90-Hour Weeks: Your Salary, My Control!
Questioner: Hello, Acharya Ji. I wanted to ask a question on behalf of my friends. So, recently in India, a debate has started regarding working hours. So, first of all, I heard a gentleman saying that Indians should work at least 70 hours a week. Then, just yesterday, I saw the chairman of another big company, while replying to one of his employees in an internal meeting, said that you have a problem in working on Saturday; if I wanted, I could have made you work on Sunday as well, and people should work at least for 90 hours every week.
And saying this, he gave the example of China that he has seen that the people of China are very hardworking and, he had a conversation with a Chinese professional who said that they will be ahead of America because they work for 90 hours and Americans work for 50 hours.
So, speaking of this, he also made a small sexist comment. He was saying, "What do you do while sitting at home? How long will you keep looking at your wife's face? How long will she tolerate you? So, you better come to the office and work."
So, this whole debate about working hours has been going on for a long time, and today this topic is discussed on every social media platform. The question is also based on the same. Basically, I wanted to understand from you that how should we understand this? About working hours? What should we ideally follow?
Acharya Prashant: What should be followed? See, the context in which the discussion is going on. There is an employer on one side and an employee on the other side. To be honest, the employer has no passion for whatever he's doing. The employer just wants to get the work done so that he can get some money from it.
So, here the employer just wants to get the work done so that he can make profits out of it, and the employee is also doing that work so that he can get a salary from it. So, try to understand the whole thing that when you work without passion and love, you only want to maximize your output over the input.
Input means the number of hours you worked, and output means the salary you get. Input means the number of hours you work, and output means the salary. And with this equation, where you say the purpose of work is to maximize output over input, this equation only works in a passionless environment. If someone is passionate about his work, then the second equation works. We will talk about it later. Just remind me once.
But all these things that are happening right now, whether it is about Infosys, L&T, whether it is China's 996, whatever it may be, in this entire debate which is going on, nowhere in this entire debate is it told what the work is. In this entire debate, work has only one meaning: that is something that gives us income, gives stability, fulfills desires, fulfills ambitions, etc., etc.
So, in this entire debate, have you seen on any platform that someone has come up with a discussion on the definition of work, or someone asked, "How do we define work in the first place?" Has anyone talked about this?
Questioner: No.
Acharya Prashant: Because they all agree that work means something that involves using your hands and feet to earn money for survival. The output is money and the input is using hands and feet, the number of hours you put in—that is the input. No one even wants to talk about the definition of work!
Alright, let's dive into their world first and talk about it. After that I will give you a reality check. In a world, where a person is working only to run the household and he's earning money so that he can buy something else with that money, go out and have fun, fulfill his hobbies, fulfill his needs, get married, pay children's fees, all this, where work is done only for this purpose, where forced labor is involved, in such situations, it is essential that working hours be limited and the concept of work-life balance is absolutely applicable in such an environment.
It is completely applicable because, practically speaking, no one has signed up to work so hard that it will affect them. This employee came to work, he did not sign the offer letter so that he will work for 90 hours and die there like a loser. He has come to do as minimal work as possible to minimize the input and maximize the output. He has come with this intention.
But the person who has hired him, his boss, has completely different intentions. He is saying that, "I should take maximum work from him. I should pay him minimum money. I should get maximum hours from him." So, this conflict of interest will always exist. Whenever statements are made that more work should be done, more work should be done, these will either come from the owner or from the CEO.
And then the anger that follows is that, "No, no, why are you making us work so much? Why is there no work-life balance?" Burnout happens. Employees will continue to complain about these things.
So, you're talking about Reddit, whether it is Reddit or Twitter, go back and check it carefully. Anyone who is saying that this is wrong and this is exploitation and there should be an upper limit in the weekly hours, that there should be only so many hours worked in a week, or that these CEOs who are talking about working so many hours are exploitative and cruel people, they make fun of these people. It must all be these employees who are making fun of them because it is their mentality that they should get to do as little work as possible—the least.
So, this has become a kind of class struggle. This is classified struggle. There is one class which wants to work as little as possible, there is another class which wants to take as much work as possible. So, both of them are talking about this. But if you also want your employees to be as productive as possible, to maximize the output, and I'm talking about this in the context of that passionless environment, okay?
