Enlightenment is not an experience

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

Questioner (Q): Acharya Ji, I have lived with people who have had an enlightenment experience, and instead of becoming less grasping, selfish, and egotistical, they have become more so, how is this possible?

Acharya Prashant (AP): This will always happen till the time you will consider enlightenment as an experience. Now let me ask this, “What does an experience require?” An experiencer. You cannot have an experience without being somebody and what can you always be? What can you ever be? Some rubbish. So, all experiences flow from?

Q: The one who is experiencing.

AP: And who is it? Who is experiencing it?

Q: A particular identity.

AP: A particular identity. So, how can an identity experience enlightenment? An identity will only experience what…

Enlightenment firstly is not an experience.

Q: It is not coming from the past.

AP: It cannot come from the past and that is why this question is a very revealing question. It very clearly says that those who have had this experience only become more and more egoistic and selfish and all that. Because now your ego has a wonderful tool. What does the ego say?