Vibes, Energy, Aura: New-age nonsense || Acharya Prashant, at IIT-Guwahati (2023)
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Video Information: 02.07.21, XLRI- Jamshedpur (an Online discourse), Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh
Context:
What is the relation between spirituality and religion?
Is religion important to human being?
How to understand the religion?
Has religion really been successful in its purpose?
Is man better off without religion?
What is the role of religion in a man's life?
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: 02.07.21, XLRI- Jamshedpur (an Online discourse), Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh
Context:
What is the relation between spirituality and religion?
Is religion important to human being?
How to understand the religion?
Has religion really been successful in its purpose?
Is man better off without religion?
What is the role of religion in a man's life?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00It is our profound honor to have the renowned teacher and philosopher Acharya Prashant amongst
00:08us today.
00:09A social reformer and educator of true spirituality in the world, Acharya Prashant speaks strongly
00:16for female empowerment, protection of the natural world, compassion for animals, Vedantic
00:21wisdom for living rightly and campaigns against superstition.
00:28He leads the global movement of freedom and liberation from the societal chains that pull
00:33us away from truth and peacefulness.
00:35With more than 15 million followers on social media, Acharya Prashant has been inspiring
00:41people with his profound teachings and insights for many years.
00:46His teachings are known for the depth, clarity and relevance to the challenges of our times.
00:52Through his teachings, he guides people towards a deeper understanding of themselves and the
00:58world around them, helping them to find purpose and meaning in their lives.
01:03An IIT Delhi IIM Ahmedabad alumnus, an ex-civil servant, the recipient of PETA's Most Influential
01:11Vegan Award and the author of over 100 books on karma, joy, love, marriage, spirituality
01:19and more, please join me in welcoming Acharya Prashant with a big round of applause.
01:28Sir, kindly please raise the stage to address the audience.
01:46Sir, when it is said that a person or a place has positive or negative vibrations, you strongly
01:52disagree with this point of view.
01:54Why is it so?
01:56The reason is philosophical, the reason has its roots in Vedanta, but I will narrate it
02:05in layman's language.
02:11You remember the witch hunt, have you read of it, medieval Europe?
02:19Women were declared to be witches and burnt alive, stoned, executed by various means,
02:34the most ghastly kind of means possible and what was the justification that was offered?
02:44I sense that the woman has evil, in today's language they would have said she is sending
02:54me negative vibes, she is sending me bad vibrations or as the culture to say low frequency vibrations
03:07or her aura is bad, that was the kind of reason that was offered.
03:17Yes, it is true that often when you look at a person or a place, you experience a certain
03:33feeling, in fact that always happens.
03:35Even if you look at a stranger, there is a certain reaction that arises from within.
03:41Yes, that does happen, but please tell me as students of science, does that necessarily
03:49have to do with the object that you are viewing or experiencing or does it have more to do
03:57with your own prejudices, patterns, attitudes, way of looking at the world, bent of mind,
04:06please tell me.
04:07The moment you talk of people as emitting good waves or bad waves, positive or negative
04:19vibrations, you completely stop looking at your own self, you start saying if I am experiencing
04:32something, it is because of the object of experience.
04:38Please do something about the sound, there is a lot of echo.
04:44The thing is, I look at something and what do I declare, the feeling that I am experiencing
04:52upon coming in contact with that particular object is because of that object.
04:58I am nowhere in the picture, I am neutral, I am transparent, I am nobody.
05:07The thing is, what you are experiencing is totally subjective to you, it is your own
05:15feeling, but you are imposing your feeling upon that object.
05:25You look at a person and you say this fellow gives me bad vibes, now those bad vibes are
05:33your feelings about that person, but you are pretending as if your feelings are his quality.
05:43Now those are your feelings, why don't you admit that?
05:48Why are you superimposing your experience upon that object?
05:54And the experience is extremely subjective.
05:58The same person who gives you negative vibes gives very positive vibes to somebody else.
06:06So what you are experiencing has very little to do with the object, it has much more to
06:11do with who you are or what you have become.
06:17Are you getting it?
06:19Think of a particular color.
06:22The same color gives very sacred vibes to one community and very profane vibes to another one.
06:31Does it happen or not?
06:33Think of a place of worship.
06:36A religious fellow belonging to a certain denomination would say, whenever I come close
06:44to this place, I experience divinity.
06:48You experience divinity only because you are already conditioned to experience that way.
