When Ego Disappears, Life Flows || Acharya Prashant, On Bhagavad Gita (2026)

Added: 2026-05-15

[00:00:00]So the so-called religious person would say God is there and the one at some kind of advanced level a spiritual seeker would take pride in saying that no no no no no God is not out there God is in here but the moment the truth is situated here the ego says I I I'm truth I'm braas who is God is something somebody somewhere [music] doing something liking something disliking something rewarding punishing and then the moment the truth is seen as somewhere here the ego becomes [music] the truth because freedom is about being at neither pole of duality not the object also not the subject [music] again mind you it's not about anything it's not about dependence it's not about holiness it's not about uh god it's not about the subject it's not about [music] the object it's all about Liberation is not about seeing the truth in the body.

[00:01:03]Liberation is about.

[00:01:13]So once again and right at the outset we need to remind ourselves that In Vedant, in Bhagat Gita in non-duality, self [snorts] refers neither to an object nor to a subject.

[00:01:56]Now the self is not an object is more easily and obviously accepted.

[00:02:20]H that the self is not a thing.

[00:02:26]That the self [snorts] is not a thought, not a principle, not something that words can encircle.

[00:02:51]That is uh more easily, more commonly without much hassle or resistance.

[00:03:07]Seen and accepted.

[00:03:11]The ego does not seem to have too much trouble with that.

[00:03:18]The self is not an object. Though though, though in common religion and pop spirituality, even that level of realization seldom exists.

[00:03:43]Truth, God, self, whatever be the name for the highest is almost always objectified in pop spirituality.

[00:03:59]Who is God? God is something somebody somewhere doing something, liking something, disliking something, rewarding, punishing, and and the rest of it.

[00:04:13]That's how uh religions the world over operate don't they? That's how the uh concept of God commonly stands.

[00:04:27]Similarly, truth truth is death. Truth is that truth is pure consciousness.

[00:04:38]Truth is absolute awareness.

[00:04:42]Even uh these things do the rounds.

[00:04:47]So again there is objectification.

[00:04:53]All right.

[00:04:56]But it is easier to help someone see.

[00:05:02]It is easier to be convinced that the self [snorts] cannot be an object.

[00:05:11]And the ease starts with the naming the phrasing itself self.

[00:05:21]Yeah. Not an object but the self.

[00:05:27]So [clears throat] the difficulty uh that pop religion faces with the concept of God stands mitigated to some extent in nonduality with the choice of the word itself.

[00:05:47][snorts] Moment you say God, the inner machinery feels free to run a mock and create all kinds of stories, images, principles and everything that can be done with the machinery.

[00:06:14]Uh but in [clears throat] nondualistic parlance you don't say God you say self and that is the beginning of clarity because self by definition cannot be out there. Self uh very obviously has to be inside somewhere. No self.

[00:06:47]But that lands you in another kind of trouble from objectifying truth. Now you start subjectifying it.

[00:07:09]And that is not just another kind of trouble.

[00:07:14]It could be a deeper one.

[00:07:18]H right?

[00:07:23]If the if the self is the subject then look at what it leads to in common life. Who is the subject?

[00:07:36]The ego and self truth atma is supposed to be the highest one, the absolute, the unimaginable.

[00:07:53]So you say the self is the truth and inside here sits someone who says I am the self because obviously I operate with that word.

[00:08:14]So self equals truth in principle and self equals ego in practice. These two combine to produce a very devastating conclusion which is that the ego is the truth.

[00:08:37]So that's why I said having the truth as an object is a mistake.

[00:08:53]It is stupid.

[00:08:57]But having the truth as the inner subject is explosive.

[00:09:11]It is not just a mistake. It is a catastrophe.

[00:09:19]Saying that the truth is out there somewhere is obviously a fallacy.

[00:09:30]But saying that the truth is in here is a much bigger and deeper trouble.

[00:09:45]The moment the truth is seen as somewhere here, the ego becomes the truth.

[00:09:52]Because this is traditionally the province of the >> ego I I and now you are saying the truth is here. So the ego becomes the truth.

[00:10:08]Therefore, it has to be understood that the truth is not an object. Obviously, it is also not the subject.

[00:10:22]It is also not the subject.

[00:10:26]The trouble is in the word that helped you see that the truth is not an object. What was that word? self.

[00:10:37]You said self. You said self so that it becomes clear that the truth is not >> out there. But then the ego gladly laps it and says right the truth is not out there and that means the truth is in here. Therefore >> I am the truth.

[00:11:00]>> Bingo.

[00:11:02]I am the truth. I am the truth. So the word self atma or atma or atman is great when it comes to negating the popular concept of truth.

