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ये होता है खाली बैठे-बैठे सोचने से || आचार्य प्रशांत (2021)
230.4K views
4 years ago
Self-Consumption
Right Effort
Meaningful Challenges
Mind
Work
Negativity
Nature
Description

Acharya Prashant addresses the questioner's concerns about mental tension, lack of concentration, and inability to fulfill responsibilities by reiterating a solution he previously offered: "right busyness" or "right engagement." He refers to a tweet he had written, which states that life demands real challenges, and struggle is life's nourishment. He advises giving oneself real challenges; otherwise, the mind will create imaginary ones, in which many people get exhausted. It is as important to accept meaningful challenges as it is to ignore worthless ones. He explains that if the mind is not given the right work, it begins to consume itself. Drawing an analogy, he says that while people consider eating other creatures a bad thing, many engage in something worse: they consume themselves. This self-consumption becomes an addiction, a taste they acquire. Due to this addiction, they avoid doing the right work, because engaging in meaningful tasks would require them to stop this self-destructive habit. People who are engrossed in useless activities are often addicted to this "self-consumption" (atma-bhakshan), becoming "self-eaters" (swabhakshi). An idle person, he elaborates, is essentially eating himself. Even when sitting still, if the mind is filled with useless thoughts, it can lead to physical ailments like high blood pressure. This is a form of self-consumption. Therefore, it is crucial to give the mind the right work; otherwise, it will engage in the wrong work of internal destruction. He quotes a saying that all the world's problems stem from man's inability to sit alone quietly. When a person cannot be still, they will do something, and if they cannot cause destruction outside, they will destroy themselves from within, which requires less energy but is more complete. Acharya Prashant identifies this tendency for negative thoughts as our inherent nature. The only way to escape it is to immerse oneself completely in the right work or "right effort" (sahi udyam). Nature itself is negative, containing fear, hunger, doubt, lust, and anger. The greatest negativity is our physical illusion, which is a default state we inherit at birth. The only way to defeat this is through right effort. He observes that people who shirk their duties have developed a taste for their own "flesh" and are like cannibals who consume themselves. He concludes that the pleasure derived from self-harm is not worth indulging in. A far better and greater pleasure comes from doing meaningful work and becoming completely absorbed in it.