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Video Information: 20.07.2024, Vedant: Basics to Classics, Greater Noida
Context:
How to stop thoughts?
What to do when thoughts trouble?
Where does all thought arise from?
What is the real definition of the Self?
Are thoughts have limits?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00:00All words are constructs.
00:00:19Behind every word is thought, mental activity.
00:00:33There is no word whose definition does not depend on other words.
00:01:00You cannot ever have a single word, it will be absurd.
00:01:13That's the problem with concepts, thoughts and words in which concepts have been crystallized.
00:01:38They cannot stand on their own, there is no independence there.
00:01:55What is a concept?
00:01:58That which depends on another concept for its definition.
00:02:10What is a word?
00:02:11That which depends on another word.
00:02:14What is a thought?
00:02:16That which depends on another thought.
00:02:36And at the center of all of these is the I-sense, not the pure I-sense, but the I-sense that
00:02:56has gathered itself through sensory experience and physical processes.
00:03:17If that be the constitution of the usual I-sense, then all thoughts, words, concepts around
00:03:31it will have their origin in just the body.
00:03:52Without the body, no I, and without the I, no concept.
00:04:10All concepts then become subservient to what the I is composed of.
00:04:40And this, as we said, is the false I, it's a gathered I.
00:04:56Some of it comes from the body, some of it comes from time, some of it comes from random
00:05:04experiences.
00:05:14All mental activity is then very helplessly dependent, dependent on the constitution of
00:05:37the false I.
00:05:46Thought is nothing that has a value of its own.
00:06:02We always have chains of thoughts.
00:06:13You cannot have a thought if it is not associated to the previous rung of the chain.
00:06:26Impossible.
00:06:32A totally free piece of thought, if there could be one, would be a ridiculous absurdity.
00:06:54Thought is always a progression.
00:07:00What you are thinking right now is dependent on what you were thinking a minute back.
00:07:10Or what you are thinking of right now is dependent on something that just happened five seconds
00:07:16back.
00:07:22Take both these cases.
00:07:26If thought is dependent on the previous piece of thought, then the previous piece of thought
00:07:31is dependent on the one that came before it.
00:07:37And ultimately all of that is coming from the I sense.
00:07:48Your thought is existentially tied to the I, wherever the I is, thought cannot go too
00:08:01far from it.
00:08:05Like a tethered animal, we talk of freedom of thought, don't we?
00:08:16That's a very common phrase.
00:08:20That's like talking about the freedom of the tethered cow.
00:08:25Yes, it can have some freedom.
00:08:37But not much.
00:08:44And the center has already decided how far the cow can go.
00:08:50Similarly, the I has already decided how far the thought can go.
00:09:03In the other case, even if thought is a reaction to a happening, who is the experiencer of
00:09:12that happening?
00:09:16The I.
00:09:17So, again, thought has no freedom even in reacting to an external happening, external
00:09:25as in external to the body.
00:09:30Some random small projectile hits you, will you have the same thought as this person if
00:09:36the same thing happens to him?
00:09:39No.
00:09:42I throw this thing at you, I throw this thing at him, the two of you are unlikely to get
00:09:47exactly the same thoughts.
00:09:49Why?
00:09:50Because thought is not just a function of this.
00:09:54Thought is much more a function of the one who received the impact within.
00:10:01Otherwise the happening is just the same.
00:10:03The same towel thrown at him, same towel thrown at him, but the mental reaction is likely
00:10:11to be different.
00:10:12The towel is the same, the reaction is different.
00:10:16Why?
00:10:17Because there is somebody mediating the happening and the reaction.
00:10:24There is a mediator.
00:10:25Who is the mediator?
00:10:26The I is the mediator.
00:10:29So, again here thought has no freedom.
00:10:35Thought is bound to the I.
00:10:42If thought is bound to the I, thought cannot go too far from the I, we talked of the cow.
00:10:51Even if the cow is given a long rope, can it fly?
00:11:04It is not possible.
00:11:17Thought too cannot violate the dimension of the self.
00:11:28When I say self, I mean the usual accumulated false self.