[00:11:20]What is the popular concept? God >> uh God, lords, deities, forces so much all existing as objects of the senses and mind.

[00:11:36]So the word self does great there.

[00:11:41]It's a beautiful device.

[00:11:45]It's with responsibility that I'm using the word device.

[00:11:50]The word self is [snorts] a beautiful and greatly effective device when it comes to negating the concept that the highest is >> out there.

[00:12:04]But its great strength and effectiveness is also its deep vulnerability.

[00:12:14]Do you get this?

[00:12:16]If because the ego tends to operate in duality if it is not there it has to be >> in here >> in [clears throat] here.

[00:12:26]So the so-called religious person would say God is there and the one at some [snorts] kind of advanced level a spiritual seeker would take pride in saying that no no no no God is not out there. God is in here.

[00:12:48]No, neither there nor here. You locate the truth here and and you get the concept of soul, jvatma, the the the inner truth, the subjective perception, pure intuition, [snorts] conscience, such things. Where do all these come from?

[00:13:17]Have you seen people saying you know the thing is bigger and purer than the voice of your own conscience?

[00:13:25]H and when people have to justify something they are doing they would say I'm doing it at the call of my conscience. I have to listen to my conscience.

[00:13:35]What is implied there? that the conscience is the >> truth >> truth the highest and all that comes from the philosophical error of taking the truth as the subject the truth is in here we love to do that no the heart the truth lives in your heart here this way and the ones who keep pointing to their heart to refer to the truth love to mock those who keep pointing >> outwards they Look at that one. He's looking for the truth. H in places of pilgrimage and and mountain tops and jungles and libraries and all those places. He's doing all those things.

[00:14:20][snorts] But I am special. I found truth. Where? Here, in here. [gasps] I'm not saying it's in here.

[00:14:30]Is good in one sense. Which sense? It liberates you from the concept that it is >> outside but it traps you in another and more deadly concept which is that >> which is >> the truth is in here and if it is in here now the ego feels even more empowered because if it is out there then at least the ego has to go down to something somebody right >> God is sitting up there in the skies so the ego can't control it. But the moment the truth is situated here, the ego says I I am truth as me. A brahasmi.

[00:15:14]I am the one. I am the one.

[00:15:18]So truth is neither an object and not even the subject.

[00:15:27]When vant refers to the self, vant is not talking about you.

[00:15:33]When vidant refers to atma, it is not talking about anything related to or contained in your body.

[00:15:44]If there is anything that can even be loosely said to be contained in your body, it is the ego.

[00:15:53]Right? Even that is not an object or molecule or organ to be contained in the body. But just broadly speaking, h if liberation is disappearance of the illusion called ego, then even that thing that appeared to be in the body is now gone.

[00:16:24]Liberation is not about seeing the truth in the body.

[00:16:31]Liberation is about being liberated from the ego that arose out of the body.

[00:16:39]Liberation is about turning the body irrelevant, inconsequential. For the ego, the body is very relevant because the ego we know is the dualistic companion of the body.

[00:16:50]For the ego, the body is very relevant.

[00:16:51]Obviously h truth has nothing to do with your body. Truth is not somewhere in the heart.

[00:17:01]Truth has nothing to do with soul or spirit or or jwatma or or whatever. It also has nothing to do with your conscience, your intuition, your perception, your anything or your body or whatever. What nothing called my truth.

[00:17:18]Do you get this?

[00:17:20]Now this is where the word atma or self becomes potentially misleading. If the truth has nothing to do with you then why are we calling it the self?

[00:17:39]Why are we calling it the self? If it has nothing to do with this thing, why are we calling it the self? And one could perhaps justifiably put the philosopher sages in the dock here and gently politely ask them a question or two.

[00:18:08]I suppose they are accountable because they gave us a wonderful device. Self self h it cut beautifully but only on one side.

[00:18:30]Which side? The outside.

[00:18:32]>> The outer side.

[00:18:45]It demolished, shed it.

[00:18:50]The whole idea of an external overlord and we must be grateful for that.

[00:19:00]But then it contributed to the idea of an internal metaphysical agency because the very name self [snorts] atma it feels as if you are referring to something within. It feels that way. No self atma. Atma what does atma mean here? atma me I do you get this and this has been a continuous source of confusion people have continued repeating paring my truth my atma as if atma has to do with anything to do with you.

[00:20:04]And when you tell them, you know, self has nothing to do with you, they they feel perplexed. They say, then why call it the >> self? [laughter] You could have given it any other name.

[00:20:20]Now what's the problem with giving it any other name? Quick, >> it becomes an object.

[00:20:27]Now you see the inadequacy of words. You see the sheer mischief of words, you give it any other name, it becomes an >> object.

