Why is singing of great importance in spirituality? || Acharya Prashant, on Guru Kabir (2018)

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?...    Read 3 handpicked wisdom articles, just for you: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/articl...  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~   Video Information: Shabdyog Session, 24.12.2018, Advait BodhSthal, Greater Noida, India   Context:   मन को मारूँ पटक के, टूक-टूक होई जाय।  विष की क्यारी बोय के, अब काहे पछताय ॥  - गुरु कबीर साहिब   Let me hit hard the mind and break it into pieces,  After performing bad deeds. it is now repenting.  Guru Kabir Sahib   ¬ What is spirituality?  ¬ How to chant the name of lord?  ¬ How is music related to spirituality?  ¬ What subjects are sung by bhakti saints?  ¬ What is divine love?  ¬ When we face reality, we feel as if we have been badly bashed. So, how should one respond in such situations?   Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .

Transcript

00:00Sing with a Kabir or sing Kabir with yourself.

00:15That's the best thing.

00:18The best thing is to sing.

00:25The best thing is to sing.

00:36But we have become, you know, very, very unmusical.

00:40Our instruments have lost their tuning.

00:50We have forgotten to sing.

00:55We have lost all verse.

01:05So the fallout of that is that your Acharya ji has to laboriously speak in prose.

01:14And therefore he has to speak so much.

01:16Otherwise two lines of a Kabir are much more than sufficient.

01:23And even after speaking so much, do I even come close to what he said?

01:27I don't.

01:38Sing.

01:43There is no alternative to that.

01:58Without knowing the meaning, know the meaning and sing.

02:19He definitely wanted you to know the meaning and sing.

02:22That's why he sang in the language of the people.

02:26Had he just wanted you to croon anything unintelligible, then why would he compose

02:39in the very language of the ordinary people?

02:42Why did he do that?

02:45Because he wanted you to also know the literal meaning of his words.

02:52If I can help you know the literal meaning of his words, good.

02:58To that extent, use me.

03:01But do sing.

03:20Then Kabir Saheb has a different slog for you.

03:31Not all verses about man or mind are applicable to all states of the mind.

03:40So, it's not as if the saints have just cursed the mind incessantly.

04:02They have also praised the mind.

04:04If the mind brings you to the Guru, glory to the mind.

04:10If the mind takes you towards destruction, depends on the direction the mind is taking.

04:28If you will go to the Upanishads, they will say there is no greater friend than the mind

04:42and neither is there an enemy bigger than the mind.

04:49The mind is both, best friend and biggest enemy.

04:59Your friend and your enemy are at war with each other.

05:02Who will win?

05:08Who will win?

05:10You are the referee.

05:11You don't even have to choose.

05:14You just have to declare.

05:18Keep declaring the right result.

05:22Keep declaring the right result.

05:39You have to remember what I just said.

05:44Irrespective of how one behaves or what one says, deeply, ultimately, all want, so irrespective

06:00of what your impulsive reaction is, you must also remember that nobody does anything for

06:21self-harm.

06:22Even when a person commits suicide, he is actually trying to minimize self-harm.

06:30It doesn't matter whether the world is ignorant or arrogant.

06:43It doesn't matter what qualities or characteristics are being displayed.

06:48Are they being displayed so that the one displaying them gets harmed?

06:56You might be ignorant and you are walking towards a hole.

07:03But is it self-harm that you want?

07:08You are just ignorant and if you are ignorant, do I curse you or do I help you?

07:18The Prakritic instinct would be to curse.

07:26Wisdom would be to helpfully curse.

07:34So when you curse, curse in a way that helps.

07:41What is Kabir Sahab saying here?

07:42Obviously, he is cursing the mind.

07:50But look at the love.

07:51What is he scolding the mind for?

07:53He is saying, you are the one who sowed all the poisonous seeds.

08:02Now you are repenting.

08:06He is actually teaching the mind something.

08:09What is he teaching the mind?

08:11Do not sow seeds of poison.

08:19Like the benevolent grandfather, you know, who scolds you but nevertheless helps you

08:32and he scolds you so that the need to be helped reduces.

08:43Saints have scolded a lot.

08:49In fact, even Buddha who is commonly considered the epitome of poise and compassion has been

09:00very very harsh in his scoldings.

09:04He has used choicest words.

09:09Sometimes he has called you an ass, sometimes a pig.

09:17It is for the sake of compassion.

09:23And it is because those who run from the center of fear sometimes require fear even

09:41to be helped.

09:43Are you getting it?

09:51Suppose there is a patient, a diseased one in the spiritual sense.

10:02And what is his disease?

10:06His disease is that he works only through fear.

10:17His disease is that he knows only fear.

10:21Nothing can make him move or work except fear.

10:27Now you want to take this person to a doctor of spirituality.

10:36This fellow is a sick man in the spiritual sense and you want to take him to a doctor

10:43who would cure him and this man knows only one motivation and the motivation is fear.

10:52How do you take this man to the doctor?

10:59Therefore the saints scold.

11:02Therefore the saints scold.

11:05No, honesty is not needed.

11:13Honesty is needed to be fearless.

11:16Honesty is not needed to be fearful.

11:18It is needed to be fearless.

11:20The ones who live by the center of fear always live in the imagination of assumed outcomes

11:29and that's why they live in fear.

11:33So all that the teacher then needs is a certain worldly power using which he should be able

11:40to induce fear in the other person.

11:47The teacher must have a certain worldly authority as well.

11:54Using which he should be able to induce fear.

11:57But when we are talking about the ability and the intent of the teacher to induce fear

12:01in someone, let it not go too far.

12:06We are only talking of as much fear as is required to bring this patient to the doctor.

12:11Nothing more than that.

12:13We are not talking of fear becoming a way of life.

12:19We are not talking of fear as the preferred instrument of the teacher.

12:27We are not glorifying fear.

12:29Please.

12:30The aim is fearlessness.

12:38But sometimes our love for fearlessness can get so very shrouded beneath all kinds of

12:47rubbish that we just lose that charm.

12:53The teacher may come and say, you know what?

12:56You live in fear.

12:57Come with me.

12:59I'll take you to fearlessness.

13:00And the fellow will say, fearlessness?

13:01I don't want that.

13:02I don't want that.

13:06He wants that and yet does not know that he wants.

13:10That's the situation of man.

13:15So then the teacher has no option but to temporarily use fear.

13:24Getting it Anshu?

13:26So that power has to be very, very discreetly applied.

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