00:11:35Impossible for thought to do that.
00:11:40We do not realize that.
00:11:45Because the cow can roam endlessly, even while being tethered, we get the false impression
00:12:01that thought has endless freedom.
00:12:05See, isn't the cow able to move continuously?
00:12:11The cow is just doing circles, going round and round.
00:12:17Yes, there is a lot of movement, but the cow has not reached anywhere.
00:12:26We are unable to appreciate that.
00:12:30What we see is that there is no stopping the cow, just as there is no stopping the endless
00:12:38thought process.
00:12:39So, we get a feeling that the fellow within is free.
00:12:45Free because nobody can stop him.
00:12:46If there is somebody who cannot be stopped by anybody, you get the impression that the
00:12:51fellow is free.
00:12:53Similarly, can anybody come and stop your thinking?
00:13:00We think endlessly.
00:13:06And that gives the impression that thought is free.
00:13:09It's not free.
00:13:13You are doing rounds, not reaching anywhere.
00:13:24And even when we are doing those circles, at no point are we allowed to violate the
00:13:36dictums of the false center.
00:13:42Irrespective of where the cow is, can the distance between the cow and the center exceed
00:13:55the length of the rope?
00:13:59We do not see that.
00:14:06Endless movement fools us.
00:14:09We feel we are doing something and that we are free to do something.
00:14:15There is no freedom.
00:14:20There is no freedom in thought.
00:14:26Thought is servile, helpless.
00:14:39Similarly, don't you take care of the rope and the pin?
00:15:08Don't you ensure that the cow is never strong enough to break the rope?
00:15:30Similarly, thought too is never allowed by its center to violate the center itself.
00:15:51If you have a calf, what kind of rope do you use?
00:15:59A normal thin kind of rope would do.
00:16:06If you have a bull, you will bring a thick one.
00:16:16What is always ensured is that the animal is never able to get away.
00:16:26The animal should never be able to violate the center of movement.
00:16:30You can keep moving, but you will never violate the center.
00:16:36That's the condition, correct?
00:16:39The same condition is on thought.
00:16:41You can keep moving, but sorry sir, you will never move in a way that uproots the center
00:16:51itself, which means that thought can never expose the falseness of I.
00:17:01Thought can never uproot the false ego.
00:17:13One thing, thought can never break the rope, which means thought is not free.
00:17:20That is the first thing, we got that, right?
00:17:25Thought is not free, thought cannot fly away.
00:17:28Second thing, thought must respect the center.
00:17:44No cow is ever allowed to run away with the entire arrangement, is she?
00:17:55Similarly, thought is never allowed to uproot the ego, that's the arrangement within.
00:18:09Extending the argument, you should write, thought exists to serve the ego, not expose
00:18:23or uproot it.
00:18:40But the ego is false, and thought exists to serve the ego, and the ego is false, so thought
00:18:51exists to serve falseness.
00:18:58We think that by thinking more and more, we will be able to reach the truth.
00:19:04Sir, thought is designed to never reach the truth.
00:19:11Thought is designed to protect its own center.
00:19:17Thought simply does not have the capacity, the brief, the power, to uproot its own center,
00:19:34just like the cow.
00:19:38You may keep thinking endlessly about yourself, you will never know your truth, because thought
00:19:44itself is coming from the false.
00:19:55Thought exists to serve its master, the ego.
00:20:06So thought is wonderful.
00:20:09As far as furthering the flimsy, superficial interests of the ego is concerned, thought
00:20:18has proven to be wonderful.
00:20:22Thought has proven to be a great servant to the ego.
00:20:27If the ego wants something, if there is a desire that the ego has, not the ultimate
00:20:32desire, desire of the usual kind, if there is a desire that the ego has, we have seen,
00:20:44thought is ever ready to please its master and fulfill the master's desire.
00:20:56Suppose the room is too hot and humid, what does thought, like the proverbial jinn, bring
00:21:13you immediately?
00:21:16Here is AC, my master.
00:21:22You ask for it and thought will bring it to you.
