The final proof that we are horribly cruel people || Acharya Prashant, with Ahimsa Fellows (2023)

Acharya Prashant

‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquir...   Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books? Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...  ~~~~~  Video Information:  04.04.23, with Ahimsa Fellows (Online-talk), Greater Noida  Context: What are the most common reasons for veganism? What do vegans struggle with the most? What are the three pillars of veganism? Why do relatives not understand veganism? Is it impossible to be spiritual and not vegan?  Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~

Transcript

00:00Many of us were already acquainted with the amazing phenomenal work that you do with your

00:07videos and other things.

00:10But in preparation for this talk, many of us got familiar.

00:13So based on that, we've got some queries.

00:16So the first question is that in many of your interviews, you mentioned that one cannot

00:24be spiritual if one eats animals at the same time.

00:29So when cruelties behind milk and meat consumption are highlighted, people who are not vegan,

00:36they tend to get very defensive.

00:39So this question has two parts.

00:42The first part is what does such defensiveness indicate from the prism of spirituality?

00:49And secondly, that given that the meat and milk consumption and demand has increased

00:54dramatically in India.

00:56So does this point towards a large scale spiritual crisis?

01:01And if so, what kind of an approach can be taken by talking to people about animal cruelty

01:07and also veganism?

01:09This was Sunaina's question.

01:14It's a bit of a tricky affair to introduce the fact of animal cruelty to someone without

01:26alleging or insinuating that the person is some kind of a criminal.

01:34So one has to be sensitive to the response of the listener.

01:44And to be fair, education or awareness towards such things is pretty low.

01:58So if the person has not yet known of these things, he or she can be extended some benefit

02:10of doubt.

02:12It is possible that the person never had the opportunity to be educated in that regard.

02:22Vegans sometimes exhibit a holier-than-thou kind of attitude, an aggression that is counterproductive.

02:30Even I am guilty of that.

02:31I have seen that.

02:33But when you look at someone who comes from a meat-eating family or the traditional kind

02:47of Indian Vaishnav family where milk and kheer and dahi are a staple, then it comes as a

02:58shock to that person that milk involves cruelty.

03:06It's a totally alien and a disturbing concept.

03:10So it has to be brought out with due expertise.

03:17That does not mean that you have to be especially trained in communicating these matters.

03:21Just that one has to be sensitive that the other person might not really know or even

03:28if he knows, it is his environment that has been too much on him and so far it has been

03:35next to impossible for that person to quit all these food items or habits.

03:43So these things have to be gently brought out.

03:46I understand.

03:47You see, when you are familiar with the pain and the suffering that animals go through,

03:53that disturbs you and that makes you rush to help them.

04:01It becomes difficult to be gentle and patient and a little slow and measured, right?

04:08Because you have just seen the hell that the goat or the cow or the buffalo have to go

04:16through.

04:17You are acquainted with that.

04:20So you are agitated.

04:22And when you see someone consuming meat, you almost want to slap them.

04:28I appreciate that feeling.

04:30But also look at that person, he might come from a family of generations of meat eaters.

04:38And when that fellow was two years of age, that was when he was served his first morsel

04:45of biryani or chicken piece or something, right?

04:51So it's almost flowing in his veins now.

04:55He has to be a bit gently weaned away from all that, right?

05:04So one has to be relentlessly at it.

05:09The bombardment on social media has to be incessant.

05:19But when it comes to personal confrontation, one has to remember that the objective is

05:28not to shame the other.

05:30The objective is to help the animal.

05:33Just shaming the other won't help.

05:36In fact, it is possible that the other becomes aggressive in his defense.

05:44And that aggression might mean that he says that not only do I continue to eat, but I'll

05:49actually consume flesh in double the quantity.

05:55As some kind of signal of childish defiance, people do that.

06:03So it's a tricky thing.

06:05We want to rush, but we'll have to rush gently.

06:12That's something I'm not only telling you, that's something that I remind myself often

06:15because I too want to rush.

06:17I want this whole cruelty to come to an absolute end right now.

06:26But that's not how it can happen.

06:30So one has to gently rush.

06:37And the second thing you said that, is it symptomatic of a wider spiritual crisis?

06:45Of course it is.

06:46Of course it is.

06:48Of course it is.

06:49The very philosophy of life has gone all wrong.

06:56We have been told that individual happiness is the purpose of life.

07:02One lives to consume, you live to be happy for yourself.

