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Video Information: 20.08.2022, Upnishad Samagam, Goa
Context:
~ How to know, what is the real teachings?
~ What is real education?
~ What is self education?
~ How important is education of the self?
~ How to gain self-education?
~ What is the need of self-education?
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: 20.08.2022, Upnishad Samagam, Goa
Context:
~ How to know, what is the real teachings?
~ What is real education?
~ What is self education?
~ How important is education of the self?
~ How to gain self-education?
~ What is the need of self-education?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Namaste, Acharyaji. I'm very happy that you have been and I express my gratitude. I'm
00:14very delighted to share the screen with you. Acharyaji, my question is a follow-up question,
00:21but that I see many institutions are fueling the concept of Maya. Again, it's not a concept
00:28as in the previous video you said. Many institutions are fueling this thing, because I have seen
00:33on many premier institutions, Nahi Vidya, Pavitramye Vidyate, Tejasvina Vaditamastu and Saa Vidyayaginukte,
00:41Upanishad sentences are there. But at its core, I believe that besides some ritual, there
00:47is nothing or sort of any meaning is there in their entire knowledge system. So my question
00:54is no one is talking about truth. So unless we build one strong system for it, and I have
00:59heard that in your mind also, there is some goal that building institution like Nalanda
01:05or something like that. So will you please throw some light on it and why this is happening
01:10that many institutions have just become placement agencies and nothing more than that. Be it
01:15sort of anything like many institutions are building.
01:19It's got to do with popular culture. Institutions do not lie at the root of culture. It is culture
01:30that gives rise to institutions and later on it becomes a cycle where the institution
01:37keeps reinforcing the culture. But ask yourself what came first. We established our institutions
01:47and when we established our institutions, our institutions reflect our mindset. We decide
01:56what we are going to our institutions for. Are you referring to institutions of higher
02:02learning or to social institutions, political institutions? I suppose you are referring
02:06to institutions dealing in education, typically professional education. You are talking about
02:12the coaching industry, you are talking about IITs and IIMs and such things. Now tell me
02:19if you come to know that there is a recently established IIM, that guarantees no placement
02:31at all. Would you be eager to go there? Are you from IIM Calcutta?
02:36I am from IIM Jammu, 3rd year PhD student. So before you go to IIM Jammu, don't you enquire
02:43about the placement scene? Yes, PGP students are doing it.
02:49In fact, that's also what decides the rankings of the various institutions.
02:54No, does it not? Yes.
02:56That's the ground reality. Yes.
02:58Somebody tells you academics are better, let's say at IIM Bangalore, but placements are better
03:08at IIM Ahmedabad. You know what you are going to put your finger on, right? Yes.
03:15So that's how it operates. Now what can the institution do? When I went to
03:23IIM Ahmedabad, or was it IIT, I don't know, but at one of these places,
03:31it was either the PGP chair or the dean academics, they said to most of you who have just landed,
03:39there are only two offices that matter, the admissions office and the placement office.
03:45Everything in between is just time pass.
03:47And that's why you don't like to attend classes. Even CGPA is just a means
03:57to clear the minimum cut-off needed for the most coveted companies.
04:05If the companies ask for 8.0 cut-off, you would want to keep it at 8.03,
04:11or if it's 7.5, then accordingly. So it's got to do with us. What can the poor institution do?
04:23The institution comes from us. I know of several great institutions where
04:32the academic fraternity has even thought of banishing campus placements. They have said,
04:42our role is to educate you and empower you. And once you are empowered, you go out and you
04:49seek employment on your own or you start out on your own, whatever.
04:57But then there has been a great resistance from the students.
05:02The students say, we have come here not just to be educated, but to be employed.
05:08The onus is on the institution to serve us jobs on platter.
05:17It's got to do with the philosophy of the times. We are not students. We are wannabe consumers.
05:25Let's face it. You do not go to an IM to be a great manager. You go to an IM to be a great
05:32consumer. You want the best gadgets. You want to be there in New York or Chicago.
05:42You want to be an investment banker in London.
05:47And that's the reason why you go to an IM or to an IIT or even to any other place.
05:51And that's also the reason why you write the UPSC. You don't want to become IAS so that you
05:57may serve the country or bestow your compassion on the less fortunate beings of this planet or
06:04your district. You are there so that now your lust for consumption can be further aroused
06:14and further ingratiated. Is that not so?
06:25That's how. Now what can the poor institution do?
