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00:00Geetha doesn't start with work.
00:03The starting point is not work or action.
00:06But in nowadays students' life, everything is very much attached to the rewards, the grades, the placements, the opportunities.
00:13If students are told, grades are assured, you don't need to write the exams.
00:18How many would still write the exams?
00:20Some wise man comes to you and says, you know, Bhagavad Gita says,
00:22do what you are doing and don't worry about the result.
00:25But the fact is, I have already worried about the result.
00:27That's why I am doing what I am doing.
00:29So what nonsense is being preached?
00:32What nonsense is being preached?
00:33That's how the common mind works.
00:35So we say that truth never dies, but the one who is observing is in itself the perishable one.
00:43Why did you say when the observer looks at perishable things, he does not see them as perishable?
00:49Because while we are working or doing anything or being with people, then we are just engrossed with them as if they are there.
00:56So you are not seeing them.
00:57No, we don't assume them to be eternal, but...
01:00Yeah, why don't you assume them to be eternal?
01:02We are searching for something.
01:04Then we look outside for external sources, people, books.
01:08You have a problem.
01:09Yeah.
01:09You are looking for a solution outside.
01:11Yeah.
01:12Now what is the problem?
01:13So how do we know if this is the right solution?
01:16If that problem will help?
01:16That solution will help?
01:17Yeah.
01:18Like, how do we...
01:19For that you need to know the problem.
01:20How do you know whether something is a solution?
01:23Before asking whether I know the solution, you have to ask, do I know the problem?
01:27I'm glad to be here with all of you.
01:37And let's have a deep, real, intense conversation with a lot of truths and truths on anything that you consider important to yourself.
01:55If it doesn't matter the thing looks small or big, but if it's important to you, it deserves to be taken up to date.
02:11The session is all yours.
02:12Let's begin with your questions, please.
02:14Good evening, Acharya Prashantji.
02:22A very warm welcome to IIIT Bangalore.
02:24We are today privileged to have you here.
02:27So I am Shuta Noka.
02:29I am from the Outreach and Media Department of IIIT Bangalore.
02:31So a very common question and a common doubt among students is that you talk a lot about the Bhagavad Gita and the Vedanta, which focuses on doing work without any attachment to the rewards.
02:50But in nowadays students' life, everything is very much attached to the rewards, the placements, the opportunities.
02:58So in this world where we are constantly chasing these things, how can a student keep going towards knowledge without the expectation of getting rewards at each stage?
03:12How to keep that motivated?
03:14That's my question.
03:18See, the Gita doesn't start with work.
03:26It doesn't say, all right, you have chosen your work, whatever it is, and now get into it, do it without any expectations.
03:43Do not clamor for results and just keep doing whatever you are doing.
03:48No, that's not what Gita says.
03:50The starting point is not work or action.
03:53The starting point is the choice of work.
04:01The Gita says that your work must be a result of deep self-awareness.
04:12You cannot just get into something, invest your energy there, invest time, resources, life itself.
04:24Without knowing why you are getting into it.
04:30And you cannot prescribe particular types of work as universally good and other types as universally not good or undesirable.
04:45So, how do I know what I must do?
04:51How do I know the right action to undertake?
04:57The Gita says, know yourself.
04:58Because action cannot be random, action has to be in the context of who you are.
05:09I must know what I am internally.
05:12My fears, my perceived weaknesses, my troubles, my scars, my hopes.
05:23And I must know what these things are and where they are coming from.
05:27Out of this self-awareness emerges a spontaneous choice of work.
05:37Now, this work has not even been very deliberately chosen.
05:44This work has spontaneously emerged because I deeply know who I am and I also see what my relationship with the world currently is.
05:56And the world includes everything.
05:58My family, my past, the environment, the state of the nation, the state of the other countries, climate change, everything.
06:13That's all included in the world.
06:17So, I know myself and I also see the situation of the world.
06:22And from this awareness emerges, we are saying, a spontaneous choice of work.
06:29It's so spontaneous that it can't even be called a choice.
06:34So, it's a choiceless choice.
06:37You are helpless in front of this choice.
06:40You cannot refuse this choice.
06:47The matter has become so clear in front of you, like the sun shining, that you cannot even attempt to hide behind any kind of screen.
07:01There is no darkness left available anywhere.
07:05Everything is now crystal clear, like daylight.
07:09So, you are choiceless.
07:10In that sense, you are helpless.
07:12You will have to do this.
07:14And when you know that you have to do this, this choicelessness leaves you with no scope to worry about the future.
07:25Work itself becomes so important because that work is arising from your own core.
07:36That work has not been imposed on you.
