Why become a soldier, when there are other comfortable jobs? ||Acharya Prashant, B.H.U session(2020)

Acharya Prashant

🧔🏻‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquiry-gita-course?cmId=m00046  📚 Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books? Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?cmId=m00046  📝 Read 3 handpicked wisdom articles, just for you: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/articles?cmId=m00046  ➖➖➖➖➖➖  Video Information: 13.07.2020, BHU- Varanasi-Webinar, Greater Noida, U.P.  Context:   ~ How to choose a profession? ~ Career as a soldier ~ Why we always choose a safe and secure job? ~ Choosing Soldier as a profession - a patriotism or just a heroic influence? ~ Where did soldier get the inspiration to become a soldier?  Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~  #acharyaprashant

Transcript

00:00Mohit Bajpai comes up with the next and the last question for the evening and he's saying

00:19Namaste Sir. I want to try for India and the defense services but my family and friends

00:32scare me. They say when you can easily get a good and safe job in Delhi or Bangalore

00:40why do you want to risk your life and become a soldier. What will you get? So how do I

00:51reply to them? Mohit Bajpai, Mohit you have to go to the fundamentals and when I say you

01:10have to go to the fundamentals I'm not trying to assure you that you will be able to convince

01:17those who are trying to scare you away from the life of a soldier. No argument is so absolutely

01:28persuasive that it can move even a die-hard person committed to falseness but it is for

01:45your own understanding that you must know the fundamentals. Who are you and what do you live

01:58for? That's the question to be asked. When those around you say that you can have a nice cozy

02:09comfortable job in Delhi or Bangalore they are basing their argument upon a certain view of the

02:18self. They think of the self as entirely physical as entirely bodily and they think therefore that

02:29the purpose of life is physical carnal gratification. These two things go together. When you will say

02:43that you are fundamentally just the body then you will have to say in the next breath that the

02:57purpose of your life is just the gratification of the body. So far so good but now this raises

03:10an important question. What do you get by defining yourself as the body? Do you get love? Can the body

03:19really love? Does the body know love? The body is just a biological equipment. It's a machine brought

03:35to the current state by the processes of evolution. All that you call as the nectar of life relates to

03:58your consciousness not really your body. Equally all that which you call as your deepest suffering

04:10again relates to your consciousness not to your body. Think of the highest that you have ever

04:20attained in life. Was it really bodily? I hope the answer is no. Else it would mean that you probably

04:31haven't been living a very deep or rich life. Equally think of the deepest suffering you have

04:43ever experienced. Was it bodily? Chances are your answer will be no. Your joys, your elations are

04:54mental and so is your suffering. That which you call as mental does not really relate to your

05:03brain. It relates to your consciousness. Are you getting it? Therefore you get nothing by defining

05:12yourself incorrectly as merely a body out in this world to gratify itself through consumption. This

05:23definition is not only incorrect but actively harmful to you. You will find going by this

05:36definition that you are able to do nothing about your deep sufferings. Going by your definition of

05:47yourself as the body you will find that you are not able to pursue any high joy because alleviation

06:01of suffering as well as attainment of joy are not things that can happen in a physical way. Are you

06:14getting it? So you are unnecessarily condemning yourself to a wasted life by defining yourself

06:22incorrectly. Are you getting it? The purpose of life therefore has to be the sublimation of

06:36consciousness. Our consciousness is an incomplete and suffering consciousness. Our consciousness is

06:46something in bondage that is continuously crying out for liberation and that's the purpose of life.

