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~~~~~
Video Information: 19.02.23, IIT-Guwahati, Guwahati
Context:
~ Cult of vibrations
~ Should one take vibes seriously?
~ Should one avoid people with negative vibes?
~ How is superstition still persisting?
~ Can modern science defeat superstition?
~ Can I trust my experiences?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/enquir...
Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books?
Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...
~~~~~
Video Information: 19.02.23, IIT-Guwahati, Guwahati
Context:
~ Cult of vibrations
~ Should one take vibes seriously?
~ Should one avoid people with negative vibes?
~ How is superstition still persisting?
~ Can modern science defeat superstition?
~ Can I trust my experiences?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00It is a profound honor to have the renowned teacher and philosopher Acharya Prashant amongst
00:07us today.
00:08A social reformer and educator of true spirituality in the world, Acharya Prashant speaks strongly
00:14for female empowerment, protection of the natural world, compassion for animals, Vedantic
00:20wisdom for living rightly and campaigns against superstition.
00:26He leads the global movement of freedom and liberation from the societal chains that pull
00:31us away from truth and peacefulness.
00:34With more than 15 million followers on social media, Acharya Prashant has been inspiring
00:40people with his profound teachings and insights for many years.
00:45His teachings are known for the depth, clarity and relevance to the challenges of our times.
00:51Through his teachings, he guides people towards a deeper understanding of themselves and the
00:56world around them, helping them to find purpose and meaning in their lives.
01:02An IIT Delhi IIM Ahmedabad alumnus, an ex-civil servant, the recipient of PETA's Most Influential
01:09Vegan Award and the author of over 100 books on karma, joy, love, marriage, spirituality
01:17and more, please join me in welcoming Acharya Prashant with a big round of applause.
01:26Sir, kindly please raise the stage to address the audience.
01:44Sir, when it is said that a person or a place has positive or negative vibrations, you strongly
01:51disagree with this point of view.
01:53Why is it so?
01:55The reason is philosophical, the reason has its roots in Vedanta, but I'll narrate it
02:04in layman's language.
02:10You remember the witch hunt, have you read of it?
02:15Medieval Europe?
02:18Women were declared to be witches and burnt alive, stoned, executed by various means,
02:32the most ghastly kind of means possible.
02:37And what was the justification that was offered?
02:42I sense that the woman has evil, in today's language they would have said, she is sending
02:52me negative vibes, she is sending me bad vibrations or as the culture to say, low frequency vibrations
03:05or her aura is bad.
03:11What 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
03:31feeling, in fact that always happens.
03:34Even if you look at a stranger, there is a certain reaction that arises from within.
03:40Yes, that does happen, but please tell me, as students of science, does that necessarily
03:48have to do with the object that you are viewing or experiencing or does it have more to do
03:56with your own prejudices, patterns, attitudes, way of looking at the world, bent of mind?
04:05Please tell me.
04:10The moment you talk of people as emitting good waves or bad waves, positive or negative
04:18vibrations, you completely stop looking at your own self.
04:27You start saying, if I am experiencing something, it is because of the object of experience.
04:37Please do something about the sound, there is a lot of echo.
04:42You think this, I look at something and what do I declare?
04:48The feeling that I am experiencing upon coming in contact with that particular object is
04:55because of that object.
04:59I 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
05:14feeling, but you are imposing your feeling upon that object.
05:24You look at a person and you say this fellow gives me bad vibes, now those bad vibes are
05:31your feelings about that person, but you are pretending as if your feelings are his quality.
05:40Now those are your feelings, why don't you admit that?
05:46Why are you superimposing your experience upon that object?
05:52And the experience is extremely subjective.
05:56The same person who gives you negative vibes gives very positive vibes to somebody else.
06:04So what you are experiencing has very little to do with the object, it has much more to
06:09do with who you are or what you have become.
06:15Are you getting it?
06:18Think of a particular color.
06:20The same color gives very sacred vibes to one community and very profane vibes to another one.
06:29Does it happen or not?
06:31Think of a place of worship.
06:34A religious fellow belonging to a certain denomination would say whenever I come close
06:42to this place, I experience divinity.
06:45Sir, you experience divinity only because you are already conditioned to experience
06:49that way.
06:51A person who does not subscribe to religion or believes in some other religious path experiences
07:00nothing of the sort that you do.
07:03Actually there is nothing magical or special about that religious place that appears to
07:11give you sacred vibes.
07:14But then that's the culture today to not to look at yourself and look only at the world
07:21and this philosophy is called materialism.
07:25Do you see this?
07:28The philosophy that says do not look at yourself, look only at the world.
07:34That philosophy is called materialism.
07:37The material is the truth.
07:40And the second truth is who you are.
