IIT Delhi: The Destination and the Dance

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

Questioner (Q): What is Shiva? What is Shakti?

Acharya Prashant (AP): These are symbols. Shakti represents everything in motion, everything that can be experienced, everything that you can think of; Shakti represents the totality of that. If Shakti represents everything in motion, one feels like asking, “Why is everything in motion in the first place? Why is everything moving?”

Let’s begin with ourselves. Why does the mind move so much? Why does the individual never rest anywhere? Why are we always thinking? Why do we always want to reach somewhere? What is this quest for attainment, and achievement? What is the desire that fuels all our movements?

We move — it seems commonsensical — so that we may come to a point where there is no further need for movement. Is that not so? No one moves to remain moving; no one walks to remain walking; no one begins a journey with no end. So, if we are constantly in motion, both physically and mentally, that tells us something about who we are.

We are entities deeply in desire of something, and that is why we are constantly in motion. Otherwise, who wants to move? Otherwise, why would there be such unrest and disquiet within? You would never find any…