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Why are we conditioned? || Acharya Prashant (2016)
Acharya Prashant
1.5K views
6 years ago
Restlessness
Incompleteness
Grace
Birth
Social Conditioning
Completion
Expectations
Brahmalinta
Description

Acharya Prashant explains that birth is essentially the birth of restlessness and incompleteness. Even a newborn, before any social conditioning, exhibits this restlessness by crying and reaching out for nutrition and attention. This innate sense of incompleteness initially seeks fulfillment through the mother's body, which is necessary for physical survival. However, as one grows, this search for completion shifts toward social objects like toys, money, prestige, and knowledge. He warns that if we continue to seek completion in external objects, persons, or ideas, we remain in a state of perpetual dissatisfaction, much like a child. Regarding the concept of grace, Acharya Prashant clarifies that people often fail to recognize it because they have preconceived notions and conditions about how it should appear. He illustrates this with a story of a woman who rejects her lover because he returns as a grown man rather than the boy in her memories. He emphasizes that grace is not sporadic or intermittent but is ever-present and can even manifest in harsh forms, such as the sound of a whip. By dropping imaginary expectations of special signs or supernatural events, one can discover that grace is the very foundation of our existence and understanding.