What is an evil womb? How to know Prakriti-Purusha? || Acharya Prashant, on Bhagavad Gita (2020)

Acharya Prashant

🧔🏻‍♂️ 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: Month of Awakening, 26.04.2020, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India  Context:  पुरुषः प्रकृतिस्थो हि भुङ्क्ते प्रकृतिजान्गुणान् । कारणं गुणसङ्गोऽस्य सदसद्योनिजन्मसु ॥ Purușa seated in Prakrti, experiences the Gunas born of Prakriti; the reason of his birth in good and evil womb is his attachment to the Gunas.   य एवं वेत्ति पुरुषं प्रकृतिं च गुणैः सह। सर्वथा वर्तमानोऽपि न स भूयोऽभिजायते ॥ He who knows thus the Purușa and the Prakrti together with the Gunas, whatever his life, is not born again.  ~Shrimad Bhagwad Gita (Chapter-13, Verses-22 and 24)  ~ What is mean by evil womb? ~ How to know Prakriti-Purusha? ~ Who is beyond death?  ~ How to become the knower? ~ What is the difference Prakriti and Purusha ?   Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~

Transcript

00:00Srimad Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 13, verses 21 and 23.

00:19Purusha seated in Prakriti experiences the gunas born of Prakriti, the reason of his

00:27birth in good and evil womb is his attachment to the gunas.

00:33He who knows thus, the Purusha and the Prakriti together with the gunas, whatever his life

00:40is not born again.

00:46What does it mean to take birth in a good or an evil womb?

00:51So it is said here that the one who knows Purusha and Prakriti together with the gunas

01:00is not born again.

01:02Please explain what does it really mean to know Purusha and Prakriti?

01:08We are talking of Chapter 13, Kshetra Kshetragya Vibhagya Yoga.

01:23It's important to put a few things in perspective.

01:33That which is referred to as Purusha is actually Paraprakriti.

01:50That which is referred to as Prakriti is Aparaprakriti.

02:02The gross elements of Prakriti are all called Aparaprakriti.

02:20The subtle elements are called Paraprakriti or Purusha.

02:31According to these two are the Kshetra and the Kshetragya.

02:37Aparaprakriti is the Kshetra, Paraprakriti is the Kshetragya.

02:46So the Kshetra and the Kshetragya both actually belong in the domain of Prakriti itself.

02:59Kshetra is the scene, the object.

03:06Kshetragya is the seer, the subject.

03:13And then there is Atma or Krishna or Truth, the witness.

03:23So there is the scene, there is the seer, and then there is the witness.

03:34The scene and the seer both belong in the dimension of Prakriti, Drish and Drishta.

03:48Drish is Aparaprakriti, Drishta is Paraprakriti.

03:58Drish is Kshetra, Drishta, the observer, the subject, is Kshetragya.

04:11So there must be no confusion on this count.

04:19Now what does it mean to take birth in a good or an evil womb?

04:28See we are conditioned since birth, aren't we?

04:37So as we are born, then relative to the situations of the time, our conditioning decides whether

05:08we would be more receptive to the influences that lead to liberation or to the influences that lead to further bondage.

05:31The child is very susceptible, no?

05:41That susceptibility has taken birth.

05:46But each child, even at the moment of birth, is different from the other.

05:52We know that.

05:53That's our experience.

05:56And each child is born in a particular age, in a particular home, in a particular milieu,

06:04in a particular context.

06:08So it's not as if the womb is good or evil, as if the newly born child is good or evil.

06:16It's just that the particular personal conditioning of the child might be such that with respect

06:27to the prevailing familial and social conditions, he might be more vulnerable to evil influences.

06:38So it's not that the womb is evil.

06:41It's just that the child is born more vulnerable to evil influences.

06:48Influences of all kinds exist in the society and every child, each child is born in the

06:59society, right?

07:03Influences of all kinds are there.

07:06And the child is a vulnerable bundle with very little consciousness.

07:14The child is going to be influenced.

07:18The structure of the child's biological conditioning determines whether the child will receive

07:29the evil influences more readily or the liberating influences more readily.

07:40So let's not blame the womb and let's not blame the child, right?

07:50It's just a question of match and mismatch.

07:57It's a question of accidental alignment.

08:05A child born in a particular epoch, in a particular country, in a particular environment might

08:15find the situations around him or her to be very helpful in terms of his inner development.

