- 1 year ago
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00:00And I must say this, this is by far the most value per page in a book that I've read this year, without any exaggeration.
00:10You see, it strikes instantly like lightning.
00:14That's why we have 200 chapters this time, all brief, all succinct.
00:19So every brief chapter is like an arrow to deliver results instantly, to reach one particular pinpointed place.
00:28I consider you the thinking generation's icon.
00:32Most of self-help literature is treating the symptom rather than the disease.
00:37Yes.
00:38You know, when I was reading the manuscript for me, it works as well for a 12-year-old as it works for an 80-year-old.
00:46You could open just any chapter from anywhere and find as if it was written just for you.
00:53So it is intensity that this book brings.
00:56Obviously, the chapters are short and that will be an advantage to this generation dealing with reels and all kinds of short stuff.
01:05But the real advantage lies in the piercing intensity.
01:09That's what is missing from the modern life.
01:18Achara Ji, Namaskar.
01:20It's a pleasure and a privilege to have you.
01:23I'm going to say this for sure, that we are going to miss you in Delhi, because you were supposed to be in person in Delhi.
01:31But I know you're working on something very, very important.
01:35Please tell us what is keeping you in Goa, sir.
01:38Goa, to me, is an absence of a lot, many things that hinder my work on the book.
01:54So, I'm especially here to take the book to a height of precision and perfection that would leave nothing wanted.
02:15I don't want to have any compromises of any kind.
02:23I want to challenge any little bugs, any absence of sharpness that might have remained.
02:36And that's what I'm doing here, devoting many hours to the book daily, though, technically, the book is already complete.
02:48The book is complete since almost 10 days now.
02:53But then I'm ensuring more iterations, going over chapters again and again.
03:00And Goa helps. Goa helps in a big way, not because it offers something extra, but because of the absence of many things that I otherwise face.
03:13So, it's a beautiful place and I'm really enjoying the beautiful work I'm doing in this beautiful place.
03:20And I must say, Acharya Ji, you know, the excitement is all, you know, is absolutely building.
03:25It's been three years since you last published with us, you know, your book with us, Ananda.
03:32Yes.
03:33And I am one of the few lucky ones who had the chance of reading the manuscript of Truth Without Apology.
03:41Thank you so much.
03:42And I must say this, this is by far the most value per page in a book that I've read this year, without any exaggeration.
03:55Yes, yes, yes, yes, there would definitely be value per page, but the format didn't come out of that calculation.
04:06The format actually arose from the nature of Truth itself.
04:12You see, it strikes instantly like lightning, like a sudden bolt.
04:23You don't always have to wait for it to gradually emerge after 300 pages.
04:31One sentence may suffice, one event may suffice, one action, one insight may suffice, plus it is multifaceted.
04:45You never know it is, you never know where it is going to come next from.
04:51And it can come from anywhere and everywhere.
04:56So that's why we have 200 chapters this time, all brief, all succinct.
05:02And they are all addressing the various aspects of life, but all pointing towards the same underlying truth, not in a positive way, but in a way of disruption, in a way of challenge, negation.
05:22We live in an era of sweet lies, right?
05:28And that forms part of the title of the book, Sweet Lies and Curated Illusions.
05:35So every brief chapter is like an arrow, not like an essay.
05:44It's like an arrow to deliver results instantly, to reach one particular pinpointed place.
05:56And there are just so many places in our daily lives.
05:59So therefore, we are trying to look for things wherever they are and address them as they are.
06:11Achaiji, there's an interesting observation that I had, you know, was that when we signed you for Ananda, I think four or five years ago, you had, on social media, you had two million followers.
06:23And going by, going by your, you know, you have this, I consider you the thinking generations icon, because to us, you have an image which is, which is unlike any speaker or guru in the current parlance.
06:42People in this age and, you know, in this age and time, people like to be told comfortable lies.
06:49They don't want anyone plain speaking, lekin aapka jo andaz hai, aapka jo approach hai, you know, that is absolutely, at sometimes, it's almost, it's almost abrasive, you know, if not too harsh.
