Let’s Stop Faking Enlightenment

Somewhere along the way, enlightenment was turned into a gated community.

It became something rare, unreachable, and reserved for a specific kind of person, the disciplined one, the obedient one, the one who follows the right rituals, bows to the right guru, wears the right clothes, says the right things, and never steps out of line.

According to this version of reality, enlightenment must arrive through a strict framework.

One path. One authority. One approved way of living.

And the moment someone lives differently, chooses their own relationships, their own rhythm, their own values, their own truth, they are immediately disqualified.

Non-spiritual.

Unworthy.

Corrupt.

Ashleel.

Lost.

As if freedom itself were suspicious.

So the real question is not who is enlightened. The real question is: who gave you the right to decide what enlightenment looks like?

Because enlightenment, stripped of theatrics, is not about becoming rare or special.

It is about becoming free.

Free from the compulsive need to fit social expectations.

Free from the burden of playing the “good girl” or “good boy.”

Free from the exhausting performance of being acceptable, respectable, and morally impressive.

Enlightenment is liberation, not certification.

A person who lives their truth fully, without bending to social pressure, without reshaping themselves to be digestible, without asking for permission that person is already on the path. Whether you like them or not is irrelevant.

If someone is committed to their dharma: not comfort, not applause, not moral popularity, but truth and they do not budge even when judged, misunderstood, or attacked, they don’t need anyone’s approval.

They don’t need to be validated by spiritual systems. They don’t need to be endorsed by purity culture. They don’t need to be declared “worthy.”

They are already doing the work.

This is why the Mahabharata matters, not as mythology, but as insight.

Krishna himself, regarded as supreme consciousness, did not reduce spirituality to moral neatness. He acknowledged Duryodhana: flawed, controversial, and defiant for standing by his cause until the very end.

Not because Duryodhana was “good.” But because he was true to his nature and willing to face the consequences of it.

That alone, Krishna said, deserved honor.

So when people scream about morality, karma, purity, and “ashleelata,” what they’re really doing is clinging to definitions that make them feel safe.

The moment you define spirituality rigidly, it stops being spirituality. It becomes ideology.

Religion thrives on rigidity. It creates distance between human and God, seeker and truth. It gives you rules, rituals, and reverence but always places divinity somewhere outside you.

Spirituality does the opposite. In spirituality, you are not seeking God. You are seeking yourself. Which is why it terrifies people.

Because if you are God-conscious, then you must listen to your own inner environment. You must confront your own truth. You must live according to what is authentic for you, not what has been prescribed.

And if you don’t listen to your own voice, if you simply repeat what some master said, quote scriptures you’ve never embodied, and use borrowed wisdom as a measuring stick for others, you are not enlightened.

You are just a parrot.

Crowing about truths you’ve never touched. Judging inner worlds you cannot see. Mistaking memorization for realization.

That is not spirituality.That is intellectual cosplay.

So if you’ve been labeled a misfit because you don’t conform, because your life doesn’t match approved templates, because you refuse to lie about who you are, understand this:

You are not less spiritual. You are closer.

Spirituality for misfits exists precisely because misfits refuse to fake it.

And truth, unlike performance, does not need permission.