Extreme choices and behaviours || Acharya Prashant, with IIT Kharagpur (2022)

Acharya Prashant

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Transcript

00:00I have observed a trend that in the recent past the number of people who are resorting

00:10to extremities for any reason be that be political, be that be religious, be that be just social

00:16extremities have just increased in number and this specifically if we put this in a

00:25worldview context this is a problem that is gonna emerge and haunt specifically our culture

00:34in the coming future and I feel that it is that we just see a trend where extremities

00:42is extremity as a behavior is penetrating things that were not extreme to begin with

00:48and this has been more of a reactive kind of mechanism say I'm talking about the people

00:54who associate themselves with Sanatan Dharam or people who associate themselves with specific

00:59ideologies that are non-extreme and there have been sects and there have been people

01:05who have resorted to extremities more of as a reaction because they see no other way out

01:12or whatever may be the reason that they cite but then what like do we as a society want

01:20to see ourselves develop in that fashion or how exactly should we have a vision of

01:28the future like where exactly are we heading and should we be heading that way.

01:35See every extreme denotes a thirst, be it the extreme food consumption of somebody recuperating

01:58from a fresh breakup, the extreme possessiveness of a protective husband, the extreme competitiveness

02:26of a job seeker, the extreme anger of a jilted lover.

02:42All these extremes denote a thirst, do you see this?

02:55Extreme anger, extreme anything.

03:03If today you are seeing so many extremes in all ways in the society, they are indicative

03:12of a central common problem and there is not just religious extremism, even global temperatures

03:28are rushing towards an extreme, are they not?

03:32Even sea levels are rushing towards an extreme, are they not?

03:39And I am inviting you to see that all these are interrelated.

03:49The global forest cover currently stands at an extreme.

03:54What kind of an extreme?

03:56Minimum.

03:58It is lower than it ever was in history.

04:07Global flesh consumption both in absolute and per capita terms today stands at an extreme.

04:18Society was never killing so many animals per minute ever in history.

04:26The average person was never consuming so much flesh ever in history.

04:39The quantum of fissile material, weaponized fissile material with the world today stands

04:44at an extreme, does it not?

04:55Computer processing speed today stands at an extreme, does it not?

05:03Would you want to see how all these extremes are linked?

05:07We said all extremes come from a certain thirst, rather a central thirst.

05:20Religious extremism is gross, it is very visible, it is right there on the roads, it carries

05:27banners and flags, so it is obvious because there are slogans and often there are riots

05:34as well, so it is obvious.

05:38But think of this age of extremes as one composite unit.

05:51All of this is arising from the kind of despondency in the human mind that is unequalled in history.

06:05Have you ever had such a large proportion of humanity in a state of neurosis?

06:19Such a huge mass of people suffering from all kinds of mental disorders, was it ever

06:26the case?

06:28The average anxiety levels in the population today are at an unthinkable extreme.

06:43And the world today is more prosperous than it ever was.

06:49The per capita average global income is an extreme today.

07:00Mankind has more knowledge than it ever had.

07:10Do you see what is happening?

07:14What is common among all those extremes is that they are all external, they are all external,

07:24they are all external extremes, be it the processing speed part, be it the consumption

07:34part, be it the knowledge part, they are all outside of the human being.

07:46In the external world, man is rushing to deeper and deeper extremes.

08:02Actually the reason is that the void in our center today is deeper than ever.

08:16And this internal hollow, its extreme hollowness is causing us to rush to extreme measures

08:30in the external world.

08:37Where is this internal hollowness coming from?

08:47This internal hollowness is coming from a combination of mainly two things.

08:58One, a state of technology that can produce more and more for consumption and a state

09:09of philosophy that is liberal enough to deny liberation.

09:24So there is the factory yielding more and more goods and there is the philosophy telling

09:31you that consumption of these goods is the purpose of your life.

09:40But the purpose of your life is something else and that purpose sits as a deep unaddressed

09:49extreme hollow in our chests.