07:06Now, please explain this to me, from two million, today you have 80 plus million followers across social media.
07:15Is it, is it, is it the age that people have, have started liking harsh truths?
07:23Yes, it's a, it's an interesting thing, almost mysterious.
07:28On one hand, it is true that the audiences just didn't arrive on their own.
07:41We had to chase them relentlessly.
07:44And we still chase them very passionately.
07:49That's a big part of the mission.
07:51So, that is one part of the answer.
07:56And the second part is, we talk of people seeking comfort, but, but beneath all the comfort and the conveniences that they seek,
08:11the one thing, the one thing every human being is really after, is the truth.
08:20Ji.
08:20It's just that truth appears unapproachable and also sometimes too risky or costly.
08:31So, we settle for convenient substitutes, rather than the real thing itself.
08:42But even in the convenient substitutes, it is the real thing that we are postulating or projecting or trying to get some kind of a compensation for.
08:59So, if the real thing, the naked reality as it is, if that can shine, why would and for how long would anybody want to escape from it?
09:18So, what I am saying is, when people run away from the truth, they are actually running away towards something that at least looks like truth.
09:33Right?
09:34So, it's their version of truth.
09:36It's their version of truth, partly because the real thing is not available and partly because it appears too expensive.
09:45But if the real thing can be brought to them, and they can have some kind of assurance that even if the costs appear forbidding,
10:04the benefits far outweigh the costs, then they do slowly come and you talked of me being abrasive,
10:15it's partly because people need that.
10:18It's not just a need, it's actually a demand that comes from them.
10:24I'm not, in my personal self,
10:31an abrasive person or necessarily harsh or dominating or whatever, none of those things.
10:42But, uh, you could call this, uh, requirement of my relationship, uh, with the seekers.
10:50Uh, mollycoddling, they have had enough of.
10:56What, what they really need is the, is the real blunt thing that exposes to them where they are stuck and in how many different ways we are all stuck and pointers at how we could, uh, we could shift from where we are.
11:21So, do you also, you know, as a result of it, do you get, uh, hot, hotly worded or hate emails or threats as a result?
11:32Yes, that's a, that's a part of the deal that comes, uh, with the package and, uh, that has to be accepted, uh, not just, uh, with indifference, but if possible, with gratitude.
11:49So, that is not easily possible, I tell you.
11:56But, uh, but that's something that you sign up for when you say that you will be responding to life as it is and life as it is today is not quite pretty.
12:11Absolutely.
12:12And, uh, when you say that, uh, be it, uh, capitalism, be it the environment, be it the injustices of, uh, several kind, be it, uh, religion, be it the caste prejudices, be it technology, be it economics.
12:32You are going to, uh, respond to all these things in life, wherever you see them, then obviously all kinds of reaction will come your way and, uh, you have to be prepared for it.
12:48You know it's happening.
12:49You know it's happening.
12:50Absolutely.
12:51Acharya Ji, when we were growing up, you know, we, we were used to this word, uh, in Hindi called Satya Sheel.
12:59Now, uh, as I stand and where we, where we stand as a society today, I think to me Satya Sheel having truth and also, you know, uh, the, the ability to be affable, uh, uh, it sounds like an oxymoron in today's day.
13:18And time.
13:19Do you know anyone who's Satya Sheel?
13:21I think we need to be more clear on the very definition of Satya Sheel.
13:33You see, a Sheel refers more to action approach or attitude.
13:43If we are, uh, uh, more clear on the nature of Satya Sheel itself, uh, we will know.
13:55Satya is truth, obviously.
13:57Sheel refers more to action approach or attitude.
14:02So, anything that leads you towards the truth,
14:12that deserves to be called as Sheel and only that which reveals the truth to you cutting through darkness, only that deserves to be called Sheel.
14:32Sheel cannot be a code of conduct.
14:37Sheel cannot be about, uh, being sweet or affable or nice or polite.
14:45Though, commonly, that's the way we understand it.
14:49Uh, but that needs, uh, uh, to be, uh, challenged, debated.