07:45So there are two truths in materialism.
07:48It's a dualistic philosophy.
07:51It says you exist to consume the world.
07:54You exist to consume material and consumption of material gives you happiness.
07:59So in the name of spirituality, in the name of vibes and energies and auras, what is being
08:06propagated is rank materialism.
08:09That's the philosophy of today.
08:13Vedanta on the other hand says something very sensible.
08:18It says, son, you are the source of all your experiences.
08:25If you experience something, the experiencer is the experience.
08:32J. Krishnamurthy very famously said, the observer is the observed.
08:38And modern physics, we all know, says very clearly that you cannot observe elementary
08:49phenomena without interfering with them.
08:52Which means there is nothing called objectivity.
08:58When you look at the macro level, then you say just because I am looking at that wall,
09:06that wall does not change.
09:08Yes, at the macro level, at the Newtonian level, that holds good.
09:13The object of observation does not change with respect to the observer.
09:20The observed object is not a function of the observer.
09:25But when you go to the elementary level, to the minutest level possible, then it is very
09:38clear that observation changes the observed phenomena, the observed object.
09:48Which means nothing holds its own properties.
09:52The properties that anything holds are actually a function of the observer of those properties.
10:02If I put it in layman's language, your girlfriend holds certain properties for you.
10:08She does not hold those properties for her neighbor or her father or her brother.
10:14Is that true or not? Obviously yes.
10:19But when you talk of vibes and all, then you want to say, no, no, no.
10:23I am not prejudiced, I am not conditioned, I am not flawed.
10:28That fellow sends me bad vibes.
10:32Well, that fellow sends sacred vibes to somebody else.
10:37Don't you see that your perception is totally subjective?
10:42But we do not realize that.
10:45So this cult of vibrations and auras and energies and positivity and negativity,
10:52it is an enemy of self-observation.
10:55It will not allow you to look at yourself.
10:58Whatever is happening within, you will think it is happening as a result of some external happening.
11:07You will keep looking outwards.
11:10And that's a great damage that this cult inflicts on you.
11:18It is a mark of wisdom to be a little detached to your experiences.
11:26To not to take your experiences as the truth.
11:30Because when you are taking the experience as the truth,
11:34you are actually taking the experiencer as truthful.
11:38The fact is that the experiencer is a very, very corrupted condition,
11:45actually a fictitious entity that exists within.
11:48It is classically called as the ego.
11:55And the ego is a product of physical and social conditioning.
12:02The ego is the experiencer.
12:05Which means all your experiences are with respect to your ego.
12:10That's why your experiences keep changing so frequently and often so totally.
12:25Are you getting it?
12:27So to believe in your experiences, then you say,
12:30Oh, I experienced bad vibes.
12:32That's why that fellow is bad.
12:34To believe in your experiences is to worship your ego.
12:37Because the experiencer is the ego.
12:39It is the cult of the ego.
12:42And such a cult is profanity itself.
12:46Such a cult is directly opposed to any kind of inwardness,
12:53wisdom or spirituality.
12:56And when this thing happens, then there is a lot of violence,
13:00a lot of ignorance and obviously a lot of sorrow.
13:05If you don't want to suffer, do not take yourself seriously.
13:10What do I mean by yourself?
13:13The ego itself, the experiencer.
13:16Do not take them very seriously.
13:19You very well know they are a product of the influences you experienced.
13:25The education you went through, the family you came from,
13:29the indoctrination that you received.
13:31That's where the experiencer comes from.
13:34Every single experience is changing the experiencer.
13:40How can you rely on the experiencer?
13:43And that's what all wisdom is about.
13:46You are not the experiencer.
13:51You are not the experiencer.
13:55You are not the experienced object, you are not the experiencer
13:59and you have nothing to do with the experience.
14:02You have to stay clear of this triad.
14:05Then who am I?
14:07That's what is to be sought.
14:09But what is certain is that I cannot take myself so seriously.
14:14If I take myself very seriously,
14:16then I have turned into a worshipper of the ego.
14:20And that's very problematic.
14:22That's very problematic because it pushes me deep into suffering.
14:25That's all.
14:27Who was the questioner?
14:29Is this more or less clear?
14:34Any follow-ups on this?
14:37Don't you all wonder?
14:41Do the philosophical texts
14:45talk of vibrations and auras and energies?
14:49Do they?
14:51No, they don't.
14:53Go to the Sankhya Kadaka or Yoga Sutra
14:58or the Upanishads or Nyaya Sutra.
15:04Do you find such fancy terms there?
15:08Or their equivalents in Sanskrit?
15:11No, you don't find them.
15:13Because they were thinkers.
15:17They were not foolish people to believe in all these things.
