Ask these questions, before you make that decision || Acharya Prashant (2021)

Acharya Prashant

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Transcript

00:00Namaskar Acharyaji. The question which I had is basically as a person while making a decision

00:13sometimes we go ahead with our gut feeling. Some people make a calculated thing they read

00:20the literature or something and find the references and then take a decision. But I suppose both

00:28the part of that decision making is important either decision making by guts or by literature

00:34and support. So what should be the right balance or is there any such thing as what is the

00:40right balance so that the life becomes more easier in decision making and we can have

00:44maybe happier and prosperous life. Now let us say you are switching jobs. You have applied

00:59to another place and you have two or three options and you have to decide which one to pick. One way

01:13is to Google career prospects in A versus B versus C. This is what you call as taking advice.

01:22You could ask the same question how are my prospects in A versus B versus C to some old

01:33friend of yours who has been through the experience or somebody who knows and this is the question you

01:40ask how will I fare at these places or as you said your alternative is to go by your own gut feel.

01:47In either case how will it help if you are not asking the right question? Are you kidding it?

02:01Are you even asking the right question? The answer will depend on the question. If you will ask

02:08career prospect in A versus B versus C that's exactly what you will come to know what your

02:13career prospects there are but life is more than your career. Your career is a means towards

02:24something very very important. Career is important not because career is the end but because career

02:33is a means to something very important. That's what makes career so important. That's what makes

02:40me keep saying that you must be very cautious about your work. Not because work is important

02:48in itself. Not because you must be very careful about how many promotions you are getting or

03:00what's the kind of salary increment you get. But because if you do not work rightly,

03:07life will go waste. Now is that the question you are asking when you are switching jobs?

03:13What's the quality of life here? What's this place going to do to my mind? What are the

03:20compromises this place will thrust upon me? So, these questions are important and if you

03:33don't ask these questions irrespective of whether you go by your gut feel or by others advices,

03:39you will get just the wrong answers. I want to commit suicide. I am looking for some poison.

03:49I don't know where the pharmacy is. My gut feel is the pharmacy is on the left. I Google to find

04:01out where all the pharmacies are in my neighborhood. I also call up my best friends to ask where the

04:07pharmacies are and my question is where is the nearest pharmacy? And my question is where is

04:15poison available for the cheapest? And Amazon comes and tells me there is a big discount on

04:28exotic poisons. But am I even asking the right question? Is it about where the pharmacy is

04:35located? Is it about where I would get the most economical poison? Or should the right question

04:45be is life worth living? But that question is never answered because it is never asked. Google

04:55will tell you only what you enter in the search box. People will advise you only what you ask

05:02them. There's hardly a person who can go beyond his brief and expand the scope of the answer

05:17beyond the question. Most of your advisors won't do that. Their answers will be in the same dimension

05:24as the question. It requires somebody very very loving and risk-taking to give you an answer you

05:39never asked for. You see, even when we seek advices, we actually limit the scope of the advice. We tell

05:54the other person we want the answer in yes or no. We want the answer only about this topic. I want

06:05the answer only in my context, my own framework. What if the context itself is wrong? What if the

06:17framework itself is of ignorance? No answer will be then good enough. All answers will just lead

06:27to your eventual demise. So learn to ask the right questions. Where am I going for this? Why am I

06:39dropping this? Why am I picking this? That would seem very taxing to begin with because we are

06:44accustomed to unconscious behavior. In unconscious behavior, we just go by our impulses and the mind

06:51has developed that habit. Consciousness appears like a burden. Asking questions appears like a

07:00put-off. You just were about to plunge into pleasure of some kind and suddenly you are reminded to ask

07:09a question and the question is a put-off because now you cannot dive into pleasure as you probably

07:21wanted to just a minute back. But these questions are important because your life is important.

07:29Career too is important only because life is important. If you are already dead, would you

07:37want a career? You can have a life without career but you cannot have a career if you are dead. So

07:50it's obvious which of these is more important. Spirituality is not about having no career and

07:56running away to the jungle. Spirituality is about having the right career. Gautam Buddha himself

08:04was a startup founder, a manager, a leader, an entrepreneur, a statesman, an evangelist. All

08:18rolled into one. Or did he have no career? He had a great career. He founded a huge Sangh, an

08:28organization. So the career is there. The question is what kind of career you are choosing? Is there

08:36alignment between your deep inner need and your outer occupation? Your outer occupation has to

08:49be aligned to your inner need. Is there an alignment? And if there is no alignment, what are

08:55you doing in life? Gut feel, you talked of that gut feel is a very conditioned thing. So gut feel

09:08can be right, gut feel can be wrong, it can help you, it can delude you. Gut feel just comes from

09:16the accumulation of your past experiences. It has some value obviously but it is not something you

09:25can just rely on. You have to rely on the right questions. And those who have a stake in keeping

09:36you in bondage will not encourage you to ask the right questions. The HR person interviewing you

09:43will not want you to ask uncomfortable questions. You ask uncomfortable questions, you drop the

09:51offer. She does not want that. But you must know what is important to you. Once you are dead, you

10:04won't be checking in. Right? Once you are dead, you won't be reporting for work. And there is only

10:18one life that you have. Be very careful.

10:27My question here is that, if I am a participant in the life, I am making some decisions, and all

10:35this knowledge which I read through the book and really not coming out there to rescue me from that

10:41situation to make that decision, a wise decision there. So is it really worth making too much of

10:48effort in reading somebody else's life, reading somebody else's instances, when it comes to my

10:55need, doesn't come to rescue me? So do I need to really refine my own thoughts and then just practice

11:01work on myself and then just be good with it?

