Are you capable of love? || Acharya Prashant, in conversation (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: 12.02.23, Interview with Aarti Tikko from The New Indian, Greater Noida  Context: Who Was It That Raised Acharya's Mind? What is the Awakening Moment of Acharya? What Is the Love Interest of Acharya? What are humanity and love? Does humanity have a conscious path? Does a utopian life make sense? Will the human race end?   Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~

Transcript

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 fulfilment,

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.

02:09But then 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. I used to

02:33actually help them with their academics. So they had their own interests. That's how it used to happen.

02:42And school, friends, teachers, how did they see you?

02:50Academically, I was always doing well. Top two in the class, and after class sixth or seventh,

03:05I was regularly topping. In fact, the distance between me and the next one just kept increasing.

03:18So academically, I was always doing well.

03:21So you liked competition?

03:25Oh, 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, or I was competing not so much with the classmates

03:48or batchmates, I was competing more with the question paper. So that is the reason

03:55why I would often not be satisfied, even if the marks appeared good.

04:03Was that because of conditioning at home?

04:08At home, obviously, you see, there was emphasis on academics, but then that kind of incentivization

04:20or encouragement was given to all three of us. It's not that parents were hell-bent on

04:29producing toppers. Obviously, they wanted that I do well, all three of us do well.

04:38But it was not to the extent of craziness or something. Yes, because the expectations

04:52from me were higher. So if I won't do well, then I would be looked at with a sterner eye,

05:01that much was there, but not much beyond that. In school, I was also quite mischievous, very mischievous.

05:11So what did you do?

05:15A lot of things. So the teachers would be in a curious space. On one hand, they would want to

05:32make me the head of the house or the class monitor or such things. On the other hand,

05:38they would find themselves compelled to punish me. So the monitor would be found standing

05:50outside the class quite a few times. And then the teacher won't know what to do because

06:00on one hand, she has to present me as something of a role model, look at his marks, how well

06:08he is doing, how sincere he is. On the other hand, I have to be disciplined because when

06:17I was not with books, I was not very controllable. When I was with books, I was quite sedated,

06:27just immersed in the text. When not with books, then the energy would violate a few norms.

06:38So there would be punishments, scoldings and… One mischief that you did you still regret?

06:52One mischief that I still regret? That was a bad one. If I disclose that,

07:04I mean, it would be the first disclosure of its kind.

07:08Okay, let's hear this on this show. Let it be.

07:11You have seen class teacher's attendance registers?

07:20Yes.

07:21The big ones. So I'll keep to myself some of the details so that I don't become too obvious. So

07:35there was my class teacher and because I was mischievous, she didn't quite like me and

07:49her situation was worsened by the fact that she could not absolutely admonish me because

07:59she was the English teacher and I was doing quite well in English. She used to teach Shakespeare.

08:04I think I have disclosed it all anyway. So the English period used to lie just before

08:20the lunch break and that's when she would come being the class teacher, call for attendance

08:27and do these things. So one day she left the attendance register behind and she's gone

08:34and it's lunch break. So I open my lunch box and there is a pakora there oozing oil or ghee,

08:47whatever it was. And you know how much class teachers love their attendance registers,

08:53right? How nicely they maintain them and how important those registers are.

08:56Oh, I hate disclosing all this.

09:01Come on.

09:02So I take the pakora, keep it on the attendance register. It was lying open and I close the

09:14register and just to complete the formalities, keep a thick book over the place where the pakora

09:29was. Didn't want to leave things to chance.

09:33You wanted to ensure that it was spoiled.

09:40Right. So she returns and finds this thing done and I was clever enough to ensure that

09:49nobody had seen me doing all that. So after the lunch break we had, I suppose, geography

10:02or history period and I was good at geography and history. The teacher liked me and the

10:12class teacher comes rushing, steaming in, all red, furious. And it's a geography period

10:26but she comes and says, all of you stand up and raise your hands, both the hands. So everybody

10:33stands like that and she does that and says, I want to know who did this and unless I get

10:40to know that, you all will stand like this. And she retires to the teacher's room.

10:47But the teacher in charge in that period is somebody else and now the whole class is standing

10:54there like this and only one person knows for sure who has done that and that one boy

11:01is shell-struck. What have I done? So he is the most silent of all. Others are taking

11:17time to gossip or look around or do something. So the geography teacher says, all right,

11:22you all can't stand this way whole afternoon and those of you who are keeping silent will

11:29be allowed to sit down. You got away with that. Now in between, one of the girls from my class

11:40and she had her own grudges against me. Oh, you hit on her. Not exactly but it was in fact the

11:56opposite. Oh, okay, she was hitting on you but you were not interested. So she had meanwhile

12:02gone to the English teacher, the class teacher and whispered to her that the kind of oil that

12:12is there in your register, you know, I think Prashant was the one who had brought pakoras

12:18today. I don't know for sure. I'm just sharing with you that he had brought pakoras today.

