You Don’t Hate Hard Work. You Hate Working For A Failed System || Acharya Prashant

Added: 2026-05-18

[00:00:00]The very system is designed to rob you from having any [music] innate heartful purpose of your own. And how is that done?

[00:00:20]And you are helpless because you're dependent.

[00:00:23]So you there is tremendous pressure from outside and within. So much pressure and no purpose.

[00:00:31]I would be surprised if it does not happen with even a single person.

[00:00:37]This is the situation of each one of us.

[00:00:40]I don't know what to do. Is this what you are setting yourself up for?

[00:00:45]No purpose but high pressure. This, that, everything.

[00:00:51]This is where this happen.

[00:00:57]So my question is regarding the mental pressure which students are facing nowadays in colleges and other educational institutions due to which they take harsh steps such as suicides and etc. you all know about.

[00:01:12]And nowadays these things have become common even in top institutes like IITs.

[00:01:17]Like this year in IIT Kharagpur itself, there have been five cases of suicides.

[00:01:22]So like what are your thoughts on this and how can we we not go in that bubble where we are so pressurized and so and we take that step. If there is a purposeless life without pressure, one just hangs on and rolls on.

[00:01:45]Right?

[00:01:46]We are considering a two by two matrix, purpose and pressure.

[00:01:52]Purpose and pressure.

[00:01:54]Now, no purpose and no pressure, You are a rolling stone. Cool.

[00:02:03]At most life will be wasted.

[00:02:06]But you will live on.

[00:02:08]You'll just live on.

[00:02:10]Like any incentive thing.

[00:02:13]Right?

[00:02:14]Or like a tree or like an animal.

[00:02:17]No purpose, but at the same time no pressure of any kind to achieve, to demonstrate, to change, nothing.

[00:02:30]I am a particular way and the way I am is is very insufficient, very very suboptimal.

[00:02:43]But at the same time I don't experience any pressure external or internal to to change or improve or accomplish or whatever.

[00:02:54]So I can just continue merrily living.

[00:02:58]Right?

[00:03:00]The only small disadvantage would be a wasted life.

[00:03:08]That would be the only uh outcome.

[00:03:16]And the opposite of that is uh no purpose and high pressure.

[00:03:25]We can examine the other two quadrants also, but that's not very useful. So we'll straight away go to the opposite one.

[00:03:34]Right?

[00:03:36]No purpose, but high pressure.

[00:03:45]This is where suicides happen.

[00:03:52]Contrast this with great purpose and high pressure.

[00:04:01]This person will have a zeal to live.

[00:04:06]Yes, there would be great pressure.

[00:04:09]But he'll say, "I'll live on."

[00:04:14]Because there is love.

[00:04:16]Because I understand my purpose.

[00:04:19]And often with the purpose, pressure does come.

[00:04:23]And he'll welcome that pressure.

[00:04:28]Whenever you accept a great purpose, it's a thing of love.

[00:04:36]Hm? And it's it's an extraordinary thing that society often does not approve of, let alone support.

[00:04:46]So, there would be pressure.

[00:04:48]The very nature of a great purpose is that it brings pressure along with it.

[00:04:55]But such pressure now is is life-saving, even life-giving.

[00:05:06]Because you know there is something tremendous to achieve and you love.

[00:05:11]And you love.

[00:05:12]You love what you want to achieve.

[00:05:16]Your purpose is arising from your own clarity.

[00:05:21]It's a very intimate thing. It's a very personal thing.

[00:05:25]There is this little thing that I really love.

[00:05:28]It could be a kid, it could be an institution, it could be it could be anything. It's related to my heart.

[00:05:36]It's my venture. It's my baby. Whatever it is.

[00:05:41]I'm an entrepreneur. I'm a mother.

[00:05:45]Same thing.

[00:05:48]Right? I have a purpose, and the purpose is raise this because it's worth it.

