Why do we swing between divinity and evil? || Acharya Prashant, on Bhagavad Gita (2020)

Acharya Prashant

‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquir...  ⚡ Want Acharya Prashant’s regular updates? Join WhatsApp Channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Va6Z...   Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books? Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...   Want to accelerate Acharya Prashant’s work? Contribute: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/contri...   Want to work with Acharya Prashant? Apply to the Foundation here: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/hiring...  ~~~~~  Video Information: Shastra Kaumudi Live, 16.05.2020, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India  Context: 13. "This has been gained by me today; this desire I shall obtain; this is mine, and this wealth also shall be mine in the future.”  14. "That enemy has been slain by me, and others also shall I slay. I am the Lord, I enjoy, I am successful, powerful, and happy.”  15. "I am rich and well-born. Who else is equal to me? I will sacrifice, I will give, I will rejoice." Thus deluded by ignorance;  16. Bewildered by many a fancy, covered by the meshes of delusion, addicted to the gratification of lust, they fall down into a foul hell.  ~Shrimad Bhagwad Gita (Chapter-13, Verse-13,14,15,16)  ~ Who is an evil?  ~ Who is Asura?  ~ What is meant by Sattvic Guna? ~ Who else is equal to me? ~ How alert you are?  Music Credits: Milind Date ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .

Transcript

00:00Chapter 16, Srimad Bhagavad Gita, verses 13 to 16.

00:13This has been gained by me today.

00:16This desire I shall obtain.

00:19This is mine and this wealth also shall be mine in the future.

00:24Their enemy has been slain by me and others also shall I slay.

00:28I am the Lord, I enjoy, I am successful, powerful and happy, I am rich, I am well-born, who

00:35is equal to me?

00:36I will sacrifice, I will give, I will rejoice.

00:42Thus deluded by ignorance, bewildered by many a fancy, covered by the meshes of delusion,

00:50addicted to the gratification of lust, they fall down into a foul hell.

00:59So that's the description of those with Asuri Prakriti, the demonic disposition.

01:15Also the questioner says, I see that most of us have a mixture of both Asurika and the

01:25divine, Deviya state.

01:31Why does this mixture exist?

01:32Why do we switch back and forth?

01:36Also the deeper I get into the scriptures, the more I see that it is the same with my

01:41family.

01:43I am torn between limiting my contact with them to improving my ability to purify myself

01:49and between my duty to care for them, how to come out of this situation.

02:01Why do we switch back and forth between the two states?

02:06There is no answer to this because the only causing agent is your choice.

02:17If you do something and you ask the other, why do I do it?

02:24What can he say?

02:25He will say, it's your choice, that's what you do.

02:30Maybe it's an unconscious choice.

02:35Then the answer is that just as right now you appear to be quite conscious while asking

02:42this question, what's the question?

02:44Why do we switch back and forth between the Asuri and the Deviya state, between the demonic

02:50and the divine state?

02:55Similarly, you should remain equally conscious when you are making those switches.

03:00When those switches happen in your mind, those times, are you conscious?

03:08Right now as you are asking me this question, see how alert you are, you are wide eyed,

03:12you are eager, you want to know, you want to receive, you are alert, you are looking

03:17at things, you are so receptive.

03:23Right now, when you are asking me this question, and what's your question?

03:26Why do I slip back from a deity, why do I turn into a demon?

03:34But that's only right now, when you indeed did slip into the demonic state, had you had

03:43any consciousness?

03:49You had no consciousness, and even letting your consciousness recede is a choice.

03:58Consider an example.

04:04You slap someone in a drunken state, or abuse him, or do something else that is equally

04:13silly, and then later on, when you are confronted, you want to save your face, saying, oh, but

04:31I didn't do that consciously.

04:40It happened in spite of me.

04:43I just didn't know.

04:45I slipped.

04:46All right.

04:47Seems like a valid argument.

04:51At that moment, when you abused and slapped the other, you indeed were probably unconscious,

05:00right?

05:01But was the decision to turn unconscious too taken in an unconscious state?

05:13Getting the question?

05:17At 2 a.m., you slapped the other, and then, when you are questioned, you say, oh, I didn't

05:28do it on choice.

