You are young, and you don't want freedom? || Acharya Prashant (2023)

Acharya Prashant

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00:00As young people, how many of you want to be ruled by the world?

00:15And how many of you want to live free lives?

00:19Now this freedom is at the core of Vedanta.

00:25What is the goal of Vedanta?

00:27Happiness?

00:28Pleasure?

00:29Riches?

00:30Fame?

00:31Social acceptance?

00:33What is the goal of Vedanta?

00:35Freedom.

00:37And such pure and absolute freedom, you call it liberation.

00:42Not just ordinary freedom, liberation.

00:47And you cannot be liberated without self-knowledge.

00:52Now do you see why our relationships are toxic?

00:57Now do you see why others manage to hurt us, harm us, bloat us up, and also puncture us?

01:07Do you see?

01:10Why are you in such a bad mood?

01:12Somebody sent me an offensive message.

01:15Does that happen or not?

01:17Your entire day can be ruined, somebody sent you an offensive message.

01:22Why have you chosen a bad course to study?

01:25Why have you enrolled in a discipline you don't really care about?

01:31How did you get into this kind of a shady job?

01:35Why did you choose this sector to work in?

01:40How did you get hitched to this person?

01:45Do all these things happen or not?

01:47Somebody is pursuing a bad course, somebody has gotten into a bad job.

01:52Somebody is now stuck in a bad relationship.

01:54Do these things happen or not?

01:56Do you see most of these things happen because we listened too much to others?

02:03And listening too much to others becomes a compulsion.

02:07You cannot avoid it.

02:09Just as asking for direction from others becomes a compulsion, more than a necessity, a compulsion,

02:16when you do not know the way.

02:19When you do not know the way, you will be forced to ask from others.

02:26I did not know which course to choose, which college to go to, which course to register

02:33in.

02:34So what did I do?

02:37What did I do?

02:41Some Bablu Bhaiya from the neighborhood came and became the expert.

02:46How did he manage to become the expert?

02:50We can't blame him.

02:53He was offering his free services.

02:55We have to blame?

02:58Why did I not know it for myself?

03:01Whose life is it?

03:03So who should have known?

03:05I should have known.

03:06Why did I have to fall dependent on this fellow?

03:15I remember my JEE counselling day.

03:20So we were all there at IIT Delhi itself.

03:25And very few of us had any idea what the different branches are all about and what the different

03:30IITs are all about and which one to go to.

03:34And the choices were swinging just so wildly.

03:41I did not know where to go.

03:42I mean aerospace in IIT Kanpur, at that rank, biotechnology at IIT Delhi, ITBHU you could

03:54have electronics, IIT Guwahati you could have at computer science, you know, four entirely

04:01different places.

04:02IIT Kharagpur you could have at naval architecture.

04:09Now these are such disparate choices.

04:13How are you even considering all of them?

04:18You should know what you want from life, shouldn't you?

04:22But we don't know anything.

04:23So what do we do?

04:24We go to the person standing next to us.

04:28Sir, so what is your rank?

04:31What are you choosing?

04:32Now this fellow looks nice.

04:36This fellow, right.

04:39So he is going for civil at IIT Bombay.

04:46Another totally new option opens up.

04:51From computer science to biotechnology to electronics to civil.

04:55Anything can happen because you don't have a center.

04:58So we just keep rolling.

05:01When you have a center, it is very, very difficult to influence you.

05:07An insult you must see, Chetna, is a kind of influence.

05:13You have been influenced.

05:16If you tell me I am wearing black, why will I listen to you?

05:21I know what I am wearing.

05:24Why don't you know how you are inside, white or black or orange or whatever?

05:36So self-knowledge is not some archaic word for the scholars alone.

05:47It is the fundamental requirement of every normal, ordinary person like you, like me.

05:55We all need self-knowledge.

05:56Otherwise, the streams of time and the forces of society will just carry you away and dump

06:07you somewhere and life is short before you realize your time will be gone and death knocks.

06:16Also, mind you that the lady quoted insult as a problem.

06:23Nobody ever quotes praise, commendation as a problem.

06:31We do not realize that if others are able to lift your mood by praising you, you have

06:39already licensed them to sink your mood by insulting you.

06:47You see this?

06:49But we are all crazy after compliments, are we not?

06:54Do you ever take this as a problem?

06:56You know, sir, something happened in the morning when I was coming to the college.

07:00This chap comes to me and says, wow, great hairstyle.

07:06And surely you have taken bath today.

07:10You aren't sticking.

