♂️ 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: 13.04.23, IRMA (Online), Greater Noida
Context:
~ Why should we not trust blindly?
~ Why do I trust people blindly?
~ What does blindly listening mean?
~ Can you blindly trust someone?
~ Why don't we try to mitigate climate change?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
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: 13.04.23, IRMA (Online), Greater Noida
Context:
~ Why should we not trust blindly?
~ Why do I trust people blindly?
~ What does blindly listening mean?
~ Can you blindly trust someone?
~ Why don't we try to mitigate climate change?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00So, I am Darshana and my question is very simple yet complicated.
00:07So, why do we not work?
00:10So, even after knowing that, you know, if we work, we will get something that we are looking for.
00:17So, to take an example, I had the opportunity to interact with a lot of social startups.
00:25So, many of them are working towards climate change.
00:28So, a few startups, though they might be working towards the climate change, even if we see at individual level.
00:34So, we know that, you know, if we do not use plastic or if we segregate the garbage waste or even not use AC or maybe some other alternative for that matter,
00:47we could actually bring in a lot of change.
00:50Like we are 8 billion people and individually, everyone, maybe even half the world is, you know, working towards it.
00:57There could be a drastic change in the climate, you know, though we are not actually working on it.
01:04So, what can be the reason for that?
01:16See, when you say we do not work, it's not that we really do not work.
01:27Every single person is indeed working, but just according to his or her own limited perception and self-interest.
01:42There is nobody who does not work.
01:45Even if somebody decides not to work, that's that person's definition of work.
01:51So, for example, when you ask someone, hey, what did you do all day?
01:57And the fellow says, oh, I just slept or I was just lying on the bed.
02:03Isn't that in response to what did you do all day?
02:09So, that's what he was doing, lying on the bed.
02:15So, that's his doing. He's working.
02:18The trouble is, according to his perception from where he is looking and with the limited clarity that he is looking,
02:31that was the suitable work he could take up, lying on the bed, dozing, sleeping.
02:41Are you getting it?
02:45So, if you want people to do the right work, you first of all need them to have the right clarity.
03:00When I know who I am, then I also know what I must do.
03:10At least let me know what my situation is.
03:14There is a fire in the room and you are fast asleep.
03:23Somebody comes and just wakes you up.
03:29And then you are not needed to be told what to do.
03:36Nobody needs to motivate you either.
03:41Just having seen what the situation is like, you gallop away at top speed.
03:50There is a fire in the room, you have to run away.
03:54Don't you?
03:56Now, if you are sleeping and a friend of yours comes to me and asks,
04:01why doesn't she work? I mean, why doesn't she move?
04:05The answer is because she is asleep.
04:09Because she is not conscious.
04:12So, people do not work because they do not know, they are not conscious.
04:17Even if they think that they know, they know in a very hazy kind of way, in an inebriated state.
04:27Their vision is quite blurred.
04:31If you are drunk, what happens to your vision?
04:36Or if the windscreen has a lot of moisture deposited on it, what happens to your vision?
04:45And what happens when you drive in the fog?
04:52So, the real problem is not about action.
04:55The real problem has to do with the actor.
04:58The actor is not all right.
05:01The nature of the actor is consciousness and the actor is not fully conscious.
05:09And therefore, the actor is making very wrong kind of wasteful, suboptimal, even harmful decisions.
05:25Are you getting it?
05:27So, when I have no idea about my being,
05:36I have neither bothered to have knowledge of the world nor have I bothered to observe my own ways.
05:45So, I know neither the world nor myself.
05:49Then why will I worry about something like climate change?
05:56I know neither the facts of the world nor do I know what is it within the human being that leads to the climate catastrophe.
06:04Why will I work?
06:08Climate activists often ignore this basic thing.
06:13So, they want to steer us into action without first of all ensuring that we have enough clarity.
06:24An action without clarity is just a blind rush.
06:28A blind rush that won't last.
06:31You will stumble, you will fall and you will fall asleep.
06:40Are we together?
06:42Is this clarifying the thing or is there something else you want to ask?
06:47I understand it.
06:49But again, is it because we are not aware and even if we are aware, we are not actually doing something.
