The unrealistic expectations of the ego from its self-created world || Acharya Prashant (2015)
Questioner: When I send Advait’s broadcasts to the world, the world sends me back some stupid videos and posters, and that irritates me a lot. Though I delete them, yet I remain disturbed. What is this disturbance?
Acharya Prashant: This disturbance is your hope that your relationships are all not really false. You send out Advait’s videos or posters, and you are hoping that these would be appreciated. To whom have you sent these posters? To your own circle, right? And when your own circle then reacts in the ugliest of ways, then it hurts you. It hurts you because it proves that the quality of your relationships was bad. That is what hurts you.
This fellow belongs to my circle, and he is reacting in this way? And even if today, I may have gone beyond him, I may no longer be having an active relationship with him; yet till a few years back he used to be close to me, and to receive that ugly reply from him is to be reminded of what you were till a few years back.
Who were you? The one who was actively friends with the same kind of people. That is the reason why their numbers are there in your phone directory.
How deeply you have put yourself in muck is revealed only when you try to come out of it.
You might be comfortably lying half asleep, half conscious on your bed and the world—all your friends, and relatives, and such people—in their great show of playful intimacy would be tying a thousand knots around your hands, and legs, and neck, and abdomen; and you would be laughing and giggling with them. After all, they are your friends and they are just playing with you.
You are lying half drunk and just as a game, they are tying your feet to the bed. It feels amusing, funny, and we all like to have fun, don’t we? But what you have done to yourself is revealed when you try to get up, when you try to break free. Till the time you are drunk and lying on your bed, you won’t even feel that you have been held captive; you will feel everything is alright. But try breaking free, then you will realize the depth of your bondage. Try breaking free.
The one who has never tried to break free will never realize how many forces will stand up against him to arrest his freedom. Live within the prison, and everything will be regular and normal. Just try breaking out and then you will realize what you have done to yourself.
Give up all kinds of hopes from the world. If you are receiving five ugly replies, rest assured that there are fifty more who wanted to send similar replies but didn’t send out of courtesy; they just were stopped by their politeness. All right? Know that this is the nature of the world. There is no need to get hurt. Only expectations get hurt, and you are expecting your friend circle to be better than what it is.
When those things come, study them. See what it tells about the mind of the world, how people react. That gives you good insights into how people’s minds are configured. And once you know how our minds are configured, it helps you know a lot about your own mind. All right?
