Man is a restlessness

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

Acharya Prashant (AP): A small particle of snow starts falling from a hillside. As it keeps rolling down the slope what does it gather?

Listener 1 (L1): More snow

AP: More snow. And ultimately it becomes quite big. So, if you ask, “Who is it that has become big?”

Has the first particle become big? No. Has the second particle become big? No.

It is just an accumulation of influences. In fact, the entire snow on the entire slope of the mountain is now being represented in the form of the snowball.

So, who are you? You are a representation of the entire journey of mankind; the whole evolution. Travelling, travelling, travelling — you have picked up so much. And you are only that which you have picked up.
Is the snowball anything except that which it has picked up?

Is the snowball anything except that which it has picked up? So you are also that.

L2: I do not understand these things.

AP: Don’t go too far back, start from your immediate thing.

Some part of your genetic configuration comes from your father, some from your mother. Father took it from many other places; mother also took it from many other…