00:21:26What is the air conditioner a product of?
00:21:29Human thought.
00:21:34And that is the reason why our rabbits have been unable to invent or discover much, that's
00:21:46an exaggeration, they haven't discovered anything.
00:21:56The human system, not that we are wonderfully blessed or something, just the human physical
00:22:02system, physical, which is a thing of evolution, you evolved in a different way compared to
00:22:09the rabbits, that's all.
00:22:11Not that you are finer products of God or something, no.
00:22:16The human system is such that it has the capacity for thought.
00:22:20Even animals think, not that they don't think, but the thought chain in their brains does
00:22:27not go too far.
00:22:33If you read up on that, it is very interesting.
00:22:37Thought becomes more and more productive as its chain elongates, then you are able to
00:22:43conceptualize and relate this concept with that one.
00:22:50And from that come all philosophy, science and all the fine things that we relish and
00:22:59consume.
00:23:00Even animals think, but their chain of thought does not go beyond a few pieces.
00:23:09After that they get confused.
00:23:14So I saw that particular post on the community, this cat and you show one finger to it and
00:23:25the cat says, I'll bite and you show two fingers and the cat is, and you show four fingers
00:23:37and the cat is now dumbstruck, what to do?
00:23:43And the fellow said, that's like facing MCQs in the test, four of them and all of them
00:23:52look equally lucrative, which one to go for?
00:24:00So one finger, the cat doesn't have to think much, so she's okay with it.
00:24:06Two, this much her thought process can probably accommodate, so even two she's okay.
00:24:12The moment you show four fingers, the cat is stupefied.
00:24:21Human beings can extend this number four to four million, four billion and that's why
00:24:27cats are where they are and we are where we are.
00:24:32So thought has been humble, very productive, extraordinary servant to us.
00:24:42Thought has given us language, culture, civilization, all of it is product of thought.
00:24:53But thought cannot give you freedom.
00:24:59Thought cannot liberate you from who you are.
00:25:02Thought only serves you as you are, please understand.
00:25:19Thought serves you exactly as you are.
00:25:24Even if thought helps you improve, it will help you improve as per your demand.
00:25:32It will not take you beyond yourself.
00:25:39The little problem is as human beings, we are contended only when we go beyond ourselves.
00:25:50The cat has no such problem.
00:25:52The cat is very fine just being a cat.
00:25:56No human being is fine being a human being and that's why human beings over the history
00:26:06have tried to become everything that they can including cats, rats.
00:26:16Have you ever found a cat trying to be a rat?
00:26:23But look at human beings, they want to be everything that's possible to be had and none
00:26:42of that suffices.
00:26:55The jury is still out and will remain that way on thought.
00:27:01What do we call thought?
00:27:04A wonderful servant or a criminal distraction.
00:27:22You can keep thinking all the time and the more you think, the more thought will be able
00:27:27to bring you the next object of your desire.
00:27:35On one hand, that's fulfillment of desire.
00:27:37On the other hand, that's also criminal distraction because your time has been taken away.
00:27:48You have been kept in a fool's paradise.
00:27:56Thought gives you a lot of false positives.
00:27:59Yes, something great is happening.
00:28:05When actually what you want is freedom from yourself, thought brings you more ingratiation
00:28:22even as you remain as yourself.
00:28:32A crude analogy would be you're sitting at a restaurant.
00:28:50The menu card is extensive, let's say thousands of items but you're sick, your heart is aching
00:29:10but you're also gluttonous, desirous, easily seduced by the goodies of life like food.
00:29:40There is a heartache.
00:29:42There's something terribly wrong with the core itself.
00:29:52And thought is the waiter at the restaurant.
00:29:58Thought looks at you, finds you a little queasy.
00:30:05Thought says, fine, this is the latest dish from Italy.
00:30:11And as you relish that dish, you forget your heartache for a while.
00:30:22The relief doesn't last.
00:30:25Soon after, you are again squirming, there's discomfort, something is happening.
00:30:32What does thought do?
00:30:34You just put your finger anywhere on the card.
