Acharya Prashant addresses a question about the fear of losing loved ones, such as a child or a partner, even in an authentic relationship. He explains that in authenticity, you are just that one thing. Authentically, you cannot have womanness or motherhood as your primary identity. He clarifies that he does not mean a mother will be inauthentic, but if there is fear as a mother, it is important to understand where that fear comes from. He elaborates that identities like being a woman or a mother are time-bound and material. A woman was not always a mother; motherhood came to her as a worldly and material thing. Before that, she was not always a woman, and before that, not even a person. Whatever is in the stream of time is only a shadow of what you authentically are. Authentically, we are only that which time cannot take away from us. Therefore, even a relationship accorded the highest status, like a mother-child relationship, will remain susceptible to fear as long as the person involved identifies with these time-bound roles. The primary identity cannot be that of a person, a woman, or a mother. Acharya Prashant further explains that inauthenticity is synonymous with dependence, and where there is dependence, there is bound to be fear. When you are inauthentic, you are constantly looking towards the world, trying to relate with it in an unhealthy way to gain your own inner completion. This often involves exploiting the other, which can be disguised as love or responsibility. For example, one might say, "You complete me," or feel their life is worthless without a particular job or accomplishment. These are signs of inauthenticity, a feeling of incompleteness without something external. To be authentic is to be complete and secure in yourself. An authentic person's relationships will also be authentic, not based on gaining completion from the other. The quality of one's relationships must be scrutinized; if one is authentic, their relationships will be authentic, but if one is not, their relationships will be messy and a source of trouble.
