Your interests are not yours || Acharya Prashant, at BITS Goa (2024)

Acharya Prashant

‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? 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?...   Read 3 handpicked wisdom articles, just for you: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/articl...  ➖➖➖➖➖➖  #acharyaprashant  Video Information: 03.09.2024, BITS Pilani Goa  Context: What is real interest? Are our choices liberating us or rather confining us? From where are choices coming? How did you discover what to do in life?  How to discover our calling?  How to meet our highest potential?  How to be successful in life and achieve excellence?   Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~

Transcript

00:00My question was regarding Vastavik Ruchi, which means relevant interest.

00:12Now I find it very abstract to put in my head, what does Vastavik Ruchi mean?

00:21More so, you've also explained that Ruchi stems from the ego and you should choose something

00:26that is beneficial to all of mankind or this world.

00:32How do you submit yourself to a task that is beneficial to all of mankind or something

00:39that is indifferent to your interests?

00:45See, we'll have to get the framework right.

00:52What we call as our interests or the usual quick unconscious choices, where do they come

01:02from?

01:07In a macro sense, they come from our bodily composition, in a very macro sense.

01:17For example, you can choose to have this kind of food or that kind of food or that kind

01:29of food, in that you can have a choice.

01:33But you will never choose to have 500 kilograms of food.

01:40You can choose whichever type of food you want, but you will never choose 500 kilograms

01:46of it.

01:47Would you?

01:48Because that's not something that your body will allow.

01:51Similarly, you can choose red, blue, yellow, orange, any color from the spectrum, but you

02:02will never, if I ask you here, what's your favorite color please?

02:10You will never respond with a color that stands at 2000 angstrom or 20,000 angstrom.

02:18Would you?

02:20You would always respond with some color that stands between 4000 and 8000 angstrom, the

02:26visible spectrum.

02:27Correct?

02:28Now, within this very, very narrow spectrum lies the infinite diversity of human choice.

02:37Does it not?

02:38So, we keep saying, you know, I like that, I like that, I like that, you know, I like

02:42that.

02:43No, no, no, I don't like that.

02:44I hate him because he likes that.

02:46I hate him because he likes that.

02:48I love him because his likes are similar to mine.

02:51But the point remains that all these likes and dislikes are between 4000 and 8000 angstrom.

02:59We have never had a human being who likes a color that stands at 2000 angstroms of wavelength.

03:11So, at a very macro level, our choices are confined by our physical constitution itself.

03:20That we rarely see.

03:27If I ask you, you know, alright, which finger do you like?

03:32Which finger do you like?

03:33So, you will say, you know, somebody will say this one, this one, this one.

03:38Being students, a lot of us will like the middle finger.

03:43But there would be hardly anybody who would say that I like the 22nd finger.

03:50Because your body itself does not support that.

03:52So, it sounds in fact so absurd, 22nd finger.

03:58What does he mean by that?

03:59Nobody is going to choose that, right?

04:02The 22nd finger.

04:04So, in the macro sense, choices are delimited by the body itself.

04:11What I said about the visible spectrum is also true about the aural spectrum, right?

04:1820 Hz to 20000 Hz.

04:23If you are hearing something, you are listening to something very very attentively.

04:30What I can immediately know is that the frequency would be between 20 and 20000 Hz.

04:38No choice of yours will take you beyond these two boundaries, or would it?

04:45Then you come to the social impact on choices.

04:48First of all, as you are born, the body has already decided that from zero till infinity,

04:59you will choose only between 4000 and 8000.

05:03Do you see what kind of constriction it is of choices?

05:074000 to 8000, what percentage is it of the total electromagnetic spectrum?

05:15Please tell me.

05:18Please tell me.

05:2010%?

05:241%?

05:260.1%?

05:28Not even that.

05:30So, do you see that you are born into limits?

05:34Even as you are born, the birth itself has dictated your choices and we keep jumping

05:42and shouting, oh no, I need to have free choice, free choice.

05:45What free choice?

05:47All freedom is between 4000 and 8000.

05:51All freedom lies only between 4000 and 8000.

05:56The very event of birth has taken away choice, so to say.

06:04Do you get this?