15:21More recently,
15:23do you have a Ramakrishna Paramhansa
15:25or a Vivekananda
15:27or a Ramana Maharshi
15:29or a J. Krishnamurthy talking of vibrations?
15:33Did any wise fellow ever talk of vibrations
15:37or energy or all these stupid things?
15:39No.
15:41It's only in the last 20-30 years
15:44that this kind of thing has come up.
15:48And a lot of that is because of spiritual illiteracy.
15:52And also because we don't know science.
15:54So we start believing in these things.
15:56Somebody says negative energy, negative vibrations.
15:58Beats me. What is negative vibrations?
16:00I was asked,
16:02can you please demonstrate to me
16:04by way of an equation?
16:06What would a negative vibration really look like?
16:08Negative with respect to what?
16:10What is the origin?
16:12All positive and negative is with respect to some origin.
16:14How do you define the origin here, please?
16:16Sir, the origin is the ego.
16:18What pleases the ego,
16:20you call as positive.
16:22What displeases the ego,
16:24you call as negative.
16:26India beat Australia today
16:28in a test match.
16:30It was positive for the
16:32Indian.
16:34It was negative for the
16:36There is no absolute truth
16:38in positivity or negativity.
16:40It is all with respect to
16:42who you have become.
16:44And what you have become today
16:46would change tomorrow, would it not?
16:48Please tell me.
16:50Something that you absolutely loved
16:52two years back
16:54is something that you
16:56so viciously hate today.
16:58Does that happen or not?
17:00What is positive and what is negative?
17:04But
17:06we just fall for it.
17:08Just fall for it.
17:14Low frequency vibrations.
17:16What exactly?
17:18How exactly are you calculating
17:20the vibrations
17:22the vibrational frequency of a person?
17:26And if you want indeed
17:28if you want to go by
17:30the wave-particle duality
17:32and posit that all
17:34particles are waves as well
17:36then
17:38we must understand that only
17:40very elementary particles like electrons
17:42can have any kind of
17:44substantial wavelength
17:46or frequency associated with them.
17:48We know all that. Class 12th.
17:52Forget about a human being weighing
17:5460 kilograms.
17:58Can some smart fellow from here
18:00who remembers his physics
18:02calculate even the wavelength
18:04of a tennis ball
18:06or a cricket ball?
18:10Can you? You can.
18:12There is a formula.
18:14But the wavelength would be
18:16of a dimension
18:18that you would rather want to ignore.
18:20And here we are talking just of a small
18:22ball.
18:24And when you talk of a human being
18:27weighing 60 or 80 kilograms
18:29what kind of vibration
18:31are you imagining?
18:47Good we have started with this question.
18:49I am pretty sure that
18:51we have many amongst us
18:53here even in the
18:55IIT fraternity who believe in such things.
18:57And all that is quite unfortunate.
19:01And I also know that in spite of
19:03me having said
19:05what I just did
19:07we would probably continue
19:09to believe in such things.
19:11Because there is something within us that just
19:13doesn't want
19:15to accept facts. That just
19:17doesn't want to live
19:19in understanding and wisdom.
19:21It's a very difficult
19:23thing to fight.
19:27Anyway, yes. Any follow ups on this?
19:47And let the follow ups
19:49be very closely related to the topic
19:51at hand please.
19:59Namaste Acharyaji.
20:01I have one follow up question.
20:03I also don't believe in higher
20:05frequency or lower
20:07vibration.
20:09But I have one question.
20:11If I meet with certain
20:13set of people I feel very much
20:15excited.
20:17If I meet with other people
20:19I feel very much demotivated or
20:21exhausted. Then how will you
20:23explain this?
20:25It is your
20:27own inclination.
20:29It's your own tendency.
20:31Let's name the first
20:33group of people as A.
20:35A motivates
20:37you. And let's call
20:39the second people as B.
20:41The presence or experience
20:43of B demotivates you.
20:45Does A demotivate
20:47everybody? Does that happen?
20:49Does that
20:51happen?
20:53And does the
20:55presence of B motivate everybody?
20:57It is something
20:59within you specifically
21:01that gets motivated
21:03or demotivated. Somebody else
21:05will have a totally different experience.
21:09Think of a flag.
21:11If you think
21:13of one particular country's flag
21:15the moment you look at that flag
21:17you will experience
21:19what you call as positivity.
21:21Right?
21:23There are
21:25200 plus countries
21:27in the world and they all
21:29have their flags and national anthems.
21:31Right? And when the
21:33citizen of a country
21:35hears his anthem
21:37what does he experience
21:39usually?
21:41What does he experience? Come on, please.
21:43Positivity.
21:47And when an enemy
21:49country
21:51hears the
21:53same anthem, what do they experience?
21:57What do they experience?
