How to identify a fake person? || Acharya Prashant (2018)

Question: Acharya Ji, I neither understand fakeness nor the depth hidden in words. If someone says, “Nice to meet you, let’s meet again sometime,” I start thinking that the person actually wants to meet me. Someone says, “You will get this contract,” I believe in him.

Such fake assurances are given by so many people to so many people, but I take assurances for real, and then I am never prepared for the bad days.

How to understand ‘fakeness’?

Acharya Prashant Ji: Abhay (the questioner) , you have said that you do not understand the fakeness and depth, you cannot tell them apart. You are saying that you do not know the false against the Truth.

Understanding is not possible in a climate of expectation, or laziness, or greed, or fear.

Somebody tells you that you will get the contract, and you are very inclined to believe him. Why? Because there is a pleasure in believing that good news are coming. That’s the entire principle of hope. That’s why this entire world runs on hope. That’s why the world is duped by hope.

People tell you that the contract is coming your way. Why don’t you ask, “Why do they never tell me that the contract is never coming your way?”? Because looking at you, they know what you want to hear, they know that you want to hear that the contract is coming your way.

You are carrying that desire, and desire is greed. They know your desire, therefore they are able to fool you.

Understanding is one’s nature. If understanding appears to be absent, it is because a lot more is needlessly present.

Krishna tells Arjun, “The Truth is covered just as fire is covered with smoke.” And what is it that covers the Truth? Kama (desire). You have quoted as an example – “Nice to meet you. Let’s meet again in sometime.” Why does that fellow not tell you straightaway in your face, “I hate you and I would never want to meet you again”?

Please enquire into that.

It is because that fellow very well knows what you want to hear. You want to hear that you are likable, you want to hear that the relationship is not being snapped. You want to hear that the meeting has proceeded well. So he gives you want you want. He fulfills your desires.

And as Krishna says, “The Truth remains shrouded beneath desire.”

If you have ever been fooled, remember that it is not others who fooled you. It is your own desire that has fooled you.

And we wear our desires on our sleeves. They are there for the entire world to see. And therefore the world uses our own desires to make a fool of us.

Man is Intelligence personified, alright. Man is potentially Intelligence personified. How is it possible that the man is ever turned into an idiot? How is it possible that the world ever manages to pull a fast one, and rob you, deceive you? It is because man is only ‘potentially’ Intelligence personified, and there is a world of difference between man’s potential and man’s actuality.

Potentially, man is nothing but Intelligence. Actually, man is nothing but idiocy.

Look at the presence of desire in your day-to-day life, in your hour-to-hour life. I am not asking you to just condemn desire, I am just asking you to look at desire.

Look at desire impartially. See what does desire want, s*ee where does desire come from, and then it will not be possible or at least easily possible for the world to exploit you using your own desire.***

Questioner: Acharya Ji, if I desire for the contract, then why don’t I validate what they say about the contract? Why do I just believe them without a check?

Acharya Prashant Ji: Because if you check, it may turn out that you are not getting the contract at all. Why check, why enquire, if the enquiry can give you bad news? Why enquire if the enquiry can show you that which you do not want to see?

Look at this.

The more desirous you are, the more averse you are to the incompletion of desire. The more crazily you want something, the more averse you are to the possibility of you not getting that thing.

So you want something, and you want it strongly – the other one sees that. The other one sees that because you want the desire so strongly, the desire, the strength of desire is apparent in your being, in your conduct, in your eyes. So it is easy for him to realise that you need to be lured. And he lures you.

And you do not even want to enquire the possibility that that which you want, might not be coming your way. So you remain in a fool’s paradise till the last moment. And at the last moment, what you get is a shock. You continue to believe in your fancies till facts hit you hard.

If facts hit you hard, then please realise that you are someone who is attached to something, you are someone who wants something quite feverishly. Otherwise, the shocks won’t come.

There is another possibility.

You didn’t want the contract crazily, but the other one just because of the force of habits just say, “You are getting the contract,” and you didn’t get the contract. But this time you will not get a shock.

The shock comes only if you have been holding something very dear to yourself.

So here you are believing that – you have it, you have it, you have it. And suddenly you realise that you don’t have it. Now that’s what is called a ‘shock’.

The presence of shock itself proves the severity of desire. Otherwise one takes things as they come.

“O! I didn’t get the contract. Fine.”

“The fellow told me, even promised me that the contract is mine. That didn’t happen however. But it’s fine.”

One doesn’t feel cheated. One doesn’t complain.

“The weatherman said that it is going to rain today. It didn’t rain. It’s okay.”

But if you are someone who has set high hopes on rain, then you will complain against the weather office. You will say, “These people are willfully spreading rumours.”

Look at desire.

That’s all.

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