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~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Video Information: Myth Demolition tour, 17.2.20, Rishikesh, Uttarakhand, India
Context:
~ What is the difference between mind, soul, spirit and consciousness?
~ What is of primary importance amongst these?
~ What is consciousness?
~ What is concept of reincarnation and rebirth?
~ Who takes rebirth?
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: Myth Demolition tour, 17.2.20, Rishikesh, Uttarakhand, India
Context:
~ What is the difference between mind, soul, spirit and consciousness?
~ What is of primary importance amongst these?
~ What is consciousness?
~ What is concept of reincarnation and rebirth?
~ Who takes rebirth?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Would you please be able to explain us the difference between the mind, the soul, the
00:15spirit, the mind, the soul, the spirit and consciousness?
00:23What is just consciousness?
00:25That consciousness requires a physical support.
00:36That consciousness requires a physical support, right?
00:44That physical support is called the man.
00:49When we say consciousness, we talk of our consciousness.
00:58Our consciousness requires brain.
01:04So that which we call as our consciousness is necessarily something dependent on the
01:11physical, which is this body, but not quite settled or satisfied with the physical, right?
01:24This consciousness keeps on forming concepts, thinking, visualizing, ideating.
01:38The soul and the spirit are two such ideas.
01:42They are ideas in consciousness.
01:49They do not exist as such.
01:54All existence is just a dualistic game of consciousness.
02:02Consciousness that entails the I that is conscious and the other, the world, that this
02:11I is conscious of, right?
02:16The I looks at the other and immediately forms an idea.
02:23The I is not capable of truth, but it is very proficient with ideation.
02:31The I looks at the other and forms an idea.
02:35We live in ideas, right?
02:40The soul, the spirit, the afterlife, God, all the words in our material as well as spiritual
02:50vocabulary are just ideas in consciousness.
02:57So of primary importance is only the consciousness.
03:04This consciousness you could broadly call as mind, right?
03:12What is the mind or what is consciousness?
03:15All that you see, all that you feel, all that you are, all that comes, all that goes, all
03:22that rises, all that falls, all the colors, all presence, all absence, all past, all future,
03:35all of it is consciousness.
03:37Whatsoever can be thought of is an element of consciousness.
03:43Whatsoever can be talked of or even imagined is an element of consciousness.
03:51So the moment you give a name to something, it just gets reduced to a small element within
03:58consciousness.
03:59Therefore, what is even God?
04:05Something little within consciousness and then there is that which cannot be named but
04:16is so vast that consciousness itself is eager to move, settle, relax and disappear into
04:30it.
04:34That in the spiritual jargon is referred to as that or truth or nothing or everything.
04:54It cannot be taken in by the charm of the words soul and spirit and such things.
05:05They are just decorated names for the mind, nothing else.
05:17When you say something is coming from your soul, it's only coming from the same place
05:23where everything else comes from.
05:26There are no two places from where stuff can arise or to where stuff can go.
05:42Even when you say somebody is your soul mate, the fellow is actually just your mind mate.
05:51You could have included another word, heart.
05:55What is the heart?
05:56The way we use it, it is just a thing in consciousness.
06:04The way the masters have used it, heart is synonymous with that which the consciousness
06:16wants to merge into.
06:20The general popular usage of soul, spirit, heart, all of them are one and all of them
06:31are just the same as the mind.
06:35So you could say I really want this from my heart or from the depths of my heart, bottom
06:40of my heart.
06:43Doesn't make any difference or you could say my emotions are arising from my heart whereas
06:50the mind gives only thoughts, makes no difference.
06:54Thoughts, emotions, heart, mind, they all really exist in the same dimension.
07:04It's a fallacy to see a dimensional difference between them.
07:13They are different but only in the degree of mental excitation involved.
07:20If the degree of mental excitation is up to a certain point, then it is a mere thought.
07:27When that excitation exceeds that limit, then you start calling it emotion.
07:35When that excitation not merely exceeds the limit but also becomes almost permanent for
07:43a while, then you start calling it passion.
07:47Nevertheless, this distinction is meaningless when it comes to the place all these things
07:56are coming from.
07:58The screen on which all these events are happening, the screen is the same.
08:03It's the mind.
08:06When we talk about the reincarnation of life after life, what does reincarnate if there
08:12is no soul, no mind, it's just the consciousness of one being that reincarnates in another?
08:22A wave rises in ocean and subsides.
08:41From where does the next wave come?
08:46The ocean has a tendency to wave.
08:49The ocean itself is reincarnating again and again.
08:52It's not the previous wave that has reincarnated.
08:56The previous wave came and disappeared for good.
09:01It won't ever return.
09:04But the ocean has a constant tendency to keep waving.
09:08Similarly, this earth, the soil or that which you call as existence has a tendency to keep
09:20presenting itself in one form after other.
09:25So it's never the person who reincarnates.
09:29One fellow is gone and he is gone for good.
09:31He would never return.
09:33He leaves no residue behind.
