Acharya Prashant: Most people are not liberated by suffering, instead they are pushed into deeper suffering by suffering. One wrong relationship does not kindle wisdom in a person to stay cautious of any more wrong relationships. Instead, what we see happening is that one wrong relationship breeds a hundred more wrong relationships.
So, that's how the cycle of suffering continues its downward spiral. We suffer, and because we suffer, our ability to ward off suffering diminishes even more. It's like a sick person with compromised immunity. Because his immunity is compromised, he falls sick. Because he falls sick, his immunity gets further compromised. Because his immunity gets further compromised, he gets into deeper sickness. That's how most of us are.
Our life is nothing but a succession of sufferings—one deeper than the previous one, each one worse off than the previous one. So, life was meant to be a journey, a process in which you learned continuously, grew, gained maturity, and ultimately gained liberation. Instead, life becomes a process in which we are born in bondages and we keep moving from bondage to bondage and keep gathering even heavier chains with every passing year and month. Be very cautious of stuff that appears. Be very cautious of names that reverberate in your mind. Be very cautious of things that attract and things that repel.
All of that is happening not because of the things in themselves but because there is something within you that wants to have a sick relationship with things. There is nothing in the world so important that you fall in love with it. There's nothing in the world so abhorrent that you start hating it. At either end of the spectrum lies a strong desire to associate yourself with the world, whether through affection or disaffection. You have to go beyond the beyond; how can you get attached? You cannot be at peace unless you go beyond the beyond.