21:59Now what if you change your citizenship?
22:03Tell me. That does happen.
22:05Right?
22:07People in large numbers
22:09in several lakhs
22:11give up citizenship
22:13and that's happening all over
22:15the world.
22:17So today one particular sight
22:19or sound
22:21used to be very positive for you.
22:23Tomorrow another thing will become very positive for you.
22:25Now please tell me, is the thing
22:27or the sound positive
22:29or is it about your own mind?
22:31It's your
22:33own mind. Now do not
22:37allege that the thing has
22:39certain properties. The thing is
22:41just a thing.
22:43The thing is just a thing.
22:45It is neither positive nor negative.
22:47With respect to the thing
22:49you experience something
22:51because you have an attitude towards the thing.
22:53Because you are
22:55biased for or against.
22:57Because you are prejudiced.
22:59Or because you are inclined towards the thing.
23:05Have inwardness.
23:08Inwardness means
23:10if I have a certain experience
23:12I will look at myself.
23:14That's what comes first.
23:16I come first.
23:18Later on
23:20I'll also look at the object
23:22or the stimulus
23:24that arouses the experience. Fine. That is okay.
23:26I'll look at that. I'm not saying
23:28I'll ignore totally the object in front
23:30of me. No. It's not to be totally ignored.
23:32But the first thing to be
23:34investigated is
23:36the self. And that's the basis
23:38of all wisdom, all philosophy.
23:40That's Vedanta.
23:42And that's also common sense.
23:44Does that satisfy you?
23:46Where are you?
23:48Does that help?
24:00Good evening sir.
24:02And thank you for debunking the vibration
24:04theory.
24:06Is this same
24:08concept, same
24:10thing related to
24:12people selling things
24:14like stones and all like
24:16some people say if I keep this stone
24:18say they buy something, a stone
24:20or some motif and they get
24:22some good vibe,
24:24good aura from that particular
24:26stone or any object. Stone.
24:28Stone or any object. Right.
24:30So is it the same? Right.
24:32There are special gems and stones
24:34and all these things.
24:36They all belong to the same field.
24:38A thing is a
24:40thing.
24:42A thing is just
24:44a thing.
24:46If you talk of a thing
24:48like a bullet, I understand.
24:50It hurts your physicality.
24:52If you talk of a thing
24:54like a medical pill, we again
24:56understand because it has a certain
24:58effect on your physicality.
25:00And the physicality is a
25:02fact.
25:04But when you talk of a thing
25:06affecting your mind,
25:08then mind you
25:10that it is the mind that
25:12decides what to be affected by.
25:14The body has
25:16no choice. Mind is
25:18another name for choice.
25:22If you bring
25:24a flame
25:26to your arm, right,
25:28a torch,
25:30the skin will not have
25:32a choice in reacting to the
25:34heat.
25:36Doesn't depend whether it is the skin of
25:38the Buddha or Krishna.
25:40If there
25:42is a bacteria or a virus,
25:44it will affect
25:46the saint and the sinner
25:48alike because the body
25:50is just a body.
25:52Right.
25:54Ramana Maharshi and Ramakrishna, they both died
25:56of cancer.
25:58And legend
26:00has it that an arrow pierced
26:04the foot of Shri Krishna and he had
26:06to go.
26:10The Buddha too died
26:12of stomach
26:14ailment.
26:16Or some other ailment, some other physical
26:18disorder. So the body is the body.
26:20It does not matter whose body it is.
26:22But the
26:24mind is a totally different thing.
26:26The mind is consciousness and
26:28consciousness is synonymous with choice.
26:30Consciousness
26:32decides.
26:34And when you say, I have no choice.
26:36She came in front of me
26:38and I just went bonkers.
26:40Then
26:42you are defying
26:44and denying consciousness. And if you are
26:46not conscious, then you do not deserve
26:48to be called human.
26:50Why do we worry
26:52people when they are dead?
26:54Because they cannot have
26:56consciousness anymore.
26:58Even the possibility of them
27:00ever becoming conscious again in the
27:02future is now zero.
27:04So we say,
27:06fine, dispose the body.
27:08What is consciousness?
27:10What is the mind?
27:12Mind is the power
27:14to choose.
27:16Power to be. You can
27:18decide
27:20what is right. You can inquire. You can
27:22investigate. You can figure out.
27:24One thing
27:26appears very appealing to you today.
27:28We are
27:30not animals to be just drawn
27:32towards it. As
27:34intelligent human beings, what do we do?
27:36We go
27:38and we investigate. We say, fine,
27:40this thing appears quite lucrative.
27:42It is attracting me. But what
27:44is it really about? So you investigate.
27:47You investigate. And if your
27:49investigation
27:51tells you that the thing
27:53is not how it appears
27:55to be, then what do you do with the thing?
