♂️ 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?...
Read 3 handpicked wisdom articles, just for you: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/articl...
➖➖➖➖➖➖
Video Information: 16.08.2022, Goa University
Context:
What is the meaning of Death?
What happens after death?
What is the real price of fearlessness?
Why is wanting security an impediment to freedom?
How to realize the Truth?
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
Context:
What is the meaning of Death?
What happens after death?
What is the real price of fearlessness?
Why is wanting security an impediment to freedom?
How to realize the Truth?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Hello sir, this is not a well formulated question or anything, but the discussion around bodies
00:09kind of disturbed me a little bit and I kind of sensed that it came from a place of privilege
00:16because, you know, socio-politically body has been made the center of discrimination
00:24at so many levels, you know, be it disabled bodies, bodies of color or queer bodies.
00:30So bodies have been made the center of discrimination and has continued to, you know, being made
00:36so.
00:37Where I am going with this is, should we kind of acknowledge some kind of limit to spirituality?
00:46Because can spirituality, you know, show us a way in all walks of life?
00:53On the question that the previous questioner had asked about ghosts and such, just imagine
01:00if I am a schizophrenia and I see, I am delusional and I see things that are not really there
01:07for anybody else.
01:09So just because somebody else does not see it, it does not, you know, make me, make my
01:17presence non-existent, right?
01:21So again, I am repeating the question, like, does spirituality have a kind of limit?
01:28Should it be, you know, not be sought in certain cases like, you know, social discrimination
01:34or are there places where we have to set this aside and, you know, put on?
01:40You will need to converse because there are a lot of things, so I do not think I can…
01:47It is not a question per se, like…
01:48You want to discuss, I understand, because I cannot have a monologue in this, there are
01:52a lot of things that you are trying to say.
01:54So why do you think that spirituality must have a ceiling somewhere?
02:01Not a ceiling, what I am meant to say is, are we kind of giving a misconception that,
02:11you know, all your answers can be found in spirituality?
02:15No, no, spirituality does not talk of giving answers.
02:19It says the central problem is the I itself and there lies the solution.
02:32If the I is the problem and the I is drunk and ignorant and it is asking a lot of questions,
02:40there is no point giving answers to those questions.
02:43In fact, spirituality has very few answers.
02:46It has a central solution, no answers.
02:51Of what use is an answer if it keeps the questioner alive?
02:56You give one answer, he will come up with four more questions.
03:00A solution is something that dissolves the questioner.
03:04The questioner is the false I, the false I and if that false I can go away.
03:12All kinds of things that make us suffer just disappear.
03:16That's spirituality.
03:17I think then my question would be, can everyone afford to be spiritual?
03:26How do you afford to not to be spiritual?
03:30Because if you are not spiritual, then you are making a mistake at the very first step
03:36of your existence.
03:37No, the discussion about the I right, the questioner, it kind of reminded me of Ramana
03:44Magarishi's example, kind of the pyre which you use to keep the pyre burning and it burns
03:53itself out.
03:54I am talking of people who are living in a kind of delusional state wherein you can't
04:02separate this I from the body or I from the mind.
04:06So you gave an example, you said that for example somebody is, what did you say, schizophrenic
04:14and that fellow is experiencing something and that experience is very real for that
04:20person and you are saying how does it help, how does spirituality help that person?
04:30What apart from spirituality can help that person?
04:32The person has to know that the thing is not the truth, truth is absolute, absolute
04:40meaning 100% objective, zero subjectivity in it or you could say pure subjectivity in
04:47the sense that objects apart from the subject do not exist, whatever you say.
04:52But truth is something that is not relative.
04:54We suffer when we take our condition as the truth.
05:00When we start seeing that it is something only for me, not only is it only for me, it
05:07is in fact rooted in me, then I in fact feel empowered by way of having a choice.
05:14If it is to me, then it can also be not to me.
05:20But if it's something is absolute, then I have no way of opting out, please understand.
05:29If the temperature in this room is 27 degrees centigrade, there is no way I can experience
05:3432 degrees, right?
05:37Because that's what the temperature is.
05:40But if I am feverish and I am the only one experiencing a high temperature, then I have
05:46a choice.
05:47The choice is to get rid of my disease.
05:52Spirituality tells you whatever you are experiencing is your own subjective matter, therefore you
05:58have the power to modify your experiences.
06:02And even if you cannot modify your experiences, you can at least have control over your reaction
06:08and your attitude to your experiences.
06:10Have you heard of John Nash?
06:16You remember the movie, A Beautiful Mind?
06:22You remember what he used to experience?
06:24What was it?