06:54A person who does not subscribe to religion or believes in some other religious path experiences
07:03nothing of the sort that you do.
07:06Actually there is nothing magical or special about that religious place that appears to
07:14give you sacred vibes.
07:17But then that's the culture today, not to look at yourself and look only at the world.
07:23And this philosophy is called materialism.
07:28Do you see this?
07:31The philosophy that says do not look at yourself, look only at the world.
07:37That philosophy is called materialism.
07:39The material is the truth.
07:42And the second truth is who you are.
07:47So there are two truths in materialism.
07:49It's a dualistic philosophy.
07:51It says you exist to consume the world.
07:55You exist to consume material and consumption of material gives you happiness.
08:00So in the name of spirituality, in the name of vibes and energies and auras,
08:07what is being propagated is rank materialism.
08:11That's the philosophy of today.
08:15Vedanta on the other hand says something very sensible.
08:20It says, son, you are the source of all your experiences.
08:27If you experience something, the experiencer is the experience.
08:34J. Krishnamurti very famously said, the observer is the observed.
08:40And modern physics, we all know, says very clearly
08:45that you cannot observe elementary phenomena without interfering with them.
08:54Which means there is nothing called objectivity.
09:01When you look at the macro level, then you say,
09:04just because I am looking at that wall, that wall does not change.
09:09At the macro level, at the Newtonian level, that holds good.
09:14The object of observation does not change with respect to the observer.
09:21The observed object is not a function of the observer.
09:26But when you go to the elementary level,
09:31to the minutest level possible,
09:39then it is very clear that observation changes the observed phenomena,
09:46the observed object.
09:49Which means nothing holds its own properties.
09:54The properties that anything holds
09:57are actually a function of the observer of those properties.
10:04If I put it in layman's language,
10:06your girlfriend holds certain properties for you.
10:09She does not hold those properties for her neighbor or her father or her brother.
10:15Is that true or not? Obviously yes.
10:20But when you talk of vibes and all, then you want to say,
10:23no, no, no, I am not prejudiced, I am not conditioned, I am not flawed.
10:29That fellow sends me bad vibes.
10:32Well, that fellow sends sacred vibes to somebody else.
10:38Don't you see that your perception is totally subjective?
10:43But we do not realize that.
10:46So this cult of vibrations and auras and energies
10:50and positivity and negativity,
10:53it is an enemy of self-observation.
10:56It will not allow you to look at yourself.
10:59Whatever is happening within,
11:01you will think it is happening as a result of some external happening.
11:08You will keep looking outwards.
11:11And that's a great damage that this cult inflicts on you.
11:19It is a mark of wisdom
11:22to be a little detached to your experiences.
11:26Not to take your experiences as the truth.
11:33Because when you are taking the experience as the truth,
11:36you are actually taking the experiencer as truthful.
11:40The fact is that the experiencer
11:43is a very, very corrupted, conditioned,
11:47actually fictitious entity that exists within.
11:50It is classically called as the
11:53It is called as the ego.
11:58And the ego is a product of physical and social conditioning.
12:05The ego is the experiencer.
12:07Which means all your experiences are with respect to your ego.
12:12That's why your experiences keep changing
12:18so frequently and often so totally.
12:22Are you getting me?
12:28So to believe in your experiences,
12:31then you say, oh I experienced bad vibes.
12:34That's why that fellow is bad.
12:37To believe in your experiences is to worship your ego.
12:40Because the experiencer is the ego.
12:43It is the cult of the ego.
12:46And such a cult is profanity itself.
12:50It is directly opposed
12:53to any kind of inwardness, wisdom or spirituality.
12:58And when this thing happens,
13:01then there is a lot of violence, a lot of ignorance
13:04and obviously a lot of sorrow.
13:07If you don't want to suffer,
13:10do not take yourself seriously.
13:13What do I mean by yourself?
13:16The ego itself, the experiencer.
13:19Do not take them very seriously.
13:22You very well know they are a product
13:25of the influences you experienced,
13:28the education you went through,
13:31the family you came from,
13:34the indoctrination that you received.
13:37That's where the experiencer comes from.
13:40Every single experience is changing the experiencer.
13:43How can you rely on the experiencer?
13:46All wisdom is about,
13:49you are not the experiencer.
13:52You are not the experiencer.
13:55You are not the experienced object,
13:58you are not the experiencer
14:01and you have nothing to do with the experience.