27:57You drop it.
27:59So you have choice.
28:01Are you
28:03getting it?
28:09A stone can affect
28:11you only if you first of all
28:13already believe that it is going to
28:15affect you.
28:17So it is not the stone that is having
28:19an effect on you. It is your belief
28:21that is having an effect on you.
28:23But we don't see this. We think
28:25it's about the stone. No, it's not about that.
28:27It's about
28:29that's Vedanta.
28:31It's not about
28:33that. It's about
28:35this. And those who have
28:37known have gone on to say that
28:39this is the source
28:41of all that.
28:45So never be too bothered with that.
28:47Always go
28:49within. Ask yourself, why is
28:51this thing affecting me? There is nothing
28:53special in the thing.
28:55There is nothing special in any kind
28:57of stone or Rudraksha or anything. No.
29:02But if you feel affected, it is because
29:04you have been strongly
29:06conditioned to believe that way.
29:08And there are a lot of people
29:10who have vested interest
29:12in conditioning you, in making you
29:14believe that a certain crystal
29:16or stone
29:18will have a beneficial effect
29:20on your life. Or if you
29:22wear
29:24a certain bracelet or
29:26whatever, then your life will
29:28improve.
29:30Often they are the ones
29:32selling those stones.
29:34Right?
29:36And if you have
29:38interest or stake
29:40some kind of
29:44benefit you are drawing
29:46from
29:48propagating
29:52misbelief
29:54and superstition,
29:56then nothing stops you from turning
29:58an entire population superstitious.
30:02It's not without reason
30:04that people want
30:06everybody to turn superstitious.
30:08Because people are
30:10controllable when they are superstitious.
30:14You can command
30:16people, you can make them do
30:18as you wish, if you can make them
30:20superstitious. Superstition is just
30:22conditioning, right? If you can
30:24condition people to be a
30:26certain way, to think a certain way,
30:28to hold certain beliefs
30:30as truth, then those
30:32people can be enslaved.
30:34And that's what you want to become.
30:36Their master.
30:38It's power that you
30:40are after.
30:42Don't let them have power.
30:44Your concern should be
30:46of freedom.
30:48As human beings and especially as
30:50young people, you should
30:52value nothing higher than freedom.
30:56Getting it?
31:02Hello.
31:04Namaste Acharyaji.
31:06So you spoke about vibrations,
31:08about stones.
31:10So I find this
31:12as abuse of science
31:14as in to justify
31:16superstitions and
31:18there are more other types of
31:20abuse of science like
31:22people are using science to justify
31:24not only just superstitions
31:26but profit mongering
31:28and misconducts
31:30even in the science.
31:32There was a time when science was
31:34seen similar to
31:36spirituality because
31:38it is the
31:40outcome of the same question just
31:42directed towards outside.
31:44So from such
31:46state now it has reached
31:48to abusive state.
31:50So how has this happened?
31:52That is my question to you.
31:54It was always this way.
31:56Think of Galileo, think of Newton.
32:00Think of the attitude of the church towards
32:02them. It was always this way.
32:04It's just that
32:06today it's all
32:08the more tragic
32:10because we have
32:12a vast body of scientific
32:14literature available
32:16something that we never had
32:20in history.
32:22So if people were
32:24superstitious historically
32:26that is probably pardonable
32:28right?
32:30Because the way of
32:32science, the discoveries of science
32:34the proofs that
32:36science offers were not
32:38freely available to them.
32:40So it's understandable if they had
32:42irrational
32:44beliefs. But today
32:46when all those things are freely
32:48available, there is
32:50internet,
32:52literacy is at an
32:54all time high,
32:56you can access
32:58whatever scientific discipline
33:00you wish to.
33:02All that is available and still
33:04people are superstitious.
33:06That's tragic.
33:08And that's something that must make all of you
33:10wonder.
33:12Because we often think that
33:14if science
33:16progresses, then
33:18all kinds of stupidities
33:22in the human
33:24species will be
33:26taken care of automatically.
33:28That has been the hope.
33:30We say a fellow is educated,
33:32we say a fellow is well read,
33:34we say the fellow knows
33:36science, so he would probably not
33:38be superstitious.
33:40But that's not come to pass.
33:42Instead we find even
33:44people well versed
33:46in science being
33:48quite superstitious.
33:50Just today
33:52we received a message
33:54from a person, I was at
33:57IIT Roorkee a few
33:59months back, so somebody wrote
34:01from there, they said my father is a professor here
34:03and
34:05he has been
34:07refusing
34:09proposals for my sister one
34:11after the other
34:13for some reason related to
34:15the kundali, the horoscope.
