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Video Information: 16.08.2022, Goa University, Goa
Context:
¬ What are the various religious and cultural beliefs about the existence of ghosts?
¬ How do different religions and belief systems perceive the relationship between God (or gods) and ghosts?
¬ Can the existence of ghosts be reconciled with monotheistic beliefs in a single, all-powerful God?
¬ Are there any religious texts or scriptures that mention ghosts, and if so, what do they say about them?
¬ How do beliefs in ghosts impact religious practices or rituals?
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?...
Read 3 handpicked wisdom articles, just for you: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/articl...
~~~~~
Video Information: 16.08.2022, Goa University, Goa
Context:
¬ What are the various religious and cultural beliefs about the existence of ghosts?
¬ How do different religions and belief systems perceive the relationship between God (or gods) and ghosts?
¬ Can the existence of ghosts be reconciled with monotheistic beliefs in a single, all-powerful God?
¬ Are there any religious texts or scriptures that mention ghosts, and if so, what do they say about them?
¬ How do beliefs in ghosts impact religious practices or rituals?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Namaste Acharya ji. My problem is that my logic doesn't let me believe in God. But then
00:09in the night if somebody starts talking about ghosts, I want something God like near me
00:14like a picture or something. I don't understand, I don't like it. So I want to know, can spirituality
00:20help me fight my phobias? But there is no God in spirituality. That's what I'm saying.
00:29That is why I went towards spirituality. Because my logic is telling me to move towards spirituality.
00:35Did you say ghosts in between? Yes. What was that? Like when fear, ghost is just an example of like
00:41fear, extreme fear, illogical happens, I immediately want something which I don't believe in to help me.
00:49Okay. See this is one way of dealing with your fears. You believe in ghosts,
00:59so to counter that you start believing in gods.
01:04And then you make it ghosts versus gods in your inner battlefield and because you are the referee
01:09you make the gods win. Right? So that's one way and that's a tried and tested way and that way
01:17has actually helped a lot of people. It's not without reason that those fancy stories
01:24continue to hold sway. They help a lot of people. So you could use that
01:34or you could ask yourself, do I need to counter imagination with imagination?
01:40There is somebody sitting inside me who has no taste for truth but has a very fertile imagination
01:57and that one comes up with all kinds of fancy ideas. Not only does she come up with
02:05fancy ideas, she is also so forgetful. She doesn't remember the idea is her own.
02:13The idea does not absolutely or objectively exist. The idea is a purely subjective fancy.
02:22It came from me and you forget that. You imagine something and then you let your own imagination
02:30terrify you and when you feel terrified you say, oh my god, there is a real danger in front of me
02:39and how do you counter that real danger which obviously is an imaginary thing
02:46because in your mind reality and imagination have really never been
02:52totally seen apart. So you counter this imaginary reality with
03:03another kind of imaginary reality. Spirituality isn't about God. Spirituality isn't about
03:09believing in anything, neither ghosts nor gods. In fact, what you have said, I have
03:18come across this earlier as well. Whenever I have spoken against the superstitions related
03:24to ghosts and spirits and souls and what not, people have said that every single argument
03:31that you are giving against the existence of ghosts and spirits also denies the existence of God.
03:40We could pick the same arguments and the way they cut down the existence of ghosts, they can
03:47equally well be used to deny the existence of God. So are you denying the existence of God as well?
03:55And that surprised me. I said, yes, I mean, God as it exists in popular imagination is nothing
04:03but the dualistic counterpart of ghosts.
04:08So if I am saying ghosts cannot exist for such such such reasons, those reasons work both ways.
04:17They take down God as well.
04:21God and truth are not the same thing. Spirituality is about seeking the truth.
04:26God and gods and goddesses
04:31and all the stories that we have read about this and that, obviously, they come from our own mind.
04:39No story can come from anywhere else.
04:43To seek truth is to go to the origin of all your stories and fall silent there.
