Place of ego- either at the Master's feet or in the Master's embrace || Acharya Prashant (2014)

Questioner (Q): What should I do if something is clear, but the leg doesn't step up?

Acharya Prashant(AP): We had talked about the limitation of clarity. Clarity alone is not sufficient. You can be very clear that you are diseased, but unless you are also sure that you can be disease-free, that clarity will only give you pain.

You see, if I am told that I am suffering from a disease and that disease has no treatment, then what is the point in earning this knowledge? Till date, I do not know that I have a particular disease. I might be suffering, right? I have no clarity. I go to a doctor, he tells me, “You are carrying this disease.” And he does not tell me that there is a treatment possible. Then what will this information do to me? It will make me only depressed. Will it help me? Will this information help me?

Diagnosis without prognosis is of no help. If one just keeps telling you, “You are an idiot,” and you might also realize it, “That yes, I am an idiot.” If one just keeps telling you that you are caught in falseness, and it might be true that you are caught in falseness; and all this telling does not empower you to get rid of the falseness, then that telling is of no use. That so-called clarity is of no use. One needs that inner firmness that, “All right, I might be sick right now, but sickness is not my destiny. Sickness is not my nature. I can shake away the sickness. I can regain that health which is anyway always available to me.”

That firm faith has to be there, “That I might be in dumps, but being in dumps is not what I am here for. I can be reborn. There is so much dust over me, it’s all right. One shower, one shower is all that I require.” Otherwise, what will happen? You will know that there is dust all over your body, all over your mind, and you will still not move. And that’s such a troubling situation, that’s such a frustrating situation.