Beyond Goals: Being present in Daily Responsibilities
Questioner: Hello sir! So, you said to just look without looking for anything.
I can understand a little bit of it because even Krishnamurti keeps on saying this time and again—that, just look without giving any name to the drishya that you are looking at.
But when I try to implement this in my day-to-day life, I can't see my day without looking for any motive. Tomorrow is Monday. If I wake up tomorrow and, as soon as I gain my consciousness, I have many motives in front of me, right? I need to log in for my office. I need to cook breakfast. I need to go outside for the gym.
So how can I just look without having any motive in my day-to-day life?
Acharya Prashant: When we talked about that, we said—let there be goals; goals are not an issue. But the goals should not carry meanings. The meaning either lies nowhere at all, or you could say the meaning lies in the game, not in the goal.
So, in your day-to-day life, practically, obviously, you will have these goals—you have to go to your workplace, you have to go to this thing, that thing—fine, those goals are there. But you have to remember that, ultimately, going to your workplace yields you nothing—maybe financial or physical sustenance, that's all. Going to the gym, in the final sense, yields you nothing.
So the illusion of meaning has to be destroyed. The ego will otherwise keep looking for meaning where there can be no meaning—and in that lies a lot of suffering. So, there is a goal—all right, there is a goal. But the goal—and this might sound strange, but try to understand, the goal has to be a meaningless goal.
And when I say "meaningless," I mean desireless. There can be no desire as such towards the goal. No fulfillment is possible from the goal. If the goal is achieved, your inner state remains one way. If the goal is not achieved, even then, your inner state must remain the same way. The fun must lie in the game, not in the goal.
Are you getting it?
Obviously, one has a goal—there are so many people attending this session. I traveled to this place for the session. So, there are goals of that kind.
The problem is when we attach unreasonable meanings to those goals. Then, as Shri Krishna said, today pleasure becomes happiness. Then, that which is not possible from a thing, the thing starts standing for that. And then, there will be a lot of disappointment and heartbreak.
You want to go to that shop? Go there—fine. And we all go to shops every day. You want to go to that shop? Go there. But, you should not expect to purchase meaning there—because there is no meaning there.
There is just the shop. You go to the shop. You want something—you want some washing powder? Get washing powder from the shop. All right. Finished.
There can be no meaning there. And the world is a mega shop. There are things there. But if you start looking for meaning in this shop, all you will get is a lot of disappointment. Unfortunately, even when we get disappointment, we do not get disillusionment.
So, in spite of the disappointment, the illusion continues—which is, quite strange. So many disappointments, yet the illusion continues. Nobody is disillusioned ever. You'll meet people who say, "Oh, I'm so disappointed." But you'll never meet someone who will say, "Now I am disillusioned." People are never disillusioned.
So, they think, you know, the meaning that they wanted was not available in one particular shop. So, they will rush to the next shop.
There is no meaning anywhere. It does not mean anything. Life is a meaningless affair, which means that meaning, if any, is contained within life—not in the objects of life. You must understand that life, ultimately, is just a meaningless thing. You might drop dead tomorrow. Tell me, what is the meaning of life?
COVID came, and so many several lakhs, millions perished. What is the meaning of life? Please tell me, is there any meaning to life? There is no meaning to life. Life is random—no meaning there.
And equally, it can be said that meaning lies within the living one. It does not lie in the objects of life. Things happen. Events happen. There is no meaning there. Look at them with equanimity.
Yeah, things are happening. What is happening? Things are happening. No meaning. So, something happened. And then, somebody says, "What does that mean?" Oh, nothing.
"I lost 10 lakh rupees!" Ah, what does that mean? Nothing. The loss is real, the meaning is not. The loss is real—it will reflect in your bank statement. You lost 10 lakh rupees. But is there any meaning to that?
No, there is no meaning. Will you file a complaint now? Obviously, you must. Will you try to recover it with the bank? Obviously, you must. But even if you recover it, is there some meaning? No.
So, play the game. Let the meaning be there in the game, not in the goal.
Questioner: So, I should just remember that the final motive or final desire of my inner self is just to destroy my inner bondages, right? So, whatever I'm doing outside if that is helping me with that, then that is my correct action; otherwise, any other action doesn't make sense?
Acharya Prashant: Yes, if you can identify your inner bondages, obviously there will be an impetus to challenge them and get rid of them, and that's all very nice.
Questioner: Okay, I got the answer.
So, while writing down the notes, I have written one statement—that death is an imagination for the ego. So, I can relate that death is an imagination for me. My death is an imagination for me, right? Because when I die, experience is no more there to experience the thing, right?
But death in general is not an imagination for me because I can see the other person dying. If I take the example of you or me in this situation, then my death can be an imagination for me, but your death can't be an imagination for me. I can see you going.
How is death an imagination?
Acharya Prashant: Do you know what happened when the man fell down? All you can see is the coconut falling, right? All else is imagination. How do you know what really happened? And if you do not know what really happened, your definition of death will be limited to the fall of the coconut.
Questioner: The body only?
Acharya Prashant: Obviously. But when the ego thinks of death, what is it scared of? Reflect on it. Just the body dropping?
Questioner: No.
Acharya Prashant: It is scared of something else, right?
Questioner: Yeah.
Acharya Prashant: Did you see that something else happening?
Questioner: No
Acharya Prashant: What did you see?
Questioner: The body is going.
Acharya Prashant: The body is dropping. Now, the ego was scared of death, and what the ego was scared of was not just the body dropping but something else. Reflect on this. When you are in the moments when you are scared of death, what are you scared of? That the body will fall—is that what you are scared of?
Questioner: No
Acharya Prashant: There is something else that you are scared of, right?
Questioner: Right, right.
Acharya Prashant: Now, you see a man dying. Have you seen that something else happen to that man?
Questioner: No.
Acharya Prashant: You have just seen the coconut fall. That something else is an imagination. How do you know that something else has happened?
Questioner: So, whatever you are saying—that the ego is just not concerned with the body but something else…..
Acharya Prashant: Obviously. And that's the reason why the ego must weave a lot of imaginary stories—that when somebody dies, something from within flies to the other body and to the other universe.
Doesn't this tell you that death is an imagination? Otherwise, why was there a need to weave all these imaginary stories?
Questioner: Okay, I got the answer. Thank you.