[00:05:55]And raising it is tremendously difficult. India funding problems, infrastructural problems, regulatory problems.

[00:06:06]Imperfect markets.

[00:06:10]Monopolies.

[00:06:14]Fragmented chains, logistics.

[00:06:18]All kinds of problems.

[00:06:20]But I have love.

[00:06:22]And now this pressure is life-giving.

[00:06:28]Even if now I want to die, I'll postpone death.

[00:06:34]In fact, I'll want to keep myself healthy, not just for my sake, but for the sake of this, my baby.

[00:06:43]Do you see this?

[00:06:46]High pressure is not a problem if there is a purpose deep enough.

[00:06:58]So, if you say it's because of the high pressure environment in IITs and other places that kids are very, very tragically choosing to end their their lives, you're seeing only half the picture.

[00:07:11]It's not just about high pressure.

[00:07:13]Somebody who clears the JEE or some other entrance examination is kind of used to high pressure.

[00:07:21]Else, he wouldn't have made it to the campus.

[00:07:25]Pressure alone is not the problem.

[00:07:29]Pressure alone is not the problem. No.

[00:07:35]But it's a very deadly situation when an extreme pressure meets extreme purposelessness then one is being forced to achieve and there is no love.

[00:07:58]One doesn't want to achieve but there is a lot of pressure from the environment and and it's not merely from the environment because one has internalized the pressure now.

[00:08:08]So the pressure arises from within as well.

[00:08:11]Others expectations have been soaked in so they look like our own expectations.

[00:08:19]So there is pressure then both from the outside and the inside and they're telling you get this done.

[00:08:27]CGPA 9 best placement this that everything.

[00:08:35]You have to be shining in co-curriculars and someone is asking hey where's your girlfriend? Nothing.

[00:08:48]Even before placements there is a matter of internship.

[00:08:52]Even before internship there are courses to choose.

[00:08:58]And in many of the top ranked institutions if you don't have a CGPA high enough you can't even get the course of your choice.

[00:09:09]There is some kind of auction happening there.

[00:09:17]So you there is tremendous pressure from outside and within so much pressure and no purpose.

[00:09:25]Nothing that you can love and therefore nothing you can live for.

[00:09:34]You get this.

[00:09:37]And why is there so much purposelessness?

[00:09:41]Does purposelessness start when you enter the campus? No.

[00:09:47]The very system is designed to rob you from having any innate heartful purpose of your own. And how is that done?

[00:10:00]By supplying you with external artificial fake purposes right since your birth.

[00:10:10]You're always told what to do.

[00:10:13]You're supplied purposes from outside.

[00:10:17]Do this for that. Do this for that. Do this for that.

[00:10:21]There is no love in all this.

[00:10:23]There is no authenticity in all this.

[00:10:26]And so, you become so used to having an appointed purpose, a supplied purpose, an implanted purpose, that the heart goes numb.

[00:10:42]Even if you try to, you you fail in discovering something of your own.

[00:10:49]On your campus, have you heard students quipping, but mujhe pata hi nahi hai mujhe karna kya hai?

[00:10:55]Have you heard?

[00:10:58]Haven't heard?

[00:11:00]Doesn't happen?

[00:11:03]I'd be surprised if it does not happen with even a single person.

[00:11:11]This is the situation of each one of us.

[00:11:15]I don't know what to do.

[00:11:17]And that is because the faculty within that can see and choose and decide has become paralyzed.

[00:11:27]If you don't use a muscle for so long, for decades, What happens to that muscle?

[00:11:34]Gone. Atrophy. Yes.

[00:11:43]We are beings beings of clarity and love.

[00:11:48]Every single step should be taken from there, from your clarity and your love and these two are one.

[00:11:56]Instead our steps are dictated by random forces, random forces that have authority over us.

[00:12:04]Familiar authority.

[00:12:08]Institutional authority, religious authority.

[00:12:12]They are the ones constantly dictating purpose.