Right now, it has not been discussed anywhere as to what work actually means, what is the definition of work. That has not been discussed. Right now, I'm talking about a typical corporate environment. If you take a normal corporate environment, where we have to maximize productivity, if there is no passion towards work, it is absolutely imperative that an upper limit of these hours should be capped, and the upper limit on the number of hours you can work is put in place because people are poor. The poorer the person is, the more he can be exploited by an employer.
That's why you find that in Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, or Scandinavian countries, they all work 31, 32, 35, 36 hours, here, you will find the average working week. So, that's how they work in a week—32 hours, somewhere 36 hours. That is all they can do.
And in poor countries like India, Pakistan, or others, which are developing countries right now—be it Mexico, Brazil, or many such countries—the average work week that they are following will be of 45 hours. Not only this, half of India's population works more than 50 hours a week, and you will not find this in developed countries in the UK, Britain, and Germany, and Japan.
Perhaps the 4-day work week was also tried, and it was found that no, sir, productivity remains fine. This 6-hour workday was also tried out—that if you work 6 hours a day, productivity is good. Make a 4-day work week, the employee becomes so happy. He says, "Now I get three days to have fun!" So, he works with double the energy for 4 days because he hates his job. Right? You want to get rid of something you hate as quickly as possible. When you hate something, and when you find out you don't have to work for 3 days, you're so happy!
Please understand that most of the world's population hates their work. Just two years ago, the retirement age in France was increased by 2 years, 1 million people marched against it—10 lakh people marched against it. 10 lakh people marched when the retirement age was increased by just 2 years. People said, "We don't want to work, let us retire, let us start getting pension!" Because people hate their jobs. That's exactly what we're talking about right now.
Do you know how passionate people are in research labs? That when the time of retirement comes, at that time, scientists say that we will work more and request that somehow the retirement be postponed. They are very enthusiastic, and although the retirement age in the lab would be, say, 65 years, it has been said that he is working in his lab till the age of 75. And it has been seen that people working at lower levels, who have no passion whatsoever, or that work like assistants, technicians, or other team members, as soon as they get a chance to retire, they run away.
Because there are so many jobs in the world in which one cannot have passion. If you don't have passion to work, then there is only one thing that you can do: somehow work day and night and maximize the output and input. And I completely agree with the inputs you are taking from this. It is important to keep it within limits, otherwise people will go crazy. The reason is quite obvious.
What is your feeling towards your work? Hate. And you are told, "Yes, yes, yes, yes," you hated, and you're told that you have to do the job that you hate for 90 hours a week, then what will happen to you? You will go crazy! Yes, so that is why it is important to control working hours. Because most people in the world are stuck in such jobs that can only be hated.
This is their hatred, indifference, or empathy, sorrow. If you do too much of what you don't like, then it's possible that you will get neurotic, you'll get tired, and eventually affect yourself, and your productivity will also start decreasing. You will lose yourself, then this will be bad for you as well as your employer.
That is why the developed countries of the world keep making rules that no one should be asked to do so much work in a week. Otherwise, he will go mad because he does not like the work. And work is like a life partner. You can still divorce your spouse, and many people don't even get married, but there isn't a single person who doesn't work.
So listen, as bad as it is to be married to the wrong person, then you must know that it is even worse, more so, to get tied to the wrong job. And even if you're tied to someone, there is still a solution. The relationship is over now, you take care of yourself, so will I. I'm not with anyone now, but you will not find anyone who says that I do not work. You have to work whether you live with someone or not, but you will have to live with work.
So, someone who has chosen the wrong job, the one who has chosen a job that one cannot be passionate about, his condition is very miserable. And for him, I am saying that it is absolutely right to limit his working hours; otherwise, he will die. And the scary thing is that in the world, believe me, 90 to 95%, maybe even more, are doing such work in which they have no interest at all. Why?
Because your education system has conditioned them to view work as merely a means of maximizing output over input. Your family, your culture, your placement office—what do all these people say? "Go and look for a meaningful vocation." Do they say that? They say, "Go and look for the CTC figures."
So, you only see how much money you're getting, and then you admit that it would be fun if you could make that much money by working just one hour a week. Think, many people must have been happy to hear this—that if they got paid the same as they do and only had to work an hour a week. Why? Because you're not working for the sake of working; you're working for a salary, and that's the worst way to live life.
But, "I just work to accomplish something else." People say there should be work-life balance, right? If there was a work-life balance, what would you do then? Go home, pursue your hobby. Do you have a hobby? You like your hobby so much, then why don't you make your hobby your life? Do you have an answer?