14:04You have to stay clear of this triad.
14:07Then who am I?
14:10That's what is to be sought.
14:14I cannot take myself so seriously.
14:17If I take myself very seriously,
14:20then I have turned into a worshipper of the ego
14:23and that's very problematic
14:26because it pushes me deep into suffering.
14:29Who was the questioner?
14:32Is this more or less clear?
14:35Any follow ups on this?
14:38Don't you all wonder,
14:41do the philosophical texts
14:44talk of vibrations
14:47and auras and energies?
14:50Do they? No, they don't.
14:53Go to the Sankhya Kadaka
14:56or Yog Sutra
14:59or the Upanishads
15:02or Nyaya Sutra.
15:05Do you find such fancy terms there?
15:08Or their equivalents in Sanskrit?
15:11No, you don't find them
15:14because they were thinkers.
15:17They were not foolish people
15:20to believe in all these things.
15:23More recently,
15:26do you have a Ramakrishna Paramhansa
15:29or a Vivekananda or a Ramana Maharshi
15:32or a J. Krishnamurthy talking of vibrations?
15:36Did any wise fellow ever talk of vibrations
15:39or energy or all these stupid things?
15:42No.
15:45It's only in the last 20-30 years
15:48that this kind of thing has come up
15:51and a lot of that is because of spiritual illiteracy
15:54and also because we don't know science.
15:57So we start believing in these things.
16:00Somebody says negative energy, negative vibrations beats me.
16:03I once asked, can you please demonstrate to me
16:06by way of an equation
16:09what would a negative vibration really look like?
16:12Negative with respect to what? What is the origin?
16:15All positive and negative is with respect to some origin.
16:18How do you define the origin here, please?
16:21Sir, the origin is the ego.
16:24What pleases the ego you call as positive.
16:27What displeases the ego you call as negative.
16:30It was a test match.
16:33It was positive for the Indian.
16:36It was negative for the...
16:39There is no absolute truth in positivity or negativity.
16:42It is all with respect to who you have become
16:45and what you have become today would change tomorrow,
16:48would it not? Please tell me.
16:51Something that you absolutely loved
16:54two years back is something
16:58that you so viciously hate today.
17:01Does that happen or not?
17:04So what is positive and what is negative?
17:07But we just fall for it.
17:17Low frequency vibrations.
17:20How exactly are you calculating
17:23the vibrational frequency of a person?
17:26And if you want indeed,
17:29if you want to go by the wave-particle duality
17:32and posit that all particles
17:35are waves as well,
17:38then we must understand that
17:41only very elementary particles like electrons
17:44can have any kind of substantial
17:47wavelength or frequency associated with them.
17:50We know all that. Class 12.
17:53Forget about a human being weighing
17:5660 kilograms.
17:59Can some smart fellow from here
18:02who remembers his physics calculate even
18:05the wavelength of a tennis ball
18:08or a cricket ball?
18:11Can you? You can.
18:14There is a formula. But the wavelength
18:17would be of a dimension
18:21that you would rather want to ignore.
18:24And here we are talking just of a small ball.
18:27And when you talk of a human being
18:30weighing 60 or 80 kilograms,
18:33what kind of vibration are you imagining?
18:36No.
18:47Good we have started with this question.
18:50I am pretty sure that we have many
18:53amongst us here,
18:56even in the IIT fraternity, who believe in such things.
18:59And all that is quite unfortunate.
19:02And I also know that in spite of
19:05me having said what I just did,
19:08we would probably continue to believe in such things.
19:11Because there is something within us that just
19:14doesn't want to accept facts.
19:17That just doesn't want to live
19:20in understanding and wisdom.
19:23It's a very difficult thing to fight.
19:26But anyway,
19:29any follow-ups on this?
19:35And let the
19:38follow-ups be very closely related
19:41to the topic at hand, please.
19:50Namaste Acharya ji.
19:53So I have one follow-up question.
19:56So I have a question for you.
19:59I have a question for you.
20:02Namaste Acharya ji. So I have one follow-up question.
20:05So I also don't believe in higher frequency
20:08or lower vibration.
20:11But I have one question.
20:14So if I meet with certain set of people,
20:17I feel very much excited.
20:20And if I meet with other people,
20:23I feel very much demotivated or exhausted.
20:26Then how will you explain this?
20:29It's your own inclination.
20:32It's your own tendency.
20:35Let's name the first group of people as A.