[00:12:17]Constantly.

[00:12:21]The priests are telling you you you are born to to do good deeds and attain heaven.

[00:12:28]I have not been left free to ask myself, who am I and what am I here for?

[00:12:36]Some random priest comes and tells you, you know, you are born so that you can become a man in your next birth and then you can attain salvation.

[00:12:46]And you are supposed to accept that. Not only accept it, actually imbibe it.

[00:12:55]Soak it in so deeply that you feel as if it's your own conclusion.

[00:13:03]And the family.

[00:13:05]No, you see, now you you are 13 and it's your boards.

[00:13:11]And this year your purpose must be to uh strike 99.

[00:13:18]Uh The muscle is not being allowed to function.

[00:13:24]So, the muscle will get paralyzed, atrophied.

[00:13:30]It will shrink. It will lose power.

[00:13:34]Now even when there is a need, a genuine one to use it, you will find it failing.

[00:13:42]That's what happens with us.

[00:13:43]That's where our purposelessness comes from. That's why people look so lost.

[00:13:52]And when you are lost, anybody can elbow you towards any direction. You stand like this here.

[00:13:59]Somebody comes and just pushes, and you start moving in that direction.

[00:14:05]And that's where the crowd comes handy.

[00:14:09]I don't know what to do.

[00:14:11]So the crowd becomes very useful. Let me follow the crowd.

[00:14:17]We are talking about tragic student suicides here. We are talking about the loss of precious young lives.

[00:14:25]Please see where that is coming from.

[00:14:26]The process starts right from the moment of birth.

[00:14:36]Are you getting it? The fourth quadrant.

[00:14:42]Great purpose, no pressure. That is actually infeasible. If there is a great purpose, the purpose creates pressure of its own, and such pressure is auspicious.

[00:14:56]Such pressure is auspicious.

[00:15:04]Yes, you have intellect, but that won't suffice.

[00:15:07]No.

[00:15:09]Intellect is just like this arm. It's a physical thing.

[00:15:14]Cells in the brain.

[00:15:18]The arm by itself is not sentient.

[00:15:22]Intellect is not consciousness.

[00:15:26]Intellect doesn't suffer. Consciousness does.

[00:15:32]And consciousness requires a diet of, I repeat, love and clarity.

[00:15:42]Hm? What impairs paralyzes consciousness Huh? Is is if exploitation, the kind of pressure, the kind of uh routine Huh? We inflict on the little one.

[00:16:02]You're a kid and you're constantly being dictated what to do.

[00:16:07]And you're helpless because you're dependent.

[00:16:11]And then it becomes your second nature to just look to others for guidance as if the others know.

[00:16:21]As if anybody in the crowd knows where to go.

[00:16:28]Right? And if you don't look at others for guidance you are punished in ways subtle and gross.

[00:16:37]Uh too smart for herself.

[00:16:41]This chap is playing too rebellious.

[00:16:46]Something ought to be done. Let's show him his place.

[00:16:52]Are Are you getting it?

[00:16:55]The fellow says, "Why must I live if living means toiling for some faceless master?"

[00:17:07]What an indignity.

[00:17:10]I'm being told to work hard but not for myself.

[00:17:14]Because the goal foisted on me is not my own.

[00:17:21]So, like a slave, like a slave, I am being told to slog for something I don't really care for. I don't love mechanical engineering, full stop.

[00:17:35]But, I'm being told to get a 9 GPA.

[00:17:45]You understand this? And and and [clears throat] a BTech or whatever or MTech, all these things are limited in years.

[00:17:54]The bigger tragedy is when we allow this phenomena to become life.

[00:18:01]Not knowing why one goes to the office, and one works for like four decades or something. Yep.

[00:18:08]Sometimes more than that.

[00:18:11]One doesn't know why one is going to the office, one waits for the salary day.

[00:18:17]One justifies it by saying there are mouths to feed and a table to keep food on.

