Why Acharya Prashant Left IIT, IIM, UPSC... and Everything Else
Questioner: Evening, sir. Sir, my question for you is that you yourself started as an engineer. You then went to a business school. You then went into civil services. So, such life-changing decisions, at certain points, when they come into your mind, when you are in such situations, like what drives them? Whether it's a sense of dissatisfaction or the fear of failures which guides it? And how does one fight that sense, and how does one cater to that hunger of dissatisfaction?
Acharya Prashant: Nothing specific that drives the right decision. Nothing specific at all. The question to be asked must be: what prevents you from taking the most obvious and simply right decision?
My process was very simple, so it would be quite a task explaining it. It's as simple as the blowing wind. The question to be asked is: how do you convince yourself not to do the right thing? I mean, you know the situation of the world. You know how things are, right? And still, let's say, are you a student on the campus?
Questioner: Yes, sir.
Acharya Prashant: Which department?
Questioner: CSE.
Acharya Prashant: CSE. And you are offered a developer's job in a weapons manufacturing company at a fat package, and you accept the job. Now, that's the complicated decision you need to explain. What I did was so simple, it cannot be explained. I was looking at myself. I was looking at the world. I was looking at the profiles being offered to me.
I was in the IT sector for a while. Then I went to the training academy as an officer trainee, as a would-be bureaucrat. And I saw how things happened there. Then I was in three managerial jobs in three different sectors for one year each. I was looking at them. So, I was seeing how the world functions. And there is no mystery there.
Having seen all of that, you realize what's the right thing to do. The question is upon you: how do you convince yourself not to do the right thing?
I was not going to write code for a shipping company, and that was the project I was put in. And IT was a sunrise sector at that time, late '90s. Write code. And I knew what was being shipped. Why should I facilitate that?
Yes, now you have cleared the UPSC. Be a bureaucrat. And I could see what the bureaucrats have to obey. Whose commands have to be carried out? Why should I get into that? And then I was into consulting. And I could see whose bottom line am I fattening. And why should I contribute to the coffers of some Lalaji sitting somewhere? Then I was in the media, and I could see what was being served there, and how, and with what intent. And why should I be a participant there? It was very simple.
So, when you say, "Kindly explain your extraordinary and heroic decision," I'm at a loss. Because there was nothing extraordinary in that, nothing heroic in that, nothing special there. It was all very obvious, very ordinary, very simple.
The question boomerangs. You explain how you managed to get into obviously complex and ugly things. How do you afford to do that? As young men and women, how do you convince yourself into the wrong jobs and the wrong relationships? How do you do that? You need to explain to me. I'm interested. I'm listening. Yeah. How do you do that?
It's a thing about being human. If it's right, it's right. It cannot be denied. If it's right, now leave it. One could be mistaken, and that could be somewhat pardoned. But once you have seen something, how do you unsee it? Please tell me.
Part of my decision not to continue as a bureaucrat was taken during my visit to the training academy. Now, that was my first visit. And there were a few things I couldn't have known without the visit. Now, the visit showed me a few things. And after that, how do I still continue? Having seen it, I cannot continue. Had I continued to be in the dark, maybe I would have been in service for a year or two and then resigned. But now that I have seen, I've seen. Full stop.
Do you get this?
This question has been asked to me a hundred times now, probably. And each time, I face the same issue. What is there to explain? It's easy. It's obvious. No? Difficult?
Let ugliness not become normal. Let complexity not become usual. When that happens, then simplicity starts looking abnormal. And beauty starts getting condemned and labeled as distortion.
“So, if you were in those management jobs, please extend the story. Why did you quit all that and get into this Baba thing?”
Because I could see what the world needed. And because I could not deceive myself into believing something else or something opposite. Because I could see that the engineering or management skills I had were available with hundreds of others or thousands of others of my caliber. But there was a vacancy elsewhere. There was a crying need somewhere else, and nobody was stepping forward to meet that need.
If there is an important vacancy somewhere, and you fill it, is there anything extraordinary in it? Nothing.
The question often comes not as curiosity, but as an allegation. You could have been anywhere, at a very, very high place, doing this, doing that. Why are you speaking to us retards? Does that tell about me or about the questioner?
Look at the structure of the question itself, right?
**“Sir, you could have been, you know, at some top place in bureaucracy or management or this or that, whatever. Sir, why are you speaking to, you know, people like us, sir?”
