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Balancing Act: Juggling Multiple Roles and Responsibilities || Acharya Prashant, IIT-Hyderabad(2024)
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1 year ago
Bhagavad Gita
Shri Krishna
Vedanta
Responsibility
One Center
Freedom
Wisdom
Work-Life Balance
Description

Acharya Prashant begins by expressing his love for the Shrimad Bhagavad Gita, describing it as an epic struggle where Shri Krishna himself is the struggler. He notes that in each chapter, one can see how helpless Shri Krishna is, and how weakness lords over strength precisely because it is weak. He finds that the Gita tugs at the heartstrings and is a song of both melancholy and wisdom. In response to a question about how he manages his multiple responsibilities—from being a civil servant and teacher to an animal rights activist—Acharya Prashant explains that he does not need to "zone out" from one to another because they are all related. He states that all his activities are so intermeshed that they are inseparable. When he begins one, he finds himself doing all of them. For instance, while mentoring students, he can also be an animal activist, and in his interactions, he speaks as a Vedanta scholar. He is thankful that he deals with different things, but not in different dimensions, as one thing seamlessly moves into the other because they all come from the same center. He clarifies that there is just one thing he is doing: trying to bring freedom to people. All his other roles and activities are just thoughtless and effortless manifestations of this single purpose. He contrasts this with the common way of life, where people live with a distinction between the personal and the professional, which he considers a miserable state. He critiques the popular notion of work-life balance, where one is a different person at the office and at home, calling this state "hell." This division, he argues, indicates a lack of connection between the person and their various jobs. Acharya Prashant concludes by emphasizing the need for a single, strong center in life. He advises that there must be one center of wisdom, something one is settled on and can give their life to. When there is one primary love in life, everything else peacefully settles around it. This way, life does not become a problem of conflicting demands, such as a boss wanting one thing and a spouse another. Instead, all aspects of life become reconciled and harmonized through this central purpose.