The difference between realization and escapism? || Acharya Prashant (2014)

Acharya Prashant: Escapism is – I am moving from city to village, from wife to mother, from job A to job B, from office to ashram, from object to object. Realization is from object to the core. In both, there is a movement involved, there is no doubt about it. And the movement sometimes is physical also. May or may not be physical, but it can be physical. So, there is a movement involved but if the movement is from one object to another object then you call it escapism. If behind the movement is something else, then it is not escapism. Is this clear? The difference between these two? Moving from tea to coffee is?

Listeners: Escapism.

AP: But,

Moving from desire to the source of desire, that is realization.

So, success to failure, escapism. Failure to success, escapism. One need not be at a particular position to move to the core. You can be anywhere on the circle if you want to move to the center. Would the journey be different? Wherever you are on a circle if you want to move to the center, would the journey be different? So, the winner or a loser, how does it matter? How does it matter whether you are a winner in the world or a loser in the world? Wherever you are, whatever you have done, you have done it in the world, right? And you are moving in another plane now. You are moving to the center.

So, these kinds of things that only the one who is the winner in the world can really be spiritual, can really be realized – they don’t carry much weight. That, only a truly successful man can enter spirituality, all this is rubbish. It doesn’t matter where you are on the circle, journey to the center is the same. It appears differently, because you will look at it in your own perspective. But it is essentially the same journey, wherever you are on the circle. The winner has to drop his wins and loser has to drop his losses. Will the winner carry his wins to the center? Can the loser carry his losses to the center? So, winner or loser, it doesn’t matter.

Drop all these concepts that only the one who has tasted the world fully, only he can be spiritual. No, not at all. You can be the biggest loser and yet you can be spiritual. There is no formula in this regard. Buddha is immensely wealthy as the son of the king and Kabir & Raidas are poor people, how does it matter? One is a man let’s say Farid, the other is a woman. How does it matter? It doesn’t matter at all where you are on the circle. We have had fifteen years olds and we have Eighty years olds. We have had fifteen year old people who have been said to be realized and we have Lao Tzu who was said to be eighty four when he was born. How does it matter? Wherever you are located in the world, you can always move to the center.

Kindly don’t make this an excuse that only when I will achieve success in the world, will I become eligible for spirituality All this is rubbish. Good dream, bad dream, how does it matter? Wake up. In one dream you are a winner, in another dream you are a loser, how does it matter? Wake up. Or is it easier to wake up when the dream is good. Is it so? What do you mean by all this, that… and many people have said this thing that when you have material prosperity, then spirituality is easier. All this is non-sense.

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