Pretty childhood dreams || Acharya Prashant (2022)

Acharya Prashant

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00:00Good evening, Mr. Acharya Prashad. My question is, when we are little, we all dream a lot

00:17of things. When we grow up, we'll do this, we'll do that. But that time we don't have

00:22an idea about, you know, how adult life will be. Like as kids, we do not know the different

00:27directions we'll be pulled in, the different responsibilities that will come upon us. So

00:31once we start growing, how do we protect those dreams that at once gave us a sense of purpose

00:37or a sense of pleasure. But as we grow up, different things pull our attention because

00:42of which we are not able to focus on. So how do we protect our dreams as we grow up?

00:54The child state is defined by those dreams. Being a child is being dreamy about childish

01:09things. If you want to protect the dreams of childhood, then you are protecting the

01:23state of childhood itself. To grow is to grow into higher dreams. Else, where is growth?

01:42If you still keep desiring the same things that you did when you were three or eight

01:48or thirteen, where is growth? You see, the child has a very underdeveloped consciousness.

02:03The child is very deeply conditioned by his body, his genetic constitution and additionally

02:15the child is absorbing the influences from family, school, television, peers, all those things.

02:32So that's where the dreams of the child are coming from. The child saw that the kid in

02:47the neighborhood has a pilot as his father and this neighborhood kid comes and brags,

03:00you know what, my father flies a jumbo jet. All you have is a little toy. My father flies

03:10an actual plane. And the kid says, I want to be a pilot when I grow up. Is that not

03:20how all childhood dreams germinate? Is there thought involved? Is there consideration,

03:36discretion involved? Is there contemplation involved? Is there any depth in those desires?

03:47Sir, sometimes experiences might trigger those things. Like if you experience a certain

03:54emotion while practicing some action, like for example, while playing music.

04:00No, no, you said if you experience a certain emotion like?

04:04Emotion like pleasure, emotion like happiness, emotion like fulfillment. Obviously from a

04:12child's perspective, a child knows fulfillment only up to his brain capacity or up to his

04:18development. So that way, when something like that is involved, like I get your example,

04:25that is completely true. Like if somebody has a dream because of that, then obviously

04:29it is not something that needs to be protected. But for example, when we are children, we

04:34have more time to ourselves and we play music or we do this or do that. And at some point

04:39it gave us pleasure. But once we grow up, we are pulled into all these different directions

04:43and we lose connect with those things that gave us pleasure or that gave us happiness.

04:48So, you know, we might feel a little bit disillusioned or a little bit disconnected from those things.

04:56So like, I think they are worth preserving because at some point they gave us pleasure

05:01or they gave us happiness.

05:03But the happiness they gave was to a different person altogether. That person is no more.

05:17That person disappeared 20 years back. That person is no more. So, a kid looks for happiness,

05:31an infant looks for pleasure, a grown-up must look for joy. Right? And because you

05:41are no more the 3 or 13 year old, therefore the things that pleased those people, the

05:53pleasurable people are not going to be of much use to you. In fact, there is a danger.

06:03If you stick to the same subjects that were once pleasurable to you, then you will be

06:14blocking your inner growth. Please understand, what you find pleasing is a direct reflection

06:27of how grown up you are, how deep your consciousness is. That's the reason why a man of deep consciousness

06:43takes pleasure and here I am using pleasure as a synonym of joy, which it actually is not,

06:53but just for this conversation. So that man, a developed man finds pleasure in something

07:03entirely different from what a shallow man derives pleasure from. So be very very mindful

07:14of what pleases you. What pleases you will become your destiny. If the same things that

07:26pleased you when you were 8 or 10 still please you, then there is probably a need to introspect.

07:34You see, life is a journey, it's an opportunity. One has to keep moving towards betterment,

07:45towards depth, towards freedom from one's physical tendencies. In our culture and also

07:58across the world, there is a great tendency to romanticize childhood. We keep saying,

08:06oh when we were kids then things were so simple, oh when we were kids then there was so much

08:12freedom. We were kids then life was not complicated and we used to laugh and sing and play and

08:18there were no divisions and there were no responsibilities. We keep saying those things

08:23and we keep yearning for the past. There is a problem here. You are no more the kid.

08:33Therefore you just cannot find pleasure in the same old things. But by that I do not

08:39mean that you must not have pleasure. Now you must have higher pleasures. Those higher

08:46pleasures I am calling as joy. Pleasures you must have but please do not look for pleasures

08:55in the same old things. There is no need to be loyal to your childhood self. It's gone.

09:06The self is continuously changing. The freedom that you experienced in childhood was no freedom

09:15at all. To call childhood as innocent is to conflate innocence with ignorance. There is

09:29no innocence really in childhood. There is just the bliss of ignorance. Had there really

09:37been innocence or simplicity in childhood then childhood wouldn't have so easily corrupted

09:46or degraded into the kind of adulthood that we see all around. You see pure things do

09:59not degrade easily. Then how is it possible that we call all kids as innocent and the

10:07innocence is very easily and universally lost because there was no innocence in the first

10:15place. There was just prakritic biological conditioning amounting to a certain ignorance

10:27and that appears cute to adults. That appears cute to adults and adults say oh this is innocence

10:35because the adults themselves do not know what real innocence means. So real innocence

10:43has to be achieved as an adult. That's the very target of life. Real simplicity or real

10:51freedom is not a thing that a child will ever have. To be free is to be a Krishna or a Buddha

11:04and they were not kids. Now if you want to really have freedom then go to the Gita. Do not try to

11:14go back to your childhood. If you now want to have a carefree life then go to Vedanta.

11:24Do not look back over your shoulder to your memories. The real thing was never there in

11:34the past. So if you are searching for the real thing in the past you are searching obviously

11:40at the wrong place. You will not get it there. The child can be happy because the child has

11:49no responsibilities. The adult has to find the right responsibility to be happy. That's the

11:56difference. Now the adult decides to be the kid once again and sheds his responsibilities.

12:03Makes no sense. So live true to your adulthood. Your problem is not that you are no more a

12:14child. The problem is that you are still not an adult. So be fully grown up. That's where

12:23now you will find joy. And let kiddish things be for kids. We all are given this gift from

12:36the mother that births us. Mother Prakriti. First 4, 5, 3, 10 years of your life you will have the

12:47happiness of lack of knowledge. The typical bliss of ignorance that is there. That is not to be

12:57sought ever again. Life is a journey towards liberation, not towards childhood. So that's my little advice.

13:10Thank you, Sadhguru. One clarification from this question only. Yes, please.

13:20Whether we dream of our past and we cherish our past, since we do not have enough things to think

13:32in present or in future. So there is a vacuum and we go back to our past glories and past achievements

13:39and past joy or past bliss. Is it so? Obviously, you see the present is capable of offering you

13:47very valuable, very pristine and very precious, rather expensive joy. Joy always comes at a cost.

14:02And the present has the potential to offer all of this. But if we are not willing to pay the price,

14:11then we look for a cheaper substitute and that is available in the past. So we keep hankering for the past.

14:24Whatsoever was there in the past, something higher than that is available right now.

14:38If you are continuously desirous of the past and longing and reminiscing, what it means is that

14:48probably you are not doing justice to the present. Otherwise, how will you even get the time,

14:57the mental space to be nostalgic?

15:20No part of this recording may be reproduced without Mooji Media Ltd.'s express consent.

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