06:56So, is it because of internal motivation?
06:58Because as a human, human beings are innately lazy.
07:04That can be one of the reasons, right?
07:07No, it's not that we are lazy.
07:09We do not prefer to do a few things.
07:12Nobody is lazy.
07:15When you do not prefer to do something, you unconsciously call it laziness.
07:22Is anybody ever so lazy that he doesn't fall on the bed?
07:33Is somebody ever so lazy that he misses her meals?
07:43So, it's not that people are lazy.
07:47Students are lazy to come to the college.
07:55But are students ever so lazy that they refuse to return from the college?
08:03And the distance between the home and the college remains the same, right?
08:07You say I was so lazy, oh the distance is 12 kilometers, I didn't come.
08:12Now that you have come, the distance is still 12 kilometers.
08:16Why aren't you lazy enough to stay put in the college?
08:20Why are you now going to home?
08:22So, laziness is just a preference.
08:26Nobody is really lazy.
08:28When it comes to fulfillment of desire, even the laziest person becomes super active.
08:36Just check what a person really desires and you will find how quickly he shuns his laziness.
08:47So, why do people not act?
08:52Because even if they know the facts of the world,
09:01they do not see how those facts affect their own being.
09:09If you can make them see that, they will move, they will act.
09:16So, biodiversity is depleting.
09:21Species are going extinct.
09:25CO2 levels are 420 ppm.
09:29And the fellow says, well, how does any of that matter to me?
09:37How does any of that matter to me?
09:39That's the missing link.
09:43Can you establish the link?
09:45Can you display to him that it indeed does matter to you?
09:48That it's your, it's a personal thing.
09:51It's not about what's happening in the world.
09:55It's happening to you actually.
09:59You are being personally hit by the climate change.
10:02If he can see that, he will move.
10:05As long as he cannot see that, he will not act.
10:08But we expect them to act out of a moral obligation or a social responsibility.
10:16That does not last long.
10:20Just to look good or just to please his conscience,
10:26he will act for a while in a timid way.
10:30Take some half-hearted measures and then he will drop out.
10:34If you want somebody to be fully enrolled in a massive project,
10:44first of all, you have to ensure that the project becomes a personal thing to him or her.
10:50It cannot remain professional or social or external.
10:55It has to become internal and personal.
10:58It is my thing.
11:01I'm not fighting for the climate.
11:03I'm fighting for myself because now I see that the climate is me.
11:09I'm not fighting for the other species.
11:11I'm fighting for myself because now I see that the other species are all me.
11:19I'm not fighting for the kids or the elderly or for women.
11:23I'm fighting for myself because I see that I am the kid.
11:27I am the elderly.
11:28I am the woman.
11:31If I do not see that, then I'll just be an ordinary do-gooder.
11:38And those don't go far.
11:44As long as the feeling of otherness will remain,
11:47as long as the feeling of otherness will remain,
11:51your openness to help the other will remain limited.
11:56Nobody can go beyond a point to help the other because the other by definition is the other.
12:03You have to have the clarity to see the other as yourself.
12:11Are you getting it?
12:12There is a fire in the neighbor's house and you are smug and selfish and you are not doing anything about it.
12:19But the fire now spreads so much that the flames are about to consume your own house.
12:27Then you will become suddenly a social activist.
12:37Then you will say, oh, I want to douse the flames in my neighbor's house.
12:40Because now you can see that the neighbor's house is your own house.
12:47And the other house gutted is your own house gutted.
12:53If he goes, you two go, the two of you are one.
12:57That has to be shown and that remains to be shown.
13:01That has not been shown.
13:04NGOs, student groups, activists, they all still talk the language of selflessness.
13:17They say you must be selfless to help the other.
13:21The fact is you must realize where truly your selfish self-interest lies.
13:31And when you realize that, you see that your self-interest is inseparable from that of the other.
13:38And that's when you are moved into action.
13:41And that's why Vedanta is so important because it brings forward that which unites us.
13:52Then the differences disappear.
13:54And when differences disappear, only then you are able to be good to the other.
14:00If the other is outside, on the other side of the wall, why should the other matter to me?