12:24So the class teacher who was anyway not very fond of me had already my name as a suspect. So

12:36she comes after half an hour and finds the entire class standing like this and only one fellow had

12:42been allowed to sit down and he was sitting and reading and the entire class was standing. So

12:51no, she just blew up. But he is the prime suspect. Now that became some kind of an

13:08encroachment on the authority of the other teacher because it was her period, her time. So she said

13:15but you know he's been standing so still and keeping so quiet. I have no option. He has to

13:20sit. So that created a bit of a funny situation. I tried to lock my lips so that I am not seen

13:30laughing. Even in that moment I was, but that strained my relationship with my class teacher

13:41for the rest of the year. So that's not something I think I should have done. So that you deeply

13:49regret now? Not deeply. So if she happens to watch this, sorry ma'am. That was me and I don't think I should have done that.

14:09Acharya ji, from this mischievous boy, a studious boy to college days. Did you hit on girls, later

14:23women? Didn't find too many worth it. So just like any other boy, I had my attractions and there was

14:37not much in them. Mostly physical kind. So if a girl appears attractive of body and voice and

14:49manners, mostly of body. So there is a particular attraction. So that was that. Nothing remarkable,

14:57nothing worth noting. All that was happening. I mean it happens with everybody. Nothing significant.

15:05Did you never find any woman who was spiritually worthy or whose spirit attracted you?

15:13No. I found a few innocent ones. I could go to them and speak to them of things that mattered.

15:28And they were remarkable, important, because they were innocent, because they could listen. But even

15:43that listening stops after a point. Not everybody is interested in going too far on the spiritual road, too far down the

16:02spiritual road. So I suppose those people have to be created. You can't get them in the market place, you can't get

16:16them just randomly somewhere in the world roaming. It's a rare and precious thing, such a human being and that's

16:28what I learnt. The one who is worthy of being loved is actually someone you will have to create, because on their own,

16:44they probably do not exist. At least I didn't find them hanging somewhere to be just picked up.

16:57So I said, fine, if they don't exist, let's create them, let's raise them.

17:03So are you really saying that man and woman are ordained to have fickle relationships?

17:11Exactly. Very well said. Very well said. Yes.

17:16So there can be no real love between a man and a woman?

17:21I do not know who I am. She does not know who she is. Where's the question of love? I mean, two unconscious people just stuttering down

17:33their unconscious paths and randomly they happen to bump into each other. Is that love? Obviously not. Nothing.

17:46I'm going to go to the very fundamental question, because what you are saying is probably very complicated for most people in the world.

17:57Most people understand the idea of love, but you seem to reject that. You seem to say that it's all superficial.

18:05It's fickle. What is love? What the rest of the world is experiencing and you are saying that it's not there?

18:14See, I'm rejecting the idea, not love. So 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? All 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. It could be someone from the other gender.

18:51It could be a little kid. It could be an animal. Or as people say, I love chicken.

18:58When you want to really sink your teeth into something, you say you love it. So it could be a food item.

19:06Whatever you would be looking at, you would be looking at that thing just from the perspective of fulfillment of your desire.

19:18Is it so wrong to have desires?

19:22Would you want to be exploited for somebody's desire?

19:28I'm the seeker of answers.

19:33Would you want to be? Nobody 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.

19:49But if I am an object of somebody's desire, then even after swallowing myself whole, he would still be unfulfilled.

20:02So my life has gone and he has achieved nothing out of my so-called sacrifice.

20:07So there is nothing in this love. Nothing in this love.

20:10Man looks at woman to appease himself. Woman looks at man again to appease herself.

20:16And the two of them are in a lifelong mutually exploitative relationship of what good is all this.

20:22And we don't want to face this, acknowledge this. We want to pretend as if all is hunky-dory.

20:30If everybody becomes so enlightened as you are, people will probably not fall in love.

20:36People will probably not reproduce. People will probably not follow their biological mandate.

20:43When people are wise, that's the only time they can be in love. Wisdom and love go together.

20:52So what you are saying, on the contrary, when you know who you are, when you have some insight into yourself,

21:01that's when you become capable of love for the first time.

21:05Most people spend their entire lives not loving, not because they didn't find someone worthy enough to be loved,

21:15but because they were fundamentally incapable of loving anything.

21:22You know, among couples, this sometimes goes. One of them would ask, oh, do you love me?

21:30That should not even be the question. The question should be, are you capable of loving anything, anybody?

21:37The fact is neither of them are capable of loving.

