Then, don't sleep at all || Acharya Prashant, with IIT Bombay (2021)

Acharya Prashant

Video Information: Shastra Kaumudi, 20.12.2021, Rishikesh, India  Context:  ~ Why an IITian loses focus—and what's the purpose of life? ~ Why is there so much suffering in life? ~ Do we suffer by our own choice? ~ How to avoid pain and suffering? ~ How to not be distracted in our lives?   Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~  #acharyaprashant #purposeoflife #youth #distraction

Transcript

00:00Namaste Acharyaji. My name is Savita. I am a PhD student in the Department of Mathematics.

00:09So we all know that if we have a better and beautiful goal in our life, then we should

00:17not be distracted in our life. So how to train our mind so that we have a say over our senses

00:24or we have a say over our thoughts. Suppose we know that we have an aim, we have to achieve

00:30it and let's say for example waking up early is a good habit but then also still in the

00:36night many thoughts will come up and we will keep on watching some videos or we will just

00:42pass time on Netflix and then after sometime we regret the same. So how to get out of this

00:48cycle? Don't sleep at all. Don't sleep at all. There would be no problem such as waking

01:00up at the right time or missing waking up at the right time. See you cannot be trained

01:06into these things. It's a matter of love. The thing is that our entire system, our education,

01:19our neighborhood, the way we are brought up, it stifles all spontaneity. In fact we become

01:31afraid of our spontaneity. More so if I may say as a woman. So we want to be educated

01:45even in love. We want to be trained even in these matters. If you know something is right,

01:55if you really know something is right, you just do it. You don't wait to be trained for

01:59it. Maybe this is something I just cannot wrap my head on but I've always failed to

02:10comprehend how one can claim that one knows something to be right and still does not do

02:16it or does not commit herself to it. The only explanation can be that you really do not

02:24know it fully yet. And knowing something cannot really happen without coming very close

02:35to that thing. To come close to something is to drop what you know about that thing,

02:41your images of that thing and to really be intimate with it. That's love. And when love

02:50is there, then you just bulldoze your habits, your tendencies and such things. Maybe you

03:01cannot force yourself to sleep at the right time, 10 pm, 11 pm, but you know that getting

03:08up in the morning is something of beauty, something of love. So what do you do then?

03:15You say, fine, if I can't get up at the right time, I won't sleep at all. Let these habits

03:22do what they want to do, I will do what I want to do. The habits tell me, we will not

03:31allow you to sleep at the right time. And I am telling the habits, I don't mind whether

03:37I sleep or not, I must be awake at 5 am because sunrise is just so special. So if you will

03:47keep me awake till 2.30 in the morning, I will say, fine, two and a half hours more,

03:53I won't sleep at all. And funnily, if you sleep through the, if you wake through the

04:03entire night, next day you find that you are anyway sleepy at 8 pm. So you will have

04:11to just crash on your bed. See these two things are concurrent, that's a law. Real knowledge

04:29and real action. If you find someone saying, I know, but I cannot act, then you must immediately

04:39know that the fellow does not know. Had he really known, he would have become helpless.

04:50Real knowledge, you could call it realization, renders you totally helpless. Your free will

04:59is gone. The choosing agency, the ego is no more. It has surrendered. It has surrendered

05:06to the immensity, the beauty, the reality of what you have just known. Now you are left

05:12optionless. You don't have a choice to not to act. You will have to act. And if you repeatedly

05:21find yourself not acting, then go close to the thing you claim to know of. There is still

05:31some distance. You need to bridge that. Am I making sense or I am just being too poetic

05:40or something? Yes, certainly. It is very beautifully explained. So, I just want to

05:47know that, how to go close about it, as you said that go and know about the same, know

05:54the benefits. If you are not acting on what you know, that means you are still very, like

06:00a little distance of that thing. You know, there must be some object you are referring

06:07to. Ask yourself, do I really know that object? That object could be sunrise, that object

06:14could be the fact that you want to jog, that object could be a purpose in life, that object

06:27could be a person. If you say that particular object exists and still you cannot act decisively

06:37with respect to that object, then tell yourself that you do not know that object. Once you

06:43know something, there are no two options left. You either act or you don't act. Either you

06:55say I will get up at 5 am, come what may, or you say it's not worth it, I am not getting

07:00up. You don't remain lumbering on that petty middle path kind of thing where you say I

07:12want to get up, I am still not getting up and finally somehow you drag yourself out

07:17of the bed at 7.30 am. No, none of that. So, my advice is, if you set targets for yourself

07:30and you find that you are repeatedly distracted in pursuit of those targets, honestly ask

07:37yourself are those targets even worth it? Maybe you are just going for those targets

07:44due to social pressure or in your ignorance or in some kind of fear and that's why all

07:55the inner power is not coming into play. Your self is not assisting you with its boundless

08:10energy because the self does not act as per the dictates of the world. The only thing

08:24that can make it move is true love or you could say true realization, crystal clear

08:36knowing and then it moves and the power is awesome. You forget all these things about

08:44sleeping, eating, bathing, this, that, looking good, being in others good books, maintaining

08:56your personality as it is, all these things just disappear. Only one thing remains, the

09:06thing that is important and you commit yourself totally to it and you are not bothered about

09:12other things then. So, know fully and keep knowing till your knowledge becomes loving

09:30action and my advice to you as a young student is don't get into things that you have not

09:50really understood. There can never be perfect understanding, one can never be 100% clear

09:59on anything but to the maximum extent possible seek clarity and that will solve a lot of

10:09problems. Clarity will become your driver. You won't need to be motivated, you don't

10:16need to push yourself anymore. See, I would be sounding strange, I know but I am doing

10:30my best to be comprehensible. Beyond this is action and practice. Beyond this words

10:42and counseling cannot help. Beyond this you have to really act and do it on your own.

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