07:38So, now that work consumes you so much and you get so deeply immersed in it that there is no time, space, energy or need left to worry for the results in future.
08:06Now, this is nishkaam karma of the bhagavad-gita.
08:09When work has been chosen rightly, when it's a choiceless choice emerging out of awareness, then you will have no need and no desire to worry about the future or what you will get from the work.
08:32The work becomes its own reward.
08:34The work becomes its own reward.
08:35You can call it love.
08:39There is so much love in the action itself that there is no need left to desire anything from the future.
08:51Whatever could have been obtained is being obtained right now in the process of the work itself.
09:01One says it is sufficient that I am able to act rightly.
09:06It would be in gratitude to ask for more.
09:11So, that is nishkaam karma.
09:14Now, instead, how has nishkaam karma been popularly interpreted?
09:21You do whatever you are doing, any random blind action coming from ignorance, coming from social pressure or familial pressure or peer pressure, social trends, whatever.
09:40That's how most people decide what to do.
09:43It's not even a decision.
09:45It's a kind of sleepwalk.
09:47You are being carried with the flow.
09:50Everybody is getting into that particular line of vocational education.
09:54I too will get into it.
09:56Everybody is taking such kind of career or life decisions.
10:01So, I too feel internally pressurized to take those decisions.
10:05That's how we decide on our actions.
10:10Now, when such actions are there, obviously you will worry about the result.
10:18Because how do you, first of all, commit yourself to such actions?
10:22Somebody tells you, you see, if you choose a certain branch of engineering or management or any other professional education,
10:32then you will get such and such results, right?
10:37So, the desire for results comes first.
10:41And with a view, with an eye on the results, you decide the action.
10:45Isn't that how the common mind, the common man works?
10:49First of all, you say, I want to go there.
10:52So, desire comes first.
10:54And then you figure out the action.
10:56So, should I walk like this?
10:58A serpentine walk?
10:59A haphazard walk?
11:01A straight line?
11:02Or should I fly over?
11:03Should I dig a tunnel underneath?
11:05So, these are the possible options.
11:08Whatever be the options, the fact remains that first of all, the common man says, that is my desire.
11:15Now, that is my desire and I want to obtain that thing.
11:18I want to reach that point.
11:19So, I will now undertake action.
11:22That's how we commonly work, right?
11:24And we are asking, where did that desire come from in the first place?
11:29It's not your desire.
11:30We said social pressures, general trends, internal laziness.
11:38Why try to figure out what life is all about?
11:41Just do what everybody else is doing?
11:44So, that's where the target comes from.
11:47Internal laziness and fear and pressure and ignorance and greed.
11:52That's what sets that target.
11:54The target is the first thing.
11:57And then comes the action.
12:00The action.
12:01Then comes the action.
12:03Now, with this kind of action, in this framework, how are you going to act without concern for result?
12:14Because the concern for result is what has decided the action.
12:20The concern for result came first and then came the action.
12:23And now, some wise man comes to you and says, you know, Bhagavad Gita says, do what you are doing and don't worry about the result.
12:30But the fact is, I have already worried about the result.
12:33That's why I am doing what I am doing.
12:35So, what nonsense is being preached?
12:38What nonsense is being preached?
12:40That's not Bhagavad Gita.
12:42That's not what Shri Krishna had to offer.
12:45What he is saying is something totally different, dimensionally different.
12:49But we have totally missed it and misinterpreted it according to our own convenience.
12:55So, unless your action is coming from internal clarity, desireless action is impossible.
13:09Without internal clarity, you cannot have Nishkamkar.
13:14From internal clarity comes the type of action that doesn't worry about results.
13:21But the common kind of action, you will have to worry about results because it is for the sake of results that most people work.
13:30They will not work if result is guaranteed without working.
13:35If students are told, grades are assured, you don't need to write the exams.
13:42How many would still write the exams?
13:44Because they are not writing the exams for the sake of enjoying the examination.
13:50They are writing the exam for the sake of the degree or the placement.
13:53Right on the day of admission, if you are told, placement is guaranteed, you don't need to attend the classes.
14:00You will struggle to find even five students in the classes.
14:05Even at places like IT's and IM's, attendance has to be made compulsory.
14:12And wherever attendance is not compulsory, the classrooms struggle to see even 20% occupancy.
14:22Why?
14:24Because it is not for the love of learning that we join an institution.
14:30We join an institution for the sake of placement or degree or reputation or something, money or pressure, something.
14:37You tell people, salary is guaranteed even without working.
14:43How many people would turn up at the office?
14:48Because it was not for the love of the work that they were reaching the office.
14:53They were coming to the office just so that on the 30th, they could get a paycheck.
