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00:00ladies and gentlemen distinguished guests and esteemed colleagues good evening it is
00:08my honor and privilege to welcome you all here today we are gathered to engage in what promises
00:14to be a deeply enriching session one that will explore the profound wisdom and teachings of one
00:21of the most influential spiritual leaders of our time before we proceed it gives me great pleasure
00:26to introduce our distinguished speaker acharya prashanth acharya prashanth is not just a name
00:33but a movement a movement towards deeper understanding personal transformation and global
00:39awareness an alumnus of prestigious institutions like iit delhi and i am ehmdabad acharya prashanth's
00:47journey is as remarkable as it is inspiring his early career saw him serving as a civil services
00:53officer but it is in his role as a spiritual teacher philosopher and author that he has truly
01:00made his mark on the world with over 150 books to his name acharya prashanth has touched countless
01:07lives with his writings on topics such as love marriage and parenting his best-selling titles
01:13like karma ananda and maya are not just books but gateways to deeper understanding his expertise in
01:21adveta vedanta philosophy has earned him a massive following with over 50 million subscribers on youtube
01:28making him the world's most followed spiritual leader his videos which have amassed an astounding 2.5
01:36billion views speak to the universal resonance of his message but acharya prashanth is not just a
01:43spiritual guide he is also a passionate advocate for causes that impact our world today as a staunch
01:50supporter of veganism and environmentalism he has been recognized as the most influential vegan
01:56of india by peta in 2022 his advocacy is not limited to words it extends into actionable programs
02:05and teachings his highly regarded online courses on bhagavad-gita and vedanta have attracted over 30 000
02:12students further solidifying his role as a beacon of knowledge and change without further ado it is a
02:19great it is with great respect and admiration that i invite acharya prashanth and dm kulkarni sir to
02:25facilitate to felicitate him with the sapling
02:27first of all i regret uh uh being late for the assembly today i respect your time um it was an
02:52unforeseen kind of thing 15 20 minutes taken by a particular crossing near majorda village it does
02:59not happen in goa even with me it's happening for the first time but anyway uh we'll try to make
03:06up for that won't we good so let's begin i want to ask about the process and what were the things that
03:16led you to discover what it is that you want to do in life one never discovers as such
03:29that sounds like some kind of end point or full stop
03:34you keep discovering it's a process not a particular event so i'm still discovering
03:47as long as you are not dead there is a life to live so you must keep finding out what the whole game
03:55is about and you must never never allow yourself to feel too confident that you know it all
04:04so be it at your age or my age or for somebody who is 70 or 80 it's all much the same you have to keep
04:17asking questions you have to look at yourself and you have to ask what is it all about what am i doing
04:25who am i here what is my purpose what is it giving me am i repeating my old actions and decisions in some
04:37new form and if i am just repeating will that give me some kind of new results
04:46am i really sure i know the direction that i am taking or am i just following the crowd
04:54these questions must always be alive
04:57the brain has a tendency to settle down quickly it does not want to remain in a state of ambiguity
05:15it does not want to feel that the matter the question is still hanging in balance
05:24so we want to just settle things quickly and say you know this is the issue and this is the decision
05:34don't let that happen let let things remain open that is a bit uncomfortable to live with but being
05:42uncomfortable is much better than being deceived you know a lot of us who are well settled
05:50with their answers in life about academics about career about personal things might be feeling comfortable
06:03that the thing is done dusted sealed
06:08but what if the the answer sheet that you are submitting
06:14does not contain the right answers
06:16it's it's better to stay with the questions for a bit longer is it not then to just write some
06:23answer and assure yourself that you have done it and the
06:27examination or assignment is is
06:33and you would the dispose of the whole thing that that doesn't work in our favor
06:37so i'm still discovering as i speak to somebody like you as i go through the normal events of daily life
06:51i still want to keep learning i'm a student much like you
06:56thank you sir similarly even when i have i have rendered some kind of response to a question
07:12that does not mean that the matter is settled or the issue is now closed
07:18okay i'm very prepared and i eagerly welcome any kind of counter questions even rebuttals that's fine
07:35ah hello acharya prasanth so i have a follow-up question which is so this ability that you spoke of
07:41for somebody to have a question and then to hold on to it you know there might be some discomfort there usually is
07:50but this ability to hold on to the question and to keep seeking for answers
07:55and you know and to be okay with only getting partial answers or even wrong answers
08:01the ability to keep an open mind
08:04do you believe it is something that is innate in a person or can it be learnt
08:09so two things regarding your statement one it is not an ability
08:18and two it is not about looking for answers because the moment you say it's an ability some part of it
08:28would be definitely attributable to innate factors and the moment you say that something is innate
08:36you have gone into genetics straight away have you not the old nature versus nurture thing
08:45so nothing is innate it's a matter of choice it's not an ability it's a decision
08:51you have to decide to be all right with discomfort it's a decision that you make
08:58it's not that you are born with a certain ability or that you are even taught to have that ability no
09:07you decide it's you could say a matter of love
09:14i love the truth so much or i love myself so much that i cannot allow myself to be settled
09:22with something deceptive or half truth no that won't do
09:30it's a it's a decision that you actively make for yourself
09:34over time making that decision does become easier
09:39because the decision as you rightly said involves discomfort
09:42discomfort discomfort a bit of the same type as you experience when you first hit the gym
09:50but over time gymming not only becomes easier but probably becomes pleasurable does it not
09:58you also become more confident of your stand as you start seeing the results as you start seeing
10:05that your approach your attitude is building you into something formidable
10:09you become more assured of the attitude that you have towards life you say fine i'm all right with
10:17ambiguity i'm all right with uncertainty and that does not seem to be harming me
