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~~~~~
Video Information: 29.09.23, IIT-Madras (Online), Greater Noida
Context:
How do you discover passion?
How do I explain my passion?
Why can't I find my passion?
How do I find my interests?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/enquir...
⚡ Want Acharya Prashant’s regular updates?
Join WhatsApp Channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Va6Z...
Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books?
Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...
Want to accelerate Acharya Prashant’s work?
Contribute: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/contri...
Want to work with Acharya Prashant?
Apply to the Foundation here: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/hiring...
~~~~~
Video Information: 29.09.23, IIT-Madras (Online), Greater Noida
Context:
How do you discover passion?
How do I explain my passion?
Why can't I find my passion?
How do I find my interests?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00So, my question is what one should do if he or she has lost interest in life.
00:16When you are doing something, you don't understand why you are doing it, and whatever you are doing, you will get something out of it. So, what is there to do with it?
00:46I don't have this question. The question has been answered and the answer is nothing. What will I get out of all the effort I put in? Nothing. What is the point in achieving anything? Nothing.
01:01Why must I continue living at all? Well, no reason. So, there is hardly any question here. You have suffocated the question. Please see that.
01:16The same words were absolutely beautiful. The words that you expressed in your question would have been absolutely beautiful had they been coming from a sense of curiosity, a center of…
01:31But you are not curious. You are not inquiring. Somehow you have settled the debate too easily and too early. Is there a need?
01:49Do you understand how people operate, how our own selves operate, and how the mind has a tendency to come to easy and shallow conclusions? Have you seen that?
02:07The great thing about your statement is that the question you have asked is of tremendous value. The sad part is that it is not a question at all. You are making a declaration. A declaration is not a question.
02:29Can this remain with you as a question? What is life? Who is the living one? Why the hell do we exist at all? This is the central question in Vedanta, in all Indian philosophy and when you go to the West in existentialism.
02:57This is the moot question. What is life all about? And I think we all bear the obligation to ask this question and remain with it all our life.
03:16And never to settle with easy answers. Come on, tell me, what are you thinking? You just declared something. I want to know more.
03:33I wanted to say that whatever we are doing, why are we doing it?
03:42That is what I am asking, why are we doing it? You will tell me, why are we doing it? Why are you asking this question?
04:12Whatever we are doing, it is not giving us satisfaction. We are not able to satisfy ourselves. Whatever we are studying, it is good for a while, but after that we are not able to satisfy ourselves.
04:42We need to get satisfied. Do you? But the way you are operating, that need is not being met. Do you see this?
05:02So you have to understand what the need actually is. You have to go into the actual nature of that need. We do not understand what we want. And when you do not know what you really want, you can go about shopping randomly and spend your entire life in the bargain.
05:24That is what most of us do, right? So you have to ask yourself, these are the things I usually go after. Will they succeed in satisfying me? The method of Vedanta is of negation, neti neti.
05:44Make an exhaustive list of all the things that you have hoped to bring you satisfaction. And then ask yourself, can this succeed, can this one, can the next one and so on. And once you see that none of them can succeed in spite of being given several chances,
06:09then the possibility of something new opens up. First of all, you have to get totally exhausted and disappointed. Let me say disillusioned. And then you will be forced to do something new. And in that newness, there is life, there is cheerfulness, a certain vitality, a certain freshness of mind.
06:38But for that to come to you, first of all, you have to strike out all the nonsense. No point trying the same beaten route the fifth time. No point falling in the same trap the fourth time. You have done all those things over and over again and again.
07:00Now you are simply bored. No point flogging as they say a dead horse. Those routes that you have been habituated towards trying do not lead you to any new, any fresh place.
07:26Those are tried and tested routes. They just offer you security. But that security does not translate into satisfaction or does it? You are going down a beaten path. You feel secure because you see the crowd there. But is security the same as satisfaction? It is not.
07:49So you need to try out a new path. In that new path, there always is danger. But along with danger comes a certain thrill. Have you seen how your consciousness just springs up when you are threatened?
08:07You might be feeling a bit low and sleepy and suddenly you spot a snake. What happens to you? You jump up. The snake is already there. You are not seeing it because probably the snake is within.
08:37So look within and you will find all those threats and dangers within. And then you will feel a certain urge to fight, to save yourself, to somehow redeem your life because the challenge, the threat is very imminent.
09:02It has almost already consumed you. But you don't want to be consumed. We want to live on, right? And we want to have a successful and satisfied life. You are young and when you see the threat within, the danger, that's when you leap up.
09:25And you say, no, no, no, no, no. All that I have done so far has brought me to this nonsense. I cannot continue on my old ways. This is what the old ways have yielded. Now, let me think afresh.
09:44Now, let me go for something higher than security.
10:04One of the hardest things in life is boredom and repetitiveness. Predictability kills. But predictability feels good to the ego because if stuff is predictable, then you need not worry.
10:27You need to live an unpredictable life and you can do that only when you don't worry too much about the outcome. If you keep walking on the old patterns, then you will simply be exhausted. You will just turn lifeless from within.
10:57I don't think you are getting it.
11:03I am getting it. How long do I have to keep trying new things?
11:11How many times have I tried old things? Have I ever asked myself how many times should I try old things?
11:41It's worth dedicating your life to. Give it everything that you have.
11:56That new that I am talking of here is the ultimate objective of all wisdom literature across the world.
12:12In Vedanta, that new is called Atma or Satya. New translates to Maulik which comes from Mool and Mool means fundamental.
12:27So I am putting it across quite casually to you when I say, you know, just go for something new in life. But once you embark on that route, you discover that that newness is the highest thing one can ever have in life.
12:43Most people condemn themselves to a life of repetitive boredom.
12:57Human beings acting as conditioned machines. It is a great privilege to live in newness.
13:18This will not be making much sense right now. I understand. But probably there is no other option. You have to start from here. And if you want to better understand what I am saying, you'll have to make some of these words your life.
13:42Only when you start living what I am saying, will you start understanding the real meaning of these words.
13:51This is the nature of this knowledge. It cannot be comprehended just by assimilating information.
14:01It can be understood only by being. Knowing via being. If you want to know it, be it.
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