05:29It just happened.

05:30I was drunk.

05:31All right.

05:32You were unconscious.

05:34But you were quite conscious at midnight, when you chose to start drinking.

05:51That's when the champagne was opened.

05:59Was it not?

06:00And were you drunk when you started drinking?

06:04No.

06:05So, even the choice to turn unconscious is a conscious choice.

06:15Drinking is a great example.

06:16Is it not?

06:17Now, you could say, well, you see, sir, your argument is not fully valid because had I

06:22been fully conscious even at midnight, why would I take a decision to turn unconscious?

06:28All right.

06:30Fine.

06:31So, why did you take a decision to turn unconscious?

06:37What was then the overriding influence on you?

06:42You will say, well, you see, all these friends, they just hopped in.

06:49And because they were here, so we decided to have some drinks.

06:54All right.

06:56Who allowed those friends to enter your life?

07:01Who was the one who termed them as friends in the first place?

07:09And if those friends indeed turned in uninvited, did you not have the choice to send them back?

07:18So, even if you keep on presenting a series of excuses, you will find that it is always

07:28a choice to remain conscious or unconscious or to turn progressively unconscious.

07:35It is always a choice.

07:38And it is your choice.

07:39Therefore, you cannot ask, why does it happen?

07:41If you will ask me, why does it happen, I will turn the question back to you.

07:48I will ask, why did you do it?

07:49Why do you do it?

07:52And if you will go deeper into the question, if you will keep probing the chain bit by

08:02bit, you will find that ultimately you will come to your flawed concepts about your life.

08:15It will probably stop at that, if it has to stop anywhere at all.

08:22You will find that your basic philosophy of life is flawed.

08:28And your basic philosophy of life is what defines you as a human being.

08:37All animals are alike.

08:39I am talking of all individuals of a particular species.

08:43They are all alike.

08:44Are they not?

08:45You won't find them very different.

08:48Each dog has his own unique personality, but the differences in their personalities are

08:53minimal.

08:54Aren't they?

08:55Whereas you will find a great difference between the personalities of dogs and wolves or jackals

09:04and foxes.

09:06Great difference.

09:08Within a particular species, all members would be largely alike.

09:13But that's not so in the case of human beings.

09:16Human beings differ greatly because human beings are the only species that have the

09:21power, the ability, the freedom, the privilege to choose their central life philosophy.

09:30What your central life philosophy is, separates you from the other.

09:38Otherwise at the level of the body, we are all largely alike.

09:41You have two eyes, so have I.

09:44You are born, you live for X years, quite similar is my story at the physical level.

09:53Still, human beings are tremendously different from each other.

10:01It would be quite a stretch upon the imagination to say that Krishna, for example, is very

10:11similar to the lousy lout roaming the streets.

10:20You can't say that, can you?

10:24Men differ greatly among themselves.

10:32What is the difference?

10:34The difference is, what is it that you believe in?

10:40Right philosophy and you have a great person.

10:43Wrong philosophy and you have a totally distorted specimen.

10:48Unfortunately, most of us just don't have the right center, the right philosophy.

10:56That right philosophy is found at such places, some places.

11:04Those places are called spiritual scriptures.

11:11The rishis were essentially philosophers of life and they gave a great and exalted philosophy.

11:22Philosophy of a stature that no other philosopher has been able to match at all.

11:31You have had several others coming after them.

11:35You had philosophers in all corners of the world.

11:39But nobody has been able, for example, to match the philosophy of Advaita Vedanta.

11:45All right, you may not want to agree to Advaita Vedanta, but at least have some philosophy

11:53at your core.

11:56Some reasonable, coherent philosophy.

12:02Most people live their entire lives by very, very ramshackle, fragmented and horrible philosophies.

12:18They are not even conscious what their philosophy really is, though if you observe their life,

12:24you will be able to say, see when this kind of a thing happens, then he responds in this

12:28way.

12:29When that kind of a thing happens, he reacts in this way.

12:32So putting these two together, I can see what his philosophy is like.

12:36If you can watch somebody's actions, his thoughts, his life, you will be clearly seeing what

12:42his life philosophy is and there is a central philosophy.

