Let personality be an expression of your essence || Acharya Prashant, with youth (2013)
Question : What is personality?
Speaker : Personality is an expression of your individuality.
What core is to gloss, individuality is to personality. What core is to gloss, what center is to circumference, is individuality to personality. Personality is and must be just a natural, clear, honest expression of what you really-really are, your individuality.
Are you getting it?
So, personality grooming, if it really can mean anything, it can only mean a direct connect between what you are, and what you appear. Personality is what you appear. What you appear should not be different from what you are. This is personality grooming, to bring you yourself closer to yourself. Personality development is essentially self-development. Personality development is about reducing your artificiality and bringing you closer to yourself. Please understand this.
Personality development is not about making you more artificial, it is about reducing your artificiality so that you become authentic, real, true. So that you have deep trust in whatever you are. So that you are never afraid.
An artificial man is always afraid that the mask can fall down anytime, that somebody can see beyond the mask. The real man is never afraid.
How many of you want to be afraid?
(Silence)
How many of you want to live fearlessly? Raise your hands.
(Many listeners raise their hands)
Now do you understand what personality development is? Real personality development is fearlessness. “I do not need a mask. I am not afraid. I do not need a mask. I am good as I am. Let nobody tell me that I need to be artificial. I will not allow the society to influence me. I will not let allow movie stars to influence me. I will not allow the current trends to influence me. Religion, family, philosophy- I will not allow all of them to influence me.”
“My individuality, my own intelligence is what I am, and I will keep close to it. I will have no hesitation in the full expression of my individuality, my intelligence. I will let it be expressed. I will not be afraid. I will not have inferiority complex. I will not be dependent on others for their opinions, for their approval.” This is personality development.
Please get this completely out your mind that personality development is about having another mask. Many of you think that way. Personality grooming does not mean wearing a nice mask. Personality grooming is not smartness. It is about simplicity. You grow when you become simple, not when you become more and more complex.
Self-development is simplicity.
Are you getting it?
So never, never demand to be artificial, that happens sometimes. We want to be artificial. Please do not do that. You have a life to live. All of you are young people. It becomes very boring, very heavy, if you live an artificial life. How many of you feel good if you have to wear a mask all the time? And the mask is changing, and you keep thinking which mask to wear. How many of you are comfortable with this kind of arrangement?
(Silence, no reply)
Nobody wants to wear a mask. So find out that in you which is beyond the mask.
Excerpted from a ‘Shabd-Yog’ session. Edited for clarity.