06:26He was experiencing all kinds of things and he was one of the greatest mathematicians
06:30in recent times.
06:32Game theory.
06:33Any mathematics students here?
06:36You would know the importance of Nash.
06:40And he was seeing people, he was seeing places, he was seeing that little girl, if I remember
06:45correctly.
06:46That movie came around a decade back, so I don't read it clearly.
06:49And how did he used to counter that?
06:52You remember that?
06:55He used to say, he would be seeing this apparition in front of me, there is this girl and the
07:01girl is saying something.
07:03She would look around and try to detect whether others too are looking at her.
07:09Something like that?
07:10Am I mistaken?
07:11Something like that, right?
07:13And when he would see that nobody around him is looking at her, he would tell himself,
07:18it's only me, it's subjective.
07:21And if it's subjective, I give it no importance.
07:26I give it no importance, then I move on.
07:28So spirituality, which is I-awareness, is the only way to get rid of all that which
07:35infects you, afflicts you.
07:39So what else do you do?
07:44You know, I had COVID and one of the effects of COVID was that I developed tinnitus, rather
07:51strong one in one of my ears.
07:55So for the initial few weeks or months, I would be searching for the insects around
08:03that were making those noise.
08:04What is tinnitus?
08:05You constantly hear noise in your ear.
08:09Now I was used to having perfectly healthy ears, you know, silence when silent.
08:16But now there is always a constant buzz, as if you have those insects that come around
08:23in the rainy season.
08:27So I would actually be looking around, where is the noise coming from, where is the noise
08:30coming from?
08:31Or I would be thinking there is something in the ear that's creating the noise, so
08:35I would be trying to clean it up.
08:38After a while, I learnt, I said it's only me and if it's only me, how am I trying to
08:45fight it?
08:46Let it be there.
08:47It's doing what it would and the doctor said it is going to now remain your entire life.
08:51Can't be helped.
08:52That can't be helped.
08:53Can't be helped.
08:54Let the body do what it wants to do.
08:55I'll do what I want to do.
08:57Even at this moment, there is somebody speaking to me in my ear.
09:01Let him speak.
09:02I'm speaking to you.
09:03Do I have that choice?
09:06Do I have that choice?
09:07That's what spirituality asks you.
09:09Don't you have a choice?
09:12Don't you have a choice?
09:13Exercise that choice.
09:15Why must you needlessly suffer?
09:17Why must you be a slave to the body and therefore to the world?
09:21You have a choice to be your own master.
09:27But I'm sure it's not yet complete.
09:29Please continue.
09:35So the question of consent came to my mind when you were, you know, so, so, so, yeah,
09:40when you are having the ringing in your ear, you're able to say that, you know, like I'm
09:45the only one who's hearing it.
09:47So my, I think from the beginning, my question has been this.
09:51So what if someone cannot make this call for themselves?
09:55And that's a choice.
09:57It's not that you cannot make this call.
10:00Spirituality just does not admit the word helplessness.
10:07There is no space for this one word.
10:11If there is one sin, it is called helplessness.
10:15Never say I never had a choice.
10:16You had a choice.
10:17You chose not to exercise the choice.
10:20Take it upon yourself.
10:21Be responsible.
10:23But in certain medical situations, the, you know, the consent falls on the family when,
10:29you know, the individual is not able to give some consent.
10:31That's fine.
10:32The individual is then already gone.
10:34If the individual is not conscious enough, even to give consent, take him as already
10:40gone.
10:42The choosing agency itself is no more there now.
10:47So how do you call the patient even alive?
10:49Now, are we suspending the judgment here or like, are we like?
10:56See, please understand.
11:00Would you want to call yourself alive by virtue of the fact that you breathe, you eat?
11:09Give a nuanced answer.
11:13Or do you call yourself alive when you are conscious?
11:18And to be conscious is to have a choice.
11:23There is a difference between human beings and animals and vegetables.
11:26If a vegetable can grow, you say it's alive, right?
11:30If it's not rotting, it's alive.
11:33If an animal can move about and breathe and eat, it's alive.
11:37But should the same definition be applied to human beings?
11:42We are not animals.
11:43We are creatures of consciousness.
11:45We are alive only if we can know, we can experience and we can decide.
11:54If you can neither know nor experience nor decide, how are you alive?
11:58But by that definition, you're going to have a huge problem.
12:02By that definition, 99% of the people of the world are already dead.
12:10Because we move about, we eat, we do a lot of things.
12:16But are we really conscious enough to know and choose?
12:21Well, we are not.
12:22We run around like automatons.
12:25We are very deeply conditioned beings, machines.
12:29So we are actually not alive in the truest sense.