[00:20:36]>> So to avoid it from becoming an object, you call it the >> moment you call it the self. It is now no more an object of the ego but the ego itself.

[00:20:50]>> [laughter] >> The worm inside ego huh has uh taken the deworming medicine as a protein shake building a lot of mass.

[00:21:19]Truth you call by any name it becomes an object of the ego.

[00:21:25]So to avoid it from becoming an object you call it by the name but the moment you call itself it becomes the ego itself.

[00:21:36]That's maya that's how powerful this thing inside is. That's why I say tricks and tactics won't work. Ultimately you require innocence.

[00:21:47]Ultimately you require cleanliness of purpose.

[00:21:56]It was a master stroke.

[00:21:59]Huh? The the rishies, I like to call them philosopher sages or sage philosophers.

[00:22:09]They came up with something astounding.

[00:22:24]Call the highest as the self.

[00:22:29]Now nobody can objectify it.

[00:22:35]Maya laughed my no more the object. It is now the subject itself.

[00:22:43]The ego becomes the self. The ego becomes the truth.

[00:22:47]Do you get this?

[00:22:49]Do you get this? It's very important to reflect on this before we enter the verse today. In fact, before we enter the verse today, we must revisit the previous one.

[00:23:22]Even in some of the of the classical and respected works of Vant.

[00:23:36]I was surprised to find this error and the error was not just in the translation.

[00:23:47]Very humbly I say the error was there in the verse itself.

[00:23:56]It was implied.

[00:23:59]It was implied that the truth is the fundamental subject.

[00:24:15]At some places it was actually declared very loudly, very unamiguously, you are not the object of anything. You are the great subject.

[00:24:29]No, that does not sit well with Vidant.

[00:24:40]Freedom is about being at neither pole of duality.

[00:24:52]Not the object also not the >> subject.

[00:24:58]If a scripture says you are not the object, you are the subject um there is a problem there. Or maybe the scripture was meant to teach recent entrance disciples at an early stage.

[00:25:26]Right? So it sufficed to impress that you are not the object.

[00:25:38]But if that is followed by an assertion that you are rather the subject, the treatment is worse than the trouble.

[00:25:57]Do do you get this?

[00:25:59]So last verse.

[00:26:02]One centered only in the self, satisfied in the self, content [snorts] in the self, for them there remains no duty to perform.

[00:26:16]Centered in the self, living by the self, abiding in the self, uh contended in the self. For them there remains no duty to perform.

[00:26:26]What does this mean?

[00:26:31]The word self appears three times here.

[00:26:34]What does this mean?

[00:26:37]What does this mean?

[00:26:41]Does this imply the existence of some pure inner center? Please get this right. Please get this right. tonight itself else uh the confusion will continue.

[00:26:58]Living in the self, being content in the self, surrendering to the self, uh centered in the self.

[00:27:06]What do all these mean? There is something called the self here and and you have to listen to it, right? This is what this means. Yeah. Happily nodding.

[00:27:21]This is what this means.

[00:27:24]What did we just discuss? Is the self something here inside? Is the self even the subject?

[00:27:34]Then what does it mean to live in the self? Be centered in the self. Be contended in the self. What does this mean? If the self is neither there nor here, what does it mean to live in the self?

[00:27:46]>> [snorts] >> Sir, where do you live? Sir, where do you live?

[00:27:54]Standing close to a longunning fence, I asked him, "Sir, where do you live?"

[00:28:03]"Sir, where do you live?"

[00:28:06]H.

[00:28:11]And he said, "I live in the Lolo Villa."

[00:28:19]Where does he live?

[00:28:21]In the Lolo Villa. And he smiled mysteriously. Rather mischievously.

[00:28:30]So I said, "Sir, where is this Loilla?

[00:28:36]This side of the fence, this side of the divide or partition, the right side. He said, "No, no, no.

[00:28:44]Lolo villa is not on the right side of the partition." Ah, got it. Then your Lolo Villa is on the >> left side of the divide.

[00:29:01]He said no my villa is not even on the left side of the divide.

[00:29:08]So beused [clears throat] I asked him if where you live is neither on the right side of the divide nor even on the >> left of the divide. Where do you actually live?

[00:29:33]He smiled and disappeared.

[00:29:39]What does this mean?

[00:29:45]>> Don't exist.

[00:29:47]>> He lives at a place that is neither this side nor that side. What does that mean?

[00:29:51]He lives nowhere.

[00:29:52]>> Nowhere at all. Therefore, he is >> not there.

[00:29:55]>> Not therefore he disappeared.