04:52That's what spirituality does. Spirituality does not say, well, we can start talking only if you,
04:57first of all, agree to believe in such and such story. And if you do not agree to believe in
05:04stories of my choice, then you are my enemy. Is that not how religions of the world operate?
05:10One religion has one fancy story that it takes to be the truth.
05:15The other religion has another story with another names, other characters,
05:20and the other religion takes that story to be the truth.
05:25And the first thing in being indoctrinated is that you have to give your consent to those stories.
05:32I agree that this story is my truth now. Obviously, all that is just belief.
05:40Obviously, all that is just belief. Spirituality, first of all, says drop all beliefs.
05:47You cannot investigate into the truth if you are burdened with beliefs.
05:57Beliefs will simply block your vision. Beliefs will totally impede your capacity to know reality at all.
06:10So, it's not as if spirituality says do not believe in God. It simply says do not believe.
06:17Not only does it say do not believe in ghosts, do not believe in God,
06:23you know, it is so brutally honest. It says do not believe even in yourself.
06:33The first superstition is the existence of one's own self.
06:40Even today, on the Foundations Hindi channel, a video has been published this very morning
06:49that says that, you know, nobody really created this world of yours.
06:56Or I do not remember exactly the title. What was the title?
07:01There is nobody sitting upstairs running your businesses on this earth.
07:08And the one argument I am constantly encountering is, but if there is this world, somebody has to
07:17be the creator, right? And if the planets are going around and there are galaxies and stars
07:25and suns and moons, the entire infinite universe, there has to be somebody who's running the show.
07:32There has to be somebody who's running the show. So, things are there. Somebody has to be the creator.
07:38And stuff is moving. So, somebody has to be the mover. That's the argument.
07:42Spirituality laughs at this. Spirituality says, who says there is something in the first place?
07:50No, your argument is because this table exists, so somebody has to be the creator.
07:56Spirituality says, how do you know that the table exists?
08:01Now, that is a question that religion never asks. Only spirituality does.
08:05Religion says, obviously the table exists. What does religion say? Obviously,
08:11spirituality says, no, nothing is obvious. I want to investigate. Religion does not investigate.
08:16Or even if it does, its investigation does not go beyond this point.
08:20Beyond this point, there is no investigation, just assumption and then stories.
08:27Spirituality says, no, I am not sure this table exists. What is the proof?
08:31What is the proof that the table does exist? Then you say, well, the proof is that I can
08:37see the table. I can touch the table. And if I hit it, I can hear the table.
08:45Spirituality says, so you are the only proof, right?
08:50So, you are the only proof that the world exists. Then you are the creator of the world. Why are
08:55you bringing a God in between? But if I take your word as final, then according to you, there are so
09:07many things that exist that do not. Are you reliable in the first place? How do you know?
09:14Just the other day, you were saying that the girl next door certainly loves you, that her love
09:22exists. Did it really exist? It did not. So, how do you know the table exists?
09:29If you could be mistaken in that case, why is it not possible that you are mistaken in this
09:34case as well? No, no, but that was an intangible. This is a tangible. Right, right. Just the other
09:42night, I asked you how many fingers and these are all tangible fingers, right? Tangible fingers.
09:49I asked you how many fingers and it was a Saturday night and you were returning from your
09:54fave party and you said eight. Eight. Are you always accurate when it comes to tangibles?
10:04How do you know you are not drunk even right now? Well, I know I am not drunk. You said the same
10:09thing that night as well. When you told me eight, I said you are drunk and you said you would be
10:15drunk. I am perfectly sober. Do you really know yourself? If you do not know yourself,
10:22how do you know the table exists? Now, to many of us, it would appear like an annoying question.
10:28But is it not obvious that the table exists? No, sir. We want to take the existence of this table
10:36as granted, as absolute, just because we want to take the existence of our senses
10:43and the testimony of our mind as absolute. Our problem is, the reason we feel threatened is,
10:53if we agree that it is not certain that the table exists, then we will also have to agree that it is
11:00not certain that the body exists because the table and the body are one. I could not be reclining
11:06this way over the table and say the table does not exist but my elbow does. If the table might
11:12not exist, it is possible that even this elbow does not exist because the two are one. Don't you
11:17see? The two are one. If one does not exist, probably the other one also does not exist.
