Acharya Prashant: The constitution of the body is such that it is pleasure-seeking. That’s the guiding principle behind bodily actions. Bodily actions include the impulses of the brain. So, that which you call as natural, in loose language, is nothing but pleasure-seeking behavior. When you say something is natural, effectively what you’re saying is that it is pleasure-seeking behavior.
So, that’s how your system is. It wants to have pleasure. What is the definition of pleasure? That which helps Prakriti (physical nature) further its agenda. Food pleases you because it gives energy to the body to continue. That’s what Prakriti wants. Flattery pleases you because it gives the subtle body the energy to continue; it will continue, it will stay motivated, it will further its goals. You get the definition of pleasure? That which agrees with the agenda of your physical constitution is called pleasure.
Now, in getting that pleasure, you get pain as well, and that pain makes pleasure even more necessary. So, you earned two units of pleasure, and along with two units of pressure you also got two units of pain. What is the inference that your system draws from this? Two units of pleasure is not sufficient, because two units of pleasure came along with two units of pain, and it got nullified, the net was zero. So, now your system wants three units of pleasure. But very soon the system discovers that three units of pleasure has come along with three units of pain, so now you want four units of pleasure.
That’s the cycle of human life—chasing pleasure, getting pain, and pain spurs you on to chase pleasure even more. This is not pain that you have earned; this is pain that has come as a bonus. What did you want? Pleasure—but pain came tagged along. Had you had a choice, you would have said, “I want only pleasure, let’s untag the pain. I don’t want the pain that comes with pleasure, I only want pleasure. Can we just separate the two?
