Drop these false responsibilities || Acharya Prashant, with IIT Kharagpur (2022)

Acharya Prashant

‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/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 do you cope with today's changing situations?  How to remain unaffected by the vicissitudes of life?  How to realize one's true strength? How do we priorities between dharma and duties? What are duties? How do you determine what is your duty?  Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~

Transcript

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

01:06is 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?

01:25Right, may I know your name please, sorry I missed, Devang, right, Devang, duty is something

01:44you do, responsibility is something you take seriously, you carry.

01:52So 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

04:24you 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, so before that point you didn't know

04:36anything from the Gita, Nishkama Karma was a word you hadn't heard of, so keep the Gita

04:42aside then, go to that point, how did you come to know that you must go to the Gita,

04:47why 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.

04:59Exactly, now what are those needs and what is this fulfillment 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

05:36extremely grounded, why do you do anything, why does anybody do anything?

05:43You said there are certain needs that ask for fulfillment, what is that need within

05:48or needs?

05:49We 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.

06:23And that urge to be satisfied or happy makes us move throughout our life, that's what runs

06:30the world, that's what makes everything move, so that urge is everything, that urge is absolutely

06:40everything, without that urge there is no existence at all, without that urge there

06:47is 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 seek 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.

07:48Now 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.

08:35Now who is Devang?

08:38Okay, let me put it this way, 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 fulfillment, I am talking of good sound sleep where you are not even dreaming

10:00of fulfillment.

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.

10:48And 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.

11:43So there is no Devang, there is no desires.

11:45Something changes between the sleeping state and the waking state and Devang, with all

11:51his urges and desires, comes into existence.

11:55What 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, the answer is so obvious, just what you call

12:16as 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

12:39Devang 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, so I want betterment.

13:35It is with the purpose of betterment that I do what I do.

13:44So 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.

14:01So 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.

14:37That 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, maam ekam sharanam vraj, nothing else matters, you are a suffering, crying

15:05mass of consciousness and all it wants is fulfilment.

15:10That fulfilment 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 fulfilment, that point of fulfilment is Krishna.

15:34So that's the litmus test, that's the sole criteria, doesn't matter whether you are a

15:43student or a son or this or that, and all the identities that you wear will impose certain

15:50responsibilities on you.

15:53Even if you wear the thinnest identity, let's say you are in an elevator.

16:03You still carry certain responsibility, even if for those two minutes.

16:09You are in a shop.

16:10Who 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.

16:37How to know then what to do, which responsibility to take up, and also these responsibilities

16:45that come to us are always in conflict with each other.

16:48Wherever you are, the world imposes multiple identities upon you and these identities are

16:58not in sync with each other.

17:04Your 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.

18:37If 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, once you know yourself, then you need not be bound by duties because

19:18the instantaneous duty becomes clear to you by itself, you do not need then a commandment

19:28of do's and don'ts, do's and don'ts and rules and regulations are needed only because we

19:36do not have self-knowledge, the deeper is your self-knowledge, the lesser would you

19:45require any code of conduct or any manual of life to live by, in fact even if you are

19:53given a manual to live by, you will not find it helpful, in fact you will find it difficult

20:03to 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, Devang's central identity is his consciousness, in fact even

20:28to say Devang's consciousness is to stray from the truth, it's not Devang's consciousness,

20:34it is Devang the consciousness, Devang is a name for that consciousness, you are that

20:42consciousness and that consciousness is impure, trapped, frustrated, that consciousness demands

20:51relief and that is the sole purpose of life, if that is the sole purpose of life, that

20:56is your sole and sacred duty, never think that your central identity is that of this,

21:06that, husband, wife, son, mother, father, daughter, employee, leader, voter, your caste,

21:14your religion, your gender, your economic status and all of these compete to become

21:21your central identity, none of these can be your central identity, obviously for practical

21:27purposes you do say, well, I am a student, you carry that card, or you display, or you

21:35age proof, you have your Aadhaar card and you have so many things and in some sense

21:40they represent your demographic identity, but you must remember that all those things

21:47are just Vyavaharik, for the sake of ease in worldly conduct, they are not existential,

21:57they are not real, you must remember who really you are and then the difficulty in knowing

22:10what to do, the state of dilemma, the state of inner strife will be very easily resolved.

22:28Can I just have a simple, just one thing on the concluding note, obviously, so just a

22:37micro summary of what you said is, that we have to elevate our level of consciousness

22:43to actually figure out what our true desires are and fulfill them.

22:47No, no, I didn't say that, I 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

23:04or 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?

23:24And you have to make choices, right, should I take this up, should I take that up and

23:28you have already answered how to make that choice, ask yourself, these are the two options

23:33I have, A, B, C, out of these two, A and B and then there is the C, which one really

23:40elevates my consciousness?

23:44Because that's what I want, that's who I am, that's what I exist for, that's my central

23:51purpose in life, I could go to the gym, I could go to the bar, I could read something,

23:58I could be with somebody, I could go to a date or I could simply lie on the bed and

24:06snore or I could spend my time just gossiping and waste the next two hours, whenever these

24:21competing choices present themselves, ask, which of these choices would cleanse my mind,

24:31make me sharper, elevate my consciousness, bring me closer to where I must be?

24:40This question must always be present to you, in fact this is what is called constant remembrance,

24:50nothing else is to be remembered, only this, at all points in time we have decisions to make,

24:58even at this point you have to decide whether you want to pass the baton or ask one more question.

25:10So honestly ask yourself always, what would serve my real interests better and if you

25:19can stay true to that question, your answers would be authentic and helpful.

25:29You see, answers probably are not that difficult to get, you'd have realized by now that the

25:37problem lies in the questions, we do not know the right question to ask and hence obviously

25:46we cannot get the right answers, the right question is this, who am I, what do I need

25:56and 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.

26:20Okay, this makes sense.

26:36you

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