Acharya Prashant addresses a question from an older individual who asks about the benefit of pursuing liberation in the final days of life, especially if one's entire life has been spent in falsehood, delusion, and attachment, and considering there is no rebirth. The questioner posits that if spirituality is not embraced in the beginning of life, there is no benefit in doing it at the end. Acharya Prashant counters this with an analogy. He asks, if you have been hungry since morning and haven't received any food, and now it's nighttime and time to sleep, would you refuse food if someone offered it, saying, "What's the use now? The night has come." He explains that you would eat precisely because you have been hungry for so long. The hunger is even more intense because you didn't get food in the past. This logic, he says, is what is being missed. The fact that you haven't had water for eight hours is the very reason you should drink it now. The past deprivation doesn't invalidate the present need; it intensifies it. Applying this to spirituality, he states that if you are troubled at this moment, you need a solution at this moment. The fact that you didn't get a solution in the past is irrelevant. It is a case of "better late than never." You are troubled now, which is why you are asking the question. If everything were resolved, you wouldn't need to ask. Therefore, you need spirituality right now. He agrees that it is best to get acquainted with spirituality in the early days of life, as it leads to a free and joyful life. He advises the young not to postpone it. However, for those who have already wasted their lives, he tells them they still have some time left, perhaps three months or even forty years. He asks if they want to spend that remaining time in delusion and darkness as well. Even terminally ill patients are given painkillers to manage their pain in their final days. Similarly, if you have even two months to live, you would want to treat your suffering during that time. Spirituality is a remedy for suffering, and it is useful whenever one receives it. For the young, it should be received in youth; for the old, in old age. The argument that it's too late because youth was spent without spirituality is a sophistry and an internal conspiracy against oneself.
