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~~~~~
Video Information: 14.09.2022, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru
Context:
~ What ignites a person's passion?
~ How can I determine my area of passion?
~ How is one able to manipulate us?
¬ Why is it so difficult for us to identify our passions?
¬ How can one determine whether a passion is real?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
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?...
Read 3 handpicked wisdom articles, just for you: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/articl...
~~~~~
Video Information: 14.09.2022, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru
Context:
~ What ignites a person's passion?
~ How can I determine my area of passion?
~ How is one able to manipulate us?
¬ Why is it so difficult for us to identify our passions?
¬ How can one determine whether a passion is real?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00The happening is just a random coincidence.
00:06How you experience the happening is your own decision, your own doing.
00:11In other words, your karma.
00:13A heartful greeting to the audience present here.
00:17Today I, Khushi Jain and I, Rushil Dhani will be the host of the session.
00:22The speaker invited today needs no introduction to us.
00:25He is a Vedanta ex-gate, a national best-selling author, alumni, IIT Delhi, IIM Ahmedabad and
00:33an ex-civil servant, Acharya Prashant.
00:35Give him a huge round of applause.
00:39We would like to present you a hearty welcome on behalf of the whole management and the
00:43student community.
00:44We would like to invite Dr. Priya Jain to introduce the speaker and set the flow for
00:50the event.
00:51A pleasant and a warm good afternoon to all gathered here.
00:54I take immense pleasure in welcoming you all to the most momentous and unparalleled occasion
01:00of this live student interaction with Acharya Prashant.
01:03I am extremely honored and exalted to welcome our chief guest and speaker of the day, Acharya
01:09Prashant and introduce you to him.
01:12Acharya Prashant is an acclaimed authority on Vedanta, an author of over 100 books, including
01:19Vaisala's Karma and Ananta and a powerful voice of social-spiritual awakening in the
01:24world today.
01:26After graduating from IIT Delhi, Acharya Prashant went on to qualify both UPSC and CAT in the
01:32same year.
01:33After two years at IIM Ahmedabad and a few years at corporate, he found himself a higher
01:40calling of spreading the ancient wisdom of Vedanta among the masses and for that purpose
01:46founded his mission which is at the forefront of creation of a new humanity through intelligent
01:52spirituality.
01:54As a response to the situations mankind face today, Acharya Prashant has taken the solemn
02:01project of bringing the essence of Vedanta to the world today.
02:06His calling is to bring pure essence of Vedantic spirituality to all and apply it to solve
02:12today's problems.
02:14These problems of today are born out of man's ignorance towards himself and therefore they
02:20can be solved only by sincere self-knowledge.
02:23Today, Acharya Prashant's movement has touched the lives of tens of millions of individuals.
02:30Through his direct contact with people and through various virtual interactions, he continues
02:36to bring clarity to us all.
02:39Welcome, sir.
02:40I welcome.
02:41The special guests of the day who have honored us with their presence.
02:46Once again, a warm welcome to you all and wishing you a fruitful interaction.
02:51Good afternoon, Acharyaji.
02:52So, my name is Sonali and I am from B.Com.
02:57So, my question is like it starts off with how and when we have to take certain decisions
03:04but it becomes very difficult for us to decide on what we want to go on with, with a lot
03:10of other things on our plate.
03:12So, there's this inner voice that tells us to like go for what we are passionate about
03:16but on the same hand, on the same side, our brain tells us that think logical, think practical.
03:23So, in this situation, what are we supposed to do?
03:26Like who are we supposed to listen to?
03:27Is it the intuition that is within us or the brain that is trying to convey something to
03:36us?
03:37You have to, first of all, consider the reality of what you are passionate about.
03:52The questioner is saying that in moments of decision making, do we go with our passion
04:01or with our logic and rationality as the mind suggests it to us?
04:09So, I begin with passion.
04:15First of all, inquire into it and that should be the first thing because one is obviously
04:22biased towards her passion.
04:27Even if the mind is suggesting other things, we all feel like following the course of our
04:34passion.
04:37Since passion appeals so much to us and we feel like leaning towards it very automatically,
04:49why not figure out the truth of the passion?
04:57What makes you passionate about something?
05:01From where did one pick up her passion?
05:06Was one always passionate about such a thing?
05:11Because you see, there are certain decisions that require a lot of investment.
05:21Sometimes when you decide to follow the direction of your passion, it may consume a lot of your
05:29time, your energy and also the decision might be not easily reversible.
05:37So before you commit yourself to any such thing, especially the thing you feel strongly
05:46passionate about, it is important to inquire a little.
05:57Is my passion arising from something that I deeply realise or is it arising from something
06:08I am influenced by?
06:14Because once something takes the name of your passion, we usually just ignore asking what
06:29its real source is.
06:34I am imploring you to ask, is this passion really my passion or have I borrowed it from
06:39somewhere?
06:44In India, for example, a lot of people would be passionate about the sport of cricket.
06:55A lot of people are passionate about movies.
06:59Would you be passionate about the same sport were you born in Brazil or Russia or even
07:10in China or in the US?
07:15So is this passion then really yours?
07:19Till your class 12th, you lived at a certain place and there was a certain environment
07:29and then let's say you come over to Bengaluru and here the environment is totally different
07:38and it captivates you.
07:41There is a lot of glamour, glitz, attraction.
