That Constant Sense of Uneasiness
Questioner: So, my question is, I notice there is this feeling of something is wrong, this feeling of fear, anxiety in my body, and I have seen this over the years that I will go and try and get something from outside — a job, a degree, a date, food. And for a little bit, it will feel good and then it comes back to this — what am I missing in the world and I guess, my sense is that something I am missing and I can see my actions and my words, sometimes; not sometimes, very often I will say, “Things that aren’t true to get what I want, and then when I get it, it lasts for maybe a few hours or a few days or a few months and it goes back to that feeling of holding myself being tight, living in that sense.”
Acharya Prashant: Go to spiritual literature. Talk to those who have grappled with the very same questions. They have left behind their experience to be used by us. Make use of their gifts.
There have been legions of wise people, restless people and loving people who have had to face these very same issues. They would have described their situation probably in almost the very same words. You won’t have been too surprised to hear even identical language. See what they discovered, if you really want to economize on time.
Or if you want to stay put with this restlessness of yours, then you can continue your personal exploration and may be in due course of time something will reveal itself, that too has its own beauty. A life of adventure, a life of challenge, a life full of darkness but with intermittent streaks of light in between. That too has its poetic beauty.
But in case you want to go beyond poetic beauty. If you want to go right to the beauty that truth holds, then go to these people, sit with them. Obviously, most of them are physically no more available but their word is, use that word.
Questioner: What are some of those books’ names?
Acharya Prashant: My personal favourite is obviously Vedanta. You will need to go to the Upanishads, sit with Ashtavakra, listen to Krishna. Allow yourself to be schooled by Ribhu, right? And then from there you come to the various schools of philosophy and finally you come to the Saints. What the Saints present is the highest and condensed form of all wisdom. The Rishis of Vedanta talk as Scientists, and it is beautiful as they expound the Science of Consciousness.
The Saints don’t talk as scientists, they talk as lovers, and probably it touches us more deeply to listen to a Saint than to read a Scientist. Nevertheless, begin with the Scientist.