06:29They can write Vidya Dadhati Vinayam. You will say Vidya Dadhati placement.
06:37And if Vidya does not Dadhati placement, then Vidya is of no use.
06:45They might say Vidya is of no use. You would say Vidya is of no use.
06:53Only that is Vidya which gives you placement.
06:58So the poor campus itself will fall on global rankings.
07:05Because the global rankings take in account the quality of intake.
07:11The moment the campus declares, I am not going to put so much emphasis on placements.
07:19Students would start boycotting the placement that the parents would start boycotting.
07:26You have to ask yourself, do we exist to consume?
07:31When the philosophy at the ground level will change,
07:34then you will find all your institutions are changing, not merely ITIM, your political
07:39institutions, the institution of the family, the institution of marriage, your art, your science,
07:44your medicine, everything will change. Right now, because at our core, all we want to do is
07:52get, get and get more and eat it up and get fat. That's what the common man lives for.
08:00So that's also what is reflected in the institutions. But at the same time,
08:05something else can happen. And what is that? I am talking about grassroot change in culture.
08:12Now, some visionary can come up with an institution specifically built to change the culture.
08:21And remember, culture is not just conditioning. Culture is not just things and concepts.
08:26Just conditioning. Culture is not just things and concepts. You tell your kids to condition them.
08:34Culture is founded on spirituality, if culture has to have any meaning.
08:40If culture is not founded on spirituality, then culture is just a set of principles that condition.
08:48Are you getting? So culture, true culture founded on spirituality, if an institution
08:54can nurture that, then that institution will serve as the base to change, reform,
09:04really modernize all other institutions. We require an institution of that kind.
09:11And that's the reason why I talk of the university I want to build in my lifetime.
09:20What would be the nature of that university? Where would that come from? All that is quite
09:25hazy right now. But in some sense, I've already started that university, that institution in an
09:33online way. Even this that we are doing right now is a process within that university.
09:42I do not have the resources to have a huge campus and raise structures of brick and mortar.
09:53But I can talk and I can create educational material.
10:04We can write books. We can have video interactions. So that's what
10:12our university is currently doing. One day probably it will become or it will assume
10:23visible characteristics of a mainstream university. Those characteristics it does
10:28not have now, but it's already functional in an authentic way.
10:33Yes, thank you so much. I have a follow-up question to that. As far as the higher education
10:41institutes are concerned, it is fine that students go there for placement, that is still understandable.
10:47But when we go to the grassroots levels, like our earlier schools, high schools, all those stuff.
10:52So when we go to the grassroots level, it's like, you know,
10:58earlier schools, high schools, all those stuff. So why do we see that? We don't see a lot of
11:05spiritual based subjects. Spiritualism as a subject itself is not taught as part of the
11:11school curriculum. All we have is, you know, the traditional five, six subjects which keep
11:15on repeating every year. So why is that? And do you think that can change in the future?
11:21No, because there is nobody who understands the importance of that. Obviously, reflection,
11:28philosophy, life education, core spirituality, they must be there in the curricula. But then
11:36who would teach? Who would set that kind of syllabus? Who would test? Who would invigilate?
11:45Who would accord the grades? You first of all need some competence to be a teacher of spirituality
11:58or life philosophy. We do not have those kind of people. First of all, at the level
12:06of policy making, we have been quite unfortunate. Our policy makers when it
12:14comes to education have been people who had no respect for spirituality.
12:22So in the name of modernity, in the name of progressiveness and also in the name of secularism,
12:31they kept spirituality
12:37just totally away from the books and minds of our young people.
12:45For them, spirituality was a taboo.
12:50Something not to be touched because it is very dangerous.
12:53Why? Because they themselves are not spiritual people.
13:00So you require a big change in that because India and the entire world is paying very
13:09dearly for that mistake. The problems of today can have only spiritual solutions
13:17and you have kept the young population totally oblivious of spirituality. So how will the
13:27problems of today be solved? Can you have, I keep asking, can you have technological
13:34solutions to something like climate change when climate change is very obviously a crisis of
13:40consumption? It is a crisis of attitudes and behaviors. It is a crisis of greed. It's a
13:49crisis of lack of compassion. It is a crisis born out of cruelty and insensitivity.
13:59How can you have technology coming up with solutions to that?
14:05Similarly, technology can give you nuclear weapons but technology cannot give you the
14:10wisdom to avoid a nuclear war or can technology do that as well?
14:20Technology can give you the means to colonize another planet but technology
14:24will not give you the love to save your own planet.