20:38A motivates you.
20:41And let's call the second group of people as B.
20:44The presence or experience of B demotivates you.
20:47Does A demotivate everybody?
20:50Does that happen?
20:53Does that happen?
20:56And does the presence of B motivate everybody?
20:59It is something within you specifically
21:02that gets motivated or demotivated.
21:05Somebody else will have a totally different experience.
21:08Think of a flag.
21:11If you think of
21:14one particular country's flag,
21:17the moment you look at that flag,
21:20you will experience what you call as positivity.
21:23There are 200 plus countries
21:26in the world
21:29and they all have their flags and national anthems.
21:32And when the citizen of a country
21:35hears his anthem,
21:38what does he experience usually?
21:41What does he experience?
21:44Come on, please. Positivity.
21:47And when an enemy country
21:50hears the same anthem,
21:53what do they experience?
21:56What do they experience?
21:59Now, what if you change your citizenship?
22:02Tell me, that does happen, right?
22:05People in large numbers,
22:08in several lakhs,
22:11give up citizenships.
22:14And that's happening all over the world.
22:18So today, one particular sight or sound
22:21used to be very positive for you.
22:24Tomorrow, another thing will become very positive for you.
22:27Now, please tell me, is the thing or the sound positive
22:30or is it about your own mind?
22:33It's your own mind.
22:36Now, do not
22:39allege that the thing has certain properties.
22:42The thing is just a thing.
22:45The thing is just a thing.
22:48It is neither positive nor negative.
22:51With respect to the thing, you experience something
22:54because you have an attitude towards the thing.
22:57Because you are biased for or against.
23:00Because you are prejudiced.
23:03Or because you are inclined towards the thing.
23:06Have inwardness, please.
23:09Inwardness means,
23:12if I have a certain experience, I will look at myself.
23:15That's what comes first.
23:18I come first.
23:21Later on, I'll also look at the object
23:24or the stimulus that arouse the experience.
23:27Fine, that is okay. I'll look at that.
23:30I'm not saying I'll ignore totally the object in front of me.
23:33No, it's not to be totally ignored.
23:36But the first thing to be investigated is the self.
23:39That's the basis of all wisdom, all philosophy.
23:42That's Vedanta. And that's also common sense.
23:45Does that satisfy you?
23:48Where are you?
23:51Does that help? Thank you.
24:02Good evening, sir. And thank you for debunking
24:05the vibration theory.
24:08Is this same concept, same
24:11thing related to people
24:14selling things like stones and all like
24:17some people say, if I keep this stone,
24:20say they buy something, a stone or some motif
24:23and they get some good vibe, good aura
24:26from that particular stone or any object.
24:29Stone, you say. Stone or any object. Right, right, right.
24:32So is it the same? Right, right, yes, yes.
24:35Stones and stones and all these things,
24:38they all belong to the same field.
24:41A thing is a thing.
24:44A thing is just a thing.
24:47If you talk of a thing like a
24:50bullet, I understand. It hurts your physicality.
24:53If you talk of a thing like
24:56a medical pill, we again understand because
24:59it has a certain effect on your physicality.
25:02And the physicality is a fact.
25:05But when you talk of a thing affecting
25:08your mind, then mind you
25:11that it is the mind that decides
25:14what to be affected by.
25:17The body has no choice. Mind is another
25:20name for choice.
25:23If you bring
25:26a flame to your arm,
25:29a torch,
25:32the skin will not have a choice in
25:35reacting to the heat.
25:38Doesn't depend whether it is the skin of the Buddha or Krishna.
25:41If there is
25:44a bacteria or a virus, it will
25:47affect the saint and the sinner alike
25:50because the body is just a body.
25:53Right? Ramana Maharshi,
25:56Ramakrishna, they both died of cancer.
25:59And legend has it
26:02that an arrow pierced
26:05the foot of Shri Krishna and he had to go.
26:12The Buddha too died
26:15of stomach ailment
26:18or some other ailment, some other physical disorder.
26:21So the body is the body. It does not matter whose body it is.
26:25But the mind is a totally different thing.
26:28The mind is consciousness and consciousness is synonymous
26:31with choice. Consciousness
26:34decides. And when you say
26:37I have no choice. She came in front of me
26:40and I just went bonkers.
26:43Then you are defying
26:46and denying consciousness. And if you are not conscious
26:49then you do not deserve to be called human.
