Can any love story ever be ever new?
Smile an everlasting smile A smile can bring you near to me Don't ever let me find you gone Cause that would bring a tear to me This world has lost its glory Let's start a brand new story Now my love, right now There'll be no other time And I can show you how, my love
It's only words, and words are all I have Talk in everlasting words And dedicate them all to me And I will give you all my life
I'm here if you should call to me You think that I don't even mean A single word I say It's only words, and words are all I have To take your heart away You think that I don't even mean A single word I say It's only words, and words are all I have To take your heart away
WORDS Songwriters: Barry Gibb / Maurice Ernest Gibb / Robin Hugh Gibb
Questioner (Q): “It’s only words and words are all I have to take your heart away”
I know nothing more than words. I even don’t have the best of words like a Bulleh Shah, I am just a stubborn ego trying to know what love is? Please show us the meaning of love, please bless us with devotion, O Sadhguru.
Acharya Prashant (AP): The Guru, is helpless in love, Ashish. As long as ‘Ashish’ is a sthūl (gross) being, the body-mind system; all that would reach him is words. And the Guru is trying desperately, to have something beyond words reach Ashish. Whether or not the Real Thing, the Thing Beyond reaches Ashish depends not on the Guru but on Ashish. Are you getting it? Superficially, I am sending words to you; if you are superficial, all you will get is words. Deeply, I am sending silence to you; if you are deeply connected to me, you will relate to silence. It depends less on the Guru, Ashish, more on you. Throughout history, there have been so many, who have received much from the teachers but all that they have received are mere words. The one who receives real company of the Guru is rare. Most people are satisfied with words and they get only words.
You know Ashish you have said, “Please show us the meaning of love”. The meaning of love is two ways. Fundamentally, love is about reaching an Unreachable Place. When the ego tries to reach the Truth, that’s love. For the ego, the Truth is unreachable. And equally, when the Truth tries to reach the ego, it’s love because for the Truth to reach the ego is very very difficult. You would have never, wondered at that side of the story.
You see, we can look at things only from our own standpoint, our own perspective and our perspective is that the Truth is a tough nut to crack. Reaching the Truth is a honorous task. But, try seeing what happens when the Truth tries to reach out to you. All that your gross self can receive and acknowledge and recognize is words. And then the Truth cries “It’s only words and words are all I have to take your heart away”. Somebody is trying hard, extremely hard to communicate That through words which cannot be communicated through words. (Repeating a verse from the song) “It’s only words and words are all I have to take your heart away”, and there is such great helplessness in trying to speak to the ego. I tell you; I experience that helplessness every day. (Repeating next verse from the song)"You think that I don’t even mean a single word I say but it’s only words and words are all I have to take your heart away." It’s extremely difficult for me to convince you, it’s extremely difficult for me to tell you whether I mean what I say.
Do you see what is happening here, Ashish? Somebody is saying “Don’t ever let me find you gone, because that would bring a tear to me”. For three months you have been with Adi Shankaracharya, and at the material level, all that you have received from Him are words, right? It would be fair if you see Him talking here “It’s only words and words are all I have to take your heart away”.
A related question comes from Anushka and she is saying “The song says ‘Let’s start a brand-new story now, my love’, what’s this new story? Can any story ever be new?”
Why else does the teacher talk to you; so that your old stories can come to an end and something beautiful, something new, something lively, something fearless, something lovely may start. And the teacher is saying here, “Let’s start a brand-new story now, my love”. The freshness in the new story is the Guru, the newness in the new story is the Guru, the trueness in the new story is the Guru, the fearlessness in the new story is the Guru, the clarity in the new story is the Guru. So, the new story is with the Guru. Your old story was with a thousand entities, your new story is only with yourself, and that Real Self of yours is the Guru. So, your new story is with the Guru, but not if the Guru, to you, is an entity separate from yourself. If you turn the Guru into an entity separate from yourself, then there is no difference in beginning a story with the Guru, and beginning a story with your brother, or sister, or husband, or wife, or boyfriend, or girlfriend. Because when you begin a story, with another person, the two of you still remain two. And that’s the hallmark of all your old stories; they were all marked by twoness, separation. In the new story, there can be no twoness, hence, your new story cannot be with somebody outside of you. Your new story has to be with yourself, and your Real Self I am saying is another name for newness, freshness, clarity, eternity. Are you getting it?
Yes, you have been terminating several stories along the way; yes, one relationship comes to an end and another begins; yes, one memory ends and another begins; yes, you move from one place to the other; one person to the other; one job to the other; one house to the other. But all those are fake endings; the journey has been the same. In the course of your journey, one step ends and the other begins; has anything really ended? The journey is the same, the traveler is the same, the motivation is the same, the confusion is the same, the fatigue is the same. A brand-new story is not about changing something on the outside; a brand-new story is about your total transformation, rather dissolution; only then it can be a new story. If you remain, then your new story will just be a continuation of your old story. So, it is apparently innocuous but actually quite threatening. When the One from the Beyond invites you to start a brand-new story, He is actually inviting you to a new life and you cannot have a new life without death.
“The world has lost its glory, let’s start a brand-new story now, my love”.
So, the world losing its glory, its importance, its charm is a pre-requisite before a new story can begin. As long as the world appears charming, alluring; why would you terminate the existing stories? Spirituality is only for the super observant, the super-intelligent, the ones who do not want to get duped any further, the ones who say that, “We don’t want to participate in a game in which we are condemned to continuously lose.” The mediocre mind just cannot turn spiritual. Ātma is another name for intelligence, Ātma and Bodh go together. Prajñānam Bráhm.
You have to, first of all, realize and suffer and feel offended, feel humiliated that you have been a slave to the world; that you have been continuously cheated, not even cheated; you have been robbed in broad daylight, not even robbed; you have been fool enough to invite robbery. And then you can say, “The world has lost its glory.” If the glitters still amaze you, then the doors of Truth are not yet open to you.
