No action in continuation of restlessness will take you to rest

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

Question: Sir, as you said right now that when I am really here, then there is no opportunity for restlessness. But when I am really here, a restlessness, an inner thirst, is there. And this thirst is unbearable.

Acharya Prashant (AP): No, you call that restlessness. It is never there on its own. You call it. Let nobody say that desire conspires against him — desire or restlessness, they are the same thing. Let nobody say that he is restless. You have to say that you choose to be restless.

And then you must answer, “Why do you choose?” I have no solutions to offer. You must tell why you invite restlessness. You invite restlessness because you have a false belief that restlessness can take you somewhere and all those things that you have been fed on since childhood. You have been raised on those things. Nobody just becomes restless out of nothing. All this is concocted restlessness.

Try this. You do not call restlessness, do not send it invitations. Your restlessness will feel uninvited. Its power will subside.

But you side with your restlessness. You decide that you want it to stay. Similarly, you often say, “I have a lot of resistance.”