00:30:37Five minutes it's all I'll take and it brings you the next goody.
00:30:47Thought keeps fulfilling your endless desires one after the other or at least promises to do so.
00:30:55If a desire is not being fulfilled, thought says, I'm attempting, I'm finding out a way.
00:31:01I'm thinking, sir, bring me this particular one.
00:31:06Sir, right now it's not available, but I'll get it made for you.
00:31:13It will take a little longer than usual, 40 minutes, but I'll get it for you.
00:31:19Don't they do that?
00:31:21And you say, fine, I'll wait, 40 minutes is okay.
00:31:26Either I'll get it within five minutes or I'll get it in the future, that's thought.
00:31:31It's available and I'm finding out a way to pick it up or I'm arranging for it in the future.
00:31:41And just as all this is happening, your heart is crying.
00:31:51Why is it the jury is still out?
00:31:58It's possible that the doctor ultimately just sadly shrugs his shoulders and says, too late.
00:32:15Why couldn't you bring him in half an hour earlier?
00:32:24He could not be brought in because the servant was busy fulfilling his desires.
00:32:31And the servant is an able one.
00:32:35He does fulfill desires, desires of the, get me a little more seasoning please, desires of that nature.
00:32:54Are you getting it?
00:32:59But since thought is skilled at fulfilling desires or at least attempting to fulfill desires,
00:33:08the ego relies on thought a lot just as a master relies on a faithful servant.
00:33:17The ego leans on thought heavily.
00:33:22You look at people, you know, I'm thinking, but I thought, I went by my thought.
00:33:29The thought is the minister, the wazir, the prime counsellor, the trusted friend of the ego.
00:33:44If there is a problem, I'll consult thought.
00:33:53Bigger problem is thought will never tell you anything beyond yourself.
00:34:00Thought is not meant to change your constitution.
00:34:06In some sense, thought is like your shadow.
00:34:12Depending on the position of the source of light, the shape etc. of the shadow can change.
00:34:19Nevertheless, the shadow will remain true to the figure and the shadow will remain tied to the feet.
00:34:30Similarly, thoughts come in all shapes and sizes, but they remain tied to your feet.
00:34:38Where you are, there your thought is.
00:34:41To never say, you know, my thought suggested me this particular action, hence I went ahead.
00:34:50No, thought cannot suggest you anything.
00:34:56Thought suggests to you what you have already suggested to thought because the thought is
00:35:01the servant, sir.
00:35:04If thought is telling you something, that something is what you have already told thought,
00:35:11thought just echoes it back to you with some garnishing.
00:35:24Can a servant tell a master something drastically unpleasant?
00:35:32Something like you don't deserve to be a master.
00:35:37Can a servant tell the master something as unpleasant as you are false?
00:35:44You don't deserve to be a master.
00:35:47Similarly, the thought does not simply have the capacity to bring the truth to the ego.
00:36:00Thought is alright when you want to solve a problem in mathematics.
00:36:05Thought is not alright when you want to live a fulfilled life.
00:36:13To the extent a fulfilled life involves solving problems in mathematics, thought is a useful servant.
00:36:24To the extent our fulfillment depends on temperature control in this room, thought
00:36:30is a useful servant.
00:36:33But we very well know that we are not sitting here to enjoy the right temperature or meticulous
00:36:45climate control or is that what brings you here?
00:36:56So the supreme stupidity then is to refer to thought in central matters of life.
00:37:15That's the reason the method for self-realization is self-observation.
00:37:39Not thinking about the self.
00:37:46You are asked to look at things as they are right now.
00:38:01Thinking about events that have now been left behind doesn't help you much.
00:38:20To observe something is to know it as it is happening right now.
00:38:31And that's what leads to self-knowledge.
00:38:35I have to watch it as it is happening right now with no interference of thought whatsoever.
00:38:43I am looking at you, not thinking about you.
00:38:49That's observation, Atma Vlokan.
00:38:56I am looking directly at you, instantaneously.
00:39:02Thought would require time when I would miss the bus.
00:39:10The happening would slip into the past.
