Acharya Prashant: I know it's a fad currently, “the in thing” to say, be your own light, don’t depend on anyone, decide for yourself, whatever. It's a very ignorant thing to say with all due respect to the Buddha.
Such advice is meant only for very selected disciples. And even from the Buddha, it went only to a very few and privileged disciples, not to everybody.
The way we are born, the way we are configured, we won't get light just on our own. Illumination won't happen automatically. We require guidance. Now that comes with associated risks. The risk is that if you seek guidance at the wrong place, that's the worst thing that can happen to you.
But just because there is a danger of something bad happening to you, if you get false guidance, you cannot avoid or stop taking guidance altogether. That would be an equally disastrous thing.
So these are two extremes, two ends of duality, and unfortunately like in every other thing in the world, both these ends of duality are quite crowded. You have people at both these ends. The real thing is somewhere else and very few are found there.
Which two ends am I talking of? One end is- I am a follower, I am prepared to follow, I am prepared to follow. But I am following a quack, a charlatan, an unqualified fellow, an ineligible teacher. There is a huge crowd at that end. And there is an equally huge crowd at the opposite end.