So, you say, "No, I will go home and spend quality time with my wife and children." If you don't have any good qualities, then how will you spend quality time with someone? If you were a good person, you would have produced quality work for yourself, right? You are a health person who has sold himself just to keep himself in the business for the sake of CTC. How can such a pitiful man have a good time at home? He will teach his children to follow his footsteps, and I'm saying this for the sake of this man's health—that please, don't make him work too much. Make him work a maximum of 40 hours a week, or else he will go crazy.
I feel very sorry for such people. I want them to work less. Those whom I see who do not have love for their work, then I punish them by reducing their workload. Because giving them work is an atrocity against them. How can I torture anyone? I give work to people who love the work, and it is very strange. People who love their work, I tell them to do more, do more, do more. Love is infinite! You give your 100%. And if I see someone who is not interested, says that it is too much, "I won't do this, I won't do that, it's not happening," then I say, "Let's work less. Leave it."
This is where we come to what the definition of work should be. Many people might have now stopped watching this recording right here. The moment I said that you're asking for work-life balance, you're asking for it only because you don't have any passion for work in your life. So many people would say, "No, no, this is a useless topic of discussion. I'm not listening!" Well, once a person sacrifices himself just for the sake of CTC, it becomes very difficult for him to hear the truth.
What is work? Work is worship. Work is something for which you say, "I'm willing to pay something for it." I am ready to pay money. Leave aside the fact that I'm asking for a salary. If I get anything on top of that, it's a bonus, my friend. If I get a lot out of it, it could be God's grace, it would be compassion, it would be favor, it would be grace. If you get more, then there is no harm in it; you're already getting it.
But the fact is, we are not working on what we get. We have a job that we do. The job is so good; who will count the hours? How do we know the number of hours in a work week? We have never made a count, and if we count, we will get only one number: 24. Because there are only 24 hours in a day, and in those 24 hours, we do nothing but work. Worship—that worship comes out in the form of a passion, which is work, right?
But how do I tell people how many hours I have worked in a week? How do I tell? And let me tell you one more thing: don't think that these CEOs are saying, "Work more, work more," as they like their work very much, and that's why they're saying, "Work more!" No, no, no, no, no.
So, as I said, from the employee's point of view, the poor guy comes to work only for money, so he will definitely ask for his working hours to be reduced. But these CEOs and owners who are asking for increased working hours are not asking for increased hours because they love their jobs.
They're asking for increased hours because they get paid 300, 400, 800 times more than the common employees. When you earn that much of salary, you will have to sacrifice your peace of mind. The one who is giving you so much is not giving it so that you can enjoy it for free. The one who will give you so much money...
As we know, that the average CEO compensation, which is 300:1 times in India, and in some companies, it exceeds even more than 1,000:1. I mean, the ratio of average worker pay to CEO pay is 1,000:1, sometimes exceeding that. So, whoever takes this much money will definitely do the work. So, why is he saying that, "I work too much"? If you don't do this much work, then the board will throw you out. Why are you saying that, "I am a role model, I work so much, come on, you all should also work, give them the same amount of money you get, and they will work too."
Why are you telling them that you should work for 90 hours? You should work for 190 hours? Then feed them as much as you're getting, then they will also work, and we'll do it happily. These are all stories of a different kind of struggle in life. It is all the same thing—that work is done to earn money.
As soon as the money comes, people spend it on consumption. That is why we need the teachings of the Gita, so that we learn that perfection lies in selflessness. No action is done because one will reap the reward of the action. Action is done because action is the supreme thing in itself. Why is it supreme?
Because it is coming out of our own consciousness. We understand something, we know something, that is why we do something. There is a meaning to it, a point to it, love to it. We are not going to back down. I know very well that startups fail. If there are 20 startups, 19 of them will fail. Why do they fail? Because they didn't choose the right market segment, their product was bad, they didn't get funding. Not at all. Most of the startups do not fail; they are shut down. And why are they shut down? Because they were started only to earn profits, and 2-3 years have passed. It is visible that the profit is not being made as much as was expected, so close down this company.
Work is not being done for the sake of work. Work is being done for the results. Then how can one love work? All love is for the result only. And this thing is put into the mind since childhood. Mummy is saying to Dhaniya, the little one, "If you top the board exams, then I will love you even more." That means you will get love too, in the form of accomplishment. Wow! That's great.
So, he says that, "I just had to top." Right? It's not about how deeply I studied mathematics or history or whatever I have studied. I just want to top it. If I somehow top it, then my work will be done. So, it is result-focused. It's not process-focused, it's not love-focused, it's not heart-focused. You just have to get the result by any means, any method.
