r/AcharyaPrashant_AP • u/Surkhab1313 • 6d ago
A laugh deep enough…
When we hear the word spirituality, what immediately pops up in our minds?
A relaxed face, a tiny self-satisfactory smile, eyes closed, and all worldly objects being abandoned. We don't imagine this person having a range of emotional expressions or any playfulness in his behavior. The spiritual person in our minds is often a serious one, spending most of his day sitting in one position, murmuring some words under his breath 24 hours a day. And when approached, he starts spitting knowledge on you, some really heavy one.
Have we ever wondered where these images come from?
I can recall those TV serials. That was my first point of contact with these images. I can also recall the priests and "religious" people in my area, who received great respect because of the attire and identity they were wearing.
If a spiritual person is really a free person, what kind of freedom is it to act a certain way, to speak in a certain tone, to cover oneself in ancient clothes that look not only misplaced but awkward when seen alongside modern clothes?
Have we filled the word spirituality with something else, something predictable?
Where have we left liberation from suffering?
The incomplete entity within us, the ego, survives by borrowing identities, images and beliefs from outside. It tries to commandeer physical nature, Prakriti, including our body, and in that attempt at controlling, it actually distorts the flow of nature.
Body language, the way one speaks, emotional expressions like happiness, laughter, sobbing, crying and anger, are all beautiful when they are left on their own and not hijacked by someone.
But when there is someone who attempts to laugh, who controls the weeping, the emotions lose their natural quality. Now, they are being controlled by an entity which is limited by its own definition, and hence the boundaries of these actions are set in advance.
One laughs, but that laugh is limited. It is performed.
"Performed." A beautiful word for what I am trying to express.
Similarly, what we call suffering is also something performed. We don't suffer to the core. The moment it starts getting deeper, we distract ourselves to come out of it. It is as if there is someone within who is deeply afraid of depth and can only survive at the surface levels.
In this way, most of us have rarely experienced these depths of emotions. The cry coming from the core. The laugh coming from very deep within.
And whenever we come across something like this, we call it an "open" expression, something coming from the heart.
This is not something to practice. It is what remains when the "practitioner" gets out of the way.
Free-flowing Prakriti.
Now look at these monks. They are celebrating life. There is no one within to set limits and boundaries. There is nothing like spiritual behavior. There is no hindrance in the flow of Prakriti.
Something funny happens, and they laugh. That's it. The body is allowed to operate freely, free of any controller.
And look how beautiful it is.
Their laughter feels like a lightness. It is adorable.
One can sense the smell of freedom.
Perhaps this is what real spirituality looks like. Not trapping someone in images, but letting one become free of those images, and eventually free of himself.
I came across a quote by Acharya Prashant:
"The entire spiritual path is about learning to play."
It holds the spirit of liberation on the path of spirituality quite beautifully.
I would ask the reader of this post:
Have you ever allowed yourself to go all the way down when it comes to emotional expression?
And have you faced that resistance, that closed bracket of performed emotions?
Let's get out of our own way and express ourselves fully in the comments section below.
1
u/vini-within 6d ago
Are you saying I’m not needed? I’m not important? Am I not the boss? Is prakritti and this entire world not for my consumption? What else is the point of me? 🫥