Today's Ravana has attractive face, pleasing voice, and mass appeal || Acharya Prashant (2018)

Acharya Prashant

‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquir...   Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books? Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...  ~~~~~  #acharyaprashant  #dussehra #lordRama  Video Information: Shabdyog Session, 18.10.2018, Advait BodhSthal, Greater Noida, India   Context: ~ Who is today’s Ravana? ~ What evil does man need to fight today? ~ Who is today's evil? ~ How to fight with today's evil? ~ How to identify the evil in today's world?  Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~

Transcript

00:00:00Acharyaji Pranam. We have seen movements led by great teachers like Kabir Saheb against

00:00:19numerous social issues like untouchability, caste system, etc. Also, there have been many

00:00:42movements led by Guru Govindji who fought battle against invaders. In the epics, we

00:01:03have Pandavas against Kauravas in Mahabharata, Lord Krishna against Kansa and Shri Ram against

00:01:19Ravana. So, what exactly or who exactly is the Ravana or Kansa of this age, this century

00:01:36against whom we must constantly fight in the external world? Good question, Sandeep.

00:01:56The enemies in the outer world were easier to identify till now.

00:02:26But today, we are

00:02:55at a very unique point in history. Till today, the enemy used to be a person, a group.

00:03:25A system, an army that would oppress the commoners. So, it was a

00:03:40spotable, identifiable enemy. There would be a few who would be the

00:04:10exploiters and the masses would be at the receiving end. Today, the situation is very

00:04:30different. Man has conquered the external world like never before.

00:05:00The earth has been conquered. The animals, the trees had been conquered long back. The

00:05:12waters have been conquered. Space has been conquered. Diseases have been conquered. It

00:05:30is surmised that before the end of the century, we may have immortal human beings. In some

00:05:49material way, death too has been conquered. Man today has unequaled and devastating power

00:06:13over his surroundings. Within a few decades, it would be possible for man to blow up the

00:06:37entire planet earth and go and settle on another colonized moon or planet. Man's space vehicles

00:06:59are already reaching far. And in a few centuries or maybe in a few millennia,

00:07:11they would start traveling to the farthest corners to which travel is possible. What

00:07:37remains then to be conquered? The entire animal kingdom is shivering in repetition. And obviously,

00:07:54we are talking about only those animal species that still remain. The others have not only been

00:08:05won by us, but actually obliterated long back. Pathogens, all the little microscopic beings,

00:08:29they too are more or less at our mercy. Some of them are still waging their little

00:08:42petulant battles, but obviously they are doomed to be defeated. Even some mosquitoes are turning

00:08:55resistant to inhalatory chemicals, but their defiance is defeat foretold. So,

00:09:17what remains to be conquered? Tell me. Nothing remains to be conquered,

00:09:25Sandeep. And if something does remain to be conquered, it is a matter of a few centuries

00:09:32or at max a few millennia. And even a few millennia are nothing in the history of the

00:09:48universe. Blink of an eye. So, you see man today is God. All that which used to trouble man on the

00:10:14external front, outside of himself, has been conquered. Not only it has been conquered,

00:10:28it has been turned into a useful servant. Fire was the first one. Man used to be afraid of fire,

00:10:41like any other animal. And man put fire to good use. Man used to be at the mercy of the jungle.

00:11:02Man was a forager. Man became an agriculturalist. So, the jungle was cleared away for agriculture.

00:11:13The same space that once used to be the jungle was now man's land. Man's land that was being

00:11:24tilled and cultivated for man's needs. Once that land used to provide to man only as per its own

00:11:38cycles. And it also used to be a source of potential threat to man. Jungles did have

00:11:57walnut and fig trees and apple trees. But they also had lions and pythons. That same land has

00:12:20been cleared by the farmer and turned into a servant.

00:12:39The saints would tell their listeners, one day death will take you away. Buddha would tell his

00:12:58audiences, this body is a repository of a hundred diseases. And that would bring sense to many a

00:13:22listener. The very thought of old age and disease and death was enough to make many a reluctant

00:13:40audience toe the line. But where is disease? Very swiftly man has conquered disease. You

00:14:02know of the population explosion that happened in the last 200 years. It happened because man

00:14:12conquered disease. Today if Buddha comes and tells you this body is home to so many diseases,

00:14:23you will say, sir, you are factually incorrect. Where are the diseases? So, whom to fight?