34:19So, I don't know
34:21what he wrote, either she is Manglik, the fellow
34:23is Manglik, something.
34:25So,
34:27how is it
34:29possible that
34:31even education has
34:33not been able to take care of these things?
34:35If you will think
34:37on this, the answer will
34:39scare you. The
34:41answer is that there sits within
34:43all of us a very
34:45ancient and terrible beast.
34:49Very ancient beast.
34:51If you want
34:53to look disparagingly
34:55at that beast,
34:57then that beast has been called
34:59as the unconscious by Freud.
35:05I have been calling that beast
35:07as the inner animal, just the animal,
35:09the forest, the jungle.
35:13India has called that beast
35:15as aham vritti.
35:21And when you want
35:23to look
35:25at how
35:29understanding that beast
35:31can result in your liberation,
35:35then you want to address it
35:37with a more
35:39favorable name.
35:43So, in that case, it has been
35:45called as
35:47prakriti.
35:51And when you realize
35:53that going close
35:55to prakriti, which is
35:57your own
35:59primordial nature,
36:01will result in your liberation,
36:03then you
36:05worship prakriti by the
36:07name of
36:09Devi.
36:11And India
36:13has had
36:15prakriti worship
36:17and Devi worship since long
36:19and for a good reason.
36:23So, what we know of
36:25ourselves
36:27is the conscious part.
36:31We know
36:35of ourselves
36:37not too much.
36:41We do not realize
36:43where the
36:45bulk of our existence comes
36:47from.
36:51You realize
36:53that you are angry after you are angry.
36:59You do not realize, for example, where
37:01your instincts and feelings
37:03come from.
37:05And that's the bigger part
37:07of the self inside.
37:11And that self inside is very
37:13very ancient.
37:15And by ancient, I do not mean
37:17sacred. I simply mean
37:19animalistic.
37:21And it wants
37:23to remain that way.
37:25See, human beings
37:27have made rapid progress.
37:31Only 70,000 years ago
37:33did we begin to think.
37:35That's not much.
37:39And that's when we got our current
37:41name, Homo sapiens sapiens.
37:43When we started thinking.
37:45When we started displaying some sapiens.
37:51But we are far older than
37:5370,000 years, right?
37:55We are millions of years old.
37:57And 70,000 years is nothing
37:59compared to how old we
38:01actually are.
38:03So, it's almost
38:05like in a flash,
38:07in a split second.
38:09We have become
38:11cultured and civilized.
38:13Externally.
38:15But internally, the old thing has continued.
38:17Internally, we are still animals.
38:21Internally, we are still animals.
38:23Our instincts, our feelings belong to the animals.
38:25We share them with the animals.
38:27Attachment you find
38:29in animals, you find in human beings as well.
38:31Jealousy, possessiveness
38:33you find all
38:35across the jungle.
38:37Also in cities.
38:41You find somebody covetous.
38:43You find
38:45somebody violent.
38:47You find that in the jungle as well.
38:49Human beings
38:51are so territorial.
38:53Fighting for land.
38:55Look at Russia and Ukraine.
38:57And look at
38:59the dogs in front of your house.
39:01They too keep fighting for land.
39:03And dogs get very angry.
39:05If some alien dog
39:07comes and
39:09starts squatting on the space
39:11they call as their own.
39:13Right?
39:15So, we are doing all the things that animals do.
39:17And that's what fundamentally
39:19drives us.
39:23One very strong thing
39:25that drives all animals
39:29is biology.
39:32Right?
39:36Those who have tried to understand it
39:38sometimes have said
39:40it's just the sexual urge.
39:42Or they have said
39:44well, it is libido.
39:46Or elan vital.
39:48But that's whatever.
39:50However you call it.
39:52It's something that you share with animals.
39:56Look at the human male
39:58rushing after the human female
40:00and doing that all his life.
40:02And look at the monkey
40:04running after the female monkey
40:06and doing that all his life.
40:08How are these two any different?
40:10And these are our primary motivators.
40:12Are they not?
40:14Grabbing some land.
40:16Grabbing some authority.
40:18Getting some sex.
40:20Possessing the object of sex.
40:22Continuing to live.
40:26That's what
40:28Darwinian competitiveness
40:30was all about, right?
40:32You want to live and the other one also wants to live.
40:34Let's see who succeeds in living.
40:36Now that's what
40:38animals compete for.
40:40That's what we also compete for.
40:42Let's see who succeeds in living.
40:44I'll kill you.
40:46And if we will cooperate
40:48we will cooperate only to the extent
40:50our interests
40:52overlap. Otherwise
40:54we'll be at war.
40:56So that's the animal
40:58within us. And it is that animal
41:00that is superstitious.
