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Video Information: 16.02.23, International Psychology Summit Conference, Delhi
Context:
How are humans destroying the world?
What is causing catastrophes?
Why is there so much violence in the world?
Why is mental illness so prevalent?
How to heal ourselves?
Is technology unleashing havoc?
Will technology take over the world?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
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?...
~~~~~
Video Information: 16.02.23, International Psychology Summit Conference, Delhi
Context:
How are humans destroying the world?
What is causing catastrophes?
Why is there so much violence in the world?
Why is mental illness so prevalent?
How to heal ourselves?
Is technology unleashing havoc?
Will technology take over the world?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Acharya Prashanthji is a powerful voice of social spiritual awakening in today's world.
00:07He is an acclaimed Vedanta expert and author of over 100 books, an alumnus of IIT Delhi,
00:16IIM Ahmedabad and a former civil services officer.
00:20He is an exponent of pure Vedantic wisdom, a vocal warrior against superstition
00:29and inner weakness, a promulgator of pure spiritual veganism and an expounder of essential human freedom.
00:41And I personally want to point out that whatever views and work he is doing for the gender sensitization and justice is remarkable.
00:54A big round of applause for him.
01:01And he has addressed students, faculties, employees at 100 plus premier institutions and corporates.
01:07I'll just name a few. The list goes on and on.
01:10Bagh College USA, IISc Bangalore, IIT Delhi, Mumbai, Sir JJ College of Architecture, etc.
01:19In 2022, PETA recognized and awarded him as the most influential vegan of the year award, 2022.
01:30His movement has touched lives of tens of millions of individuals.
01:34Through his direct contact with people and through various virtual interactions, he continues to bring clarity to all.
01:41Thank you so much and the stage is all yours, Anjali.
01:45And thanks for patiently hearing me out.
01:50Good evening, Sir.
01:52Sir, because this conference is on psychology and technology, I would like to talk about something that's very, very close to this.
02:01So there's a very famous quote by Carl Jung and I'll use my phone so that I don't get it wrong.
02:08It says, the gigantic catastrophes that threaten us today are not elemental happenings of a physical or biological order, but psychic events.
02:20Instead of being at the mercy of wild beasts, earthquakes, landslides and inundations, modern man is battered by the elemental forces of his own psyche.
02:33We see this on display around us everywhere.
02:38The manifestations of the psyche in terms of man-made disasters, anthropogenic events, climate change, pollution, Chernobyl, oil spills on the ocean, to name just a few.
02:53So there are high-tech events and there are events of manifestations of psyche, man's psyche.
03:01So can we fix this? What is the way out?
03:07The way out is the way in.
03:13You have named the physical consequences of the psychic events that the Jung quote is referring to.
03:31Those are the physical consequences.
03:34But even if those physical consequences like wars, nuclear disasters, the climate catastrophe, even if they are not visible,
03:48the fact is that the inner disaster as a standalone happening in itself is quite catastrophic.
04:03You see, we are all messed up within, badly messed up within.
04:12The result of this inner chaos is sometimes visible externally as well.
04:25But that does not mean that the inner chaos is limited to the external consequence.
04:36Even if consequences are not visible, they still are there in a subtle form within.
04:46Because physical events, material events, gross events, first of all they may involve a time lag.
04:57Secondly, you might not always be able to detect what is going on till something catastrophic just suddenly erupts.
05:14For example, we do not know for sure how an earthquake builds up.
05:2320, 30, 40 years, two huge tectonic plates keep pushing against each other and the tension keeps building up.
05:36And nothing is visible on the surface, nothing at all.
05:39And then one fine day, there is a massive eruption.
05:48So, the basic principle of Vedanta is that the world is a projection of man's mind.
06:03By man obviously we mean mankind, humankind.
06:09So, the world is a projection of the mind.
06:13And if the mind is not being taken care of, then the world will obviously be a messy place.
06:22Our education, our culture, the way kids are brought up, we are just not looking within.
06:34First of all, as we are born, the senses are all designed to look outwards.
06:44That's how our physical configuration is.
06:50It's a very obvious thing, but the obviousness very cutely conceals the deviousness.
07:02You look at the eyes, they are looking only at the world as if the world is an objective reality.
07:09The ears can hear only the sounds that are coming to us from the outside.
07:17The skin, it touches surfaces, it touches nothing within.
07:22And these are the only means through which we gather knowledge,
07:30through which we make sense of the world and ourselves.
07:34Basically, it means that we cannot make much sense of what is within and who we are
07:42because that's not how we are designed.
07:44The entire apparatus you could say is one-sided.
07:48You could even say it's faulty.
07:54So that's how we are born to begin with.
07:57And then there is the entire education and upbringing and conditioning
08:05that is founded on the philosophy that the purpose of life is to be happy.
