Question: The creator is in every bit of the creation, then why do we call the world illusionary?
Acharya Prashant: Don’t call the world illusionary. “The creator is the creation” is not merely an aphorism. If you can look at the wall and see just creativity here, then wonderful, continue looking at the wall. Do you know what is creativity? Creativity is something arising out of nothing. So basically, if you can look at the wall as emptiness then it’s wonderful. First of all, the wall is not creation because if this is creation then there has to be a creator in the past. The wall is creativity and if the wall is creativity then the wall has to be emptiness. Creativity is exactly that — something arising from empty space.
But when you look at the wall do you see emptiness? No, you see something tangible, you see something important. Usually, this argument is given by those who want to retain their attachments. This is the favourite argument of the householders and so many people find it difficult to refute. You don’t need to find God somewhere. God is in your kitchen and bedroom. God is in the clatter of the utensils and the wailing of the baby.
God is not in the temple bell. God is the whistle of the pressure cooker. This is not at all bad but then the baby must not be a baby, then the baby has to be emptiness. Then the husband cannot be a person, the husband has to be infinite, impersonal, existential individuality. You do not serve morning tea to infinite impersonal existential individuality. Getting it?
And if God is in the whistle of the pressure cooker, then he also has to be in the answering of the doorbell, in the traffic noise, in the neighbour’s doorbell and in the sound of an AK 47. Why not? Why only the pressure cooker? So when somebody stands in front of you with his AK 47 and goes bang-bang it must sound to you like the ringing of the temple bell; Anhad-naad!
Why do we call the world illusionary? No, the world is not illusionary. The world is the spontaneous dance of its source. But that’s then the way you should look at it. That this is not the world, this is the spontaneous dance of the source. And if it is the spontaneous dance of the source, then no other name must be given to it if Truth is what you’re concerned with.
Deeply embedded in our identities how can we talk of Truth? Does the man who is hell bent upon retaining his bondages have any right to quote the scriptures? His one point agenda is to preserve his own sense of self. Whatever he will say will be just suited to that single purpose.
That is the difference between the seeker of the Truth and the cunning mind — the seeker of the Truth says, ‘The Truth is one and supreme and I’m prepared to be dissolved to meet the Truth. Truth is one and supreme, I will dissolve.’ And the cunning mind says, ‘I am supreme and the Truth shall be manipulated in order to retain my sense of self.’
Do you see the essential difference?
And then you will have a thousand kinds of versions of truth and deities and demons, all suited to the householder and all in the name of truth. So, in India, you have goddesses of fertility. You are not having a baby, go and pray to that particular goddess and she will drop a couple of babies in your lap. We had just talked of the great difference between Brahm and Brahma.
The seeker of the Truth is not concerned with anything except Brahm. But the cunning mind would create Brahma, and from Brahma, a series of millions of Gods and goddesses. These are not millions of gods and goddesses; these are your millions of desires.
One God corresponding to one kind of desire, one god for sex, one god for money, one goddess for money, one god for fame and respect. You cannot go and worship Nirgun-Brahm and say that I’m doing it so that I can have a good house and a loyal husband. Difficult, very difficult, stupid actually.
This entire world and its systems have been created to protect falseness. All your festivals, what are they doing? What are you celebrating? Your desires, your stupidity, your darkness. Do you have any festival of the Truth? Do you have any festival of Silence– Maunotsava ? Is there a festival of nothingness– Shunyotsav anywhere in any culture? Sounds scary, right? This religion won’t find many takers. You want something to dance around in your pretty clothes, a nice religious way of getting laid tonight! Is that grand party over or still continuing? That’s a householder’s god. Seven days of good celebration.
And then you say God is everywhere. I am worshipping god. I am worshipping God in money, so worship money. And you have festivals where you worship money. Yes, God is in the money but god is also in the fire that burns money. Let’s worship that fire as well. Let’s burn all this money. How can you be choosy and selective? Yes, of course, is not God fire? So let’s just burn all these notes and then worship he money. Agni-devta (The Fire-God). Why not? Whom are you fooling? See, God is in everything. So that is the reason why I worship my family as Gods and Goddesses. What about the neighbour’s family? Is God not there? What about the cat and the dog?
I was reading an article on one of the prominent websites that day. It said when you are having sex, imagine that you are worshiping each other’s body. You want to worship a body, go and clean a cow. You’re worshipping somebody’s body. If body worship is what you’re so concerned with, go and wash a dog. Here is a body, worship it. Wash the dog. It desperately needs a shower. But it has to be a female body, a young female body; only then you can worship it. So, God lives in a young female body. That’s the precise statement. Yes, that’s more correct. And you have entire systems around this, it’s not Sex, don’t call it kaam-vaasna . It is a celebration of the body.
Hari Om Tatsat! How religious, how divine!
And after that, I give birth to a baby. See, like a God, I’m creating and then the world will tell you now you are a goddess because you are a mother like every bitch on the road. But you will get ample respect. Being a single woman, a girl you can never get as much of respect as you get as a mother from the society. That is their way to propagate darkness. That is their way to put pressure on you. They won’t even give you a house on rent if you are not married and if you look like me or Joydeep (one of the listeners) ! You need a female body. Now, it is all right. Why? God is in the female body. Not in my beard, not in his dirty teeth. Why not? Whom are you fooling?
When the wife comes home, you worship the feet. When the moon shines, you worship the husband. How about the neighbour’s husband? This time try that on Karvachauth *(a festival in India in which the wife fasts for her husband)*. Why not? God is everywhere. You are not sleeping with me darling, you are just pleasing the lord. So after you have slept with the neighbour say that to the husband, ‘I was not sleeping with him, I was just pleasing the Lord, another avatar of the Lord.’
Be it Ram or Krishna, its one and the same thing. Kabhi Ram banke kabhi Shyaam banke chale aana Prabhu Ji chale aana! So tonight it was Shyaam, what is the problem? Tomorrow it can be Balram. You should not expect anything else. Ours is a land of eighty-four lakh Gods. I’m still only at three! We need to worship everything, this and that. You have specific Goddesses whose portfolio is to bless you with sons. This is the householder’s version of Truth and God. This is what happens when a householder tries to lay his hands upon the Truth.
If there is one place where you cannot find Truth, it is within the four walls of the house.
If there is one hell in the world, it is the house.
No other place can be called as hell.
All the evil and suffering of the world arises from within the four walls of the house.
To be a householder means that you are strictly tied within the four walls of the house. In order to protect these walls, you will attack the Truth in whatever ways possible. Now it doesn’t matter whatever is being said, you will turn it around according to your own personal convenience. This is how a householder’s mind functions. Nobody wants to call himself weak or small. Everyone takes the support of logical arguments against the Truth. That is why it is harmful if the householder lays his dirty hands upon the Truth.
Now, the Truth is sure to be misused.