41:02When you are being
41:04superstitious, you are
41:06simply displaying
41:10that you might have
41:12come out of the jungle
41:14but the jungle has still
41:16not gone out of you.
41:20Getting it?
41:22Does the animal
41:24have thought?
41:26No.
41:28The animal only
41:30has his physical conditioning.
41:32Human beings
41:34are human beings, we said because
41:38just a few thousand years ago
41:40we started
41:42we started
41:44the superstitious
41:46mind is the one that prefers
41:48not to think, not to know.
41:50Not to understand.
41:52It just wants to believe
41:54and says well you know
41:58if everybody has been believing this way
42:00it must be right. Who am I to disagree?
42:02Is that not the favorite argument
42:04of the
42:06superstitious ones?
42:08But when all the people have been
42:10believing in it since centuries
42:12there must be something in it.
42:14And if you tell them what you are saying is unscientific
42:16they say oh but science does not know
42:18anything. So your little
42:20science is a baby
42:22in front of our ancient civilizations.
42:26First thing I want is that mobile phones
42:28must be snatched away from such people.
42:30If they have no respect
42:32for science, they should not be allowed
42:34to enjoy the
42:36fruits of science.
42:38Let them walk barefoot in the jungle.
42:40They should not be using
42:42cars, mobile phones, computers
42:44they should not even be wearing clothes.
42:46The kind of disrespect people display
42:48towards science. Unbearable.
42:52Have you not heard phrases like these?
42:54Oh but your science has
42:56so much still to know.
42:58Oh but your science has till now
43:00explored only 0.01% of the universe.
43:02Your science is
43:04nothing. My superstition
43:06is everything.
43:08Babaji will tell
43:10something much higher than science.
43:12Babaji is someone
43:14who could not clear even his class 8 science exams.
43:18And since then
43:20he has been so humiliated
43:22that he has been routinely abusing
43:24science. That's the fundamental
43:26reason.
43:38I am saying all this because I think you will be
43:40a receptive audience.
43:44I am hopeful I am talking to people
43:46who have not used science
43:48just as a means
43:50to clear the JEE and EARN placements.
43:52I hope
43:54science is not just a subject
43:56but a matter of attitude.
43:58Right? Never keep your
44:00thinking faculty away.
44:02Ask, ask, keep
44:04enquiring. Always
44:06seek to understand.
44:08Belief is not the
44:10answer to
44:12anything you come across.
44:16Even if you cannot come to a conclusion
44:18in your enquiry,
44:20it's far better to just stay
44:22in the process of investigation.
44:24Even if
44:26your entire life you cannot come to
44:28a definite answer, it is alright.
44:30But never come to a
44:32false answer. Never settle
44:34down too easily.
44:36Yes?
44:38Yes.
44:42You see, had I been
44:46had I been
44:48going by my feeling,
44:50I wouldn't have been standing
44:52here in front of you.
44:54My
44:56father
45:00who was just not my father but
45:02also
45:04my teacher
45:10he left
45:12me on the third of this month.
45:14There was no
45:16way I could have travelled so far
45:18to come to you.
45:20That's what my feeling said.
45:24In fact,
45:26my foundation had communicated
45:28to your organizing committee that I
45:30won't be able to come.
45:32But then
45:34we were told that
45:36it's a group of
45:38enthusiastic seekers
45:40who will have very
45:43relevant questions
45:45and who really want to benefit.
45:49So I put my feeling aside and came here.
45:55I'm pretty sure if I
46:03I'm pretty sure if I
46:05consult
46:07a whole lot of pandits and other people
46:09some of them might even suggest
46:11that it is not proper
46:13to travel so soon
46:15especially to the
46:17Purab Disha.
46:21And that's how things are.
46:23One direction is sacred.
46:25The
46:27other direction is to be avoided.
46:33So many other things.
46:35A
46:37ritualistic
46:39mind becomes
46:41insensitive and incapable of love.
46:43Do you see that?
46:45When you are
46:47superstitious, you turn
46:49insensitive.
46:53Don't let that happen to you.
46:55Yes, question.
47:05I'm really sorry about your father.
47:07But I just don't want to stop at a
47:09false answer as you have told.
47:11Your first topic was about
47:13negative vibes.
47:15Long time ago when
47:17humanity was still uncivilized
47:19we were scared of dark places
47:21because there might be
47:23wild animals.
47:25And all those experiences they had
47:27they built up
47:29like they started getting
47:31negative vibes from those dark places.
47:33So like
47:35if they didn't believe in those negative
47:37vibes, natural selection
47:39would have eliminated
47:41them. Yeah, that's true. But that's
47:43a matter of the past. That's a thing of history.
47:45You are very right. You see
47:47what he is pointing at is that
47:49instinct does not come from nowhere.
