If you can’t dance with a stranger, then you can’t dance

6 min readDec 10, 2020

The following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

Question: Last night you said before the Anhad session, that the sound is not coming from the dholak, but is coming from somewhere else. But during Anhad, even this thing was interrupting that, you know, that the sound, it is coming from somewhere else. This thought was interrupting at that moment.

Acharya Prashant (AP): So, it was interesting, or was it not? “I am dancing, and the sound is coming from somewhere beyond. And so right now there is a connection with the beyond. What is beyond? From where is it coming? So tempting!”

It’s a poor dholak, lying somewhere.

(laughter)

See, that’s what it is like to go into the facts. This is what it means. Go into the fact of this thing — Anhad. “If it is coming from the dholak, then it is coming just from the dholak. How can I surrender to the dholak?” So, it is decided that I cannot surrender. “If it is not coming from the dholak, then I must go, run, rush, figure out, find out, from where it is coming. At least guess, be interested in.”

Listener (L): Then I will surrender.

AP: Then, “When am running, finding out, feeling interested, then it is not the moment to surrender. I will surrender a little later. Right now am finding out from where the voice is coming.”

So, you say, that Truth is in the facts. The facts will open it up for you. Then you are doomed because facts are petty like dholak. How can one surrender to the dholak? How can one find Truth in facts? So, “No, no, no. This option is closed. Facts are such petty things and I am aiming for God. When I am aiming at God, then what is the point in paying attention to the spoon, to the dholak?”

When the instruction is that the voice is coming from somewhere, then the instruction means — ‘Your thinking is pointless. So, if you can understand, if you can obey me, then don’t think from where the voice is coming.’ You disobeyed. One likes to peep into restricted areas, does one not? The petulant child, the horny teenager, peeping in washrooms, bedrooms from keyholes. Once it is said, “Do not,” it becomes all the more tempting.