What you call as your normal state is highly abnormal

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

Ramana Maharshi also said,

“That which you take to be as your normal state is on the contrary, an abnormal state. Do you have to search for a long time before finding this ‘I’ which is none other than yourself?

This is what I mean when we declare that no spiritual discipline (sadhana) is necessary in order to realize the Self.

All one asks of you is to abstain from doing anything whatever of a disciplinary nature. That you remain calm. And finally that you be That, which you really are.

You have only to free yourself from the hypnotic spell, in which your abnormal state holds you.”

~ Wei Wu Wei

Question: Acharya Ji, Pranaam! The Maharishi is apparently saying that attaining the normal state is easy. You too often say that it is easy. But it is also apparent that I am carrying thousands of years of old evolutionary baggage, apart from accumulations in this life.

If I have to face and examine all that is in that baggage, and again and again, how it is going to be easy? Is it said to be easy only in a relative sense? What am I missing here?

Acharya Prashant (AP): You aren’t missing anything here.

It’s easy, just pay the price.

Don’t pay the price, it is impossibly difficult.

Pay the price, it’s very easy.

And you are right, ease is relative. Relative to what? Not relative to others. It is relative to your own honesty, it is relative to your own burning desire to be free. If that desire is there, it is easy. If it is not there, it is not easy. Rather impossible.