Are earthly pleasures a hindrance to spiritual growth? || Acharya Prashant (2019)

Questioner (Q): On one hand, I want to spiritually grow towards enlightenment, but at the same time, some side of me wants to have earthly freedom, experiences, like traveling. Even though I know that those things won’t bring me True Joy.

Are earthly pleasures a hindrance to spiritual growth?

Acharya Prashant (AP): Isa (the questioner), there is no dissonance between Spiritual Joy and earthly living. The one who is not spiritually developed may travel to all corners of the Earth but would still remain joyless. So what is the point in traveling?

There is the wandering monk; look at his Joy. There is the Fakir (Monk) who travels from place to place, village to village, sometimes from country to country. Traditionally, in India, Sadhus (Monk) would forbid themselves from staying too long at any one place. They would just keep traveling.

Buddha and Mahavir, the great ascetics, they traveled all their life. Even Guru Nanak made voyages, long-distance travels – to the east, to the south, to the west. That’s one kind of traveling – in which you are already full of Joy, and you are traveling to disseminate that Joy. You are traveling so that even others may have that Joy.

And then, there is the traveling tourist; the average traveler. What does travel give him? Some consolation, some very feeble support to enable him to carry on his otherwise wretched life. Once a year, twice a year, he saves money to travel, and not much comes out of that travel because he is not internally complete.