07:11Now that's never a problem.

07:14Somebody compliments you on your eyes, your hair, your clothes, your looks, whatever.

07:20Is that ever a problem?

07:22Now that's where the problem is.

07:25That's where the problem is.

07:28If someone can enter your insides by praising you, the door has been flung open, right?

07:38He knocked here.

07:42And you said, yes.

07:44And he said, wow, wonderful, beautiful.

07:47And that's the password.

07:48Praise.

07:49Praise is the password.

07:52And you opened the door.

07:54You opened the doors of your mind because that fellow said, knock, knock, praise.

07:59The moment the doors are open, they have been opened even for insult.

08:08And nobody can enter your life just by insulting you.

08:12Do you mind insult from strangers?

08:16No.

08:18Insult is especially caustic when it comes from those who know you, right?

08:26You're walking down the road and some strange fellow not known to you says something, yells

08:32a word at you.

08:33You don't especially mind it.

08:36You mind it when that fellow is someone who has been allowed entry already, then he hurts

08:45because he has been given access to the insides.

08:48Now he can hurt you from the inside.

08:53And access is given only when there is praise.

08:59Don't be vulnerable to praise.

09:06If you know where you stand, why should you allow someone to sketch a bigger figure of

09:15you?

09:17I know my size.

09:19Why are you portraying me as bigger than what I actually am?

09:25That's not allowed.

09:26You should not do that.

09:28I know my worth.

09:32Why are you praising me beyond my worth?

09:34And if you find somebody praising you beyond your worth, you should immediately become

09:40cautious.

09:45This fellow is not your friend.

09:49I know I'm not doing something right.

09:52Why are you supporting me at this moment?

09:54You should not be supporting me.

09:57This is called self-knowledge.

10:00I know what I'm doing is not right.

10:03So if you really are my well-wisher, you should not be supporting me, instead you should be

10:07stopping me.

10:08Instead of stopping me, you are, but we love it when somebody supports us, right?

10:14No, that's called not knowing yourself.

10:20If you really are a friend, come on, stop me.

10:23That's what friendship is all about.

10:27So if you want to be insult proof, be ignorant proof.

10:37If you are ignorance proof, you will be insult proof.

10:42People will come and say a thousand things to you.

10:47That's what the world is for.

10:50The world is there to give you a billion kinds of experiences.

10:55So the world is constantly coming to you, making you feel this way, that way.

11:01Your job is to not to get easily swayed.

11:06Let the world see what it has to.

11:09Am I not conscious?

11:13There is an object, this.

11:22This lid on the tumbler.

11:27Does it have any free will, any volition?

11:31I wanted to pick it, I have picked it up.

11:35If I drop it from here, it will fall or can it say, why are you being so cruel?

11:42Why did you raise me?

11:45Now why are you letting me go?

11:48But this is how most of us are, right?

11:51Someone wants to raise you, he can.

11:56Someone wants to break you, he can.

12:00So Vedant says, Jada and Chetan are different and the job of Chetan or Chetana is to not

12:23let Jada, unconsciousness become dominant on itself.

12:34If I am a slave to circumstances, then I'm just like this dead object.

12:40Am I dead?

12:41No.

12:42But please see, that every time you allow circumstances to rule you, you are actually

12:53acting like a dead object.

12:55Does that sound very nice?

12:58No, that does not.

13:01I should be so strong from within that circumstances should not be able to affect me beyond a point.

13:13Outside, everything is changeable, inside there should be an unchanging core.

13:25This is skin, obviously, sun, heat, cold, water, wind will affect it.

13:36But all those things should be able to affect only my external shells.

13:44My core, my interiority should remain untouched by whatsoever is happening in the world.

13:52And that thing that must always remain untouched.

13:56What do you call it?

13:59What do you call it?

14:04That's called Atma, the self, the truth.

14:13If you are alive, then this is the definition of being alive.

14:17Please note with care.

14:20You are alive only if you have something within that circumstances cannot even touch.

14:30Then you say, I am truly alive.

14:32Others just appear to be alive.

14:39They are not really alive.

14:40They are like.

14:41Have you seen leaves falling from trees?

14:46Do they own their destiny?

14:53They are ruled by the winds.

14:56Most of us, unfortunately, are like fallen leaves.

15:00We have no interior locus of control.

15:06There is no Atma.

15:11All we have is strings that others are pulling all the time, puppets.

15:20We are young, intelligent, vigorous people.

15:26We will not live like puppets or would we?

15:30That's all.

15:31That's all.

15:32Yes.

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