Acharya Prashant addresses a question about the meaning of spirituality and its relationship with religious dogma and culture. He begins by stating that the question is vast, an epic in itself, which would require a full lecture series to answer completely. However, for the purpose of the discussion, he defines spirituality as an inquiry into the one who looks at the world. Since we take the world to be real because we can perceive it, the essential entity is the one who looks. Spirituality is an inquiry into this experiencer: who is the one who looks, wants, feels happy or sad, and is asking this very question. In essence, spirituality is self-inquiry. He clarifies that religious dogma is nowhere close to spirituality and they are not even distantly related. The function of wisdom is to see the right thing as very distinct from the fake thing. Spirituality involves asking fundamental questions like, "Who am I? What am I here for? Am I my gender? Am I all the experiences I am gathering?" He recommends Adi Shankaracharya's "Nirvana Shatkam" as a concise guide to these essentials. He explains that when Shankaracharya says, "I am Shiva," he is negating everything he is not—the body, thoughts, opinions, gender, and senses. "Shiva" here signifies an absence of all nonsense, a joyful emptiness, not the deity from popular culture. Responding to a follow-up question, Acharya Prashant explains that in self-inquiry, whatever one realizes must be kept aside. The process is one of negation; whatever you say you are, that you are not. Even one's final realization cannot be the Truth, as the Truth lies in total silence and emptiness. The journey is endless, and one must keep moving ("Charaiveti, Charaiveti"). The unlimited possibility is called Atma, Brahman, or Satya. The final peak is invisible and cannot be conceptualized; its existence is verified by our own discontentment. The journey is about constantly transcending each stage, never settling, as there is always a higher peak to climb.
