The real Goal dissolves you along the journey to the Goal || Acharya Prashant, on Swami Vivekananda

Acharya Prashant

Video Information: Shabdyog session, 29.3.17, Advait BodhSthal, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India     Description: In this video, Acharya Ji highlights the Bhagavad Gita as a vital philosophical guide, urging listeners to focus on a singular, meaningful idea that transcends superficial goals. He emphasizes that true success and spiritual growth come from dedicating oneself to a grand, timeless goal that demands total surrender and transformation. Acharya Ji warns against trivial pursuits, advocating instead for a journey that involves losing one's ego and material attachments. He uses the metaphor of a candle burning brightly to illustrate the purpose of life: to burn away excess and "die empty," free from worldly burdens, ultimately leading to enlightenment.  Context: ~How to understand the teachings of Swami Vivekananda? ~What makes the Bhagavad Gita a unique philosophical guide compared to mere storytelling? ~How can focusing on a singular, meaningful idea lead to true success? ~Why is it important for a goal to be immense and timeless? ~What are the dangers of setting small, trivial goals in life? ~How does total surrender to a worthy goal transform an individual? ~What does Acharya Ji mean by "dying empty" in the context of living a meaningful life? ~How can the metaphor of a candle burning brightly inspire our approach to life? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~   Music Credits: Milind Date

Transcript

00:00Take up one idea, make that one idea your life, dream of it, think of it, live on that

00:13idea.

00:14Let the brain, the body, muscles, nerves, every part of your body be full of that idea

00:21and just leave every other idea alone.

00:24This is the way to success and this is the way great spiritual giants are produced.

00:30It's just that not every idea will be able to fulfill these conditions.

00:38The idea must have some worth, the idea must have some weight, the idea must have some

00:43gravity, otherwise you will not be able to make that idea your life, otherwise you will

00:48not be able to eat, live, breathe, sleep by that idea.

00:54Mark the words, take up one idea.

00:57That one idea has to be about the one.

01:01It has to be an idea that is arising from the one.

01:05Every other idea would feel these conditions.

01:09Have you not had ideas aplenty already?

01:14Have those ideas really served you well?

01:20Have those ideas survived?

01:24Have you ever been deficient in ideas?

01:27In fact, you have far too many ideas for your comfort.

01:36So you must be very clear about the quality of the idea that Vivekananda is referring

01:41to.

01:41Don't be deceived.

01:42Vivekananda is not saying, take up some random idea and give your life to it.

01:48Not that it is bad.

01:51It is impossible.

01:53Because you will not be able to give your life to any random idea.

01:59Sooner than later, that idea will wither down.

02:02Sooner than later, you will become bored of that idea.

02:06Sooner than later, some other idea will come to substitute that idea, as happens with us.

02:13You have an idea to go to Nainital.

02:16Next day you have an idea to go to Ooty.

02:18What happened to Nainital?

02:20Nainital had no immensity.

02:22That idea was not arising from your heart.

02:26That was just a passing wave.

02:30It went away.

02:30It disappeared.

02:33Now Ooty has come.

02:34Do you think Ooty is going to survive?

02:39You have an idea.

02:40Let me start a business in real estate.

02:46Next day you receive some other news.

02:48Next day you receive some other news.

02:50The first idea is gone, finished.

02:56Vivekananda is saying live by that idea and die by that idea.

02:59That idea, therefore, must have some timelessness.

03:03That idea, therefore, must be irreplaceable by any other idea.

03:09Hence, it cannot be an idea about the so-called little things of the world.

03:15This idea has to be an idea of the immense and you cannot really have an idea of the

03:22immense.

03:22This idea will then be something arising from the immense.

03:29You must, of course, give yourself a goal.

03:35But that goal has to be so total that it totally possesses you.

03:39It consumes you.

03:40If your goal is smaller than yourself, then very soon you will find that you are on top

03:46of your goal in the sense that you are the master of your goal even without achieving

03:51it and hence you substitute your goal.

