Sir, why this after IIT-IIM-UPSC? || Acharya Prashant, LIT-Nagpur (2022)

Acharya Prashant

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Transcript

00:00Acharyaji, I think this question may be on behalf of many of us sitting in this auditorium.

00:12Every student sitting in this auditorium had a dream not of getting admission in Lakshminarayan

00:20Institute of Technology but getting into IITs.

00:26Then after IIT what?

00:28Most of the time the trend, we follow the trend and trend is IIM.

00:34Then many IITians get into IAS and this is the dream of many young Indians, young minds

00:47who are studying and also of the parents, most of the parents.

00:54Of course, those who know about the IITs, IIM and finally the civil services.

01:01Acharyaji, you achieved all.

01:07You did your bachelors in topmost IIT.

01:12You did your management from topmost IIM and also immediately you got into civil services.

01:22So all, not one of, even one of these three will satisfy anybody in this country and his

01:29whole family will just rejoice and start dancing maybe.

01:37You achieved all this, you got all three top things, not just one of that and later on

01:48you have chosen a very, very different path and today we are listening to you.

01:56Of course, I have listened to few of your videos earlier also and then when I got to

02:04know about you more from Wikipedia, then I came to know about your qualifications also.

02:15So exactly what happened because it is not the case that you wanted to get into IIT,

02:25so you topped JEE.

02:27You wanted to get into IIM, so you cracked the CAT and you wanted to get into civil services,

02:35so you were one of the highest toppers.

02:39Then what?

02:40Of course, not exactly I have raised it as a question, but I am curious to know about

02:48it.

02:49Thank you.

02:54The first thing is that, very humbly I would like to say that the way my academic or other

03:16achievements have been very gracefully and rather magnanimously portrayed, they have

03:32been made to look bigger than they actually are.

03:45See why does one want to do anything good or big?

03:53Why does one want to get into an IIT or an IIM?

03:59Because one is, you could say because one wants a good career, you could say because

04:05that is the in thing to do, because that gives you fame, money, recognition, indirectly

04:15that also helps you get a good wife, also helps you move abroad.

04:25You could say all these things and none of these would be wrong if you say.

04:34But go a little deeper, one does all that because one wants to get to the top of life.

04:44One wants that which is the highest possible, right?

04:51And that is the urge of every living human being, be it me or be it you.

04:59Tell me does anything ever fully satisfy you, and I am talking as one of you, as a

05:05friend not as someone on the podium.

05:09Does anything ever satisfy you?

05:14Is there any number that would ever be perfect?

05:21Think of anything that can be quantified.

05:26If it can be quantified there would be a number to it.

05:29Would any number ever suffice and be perfect?

05:33Tell me, let's say the number in your bank account, the number in your assessment sheet,

05:43any number, would it ever be okay?

05:47Not really, which means each of us, it is not just my story, it is your story, understand

05:54this, which means each of us is looking for something higher than the highest.

06:02Therefore an IIT is not sufficient.

06:09In your college, sir said, you think you would have been better off had you cracked the JEE

06:16and been in an IIT.

06:17Let me tell you, it is no different with IITians.

06:23They too think that they could have done much better than where they are.

06:29Somebody is not happy with the CGPA, somebody is not happy with his department, somebody

06:33not happy with departmental rank, somebody not happy with summer internship, somebody

06:37not happy with the choice of courses, somebody not happy with the final placement, there

06:42is nobody who is satisfied and that is okay.

06:46That's what makes us human.

06:48I'm not complaining, I'm not saying one should be easily satisfied.

06:52On the contrary, I'm saying that it is this lack of satisfaction that is the very mark

06:58of humanness.

07:00This lack of satisfaction means we are looking for something yet higher.

07:05I might have reached here, no, no, no, even this place does not give me what my consciousness

07:11is looking for and my consciousness is your consciousness, we are just the same when it

07:16comes to that consciousness.

