Acharya Prashant advises that in the middle of all your daily, miscellaneous actions, you should keep asking yourself, "What is the sum total of all of this? What is the net result?" He questions whether one is getting lost in the maze of the thousand little things that happen daily, or if one has retained the insight to see the net resultant of the entire day. The important thing is to keep the resultant in mind. Giving undue importance to something micro or trivial is quite tempting, and it is equally tempting to give little importance to that which deserves tremendous attention. The speaker states that the little things we do every day are unavoidable. What is possible, however, is to align them to the one great thing that we live for. He distinguishes between a man living badly and a man living rightly. Ostensibly, they both do the same things: sleep, wake up, walk, eat, talk, and work. Seen from a distance, it appears both are just living and acting. However, upon closer attention, there is a great difference between talking and talking, eating and eating, and walking and walking. To illustrate, he says Gautama Buddha was walking in the jungles, and so were a thousand robbers. An uninitiated eye would not spot the difference. They are the same because both are just walking, but there is a great difference. When Gautama Buddha is walking, his walk is aligned with his destiny and is being controlled by something beyond the ego. When the robber is walking, his steps and walk are being commanded by something very trivial. This alignment is extremely important. In classical spirituality, this alignment of your daily life with your ultimate purpose is called surrender. You do whatever you do, but you surrender it to an ultimate purpose. All those things are now being done at the command of something far bigger than your limited interests and your limited ego. This is called 'niyata-karma' (rightful action). The speaker clarifies that 'niyata-karma' is not what the elders or traditions have decided for you. 'Niyata-karma' is that which takes you to your dissolution, which is your destiny and your ultimate desire. Born a human being, you will have to act; act rightly, for the right purpose, and live for the right end. That alone is the right life.