00:39:13That's not observation, that's recollection.
00:39:19A lot of us just start recollecting instead of observing.
00:39:35Observation is like examining a patient.
00:39:41Recollection is like post-mortem.
00:39:46You could not do anything when he was alive.
00:39:48Now that he is gone, you are all over his body.
00:39:55To observe is to see the situation as it is right now, not think about it, just see.
00:40:12Thought has its rightful place, but not in the domain we are concerned with right now.
00:40:26Are you getting it?
00:40:32It's very easy to forget.
00:40:36Your thought is your servant.
00:40:41No, no, that's too mild a way to put it.
00:40:50Your thought is an idiot's servant.
00:40:55First of all, a servant, on top of that, servant to an idiot.
00:41:03Who is the idiot?
00:41:04How much respect can you give to an idiot's servant?
00:41:15And if you give respect to an idiot's servant, who are you?
00:41:23But just too many of us prefer to go by our thoughts, you know, my viewpoint, my thought.
00:41:28I thought so, mujhe aisa laga.
00:41:32And that's what brings all kinds of nonsense to you, you know, but I thought hard.
00:41:47That's like the cow running a marathon around the center, thinking it to be some stadium
00:41:58Are you getting it?
00:42:11The truth is not something to be attained.
00:42:19It is never distant.
00:42:26It is lovelessness to try to approach truth through an intermediary.
00:42:46Some idiots use some messenger even to send a flower or a love letter to the beloved.
00:43:05Don't have the guts and they strongly believe that they might be slapped.
00:43:15The probability is high.
00:43:18So they want the messenger to run the risk.
00:43:28This is a great love affair in which no middleman is allowed.
00:43:39Facts are not even the door to truth.
00:43:43If you can be in instantaneous contact with the fact, here is the truth.
00:43:54You are in already.
00:43:56The door is flung open.
00:44:01The door is wide open.
00:44:02Actually there never was a door at all.
00:44:09But we missed the bus.
00:44:11The thing is right there, but we don't show the love or the guts to approach it directly.
00:44:25What do we bring in between?
00:44:27Thought.
00:44:28The middleman.
00:44:29When you don't want to confront the truth, one thing you will have in ample measure is
00:44:46thought.
00:44:53For every sentence you will have to think for 5 minutes.
00:45:05I will send you a message and ask for a reply.
00:45:09For 20 minutes the screen will show Sanjay is typing and ultimately no message will arrive
00:45:22because he was just running round and round the false self to save a particular species
00:45:39of quadrupeds.
00:45:40Hindi is far better.
00:45:48I can simply say Gadaha.
00:45:51But in English if I say he was running round and round to save his ass, Gadaha ko bachana
00:46:03is far more decent than saving the ass.
00:46:07Though that's exactly what I want to communicate.
00:46:11Anupam, why did you do what you do?
00:46:21For 3 minutes, first of all, there is invention of language.
00:46:33You can see the entire process of human evolution happening right in front of your eyes.
00:46:45There is some organism from the jungle just beginning to learn language.
00:46:52Then comes the tribal.
00:46:56He is able to utter a few incoherent words.
00:47:01And then finally after 3 minutes comes some reply in a supposedly human language.
00:47:14What is happening?
00:47:15Why can't there be spontaneity?
00:47:20Why?
00:47:23Because there is a lot of thought.
00:47:25Why?
00:47:26Because thought's purpose is to defend its centre which is false.
00:47:31Thought exists to defend falseness.
00:47:34Therefore, wherever you find a lack of spontaneity, you must stand assured that there is a strong
00:47:42attempt to save, defend and secure the false.
00:47:47Yes, Raghav, where were you the entire night?
00:48:09The fact can be instantaneously uttered.
00:48:13But stories take time to cook.
00:48:16And you also have to remember the story.
00:48:20Otherwise the story coming from you will be very different from the story coming from
00:48:24them.
00:48:27And the next morning your own story will change.
00:48:31Because your own memory is so unreliable.
00:48:35And you see where thought is found so useful by the ego?
