You are the salt of the earth

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

“Ye are the salt of the Earth; but if the salt have lost his savour,

Wherewith shall it be salted?

It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out,

And to be trodden under foot of men.”

-Mathew 5:13

Acharya Prashant (AP): What does earth represent? And what does the salt of the earth represent? Earth represents the material. Salt of the earth represents the essence of the material.

When you look at the earth, what do you find? Stone, soil, dirt, dust, sand. Do you really find salt somewhere? Have you ever been able to go and just pick up salt? No. salt lies embedded, deep within. So salt here stands for something that is a little inside. That lies at the heart. Inside! That which is the essential.

Earth represents the body, salt of the earth represents the Atman, the Self, the core, the heart.

It is being said you are not the earth. Really, you are the salt of the earth. You are not the body. Really, you are the pure Self.

And then he is…