00:14:32The average age of populations has gone on to double, even triple if you look at the developed

00:14:49world. Energy used to be scarce and to do anything with material you require energy. Today the

00:15:05greatest source of energy, the nucleus of the atom has been broken open by man. So, energy is not a

00:15:17problem. Tell me what do you want to do? Energy is available. If you want to blow apart this entire

00:15:33planet, even for that energy is readily available. In fact, that much energy man already has today.

00:15:42That's what intellect has done. Just say what you want and it can be made available. And the

00:16:04last frontier in conquering the world has been the conquest of life itself.

00:16:34Some scientist recently produced a fluorescent blue cat. That's happening.

00:16:46Along with the specie Homo sapiens, there was another specie of humankind, the Neantherdals.

00:17:04They disappeared. They were either assimilated by the sapiens or it was an incidence of

00:17:18genocide. But those guys disappeared. Now, a multi-nation team of scientists is trying to

00:17:38resurrect the Neantherdals. Man is God. You can do anything that you want. If you don't want to

00:17:55die, you can never die. All you need is good money. If you want to leave this planet and settle

00:18:05elsewhere, you can do that. All you need is good money. And we are talking only of 2018 AD. The

00:18:21picture would be very different in 2018 AD. And don't think for a second that 100 years is too

00:18:31much. The Big Bang was 13-14 billion years back. What is 100 years? Man came into existence some

00:18:4825-30 lakh years back. What is 100 years? So, what remains to be conquered? You have named

00:19:13Kauravas, Kans, Ravana. You cannot have them anymore. In positions of power, you will only

00:19:31have people who are chosen by the people. Kauravas, Kans, Ravana, they were all products

00:19:46of an age when autocracy and aristocracy could prevail. Today, there is democracy. And democracy

00:20:05is a holy grail. Democracy has caught on. It is becoming the way of life. Countries

00:20:22that are not democratic are moving towards democracy. So, here again, you don't have

00:20:33dictators or despots to conquer. You cannot have a Kans in today's age. The populations

00:20:47will not allow them. It's a democratic issue. Who are the rulers then? The ones you want to

00:20:56rule. So, that brings us to the point we made when we started, man is God. Whatever happens

00:21:07to man today happens by his own want and wish. Who is your ruler? The one you want to rule you.

00:21:19What do you want to wear? You are free. You are free not only in terms of choice,

00:21:27you are also free in terms of availability and procurement. And if you can't have it today,

00:21:34you can surely have it 20 years down the line. All you need is desire. Desire it and you will

00:21:43have it. Desire it and you will have it. Babies, desire them, you will have them. Doesn't matter

00:21:52what your physical condition is. If you want customized babies, that too you may have.

00:21:59And you don't need any special eligibility. All you need is desire and the means to fulfill your

00:22:11desire obviously. But given the way the world is becoming economically prosperous, even the means

00:22:18would no more remain elusive for long. So, what is the picture that is emerging? The picture that

00:22:29is emerging is you don't have anything outside of you or anyone outside of you who won't bow

00:22:37down to your commands. The climate is already warmer by 1 degree centigrade. If you want,

00:22:49you can take that to 3 degrees. If you want, you can take that to 5 degrees. And if you want,

00:22:54you can bring that down. The entire existence seems to be bowing down to man.

00:23:08Show me one creature in the seas, on land or in the skies, who can afford to defy man. Show me.

00:23:25Greatest of whales, biggest of chimpanzees and mammoths, mighty eagles and lions,

00:23:49who can defy man. Great distances, can they defy you? Can they defy your desire?

00:24:00Today, you sit here and you can afford a girlfriend in Malaysia or Tunisia. All you

00:24:13need is money to fly over the weekends. Space has been conquered. And very soon,

00:24:24technology might enable virtual realities more real than virtual, more real than even real.

