How to have clarity in life? || Acharya Prashant, with Delhi University (2022)

Questioner (Q): Pranam Acharya Ji, I am inclined towards research and entrepreneurship, but whenever I discuss this with people, they usually tell me that, you should first seek a job and get some money and after that, you can go for these things because these things involve risk. In your video, I have heard you say that one needs clarity in life. So, living among these people who have a herd mentality, following what the rest of the people are doing, how to get that clarity in life?

Acharya Prashant(AP): See, clarity in the inner sense is attained by observing fog and haze. All that obfuscates your clarity is to be known. This is the process of attaining clarity. So, if these people are around you, first of all, see, they are around you because they are within you, otherwise, they couldn't have been around you. Right? People who discourage you, or people who want you to be risk averse, people who want you to avoid obstacles and go for a pleasure-filled and easy, comfortable life. If they surround you from the outside, it is because they occupy you from within. And they have to be observed because observing them is in some way ‘self-observation.’

When you observe these people of outside you, you are observing your own face in their faces. Listen to their arguments, their arguments are your own arguments against yourself. Their arguments couldn't have affected you, had they not resonated with something inside of you, right?

So, listen to what they are saying, see where they are coming from, see how their lives are, and then ask yourself, "Is that where I want to spend my life? Is that how I want to live?" Because their arguments aren't in a vacuum; everything is connected to everything else. The way, for example, their personal life is, it is very much related to how their professional choices are—the way their eyes look, the way their faces look, the kind of political opinions that they hold—they are all integrated and they are all coming from the same centre. Do you want to live that way?

It's a choice you have to make. And remember, it's a very important choice because something within you definitely wants to live that way; something within you definitely wants to emulate them. You must know what you are going to get into if you emulate.

They are all following a pattern, they are all a part of a certain crowd, you must know where that pattern is coming from. You must know whose desires they are fulfilling. You must ask, "What is the purpose of such a life?", and you must ask, "Whether life must have a purpose at all?" And you must ask, "What does it feel like to live without a purpose?"

Q: Sir, how to counter their arguments?

AP: Their arguments are not their arguments; had their arguments just been their own, you wouldn’t have needed to counter them. What is the need to counter their arguments, first of all, please tell me? It seems you want to borrow a phrase or an argument from me so that you can use it as ammunition against them. But first of all, why is there a need to counter them at all? Let them say what they want to say.

Q: Sir, because sometimes I feel like if I am surrounded by such kinds of people, my mentality is getting contaminated by their thoughts.

AP: But why are you surrounded by such people?

Q: Sir because everyone is like that only.

AP: Not everyone is like that. Everyone around you is probably like that. Now, that's the question you need to answer. Why have you, in particular, surrounded yourself with such people? That's what I am saying, something within you is very comfortable with what they are saying; something within you resonates and rhymes with their opinions. They are representing your own face to you, that's why they have such power over you. Else, you would have just dismissed them with indifference. Right now, you find it difficult to be indifferent to their opinions because they are reaching out to their ally within you.

Something within you is allying with them very intimately, and that's a bigger problem. People outside of you can change. Maybe, you go to some other place and you'll find a different set of people, right? At least, physically? But how will you get rid of that same person within you? And if that same person within you remains the way it is, it will again find and attract its own buddies, its own type.

And you will say, "Oh! But such people are everywhere." They are not everywhere. They come to places where they have a conducive environment. They speak to people who lend their ears to them. Why are you so open to them? Are flies found at all places?

Q: No, sir.

AP: Where are they found?

Q: Where there is dirt.

AP: Name the dirt.

Q: Dung, garbage or gutter.

AP: Right. Clean that up.

Q: Sir, how to counter that inner part of consciousness and lift up the consciousness, so that those people can go away?

AP: Those who wanted to help you made themselves available in various ways. So that you may have their company; so that you are not forced to dwell in bad company; so that freedom means more to you than security. Why not be with them? They left their books behind, why else did they write books? They were not suckers for popularity or respect. They had gone far beyond that. They left their words behind so that you may find good company in them.

This is the age of technology, not only books, you have various other forms and media, you have audios, you have videos, you have many other things. So, be with them. As you find your internal world changing you will find your need to associate with the cowardly kind of people is reducing. Equally, your reverence for the right kind of people will increase. These two go in tandem.

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