How to deal with mental and sexual abuse of the past?

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

Question (Q): How to deal with childhood mental and sexual abuse, which makes a deep impact on one’s mind? Do these things happen due to past life karma?

Acharya Prashant (AP): If I tell you that they indeed happen due to accumulated actions from the past, past life, what would you do? What would you do with that knowledge?

I am walking in a shopping mall, and a piece of merchandise captivates me — the color, the luster, the texture. The total appeal has just captivated me. And I walk up to the salesman and ask, “Where is the factory? From where does it come?” Does it liberate me of that piece of hardware? Does it?

Next, I ask, “What exact shade of blue is this?” and he tells me that this exact shade of blue is this. He comes up with a fancy name for the color. Does that liberate me of the attraction?

What liberates me of the trap I have walked into?

I just keep walking.

When something in the shopping mall just fascinates you, almost overpowers you, how do you walk out of that trap? Just keep walking. Just keep walking. The good thing about continuing to walk is that — your walk may take you out of the mall. You walked your way, out of the mall.

Don’t stop there.

This attracts, that attracts, this attracts, that attracts, you keep walking. But given the way we are, we won’t be able to walk past something attractive, unless we have something more attractive to egg us on.

Are you getting it?

So, for the commoner, for the beginner, it is important to have a purpose, it is important to have a high, lofty purpose. If you are rushing towards the pharmacy, it is unlikely that you will be tempted and stopped by a toy shop.

You need a purpose.

Purposelessness is for those, who need no personal purposes.

Their purposes now come from the Absolute.

Their purposes now come from somewhere else.

So they get the authority to now declare that they are personally purposeless now.