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Question: Acharya Ji, you have said in one of your videos, “In matters of Truth, thought is not useful. It is even a handicap.” But thought is all I know, and have ever known. If I close my eyes, everything is a thought. My family is a thought, my children are a thought, even God is a thought. And the Teacher is a thought.

If everything, that I have ever known, is a thought, then why should I believe, that something outside of thoughts, and space and time dimensions, exists? Every thing that tells me, that something ‘beyond’ exists, is thought. And if thoughts are not to be believed, or taken seriously, then I am screwed, because I have been on a wrong quest.

Why should I belittle my thoughts, and term them frivolous and false? Outside these thoughts, there is nothing that I can know of, so why to condemn them?

Acharya Prashant Ji: You will have to answer it, looking at your own life.

How will you explain ‘love’? Thoughts have reasons. Thoughts have causal linkages – backward and forward. Each thought, comes from somewhere, and leads to something. How do you explain ‘love’? Where does ‘love’ come from? Do you have to think, to ‘love’?

How do you explain sleep?

You would admit that when you are sleeping, nicely, comfortably, then you are not thinking. Are you in distress then?

Your problem is not that you are not convinced of a thought-free state.

Your problem is that you are not convinced of a thought-free state – for yourself.

If I say that in sleep, you are thought-free, and yet blissful. You would retort and say, “Yes, there is bliss. But not for me.” You want to experience the bliss, along with everything, that you are. In sleep, bliss is there. But all that, that you are, is not there. So that bliss, appears so useless.

You are not questioning freedom from thought. You are questioning, whether there is freedom from thought, for you, as you are. No, there is no freedom that way. So, you have to make a choice. You have to decide. whether you are more particular about preserving yourself, or is that bliss, dearer to you?

Are you getting it?

That which you are questioning, is not totally unknown to you. You do not really dispute it. If you have ever known Silence, or Love, then you cannot dispute that there is something beyond the little ‘you’. If you have been ever awestruck by anything, then you cannot dispute, that there is something beyond ‘you’.

Come closer.

If you have ever listened carefully to me, then you cannot dispute that there is something beyond ‘you’. And that is not the product of thought, because I do not give you the time to think.

When you are with me, do you get the space, the occasion to think? You don’t. If you are attentive, then you are taken to a place, where there is just ‘you’. The baggage of thoughts, the swarming of the bees, is not there.

So you know, that THAT exists. That you may call as – Silence, or Truth, or God, whatever. You know that, THAT exists. Hence, I am re-reading your question. Now, your question is, “Can THAT exist with ‘me’? Can ‘I’ exist with ‘THAT’? can the two be simultaneous? Can the two remain separate, and yet concurrent?

No, they can’t.

Jab hari tha tab main nahin,

Jab main hun hari nahin.

(When there is God, then I am not.

When I am, God is not).

Simple. Full stop.

That ‘beyondness’, is beyond dispute, because all dispute is thought.

That ‘beyondness’ is beyond questions as well, because all questions are thoughts.

That ‘beyondness’ is beyond my teaching, and your listening, if my teaching and your listening, are a thought.

‘Beyondness’, need not be proved, because beyondness, is such a cunning thing. All you are saying is, what you are saying is alright, but there is something beyond this. But, how do you disapprove that? You can only disapprove something that exists. In ‘beyondness’, what you are saying is, that whatever exists, has something beyond it. Now, how do you fight that?

Hence, the saints are always on a very sold footing. You cannot quarrel with them. They say, “What you have is alright. But there is something bigger than this.” How do you fight with that? And they are saying that – ‘That’ which is bigger than ‘This’, is not in the same dimension, as this thing.

How do you fight with that?

Because, in this dimension, you can prove that there is no Taj Mahal, bigger than the existing Taj Mahal. And this dimension is all that you know of. In this dimension, there is scope of proofs and rebuttals. But, what they are saying is that there is another dimension, that is beyond proofs. There is a Taj Mahal in a dimension, that is beyond any Taj Mahals. So, where there can be no Taj Mahal, there is a Taj mahal, that is better than this Taj Mahal.  Now, fight that.

They are not claiming anything at all. What they are saying is, “Where there can be no Taj Mahal,” by this they mean – a world that is not yours. A world in which space and earth do not exist. So, where there can be no Taj Mahal, there exists a Taj Mahal, more beautiful than this Taj Mahal.

Now, you cannot even take the first step, to even counter such a statement. Why? Because your first step will come from thought or imagination. And, what they are saying is – “In that world, there is no thought. So, you cannot enter with thought.” And thought is all you have.

Please understand.

What they are saying is, “There is another dimension, that is untouched by thought”. And you start thinking – ‘what that dimension could be?’ And you have lost it. And the saint is smiling.

The only way now, you can counter the saint is, by…..

(silence)

You want to investigate that dimension, right? And the saint is saying, “In that dimension, there is neither space, nor time, nor earth, nor moon. There is nothing. No person, no animal. No thing, no idea, no past, no past, no future.”

That is that dimension.

“And in that dimension, there is a Taj Mahal, more beautiful than this Taj Mahal. No you want to investigate that dimension. How do you investigate that dimension? You want to enter that country. Kabir keeps talking again and again, of another desh, another amarpuri. You want to investigate, you want to prove Kabir wrong. You want to prove that no such amarpuri exists.

For that, what will you need to do? What is the necessary condition?

Questioner: You will want to have proofs.

Acharya Ji: Kabir is saying that there is another dimension, in which there is a Taj Mahal. And in that dimension, there is no thought. You cannot enter that dimension with thought. Now, you want to investigate that there is a Taj Mahal in that dimension. What will you have to do?

You will have to enter that dimension. And you cannot enter that dimension, with thought. So, what will you have to do? What is the condition? You will have to be…..Silent. Because Kabir is saying, that only Silence can enter there.

Your intention is to investigate whether that Taj Mahal, exists. And whether that Taj Mahal is more beautiful than this Taj Mahal. But, what is the password to that dimension? Even if you want to investigate that dimension, what is the password?

Listeners: Silence.

Acharya Ji: So to enter that dimension, even for the purpose of suspicious investigation, what will you have to do?

Questioner 1: Be Silent.

Acharya Ji: Be Silent. The moment you are silent, Kabir smiles. That is all, that he wanted. That is all, that he wanted. The moment you are silent, you discover that Silence itself, is the Taj Mahal, that is more beautiful, than all the Taj Mahals.

Now, you don’t want to look at some building, any construction. This de-contruction, this des-truction, is more beautiful than any construction. Done! Game over. The first step -Silence- is the last step. Now, there is no need to enquire that whether the world is indeed, just as Kabir describes it.

And he describes it in very colorful ways. He says, “The Sun is forever shining there. There is no sunset. And even as the Sun is shining there, you can enjoy the beauty of the moon and the stars. And there is no death, no old-age, no disease, no fear, and no suffering.”

You want to counter all that. You say, “No, no. This cannot be possible. To counter it, you will have to go there.” To go there, you will have to be ……

Questioner: Silent.

Acharya Ji: Silent.

The moment you are silent, Kabir runs away.

His mischief, is successful.

Excerpted from a ‘Shabd-Yoga’ session. Edited for clarity.

Watch the session: Does anything outside of thought really exist? || Acharya Prashant (2017)

To personally meet or connect with Acharya Prashant: click here