00:24:34Then proximity, the word proximity would lose whatsoever meaning it still has managed to

00:24:51retain. You know, what is the next thing that is going to happen, Sandeep? Man would improve

00:25:06himself and turn into a superman kind of species. Because that's what gods are supposed to do.

00:25:24Aren't gods supposed to produce men, create men? So, the configuration of the brain can be changed.

00:25:41Brains can be connected to computers. Much more able human beings can be produced. So,

00:26:00very capable, dexterous and able human beings that you will feel in front of them how a chimpanzee

00:26:11feels in front of you. Chimpanzees are our nearest cousins in terms of evolution, aren't they? How

00:26:23do you feel in front of a chimpanzee? A new man can be scientifically produced who will be to you

00:26:33what you are to the chimpanzee. That will be man's next deed that is already happening. In the name

00:26:48of ethics, you are trying to stop that or at least slow in that. But you will not be able to do that.

00:27:06What man can do, man will do. That's the thing about desire. It is irrepressible. Once desire

00:27:14has taken roots in the mind, the tree is bound to appear. Fractification will happen. And if man

00:27:34feels like having better men, that will happen. So, what is left to conquer, Sandeep? All that

00:28:01appeared inclement or difficult or hostile has been conquered by man's desire.

00:28:30Man is the God who can get what he wants. What is then left to conquer? I said we are

00:28:43standing at a very special point in history. What is then left to conquer? Man himself.

00:28:52And that's the difficult thing, Sandeep. You have nobody left to conquer but man. Would have

00:29:05been far more easier. Could you put your finger on one person and lay all the blame on him? It

00:29:15was so very straightforward when the villain was Ravan. There is Ravan. Let all the good guys get

00:29:26together and beat him down. It was such a simple fairy tale. Good guy is there and all those who

00:29:43are supporting him are the good guys. And there, that one is the bad guy. And all the baddies have

00:29:52bunched together in one lot. Sandeep, who is to be fought today? There is no Ravan. There is no

00:30:14Kansa. There is no Duryodhana. The bad ones are covering in fear. Authority is out. Secrecy is

00:30:36out. If you do deeds that man recognizes as bad deeds, you cannot hide. Science, technology and

00:30:48population explosion have made secrecy impossible. You cannot hide. So, if you are a bad man,

00:31:02very soon you would be caught. Gone are the days when you could do something evil and go and hide

00:31:11in a jungle. Today you have a social security number and Aadhaar. How will you hide? Cash

00:31:24will be out of currency. You will have to deal through electronic networks. You cannot hide.

00:31:37The entire earth is divided in nations and the day is not far off when every child to be born

00:31:52would be born with a chip implanted in his body. You cannot hide. The chip might not be literal,

00:32:10but you get the drift. Palace intrigues are impossible now. You cannot come together in

00:32:24the dead of the night, plan against the dominating king, slaughter him secretly,

00:32:32and in the morning declare the coup. Gone. Somebody would be broadcasting the whole thing

00:32:49live. And there are so many people now. 8 billion you already are. 10 billion you would be,

00:32:59maybe 11 by the end of the century. How can you hide? Where would you go and hide? Man is

00:33:08everywhere. Even if you go and hide under the oceans, you would be detected. So, doing things

00:33:22that were traditionally considered bad is no more an option. Everybody is now bound to be good.

00:33:30You wave a gun at someone and before the gun is back in the pocket, the police are at your heels.

00:33:45Some CCTV camera has caught wind of the whole thing. The entire planet is being monitored.

00:33:59Where would you go? The app that you use to order food is keeping an eye on you. Because

00:34:20the app won't work unless you allow it to read your messages, watch your photos. You cannot be

00:34:32bad. You have to be good. And what kind of goodness is it that is mandated? It is goodness

00:34:44defined by man. You need not be good as defined by a Kabir or an Ashtavakra or the gurus. You

00:34:55have to be good as per the laws of man, not the laws of God. No divine mandate is going to work.

00:35:05If gods are fighting over a piece of land, they have to come to the court of man. Is that not

00:35:20what you are saying? Man's mandate will decide where gods will live and what gods will do and

00:35:30whom they will meet. Man has conquered everybody. Man is God. A little problem remains. Man is a

00:35:44God who does not know what he wants. So he wants everything. One step more. Man is a God who does

00:36:03not know whether he wants what he wants. Man is a God who hides from the question. Does he want

00:36:15what he wants? He wants, but he does not know why he wants. And this is a very, very deadly God.