[00:29:59]So the ego is being asked to abide in the self and the self is neither an object nor a subject. So where is the ego being asked to live?

[00:30:11][snorts] >> This is the skin. This is the divide. H on the right side of the divide is the world.

[00:30:23]On the left of the divide is the body.

[00:30:29]H the ego is being told to live in the >> self. And if we see that the self is neither an object nor a subject, then where is the ego being told to live?

[00:30:45]Nowhere. Moment you catch that, the ego will have to smile and disappear.

[00:30:49]>> Disappear.

[00:30:52]But the ego will survive happily continue if if you take the self as >> the subject. No, the self is not a subject. So when the Gita is telling you to abide in the self, [snorts] live by the self, be centered in the self.

[00:31:19]Basically that is the death nail for the ego. The ego is being told to live at a point that exists neither there nor here.

[00:31:32]Therefore the ego is being told to live nowhere.

[00:31:36]The ego is being told to be centered in the >> self. But the self is neither there nor here. Therefore the ego is being told to be centered >> nowhere.

[00:31:45]>> Nowhere which is total disappearance.

[00:31:48]Total disappearance. The lolo villa exists neither there nor here. Therefore, you have nohere to live. So you can just vanish. That's the best possible for you.

[00:32:03]Do you get this?

[00:32:05]Traditionally we have failed to appreciate this.

[00:32:09]Traditionally that's been the biggest way adat vant has been misinterpreted.

[00:32:19]The self being taken as something within within even Raman Maharshi would use the term heart to indicate the truth.

[00:32:37]Obviously he knew what he was saying.

[00:32:39]But the choice of the word enables the ego to feel as if the truth is inside somewhere in the body.

[00:32:56]Do you get this? H. So the one centered only in the self, what does that mean?

[00:33:02]The self is not there, not here. The self is neither there nor here. So what does it mean to be centered in the self?

[00:33:12]To be centered nowhere, which basically means don't exist at all.

[00:33:18][laughter] Satisfied in the self. The ego is being told to be satisfied in the self. But the self is neither there nor here.

[00:33:30]Therefore, the ego is being told to be satisfied in its disappearance.

[00:33:40]Otherwise the ego will find a way. It will say the object of satisfaction lies there because I am a commoner. I a householder. I a ssari. Therefore I am seeking my satisfaction there in some toy.

[00:33:55]Or if I am a religious man then I am seeking my satisfaction here somewhere inside. How I close my eyes and I say I'm meditating and I experience a great bliss and I say you see who is experiencing this satisfaction inside who is the experiencer the ego by experiencing satisfaction even inwardly the ego remains the householders ego would experience satisfaction >> outside >> outside the so-called meditators ego ego would experience satisfaction >> and satisfied.

[00:34:36]>> In either case, the ego finds refuge.

[00:34:41]In either case, the ego stands protected and satisfied.

[00:34:51]You see this?

[00:34:53]But when you have the clarity that the self is neither an object nor a subject, neither on the right side nor on the left side, then the real power of Bhagat Gita opens up.

[00:35:13]You see what is being said?

[00:35:16]Content in the self alone. The ego has to be content in the self alone.

[00:35:25]But the self is nothing at all.

[00:35:30]Nothing there also nothing.

[00:35:33]So the ego is being told to just >> vanish.

[00:35:37]>> Vanish.

[00:35:40]And then what happens?

[00:35:43]Marvel at the logical precision. And what follows next is so logical, so sequential.

[00:35:51][snorts] Now there remains no duty to perform.

[00:35:55]Now why is there no duty to perform?

[00:35:58]The comment is not on duty. The comment is on >> the comment is on the performer of the duty.

[00:36:09]>> The ego found no place there or here.

[00:36:13]Therefore now even if duties come who is there to perform let the world keep shouting this is what you need to do this is what you need to do but there exists nobody to do anything therefore no duty does that mean action won't happen action happens action happens this apparatus is meant to act the apparatus will act the brain thinks the arm moves the apparatus will act but the ego is gone. The apparatus will act without the ego.

[00:36:53]All possible actions can happen but without >> the ego.

[00:37:00]And why did the ego have to leave?

[00:37:03]Because it was denied accommodation.

[00:37:08]It was denied accommodation on the right side of the fence and also on the >> left side of the fence.

[00:37:18]The worldly people provided accommodation >> right side >> right side of the fence.

[00:37:24]The so-called religious person provides it housing on the >> left side of the fence.

[00:37:31]One says the truth is there. The other says the truth is here. The truth is neither there nor here. You just shut up.

[00:37:46]Do you get this? Huh? Now from this we come to the words at hand.

[00:37:57]Now this one. This one. Which one?

[00:38:04]The departed one.

