Be cautious of what attracts you

The following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

Acharya Prashant (AP): The Upanishad is saying, “Be very, very cautious of the one you take as your god. Be very, very cautious of the one you feel pulled towards. Be extremely cautious of the one you are attracted and attached to. You will become that. You have no option.”

When you feel attracted to a little kid, how do you behave? If you want to be with a kid, if the kid has become very lovely and very attractive to you, have you not found yourself behaving like a kid? You will become the one you are attracted to. If somehow it happens and be very attentive when you are trying to understand this, otherwise you will miss the point. If somehow it happens that you are greatly attracted towards an elephant, in a psychic way slowly you will become an elephant.

The Indian scriptures talk of the jiva, ‘the human being’ as analogous to the Bhringi Keet. It’s a mythical insect, Bhringi. It is said that the Bhringi insect assumes the name, shape and form of the object it feels attracted to, the object it keeps looking at. So, if Bhringi is looking very attentively at a blade of grass, Bhringi would more or less turn into a blade of grass. There are obviously in the factual world exists no such as insect but get the message right. You are no different from that…