Immortality is not a stretch in time; immortality is a depth in the moment

Question: Is it real that human beings can live forever?

Acharya Prashant: It depends on what you think of human beings. If you think that they are born, then they will die.

L1: I mean the human body.

AP: The body never dies!

L1: The body never dies?

AP: Never dies. What do you mean by the death of something? What do you think? This(pointing towards his hand) was ever not there? This is stardust. This was always there and will continue to be, long after you and me are gone.

L1: It disintegrates; it dies.

AP: It may disintegrate in our perspective. What you call as disintegration, is a flowering. What do you think that tree is? That tree is somebody’s disintegrated body! This is immortal. Well, you figure out what is it that dies then? Truth doesn’t die and the material too doesn’t die.

(Smilingly) What is it that dies then?

Immortality is not about living a thousand years, or a trillion years.

Immortality is about living a life time in this one moment.

If you could listen to what I have said, you are already immortal. You are an immortal, who may die the next moment.

Immortality is not a stretch in time.

Immortality is a depth in the moment.

You won’t live for more than, let’s say, three hundred years. I am giving you a leverage.

L2: Why?

AP: To make you feel happy! With the way technology is progressing, and you know, the world is looking more spiritual, you may live for three hundred years — it’s possible. Some new fancy yoga poses and all. So, who knows? But still you would die. You cannot be immortal.

To be immortal is to know that which is beyond the conditioned circuit of the body-mind.

If you can go so deeply into love, then you will not hesitate to claim that you are immortal. You won’t feel like claiming. Now, there is no need. But if someone comes, there are a lot of such nice people around, someone may come and ask you, “Do you know immortality?” You will just say, “Of course, yes!”.

If even one moment of love you have known, then you have known immortality.

It’s in that one moment, not in a stretch.

It’s that one intense spark. It is not a jungle fire.

Spirituality has nothing to do with extension of life, that you will live for another ten years. No spiritual man has any interest in prolonging his life. In fact, to the contrary, many of them have celebrated giving up the body. And have even been eager to give up the body.

L1: The question comes because I read a book by somebody by a connection to Paramhansa Yogananda, master Baba Ji who is immortal and supposedly, is still alive. I just wondered about this.

AP: Even the dogs know better than that. I need not speak on all this. People talk of all this stuff, just to attract audiences. You are sitting in front of me, I am not going to console you or entertain you with such fancies. I am going to die very soon and you too are going to die very soon. We all live only for the blink of an eye. As long as the blink, is our life. Shooting stars, we all are. No Baba Ji is ever going to live here and there.

Was Baba Ji born?

If he was not born, then he will not die. But, was he born? If he was born, then how can he not die? Will he violate the laws of duality?

L1: I don’t know.

AP: It’s not the question of not knowing. You must firmly stand on these things and say, “Rubbish!”

And unless you say a firm ‘rubbish!’ to the false, you have not firmly opened your heart to the Truth.

You cannot be equivocal on this. You cannot say, “I am walking the middle path.” You have to totally, obstinately, reject the False.

L1: Yes, it seemed very farfetched to me. It didn’t strike me as being real, that’s why I asked.

AP: Why must you not believe in yourself? If it seems farfetched to you then it obviously cannot be Real. Why must you even give a benefit of doubt to somebody? You need not do that out of respect or out of consideration, or out of doubt. There is no need to even keep space for such rubbish. It is not spirituality; it is fiction;,it is rumor-mongering, it is fanciful script writing.

A Kabir dies, a Krishna dies; a Rama dies! Who are these Babas to keep living? In fact, if you tell Kabir, “You can continue living.”. He will say, “Why are you giving this punishment to me?” Who has interest in living on and on? And if someone is interested in living on and on, what kind of a wretched creature is he? Comes a time, when the body must be given up, beautifully and willingly. Why must you hold it tightly?

L1: Well, these are all my thoughts too. That’s why I asked you because it seems strange to me as well.

AP: Yes, it’s most strange! And you must totally reject the perpetrators of all such non-sense. Total rejection, means total. If someone has talked of these things in one book, he deserves to be rejected totally — all his books and everything else associated with him. It is criminal! It is criminal to have people believe in such nonsense.

Life is simple and ordinary.

Miracles do not happen this way that somebody continues to live for thousand years. No!

Miracles happen in the most subtle of ways.

You are walking and a dog comes from behind and licks your hand, if you are a little sensitive, you will know a miracle has happened.

A child opens its eyes and smiles in your face, if you’re a little sensitive, you will know a miracle has taken place.

Is it not a miracle to be sitting here? Do you need a bigger miracle?

L1: Yes, Thank you.

AP: Wake up in the morning, see through the fog, the sun has not yet risen and is it not a miracle that you can open your eyes? Was there any guarantee when you went to sleep that the eyes would again open? Was there a guarantee? Were you assured?

L3: No.

AP: Have you signed a contract with somebody that the heart would keep beating? You wake up and the sun is still there. Is the sun obliged to be still there? You don’t count that as a miracle at all!

“No! Sun is my personal servant. Every day he must come at the appointed time.”

One day he will not come. Then? Will you sue him? Send a summon? File in the international court of justice? Yes?

The blade of grass! How is it not a miracle? Soil has turned into grass, can there be a bigger miracle?

‘Soil’ has turned into ‘grass’, can there be a bigger miracle?

These eyes that are just material, they are seeing material: minerals, chemicals, electrons, atoms, molecules; just stuff like this, like this (pointing at objects around). And the eyes are seeing. This is seeing.

Is this not a miracle?

When you die, your eyes still remain the same but they don’t see. They are seeing now. And seeing cannot be the quality of a material, because upon death material still remains the same but does not see. Is this not a miracle that these eyes see?

Have you no gratitude for the one sitting behind the eyes?

(Smiling) They see! Do you know how beautiful they are when they see?

We don’t kiss eyes usually. We are such gossip mongers, we only kiss lips.

That tells something about our preferences. We like words more than seeing. You must learn to kiss eyes.

And nose, and ears.

“Kiss the nose?” Ergh!

(Laughs)

Not if you have a sore throat or cold, otherwise.

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

Watch session at: Acharya Prashant: Immortality is not a stretch in time; immortality is a depth in the moment

Further reading:

BOOK OF MYTHS:

This is the most challenging book one can ever come across. It will questions all the popular beliefs one harbours. Never imposing itself on the reader, at the same time the book facilities a thorough enquiry of popular knowledge which is blindly accepted as an obvious fact. It demolishes our so called holy concepts.

If you are someone who has read anything on self-help or on spirituality this book is a must for cleaning of spiritual information.

Paperback: https://goo.gl/VVD8Yg

Kindle: https://goo.gl/VsIucH

Originally published at prashantadvait.com on January 21, 2017.