The success stories of ambitious people: Be careful! || Acharya Prashant, at BITS Goa (2023)

Acharya Prashant

‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant?  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?...    Read 3 handpicked wisdom articles, just for you: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/articl...   ~~~~~   Video Information: 12.01.23, BITS, Goa   Context:  ~ How to turn our life into a success story?  ~ How to be successful in life?  ~ What is the reality of celebrities?  ~ Why do celebrities commit suicide?  ~ How important is ambition?  ~ What is celebrities' real life like?  ~ Are we being fooled by glamour?   Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~

Transcript

00:00My question was regarding ambition. What is ambition? And how do you, you know, be ambitious?

00:09How do you create that force in you that will help you, you know, help you tackle every

00:15failure in life? Because you hear about, you hear about a lot of so called success stories,

00:22and you see that they had a lot of pitfalls in life, they had a lot of hurdles that they

00:26faced, but it was that one ambition that helped them reach where they are. So how do you develop

00:30that force within?

00:31We'll take that. It's a very, very important question. It's a life changing question. You

00:45know, you have your own life to live, first of all. And nobody can be fulfilled, reaching

01:00a place somebody else has reached. You are born differently. What fulfills one cannot

01:10fulfill the other. What's more, you do not even know whether the other is fulfilled.

01:20Are you getting? You have someone in front of you, who's touting himself as a success

01:27story. I am a success story, right? I had ambitions. And fuelled by ambition, I braved

01:38all the challenges in life. And then I have reached this particular place. So I'm a superstar.

01:46Come on, follow me. I present myself as a role model, right? How do you know, first

01:53of all, that he has really reached any place of any worth? He's showing you what he needs

02:01to show you. The video that you are watching is a heavily curated and edited one. Did you

02:11know that? All kinds of filters and edits. So much has been put into it. The video that

02:25I am talking of is the person's life story. How do you know how he is internally? And

02:35if all your role models have indeed reached worthy places, why do you hear of so many

02:40cases of suicides among those people? Why? And when they die by suicide, it makes big

02:53news. It makes big news precisely because so many people consider them their role models, right?

02:59Now if he was indeed worthy of being a role model, why suicide? Why so many other things?

03:11Why tax evasion? Why so many other kinds of crimes? Please, he was a role model charged of

03:30murder, black money, money laundering, Hawala, drug abuse, rape, illicit dealings. I'm not

03:50alleging that all those you consider your role models indulge in these things. I'm asking you,

03:57what do you know about his inner life? Can you? Being a celebrity, will he allow the inner

04:07details to ever emerge out? He is living off his reputation, correct? His reputation is his earning.

04:18Will he allow his reputation to be tainted? Then how can you be so ignorant, so gullible that you

04:25watch a video or read a story and think of it as true? Did you publish that video? Who published

04:33that video? Come on. He published that video. So he is showing you what he wants to show you.

04:39He is doing what he wants to do. Why do you have to believe in what he is doing? Get that thing

04:52off your mind. When something fancy comes in front of you on the screen or somewhere, you just feel

04:59compelled and the visuals and the audios and the narrative that just overpowers you. Does it not?

05:07Like the eyes, they are gone. They are no more yours. The screen has captivated the eyes. The

05:13narrative has enchanted the mind. It's all gone. You are enslaved. And can you question the screen?

05:24Can you question the screen? Can you pause the video and say, well, I have a question to ask.

05:30Can you do that? You can't. Even if that fellow is speaking live, chances are he will not accept

05:40live questions. Even if he does accept a live question, chances are he will not tolerate cross-questioning.

05:47He will not allow the real thing to emerge. So there is no need as young people for you all

06:00to just fall for the stories. They are stories. They are very very carefully written stories.

06:08Every single aspect of that story is minutely manufactured before the story is released.

