Spirituality and mental health: Acharya Prashant, interviewed by Joshua Bloom (2019)

Interviewer (I): We're in Rishikesh, India and with me for today’s episode podcast is Acharya Prashant, who is a spiritual teacher and philosopher of Vedic tradition. It’s a pleasure to have you join us for the podcast.

Perhaps we could begin with, what inspired you to give up quite a successful career and embark on a path of a spiritual teacher?

Acharya Prashant (AP): Every person, every individual, does what he deems to be of importance. And I could begin to see with some clarity that though all the tasks that are commonly performed in the worldly economic domain have a certain importance, yet as we stand, as our condition and condition of the world is, there is something far more important that needs to be taken up as work. It was important, I submitted to it.

I: There is a common theme I find amongst eastern wisdom traditions. I just came from the Kumbha Mela and spent a little time with Gurus and Sadhus there, and even just this morning, I was at Satsang by Mooji. The common theme is regarding the mind and the Ego. That is almost like something that you should try to vanquish, like here some sort of enemy, almost even a devil. How do you feel about the Ego?

AP: You see, to treat the Ego as a devil or an enemy, is to become a self-hater. The Ego sits at the center of our thoughts, feelings, actions; even the involuntary or any physical functions or breathing actually have the Ego at their center. The aim of spirituality is not to annihilate or vanquish or kill the Ego, it is to provide that to the Ego for the sake of which the Ego actually exists. It is not without a purpose that the Ego exists. The Ego wants something, the Ego wants fulfillment.