Video Information: 02.05.2024, Interview Session, Greater Noida
Description:
In this engaging conversation with Entrepreneur India, Acharya Ji reflects on his childhood experiences that shaped his philosophical outlook and spiritual journey. He shares how his keen observations of the world around him—marked by suffering, discord, and fakeness—sparked a desire for change, even if he didn't know how to articulate it at the time. Acharya Ji describes himself as a curious and mischievous child, deeply interested in reading a wide range of materials, from comic strips to academic theses. Despite his introverted nature, he absorbed the harsh realities of life, such as poverty and animal suffering, which left a profound impact on him. He emphasizes the importance of understanding and confronting these issues rather than offering superficial comfort. Throughout the discussion, he highlights the ongoing process of seeking clarity and understanding in a complex world, shaped by his observations and conversations with his father.
Context:
~ What early experiences shaped his philosophical outlook on life?
~ How did observations of suffering in the world influence his thoughts as a child?
~ In what ways did reading diverse materials contribute to his intellectual growth?
~ What role did his father play in simplifying complex ideas for him?
~ How did he process the harsh realities he witnessed, such as poverty and animal suffering?
~ Why does he believe that superficial comfort is inadequate in the face of genuine suffering?
~ How has his understanding of the world evolved over time?
~ What does he mean when he refers to his journey as "work in progress"?
~ How can observing the world around us lead to deeper insights and personal growth?
🎧 Listen to Acharya Prashant on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/2QmVEAAnsNE7Xs0MW0Li8Y?si=09fbcbc7c99c469b
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~
#AcharyaPrashant #आचार्यप्रशांत #Philosophy
Description:
In this engaging conversation with Entrepreneur India, Acharya Ji reflects on his childhood experiences that shaped his philosophical outlook and spiritual journey. He shares how his keen observations of the world around him—marked by suffering, discord, and fakeness—sparked a desire for change, even if he didn't know how to articulate it at the time. Acharya Ji describes himself as a curious and mischievous child, deeply interested in reading a wide range of materials, from comic strips to academic theses. Despite his introverted nature, he absorbed the harsh realities of life, such as poverty and animal suffering, which left a profound impact on him. He emphasizes the importance of understanding and confronting these issues rather than offering superficial comfort. Throughout the discussion, he highlights the ongoing process of seeking clarity and understanding in a complex world, shaped by his observations and conversations with his father.
Context:
~ What early experiences shaped his philosophical outlook on life?
~ How did observations of suffering in the world influence his thoughts as a child?
~ In what ways did reading diverse materials contribute to his intellectual growth?
~ What role did his father play in simplifying complex ideas for him?
~ How did he process the harsh realities he witnessed, such as poverty and animal suffering?
~ Why does he believe that superficial comfort is inadequate in the face of genuine suffering?
~ How has his understanding of the world evolved over time?
~ What does he mean when he refers to his journey as "work in progress"?
~ How can observing the world around us lead to deeper insights and personal growth?
🎧 Listen to Acharya Prashant on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/2QmVEAAnsNE7Xs0MW0Li8Y?si=09fbcbc7c99c469b
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~
#AcharyaPrashant #आचार्यप्रशांत #Philosophy
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Hi, good evening today at Entrepreneur India.
00:06We have with us Acharya Prashant.
00:07Acharya Prashant, thank you so much for talking to Entrepreneur India.
00:11Welcome.
00:12So, if you take us back to the time when the entire journey began, are there any memories
00:17you have from your childhood when you started thinking about these, I mean, philosophical
00:22teachings or towards spirituality?
00:27There isn't any one particular memorable or epiphanic incident, but it was happening
00:35almost all the time.
00:39So I was looking at the world around, how people are on the streets, in the houses,
00:50in the school, on the playground, and a lot of things would strike me as odd.
01:05So observing and processing were going on all the time.
01:13So I was looking at the world and seeing suffering, discord, disharmony, fakeness, and as a kid
01:29all that was getting registered and questioned, probably even disliked.
01:41So there was an urge to change the shape of things as they currently are.
01:55That's how it is.
