Fight hard and forget the difference between victory and defeat || Acharya Prashant, with XLRI(2021)

Acharya Prashant

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Transcript

00:00 Greetings Sir, Annam here. Thank you for joining us today, Sir. So, my question to you is that

00:07 in a lot of your talks and even now, you redirect our focus towards ourselves as living beings.

00:14 And as living beings, all of us seek contentment and happiness. So, my question to you is,

00:20 how does one be content without being complacent? How does one achieve that? Contentment without

00:26 complacency, without becoming complacent? See, complacency can be there only when you

00:34 have just not bothered to inquire into the facts of your life. Otherwise, it is impossible

00:46 to be smug and ultra-confident about your state. None of us, factually, are in a great

00:56 state internally. It's an unfortunate fact, but a fact is a fact. So, there is sickness

01:04 and there is incompleteness and there is dissatisfaction and there is psychosis and we are anxious

01:11 and we are afraid and when the placement season comes, then we are jittery and when the next

01:20 fellow gets a higher pay package, then we are jealous and we know all these things are

01:26 there and knowing all these things, if we still certify ourselves to be internally healthy,

01:37 then there is something very wrong with our compass of honesty. Either that or we are

01:49 so afraid that we just do not even want to inquire within. Am I okay? Why did I just

01:58 start trembling, I mean standing in front of that interview room, let's say it's a

02:03 day zero company and I suddenly find myself weak in the knees and shaking in my trousers,

02:14 why is that happening? And it's a very real happening, it's actually physical, you can't

02:20 even say that it was inside so I didn't see, it is there in the body, you cannot deny its

02:27 presence but having seen all that, if we still want to insist that we are happy and this

02:37 and that, then there is a great problem. Now coming to contentment, contentment is just

02:50 the very last thing. At your stage in life, as a young person, you should have a lot of

03:01 dissatisfaction, lot of dissatisfaction because if you settle at the point you already are,

03:17 inwardly, outwardly, within, without, then you would be settling at a very sub-optimal

03:22 point, your potential is far higher. So, there is no point talking of contentment at this

03:30 stage because being what we are at this age and stage, we do not even know what contentment

03:38 is, so we are bound to misinterpret it. So, leave contentment for a later stage, at this

03:47 point rebel and rise, see what confines you and do not accept it, you getting it? Fight

04:00 it out and do not bother too much for the result. If you have given a good fight, then

04:15 the word contentment can probably kick in, in the sense, I did the utmost I could, beyond

04:24 this it was not possible for me to do anything, honestly I say that. There is nothing that

04:30 I held back, I gave the fight more than what I had, now you can probably be contended,

04:40 but contended not in the sense that the fight is over, contended in the sense that now you

04:44 are ready for the next and bigger fight. Final contentment is final deliverance, it is liberation

04:54 actually, so do not talk of that. When I talk to young people, it is much more advisable

05:04 that they look at things and they challenge them, they question them. Believe me and you

05:10 need not actually believe me, you see this thing with your own eyes, much in the world

05:15 today needs to be challenged and demolished. Do not be easily satisfied, just do not be

05:22 easily satisfied.

05:23 Thank you sir. Sir, there is a follow up question which I already had and you touched upon that

05:30 topic about the outcome, not bothering more about the outcome. However, sir, we are actually

05:36 driven, we are living in this outcome driven world, goal oriented, outcome driven world.

05:41 So, how does one achieve that detachment of giving their best while at the same time not

05:46 focusing much on the results?

05:48 No, no, it is not detachment really. I would say you have to be in love with your war,

06:00 your action. If you are challenging something, if you have taken up an enormous project,

06:07 be in love with it. I am not talking of detachment, you see, I am talking of love here. Be in

06:16 love with it and give it just everything that you have. For that you first of all require

06:22 the work to be that enormous and that lovable. In anything that you enter, in anything that

06:30 you take up, the quality of relationship must be so high that you are encouraged to, that

06:41 you are left choiceless in that regard. You cannot hold yourself back. You will not say

06:55 now it is 6 pm, so I must get up from my seat and leave or that in this task I was supposed

07:04 to contribute only so much and no more. Give it all that you have and once you have given

07:12 it all that you have, you will find that you will be left with very little time, space

07:20 or energy to bother about the result. See, bothering about the result is an energy intensive

07:29 affair, is it not? You may take 3 hours just preparing for an exam and then you may keep

07:39 worrying about the result for 30 days. Worrying, brooding, thinking about the result, all this

07:50 consumes a lot of our lives. Now, if you are worrying about the outcome, I would say why

07:57 do you have spare time at all? Why has this time firstly not been utilized in the action

08:05 itself? And if you would say, well, the deed is done, now I have spare time, I will say

08:09 then what about the next and the higher deed? Why are you squandering away even one moment

08:18 of this precious but limited life? How come you have the time? So, when one is madly in

08:30 love, when one is intensely in action, then outcome becomes immaterial, not because one

08:37 is indifferent or detached. No, it is not a case of detachment. It is a case of intense

08:44 love. I gave everything that I had, now it is difficult to differentiate between defeat

08:56 and victory. You could say the one who could differentiate between these two, the one who

09:03 could be affected by the outcome is left with nothing to be affected with. He held back

09:11 nothing. He gave everything that he/she had. You see, think of a 6-hour Wimbledon final,

09:25 think of a 6-hour Wimbledon final or a 7-hour match. We have had matches like that, right?

09:35 The loser, believe me, does not really regret that match. I have read of champions, Grand

09:45 Slam champions, who when asked about their most unforgettable match, would not talk about

09:53 one of their Grand Slam finals or semi-finals. They would talk about one match that they

10:01 fought and lost. Now that is one match that they cannot forget. That is one match that

10:12 brought life to them as never before because that was the thing that drained everything

10:20 out of them. And finally, when the winning shot was played, neither side could differentiate

10:32 between victory and defeat. As a spectator, you would mind who held the trophy, no? And

10:40 only one of the two parties is now carrying the trophy. So, you would say, "Oh, well,

10:46 Nadal won and Federer lost." But ask them who have just played a 5-setter that extended

10:55 up to 6 hours, 7 hours. Ask them and they say, "Well, this is my most unforgettable

11:02 match. I do not remember who won and who lost. That is something I won't remember and the

11:10 match I cannot forget." That's the way to live life. Live it so intensely that in the

11:17 end you are left with no energy to be concerned with the result. And that does not mean that

11:27 you will necessarily need defeat. Sometimes there is victory, sometimes there is defeat.

11:33 But that is not the point. The point is how you have played the game and play it with

11:38 all your might. It raises you like anything. It raises you to enter a bigger game, a higher

11:46 game and that's the game.

11:49 [Music]

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