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Total freedom from the past || Acharya Prashant, on Sri Ramakrishna (2017)
Shakti
2.3K views
3 years ago
Momentum of the past
Karma phala
Worldliness
Austerity
Mental baggage
Illusion
Spiritual discipline
Mind
Description

Acharya Prashant explains that the conflict faced by Arjun is not personal but represents the universal struggle of mankind, where both Shri Krishna and Arjun reside within the individual. Using the analogy of a leather jar that retains the smell of oil even after being emptied, he describes how worldliness and the momentum of the past persist even after one chooses a pious path. He compares this to physical weight gain, noting that while one may stop overeating today, the accumulated fat from years of past actions remains and must be burnt off over time. He warns that the mind is a continuous flow, like a river, and even if one stops adding waste today, the waste from the past continues to flow through. This delay in seeing results can be a trick of illusion that leads to disappointment and the temptation to abandon spiritual discipline. He emphasizes that since it took years to accumulate mental baggage, it will take significant time and austerity to dissolve it, and one must not expect instant miracles.