What is this thing called enlightenment that you are chasing? || Acharya Prashant (2016)
Acharya Prashant: She said that she feels worst today. She told that she came to India in 1989. Experience creates respect for her, the kind of commitment she has shown, the devotion she has put in all these years. And at the same time I found it quite tragic that someone should waste an entire lifetime chasing enlightenment. What you have to say about it?
Listener: I don’t feel it’s wise sincerely. Today I spent some time reading a poet named Rabia. I read about her life that she has been sold to sex trade and being forced to work as a sex worker for so many years and in that time yearning so much for union with God and upon fifty years old she finally got released from this and went on to become a very renowned saint who writes some of the most amazing poetry I have ever seen. I was reading some of the poems in which she speaks about her faith in God and describing reunion. I see her getting her reward.
AP: For the sake of solutions is it great to create problems? What is the problem of enlightenment? If you are chasing something it is surely a problem for you. What is this thing called enlightenment that you are chasing?
L: Union with God is another way that people look at it that there is a different thing possible.
AP: Do you chase enlightenment in your deep sleep? Is this union with God not just an idea? If union with God is an idea then separation from God is also just an idea. First of all you imagine a separation from an imaginary God and then you imagine that you need a lot of effort to reach this imaginary God and you spend years and decades of your lives in this pursuit.
