Full Video: Most people labour, very few work || Acharya Prashant, on 'The Fountainhead' (2019)
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00:00It's funny, Keating remembered, at one time he had wanted to be an artist.
00:22It was his mother who had chosen a better field in which to exercise his talent for
00:29drawing.
00:30Architecture, she had said, is such a respectable profession, besides you meet the best people
00:36in it.
00:37She had pushed him into his career.
00:40He had never known when or how.
00:48Then another excerpt from Keating.
00:53He hated every piece of stone on the face of the earth.
00:57He hated himself for having chosen to be an architect.
01:02Then Keating stood, his mouth open.
01:07He did not hear what the voice was saying.
01:10He heard the beauty of the sounds without meaning.
01:15He felt no need to know the meaning.
01:20He could be led blindly anywhere.
01:25This third word is probably when he is listening to Tuhi for the first time, right?
01:33Then a few excerpts from Rourke.
01:41If you want my advice, Peter.
01:45He said at last, you have made a mistake already by asking me, by asking anyone.
01:51Never ask people, not about your work, don't you know what you want?
01:55How can you stand it, not to know?
01:59Then I have, let's say, 60 years to live, most of that time will be spent working.
02:06I have chosen the work I want to do.
02:09If I find no joy in it, then I am only condemning myself to 60 years of torture.
02:24Then you want to know why I am doing it, Rourke smiled without resentment or interest.
02:35Is that it?
02:36I will tell you if you want to know.
02:39I don't give a damn where I work next.
02:41There is no architect in town that I would want to work for.
02:46But I have to work somewhere, so it might as well be your franken.
02:51If I can get what I want from you, I am selling myself and I will play the game that way for
02:57the time being.
03:01Then, hey, these people were enjoying a day of their existence, they were shrieking to
03:17the sky, they released from work and the burdens of the days behind them, they had worked and
03:24carried the burdens in order to reach a goal and this was their goal.
03:32Then comes the question, Acharyaji, I am particularly confused on what I want to do with my life
03:42and feel like eating with what I am doing right now in my career.
03:47On the other hand, the character of Howard Rourke is always sure and never displays any
03:51signs of doubt.
03:53How is Howard so sure?
03:56Is this because he is devoid of any physical conditioning?
03:59How would I ever know my calling by trusting my instincts, ideals or gut?
04:06Using this one for the lack of a better word.
04:14Just like how Howard Rourke was doing, as I have understood that 90% is physical conditioning,
04:20and 10% is social conditioning, fighting that 90% on priority and to stop complaining
04:26about the society is the way to go.
04:30I am still exploring what constitutes that 90% within me and would like to accelerate
04:35my work through it.
04:37In doing this, will I be reaching any closer to my purpose or calling, please guide?
04:51One has to start from the place one is at.
05:02By looking at the character of Rourke, you can at most be inspired.
05:19At most an idea, a support, a motivation can come to you that such a state is possible.
05:38But even if you know how the character of Rourke is behaving, you still have to remember
06:02what your own condition is.
06:13Rourke has been conceptualized as someone who has no trace of social conditioning blemishing
06:34his mind.
06:41He has been displayed as a perfect example of someone whose mind is absolutely free
06:51of the influences of society.
07:00Whether he has been shown as someone who does not feel much of attraction or attachment
07:16or aversion, fear or greed.
07:33He does not experience any emotional ups and downs, at least not any significant ones.
07:45So not only is he free from social influences, he is also free of his own internal physical
07:55tendencies.
08:03In such a situation, the person concerned can just spontaneously live for himself, decide
08:18for himself, do whatever he wants to and feels like and whatsoever he does will be exactly
08:29what he must do.
08:37His instincts have now been purified.
08:42His thoughts, his being is now free.
09:05So he doesn't have to think much, he doesn't have to go through the laborious process
09:18of thought or deliberation or introspection.
09:36But if you say that you want to trust your instincts, ideals or gut feel, then what is
09:45it that you would actually be trusting, where would your instincts be coming from, old conditioning,
09:57where would your feelings be coming from, where would your ideals be coming from and
10:04if you trust them just as Rourke does, then you will be in for more difficulties.
