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Video Information: 04.02.2022, Greater Noida, India
Context:
How to coup with today's changing situations?
How to remain unaffected by the vicissitudes of life?
How to realize one's true strength?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/enquir...
Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books?
Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...
~~~~~
#acharyaprashant #love #loneliness
Video Information: 04.02.2022, Greater Noida, India
Context:
How to coup with today's changing situations?
How to remain unaffected by the vicissitudes of life?
How to realize one's true strength?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00So Acharya ji, I had this question and I feel that it is very relevant to all of my friends
00:11inside the campus as well as everyone, almost everyone.
00:14We encounter these nodes in the path of our life where we have to take decisions.
00:20Now majority of us have a lot of duties associated with our life and these duties also come with
00:29some demands associated to how we should live.
00:32What was that word?
00:33A lot of us have?
00:35A lot of us have duties associated or say responsibilities.
00:40In essence, you know, say right now I am a student as well as I am a son.
00:46So these are multiple duties and this comes, you know, there comes decision nodes where
00:55the decision that we are making is actually conflicting based on the duties like should
01:00I act as a student here or should I act as a son here and this is something that I feel
01:05is very important about us that we need to learn how do we prioritize these duties.
01:13In essence, if we have to summarize this thing, this is called a dharam sankat where you have
01:17multiple conflicting dharams or duties and you have to take one.
01:22So how exactly do we prioritize this?
01:24Right.
01:25May I know your name please, sorry I missed, Devang Upadhyay, Devang, right Devang, Devang,
01:42duty is something you do, responsibility is something you take seriously, you carry.
01:53So your duties are related to who you are, responsibility is something you bear, these
02:03are things that you do, right, you say I am bearing my responsibilities, I am right now
02:13in the line of duty, so this is something that you do, right.
02:20Now the basics, the absolute basics, why must one do anything, why are you right now
02:28talking to me, why am I right now responding to you, why do we study, why do we eat, why
02:34do we play, why do we sleep, why do we do anything, why do we travel, why do we shop,
02:43why do we marry, why do we earn, why do we do anything, because duties and responsibilities,
02:56they too come within the domain of doing, within the domain of actions, they are related
03:02to us, we are the actor, they are the actions, now why do we act at all, why do we do anything?
03:11Would you want me to respond to that?
03:14Yes, of course.
03:17So this is again based out of my personal experience, I early on in my life, I have
03:23been inspired by Gita a lot and majority of times when I am acting or when I am doing
03:30something that is based on the idea of Nishkama Karma, I am not someone who is driven by the
03:38outcome of what I do, I am someone who usually figures out what his duties are and how do
03:47I do justice to that duty, now say suppose you said something like why do I shop, so
03:53say something like I am a student and I have to fulfill my student duty, so I need a few
03:59things and then I shop because I realize that I am a student and do justice to that.
04:06This is becoming tautological, this is going around in circles, I want to understand first
04:12of all how do you determine what your duty is, what you are saying is I act as per my
04:17duty, Devang acts as per his duty, I want to go deeper than that, I am asking how do
04:23you know what your duty is, why do you do anything at all, for example there was a day
04:29in your life when you approached the Bhagavad Gita, right, so before that point you didn't
04:35know anything from the Gita, right, Nishkama Karma was a word you hadn't heard of, right,
04:41so keep the Gita aside then, go to that point, how did you come to know that you must go
04:46to the Gita, why do you do anything, why do you go to the Gita?
04:51So at that point of time maybe I was seeking some sort of immediate fulfillment, I had
04:56some needs and I wanted fulfillment, exactly, now what are those needs and what is this
05:02fulfillment we seek when we do anything?
05:12This would chain down to us discussing like how do we figure out our needs properly, maybe,
05:21I, right now I am taking this as you are asking how do these, what are these needs
05:27or how these are developed?
05:31How they develop and all that, I am not going to the academics of them, I want to keep it
05:35extremely grounded, why do you do anything, why does anybody do anything?
05:43You said there are certain needs that ask for fulfillment, right, what is that need
05:47within or needs?
05:48We are in the state of not being satisfied with where we are.
05:55What is it within that is not satisfied?
06:03They may be related to physicality, they may be related to emotional, but there is unsatisfaction
06:10related to wherever we are, suppose say I am unhappy at the moment, so that is a state
06:15in which I am, and I have an inherent urge to go towards happiness and I act on that
06:22accord.
06:23Right, and that urge to be satisfied or happy makes us move throughout our life, right,
06:30that's what runs the world, that's what makes everything move, no, so that urge is everything,
06:39that urge is absolutely everything, without that urge there is no existence at all, right,
06:46without that urge there is no laptop, there is no you, there is no me.
06:51Think of this, the three entities that I just talked of, they all came into existence because
06:56somebody was dissatisfied and seeked fulfillment or happiness and that seeking gave birth to
07:08the objects we referred to, similarly everything in the world comes from that urge.
07:16Now whose urge is that?
