One Truth That Ends Overthinking
Questioner: Good afternoon, sir. I’m Tohina Chatterji, and I’m in my first year. So I usually tend to overthink everyday things, like everyday situations, like even if it’s just my bus not reaching the destination and things like that. So how do I not let this fear take over myself?
Acharya Prashant: Think of better things. Think of more important things.
Questioner: I fall into this loop of thoughts where I just think about it instead of actually doing it.
Acharya Prashant: Have something in life that overpowers all the random thoughts. I’m talking to you, right?
Questioner: Yes, sir.
Acharya Prashant: I happen to be a busy person. There are so many things that I can alternately think of at this moment. What makes me forget all those things? And frankly, to me right now you are a stranger. All I know of is your name, to some extent your age, the institutions you are affiliated to, that’s all that I know about you.
Compared to this, there is so much else that I’m involved in. There is my mission. There’s my work, and this is a working day, and so many people are dependent on me for what they’re doing. Why am I not thinking of them at this moment? Because this is important. That’s all.
When you do not have that in your life which is important, when you do not have a sense of the worthy, the result will be that a lot of little things will invade the mind.
There is no way to keep those little things away. They are like germs. They constantly keep attacking you. You cannot keep them away. You can only have a strong inner immunity.
Is there a way to keep germs away, virus or bacteria or other kinds of pathogens? Is it possible? No, they are everywhere. I keep my hand here (table), they are here. This air that I breathe in, they are in the air. How do I ensure I am 100% shielded against them? Not possible. However, there is one thing that is possible, which is my inner immunity. And that inner immunity is called importance. Know what is important, and then random things will cease to matter.
If you find yourself thinking about unimportant matters too much, it just means that there is a huge inner vacancy for something important, and that vacancy has not been filled. The mind cannot tolerate a vacuum, a vacancy. The mind needs something to chew. You cannot just abruptly bring the mind to a thoughtless state. Not possible.
So what to do? As students, as beginners, what to do? Determine what is important. Honestly, give it due credit, and I like to say, fall in love with it. Make it your life. Then there will be no space to think of random things. And is that not beautiful?
Life is pestering you with all the normal trivia, and yet you are not bothered. Why? Because there is a mighty inner thing you have embraced, and you simply don’t have the time, the space, to look towards anything else.
Is it hot? Yes, it is. Is it cold? Might be. Are you hungry? Probably, yes. Do you need a little more money? Of course I do. Care for better clothes? Why not?
But sir, sorry, in spite of all these things that I might potentially care for, I am occupied. Nobody will ever have enough money. Nobody will ever be able to say, “I do not need more clothes or better clothes.” Nobody will ever say, “All my desires are now satisfied.” That’s not going to happen. Nobody will ever say the situations are all perfect. No.
Those things will continuously remain, just like the pathogens we talked of. But along with them, taking precedence over them, an inner sense of importance can remain, and that has to be developed. It won’t just come.
As a young person, you need to figure out very clearly what is worth doing, what is important in life. Else, you’re traveling to the college, and you’re looking out of the bus window, and you see something happening, something by chance, the usual trivia, and it will capture you, and you’ll find yourself thinking about it for 30 minutes. Thirty minutes of life gone on nothing.
And that’s how most of us simply waste away our entire life on nothing in particular. So what did you do your entire life? Nothing in particular. Though I was always occupied. I was always occupied. But what did you do? Nothing.
Okay, let’s say you get a one-week break, a Diwali break, let’s say a ten-day break, and somebody asks you, “What did you do, actually?” Is that not an honest answer, nothing in particular?
And that’s what happens when you have nothing really important to do, you do nothing, at least nothing in particular. And it’s unimaginable, the lengths of time that you can simply squander doing nothing in particular. Two months of summer holidays, spent doing nothing in particular. Well, nothing in particular.
My driver, I make it a point, he drives slowly so that, sitting on the rear seat, I do not get disturbed. Why? Because commutes take long, one hour, two hours, and I want to read. That’s a dedicated time I get to complete my reading list. Else, it’s very possible to simply say, “I was traveling, so I was doing nothing in particular.”
And it’s not that you are doing nothing at all when you are traveling, you’re doing something. What are you doing? Staring out of the window, looking at something random. In between, you just scroll through the feed, Facebook or things. Type something random on Instagram. Ogle at some nice faces passing by. You don’t know their name. The fellow will be in visual range for 2.2 seconds, and yet the fellow becomes so important. Two seconds you stare, and then for two minutes you think.
