That which you are desperately seeking is made distant by your seeking

“If the beloved is everywhere, the lover is a veil. But when living itself becomes the friend, lovers disappear”

~Rumi

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

Acharya Prashant: It is popular, conventional, and sweet to talk of the Truth, the God as the beloved and the mind, or the ego as the lover. That has been the norm in various traditions. That is how a lot of poets have expressed themselves. And the mind delights in thinking that way.

Here we are being challenged to look again and look sharply at the lover. When you say that you are the lover, or the seeker, or the aspirant, what is it that you are saying? I repeat, the lover is the one who wants it. The seeker is the one who is seeking liberation. When you say that you are the lover, or the seeker, or the aspirant, what is it that you are saying?

We like to say that, don’t we? We like to say that we are fond of the Truth, we like to say that we want the Truth. We like to say how is it possible to reach or achieve God or Truth. And that sounds nice, that sounds nice as an intention. It sounds nice. Because morality says that we are trying to do something good, we are trying to reach God; it ought to be nice. But in having that as nice, something important is being missed. What is that?

If you are trying to reach a goal, what is it that is surely established?

That you are not yet there.

In trying to reach somewhere, you have not only said that you are trying, you have also said that you are not yet there. That is the premise one is beginning with, “I am not yet there, that is why I am seeking, that is why I am attempting, that is why the effort.” And when you start from a point of not being there, then that is what you are. That is what you are, “I am the one who is not there.”

I like to say that

In matters of the Essential, the first is the last, the beginning is the end.

If you start from that position, if you start by saying that you are not yet there and you want to reach there…