14:55Sheel is about having one pointed devotion towards the truth and only the truth.
15:02And if you are living that way, then, uh, you are following Sheel.
15:08And if that devotion necessitates being blunt, straight, direct, then that is indeed a part of Sheel.
15:20Truth and Sheel are, are not two separate things.
15:23Please understand.
15:24Whatever takes the organism, the ego towards light is Sheel.
15:31Instead, the, the kind of, uh, conception we have, uh, we have conjured is, is that, uh, if you, uh, are decent, uh, polite, uh, may I say diluted.
15:52And if you are someone who doesn't like to, uh, um, to be blunt, to hurt people, uh, then you are Sheel.
16:04No, that's not the way it is.
16:06Truth is the only absolute.
16:08Truth is the only absolute.
16:10And, uh, therefore, there has to be an unflinching devotion.
16:16One cannot care for anything else.
16:19One has to be like a doctor, as the Buddha used to say.
16:23The doctor obviously, uh, seeks the patient's consent and tries to keep it as painless as possible.
16:32Keeps counselling also.
16:34But none of these things can come in the way of true treatment.
16:41If the patient says, this approach is going to hurt me.
16:47I don't want to go for that kind of surgery.
16:50Uh, the doctor is not going to really listen.
16:53The doctor would speak to the patient, counsel the patient, but ultimately tell him that, that is the only method possible.
17:00If you don't want to have that, then your own well-being, uh, will be compromised.
17:06Character.
17:07That reminds me.
17:08Sorry, I'm just interrupting.
17:09That reminds me.
17:10There can be no tooth extraction without pains.
17:13Yeah.
17:14So pain is really not something that you deliberately want to inflict on the other.
17:25But what if what you are doing is like pulling the other out of his self-inflicted numbness?
17:40You know, when you desensitize yourself to life, then you stop feeling pain, don't you?
17:47Well, cool.
17:48And if the writer's words awaken you, make you more sensitive and more present to your own condition, then you will feel pain.
18:01Now this pain is not something that the author or teacher has inflicted upon you.
18:08This is a pain that was always present anyway in your condition, in your pre-existing ways.
18:17It is just that we suppress the pain.
18:20We have sedatives.
18:22We have, we have all kinds of entertainments, even titillations, so that the pain can be sidelined, ignored, subdued.
18:36The task of the author is to, is to bring life back to life.
18:46And when that happens, that, that always begins with, with a realization that one is in pain.
18:55Please, please understand, it is the realization that might be new.
19:01It is not that pain is new.
19:04Pain exists already.
19:05Otherwise, the teacher is not even needed.
19:09If the, if the, if the seeker, if the audience is already alright, why does one need to teach, treat or write?
19:24It is because pain exists.
19:25It is because we are already suffering, that certain thing is said or written.
19:31But we are clever people, so, so we have suppressants.
19:37We have analgesics.
19:39My task begins with, with having the audience realize that, that we are not alright.
19:48But we can be, we deserve to be, it is possible.
19:52And it's only because of something that we have excessively done, over and above, what needs to be done, that we have landed in our present condition.
20:06So, can we, can we stop doing a few things?
20:10Can we stop fearing?
20:12Can we stop chasing?
20:15And it's that simple.
20:17You don't have to do too many things extra.
20:21A lot that is already being done, has to be seen for what it is.
20:28And then probably dropped.
20:31No, I absolutely agree.
20:34You know, so far, I think most of us, most of, most of self-help literature is treating the symptom rather than the disease.
20:45Yes.
20:46You know, addressing, is basically addressing the symptom.
20:48We have a few chapters on, on that category also, self-help.
20:54And begin by asking, what does self-help mean?
20:58It is the ego treating the ego.
21:00It is the ego acting doctor.
21:03And then, then you just want to remain as you are without, first of all, understanding who you are and why you are in a condition that requires help in the first place.
21:21Absolutely.
21:22Achalji, I mean, I have my own publisher's bias.
21:26You know, when I was reading the manuscript for me, it works for, as well for a 12 year old, as it works for an 80 year old.
