Questioner: Pranam Acharya Ji! I somehow know that you are beyond what I, as a person, can know and experience. Not that I want to leave you or go somewhere else, however, why do I feel fear leaving Acharya Prashant as a person and his foundation? Why am I always dependent on something tangible or someone tangible who talks about the Truth? This dependence too does not seem right, and I feel I don’t have the courage to walk alone. I think I should give up all crutches and walk alone. Support is just dependence.
Acharya Prashant: If you were intending to discard all support, it would have been a greatly welcome happening, but are you intending to discard all support? Or are you so attached to support of one kind that you want to give up on the other support? Man is born with crutches; man is born dependent. Man is born, attached and obsessed, and fearful.
The role of the teacher is to bring you close to himself so that you can be torn away from all that which you are attached to. The role of the teacher is to firstly bring you close to himself, that is step one. Why does he bring you close to himself? Because you are obsessed with closeness, you are born dependent; you need someone to be dependent on. If you are not dependent on the Guru, then you would be dependent on the world. If you are not related to the Guru, then you would be related to the world, and you will have so many foolish relationships there.
So, step one has to be a step in which you get attracted to the teacher. Why? Not because the teacher derives any pleasure from attracting you but because you are someone who is a compulsive dualist. You cannot exist alone; it is compulsive upon you to seek support. Somebody else, the other, the dual. So, the teacher has no choice. He attracts you to himself. The next step is when you come quite close to the teacher. Having come close to the teacher, you start regaining yourself. Now, the need to be dependent reduces.
