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जब सामने दो राहें हों || आचार्य प्रशांत, भगवद् गीता पर (2019)
13.1K views
5 years ago
Dilemma
Bhagavad Gita
Choice
Self-inquiry
Choicelessness
Truth
Action
Ignorance
Description

Acharya Prashant addresses a questioner who relates their personal dilemmas to Arjun's confusion in the Bhagavad Gita. The speaker explains that Arjun is facing a conflict: he doesn't know whether to fight or not, whether he will win or lose, and he doesn't want to kill his own relatives, the sons of Dhritarashtra, who are standing against him. Acharya Prashant explains that the word for dilemma, 'duvidha', itself means having two ways or options. He questions the nature of the choices we typically face, asking who these two are between whom a choice must be made. He uses analogies to illustrate that often, the choices presented to us are both flawed. It's like choosing between sweet poison and bitter poison, or between black poison and pink poison. He likens this to choosing between 'Saanpnath' (lord of snakes) and 'Nagnath' (lord of cobras), where both options are fundamentally the same and undesirable. In such situations, the advice is not to choose either but to first investigate where these options originate. He suggests that our options usually arise from our own foolishness, ignorance, greed, and lust. Instead of choosing between flawed options, the speaker advises looking at oneself. When one begins to observe oneself, all the available options start to lose their value and fall away. What remains is the right, auspicious, and correct path. Truth, he clarifies, is never just another option among many. It is the state of 'nirvikalpata' (choicelessness) that remains after one has moved past all false options. He points out that the very act of asking the question shows a desire for truth and a better life. He encourages using this same honest intention to examine every option that life presents. When you inquire about the source of a desire, it often falls silent because it is illegitimate, an orphan born from a dark cave of the past. Acharya Prashant critiques the modern motivational slogan 'never give up' as poisonous. He states that while not trying is a mistake, it is a far greater and more fatal mistake to keep trying repeatedly in the wrong place. This is like trying to churn butter from water. The right path is always available, but it is not seen because of the strong attraction to wrong paths. One must first stop and reject the wrong paths; only then does the right path reveal itself. The right path is not found by choosing one of the available wrong paths, but by rejecting all of them.