00:48:46In escaping the fact, in denying the truth.
00:48:55You could extend this line to say that even all this that thought fetches its master as
00:49:10means of desire fulfilment are only things to deny the truth.
00:49:19Not that thought is useful to deny the truth only in matters of day-to-day integrity.
00:49:30But everything that thought has brought man is in some way, direct or indirect, a means
00:49:35to deny the truth.
00:49:39You see, ideally I should be comforted only by the truth.
00:49:47I should be happy only when liberated.
00:49:50But thought can bring me some nice toy and I will become happy for a while.
00:49:56So what has the toy meant to me?
00:50:03It has meant denial of truth to me.
00:50:07No, we are not saying we should not think.
00:50:14We are examining the entire process of thought.
00:50:23Now there can be two possibilities other than thought.
00:50:28Two, not one.
00:50:30We named just one and that is dangerous.
00:50:33We said there can be courageous, unafraid, instantaneous observation.
00:50:38That's one possibility.
00:50:40That's a beautiful one.
00:50:42But there is another one which is very dangerous, lower than thought, worse than thought, which
00:50:52is not to see at all and also not think.
00:50:56You see, in direct observation there is no need to think because you are seeing in the
00:51:04moment itself without any use of time.
00:51:10Greater than that, higher than that, higher than thought.
00:51:17So if someone is looking at something and then going back to his cave and then retrospectively
00:51:25collecting pieces of information and assimilating them as per his convenience, we said that's
00:51:32just recollection.
00:51:35There is nothing called retrospective observation.
00:51:38That's just recollection.
00:51:41So direct observation is better than recollection.
00:51:47Direct observation is better than having thought as the intermediary.
00:51:54But there is a third and a far worse possibility.
00:51:57What is that?
00:51:59You neither think nor see.
00:52:02You just imagine, imagine.
00:52:09You don't even recollect.
00:52:10Even to recollect, there must at least be a photograph.
00:52:16There must at least be an imprint of the present, if not the present itself.
00:52:23The third possibility is I neither saw, seeing is obviously lost on me, beyond my capacity.
00:52:31I didn't even think.
00:52:35To me, what comes as a dirty substitute to thought, not observation, but belief.
00:52:44I will not think and that does not mean that I am seeing.
00:52:48I'll not think, I'll just shoot from the hip and that's called unthinking.
00:52:58That is not thinking transcended.
00:53:07That's thinking betrayed.
00:53:11Not that you have gone beyond thought, you have not even thought.
00:53:17That's why thought is no mean thing.
00:53:20Even thinking is a faculty that the bulk of human beings hardly fully use.
00:53:34Most of us are unthinking people.
00:53:39We don't even think.
00:53:40What do we do?
00:53:42We imagine, we believe.
00:53:49If there is no one else to give us something to believe in, we simply cook up something.
00:53:59Just cook something up.
00:54:01I'll show you an object you might never have seen.
00:54:05I'll ask you what it is.
00:54:09In usual circumstances, nobody would say that he knows nothing about that object.
00:54:13You'll cook something up, something.
00:54:23And that something can be cooked up extremely quickly.
00:54:28Thought is needed, not even there.
00:54:33I show you, okay, what is this?
00:54:39And an almost instantaneous reply can come without knowing anything about this.
00:54:45That does not mean you have observed.
00:54:47That means you have not even thought.
00:54:49That does not mean, I repeat, that you have transcended thought.
00:54:53That means you have not even thought.
00:54:58You are so disrespectful towards life that you have just uttered something.
00:55:09Life came to you with a situation.
00:55:13The greatest response would have been observation.
00:55:19Lower than that, I look at it, then I try to match it with my past.
00:55:25I think at least some effort is being made.
00:55:30Thought is not easy.
00:55:32We don't have thinkers aplenty, right?
00:55:37Only one out of ten people really even thinks.
00:55:44Nine out of ten people will look at it and will give some random, absurd, ludicrous reply
00:55:53even without thinking.
00:55:57And that's unfortunately what the entire field of spirituality has become.
00:56:06Masters taught us that thought is not the ultimate thing.