07:46It starts possessing you and certain elements of your environment you start feeling very
07:53strongly about and you start saying this is what I really want.
08:00Now is that what you really want or is that what you have been made to really want?
08:09Is that me or the forces acting upon me?
08:16It's a very crucial question, especially in the life of young people, it must be that
08:24way.
08:25Unfortunately, often it is not.
08:28We do not give it the importance it deserves, this question.
08:33These feelings, these passions, where have I gathered them from?
08:39We believe and it's just a hollow belief that whatever we feel is something internal to
08:48us, that all feelings arise from an internal point and we want to call that point as the
08:55heart or something, no.
08:59Most of that which we feel and most of our thoughts, they are deeply influenced things.
09:10It's like somebody is controlling us via a remote control from the outside and we are
09:18dancing to an external tune, singing somebody else's song.
09:26And not only are we dancing to somebody's tune and singing somebody's song, we also
09:34feel that the song and dance is our own, it is not.
09:43And because it is not your own, very soon you will be disillusioned, very soon you will
09:53find no sense in that music, in that dance, in that passion, in that feeling, in that
10:01attraction.
10:03All that will lose meaning and then what will happen?
10:08Because we are disappointed with one external influence, we simply become open and available
10:17to another external influence and then something else comes and possesses us.
10:24And for a while, it gives us hope.
10:27We start calling the new feeling, the new passion, the new whatever as our own.
10:35So passion is a wonderful thing.
10:39I really want more people have the courage to follow their passion.
10:46But as I say that, I also realize that in the name of passion, all kinds of conditionings
10:54and influences and therefore bondages operate.
10:59Conditioned passion is deeply dangerous.
11:03It would be nobody right now in this auditorium who would not be passionate about a thing
11:08or two.
11:11All of us have our own pet passions.
11:14The problem is they are neither our own nor are they our pets.
11:19You call something your pet only when you control it, right?
11:23A pet dog.
11:27Our passions are not controlled by us, instead they control us.
11:31How are they our pet passions?
11:33And they are not ours.
11:36It's like we have been hypnotized and something totally external, something totally unrelated
11:43to our own reality has entered us, captivated and possessed us.
11:54And so deeply that we do not remember or realize that there was a point when this meant nothing
12:02to me and there will be a point when I will be disillusioned from this same very thing.
12:09But at this moment, I'm captured, I'm hypnotized.
12:14I'm so captured, I've started calling this as my passion.
12:18No, that is not your passion.
12:21You'll drop it.
12:24And when that moment comes, there is a lot of pain.
12:28Not only is there a lot of pain, already a lot of wastage has happened.
12:33And that wastage cannot be recovered then.
12:38Therefore the advice is too prompt, yes, go the way of your passion.
12:42Logic must be used to determine how to succeed in your passion.
12:51Logic does not come first.
12:52Obviously passion comes first.
12:55The use of intellect is to find the way to the destination you are passionate about.
13:01The destination has to be determined by passion.
13:05Logic has to be used to find the route to that destination.
13:09True, fully agree.
13:13But there is a great danger when we say this, and I'm repeating this, because that which
13:17you call as your passion is mostly a false passion.
13:24We keep falling in love.
13:26We keep slipping this way, that way.
13:30And then when we stumble, fall, get hurt, we get up and say, oh, I don't know what happened
13:36to me.
13:37Was I drunk or something?
13:42It's a nice realization.
13:44It's just that we don't stay with it.
13:47We realize that the last affair was a bad one and then we walk into another one of the
13:54same kind.
13:55That is the truth of our passions.
13:59Ephemeral, shallow, influenced, hurtful, wasteful.
14:10So do follow your passion.
14:12Logic must ideally be subservient to passion, true.
14:17But check your passion 10 times before you commit yourself to it, which basically means
14:26you need to understand your own mind quite clearly.
14:33What do I fall prey to?
14:36What do I suddenly start feeling attracted to?
14:40Do I have an inner algorithm that the world can crack and therefore enslave me?
14:48A lot of us operate in internal patterns and those internal patterns are not new.
14:55They are very predictable.
14:56And when they are predictable, the world can use those patterns to take control of you.
15:03How do you think the various advertisers operate?
15:06How do you think the entire game of media works?
15:10They know how to influence you.
15:13They very well know that we have an internal algorithm and it's a very simple one.
15:20It can be hacked.
15:22And they hack it every day.
15:24And they make us feel very strongly attracted to things that are inherently useless for
15:30us.
15:31But we feel attracted.
15:32We feel attracted and then we commit our money, our time, sometimes our entire life to something
15:39that has no value actually.
15:43So it is not just persons that deceive us.
15:46There are entire systems, huge institutions that are working just to split you open, then
15:57enter your mind and then control you from there, which is all very unfortunate.
16:04And remember, the ones who want to control are especially looking out for young people
16:15to control.
16:18Because these are the ones that have A. energy, B. a lot of exuberance, C. a life to live.
16:28Therefore, these would be the most useful slaves.
16:32They have another 60 years to live.
16:34If I can capture them, I have guaranteed myself 60 years of nice service.
16:45Additionally, he is going to earn now.
16:50And he is very vulnerable as well, because this is a period of hormonal activity.
16:58So passion should have been a beautiful word.
17:02Unfortunately, it is one of the most dangerous words you should be very cautious of.
17:08Do follow your passion.
17:10But with utmost care, following something random in the name of passion is obviously
17:17not wise.