Past mistakes bogging you down? || Acharya Prashant, with BITS Hyderabad (2022)

Acharya Prashant

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Transcript

00:00My question was, we're often told that we should learn from our mistakes, that we should

00:10retrospect and we should be aware about our mistakes.

00:13But sometimes when I look back, to look at the mistakes that I have done, I often find

00:19myself going into a sinkhole.

00:21Instead of taking it positively, I take it negatively.

00:25So how should I positively learn from them instead of just spiraling down in it?

00:36So you committed a mistake.

00:38What happens when you look at that episode?

00:42For example, I failed in a test and when I look back upon it, I just feel that I won't

00:51be able to do it.

00:53Instead of getting motivation from it, sometimes, for example, there was a test and I worked

00:57really hard for it.

00:58I worked for 15 days and I still wasn't able to succeed.

01:02So when I look back upon it, sometimes instead of looking at the mistakes, I often find myself

01:08thinking, I won't be able to do this.

01:12Instead of getting...

01:14But your conclusion is not misplaced.

01:18If you repeat what you did the last time, you will fail again the next time.

01:28So your conclusion is just alright.

01:32You look at the previous attempt and you feel you won't be able to make it again.

01:41This is a perfectly right conclusion within a condition.

01:47You see the assumption attached, the condition attached.

01:51The condition is I do not want to change.

01:54Now the task remains what it was and you remain what you were.

02:03Obviously the result would remain what it was.

02:10For the result to change, something has to change.

02:14The weight of the task hasn't reduced.

02:18So what's the only thing that can change?

02:22The way you approached it, your assessment of yourself, the effort you put into it, the

02:31attention you gave it, that has to change.

02:35But the ego does not want to change that.

02:39Because to change your actions really, you'll have to change who you are.

02:46There is this thing, ego, that wants to defend itself.

02:49It does not want to change.

02:51It wants better results definitely, that's what it wants to change, the results, but

02:56it does not want to change itself.

03:01So it will look at the previous attempt and say, oh, why try again, I'll fail again.

03:08And the ego is right, because the ego does not want to change.

03:15If you are prepared to change, nothing is beyond you.

03:20It's not that things are too much, we make ourselves too little in front of things.

03:34You are not an absolute, you are not a fixed entity.

03:39You have a choice.

03:43You choose what you want to be internally, and you can choose to be big or small.

03:51If you choose to be small, obviously you'll be dwarfed in front of big challenges.

04:02The challenge is so big, I'm so small, but you have chosen to be small.

04:07The challenge is only relatively big.

04:10The challenge is not absolutely big.

04:13Challenge is big in relation to what you have chosen to be.

04:19And that's a sovereign, free choice.

04:22You can exercise it.

04:26You can say, I can be different.

04:29I love this project so much.

04:33The importance of this challenge is so much that I have to succeed.

04:42I cannot afford to fail.

04:45It is something of tremendous importance.

04:47It is of so much importance that I would rather change than fail.

04:57If self-preservation entails self-destruction, why self-preserve?

05:08The ego is fond of self-preservation.

05:12It says, please, please, please, let me be secure, let me be secure.

05:18But that self-preservation in some moments is revealed to be self-destruction.

05:24It always is, just that the revelation happens selectively, episodically, at least when it

05:32becomes obvious that by choosing to remain yourself, you are choosing to condemn yourself.

05:43Then choose to change.

05:47That's what Vedanta teaches you.

05:49Vedanta is a philosophy of great empowerment.

05:56I encourage everybody, especially youngsters and intelligent youngsters, to go to Vedanta.

06:08You have a choice.

06:09That's the central message of Vedanta.

06:11You always have a choice.

06:14You have a choice not just with respect to things in the world.

06:19Your most fundamental choice is with respect to who you are.

06:25You can be anything and you can choose to be absolutely nothing.

06:35This choice is the pinnacle of all choices, to choose to be absolutely nothing.

06:42Because when you choose to be nothing, then you can afford to be anything as per the requirement

06:51of the great challenge.

06:56So when you look at your failures, ask yourself, what was it within me that failed the moment?

07:08Even as you look at the task that proved overpowering, also with one eye, look at the

07:14one who was overpowered.

07:18What was it within me that failed to stand up?

07:27And that's the one you need to change or discard.

07:35You need not keep a loser within.

07:38Is there any fun in that?

07:42So identify the loser within and lose it.

07:50We all make mistakes, we all prove unequal to the tasks at hand.

07:57Find out, find out who was sitting within, incapable of the task.

08:05Find him and fire him.

08:09You are dismissed, out.

08:12I need somebody more competent.

08:15Am I making sense?

08:21No.

08:23Yes, yes, I'm getting it.

08:30Every failure then becomes a stepping stone, an opportunity to know yourself and therefore

08:38improve.

08:45So many wise people have thanked their failures heartfully.

08:50They say we would have never realized our weak spots had we not failed in such situations.

09:00But remember, the project you take up must be worthy of your love, otherwise instead

09:06of dropping your weaknesses, you will drop the project itself.

09:13The project has to be tremendously lovable, so lovable that you cannot drop it in spite

09:20of all the failures.

09:21So the project cannot be dropped.

09:23Then the only option is to drop the weaknesses.

09:27Yes, sir.

09:38That gave me quite a lot of clarity, thank you.

09:44On behalf of BITS Embryo, I would like to thank you for this insightful, inspiring and

09:49truly thought-provoking interactions.

09:52All of us were really captivated and it was an immense pleasure to listen to your wise

09:56words and learn so much from them.

09:59Thank you once again.

10:01Thank you.

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