09:56Technology, economy and philosophy have combined to bring humanity to probably its lowest state

10:10in terms of consciousness in its history and that's why you see all kinds of extremism

10:17everywhere in the world.

10:25Because of the misdoings of organized religion, the last two to three hundred years have been

10:36of the decline of religion ever since the enlightenment period in Europe.

10:46There was a lot in religion that obviously deserved to be rejected but the core of religion

10:57which is the spiritual urge to be liberated had to be preserved as the most precious diamond

11:05mankind can ever have.

11:09Instead we chose to throw the baby out with the bath water.

11:19So liberation has been junked along with religion and consumption has been foisted upon us,

11:34mandatory consumption.

11:41That's the reason why you see people running to all these extremes because it's scary.

11:48We need meaning, we need purpose to life and when we do not find meaning and purpose in

11:54life we do stupid things like religious extremism, like extremism in merry-making, people want

12:08to go to the mars to get some pleasure, an extreme step.

12:20Acharya ji, just another thing which is slightly off from this but then I feel that that has

12:31been something on my mind ever since you talked about liberalism in the current society and

12:38all of us these external extremities relating with the hollow that is in our chest is a

12:47common observation about people or intellectuals claiming how a liberal society should be but

12:56in fact not doing it and I mean that's a statement but then I want to know your opinion about

13:06say how recently we have seen a surge in the people who say that they are homosexuals

13:16and who say that they associate see saying that sexuality is fluid is one thing but this

13:26has extended to the point where people say gender is fluid people say I mean it's not

13:32far away when they would even claim that age is fluid there have been cases where there have been

13:38some specific say perversions claiming some sort of there has been this specific case

13:49in UK where a specific group of people have claimed some sort of security under the lgbtq

13:57plus movement and I just want to know your opinion about this particular thing why the

14:03rise on this because this is something which is relatively internal I feel but then again

14:09we as a society are moving to its extreme. Is it not obvious Devang, I mean you want

14:18something in life when you don't get it at several places you try it at this place as

14:26well and if you start seeing some little success in playing with your sexuality then

14:34you just squat there and you start insisting that this maybe is the thing that will take

14:42me all the distance the little kid wants the real thing it cannot get that so it starts

15:01sucking its thumb or its big toe it starts playing with its own body but its own body

15:10is not what it wants that which it really wants we have assigned to test bin in the

15:20name of progress in the name of liberalism in the name of science atheism in the name

15:31of several modern and postmodern ideologies the real thing is there and if you will be

15:45restrained from having the real thing you will do a lot of strange things that's what

15:54we find humanity doing today strange and self-destructive we are closer to self imploding

16:07today than we ever were think of this extreme think of the doomsday clock think of all the

16:16Kyoto protocols and the Copenhagen thing and the Rio de Janeiro and the Paris thing think of what

16:25kind of extreme failures they have been think of why mankind is so suicidal today and you will

16:37know what we are missing we are missing the real thing we are born for in the long run

17:01like right now in the present state the society is in a manner moving towards its self-destruction

17:10so is there any way is there any particular way we can always have these sporadic set

17:17of individuals who have been a little more enlightened than the masses who have served

17:24as guiding poles for the masses in general but then do we see a future for our society

17:33where we might not directly be led to that doomsday you see you have to do things if

17:45you want to ever what clearly awaits us you need to have a thousand such discussions happening

18:04every minute at a million places across the globe we have started a little initiative

18:17called Garga Upanishad it's just too small it needs to be amplified a million times this

18:28is what needs to happen we clearly know what can save us we know that it's just that we we

18:38need to work on it we need to feed resources into it we need to build an opinion and understanding

18:48account it we need to have more and more people enrolled by way of understanding

19:04there needs to be a lot of information dissemination a lot of a lot of publicity

19:14a lot of propaganda

19:29I guess this is it

19:44.

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