14:58That's how the common mind works.
15:00The desire comes first, the action comes later.
15:04That's not what Gita is talking about.
15:07The Gita is talking about a totally different framework.
15:10It's a different dimension.
15:12The whole paradigm is not what we think it to be.
15:16The Gita starts with internal clarity.
15:21Please understand where you stand.
15:24Please see who you are.
15:26Then look at your relationship with everything around you.
15:32And from this understanding, it will become automatically clear what you must do now.
15:38And when action comes from such clarity, then it becomes unstoppable.
15:48Desirous action is very vulnerable.
15:52It can be stopped very easily.
15:55You are going to that point and somebody comes and tells you irrespective of how much you walk,
16:00that point can never be attained.
16:01You will stop.
16:02Your action has no energy.
16:07Your action has no energy.
16:08But when your action is not for the sake of a particular point there, rather your action is emanating from a deep point here,
16:18then your action becomes unstoppable.
16:21What will you tell this person?
16:23He is already in love.
16:24He is in love with what he is doing.
16:26How will you stop him?
16:28You will tell him, you know, you will not reach anywhere.
16:30He said, I don't care about reaching.
16:32I care about walking.
16:34You know, people will obstruct you.
16:36They will hate you.
16:37You might face repercussions.
16:39You will say, you know, the biggest harm that can come to me is that I stop.
16:49I will not let this harm happen.
16:53Other things I can manage and tolerate.
16:56So, you cannot stop this person.
16:59So, you cannot just wish that doing any random thing, you will be able to not worry about the result.
17:07Worrying about the result will become a compulsion with you if your action is not coming from the point of inner clarity, lucidity.
17:16So, before committing yourself to any action, ask yourself, why must I?
17:21Is this worth doing?
17:23What am I getting into it for?
17:25Those are very important questions to be asked, especially as a youngster.
17:30Otherwise, we make decisions that are sometimes irreversible and if you get into something and stay there for long enough, sometimes you will stop feeling bad about it.
17:47Because you get conditioned, because you get habituated.
17:51You are doing something for the last 20 years, for the first one or two years.
17:56You knew it was not the right thing to do, but now the sheer force of habit keeps you going.
18:02Like the momentum of a thing going down a slope.
18:06Nobody has to push it, just the slope and the existing momentum will keep it going.
18:13After a while, not even the slope is needed.
18:17It has gained so much from the past, that it can keep going for another 5 years, just out of the pre-existing momentum.
18:29Yes? Don't let that happen to you. Yes?
18:32Good evening Sir. My question is regarding truth and self-observation.
18:38So, we say that truth never dies, but the one who is observing is in itself the perishable one.
18:46And the things that are being observed are also the perishable ones.
18:51But at the same time, the one who is observing does not see even the things that are perishable as perishable.
18:57And the truth that is there, we don't know about at all.
19:03So, ultimately the more we self-inquire, the conclusion or the observation that we come to is, we don't know anything.
19:11Neither the self, nor the world exactly as it is, nor the truth.
19:18So, could you please throw some light on the truth?
19:22Why did you say when the observer looks at perishable things, he does not see them as perishable?
19:28Because while we are working or doing anything or being with people, then we are just engrossed with them as if they are there.
19:35So, you are not seeing. You are not seeing then.
19:39That's where the catch is. You are not seeing.
19:44If something is perishable and you see, you will see it is perishable.
19:49Aren't mangoes perishable? Don't you see they are perishable? Yes?
20:00You don't see mangoes are perishable? You assume they are eternal? Do you do that?
20:07No, we don't assume them to be eternal but when we are like...
20:11Yeah, why don't you assume them to be eternal?
20:13Because they are not. No, no. Because there is no great identification or association with a mango.
20:24But when there are great stakes involved in a relationship, then you do not want to see the fact.
20:31If a mango too becomes something that contains the very germ of your life, then you will stop seeing the fact of even a mango, an ordinary mango.
20:47Even there you will find your vision blurred. Facts are obvious. It's just that we choose to look at them with self interest.
20:59And wherever there is self interest, there the fact, in spite of being right in front of your eyes, will be missed.
21:14It's all here. I mean, who else is in a great position to see how things rise and fall, come and go?
21:22It's all happening to us, outside of us, within us, to us, along with us. It's all happening continuously. No?
21:29Right? Why do we still miss it? Because we don't want to see.
21:37Instead, you are putting it as if it is difficult to see. No, it's not difficult to see. It's very easy to see. It's easier than easy.
21:49You will obviously see. You are looking at me. What kind of effort is it taking? There is no effort required. Right? Right? Right? Yeah.