21:41So how? It's unjust to ask such a person, are you loving me? The fellow has no faculty to love.

21:49And that faculty has to be learnt. It has to be awakened. And that's the proper purpose of education.

21:56But our education does not teach us what real love is. So what do we have?

22:01We have animalistic love and we think of that as the only love possible.

22:05The 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, are 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. How can I be incapable of love?

22:38Had I been incapable of love, I wouldn't have been sitting here.

22:41I lost my father a few days back. What makes you think would bring me to this chair?

22:48It's love. It'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, but we forget them.

23:24We ignore them. Right? So 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. I 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 to many people who might be in love, in true love?

24:23But you are constantly passing the judgment saying that people are not in love.

24:32It's only they're chasing their desires.

24:34They're constantly being driven by their biological urges and 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, when you look at the mess that we have created,

25:06there 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 at least make an attempt or get started on this path of love?

25:30This way. This is the way.

25:35Where did this love for reading come from?

25:39Is it genetics? Is it something a priori?

25:43Is it something that you carried through generations?

25:49Where does this initial liking, dislikes or love or repulsion for things come from?

25:58See, if it can be reasoned out, if a cause can be attributed to it, then it becomes something very little.

26:10Then it becomes largely formulaic.

26:13If you can know how this child was pulled towards books, then the same formula can be applied to all others.

26:22And the moment it gets limited to a formula, it becomes something very small.

26:32So, 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,

26:56and who probably might have access to even richer wisdom material than I had.

27:05I would simply say it's a matter of choice.

27:11Somewhere you have to stop the chain of causation.

27:15You cannot say this happened because this happened, because this happened, because this happened.

27:19If 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,

27:50and I just preferred reading over any other activity.

28:00And your parents helped, encouraged?

28:04Was the influence of parents or friends or somebody else there in life, early life?

28:12Even though you're saying, you're insisting that let's not go into the causation,

28:20but 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.

28:33I did have friends, but that was limited to my school time,

28:38and those were not days of the internet,

28:41and I didn't have kids, my friends visiting my home.

28:48So, I had the opportunity to be with my books for long hours in the day,

28:57and it was not merely books pertaining to wisdom or something that I read.

29:05I was not training to become a spiritual leader.

29:09I was reading from all directions, right?

29:14So, I would read history, I would read comic strips.

29:26All that is available, anything one can lay his hand on.

29:30So, 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.

29:43There are telltale signs.

29:49You can never reach absolute consciousness, right?

29:53It's always a journey.

29:55So, if you'll ask in binary, conscious or unconscious,

29:59I'll modestly say unconscious.

30:04Because if I say conscious, that's like violating a principle.

30:08To 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,

30:31and 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?

30:51Yes, obviously. Humanity is a huge unconscious lot.

30:57Huge unconscious lot.

31:00So, when we say love or when we say humanity,

31:06what are we really referring to?

31:08Are we saying that it's a construct?

31:11We just believe, we like to believe that.

31:13We are referring to a species that is born like animals and lives like animals,

31:25even though it has a much superior potential.

31:30We talk of human beings.

31:32We are really talking of 8 billion animals, that's all,

31:41driven by their biological mandate.

31:44So, we are mostly driven by our biological mandate.

31:48Obviously.

31:51What else is a territorial mind?

31:55What else is the insane thirst for a house or a partner or money?

32:13What else is all this?

32:17You also said that humans are special.

32:21For us, the test is tougher and we cannot be seen at the same level as animals

32:30because they just follow their biological drive.

32:34Humans try to exceed that biological mandate.

32:39See, that's what human beings must do.

32:42But that's not what they actually do.

32:45And that's why it's rather unfortunate that in spite of the potential,

32:51in spite of what is possible, we live like animals.

32:56And that's why we are worse than animals.

32:59See, animals living like animals are alright.

33:03They have no option.

33:05But human beings living like animals are a disgrace

33:12because they had an option.

33:15Is it really within our control, within our limits,

33:21to have that choice which you repeatedly refer to as the conscious choice?

33:26Do you think we are at that stage, that level of evolution

33:31or whatever you would like to call it,

33:34where we can actually access that conscious mind?

33:39You see, what is a question?

33:44A question is a choice, right?

33:47I could have said, I don't know and I don't need to know.

33:52But what do I say?

33:55I don't know, but I must know.

33:58So, the possibility to inquire and know is always there.

34:07Else there can be no questions possible.

34:12So, it's not a matter of the stage of evolution.

34:17It's not even a matter of one's upbringing

34:23or economic conditions or social conditioning.

34:28None of that.

34:30As a human being,

34:33the option to do better,

34:38to inquire, to know,

34:41not to proceed without understanding is always there.

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