14:08That's a practical question.
14:09The other will not matter to me.
14:12Let there be life and let's assume there is life on some other distant planet as well.
14:18There must be.
14:19The universe is just so large, it's quite probable there is life elsewhere as well.
14:25Does it matter to you what's happening on that particular planet?
14:29Because the other is the other and your life is not connected to the life on that planet.
14:35So even if there is a huge nuclear war or something, a mass extinction on that planet,
14:42you do not bother and you actually need not bother.
14:49Here you need to understand everything is interrelated.
14:53Interrelated not just in the physical sense but also in a very inner and metaphysical sense.
15:00That's Vedanta.
15:02And if you want to keep Vedanta aside because sometimes people take it as some kind of sectarian, partisan thing,
15:11then keep Vedanta aside.
15:12Just talk of self-knowledge.
15:15Self-knowledge.
15:16The more you know yourself, the more you know that you are not a distinct entity,
15:22that the world is not comprised of a million distinct entities.
15:30We are together.
15:31We all are one.
15:34And we are not one just externally.
15:37Internally, there is a point where there are no differences and we all aspire to reach that point.
15:47And if we cannot reach that point, then there is no hope, no peace, no joy for any of us.
15:56If we remain in that which makes us distinct from others, we will remain restless.
16:08Usually the woman likes to remain as a woman.
16:14The man likes to remain as a man.
16:17Now there can be no peace in that.
16:20The Hindu likes to remain as a Hindu, the Muslim as a Muslim, the rich as the rich, the poor as the poor.
16:26There can be no peace because you are remaining in that which makes you distinct from the other.
16:33Vedanta makes it clear that you have to abide in that which makes you indistinct from anybody, anywhere.
16:49What is that thing that is indistinct, common, universal, beyond change, beyond division?
16:57When you start going into that, that's when there is a flowering of real compassion.
17:05Then you can work for the animals, for others, for the world in general.
17:12So I keep telling, whenever I meet climate activists or vegan activists or people who work against animal cruelty or for other noble, generous causes,
17:27I keep telling them, unless there is a spiritual core to your work, it won't go far.
17:32The climate crisis cannot be handled without an awakening of self-knowledge.
17:44People will continue to be cruel to animals if they do not know who they are internally.
17:56Is it all going too abstract or fast?
18:00I have a follow-up question.
18:04I understood that there is a need of desire that you need, something that you are doing for yourself.
18:10There should be a feeling because to being selfless, there is a limitation.
18:16So my question is, how do you awaken that selfishness or that desire within a person or yourself?
18:26So I know there is going to be certain benefits.
18:31If I study, I'm going to get good scores.
18:35So how do I bring that desire of studying to get that good score?
18:41Because even if I know, I'm not actually studying.
18:43You have to link your good scores to the fulfillment of your most basic and most important desire.
18:58So that's true.
19:00If you study, you will get good marks.
19:02If you get good marks, you get good grades and then an overall better CGP or something.
19:09And then maybe you will be a gold medalist.
19:11Maybe, maybe.
19:13But that inner restless thing asks, so what?
19:18You tell yourself, you have an exam coming.
19:23You tell yourself, I must study, I'll get good marks.
19:26The inner bird says, so what?
19:29Then you tell yourself, good marks mean good grades.
19:32The inner bird again asks, so what?
19:35Then you say, a higher, whatever, a better placement, yes, a better placement.
19:43The inner one again says, so what?
19:47Then you say, better placement means more money, more money, more respect.
19:52The inner one again says, so what?
19:55What does this series of so what's tell you?
20:00It tells you that the inner thing is desirous of neither of these actually.
20:09The inner human discontent that we all have, irrespective of who we are, where we come from, etc.
20:17That inner discontentment cannot be fulfilled by marks or grades or placement or money or whatever.
20:25Otherwise, the inner bird would have just smiled and gone silent.
20:33But it keeps retorting, does it not? So what?
20:37And unless you take it on board, unless you convince it, you will not get its cooperation.
20:45So it does not cooperate. You want to study, it says, so what?
20:49I want to do something else.
20:50I want to do something else.
20:53And whatever else you do, it again says, so what?
