Why does one crave to become better? ll Acharya Prashant (2018)

Acharya Prashant

‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquir...  ⚡ Want Acharya Prashant’s regular updates? Join WhatsApp Channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Va6Z...   Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books? Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...   Want to accelerate Acharya Prashant’s work? Contribute: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/contri...   Want to work with Acharya Prashant? Apply to the Foundation here: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/hiring...  ➖➖➖➖➖➖  Video Information: Myth Demolition Tour, 27.02.2018, Rishikesh, India  Context: ~ What is betterment? ~ Why does one crave to become better? ~ What is loneliness?  ~ Can visualisation help in achieving the goal? ~ When do we think for further improvement?  Music Credits: Milind Date ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .

Transcript

00:00 There is a person who is dreaming about betterment and sitting at her place, she is visualizing

00:19 how things would be after betterment. And she says that the visualization energizes

00:29 her and fantasizing about the end point makes her happy. This is the situation. Let's go

00:39 into it. Find it interesting? I think of betterment because I take myself as deficient. If I don't

00:59 treat myself as incomplete or deficient, I cannot think of betterment. In contentment,

01:13 it is absurd to think of further improvement. We are talking of the I sense, the I sense

01:23 that takes itself as lacking in something. Because it takes itself as lacking in something,

01:31 so it thinks of betterment. What we miss here often is that the thought and the thinker

01:45 will always share the same quality. The action and the actor will always share the same quality.

01:58 The imagination and the one imagining will always be of the same quality. Getting it?

02:13 Now, if I say that I am imagining precisely because I do not like the way I am, I want

02:23 to change because I do not feel all right with the way I am, then who am I in my own

02:29 estimation? Somebody, please, somebody deficient, somebody incomplete. And if I am incomplete,

02:40 then sitting where I am, what would be the quality of my action, thought and imagination?

02:46 They too would be of incomplete nature. So incompleteness is projecting more incompleteness

02:55 for itself and then trying with all its might to reach more incompleteness. How will that

03:02 help? Please get this. Let us take the extreme and crass example of a drunkard. It is an

03:14 extreme example, I understand. So just stay with it. If one is drunk and one is thinking

03:22 of improvement in his drunken state, and when you are drunk, you think of a lot of things

03:29 that you usually don't think of. If one is drunk and one is thinking of improvement,

03:35 and one is thinking of improvement precisely because one is drunk, then what would be the

03:40 quality of that dream or vision? I have already declared myself as lacking or poor or deficient.

03:50 And if I am lacking or poor or deficient, how will I dream of a total and complete and

03:57 whole future? My vision too would just be a polished version of who I already am. And

04:08 I am, in my own estimation, not good enough. My dreams would only be a refined version

04:20 of my current state. They will not be able to take me beyond myself. And that is why

04:28 dreamers keep failing. That is why the progress that dreams give us are only cosmetic. Yes,

04:38 dream changes, but only on the surface. Real change never comes. When you make a goal for

04:50 yourself, pay attention to the state of the goal setter as well. If you are afraid, what

04:58 would be the quality of your goal? The goal would contain a lot of fear. And you set a

05:05 lot of goals when you are afraid. In fact, the more afraid you are, the more you would

05:10 want to reach to the next goal because you will not be comfortable with your current

05:15 state. So you would want to quickly shift to the other state of the goal. You would

05:21 say, I don't like this state. I am afraid. I am afraid. So that's my goal. But because

05:26 you are setting that goal in your current state, that goal would have all the elements

05:31 of fear, but hidden. And because they would be hidden, so you would be tripped into thinking

05:40 that your dream or imagination will take you away from fear. That can't happen. That can't

05:50 happen. Which means, very interestingly, that goal setting or dreaming or visualizing defeats

06:03 its own purpose. The moment you visualize, you have certified that you are not worthy

06:11 of visualizing. Because you visualize only when you are not alright with yourself. And

06:17 if you are not alright with yourself, then this is not the right time to visualize. Dreaming

06:29 defeats the dreamer. Dreaming defeats the very purpose of dreaming. One therefore has

06:39 to simply open her eyes to the fact of today, the fact of living, the fact of how one is

06:52 operating through the 24-hour cycle. That probably may help really. For example, if

07:13 the person was to visualize from a place of wholeness, in that end goal that has been

07:23 visualized, if there was maybe like a dis-identification with what that is, and it just be what it

07:37 is. Wonderful.

07:40 From a place of wholeness, one doesn't visualize. From a place of wholeness, one creates without

07:51 purpose. And there can be no purposeful creativity. If you are whole, then too you act, then too

08:02 you think. But that thinking is not about making up for your perceived deficiencies.

08:13 Then you just act, then you just think, then you do not act for a reason, then you do not

08:19 think with a target. This just acting, that is the elixir of life. To act without knowing

08:34 what the action would lead to, and having the courage and the boldness and the faith

08:40 to act without knowing what the action would result into. To live without knowing what

08:48 the future would bring. To create without knowing whether the creation would fetch

08:55 any material returns or not. To dance without bothering whether somebody is applauding or

09:01 not. That is creativity.

