Want More Pleasure?

Questioner: Acharyaji, my question is that the greed of getting more and more pleasure is increasing with time, and finally I’m finding myself getting stuck in the vicious circle of getting more and more pleasure. Sir, what are the ways that you could suggest to me to get out of it?

Acharya Prashant: Get some real pleasure, get some real pleasure. Real pleasure has a quality to it, and when you have that quality, then your hunger for quantity diminishes. If you keep looking for more and more pleasure, chances are you’re not getting pleasure anywhere. Had you been getting at somewhere, you would have stopped at that point, right? Because you don’t get it anywhere, that’s why you want it everywhere.

So look for the right place, where real pleasure can be had. For that, you’ll have to first of all test, whether all these places that promise pleasure to you, are of any avail. They promise they attract, they also extract a lot, but do they really deliver? And maintain the faith that the real thing is not inaccessible. You’re born to achieve the real thing and you can get it. But not if you remain attracted to, and engaged with all the little and false stuff. Then the little things will keep you forever away from the real deal.

Questioner: Yes sir. Sir, the reason I asked this question is, that society has this mentality that crack a certain exam, and you’ll get the pleasures after that. You’ll live a life of pleasure after that. Like if anyone is aspiring to crack UPSC, then he’s taught that just crack this exam, after that you’ll have cars, and servants around you, and you’ll get pleasure from that.

So while thinking of pleasures, we don’t focus on that after this we’ve to work hard. We don’t develop the mentality to know what to do after that initial achievement. What would you suggest?

Acharya Prashant: Mostly people who write the JEE (Joint Entrance Exam, for admissions to IITs) thinking that, after the JEE there would only be an unmitigated pleasure, or who write the UPSC thinking that, once you get your rank and are allotted a cadre, all you’ll have is power, pelf, privilege, and servants and all the things that you talked of. Mostly these people anyway don’t get to enter the IITs or the civil services.

With this kind of motivation, anyway, success is hard to come by. Even if you do get success, hoping for these things, very soon you discover that these things are nowhere on offer. You’re just being made a fool off, by making to salivate after them. Just clearing the JEE is no guarantee even of material success.

The last time I checked, a fair number of students, in fact, a fair proportion of students were remaining unplaced even from the IITs. The scenario might have changed now, I’ve not been keeping an eye on the last few years. But over a long period of time, this was the story. From every IIT, a fair number of students were not able to secure even in the basic placements. And the bulk of the jobs that you get from the IITs are pretty ordinary. Except for maybe 2% or 5% of 8% of the students, the job applicants, others get fairly ordinary kind of jobs, translating into fairly ordinary pleasures.

The same is the case with civil services as well. You can dream of the huge Kothi (bungalow/house) and such things only if you’ve had no peek, not even a sneak peek into the insides of how the bureaucracy works and how the bureaucrats live.

So one way to just get rid of these imaginary pleasures is by checking their reality. Why not speak to your seniors? Why not speak to the alumni? Let’s say who passed out ten years back. Why not do a reality check?

Questioner: Actually at that time, we didn’t have any seniors around us, so that’s why we believed on what people told us about the places.

Acharya Prashant: How is it so difficult son? You’re living in the information age. Even social media is good enough to tell you the reality.

Questioner: Sir, even the coaching teachers also use to tell these kinds of things.

Acharya Prashant: They’ll tell what they have to, they have their own self-interests to cater. But what prevents you from doing a basic search on web, or approaching a few people and straight away talking to them? You want to get into something for the rest of your life without even concretely knowing what lies in store for you?

Questioner: Sir, finally one thing. This was just from a perspective of a student. If we take an example of a person, who has a car that is enough to provide him the required safety, but he wants more and more cars for him, to just show off, or to get some pleasure out of it. Because he’s addicted of getting good brands to show off. What are your views about that?

Acharya Prashant: About what? Cars?

Questioner: No sir, what should be done to get rid of that mentality?

Acharya Prashant: There has to be a purpose in life, nothing else. I too have loved cars since my childhood. But there’s something else that I’ve loved more than cars. That’s all.

We all have these bodily, social, mental likes and dislikes. That’s the way our bodies are, that’s the way the personality is. It will have certain leanings, it’ll have certain dislikes, so all these are there. But they fade in the light of something far more important.

I have a mission to run, now I may have personal preferences in this and that, but there has to be a pecking order, a hierarchy, right? You know that something else is more important, so the first right over all resources, your time, your life, belongs to that really important thing. Cars can wait.

Questioner: Sir, one more thing. During my JEE preparation time, I used to study for 12-14 hours a day. But now the situation is totally different and even 8 hours of study feel too much, and then I get into my comfort zone. I don’t want this to happen, but there’s a situation I am unable to change. Could you please suggest some ways to overcome it?

Acharya Prashant: You see, I cannot tell you how to study for 10 hours or 12 hours if that’s what. Because frankly, I didn’t do that ever, slogging for 10 hours or something. So I cannot tell you how to do that. But what I can tell you is that, if you have the right reason for a thing, then you don’t count the hours you put into that thing.

Have the right reason, have the right reason. And then you’ll stop counting hours, whether its towards your studies or something else. And as a young man, it’s incumbent on you, it’s necessary for you to have the right reasons in life, to have the right purpose in life. And it’s something very very personal, it’s not a crowd thing. You cannot say, “Nobody is doing such a thing, so why should I do it?” You’ve your own life to live, figure out something worth giving your time to, and then time will meet it’s right utilization.

And if something is getting utilized rightly, why do you want to limit the utilization? Then any number of hours can go into it.

Questioner: Sir, what’re the changes that you want today’s youth to bring about in the society for its betterment? Ours is a developing country and we’ve the most youth’s in the world, but still our country is lagging so much behind. So what are the changes you would suggest in? What do you think is the root cause that our country is lagging behind?

Acharya Prashant: I would want that they remember that they’re young human beings. The youths should remember that they’re young, young human beings, not young animals. That’s all.

Questioner: Yes sir, that’s fine. But what’re the changes that you would suggest to bring about in the society? What’re the things that you think are most negatively affecting the society?

Acharya Prashant: I’m requesting wannabe animals to remember that they’re human beings. That’s the change I want to see. And there’s a lot that goes with being called a human being. It’s a huge responsibility and a huge privilege.

Questioner: Yes sir.

Acharya Prashant: So you’re not just young. Any species can be young, you can have a young monkey, you can have a young donkey. You’re not just young, you’re a young human being. See what that means.

Questioner: Sir, that means that we’ve the responsibilities towards the society.

Acharya Prashant: First of all, figure out whose society? A society of monkeys?

Questioner: No sir, the society of human beings.

Acharya Prashant: First of all, comes the human being. The society comes much later and society will be taken care of. First of all, you discover what it means to be human, as against being an animal.

Questioner: Ok sir.

Acharya Prashant: (laughing) What ok? Fine, I’ll see you again, these talks will continue so over the next months, I’m sure I’ll see you again. My blessings, do well in life.

Questioner: Thank you sir.

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