Forget perfection, just do the best you can || Acharya Prashant, on Vedanta (2021)

Acharya Prashant

🧔🏻‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquiry-gita-course?cmId=m00051  📚 Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books? Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?cmId=m00051  📝 Read 3 handpicked wisdom articles, just for you: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/articles?cmId=m00051  ~~~~~  Video Information: 24.08.2021, Shastra Kaumudi, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh  Context: ~ What is spiritual love? ~ What is consciousness?  ~ What is free will?  ~ What is that which really chooses? ~ Do we really have the right to choose? ~ Is your life your choice? ~ What is a choice? ~ How liberation depends on you? ~ How to get rid of the fear of making the wrong choice?   Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~

Transcript

00:00The problem usually comes at the idea when one says that to attain a higher pleasure

00:17you have to go through higher suffering.

00:20For a common mind there is his suffering, common suffering and then there is pleasure

00:28out of which lower pleasure.

00:31Now come Vedanta or the Upanishads and then they say you have to go through higher suffering.

00:37Higher pleasure is there but for that you have to go through higher suffering.

00:41There is a way out.

00:44In your current level of existence which you might call as a lower level, you have a certain

00:52capacity, certain appetite to take suffering.

00:56That is not beyond you, not a higher suffering but a lower suffering, a suffering at your

01:02current level which you may call a lower level.

01:06Thing is if you exercise even that level of suffering, it will bring to you a disproportionately

01:17higher pleasure.

01:19Once you taste that pleasure, then you realize that a formula has opened up and then your

01:29willingness to take more discipline upon yourself increases because now you have tested the

01:39results.

01:40Are you getting it?

01:43At a particular level you did the little you could but the little you could do, the little

01:51you did do was the maximum you could do at your particular level.

01:59The good news is that at any level the maximum you do is sufficient.

02:09You are not demanded to do something beyond yourself, just do the maximum that is within

02:16your capacity.

02:17Are you getting it?

02:19Good news is you don't have to exceed your capacity.

02:23The challenge is you have to do the maximum that is possible within your capacity.

02:30Maximum that is possible within your capacity.

02:34Once you do the maximum within your capacity, you get results and once you taste the results,

02:42I said your willingness to impose more discipline upon yourself increases, now you know that

02:50a formula has opened up.

02:52The more I exert myself, the better the results will be.

02:58Now, you have been convinced with a proof.

03:04What is the proof?

03:05The results.

03:06The results have arrived.

03:07Now, I know.

03:08Now, I am unstoppable.

03:09Now, I will go further and further and the complete distance.

03:15Are you getting it?

03:18But the trick is at your current level you have to do at least as much as is needed to

03:28show some results to you, otherwise you will be disappointed.

03:35The worst situation is of those who work, but do not work hard enough even to get the

03:45minimum kinds of results possible.

03:49Are you getting it?

03:50So, you have worked, you have exerted yourself, you have taken some suffering upon yourself

03:59and yet you have not done enough to get even some kinds of preliminary results.

04:06So, your scorecard stands at zero, neither do you get anything nor are you left with

04:16any motivation to do anything more.

04:20So, if you are doing something, I am saying do at least as much as is needed to get some

04:28basic results and those results will then egg you on.

04:33I repeat, the good news is each of us irrespective of how weak we are, has within his capacity

04:45to work as much as is needed to get the basic results and the basic results will bring some

04:58trust in you, some inspiration in you, they will help you experience something that is

05:08totally new to you and its taste will be so convincing that you will be inspired now

05:20to move ahead with deeper vigour.

05:33There is that initial period when you are working and there will be no results, that

05:41is when you require faith and patience.

05:45Once the results start arriving, the results will keep spurring you on and then as I said

05:55it's so formulaic, now the ball has been set rolling, it will keep gaining momentum.

06:17You don't have to take up a very high kind of suffering.

06:22Do only as much as you can, but please do as much as you can.

06:29On one hand I am saying do only as much as you can and in the same breath I am saying

06:35please do as much as you can.

06:37But in neither of these cases am I saying please do more than you can, that is not needed

06:46because that cannot happen, how can you do more than you can.

06:59That is the reason nobody else is to be blamed if we fail.

07:05Because you are not even required to go beyond your capacity, it was within your capacity

07:11to succeed.

07:12If you failed it was only because you didn't exercise your capacity.

07:18But if you scold someone on failing, he will say you know I did my best and still I am

07:22being scolded.

07:23Had you done your best, you would have obtained at least the basic results, at least the basic

07:33results.

07:37If your scorecard always stands at zero, it is clear proof that you are not doing even

07:44half of what you are capable of.

07:51That's why life punishes you.

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