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Relationship, Loneliness and Money || Acharya Prashant, at Arth : A Culture Fest (2022)
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3 years ago
Vedanta
Aloneness
Attachment
Love
Fulfillment
Wealth
Upanishads
Adi Shankara
Description

Acharya Prashant explains that the Vedantic approach to relationships is to seek company that brings you to aloneness. He posits that humans are born unfulfilled and lonely, constantly seeking something, much like a newborn child. Therefore, we always seek company, but the crucial aspect is the quality of that company. Vedanta advises knowing one's fundamental reality as an unfulfilled ego or self. Since we are unfulfilled, it is in our best interest to seek company that would fulfill us in the real sense. He distinguishes between company that merely pleases for a while and that which leads to something more timeless. The right company is one that ultimately enables you to be alone, which means being in company from a point of strength, not dependence, allowing for joyful sharing. When asked about the difference between attachment and love, Acharya Prashant clarifies that attachment is using the other person to remain who you are, serving the purposes of your current, flawed self. This only pleases but does no real good. Love, conversely, is being attracted to something or someone that will dissolve the parts of you that cause suffering; it is an attraction to the end of suffering. Attachment is the opposite of freedom, as one neither wants freedom for oneself nor allows the other to be free, making it poisonous and anti-life. Love, on the other hand, is beautiful, sublime, and pro-life. Regarding the Vedantic view of wealth, he emphasizes the principle of first looking at the one within. If one feels poor inside, true wealth is not what can be accumulated externally, but that which ends the inner feeling of poverty. One can hoard riches and still feel poor, constantly wanting more. True wealth is what enables you to no longer feel poor. He strongly advocates for introducing Vedantic principles in education from a young age, asserting that Vedanta is a universal heritage and the solution to mankind's problems. He suggests studying the sages of the Upanishads, Ashtavakra, Gautam Buddha, Adi Shankara, and in modern times, Ramana Maharshi and Swami Vivekananda.