07:23Maybe again I am unable to answer this question because the information or the answer that
07:28is coming to my mind is derived from Gita and you said keep it aside, but I personally
07:33feel that there is this, the urge is not related to physicality or mentality, that
07:40urge or any longingness that we have is something that is derived from Atma.
07:46From Atma.
07:48No, before you did not know the Atma, did you not have that urge?
07:53I did have, I did have.
07:54So where does that urge come from?
07:58Keep your knowledge a little separate from you, and obviously knowledge is great to have
08:05and we respect knowledge, we will come to that, but right now can we come from our life?
08:12Okay.
08:13Usually it's either due to the past experiences or the observations that we are making.
08:21No, we said who is having that urge?
08:26The past experiences are there, to whom?
08:31Right here, like in this context, Devang is having that urge.
08:35Who is Devang?
08:38Okay, let me put it this way, is Devang, is Devang this face that is speaking to me?
08:53I want you to answer that and to make things a bit quicker for you, when you sleep Devang
09:00and when you are deeply in sleep, does your face really change?
09:08It does age, it does show some sort of emotions, maybe.
09:12Some sort of emotions, right, but more or less it remains the same, the weight of the
09:17body remains the same and in fact the face remains so much the same even in the sleeping
09:25state that a person in the waking state can pretend to be asleep.
09:33The face does not need to be radically altered to display that one is asleep, certainly.
09:42So the body remains the same even when you are asleep and then there is no question of
09:51happiness or fulfilment, I am talking of good sound sleep where you are not even dreaming
10:00of fulfilment.
10:06So the body remains the same yet the desires and the urges are more or less gone.
10:15As soon as you wake up, again those desires pop up and they start pushing you around and
10:24making you run around to get this, get that, achieve this or leave this, reach somewhere,
10:31be somebody, those things start happening.
10:34So whose desires are those?
10:38They are related, these desires are somehow related to this identity that I have created around.
10:47And when you are asleep, then you are no more Devang, right?
10:51In a manner.
10:52Yeah, when you are asleep, then there is no Devang at all.
10:57The moment you wake up, there is Devang and there are desires.
11:03I feel that when, so if there is this form of energy that I have in my brain.
11:09No, no, we do not know, we do not know whether there is any energy in the brain, we'll only
11:13talk of what we really know of, we'll not depend on knowledge coming from others.
11:25I feel that when I am asleep, I personally feel that I am trying to manifest my desires
11:30in my dreams.
11:31I am talking of sound sleep when even dreams are not there.
11:36Yeah, we can say that over there, there is no Devang, there is no desires.
11:45Something changes between the sleeping state and the waking state and Devang with all his
11:51urges and desires comes into existence.
11:54What changes between the sleeping state and the waking state?
12:05I am trying to figure out the answer, but I am not able to figure out the cause.
12:09Because the cause is not needed to be known.
12:11The answer is so obvious, just what you call as the quality of your consciousness.
12:21How aware we are.
12:23You are not conscious when you are asleep, when you are awake, then you have a certain
12:30state of consciousness and this consciousness is always desirous, this consciousness is
12:38Devang and this consciousness is a continuous urge to seek, to change, to be better and
12:51this consciousness is Devang.
12:55So that appears like who we are.
13:01If that's who I am and I keep on doing things continuously, then obviously those actions
13:11must be of some value to me if I am to do those things, because who am I, I am somebody
13:19unfulfilled.
13:20So obviously I need some betterment, I need some respite, I am continuously kind of suffering
13:30within because I am unfulfilled.
13:32So I want betterment.
13:35It is with the purpose of betterment that I do what I do.
13:44And we keep doing things continuously and all those things that we do are for the sake
13:50of betterment of consciousness.
13:54Agreed.
13:56Now those things include duties and responsibilities.
13:59Yes.
14:00So that tells you how one should assess his real duties.
14:09The real duty is that which elevates, cleans, purifies your consciousness.
14:15All else is trivia, all else can be kept aside even if it has taken the name of responsibility
14:26or whatever, even if it appears like a dharma sankat to you.
14:36That elevation of consciousness, because you have been continuously referring to the
14:40Gita, is also what is reflected when Krishna says, keep aside all your dharmas and come
14:54only to me, mam ekam sharanam vraja, nothing else matters, you are a suffering, crying
15:05mass of consciousness and all it wants is fulfillment.
15:10That fulfillment is known in Gita by the name of Krishna.
15:17Krishna is not a person, Krishna is not a concept, Krishna is just your own destination.
15:25You are unfulfilled consciousness seeking fulfillment, that point of fulfillment is
15:31Krishna.
15:34So, that's the litmus test, that's the sole criteria, doesn't matter whether you
15:43are a student or a son or this or that and all the identities that you wear will impose
15:50certain responsibilities on you, even if you wear the thinnest identity, let's say you
15:57are in an elevator, you still carry certain responsibility, even if for those two minutes,
16:09you are in a shop, who are you?
16:11I am just a shopper, I have come to buy something, just window shop and still it imposes upon
16:18you a certain responsibility to act in certain way, to behave in certain way, wherever you
16:25are, you will find that responsibilities will come to you a plenty, how to know then what
16:38to do, which responsibility to take up and also these responsibilities that come to us
16:45are always in conflict with each other, wherever you are, the world imposes multiple identities
16:56upon you and these identities are not in sync with each other.
