Acharya Prashant narrates a story from his seventh or eighth grade about a classmate nicknamed 'Budhau' (old man). This boy was about two years older than the average student in the class and his hair had started turning white around the age of fifteen or sixteen due to his lifestyle. After the half-yearly exams, Budhau's results were as expectedly poor. Following this, it was observed that Budhau started interacting more with the students of the seventh grade, playing with them, giving them advice, and acting like their senior. One day, he went to the extreme of standing in the seventh-grade line during the assembly. The speaker, who was the class monitor, had to pull him back. When asked what he was doing, Budhau replied, "Preparing for next year. You will pass, but I have to stay with them." The speaker uses this story as an analogy for those who believe in rebirth, calling them similar to 'Budhau'. He explains that these people have lost all hope for the current year, which is this life. The half-yearly results, representing the outcomes of their current life, have already indicated what is to come. Consequently, they have started preparing for the next life, just as Budhau started mingling with the seventh-grade students. They keep their books, which symbolize the opportunities in this life, untouched and pristine, believing they will be useful in the next life. The speaker calls such people who believe in rebirth 'great fools'. He emphasizes that whatever can be done must be done right now. The suffering, the solution, sin, virtue, action, and the fruit of actionтАФall exist in the present. Bondage is now, and if one seeks liberation, that too is only possible now. He criticizes the tendency to escape the present by relying on the future. While worldly people might postpone their hopes for five or ten years, those who believe in rebirth take this to an extreme, pinning their hopes on five or even five hundred future births. This is a great folly because it means placing trust in time, which is unreliable and changes everything. The most foolish person is the one who postpones for tomorrow what can be dealt with today, taking the support of Maya (time). A spiritual person, he explains, has a certain restlessness. They cannot sleep peacefully using tomorrow as a pillow; for them, tomorrow is a bed of thorns. A spiritual person needs two seemingly contradictory qualities: a tremendous urgency that demands liberation right now, and infinite patience, which means that even if it doesn't happen now, they will not give up their demand and will continue to ask for it for eternity. They will not be broken or defeated. Such a person is needed.
