Not What Should Be But What Is

This book is the first English-language translation of the collected core-teachings of the Indian sage Swami Prajnanpad (1891-1974). It captures the raw confrontive rhetoric of a brilliant philosopher, scholar and psychologist. But Prajnanpad, unknown to most of the West, was so much more. He is revealed in these pages as the hidden spiritual genius that he was. This Master was first recognized by Western seekers in the 1950s when a small contingent of French intellectuals journeyed to India to meet some of its great exemplars of wisdom. One of those seekers was the renowned TV and film producer Arnaud Desjardins. The teachings Desjardins received from his Master form a psalter of succinct life-altering prescriptions based in the most refined non-dual Vedantic tradition, yet wedded to the self-revelatory methodologies of contemporary psychology. Prajnanpad celebrated the need to express and fulfill human desires, to allow the body to feel deeply, and to recognize the immaturity of most adults in the modern world. He devised a spiritual-psychological system known as “Lyings” in which initiates would lie down and be guided to get in touch with long buried memories and stuffed emotions. Throughout the time of his apprenticeship, Desjardins kept copious notes of his teacher's recommendations (Les Formulaes). They included such pithy sentiments as the title suggests, along with many others of enigmatic and quotable worth, such as “Never believe a thought associated with an emotion.” Far from mere platitudes, however, Prajnanpad demanded that students take such teachings to a deep level, recognizing the radical action and consequences that such guidelines would demand of them. The commentaries on these pith instructions, in the words and expanded explanations of Desjardins, become a handbook of guidance for the aspirant on this path of self-knowledge. Seekers of any tradition will find here a way grounded in reality and applicable to life in the 21st century. Without such in-depth self-understanding, the author and commentator demonstrate, we will continue to remain trapped by the prisons of our own minds never reaching the full potential of our humanity.