On Advait Vedanta: True love is another name for discretion

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

“Run from what’s comfortable. Forget safety. Live where you fear to live. Destroy your reputation. Be notorious. I have tried prudent planning long enough. From now on I’ll be mad.”

~ Rumi

Questioner (Q): Dear Acharya Ji, this poem from Rumi calls to me like never before. I feel I am just doing prudent planning at this point of my life. There is nothing in life that reflects anything of this poem, and yet it appeals to me so much. It feels like something from my wildest dreams, and the mind says, “I wish you could do what the poem says.” Can you please expose my conundrum in relation to this poem?

Acharya Prashant (AP): You are right! Rumi is saying run away, forget safety, destroy your reputation, be notorious. You are taking it step by step, carefully planning. Sometimes it is cowardice to stay where you are. And sometimes when the urge to take the plunge is very powerful, then, in an interesting way, it requires a lot of guts to withhold the urge to plunge.

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