Questioner: What we get from outside especially in the childhood, is the love, affection, care of our parents, family. How can that contribute to our ego?
Acharya Prashant: There is a saying, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” People’s intentions are good, but they end up doing a lot of harm. People’s intentions are good but they end up doing a lot of harm because they are not aware. Even their love can only cause harm to the loved ones.
Intentions don’t matter, awareness matters.
I may have all the intentions of helping my son, my friend, somebody. But how can I help if my notion of help itself is misplaced.
In the name of help I will take away his freedom. In the name of help I will make him dependent. In the name of help I will give him beliefs, rigid beliefs. You see, there is a drunkard who wants to help. What will he end up doing? Someone who is not fully aware, even if he wants to help, what will he end up doing? He will only end up harming. Help will become harm. Intentions are alright, but what about consciousness? What about intelligence? If you are not acting intelligently enough, your intentions don’t matter. They do not matter at all.
All parents want to help their kids. And look what has become of this world. Look what has become of this world. Violent, competitive, greedy, ambitious, suffering, this is the world that we live in. In the name of ‘help’ what do parents do? They will give certain code of conduct, they give certain certain ethics.