14:31The problems of today can have solutions only in spirituality
14:37and we are such foolish people. We are depriving ourselves of the only help we can have.
14:49We are keeping our kids, our teenagers, our young population away from all kinds of wisdom literature.
15:03We have conflated religious dogma with spiritual wisdom. We do not know the difference.
15:10Now religious dogma is obviously something we want to keep aside. It has no place in the world
15:15of today. It actually should have had no place at any time in history but it continued.
15:27Spiritual wisdom is something totally different. The essence of the Upanishads and Gita
15:36is the only thing that can save us today and when I say that I do not mean to exclude other scriptures.
15:42I am talking of Vedanta as representative of all wisdom. It is an inclusive thing.
15:53Are you getting it? Our education has become very dangerously anti-life
16:04because life when it comes to a human being is about consciousness not just biological
16:11activity. You eat, you consume, you see, you hear, you move, you breathe.
16:22That's not what we can call as the life of a human being. A human being is alive
16:29only if he can reflect and understand. Somebody who can't reflect, somebody who can't understand
16:35is as good as dead or is only as alive as an animal or vegetable.
16:47Our education is preventing us from reflecting
16:52into life, from understanding our own existence. Therefore, I am calling it anti-life.
16:57I don't know whether I have answered your question. If I have not then you may say something.
17:11Thank you. Sir, this is a question regarding education. That is something I have been
17:21trying in many ways for myself and for my family and my son as well.
17:28Previously, we spoke that these days education institutions are not life-giving but they are
17:35in fact life-sucking where they only make machines out of them. I have been
17:42very clearly realizing this for the past few years. We spoke about educational institutions
17:52but I am also kind of finding that even the institution called family is not so life-giving
18:00because the people in the family are also equally educated by the same institutions
18:06and they are all kind of we are one of our friend also mentioned like energy vampires.
18:12So, I have noticed that a lot. Then I started believing that it is good for the kid to be
18:20away from such institutions at least for certain period so that the process of self-inquiry can
18:26start. So, I wanted to understand one of the key things that have helped me for self-inquiry was
18:34travels, breaking my patterns, going to different environments and trying to
18:40live in those cultures. So, I have started a journey where I would take my family to such
18:47communities and break certain patterns and give us the space where we can
18:53explore different ways of self-inquiry. So, I would like to understand for a quid of nine years
19:00or 10 years how important it is to not only help him to get out of such influences but also
19:08how important it is for him to explore him to expose him to different environments so that
19:14self-inquiry can naturally come in. It's quite important, very important if you expose him to
19:20different environments. But obviously, like all exposures, there has to be a deftness
19:29in the one making the experiment or bringing about the exposure.
19:39Otherwise, exposures might not help or might even be problematic. Think of
19:54exposing your swollen knee to x-rays. Done rightly, it assists the treatment. Done wrongly,
20:06it can itself become a problem. Or the exposure that you provide to the photographic film
20:21when you open the camera shutter. Exposed rightly, you will get a beautiful picture.
20:29If there is underexposure, all you will get is darkness.
20:34If there is overexposure, you will get a bland brightness. So, first of all, you must know
20:43the frame, you must also know the shutter speed and you must know the art, the skill, the craft.
20:52So, be careful.
20:59Uncaring and unthought-out exposures may not help that much.
21:07We have had people who travel a lot. We have professional travels, we have tour guides.
21:16Do they automatically become liberated people?
21:20They don't. So, it's not as if exposure by itself suffices.
21:29There has to be constant care and attention as to what kind of exposure, what is it bringing to that
21:35person and after the exposure, there has to be reflection and deliberation and you talk
21:43and you talk so as to put the exposure in perspective.
21:49Let's say you take the kid to a slaughterhouse
21:57and he gets to see how that very modern and automated slaughter facility is functioning.
22:05It can work both ways. On one hand, it can help the kid realize the cruel ways of our world.
22:16On the other hand, it can, if not put in perspective, it is possible the kid starts
22:23appreciating the fineness of automation and the sophistication of the mechanical and computer
22:35systems there. Think of it. So, one has to be attentive. But one thing is certain,
22:48experience helps. And the other thing I would want to talk of is facts.
22:57The kid must know history. The kid must know what is going on in the world.
23:04The kid must know all the things that constitute the mind of the common man.
23:11Just think, what is it that fills us up? What is it that we are so concerned about?
23:21What is it that occupies TV screens? What is it that most people are surfing on the net?
