There Are No Imperfections, There Are Only Illusions
Questioner: I lose temper, I act immature at times, I do every possible sin. Am I the right fit to develop?
Acharya Prashant: Who else? I have heart, liver, and kidney problems. Am I the right one to enter the hospital? Who else? Right now, emergency ward. Of course! Of course! Life is not a prerogative of a selected few. Do not harbor the notion that some elite group is especially entitled to know life, to be a Buddha. Potentially, all of us are that, and, there is really nothing, but that. Let no inferiority of any kind come to you.
Essentially, centrally, at the most fundamental level there is no difference between you and the universe and the source of the universe. Then, how can you even ask that I am fit? Not only are you fit, you are the supreme. Are you getting it?
There is no doubt in that regard. And, even if at this moment, your mind appears clouded, even that is a game of the supreme. Even in ignorance, you are no less than the supreme. You don’t have to achieve that. You still are that. With all your ignorance, with all your anger, with all your immaturity, you still are that. Are you getting it?
You have all the right to live fully. Who told you that somebody special has the pass to enter that elite club? Just because we keep listening to big names, and because they appear respectable, so, it sometimes appears that it is beyond us. Who are we? Tiny, little, limited beings. You are exactly that, you are a saint right now. And, I am saying, “You are not only a saint; you are that which the saints have worshiped. You are the Prophet right now, and you are not only the Prophet, you are that which the Prophet has worshiped.” No less than that, not even an iota less than that.
And let that stay with you, “I am that, with all my inconsistencies, with all my rubbish, with all the dirt that I am carrying, I am still that.” See, from his creativity, imperfection is not born. His is not a factory that produces defective models. We are all, alright in our respective ways. Whatever your ways, whichever way you are, get fully into it. Let this thought of changing something simply disappear from your mind. And, if you talking about your students, exactly the same thing applies.
Be it us or our students, the issue is not that, we are not That. The issue is that we keep thinking that there is something wrong, that there is some imperfection that I will take care of. He produced the defected model and I will add something to it. And, I am saying no imperfection comes out of his creativity.
Questioner: So, I am not even this.
Acharya Prashant: You don’t need anything, neither do your students. And send only this message, “You are alright as you are.” There is no imperfection, there is only illusion. And there is a great difference between imperfection and illusion. There is only illusion. And the illusion is of imperfection, that there is something wrong in my life, I need to achieve something. I need money, I need a degree, I need fame, I need this or that, I need freedom, I need love. That is the only illusion, that I am imperfect. There is something missing from life. And there is nothing missing, you are That. And in That, there is nothing missing. There is no need to achieve something.
Achievement is the central disease, there is something to be achieved. So, develop whether as a verb indicating yourself or your students is actually not very appropriate. There is no question of development. There can only be a realization, that I am already developed. There can only be a realization and that realization; believe me, changes everything. Do not think that after that realization things will remain the same. In a very fundamental way, things will change.
Questioner: What do you mean by this, that in a fundamental way things will change?
Acharya Prashant: Our very engine is our thought of imperfection, that engine will change. Every single breath we take, every single step that we take in life comes from a thought that I need to achieve something, that will change. So, the very basic engine changes, all our directions will change.
Questioner: Then, there is this society that keeps reminding that you are imperfect.
Acharya Prashant: It reminds you because you are amenable to being reminded, you are vulnerable and, society is exploiting that susceptibility. Even your notion of the society will change, the society can influence you today because you are you. Let me put it a little better. The society can exploit you today because you are what you think you are. The day, your realization of yourself gains clarity, the society is no longer the same. Today, the society is a monster for you and when you talk of the society, you talk in such helpless voice.
And, after realization, you look at the society and laugh and you will say, “I am a giant, I am bigger than the biggest, what can a thing like society do to me?” The whole voice will change, the helplessness in the eyes will disappear, that society is large and I am small. No! That’s what I was. You change and you know this is, this is nothing. How can I were be influenced by this? Not that you put up a great resistance, you just know that it is not possible that I be influenced.
Questioner: It can also lead to heavens.
Acharya Prashant: That is always there, and we must always guard against that possibility. That’s why even in the deepest love this question must be there, “What is all this: only two things,” either this question or utter silence. There is only one state which is better than who am I, “Silence.” If the mind is still chirping, saying something or the other, then, let it say, “Who am I?” Only when it is not saying anything then it’s ok, even who am I is not needed.
