In response to a question about having the faith and strength to let go of fragmented identities, Acharya Prashant explains that one must allow something big to take possession of them. The only way to work rightly is by allowing oneself to become a servant to the right master. He acknowledges this sounds counterintuitive, as people want freedom, but states that freedom is only possible by having the right master. Being a slave to a master begets freedom because the mind cannot exist independently; it is a born follower that always requires something to follow. All desires are attempts at following something. The speaker elaborates that one cannot simply tell the mind to become a non-follower. To gain liberation or freedom, one must follow the right thing. This is achieved by first stopping the following of wrong things, which makes space for the right. Just as one cannot come to a spiritual camp without suspending usual activities, the true and the false cannot coexist. One must allow something colossal to overpower, steamroll, and bulldoze them, thereby losing control of their life. Our current lives are like very orderly jails, and the truth brings a holy chaos that destroys this false order. Let the truth put you in total disorder and disarray, because our current order is the order of the false. The truth is tremendous, like a tremor or a seismic movement. When truth comes to you, it flattens everything in your inner village. This is not bad news, because the foundations were weak and the walls were hollow. If you want to continue with your usual, organized life, you cannot drop fear and falseness. The Upanishads cannot be a part of your everyday activities or coexist with a small, normal life. To improve, one must test their mettle by bringing challenges into their life, which will expose their flaws and falseness. He uses the analogy of the 'Just-In-Time' manufacturing philosophy, which says inventory hides mistakes. By not carrying any inventory or buffer, the process is forced to be flawless. Similarly, in life, one must have no backups or security cushions. A trouble-free life is a truth-free life.
