Is dissatisfaction necessary for progress? || Acharya Prashant, with youth (2013)

Acharya Prashant

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Is dissatisfaction necessary for progress? || Acharya Prashant, with youth (2013)

Disatisfied how do you feel? Tell me.

Listener: Sir, I feel afraid, I feel insecure, and a lot of questions.

Speaker: Right, you feel afraid, you feel insecure and a lot of questions – can we call them doubts? You feel doubtful.

Look at the flow that is coming to us. Progress requires that you must be dissatisfied . Dissatisfaction means that you are afraid, doubtful and insecure. Now if you are doubtful, afraid and insecure, what kinds of action will you take? Will you take healthy actions? Will those actions be good for you? When you are afraid, doubtful and insecure can you really take actions that are good for you? A fearful mind, an insecure mind, can it really take actions that are good for you? Look clearly at it. You are afraid, you are shivering and you do not know; you are highly confused. Now can you take a good decision in this moment? Can you?

(The listener smiles)

Speaker : Now, you are smiling, now you know that you can’t, right?

Listener : Yes sir.

Speaker : So that means when you are thinking of progress you must be dissatisfied and when you are dissatisfied you must be afraid, doubtful and insecure. And when you are afraid, doubtful and insecure then your actions cannot be good for you; and if your actions cannot be good for you then what kind of progress is this? Is it really progress? In fact it is deterioration, it is a decline, it’s a going backwards.

Real progress does not come from dissatisfaction. Real progress is about being firmly available to what is life, to whatever is going on? And then from there an intelligent action takes place. And that is progress . That does not mean that something is lacking or something has been added; that is just a movement, a beautiful movement ahead.

The kind of progress that you are talking of implies that there is something wrong with me right now and progress will make it right. Right now I am wrong and progress will make it right .

There is another kind of progress which says, I am right, right now; everything is ok, right now; everything is complete, right now. And out of this completeness, more completeness will result. Whatever I will do, will be good .

So, please do not think that it is necessary to be dissatisfied. Not at all, because dissatisfaction will only give you a sick mind from which only sick thoughts and sick actions will come. And ambitions and goals and targets are all forms of dissatisfaction. You say what is there right now is not good so I am ambitious to get something more. My target is to get something more. This way of living will not give you anything.

Real progress, real movement comes out of joy, love .

I am with a book; I am loving it; I am into it. And when I am with that book, deeply immersed in it then obviously I am understanding. And then from that a beautiful result may come. I am not bothered, I am not targeting it. But because I am in love with that book, hence the result is wonderful. It is wonderful without me demanding it, without me targeting it, without me asking for it. I am not studying for the sake of result, yet my result is wonderful. You get this, yes?

Listeners : Yes sir.

Speaker : Alright!

Excerpted from a ‘Shabd-Yog’ session. Edited for clarity.

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