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00:00Namaskar. Acharya Prashanthji, my first question is who or what is Acharya Prashanth?
00:22A person, as a fact, a person seeking his own liberation in the only way possible by
00:51sensitizing others to their own liberation. So that's an answer at one particular level,
01:05there could be several other answers in other contexts, other ways. I suppose this one would
01:16do to begin with. And when you say Acharya Prashanth is a person, what does it mean?
01:26What does that represent really? A human being with the consciousness that seeks fulfillment,
01:41so a human being like any other, like all of us.
01:48Do we all seek answers?
01:52Does everybody seek answers? There is a question in front of me and that is the answer.
02:00Are you a single child?
02:01No, no, I have a brother, I have a sister.
02:03How was your relationship with your siblings?
02:06Usual, usual, nothing special there either.
02:09Then you sort of were also liked your space where you could just read and think.
02:17Yes, yes.
02:19And your siblings did not intrude into that space?
02:23They were not too fond of books. So if I am with books that keeps them away.
02:32I used to actually help them with their academics. So they had their own interests.
02:40So that's how it used to happen.
02:42And school, friends, teachers, how did they see you?
02:50Academically, I was always doing well.
02:56Top two in the class. And after class sixth or seventh, I was regularly topping.
03:09In fact, the distance between me and the next one just kept increasing.
03:18So academically, I was always doing well.
03:24So you liked competition?
03:26Oh, I was very competitive.
03:27You were?
03:28Oh, very competitive.
03:29So there was this drive, the drive into the mad race.
03:35But at the same time, I was comparing myself,
03:41or I was competing not so much with the classmates or batchmates,
03:49I was competing more with the question paper.
03:53So that is the reason why I would often not be satisfied even if the marks appeared good.
04:00Was that because of conditioning at home?
04:05See, at home, obviously, you see, there was emphasis on academics.
04:13But then that kind of incentivization or encouragement was given to all three of us.
04:22It's not that parents were hell-bent on producing toppers.
04:28Hell-bent on producing toppers.
04:31Obviously, they wanted that I do well, all three of us do well.
04:38But it was not to the extent of craziness or something.
04:50Yes, because the expectations from me were higher.
04:53So if I won't do well, then I would be looked at with a sterner eye.
05:00That much was there, but not much beyond that.
05:06In school, I was also quite mischievous, very mischievous.
05:11So what did you do?
05:15A lot of things.
05:16So the teachers would be in a curious space.
05:25On one hand, they would want to make me the head of the house or the class monitor or such things.
05:36On the other hand, they would find themselves compelled to punish me.
05:43So the monitor would be found standing outside the class quite a few times.
05:54And then the teacher won't know what to do because on one hand, she has to present me as something of a role model.
06:04Look at his marks, how well he is doing, how sincere he is.
06:08On the other hand, I have to be disciplined because when I was not with books, I was not very controllable.
06:23When I was with books, I was quite sedated, just immersed in the text.
06:30When not with books, then the energy would violate a few norms.
06:39So, there would be punishments, scoldings and…
06:48One mischief that you did you still regret?
06:52One mischief that I still regret?
06:57That was a bad one.
06:59Okay, let's hear.
07:01Okay, let's hear.
07:02If I disclose that, I mean, it would be the first disclosure of its kind.
07:08Okay, let's hear this on this show. Let it be.
07:17You have seen class teachers' attendance registers?
07:20Yes.
07:24The big ones.
07:25So, I'll keep to myself some of the details so that I don't become too obvious.
07:31So, there was my class teacher and because I was mischievous, she didn't quite like me.
07:40Because I was mischievous, she didn't quite like me.
07:47And her situation was worsened by the fact that she could not absolutely admonish me
07:58because she was the English teacher and I was doing quite well in English.
08:02She used to teach Shakespeare.
08:04I think I've disclosed it all.
08:06Anyway.
08:09So, the English period used to lie just before the lunch break.
08:23And that's when she would come being the class teacher,
08:26call for attendance and do these things.
08:28So, one day she left the attendance register behind.
08:32Okay.
08:33And she's gone and it's lunch break.
08:36So, I open my lunch box and there is a pakora there oozing oil or ghee, whatever it was.
08:50And you know how much class teachers love their attendance registers, right?
08:53How nicely they maintain them and how important those registers are.
08:59Oh, I hate disclosing all this.
09:02Come on.
09:03So, I take the pakora, keep it on the attendance register.
09:10It was lying open and I close the register.
09:17And just to complete the formalities, keep a thick book over the place where the pakora was.
09:29Didn't want to leave things to chance.
09:31So.
09:34You wanted to ensure that it was spoiled.
09:38Right.
09:39So, she returns and finds this thing done.
09:43And I was clever enough to ensure that nobody had seen me doing all that.