00:36:27Very deadly God. He has desire and he has intellect. And nothing else. Not tremble. And

00:36:46tremble you must. This is no more the proverbial case of the monkey holding the sword. The monkey

00:36:59was not dangerous at all, even though the anecdote tells you that the monkey chopped off the master's

00:37:06nose or leg or whatever. The monkey was very innocuous. Today that monkey is man and the sword

00:37:22is an intercontinental ballistic missile with multiple nuclear warheads. A very, very intelligent

00:37:34man he is. He is suave. He is sophisticated. He is educated. He is cultured. He lives by the rules.

00:37:45He has never broken a law. His credit rating is wonderful. And he can at any time press the button

00:37:58to a… that's man for you. And he knows everything. He is a master of knowledge.

00:38:13Sandeep, your task today, if you really want to fight the evil,

00:38:26is more difficult than that of the heroes of yore. The heroes down the centuries in history,

00:38:44I repeat, had clearly identifiable targets. You have to fight mankind. It's a very helpless

00:38:59situation. Today's teacher or hero or prophet or messiah, whatever you want to call him,

00:39:12has to fight everybody. Just about everybody. He has to fight all those who are outside his

00:39:26social circle. More dangerously, he has to fight those who appear like his accomplices,

00:39:38his supporters. And even more dangerously, he has to fight off the effect that the company

00:39:48of the world has upon him. So, he has to fight himself as well. Krishna was never affected by

00:40:01Kansa. Because there was just one Kansa in the faraway city. And Krishna was happily coming up

00:40:15in an innocent village. Today the cult of Kansa is everywhere. If today a Krishna were to be born,

00:40:29he would find, he would find that his father, his mother are all brethren of Kansa. He would

00:40:42find that the water of Yamuna is polluted with Kansa hood. There is nothing but Kansa everywhere,

00:40:56whom to fight. Radha comes to Krishna. And after being with her for a few months,

00:41:20Krishna discovers that Radha is an agent of Kansa. What will Krishna do now?

00:41:30The ancient Krishna had it just too easy. Today it's going to be far more difficult.

00:41:44Hanuman turning upon Ram. Lakshman conspiring with Meghnath.

00:42:15And Krishna goes to fight Kansa and Chanur. And in the thick of the battle,

00:42:25he discovers that Radha is campaigning for Chanur.

00:42:44And Krishna is teaching Arjuna. And Arjuna is appearing like an absorbed student. And just

00:43:12then the back of Krishna is speared down. And with the light going out of his eyes,

00:43:26Krishna turns back and sees Yudhishthira. In his last moment, he turns to Arjuna.

00:43:37And Arjuna has a naughty smile on his lips. That's the final chapter of Gita,

00:43:46for it to be written today. Whom to fight. The enemy is not outside anymore. The enemy

00:44:01is there right in your house. Your friend is the enemy. Your wife is the enemy. Your

00:44:09lover is the enemy. Your student is the enemy. Your teacher is the enemy. And when you look

00:44:18into the mirror, you are your worst enemy. These are nice, cute stories, Sandeep. But

00:44:40they are all behind us. All the monkeys will chase down Ram, if he goes to them to seek

00:44:52help today. The monkeys have all been bought over by Ravan. All the monkeys. Man is a God

00:45:11who is a slave of desire and desire worships power. The monkeys too have been overwhelmed

00:45:22by the power of Ravan. Why would they support Ram? And even if it breaks your heart, you must

00:45:39see clearly that it would be impossible to find a Sita today. The Sita of Ramayana is extinct.

00:45:48Today, if you can have a poor copy of Sita, and if she is abducted and carried away to Lanka,

00:46:02she would herself chase Ravan, and compel him and beget him to marry her.

00:46:18And today's Ram, Sandeep, would find himself subject to an overwhelming, excruciating desire

00:46:44to not wage any battle upon anybody.