17:03Your identity as a student is not necessarily congruent to your identity as a son, your
17:11identity as a shopper is not necessarily in sync with your identity as a wisdom seeker,
17:20as a reader of the Gita and here I am showing conflict only between two parties, two identities.
17:31What really happens is that because we are a bundle of innumerable identities, therefore
17:38the conflict is multipartite, like something being pulled in 48 different directions by
17:4748 different forces and that's how we live because we do not know what to do, we do not
17:56know what to do because we do not consider who we are, we do not want to remember that
18:06the consciousness, the mind is seeking relief from its feverish state and your only duty
18:18is to give it that relief and give it that relief in a way that the relief remains permanently,
18:28the relief has a certain depth, a certain constancy.
18:36If you can remember that, if you can remember who you are, you will have no difficulty at
18:41all knowing what you should do at any given moment, your responsibilities will become
18:48extremely clear to you.
18:51In fact, Shri Krishna says in the Gita that Kartavya or duty is only for those who really
19:06do not know themselves.
19:10Once you know yourself, then you need not be bound by duties because the instantaneous
19:19duty becomes clear to you by itself.
19:26You do not need then a commandment of do's and don'ts, do's and don'ts and rules and
19:33regulations are needed only because we do not have self-knowledge.
19:39The deeper is your self-knowledge, the lesser would you require any code of conduct or any
19:48manual of life to live by.
19:52In fact, even if you are given a manual to live by, you will not find it helpful.
19:59In fact, you will find it difficult to accept that manual.
20:09So remember who Devang is, Devang is not a student, Devang is not even a son, all those
20:19things are quite peripheral.
20:23Devang's central identity is his consciousness.
20:27In fact, even to say Devang's consciousness is to stray from the truth.
20:32It's not Devang's consciousness, it is Devang the consciousness.
20:37Devang is a name for that consciousness.
20:41You are that consciousness and that consciousness is impure, trapped, frustrated.
20:49That consciousness demands relief and that is the sole purpose of life.
20:53If that is the sole purpose of life, that is your sole and sacred duty.
21:01Never think that your central identity is that of this, that, husband, wife, son, mother,
21:09father, daughter, employee, leader, voter, your caste, your religion, your gender, your
21:16economic status and all of these compete to become your central identity.
21:23None of these can be your central identity.
21:27Obviously for practical purposes, you do say, well, you know, I am a student, you carry
21:31that card or you display your age proof, you have your Aadhaar card and you have so many
21:38things and in some sense they represent your demographic identity.
21:44But you must remember that all those things are just for the sake of ease in worldly conduct.
21:55They are not existential, they are not real.
22:00You must remember who really you are.
22:05And then the difficulty in knowing what to do, the state of dilemma, the state of inner
22:18strife will be very easily resolved.
22:23Can I just have a simple, just one thing on the concluding note, obviously.
22:34So just a micro summary of what you said is that we have to elevate our level of consciousness
22:42to actually figure out what our true desires are and fulfil them.
22:47No, no, I didn't say that.
22:50I mean, I am sorry, I may not be able to communicate as effectively.
22:55What I want to say is that right now, majority of us are not aware and that are not aware
23:05or are in a state where our consciousness is not that elevated, right, and that creates
23:12this thing that we are in that dilemma, so we might put up an effort that it eventually
23:20becomes clear to us and comes naturally, but what do we do now?
23:23And you have to make choices, right?
23:26Should I take this up?
23:27Should I take that up?
23:28And you have already answered how to make that choice.
23:31Ask yourself, these are the two options I have, A, B, C. Out of these two, A and B and
23:37then there's the C, which one really elevates my consciousness?
23:44Because that's what I want.
23:47That's who I am, that's what I exist for, that's my central purpose in life.
23:54I could go to the gym, I could go to the bar, I could read something, I could be with somebody,
24:00I could go to a date, or I could simply lie on the bed and snore, or I could spend my
24:09time just gossiping and waste the next two hours.
24:19Whenever these competing choices present themselves, ask, which of these choices would cleans my
24:30mind, make me sharper, elevate my consciousness, bring me closer to where I must be?
24:40This question must always be present to you.
24:46In fact, this is what is called constant remembrance, nothing else is to be remembered, only this.
24:54At all points in time, we have decisions to make, even at this point, you have to decide
25:03whether you want to pass the baton or ask one more question.
25:10So honestly ask yourself always, what would serve my real interests better?
25:19And if you can stay true to that question, your answers would be authentic and helpful.
25:29You see, answers probably are not that difficult to get.
25:35You would have realized by now that the problem lies in the questions.
25:40We do not know the right question to ask and hence obviously we cannot get the right answers.
25:50The right question is this, who am I, what do I need and what takes me there?
25:59And that tells you what choice you must make, the duty you must pick, the responsibility
26:06you must shoulder, all else is rubbish.