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ऐसी है बिना अध्यात्म की गृहस्थी || आचार्य प्रशांत (2020)
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5 years ago
Spirituality
Household Life (Grihasthi)
Detachment
Self-Inquiry
Spiritual Joy
Deception
Ignorance
Responsibility
Description

A questioner asks how to attain liberation from household life, clarifying that he wants to experience a sense of detachment while fulfilling his duties because of the unique joy it brings. Acharya Prashant probes, asking why this joy is not constant. The questioner admits he doesn't know. Acharya Prashant points out that the questioner is mistakenly blaming household life for the lack of continuous spiritual joy. The real issue is not household life, but the inability to remain in that state of bliss. He explains that the art of doing any work properly is spirituality, and this includes running a household. A household without spirituality is hell, characterized by fights, abuse, court cases, ruined children, and mental illness. He describes it as a place where everyone is at each other's throats, and if you remove the court cases related to household disputes, the courts' burden would be reduced by three-fourths. Such is the state of our households because they are without spirituality. Acharya Prashant clarifies that spirituality is not against household life but against foolishness. He defines spirituality as the inquiry into the self, life, the mind, deception, and truth. It is about knowing what the 'I' is, what fear is, what thought is, and what consciousness is. He asserts that spirituality is not about rituals, customs, traditions, pilgrimages, or worship. It is a genuine curiosity about life. The central question of spirituality is, "What is this thing we call a being? What is this 'I' that gets scared?" He explains that without spirituality, a household becomes a palace of deception built on a foundation of sand, where everyone is deceiving themselves and each other. The man who does not understand himself will not understand his wife, and the relationship will be one of ignorance, leading to great suffering. He concludes that spirituality is essential for a household to function smoothly. The question should not be how to manage spirituality alongside household life, but rather, how one can manage a household without spirituality. Spirituality is what joins the broken, and the fear that spirituality will break the home is misplaced. The home is already broken, and it is spirituality that can mend it. He uses the analogy of a car, stating that asking if a good car can run on the road is absurd; a car is meant for the road. Similarly, spirituality is meant for life, including household life. It is the light that allows you to see your path clearly, whether you are a householder or a renunciate. Spirituality is for everyone, wherever they are, to reach their highest potential and live a life of light.