Video Information: 12.01.23, BITS, Goa
Context:
~ Very uncertain of your abilities?
~ How to get rid of insecurities?
~ How do I identify my strengths and weaknesses?
~ Where does one's real strength lie?
~ Ashamed of your height?
~ Is beauty something to be proud of?
~ How do I identify and develop my potential?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
#acharyaprashant #strength #weakness #realbeauty #potential
Context:
~ Very uncertain of your abilities?
~ How to get rid of insecurities?
~ How do I identify my strengths and weaknesses?
~ Where does one's real strength lie?
~ Ashamed of your height?
~ Is beauty something to be proud of?
~ How do I identify and develop my potential?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
#acharyaprashant #strength #weakness #realbeauty #potential
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00I wanted to ask one last question before we close the session for today. My question was,
00:14I have always been taught, I've been brought up and told by my parents, by my friends,
00:18by my relatives, by my elders, to never voluntarily talk about your strengths and abilities to
00:22somebody else. Now, what has happened is, as I'm observing my life right now, what has
00:26happened is, that has bled into other parts of my life where I'm very unsure of myself
00:30before doing certain other things. And what I feel, the reason for this is, I am, in the
00:37name of humility, I'm actually scared of doing this. Because I have been conditioned that
00:43no, you won't talk about these things unless and until somebody asks you about it. So,
00:47you won't tell that you know this. So, how do I get rid of this insecurity or of this
00:54imposter syndrome, where I feel I am the loser and even though I know I can do something,
01:01I am afraid of doing it?
01:07In your dream, you are a beggar. Right? Should you be ashamed of it? Should you be ashamed
01:22of it? In your dream, you are a champion wrestler. Should you boast of your strength? Should
01:34you? It's not about not being loud about your strengths. It's also not about focusing
01:50on your weaknesses. It's about realizing that what you call as your strengths are not
01:57strengths at all. What you call as your weaknesses are not weaknesses at all. And what you call
02:04as your strengths and weaknesses are not yours at all. That's what humility is, to know oneself.
02:19But the thing with our ignorant society is, it does not live in the truth. It lives in
02:30falseness and then covers up for its falseness by trying to be artificially humble about
02:50the false strengths. Are they strengths at all? Are there weaknesses at all? The definition
03:04of humility is not that you will be modest about your gains, your accomplishments, your
03:13strengths, your powers and what not. Real humility is self-knowledge. And when you know
03:22yourself, you realize how small you are. That's humility. Are you getting it? How do you know
03:38something is your strength? I mean, obviously in your batch, you must be one of the taller ones,
03:45right? How about visiting the American basketball team? Is your height your strength? Is your
04:05height your weakness? In one context, you say it's my strength. In another context, you are a dwarf,
04:13one and a half feet shorter than the shortest one in the team. In the highest context, your height
04:26is not your height at all. It is just coming from the jungle, right? Did you choose to be this high?
04:35And what's there in it to be proud of? Have you earned this height? No, I didn't earn my height,
04:44but I earned my muscles. I worked hard for them. That which prompted you to develop these muscles,
04:51was it really yours or was it a social influence? It was a social influence. Then are your muscles
05:00yours at all? What are you proud of? Real humility does not lie in being humble, modest about my
05:18strengths. It lies in keeping aside the my-ness itself. My-ness. My-ness. It is not mine. How can
05:32I be proud of it? It is not mine. Proud of your black hair? Proud of your black hair? What are you
05:46proud of? How is it yours? You love to say, well, my hair, but are your hair really yours? Are they
05:54yours? They aren't. And a friend here, you know, now, where is Nirmal? Should he be ashamed? What
06:10has he done? When the hair was there, it was not his. When the hair is not there, it is still not
06:20his. What should he be proud or ashamed of? Did he develop his hormones? Women don't go bad. Nirmal
06:34does. And he didn't especially request for the hormones that turn men into this. But we are proud
06:47of such things. I am proud of my beauty. Did you conduct some kind of a beautification surgery,
07:00a plastic surgery on your face? What have you done about it? What have you done? What are you
07:05proud of? It's not even your body. Did you choose your chromosomes? Did you choose your DNA? What
07:12are you proud of? The same thing applies in a bodily sense to the brain as well. IQ 140. I am
07:22proud of my IQ. So I got into computer science. IIT Bombay. What are you proud of? That IQ is
07:29genetic. What are you proud of? What have you done? Using that IQ, if you do something fantastic,
07:39then you are probably entitled to be contended. Still not proud. You are not qualified to be
07:46proud. You are qualified to be fulfilled. A girl, she comes up and says, my beauty,
07:55my beauty. I am stereotyping a bit but stay with it. And then the fellow comes up and says,
08:02my brain, my brain. That's how he is in the beauty and the brains. The beauty, he has not
08:07earned it. The brains, he has not earned it. Why the hell are the two dancing, I do not know. What
08:16have you done? Born a Caucasian, you will have bigger muscles. What have you done? What are you
08:27proud of? Very difficult for India to do very well in athletics, even in soccer. And difficult to
08:46blame Indians entirely for it. Look at the bodies. How will you compete with someone who is 6 feet 6?
08:57Not that it is impossible. And someday, obviously being a nation of 150 crore people, someday
09:08obviously you will field a team in the FIFA World Cup and probably also win it. But still the odds
09:14remain. Are you getting it? Is it yours? If it is not yours, I mean, this is not mine. I am proud of
09:31this plant. I am ashamed of this one. Sir, neither of them is yours. Easy to see that when things are
09:42outside your body. Difficult to see that when the stuff is inside the body and inside the mind. It
09:49is not yours. Not your strength, not your weakness. What really is your strength then? Your real
09:57strength is when you see this. Your real weakness is when you do not see this. Getting it? So be
10:13humble. See that none of this is yours. You are an outsider to all this. That by the way is also
10:22the essence of all spirituality. Know yourself as not this.
10:29Acharya ji, thank you once again from the bottom of my heart, from the bottom of all of our hearts for enlightening us with your passion and with your knowledge for granting us your time, your valuable time.
10:49And I am extremely sure all of us have learnt a thing or two from this session. And I am sure a lot of our queries have been answered very very thoroughly and very explicitly as well by Acharya ji.
11:01Acharya ji, I would like to thank you once again for giving us your time. And now I would like to invite Dr. Wadhiraj to gift you a memento from our side.
11:09I am really in awe of your patience. When I was your age, it would have been very difficult for me to tolerate such a thing for what, two, two and a half hours?
11:31Three hours. Four hours. Champions. I couldn't have done that. I just hope this makes a beginning for at least some of you.
11:50Really humbly wish. I see great possibilities, wonderful opportunities here. The potential is unlimited.
12:05I am not saying this just as a formal closing note. Please. I just have no taste for false kind of formalities. I really see that.
12:22First of all, coming here is difficult. And sitting through this is very very difficult.
12:34I don't have a scale on which to express how much I wish you all have a great great life. So you will just have to take my word for it.
13:00I really want your best potential to be actualized. Thank you.