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~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Video Information: NIT-Trichy, 06.04.2024, Greater Noida
Context:
~ Why an IITian loses focus and what's the purpose of life?
~ Why there is so much suffering in life?
~ Do we suffer by our own choice?
~ How to avoid pain and suffering?
~ Does multitasking become necessary?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquir...
Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books?
Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Video Information: NIT-Trichy, 06.04.2024, Greater Noida
Context:
~ Why an IITian loses focus and what's the purpose of life?
~ Why there is so much suffering in life?
~ Do we suffer by our own choice?
~ How to avoid pain and suffering?
~ Does multitasking become necessary?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Namaskar Acharya ji. I am Lakshya Satheja. I am a faculty member in the department of
00:06architecture over here at NIT Trishul. So my question is that nowadays, I mean in the
00:15last two decades or so, this quality of multitasking has been advertised a lot and everybody wants
00:24to have this particular quality listed under their CVs. But as far as I know, as far as
00:31I believe, our yogic scriptures do not agree with that. They rather say that we should
00:38be present in the moment and we should focus only on the task that we have at hand. So
00:45what is your take on this? Is it a good thing to be a multitasker or is it better to just
00:52be present in the moment and focus on what we are doing currently?
00:57The matter needs to be taken deeper for resolution. Who is the doer? Who is the one choosing tasks
01:10and what does he want? How much of clarity does he have? Please understand. You sit behind
01:19your wheel on the driver's seat, don't you? And you are multitasking all the time. You
01:28are looking at the road, you are looking at the speedometer. And if it's a manual thing,
01:33then you are doing the gears. There are three pedals your feet must work on. You also have
01:42to take care of the several lights that might occasionally blink on the dashboard. And obviously
01:49you also have to look at unforeseen things like animals and kids and all the stuff on
01:54the road and potholes, not to name them. But in spite of all that multitasking, you are
02:06not multidestined. You are not moving towards multiple destinations. Moving towards one
02:21particular destination that you know for sure you are doing two, three or five things that
02:26are needed to keep moving. Now this is multitasking of one nature where the various tasks are
02:33like various branches of the same tree. That's one thing. Even if you are riding a bicycle,
02:44are you not multitasking? Think of your legs. Think of your eyes. Think of your arms. You
02:50are multitasking. Think of your ears. Even the ears have to do their own task in a particular.
02:59The other kind of multitasking is when you are trying to drive five cars parallelly. One kind
03:07of multitasking is driving one car. I have to take care of the brakes, the accelerator, the clutch,
03:15the gear, the dashboard, the indicators, all those things. That's one kind of multitasking. One car,
03:25one destination and all that needs to be done. I will take care of that because that's what is
03:31needed to reach my one destination. The other thing is I'm a divided self. I'm a fragmented
03:36person. So, I'm driving five different cars towards five different destinations and trying
03:42to manage them, control them all in the same moment. Now this is nonsense and most of what
03:52is happening is this kind of nonsense. Because we do not know ourselves, because the problem
03:59is with self-knowledge. Therefore, we drive five cars at a time. I repeat, please understand the
04:09difference. Driving one car and you would have seen the cockpit of a plane, seen the enormous
04:17number of controls there are or even a high-end vehicle, a four-wheeler. The number of controls
04:27just keeps multiplying as the vehicle keeps rising in sophistication and an attentive driver is
04:39taking care of all the things that there are or a pilot is taking care of all those things. That's
04:47one thing. But mostly because we do not know who we are and therefore what we must do. In our
04:55insecurity, in our blindness, we keep on trying this as well as that and now that kind of multitasking
05:03does not help. That's the multitasking in which you say one task is to go towards the right and
05:12the other task is to go towards the left. All that you in this way drive is a wedge within your
05:25own existence. Right and left and broken, torn. I'm multitasking because I'm trying to please my
05:40boss and wife at the same time. That's multitasking. You cannot. Go to the roots. Let your existence
05:52resemble a tree and then you can branch out as much as you like to. But first of all you have
05:59to be fully earthed. The roots of your existence, the self has to be in tremendous love with the
06:15soil. In Vedanta we call it the great love that the ego has for the Atma. The roots can be compared
06:27to Aham and the earth can be compared to Atma. Let there be such a deep love that separation
06:37becomes impossible and then from that kind of rooted self, a self in love, there arises a
06:53powerful unshakable trunk and then it prolifically branches out. Now that branching out might be a
07:04kind of multitasking which is okay. So myself I am multitasking all the time. That's fine.
07:13I am not multi-minded. I am not multi-destined. I am one. From there if I have to do several
07:27things that's fine. That's like a dance then. All the things in one particular integrated harmony.