You know, by the time the next pretty face comes, you have already forgotten the previous one. And the world can be an unending succession of pretty faces. Two hours will fly away. You did your entire journey doing nothing in particular. The name of the journey is life. Now death has arrived, and death asks, “So tell me, how was it? What did you do?” Nothing in particular.
Though I was always busy, always busy.
You’ll never find anyone saying, “I have so much time, kindly assign me some task.” Have you found somebody begging for work? No. Everybody is running behind schedule, right? If you happen to have a to-do list at all, of any kind, you’re always behind the list, are you not? So everybody is occupied doing nothing in particular.
Have one thing worth living for. You’ll forget when you board the bus. You will forget when the destination has arrived. Somebody will have to prod you to get down. You’ll be so immersed. That’s a beautiful word, immersion. How do you like it? Immersion. How about that? Does that appeal to you, immersion? Have you experienced that sometimes, immersion?
That alone is the way to live. If you’re not immersed, you are scattered. How does it feel to be scattered? Have you experienced that, a state of being scattered inwardly? Have you?
Isn’t immersion beautiful? Have you seen how time stops when you are immersed? And if you can have immersion in your everyday life, that alone is the best meditation. Are you getting it? And if you can have that immersion, that is an antidote to all kinds of mental troubles. Otherwise, there is the menace of depression, anxiety, and all kinds of mental things, especially among the young.
The one who has something to live for will never be mentally sick. And mental illness is a pointer that life is devoid of essence.
“I have no time to be anxious.” How about that? Are you suffering from anxiety? What’s the answer? I have no time to be anxious. Even anxiety requires time. I don’t have time. How can I be anxious?
Are you afraid? I have no space for fear. When fear comes, I say, “Sorry, no vacancy.” Not that you aren’t great. Obviously, you are great and powerful. The entire world kneels to you. You’re wonderful. But as far as I’m concerned, no vacancy.
Give all your inner space to something that is beautiful for you. Let there be no vacancy. Get a headband, “No Vacancy.” Or have a T-shirt straight on your heart here, “No Vacancy.” Occupied. Engaged.
The knowers in the spiritual domain, they have said we are wedded already. And not only in the spiritual domain. Obviously, you know of Bhagat Singh. He was just 22 or 23 when he laid down his life. His mother had approached him once, “You’ll have to marry.” He said, “But I already am.” And she is shocked. “How can my son do that? What’s her name?” And what did he say? Azadi.
So, no vacancy. The girls are all beautiful, but sorry, no vacancy. Teri dulhan ka naam kya hai? Azadi. Already married, no vacancy.
Now we can see. And that’s why you remember him today, and that’s why all others have become the dust of time. And Bhagat Singh is immortal. Even though he left his body at 23, yet he is immortal. And there were those who lived long lives for 90-100 years. And yet, as we say, they are just the dust of time. Who cares for them? That’s the difference.
Have an early wedding, as early as possible. Not the kind of wedding that requires social, religious, and legal sanction and ceremonies. An internal wedding. Let nobody know of it. Freedom, Azadi.
What do you think, Bhagat Singh had time to think of miscellaneous things? How occupied he was, you know of it. Even on the eve of his hanging, he was still reading the Bhagavad Gita a copy of that. In fact, that particular copy is still preserved.
Or was he thinking, “Tomorrow I’ll die, what will happen then?” Was he thinking? No. He said, “But I still have a few hours. Let me spend these hours with the beloved. I have something very important to do.”
Or was he doing nothing in particular? Was he doing nothing in particular even in his last hours? No. He said, “Let me spend this time in reading.” And he was a voracious reader at your age. He was so well read. Never had any time to waste.
I don’t know, this one is from Bhagat Singh or one of the other great revolutionaries, but they actually marked the last page they read in their favorite book. And somebody, out of curiosity, asked them and said, “Tomorrow you are going to be hanged. You’ll be no more. Why are you marking this page?” And very mystically he said, “Because I have to continue from there.” No time for self-pity, inner misery, sad thoughts, no time. I’m busy with the right thing, even in my last moments.
How about such a life? Does it not excite you? It does not, it seems. Or does it? It does.
Be extremely occupied. Don’t be like these wanton flies or insects. Seen how a mosquito behaves, sitting here, sitting there? Or a fly, hopping from here to there, doing?
Listener: Nothing in particular.
Acharya Prashant: Don’t be like that, please.
Questioner: Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.