06:05Now, having taken birth, if you are a Hindu, if you are a Muslim, if you come from an urban

06:16background, if you come from a rural place, if you come from India, if you come from China,

06:20if you come from Africa, again, even within this small spectrum that is given to you,

06:27from 4000 to 8000, boundaries are set for you.

06:31Are they not?

06:32Are they not?

06:35Now, whatever you choose is now narrowed down to a smaller domain and yet we talk of choices

06:48as if choices were something so fundamental, so great and so liberating.

06:56Are our choices liberating us or rather confining us, please tell me.

07:03You have been taught, for example, to some of us, let's say, some of us, the sound of

07:12the Azan, the tolling of the temple bell and their different frequencies, are they not?

07:20Different amplitudes, everything, the whole waveform is different and you say that's my

07:25choice, that's the sound of my choice.

07:31Very difficult if you are born in Germany, that you would know of Tansen, difficult you

07:38would have heard of Meghmalhar and not too many Indians would know of Beethoven and Mozart.

07:45Maybe the names are heard but there would not be a taste into them.

07:50Think of choice, as a German what do you say, I love, I love Mozart, you say that's my choice.

08:01Is that a choice or is that a fallout of your being a German, please tell me.

08:11You are born in India, hardly anyone does not play cricket.

08:16What if you go to Brazil or Argentina?

08:21So is cricket a choice or is it rather an imposition of the circumstances?

08:30I am asking you.

08:31You say you love cricket.

08:32Do you really love cricket?

08:34Love involves a very very conscious choice.

08:38If cricket has come to you only because you are born in a particular country, how is cricket

08:43a choice?

08:45Now cricket is some kind of helplessness, choicelessness.

08:54What do I do?

08:55Being born in India, I will have to love cricket.

08:59Is it choice then?

09:03Are you getting?

09:04So the first thing is not about asking what do I choose, it's about seeing that all our

09:10choices are very conditioned things.

09:18That what we call as choices come right from our conditioning.

09:23They are not indicators of our freedom at all.

09:28In general you say I need to have the freedom to choose.

09:32The fact might be totally different.

09:35The fact might be that your choices do not indicate your freedom, rather they indicate

09:43your lack of freedom.

09:46When you choose cricket for example in India, does it indicate freedom or lack of freedom?

09:50Please tell me.

09:53Lack of freedom.

09:58You couldn't have chosen otherwise.

10:00You had no option.

10:01Are you getting?

10:02So we are very interested in asking what to choose next.

10:12But is the question arising in a vacuum?

10:16Are we not constantly every moment already choosing a lot?

10:21Is not the whole thing of choice a process?

10:26And if you are already choosing and choosing from a particular center, using particular

10:31criteria, from a particular state of consciousness, is it not more important to ask why am I choosing

10:38this that I am choosing right now or must I ask what do I choose next?

10:47If I stand still here, please understand, if I stand still here, probably it makes sense

10:53to ask which way to go.

10:56Probably it makes sense to ask which way to go.

10:59But who am I?

11:00I am the mover, I am the runner.

11:03I am all the time not just running, actually sprinting towards my desires, my goals and

11:10my goals are ostensibly my choices.

11:12I chose my goal.

11:13I choose that thing.

11:14I want that thing.

11:16I am already running towards something and that which I am running towards, I am quite

11:22convinced of it.

11:23Am I not?

11:24I want that thing.

11:27I want that trophy.

11:28I want those marks.

11:30I want that job.

11:32I want him to respect me.

11:34I want that boy or girl.

11:36I am already very confident of the direction in which I am running and then this speaker

11:42comes in and you ask, sir, what should I move towards?

11:45My answer will be, but you aren't standing still.

11:52What should I move towards is a question that behoves someone who is standing still.

11:59Only he can ask.

12:00I do not know.

12:01Since I do not know, so I am standing still.

12:04So please tell me which way to go.

12:08If you do not know which way to go, what do you do first thing?

12:12You stop, don't you?

12:15Now is the time of the GPS, but let's say you are in the year 2000 and you needed to

12:22stop for instructions.

12:26Students won't know.

12:27They are not born then.

12:29But the elder ones would.

12:32So what do I do?

12:34If I am rushing towards a particular direction on a road, how do I ask anybody for instructions

12:40or help?

12:42And if I want to know the way, what is the first thing I do?

12:47I stop and I say, I have to go to Jaipur, how do I go?