11:23So, that's the epistemological question spirituality grapples with.
11:29What is the right source of knowledge? How do I know anything?
11:33How do I be perfectly sure of anything? So, then the real genuine seeker of truth says,
11:41so I keep all assumptions and observations aside and I will begin only with that which
11:46is beyond doubt. Now, what is it that is beyond doubt? The fact that I am in doubt.
11:54The fact that there exists a questioner because the question is there. The question is,
12:00does the world exist? Now, I do not know whether the world exists or not but for sure the
12:06question exists. If the question exists, somebody is the questioner. So, that is the only thing I
12:11can start out with. So, I start from there. There is something that is dissatisfied in need of
12:19answers and is curious to know the answers. There is a questioning entity that definitely exists.
12:27That's where spirituality starts from. All the other things, it sees as projections of its own
12:36ignorance. This world, it's a projection of my ignorance. My stories, obviously they are
12:43imaginary. Once you come to that, once you start seeing that this world around you,
12:49whatever you can talk of, whatever you can experience, whatever you can hear of,
12:53is just a projection of your own mind. Then you also know that you are the painter of all these
13:02terrible paintings that terrify you. If you can paint them, then you can also
13:12unpaint them. If you can write, you can also erase. Therefore, spirituality is inherently empowering.
13:21It does not leave you at the whims and caprices of some uncontrollable forces in the universe,
13:34some God sitting somewhere up in the heaven. No. I'm not at the mercy of unknowable
13:45and uncontrollable forces. I have choice. I have power.
13:53And I'll suffer only if I do not exercise my choice rightly. I'll not suffer because
13:59some curse will descend from the heavens. I will suffer if I am not attentive enough
14:08and awakened enough to exercise right choices. That is the only source of suffering.
14:14Lack of awakening, lack of attention, lack of discretion, lack of right knowledge.
14:22If that is why I suffer, then I need not run to someone for shelter
14:29to keep my suffering away. If I suffer due to lack of attention,
14:34if I suffer due to lack of realization, then how do I get rid of my suffering?
14:41By being more attentive.
14:45By trying to realize what the truth is and that's what will keep the ghosts really away.
14:57Are you getting it?
15:00So, spirituality is something for everybody, irrespective of your religious identity,
15:07ideological persuasion. You exist, right? And if you exist,
15:16then spirituality is simple investigation into your existence. Who am I? Why do I suffer?
15:27Who am I? Why do I suffer?
15:28Nice, is it not? Or do you want to believe that we are all just pawns in the hands of
15:46fate and destiny and such things?
15:48In spirituality, you do pray, you do bow down. What do you pray to?
15:58You pray to your own highest potential. Now, if you want to call that as God, perfectly all right.
16:07But if you are calling your own highest potential as God, then God is not somewhere out there.
16:13God is sitting right in the middle of your existence.
16:24And then your duty in life is to realize your own godly potential.
16:33I am born to be godly. And how do I be godly? By clearing away all the nonsense sitting inside me.
16:42Genetic nonsense, social nonsense, all the layers of conditioning I have accumulated.
16:50I keep clearing that away. I keep peeling the layers off. And what remains is godliness.
16:57So, it's not as if spirituality is allergic to the word God.
17:06But spirituality has a very clean and clear definition of God sans stories.
17:14God sans communalism. God sans sectarianism.
17:19God as your highest potential. In spirituality, God is called as the self.
17:29Pure self. Vedanta refers to that as Atma. Self, Atma. That is God.
17:39But Vedanta won't call it God really. However, because we are used to calling the highest as God,
17:45therefore, I am referring to the pure self as God.
17:53Is this somewhere near to clarifying something? I am sure I have not been able to answer fully.
17:59And you may continue to question if it's not clear.