Watch your actions and you will know the Truth || Acharya Prashant, with youth (2013)

Questioner (Q): Acharya Ji, what is the state of our mind?

Acharya Prashant (AP): Nobody is ever in any state constantly. Because our mind is not a constant thing, it is a flux. There is nobody who is permanently ever in any state. It is just that the density, the frequency, may vary. Somebody may be in a chaotic state 90% of the time and there may be another fellow who is not in a chaotic state for 90% of the time.

But all of us are always in all states at some point of work. So, we cannot just label it.

Q: So, that means we can control our mind?

AP: You can control but it’s not an absolute control. It’s not a binary thing. It’s a continuous thing. You understand, you getting it?

It’s not a quantum jump. Initially, you were chaotic most of the time, and then this chaos reduces and reduces and reduces and it is possible that ultimately that chaos gets very close to zero. In the language of Mathematics, tending to zero. But it can never be absolute zero.

Q: Acharya Ji, I have heard that if we keep watching our thoughts, we will be able to control our mind.

AP: You can never watch thoughts with the desire to control them. Watching thoughts just means that I know what’s going on in my mind. It does not mean that I have a great desire to suppress the thought. Because suppressing the thought is another thought. In order to suppress a pre-existing thought, what have you done? You have created another thought. You have added to the chaos.

Watching the thoughts just means simply that I know what is going on there. If I am afraid, I know I am afraid. I am not hiding it. I am not suppressing it. I am with it.

Yes? If I am jealous, petty, disturbed, I can say upfront, “I know I am disturbed." That’s it. Simple!

Q: Sir, how do we get rid of these things?

AP: They are these things that can survive only in ignorance. When you know them, then their potency falls. When you know that 'I am very-very afraid', then the potency of the fear reduces. Try this, when you are very afraid, tell yourself that 'I am so afraid!'

“Karan, you see this is a habit of yours. You are so frequently afraid." Acknowledge it honestly. And when you acknowledge it then the potency of the thought will reduce. What we establish here is that you give energy to your thoughts. When you start acknowledging the thought, then you cut off that energy. You don’t cut it off actually, it automatically gets cut off. And then the thought will lose its potency. After some time, it will slowly disappear.

But then, don’t try all this as an experiment. You don’t approach thought with the objective of suppressing them or controlling them. That is of no use. Because desire is another thought. These things are not at all complex. They are very simple. Provided, one looks at them directly. But if one is caged by beliefs, then it gets complicated otherwise they are very simple.

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