What, in life, is the problem?

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

Questioner (Q): I think you were saying that we have to get rid of all the problems. So, yesterday we were also talking about the bodily tendencies which are there by default and we still have to go ahead towards the destination which is Mukti. So, if I am combining it, what I feel is that: one is solving the problem, the other one is the identification of a problem- whether something is really a problem or not. Things that are by default there in your body might not sometimes be a problem unless you see them with a magnifying glass, new things show up and you get stuck there. So, this is confusing me a bit on what Mukti is? When we say our final goal in life is Mukti, what is to be solved and what need not be seen as a problem?

Acharya Prashant (AP): What is a problem first of all? The essential flow of the Prākṛtik (natural) world is not a problem. When we say a problem, a problem is always for a consciousness that sees the problem, right? In the Prākṛtik world, there is essentially no problem. There is life, there is death, but there is no real problem in the psychological sense. Go to the jungle and you will not find any problem there, provided man is not there, man is there then there will be problems. Go to the depths of the Amazon, untouched by man, there is no problem. Go to a river there is no problem; go to the mountain, there is no problem.

The problem is when the ‘I’ gets entangled with the happenings in the Prākṛtik world. That is when there are a lot of complications; then we don’t let Prakṛti function as it would. We start energizing some parts of Prakṛti. In our bid to solve, we start complicating matters. And it is not something that we do consciously, we are born entangled. When the child is born he is already entangled with Prakṛti, that is the problem. Because you are born problemed so you have an urge to solve the problem.

But, because you are a part of the problem now, so your efforts to solve the problem only complicate the problem. Therefore, what is Mukti or liberation? Stop identifying with the problem; stop energizing the whole situation, and step away from it. See that the problem does not exist by itself. The problem exists only with reference to the consciousness that experiences…