26:52Why do we worry people when they are
26:55dead? Because they cannot have
26:58consciousness anymore. Even the
27:01possibility of them ever becoming conscious again
27:04in the future is now zero.
27:07So we say fine, dispose the body.
27:10What is consciousness?
27:13What is the mind? Mind is the power
27:16to choose. Power
27:19to be. You can decide
27:22what is right. You can inquire. You can investigate.
27:25You can figure out. One thing
27:28appears very appealing to you today.
27:31We are not animals to be just
27:34drawn towards it. As intelligent human
27:37beings, what do we do?
27:40We go and we investigate. We say fine, this thing appears
27:43quite lucrative. It is attracting me.
27:46But what is it really about? So you investigate, you investigate.
27:49And if your investigation
27:52tells you that the thing
27:55is not how it appears to be, then what do you do
27:58with the thing? You drop it. So you have
28:01choice.
28:04Are you getting it?
28:07A stone
28:10can affect you only
28:13if you first of all already believe
28:16that it is going to affect you.
28:19So it is not the stone that is having an effect on you.
28:22It is your belief that is having an effect on you.
28:25But we don't see this. We think it's about the stone.
28:28No, it's not about that. It's about
28:31that's Vedanta. It's not about
28:34that. It's about this.
28:37And those who have known have gone on to say
28:40that this is the source of
28:43all that.
28:46So never be too bothered with that, that, that, that, that.
28:49Always go within. Ask yourself
28:52why is this thing affecting me? There is nothing special
28:55in the thing. There is nothing special
28:58in any kind of stone or Rudraksha or anything. No.
29:01But if you
29:04feel affected, it is because you have been
29:07strongly conditioned to believe that way.
29:10And there are a lot of people who have vested interests
29:13in conditioning you, in making you believe
29:16that a certain crystal or stone
29:19will have a beneficial effect on your life.
29:22Or if you wear
29:25a certain bracelet or whatever
29:28then your life will improve.
29:31Often they are the ones
29:34selling those stones, right?
29:37And if you have
29:40interest or stake, some kind of
29:43benefit you are drawing
29:46from
29:49propagating
29:52misbelief
29:55and superstition, then nothing
29:58stops you from turning an entire population
30:01superstitious.
30:04It's not without reason that people
30:07want everybody to turn superstitious
30:10because people are controllable when
30:13they are superstitious.
30:16You can command people, you can make them
30:19do as you wish if you can make them superstitious.
30:22Superstition is just conditioning, right?
30:25If you can condition people to be a certain way,
30:28to think a certain way, to hold certain
30:31beliefs as truth, then those
30:34people can be enslaved and that's what you
30:37want to become, their master.
30:40It's power that you are after.
30:43Don't let them have power.
30:46Your concern should be of freedom.
30:49As human beings and especially as young
30:52people, you should value nothing higher
30:55than freedom.
30:58Getting it?
31:04Hello, Namaste Acharya ji.
31:07So you spoke about vibrations,
31:10about stones. So I
31:13find this as abuse of science
31:16as in to justify superstitions
31:19and there are more other types of abuse
31:22of science like people are using
31:25science to justify not only just superstitions
31:28but profit mongering and
31:31misconducts even in the science.
31:34There was a time when science was seen
31:37similar to spirituality because
31:40it is the outcome of the same question
31:43just directed towards outside.
31:46So from such state now it has
31:49reached to abusive state.
31:52So how has this happened? That is my question to you.
31:55It was always this way.
31:58Think of Galileo, think of Newton,
32:01think of the attitude of the church towards
32:04them. It was always this way.
32:07It's just that today it's
32:10all the more tragic
32:13because we have a vast body of scientific
32:16literature available.
32:19Something that we never had
32:22in history.
32:25So if people were superstitious historically
32:28that is probably pardonable, right?
32:31Because the way of science,
32:34the discoveries of science,
32:37the proofs that science offers
32:40were not freely available to them.
32:43It's understandable if they had irrational beliefs.
32:46But today when all those things
32:49are freely available,
32:52there is the internet, literacy
32:55is at an all time high.
32:58You can access whatever
33:01scientific discipline you wish to.
33:04All that is available and still people are superstitious.
33:07That's tragic.
33:10And that's something that must make all of you wonder.
33:13Because we often think that
33:16if science progresses
33:19then all kinds of stupidities
33:22in the human species
33:27will be taken care of automatically, right?
