Why must one work?

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

Acharya Prashant (AP): Even before you go to the teacher, that is needed, the body must be such that it doesn’t fall off in the middle of a session, the senses must be such that they do not start wandering when the teacher is speaking, that kind of inner discipline needs to be cultivated even before you face the teacher. So that reverential attitude has to be there and then as you sit in front of the teacher you listen carefully and what you have listened must continue resonating in your mind the entire day, the entire week that is ‘Manana’, listening attentively is ‘Sravana’ and continuing the inner process of resonance or inner remembrance is ‘Manana’ and then there is ‘Nididhyāsana’.

Nididhyāsana is when the heard substance gives up its form in words and becomes your lifeblood, that is Nididhyāsana. As long as the inner processing is merely cerebral it is Manana and when the intaken substance becomes a silent continuous way of living with you that is Nididhyāsana. And then from that Nididhyāsana comes the perfect solution- ‘Samādhi’. These are the four classical stages that you will find repeated at many places- ‘Sravana’, ‘Manana’, ‘Nididhyāsana’, and ‘Samādhi’.

Something interesting for you. When we are discussing how the student gains Jñāna or knowledge then it proceeds…