The questioner, a world-record-holding swimmer, asks Acharya Prashant about the difference between spirituality and meditation, noting that her spiritual journey began through meditation during her swimming preparations. She observes that many people practice meditation for worldly benefits like focus, whereas her approach has always been spiritual. She questions if meditation can be separated from spirituality for behavioral changes and how to navigate the spiritual path, especially with the prevalence of misleading gurus and the emergence of a "spiritual ego." Acharya Prashant explains that a human's natural tendency is to explore the external world; our senses and mind are designed to look outwards. We are not naturally inclined to ask questions about the self, such as "Who am I?" or "Where do thoughts come from?" Spirituality, he states, is the act of asking these unnatural questions—it is the investigation of the 'I'. The purpose of spirituality is the peace of this 'I'. He clarifies that the human being is constituted in such a way that our natural tendency is to examine the world, and our entire system, including senses and mind, is naturally oriented towards this external exploration. The questions that are not naturally asked, those concerning the self, are the domain of spirituality. Spirituality is the inquiry into the 'I', and its ultimate aim is the peace of the 'I'. He distinguishes between concentration and meditation (Dhyan). The mind's natural tendency is to concentrate on an object. When the object of concentration is peace itself—formless, silent, and attributeless—that is true meditation. In this state, the mind becomes the meditator (dhyata). However, he warns against the commercialization of meditation, where counterfeit practices offer temporary, small-scale peace. This small peace can become an obstacle to seeking the ultimate, real peace, much like a cheap counterfeit product prevents one from buying the genuine, valuable item. These fake meditation techniques, often sold as apps or devices, become a crutch and can lead to a spiritual ego, where one competes based on meditation metrics. Acharya Prashant likens meditation methods to a crutch or a tire for a beginner, useful initially to provide a taste of peace and inspire the seeker to go further. The purpose of these methods is to be eventually discarded. He also addresses the concept of the "flow state," identifying two types: a natural, animalistic flow (like anger or excitement), which is wrong, and a conscious, right flow towards the correct destination, which is true meditation. The right goal is peace, and the process of reaching it is meditation. This involves a moment-to-moment watchfulness where the right goal is peace, and for that peace, one must be willing to focus on any tangible object that leads towards it. The right goal is formless, and to reach it, one must relate to a tangible object. This moment-to-moment attention is meditation. The process of spirituality is to observe one's life, decisions, and relationships and to question them. When the wrong is seen as wrong, an inner energy arises to move away from it, and this departure from the wrong is what is called the right. The right thing is not an alternative option; it is the absence of the wrong. Ultimately, the journey is self-centric, not guru-centric. The test of a true path and a true guide is whether one's own suffering is diminishing. This requires honesty about what one truly wants; if the desire is for something petty, one will find a petty guru and a petty method.