01:56I don't remember any one particular incident, though if pressed I can probably pull out
02:04something, but that won't be particularly significant.
02:13So how you were as a child, were you more into reading books of others?
02:18Yes, I was reading a lot, but I was also playing, I was also very mischievous.
02:32So you asked for incident, there is a series of incidents, which we can together call as
02:43one incident, which is that I was the class monitor and also the club head.
02:53They were called houses.
02:55So we had yellow house, red house, green and blue.
02:58So I was leading the yellow house.
03:04So both these are positions of responsibility and gravity, you are the class monitor and
03:08also the house leader and quite often I would be found standing outside the class in punishment.
03:23A lot of teachers, I very fondly remember them, they had a certain liking for me.
03:31So they would come and say, you have to take responsibilities in life and once you are
03:40in class 11th, probably you will become the head boy of the school and why must you bring
03:48this upon yourself?
03:50Being the monitor of the class, why should you of all students be found being punished?
04:02So I was quite a mischievous brat, also a studious one.
04:13I like to go deep into whatever I was doing.
04:18So that led to all the academic accolades.
04:24That also led to the headache that I would cause sometimes to my family, sometimes to
04:30my teachers and when it comes to reading, the reading wasn't
04:41confined to any one particular genre.
04:47So I was hungry and I just sucked in whatever came my way, from little comic strips meant
04:59for class two students to somebody's PhD thesis, even if I couldn't make much of it.
05:11But if I would find a copy of something, anything, for sure I would pick it up and
05:18try to grasp what's going on.
05:23And that made me branch erratically in all directions with no particular plan or pattern.
05:35An organic kind of very natural growth.
05:44I was reading upon all things possible and when we would visit a bookstore, I would never
06:00be satisfied with the number of books purchased that particular visit.
06:08In fact my father would specifically plan visits to bigger cities where we had more
06:16prominent bookstores, just so that we could purchase books for me.
06:22So he was an officer in government service.
06:31So sometimes he would be posted in places that were not quite big and established.
06:40So to get well-stocked bookstores, we needed to travel and we did.
06:47So that was a bit remarkable, to travel just so that you can visit a bookstore.
06:56That was happening once every few months and essays, poems, history, science.
07:11Father himself was quite a well-read person.
07:16So he would bring me quite an assorted set from all possible directions.
07:30So the entire stock that we had was very eclectic.
07:38Sure, so you also mentioned about how you looked at the world in terms of the kind of
07:47suffering it had.
07:49So at that time, would you go to someone and talk about it?
07:55I was a hesitant kid, even if I was mischievous, that mischief was limited to minor circle.
08:04When it comes to outsiders, I am initially quite hesitant in approaching or talking.
08:15I was basically shy.
08:19So I could be called an introvert.
08:26So when I would find suffering in its various shades, all kinds of colors and dimensions,
08:39I would watch.
08:44So for example, an overcrowded train, it would engross me.
08:54The display of poverty and famished bodies, people who were obviously not even eating
09:07well, patched clothes, kids who were obviously not going to school and that would numb me
09:31down.
09:33I'm trying to recollect, I don't remember approaching anybody to speak to them or whatever
09:48knowing fully well that there's nothing that I can really do and probably I was not going
09:57to make a half-hearted attempt.
10:04It was so significant for me, the fact of human suffering, that it was a disgrace to
10:13the suffering one to just go and console him or her.
10:22If suffering actually means so much, then it deserves to be taken head-on or you are
10:36just a pretender.
10:38I mean, there is someone who is on a very nominal kind of diet, needs clothes, needs
11:00a different life altogether and it was not possible for me to go and say, oh, never mind,
11:12God will take care of you or keep trying, one day things will turn for better.
11:25But it would stay with me for long and turn into a quiet silence within.
11:37So, you're not even confided to your family about it?
11:45Not even once.
11:46I don't remember talking to anybody about what I was making of the world.
11:58So, Lucknow, where I did my ICSC, class 7 to class 10, I would be returning home on
12:17my bicycle after school and Nishatganj and there were these shops, butcher's shops and
12:38you would see animals, the chicken being pulled out and their feathers are being plucked
12:54out and there would be a lot of noise from the animal, helpless cries, unnerving cacophony
13:18and then suddenly there would be total silence, he's gone, finished and whenever such a thing
13:28would be happening, I would just stop there and look from a distance.