06:21Now ambition. Basically desire, right? Small desire you do not call as ambition. When the

06:34desire is big enough, you start calling it as an ambition, right? You want a glass of water,

06:48a little tumbler, you would call it, oh, you know, I want it. You want a bigger jug, you probably

06:59call it a desire. You want desire. You want an entire tank, that's an ambition. What has changed?

07:07Is there a fundamental difference? Is there a fundamental difference? You want a little

07:14plot of land for yourself, you call it, you call it desire, you know. You want to win over an entire

07:24country which itself is a plot of land, a bigger plot of land, you call it. So that's desire, simple desire.

07:33And you know where do all desires come from? Your animalistic biological conditioning.

07:38Have you seen dogs fight over their territories? Have you seen? Have you seen how one dog gets

07:46bitterly furious when another dog encroaches over its territory? And have you seen how

07:52they mark their territories? They just raise one leg and the stuff that they do is actually

07:59a territory marker. That's to indicate to the other dogs, this is the border, the international

08:07line. Don't breach into my sovereignty. But then a great king captures 10 lakh square kilometers

08:25and you say, oh, the great, mahan, he is doing what dogs have always done, capturing territory.

08:32That's ambition. Amplifying your animal nature, that's what. What do ambitious people want?

08:44Please tell me. More and more of the material, right? That's what animals also want. What's

08:55there in that? What's there in that? You have a life to live. You are very young. Can you work

09:10for something rather worthy? Can your energy come from love rather than ambition? And when you are

09:20very ambitious, obviously that inspires energy within, right? If you have desire for something,

09:28you feel energized. Have you seen that? And when you are ambitious, you feel all the more energized.

09:34It's just that all that energy is very cyclical. One moment you feel motivated, the other moment

09:43you feel demotivated and then you run towards some motivation pill. But anyway, a lot of energy

09:52comes from ambition. If you are ambitious, you will find spurts in energy. Can you live in the

10:03energy that comes from love? That's the question. Ambition says, I'll be fulfilled when I achieve

10:11that. Can you spend your life doing something that you do in fulfillment itself rather than

10:24targeting an imaginary fulfillment 20 years later? I'm starting up. Here's my new venture.

10:36Two years, it will break even, if I'm lucky. Six years later, IPO. And then two years after that,

10:52I'll exit. And when I'll exit, I'll have lots of money. I'll sell off my shares. And then I'll be

11:04fulfilled. Is it possible instead to choose something to do that keeps you fulfilled all

11:18the time? That's what I'm talking of as energy of love. Is it possible? We have to get into that

11:26question. There are no easy answers. But that's a question that you must ask yourself.

11:35These are the golden years of your life. Do you want to spend these years doing something you

11:44cannot even tolerate doing but still continue doing because you feel desirous of the future?

11:55Do you want to do that? Think of your courses. How many courses have you in a semester? Six?

12:03Nobody loves all the six courses. At least I never did. How do you live through the courses

12:12you don't love? It was very difficult for me. I don't know whether it's easy for you. Don't

12:19you have attendance requirement? Okay, lucky. 75% attendance requirement and 75% means 75%.

12:29Living through the semester was not an easy job because it's just impossible to appreciate all

12:45the courses that came your way. But that was a requirement, right? Once you are out of the

12:57campus, there are no requirements. There is freedom. Do you want to spend your life, let's

13:09say the next 5 years, 10 years, as if you are enrolled in a course? You are just waiting to

13:18come to an end. Let the semester end. Let me be relieved of this particular course even if with

13:27a C or D grade. That's how most people spend their lives. They just have no relationship with the

13:35work they are doing. All that they have is ambition, desires, no love. Tell me, if you

13:48love your work, would you ever think of selling off your company? What are your role models? They

13:58are all serial entrepreneurs, are they not? If you really love what you have created, what you have

14:05brought up, would you simply sell it off? Would you do that, please? Would you do that? Is there

14:19any love in what they are doing? I'm asking you. There is just opportunism and that opportunism

14:24gets them money. But what does money get you? That's not the way to live. That just leaves you