00:56:10Thought has to be transcended.
00:56:14And what is the transcendence of thought?
00:56:18Instantaneous observation.
00:56:19That's what the teachers told us, that thought is not the final thing.
00:56:27What did we reduce that to?
00:56:29We said, okay, that means thought is not needed.
00:56:33So I can simply dream.
00:56:35The master said, you must exceed thought.
00:56:41And what did we bring down that advice to?
00:56:45We abandoned thought.
00:56:47We are not even thinking.
00:56:50Getting it?
00:56:54Now see what Shri Krishna is saying here.
00:56:59It's a beautiful commentary on mentation.
00:57:06And these two words are beautiful.
00:57:08When you think, that's mentation.
00:57:10When you observe, that's meditation.
00:57:15And lower than both of these is imagination.
00:57:20Imagination, mentation, meditation.
00:57:33Similar to verse 29, some look at the self, Atma, as marvelous.
00:57:47Various approaches, varied attitudes.
00:57:54Others speak of it as wonderful.
00:57:59And others hear of it again as a wonder.
00:58:07And then there are others who keep hearing and do not understand anything.
00:58:20Irrespective of what you say about the truth, it's a violation.
00:58:34Because your words are coming from your mental activity.
00:58:45The cow is not to use its time.
00:58:55Imagining about the lush green forest or the grassy plains.
00:59:13The cow is to exert itself fully, to break the rope.
00:59:23Remaining where the cow is, it is extremely dishonest of it, dishonesty towards its own
00:59:32condition.
00:59:35It is extremely dishonest of it to just dream of green pastures.
00:59:45Now dreaming of those green pastures, extensive grassy plains, the cow can say, oh you know,
01:00:05those plains are infinite.
01:00:10Technically she might be right, probably.
01:00:14But existentially she is a fraud.
01:00:20Remaining within your little loop, you have used the word infinite, shame on you.
01:00:33Technically you are right, existentially you are a fraud.
01:00:39Look at your condition, how dare you bring the word infinite to your lips.
01:00:56And do words have objective or absolute meanings, no?
01:01:02The meaning of a word is not independent of the one uttering it.
01:01:12The word infinite becomes very finite when uttered by you.
01:01:22So now even technically you are wrong.
01:01:26You have lost it, both existentially and technically.
01:01:36What does a cow, a roped one at that, an enslaved one, know about infinity?
01:01:51What right does a slave have to compose a poem on freedom?
01:01:57You will say, no, but if he is a slave, why can't he dream?
01:02:02Why can't he compose a poem?
01:02:04Because that's dishonest.
01:02:06That time should have been used to challenge his slavery.
01:02:12If he took two hours composing that poem, that's dishonesty towards his condition.
01:02:21Those hours should have been used to challenge his condition.
01:02:28Understand, if the fellow has been fighting hard for freedom the entire week and on the
01:02:37weekend for two hours he composes a poem, that might be possible, I understand that.
01:02:44But what about those who make no attempt to be free but keep singing of freedom?
01:02:55Those who keep themselves limited in all ways possible, make no effort to challenge their
01:03:02limits but keep tossing words like unlimited and limitless as if those words come for free.
01:03:18I am asking, is that not an existential fraud?
01:03:32All concepts are very poor things.
01:03:37They will not enrich your life.
01:03:42They can fulfil some desires but they will not please your heart.
01:04:00And since concepts are such poor things, Shri Krishna is saying, kindly do not reduce
01:04:06Atma to a concept.
01:04:11There are many who would take exception to this.
01:04:16They will be outraged, especially academics and philosophers, they'll say, no, but Atma
01:04:21is a concept.
01:04:22No, sir.
01:04:23If Atma is a concept, then it is not useful.
01:04:28We are not here to learn concepts, we are here to be liberated.
01:04:33If I take Atma to be a concept, then Atma is a small thing within the mind.
01:04:39And how can a small thing within the mind enable the ego to be free?
01:04:48The mind is a slave to the ego.
01:04:52If the Atma is a concept, then Atma is a small thing owned by the slave.
