Being comfortable with oneself

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

Acharya Prashant (AP): You must learn aloneness. Before you relate with people, you must be very, very comfortable with yourself. If you are someone who can not be with herself comfortably, easily, gladly, then kindly spare the other person. If you are not alright with yourself, then don’t start piggybacking on the other. And usually it is that way. You go to the other precisely because you are not okay with yourself.

At the same time, we must remember that we will have to relate with each other. We are not going to live insulated, isolated; we are going to be related. But the relationship has to be healthy. You should not become a burden on the other. You should not become a carrier of pathology to the other.

Read. Learn to travel alone. Watch movies alone. Play. There is so much that can be done only in your aloneness. And that would keep you, make you very, very strong from the inside, very fulfilled, very complete in yourself. Then you would not be approaching the other as a beggar. Then, even if you approach the other, then even if you relate to the other, it would be a relationship of health, a relationship in which you have something to give, a relationship of joy, not a relationship of dependence and desperation.

Watch the full video here.

You are welcome to learn more about Acharya Prashant and his literature. You can also contact the Foundation directly.