08:15And happiness is obtained by external acquisitions.
08:22If you're not happy, go somewhere, do something, buy something, eat something, wear something,
08:28find somebody to talk to.
08:33So that's the philosophy that raises us from the kid to the adult.
08:45Double whammy.
08:49Born defective and then raised in a very insensible way.
09:00The result is that most of us remain totally oblivious of the environment within.
09:08Though that's where we live.
09:11Even as we are sitting here, please see,
09:18there is this that you are sitting within.
09:26But where you are actually living, where each of us lives all his or her life is in the mind.
09:36That's where we live.
09:40All experiences are here.
09:44This is what matters.
09:51If one is given a choice to be in a fabulous external environment,
09:59but with sickness within, one would not sensibly want to choose that.
10:06On the contrary, if the external environment is not great and yet you are joyful within,
10:20you'd hardly have any problems with such a situation.
10:28So we have to live within.
10:32That's where our life is.
10:37That's where our location, our situation is.
10:45And yet we spend all our time and energy looking at the external world.
10:54The problem, as I tried to put it, is at the level of biology and philosophy.
11:08Biology produces the kid in a particular way and our philosophy of parenting, philosophy of education,
11:18philosophy of life itself is so flawed that we totally forget that the child has to live within.
11:29In the psychic sense, the child is not born on this planet.
11:35The child takes birth within her own mind because that's where we all exist.
11:43We exist within our minds.
11:47Once you have fallen asleep, when you are in deep sleep, do you exist?
11:56Somebody else would confirm that you do exist, you are lying on your bed.
12:01But for yourself, your existence has ceased because for us, and that's all that matters, right?
12:11Because we have to live our lives.
12:12We don't have to live our lives as per the experience of somebody else.
12:19So we are lying on the bed, deeply asleep.
12:23Somebody else might be asserting that the fellow exists.
12:31But for yourself, do you exist at that moment?
12:36You don't exist.
12:37So where is your existence?
12:40Your existence is within your own mind.
12:42The child is born within her mind.
12:47The mind is where our location is.
12:50The mind is where our entire life and all our experiences are.
12:58And our education does not take us there.
13:02Our education does not address the most important thing that must be addressed.
13:12So, more than a decade back when I used to more frequently address college audiences,
13:20I used to say, all your education put together on one side is less valuable than one single course on education of the self, life education.
13:42But we are taught of everything.
13:45Sciences, humanities, languages, quality, all of that we are well versed in.
13:59But in no book generally do we find the word self.
14:12The question of identity remains neglected.
14:17Yes, I understand.
14:18In neuroscience, we take it up.
14:20In psychology, we take it up.
14:24First of all, a very small fraction of students opts for these things.
14:31Secondly, even if they do opt for these disciplines, that happens only after class 12th.
14:38And thirdly, the question of liberation from suffering, that is not taken up even in these disciplines.
14:51Because it's not sufficient to talk of the psyche.
14:56One also has to talk of liberation because that's what we want.
15:03The fundamental human condition is of suffering.
15:08That deserves attention.
15:13How to tackle that problem?
15:17What is suffering, where does it come from and how to be liberated from it?
15:23Is my existence not congruous with, synonymous with suffering?
15:31Can I continue to be and yet not suffer?
15:37We don't take up these questions.
15:41The result is the kind of catastrophe you just talked of.
15:47And the irony is, it's still not very visible at the material level.
16:00Had it been very visible, then we would have been shaken up.
16:07And something would have been done.
16:11Our indifference, our complacency itself testifies that the full effects of the inner catastrophe are still not externally manifest.
16:29So we can afford to remain oblivious.
16:34But that won't continue for long.
16:38And I shudder to think of a situation in which it in fact does continue for long.
16:47That would mean a world in which everything is more or less alright on the surface.
16:57But within, everybody is insane.
17:04Externally everything is orderly and within everything is chaotic.
17:15And when insanity becomes universal, then we'll call it the norm.
17:26And once you call it the norm, then nothing comes as a shock.
17:31You don't even want to discuss chaos or insanity or disorder because that's the norm.
17:39Something is taken up for discussion, consideration only if it appears unusual.
17:51If everybody goes mad, who would talk of madness?
17:57In a madhouse, nobody is mad.
18:02Everybody is okay.
18:11And we are, I fear, very speedily hurtling towards that kind of situation.
18:23And in that situation, you know who's declared mad?
18:32Those who dare to talk of madness.
18:38They are the ones labeled mad and lynched.
18:47It's a very unfortunate capacity that we as human beings have.
18:53The capacity to adapt and survive.
19:01We can adapt, we can acclimatize and we can survive even with horrible internal madness.
19:15We probably already are doing that.
