What is moodiness?

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

Question: “Is being moody good or not?”

Acharya Prashant (AP): But, first of all, must we not ask what are these moods? Do you know what these moods really are? You take water in a saucer, in a saucer, a plate, and the water is lying still but if you keep the saucer under this fan, what will happen to the surface of the water? What will happen?

Listener (L): Vibrations.

AP: Yes, there will be ripples that you are calling as vibrations. Some kind of wave formation. Right?

This is what we call as moods — External event disturbing my inner peace.

An outside event is dominating my mind. It is creating ripples.

Now, is the water not becoming a slave of the external situation? Tell me.

Is it not better for the water to say, “My mood will be under my control. My control. I will not allow other situations to affect me.” But that is not our story.

Our story is that somebody says, “Hey! looking gorgeous today.” And we work up such a nice mood. And somebody says, “Hey! where did you get this haircut from? Take two rupees from me, get a better haircut.” And we feel as if we have been put in some sever.