06:54If that is the purpose of life how should you choose a job or vocation for yourself? Should

07:06you choose a job going just by the kind of money it offers or the kind of place, geographical

07:15location you would be finding yourself at? Or should you consider what that job will give to

07:29you as a man of consciousness? Are you getting it? The way you define yourself completely changes

07:42your choices in life. Define yourself as just a body and you will find that you are choosing one

07:51particular job. Define yourself as just a body and you will find that you are choosing one particular

07:57place to live at. Define yourself as a body and you will find that you are choosing one particular

08:03person to be with or marry and realize yourself as consciousness and you will find that your

08:14choices have totally changed. So you need to have a correct basis for choice. If the basis for choice

08:24is correct then life will be correct otherwise you will be leading a very false life and

08:31that's all that you have. One opportunity to live. If you squander it then what do we have to talk

08:40about? Getting it? So I do not really know why you want to be a soldier but I can probably see

08:54why those around you want you to have a comfortable and conventional job in Delhi or Bangalore or

09:04some other metro or abroad. They want you to have all the safety and security that a job can give

09:16you but how safe and secure can the body be? You know what your body is continuously inching

09:27towards. What's the point in trying to secure something that is destined to disintegrate?

09:37Or isn't it better to make the best use of that thing before it disintegrates? Tell me. Please,

09:51you have a perishable item with you. It could be a food item or it could be some other consumable

10:02stuff. What do you want to do with it? Secure it? Probably you can secure it but for how long? It

10:11has come with an expiry date like all perishables. Maybe you can secure it for one more day but then

10:23the day after that you'll have to throw it away because it would have reached its expiry date.

10:27What's the point in continuously trying to secure it? Why don't you rather make use of it? That's

10:37the body. A perishable thing that has been given to you for three days. Don't secure it last two

10:45days. Secure it, it will last a maximum of three days. Don't you rather want to use the body for

10:53your benefit? Remember you cannot say you want to use the body for your benefit if you say that you

10:57are the body. To say that you can use the body for your benefit, first of all you will have to

11:04acknowledge the difference, the separation between you and the body. Unless you are separate from the

11:11body, how can you use the body? I can use this pen, I can use this mic because I am not the

11:17mic. If I am the mic, how will the mic use itself? So to say that you can make best use of your life,

11:28you first of all have to understand that you are not the entity who lives. Who lives? The body

11:36lives. The body takes birth, the body dies. You are someone else. You are someone else related to

11:45the body, probably contained in the body, probably welded to the body in a very inexorable way but

11:58surely there is some difference between you and the body. You have very definite objectives and

12:05your objective is liberation. The body has no such objective. Your ways and the ways of the body are

12:12dimensionally different. Therefore, what relationship can you have with the body? Your relationship with

12:20the body must be to put the body to the optimum use, best use before it reaches its expiry date.

12:27Are you getting it? Therefore, the argument that your dear ones are putting forward are very

12:37insubstantial. They are saying be safe, be secure, gratify yourself. Doesn't make much sense. Instead

12:46of securing this perishable thing called body, make the best use of it. It is in this light that

12:55you must search for a job. Now you say you want to become a soldier. Why do you want to become a

13:02soldier? If you want to become a soldier because it somehow fascinates you or it is fashionable in

13:10the part you come from or it somehow feeds your ego and makes you feel more manly, then the basis

13:24of your choice is not really very different from that of your parents or near ones. Your parents or

13:34near ones are telling you, you are just the body. You do not agree with them and you are saying no,

13:41I am not the body. Instead, I am the subtle body, the ego and therefore I want to be a soldier. If

13:51that is the reason you want to be a soldier, then there is not much difference between you

13:57and those you are contesting. They are asserting you are the gross body and you are asserting that

14:08you are the subtle body. Not much difference. Instead, if you want to become a soldier because

14:16you want to uphold something high, something worthy, something sublime, then it is a different

14:24matter altogether. If you want to become India's soldier because you understand the soul of India

14:32and you think that the soul of India is worth defending, then it's auspicious that you are

14:41thinking of becoming a soldier. Otherwise not. It is not really the action that counts. One has

14:53to look at the intention. One has to look at the constitution of the actor. What makes you inclined

15:02towards the defense services? What exactly would you be defending? If you are defending just a

15:10piece of land or your own self-worth or ego, then there is not much in this choice. But if you know

15:20the great principles that India stands for, if you understand their worth and if you realize

15:30that those principles are worth defending, that those principles are worth laying down your life

15:35for, then I would wholeheartedly recommend to you that you should definitely become a soldier.

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