[00:18:27]I have a family.

[00:18:29]And one doesn't know why one has a family.

[00:18:32]One doesn't know where the kids came from.

[00:18:36]But, it's all there and you are supposed to take care of it.

[00:18:40]And then somebody said, you know, there are people who who die by way of suicide. And then there are others who similarly do die at 25 but are buried only when they are 75 or 85.

[00:18:59]They keep walking.

[00:19:06]It does appear they are still alive, but they are gone, finished.

[00:19:10]Purposeless, meaningless lives.

[00:19:14]Why even call them alive?

[00:19:21]Go to the office, come back, watch some TV.

[00:19:25]Scroll Insta.

[00:19:28]Shout at the kids.

[00:19:33]The bed, sex.

[00:19:35]Random boredom.

[00:19:39]Snor away.

[00:19:40]The alarm rings.

[00:19:42]Get up again.

[00:19:44]The same pathetic, dirty, boring routine.

[00:19:49]But you say you are a responsible father or a mother.

[00:19:56]And life rolls on.

[00:20:03]Is this what you are setting yourself up for?

[00:20:11]Very, very scary silence.

[00:20:20]You remember that Wasipur dialogue, "Beta, tumse na ho payega."

[00:20:24]>> [laughter] >> There has to be a resounding no. Not necessarily in this hall.

[00:20:43]But to all those who attempt imposing themselves on your life.

[00:20:52]You're educated.

[00:20:55]You're smart.

[00:20:57]You're young.

[00:21:02]No must be the first word in a dictionary life dictionary No.

[00:21:14]The default is no.

[00:21:16]Now, convince me to extract a yes. The default would always be no.

[00:21:28]But, um, I would say wouldn't wouldn't it uh be a difficult road to take?

[00:21:34]Saying no to um Difficulty and ease are all relative terms.

[00:21:41]Very relative. Very relative.

[00:21:44]Please pick this book. No, continue sitting. Pick this book.

[00:21:50]Please Please pick this book. Continue sitting.

[00:21:53]Pick this book.

[00:21:56]Please.

[00:21:57]I can't Difficult.

[00:21:59]>> Efforts needs to be >> No, no, no, you don't need to make efforts. You need to leave your position.

[00:22:05]Leave your position and pick it up. So easy. So easy. So easy.

[00:22:11]Difficulty is only when you want to preserve your position. That is the ego.

[00:22:18]Your position is your ego.

[00:22:22]Your location, your situation, your coordinates. I don't want to leave who I am, where I am, and then I want to attempt something beautiful, something necessary. It won't get done.

[00:22:34]It won't happen and you'll call it difficult. That's why it didn't happen.

[00:22:37]It wasn't difficult.

[00:22:39]You didn't have enough love.

[00:22:41]When you have love, you're ready to leave your position.

[00:22:48]And that love can come only from clarity. We are not talking of desire here.

[00:22:54]We are talking of clarity here.

[00:23:03]It's not difficult.

[00:23:05]Not for you smart chaps.

[00:23:12]I'm throwing stuff at you and it's disappearing into some black hole.

[00:23:19]Mhm?

[00:23:22]I'm so impatient for something to bounce back to me.

[00:23:32]We are young, are we not?

[00:23:34]Yeah.

[00:23:37]And I dare to include myself now, right?

[00:23:40]This time, yes.

[00:23:44]So, what does youth mean to you?

[00:23:48]If you can't rebel, if a no sounds so difficult, what does youth mean to you? Sex?

[00:23:58]What?

[00:24:02]Huh? Fire.

[00:24:04]Fire.

[00:24:05]Where is that?

[00:24:06]>> [laughter] >> Just download the Acharya Prashant app and there you go to the community section and you have live testimonials streaming in at the rate of one every 5 minutes. I'm seeing lives change in thousands, if not millions, every day in front of my own eyes. We are doing it. We have actually done it.

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