Questioner (Q): Sir, how to attain maturity?
Acharya Prashant (AP): We will have to understand first what this thing called maturity is. To go into the question of maturity, we first have to understand immaturity because that is what surrounds us, day in and day out. The fact of the matter is, as we are right now, immaturity is closer to us than maturity. So we will see what immaturity is.
When you see a child, we say that the child is immature. What is the reason? How is the child immature?
The child is immature because his brain is not yet fully developed. The consequence of that is the clear display of immaturity; that the brain just acts like a sponge. What does a sponge do?
Q: It soaks.
AP: It keeps absorbing anything and everything that comes to it without any discretion of its own. That is the child’s immaturity. The child is dependent and helpless. He will have to accept, absorb whatever you give to it. His brain is not yet ready to become a seat, a proper seat of intelligence. Hence the display of immaturity, and immaturity is nothing but this dependence on everything external. You give him a religion; he is so helpless he takes it. He can not even question that "Why are you making me this or that?" You give him beliefs, he takes them. You tell the child that the neighbor is an evil person and he absolutely should be avoided, and the child will have to take it. He will start believing. He is helpless. He can not apply his discretion.
