On strength and risk || Acharya Prashant, with youth (2013)
Question 1: Sir, if I say that facing a person is my strength, how would you justify it?
Acharya Prashant: Why should I justify it?
Remember one thing.
*Nothing outside you can ever be your strength. Something outside of me can be a crutch. Do you understand a crutch? A support – a support helps for sometime, but ultimately it is the strength of your own legs that carries you forward. So your strength is what you are.*
I repeat that. Anything outside of you, be it your parent or anybody else, cannot be your strength.
Question 2: I think that I have an ability to take risks. I don’t think much before taking any challenges. Is it good for me and my future or can it land me into trouble?
AP: What do you mean by risk taking?
Risk is defined as variability in outcome. Risk is, ‘*I may succeed, I may not succeed.*’ What if I am not at all thinking about success and failure? Is there any risk then? Risk is only when I am bothered about success and failure, only then there is a risk, otherwise there is no risk.
I say there is an eighty percent risk of failure. What if I am not at all thinking of failure? What if I am happy with just trying? Then there is no risk. So why think in the language of risk and all that? Let stock brokers do that. They talk a lot about risks, rewards and returns.
Excerpted from a ‘Shabd-Yog’ session. Edited for clarity.
