Don't Follow Others, and Don't Follow Yourself || AP Neem Candies

Acharya Prashant: You have asked, “Is it the majority that decides what is universally good or bad?” Obviously not. The majority just consists of persons, and all those persons are conditioned in their own ways. The conditioning might be of different types, the conditioning might show up in different ways among different individuals; nevertheless, the common thing is that all are conditioned. It is like saying that all are diseased; it is just that the symptoms of the disease are different in different people, and those different people call themselves as different from each other depending on the symptoms they exhibit.

So, if the central disease—which is common to everyone, which pertains to the obfuscation of health—shows up in someone as a high temperature, then that person starts identifying with his high temperature and starts taking that high temperature as his central identity. Compared to him, in the next person that disease shows up as high blood pressure. Now, this person with high BP thinks of himself as someone who is centered around high blood pressure. And these two think of themselves as different from each other. This one says, “I am the one with high temperature”; the next one says, “I am the one with high blood pressure.” So, they are convinced that their lives, their opinions, their world views, their identities are divergent; they may even get into conflicts with each other. But the fact remains that these two are very much alike: they share a central, common disease.

So, that which you call as the majority is actually just a conditioned lot of people. It could be a majority, it could be a minority—how does it matter? Hundred drunkards versus ten drunkards—how does it matter? Just because something is a majority view it holds no credence. Just because something is a minority view, that doesn’t make it any special. Who is the one holding that view? Has the person taken care to cleanse his mind? Has the person paid the price for freedom? That is the question to be asked.