So, when you have to get a result, the less input that goes into the result, the better it will be. Better, that's better. So, every person is thinking, "I will work from home, and please make it a 4-day work week, and I will work for a total of 30 hours." And I agree with them. I'm not saying that the work hours should be increased. I'm saying that the hours should be reduced even more. The poor guy is in terrible condition. What bigger punishment could they get than doing something that they don't even like? This is such a big punishment.
Now, why are you punishing them further by calling them to work? The person who has found a purpose in life, a purpose... Go and ask him once. You will find out that he doesn't even have a watch on his waist. What's day? What's night? What's Thursday? What's Saturday? What's Sunday? What's the month? What's the year? It might be summer or winter. He remains lost in his own world. This is not the fault of that employee. This is the fault of the system, which follows the data and not the heart.
When you were young, you were told to score marks. Marks are just numbers. Then, you were told to score marks in the board exam—that too is a number. Then, you were told to score a rank in the entrance exam. That rank is also a number. Then, you were told to score a CGPA in college. CGPA is also a number. Then, you were told to score a CTC in placement. CTC is also a number. After that, some people become entrepreneurs. Then, they total score an IPO, and that IPO is also a number.
There is no heart in it, only numbers. You are playing with numbers, a game of numbers. Then, the working hours—that too is just a number. So, just keep fighting behind the numbers. There is no life in it. There is no passion in it.
So, I totally agree with people who want to live a passionless life. Their working hours should be limited, and their work-life balance should be taken care of completely. But I'm also asking, is it necessary to live a passionless life, chasing numbers and money just for the sake of convenience? Whether it is your job, whether it is your business, whether it is your trade, whatever it is—why can't it be something that you like? Why can't you follow your heart? This is a question, a question for everyone.
And if you're not following your heart, then are you even alive? Every morning, you go to do some work that makes you angry, when you wake up and hate it, when you swipe your card—so is this life, or what is it? And what is all this for? That at the end of the month, you will get a little money that runs the house, and you will become happy that you're earning your bread and butter.
You know, these concepts are getting interesting in the West. Now, life expectancy is increasing day by day. This is an interesting story, listen carefully. Life expectancy is increasing day by day, yeah? And the birth rate is declining. Alright? And morbidity is also decreasing. Morbidity means illness. Treatment is not for diseases.
So, this means that older people are living much longer. Elderly people are living very long lives, and they don't even get sick. And they already retired at 60, and they will live till 90, and they are healthy even between 60 and 90. And the birth rate has gone down, so there are no young people. But these old people retired at the age of 60, so who will help build the economy now? There are no young people. Old people retire at the age of 60, but they will live longer.
That's why it's becoming prevalent among older people that they should work more, work till the age of 70. So, one opinion is emerging in the West that, really, there is no need for this research on aging and so on. If living longer means that we will have to work more, then we don't want to live longer.
People hate their work so much that they are saying that if increasing life expectancy means that our retirement age will also be extended, then don't give us such a long life. We don't want to live longer, but we won't work. We may die early, but don't make us do this work because we hate this job.
A survey was conducted in Britain. You can find its details later. I think there was a very large percentage of it, maybe 40%, maybe 60%, maybe 70%. Those British employees were saying that we consider our jobs as either frivolous or redundant. We consider our jobs as either privileged or redundant.
Now, this man will surely say, "Don't make me do too much work." And since his work is privileged or redundant, that's why a new threat has already arisen in the name of AI. Because your work is such that someone else can do it. If you did something from the heart, then AI couldn't take away your job, because artificial intelligence doesn't know the meaning of real love.
AI may know everything, but it doesn't know how to love, right? If you had put in your work that only a human can put in—a transcendental creativity—then AI couldn't have replaced you easily. But your work is just like that, uh, paper-pushing. So now you cry that AI will take away your job?
There is no such thing as hell. A rotten office is hell. And when you return after completing your job, that rotten office is replaced by a rotten house. This is called living in hell. The office is such where you have gone just to earn some money in some way. And home is such where you come just to spend that money. And what else could be hell?
You work for salary. You work for salary. Well, how many days in a month do you get a salary? You get it only on one day. So, how do you spend the remaining 29 days? You get salary on only one particular day. What do you do for the remaining 29 days? Wait for the salary. You refresh your bank account again and again to check if you've received the salary or not.
