Steve Job’s words opposed to Rumi’s?

Acharya Prashant
11 min readMay 27, 2021

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

Questioner: I am finding a contradiction between two oft-quoted statements, the first one is by Rumi, “Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I want to change myself.” And the second one is from Steve Jobs, “Those who are, rather those who think they are crazy enough to change the world actually do it.” Shouldn’t one try to bring positive change in the world? Given how society as a whole is deteriorating, shouldn’t one try to change it? I feel people are sometimes just not brave enough to stand up for what is right.

Acharya Prashant: Shruti (Questioner), any real difference between any two things or any two people or any two statements in this world is only a difference between the points they come from, the difference between their very origins. I know what I have said won’t be making much sense till now, so let’s pay attention. You see, you may try to change the world, right? But where are you coming from? What is the center of your thought, motivation, operation? Why do you want to change the world? You might want to change the world, just so that the world becomes more conducive or more suitable to the furtherance of your ego, to the furtherance of your evolutionary mechanism, your animal instincts.

--

--