[00:38:07]If such one can still be called as one h the reparted one or the diseased one d e ce the deceased one.

[00:38:23]For such a person neither action nor inaction retains even the slightest meaning anymore.

[00:38:33]Beautiful doesn't say that action and inaction are no more observed.

[00:38:48]Action and inaction are allowed to be on their own. They are left to themselves.

[00:39:04]stripped of the usual egoic meaning.

[00:39:09]Please see what is being negated here.

[00:39:12]I'll read it again.

[00:39:14]For such a person, neither action nor inaction holds even the slightest meaning anymore.

[00:39:22]What is being negated? Action inaction or meaning?

[00:39:28]Meaning all meanings are meanings of incomp completion and therefore desire.

[00:39:39]Can there be meaningless action?

[00:39:43]The ego hates that word meaninglessness.

[00:39:46]Can there be meaningless action?

[00:39:48]Meaninglessness would imply desirelessness.

[00:39:55]So I'm into something but it holds no meaning for me. Then why are you into it? Because I'm not into it. The system it's playing its game. I'm no more there. I cannot answer this question for you because you are addressing this question to a vacuum and the vacuum has no power to respond.

[00:40:19]So much is going on in this room but there is no actor.

[00:40:28]There is a lot of movement but there is no mover. So if you open the door and demand an answer by yelling what are you doing here?

[00:40:45]You won't get a response. Please tell me why?

[00:40:50]>> Because because there is nobody doing anything.

[00:40:54]But you are not used to such a spectacle. So you will imagine that just because there is action there would also be an actor. And when you won't get a response, you might also feel offended or agitated.

[00:41:13]But pardon the situation because there is nobody to answer you. How can an answer arise?

[00:41:24]Action is there.

[00:41:27]And action implies inaction.

[00:41:30]You're acting, you are stopping, you're moving, you're not moving.

[00:41:35]That entire game is continuing.

[00:41:39]But the game has become meaningless.

[00:41:42]Just as now there is no one to receive a duty equally there is no one to hold a desire. Duty and desire go together.

[00:41:54]Duty desire meaning they are all words of the same family.

[00:42:03]Nobody to tell me my duty yet I do a lot.

[00:42:07]Nobody to instruct me. Yet there is so much happening.

[00:42:16]If you are fulfilling your duties, the pressure is always of desire. That's how duties are enforced, aren't they? Do this and this is how you'll be rewarded.

[00:42:32]Don't do this. This is how you'll be punished. That's how the algo of duties works. No.

[00:42:40]How else do duties work? Duty is not love. Duty is not realization.

[00:42:45]Duty is a code of conduct. How do you enforce it?

[00:42:49]But you desire.

[00:42:50]>> The desires.

[00:42:52]Desires this side or that side.

[00:42:55]Duty and desire go together. If someone says I'm very dutiful, he might not know he admitting he is very desirous. Actually if you are not desirous nobody can impose duties on you only your own inner desire makes you vulnerable to >> duties >> duties.

[00:43:26]Do you get this?

[00:43:32]Don't give This actor any kind of refuge or shelter, admission or acceptance anywhere and enjoy the bliss of your disappearance.

[00:43:51]Pure flow.

[00:43:54]Pure flow.

[00:43:56]Top game.

[00:43:58]Top game.

[00:44:06]Like a machine without inner resistance, like a state-of-the-art bike, brand new one.

[00:44:19]Feels like flowing.

[00:44:24]No resistance at all.

[00:44:38]You get this lot of work. No pressure performance. Yes. Pressure. No responsibility. Yes. Duty. No.

[00:45:16]Work. Yes. Targets. Yes. Attainment. No.

[00:45:24]But you did reach that target. How do you say no attainment?

[00:45:31]The target was reached.

[00:45:35]I didn't reach anywhere.

[00:45:38]The target was reached. I didn't reach anywhere or anything.

[00:45:46]I haven't gain or lost. Why?

[00:45:50]>> I was not there.

[00:45:54]I was not there.

[00:46:10]So they assaulted you with all kinds of mean words and vicious allegations.

[00:46:22]Must have hurt.

[00:46:24]Must have hurt.

[00:46:26]No. Why?

[00:46:29]>> Ah, unfortunately I wasn't there. Why?

[00:46:33]Unfortunately, sir, no. Might have been enjoyable.

[00:46:40]I wasn't there.

[00:46:43]But you seem to have heard everything.

[00:46:48]You also seem to have registered at least a few things.

[00:46:54]How do you say you weren't there?

[00:46:57]The ear heard.

[00:46:59]The brain registered a bit.

[00:47:04]The memory still contains some imprints.

[00:47:09]The ear, the brain, the storehouse.

