The desire that continues, and the desire that ends

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

Questioner (Q): Many of my friends say that optimal allocation of resources is the best way to achieve success. How can spirituality help us achieve the optimal allocation of resources so that we may achieve success easily?

Acharya Prashant (AP): Let’s say I am drunk and I am to allocate resources to ten of my priorities. There are ten channels in front of me each demanding resources, and I only have a finite sum with me to divide and allocate to each of them, and I am drunk. What will I do? I will probably allocate the lion’s share to the liquor vendor, no? I have ten thousand rupees and I have ten things to take care of. And in a drunken state, this is the kind of allocation I will do: out of the ten thousand rupees, I will probably allot eight thousand to liquor supply. You know what this discussion is going towards.

So, in any act, the actor comes first. In allocation, the allocator comes first. Spirituality is about purifying the actor, the allocator. If I am alright, then I will know my priorities and I will also know their relative importance because I will know the one thing that is of prime importance. Knowing that one thing, I will know everything else in the context of that one thing. If I know the Truth is very important, then I will know the direction help towards Truth is going to come from, and I will pay maximum attention to that and allot maximum resources to that.

Spirituality is about first of all knowing your central priority. Your central priority is Truth or freedom. ‘Freedom’ is a better word, I am talking to youngsters. Your central priority is freedom.

Now, having known that freedom must be of prime concern in life, and having known that right now you are not at all free — you are in bondage in so many ways, inner and outer — what do you want to give your time, energy, money, and life to? These are your resources, right? Your intellect, your time, your money, your energy — these are your resources; the biggest resource is time itself.

Now, what do you want to give your time to? Having known that freedom is the most important one in life and you are not free right now, what do you want to give your time…