10:24so i can proceed on this way with more confidence so that was the first thing that we said
10:33that it's not an ability it's a choice it's a decision that you actively make
10:37uh it's similar to love right the second thing it's not really about always looking for answers it's
10:46about staying with the question these two are different things
10:52looking for an answer
10:56indicates a discomfort with the question because what is the answer supposed to do
11:02the answer is supposed to bring death to the question no once the answer is there the question
11:10can be disposed of throw into the waste bin the question is no more once the answer is there
11:16you have to start loving the questions
11:21and then slowly i don't know whether this would make sense right now to some of us but let this stay
11:30with you as you start feeling more comfortable living with questions themselves you find
11:41that the solution not the answer but the solution to the question lies within the question itself
11:50not that you get an answer you become so comfortable with the question that the question disappears
12:01you get right to the root of the question because you have not been running away from the question see
12:06demanding answers it's a little found strange but stay with this demanding answers
12:14does it not indicate that you are not all right with the question questions can be beautiful
12:25they are not always to be returned with answers
12:32staying with the question going right till the root of the question takes you closer to yourself
12:38and you will not go so deeply into the question if you do not like the question itself
12:46most of us like to have answers we do not like questions so much do we
12:54we like to have good answers we do not care so much for great questions
12:59have great questions and learn to live with them without bothering whether you have an answer or not
13:08answers are small things we said you have to go right to the root of the question do you know what
13:15lies at the root of the question yes tell me sir i have no idea what lies at the root
13:22the root the root is the place the thing comes from right by definition so where does the question come
13:29from where does the question come from the root of anything is the place that thing comes from so
13:38what will be at the root of a question
13:40yes who will be at the root of the question i have already answered in a way by using who not what
13:58yes the questioner you are at the root of all your questions
14:04and if you can probe deeply into your questions you will come to yourself
14:10you are at the origin of all your questions just as the dancer is at the origin of the dance
14:19the questioner is at the origin of the question doesn't the dance tell something about the dancer
14:29similarly the question tells you a lot about yourself if you want to know about yourself
14:36you will have to embrace the questions you have in life you will have to see where exactly do they
14:44spring from and that is self-knowledge that is self-knowledge now how will you get to the root of
14:52your questions if you swat them away too quickly like things undesirable huh like you know pestering flies
15:03oh they came to you and what did you do like a mosquito buzzing at your ears what do you do
15:09go away will you ever know the mosquito no the the questions are not always as
15:17buzzy as the mosquito just an example
15:23you getting it
15:23solutions are great things in the world of inner questions it is not really answers that matter so
15:36much it is the question itself that matters and when you start understanding your questions
15:45when you start understanding yourself secondly now the question has done its duty
15:52fulfill its purpose and the question just
15:59disappears now the question is no more meaningful not that the question has received an answer
16:05the question itself has been understood so the question is no more meaningful or important to
16:12you anymore so you just let it go it goes away it disappears is it too abstract
16:19too abstract
16:27am i making sense
16:31or am i nonsensical as always
16:39yes yes follow up follow up
16:40i kind of get what you're saying but let me rephrase the question in a more practical uh view
16:50uh right i know i can sit with the question uh better than say you know somebody in my family
16:57right and sometimes it might frustrate me that you know in an interaction it might frustrate me for a
17:03while that you know that they can't see the question itself for what it is so i'm what the question i'm asking is
17:12is there any practical advice you have you know to interact with say people in your own family let's
17:20in what kind of situation when they are not ready to see where you're coming from
17:25uh yes i mean it can be for something even you know very trivial so i'll just give you a recent
17:31example uh i joined here recently i work as a research fellow and my mother you know just in a
17:40normal interaction asked me like do you have a lunch timing right you know fixed time to have lunch
17:45so i found a question very odd so i asked her uh what is a lunch timing you know why does it exist
17:52uh she used to be a school teacher she worked in a school so i pointed out to her you know that lunch
17:58break happens it is there for a certain time so that you know everybody can be synchronized
18:04uh the classes get over at a fixed time the you know the mess or whatever is open at a certain time
18:10so you have to be there for that certain time so i asked her what kind of work do you think that i
18:16do that i would be required you know by the organization to have a fixed lunch period and
18:22she seemed very confused by that so then i had to explain it further right so just little interactions
18:29like this where basically nobody questions the frame in which they are asking the question
18:35yeah to everybody their universe is the universe right yeah so i'm asking for practical advice you
18:42know what you did was absolutely practical right so this is an example where i think uh i handled it
18:49okay but i don't always you don't have to handle it you just have to be spontaneous right right right
18:54i mean that's a choice of it's a beautiful way the way you said that you know fixed lunch timings
19:01yeah must be an organizational construct for a certain purpose yes now does my life
19:08belong to the domain of that purpose and that would that would pose something unfamiliar to her
19:15it's something that she might not have thought of before it's a great way of interacting and
19:23letting the doors will be open right right so okay there's no general you know tips and tricks that
19:28you have one just has to ensure that one is not one is not bitter because bitterness
19:40finds it very easy to creep in in these kinds of interactions you think you know and you think that
19:48the other one does not know and you also find that the other one is probably not as willing to know
19:56so that lends you a bit bitter or uh caustic so one has to ensure that uh one remains mindful of
20:06of the point the other is coming from and and this is the kind of conversation you'll always need to have
20:12of thank you
20:26you