20:59When you were studying, she was saying, no, no, no, so what?
21:04And then you said, fine, let me watch a movie.
21:08To your horror, she again says, so what?
21:12What does that tell you? That tells that there is something very unique, very special
21:17that the inner thing is longing for.
21:23And the purpose of life is to identify that thing that you really want
21:29and then go after it with all your might, endlessly.
21:34And that's true selfishness.
21:37To ask yourself, hello, hello, beyond all the little objects of desire,
21:44all the common things that people run after,
21:48what is it that I truly want? Let me be absolutely selfish.
21:55And it's not a superficial thing.
21:57It's not a superficial thing.
22:01You will not just be served the inner secret on a platter.
22:11You will have to observe yourself.
22:13You will have to ask yourself difficult questions
22:16and you will have to be patient with yourself
22:18to know what your heart really beats for.
22:20What that little bird pines for.
22:33And that true selfishness, the wise ones have told us, is all-inclusive.
22:44Once you know what you want,
22:47immediately,
22:52without fail,
22:55you also know that's the thing that everybody wants.
23:02Outside we are all different, distinct.
23:05Inwardly, we all have a common want.
23:11Once you come in touch with your own want,
23:14it becomes impossible for you to remain indifferent,
23:19insensitive or cruel to others.
23:23That, we said, is the flowering of true compassion.
23:26True selfishness is true compassion.
23:31Knowing yourself, it becomes impossible for you not to help others.
23:37In fact, then you even do not try to help others.
23:41Your every action assumes the nature, the quality of help.
23:49Irrespective of what you are doing,
23:52you find you are in some way helping the universe.
23:59Are you getting it?
24:01Selfishness is not about pinching something from a shop without paying for it.
24:06Or about copying from somebody's answer sheet or
24:14stealing somebody's assignment and submitting it in your name.
24:17No, no, that's not selfishness.
24:21Selfishness is a great, great virtue.
24:25Selfishness is self-love. Selfishness is self-knowledge.
24:30It is superfluous selfishness that we must watch out against.
24:34True selfishness is something we must aspire for.
24:39And it's inexorable.
24:43You are the self, right?
24:45How can you not be selfish?
24:47It is your duty towards yourself to be truly selfish.
24:53If you are not being selfish,
24:56then in some sense you are guilty of a crime
25:01You are guilty of a crime against yourself.
25:09So see who you are.
25:11See what is it that you want.
25:14Speak to that bird with some intimacy, some love.
25:21And you'll find whether then it's the cause of the climate
25:26or the oppressed sections of the society
25:30or the cause of the homeless or the malnourished ones.
25:39Oh, there is just so much suffering in the world.
25:41Is there not?
25:42If you start listing the causes a young person can possibly take up,
25:50they are just endless.
25:52It is estimated we are losing probably 100, probably 1000 species per day today.
26:01So there is so much that needs to be done.
26:03There is so much that a young person must invest herself into.
26:09But none of that will be possible if you are not in touch with the inner bird.
26:21What I have understood is that for us to do any work, any kind of desire or any goal that you want to achieve,
26:38there is a need for finding a desire towards it.
26:42That is something that is paramount with your small bird or the small voice that you have inside of you.
26:53Yes, that desire must come from the right reason.
26:56And the right reason arises from the right realization.
27:01Otherwise desire is usually blind.
27:05Everybody is desirous and that does not help.
27:07That desire must come from clarity.
27:10The clarity must be the reason why you desire.
27:15You say, I want something.
27:16There has to be a reason, right?
27:17Somebody can ask, why?
27:20And then your clarity must have the answer.
27:24For that clarity, you need to observe your life, your ways, your instincts, the way thoughts arise, feelings arise, everything.
27:33You need to observe the world, the way people operate with each other, the way companies go for profits,
27:39the way nations squirrel with each other, the way the entire course of history has been.
27:44So you have to read a lot and that helps.
27:47And you also have to observe your own life.
27:54There was a book I read, Men's Search for Meaning.
27:59Viktor Frankl, yes.
28:01Something similar to that.
28:03Yes, of course.
28:07All the best.
28:08Thank you so much.