Join the Army or Take a Safe Job? || Acharya Prashant, B.H.U (2020)

Acharya Prashant

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00:00Mohit Bajpayee comes up with the next and the last question for the evening.

00:13And he's saying, Namaste, sir.

00:19I want to try for India and the defense services, but my family and friends scare me.

00:28They say, when you can easily get a good and safe job in Delhi or Bangalore, why do you

00:36want to risk your life and become a soldier?

00:43What will you get?

00:45So how do I reply to them?

00:48Mohit Bajpayee.

00:52Mohit, you have to go to the fundamentals and when I say you have to go to the fundamentals,

01:07I'm not trying to assure you that you will be able to convince those who are trying to

01:13scare you away from the life of a soldier.

01:20No argument is so absolutely persuasive that it can move even a die-hard person committed

01:37to falseness, but it is for your own understanding that you must know the fundamentals.

01:49Who are you and what do you live for?

01:56That's the question to be asked.

02:00When those around you say that you can have a nice, cozy, comfortable job in Delhi or Bangalore,

02:07they are basing their argument upon a certain view of the self.

02:16They think of the self as entirely physical, as entirely bodily and they think therefore

02:24that the purpose of life is physical, carnal gratification.

02:34These two things go together.

02:35When you will say that you are fundamentally just the body, then you will have to say in

02:49the next breath that the purpose of your life is just the gratification of the body.

03:00So far so good.

03:03But now this raises an important question, what do you get by defining yourself as the body?

03:12Do you get love?

03:13Can the body really love?

03:15Does the body know love?

03:20The body is just a biological equipment.

03:28As a machine brought to the current state by the processes of evolution.

03:40All that you call as the nectar of life relates to your consciousness, not really your body.

03:57Equally, all that which you call as your deepest suffering, again relates to your consciousness, not to your body.

04:10Think of the highest that you have ever attained in life.

04:19Was it really bodily?

04:20Was it really bodily?

04:22I hope the answer is no.

04:24Else it would mean that you probably haven't been living a very deep or rich life.

04:33Equally think of the deepest suffering you have ever experienced.

04:40Is it bodily?

04:41Chances are your answer will be no.

04:47Your joys, your elations are mental and so is your suffering.

04:53That which you call as mental does not really relate to your brain.

04:59What relates to your consciousness.

05:01Are you getting it?

05:04Therefore you get nothing by defining yourself incorrectly as merely a body out in this world

05:13to gratify itself through consumption.

05:18This definition is not only incorrect but actively harmful to you.

05:28You will find going by this definition that you are able to do nothing about your deep sufferings.

05:40Going by your definition of yourself as the body, you will find that you are not able to pursue

05:50any high joy.

05:54Because alleviation of suffering as well as attainment of joy are not things that can happen in a physical

06:06way.

06:07Are you getting it?

06:10So you are unnecessarily condemning yourself to a wasted life by defining yourself incorrectly.

06:17Are you getting it?

06:24The purpose of life therefore has to be the sublimation of consciousness.

06:32Our consciousness is an incomplete and suffering consciousness.

06:39Our consciousness is something in bondage that is continuously crying out for liberation.

06:48And that's the purpose of life.

06:53If that is the purpose of life, how should you choose a job or vocation for yourself?

07:01Should you choose a job going just by the kind of money it offers?

07:07Or the kind of place, geographical location you would be finding yourself at?

07:18Or should you consider what that job will give to you as a man of consciousness?

07:28Are you getting it?

07:32The way you define yourself completely changes your choices in life.

07:41Define yourself as just a body and you will find that you are choosing one particular job.

07:47Define yourself as just a body and you will find that you are choosing one particular place

07:53person to be with or marry.

08:02And realize yourself as consciousness and you will find that your choices have totally changed.

08:13So you need to have a correct basis for choice.

08:17If the basis for choice is correct then life will be correct otherwise you will be leading

08:25a very false life.

08:27And that's all that you have.

08:28One opportunity to live.

08:31If you squander it then what do we have to talk about?

08:39So I do not really know why you want to be a soldier.