What? You become very happy when there's an increase of 4%? Hey! I am saying reduce his working hours completely. This poor guy doesn’t even know that the output which he is getting as salary is also decreasing day by day.
All these people who are saying to, uh, increase his work hours—these are all the beneficiaries of capitalism. And in capitalism, there’s a trickle-down effect, right? In that, wealth doesn’t come down; poverty comes down in that.
By what percentage did your salary increase in a year? 5%? I became happy! Started dancing! How much did his salary increase due to stock options? His salary increased by 80%! Yes. So tell me, did you become rich or poor? You became poorer.
It is not just in nominal terms that he has become relatively poor. His money has increased so much that now he will increase the price of whatever he buys. You also have to send your child to school. The one sitting at the top, the beneficiary of capitalism, will also send his child to school. There are limited seats in the school, so those limited seats will be filled by the people at the top by paying a hefty fee. You will also go, saying, "I also have to educate my child." So, the same fee will be demanded from you—the fee that those at the top can afford.
Those at the top will afford it because their salary has increased by 80%. It was more even before, and now it has increased by 80%, and yours is just 5%. How will you afford it?
The one who is getting more money is increasing the prices of everything—be it hotel rooms, land prices, school fees, right? Everything. Even hospital charges. He is increasing the prices of everything and making you even poorer. But then you count your CTC. This whole debate is frivolous. How many hours of work? How many hours of no work? Both the people who are talking—both of them are prisoners of an exploitative system.
The one who is saying, "Increase the hours," is also a prisoner. The one who is saying, "Don't increase the hours," is also a prisoner. Freedom is in pursuing passion, which neither of them knows. Freedom for both of them means going to play golf on the weekends, right? This freedom that we get for two hours in a week—should I call it freedom or jail? Even the prisoners in jail get freedom for two hours. Anything else?
Saint Kabir said, "Listen. When the mind is immersed in love, then who counts the days and dates?" When the mind gets immersed in love, then the day and date are not counted. But those who do not have love—I’m saying they should definitely count, and they should definitely count that they will not work for more than half an hour after 35 hours.
I am telling them that they’re already being punished so much. They’re living an emotionless life. Why do you punish them further by making them work?
Questioner: Acharya Ji, I have seen many times that my friends associated with the Gita session ask this question and almost complain that when we were associated with Acharya Ji, we wanted some kind of peace in life because our mind was filled with many things and useless thoughts.
And when we reached Acharya Ji, we reached such a stage of life that, uh, at that time, we started living in a kind of system. Gradually, we started to understand that the system is wrong and we need to get out of it.
But this thought itself increases anxiety and stress even more. So, they understand that. I mean, I want to ask again this way: even the right thing can cause a lot of stress and anxiety. So, is that right?
Acharya Prashant: Stress is not gained from the right work; it is gained from our greed. We start panicking, thinking, "Oh, won’t we get so many lakhs from next month?" Right work does not give stress. The fear of losing bad work gives stress. How will the right work give stress? That is the right work! What stress is there in that?
The only fear is that we have developed all kinds of greed. We have set up our cost structures. So much money has to be spent on this. So much money has to be spent on that thing. Wrong work does not come just like that; it brings CTC, right? There is a fear of losing CTC. It's nothing else. And no one needs CTC.
There is tension of losing the facilities that you enjoy from that CTC. Facilities will be lost. Facilities—and what are the facilities? Nothing. The facilities that we will get—a normal bathroom, which once had a Jacuzzi. Right? "I'm very tense! I'm having a heart attack! Oh my! My Jacuzzi!"
What is the stress? This is a normal TV. Now, let's say—how many inches is this TV? How many inches? Whatever it is, huh? How many? 40? 40, yes. It is a 40-inch TV. Now, they have a desire to buy a 400-inch TV. Now they are panicking. "How will we get a 400-inch TV?"
Get a TV so big that the whole wall is filled with it. It is also available in the market. This is why they’re worried. Why are you worried? Though I suggest you get into the habit of buying things you don't really need and build a CTC structure around them.
Then you say, "Oh, I'm helpless! How can I live a holy and righteous life? Oh, I have so many liabilities!" Which liability? What liability? No, the liability is this: that I have to build my house on a plot of 1,000 square meters. This is my small desire.
And why do you have to build it? Because you know, if you don’t build it, your wife will leave you. Why will your wife leave you? Because your wife doesn’t love you. You don’t love your wife either. Your wife is also sitting with you with the greed that one day that mansion will be built, and she will become the queen of that mansion. So, it is important for you to keep doing a wrong job in greed for CTC.
