In the name of spirituality, entertainment sells, titillation sells, pleasure sells.

Following is an excerpt from a samvaad (diaogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

Question: Do you believe in [Censored]?

Acharya Prashant: What is [Censored]? I have not read any such thing. Do not quote this and that author here. We are talking real stuff, not entertainment. If you know this particular author that you are talking of, for sure you will not know Dattatreya.

L1: Who?

AP: That’s what. The result of knowing such pop authors, is that you do not know the real ones. You will be able to go to the real one, only if you get rid of the popular ones.

L1: Finally, if they are all saying the same thing. Ramayana says the same thing, Mahabharata says the same thing, [Censored] says the same thing. They are all saying the same thing. They all mean the same thing. There is nothing different. I mean, nothing different in anyone. The question was asked because there is a confusion in my mind…

AP: If they say the same thing, why are you confused? Could they say the same thing, that same thing would have cut through all the confusion? You can have billions who are saying the same thing, does that matter? Does that matter?

L1: Since ages…

AP: Since ages there are idiots who are saying the same thing. How does that matter?

Truth is not a democracy, where you will have a hand count, “How many of you believe in this?” And if a lot of people believe in this then it is the Truth!

L2: What is the source of the Upanishads and the Vedas?

AP: Symbolically, it is said that they are not man-made.

Ramayana and Mahabharata are classified as Itihaas — history, not as Aadhyatm. Don’t you know the difference between Itihaas and Aadhyatm? Why are you quoting Itihaas here? This is no place to quote Itihaas or Smriti. All that is good entertainment, one can keep reading. Some angel came and gave birth to some king’s son; and some fish became pregnant. You are living your life based on such tales? Trying to impregnate the fish?

And somebody had a life of one thousand years. And somebody stood in front of…