The honest man has just One priority || Acharya Prashant, with youth (2015)
Questioner : Sir, there is a quote of yours that says, “Only by being firmly tethered to one’s core can one fly freely. Wandering without a center is looseness, not freedom .”
Doesn’t that have something to do with priorities? Like, making a single priority and then letting it continue.
Acharya Prashant : ‘Who‘ is making that priority? You talk of priorities as if priorities are something objective. ‘Who‘ is making the priority?
What is the priority of a politician contesting elections? – To win the election.
What is the priority of a thief breaking into somebody’s house? – Steal.
What is the priority of a man out to kill? – Kill.
*‘*Whose‘ priorities are you talking of? Your priorities depend upon your mind. We all have priorities but we do not even know that those priorities are not at all ‘our’ priorities. Those priorities have been imposed upon us by various forces.
Are you getting it? What you call as ‘your priority’ is not your priority, because first of all you do not exist. Whose priority is that? – Somebody who is conditioned, somebody who is a total product of conditioning. Or let me put it this way – Being what you are, can you have any other priority? It is impossible.
It is impossible. Till the day you consider yourself – what you consider yourself – this will be your priority. The day your self-concept changes, your priorities will change automatically. So, don’t go about shouting too loudly- “This is my priority !”, “*That is my priority*”.
Whose priority? India will be meeting South Africa next in the cricket world cup. Who do you want to win?
Listeners : India.
AP : And South Africans?
L : South Africa.
AP : So your priority depends on who you are. If you are an Indian, your priority is…?
L : India.
AP : And if you are a South African, your priority is…?
L : South Africa.
AP : And if your nationality changes then your priority will also…?
L : Change.
AP : Prior means before. Do you know what is the real meaning of the word priority?
Priority means: “The mind has a thousand occupation of its own. It keeps wandering in the world. It keeps itself engaged with the world. But is there something prior to the mind? Is there something before the mind, higher than the mind? That is called priority. Only that can be called priority.
So your only priority can be Truth. “*What is my priority? Truth is my priority. Where it takes me, I will go.*” So there are twenty-six options- A to Z. Somebody asks you, “*What is your priority?*” You say, “*I have no priority, my only priority is Truth. That is the first thing. That is something prior to everything else. So wherever the Truth takes me I will go. That is my priority.*”
So, the really honest man actually has no priorities. He just follows the Truth. Now wherever it takes him, he goes fearlessly.