23:30It is these things that make our minds simple. Beyond our genetic baggage,
23:42what are we made up of? There is something we bring into the world with the body and the rest
23:53of it we simply acquire from the TV screens and what we see and what we hear. We must know what
24:00is it that makes us up and then the facts of those things must be very clearly brought out to the
24:09child. For example, religious conflict. For example, political ideologies. Why don't you
24:18start discussing communism versus capitalism with your kid? Marx versus Smith. Why not?
24:33In a very simplified form, obviously, the kid must be able to know what is going on.
24:39What is, for example, the difference between the left and the right?
24:45Why not discuss it because that is what constitutes so much of the popular debate these days
24:53and it's going to continue for decades. It's a very old topic. So, the kid must know these things
25:00and the father, the mother, all the well-wishers, the teachers, the relatives, the friends,
25:05it's upon them to sit with the kid and take up these matters. What does the left want? What does
25:10the right want? What is the difference between a leftist, a socialist, a communist? Are they one?
25:16Are there differences? What happened in Russia? What happened in France?
25:21What were these revolutions? What happened in Europe in those times?
25:26And if the kid can develop a taste for these things, then this is an insurance against a lot
25:34of nonsense. If the kid can start relating geography to history, if the kid can start
25:44relating our biological tendencies with social structures, if he can start looking at a house
25:52and asks, what does this tangible house of bricks and cement represent in mental terms?
26:04You know you have been a great father. The day the kid asks a question of this variety,
26:10what is it in man's mind that gives rise to houses or to theatres or to schools or to hospitals?
26:21You don't find these things in the jungle. And why are some houses bigger than others?
26:28Right? Why do houses have these specific rooms, these specific compartments and divisions?
26:34Why must there be a bedroom, a drawing room, a kitchen? How exactly have we come up with
26:41these ideas? Because these are not rooms. These are ideas first. Right? So what do these ideas
26:47represent in our mind? What is it about us that gets tangibly represented as the idea of the
26:56drawing room, let's say? The kid must be encouraged to ask these questions. This is a drift. This is
27:03a kind of cultivated habit. It has to be cultivated in the beginning. Later on, when that faculty is
27:09awakened, then it becomes spontaneous for the kid. But initially, like a good farmer, you will have
27:18to plough the field and sow the seeds. If you wait for things to happen by themselves,
27:24they might take a lot of time. They might not even ever happen. So don't leave things to chance.
27:32Plough the field, sow the seeds, water them, take care of them, save them from all kinds of animals,
27:40including the animal within. So that's what a good father ought to do. I hope I'm not
27:47putting too many and too severe conditions on parenting. But because I look at the
27:59bringing of the kid as a very, very serious matter. Live is something serious, is it not?
28:08Therefore, I think parents must realize that they carry a tremendous responsibility
28:17to the kid. There's nothing in the world that must not be discussed with the kid.
28:26India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, China, why not? Why must not the kid know the mind of,
28:35let's say, Putin? Why exactly did Russia have to get into Ukraine? What's going on?
28:41And can now the kid relate it with the European reformation and renaissance and the general thought?
29:01Can the kid look at, for example, China and India
29:07and think of Gautam Buddha and Acharya Shankar?
29:12Obviously, it's not a clean parallel, but I'm talking of
29:21free thought and free connections. When you can connect to seemingly
29:29disparate things in the mind, it means that the faculty of creativity is being aroused.
29:42Yeah.
29:55Thanks, Acharya ji. I really don't have a clear path on how I'm going to do that,
30:00but I'm sure I would keep inquiring myself and also help as much as possible to help him inquire.
30:09But this is still try and testing only. I'm testing various things. I might fail. I might
30:16again figure out something else, but definitely a lot of inputs from you is helping me. Thanks a lot.
30:25I would like to, first of all, extend a humble thank you, gratitude on behalf of the I am
30:33Calcutta's Lit Club. Thank you to all the participants also for bringing such great
30:38questions on the platform. I think the way Acharya Prashant answered everything, we have
30:44covered a lot of length, a lot of depth and breadth in all the questions, right from discussing
30:50climate change to discussing self-inquiry. There is nothing we have not touched upon today.
30:56And I hope this session proves to be an initiation for everyone to start on their
31:02journey of self-inquiry. Again, a big thank you to Acharya Prashant and his team and especially
31:08Dr. Chatterjee for helping us and helping us conduct this session smoothly. Thank you everyone.