12:34But it appears at least that we are alive.
12:36When that person is there on the deathbed, not having any consciousness and also the
12:45probability of him regaining consciousness runs close to zero.
12:51I do not see how we are still calling him as a living person.
12:59If I faint now and I'm not able to do anything on my own, am I good enough dead?
13:06The probability of your regaining consciousness, that remains to be seen.
13:11If I know that you can be brought back, let's say in six months, in one year, and the cost
13:18of bringing you back is not so high that it turns many others unconscious, then I'll want
13:28to revive you.
13:30Otherwise not.
13:31See, let's be very realistic.
13:35How can I keep one person alive if keeping that one person alive is tantamount to turning
13:41ten others dead?
13:50Unless that person is potentially so full of consciousness that even a major possibility
13:59of reviving him is sufficient to keep us going, a Buddha, a Krishna, a Christ, if he were
14:08on his deathbed, probably it would be fair enough for twenty others to sacrifice their
14:14lives to bring him up.
14:17But that's a very, very unique and impossible kind of case.
14:21So let's not discuss that.
14:23But again, I'm leaving more disturbed now because we have a classic case, the trolley
14:34example, the trolley case in philosophy, wherein you kind of judge which life is, like you
14:41said, if you can sacrifice twenty lives to save the life of one Buddha, is it morally
14:46right?
14:49So I don't know, I still cannot agree with you, but I don't want to be more annoying
14:53with my…
14:54No, no, no, no, no, I think everybody is enjoying it, are we not?
14:58We are really enjoying this and it's going deeper and deeper, please continue.
15:04See, see, see, wait, wait, wait, when we say that it is alright to have twenty people go
15:13for the sake of one Buddha, I'm talking of twenty lovers.
15:19I'm not talking of twenty sacrificial lambs.
15:23Is that not clear?
15:25I'm saying the nature of the Buddha is such that in love there would be twenty willing
15:32to lay down their lives so that the Buddha can be resurrected.
15:39Not that I'm purchasing animals from the market and forcefully slaughtering them to
15:44somehow revive one VIP.
15:47No, that's not what I'm talking of.
15:50If I really love you and I know your worth, I'll lay down my life for your sake.
15:56Is that not what love is?
15:58That's what I'm talking of.
16:06I'm not talking of attachment, I'm talking of knowing your worth and therefore laying
16:10down my life.
16:11Knowing, knowing, knowledge, not attachment.
16:12I'll leave the mic for something else to take over.
16:25So the question which was raised before and how you finished, I got motivated actually
16:33to continue.
16:34So when you were talking about the Buddha and twenty people giving their lives willingly
16:41because of love to save Buddha, Christ, Krishna, whatever.
16:46So first question which was raised in me is, will Buddha want something like that?
16:58And second question is, you said for Buddha, but is it important, is it Buddha or me or
17:04anybody here?
17:06Because I think that those two are quite important questions to talk about.
17:10Is it because Buddha is Buddha and because the idea that Buddha will save us after that
17:15when he is rising or Christ or whatever?
17:18Or because what is love then?
17:21Is it love related to love towards something which is going to somehow save us or help
17:27us or do something for us?
17:29Or love is giving life, not just life.
17:34It doesn't have to be at the ultimate level.
17:37But actually the level of sacrifice which is not anymore a sacrifice because it's done
17:43by…
17:44Beautiful.
17:45So, what's love?
17:47What's sacrifice?
17:48What's love?
17:49What's sacrifice?
17:50How does the whole thing happen?
17:52Who are we?
17:53We are conscious entities that seek contentment in consciousness.
18:02We want to be more conscious.
18:05We want to be absolutely conscious.
18:07Our consciousness remains blemished with all kinds of nonsense.
18:14We want to give that up.
18:17We want to be purer selves.
18:20That's who we are.
18:21Then what is love?
18:22And what is sacrifice?
18:25To give that up which impedes your ascension is sacrifice.
18:34If there is something that blocks you from rising upwards, it is sacrifice.
18:41And that's why sacrifice is no big deal because you are only giving that up which was anyway
18:47unnecessary.
18:49In that sense, sacrifice and renunciation are one.
18:54What is love?
18:56Love is the desire to rise upwards.
19:01And if the desire is not about rising upwards, then it cannot be called as love.
19:08You want to be a better and higher self.
19:12You have that adulation, that respect towards that which is high up there.
19:19That is love.
19:21That is the purest definition of love.
19:25Is there a want there?
19:27Is want that important in that?
19:29That wanting exists.
19:31You see, there is nobody who does not desire.
19:36Is there anybody here who does not desire?