10:21Also you have to see where you stand and where you stand, you already have a lot of
10:34thoughts, ideals, you already have a lot of things in your life and mind that you consider
10:42to be true and an equal number of things that you consider to be definitely false.
10:55We don't live suspended in a vacuum, do we?
11:00In our own eyes, we all have a solid floor beneath our feet.
11:11In our own perception, we all stand on firm ground.
11:22What does that ground comprise of?
11:27Our beliefs which we do not call as beliefs, our perceptions which we do not call as perceptions,
11:35the influences that we have gathered which we do not call as influences, all the illusions
11:41that we nurture that we do not call as illusions.
11:47What do we call them as?
11:49We call them as truth, we say, I know, I understand, I realize, I see, don't we use these words?
12:05So our job is very very different from Howard's.
12:15His job is to just proceed with life.
12:22Our job is to first of all cleans and purify ourselves, Howard doesn't need to purify himself,
12:32he is crafted and drafted as already pure, so he doesn't have to go through the tedious
12:40process of self-knowledge, self-realization.
12:47He is shown as an awakened being, free of the world, free of himself as well.
12:57So there are certain liberties that he can take.
13:02You cannot take those liberties, you have to do what you must do and what is it that
13:06you must do?
13:07You have to probe the earth under your feet.
13:15Rourke is sure of a few things, aren't you too sure of a few things?
13:20So the sureness is there on both sides.
13:23The only difference is what Rourke is sure of is something worthwhile, what most of us
13:31are sure of is just illusory, a great illusion yet being treated by us as a great reliable
13:46permanent truth.
13:52His job is to construct, he is an architect, he will raise buildings.
14:02Our job is to deconstruct, we must demolish buildings.
14:11His sketches are clean, so he can go ahead and raise those plants, right?
14:21Our sketches are all botched up, so what do we do?
14:25Proceed with them or first of all clean them up.
14:36Now it would be a tragic thing and equally amusing if we proceed with our sketches and
14:50insist just as Howard Rourke does that this sketch will not change even by 1%, not even
14:58one line is allowed to be modified and we feel like saying that, Rourke had something
15:12in mind, did he allow it to be modified, no.
15:19Did he allow anybody to tamper his plans, his sketches, no.
15:27So we too feel equally empowered and enfranchised, we say if Rourke did not allow anybody to
15:41question his drawings, who the hell is anybody in this world to question my drawings, I too
15:49have drawings and there is nobody on this earth, not a single man, not a single woman
15:54who does not have drawings and pictures and sketches of her or his own.
16:02You have sketches, right?
16:04You understand the sketches I am talking of, we all have plans, we all keep drafting.
16:21What is our job?
16:22I repeat, Rourke's job is to go ahead and execute his plan.
16:31Our job is to contain our tendency to execute our plan.
16:41It has to be a totally opposite thing, Rourke must not stop, he must not allow anything
16:51to stop him.
16:54The sketch is ready, the drawing is there, he must now look for a client and a contractor
17:00and get the building raised.
17:05But if God forbid, a building is raised as per our plans, what will happen to the building
17:12and what will happen to the occupants?
17:17I don't think you would want to live in a building made as per your plans.
17:32His job is to proceed, our job is to stand still and look at ourselves as we are, look
17:41at your sketches, see how botched up they are.
17:48See that they don't have any central idea, any integrity, and integrity is a central
17:53theme with Rourke, is it not?
18:03See that there is such a terrible miscomprehension.
18:13See that our buildings will not merely look ugly, they are also structurally infeasible,
18:22but we still love our plans because they are our plans.
18:27After all, I thought of this, after all, this is my idea, after all, this is my understanding,
18:32after all, this is the conclusion I have reached.
18:56Rourke must respect his drawings like one respects a scripture.
19:04In the office of Henry Cameroon, there was no photograph, no decoration, save one plan
19:21of a building that had never been raised.
19:25So when a Henry Cameroon has a plan, what is the plan, it's a mental output, it's an
19:33expression of your mind.
19:38When a Henry Cameroon expresses himself, the expression is worthy of worship.
19:45When Cameroon retired and sent Rourke to his office to fetch his stuff, he said burn everything,
19:55burn everything that you find in that office, save that one drawing, bring that drawing
20:01to me, that drawing is my book of worship.
