A small tip for time management || Acharya Prashant, at BITS Goa (2023)

Acharya Prashant

Video Information: 12.01.23, BITS, Goa  Context: ~ How are you so versatile, sir?  ~ One must respect time. ~ How to manage our time? ~ How to develop love for learning?  ~ How to develop a habit of reading? ~ Do Acharya Prashant have any regrets?   Music Credits: Milind Date ~~~~~

Transcript

00:00Sir, I had a question, it's not regarding spiritualism, but I see you as a graduate

00:15of IIT and engineer, you graduated from IIM, then you did civil services, so I wanted to

00:21ask that how are you so versatile and how was your time management, like how were you

00:26able to crack so many different fields like commerce, science and arts?

00:32I respect time a lot, because I know that everybody including me has only a limited

00:46supply of it, so that's one thing that I really dislike, a day badly spent and that's

00:56a battle I always keep fighting, check where your time is going, ensure that not a moment

01:08is wasted.

01:09Like how do you prioritize your tasks, what to do and when to do?

01:16You know what is important, that must be done, where is the question of prioritization, you

01:22know what is important, don't you know what is important?

01:25Everybody knows what is important.

01:27It's just that we do not remain alert enough and sensitive enough and honest enough.

01:33In spite of knowing what is important, we do something else.

01:37Is that not the real problem?

01:38Or is the problem that you do not know what is important?

01:41I am asking you, please.

01:43More often, what is the problem?

01:47Not doing what you already know to be important.

01:49So we already know, at least what is relatively important that we know, we might not know

01:54what is absolutely important, but you know what is relatively important, then why do

01:58you indulge in other things?

02:03And you must have a love for learning.

02:06Another name for deconditioning, another name for love is learning.

02:12In spite of and irrespective of how occupied I am, I carry multiple devices.

02:23And more than 100 tabs are always open in each of them.

02:31And I leave those tabs open, because I revisit whatever I have read.

02:37So I make it a point to revisit, revisit, revisit.

02:40And I'm always reading.

02:42And especially when everybody is gone, just a couple of hours before I finally sleep off,

02:56I read a lot.

02:57If I can't read books, and I'm actually quite disappointed I can't read books so much these

03:06days, I've recently bought this Kindle, yet not started with it.

03:16I hope it works well for me.

03:21But the mobile phone, that's my device.

03:25I'm constantly, constantly, and not just curiosity, very purposeful reading.

03:30I want to learn what is going on continuously.

03:35That's about the world.

03:37That's about the objective universe.

03:41And then the inner learning, I love to keep an eye on myself.

03:51Just as I'm looking at you at this moment, I'm also looking at myself.

03:58So I enjoy being sensitive to what is going on in the body, in the mind.

04:06And I love to catch myself coming up with ready-made reactions.

04:15And I take it to be a thing of pride, for want of a better word.

04:19Pride is not the best word, but I take it to be a thing of pride to defeat myself.

04:26If a situation arises today, and if I have been in a similar situation two years back,

04:36I feel satisfied if my response today is better compared to what it was earlier.

04:47So that kind of challenge I keep giving to myself, a continuous fight against oneself

04:54so that one may improve, one may know learning is an infinite journey.

05:02You must know of what is going on in the world, there is just so much greatness, there is

05:09so much beauty, great works created by our predecessors, our ancients, you must know

05:20of them, that's called external knowledge, avidya.

05:27And equally you must always be aware of what is happening within, the emotions, the reactions,

05:36the frustrations, the anger, the happiness, the lust for pleasure, you must be conscious

05:43of all these things as they happen and you must be able to watch them from a bit of a

05:47distance so that they don't overpower you.

05:51So if you can know both these things, what's happening in the external world and what's

05:56happening in here, I think it will do you a lot of good.

06:01And I have another question, like you did IIT, then IIM, then civil services, and today

06:06you are in a totally different field, that did not require your education qualifications,

06:13so do you have any regrets, like you wasted your time or you did something wrong, you

06:18did not work on the field you are currently in?

06:22I wanted to be in Goa, right?

06:26And they say Jaipur is great in winters, so from Delhi, let's say I came to Goa via Jaipur,

06:35having reached Goa, will you ask me, do you regret not being in Jaipur?

06:40First of all Goa is great, secondly I never wanted to be in Jaipur, I didn't set out to

06:46be in Jaipur.

06:47Jaipur was just en route, it was one of the things that came along the way, I never intended

06:53to settle there and the journey is such that it has to pass through several places.

07:00Any journey passes through several places, that does not mean you miss not being there.

07:08Is there any journey that does not pass through any place?

07:12Even if you are flying, they announce and they tell you that now you are flying over

07:18Bombay, now you are flying over… you always pass through certain places, right?

07:24You never intended to be there, it's just that they were along the route, so I mean fine.

07:30This question is frequently asked.

07:34As a 17 year old, if you decide to go to IIT, I mean what better could you have done?

07:44It's not the 44 year old me deciding to go to IIT, it's a 17 year old me and that me could

07:53not have done any better.

07:58Among all the available fields, that appeared to be the relatively better one.

08:04So I said I will go there.

08:07I have continuously talked of choosing the option that appears to be relatively the best

08:12one where I stood, right?

08:16In my class 12th, IIT, particularly IIT Delhi appeared to be relatively the best option

08:22I had, so I went there.

08:24Having gone there, I saw a little more of the world and said fine, fine, fine.

08:28Now this appears best, so I went there.

08:30It's a continuous journey.

08:32People don't understand this.

08:35They talk as if the self is a fixed entity.

08:37They say if you had to become a Baba, why did you waste a seat?

08:44As if when I was age 3, I had decided on Prashant Advait Foundation.

08:52It all evolves.

08:53It all comes along the way.

08:55Thank you, sir.

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