Something from Mahatma Gandhi's life || AP Neem Candies

Acharya Prashant

Full video: How to know what one must do? || Acharya Prashant (2019) Link:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETDZaDHMF90&t=0s  Video Information: Vishranti Shivir, 06.10.2019, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India  Context:  ~ How to know what is really doable? ~ How to know my real calling? ~ How can we avoid being misled?  Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~

Transcript

00:00 You know, when you are asking that there are so many things and what is it that needs to

00:08 be done, I am reminded of the time when Mahatma Gandhi returned from South Africa to India.

00:18 And he had been in South Africa at the center of a civil movement for quite a while, almost

00:29 two decades, more than two decades.

00:33 In between he had kept coming to India to attend Congress sessions and to visit and

00:37 these things.

00:40 But there was not much depth in those visits.

00:43 So finally when he left South Africa for good and landed in India, in the middle of the

00:53 second decade of the last century, Gopal Krishna Gokhale told him, "No public life for you

01:04 for at least one year.

01:07 Yes, you have been an outstanding leader in South Africa and you had victories and you

01:15 have the capability to mobilize people and rally them behind you.

01:20 But no public life in India for you for at least one year.

01:25 Just abstain.

01:26 Observe, watch, travel, no.

01:33 First of all, read this country.

01:34 Because there are just too many things at too many places.

01:38 You cannot blindly rush into anything.

01:41 At the same time you cannot wait for long, Gandhi.

01:44 You are already in your 40s.

01:48 You are already in your 40s and you are well equipped to do something.

01:53 The kind of experience, the repository that you have cannot be allowed to go waste.

01:57 It must be put in the service of the nation.

02:00 But it cannot be immediately rushed.

02:06 So have some kind of a sabbatical for one year."

02:11 Gandhiji considered Gokhale his teacher and he followed the advice.

02:18 He just kept studying.

02:19 He said, "There are so many things happening in this vast land, from Burma till Afghanistan,

02:31 from Tibet till Lanka."

02:43 And then he started to get a handle on things.

02:52 Then came the Champaran movement.

02:56 It's not that he had consciously selected to be in Champaran.

03:00 That too was a kind of an accident.

03:02 But then when you are prepared, then very solemn accidents happen with you.

03:19 Even accidentally the right things can happen to you only if you are prepared.

03:29 So Gandhiji knew that there was something that needs to be done, but I don't yet know

03:33 what is it that needs to be done.

03:35 Just like your question.

03:36 There are so many things happening everywhere.

03:39 It's a very vast country.

03:41 It's a subcontinent.

03:44 What do I put my hand into?

03:48 So he was reading, he was meeting people, he was travelling extensively.

03:53 You are studying the Indian landscape.

03:59 And then the accident happened.

04:05 Somebody from a god-forsaken village, a district in Bihar came to him and kept shadowing him

04:18 and said that such a thing is happening there and we need you to come and support us and

04:25 defend our rights.

04:29 The British masters are forcibly asking us to grow opium on 15% of our land and that's

04:37 exploitative.

04:38 Are you getting it?

04:43 If you are serious about the whole thing, what would you do?

04:48 You would do what he did.

04:49 You would read, you would meet, you would travel, you would observe, you would be all

04:57 the time alert, you would want to find out an opportunity.

05:05 And it's far easier today, you know.

05:08 It's the information age.

05:11 Even travelling is far easier today.

05:13 At that time to reach Champaran you had to travel on an elephant back.

05:18 That's how Gandhi reached.

05:25 Today all these things are available.

05:28 You can fly to the mazes if you want to.

05:34 And you don't need to fly because all the information is available.

05:37 The videos are there, the perspectives are there.

05:40 What is it that you want?

05:51 So your sincerity is judged by all the background work that you are doing.

06:00 You cannot say you want to do good to the world.

06:02 You cannot say that, for example, you are very concerned with climate change and you

06:08 do not know the scientific basis for all that is happening.

06:15 You cannot just rush into some activity or the other.

06:19 You cannot become a social media warrior or a placard soldier without knowing the fundamentals.

06:33 Don't you want to study the science first?

06:36 Don't you want to know what kind of actions are best suited if you want to fight this

06:43 catastrophe?

06:45 And if you do not know what action is best suited to fight it, how are you taking any

06:50 action?

06:51 I am asking you, with no bias against tree plantation, how do you know that planting

06:57 trees is the best way to counter this menace?

07:00 Do you have the numbers?

07:03 Without having the numbers, why do you just want to offer a nominal service to the cause?

07:16 Must you not first of all study the UN reports?

07:20 And there are so many other organisations keeping a watch over the climate.

07:24 Should you not take out time to go through those reports and know what the whole thing

07:28 is really about?

07:31 Or do you just want to be a do-gooder?

07:36 A society man?

07:37 It is often fashionable to do all these things.

07:57 Study and then act with total commitment and determination.

08:04 If your action is founded on the basis of understanding, then your action becomes irreversible.

08:12 But if your action is coming from some flimsy point, then such action has no momentum.

08:20 It doesn't have longevity because it doesn't have sincerity really.

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