Questioner (Q): When I used to ask questions to my mother and father, we would have conversations, and our conversations often ended on a bad note. My brother and sister would say, “You better not talk to them like this, because if you are right, then they are wrong; and if they are wrong, all these years which they have lived through will be wrong.”
Acharya Prashant (AP): Yes, and they have invested a lot in those years, so it proves that all their investment has gone waste, which means all their life has gone waste.
Q: So, it makes it very tough for them to just listen.
AP: It is these very simple and obvious things you know. “I put in so much effort in the last thirty years, now will you just come and tell me that I was being stupid?” — It hurts. And just to avoid that hurt, you continue living in the same way.
Q: To make those kinds of people happy, and at the same time live by your own way…
AP: But, you know, when you look at others falling in this trap, do not think of it as something that happens to others; we are all one. If it is happening to them, it is quite likely happening to you and me as well. So, use – 'use' is a bad word here but I’ll still use it – use the others to see your own mind. Because our minds are fundamentally the same.
