Morality makes the mischief of the world your personal suffering

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

Question: At times morality is a prerequisite to real spiritual freedom, isn’t it?

Acharya Prashant (AP): Yes it is a prerequisite, just as disease is a prerequisite to health.

Listener (L): Disease is a prerequisite to health?

AP: It is. What is a prerequisite? A prerequisite is something that you would go and acquire. What your existent state is, cannot even be called a ‘prerequisite’ because you already have it, you already are it.

L: But to see it, is it not a cleansing process?

AP: The cleansing is the prerequisite. The cleansing is the prerequisite, the dirt is not. Understand the difference.

L: Following the moral path can be an intelligent decision, right?

AP: Are you talking about following it, or cleansing it?

L: Following the moral path, is obviously, self-cleansing.

AP: That means you do not really know what ‘morality’ is. Self-cleansing, what is ‘self-cleansing’? From where does it come? The ‘self’ itself is morality. How can morality then clean the ‘self’? The ‘self’ is the dirt that morality accumulates in…