09:38Prakriti reincarnates.
09:46If you go to the Bhagavad Gita, Shri Krishna will say Jeevatma reincarnates.
09:52And Jeevatma is not Atma, Jeevatma is Prakriti.
09:56Jeevatma is the Atma of Jeev and the Jeev cannot really carry an Atma.
10:05So Jeevatma is really just the Jeev, the tendency of Prakriti to keep producing Jeev.
10:16That is what reincarnates.
10:23Nothing moves from one person into another person.
10:34That is not merely unscientific, but also not spiritual at all.
10:42Unfortunately, the way many people have interpreted it, comprehended it, this story regarding
10:52one person taking rebirth as another person has become quite popular.
11:00This story is good entertainment, but not much beyond that.
11:08Persons don't reincarnate.
11:10Prakriti reincarnates.
11:17You understand Prakriti?
11:19All this physical nature.
11:23So an instance of a tree might be hacked down, but the tree by itself remains.
11:33When you say you have brought down a tree, what is it that you have brought down?
11:39An instance of a tree.
11:42But the tendency to keep tree-ing remains, right?
11:48The tendency of the earth to keep tree-ing remains.
11:53That's reincarnation.
11:55You can hack down an entire species.
12:00Something else would come up.
12:02That's reincarnation.
12:05In fact, if you could somehow destroy this entire universe,
12:11it's quite likely that after an indefinite period of time, another universe might spring up.
12:17That's reincarnation.
12:18The universe itself has reincarnated.
12:20There is an underlying tendency.
12:24And does this tendency just keep on lasting because we figure out there is time,
12:33or it's just like it does not actually, it's not even happening?
12:37As long as there is time, there is this tendency.
12:40Just follow up a little bit.
12:44So can you explain to me what are people looking for when they go to Varanasi
12:48to get burned when their physical body is dead?
12:52Because they say to us, they want to stop the cycle of reincarnation.
12:58I didn't get you.
13:00What are people looking for when they go to Varanasi to?
13:03To be cremated.
13:05How do you say?
13:06Cremated.
13:07Okay.
13:08Why do they cremate the dead preferably at Varanasi?
13:11That's what you're asking.
13:13I think it's reaching the moshka.
13:16Okay.
13:17So he is referring to the belief among Hindus that if the dead are cremated at Varanasi,
13:30then it helps them attain salvation.
13:33Right?
13:39The best that it does is that it helps the relatives reach Varanasi.
13:45Maybe they would have never quite met the Ganga and the magnificent temples of Varanasi otherwise.
13:53So the ones who improvised all these customs knew the art of somehow bringing people to the place where they need to be.
14:06So they instituted these things.
14:10They said if somebody is born or if a few ceremonies are to be performed on the little kid,
14:20it's preferable if you do that on the banks of the Ganga or other holy rivers or you go to some holy mountain or to a temple.
14:30The intention is obviously clear.
14:33The parents are such stubborn people that they would never ever visit that mountain on their own.
14:41But now the child is there and it is a religious requirement that they have to go to those temples.
14:50And the Hindus made their temples on the most beautiful mountains.
14:58So now you have to go to that temple and in that process you will visit the mountain as well.
15:06It's funny but you know that's the way it is.
15:14Think of the mundane life of the ordinary individual caught in his daily job, daily routine,
15:22or if he's a farmer, the annual cycle of sowing, reaping, selling.
15:28That's what the life of the common man is and your 60 or 80 years can fly away in a wink.
15:36Therefore you need these institutional interventions.
15:44There's a marriage in the house, it has to be accompanied by a visit to a pious place
15:52or it has to be accompanied by some kind of an activity performed by a priest.
16:05And I'm assuming that the priest is not a fraudster.
16:09And if the priest is a real priest, then the company of that priest would give you certain relief and illumination.
16:19So these customs were formed.
16:27You have heard of Saint Kabir.
16:32So he lived all his life in Varanasi.
16:40He's my favorite.
16:44His entire life he was in Varanasi.
16:48And there is a place near Varanasi where it is forbidden to give up your ghost.
17:07If you are dying then you should not be at that place.
17:10What's the name of that place?
17:15Magahar.
17:22And you have to be at Varanasi at the moment of your death if you are to attain salvation, Moksha.
17:30So now Saint Kabir knew that his end was approaching.
17:35He said take me to Magahar.
17:42I will not die in Kashi.
17:44Kashi is Varanasi.
17:46I will not die in Kashi.
17:48People said but what are you doing?
17:50Your entire life you have lived in Varanasi.
17:52Now in the exact moment when you should be in Varanasi and attain salvation,
17:59you are saying that you want to be at Magahar.
18:02What is this?
18:03So he said, Jo Kabira Kashi Mare, To Rama Hi Ko Nibhora.
18:08I'll translate that for you.
18:10He said if even I have to use Kashi for my salvation,
18:14then what's the use of Ram?
