Instagram Fame, and Anxiety Pills
Questioner: Namaskar Acharya Ji. I think my question has three aspects to it. So, the first aspect is the psychosocial aspect. And my question is that nowadays, we see a lot of quick-fix philosophies, and they seem to work for a lot of people. So, the philosophies of ‘You only live once,’ ‘body positivity,’ or positivity in general and self-love. And these kinds of things seem to work for people.
However, on the counter side, I feel they try to make a person escape from their realities, in the sense that you escape your problems. So, instead of facing them and going through the discomfort of processing them and reaching the end, you just focus on your own self. And that focus on your own self somehow seems to fuel narcissism on some level.
In fact, today, only I read that the person on Instagram with the highest number of followers is just a person who posts a picture of herself every day in front of the mirror, and that has given her 133 million followers. So, the physiological aspect of this is that anxiety has become almost like an epidemic today. And we see doctors prescribing anxiety pills or depression pills incessantly.
And personally, I have seen that depression tablets and anxiety tablets seem to work for people. It does seem to bring them out of their rut. So, is that correct? Is that the right way of addressing the problem? And are these two problems connected?
And finally, the socio-spiritual aspect of this question. This quick-fix philosophy seems to make people very exclusive. It is diametrically opposed to inclusive living. So, is that wrong? Or is that right? And is it something we should accept in our daily life as part of the modern world?
Acharya Prashant: Actually, that person with that large number of Instagram followers would be in a very good position to bring about a change in popular consciousness. Because more than anybody else, that person would know the futility of this kind of stuff.
So, I mean, that's how can anti-anxiety pills work for someone. They affect your body and brain in a particular way, but the mind remains the same. Right? So, there is a difference between a problem in the brain and a problem in the mind. When you take these pills, at most, they can address the brain. But how will pills address the mind?
The mind is composed of tendencies, thoughts, emotions, and such stuff. And the problem really lies there. We try to address the problem in the mind by treating the brain, but it won't really help or would help in a very superficial way, very limited way. Right? The philosophies that you talked of, 'you live only once' and such things, do we think them through? What does it mean to live only once? Who is the one who lives? Or is it merely a catchphrase, a Jumla, a loose metaphor of some kind?
Nobody is getting much out of what is going on, and yet what is going on is going on. So, it's a miracle, and Vedanta calls it Maya. She keeps sucking the life out of you, and yet you keep worshiping her. She does not let you see what is right there in front. And instead, she keeps you lost in dreams and apparitions; that's Maya. Now, one way this charm, this spell, is broken is when facts hit you really hard.
That's one way, for example, in the Covid-on slot, so many people were brutally brought down to the ground and made to taste reality in one stroke. We live in make-believe worlds. We live in bubbles. Within those bubbles, there is a degree of comfort, security etc. But those bubbles can be punctured anytime. It's just that in this limited phase in which we are living, the bubbles are not being punctured very regularly. But anything can happen anytime.
Life can test you very ruthlessly. And that's when you realize that you have no solid base to life, that you have no philosophical Foundation. Or whatever philosophy you have is very childish and inadequate. Even if there is no COVID-19, even if there is no cataclysmic happening, yet life keeps testing us in small ways. And facts have a way of showing up.
When facts show up, then our concepts and imaginations are badly hurt, sometimes shattered. And then we rush to the psychiatrist, and that's why you see long queues there. The waiting times are only increasing every passing month. Mental health today is a bigger problem than any other disease of the body, obviously not without reason. Obviously, then you have to get into and inquire everything that affects the mind, because the mind cannot just get sick on its own.
Surely, there are influences; surely, there are conditions that are pushing it into sickness. And if you start inquiring into those conditions, the entire world order will come crashing down. You'll have to question our economics, our education, our social institutions, our politics, everything. And because we don't want to question all that because there are powerful forces whose self-interests are being served by these institutions.
Therefore, no proper inquiry is being made. And the common man is just too powerless and uncaring. He says one life is all that I have. Even if I waste it away, how does it matter? It's just one life; is that not the philosophy? So, he says, “After all, just one life. So just waste it away.”
Even those who are exploiting this common man are actually wasting their lives. Not that they are receiving some higher benefit, higher delight, or substantial fulfillment. Even they are wasting their lives. That's how Maya is. Both the exploiter and the exploited are actually being exploited by a third party called Maya. It's just that the exploiter thinks he's very smart. He does not know that even he is a pawn, the real exploiter is somebody else.
Shallow philosophies and false treatments do not work for anybody. It's another matter if we want to keep fooling ourselves. There has to be self-love. There has to be courage. One has to say it's all right to be devastated and destroyed but it's not all right to keep yielding moment by moment the way I do.
If I have to be destroyed, let me be destroyed, at least in some great pursuit. Why am I being destroyed in the pursuit of trivia and trash? Those questions need to be asked. The mind is very susceptible to influences. We look at what other people do, and therefore someone has to throw his hat in the ring and say fine, I am going to fight it so that others too, get the courage to fight it out.