22:01But if you don't want to see, who can push you to see? The word here is honesty. Intent. And nobody can make you forcefully do things that you have decided not to do because you have chosen something else to be greatly important.
22:23I choose my proclivity for luxurious goods to be so important that I refuse to look at the fact of climate change even though the data is very easily, widely available.
22:45I will not look at that data. Why? Because I want to burn fuel. I don't want to look at that data.
22:52And even if somebody forcefully tries to show me that data, I will say hoax. Hoax. There is nothing called climate change. This is not happening at all.
23:03Why? Because there is just so much desire. Just so much desire that it blocks your vision. Anybody from Gita community here?
23:14It's obvious. It's obvious. Pratyaksh. Aksh's eyes. Right here. In front of you. But you will still not see. Because you don't want to see.
23:21And nobody can do anything about it. Because it's your intention. Your wish. And only you have.
23:28to come to a point where you say, I don't want to miss the truth.
23:35Just one follow-up to this. When I am even talking to you, I do not, like, at that point in time when I am talking to you,
23:42see you or me as mortal beings. And nor do I see the truth.
23:49or whatever it is, I don't know exactly. So, how do you know that there is something called the truth?
23:56By self-inquiry or questioning the self, or the image, or neither the name nor the body.
24:04Seriously?
24:07as mortal beings, and nor do I see the truth, or whatever it is, I don't know exactly.
24:15So, how do you know that there is something called the truth?
24:20By self-inquiry or questioning the self, or the image, or neither the name, nor the body.
24:26Seriously, is it coming from there? Is it coming from what you have heard, or read, or seen on YouTube?
24:34By no stretch of imagination do I see myself, or you as the great truth. How have you managed to do that?
24:42No, no, like, definitely we are not even coming in that fold. However, whatever it might be, that also, I don't either see that, nor the things that are here as they are.
25:00That's, that's, I think, what's Maya, that we are. So, when I say, hello, what do you hear?
25:08Hello. That's it.
25:12Or do you hear the truth ringing?
25:15So, when I say, hello, I have said, hello. Not, satyame hojaite.
25:21It's as simple as this. Let facts be facts.
25:32When facts remain facts, then satyame hojaite. But if facts are overruled, then no satyame hojaite.
25:46But there is something like truth. When I listen to you, or...
25:50There is something like truth.
25:52Like, when I listen to you, or Swami Vivekananda, I read about Swami Vivekananda Ji, or Ramakrishna Paramahansa, then I am not exactly, or Jiddu Krishnamurti, I am not exactly looking to those personalities.
26:03But I am exactly, probably interested in the solution for the suffering being. So, how will the solution come? If instead of hearing what the doctor is saying, you start thinking that the doctor is truth personified.
26:21And the doctor is talking about things very mundane and mortal.
26:25He is talking about your liver. He is talking about your dietary habits. He is talking about your report.
26:31He is talking about very ordinary, factual, material, tangible things.
26:35But you are saying, no sir, you are the great truth. And I am also that same great truth. Tattva Masih.
26:41How will any solution come, if you don't remain in the fact?
26:45Were you born with this thing that, you know, when I look at a teacher, I do not look at him as a person, instead I look at some kind of great mass of light, truth radiating something?
27:01I understand, you have not said that. But what I am asking is, were you born with this knowledge? No.
27:07It has come to you from this and that place. And that is not called enlightenment or illumination. That is called conditioning.
27:17One of the worst forms of conditioning is this spiritual conditioning.
27:23So many people have told me, I mean, there is a great aura here.
27:29There is nothing. Sir, you know, when you are speaking, you look like that, this, whatever. Go and ask those who hate me.
27:39They too feel I look like something else when I am speaking. How is it that there is such a contrast?
27:45To you, I am goodness personified. To them, I am veritable evil. No, I am neither goodness personified nor the evil.
27:55I am this simple man standing in front of me. Listen to the fact. Don't superimpose what you already have in your mind.
28:07That's not the way of science. That's not the way of truth.
28:25You know, this was highly symbolic. The lights, that's a message from the beyond. It's not for nothing. See, lights are just lights.
28:53There is nothing mystical behind them. Huh? There is nothing mystical there.
29:01So then why do you, like yesterday also in the session, you were saying that there comes a point, then...
29:09when the eye dissolves, when the question, who am I does not remain, is the point that we...
29:15My question to you is, I am talking of an entire journey from here till I don't know where, and then I am saying there is a point, there is something...
29:25You are here. You are here. And I am talking of a point infinite miles down the line. If there is such a line at all.
29:35Why are you not concerned with where you are? Why are you thinking so much about that point? And will you ever reach there if you do not know where you are?