33:30That has been the hope. We say a fellow is educated.
33:33We say a fellow is well read.
33:36We say the fellow knows science.
33:39So he would probably not be superstitious.
33:42But that's not come to pass.
33:45Instead we find even
33:48people well versed in science
33:51being quite superstitious.
33:54Just today we received a message
33:57from a person.
34:00I was at IIT Roorkee a few months back.
34:03Somebody wrote from there.
34:06He has been
34:09refusing proposals for my sister
34:12one after the other.
34:15For some reason related to the Kundali, the horoscope.
34:18So,
34:21I don't know what he wrote.
34:24Either she is Manglik, the fellow is Manglik, something.
34:27So,
34:30how is it possible that
34:33even education has not been able to take care of these things?
34:36If you will think on this,
34:39the answer will scare you.
34:42The answer is that there sits within all of us
34:45a very ancient and terrible
34:48beast.
34:51Very ancient beast.
34:54If you want to look
34:57disparagingly at that beast,
35:00then that beast has been called as the unconscious
35:03by Freud.
35:06I have been calling that beast
35:09as the inner animal, just the animal,
35:12the forest, the jungle.
35:15India has called that beast as
35:18Aham Vritti.
35:21And when you
35:24want to look at
35:27how
35:30understanding that beast can result
35:33in your liberation,
35:36then you want to address it
35:39with a more favorable name.
35:42So, in that case
35:45it has been called as
35:48Prakriti.
35:51And when you realize
35:54that going close to Prakriti
35:57which is your own
36:00primordial nature will result
36:03in your liberation,
36:06then you worship Prakriti by the
36:09name of Devi.
36:12And India has had
36:15Prakriti worship
36:18and Devi worship since long
36:21for a good reason.
36:24So, what we know of ourselves
36:27is the conscious
36:30part.
36:33We know
36:36of ourselves
36:39not too much.
36:42We do not realize
36:45where the bulk of our existence
36:48comes from.
36:51You realize
36:54that you are angry after you are angry.
36:57You do not realize
37:00for example where your instincts
37:03and feelings come from.
37:06And that's the bigger part of the
37:09self inside.
37:12And that self inside is very
37:15ancient. And by ancient
37:18I do not mean sacred. I simply mean
37:21animalistic.
37:24And it wants to remain that way.
37:27See, human beings have made rapid
37:30progress.
37:33Only 70,000 years ago did we
37:36begin to think. That's not much.
37:39And that's when we got
37:42our current name, Homo sapiens sapiens
37:45when we started thinking, when we started
37:48displaying some sapiens.
37:51But we are far older than
37:5470,000 years, right? We are millions of
37:57years old. And 70,000 years is
38:00nothing compared to how old we actually
38:03are. So, it's almost
38:06like in a flash,
38:09in a split second,
38:12we have become cultured and civilized
38:15externally. But internally the old
38:18thing has continued. Internally we are still animals.
38:21Internally we are still animals.
38:24Our instincts, our feelings belong to the
38:27animals. We share them with the animals.
38:30Attachment you find in animals, you find in human beings as well.
38:33Jealousy, possessiveness, you find
38:36all across the jungle,
38:39also in cities.
38:42You find somebody covetous,
38:45you find somebody
38:48violent, you find that in the jungle as well.
38:51Human beings are so
38:54territorial, fighting for land.
38:57Look at Russia and Ukraine.
39:00And look at the dogs in front of your house.
39:03They too keep fighting for land and
39:06dogs get very angry if some alien
39:09dog comes and starts
39:12squatting on the space they call as their own.
39:15Right? So we are doing all the
39:18things that animals do and that's what fundamentally
39:21drives us.
39:24One very strong
39:27thing that drives all animals
39:30is biology.
39:33Right?
39:36Those who have tried to understand it
39:39sometimes have said it's just the
39:42sexual urge or
39:45they have said well it is libido
39:48or elan vital but that's
39:51whatever, however you call it.
39:54It's something that you share with animals.
39:57Look at the human male rushing after
40:00the human female and doing that all his life.
40:03And look at the monkey running after the
40:06female monkey and doing that all his life.
40:09How are these two any different?
40:12And these are our primary motivators, are they not?
40:15Grabbing some land, grabbing some authority,
40:18getting some sex, possessing the
40:21object of sex,
40:24continuing to live.
40:27That's what
40:30Darwinian competitiveness was all about, right?
