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Even when you are lost, you are already Home || Acharya Prashant on Khalil Gibran (2015)
Scriptures and Saints
582 views
2 years ago
Truth
Enlightenment
Ego
Suffering
Longing
Liberation
Duality
Maya
Description

Acharya Prashant discusses the nature of human existence, challenging the common mental model that life is a journey toward a distant 'home' or state of enlightenment. He argues that the concept of 'coming home' is often a tool used by the ego to legitimize its own existence by creating a false separation between the individual and the truth. According to him, truth is not a destination to be reached through effort or penance; rather, it is the very space in which all human drama occurs. One can never truly be outside of the truth, and therefore, one is already 'home' even in moments of restlessness or ignorance. The desire for future enlightenment is often a way to postpone the reality of being liberated in the present, as true realization would collapse the false structures and priorities of worldly life. He further explains that while man is inherently restless and characterized by longing, this longing should be understood as a role within a larger drama. Using the metaphor of an actor, he suggests that one must play their human role—including its suffering and limitations—without forgetting that it is merely a performance. He dismisses the idea of 'mind control' or reaching a state where suffering ceases, asserting that suffering and joy exist in parallel. True peace or silence is not a mental image or a state to be achieved and displayed; it is found when one completely forgets the concepts of peace and silence. He concludes that significance lies not in attaining something new, but in recognizing that there is nothing left to achieve because the essential self is already complete and located within the truth.