JeevanMukti - Your Highest Possibility || Acharya Prashant, with DU (2022)

Questioner (Q): I am seeing that the mind lives in a hierarchy. So, there are some social reformers and then there are some spiritual mystics. Is there any difference between them, if both of them are working from the right centre?

Acharya Prashant (AP): No, you cannot be a true social reformer without being spiritual at heart and if you are, indeed, spiritual, then your existence will definitely result in social reform. So, at their best places, these two are one.

However, these two are not necessarily one because you have social reformers of all hues and shades and you have spiritual masters of all kinds, so, at their best place, these two are one. The true spiritual teacher will also be a true social reformer, but if you are talking of run-of-the-mill kinds, then these two can be very distinct because you have had many social reformers who knew nothing of spirituality and that's the reason why the kind of reforms they wanted to bring only proved divisive and counterproductive and problematic, as history has shown.

Similarly, there have been mystics and all who had no intention toward social reform. Their works, too, have not only not brought illumination but have actually acted to create a lot of confusion. So, you can know the real social reformer by this, that at his core, he will be a sage and if he is not a sage at his core, then the social reform he is bringing is just some kind of partisan agenda or communal agenda or something.

Similarly, the great teachers who say that ‘We are concerned only with our own enlightenment and we give two hoots to the state of the society. We are not social reformers, we are spiritual teachers.’ Such people cannot be genuine. Spirituality sans compassion is not possible. Enlightenment as a personal event is a great delusion. When there is no personal bondage, when there is no personal rebirth, how can there be a personal liberation?