09:49So, after the lunch break, we had, I suppose, geography or history period.
09:59And I was good at geography and history.
10:03The teacher liked me.
10:06And the class teacher comes rushing, steaming in, all red, fuming.
10:15And it's a geography period, but she comes and says, all of you stand up and raise your hands, both the hands.
10:25So, everybody stands like that.
10:28And she does that and says, I want to know who did this.
10:32And unless I get to know that, you all will stand like this.
10:36And she retires to the teacher's room.
10:38And that one boy is shell struck, what have I done?
10:47So, she goes to the teacher's room.
10:50And she says, I want to know who did this.
10:53And unless I get to know that, you all will stand like this.
10:55And she retires to the teacher's room.
10:59But the teacher in charge in that period is somebody else.
11:03What have I done?
11:07So, he is the most silent of all.
11:12Others are taking time to gossip or look around or do something.
11:20So, the geography teacher says, all right, you all can't stand this way whole afternoon.
11:25And those of you who are keeping silent will be allowed to sit down.
11:30So, you got away with that.
11:36Now, in between, one of the girls from my class, and she had her own grudges against me.
11:42Oh, so you hit on her?
11:49Not exactly, but it was, in fact, the opposite.
11:55Oh, OK, she was hitting on you, but you were not interested.
11:58So, she had meanwhile gone to the English teacher, the class teacher,
12:03and whispered to her that the kind of oil that is there in your register, you know,
12:12and I think Prashant was the one who had brought pakoras today.
12:16I don't know for sure.
12:17I'm just sharing with you that he had brought pakoras today.
12:21So, the class teacher, who was anyway not very fond of me, had already my name as a suspect.
12:32So, she comes after half an hour and finds the entire class standing like this,
12:36and only one fellow had been allowed to sit down, and he was sitting and reading,
12:42and the entire class was standing.
12:44So, no, she just blew up, but he is the prime suspect.
12:55Now, that became some kind of an encroachment on the authority of the other teacher,
13:03because it was her period, her time, and she was the one who had brought the pakoras.
13:10So, she said, but you know, he has been standing so still and keeping so quiet.
13:19I have no option. He has to sit.
13:22So, that created a bit of a funny situation.
13:27I tried to lock my lips so that I am not seen laughing.
13:32Even in that moment, I was, but that strained my relationship with my class teacher for the rest of the year.
13:40So, that's not something I think I should have done.
13:45So, that you deeply regret now?
13:47Not deeply.
13:48It's all right.
13:53So, if she happens to watch this, sorry, ma'am.
13:58That was me, and I don't think I should have done that.
14:04Finally, the confession comes.
14:06The confession comes, and I don't think I should have done that.
14:10Okay. Acharya ji, from this mischievous boy, a studious boy, to college days,
14:21did you hit on girls, later women?
14:24Didn't find too many worth it.
14:29So, just like any other boy, I had my attractions, and there was not much in them, mostly physical kind.
14:41So, if a girl appears attractive of body, and voice, and manners, mostly of body.
14:50Mostly of body.
14:52So, there is a particular attraction.
14:55So, that was that.
14:56Nothing remarkable, nothing worth noting.
15:00All that was happening.
15:01I mean, it happens with everybody.
15:03Yeah.
15:03Nothing significant there.
15:05Did you never find any woman who was spiritually worthy, or whose spirit attracted you?
15:16No.
15:17I found a few innocent ones.
15:22I could go to them, and speak to them of things that mattered.
15:29And they were remarkable, important, because they were innocent, because they could listen.
15:38But, even that listening stops after a point.
15:43Not everybody is interested in going too far on the spiritual road, too far down the spiritual road.
16:00So, I suppose those people have to be created.
16:11You can't get them in the marketplace.
16:15You can't get them just randomly somewhere in the world roaming.
16:21It's a rare and precious thing, such a human being.
16:26And that's what I learned.
16:31The one who is worthy of being loved, is actually someone you will have to create.
16:40Because on their own, they probably do not exist.
16:47At least, I didn't find them hanging somewhere to be just picked up.
16:54So, I said, fine, if they don't exist, let's create them.
16:59So, are you really saying that man and woman are ordained to have fickle relationships?
17:08Exactly. Very well said. Very well said. Yes.
17:13So, there can be no real love between a man and a woman?
17:17I do not know who I am.
17:20I do not know who I am. She does not know who she is.
17:25Where's the question of love?
17:28I mean, two unconscious people just stuttering down their unconscious paths
17:36and randomly they happen to bump into each other.
17:39Is that love? Obviously not. Nothing.
17:43Yeah.
17:46I'm going to go to the very fundamental question,
17:50because what you are saying is probably very complicated for most people in the world.
17:56Most people understand the idea of love.
18:01But you seem to reject that.
18:02You seem to say that it's all superficial, it's fickle.