[00:47:16]I was not there.

[00:47:18]I was not there. I didn't get hurt.

[00:47:20]Yeah, the car did meet.

[00:47:24]A massive accident.

[00:47:29]Look at me. I'm a superman. Nothing happened to me. Why?

[00:47:33]I wasn't there in the car.

[00:47:38]No miracles. Just that I wasn't there.

[00:47:45]Where were you then?

[00:47:49]In the language of Vidant, I was peacefully abiding in the self. And the self is neither inside the car nor outside it.

[00:48:01][snorts] So an accident happens outside the car, I'm not there.

[00:48:07]Something happens inside the car, I'm again not there because the self is neither outside nor inside. The Gita told me to be happily relaxed in the self.

[00:48:27]A lot of it happens but nothing happens to why you're so great. No, on the contrary, I am not at all.

[00:48:40]Not that I'm great and not that I'm dimminitive.

[00:48:46]I'm simply >> absent.

[00:48:52]Absent.

[00:48:58]There is this blankness.

[00:49:03]that you would find in the eyes of the wise person.

[00:49:08]A blankness devoid of meaning.

[00:49:14]Meaning, looks looks through.

[00:49:27]Doesn't look specifically at something.

[00:49:31]Looking specifically at something usually denotes desire.

[00:49:42]Meaningless void. That's what you'll find in the eyes of it's scary. Very scary because those eyes don't recognize you.

[00:50:01]They can recognize you as you only when they recognize them >> him as him. No, there is nobody here to be acknowledged as the seer.

[00:50:19]Therefore, there is nobody there to be acknowledged as a person.

[00:50:27]Nothing of importance this side.

[00:50:29]Therefore, nothing of importance that side either. Therefore, it is scary when you look into those eyes because you will not find any acknowledgment there.

[00:50:39]Those eyes in fact in some sense, condemn you to disappearance.

[00:50:48]They are a death sentence.

[00:50:52]That fellow will look at you as if you don't exist.

[00:50:56]That's cruel, brutal. No, that's compassion.

[00:51:00]That's compassion.

[00:51:09]To not honor your lies is not cruelty.

[00:51:15]It's the greatest compassion.

[00:51:18]Your your selfhood is your fundamental lie.

[00:51:23]It should not be honored.

[00:51:38]You get this one mark.

[00:51:47]It is said in both the Zen and the Sufi tradition.

[00:51:54]of the of the master. That's that's their way.

[00:52:00]That's their tradition.

[00:52:06]The word master they say one mark of the master is that the lover longs for his eyes and the commoner cannot stand his eyes.

[00:52:35]The common man wants to stay away. Even if he's forced to sit in front, he'll want to look this way, that way, here and there, towards the sky, towards earth, but not into the eyes of the master.

[00:52:54]Those eyes make you very uncomfortable.

[00:53:01]It does not refer specifically to the eyes. It's about the entire being. But that's the poetic or traditional way of uh putting it.

[00:53:22]This comes across in several references.

[00:53:25]So it'll be like this fellow was caught and brought in front of of the Zen master and he held his chin and stared into his eyes and he turned his face away and he turned his face away. He can do anything but not beer the gaze.

[00:53:59]You know why? Do you understand this meaninglessness?

[00:54:05]The ego is very afraid of it.

[00:54:10]Your master looks at you as you are just some earth, a little water, debris and hubris.

[00:54:32]Huh? Debris one.

[00:54:41]uncomfortable.

[00:54:51]Safer to be at a distance.

[00:55:11]We know the capacity of the auditorium we have for the 15th Mahashatri.

[00:55:23]The number of admits we have issued is significantly more than the capacity the seating capacity of the place. Why?

[00:55:36]Because right on the day of departure or the previous day a lot of Gita participants will develop cold feet.

[00:55:57]That's never a coincidence.

[00:56:01]The child suddenly falling sick, the husband or wife suddenly throwing tantrums.

[00:56:11]It's never a coincidence. Or the body suddenly aching at odd places.

[00:56:24]never a random thing. There is always a purpose behind that. There is always a meaning.

[00:56:34]What's the meaning? Avoid meaninglessness.

[00:56:40]Avoid meaninglessness.

[00:56:43]Haven't you seen two kinds of very opposite looking behaviors?

[00:56:50]There are those who would come and sit right in the front even if there are seats available at the back. Have you seen that?

[00:57:00]So many of them even if there are seats available there somewhere at the back they'll say no we want to sit in the front. We can even sit on the floor but we won't go to the back.

[00:57:12]So they they'll line up on the floor or sometimes on the stage and then there are those who will not come to the front even if there are seats vacant on the front.