40:33You want to live and the other one also wants to live.
40:36Let's see who succeeds in living.
40:39Now that's what animals compete for.
40:42That's what we also compete for.
40:45Let's see who succeeds in living. I'll kill you.
40:48And if we will cooperate, we will cooperate
40:51only to the extent our interests overlap.
40:54Otherwise we'll be at war.
40:57So that's the animal within us
41:00and it is that animal that is superstitious.
41:03When you are being superstitious
41:06you are simply
41:09displaying
41:12that you might have come out of the jungle
41:15but the jungle has still not gone
41:18out of you.
41:21Getting it?
41:24Does the animal have thought?
41:27No.
41:30The animal only has his physical
41:33conditioning. Human beings are
41:36human beings, we said because
41:39just a few thousand years ago
41:42we started
41:46The superstitious mind is the one
41:49that prefers not to think, not to know
41:52not to understand. It just wants
41:55to believe and says well you know
41:58if everybody has been
42:01believing this way, it must be right. Who am I to disagree?
42:04Is that not the favorite argument
42:07of the superstitious ones?
42:10But when all the people have been believing in it since
42:13centuries there must be something in it
42:16and if you tell them what you are saying is unscientific
42:19they say oh but science does not know anything.
42:22So your little science is a baby in front of our
42:25ancient civilizations.
42:28First thing I want is that mobile phones must be
42:31snatched away from such people.
42:34If they have no respect for science they should not be allowed
42:37to enjoy the fruits of science.
42:40Let them walk barefoot in the jungle.
42:43They should not be using cars, mobile phones, computers
42:46they should not even be wearing clothes.
42:49The kind of disrespect people display towards science
42:52unbearable.
42:55Have you not heard phrases like these?
42:58Oh but your science has so much still to know.
43:01Oh but your science has till now explored only 0.01%
43:04of the universe. Your science is nothing.
43:07My superstition is everything.
43:10Babaji will tell something much higher than science.
43:13Babaji is someone who could not clear
43:16even his class 8 science exams
43:19and since then he has been so humiliated
43:22that he has been routinely
43:25abusing science. That's the fundamental reason.
43:38I am saying all this because I think you will be
43:41a receptive audience.
43:44I am hopeful
43:47I am talking to people who have not used
43:50science just as a means to clear the
43:53JEE and EARN placements.
43:56I hope science is not just a subject but a matter of attitude.
43:59Right? Never keep
44:02your thinking faculty away.
44:05Ask, ask, keep enquiring.
44:08Always seek to understand.
44:11Belief is not the answer
44:14to anything you come across.
44:17Even if you cannot come to a conclusion
44:20in your enquiry, it's far better
44:23to just stay in the process of investigation.
44:26Even if your entire life
44:29you cannot come to a definite answer, it is alright.
44:32But never come to a false answer.
44:35Never settle down too easily.
44:38Yes? Yes.
44:41You see,
44:44had I been
44:47had I been
44:50going by my feeling,
44:53I wouldn't have been standing here in front of you.
44:56My father
45:00who was not just my father
45:03but also
45:06my teacher
45:09he
45:12left me on the third of this month.
45:15There was no way I could have
45:18travelled so far to come to you.
45:21That's what my feeling said.
45:24In fact,
45:27my foundation had communicated
45:30to your organizing committee that I won't be able to come.
45:33But then
45:36we were told that it's a
45:39group of enthusiastic seekers
45:42who will have very
45:45relevant questions and who really want to benefit.
45:48So I put my feeling aside
45:51and came here.
45:55I'm pretty sure if I
46:03I'm pretty sure if I
46:06consult a whole lot of Pandits
46:09and other people, some of them might even suggest
46:12that it is not proper to travel so soon
46:15especially to the
46:18Purab Disha.
46:22And that's how things are.
46:25One direction is sacred.
46:28The other direction is to be avoided.
46:31So many
46:34other things.
46:37A
46:40ritualistic mind becomes insensitive
46:43and incapable of love. Do you see that?
46:46When you are superstitious
46:50you turn insensitive.
46:53Don't let that happen to you.
46:56Yes, question.
47:04I'm really sorry about your father
47:07but I just don't want to stop at a false
47:10answer as you have told.
47:13Your first topic was about negative vibes.
47:17Long time ago when humanity was still uncivilized
47:20we were scared of dark places
47:23because there might be wild animals.