12:46But most people do not even know what their central philosophy is because their central

12:50philosophy, unfortunately, was ingrained in them, implanted in them when they were

12:58just too young.

13:00They were conditioned by education and family and society and so many other things.

13:06They took in that philosophy and started believing in it as the ultimate truth.

13:13And that philosophy incapacitated them to an extent.

13:18It made them mentally, intellectually handicapped to an extent that they are not even able to

13:25now perceive and detect that philosophy, let alone question it.

13:31Are you getting it?

13:33And it is their philosophy that works for them, decides for them, speaks for them, lives

13:37for them in a very horrible way, obviously.

13:42Are you getting it?

13:45You must ask yourself, what is my philosophy?

13:49What do I live by?

13:52What's my internal compass?

13:55What's my inner equation or formula?

13:57And we all have one.

14:00Don't say, I can't detect any because I don't have any.

14:03You too have something.

14:08Find it out.

14:09Dig it out.

14:10When you'll find it out, you might be amazed.

14:15It might be so rotten, so distorted, you'll be left wondering how come you lived by this

14:20for so long.

14:23Are you getting it?

14:27And that is the reason I emphasize so much on the scriptures.

14:36That which you call as divine revelations or the world of God, that word of God is actually

14:42just a top-notch philosophy, probably the best philosophy that is possible.

14:53We all deserve to read it, we all deserve to learn it, obviously.

15:02It's upon our discretion.

15:04But at least go to it, compare it with your inner existing embedded philosophy and the

15:14conclusion would be obvious.

15:16There is a tremendous difference between the clarity that they offer and the darkness that

15:25we contain.

15:27Are you getting it?

15:33That's the reason why most people keep switching between all these states.

15:38Because the central philosophy itself is quite rudimentary and dysfunctional.

15:48It doesn't allow them to operate consciously, energetically, pointedly in the right direction.

16:00It's a mixture of influences really.

16:04What do you call a philosophy that has one paragraph taken from Kant, the next one from

16:12Hegel, third one from Chopin, fourth from Voltaire and I'm talking of big names here.

16:22Even if you take four paragraphs from these four greats, the combination might still mean

16:33something meaningful.

16:36But what if your philosophy consists of 40 paragraphs, one taken from your geography

16:45teacher of class seven, one taken from your cousin who managed to clear a particular college

16:56entrance exam, one taken from a cartoon show that you watched in class three, one taken

17:05from the community bully who bashed you up when you were class four and after bashing

17:14you up he had proclaimed some golden words upon you just to add insult to injury and

17:25you took those words quite literally and seriously and turned them into your totem.

17:35Such is our philosophy.

17:37We do not even know where it comes from.

17:40It's a very jumbled up mass, a jumbled up mass of mangled visions.

18:10Then I see that the same is the case with my family as well.

18:22So I'm torn between limiting my contact with my family and improving my ability to purify

18:29myself and between my duty to care for them.

18:38You don't really have to see it as an either or situation.

18:44Being what you are, you are experiencing the dilemma or the crisis that you are.

18:53Remember that crisis is a function of who you are.

18:56Whatever you experience is a function of who you are.

19:00When you will change, your experience of the crisis itself will change.

19:03In other words, the crisis may no more remain at all.

19:09You say right now I am in a crisis.

19:10I am confused and the other one is confused.

19:14I do not know whose confusion to clear first.

19:17That's your question.

19:19Should I clear up his confusion?

19:21Should I focus on my own improvement?

19:24That's what you are asking.

19:26If you are confused, then obviously this question too is confused.

19:31If you are confused, then the two options that you are generating for yourself, both

19:35of them are obviously confused options.

19:39So you forget all about the situation.

19:42Focus on your own improvement.

19:44Get some clarity first of all.

19:46If you do not know what the situation is, how can you improve it?

19:49If you do not know what a thing is like, how can you change it?

19:54Even if you want to change something, you have to first of all be in your senses and

19:59understand what the thing is all about.

20:03When you know the stuff that is going on within you and around you, then you will be in a

20:09far better position to do something about it if something is needed at all.

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