09:07 When we are talking about creativity, right, so, and about being a dreamer, right, so a

09:23 dreamer dreams a lot, right? He has got his creating visions for himself. Probably, being

09:33 from a creative side, what I feel is like, if I do not have that material base of my

09:41 visions, when it comes to creating something, I would not be able to create, right? Because

09:49 these imaginations are the support, these are the bricks that are supporting that creation,

09:55 right? Somewhere down the line, though I may be dreaming, right? So, coming from the dance

10:00 thing, so suppose I tell you, I was travelling to Mumbai for some office trip. I met a model,

10:08 had a conversation. Last year, I had met another model, both have different natures. From that,

10:15 I took those pieces, created a story which is on dance. Probably, I would not be able

10:21 to make and direct it right now, but at least I have a story. I have visualisation from

10:27 which something has been created.

10:30 You see, creativity is love. It does not bother for what practical resources you have. What

10:39 you are saying is, you give the first position to what you have and then creativity is built

10:44 on that. Not really. If creativity is real, it would spring into the unknown and then

10:55 would find whether resources are available. If resources are there, then obviously you

11:03 are using them only for predetermined purposes. Then how is there creativity? Please understand

11:11 this. Secondly, creativity is not a side. That which is normally called as creativity

11:20 in commerce or arts or advertising or theatre or whatever is hardly creative. Creativity

11:28 is not a field. Every field is going to be limited. Creativity is a moment to moment

11:37 way of living. You cannot call certain professions as creative professions and certain professions

11:47 as commercial or uncreative or mechanical or whatever. Either your very breath is creative

11:56 or you are not. There is nothing called a creative field.

12:02 So, one other thing that probably I would like to share, but just because the video

12:13 is on, I was sharing with this gentleman. I found him very positive and energetic. It's

12:23 a very interesting story that how I am right now in Rishikesh. I was driving for office,

12:30 something like things were not working fine, both at family and at office. I just snapped

12:39 into and I just parked my car at the airport, took a bus, metro, then a bus, Zeradun and

12:47 now I'm sitting in Rishikesh. And man, it's been around more than 24 hours I have not

12:55 informed my family. I'm into this question that how...

13:01 So, you know what creativity is, right? And this act is not going to be certified or validated

13:09 as a great creative act by anybody outside of you. But you know very well now what is

13:18 creativity. It's not coming up with a masterpiece. It's not about coming up with something that

13:24 is demonstrable. It's about living in a certain way, which is not quite a way.

13:35 I tend to do things which are not appreciable by others and this is causing trouble. But

13:49 you decide what do you love more, creativity or troublelessness? One has to take the call.

13:58 Would you say that is spontaneous action? Yes, it is spontaneous. But then if I switch

14:07 on this bulb, this too is spontaneous in its reaction. It takes no time for the bulb to

14:16 start emitting light. That's a different quality of spontaneity. That's a spontaneity in which

14:24 there could possibly have been a lag. But now there is not. Here it has no option to

14:34 not to react when it's asked to. Are you getting it? Similarly, a short-tempered man has no

14:44 option to not to react when abused. That too is spontaneous. You abuse me, I abuse back.

14:53 That too is spontaneous. Spontaneity is when you could not have been probably and possibly

15:01 spontaneous. Your fears could have arrested you. You could have sought time to think over,

15:08 mull over and come up with a safe and secure response. But then there was something more

15:14 attractive, more lovable than safety and security. So you decided to not to take any time and

15:27 rush towards that lovable thing. That is creativity. Life is either creative or it's the life

15:43 of this audio system, of this camera, of this bulb, programmed. If there is not creativity,

15:57 then there is a programmed life. Then everything is programmed. Love is programmed. Vacations

16:08 are programmed. God is programmed. Meditation is programmed. But we are, aren't we? Yes,

16:17 unfortunately most of us are programmed. The redeeming part is something in us does not

16:24 like our state. So even though we might be living programmed lives, yet we want to be

16:35 somewhere else. We don't like where we are. Nobody likes where he is. That's wonderful.

16:46 Dangerous are those who have settled comfortably into their programs. Very dangerous are those

16:54 who have now come to an agreement and have made a deal with their programming.

17:05 So do you think that there is, though we sometimes take spontaneous decisions, but I somehow

17:17 feel that they are also somehow guided somewhere. So my life is driving, so I have to take a

17:24 u-turn to my office. Now that day, yesterday, there's been a new road which has been channelized.

17:34 So they are like, this is for the u-turn, this is for if you have to go straight. And

17:39 because it is for the first time, so I get confused and I take this one. And then I am

17:44 having second thoughts. Should I take a u-turn or whatever thought is coming into my mind,

17:50 I take it. And I didn't take that deliberately. So I just couldn't manage in traffic. I went

18:00 into that lane and I'm driving straight, I'm driving straight. And then I said, I go for

18:08 it. So supposedly, it's not spontaneous. That is what somehow guided.

18:16 You see, there is nobody who gets no taste of the beyond in his daily life. The tragic

18:28 part is, we get a taste of that and yet do not feel sure enough to plunge into that.

18:45 In fact, life would have been without any suffering had we had no taste of freedom or

18:55 love. The great tragedy is, somewhere we know what truth is, what freedom is, and what it

19:12 means to live lightly. Because we know that, therefore, we suffer all the more. Because

19:22 now we also know what we are missing out on. Had you had no experience, no intimacy with

19:36 the beyond, then you would have been as trouble-free as a machine. No machine ever weeps. But you

19:48 know what is your great possibility. And therefore, you weep because you deny that great possibility

19:58 to yourself. To a machine, there is no great possibility, so it doesn't weep. To you, that

20:06 possibility very much exists. And man lives so that that possibility can be achieved,

20:15 can be materialised. And if in your lifetime you do not materialise that possibility, if

20:23 you do not live to your fullest, then you have wasted your life.

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