Questioner: Acharya Ji, please explain about honesty and simplicity.
Acharya Prashant: When do things become complex? When there is fear between you and the obvious. Neither can you deny the obvious, nor can you overcome your fear. Then one goes round and round.
It is very difficult to break away from the Truth, and habituated as we are to ourselves, it is probably equally difficult, if not more difficult, to overrule ourselves, and leap directly towards the Truth.
So ours is a funny situation. Can’t go away, can’t directly come close. And at the same time, we want to tell ourselves, that we are busy and occupied, and doing something constructive. So we start with the merry-go-round, maintaining a safe distance from the center. As if that safety is any less discomfiting than a total separation from the center that invites us.
This is complexity, and this is dishonesty – the in-between-ness. The safe, middle path. The position, the movement, the locus that convinces us that we are not totally dishonest.
You see, without love for honesty, there can be nothing called ‘dishonesty’. Obviously, we love that which is real, that which will not deceive us, that which we eagerly want. But in spite of our love, in spite of our deep, and true desire, we still deny ourselves, we defy ourselves.
We defy the command of our own hearts.
So, simply put, dishonesty is to not to see what you are seeing, to not to get what you want, not to be what you are, not to live by what you know. If you don’t know, you cannot be dishonest. If you don’t love, you cannot be disloyal.
It’s absolutely fantastic, that we know, we want, we love. And it’s equally tragic, that in spite of, knowing, wanting, loving, we somehow still choose to remain deprived. Complex!
A kid would ask, "But why would you not just take it if you want it so much? That is what I do all the time. If I want it, I pick it up." Somehow, adults have more complicated explanations for everything.
They will say, “Well kid! You are not yet seasoned enough. With age and experience, you will realize that you cannot always get what you want. There are other priorities.” But the kid will say, “Isn’t what I want, always my topmost priority? And must not one always go for his highest priority?”
You will say, “Well Kid, these are complex matters. Life is not all about loving. Life is not all about knowing and realizing. One has to keep allowance for various other things as well.”
The kid will say, “No! If I want it, I will go straight at it."
