Questioner 1 (Q1): Sir, in the process of spirituality we do have some responsibilities regarding our family in terms of financial and physical availability. So how do we tackle that?
Acharya Prashant (AP): Who are you?
Q2: Atṛpt chetanā1.
AP: So what is your responsibility?
Q2: To get tripti[2]
AP: Fullstop!
Q2: So what do we do for the responsibility that…
AP: Arey! What is your responsibility?
Q2: To get Ttṛpti.
AP: Fullstop! Never forget who you are. If you will forget who you are, you will take up false responsibilities.
Questioner 2 (Q2): Isn’t other’s atṛpti also our responsibility?
AP: How do you know about others' tṛpti when you have not fulfilled your basic responsibility towards yourself? Is it not great arrogance and storytelling? When you do not even know what your responsibility is, what would bring fulfillment to you, what do you know about others and others' fulfillment? Maybe you are the biggest barrier to others’ fulfillment.
Q2: Suppose a child needs…
AP: Why suppose? Why not stick to that which you definitely know of? Why suppose so much and make more stories? The very first day we said —what is the only thing that you definitely know of?
Q: I am Atṛpt.
AP: I am Atṛpt chetanā, and I am suffering. Is there anything else that you definitely know of? Then why suppose so much, why live in suppositions?
It hurts to realize that suppositions are stories. The more you live in stories about yourself, the more you will have ideas about the world. The more you gain clarity about yourselves, the more you realize that your stories about the world were all cotton-wool stuff.
Questioner 3 (Q3): The friction that arises, does affect the state of the mind. And because of its effect on the state of mind, it almost feels like coming back to square one. Every day you start with something, then there's friction, and you come back to square one. It's a vicious circle. How do we deal with that?
AP: Others and situations are able to cause a drastic change in your mental environment because you are not aligned with, you are not sticking to, something immovable. Had you really been tethered to something that cannot be proven false, that cannot be easily blown away, then how could the others just carry you along and take you for a ride and shake you and displace you?
We are not firmly affixed to that definitiveness. There is nothing in our life that is certain. And because of this lack of certainty, all external influences become too much on us. We are not firmly rooted in reality.
We are not like a strong tree with deep roots. We are more like a fallen leaf. So every small influence or a little bit of breeze, let alone a powerful gust, just takes us away. What is the reality, the certainty that I am talking of? — I am! That is the only thing about which you can be sure of. That is the only thing you must always remember.
When you remember that, you will have very little space left to remember miscellaneous things. When your mind is constantly occupied by that fundamental realization, then how will there be any space left to accommodate miscellaneous worldly stuff? But we displace the essential and create space for the nonsensical. These two things happen together. Both equally unfortunate. The tree is uprooted and then the leaves start being taken away by the winds. Don't be uprooted. Don't be uprooted.
Remember one essential thing and then all else will sound very trivial to you. You will be able to ignore it, reject it, dismiss it without much effort. You will become unavailable. Things will keep happening, you won't be available to them. Because now you have reserved yourself fully for the essential. And this is common sense.
What must you attend to? That which is important, that which is critical, or that which is flimsy, casual, transient? What must you attend to? Keep attending to that which is definite, important, urgent. All else will fall in place.
Don't blame others or society. They are able to influence you because you are faithless. The wind blows for everybody. If you are a healthy being, you enjoy it. If you are weak and sick, with your immunity compromised, then you curse the wind and run indoors complaining of fever. The same external movement is a delight for the one who is inwardly healthy.
You say, “Wow! lovely breeze. See how my hair is flying in it.” Don't you? But if you are two and a half kilograms in weight, so pale, so emaciated, so diseased, then you would be found flying away to glory along with your hair in the same wind. Now it's no more a delight. Now it's a dread. All the ones around you who influence you, affect you, are just winds. Be strong and enjoy the winds.
When someone calls us ugly or dumb, it can feel as if our confidence has been taken away. But others are outsiders; they cannot know us as well as we can know ourselves. The trouble begins when we do not know ourselves, so we start looking at ourselves through others’ eyes. Self-knowledge here simply means being honest with ourselves about where our likes, fears and desires come from. What would change if we looked at ourselves directly, and not through others’ opinions?
Knowledge alone cannot transform life; it can become another object of the ego. True knowledge is self-knowledge—a mirror that exposes and destroys false ideas about oneself. Ravana may have been knowledgeable, but without self-knowledge, knowledge can become a tool for exploitation. Wisdom is not something to acquire; it is innate. Self-knowledge is the process of unbecoming unwise by clearing away the nonsense we have gathered.
वेदांत को केवल इसलिए सही या श्रेष्ठ नहीं माना जा सकता कि वह किसी विशेष परंपरा से आता है। विज्ञान जहाँ भौतिक जगत की वस्तुनिष्ठ जाँच करता है, वहीं अद्वैत वेदांत सीधे मनुष्य के ‘मैं’, उसके दुख, बंधन और मुक्ति की पड़ताल करता है। इसकी कसौटी वैज्ञानिक प्रमाण नहीं, बल्कि अपने जीवन में इसकी सच्चाई को देख पाना है। किसी दर्शन को मान लेना नहीं, बल्कि उससे स्वयं को मुक्त करना ही उसका वास्तविक उद्देश्य है।
