Balancing Act: Juggling Multiple Roles and Responsibilities || Acharya Prashant, IIT-Hyderabad(2024)

Acharya Prashant

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Transcript

00:00Hello sir, my question is that since you have graced multiple responsibilities throughout

00:08your life, from being a civil service officer to being a teacher, graduating from IIT and

00:16IIM to being an animal rights activist, so how do you zone yourself out from one responsibility

00:23to another?

00:24No, I don't have to zone myself out, they are all related to each other.

00:36So right now, I am probably mentoring a few students, but in the process of mentoring,

00:46I can also be an animal activist.

00:50In this particular interaction, there was no occasion or opportunity to speak on that,

00:57but it usually does happen, one speaks on that, but I did speak as a Vedant scholar

01:08in the one odd hour we had.

01:13So the various things that I am doing are really so intermeshed, they are inseparable.

01:22I begin doing one, I find myself doing each one and I thank life for this that I don't

01:32have to deal with things that are in different dimensions.

01:42I have to deal with different things, yes, but not with different dimensions.

01:50One thing just seamlessly moves into the other, because all those things are related.

02:01All of them are related because they are coming from the same center.

02:08There is just one thing that I am doing and that one thing is manifesting itself as five

02:15different things.

02:16What is that one thing that I am doing?

02:19I am trying to bring freedom to you and in bringing freedom to you, those other five

02:30things are just thoughtlessly, effortlessly happening.

02:43It's not the way we usually go through life.

02:47We live in the distinction between the personal and the professional, don't we?

02:54And even in the professional field, if we are doing something part-time, then it's quite

03:09possible that our day job has nothing in common with our evening job.

03:22That's a miserable state to be in, because that does not speak only of the difference

03:39between the two jobs, rather the lack of connectedness between you and either of the jobs.

03:49Had those two things, those two jobs been related to you, then those two jobs would

03:55have been related to each other as well.

03:59And what to say of the great gulf between the office work and the work or life at home?

04:11The moment you step into your home, you become another person altogether and in popular wisdom,

04:19that's quite appreciated.

04:21They say there has to be work-life balance.

04:24You have to be one person there, another person here.

04:27You have to totally forget the office the moment you step out of the office.

04:33All that to me is nothing short of hell.

04:36There is one life and there must be one center and all that you do must emanate from the

04:42same center.

04:47Let's take people who gave their lives to something really worthy.

04:53Think of for example, a revolutionary, a freedom fighter.

05:01Let's take the Indian freedom struggle for example.

05:05Is it possible that a freedom fighter would do his day job which is striving for the country's

05:15freedom and then return to the home to a wife totally Anglicized and in love with Queen

05:31Victoria and planning to settle down in London?

05:35Is it possible?

05:36No, it's not possible.

05:41But that's what our folk wisdom advocates.

05:47They say no, the day job is just to earn the money that you would spend in the evenings

05:56and at night.

06:00That's the only relationship between these two.

06:02No, not true.

06:06You are at the center of your life.

06:09Everything in your life must be related to you and therefore those things must be very

06:23seamlessly reconciling with each other.

06:29If there are things in your life, things, objects, thoughts, people who cannot sit with

06:38each other, who cannot reconcile to each other, then life becomes a problem.

06:50Your boss wants one thing, your wife wants another thing and you can deny neither your

06:56boss nor your wife.

06:57So, there is a great inner strife, bit of a limerick, great.

07:08Are you getting it?

07:10Have one center and let that one center express itself in innumerable ways.

07:18Now you are free to be whatever is possible without worrying what would happen to the

07:29other aspects of your life.

07:32Oh, if I devote too much time to my hobby, what happens to my girlfriend?

07:42Because she is the greatest demand on my time.

07:46There is a great problem here.

07:49If you love badminton, it would be great to have a badminton player as your girlfriend, maybe.

07:55I am not really prescribing something, I am just presenting a scenario.

08:02At least have someone who does not hate badminton.

08:06On one hand, you are in love with badminton, on the other hand, you are in love with someone

08:10who hates badminton.

08:11How will you live?

08:14Won't it be wonderful to date on the court?

08:18Yes.

08:19So, you are shuttling.

08:24Somebody would ask, were you dating?

08:29You would say, no, shuttling.

08:35So, the freedom fighters you are talking of, we have examples.

08:43We have examples from Bengal, where there were couples as freedom fighters.

08:56Now, there is no mismatch, no conflict.

09:06For any of that to happen, first of all, there must be a strong center in life.

09:16A strong center of wisdom.

09:20Something that you are settled on.

09:25Something that you can give your life to.

09:31If you have that one primary love in your life, everything else gets peacefully settled around it.

09:43Then you don't have to worry about this and that.

09:48Yes, sir.

09:49Thank you very much.

09:50Thank you, sir.

09:51All right.

09:52We may now proceed with the closing address.

09:53Thank you, Acharya Prashanthji, for the interactive session.

09:54So, to present a vote of thanks, I will be requesting our faculty incharge, Dr. Fanindra

09:55to deliver the vote of thanks.

09:57Thank you, sir.

10:47Thank you so much, sir.

10:48We may start wrapping up the moment.

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