Questioner: I am frequently confused in situations where I have to prioritize one thing over the other. For example, work versus family, work versus rest, saving money versus spending money, etc. There never seems to be a clear answer. How to keep our priorities right in every situation? Please guide.
Acharya Prashant: How can anybody prioritize anything over the other? To know whether one thing is more important than the other, you have to know whether one thing is more important for you than the other. If I am feeling cold, then the hot beverage becomes important; whereas, if it is all hot and humid and I am sweating, then I will want to sip something cold. What is good or important for me at any moment depends on my need, my requirement.
But what if I am totally out of touch with myself? What if I do not know at all what my inner condition is? Then how will I prioritize? How will I be able to make any decision at all?
That is the situation for most people. We have very little self-awareness. We rarely observe ourselves fearlessly and honestly; we rarely spend time with ourselves and ask ourselves pointed questions. Therefore, we do not know what the inner situation is like, and the inner situation definitely is not good. Inwardly, we all require healing, treatment, completion; a lot of stuff is needed in the inward sense.
So, there is a yelling demand within for something specific but we are totally deaf to that demand. Why? Because the ears are all tuned to the external world. Therefore, they are unable to hear anything of the inside. So, we do not know what we need. Therefore, when it comes to deciding between work and leisure, work and family, saving versus spending, we have no clue what to do. Then how do we decide? We decide either randomly, or we just follow the footsteps of the mob, or we let the vagaries of the situation decide for us.