21:36But when you are writing this book, obviously, you are, you are a perfectionist.
21:40You focus, you are writing this book with a focused reader in mind.
21:47What is your perfect reader for this book?
21:50Anybody who is sincere about his or her own condition.
21:56I don't really have a demographic in mind.
22:01I don't have an economic condition, stata, gender or nationality in mind.
22:09But what one definitely looks for is a genuine urge to break out of chains, of bondages, of self-inflicted misery.
22:25Wherever that is, this book would be found useful.
22:30And that's the reason, you see, we decided to have just so many brief chapters.
22:37Yeah.
22:38Because life comes to us in an unending number of ways.
22:46Innumerable, and you never know what's going to happen next.
22:51Everything is unexpected.
22:53Though we want and we try to force fit things a lot.
22:59We want things to be predictable and well arranged and well estimated in advance.
23:05But still, life is forever afresh.
23:08And it presents just so many faces.
23:11So that's the reason we are trying to address the various aspects of life.
23:18If you could, you could open just any chapter from anywhere and find as if it was written just for you.
23:27Just for you.
23:28It addresses contemporary life and tries to reveal something that is contemporary yet very ancient.
23:39Exactly.
23:40In fact, I mean, that's what I was speaking with some of my colleagues.
23:46And I said, this book is a perfect fit for this attention-deficient Instagram generation.
23:55You can take a chapter from anywhere.
23:57One chapter would not be more than two pages.
24:00You read a chapter, close the book and then ponder, think about it, you know.
24:07But there is another thing I would want to say that the challenge today is obviously attention deficit is a thing we all see daily.
24:19It is present.
24:21But the challenge really is more the absence of intensity.
24:27Yeah.
24:28Intensity.
24:29We are starved of something that really penetrates the surface.
24:34There is just so much superficiality and banality.
24:38So it is intensity that this book brings.
24:45Obviously, the chapters are short.
24:47And that will be an advantage to this generation dealing with reels and all kinds of short stuff on the various media.
24:56So that would be an advantage.
24:58But the real advantage lies in the piercing intensity.
25:03That's what is missing from the modern life.
25:07We have all kinds of things.
25:09We have a great spread.
25:11There is a, never seen before, horizontal proliferation.
25:22This, that, diversity, abundance.
25:27What is missing is that depth.
25:30And it is depth that this book will bring.
25:34And, I come to that word again.
25:39Arrow, arrow like depth.
25:41Huh?
25:42Ji.
25:43Striking like lightning.
25:45Immediately.
25:46So you don't have a chance to escape away from it.
25:50The brevity is an advantage in that sense.
25:53You cannot say, you know, I will come to this chapter later.
25:58Before you say that, the chapter has done its thing already.
26:01Reminds me of this advertisement many, many years ago there.
26:06So, in ke josh se bach ke kahan jauge.
26:08No.
26:11So, one thing that I have noted.
26:13Sorry, after you say that.
26:14Like a Zen Quan.
26:16Hmm?
26:17Absolutely.
26:18Like a Zen Quan.
26:19Like a Zen Quan.
26:20Very brief.
26:21Very effective.
26:22And does its work in a snap?
26:28Bilkul.
26:29In fact, I mean, the change Acharya Ji that I have noticed in the last five years.
26:34So, I mean, in my interaction.
26:36May chaye kisi autowale se baat karu.
26:40Or, whether I talk to a philosopher or a businessman or a celebrity.
26:44Everyone has either heard of Acharya Prashant or has seen Acharya Prashant ka videos.
26:52Most of them would say, haa yaa baat toh kari karte hai.
26:57That is what?
26:58That is a consensus.
27:00Now, I have seen you talk about climate change, capitalism, veganism, social issues, youth problems.
27:08You talk on all and sundry, almost any topic you pick and you can speak with, of course, the fundamentals being Vedanta.
27:19What are you?
27:20What is Acharya Prashant?
27:21Is he a spiritual guru or is he a public intellectual?
