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तुम रुकने को नहीं पैदा हुए हो - चलते रहना || आचार्य प्रशांत (2023)
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2 years ago
Settling Down
Journey of Life
Attachment
Freedom
Choice
Neti-Neti
Renunciation
Ambition
Description

Acharya Prashant addresses the societal pressure on young people to "settle down." He states that he has grown tired of explaining to people that they are not born to settle. He uses the metaphor of a wet cement road, saying that thinking of settling is like trying to settle on wet cement, which will lead to one's grave. Life is determined by a fundamental decision: whether to settle down or to move forward. He puns on the Hindi words, stating that one who settles down (बस गया) is finished (बस, गया). Responding to a question about the feeling of being stuck and the dilemma of whether to achieve worldly things before renouncing them, Acharya Prashant explains that when one becomes attached to small things, the great cannot enter one's life. The feeling of not having achieved much in life hides the fact that one's attachment to the small has prevented any need for the great from arising. He clarifies that if he forms a bond of affection with a small thing, he will not feel the need to move forward. The problem is not in taking pleasure, but in considering oneself incapable and unworthy of a higher pleasure. He further illustrates this with the metaphor of a person on a mountain peak. To say that someone has achieved the peak is less about what they have attained and more about the fact that they did not build a home anywhere below the peak. The path of life is like walking on burning embers; if you move quickly, you can cross, but if you stop, you will be reduced to ashes. The only way to survive is to never stop. The method of Vedanta is 'Neti-Neti' (not this, not this). The great is not found; the small is left behind. The only way to attain the great is to let go of the small. The more you let go, the more you will find. Life is an unending journey, and you are here to move beyond wherever you are, not to build a home.