If the children stop respecting you at home, if the father becomes unemployed, then why? Because you have raised the children in such a way. Now, it is important that the father keeps earning. The real fear is that if I don't earn, then the children will kick me out of my own house. If I earn less, then my reputation in the society will fall. I will be disgraced among my friends. Why? Because you made such friends. They became your friends after seeing your money. If you become unemployed, if you start living a simple life, all your friends will leave you.
It is a good thing that they leave you? Is there any benefit in keeping such bad friends?
Now, it happened in a campus, an engineering campus. Then, the company had a change in the proposal for placement. In that, they had written CTC as 12.5 lakhs—around 12.5 lakhs per annum. It was not a top college, right? So, it was a big deal for the students here that the company approaching them will give a package of 12.5 lakhs per annum!
That means if you get 70,000–80,000 in the beginning, it's a big thing for them. So, in whatever auditorium they had, the company gave a presentation. I'm telling you, this is a real incident. It happened just now, in this placement season.
So, the company came, they were giving a presentation in the auditorium. Then, the HR guy started the presentation. He opened the slide and said that the CTC was written as 3.5 lakhs LPA. And he said, "It seems there is some confusion."
The students were also surprised because the salary of freshers is not that great. Even in the IT industry, freshers still get an average salary of 3 to 3.5 lakhs per annum. This college was not even a top college. So, students were excited that a company offering 12.5 lakhs was visiting. The entire auditorium was fully packed. Those who had already passed, who were working somewhere else, also came and sat in front, saying that they also wanted jobs.
So, the HR guy looked at the first slide and said, "There is some confusion." Then, he removed the 1 from the number, and it became 2.5 LPA. The moment he said that LPA is 2.5, the entire auditorium became empty! All the students got up and walked out in front of the HR team.
Now, tell me, what will you do? No one is even asking, "Tell us, what is the job profile? What is the KRA?" Nobody knows anything. Everybody came and sat there, thinking, "They will get money."
Now, the one who wants to work for money will say, "Give me the money for free. We don’t have to go to the office for a single day. We don’t have to work for a single hour. Just give me the money."
It's like—you are working for the result. If you are told that you will get 99 marks without giving the exam, will you refuse it? This is what our family, our folk religion, our folk philosophy has taught us—that we should not have passion for work. We should work for the result, by any means. The results should come.
Gita says, Love is itself the result, ‘Maa Phaleshu Kadachan’ What do we have to do with the result?
Questioner: Sir, Khalil Gibran has a quote on work:
"Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love, but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy."
And I always did not understand the second part of the quote. I mean, why is he saying that?
Acharya Prashant: Alms mean learning. And we are not talking about the temple, we are talking about the office. He is saying that where a person is working with joy, that office itself becomes a temple. You should not sit in front of the temple.
Go and sit in front of any such office where people work with their heart and soul. That is not an office—that becomes a temple. And Gibran is saying, "Go there again, in that temple. Take alms. Dakshina. Take donations."
What donations? What donations will you take from there?
Same thing—learn love from them. Take the gift of love. Learn how to live life in love.
Look, it’s not just about falling in love with work. It is about loving. The one who loves, will love work as well. He will love his life. He will love his relationships. And the one who does not know how to love—it’s not that he cannot fall in love with his work. He cannot love his children. He cannot love his friends. He cannot love himself.
Because love is not a selective thing. Love is not a segmented thing—"I will love this one, I will not love that one." Love is like light. When it falls, it falls on everyone, like the light of the sun.
The man who lives with his heart—there will be heart in his work as well. Heart will be visible in his every step. And the one who is doing something for money—he will say that he will marry where he’s getting more dowry. "I will take up a job where I get a high CTC. And I will give the contract to the one who’s paying more bribe."
And this—who teaches this love?
Learning this is wisdom. This is self-knowledge. This is self-observation. This is why we have Gita sessions. Our entire Gita program is so that we can learn how to love.
You have not come to learn Gita to learn shlokas. You have come to learn Gita so that you can learn love. And how much have you learned from the Gita program—whether it has been six months, a year, or two years?
A good way to check is to ask—"How much love has come into your life?" Love means vastness. To be able to give. And lack of love means—"Pettiness. Counting. How much did you get? How much did you get? How much did you get?"
Love is infinite, in which even after giving everything, infinite remains. And where there is no love—there, the calculator just keeps running. Profit. Loss. Income. Expense.