27:25You see, most definitely I am not a guru and I would also not want to call myself a public intellectual or anything else.
27:38These are all labels.
27:43Obviously, some are even pleasing or flattering labels.
27:49But they are all very limiting things.
27:52Once you accept a certain tag, then you are categorized.
27:59And life doesn't come to us in categories, does it?
28:04Everything is happening all around us and as a sensitive and aware individual, you would respond to it.
28:14Won't you?
28:15Or would you say that there is a certain philosophy I love and I come from, therefore I would speak only on the tenets of those philosophy.
28:26Of that philosophy, no.
28:29You respond to everything and life is everything.
28:34From capitalism to relationships and these things look very different, no?
28:43What do personal relationships have to do with, let's say, the policies of the World Bank?
28:50Or environmental concerns to the way religion is shaping up nowadays?
29:00And then there is politics and there is sports, there is technology and there is economics.
29:09But aren't they all one?
29:13Don't they all, first of all, occur to us?
29:19Are we not the one experiencer of the diversity of experiences around us?
29:28If the diversity is in the experiences and not in the experiencer, how do I say that I am not going to respond to that particular thing in life?
29:40Obviously, if there are constraints of comprehension, then I better keep my mouth shut.
29:46I would not want to get into the technical nitty gritties of something beyond my ken.
29:55So that is something I would keep away from.
29:58But then there are things that you know the details of as a matter of general awareness.
30:06You see where those things are coming from.
30:10You know where climate change is coming from.
30:13You know the relationship between climate change and culture.
30:18You also know the relationship between culture and philosophy.
30:21So you have to see and then say that the decline of philosophy is the reason behind the rot in popular culture.
30:33And that is what is exacerbating the climate crisis.
30:40And hence all these things are interlinked.
30:45We are the link.
30:48The experiencer, the human being, the seer, lies at the centre of all life.
30:55It is this one that is spoken to by everything.
31:02Therefore, he will respond to everything.
31:09Now there is one question that I had and I really wanted to ask you.
31:14For me personally, the experience of walking into a bookstore is something that I would equate with the experience of a kid walking into a candy store.
31:29I get easily distracted by books.
31:32And walking into a bookstore looking at books and buying books is one of my favourite activities.
31:38Now, how does Acharya Prashant buy books?
31:41First of all, I want to keep away from trivia.
31:56I would usually not begin with the bestsellers, though that's not a necessary criteria.
32:11Several great books have been bestseller as well.
32:15But before I look at the book or the credentials of the author, I look at myself.
32:29When I walk into a bookstore, I already know where I am coming from.
32:36I know my situation, my needs.
32:42And it's then that I want to see what the other has to offer.
32:49I remain open to surprises.
32:53I remain open to novelties that might come my way.
32:59But before any of that, I want to be sure of myself.
33:06If I don't know who I am and what I want, then I'll be more likely to be carried away just by marketing.
33:17You know, someone says, I have sold two million copies or a book carries a big name.
33:27And that will carry me away.
33:30Or if there is a huge publisher like you, then again, I'll be swept off my feet.
33:41So all these things are obviously important. Obviously, if a good publisher backs an author, that does mean something, obviously.
33:53But much more than all of that, I want to know my mind.
33:58And then I'll have a long list and then a short list.
34:04When I buy books, I spend a lot of time.
34:07It's not a casual decision because I'm going to spend hours and hours, sometimes months with a book.
34:14And if I fall in love with a book, I return to it, sometimes many times over.
34:20Three years, five years, eight years.
34:23And then I might also want to teach from the book.
34:30So that's the kind of deep and intense relationship I'm going to possibly have with a book that I pick up.
34:39So I'm very careful about what I pick up.
34:42And then I buy a lot.
34:47Because I can never be certain that I'm making absolutely the right choice.
34:53I've not gone through the pages, the words yet, right?
34:57So I give the book, the author a benefit of doubt.
35:04If I'm uncertain about a book, I would rather buy it.
35:07I would bring it to myself. I'll begin reading it.