00:47:14Bharat is not allowed to keep Ram's sandals on the throne and worship them and run the

00:47:22kingdom that way. It's against the system and the constitution. The system does not allow you to

00:47:31run the kingdom as if it were the property of your elder brother. No, not possible.

00:48:01Just as when the night is about to end, it is the darkest hour of the night. Similarly,

00:48:23man's history is going to end now and this is the darkest hour of history.

00:48:27History continues only as long as you have chance events. For history to be told,

00:48:42you must have unpredictability. Can there be history if everything is predictable?

00:48:50If everything is predictable, then you can have at most a milometer, a dashboard. You cannot have

00:49:01history. Man's utmost control, man's absolute autocracy over existence is soon going to end

00:49:22history itself. After that, it would be man and man's desire. And history is about to end and

00:49:36this is the darkest hour of history. It would be very difficult to fight anybody.

00:49:43The evil lurks everywhere, all around you, within you and everybody is evil. There are

00:50:07no quantum separations. When you look at the Kurukshetra, you see a definite differentiation,

00:50:18don't you? What is the definite differentiation? On one side you have Duryodhana and on the other

00:50:27side you have Arjuna. There is a very clear distinction and so Krishna knows whom to fight.

00:50:33Now Krishna has the luxury to afford sides. A battle is on and Krishna looks at the battle

00:50:42and Krishna knows. I can pick one of the two. I can afford that choice. Today you cannot afford

00:50:50that choice. There is only Duryodhana. He won the Mahabharata long back. There is Duryodhana

00:51:05one fighting Duryodhana two. What does Krishna do? Whom does Krishna support? And if Krishna

00:51:10appears in Kurukshetra, Duryodhana one and Duryodhana two would tie up and chase away

00:51:16Krishna. Malaria is out. Polio is out.

00:51:44Caste system is on its way out. Untouchability is out. Racism is out.

00:51:51Misogyny will be out. What are you going to fight next? All that could have been fought,

00:52:00will be fought and defeated. These are old and petty evils. Petty evils. Somebody said,

00:52:20why do you want to turn somebody into an enemy? Why do you want to alienate someone if you can

00:52:26turn him into your customer? And desire only needs customers. I want this and I am willing

00:52:36to pay the price. If in today's world untouchability is disappearing, it is not because people are

00:52:45discovering that at the core all are one. It is not because people are discovering that body and

00:52:53body are just the same. If in today's age untouchability is disappearing, it is because

00:53:04of desire. If you come across a woman who is hugely gorgeous, would you want to not touch

00:53:14her because she belongs to an untouchable caste? No, no, that's too mean and you are a liberal.

00:53:22Would you allow your liberal instincts to forcinate, be defeated? Please understand.

00:53:41You are the recruiter in some firm and you want someone who can be productive because

00:53:58desire is related to productivity. You want more and more to consume and you get a candidate,

00:54:06you get a candidate who comes from an untouchable caste. Would you reject him? No, why should you?

00:54:15You would welcome him and embrace him. You are not embracing him out of love. You are not

00:54:28embracing him because you have suddenly discovered fraternity. You are embracing him out of desire,

00:54:42greed, usefulness. So, these social evils that you have mentioned here are petty little things

00:54:56that desire will throw out of the window. Are you getting it? The great evil would be man himself,

00:55:17man the God. You see, look at the age in which untouchability flourished. That was also the age

00:55:38in which sexuality was repressed. Was it not? The moment you set sexuality off,

00:55:54the moment you say sexuality is alright, untouchability cannot survive for more than

00:56:0910-20 years. Desire has defeated all social evils. It is not social reform movements that

00:56:23have defeated desire. When the train and the bus came about, when public transport came about in

00:56:33India 100-150 years back, that was a great step towards the eradication of untouchability.

00:56:45The Shudra would be sitting besides the Brahmin in the railway coach because both desired to

00:57:01reach their destination and there was no option but to use the railways. And the railways didn't

00:57:08have separate coaches for separate castes. Desire defeats all the petty evils. Desire is

00:57:20the great evil that defeats all the petty evils. For the sake of desire, you can shake hands with

00:57:31your worst enemy. Don't you see that happening every day in politics? In national politics,

00:57:38in geopolitics, everywhere. You know what ended the Cold War? The desire of the little Soviet

00:57:52republics to have a more economically prosperous life. Desire defeated the USSR. It was not the

00:58:04USA that defeated the USSR. It was desire. Desire will defeat all the petty evils. The Cold War was

00:58:13defeated. Not one side was defeated. The entire war was defeated. A Hindu and a Muslim are fighting.

