Is This What Makes You Special? || AP Neem Candies

Acharya Prashant: Man is the only one who has a worrying ego. Man is the only one that has an ego that looks into the future. Other living beings on the earth have a very nominal and minimal ego. All that it wants is to be alright currently, so some food should be there, and that is alright—enough for the day, then maybe some sex. Beyond that, nothing is to be demanded. Give some food to any animal and see how it relaxes. It will never worry about what is going to happen next. And when you go to a form of 'I' that is even lesser than that found in animals, the numbers are even more colossal, and they are all doing well for themselves.

By our yardstick we may judge them and say, "Oh, they are just pathetic little beings," but for themselves, they are doing just perfectly fine. You would not meet anybody in the jungle who is cribbing about the situations; you know that. You would have probably never wondered about it, but there is never any Kalyug (the age of darkness) in the jungle. No sparrow would ever say, "Oh, it is Kalyug; things have gone so bad; the crow just took away a little bit of my food." Their things are just as they are. Nobody is complaining. Animals might get hunted, might get killed, but they are still alright; they carry on.

So, the rivers and the mountains and the galaxies are being taken care of, without any 'I'. The bacteria and the little things in the oceans are being taken care of, with hardly any 'I'. And the birds and animals are being taken care of, with very little 'I'. Even among human beings where there is a pronounced 'I', even the evil-doers who are 99.99% of the human population are being taken care of. First of all, 99.99% population of the earth is non-humans and they are being taken care of, and the great universe, which is all just material, is being taken care of. And among the 0.01% of humans, 99.99% are fools who are still being taken care of.

Does it happen that if you do not worship God, a great rock falls on your head? Does it happen? You're walking down the road, and you ignore the temple, does it happen that a celestial lion jumps upon you from the skies, and bites away your nose so that the entire world comes to know how big an infidel you are—no-nosed? Does it happen? So even the evil ones are being taken care of; the insentient ones are being taken care of; the hardly-sentient ones are being taken care of. And among the sentient ones, even the ill-doers are being taken care of. You might be somebody who spits in the face of truth, but still, you will get oxygen to breathe, or would you not? Does God punish you by withdrawing oxygen from your lungs? Does it happen? You may keep cursing God; you may totally not only deny the existence of God, but you may go and spit at temples and mosques. You say, "These are places where Satan lives. These are places of great darkness and illusion," still you would get sunlight in plenty; you'll get air; nothing would be denied to you. The 'one' you are trying to deny is still taking care of you, irrespective of your haughty attitude towards him. In fact, he is proving his presence by taking care of you, irrespective of your foolishness.

So, the Guru is saying, "The Lord provides sustenance to everyone, so why should you worry, my mind?" Do you see how broad this everyone is? Now you still want to worry? Remember that even your worries won't outlast your physical age, and the Moon is a billion years old. You are worrying about dying; the joke is that even the worry would die. So when worry comes to you and tells you, "You are going to die," turn back and tell it, "You too are going to die. Who are you to tell me I would die? The thing is I would outlast you. Before I die, you would die." Look at the foolish worry. All it has is a lifespan of two minutes, and it is trying to threaten you into thinking that you are so evanescent — “Oh, you are going to disappear, dear Worry. Please take care of yourself."

When we were kids, we used to play a game. There would be one fellow who would be blindfolded, and he would say, "Ghoda Jamal Khai," what would he say? Ghoda Jamal Khai! And his job was to continuously say: “Ghoda Jamal Khai.” So there were two teams. His own team was there to guide him and warn him against the opposite team. The opposite team's task was to hit him in the back, and if he could be hit in the back, then he was out, and if you could touch the one who had come to hit him, then the fellow who had come to hit him would be out, but he could not see who was coming to hit him. He could not see who was coming to hit him because he was blindfolded.

So the fellow is blindfolded, and the opposite team is trying to come to him to touch him on the back, and if they could succeed in touching the back, he would be out. Whereas, if he could be warned in advance by his own team members, then what would he do? He would touch them before they could touch him. And then the other team’s. This fellow's task was to continuously keep saying, "Ghoda Jamal Khai," and his team's task was to tell him, "Peeche Dekho Maar Khai." Now, all he could say was "Ghoda Jamal Khai," and the team was to say, "Peeche Dekho Maar Khai," and "Peeche Dekho Maar Khai" was to be said only when somebody was approaching. And if somebody was approaching from the left, then it was the task of the team member on the left to say, "Peeche Dekho Maar Khai," so that this fellow could guess—not only the fact that somebody was approaching but also the direction from where somebody was coming.

So if the sound is coming from this side, it means there is somebody here. If the sound is coming from behind, it means somebody has already approached my back. If the sound is coming from there, I’ll extend my hand and try to touch him there. It's a very crucial word, you know, just sprung up. We were talking about worries. "Peeche Dekho Maar Khai." You do not even know who is coming to assault you, and all you are uttering is nonsense: "Ghoda Jamal Khai," and that too with such gusto: "Ghoda Jamal Khai." And then a little voice quips from the right: "Peeche Dekho Maar Khai." That's what you should tell your mind. What are you threatening me with? Look at this entire show! Who is coming and who is going? What are all these worries about? Is your little existence even a blink in the eye of the celestial things?

The Moon has seen you since you were an ape, or even before that—same Moon—take that! What were you? An ape and the moon were watching over you, and you're worrying about existence – what will happen? This and that. What happened to the ape? Nothing. The ape became you. What will happen to you? Nothing. You will turn into something else. But the ape was still better than you; at least it was not worrying. Without worrying, the ape became a man. With all his worries, man fails to become even an ape.

I repeat: The Lord provides sustenance to everyone, so why should you worry, my mind? It's a liberating statement, Thomas. It means that your precious time and energy are to be redeemed from the wasteful act of worrying. What is worrying? Worrying is nothing but an unauthorized concern for results. First of all, it is a concern for results. Secondly, it is an unauthorized concern for results. You are trying to speculate about something you are not authorized to think about. You have no authorization, no locus standi to think about the future, to think about everything that will happen in the future including the results of this and that and your actions. And still you are speculating about them; that is worrying.

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