There is only one good quality, and that need not be copied

Question: Sir, we copy others because we do not have anything of our own. But, is it wrong to copy the good qualities of others?

Acharya Prashant: Bhaskar,

When a person ‘X’ decides to copy someone’s good qualities, two questions arise:1. Who is deciding to copy?2. Who is deciding which are good qualities, and which are bad qualities?X is deciding to copy. This means X does not have it within himself, otherwise he would not have needed to copy. Had X been living from his own understanding, would he have tried to copy? The mind of X is the mind of a copier.X is dependent, confused, and does not have an inner control point from where his understanding can come. Such a weak person – X- how will he know which qualities are good, and which are bad?Surely, even this concept of good and bad, would have been copied by him from somewhere.Do you see that copying itself is a problem, be it copying quality A or quality B? Whatever you copy, you are just a copier, a fake.Live authentically. That is the only good quality. And that need not be copied. 🙂Then the question arises: is there any role that another person has in the process of my self-awareness and development?

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