00:58:30You don't need to teach them the essence of religion. Just dangle some money in front of

00:58:36both of them. They will forget fighting. They both will run towards the money. So you see,

00:58:44all the religious discord has been taken care of. And you don't need a great reformer or guru for

00:58:53that. All you need is some money. You don't have religious communal riots in metros anymore. Do you

00:59:06have them? The last big one that we had was in Bombay in 1992. Close to three decades now. In

00:59:24smaller cities, in suburbs, in rural areas, that's where you have communal problems. Why?

00:59:35Because money is the greatest anti-riot force. Why riot with someone if you can consume him?

00:59:52If a Hindu can use a Muslim to make more money, should he kill the Muslim? If the Muslim can use

01:00:04the Hindu for some personal pleasure, should he kill the Hindu? Not at all. The day India

01:00:16and Pakistan are linked through thick and heavy trade, they will find it very difficult to fight

01:00:24among themselves. Because now the interests of traders on both sides will be at stake.

01:00:31They cannot fight anymore. You see, desire has taken out war. The curse of war has been defeated

01:00:43by desire. That's such a great thing. But who will defeat desire now? Who will defeat desire?

01:00:55I don't know, Sandeep. I'm very lonely in all this. You too will have to figure out on your own.

01:01:12And anyway, today one has no way of figuring out between a friend and a foe. So don't trust me too

01:01:22much. You know what the tragic beauty of the whole thing is? Without any inner goodness,

01:01:44even without any inner goodness, man can continue to grow better and better.

01:01:49That's the most dangerous part of this story, if I can communicate it to you.

01:01:58The old scriptures warned us that if you do bad, you will receive bad. The law of

01:02:17Karamphal is very very subtle. Most people do not live in that subtle dimension. And

01:02:26in the gross dimension, the law of Karamphal, the law of karma, doesn't operate at all.

01:02:32You can be utterly evil and yet lead a very very happy life. In fact, the more evil you are,

01:02:47chances are, the more prosperous and more happy you would be found.

01:02:52So the ancient trick that religions have used has fallen flat now. We all very well know,

01:03:04as Nietzsche told us, that God is dead. And if God is dead, where are heaven and hell?

01:03:10So you can continue doing what you do. You very well know that no hell is awaiting you.

01:03:18There is no heaven awaiting you and no hell awaiting you. You can kill all the animals

01:03:41and use the proceeds of the kill to strengthen and beautify your body. And you will find that

01:03:55your body has indeed strengthened and indeed become more beautiful. So where is the punishment?

01:04:02In fact, it is a fact. Most of the Nobel winners are meat eaters. Most of the Olympic medalists

01:04:22are meat eaters. Be it the intellectual prowess or physical lightness, both are a function of meat

01:04:38consumption or so it appears. So you can continue to be evil and yet be happy and prosperous.

01:04:48Kids laugh when the Quran or the Bible talk of the day of judgment and the ultimate punishment.

01:05:12All the ancient stories, Sandeep have failed. They all ended with the defeat of evil.

01:05:38Those were lies. Evil never had a final defeat. Today there is not only evil everywhere. Evil

01:06:04has accorded itself the name of God. You will find it extremely difficult to be truly religious

01:06:27or mystical because that comes with an inordinate price. And evil will not say that spirituality is

01:06:42bad. Evil will simply take over spirituality. So you will have people who call themselves

01:06:59spiritual but what they would be doing in the name of spirituality would not be spiritual at all.

01:07:08For example, this cult of yoga.

01:07:15For example, the egoistic cult of Neo-Advaita and self-inquiry.

01:07:42Now if somebody would declare himself as an enemy of God as Ravana did or Kansa did,

01:08:04oh they were very innocent fellows. They did. Then you could fight him. But today's Ravanas

01:08:12do not declare themselves as enemies of God. They declare themselves to be surrendered to God.