Because I respect you a lot. Because I think speaking to you is more important than performing some bureaucratic function, again being lauded by some illiterate minister.**
No? Or do you want to pack me off to New Delhi, to some secretariat? Or to the US, Silicon Valley? Should I rather be there?
Listener: No.
Acharya Prashant: Then what's the astonishment about? I'm here for you. Why does that surprise you so much? Yeah?
Questioner: Good evening, sir. My question to you is: nowadays, most of the people watch sports, movies, web series, and other things, and play video games just to get a sense of self-relief from their daily schedule. So, do these people really get some self-relief?
Acharya Prashant: You tell me. What do I know?
Questioner: Or are they just getting distracted from their goals and targets?
Acharya Prashant: They are the best ones to answer this. See, they are not running away from a schedule or a routine. They are running away from themselves. Do you understand this? The ego is a master manipulator. And the first one it deceives is itself. Not that you have a particular affinity to Instagram or to video games or the rest of it. No, no, no. You don't like that. You don't like that at all.
Why do you think you endlessly scroll? The reason is simple: because you don't like anything there. So, the thumb keeps moving. Because you know you cannot stay at any of that. You know all of that is so repulsive. Hence, the thumb keeps moving. Not that you like that. No, that's not the reason you go to that. Not like, but compulsory escape.
It's 2:00 a.m. It's 3:00 a.m. You'll have to face yourself. It's still. It's quiet. And there is solitude. There is nobody your eyes can look at. No face visible. No hand to hold. And it's dark in your bedroom. And that's so terrifying because now that there is nobody else, you'll have to be with yourself. That's very deadly.
And that's the reason now you have to get into something. Something. Either you switch on the light and step out, and then step into your hostel mate's room. Or you search for something to chew. Or a web series, or Instagram. Or you call somebody up. Or that final escape: porn. What do you think? You really enjoy looking at those faces and those bodies and those repetitive actions? Come on. What's there? That's needed so that you can get away.
Yes, that offers relief, but you do not know the nature of that relief. The nature of that relief is very ugly. The relief that you are getting there is relief against yourself. All that you are asking for is a moment in which you can forget your own reality.
My question to you is: if your reality is so ugly and so much worth forgetting, why do you still sustain that reality? Why don't you change that thing called reality? If you must run away from something within, why are you still keeping it within? Asking you, please tell me.
And you will never be able to run away from it. It's like having stinking socks or stinking underwear, and you're running away from yourself, thinking that the harder you run, the more you'll be able to escape the stink. Can you escape the stink? And in this case, it is not the socks. It is probably your own mouth that stinks. By running hard, will you be able to leave your mouth behind?
Even the mouth is not a perfect example because the mouth can be cleaned with things external. It's your heart that stinks. And by running hard, will you leave behind your heart? So, what's the point of indulging in such escapes? Better face it. Face it like a human being.
Cowardice is not just about kneeling down to external pressures. When you submit, when you surrender to an external force, that obviously looks like cowardice, doesn't it?
But a much bigger act of cowardice is when you surrender to your own inner lies and inner dishonesty. Why? Why be that kind of coward?
And you know what's going on within, right? Nobody can know it better than you. It's your own courtyard. Your own insides. Who can know of it? Only you. Just that when you are wandering outside of yourself, somebody can point the way to your residence, yes. But only you have the rightful entrance to your residence. Only you live there. So, only you can really know what's going on here. And you know. You already know. You already know. And that's the reason why you must rush to IPL.
Tell me, do you own that franchise? Do you know anything about any of the players there, really? Please tell me. Beyond the media gossip and the curated PR, do you really know anything? Please tell me. Still, their defeat feels to you like your suffering. And you know it's stupid. You know nothing. You do not know the fund flow. You don't know the architecture of the entire organization there. You know nothing. You don't know what goes on behind the doors. You know nothing. Yet you must rush to those absurd, meaningless matches. Why?
That's cowardice. You're not running towards something. You are running away from something. Do you get that? Next time you find yourself indulging in all that, just ask yourself, as a young man, do I want to be a coward?
Because it's not about entertainment. And it's duplicity to call this a distraction. This is not a distraction. This is deception. We often say, "Oh, I get distracted." No, you are not getting distracted. You are just deceiving yourself. It's a deliberate decision you are making, and it's a wrong decision. It's a decision from a false center. Be your own friend. Do not decide that way.
Getting that?
