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Video Information: AIIMS, Nagpur, 08.03.2022, Nagpur, India
Context:
~ How to set priorities?
~ How to be free?
~ What is freedom?
~ How to bring woman's revolution?
~ How to bring about a Total Women's revolution?
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: AIIMS, Nagpur, 08.03.2022, Nagpur, India
Context:
~ How to set priorities?
~ How to be free?
~ What is freedom?
~ How to bring woman's revolution?
~ How to bring about a Total Women's revolution?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Sir, it is often perceived that females are affected by patriarchal society, but do you
00:10think it affects men, and what according to you are the problems faced by men due to patriarchal society?
00:18See, patriarchy is a great bondage.
00:24Patriarchy is a state of mind.
00:26And what is its state of mind?
00:28Please pay attention.
00:30Patriarchy is to believe that your job in life is determined by your gender.
00:38That is patriarchy.
00:39Now, patriarchy is oppressive both ways.
00:43Men have been told that your purpose, your station, your movement, your activities, your
00:48thoughts, your emotions, everything have to be determined by your gender.
00:55And women have been told much the same thing, right?
00:59So it's not men versus women, it's wisdom versus ignorance.
01:08We take feminism as a bit of men versus women thing, women trying to get away from oppression
01:20and being victims, victims of men.
01:24So we take men as the victimizers, right?
01:28Well, apparently true, apparently obviously men are the one who exploit and oppress.
01:34But if you'll go a little deeper into it as Vedanta encourages you to, you will say no,
01:40it's not that men are oppressing women, there is a common enemy and the name of that common
01:48enemy is ignorance.
01:51It is because of ignorance that men continue to be men and women continue to be women.
01:56The fact is that as human beings, your nature is pure consciousness.
02:04Why do you call yourself man?
02:05Why do you call yourself a woman?
02:06Why have you made the body so important for yourself?
02:09Now you call yourself a woman and accord a man, let's say, and accord yourself some privileges.
02:16That's as debilitating as calling yourself a woman and according yourself certain duties
02:24or certain rights.
02:28The body cannot be the center of your existence, please understand, whether you are a man or
02:33a woman.
02:35If the body is the center of your existence, then all we need is the jungle, there the
02:40body rules.
02:42Each species behaves exactly as per its genetic conditioning, that's called the jungle.
02:49Genetically we are conditioned and we behave as per our conditioning.
02:53That's what makes human beings unique.
02:56We have the potential to go beyond our genetic configuration.
03:01We have the potential to see that we do not behave exactly as per our body's mandate.
03:09You are sitting here, let's say the five of us are here on this stage, right?
03:14Not all of us would be physically comfortable with everything right now.
03:20I am, for example, feeling a little cold in the feet.
03:25You might be feeling something else, you might be feeling something else, but how much importance
03:28are you giving to your physical demands right now, please tell me.
03:34Somebody in the audience might be feeling a little sleepy post lunch, but you are the
03:41only species that can decide to overrule the body.
03:45The body is saying sleep and you say I don't sleep.
03:48Right now is not the moment, an animal cannot make that decision.
03:52If an animal's body says eat, it will eat.
03:57You are the only one who can fight fear, you are the only one who can fight greed.
04:01If an animal feels attracted towards something, it will go towards that and that's the reason
04:05why the entire feminist narrative needs to be cleansed of the word want and desire.
04:14Feminism cannot be about doing what you want to do.
04:17Let the girl do what she wants to do, that's not feminism, no.
04:22Just as patriarchy has said let the boy have lots of rights, let the boy do a lot of what
04:29he wants to do and that kind of patriarchy has been very very bad for everybody.
04:35Similarly if you let the woman have her way and say let her do what she wants to do and
04:40that's called women's emancipation, that's not taking you anywhere.
04:44That's what animals do, they just do what they want to do.
04:47Human beings are human beings because they can go beyond their wants, because they can
04:52go deep into themselves and find out what they are here for.
04:59This power to self-respect, this power to get at the core of their identities is what
05:04makes us human beings, otherwise there is no difference between us and animals in the jungle.
05:10Are you getting it?
05:12What was your question by the way?
05:16Obviously, we are all on the same boat, all on the same boat.
05:23Think of a family where the wife and the girls and let's say the mother-in-law, they are
05:31all in shackles and when you are in shackle, what do you do?
05:36You radiate joy, you make everybody blissful, what do you do?
05:39When you are in a bad mood, what do you do to your friends?
05:44You give them flowers when you are in a bad mood, what do you do?