19:38In fact, we all would have desired something or the other even in the last 10 minutes.
19:45All desires are in some way forms of love, however unfortunately perverted forms of love.
19:56All desire is for your own betterment, is that not?
20:01You desire something for your own sake.
20:04It says that we do not know what would make us better.
20:08So we keep desiring all the useless things.
20:12When the desire is right, it is called love.
20:15When the desire is about getting something that would actually take you upwards, it is called love.
20:22So there is this beautiful story by O. Henry, if I remember correctly.
20:35Husband and wife story where they are poor couple and the husband probably wants a wrist watch.
20:44O. Henry?
20:48O. Henry?
20:50Anybody remembers the title?
20:52Gift of the…
20:54Gift of the…
20:56Gift of the…
20:58No, not the watch.
21:00Not the watch.
21:02If somebody would Google, you will know.
21:04But it is a very popular story.
21:06So we are talking of sacrificing.
21:08So what happens is this.
21:10So the husband wants a watch and the wife wants something for her hair.
21:22Hair clips.
21:24Let us say hair clips.
21:26This one.
21:29This one.
21:31The gift of the Magi.
21:33And it is probably Christmas time, right?
21:35Christmas time.
21:37So they both surprise each other on Christmas Eve.
21:43The wife has given away her hair to get the watch for the husband.
21:50And the husband has sold off something important, the watch itself, to get the clips for the wife.
21:58That is how sacrifice operates.
22:00You do it for the other.
22:02You do it for the other, knowing perfectly well that what you are doing for the other would indeed be helpful to the other.
22:09Wanting nothing in return.
22:11So you said, would Buddha want 20 people to lay down their lives for his sake?
22:17He won't.
22:19In fact, there is a beautiful anecdote from Buddha's life.
22:25We do not know whether these things happened or not.
22:28But if these stories exist, there is a reason.
22:33So the Buddha is going and there is this butcher taking away a goat for slaughter.
22:40And the Buddha tells the butcher, why are you slaughtering the goat?
22:44Please leave the goat.
22:46The butcher says, but you know, I kill the goat and I make my ends meet.
22:55There is certain money to be had.
22:59So the Buddha says, how much money?
23:02The butcher tells an amount.
23:05Buddha is not having that kind of thing.
23:09So the Buddha says, fine, it's flesh that you would get from this animal, right?
23:15The butcher says, yes.
23:17So Buddha says, alright, you take that similar weight of flesh from my body and leave the poor animal.
23:24Now here you find the one with the highest consciousness prepared to sacrifice himself for an animal with a very low level of consciousness.
23:37That's how love operates.
23:40Love for love to the one who is at a low level of consciousness is to aspire for a high level.
23:50And love for one sitting on the Himalayan peaks of consciousness is to be compassionate towards those who are at low levels.
24:03And for their sake, if needed, lay down your life.
24:09The one who is at the lower level needs to lay down his life so that he can be higher.
24:16In fact, if you do not lay down your life at the lower level, how will you ever rise higher?
24:20You will continue to be existent at the lower levels.
24:26So if you are here, then you need to quit your life at this level so that you may rise up.
24:33And if you are up, then by the virtue of being up there, you get so much compassion
24:40that you are prepared to lay down your life for the ones who are lower down.
24:47Now you do not know who must die for whom.
24:52Is there a higher and lower level if you are there?
24:56If I do not answer this question, why would you remain dissatisfied?
25:02Because this question is asked so that you can move to a higher level.
25:07The existence of this question itself proves that there indeed is a lower and a higher level.
25:13Otherwise, why will you ask a question?
25:17Because you mentioned.
25:20It does not make it obligatory on you to do anything.
25:25Does anybody like being lied to?
25:30When there is something in front of you, you want to know its truth.
25:35We all have a natural love for higher levels of consciousness.
25:41It's our duty to do justice to that love.
25:46To exist for the sake of that love.
25:50All this that is happening here, what is this?
25:53This is an exercise in love.
25:55Love not in the sense that you are loving a mortal person here or vice versa.
26:03Love in the sense that we are sitting here to raise ourselves up.
26:09And that is what is called the action of love.
26:13To raise yourself up.
26:15I am attracted towards the highest.
26:18That's called love.
26:20And therefore, all attraction towards anything other than the highest is not love.
26:29We may call it as love, but it is not love.
26:32So, for example, if you say, I love chicken.
26:35That's not love.
26:37Even the love that we exhibit towards most of that,
26:43that we exhibit towards our families, our girlfriends, boyfriends or this or that,
26:50that's hardly love.
26:52Because that hardly ever amounts to a rise in consciousness.