19:24And being insane within will behave and display as if everything is alright.
19:37Getting it?
19:38Now, where is the question of corrective action?
19:43To treat a disease, first of all, one has to acknowledge a disease as disease.
19:50How can there be treatment sans diagnosis?
20:00But if disease, I repeat, becomes commonplace, then it is no more called a disease.
20:11It's called being human.
20:15It's a part of our human nature.
20:17It's normal.
20:18It's natural, as we say these days.
20:29So, you tell someone, please, you are being violent.
20:32See what you are doing to the animal.
20:34They say, no, this is not violence.
20:36I am just being natural.
20:38See, there is a lot of exploitation and lust and greed and possessiveness and obviously violence in your relationships.
21:00That comes the reply.
21:01But isn't all that natural?
21:04So, that's we are very quickly coming to.
21:08All our diseases will be called our nature.
21:18Think of the very dimension of the calamity.
21:26Your very nature is being displaced.
21:28Veda tells you, truth is your nature, joy is your nature, right?
21:37Satchidanand Swabhav.
21:40So, realization is your nature, understanding is your nature.
21:46Your nature is a state of joyful understanding and our very nature is being displaced.
21:55We are being told that being animalistic is our nature and if you will call that out, we will feel offended.
22:14You are shaming us.
22:15You are judging us.
22:17No, but it's a diagnosis, sir.
22:20You are sick.
22:21Here, here is your report.
22:23No, no, no.
22:24How dare you judge me?
22:28Probably the day is not far when that's how we will respond to our physicians as well, our doctors.
22:36The doctor tells you, you are all hollow within, the liver, kidney, lungs are all gone and you will say, but you are judging me.
22:45How dare you call me sick?
22:48Can I lodge an FIR?
22:52You just called me sick.
23:03Doctors are lucky, they have material proof.
23:07So, they can get away with whatever they say.
23:18As a doctor of the insides, I don't find myself that lucky.
23:34When existence and disease become so intimately related that the sick one himself becomes the sickness, then how do you treat the sickness?
24:04When the sufferer is the suffering, when the diseased one is the disease, then removing the disease appears so offensive, right?
24:19If you remove the disease, then the diseased one is removed, annihilated, gone.
24:25It feels like death to him.
24:28You have not healed me, you have killed me because my disease was my life and now that the disease is gone, I am gone.
24:39That's what we have come to and all due to very hollow philosophy of life and absence of education of the self.
24:56And in diagnosing our current situation this way, I suppose we have already come to the solution.
25:07If you can understand what brings us to this point, it becomes very clear.
25:14Yes, how to go beyond this point.
25:19Good evening, sir.
25:23So, my question is related to the topic of this conference itself, technology and psychology.
25:29So, the question that haunts me from day one is that technology creates such a havoc in our life.
25:34Yet, for our psychological well-being, we do need an escapism from this chaos around which is again provided by technology, be it through gaming or reels or any other addiction that we have.
25:45So, I am trying to understand how do we attempt to escape from this vicious cycle or understand this vicious cycle of poor psychological well-being and the trap that we are in of the technology.
25:59See, what is technology?
26:02What do we call as technology?
26:07Science put to use is technology, right?
26:15Science used to fulfill your desire is technology, correct?
26:24So, it's not technology that unleashes a havoc.
26:32It's your desire.
26:35Science is knowledge of the material.
26:39Now, what do you want to do with knowledge depends on your own inner orientation.
26:48No?
26:50You split open the atom and you can use that energy to power a city or you could use the energy to destroy a city, the same city.
27:10Are you getting it?
27:13So, technology is a direct function of your inner mental condition.
27:23Great discoveries of science will be badly misused if the user is violent, possessive, fearful, ignorant.
27:50And it's a part of the entire game of not looking inwards that we prefer to rather blame technology and sometimes even science.
28:12Technology is a toy that we have made and science is pure knowledge.
28:20How can knowledge be blamed for our wretched condition?
28:27And how can a man-made toy be responsible for man's suffering?
28:38You have the mobile phone in your hand.
28:40You decide what to do with it and great things can be done with that mobile phone.
28:47Equally, the lowest kind of actions can be assisted by the phone.
28:59It depends on you.
29:00What do you want to do with that?
29:02Any machine.
29:04Figure out what do you want to do with it.
29:08So, we have to remember that knowledge is a resource.
29:14Technology is a resource and who is the user of that resource?
29:21The user of that resource is the self.
29:26You could call that as the mind loosely or you could call that as the I, the ego.
29:32That's the entity that uses all the resources that are possible to be used.
29:39So, if you are in a healthy condition, then whatsoever you can use will be used for a healthy purpose.
29:55Otherwise, it will be obviously misused.
29:58It's a thing as simple as this.
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