05:49So how can the man prosper or flourish if the women in his life or the women around
05:56him, they constitute half the world's population, if they are not doing well?
06:00So obviously it's bad for the man, not only because it is bad for the woman, but because
06:04the principle that oppresses women, we are talking of the principle, also oppresses men
06:10equally and that principle continues because we do not see that the principle is the oppressor,
06:18we think that the man is the oppressor.
06:19No, it's not the man that's the oppressor.
06:22The principle of ignorance, Vedanta calls it Maya, that principle is the oppressor.
06:28Are you getting it?
06:31I am not trying to absolve men, I am not speaking as a man on women's day.
06:36Please, I think I'll have to clarify that again and again because a lot of what I am
06:43going to say would not sit well with the existing definitions of feminism.
06:52You see I get bashed from both sides, men think that I lean just too much towards women
07:00and women say but you are not directly trying to give us rights, instead you tell us about
07:05our real identity and such things.
07:08So a lot of women do not quite like what I say, but since you have been courageous or
07:17adventurous enough to have me here, I'll do what I do.
07:20As you stated that feminism is often misunderstood as battle of sexes, however it is not.
07:30It aims to understand why there is gender inequality in the society.
07:37It is the idea that the fight for equality that exists in our society would somehow erase
07:45the masculinity or disempowerment that strangely is inserting to some men who do not identify
07:57themselves as offensive to women.
08:02So my question is how would deconstructing the contemporary masculinity would help the
08:09movement and what men can do to contribute to achieve the equality in society and women
08:16empowerment.
08:17See men are doing exactly what the apes and the chimpanzees and the gorillas have been
08:23doing right since the first day.
08:27What are men doing, please?
08:30Men are running around, trying to grab this, gobble that, eat, consume, make merry, have
08:37sex with as many women as possible, accumulate a lot of territory, that's what men have
08:42been doing all throughout history.
08:45What else are the men doing?
08:47What does a typical man do that is very distinct from what a chimpanzee does, please tell me.
08:57We glorify mankind as if it is some divine thing but that which we call as mankind, fundamentally
09:03what is it?
09:04How is it different from what happens in the jungle every day?
09:08What's happening in Europe between Russia and Ukraine, is it not happening in the jungle
09:14all the time?
09:17You know what dogs do, you must be having maybe a few dogs in your campus, you know
09:21what dogs do, right?
09:22They mark their territory, wherever they go, they raise their leg and they mark their territory.
09:28Is that fundamentally different from what those world leaders are doing?
09:32It's just that given the power of intellect, you just don't raise legs, you raise nukes
09:42and you threaten the other, I'll nuke you, I'll finish you, I'll obliterate you.
09:47Now that's what men have been doing all the while.
09:52Why do women want to be equal to men?
09:55What's so praiseworthy in men that you want to be equal to men?
10:02Men are captives to their biological role, men are in bondage of their bodies, right?
10:10When a man runs after a woman in a sexual way, is the man really running after the woman
10:15or is it the biological mandate, please tell me, please tell me and if you take away the
10:20biological mandate, will the man still run after the woman?
10:25You are medical practitioners and students of medicine here, you very well know what
10:29a single shot can do, a few mg's of a particular hormone, this way or that way, inject it or
10:37take it away and you very well know that the entire masculine behavior will change, right?
10:43You want to make someone angry, what do you do?
10:47You just feed him a pill and he can become angry.
10:49You want to placate someone, what do you do?
10:51What are all these anti-anxiety pills?
10:55So our behavior is determined by our biology, our behavior is very much chemical, biological.
11:02So the man is the gorilla, why does the woman want to become a female gorilla?
11:07There is no glory in that, therefore equality is a misplaced ideal, what we need is liberation
11:15and liberation is not liberty, liberation is not liberty, liberation is something very
11:20very different, to be liberated is to exceed both manhood and womanhood.
11:29As long as the woman says I am the woman and I want liberty, I repeat it would be the liberty
11:36that you can get within confinement, within a jail, we have very liberal jails these days,
11:43don't we?
11:44So the inmates, the prisoners, they have a lot of rights within the jail, do you want
11:49that kind of a situation?
11:51I have a lot of rights within the jail, your fundamental jail is the body itself, why don't
11:57you want to live as per the instructions of your body?
12:04When we say let me do what I want to do, let me live my life as per my desire, is your
12:11desire really your desire?
12:13Just as the man's desire is the hormone's desire, the woman's desire is equally the
12:18hormone's desire, where is your desire really, please tell me?