[00:57:31]These are the two kinds that the tradition refers to. One cannot live without the contact and for the other one the contact is death wants to avoid it as one avoids death.

[00:57:55]So either would avoid coming to the auditorium altogether by not applying or by being absent even if he shouldn't admit or by staying right there at the back meaninglessness.

[00:58:29]I don't want to encounter that.

[00:58:34]That's the most helpful thing that can happen to you.

[00:58:55]Nothing better for the fog than to be exposed to the sun. No.

[00:59:04]Clears away.

[00:59:08]Then there is there is lucidity.

[00:59:17]clarity in seeing.

[00:59:21]But the fog does not want to be exposed.

[00:59:30]That's just inner dishonesty.

[00:59:37]You know you are a lie and you still want to live the lie.

[00:59:48]Nothing can be done about that.

[00:59:52]No agency outside of you can decide this for you. It's about you.

[01:00:06]You get this.

[01:00:12]And there is no object, thought or person in the world on which they must depend to serve any purpose.

[01:00:21]Again mind you the one living in the self satisfying in the self about them it's being said they don't have to depend on any object and object includes everything thought this that purpose place person anything such a fellow uh does not have to depend on any object to serve any purpose.

[01:01:08]What is being negated here fundamentally dependence or purpose This one who abides in the self does not depend on any object to serve any purpose.

[01:01:36]You need to be sharper with this.

[01:01:41]What is being fundamentally negated?

[01:01:44]Dependence or purpose?

[01:01:48]The purpose dependence can still be there provided the dependences as per the game of procrate ritic literature. The dependence is fine but the dependence is not egoic. The dependence is structural, physical, not metaphysical.

[01:02:24]So you can depend on the butler for your food, not your identity.

[01:02:34]Dependence can still be there, but the egoic purpose has been invalidated.

[01:02:43]You can depend on your partner for a lot of things. That's fine.

[01:02:50]The child has to depend on the mother.

[01:02:53]That's fine.

[01:02:57]In fact, the nature of our species is that we cooperate greatly.

[01:03:07]this kind and this level of cooperation other species are not able to exhibit sitting here you are cooperating with somebody in Germany right that's how uh human systems operate so fine that is fine that dependency is there in terms of material systems but not in terms of inner purpose No, inwardly not dependent. Outwardly, yes, that's fine. There are so many things that you you'll need to go to the doctor.

[01:03:49]Cannot say you are independent.

[01:03:54]Somebody else has to invent the vaccine for you.

[01:04:00]You cannot manufacture your own aircraft.

[01:04:07]H and by boarding an aircraft invented and owned by somebody else, you do not become inwardly dependent.

[01:04:27]Do you get this?

[01:04:29]So even dependence to an extent might be all right provided it is not egoic. [clears throat] Do you get this?

[01:04:46]Now we are taking the teaching a notch higher because I have always castigated dependence.

[01:04:55]Never depend, never depend, never depend.

[01:04:58]When I say never depend, I question the dependent ego, not dependence itself.

[01:05:09]If there can be egoless dependence, that's fine. That's fine.

[01:05:17]Removing dependence all together among human beings is impossible, impractical.

[01:05:25]That's not the way prkati operates.

[01:05:33]You know of symbiosis. Huh?

[01:05:38]Not just in human beings, in all species.

[01:05:43]There is this mutual inter operability and this inter operability is mutually beneficial to >> both the parties.

[01:06:04]Beneficial not in terms of egoic identity but just in terms of >> material benefits. material benefits.

[01:06:20]The way the organism is is constructed, it is bound to be dependent. Look at the nose.

[01:06:28]What is it doing?

[01:06:33]Huh?

[01:06:34]The lungs are there to create a low pressure area so that air from outside is drawn in.

[01:06:44]Look at the very very process of furtherance of species. The man and the woman have to in some sense depend on each other. That's how they are physically constructed otherwise reproduction cannot happen.

[01:07:01]But man and woman being sexually dependent on each other is not the same thing as sexuality becoming your identity as some other person becoming your universe. No, that's not the same thing.

[01:07:26]Do you get this?

[01:07:28]It's not about anything. It's not about dependence. It's not about holiness.

[01:07:33]It's not about uh God. It's not about the subject. It's not about the object.

[01:07:38]It's all about you.

[01:07:41]Nothing is good. Nothing is bad. So even dependency is not necessarily bad.

[01:07:49]The only problem, the central problem, the mother problem is not dependency. It is ego just that the ego being incomplete is obviously found dependent everywhere every time. Therefore we use to criticize dependence because dependence is a necessary characteristic of the ego. But there is a logical catch here.

[01:08:24]Yes.