01:04:59Of what use is a small thing owned by the slave to the master?
01:05:13Academically therefore, even if Brahman, Atman are concepts, to you they should not be.
01:05:22If they are concepts, then you will come up with a definition, won't you?
01:05:26Is there any concept that cannot be defined or expanded?
01:05:32The moment you come up with a definition, the game is over for you.
01:05:43I often say, one of the chief reasons behind India's decline over the last 1200 years has
01:05:56been the abuse of the word Atma.
01:06:07It's been more than around 1200 years to Acharya Shankar.
01:06:16And he very clearly, very sharply, very unambiguously brought out the unapproachable, unthinkable
01:06:42nature of the true self.
01:06:47It was very clear.
01:06:48Atma is not something you can write songs about, create stories, imagine fantasies,
01:07:03no?
01:07:04It was very clear.
01:07:05But after him, the word Atma got totally corrupted and polluted and that coincides with the period
01:07:22of India's downfall.
01:07:25Please see, exactly the period where India messed up with Atma is the period of India's
01:07:39decline.
01:07:42Because India came up with the highest, it's the most, all philosophy stops there.
01:07:50The unknowable, the unspeakable, the unthinkable, full stop.
01:08:00And then we regressed.
01:08:05After the summit came the fall and we started creating all kinds of stories about Atma and
01:08:15all kinds of Puranic literature came up and said Atma is doing this and Atma is of this
01:08:23color and Atma is of that size and Atma flies and Atma crawls and Atma enters the womb.
01:08:31And some of these great so-called great philosophers also said that some Atma, of course there
01:08:39are as many Atmas as there are people, some Atmas are condemned to eternal suffering.
01:08:51Not that everyone is even qualified for liberation.
01:08:55Some Atmas are so evil that they are meant to suffer eternally.
01:09:03All this kind of nonsense about Atma was peddled and that was taken as commentary on Vedanta.
01:09:12And mind you that was the time of India's decline.
01:09:19We lost it out in all ways possible.
01:09:27How can you be excused?
01:09:31When you have the highest and you corrupt it, how can you be excused?
01:09:40Atma gets stained by your karmas, Atma shrinks, Atma expands and these people kept waxing
01:09:55eloquent on the Atma endlessly.
01:10:04Just the ego trying to lay its dirty hands on the highest possible.
01:10:14If somebody asks you, can you name, can you give one and only one central reason behind
01:10:21India's decline?
01:10:22Say the people who corrupted Atma, they are the ones responsible.
01:10:30There is Atma, then there is Parmatma, then there is Jeevatma, chaos of all kinds.
01:10:45And side by side they also kept saying Atma is immortal.
01:10:59The body dies, Atma is immortal.
01:11:05If Atma is immortal, what is this thing that you talk of as flying from body to body?
01:11:14And being barbequed in hell?
01:11:20No logic whatsoever.
01:11:29And we as Indians should be ashamed that we allowed this nonsense to pass.
01:11:37We didn't question it, we didn't reject it, we didn't call out the bluff.
01:11:43We let the idiots rule.
01:11:53Even today Atma has become the preferred word for any vague emotion that you have.
01:12:10If there is something that you are unable to look at clearly, you simply say, oh this is Atma.
01:12:24Evolution has gifted every organism with intuition.
01:12:28If you just intuitively feel something, you say, oh it is coming from Atma.
01:12:39The fellow has some gastric trouble, some gas problem and he says my Atma is paining.
01:12:52We keep writing these things and we don't even ask what is going on.
01:12:55Bhagwan unki Atma ko apne charanon mein sthaan de.
01:13:00What is this?
01:13:03What are you uttering?
01:13:17Don't you see the falseness, the illogic, the stupidity, the contradiction?
01:13:30It goes on and on.
01:13:41When a nation loses its philosophy, it has lost its life.
01:13:54We are not beasts and a nation is not a jungle.
01:14:00We are human beings and a nation is built on a philosophical foundation.
01:14:06If the philosophy itself gets rotten, how will the nation not decline?