How to be Spiritual and still manage one’s job and bills

Following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

Question: I like being in your sessions but what I want to say is - I just find it a big challenge to fly back to everyday life. You’ve got a job, you’ve got to make plans and it’s tough.

Acharya Prashant: If you really like this, then why would you go back to your job? Especially if the job is of the nature that hinders this.

Listener1: You have to have a place to stay. You have to have food on the table.

AP: Do we go to our jobs just to have a place to stay and to have food on the table?

Or do our jobs exist to provide psychological fulfillment to us? Is it only for the sake of physical needs that we work? Our physical needs are small and few. Please, look at this closely and honestly.

L2: We are dependent on so many things.

AP: Had we wanted only shelter and food, would we still have slogged the way we do in our offices? Do we really need that much money for food?

No, we need that much money so that the neighbor can say good things about us; so that our car is at least as big as the brother’s car.