14:38very very poor within and that's what matters. And you become a curse not only to yourself but

14:46a bane to entire humanity because you earn a lot of money and that lot of money is now in the

14:54hands of a foolish person. So what will that foolish man do with that money? Not just consume,

15:03destroy, destroy. He'll fund all the right kinds of, all the wrong kinds of things. He'll buy a

15:16living enterprise and turn it dead. Do you have a recent example? That's what happens when a foolish

15:25man gets to have a lot of money. The entire planet is destroyed and because money can give you a lot

15:34of reach, all your nonsensical concepts will become household things. You start saying,

15:43climate change is not a problem at all. Well, the earth actually needs more kids. Come on,

15:48go reproduce. What if the earth is burned to ashes? We'll go and colonize another planet.

15:58Are you getting it? Ambition is a very stale thing. It's a dead thing. Do not forget where

16:21it comes from. It comes from your past in the jungle. You are conditioned to be desirous and

16:36social forces just encourage you to be even more desirous of the same things that you have been

16:44wanting since a million years. Same things. Let's do something new as young people. Or do you want

17:01to live the same life that your ancestors in the jungle were living? The monkey wanted a fruit,

17:09you want an orchard. Is that fundamentally different thing? Please. They were running

17:23after female monkeys then and even today you are running after the female monkey, maybe in a Ferrari.

17:31And the female monkey was attracted towards the alpha monkey then. Even today the female

17:45monkey is attracted towards the alpha monkey. Who is the alpha monkey today? The one with the

17:52Ferrari and the money. It's also monkeys. Can we live fresh lives, new lives? Or do you want to

18:04continue that same animalistic tradition? A new one. Then tell yourself that you are free to not

18:22to believe, to not to be influenced. Freedom must be your most important value. Are you getting it?

18:37The world wants to steal away the most important thing that you have, which is freedom of mind,

18:51liberty of consciousness. Do not allow the world to do that. And the world is not just outside of

18:59you, also inside of you. Your own thoughts and emotions, be very cautious of them. They are not

19:07yours. They belong to the world. They belong to this body and this body belongs to the world.

19:15This body is a heavily conditioned body. This brain is a part of this body and is equally heavily

19:24conditioned. So if an emotion arises in the brain or a thought wave is there, do not just quickly

19:33accept it or identify with it. Know that it is coming from the jungle or it is coming from the

19:40marketplace. It is not mine. So I'll be cautious. I'll be cautious. It is not mine. These emotions

19:51are not mine. Even the dog has these emotions. How can these emotions be mine? Look at dogs and

20:02cats. That will tell you who you are. All of us are just dogs and cats. There is hardly anything

20:08in human life that does not belong to the life of a dog or a cat. Then how can this life be ours?

20:19Which means that no life has been given to us by our physical or social tradition. They do not

20:33give us any life. Life has to be created afresh. You have to write a new script of your own. The

20:43old script is not yours. It's a borrowed thing and it's a very bad and dangerous thing. Do not

20:51live by that script. Is it making sense? I do not expect it to make much sense, but still.

21:02Ask yourself these basic questions. Are you doing anything that is fundamentally

21:15different from what your grandparents were doing? Fundamentally different,

21:18not just superficially. You want money? You want money? Your grandpa also wanted money.

21:26How are you different? What's new? He also wanted more money compared to somebody else.

21:54What's new? Yeah, that might change. That's true. Yes, that can change. Obviously,

22:12we are not saying that newness is not possible. It is definitely possible. Definitely a new life

22:18can be lived. Definitely. But not if you do not discard the old life. And you cannot discard it

22:27if you do not know that it is old. We keep thinking of the old as the, we keep thinking

22:35of all the old stuff as brand new. Oh, I've fallen in love. I'm the first man in the world

22:42to fall in love. It's happening all over the place, son. I've fallen in love for the nth time

22:55in life, not the first time. Right? What's new? Can we have something new?

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