07:06Of course you can add these little goodies like compassion and helping someone and you

07:11know all these are little tidbits that you add to the overwhelming project of self-satiation.

07:20But they are just that, little tidbits.

07:24The overwhelming theme of life is personal pleasure.

07:28That is a philosophy we have been fed since our birth.

07:35And that philosophy is a very violent one.

07:43Not that someone teaches that philosophy to us via a classroom course or a textbook.

07:51It's just in the air.

07:54You look at a hoarding, a billboard, you look at the way a shop is structured, you

08:01look at the clothes people are wearing, you look at the voice of somebody, a marketing

08:11professional or somebody and the philosophy is contained there, it's embedded there.

08:21So we are being subliminally educated, rather indoctrinated, conditioned in that philosophy.

08:31And that's the spiritual crisis.

08:34Spirituality is basically, simply about realizing who you are and a clear fallout of that is

08:47that you no more care for your personal desires.

08:51I am not the person, so how can I be so particular about my personal desires?

08:57That's what all spirituality is about.

08:59I am not the person I appear to be.

09:02That's not my reality.

09:04That's just my appearance.

09:05The person is my appearance.

09:07My reality is beyond the person that I appear.

09:14Therefore all the personal desires that I have, have to be taken lightly, cannot be

09:20given great importance.

09:23So that's what spirituality is, where you cannot give your personal desires great importance.

09:28Giving your personal desires great importance is to subject yourself to suffering and freedom

09:35from suffering is the goal of entire spirituality.

09:38There is no other goal.

09:40We suffer so much, therefore spirituality exists.

09:44Spirituality is self-knowledge.

09:45Spirituality is not spirit business, basic self-knowledge, to see who I am and what I

09:51want and therefore how I must live.

09:53That's what spirituality or self-knowledge is.

09:56On the other hand, the philosophy we have been fed tells us that personal ingratiation

10:05is the sole purpose of life.

10:08So these two are obviously at odds.

10:11Spirituality and the philosophy the commoners believe in, though nobody realizes that because

10:18nobody believes that he has a philosophy of life.

10:21We all think we have a certain opinion about life that is our own.

10:26All the opinions that we all have about life are not at all our own.

10:32They either arise from the bodily tendencies or from the social environment.

10:41Those are the desires that we chase.

10:44Bodily compulsions or social conditioning.

10:50Both together telling us be happy, be happy, be happy, be happy at whatever cost.

10:58The only antidote to that is self-knowledge.

11:02Self-knowledge tells you who is there to be happy, whom are you trying to please.

11:07Can we inquire into that?

11:10It's alright to be happy, but who exactly is the one being fed happiness at such great

11:18cost?

11:21It's like you are drunk and you are trying to feed yourself and you do not even know

11:25who you are and therefore where your mouth is.

11:29And some imposter, some fraudster is standing right behind you with his mouth wide open

11:37and you pick up the morsel and you feed and you're thinking you're feeding it to yourself.

11:43Somebody else is being fed when you are trying to fulfill your desires.

11:48Your desires are not fulfilling you, they are fulfilling somebody else, somebody else.

11:53That's the point of self-knowledge when you realize who you are.

11:57When you cannot spend your life pleasing somebody who you are not.

12:09So you know what that means, all of that.

12:13What that means is that if the system is to continue, the system of thought, the system

12:18of economics, the markets, the politics, the society, the family, the education, if all

12:27of this is to continue, self-knowledge has to be obstructed very externally, very staunchly,

12:35very deliberately, very systematically.

12:39If self-knowledge advances, then everything that we see around us and see within us will

12:53be threatened and there are vested interests.

12:59So people will not allow real spirituality to prosper.

13:05But at the same time, it has become some kind of a moral fad to declare that one is spiritual.

13:14So what would then happen?

13:17Shady alternatives to real spirituality will need to be fabricated.

13:26Real spirituality would threaten the entire system within and without.

13:32Right from the kindergarten school to the parliaments of the world, everything will

13:41be threatened if real spirituality advances.

13:46So some kind of fake spirituality has to be created and patronized so that the systems

13:56and the vested interests can continue to prosper.

14:01That's what we are seeing all around us today.

14:03That would also mean that if you come up with real self-knowledge, you better be careful.

14:13You are in crosshairs.

14:17You are being watched and you are being targeted.

14:21That makes a lot of sense.

14:23Thank you so much.

Category

Transcript

Recommended