03:52Don't we do that often?

03:55You set up a goal and because the goal is your goal, you feel that you are the controller

04:02of the goal.

04:04You had decided the goal and if you had decided the goal, you have the power to?

04:07You have the power to?

04:09Let the goal decide you.

04:13Let the goal be on top of you.

04:17Let the goal own you fully.

04:20That is possible only when the goal is God.

04:23That is possible only when the goal is totality itself.

04:28Then you will not be moving towards the goal.

04:30Then the goal would be drawing you in.

04:33Then there is no question of boredom.

04:36Then there is no question of shortage of energy because now the energy would be supplied

04:42by the goal itself.

04:44Now there is also no question of confusion because you are now a slave to the goal.

04:51Let the goal clear the confusion.

04:54You are just allowing yourself to be moved.

04:59You are not really moving.

05:01You are not the doer.

05:02The doer is the goal itself.

05:07As long as the goal is not tremendously big, life has no real purpose.

05:18If your goals are small, there are no goals.

05:22You will be frustrated if you do not achieve them and you will be doubly frustrated if

05:26you achieve them.

05:28Having achieved them, you will find that the next goal is waiting for you.

05:33And that is deep frustration.

05:37You will feel as if all your investment in reaching up to the first goal has totally

05:42gone down the drain.

05:46Give yourself a goal that is the final one.

05:49Give yourself a goal after which no more goals will be needed.

05:54Give yourself the goal after which the goal setter himself would be no more.

06:00That goal can only be that of your total annihilation.

06:04Let me disappear.

06:06Let me surrender myself to something so worthy that it deserves my total sacrifice.

06:15Unless your goal is that magnificent, that worthy, that tremendous, you will be just

06:23frustrated.

06:29Normally, when you have goals, you go to the goal to gain something.

06:46You go to the goal to succeed.

06:53The mark of a real goal is when you reach there, you won't be gaining something.

06:57You will be just losing.

07:00And you know that the movement to that goal is a movement in loss.

07:08So, you are being made an idiot and yet you move to the goal.

07:14That goal has to be so enchanting, so enamoring.

07:21Unless you are completely owned, enamored, you will not allow yourself to be looted and

07:33destroyed.

07:34The real goal dissolves you along the journey and you know that you are being dissolved.

07:44You know that you are paying a price, every step you take, why will you pay a price?

07:57That goal has to be extremely attractive.

08:03Do you get this?

08:05Know whether or not your goal is worthy by this test alone.

08:10Do you expect to gain something upon reaching your goal?

08:14Then that goal is worthless.

08:18Do you know that you are only losing and losing and losing as you go are proceeding towards

08:24the goal?

08:25Then that goal is worthy.

08:28If your goal gives you something, dump that goal.

08:32Real success then is your total failure.

08:38You have totally failed in preserving yourself.

08:40You wanted to preserve yourself and you totally failed.

08:43That is real success.

08:46Only a real goal can give you real success.

08:49False goals will give you a false reality.

08:55A real goal can give you real success.

08:57False goals will give you a false failure and worse still false successes.

09:10False successes are worse than false failures.

09:15You are not in this world to beef yourself up, accumulate, fatten

09:35and then die an obese man.

09:38You are here to burn yourself out and you must burn yourself doubly fast.

09:47The image that I love is that of a candle burning from both ends.

09:53Matter turning into light, sublimation.

09:58That is the purpose of life.

09:59Burn fast.

10:03Turn into light and disappear.

10:05Do not carry a lot of wax, a lot of fat, a lot of material.

10:12Burn it fast, burn it fast.

10:13You were born with a lot, die empty.

10:20You were born with a lot of clothes.

10:22Every child is born from the mother s womb, wearing just too many clothes.

10:31The purpose of life is to die naked.

10:35To keep on peeling off the clothes one after one, layer after layer.

10:46Such a goal must be there, a goal that denudes you.

11:05A lot of it I know sounds like plenty of madness.

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