13:44Then entire bodies hung at the shops, so I would take that in and move on.
14:00Probably I wrote off that once or twice in the essays we were asked to write.
14:12You would vent it out in the form of writing?
14:17I was not venting it out, it was becoming me.
14:22It was not something alien that you could vent out.
14:29You went out stuff that you cannot digest or assimilate.
14:34It kept on going into me and became my bone and my blood and it wasn't dramatic at all.
14:51Having watched all that, I could come to my home, take my lunch, do my homework.
15:04Even play a video game.
15:07It's not that it was like a huge blow on my consciousness.
15:15I was just observing.
15:18It was a continuous backdrop of melancholy with no unusual spikes to demonstrate to anybody
15:30or to register within myself.
15:44At that stage, what that kid wanted to do, what that kid wanted to become?
16:00There was no immediate purpose or objective.
16:22I was just seeing the way things were.
16:26Maybe that seeing was doing something to me within.
16:30Maybe that continuous observation molded my decisions later on.
16:40But I don't remember coming to any kind of conclusion early on.
16:50No, I was not thinking of changing the world.
16:54I wasn't thinking of reforming the society.
17:00I didn't even know why things are the way they are.
17:05In some way, I was just stunned.
17:08When you are stunned, you don't start darting in some direction with purpose.
17:19You are seeing these things and it's a continuous process of passive stunning.
17:27Every single thing.
17:32So, when it comes to career aspirations, because I had exposure to bureaucrats in my family,
17:52so that was a default choice.
17:57If you are an IAS, you can do something good.
18:04In fact, I wasn't very inclined towards engineering.
18:07I went to IIT because the stats told me that most of the top ranks in UPSC are obtained
18:19by IITians.
18:23Last five or ten years, when I would look at the background of the toppers, would find
18:29a lot of IITians there.
18:33So that way engineering became a choice.
18:46I was grouping.
18:47I would be dishonest if I say I had any clear direction and I wasn't exactly in a hurry
18:59because that would have been dishonest.
19:02If I do not clearly understand what's going on, how do I form a definite picture and freeze
19:12a definite plan of action?
19:17The picture was emerging and the plan of action would follow from that.
19:28You see, what I'm calling as cruelty, I didn't know that it's coming from religion or economics,
19:41basic human biology itself.
19:44Maybe we are cruel by our very physical composition.
19:50I didn't know.
19:52I was just seeing something that would shock me.
19:58I didn't understand it.
20:01So I waited for the clarity to emerge and it's still emerging.
20:10It's a work in progress.
20:14The way things are interconnected, the way everywhere it's a play of the same inner tendency.
20:26It took me a long time to come to see that, would sound very dramatic if I say I had clarity
20:39at the age of 15.
20:46That the child prodigy stuff, that wasn't the case, but I was doing what I could.
20:54I was observing, I was reading and on issues that I couldn't grasp, I would have conversations
21:04with my father and he had the knack of simplifying things instantly.
21:13So I could go to him with a problem, the narration of which would last, let's say, 10 minutes
21:24and his response would be 20 seconds, 40 seconds, a minute at max and everything would
21:32stand resolved.
21:36So that's something that I still appreciate, very simple understanding of things that appear
21:47complex.
21:48That understanding itself becomes a solution.
21:55So that's the way it has been.
22:00One thing I think I can give myself some credit for, I didn't try to sweep things under the
22:10carpet.
22:11If I have seen something, I have seen it.
22:13I didn't try to pretend that I understand when I didn't.
22:22I didn't try to trivialize something just because I couldn't wrap my head around it.
22:34If something was beyond my comprehension, I let it stay there.
22:40So and the process remained continuous.
22:47In that sense, not the exact word, but a bit laborious and demanded patience.
23:04I don't know whether all this is making any sense, but that's the way it has been.
23:09It didn't make much sense even to me.
23:10So I don't expect it to be very obvious to everybody, but fine.