Ignorance, fear or Love? Three levels of relationships || Acharya Prashant, with youth (2013)

Listener: How is the family a burden?

Acharya Prashant: Now, this is the question. Good.

Shivam has raised a question which is a genuine question. He is asking, “What is the institution of family, what is this society, what is this patriotism?” Certain things have been discussed in the HIDP sessions and he can’t bring himself to an agreement. But agreement or disagreement, are not very valuable. Are they? It’s no point agreeing or disagreeing if I do not understand. Understanding is vital.

We will first try to understand what the institution of family is and what is this so called society. That understanding is vital. Once you have understood what it is, then whether you agree or disagree, all those are trivial matters. Actually, they are very small matters.

The real thing is that do I really understand, what is the meaning of these institutions? Be it the family or be it the society or be it the institution of marriage, it is about the relation of the individual to another individual. It is about the relationship between one man and another. Correct?

What is the basis of this relationship? And remember if you are talking about relationship, relationship includes everything. The relationship is our very state of mind. Relationship means, how am I relating to my parents? How am I relating to my neighbours? How am I relating to my books? How am I relating to the pet animals? How am I relating to the trees? How I am relating to everything because we are relating at every point in time. Life is a relationship. There is no moment when we are not relating to something.