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घर और कर्तव्यों का पालन करते हुए मुक्ति कैसे पाएँ? || आचार्य प्रशांत (2020)
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4 years ago
Liberation
Responsibility
Relationship with the world
Awareness
Self-improvement
Renunciation
Love
Sickness
Description

Acharya Prashant addresses the question of whether one can attain liberation while fulfilling worldly duties or if renunciation is necessary. He explains that just as a human is a social animal, they are also a domestic animal. A home is inevitable; wherever one is, a home will be formed. Even in a temporary hotel room or a car, one arranges it to feel like a home. The real question is not about having a home but about the relationship one forms with it. He uses an analogy of being with a sick person. One has three options: become sick as well, befriend the sick person, or become their helper. If you don't acknowledge that those around you are sick, you will adopt their sickness. If you believe the sick person is happy and as they should be, you will befriend them and their illness. If you idealize the sick person, you will respect them and their sickness, even touching their feet. However, if you clearly accept that you are among sick people, you can become their helper. The key is to learn to form the right relationship with whatever is around you, which includes knowing the right amount of closeness and distance to maintain, and for what purpose. The speaker dismisses the two extreme choices of either staying in the world as it is or renouncing it completely, calling them crude and signs of a sleeping mind. These actions don't require special awareness and often happen automatically in a cycle of entanglement and rupture. He compares this to a pendulum swinging between two extremes, whereas a human has 360 degrees of options. Spirituality is not about leaving home and family but about understanding yourself. Do you know why you are where you are, why you are related to whom you are, and what you have become while living there? Spirituality is about these questions. He further explains that if you are not right within yourself, your impact on others will also be wrong. If you are not healthy or good, you cannot be a good mother or partner. Things in life happen not according to your wishes but according to your being. If you haven't improved yourself, you will only ruin others. Therefore, spirituality is for waking up and understanding. Before loving others, one must love oneself; before improving others, one must improve oneself. This self-centeredness is essential because if you are like a cactus, even your love will give thorns. The intention to do good is not enough; one's very being must be right.