Fight hard and forget the difference between victory and defeat || Acharya Prashant, with XLRI(2021)

Acharya Prashant

‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant?  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: 02.07.21, XLRI- Jamshedpur (an Online discourse), Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh   Context:  ~ How can one overcome the experience of failure?  ~ How can one live a victorious life?  ~ Which is more essential, winning or having fun?  ~ What distinguishes a pleasant triumph from a real defeat?  ~ If completeness is lacking, how can we be satisfied?    Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~

Transcript

00:00Greetings, sir. Anam here. Thank you for joining us today, sir. So, my question to you is that

00:07in a lot of your talks and even now, you redirect our focus towards ourselves as living beings.

00:14And as living beings, all of us seek contentment and happiness. So, my question to you is,

00:20how does one be content without being complacent? How does one achieve that? Contentment without

00:26complacency, without becoming complacent? See, complacency can be there only when

00:33you have just not bothered to inquire into the facts of your life.

00:42Otherwise, it is impossible to be smug and ultra confident about your state.

00:50None of us, factually, are in a great state internally. It's an unfortunate fact, but a fact

01:00is a fact. So, there is sickness, and there is incompleteness, and there is dissatisfaction,

01:07and there is psychosis, and we are anxious, and we are afraid, and when the placement season comes,

01:16then we are jittery, and when the next fellow gets a higher pay package,

01:23then we are jealous, and we know all these things are there.

01:28And knowing all these things, if we still certify ourselves to be internally healthy,

01:35then there is something very wrong with our compass of honesty. Either that, or

01:49we are so afraid that we just do not even want to inquire within. Am I okay?

01:56Why did I just start trembling? I mean, standing in front of that interview room,

02:02let's say it's a day zero company, and I suddenly find myself weak in the knees and

02:11shaking in my trousers. Why is that happening? And it's a very real happening. It's actually

02:18physical. You can't even say that it was inside, so I didn't see. It is there in the body. You

02:25cannot deny its presence, but having seen all that, if we still want to insist that we are happy

02:37and this and that, then there is a great problem. Now, coming to contentment.

02:45Contentment is just the very last thing.

02:55At your stage in life, as a young person, you should have a lot of dissatisfaction,

03:05lot of dissatisfaction, because

03:09if you settle at the point you already are, inwardly, outwardly, within, without,

03:18then you would be settling at a very sub-optimal point. Your potential is far higher.

03:26So, there is no point talking of contentment at this stage because being what we are at this age

03:33and stage, we do not even know what contentment is, so we are bound to misinterpret it.

03:41So, leave contentment for a later stage. At this point, rebel and rise. See what confines you

03:55and do not accept it. Are you getting it? Fight it out.

04:03And do not bother too much for the result. If you have given a good fight,

04:14then the word contentment can probably kick in. In the sense, I did the utmost I could.

04:23Beyond this, it was not possible for me to do anything. Honestly, I say that.

04:29There is nothing that I held back. I gave the fight more than what I had.

04:37Now, you can probably be contended, but contended not in the sense that the fight is over,

04:42contended in the sense that now you are ready for the next and bigger fight.

04:48Final contentment is final deliverance. It is liberation actually. So, do not talk of that.

04:57When I talk to young people, it is much more advisable that they look at things

05:06and they challenge them, they question them. Believe me and you need not actually, believe me,

05:11you see this thing with your own eyes. Much in the world today needs to be challenged and

05:17demolished. Do not be easily satisfied. Just do not be easily satisfied.

05:26Thank you, sir. Sir, there is a follow-up question which I already had and you touched upon that

05:30topic about the outcome, not bothering more about the outcome. However, sir, we are actually driven,

05:36we are living in this outcome-driven world, goal-oriented, outcome-driven world. So,

05:41how does one achieve that detachment of giving their best while at the same time

05:46not focusing much on the results? No, no, it is not detachment really.

05:52I would say you have to be in love with your war, your action. If you are challenging

06:03something, if you have taken up an enormous project, be in love with it.

06:10I am not talking of detachment, you see. I am talking of love here. Be in love with it and

06:16give it just everything that you have. For that, you first of all require the work to be that

06:23enormous and that lovable. In anything that you enter, in anything that you take up,

06:32the quality of relationship must be so high that you are encouraged to, that you are

06:47you are left choiceless in that regard. You cannot hold yourself back.

06:54You will not say now it is 6 p.m. so I must get up from my seat and leave

07:00or that in this task I was supposed to contribute only so much and no more.

07:10Give it all that you have and once you have given it all that you have,

07:14you will find that you will be left with very little time, space or energy to bother about the

07:22result. See, bothering about the result is an energy intensive affair, is it not?

07:32You may take three hours just preparing for an exam and then you may keep worrying about the

07:40result for 30 days. Worrying, brooding, thinking about the result, all this consumes a lot of our

07:51lives. Now, if you are worrying about the outcome, I would say why do you have spare time at all?

08:01Why has this time firstly not been utilized in the action itself? And if you would say,

08:06well, the deed is done, now I have spare time, I will say then what about the next and the higher

08:11deed? Why are you squandering away even one moment of this precious but limited life?

08:23How come you have the time? So, when one is madly in love, when one is intensely in action,

08:33then outcome becomes immaterial, not because one is indifferent or detached. No,

08:40it is not a case of detachment, it is a case of intense love. I gave everything that I had,

08:50now it is difficult to differentiate between defeat and victory. You could say the one who

09:00could differentiate between these two, the one who could be affected by the outcome

09:07is left with nothing to be affected with. He held back nothing, he gave everything that he, she had.

09:18You see, think of a six-hour Wimbledon final,

09:23think of a six-hour Wimbledon final or a seven-hour match, we have had matches like that.

09:35The loser, believe me, does not really regret that match.

09:43I have read of champions, Grand Slam champions, who when asked about their most unforgettable match

09:51would not talk about one of their Grand Slam finals or semi-finals,

09:56they would talk about one match that they fought and lost.

10:04No, that is one match that they cannot forget, that is one match that brought life to them

10:13as never before, because that was the thing that drained everything out of them.

10:22And finally, when the winning shot was played, neither side could differentiate between victory

10:32and defeat. As a spectator, you would mind who held the trophy, no? And only one of the two

10:41parties is now carrying the trophy. So, you would say, oh, well, Nadal won and Federer lost.

10:50But ask them who have just played a five-setter that extended up to six hours, seven hours.

10:59Ask them and they say, well, this is my most unforgettable match.

11:04I do not remember who won and who lost, that is something I won't remember and the match I

11:10cannot forget. That's the way to live life. Live it so intensely that in the end,

11:18you are left with no energy to be concerned with the result

11:26and that does not mean that you will necessarily meet defeat.

11:30Sometimes there is victory, sometimes there is defeat, but that is not the point. The point is

11:35how you have played the game and play it with all your might. It raises you like anything,

11:42it raises you to enter a bigger game, a higher game and that's the game.

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