01:08:20Today's Ravana would probably be found in Rishikesh teaching Hatha Yoga and saying this

01:08:35is yoga. This is yoga. Now whom are you going to fight? They have all assumed the name of God.

01:08:49Man is God. Nobody is coming out on the streets and declaring himself as anti-God. That is not

01:08:59possible anymore. You have to be good now. So you cannot say that I am anti-goodness. If you are

01:09:08anti-goodness, you would be immediately found in the jails. If not today, then after a while.

01:09:13Everything has been consumed by desire. Everything.

01:09:43A point comes when it doesn't hurt to pay any price to fulfill your desire. It just doesn't

01:10:06hurt. A fellow with lung cancer in the last stages may still steal away to have a cigarette

01:10:25or two. It just doesn't hurt. One wants to fulfill the desire even if the cost is tremendous.

01:10:36When dogs are chewing dry bones, it often happens that the bones being dry and hard,

01:10:52scratch and hit their gums. So the gums bleed and the dogs think that the blood is coming from the

01:11:07bone. So the dogs tear at the bones even harder and the blood flows even harder and the dog is

01:11:19happy and happier. There at least there is some tangible damage happening to the dog. We are

01:11:35living in an age, Sandeep, when there will be no tangible damage. Children with no inner

01:11:50understanding at all, even today if you look at them, they are all being educated in the

01:12:04so-called international schools. They are ferried around in air-conditioned buses. There

01:12:13is an informal moratorium on the use of the native tongue. Obviously in the school,

01:12:22you cannot speak to them in Hindi or Marathi. Even at the home, parents ensure that nothing

01:12:31native touches them at all. Those kids look indeed more smart, more articulate. Don't they?

01:12:54They are also probably more knowledgeable. In sports, the records are tumbling every year.

01:13:04A regional level athlete today, a district or state level athlete today is doing better than

01:13:22the Olympic champion of a century back. You compare the stats. Just compare the 100-meter

01:13:30stats. I don't know the numbers, but I dare speculate that the Delhi champion of 2018 in

01:13:43100-meter race would be comparable to the world record holder of 1918. So,

01:13:53the bodies are indeed improving. Bodies are improving, happiness is improving,

01:13:57prosperity is improving. And all this is happening without God. So, man does not need God. Man is God.

01:14:13Yes, man won't have love. Desire and love do not go together. But then love is such a delicate

01:14:36thing. It is not a thing. It is nothing. Why the hell one should bother about it? If desire

01:14:48can be fulfilled, who cares for love? Man is a God, man would be a God, but a very loveless God.

01:15:00This one little thing would be missing in life. It's a useless thing, obviously,

01:15:07but it would be missing. And Sandeep, I am not going to advise you in favor of love.

01:15:20It's a very useless thing. There is one song, Hindi song, but it's a disappearing language.

01:15:35And it had a line that said, Dil pe marne wale marenge bheekhari. Sab kuch seekha humne,

01:15:47naseekhi hoshiyari. So, why should I advise you in favor of love? There is so much else to be had.

01:16:02You can have power. You can have adventure. You can have various kinds of foods. You can

01:16:11have domination. You can have whatever you want. Why do you want love? Or why do you want silence?

01:16:19You can have the best of noises. Then why do you want silence? You can have very musical noises.

01:16:27Why do you want silence? It's already happening in this generation. I find it very difficult to

01:16:36relate to the youth. And some of them say it very bluntly to me in my face. We do not know what love

01:16:44is. And they are cute. Dolls that do not know love. Loveless Barbies throwing around barbs.

01:16:57And it's good that they don't know love because love is great suffering. With desire,

01:17:13born and brought up in desire, you lose all acceptance to suffering. That's one characteristic

01:17:25of the desirous person. He will be very intolerant towards suffering. It is only the lover who can

01:17:37embrace suffering. Now, if you belong to the cult of desire, if you belong to the desire generation,

01:17:47if you belong to this gen now, suffering is the teacher that brings love to you.

