Acharya Prashant explains that people often limit themselves based on past experiences, creating a superstition about their own capabilities. He uses an analogy: if you have only ever lifted one kilogram, you might believe that is your maximum capacity. You wouldn't know you could lift fifteen kilograms unless you tried. This belief, that your capacity is only one kilogram, is a superstition about yourself. All external superstitions, like believing in charms and rituals, stem from this fundamental superstition about the self—a false belief about who you are. When an ordinary desire is not fulfilled, people tend to blame external factors, such as the object of desire, circumstances, or coincidences. This leads to bitterness, which is always directed outwards. The senses only look outward; what is to be attained is outside, and if it is not attained, the cause is also perceived to be outside. He compares this to a person driving a car who only looks outside—ahead or in the rearview mirror—but never at the car itself. Such a person would never know that their car has higher gears and can go much faster. If they were to stop and examine the car, they would be astonished by its potential, realizing it's not as limited as they thought. You would be amazed to find that you are neither as small nor as weak as you believed yourself to be. Courage is not a particular state of mind; fear is. Courage is the natural state that remains when the artificial state of fear is removed. The meaning of awakening courage is simply to see fear as unnecessary. Real courage is not a special mental state or excitement; excitement is often a product of fear. The courage that arises from fear is just the other side of the same coin. True courage is the absence of the state of fear, a natural and effortless state. This is what Kabir Saheb means by 'lifting the veil to see the beloved.' The veil is the fear and the false beliefs you hold about yourself. This veil is removed through experimentation and testing your assumptions. Without testing, you are forced to rely on beliefs, which is superstition. The spiritual quest begins with doubting what you believe yourself to be.