08:33The same child, if hypothetically were to be born in another age or another place, might

08:42find the conditions quite adverse to his inner development.

08:48So it's a question of the child's relative compatibility with the various influences

09:01around him.

09:03Are you getting it?

09:07That's what.

09:08These fundamental principles must be remembered, which means that the possibility of liberation

09:21exists equally with respect to each and every child born.

09:30The responsibility lies on the parents or the caretakers to adapt and adjust the child's

09:40environment in a way that it influences him in a creative and life-giving manner.

09:54Because the child is what the child is, the hardware is born, you cannot just simply wish

10:09his biological tendencies, his inner biological structure, the entire genetic coding to go

10:21away.

10:22The child has been born in a particular way, the child is there.

10:28Now it's upon the guardians to realize what the particular configuration of the child's

10:40fundamental conditioning is and then accordingly provide him an environment that facilitates

10:50his inner growth.

10:54If the guardians do that, then the guardians are great.

11:00If the guardians do not do that, then the guardians are evil.

11:05So it's not that the mother has a good or an evil womb.

11:10No, the womb is not good or evil.

11:17What the mother does after the child is born might indeed be virtuous or evil.

11:27And you cannot blame the mother or the father for passing on certain kinds of genes or chromosomes

11:38to the kid.

11:39In that regard, they are quite helpless.

11:43Even the most learned of guardians cannot really alter their genes.

11:51So the child will be born in a particular genetic way.

11:55The mother and the father can't help that.

11:58But once the child is born, then if the parents fail or abdicate their responsibility, then

12:06indeed they are evil.

12:08And if the parents fulfill their responsibility, then they are good or virtuous.

12:15So this verse has to be understood in that regard.

12:18Are you getting it?

12:21It's only in context of the prevailing situations at home and in the society can you call a

12:34a freshly born child as good or evil.

12:38It's like this, you see.

12:47Sodium is sodium, right?

12:50Sodium is not good or evil.

12:53But if sodium is born and you are naive or casual enough to keep sodium in water, then

13:03the explosion can kill many people and you will say, oh, such an evil thing was born.

13:10See that thing having been born caused the death of so many people.

13:17Now was the death caused by sodium or was it caused by the way sodium was handled?

13:28Sodium is sodium.

13:29Sodium cannot change its inner electronic molecular configuration or can it?

13:37But sodium is born and the parents are so casual that they keep it in water and the

13:43resultant explosion blows the entire locality away and you start cursing sodium as evil.

13:51This is not quite justified.

13:54Are you getting it?

13:58If sodium is born, you better keep it in oil.

14:02If sodium is born, you better have the sense to put sodium in a chemical environment that

14:10will turn sodium into something useful.

14:15And there are a lot of useful things that can be made out of sodium, right?

14:20Starting with your common salt.

14:24There is so much life-giving that sodium can amount to.

14:31But you must first of all have the sense to give sodium the right environment.

14:40If you do not give sodium the right environment, then I do not know how you can call sodium

14:45as evil.

14:49And every child is born a different element, believe me.

14:54And there is no element that cannot be evil in a particular way.

15:02Treated wrongly, even the most inert and benign of elements can turn out to be evil.

15:12And treated properly, even the most reactive and volatile of elements can prove to be a

15:22blessing to the world.

15:25It depends on the handling.

15:29So kindly do not read this verse to literally mean that one particular mother has an evil

15:37womb and the other one has some kind of a sacred womb.

15:41No, it's not that way.

15:44Wombs are wombs.

15:45And every child is unique.

15:51Just as you have so many different elements, similarly you could imagine that every new

15:57child born is some kind of a combination of different elements, a pretty unique combination.

16:04We know that obviously.

16:05We have that in our experience.

16:07No two kids are the same.

16:08Even twins are not the same.

16:13Even twins are not the same.

16:14The parents must have the maturity, the spirituality, the sense to know how to treat sodium in a

16:31way that will turn sodium into something very valuable.

16:38Instead, what we often have is very naive and ignorant parents.

16:46If sodium is born, they will put it in water.

16:52Then the younger brother comes, his name is potassium.

16:56They turn it into potassium cyanide.

17:02And then they say, oh, what to do?

17:05Such evil things are dropping from the heavens in our house.

17:10Nothing evil is coming particularly to you.