18:17Only those who are Ramless, Ramless meaning truthless, godless,
18:25only those who are Ramless come to Kashi.
18:28Because their entire life they never cared for Ram.
18:32So in their last moment they come begging to Kashi that we could not do anything else in life.
18:39So finally we have come here to die.
18:42This is the maximum that we can do.
18:46Kabir said no, I do not need Varanasi for my salvation.
18:50Instead I am going away to the most forbidden place.
18:54So it's not quite essential to die in Varanasi or to be cremated in Varanasi.
19:02It's just a custom.
19:06So as you were saying in the beginning,
19:08the point where we are now with humanity destroying the earth,
19:12and we might not get very much further.
19:19I wonder, as you were also saying about the waves,
19:24like existence, or you have a different word for it,
19:28that keeps creating the waves.
19:32So could you speak about what's lost if indeed we destroy our lives and life?
19:40Your life is lost.
19:42Nothing is lost in the absolute or existential sense.
19:47Everything is lost only in the personal sense.
19:52You come, you go.
19:55The existence cares to hoots.
20:01So spirituality is not to help existence better itself.
20:10Spirituality is for the one who suffers.
20:14Existence never suffers.
20:17Spirituality is for you.
20:20We write that there is the waving of the ocean.
20:24So even if one person goes, there would be the next wave.
20:28Even if one species goes, there would be the next wave.
20:31Even if one planet goes, there would be the next wave.
20:34And even if the entire universe goes, there would be the next wave.
20:38So when you look at it from that dimension,
20:42obviously there is no need to do anything.
20:44But then we have to be honest about that.
20:48Do we really belong to that dimension
20:52where we do not care about our coming and our going?
20:57The fact of our life is that every small thing manages
21:01to be significant to us and disturbs us.
21:03Is that not so?
21:05On the one hand, the fact of our daily life
21:09is that even a small headache is a problem.
21:12On the other hand, when it comes to the global issues
21:18and things like climate change or such things,
21:22many people say, how does it matter?
21:26So many species have so many times come and gone.
21:33So if a few thousand more species are disappearing every month,
21:36how does it matter?
21:38Would you say the same thing
21:41if your son or daughter were to disappear the next day?
21:46Now if I am somebody who does not care about his own disappearance,
21:53then it is perfectly alright if I also do not care about
21:57the disappearance of ten other species.
22:00But I would be a hypocrite if I care about my own personal disappearance,
22:06but when it comes to the disappearance of that endangered species,
22:10I say, oh, but that is just another species.
22:13Since the advent of time, millions of species have come and gone.
22:18How about your own disappearance then?
22:21So the thing is, relative to who you are,
22:27if you could immediately be someone who has no self-concern left,
22:34then obviously you are liberated.
22:36And to the liberated one, there is no obligation to save the planet.
22:41To the liberated one, it does not matter
22:44if there is an all-out nuclear war and everything is annihilated.
22:48Fine, his peace would still not be disturbed.
22:51But are we liberated ones?
22:53To us, our personal concerns do matter.
22:55And if personal concerns do matter, and till personal concerns do matter,
23:00let us just broaden the scope of what we call as personal.
23:05Right now, personal to us probably means only this body
23:09or the bodies of our family members.
23:12Why can't personal become a little more inclusive
23:17and include the bodies of people of other countries,
23:23bodies of other species, even bodies of those who are yet to be born.
23:30And that broadening of the ego boundary is called compassion.
23:38Now you have more and more in your fold.
23:42I am not terribly identified only with this self.
23:46I am identified with more and more.
23:48Therefore, I am talking of the planet Earth.
23:51I am not merely talking of my household or my locality
23:55or my little district or my country.
23:57I am talking of the entire planet.
23:59And probably I am prepared to go even beyond my planet.
24:04The thing is, if you want your own welfare,
24:09it is impossible to have it without caring for the welfare of others.
24:16So even in your own self-interest, you will need to take care of others.
24:27These are absolutes.
24:30You see, Advaita Vedanta, for example,
24:33says that the entire world is just an illusion.
24:37The entire world is just an illusion.
24:41And one could very well use this kind of an assertion to say
24:47that if the entire world is just an illusion,
24:50then what's the harm in killing him or her?
24:56After all, they are just illusory.
25:00They are at most like characters in somebody's dreams.
25:04And do you suffer a penalty if you kill somebody in your dream?
25:08No, you don't.
25:10And Acharya Shankar has told me that
25:12Jagat Mithya, so I am just killing him and killing her.
25:16That would have been very much alright
25:19had you made the same treatment to yourself.
25:25But I say, I am real, he is illusory.
25:29Now there is a problem.
25:31If you want to say that the entire world is illusory,
25:35so I don't want to care for it, that is great.
25:38But before you say the entire world is illusory,
25:41you should be honest enough to say,
25:43you too are illusory.
25:45That we do not want to say.
25:46I am real, but everything else is an illusion.
25:49So everything else can be hacked down
25:51for my sake because I am real, you see.
25:54That won't do.