08:47But I can probably see why those around you want you to have a comfortable and conventional

08:55job in Delhi or Bangalore or some other metro or abroad.

09:03They want you to have all the safety and security that a job can give you.

09:12But how safe and secure can the body be?

09:18You know what your body is continuously inching towards.

09:24What's the point in trying to secure something that is destined to disintegrate?

09:35Or isn't it better to make the best use of that thing before it disintegrates, tell me.

09:48You have a perishable item with you.

09:52It could be a food item or it could be some other consumable stuff.

10:00What do you want to do with it?

10:01Secure it?

10:03Probably you can secure it but for how long?

10:06It has come with an expiry date like all perishables.

10:14Maybe you can secure it for one more day.

10:17But then the day after that you will have to throw it away because it would have reached

10:21its expiry date.

10:23What's the point in continuously trying to secure it?

10:27Why don't you rather make use of it?

10:32That's the body.

10:33A perishable thing that has been given to you for three days.

10:38Don't secure it, it will last two days.

10:40Secure it, it will last a maximum of three days.

10:45Don't you rather want to use the body for your benefit?

10:49Remember you cannot say you want to use the body for your benefit if you say that you are

10:53the body.

10:55To say that you can use the body for your benefit, first of all you will have to acknowledge difference

11:01or separation between you and the body.

11:04Unless you are separate from the body, how can you use the body?

11:07I can use this pen, I can use this mic because I am not the mic.

11:13If I am the mic, how will the mic use itself?

11:17So to say that you can make best use of your life, you first of all have to understand that

11:26you are not the entity who lives.

11:29Who lives?

11:30The body lives.

11:31The body takes birth, the body dies.

11:35You are someone else.

11:37You are someone else related to the body.

11:41Probably contained in the body.

11:45Probably welded to the body in a very inexorable way.

11:52But surely there is some difference between you and the body.

11:58You have very definite objectives and your objective is liberation.

12:02The body has no such objective.

12:05Your ways and the ways of the body are dimensionally different.

12:10Therefore, what relationship can you have with the body?

12:14Your relationship with the body must be to put the body to the optimum use, best use before

12:20it reaches its expiry date.

12:25Are you getting it?

12:27Therefore, the argument that your dear ones are putting forward are very insubstantial.

12:33They are saying, be safe, be secure, gratify yourself.

12:37It doesn't make much sense.

12:41Instead of securing this perishable thing called body, make the best use of it.

12:48It is in this light that you must search for a job.

12:53Now you say you want to become a soldier.

12:55Why do you want to become a soldier?

12:59If you want to become a soldier because it somehow fascinates you or it is fashionable in the part

13:06you come from or it somehow feeds your ego and makes you feel more manly, then the basis

13:19of your choice is not really very different from that of your parents or near ones.

13:28Your parents or near ones are telling you, you are just the body.

13:33You do not agree with them and you are saying, no, I am not the body.

13:38Instead, I am the subtle body, the ego and therefore I want to be a soldier.

13:45If that is the reason you want to be a soldier, then there is not much difference between you

13:53and those you are contesting.

13:58They are asserting you are the gross body and you are asserting that you are the subtle body.

14:05Not much difference.

14:07Instead, if you want to become a soldier because you want to uphold something high, something

14:16worthy, something sublime, then it is a different matter altogether.

14:22If you want to become India's soldier because you understand the soul of India and you think

14:28that the soul of India is worth defending, then it is auspicious that you are thinking of becoming

14:37a soldier.

14:39Otherwise not.

14:43It is not really the action that counts.

14:47One has to look at the intention.

14:49One has to look at the constitution of the actor.

14:54What makes you inclined towards the defense services?

15:00What exactly would you be defending?

15:03If you are defending just a piece of land or your own self-worth or ego, then there is

15:10not much in this choice.

15:14But if you know the great principles that India stands for, if you understand their worth,

15:24and if you realize that those principles are worth defending, that those principles are

15:29worth laying down your life for, then I would wholeheartedly recommend to you that you should

15:36definitely become a soldier.

15:39Right?

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