Acharya Prashant explains that living freely does not mean constantly reminding oneself of freedom or treating it as a belief system. True freedom is the absence of the conviction that one is bound. He warns that both the feeling of being small and bound, and the egoistic feeling of being great and free, are forms of the ego. One should not hold any fixed notions about oneself, whether as limited or limitless. He suggests that spirituality is not about finding a new truth, but about ceasing to accept falsehoods as truth. This realization should not lead to the rejection of life or relationships, but rather to a state of 'play' where one enjoys the world while knowing its transient nature. He emphasizes that life is neither about blind acceptance nor total rejection. Just as one drinks water knowing the glass will eventually be empty, or enjoys the full moon knowing it will wane, one should engage with the world fully without demanding permanence. He advises against the extremes of those who get deceived by treating the world as the ultimate truth and those who reject the world as a mere illusion. Instead, he encourages living naturally—laughing and crying fully, but without mistaking these experiences for the absolute truth. The essence of this living is to remain aware of the ephemeral nature of things, like a beautiful flower that will eventually wither, and to maintain a gentle, knowing smile through it all.
