What is it to be absent to the world, and present to the Truth?

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

Questioner: Acharya Ji, regarding being absent; as you were speaking, I can only imagine it as not being there in thoughts.

Acharya Prashant: What does it mean to be absent to objective company? It means to be related to objects not via the thread of desire or fear. I said, “When we look at someone we drool from the eyes”, right? What does it mean? We want something from that, which we look at. What does it mean, to be absent to ‘you’? To look at you, but desire not from you. And how can that happen? When I know the fact of living. When I fully well know that you cannot fulfill my desire, then I will look at you, but I will be absent to the desires from you.

It is a good question for everybody’s clarity. Being absent towards the objective world does not mean that you will look at a pothole and still fall in it. Or that you will walk straight into somebody’s nose and say, “My teacher taught me to be absent to your objective presence, I do not perceive or acknowledge you at all who are you, you do not exist. I am present only to the beloved.” He will say, “I will send you to the beloved.”

It means, look at the world, but want nothing from it. Why? Because your wants are being…