Be happy, run hard

Acharya Prashant

5 min
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Be happy, run hard

Since childhood we have been told about effort as a duty, hard work as an obligation, and a result oriented investment. We are told, “Work hard so that you can have dividends later on.”

Happiness is the key to success, correct. But does happiness exclude hard work?

If happiness excludes hard work, then all those who work hard surely must be very sad.

Can’t we work hard happily? Can’t hard work emerge out of Joy?

For us, happiness and hard work don’t go hand-in-hand. But there is another kind of hard work, very energetic hard work, which arises from your happiness, which arises from your completeness, and it’s not result oriented.

It’s like a herd of deer running in a jungle. It’s not that a tiger is chasing them (saving their life), and it’s not like they are running towards a grassland (driven by the desire to consume). They are just running and they are running terribly hard; you can’t catch them.

Our hard work is just labour done to get results. And the results that we want, never really satisfy us. The proof is, that we want more. At no point do we stop and say that we have had enough. And because we want more, we have to put in more labour.

All our life we are just a labourer.

We have worked hard only when afraid and sad. Somebody comes, pulls you up, and says, “Exams are coming, you will fail,” and then you start working hard. So what is our engine? Sadness. The more sad we are, the harder we work. Is that not so? The more afraid we are, the harder we work, like a dog that is chasing us.

We don’t even know how fast we can run. All we need is to escape that rapid dog, and we work so hard. And when the world gets to know that, that is the way to get you to work hard, then they only have to let some dogs loose after you.

Don’t let this become a habit, don’t let this be known that you can be made to work hard through pressure, or frustration, or sadness, or fear. Otherwise you are giving the world a handle over you.

Remember, your best is expressed when you are Joyful, when you are fearless. Do not get into the habit of working under pressure. Be happy and run hard.

The central problem is that – we have been made to feel small about ourselves. All your work emerges from demoralisation!

You have been made to feel dissatisfied about yourself since a very long time. Family, society, education, religion all these have continuously told you that there is something missing in you, and you must work hard to make up for it. You are not good enough as you are. You have been told that if you want to become something, if you want to gain any bit of worthiness, then ‘do’ something, work hard for it.

“You do not deserve my love if you do not get ninety percent or promotion in your office.” Even love is conditional!

I am saying this to you: fundamentally there is nothing small about you, there is nothing missing in you. All the diseases of life, all your unease, all your gossip, all your restlessness arise from this deep-rooted conditioning that there is something wrong and missing in you.

Kindly get rid of that notion.

You are wonderful, perfect, beautiful. With all your inadequacies, you are still very beautiful. With all the layers of conditioning that you have, you are still wonderful.

A diamond may fall in the mud, but does that reduce its price? You are very, very valuable. But those who do not know their own diamond nature, make everybody feel small.

In fact, there are only two kinds of people in the world. One who feel small, the other who feel complete and dance. The ones who keep feeling small about themselves, their only purpose in life is to make others feel small. The one who is afraid will necessarily spread fear around him.

Exams are approaching and she is shivering, she calls up five others and ends up making everybody feel jittery. Beware of such people! They might be very close to you, yet be extremely cautious of them.

How to know if someone is operating from a sense of Completeness? Always keep a track… How do you feel when you are with a person? Do you start feeling more and more inadequate, or do you gain a certain relaxation?

Work hard out of a sense of completeness, and never allow others to make you feel small or incomplete. Be very particular about the company you keep; for nothing changes you better and faster than the right company.

Excerpted from an article published in one of the leading newspaper website(the Free Press Journal) on 18th August, 2019.

This article has been created by volunteers of the PrashantAdvait Foundation from transcriptions of sessions by Acharya Prashant.
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