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Before you fight the flies, go take a bath || Acharya Prashant, on Vedanta (2021)
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4 years ago
Falseness
Illusion
Clarity
Self-inquiry
Time
Negation
Spirituality
Simplicity
Description

Acharya Prashant explains that for a person living in illusions, the instruction to 'have clarity' practically means to 'shed your illusions.' Clarity is not a thing to be acquired; it is what remains when illusions are removed. Therefore, even when sages speak in an affirmative way, their words must be decoded in a negative sense, pointing towards what needs to be eliminated. The core practice is to relentlessly and ruthlessly see what is false and drop it immediately, without a moment's hesitation, much like spitting out poison that has been placed on the tongue. The inner tendency to die unfulfilled is what causes one to brood over this poison, a state the speaker calls 'death within.' When one begins to unburden themselves of the false, they discover that the falseness shackling them is almost endless. This realization prompts a deeper inquiry: instead of fighting a thousand false things one by one, one should look at the inner tendency that attracts the false. The speaker uses an analogy: if your arms are coated with syrup attracting flies, the solution is not to fight each fly but to wash the syrup off. This act of cleansing is the spiritual process. The external problems, or 'flies,' are not meaningless; they point to the inner 'syrup' that attracts them. One must use the presence of external issues to learn about oneself. Ultimately, the one who sincerely proceeds to get rid of falseness will end up getting rid of 'himself,' because it is to the self that all falseness is attached. The spiritual path is a race against time; either you survive or time survives. To live immortally, time must be vanquished. This is achieved not by asking 'What is the time?' but by sincerely inquiring, 'What is time?' The speaker advises against adopting a victim mentality by blaming external conditions or people for one's state. Addressing a question about physical targets, Acharya Prashant clarifies that they must be shadows of the real, internal target. A material thing, action, or person is valuable only if it serves as a gateway to something beyond the material. A good person is one who reminds you of something beyond themselves. If a person or thing only brings you to itself, it is not worth having. He concludes by advising a simple life, free from fascinating and captivating things that trap the mind.