18:07What is love, what the rest of the world is experiencing?
18:11And you are saying that it's not there.
18:14See, I'm rejecting the idea, not love.
18:17So, what the world has is an idea of love.
18:22And if love is an idea, then it's something very small and quite rotten.
18:31So, where do ideas come from?
18:34All ideas emerge from the ego to fulfill the superficial desires of the ego.
18:46So, if love is an idea, you will be looking at the other.
18:49It could be someone from the other gender, it could be a little kid, it could be an animal.
18:55Or as people say, I love chicken.
18:58When you want to really sink your teeth into something, you say you love it.
19:02So, it could be a food item.
19:06Whatever you would be looking at, you would be looking at that thing
19:10just from the perspective of fulfillment of your desire.
19:18And that's what…
19:19Is it so wrong to have desires?
19:22Would you want to be exploited for somebody's desire?
19:28I'm the seeker of answers.
19:30Please, please.
19:32Would you want to be…
19:33Nobody wants to be exploited so that the other can fulfill his base desires.
19:40I might be prepared to sacrifice myself if my sacrifice helps the other, right?
19:50But if I am an object of somebody's desire, then even after swallowing myself whole,
19:58he would still be unfulfilled.
20:01So, my life has gone and he has achieved nothing out of my so-called sacrifice.
20:06So, there is nothing in this love.
20:08Nothing in this love.
20:09Man looks at woman to appease himself.
20:11Woman looks at man, again to appease herself.
20:15And the two of them are in a lifelong,
20:18mutually exploitative relationship of what good is all this.
20:22And we don't want to face this, acknowledge this.
20:24We want to pretend as if all is hunky-dory.
20:28If everybody becomes so enlightened as you are,
20:32people will probably not fall in love, people will probably not reproduce,
20:37people will probably not follow their biological mandate.
20:42When people are wise, that's the only time they can be in love.
20:48Wisdom and love go together.
20:50So, what you are saying, on the contrary,
20:54when you know who you are, when you have some insight into yourself,
20:59that's when you become capable of love for the first time.
21:03Most people spend their entire lives not loving,
21:07not because they didn't find someone worthy enough to be loved,
21:14but because they were fundamentally incapable of loving
21:18incapable of loving anything.
21:22You know, among couples, this sometimes goes.
21:27One of them would ask, oh, do you love me?
21:30That should not even be the question.
21:32The question should be, are you capable of loving anything, anybody?
21:37The fact is, neither of them are capable of loving.
21:41So, how?
21:41It's unjust to ask such a person, are you loving me?
21:46The fellow has no faculty to love and that faculty has to be learned.
21:52It has to be awakened and that's the proper purpose of education.
21:56But our education does not teach us what real love is.
22:00So, what do we have?
22:01We have animalistic love and we think of that as the only love possible.
22:06The result is a very loveless society, a loveless earth that we have.
22:10You seem to have insight into yourself and you're constantly seeking this path.
22:20Are you, but you're still saying that you are,
22:23are you actually saying that you're incapable of love?
22:26Did you never feel that you are capable of love regardless of what the other person is?
22:33This very discussion is an exercise in love.
22:36How can I be incapable of love?
22:38Had I been incapable of love, I wouldn't have been sitting here.
22:43I lost my father a few days back.
22:44What makes you think would bring me to this chair?
22:49It's love.
22:49It's just that we have been so dulled down by the conventional images and definitions of love
22:59that we do not realize true love even if it is right there in our face, even if it is right there.
23:07So, a great lover, Christ, for example, what do we do to him?
23:13We don't even see that he loves us and all the wise men, they are just lovers,
23:22but we forget them, we ignore them, right?
23:26So, that's what.
23:28So, you love everyone?
23:30Why else would I make myself available to everyone?
23:35Are you available to everyone?
23:37Is there a restriction on who can watch my videos or read my books?
23:41Will you meet everyone?
23:44That's a physical limit, you see, and that also depends on the urge of the person to meet me.
23:50I'm available.
23:54I suppose last month itself, I would have addressed no less than half a dozen gatherings
24:02that are open to anybody to attend.
24:05So, if people want to attend, they can come over, but they'll have to travel,
24:09they'll have to take the pains, and that's the thing in love that you do.
24:15So, why do you think, why wouldn't you actually give benefit of doubt
24:19to many people who might be in love, in true love,
24:26but you are constantly passing this judgment saying that,
24:30oh, people are not in love.
24:32It's only they are chasing their desires,
24:34they're constantly being driven by their biological urges,
24:40and they are making actually a mess of it.
24:45You look at the facts, even if you have to pass a judgment.
24:50First of all, you want to scrutinize the evidence, right?
24:54You look at the facts, you look at what's there on the table,
24:58and when you look at the state of the earth,
25:01when you look at the mess that we have created, there are obvious conclusions.