35:11And if it doesn't turn out well for me, maybe I'll keep it aside or maybe it'll be useful for someone else.
35:20The foundation has a rich library.
35:23And a lot of books on those library have not been read by me.
35:28But they're all good books.
35:32They deserved to be there.
35:35So they were brought.
35:37It's a very important relationship, fundamentally, between you and the other.
35:42Absolutely.
35:44Even commonly, we say that you must be very careful about the company you keep.
35:54There has been somebody who is probably not even alive today.
36:00And he has poured the distilled essence of his being into those pages.
36:08What better company can you get?
36:11What better company?
36:12And you have been liberated from what I could say the tyranny of the immediate.
36:21You don't have to confine yourself to the people or situations or places around you.
36:30The fellow could be from 15th century England.
36:36Or 5th BC China.
36:42And you have access to him.
36:44And by access, I mean access to the best part of him.
36:49Because every person is a spectrum.
36:52And when the author writes a book, he presents only that which is truly valuable.
37:00Otherwise, there are a lot of things about us, each one of us, that are very ordinary, very common.
37:08They need not even be shared.
37:10Because there is no benefit to the other in reading those things.
37:16So, I share the best that I have to offer you.
37:20And that is coming to you from across the world, over aeons.
37:27And therefore, I say it's a very important relationship that a person has with books.
37:34It's in fact more important than the relationship we have with persons.
37:39Absolutely.
37:40I completely agree with you.
37:44And if one knows how to have relationship with books, probably one would have better personal relationships also.
37:53And vice versa, you see.
37:55Acharya Ji, you've made a very, very important point.
38:02You see, there's a lot of effort that goes in writing a book.
38:06And you are a testament to it.
38:08You've kept everything aside.
38:10I know you have a very, very busy schedule.
38:12You work minimum 16 hours a day.
38:16Commitments, speaking commitments, this commitment.
38:18You've kept everything aside.
38:20You're just focused on the book.
38:22So, your role as an author and our role as a publisher is obviously important.
38:29But there is something even more important or a very, there's a very solid link in the author and the publisher reaching the reader.
38:41And that link is the bookseller.
38:44You know, the bookseller, the distributor, I feel they're doing a noble job.
38:49It's not just, it's not just commerce.
38:52Yes.
38:53There's a lot of passion in it.
38:55There's a lot of motivation.
38:57So, I know we are not going to see you in person in Delhi.
39:02But in this room, we are going to have all our distributors and booksellers from across India who are listening to you.
39:10What message would you like to give them?
39:12First of all, a big thank you because I have been assisted in no small measure by the operations on the floor.
39:27I remember people, I remember faces, names and when I would be at the bookshop and I was a frequent visitor.
39:40They would know me and I have benefited from their suggestions, recommendations.
39:46And they are the ones who know the authors.
39:51They also have the knack to know the book reader, the buyer and they do or can potentially at least do a marvelous job.
40:04And I have greatly benefited from some of the booksellers and their staff.
40:10And it is my moment to convey my gratitude to them.
40:16And in fact, I would thank you also because this is probably the first time such a question has come to me.
40:22And that has given me the opportunity to express thanks.
40:27And on that note, Acharya Ji, you know, we have, we know you have a very, very busy schedule, but we will not leave you without a request.
40:41And that request is wherever you are traveling, we will make sure that you sign as many copies of your upcoming book as possible.
40:49I'll be very, very glad to do that.
40:51And even as we would wind up this interview, I'm going to return to the manuscript, I assure you,
40:58because that's what fills my days and nights since the last few weeks.
41:03And just yesterday, I was thinking that once I send it over to you, there would be a void in my life for a while.
41:20Almost like, you know, that postpartum experience.
41:25When the mother delivers the baby, sometimes it happens that she feels a certain blankness.
41:33What next to do?
41:35So, your book has been such a companion with me.
41:40It's present even in my dreams these days.
41:43So, I'll return to it now.
41:48Thank you so much, Acharya Ji.
41:51And this is music to a publisher's ears.
41:54Thank you so much.
41:58Namaskar.
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