Acharya Prashant responds to a questioner who, despite feeling devotion, doubts if his spiritual inclination is an illusion. Acharya Prashant advises that whenever one doubts if something is an illusion, it is better to assume that it is an illusion. He states that whatever is being doubted should be investigated. If the doubt is baseless, there is no harm in investigating; in fact, your conviction in that thing will become stronger. And if the thing you doubt is indeed flawed, then by investigating it, your life will be saved. Therefore, investigating is a profitable deal in both scenarios, and one should keep doing it. The speaker further explains that the more delicate the matter, the more fatal belief is, and the less need there is for it. Truth is not a matter of belief or faith. There is a strange notion among people that truth is a matter of faith, belief, or conviction, but it is not. Facts exist, and they do not require faith; they need to be tested and verified. There is no fact that cannot be or should not be tested. In spirituality, there is no place for belief. The very meaning of spirituality is to re-examine and investigate all the things one has come to believe, no matter how old or deep-rooted that belief is. Truth is that which first creates doubt and then gives you the power to investigate that doubt. Truth itself brings doubt, and truth itself brings the resolution of doubt. So, all there is, is either doubt or the resolution of doubt. Those who call themselves spiritual should have a very close relationship with doubt. Their entire spiritual practice should be this: a doubt arises, it is caught and investigated. Either the doubt is established as a fact, or the doubt is dispelled. This process does not lead to finding some ultimate truth; rather, by doing this, you get rid of falsehoods. Spirituality is not the name for attaining truth; it is the name for removing falsehood, for cutting away what is useless and illusory.