25:10So, love is not possible.
25:13It's unfortunate that love is quite possible, but we deny ourselves.
25:20So, how can humanity, how can human species
25:24at least make an attempt or get started on this path of love?
25:30This way.
25:32This is the way.
25:34Where did this love for reading come from?
25:38Is it genetics?
25:40Is it something a priori?
25:42Is it something that you carried through generations?
25:46Where does this initial liking, dislikes, or love, or repulsion for things come from?
25:58See, if it can be reasoned out,
26:02if a cause can be attributed to it, then it becomes something very little.
26:10Then it becomes largely formulaic.
26:12If you can know how this child was pulled towards books,
26:20then the same formula can be applied to all others,
26:22and the moment it gets limited to a formula, it becomes something very small.
26:30So, at most I can say that I was fortunate to be provided with stuff I could read.
26:48But then there are probably a lot of kids who do have access to books,
26:54and who probably might have access to even richer wisdom material than I had.
27:03I would simply say it's a matter of choice.
27:10Somewhere you have to stop the chain of causation.
27:13You cannot say this happened because this happened, because this happened, because this happened.
27:18If that's the way it is, then a computer program can capture it,
27:25and an advanced engineering lab can produce thousands of kids using the same formula,
27:35thousands of kids with a spiritual bent of mind, or an academic bent of mind using the same formula.
27:43So, I suppose I have to stop at that, just saying that the books were there,
27:51and I just preferred reading over any other activity.
28:01And your parents helped, encouraged?
28:05Was the influence of parents or friends or somebody else there in life, early life?
28:13Even though you're saying, you're insisting that, let's not go into the causation,
28:19but I'm trying to understand who Acharya Prashant is.
28:28You see, I didn't have too many friends, didn't have too many friends.
28:32I did have friends, but that was limited to my school time,
28:37and those were not days of the internet, and I didn't have kids, my friends, visiting my home.
28:47So, I had the opportunity to be with my books for long hours in the day,
28:56and it was not merely books pertaining to wisdom or something that I read.
29:03I was not training to become a spiritual leader.
29:07I was reading from all directions, right?
29:11So, I would read history, I would read comic strips, all that is available,
29:24anything one can lay his hand on.
29:27So, are you conscious or unconscious?
29:34I don't know. One can only try to see what the current condition is.
29:41So, you keep looking at yourself, there are telltale signs,
29:46and you can never reach absolute consciousness, right?
29:53It's always a journey.
29:55So, if you'll ask in binary, conscious or unconscious, I'll modestly say unconscious,
30:04because if I say conscious, that's like violating a principle.
30:09To say one is conscious is to say one is absolutely conscious,
30:15because only the absolute point deserves to be called a state of consciousness.
30:23All else is just a foggy state of the mind in which you know little and you don't know little,
30:30and when you don't know everything, it's better to simply say you don't know.
30:40So, are you saying, by and large, humanity, what we call humanity,
30:45is unconscious or is in the process of gaining consciousness?
30:52Yes, obviously, humanity is a huge unconscious lot. Huge unconscious lot.
31:02So, when we say love or when we say humanity, what are we really referring to?
31:08Are we saying that it's a construct? We just believe, we like to believe that?
31:14We are referring to a species that is born like animals and lives like animals,
31:25even though it has a much superior potential.
31:31We talk of human beings, we are really talking of eight billion animals, that's all,
31:42driven by their biological mandate.
31:45So, we are mostly driven by our biological mandate.
31:48Obviously.
31:51What else is a territorial mind? What else is the insane thirst for a house
32:06or a partner or money or what else is all this?
32:15You also said that humans are special. For us, the test is tougher and we cannot be seen
32:25at the same level as animals because they just follow their biological drive.
32:32Humans try to exceed that biological mandate.
32:36See, that's what human beings must do, but that's not what they actually do and that's why it's
32:43rather unfortunate that in spite of the potential, in spite of what is possible, we live like animals
32:54and that's why we are worse than animals. See, animals living like animals,
33:00animals living like animals are all right, they have no option, but human beings living like animals
33:10are a disgrace because they had an option.
33:16Is it really within our control, within our limits to have that choice which you repeatedly
33:24refer to as the conscious choice, do you think we are at that stage, that level of evolution
33:31or whatever you would like to call it, where we can actually access that conscious mind?
33:40You see, what is a question? A question is a choice, right?
33:48I could have said I don't know and I don't need to know.
33:51But what do I say? I don't know, but I must know.
33:58So, the possibility to inquire and know is always there, else there can be no questions possible.
34:10So, it's not a matter of the stage of evolution, it's not even a matter of one's
34:22upbringing or economic conditions or social conditioning, none of that.
34:29As a human being, the option to do better, to inquire, to know,
34:40to not to proceed without understanding is always there.