The role of the teacher is to help awaken intelligence

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

Question (Q): Sir, I have observed that if one is not enjoying the path of one’s journey then how much glorious the result or the end of the journey may seem, one still feels unaccomplished. How to know what is good for me, rather than chasing different goals and then getting disappointed?

Acharya Prashant (AP): ‘If the journey is not in joy, what is the point in chasing the destination?’ Is it so?

Let’s invert it:

Any journey that makes you heavy and tensed cannot be good for you. Check the goal. A good goal is one that gives you a journey in joy.

Q: How to find that path that gives a journey in joy?

Sir, I have a very good example for my question. Many of my friends want to join defense services. For them to be a defense officer means earning a good salary and having a reputation. Many of them would refuse to join if they come to know how much hardship is involved in the training. So, for them, the goal is very good but they don’t like the path, that is the training, of becoming a defense officer.

Goals are glorious. But it is very difficult to know ‘the glorious path’ to the goal. And that makes all the difference.