You’re conditioned to think you can only exist with social approval. What holds you back is the fear that something devastating will happen if you don’t conform. Challenge that belief. One must have a healthy contempt for the world, which is possible only when one has deep love for what’s real. Otherwise, you'll keep bowing your head.
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Questioner: Namaste Acharya ji, my name is Abhishek and I first interacted with you in a virtual discussion at IIT Kharagpur when I was in my final year in 2022. Thereafter I joined the OLA Electric as a product manager. But in that company I understood I don't want to be here. So I switched to an early stage startup and from that startup I came here to now preparing for UPSC for the last four-five months.
During this journey, one thing I understood, at every point, was that I don't want to be here. So I just moved on to the next thing. I could see that it would be better for me. The problem, the major question that I have been facing from all these experiences I've had, is that I have a nature of conforming to a social setup. Why do I need to conform in a social group, even to the point of going further, just to take social prestige from them?
So to cite an example, if in a group discussion, if I have to talk about something which is secular or which is general, let's suppose climate change or politics or society, I'll go oppose, I'll defend, I'll put my point forward. I'll do every kind of thing. But when it comes to the topics that are very near to me, I have been a Gita student for the last few months and if I have to talk about it, I have to talk about philosophy of life, talk about relationship of mind, talk about anything which is very intricate; I hesitate. I hesitate and I just want to conform.