29:44How do you operate your GPS system? What? There are two things it asks.
29:50Start position and the destination. Your location.
29:55What's your location? If you are internally dislocated, how will you reach any destination?
30:03First thing is to know the fact right under your feet. Huh? Your location. This is the fact. This is where I am. This is what is happening within me. This is what is happening around me. The bare naked fact.
30:18Instead, spirituality has become something of imagination and hallucinations and projections and super impositions.
30:30And saying, you know, I close my eyes and I see divine lights and I hear holy bells. I also experience something rising within or moving zigzag.
30:48You will hate me, huh? Never. Thank you, sir.
31:02Thank you, firstly. So, when we realise that there is, we are enquiring and we come to the conclusion that we don't know, we look for external sources.
31:15It can be in any form, a person, book, course, whatever. So, like is there a certain form of surrender, like we are accepting firstly, that we don't know. In that case, what should be our stance?
31:31Because, because our intellect and decision making also should be there. To realise if we are...
31:37I am not grasping what you are saying. So, what I meant is, when we know that we need to, we are looking for answers in some way, we are searching for something, something deeper.
31:49Then we look outside for external sources, people, books, it can be anything. Then that case, how should we, what should be our stance? Because, there is a certain form of acceptance that we don't know.
32:03But also, to see it clearly, objectively. You have a problem, you are looking for a solution outside. Yeah. Now, what is the problem?
32:11So, how do we know if this is the right solution? If that problem will help? That solution will help? Yeah. Like, how do we...
32:17For that you need to know the problem. How do you know whether something is a solution? Before asking whether I know the solution, you have to ask, do I know the problem?
32:30If you know the problem, that which is a solution to that problem, will immediately become attractive and valuable. Why do we miss out on solutions?
32:42Because we have missed out on the problem itself. If even the diagnosis is not right, how can the treatment plan be alright?
32:52We miss out on the diagnosis. We very quickly say, oh I have a problem. As if, just because I have a problem, so I do know what the problem is. No.
33:01None of us know, what our real problem is. Very superficially, like the tip of an iceberg, do we know of our problems?
33:11Go deeply into the root of your problem. And from there you will find the solution very easy.
33:18Maybe the root of the problem itself contains the solution. Maybe, I don't know. Go into the problem. Don't just run away from it and say, where is the solution, where is the solution, solution.
33:28Hmm? Problem. Understand your problem more deeply.
33:32So, is that going deep into it, require an external source because... Yes, it may. Yes.
33:40Then how do you know that this source might... So, you know your problem to an extent, to the best of your ability. You tried going into it with honesty. This honesty will help you reach someone who is better placed in terms of narrating or reflecting your problem to you.
34:01But now, because you know your problem, so you also know whether this person is succeeding.
34:08Yeah. That person will offer you something or tell you something. How do you know what he has given or told is of value? That can be known only in the context of the degree to which it solves your problem.
34:25But how do you know whether your problem is being solved at all? When you are in touch with your problem. So, I know my problem, I have come to you. My problem is, I have fever.
34:34So, this much I know of myself. Now, whatever treatment you are offering me, if the fever isn't receding, then I know I have come to the wrong place.
34:44But to know that you have come to the wrong place, first of all, you have to be in touch with yourself. You might not exactly know what is causing the fever.
34:56But at least you have done your best to know that you have fever. This much you can do. The real tragedy is when we just don't want to look at the reality of the problem and we run to external helpers and then we are exploited.
35:18And they will exploit. Because now they can offer you anything. And you won't know whether it is right or wrong, good or bad, useful or useless.
35:28How do you decide whether it is useful or useless? You don't know the use you are putting it for in the first place.
35:37I stay in London, UK. And right now I am visiting India. This was my first session today. And it was really, really nice to see first hand, like not recording, because I have been following Acharya Ji for about two years now.
36:00And I have read his books. And it was really lovely to see first hand live. Reflections, most beautiful thing I find about Acharya Ji is how he gets into every single word about informing the definition of understanding.
36:19And the thing we said is when you have the definition of understanding is it ends desire. Once you break it, it automatically ends desire because you see the whole and soul part of it.
36:32Again, I am a professional in terms of, I am a diabetic coach working in NHS. So I keep telling this to everyone where I say you graduate step by step, graduate step by step.
36:45You know, you don't go from zero goal to ten goal directly. And he put it so simply in terms of facing fear. And I was like, so amazing. I mean, these are a few reflections that I got from him.
37:01And yeah, I mean, his reflections always stick with me. That's why I implement them. I do kind of write them. I make voice notes for this. But yeah, I'm very thankful for this session.
37:13I'm very thankful for this session.
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