11:05See, if you really love yourself and you want to be rescued, then you will be honest with the wise

11:16advice you have received from some place. No advice can come to rescue you, if you have first of all

11:24never bothered to commit yourself to it. It's like this, I have a gun. Right? Some well-wisher gave it to me.

11:36But whenever thieves and robbers attack my house, I find that the gun is of no use. So I end up

11:49running away or I end up yelling from the rooftop or I end up calling up the police. So the question is,

11:56is it even worth it to have a gun? Sir, somebody gifted the gun to you, but you will have to learn

12:05to fire it. And you are saying, oh the gun is useless because it is not coming to my rescue.

12:11Have you ever committed yourself to practicing the gun? Books and videos and YouTube and sage

12:24council will be of no help if the intention to practice it and bring it in your life is missing.

12:33Where is that intention? Knowledge is not a physical pill. Physical pills can work even in

12:46your ignorance and even without your participation. For example, you must have taken the vaccine shot.

12:58You do not exactly know how it works, but it works for you. We start thinking that knowledge

13:07is like a vaccine shot. Even if we do not really participate in the inner process, it will still

13:15work. Vaccine will work. You do not need to participate inwardly. Vaccine will do what it

13:21does. But knowledge cannot work like this. For knowledge to work, there has to be complete

13:27participation from your side. Otherwise knowledge is a passive thing. It will just sit. In fact,

13:34it will sit like a burden. Do you even intend to practice that knowledge? Now you have had

13:42knowledge and the knowledge said, reduce your dependencies. Now knowledge cannot reduce your

13:49dependencies for you. You have to do it. Have you done that? Have you done that? Because you see,

13:55you have to pay the price. Knowledge cannot pay the price on your behalf and any kind of

14:03inner improvement involves paying a steep price. Learning to wield a gun, to fire a gun involves

14:13paying a price. You have to commit your time, energy, resources, maybe hire a trainer. You have

14:20to pay the price. Have you paid the price? And if you have not paid the price, how will anything

14:24help you? Instead what do we do? Now let me tell you. Go back to your question. You said,

14:31knowledge is very useful when advising others. That's what you use your knowledge for. You don't

14:40want knowledge so that your own life improves. You want knowledge so that you may have bragging

14:45rights, so that you may appear wise in front of others. And if that's the purpose you want to

14:54put knowledge to, that's what you will get from knowledge. Some little bit of popularity you will

15:02get. In very very insignificant situations, you will come to be known as a wise man, oh he has so

15:12much of knowledge. But when life will really throw the gauntlet at you, when the push will come to

15:18the shove, you will have nothing to show. Because that knowledge was never meant to be a real thing

15:26in your life. That knowledge was only meant to be an ornament to display to others. And then you can

15:32display it to others and get some little bit of satisfaction. But then that's all that you wanted

15:38in the first place. A little bit of satisfaction by displaying your knowledge. Knowledge is not

15:44something to boast of. Knowledge is not something that can turn you into a preacher. One seeks

15:54knowledge because one realizes that one is in bondages and knowledge liberates. Knowledge is

16:01not a thing of the head. It is not meant to be stored just here. Knowledge must flow in your

16:10veins. Knowledge must reflect in your breath. Knowledge must show up in every little decision

16:18you take in your life. Knowledge must be the center you operate from. Knowledge is not a thing

16:29that ego is given to wield. I remain the same person but now I have knowledge. So what do I

16:37use my knowledge for? For the same things that the ego anyway likes. The ego likes popularity,

16:44I use knowledge for popularity. The ego likes to feel self-secure, I use knowledge to feel

16:50self-secure. No. Knowledge is not meant to augment the ego. Knowledge is meant to supplant the ego.

16:59There's a great difference there. Knowledge that does not liberate you of the ego, knowledge that

17:07does not defeat the ego, knowledge that does not transform and sublimate the ego is just another

17:15plaything. And you are not alone in the situation. There have been thousands, probably millions of

17:24people, very very knowledgeable but that knowledge did very little to displace their egoistic center.

17:32They remained who they were. Therefore what has happened over the ages is that knowledge itself

17:42has gotten a bad name. People say, oh he is just knowledgeable, Jnani. The word Jnani itself has

17:51become some kind of a pejorative. When you say, oh he is being a Jnani, you mean he is actually

17:59being someone who doesn't mean what he says, who's just full of words and practices none of

18:08what he tells others. So being called Jnani is no praise in any sense. But actually Jnani must

18:20be the biggest compliment one can ever receive. But Jnan is a compliment only when Jnan becomes

18:28your center, your life. Do not use Jnani as just information. Leave it.

18:39I request Rastogi sir to please address.

18:43Namaskar sir. Whenever I listen to you, my information, I get more confused. Sometime

18:59I get clarity, sometime I get more confused. But really hats off to you sir. I mean at least for

19:12me you had been a guide, mentor, guru and I'm sure that we all Beaconites will also realize

19:26the life in the true context by your saying or whatever clarity you have given. And all of us

19:38pray that God bless us and you also bless us so that we come to the right objective of the life

19:49and we start our journey maybe on the first gear of our car in the right direction. Thanks to you

20:00and entire team of Acharya Prashant Foundation.

20:06Thanks.

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