20:11When a clean mind expresses itself, that expression is worthy of worship.
20:21When Peter Keating brings his designs to Rourke, what does Rourke do with his designs?
20:29He just slashes everything that he finds there, he says remove this, remove this, wrong, wrong,
20:33wrong, wrong, wrong.
20:37That's what we need to do with our designs.
20:43You understand designs?
20:44Designs mean intentions, desires, what are designs?
20:51Intentions, desires, conclusions, knowledge, beliefs.
21:03If you clearly see that you identify more with Keating's than with Rourke's, then due
21:12to your plans, what was done to Keating's plans, were they worthy of being executed?
21:23They were not, they were worthy of being dismissed.
21:28So learn to dismiss yourself, learn to slay your confidence and obviously the confidence
21:46is not much, was Keating ever very confident of his plans?
21:53He would look at what he has drawn and feel like vomiting on it.
22:00That's the story of our life, we too are never certain of ourselves, but that's a very curious
22:05thing with human beings.
22:07In spite of being deeply uncertain about themselves, yet they manage to carry on with life in a
22:15most confident way.
22:32In fact, not only are we confident of ourselves, our confidence reaches out to other people
22:43and tries to convince them of beliefs we ourselves are deeply uncertain of.
23:01Demolish that's your job.
23:07With him raised, you must demolish.
23:17He must give concrete shape to his expression and we must look clearly at our expression
23:28and see the falseness contained in it.
23:32Are you getting it?
23:40Then you have asked about calling, what is the right work to be done?
23:52There is work that one needs to do to run the body, and such work even animals have
24:05to do.
24:10This you need not call as work, this you can call as the labor of living.
24:18That if you are alive, then you have to do something to feed yourself, this even animals
24:31have to do, this is not work.
24:36What is work?
24:39Work is that which you do in order to satisfy what you may call as your gaping consciousness
25:01or thirsty soul.
25:09That is what defines work, that's what you need to figure out.
25:24Keeping this strict criteria in mind, I have to do that which will offer me contentment
25:45and obviously this has to be placed at a much higher level than the labor of living.
26:05If someone says that 90% of his life and time are just being consumed by the labor
26:12of living, then obviously he will have no time left for real work.
26:25The purpose of all human progress, all technological development is to give you more and more free
26:36time and resources and space to do real work.
26:49Labor you do in order to satisfy the body, work is that which you do to satisfy your consciousness.
27:11Technology is there so that you have to do minimum amount of labor.
27:27Instead if you start increasing your physical demands and appetite and start using technology
27:38and more and more of technology to just feed and stoke your physicality, then it's a great ruin.
28:05The trick is to satisfy the physical with the least amount of labor so that you have
28:20time to do the real work, so that you have resources to do the real work.
28:34Labor is a nuisance, labor is like a tax you have to pay for living, work is the delight
28:47of life.
28:50You understand the difference between these two?
28:52Most people do not know any work, they only know labor because they work only for the
28:58sake of the body.
29:01If you work for the sake of body, it is called labor and when I say body, that includes all
29:12the physical tendencies.
29:15It is the physical tendencies that want you to consume more and more.
29:18If you work for the sake of consumption, then you are just laboring.
29:26You belong to the category of animals and you are far worse than animals because animals
29:32labor far less than many human beings do.
29:39Look at all those who are working for the sake of their ambitions and ambitions rarely
29:48correspond to consciousness, they correspond more to consumption.
29:52If I will have more, I will be able to consume more, that's what ambition says.
30:01So they are laboring and they are laboring harder than animals do.
30:11Real work that is as absent from their lives as it is absent from the lives of animals.
30:24So even the most hardworking person, even the fellow who has reached great places in
30:34society with massive achievements might just be laboring like animals.
30:46In fact that is what happens most of the times in most of these cases.
31:03When you look at a hard worker, you must clearly ask him and ask yourself, what is
31:10the hard work for?
31:13Is the hard work real work or is it just labor?
31:20If the hard work belongs to the dimension of labor, then it deserves no respect.
31:45It's a good question to ask yourself, how much of my effort is labor and how much of
31:53it is work?
32:05If the intention is right, then one can convert labor into work and if the intention is misplaced,
32:15then even a great opportunity for work can be degraded into mere labor.