07:18Externally obviously we are different in worldly achievements, in age, in possession, gender,

07:24social status, we are all very different.

07:26But when it comes to the fundamental nature of consciousness, we are all one.

07:30And the fundamental nature of consciousness is discontentment.

07:34I love to say that when somebody asks for identity, simply say, Atripta Chetana, I'm

07:42a dissatisfied consciousness.

07:44So once you are in IIT, it no more appears a big deal.

07:49You want something higher.

07:52And it's not just in terms of money or social sanction, there's something more to it.

07:59This campus could not give me that.

08:01So then comes the next thing, then comes the next thing.

08:06And it's not at all a coincidence that finally the thing that I could find is Vedanta.

08:14Because I was looking for the highest.

08:17I was not very lucky.

08:21I did not have a living mentor or somebody.

08:24So I took a rather long route to reach Vedanta, though I had started out pretty early.

08:33I was a voracious reader.

08:35I read a lot probably starting at the age of five or seven.

08:40But still it took me very, very long to finally discover that this that is happening right

08:47now between you and me is higher than anything else in the world.

08:55And that made it possible for me after a long, long and not just long, long winded actually

09:01very convoluted journey, full of dissatisfaction, full of suffering as well, a lot of suffering,

09:13a lot of experimentation to come to this place where I can tell you very easily what it took

09:23me very, very long to achieve.

09:28Had somebody come to me when I was your age and told me this basic thing, it would have

09:34helped me a long way in my journey.

09:39But I was not that fortunate.

09:41I didn't have anybody coming to an IIT or my school or IIM or any place to tell me what

09:47I am telling you.

09:50So that's the reason I'm doing this.

09:54This is the highest I can give to myself and this is the highest I can share with you.

10:04The highest purpose of life itself, true, pure, simple, direct spirituality, for me

10:13that is Vedanta.

10:15Are you getting it?

10:19So Vedanta is not something that comes as opposite to worldly life.

10:29Most people ask, you could have had anything you wanted in the worldly life.

10:36Why did you leave all that and change sides to come to Vedanta?

10:40No, I have not changed sides.

10:43I have just risen.

10:46You want good things, right?

10:49So I have the best thing.

10:53Is that some kind of deviation or just an extension of what everybody else is doing?

11:01You want to be involved in a good kind of work, don't you?

11:07Don't you?

11:09So my long journey has brought me to the best kind of work.

11:14Is that not reasonable?

11:16There's nothing mystical in it.

11:19There are no hidden enlightenment experiences.

11:25There is no sharp U-turn.

11:28There is no sudden dramatic filmy change of heart, none of that.

11:34It's just a long and arduous journey towards finding the next better thing.

11:41I have this.

11:42What is higher than this?

11:44If I want to find something higher than what I already have, don't you too want that?

11:49Please tell me.

11:51If you have something, won't you want something higher than that?

11:55So I had something, then I went for something higher than that, then higher than that, then

11:58higher than that and ultimately one comes to the highest.

12:02I won't be presumptuous enough to claim I already have the highest.

12:06But I am inching towards that.

12:09I am not yet dead.

12:11I have a few years to live and I want to keep rising and rising.

12:15So should you or should you not?

12:19That's what.

12:20Don't settle down.

12:22I said to one of the previous questioners, don't commit yourself too early and too easily

12:29to anything.

12:33Don't allow yourself to be blocked and bounded.

12:40And that's the one thing I luckily did.

12:42I didn't allow myself to be constrained.

12:45I said I want to retain my freedom so that I can move on and I kept moving on, kept moving

12:51on.

12:52That's all that I have done.

12:53There is no great drama or mystery or something very fascinating involved in this.

13:01My life has been just of continuous movement.

13:04That's all.

13:06And that's what I share with you.

13:07It took me, it took me long.

13:12It'll be great if it doesn't take you that long.

13:16No?

13:17Hmm?

13:18That's all, Sir.

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