12:23Liberation is about knowing who you really are and therefore what your fundamental desire
12:27is, only that can help us and save us, otherwise you see, we know of climate change, we know
12:34of the atomic arsenals that the superpowers hold, even India has like 100 or 200 nukes,
12:43it's all because we have been acting as per our desires.
12:49Every country is territorial, just as every dog is territorial, we want to encroach upon
12:55the other, we want to covet other's resources, we want to have more and more to feed our
13:02bodies and our senses so that we can feel happy.
13:07The world is on the edge of obliteration exactly because we have been living as per our desires
13:14and our desires, mind you, are the desires of the jungle, they won't take us anywhere.
13:19Let me get it right, you said what can be the role of man in the liberation of woman.
13:39As long as the man is a man, he cannot help any woman.
13:42If a man continues to be a man, he can only be a predator towards the woman.
13:48If I am speaking here, I am not speaking as a man, I have to keep my gender and sexual
13:52identity aside, please remember, biologically there can be only one relationship between
13:58man and woman, all your civilizational values aside, there can be only one relationship.
14:04The man hunts, the woman is the hunted and in being hunted, the woman hunts back the
14:12man in a passive way, that's the biological thing.
14:17At an active level, the man is the hunter and the woman is the hunted, inwardly the
14:21woman is the hunter, the man is the hunted, irrespective of which level we are talking
14:25of, there is just violence, somebody is hunting, somebody is being hunted.
14:31So a man really cannot help woman, a woman really cannot help man, you have to be a human
14:38being to help another human being and that's a very different way of looking at yourself.
14:48And when, mind you, you are a human being, it is not only the man or the woman that you
14:53help, then you help entire existence, then you care for the birds, the bees, the dogs,
14:58the squirrel, the fish, then you cannot say, oh I am a participant in the women's liberation
15:06movement, now where is my mutton chaap, how is it possible that you have so much empathy
15:12towards woman, but not the goat, how is it possible, when you are really awake, then
15:21it is not only the gender that you care towards, then you care towards all consciousness, because
15:29you realize that consciousness is the goal of life, then you cannot be violent towards
15:33anybody, not even towards a blade of grass, you will try your best to minimize violence
15:39or eradicate it in whichever way possible.
15:42I want to ask that with respect to the permission, with respect to the judgments and everything
15:49that my, me compared to my sister is getting, I am allowed those freedoms more compared
15:56to her, so is it wrong for me to enjoy them?
16:01You see, you and your sister are there and you are given two apples and she is given
16:09none.
16:10Now answer me, can you enjoy?
16:15That's it.
16:19How can you really enjoy if your sister is being denied the basic freedoms and such things?
16:27We all are greatly interlinked.
16:35Deep spirituality would say we are all one, let's not go to that extent, but at least
16:40see that we all lead a very interlinked existence.
16:49It is not possible for one man to be joyful with others around him being in misery, especially
16:57if the other you are talking of is your own sister.
17:01How will you go out for example and watch a cricket match in the stadium or have a night
17:08out when you know that your sister too is a cricket lover and is not being allowed to
17:12come?
17:15Doesn't every bit of joy pain you further?
17:21You know that you are having it and somebody is not having it and the one who is not having
17:25it, you love her.
17:28Now is that then enjoyment or suffering for you?
17:35You are being kept hungry and I am being given a lot of food and the food is delicious and
17:39nutritious.
17:41Every morsel of food now, is it enjoyable to me or is it further suffering?
17:49Yes?
17:54So I can understand, I really understand what you are saying and I totally understand that.
18:01So I am also asking with respect to the opportunities that this world provides me.
18:07I know, my sister herself is telling me that I can't do this, but nobody has stopped you
18:14so you go and do it with respect to the opportunities.
18:18But me myself as a person, because I know that I like her, so should I not take advantage
18:23of those opportunities?
18:27First of all, it is very generous of your sister and very loving of your sister to ask
18:35you to proceed with the opportunities you have and all the freedoms that you can get.
18:43Even as she is being denied those opportunities and freedoms, that's very generous of her.
18:49Now that's her side of the story, she is being generous.
18:53What are you being?
18:56What are you being?
18:58She is being good, alright brother, I am not being given the good things in life, but if
19:03you are being offered them, accept them, right?
19:08That's her heart.
19:09Now where is your heart?
19:21I think the greatest enjoyment in such a situation would be to ensure that she does get a bit
19:33of what you get.