07:40Think of a dancer. Think of the various steps she takes. The hands are moving. Even the eyes are
07:50moving in a particularly graceful way. Even the hair, they are moving and that's adding something
07:59to the dance. The clothes, the feet, the entire body. But all that comes together without division
08:09as one holistic beauty. So look at your own various movements. Is there a core to them? Is
08:22there a root to them? Is there a centrality to them? Or are they like this, this, this and this
08:28with no connection between this and this? When a dancer is dancing, the way her arms move and the
08:38way her legs move, they are in tandem. They are in unison. There are two aspects of the one central
08:46thing. But look at most multitaskers. Look at how they move in that part of their self and in this
09:00part of their self and you will find nothing that unites. There is no relationship. This way they
09:07say is their professional life, the boss. This way they say is their personal life, the wife,
09:11the mother, the kids and all the rest of it. And there is just no unity. There is nothing that
09:18connects, harmonizes. The most beautiful life is like a symphony, unending symphony. You must
09:36listen to symphonies. The way they rise and fall, the way the whole experience changes and yet
09:43remains the same. And the beauty is that underlying unity. It does not last just for five minutes. We
09:53are not talking of some ordinary song. We are talking of symphonies. Things keep varying and
10:01they remain the same. Can your existence be like that? You are in the gym one moment. You are in
10:11the kitchen another moment. Can you still have a unity? Or in the gym you are trying to beat
10:21calories and in the kitchen you are trying to eat calories. There is no harmony. Not sure whether
10:39the examples are going anywhere. Am I able to communicate something? Multitasking is an imperative
10:47of life. You will have to do that. Even when you are doing one thing, please pay attention you are
10:52actually doing several things. Even when you think you are not multitasking, you are actually
10:58multitasking. Even as I speak to you, I have to be careful that I do not get too distant from these
11:05two. Am I not multitasking? Even this moment. If I get too distant, he starts quipping from there
11:11because he will have to face the brunt. And I can't get too close either. Even that is a problem.
11:21Am I multitasking? Am I not? You too are multitasking. Even as you are listening to me,
11:30you are also ensuring you stay within the frame. Multitasking is an imperative. But don't beat
11:41a multiply divided person. Multiple selves are not welcome. Multitasking is alright.
11:52We live lives of multiple selves. One self, other self and all those selves are all
12:05fake, borrowed. This self taken from here. Who gave this self to you? You know I got a kid and
12:16the kid gave me this self. Who gave this self to you? My father or my husband. Who gave this self
12:24to you? The shopkeeper, the market. Who gave that self to you? You know my body, my physicality.
12:32Multiple selves and those selves rarely agree with each other. So what do they do? Do the
12:41various branches of the tree fight with each other or do they dance with each other? Oh in
12:48such beauty they dance with each other. Don't they? But the various, the multiple parts of the self,
12:54they fight with each other. One part of yourself is saying, you know I need to fast. I'm a religious
13:00man. The other part of yourself is saying, you know I'm a modern person. Should I believe in
13:06these antique things? I don't need to fast. One part is saying, you know I'm that obedient good
13:16chap that my mother brought up. The other one says, no, no, no. I'm a cowboy. I'm rather a playboy
13:25that my wife fell in love with. Now between being an obedient son and a playboy husband,
13:36you are torn apart and sometimes you become an obedient husband. I need not utter the other side.
13:49Mothers will get offended. We can simply say disobedient son. Does that not happen? So that
14:07kind of multiplicity or duplicity is what we need to guard against.
14:20In love, you have to do many things. You have to. But all those things are for the one thing called
14:32love. I had this rabbit, Nandu. And those were the days I would sleep on the floor. And when I
14:54would be sleeping on the floor, that was the only time she would get active. She was quite sick. So
15:00all the day she would just sit in her corner, could not run around like the other rabbits.
15:06And many times it happened because I was anxious about her health. In fact, her very being. She
15:21would utter some little noise and I would wake up. Many a times in my cabin, I would be working
15:32and there was a small partition and she would be on that side. And the usual drill of the day,
15:43and all the noise and the din. Have you heard a rabbit speak? The sound of a rabbit, have you
15:53heard? It's a very faint sound. They don't shout. They are such vulnerable creatures that even if
16:05they have to signal to other rabbits, they just stamp their feet. They don't utter much from their
16:11throats. They do utter some sounds. But I noticed, I would be working, I would be speaking to someone
16:17and there would be the usual noise around me as there is in any workplace. And it would utter
16:24something and I would know it has said something. And I would go and pick it up. So you are multitasking.
16:33You know what's going on. Even if you are occupied in 10 things, that one little thing matters so
16:43much to you. You cannot get yourself off it. And it's not as if only that thing matters. Something
16:54else matters in an equally big way. So if this happens, you go to this. If that happens, you go
17:02to that. But it's not this versus that. This and that are two parts of the same harmony. If this
17:14calls for your attention, you give yourself to this. If that calls for your attention, you give
17:20yourself to that. But it's never this versus that. And if in your life it's this versus that, then
17:27it's a problematic life. This versus that, this thing should not be there in life. One branch
17:38fighting against the other is quite inauspicious. The tree would die. Applies to organizations as
17:52well. If one department fights against another, the organization would die.
17:56Thank you, Asadji. Thank you so much.
18:22you