with itself.

11:20What do you want?

11:21A plus 1 that comes with minus 1 or a plus 100 that does not come with minus 100.

11:42I have received a lot of things, I am grateful for that, but at the same time I feel indebted to, because I keep on receiving.

11:56What about this indebtedness?

12:00Settle the debt.

12:03But it is like a heavy burden.

12:10Settle as much as you can.

12:21What is the meaning of real innocence?

12:27Jesus mentioned very clearly that only those enter my God's land who are innocent like children.

12:36What type of innocence Jesus talks in the Bible?

12:46You know of one guilt from the Bible.

12:52What was the guilt of Adam and Eve?

12:57If guilt is to do what Adam and Eve did, what is guilt?

13:15And not following the instructions.

13:20So now you know what is innocence.

13:28Innocence and guilt are related words.

13:32Innocence is freedom from guilt.

13:35So the same source from where you are quoting about innocence also gives you the definition of guilt.

13:50What was the guilt?

13:53To not to listen to the one who is your father, to not to follow his instructions, to be tempted

14:03by the apple, to give more credence to the words of the snake and then you know what

14:14happened after the guilt.

14:17They started getting civilized.

14:21Eve demanded some designer dresses and God came and asked, who taught you to wear all

14:28these clothes?

14:30I left you naked and he said, oh!

14:36So you have knowledge now.

14:38Now you know what is guilt.

14:44That is innocence.

14:59Innocent you remain with him, guilty you consider yourself as earthly beings.

15:10They were subjected to the earth, banished from heaven.

15:19The innocent ones continue to remain in heaven, the guilty ones are banished to earth and

15:26they think of themselves as earthly beings.

15:46Anything else?

16:02I do not see myself having any attachment towards the pleasures.

16:12But if they come on my way, I do not see any resistance in enjoying them at the same time.

16:22Suppose I am living in a five star hotel, it is perfectly fine but I do not have any

16:27resistance.

16:28If I have, if I happen to stay one night in a hut or something without other amenities,

16:36that is perfectly fine for me.

16:39You don't accidentally stray into a five-star hotel, do you?

16:48You are saying if Providence brings me to a five-star hotel, it is okay and if I have

16:54to live in some rag-tag place, even that is okay.

16:59Are these acts of Providence or do you book your hotel two months in advance?

17:05You choose where you would stay and you actively pay up for it.

17:09Is that the best use of your money?

17:11No, but you are devoting your resources to pleasure.

17:16It's a choice, it's not an accident.

17:19Providence didn't bring pleasure to you, you arranged for pleasure.

17:23But your question presents as if pleasure accidentally came your way.

17:28It didn't accidentally, you paid up for it.

17:32The thing is you have limited resources and we have talked of the best use of your resources.

17:40What is the best use of one's resources in life?

17:45Liberation.

17:47Now, have your resources gone towards liberation?

17:52No, you found something higher than liberation, that is pleasure.

17:58I am always choosing.

18:01Obviously, it's a choice.

18:03But your question, see how deceptively it presents the situation.

18:08I am just trying to understand myself.

18:14Where could the same money have gone?

18:28Pleasures are hardly ever accidental.

18:31And if accidental pleasures do come to you, fine.

18:37But these are pleasures that we pay for with our life.

18:42These are very very costly pleasures, you know.

18:45Very costly.

18:48The chirping of the bird is an accidental pleasure.

18:51Unexpected rain might be an accidental pleasure.

18:57So, the high tendency is still attached to pleasure.

19:03Obviously, it is.

19:05It is not merely attached to pleasure.

19:08It is also not accepting something higher in life.

19:13That something higher is more pleasurable than pleasure.

19:18Come to it.

19:20It's an invitation.

19:31No part of this recording may be reproduced

19:34without Mooji Media Ltd.'s express consent.

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