17:13You are mishandling everything.

17:18Getting it?

17:28Then it's said in these verses that the one who knows Purush and Prakriti together is

17:36not born again.

17:38Please explain what it means.

17:41Sri Krishna has defined Gyan here.

17:43What is the definition of Gyan?

17:45Krishna says to know Kshetra and Kshetragi together is called Gyan or such a second definition.

17:54You know wisdom where it is by its precision.

18:02Precision is often a very strong indicator of wisdom.

18:11So Arjuna has been told what Gyan is.

18:17What is Gyan?

18:19To know Purush and Prakriti together is Gyan.

18:23In more contemporary language, to know the observed and the observer together is Gyan.

18:32To know the seen and seer together is Gyan.

18:34To know the subject and object together is Gyan.

18:39Instead what we commonly call as knowledge is only about the seen, the object.

18:48That's why we say knowledge is objective.

18:53Krishna is far more wise.

19:01He will not say that just knowing these objects all around can be called as Gyan or knowledge.

19:11He says no, no, no, unless you also know who the seer is, you are not a Gyani.

19:20You might be somebody who has a lot of knowledge about the world, but if you do not know who

19:27the one looking at the world is, you cannot be called a Gyani.

19:33Maybe you can be called an informed person.

19:37But information and wisdom are very different things, aren't they?

19:43You can be very informed yet very unwise.

19:47We have so many examples.

19:49Only it is possible that you are not greatly informed but are very very wise.

19:57You must have both, information and wisdom.

20:00But if you have to choose between the two, if you really have to decide what you must

20:07invest your one hour in, if the choice has to be one of the two, then you must invest

20:15your one hour in wisdom rather than information.

20:18Of course, if you have more than one hour, then you must go for both.

20:23Are you getting the idea?

20:26It's good to have objective knowledge, but objective knowledge is a very foolish thing

20:32if you do not know yourself the subject.

20:35Are you getting it?

20:38So that's what Krishna is saying here.

20:41What does it mean to know Purush and Prakriti together along with the Gunas?

20:49It means you must know why you are knowing and who is knowing.

20:57Otherwise knowledge is not only not useful but often quite dangerous.

21:05Such knowledge where you do not know what tempts you, what prompts you to seek knowledge

21:10is often like going to Google and asking how to make a bomb.

21:19You will probably get all the information.

21:23You have known how to make a bomb, but you have just not bothered to inquire what in

21:32you wants to make that bomb.

21:37What is it within you that is so eager to get a bomb?

21:43What is it that you want to blast away with the bomb?

21:48From where does the destructiveness and the hatred within you come that you are not bothered

21:55to ask?

21:56That's not what you are Googling for.

21:58You just Googled how to make a bomb.

22:02You didn't Google why the hell do I want to make a bomb.

22:05Did you Google that?

22:07That's what Krishna is saying here.

22:11Bomb is the object.

22:12You are the subject who is desirous of that object, thinking of that object.

22:18Why exactly does that object mean so much to you?

22:22Who will ask that question?

22:24We fail to ask that question because we have not been taught to ask that question.

22:30That's not how our schooling has been.

22:33There was no course in the entire curriculum right from kindergarten till college that

22:42dealt with the self.

22:44Who was there?

22:48Nothing at all.

22:50And that is the reason we just haven't had the practice to turn inwards.

22:54And turning inwards, I don't want to let it remain an exotic metaphor.

22:59Turning inwards simply means asking this fundamental question, why am I doing what

23:05I am doing?

23:08Why am I doing this?

23:11What am I involved in right now?

23:13Why do I need to think this way?

23:16How do my thoughts, my entire inclination just change suddenly?

23:24What are these inner fluctuations?

23:26How do I become an almost entirely different person within five minutes?

23:33How is my existence, my being, my sense of who I am so very dependent on external situations?

23:43These are the questions that one has to ask.

23:45It's not very difficult.

23:47It's just that one has to have some practice.

23:51And our education has not been that way.

23:54Our education has been greatly afraid of the inner dimension.

24:03Those who were in charge of our education were probably people who were very, very afraid

24:08of spirituality.

24:13Those people really didn't deserve to be setting syllabi, but they did.

24:20And now we have an entire generation, or rather a couple of generations that have faced

24:29the consequences.

Category

Transcript

Recommended