[01:08:26]Ego and dependence necessarily go together. But dependence does not necessarily indicate ego.

[01:08:35]Where there is ego, there is dependence.

[01:08:39]But that does not mean that all dependence is ego.

[01:08:47]Do do you get this?

[01:08:50]Those those tiny bacteria doing the nitrogen fixation thing in the roots of mighty trees.

[01:09:02]Nothing egoic is happening there.

[01:09:06]But there is >> dependence.

[01:09:11]So ego is always dependent. But that does not mean that being dependent necessarily indicates ego. Which means dependence can be egoic >> as well as >> as well as non-egoic.

[01:09:26]So what we criticize is egoic dependence.

[01:09:32]This goes well with looking at the actor not at the action so much. Dependence too is just another kind of action. So independence can be in in certain cases free of the ego and that's fine. That's fine.

[01:10:04]Yes. I depend on the world.

[01:10:09]Look at the wandering mandicants, the the big shoes.

[01:10:16]The word means beggar.

[01:10:19]The Buddha chose to make them dependent on the world for something as basic as food itself.

[01:10:33][snorts] And this was a step towards liberation.

[01:10:38]Why? Because that dependence is not a problem if it leads to disappearance of the ego.

[01:10:47]Look at the big shoe. Can you give me some food without any hesitation let alone shame the morning this one comes knocks at your door and says bshami is he not dependent? In fact, you can choose to kill his body. If the entire village collectively decides to not give him any food, he will actually starve because uh it's not in him to now go and dutifully collect food for himself from here or there or cultivate it and then bake. take his bread. He won't do that.

[01:11:43]You give him food, he will survive. You don't give him food, he will slowly just pass away.

[01:11:53]You see this? You should have asked me but Achar you always said dependence is so bad. Dependence is so bad.

[01:12:01]And look at these bikus.

[01:12:05]They are dependent even for their even for their food clothes also.

[01:12:13]They they don't spin their yarn, do they?

[01:12:19]They don't weave their fabric and they have hardly any money to go and buy it from some market. So where do they get their clothes from?

[01:12:30]Again, somebody offers something. You take this. Look at the look at the sheer depth of physical dependence. But this physical dependence is beautiful if it leads to inner independence. The ego is gone. Now if the body is to be dependent, let it be dependent. The body is anywhere dependent, is it not?

[01:12:51]It was dependent on some coincidence for its very birth.

[01:12:57]No, just coincidentally it will continue and then one day it will be reduced to dirt.

[01:13:05]So why pretend to be independent where there is really no independence?

[01:13:13]I know I'm dependent. The gravity is pulling me all the time.

[01:13:19]I depend on the oceans. I depend on the atmosphere. I depend on the trees. I depend on the soil. I depend on the seasons.

[01:13:27]I depend on the sun. I depend on the moon.

[01:13:31]So why should I cry independence independence?

[01:13:35]I would be happily dependent by by disappearing.

[01:13:44]If the body is to be dependent, let it be.

[01:13:50]I am independent because I am not.

[01:13:55]There there is a catch here. You cannot say I am independent because I am sitting free inside. No.

[01:14:04]If if the body is dependent and you are sitting inside the body then you are also dependent.

[01:14:10]So don't bluff.

[01:14:13]Don't try that. A lot of people say that you know I'm just the witness of all dependence of the body. No no don't be the witness please. We don't need any witness. Just disappear.

[01:14:26]just disappear, get lost.

[01:14:29]Let the body continue in its praic ways.

[01:14:34]The body is anyway a construct of coincidence. Let it continue as it would.

[01:14:43]Let the game play itself out.

[01:14:48]You're not required as a player.

[01:14:52]What's happening? The game is playing itself.

[01:14:55][snorts] The game is playing itself.

[01:14:57]Where are the players? No. The game is the player.

[01:15:06]Do you get this?

[01:15:09]Now this will get nuanced, tender, subtle as we move on.

[01:15:21]This might be a little too much for the newcomers.

[01:15:28]I would encourage them to have some patience.

[01:15:43]I try to keep it as close to life as possible.

[01:15:50]And in that there is simplicity.

[01:15:54]But still because when you newly enter you come with a heavy load of uh of the usual religious and worldly beliefs.

[01:16:10]So what we are saying here might not be very palatable in the beginning.

[01:16:19]might even appear confusing.

[01:16:23]Stay put.

[01:16:25]Show some patience.

[01:16:29][clears throat] Just download the Achar pushant app and there you go to the community section and you have live testimonials streaming in at the rate of one every 5 minutes.

[01:16:44]I'm seeing lives change in thousands if not millions every day in front of my own eyes. We are doing it. We have actually done it.

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