Questioner: You have said that individual liberation is not possible: that either we go together, or nobody can go. So, we have to help others to cross over. But I can’t help even the people close to me; they are caught up in routine work or indulge in entertainment; no time for inquiry or devotion is left for them. And there are others who say that they are not interested in spirituality. I feel helpless.
Now, there are billions of people on the Earth. Even if they all get miraculously liberated, in due course these monkeys and chimpanzees may evolve into human beings also, and it is going to be just a never-ending process until the final destruction. How can even a single individual get liberated if this is the situation? It seems we all are going to be stuck here forever. I know I am asking something childish, but this is how I am thinking. Please give clarity on this. Thank you.
Acharya Prashant: So, tonight’s query is that if all are to be liberated for the liberation of one single individual, then what about the chimpanzees? By the theory of evolution, it seems one day they too will evolve into human beings, and so work will remain pending; total liberation is still not there. What to do?
Liberation of everybody is not like vaccination of the entire population where you have to have a head count. As they used to say in the anti-polio campaign, “No child left,” now we are saying, “No chimpanzee left. All liberated!” There is no such equivalence.
Now, how do I explain?—because you have quoted me fully correctly. These words are actually mine, but the meaning you are drawing from them is not mine. I will credit you with quoting without a flaw, but this is not what I intended to say.