47:51If for example
47:53even a small kid
47:55is afraid of the dark.
47:57Right? Small babies are afraid
47:59of the dark. Now nobody taught
48:01the infant to be afraid
48:03of the dark. But the
48:05infant is nevertheless definitely
48:07afraid of the dark. Why? The reason is
48:09evolutionary.
48:11Our eyes are unable
48:13to have
48:15any power in the dark.
48:17Right? So human beings
48:19have been since millions of
48:21years hunted in the
48:23dark. The nights
48:25used to be terrible
48:27hours. So
48:29the fear of the dark has gone
48:31deep into our psyche and that
48:33fear has helped us.
48:35Because when you are afraid
48:37that turns you more alert.
48:39Right?
48:41Something bad can happen. Let's group up.
48:43Where is the
48:45wood? Let's light the fire.
48:47It's dark. Where are
48:49the kids? Let's get all of them in.
48:51It's dark. And that has helped us
48:53survive. So that is alright.
48:55The reason was evolutionary and that is
48:57okay. But today
48:59do you need to live by evolutionary
49:01reasons? Remember
49:03that human beings have
49:05come too far, too
49:07swiftly, rather too suddenly
49:09ahead of
49:11the evolutionary curve.
49:13We talked of that. Right?
49:15We have leaped ahead
49:17and those kinds of
49:19reasons were anyway quite imperfect.
49:21I'll
49:23tell you the kind of
49:25conditioning that the psyche experiences.
49:29If in your childhood
49:31you have been
49:33routinely smacked
49:35by
49:37your classmates
49:39who were fair in colour
49:41then it's
49:43proven that you will continue
49:45to have a bias against
49:47fair people
49:49for many decades
49:51thereafter.
49:53And you will not even know why you dislike
49:55fair people. The simple reason is
49:57when you were 3, 4, 5, 6
49:59years old, then you were routinely
50:01being beaten up by fair
50:03looking kids.
50:05And that has gone deep into your psyche.
50:07And so now all your life
50:10you will be biased against fair people
50:12but because you do not know why
50:14so you will come up with very
50:16rational looking arguments.
50:18You will say, you know, why are people
50:20fair? Because their skin is not
50:22absorbing sunlight.
50:24That's why the pigment
50:26is not getting activated. And if
50:28their skin is not absorbing
50:30sunlight, that's an insult
50:32to the sun god.
50:34And I cannot tolerate someone who insults
50:36my sun god. So I'll kill all
50:38fair looking people.
50:40Now that's the argument you will come up with.
50:42And that's how all
50:44rationalizations and justifications
50:46are.
50:48But the simple reason is
50:50that in your unconscious
50:52sits a very old experience.
50:54And here I have talked
50:56of an experience that
50:58you have had in
51:00your lifetime. The fact is
51:02that your cells carry the experience
51:04of entire mankind.
51:06So all those things
51:08that were happening then are there
51:10with you even today. But
51:12you need not live by that.
51:14That's the reason why Vedant continuously
51:16tells you, see, you are
51:18not the body. Naham dehasmi.
51:20What is that supposed
51:22to tell you? Supposed to tell you
51:24that you have no obligation
51:26to live by your bodily compulsions.
51:28That you have no obligation
51:30to live by your hormonal
51:32pressures. All that is the
51:34body, right?
51:36The body might keep saying something
51:38but please
51:40you are
51:42nothing but understanding.
51:44Bodho aham. I
51:46am understanding.
51:48I am understanding. I am not
51:50someone who has to be necessarily driven
51:52by the bodily
51:54and ancient and historical
51:56compulsions. No, I'll not follow that.
51:58I am understanding. I will understand
52:00what's going on. The body might say
52:02sleep.
52:04But I know I have an exam tomorrow
52:06I won't sleep. The body
52:08has its own agenda and the agenda comes
52:10from evolution. The agenda
52:12of the body is continuity.
52:14Just secure itself and continue.
52:16Continue
52:18today and continue tomorrow
52:20in the form of kids. So that's what
52:22the body wants. That's all
52:24that the body wants.
52:26Eat and be married today
52:28and also have good sex
52:30and produce 40 kids
52:32so that your DNA proliferates.
52:34The body wants nothing more than that.
52:36Now do you want to live as the body?
52:38Animals live as the body
52:40and if you are living as the body
52:42then there is no
52:44scope of consciousness
52:46and then one is no better than an animal.
52:48Right?
52:50I do not mean to disregard
52:52all your instincts and intuitions
52:54but you must know them
52:56as coming from stored
52:58experience of the past which might
53:00not be applicable today. Which might
53:02be totally invalid today.
53:04Also which might be valid today
53:06but needs to be disregarded
53:08in light of consciousness.
53:10Getting it?