12:53Or I have to go anywhere.

12:54Is there a restaurant here?

12:58You stop and ask, right?

13:00The first thing is to stop.

13:03Without stopping, you are just a slave of the unconscious choices that you are pursuing.

13:10And if you don't stop and you ask that fellow, Bhaiya, kaha jaana hai?

13:14He won't respond or would he?

13:17Even if he responds, would you get his response?

13:22You would be gone by the time his response comes.

13:27Is that not so?

13:29So we are not sitting at the origin, zero zero.

13:32We are not standing still.

13:37In a great unconscious momentum, we are flowing.

13:43The first thing is to stop flowing.

13:46The first thing is to drop out of the flow.

13:52A great stream is carrying you along.

13:57The first thing is to somehow manage to come ashore and then you sit there for a while.

14:05Let your mind be settled and then ask yourself, here, this is me, this is life, what do I

14:11do with it?

14:13But that question cannot be asked when you are already hurrying towards a particular

14:17direction.

14:18Are we not already hurrying?

14:19Please tell me.

14:20So when you are already hurrying, how to get an answer, forget about an answer, how even

14:28to ask a question?

14:32First thing is to have the courage to stop and if you cannot stop permanently, stop at

14:38least for a while, it's called taking stock.

14:42Just to take stock, stop and then say, okay, this is what I have been doing.

14:48I am 18, 20, 25, 35, whatever.

14:52What is going on?

14:53What is really going on?

14:57It is very difficult to think on the go.

15:02It is very difficult to see clearly when the mind is clouded with desires and ambitions.

15:11The more you are desirous, the more you are goal-oriented, the more ambitious you are,

15:16the less you will know what you are actually doing.

15:21Desire will simply obfuscate your vision.

15:27Is that making sense?

15:29The thing is we stick to our choices, we hold on to them like dear life, like the monkey

15:40does to her little one and sometimes the little one is dead and yet the mother monkey is holding

15:53it to her chest, thinking that there is some danger out there somewhere and she is looking

16:00suspiciously.

16:02She is not even looking at herself to see that the baby is already gone.

16:18I invite you to look impartially at your choices.

16:24This impartial looking is at the foundation, at the center of all wisdom.

16:34Otherwise life is just about being blindly attracted to something and then investing

16:42all your time, money, energy into chasing that thing.

16:47Is that not how it happens?

16:48Please tell me.

16:50You get attracted by something and then you just run after it, you just run after it.

17:00Money goes into it, time goes into it, energy goes into it, life goes into it and if you

17:06get that thing, you rarely find it satisfactory enough and what next?

17:12The next thing and life is limited.

17:20Soon enough you find that you have no energy, no time to chase things anymore.

17:28What is already going on must be reviewed.

17:34But we are more interested in asking what next to do, dump that question.

17:40What next to do is not important at all.

17:43What is important is what am I currently doing?

17:49What next to do is not important at all.

17:54What is much more important is what am I currently doing?

17:58What exactly is going on right now?

18:01What is it that I am busy with day beginning till day end?

18:07That's the important question.

18:11And if you can go into that question, what next to do emerges on its own.

18:18You don't have to answer that, you don't have to plan that up.

18:21It happens, happens on its own.

18:23If you can understand what is going on right now, the future will organically spring from this.

18:31You won't have to plan out a future.

18:34So following up with that, as you've said that what next is to be done will organically

18:42start spring up from whatever we are doing now.

18:45So again, the interest of the collective people, right?

18:51Is it automatically going to happen that what we, is it going to happen on its own?

18:58That was all my question.

18:59It's like this question, where is this particular question coming from?

19:06It's coming from the previous one.

19:09Were this question possible had the questioner not attended to the response to the previous question?

19:20So where is this question coming from?

19:22Had you planned it out?

19:25It just came.

19:27It just came.

19:28It just came out of attention.

19:30He paid attention to what was happening to the previous question and from there came the next question.

19:40And this particular question has a certain authenticity.

19:44A planned, well thought out, cultivated question would never had this authenticity.

19:51It happens spontaneously.

19:54Trust it.

19:56Your job is not to plan out a future.

19:58Your job is to lovingly attend to the present.

20:03Attend to it.

20:04The future will take care of itself.

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