Should You Sacrifice Your Pleasures - When and How Much? || AP Neem Candies
Acharya Prashant: You have to ask yourself what your primary identity is. If your primary identity is that of the body, then do what the body commands you to do. Good. The body has an inbuilt software of its own, and it’s a self-improving software. Its capacity to keep improving is called evolution.
You could even say that the body has a certain intelligence of its own. Though I will use the word 'intelligence' with caution, but very loosely it can be said, so the body in fact knows a lot of things. You can let the body rule you, you can let the primitive tendencies of the brain rule you and you will indeed get certain benefits. You will have to decide whether you have the courage to forgo those benefits. That is what is called as sacrifice.
That is the real meaning of sacrifice, whether you are prepared to sacrifice all the benefits that come from following the traits of the body. If you can let go of those benefits, if you can really sacrifice, then there is another realm that opens up to you in which there are higher benefits. Now, this is not a temptation, this is probably the only way in which it can be explained why certain people decide not to listen to their instincts, their tendencies, traits, and all such things - why do certain people raise up and challenge their fears and limitations. So, that’s why I have to use the word ‘higher benefits’. The fact is, spirituality does not really bring you any higher benefit. Liberation cannot be called a benefit. In liberation, the beneficiary himself gets liberated of himself. How can you call it a benefit? Purely speaking, it is not, but we have to say something.
Similarly, stuff like meat-eating; from an evolutionary perspective probably it is good, probably! Probably, research might establish that a certain amount of meat consumption is indeed good for the body, and it might be established beyond any doubt.
Similarly, milk consumption. It might be established beyond doubt that those who stop consuming milk and milk products altogether, do actually face some physical dangers, it might be established. Now that’s the call that you have to take. What is it that you want to take care of, your body or your bondages? What is it that you give more weightage to, your body or your bondages?
If you give more weightage to your body, then you must have meat and milk and such things. It’s no point trying to prove on scientific and medical grounds that meat-eating is disastrous and that milk is entirely harmful. It probably is not. Most probably, it is not. Most probably, those who do take meat will indeed perform better in tests of physical endurance and strength and athleticism and such things. If not better, then at least they will perform as well as, as good as, comparable to the ones who shun meat. So certain things cannot be done purely from the point of view of evolution or physical benefits or such things.
Meat may indeed help your body, but it hinders your liberation. That is the only final argument. It might help my body, I agree. You have to honestly admit that it might actually help your body, but you have to then decide what is it that you want - bodily help or spiritual hindrance? If you have no compassion for the animal, it will become very difficult for you to have deep compassion for yourself. And to help oneself to be liberated is an act of deepest compassion. It is only from that deep compassion that tremendous energy is released, and that kind of energy is indeed needed in the process of liberation.
You cannot be liberated without that tremendous energy. And I assure you that tremendous energy can come from no other motivation. The only motivation has to be compassion; compassion towards oneself - "I do not like the way I am, I cannot suffer any bondages" - This is compassion. If you are so compassionate towards yourself, how will you kill the animal and stuff yourself with his flesh? Getting it? It’s very important because you see a lot of things that are advocated in the spiritual domain can actually be proven to not be useful to you when it comes to your physical or social progress.
Gossiping is great for social progress, believe me. It is. So much of your career progress actually depends on how skillful you are in gossiping. Those who cannot gossip at all, often find that they cannot progress in their careers. Their social advancement gets hindered. Similarly, many other things, they are indeed useful, but they hurt you somewhere else. Figure out whether you want to take that hurt. It's a choice.
It is not that the spiritual people have the best of both worlds. Let’s not live in that illusion. You have to make a sacrifice. You have to make a sacrifice and it is not that the people who are living in the most worldly and blind and materialistic ways on this planet are not getting anything from their ways. They are getting something and that is why most of this mankind continues to live in its blindly material ways. Because those ways are indeed beneficial, and their benefits have been established beyond doubt over the past millions of years. Over the entire course of evolution, it has been established that these things are indeed profitable. So, it is a proven track, people continue to use it. Before you leave that track you have to be fully informed of the costs and the hazy benefits. The costs are very, very real. Benefits, we do not know of them. Are you prepared to bear the costs without even being certain of the benefits? If you are, then you qualify to be a seeker, a spiritual seeker.
Full article link: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/articles/the-great-importance-of-gossiping-1_55e30b4
