To become free of problems, take on the biggest Problem. || Acharya Prashant (2015)

Acharya Prashant

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To become free of problems, take on the biggest Problem. || Acharya Prashant (2015)

All this universe is the dream product of the non-dual, untainted,

Knowledge Bliss only.

~ Advaita Bodha Deepika

Question: Very rarely could the mind see the futility of all the pettiness it holds onto. But these days, with the mind engrossed in so many activities, the petty thoughts rarely bother. Even people and situations, which I tolerated due to my insecurities, now hardly leave any impact.

Not sure if this is a trick of the mind to co-opt due to its fear or is it really quietness? Is it okay?

Speaker: Yes, it is okay. (Smiles)

You were since very long, very well-adjusted with your miseries and diseases. Now, start learning to get adjusted to health . That also requires a little bit of adjustment, because health is such a stranger. You have not known it. So, when it comes, you do not know what it is, and who it is. You have never seen its face before. It was like your own unborn baby. Or you could say that you were the unborn baby and it was like your mother, whose face you had never seen. Now get adjusted.

This too will be a bit of a worry. Everything is a worry with us, right? Earlier we were having a problem because things were not right. Now we start feeling a little uneasy because things are suddenly getting to be right. Welcome to the change. Now, don’t become so uncomfortable with it that you shoo it away.

You know, it will happen with all of us. Health too will come with its own quota of fresh concerns. Learn to respond to them. You might be driving a totally destroyed kind of vehicle, a vehicle in shambles. But if you have been driving it since 15 years, you are unlikely to meet with an accident. It is diseased. Every part is rusted and out-of-place. Everything cranks and yet you will not meet an accident, because you are well-adjusted with this disease. Now you get a new vehicle and it runs. And it really does run. You are quite likely to meet an accident. The new, the fresh, the healthy, comes with its own share of precautions to be taken. One of the precautions is, “Don’t get so excited. Otherwise we will dump you into the swimming pool”. Are you getting it?

That’s it. If you want me to shut up this is the best way you can do that. Tell me that everything is alright and then I have nothing to say.

Have you seen the kids. Firstly they don’t speak. Kids still around a year, they don’t speak. Then what is everybody trying? They should speak and they should speak. And then what happens? Now the kid is 2 years old. And what is the kid doing all the time? Speaking! Now stop the kid if you can. (Smiles)

So, either way there are going to be problems . Choose your problems wisely. The thumb rule for choosing problems is – ‘Always choose the bigger problem’. Always! Never go for littleness, never for meanness. Whenever you are faced with problems, pick the bigger problem.

My task here is to give an insurmountable Problem, a Problem so big, that you can never beat it. You can only surrender to it. That huge Problem is called God . It is a Problem so infinitely, so indefinitely big that the mind can never beat it, never solve it. So ultimately, out of frustration, out of sheer exhaustion, the mind has to just surrender to it.

Choose the bigger problem. In choosing big and bigger problems, one day you will choose the biggest Problem. The biggest Problem is God. Choose It.

Anybody can choose small problems. You belong to the corporate world. There, don’t they say, “Let’s take on a bigger challenge”. You tell them, “I have taken on the biggest challenge”. They are very fond of challenges. “So, what’s the next challenge?” Don’t they say that? You must be having a team leader, who would be adamant upon motivating you and inspiring you, to increase your productivity and such things. And he will say, “You know, we should take on challenges. We should prove our worth”. You tell him that, “You come with me. I will show you a problem that you cannot beat”. And bring him and make him sit here. Then he will realize what really a problem looks like. Then he will stop talking about challenges. Then he will say, “Let me remain problem-free”. That is the thing about being problem-free. When you are free of little problems, then you have the space to take on bigger problems. It is like climbing one summit after the other.

The Realized man is not free of problems. He has taken on the biggest Problem. And the biggest is never big enough. So, the next problem is bigger than the biggest, and then bigger than the biggest. That what Brahm is all about – ever-expanding, you never reach its limit. You would never say that this is the biggest ever that is possible.

Good that you are problem-free now. Now I know who is ready to take the next challenge. Now I know who can be given a little more work.

This article has been created by volunteers of the PrashantAdvait Foundation from transcriptions of sessions by Acharya Prashant.
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