Keep moving, even if it is dark || Acharya Prashant, on Saint Kabir (2018)

Acharya Prashant

8min

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Keep moving, even if it is dark || Acharya Prashant, on Saint Kabir (2018)

Questioner: I feel lost. I am falling behind in my worldly endeavors because I am trying to divert my energies towards spirituality, but the process doesn’t seem to be giving me anything but troubles and suffering. I feel like I should be above worrying about worldly things at this point, but I still see that I am afraid of confronting people and not being able to debate with them properly, of losing respect in their eyes, and of losing chances to a materialistically good life. I feel like I should try to save myself, but instead I am asking you for advice. Is my self-esteem really so low that I cannot stand up for myself?

Acharya Prashant: This is the classical case of “Duvidha main dono gaye, Maya mili na Rama (When in doubt both are lost—one has neither the world nor the Truth).” It is a phase of transition; it is an intermediate stage. Right now you belong neither here nor there. When somebody is in this kind of a situation, I advise him to keep moving forward with greater speed and greater determination. Don’t just stop there. And if someone repeatedly tells me that he can’t move forward, then I advise him to turn back.

There is the city of Māyā. It is a beautiful city, enchanting, appealing, bewitching, but it survives on your lifeblood. It gives you a few good moments, but at the cost of the essence of your life. It gives you pleasure at the cost of the essential. And then there is the city of the Beyond. That city, when looked at from the city of Māyā, is not very attractive. It is a calm, serene place, but it does not have too many flashy attractions. It is the city of bliss, and the city of Māyā is the city of bling, the city of blitz. Most of us care more for blitz than for bliss.

In between these two cities is a great jungle. The city of

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