Self-help doesn't help. Its approach is, “I am sad as my desires are not fulfilled, so the way to help myself is to fulfill desires.” They never realize their lives are driven by biological, social, and cultural forces outside of themselves. Spirituality offers the only real solution: “Before helping the self, one must know what the self really is."
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It is a fallacy to think that self-help and real spirituality can be equated with each other. However, for a layman, they can appear very similar. This is largely because the core of spirituality has been diluted and circulated among the masses, and all kinds of self-help methods and concepts have been derived out of these teachings. Even in modern psychology, you can find concepts that have been originally spiritual utilised in a contemporary mental health setting.
While on the surface self-help and spirituality seem to have a lot in common, their fundamentals are mirror images of each other. Both approaches admit that there is a self, and that the self is in need of help. The difference lies in the way ‘self’ and ‘help’ are defined.
Acharya Prashant elucidates the problems around self-help and gives practical solutions on the subject.
The Problem of Self-Help
