How to deal with social pressure? || Acharya Prashant (2015)
Question: Sometimes when I try to do the work which I really want to do, society opposes me. How can I get rid of all that?
Speaker: When you will really want to do something, then all opposition will be your fuel, the force that will be against you, will become your helper. Circumstances are just that, circumstances; thing that are on the outside. The decision to allow them to become all important is always yours. And remember you will never be found in circumstances that have nothing to do with your being. The louder you cry and complain about your circumstances, the louder rings the question, “Why are you in these circumstances”? The more you say that people around you are horrible, the more I want to ask you, “Why you are living with horrible people?” That makes you appear more horrible than those horrible people. Those people may be horrible because they do not even know that they are horrible. But you claim to be the wise one, why are you still found with them? And then you make a big show of it. And then you raise a hue and cry. You sing aloud of your providence. (pause) Why?
The more clearly you state to me that such and such people are inhibiting your freedom, hampering your growth, stealing your joy; the more obliged you become to answer the question then, “Why are you with them”? “If you know things so clearly, then why are you with them”?
I will tell you, why are you with them. You are with them because it helps you create that show. It helps you give your self-esteem a boost. Because you are so corrupted that you want all the benefits that come from their company and parallelly you also want to insult and humiliate them. You take all that can be taken from them and then you sing to the world that they are exploiting you. Who is exploiting whom?
