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Stay Cautious with Such Energies || Acharya Prashant
12.5K views
2 years ago
Enlightenment
Superstition
Energy
Mind
Knowledge
Consciousness
Bala and Atibala
Material World
Description

Acharya Prashant responds to a question about two cosmic energies, 'Bala' and 'Atibala', which were supposedly received by Shri Ram and Lakshman from sage Vishwamitra. He begins by questioning the questioner's knowledge of these concepts, asking, "How do you know any of that?" He uses an analogy, stating that if he were to ask someone to achieve "ABC square D," they couldn't do it without knowing what A, B, C, or D are. He explains that dealing with such imaginations and believing in something without knowing it is the very definition of superstition. Acharya Prashant then clarifies the meaning of enlightenment. He describes it as a simple, not a fancy or magical, concept. Enlightenment, he states, simply means "to know." It is the process of throwing light on the areas of darkness in the mind. It is not a divine event where flowers rain from the sky or other strange, impossible, meta-natural things happen. He dismisses such notions as nice entertainment but nothing more. He further explains that the concept of the soul is just an ornamental way of referring to the mind. He equates the soul with the mind, consciousness, and ego, stating that when one says their soul is suffering, it is actually the mind that suffers, as nothing apart from the mind ever suffers. Addressing the idea of cosmic energies, Acharya Prashant asserts that from a scientific perspective, there is only one energy, measured in joules, which is defined as that which can cause a change in matter. He states that the word "energy" used in a spiritual sense is mere superstition and sheer nonsense. Energy is physical, whereas consciousness is not. He cautions against mixing the terminologies of the objective, material world with the subjective, inner world. He concludes that while there are various forms of energy like solar or tidal, there is no such thing as "mental energy" that can move objects. If one insists on the term, it is simply the energy derived from the food one eats, which fuels the electronic processes in the brain. The word "energy" has no meaning in a spiritual sense.