01:17:56And suffering is already an anathema to you. For you are supposed to be always happy. You

01:18:10can't be seen teary eyed. You know, Sandeep, already kids born in the current century are

01:18:37taller than the ones born in the previous century. They are also probably fairer and bulkier. And

01:18:53they probably also weigh more. They do. Their hair are more lustrous, more silky, more fine.

01:19:03The boys are handsome, the girls are, I won't say beautiful, gorgeous, hot. Chicks. So,

01:19:25you have bulls and chicks. They're doing well, aren't they? Bull chicks. They're doing well.

01:19:43They're doing very well. How do I advise them? If someone doesn't resonate with the bullesha,

01:20:07can you force him to? You just can't. If someone doesn't feel that pang here,

01:20:20can you induce it? Especially when the other person is already happy. And we have all the

01:20:35reasons to be happy. There is this air conditioner, there are good clothes, money.

01:20:39As the country gets more developed, the hours in the work week also reduce. So,

01:20:56you at least statistically can have more leisure. So, how do you bring bullesha to bull chicks?

01:21:15Very difficult. And this is going to continue. There is Golu here and that reminds me of

01:21:43something. Australia is one of the last continents that man colonized. We know that,

01:22:07don't we? Obviously, excluding the two ice-capped continents. Just guess,

01:22:21the proportion of species that man obliterated there within a short span of time. What percentage

01:22:37of species were led extinct by man? I am not talking of a reduction in numbers. I am talking

01:22:44of complete and irreversible extinction. Tell me. Tell me, tell me, tell me. Of all the animals

01:23:03that weighed more than 50 kg and were therefore very useful in terms of meat, 90% are extinct.

01:23:13How many? 90%. Such is the devastating and deadly touch of this new God. Golu,

01:23:26you are probably one of the last surviving generations of your species. The happy ones

01:23:38will not let you live. The happy ones will not let anybody live who is not helping them fulfill

01:23:46their desires. All they know is one word, I want. I want. My will. This is what I want.

01:23:56Those animal species were living there since millions of years and man's touch

01:24:16evaporated them in a second. In a second. That's what the pursuit of happiness does.

01:24:31There has been no other motivating force for man but happiness. And man has done whatever he did

01:24:53for the sake of his happiness, pleasure, desire. And he will continue to do that. This planet is

01:25:02done with. Very soon, man would be colonizing and foraging another planet. And there would

01:25:12be better human beings than you and me, Sandeep. Better in terms of looks, better in terms of IQ,

01:25:20better in terms of economic prosperity, better in terms of all kinds of skills and abilities.

01:25:28Just one little thing they won't have. Love. And that doesn't matter. That doesn't matter at all.

01:25:50I was listening, there is one popular singer these days, a female singer. And she was

01:26:14rendering one of Bulleh Shah's songs on YouTube. And the song was,

01:26:21Hun kyun apna aap chhupaya? Hun kyun apna aap chhupaya? It's a beautiful song.

01:26:48And she had changed entire lines after lines. At first, I was shocked. How can you do this

01:27:01to a Bulleh Shah? But then I realized it is because her audience will not be able to get

01:27:08the meanings of the original lines. So she very practically changed those lines to something of

01:27:24her own desire. It is quite possible that she herself did not know the meanings of the original

01:27:30lines. So it was dangerous to keep them. That's a glimpse of tomorrow. We will not be able to know

01:27:44what a Krishna or Kabir is saying. Just as a computer is not able to know what a Krishna or

01:27:52Kabir is saying. We will be fantastic computers tomorrow. We will not be able to know. Even if we

01:28:07intellectually do comprehend, we will feel no love. We will feel no inner compulsion of the

01:28:15kind a Radha feels for Krishna. You will know desire. You will not know that yearning called

01:28:29love. That irresistible and unreasonable yearning called love. You will have desire. And you will

01:28:41have civilization. So you will have civilized ways, business-like ways to fulfill your desire.

01:28:48You won't be raping anymore. I assure you, rape would very soon be antiquated. You will say rape

01:28:56was an evil of the Middle Ages, like Sati, like untouchability. Why rape when you can buy sex?

01:29:08And sex will be available. So Sandeep, that's the forecast for you and it's quite sunny.

01:29:36Have a happy time.

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