How to have clarity in life? || Acharya Prashant, with Delhi University (2022)

Acharya Prashant

Video Information: Delhi University, 15.01.2022, Rishikesh, India  Context: ~ What work to choose in life? ~ Should one seek social validation while choosing work? ~ How important is money while choosing work? ~ Why do we often underestimate the circumstances?   Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~  #acharyaprashant #DU

Transcript

00:00I'm Shashank Kashyap from Atmaram Sanatan Dharam College, University of Delhi.

00:14And my question is, I have like a vision about I'm more inclined towards research and entrepreneurship

00:21like stuff.

00:22But whenever I discuss with people, they usually tell me that you first seek for a job and

00:29get the job, get some money and after that you can go for these things because these

00:32are the things that involve risk.

00:35So in your video, I have seen that you're telling that one needs clarity in life.

00:41So living in between these people who have a hard mentality following what rest of the

00:48people are doing.

00:49So in between these people, how to get that clarity in life?

00:58See clarity in the inner sense is attained by observing fog and haze.

01:10All that obfuscates your clarity is to be known.

01:15This is the process of attaining clarity.

01:19So if these people are around you, first of all, see they are around you there because

01:23they are within you.

01:26Otherwise they couldn't have been around you.

01:30People who discourage you or people who want you to be risk averse, people who want you

01:37to avoid obstacles and go for a pleasure filled and easy comfortable life, if they surround

01:46you from outside, it is because they occupy you from within.

01:51And they have to be observed because observing them is in some way self-observation.

01:57When you observe these people outside of you, you are observing your face in their faces.

02:04Listen to their arguments, their arguments are your own arguments against yourself.

02:11Their arguments couldn't have affected you had they not resonated with something inside

02:16of you.

02:20So listen to what they are saying, see where they are coming from, see how their lives

02:23are and then ask yourself, is that where I want to spend my life?

02:29Is that how I want to live?

02:32Because their arguments aren't in a vacuum.

02:35Everything is connected to everything else.

02:37The way for example their personal life is, is very much related to how their professional

02:43choices are.

02:46The way their eyes look, the way their faces look, the kind of political opinions that

02:51they hold, they are all integrated and they are coming from the same center.

02:59You want to live that way, it's a choice you have to make.

03:05And remember it's a very important choice because something within you definitely wants

03:09to live that way.

03:11Something within you definitely wants to emulate them.

03:16You must know what you are going to get into if you emulate.

03:20They are all following a pattern, they are all part of a certain crowd.

03:25You must know where that pattern is coming from.

03:28You must know whose desires they are fulfilling.

03:33You must ask what is the purpose of such a life and you must ask whether life must have

03:39a purpose at all.

03:41Then you must ask what does it feel like to live without a purpose.

03:50And sir, how to counter their arguments?

03:54Their arguments are not their arguments.

03:56Had their arguments just been their own, you wouldn't have needed to counter them.

04:00What is the need to counter their arguments, first of all, please tell me.

04:05It seems you want to borrow a phrase or argument from me so that you can use it as ammunition

04:11against them.

04:12But first of all, why is there a need to counter them at all?

04:16Let them say what they want to say.

04:20So because sometimes I feel that if I'm surrounded by such kind of people, then somewhere my

04:25mentality is getting contaminated by their thoughts.

04:28But why are you surrounded by such people?

04:32Because everyone is like that, only everyone wants to live without a purpose.

04:37Not everyone is like that.

04:39Everyone around you is probably like that.

04:42Now that's the question you need to answer.

04:45Why have you in particular surrounded yourself with such people?

04:51That's what I'm saying, Shashank, something within you is very comfortable with what they

04:58are saying.

05:00Something within you resonates and rhymes with their opinions.

05:05They are representing your own face to you.

05:10That's why they have such power over you, else you would have just dismissed them with

05:16indifference.

05:17Right now, you find it difficult to be indifferent to their opinions, because they are reaching

05:25out to their ally within you.

05:33Something within you is allying with them very intimately and that's a bigger problem.

05:41People outside of you can change.

05:44Maybe you go some other place and you will find a different set of people, at least physically.

05:51But how will you get rid of that same person within you?

05:57And if that same person within you remains the way it is, it will again find and attract

06:03its own buddies, its own type.

06:07And you will say, oh, but you know, such people are everywhere, they are not everywhere.

06:12They come to places where they have a conducive environment.

06:21They speak to people who lend their ears to them.

06:27Why are you so open to them?

06:31Are flies found at all places?

06:33Tell me.

06:34No, sir.

06:35Where are they found?

06:36Where there is a dirt.

06:39Exactly.

06:40Name the dirt.

06:41Like dung or like a garbage or gutter.

06:48Right.

06:49Right.

06:51So, sir, how to counter that like inner part of that consciousness and lift up the consciousness

06:58so that those people can go away?

07:01Those who wanted to help you made themselves available in various ways so that you may

07:09have their company, so that you are not forced to dwell in bad company, so that freedom means

07:18more to you than security.

07:22Why not be with them?

07:24They left their books behind.

07:27Why else did they write books?

07:30They were not suckers for popularity or respect.

07:40They had gone far beyond that.

07:43They left their words behind so that you may find good company in them.

07:54And this is the age of technology, not only books, you also have various other forms and

08:00media.

08:01You have audios, you have videos, you have many other things.

08:07So be with them, be with them.

08:10As you find your internal world changing, you will find you need to associate with the

08:20cowardly kind of people is reducing.

08:27Only your reverence for the right kind of people will increase.

08:33These two go in tandem.

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