47:26Based upon all those experiences they had
47:29they built up
47:32they started getting negative vibes from those dark places.
47:35So if they didn't believe
47:38in those negative vibes, natural selection
47:41would have eliminated them.
47:44That's true but that's a matter of the past, that's a thing of history.
47:47You are very right.
47:50You see what he is pointing at is that instinct does not come from nowhere.
47:53If for example
47:56even a small kid is afraid of the dark
47:59small babies are afraid of the dark
48:02nobody taught the infant to be afraid of the dark
48:05but the infant is nevertheless
48:08definitely afraid of the dark. Why?
48:12Our eyes are unable
48:15to have any power
48:18in the dark, right?
48:21So human beings have been since millions of years
48:24hunted in the dark.
48:27The nights used to be terrible hours
48:30so the fear of the dark has gone
48:33deep into our psyche and that fear has helped us
48:36because when you are afraid
48:39that turns you more alert, right?
48:42Something bad can happen. Let's group up.
48:45Where is the wood?
48:48Let's light the fire. It's dark.
48:51Where are the kids? Let's get all of them in. It's dark.
48:54And that has helped us survive. So that is alright.
48:57The reason was evolutionary and that is okay.
49:00But today, do you need to live by evolutionary reasons?
49:03Remember that human beings
49:07have come too far, too swiftly
49:10rather too suddenly ahead
49:13of the evolutionary curve. We talked of that, right?
49:16We have leaped ahead
49:19and those kinds of reasons
49:22were anyway quite imperfect.
49:25I'll tell you the kind of conditioning
49:28that the psyche experiences.
49:31If in your childhood
49:34you have been routinely smacked
49:37by your
49:40classmates who were fair in colour
49:43then it's
49:46proven that you will continue to have a bias
49:49against fair people for
49:52many decades thereafter
49:55and you will not even know why you dislike fair people.
49:58The simple reason is when you were 3, 4, 5,
50:016 years old then you were routinely
50:04being beaten up by fair looking kids
50:07and that has gone deep into your psyche
50:10and so now all your life you will be biased against fair people
50:13but because you do not know why so you will come up
50:16with very rational looking arguments.
50:19You will say, you know, why are people fair?
50:22Because their skin is not absorbing sunlight.
50:25That's why the pigment is not getting activated
50:28and if their skin is not absorbing sunlight
50:31that's an insult to the sun god
50:34and I cannot tolerate someone who insults my sun god
50:37so I'll kill all fair looking people.
50:40Now that's the argument you will come up with
50:43and that's how all rationalizations and
50:46justifications are
50:49but the simple reason is
50:52that in your unconscious sits a very old experience
50:56and here I have talked of an experience
50:59that you have had in your lifetime.
51:02The fact is that your cells carry the
51:05experience of entire mankind.
51:08So all those things that were happening then
51:11are there with you even today but you need not
51:14live by that. That's the reason why Vedanta
51:17continuously tells you, see you are not the body.
51:20Naham dehasme.
51:23What is that supposed to tell you?
51:26That you have no obligation to live by your bodily
51:29compulsions. That you have no obligation
51:32to live by your hormonal pressures.
51:35All that is the body, right?
51:38The body might keep saying something but please
51:41you are
51:44nothing but understanding. Bodho aham.
51:47I am understanding.
51:51I am not someone who has to be necessarily driven
51:54by the bodily and ancient and historical
51:57compulsions. No, I will not follow that.
52:00I am understanding. I will understand what's going on.
52:03The body might say sleep
52:06but I know I have an exam tomorrow. I won't sleep.
52:09The body has its own agenda and the agenda comes from
52:12evolution. The agenda of the body is
52:15continuity. Just secure itself and continue.
52:18Continue today and continue tomorrow
52:21in the form of kids. So that's what the body wants.
52:24That's all that the body wants.
52:27Eat and be married today and also have
52:30good sex and produce 40 kids
52:33so that your DNA proliferates.
52:36The body wants nothing more than that. Now do you want to
52:39live as the body? Animals live as the body.
52:42And if you are living as the body then there is no
52:45scope of consciousness and then
52:48one is no better than an animal.
52:51Right? I do not mean to disregard
52:54all your instincts and intuitions but you must know
52:57them as coming from stored
53:00experience of the past which might not be applicable
53:03today, which might be totally invalid today.
53:06Also which might be valid today but needs to be
53:09disregarded in light of consciousness.
53:12Getting it?