Video Information: 12.01.23, BITS, Goa
Context:
~ How are you so versatile, sir?
~ One must respect time.
~ How to manage our time?
~ How to develop love for learning?
~ How to develop a habit of reading?
~ Do Acharya Prashant have any regrets?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Context:
~ How are you so versatile, sir?
~ One must respect time.
~ How to manage our time?
~ How to develop love for learning?
~ How to develop a habit of reading?
~ Do Acharya Prashant have any regrets?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Sir, I had a question, it's not regarding spiritualism, but I see you as a graduate
00:15of IIT and engineer, you graduated from IIM, then you did civil services, so I wanted to
00:21ask that how are you so versatile and how was your time management, like how were you
00:26able to crack so many different fields like commerce, science and arts?
00:32I respect time a lot, because I know that everybody including me has only a limited
00:46supply of it, so that's one thing that I really dislike, a day badly spent and that's
00:56a battle I always keep fighting, check where your time is going, ensure that not a moment
01:08is wasted.
01:09Like how do you prioritize your tasks, what to do and when to do?
01:16You know what is important, that must be done, where is the question of prioritization, you
01:22know what is important, don't you know what is important?
01:25Everybody knows what is important.
01:27It's just that we do not remain alert enough and sensitive enough and honest enough.
01:33In spite of knowing what is important, we do something else.
01:37Is that not the real problem?
01:38Or is the problem that you do not know what is important?
01:41I am asking you, please.
01:43More often, what is the problem?
01:47Not doing what you already know to be important.
01:49So we already know, at least what is relatively important that we know, we might not know
01:54what is absolutely important, but you know what is relatively important, then why do
01:58you indulge in other things?
02:03And you must have a love for learning.
02:06Another name for deconditioning, another name for love is learning.
02:12In spite of and irrespective of how occupied I am, I carry multiple devices.
02:23And more than 100 tabs are always open in each of them.
02:31And I leave those tabs open, because I revisit whatever I have read.
02:37So I make it a point to revisit, revisit, revisit.
02:40And I'm always reading.
02:42And especially when everybody is gone, just a couple of hours before I finally sleep off,
02:56I read a lot.
02:57If I can't read books, and I'm actually quite disappointed I can't read books so much these
03:06days, I've recently bought this Kindle, yet not started with it.
03:16I hope it works well for me.
03:21But the mobile phone, that's my device.
03:25I'm constantly, constantly, and not just curiosity, very purposeful reading.
03:30I want to learn what is going on continuously.
03:35That's about the world.
03:37That's about the objective universe.
03:41And then the inner learning, I love to keep an eye on myself.
03:51Just as I'm looking at you at this moment, I'm also looking at myself.
03:58So I enjoy being sensitive to what is going on in the body, in the mind.
04:06And I love to catch myself coming up with ready-made reactions.
04:15And I take it to be a thing of pride, for want of a better word.
04:19Pride is not the best word, but I take it to be a thing of pride to defeat myself.
04:26If a situation arises today, and if I have been in a similar situation two years back,
04:36I feel satisfied if my response today is better compared to what it was earlier.
04:47So that kind of challenge I keep giving to myself, a continuous fight against oneself
04:54so that one may improve, one may know learning is an infinite journey.
05:02You must know of what is going on in the world, there is just so much greatness, there is
05:09so much beauty, great works created by our predecessors, our ancients, you must know
05:20of them, that's called external knowledge, avidya.
05:27And equally you must always be aware of what is happening within, the emotions, the reactions,
05:36the frustrations, the anger, the happiness, the lust for pleasure, you must be conscious
05:43of all these things as they happen and you must be able to watch them from a bit of a
05:47distance so that they don't overpower you.
05:51So if you can know both these things, what's happening in the external world and what's
05:56happening in here, I think it will do you a lot of good.
06:01And I have another question, like you did IIT, then IIM, then civil services, and today
06:06you are in a totally different field, that did not require your education qualifications,
06:13so do you have any regrets, like you wasted your time or you did something wrong, you
06:18did not work on the field you are currently in?
06:22I wanted to be in Goa, right?
06:26And they say Jaipur is great in winters, so from Delhi, let's say I came to Goa via Jaipur,
06:35having reached Goa, will you ask me, do you regret not being in Jaipur?
06:40First of all Goa is great, secondly I never wanted to be in Jaipur, I didn't set out to
06:46be in Jaipur.
06:47Jaipur was just en route, it was one of the things that came along the way, I never intended
06:53to settle there and the journey is such that it has to pass through several places.
07:00Any journey passes through several places, that does not mean you miss not being there.
07:08Is there any journey that does not pass through any place?
07:12Even if you are flying, they announce and they tell you that now you are flying over
07:18Bombay, now you are flying over… you always pass through certain places, right?
07:24You never intended to be there, it's just that they were along the route, so I mean fine.
07:30This question is frequently asked.
07:34As a 17 year old, if you decide to go to IIT, I mean what better could you have done?
07:44It's not the 44 year old me deciding to go to IIT, it's a 17 year old me and that me could
07:53not have done any better.
07:58Among all the available fields, that appeared to be the relatively better one.
08:04So I said I will go there.
08:07I have continuously talked of choosing the option that appears to be relatively the best
08:12one where I stood, right?
08:16In my class 12th, IIT, particularly IIT Delhi appeared to be relatively the best option
08:22I had, so I went there.
08:24Having gone there, I saw a little more of the world and said fine, fine, fine.
08:28Now this appears best, so I went there.
08:30It's a continuous journey.
08:32People don't understand this.
08:35They talk as if the self is a fixed entity.
08:37They say if you had to become a Baba, why did you waste a seat?
08:44As if when I was age 3, I had decided on Prashant Advait Foundation.
08:52It all evolves.
08:53It all comes along the way.
08:55Thank you, sir.