Is Rejecting Authority Really Intelligent?
Questioner: Namaste Acharya Ji. I don't know what the problem is. I'm in a deep state of confusion. Everything on the outside is okay. The work that I do, I like the work that I do. I enjoy it. On the periphery, what I see is that I also don't like taking any form of authority, any form of instruction. I know that I need to let my guard down and let you help me.
Acharya Prashant: Why should I scold you at a time and place of your choice? I'll do that when you least expect it. So for now, let me disappoint you. No, I'm not done yet.
See, it's all right. It's a great thing not to be submissive to authority. In fact, as a person, when you see that, I so very much resonate with you. I've been exactly this kind of person.
At the same time, I don't want to yield to authority for my own good, right? Things must have a reason. One doesn't needlessly bow down, because that would be detrimental to one's interests. It's not merely a matter of the ego's whims. I don't want to be submissive. If I am submissive, that would hurt me, hurt me not in the sense of feelings, but in the sense of my real interests.
So if my interests are to be protected, I need to learn. I don't need to kneel down or prostrate. Nevertheless, I do need to learn. And learning is something very different from submissiveness, or a prostration, or whatever, they are words galore, right?
Don't we want to learn? And I readily empathize when you say, why not learn on one's own? Obviously, let's give that one try, two tries, let's try that first thing. Why go to someone before making ample effort on one's own? Because if you haven't tried on your own, then forget all other aspects, going to someone is going to be an inefficient thing. No?
Before trying on your own, you do not even know the problem in its entirety, and you're going to somebody, and the whole process demands time, energy, space, sometimes even money. And it's not just about your time, energy, space, etc. You're also taking that person's time. So before you engage, obviously you need to have tried your utmost. So that's something obviously to be supported.
But equally, we all know how limited we are beyond a point. And when we come to that point, it becomes obvious that one needs to look beyond herself, that one needs to seek help. And it's not, mind you, an admission of your powerlessness. It is just an expansion of your power boundary.
You feel you are powerful only as long as you get it from within yourself. Why can't you admit that it is in the purview of your power to seek help as well? That too is an expression of your power. Is it not?
But that thing has to be exercised only after you have exhausted all your inner and available resources. Then you go to the next level to exercise the other quality of power, which is seeking help. Right?
Just be discreet in seeking help and be very honest in seeking help. There is nothing ignoble about seeking help, as long as you have first done the best you could. In fact, why even say “help”? I mean, you can have a word of your choice. If help sounds a bit demeaning, you could say consultation or discussion or whatsoever is the going jargon these days. What do they call it these days? Conversation.
It's just a didactic engagement. How does that sound? I never went to a mohotsav. It was a didactic engagement. No help is involved. Nobody is helping anybody.
Listener: Open discussion.
Acharya Prashant: Open, liberal discussion. I'm very fine with that. In fact, I want it that way.
Questioner: But I'm not able to identify why I have this underlying uneasiness or fear or vacuum or whatever.
Acharya Prashant: It's all right to have it. You see, given the way we are, we have a latent yet strong tendency to exploit. So one has to be therefore very careful in going to someone, or accepting an authority, or taking ready-made answers or stuff.
The probability of being exploited or manipulated runs very, very high. So it's all right if you're careful. But being careful is one thing, and becoming psychotic about that is another thing. Care is all right. Right?
The kind of world we have, the kind of history we have, and the kind of bodily constitution we have, it makes sense to be apprehensive.
Questioner: What I was trying to say is, the feeling of uneasiness, or I don't know a word to put it, is not necessarily related to this. I feel it is always there in the background. No matter what I'm doing, it's always there. I forget it for some time, but then.
Acharya Prashant: Exactly with respect to that, I'm talking of help. That feeling is there, you want to get rid of it. You have tried on your own. Now, with respect to that, I'm talking of help.
