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00:00As young people, how many of you want to be ruled by the world?
00:15And how many of you want to live free lives?
00:19Now this freedom is at the core of Vedanta.
00:25What is the goal of Vedanta?
00:27Happiness?
00:28Pleasure?
00:29Riches?
00:30Fame?
00:31Social acceptance?
00:33What is the goal of Vedanta?
00:35Freedom.
00:37And such pure and absolute freedom, you call it liberation.
00:42Not just ordinary freedom, liberation.
00:47And you cannot be liberated without self-knowledge.
00:52Now do you see why our relationships are toxic?
00:57Now do you see why others manage to hurt us, harm us, bloat us up, and also puncture us?
01:07Do you see?
01:10Why are you in such a bad mood?
01:12Somebody sent me an offensive message.
01:15Does that happen or not?
01:17Your entire day can be ruined, somebody sent you an offensive message.
01:22Why have you chosen a bad course to study?
01:25Why have you enrolled in a discipline you don't really care about?
01:31How did you get into this kind of a shady job?
01:35Why did you choose this sector to work in?
01:40How did you get hitched to this person?
01:45Do all these things happen or not?
01:47Somebody is pursuing a bad course, somebody has gotten into a bad job.
01:52Somebody is now stuck in a bad relationship.
01:54Do these things happen or not?
01:56Do you see most of these things happen because we listened too much to others?
02:03And listening too much to others becomes a compulsion.
02:07You cannot avoid it.
02:09Just as asking for direction from others becomes a compulsion, more than a necessity, a compulsion,
02:16when you do not know the way.
02:19When you do not know the way, you will be forced to ask from others.
02:26I did not know which course to choose, which college to go to, which course to register
02:33in.
02:34So what did I do?
02:37What did I do?
02:41Some Bablu Bhaiya from the neighborhood came and became the expert.
02:46How did he manage to become the expert?
02:50We can't blame him.
02:53He was offering his free services.
02:55We have to blame?
02:58Why did I not know it for myself?
03:01Whose life is it?
03:03So who should have known?
03:05I should have known.
03:06Why did I have to fall dependent on this fellow?
03:15I remember my JEE counselling day.
03:20So we were all there at IIT Delhi itself.
03:25And very few of us had any idea what the different branches are all about and what the different
03:30IITs are all about and which one to go to.
03:34And the choices were swinging just so wildly.
03:41I did not know where to go.
03:42I mean aerospace in IIT Kanpur, at that rank, biotechnology at IIT Delhi, ITBHU you could
03:54have electronics, IIT Guwahati you could have at computer science, you know, four entirely
04:01different places.
04:02IIT Kharagpur you could have at naval architecture.
04:09Now these are such disparate choices.
04:13How are you even considering all of them?
04:18You should know what you want from life, shouldn't you?
04:22But we don't know anything.
04:23So what do we do?
04:24We go to the person standing next to us.
04:28Sir, so what is your rank?
04:31What are you choosing?
04:32Now this fellow looks nice.
04:36This fellow, right.
04:39So he is going for civil at IIT Bombay.
04:46Another totally new option opens up.
04:51From computer science to biotechnology to electronics to civil.
04:55Anything can happen because you don't have a center.
04:58So we just keep rolling.
05:01When you have a center, it is very, very difficult to influence you.
05:07An insult you must see, Chetna, is a kind of influence.
05:13You have been influenced.
05:16If you tell me I am wearing black, why will I listen to you?
05:21I know what I am wearing.
05:24Why don't you know how you are inside, white or black or orange or whatever?
05:36So self-knowledge is not some archaic word for the scholars alone.
05:47It is the fundamental requirement of every normal, ordinary person like you, like me.
05:55We all need self-knowledge.
05:56Otherwise, the streams of time and the forces of society will just carry you away and dump
06:07you somewhere and life is short before you realize your time will be gone and death knocks.
06:16Also, mind you that the lady quoted insult as a problem.
06:23Nobody ever quotes praise, commendation as a problem.
06:31We do not realize that if others are able to lift your mood by praising you, you have
06:39already licensed them to sink your mood by insulting you.
06:47You see this?
06:49But we are all crazy after compliments, are we not?
06:54Do you ever take this as a problem?
06:56You know, sir, something happened in the morning when I was coming to the college.
07:00This chap comes to me and says, wow, great hairstyle.
07:06And surely you have taken bath today.
07:10You aren't sticking.
07:11Now that's never a problem.
07:14Somebody compliments you on your eyes, your hair, your clothes, your looks, whatever.
07:20Is that ever a problem?
07:22Now that's where the problem is.
07:25That's where the problem is.
07:28If someone can enter your insides by praising you, the door has been flung open, right?
07:38He knocked here.
07:42And you said, yes.
07:44And he said, wow, wonderful, beautiful.
07:47And that's the password.
07:48Praise.
07:49Praise is the password.
07:52And you opened the door.
07:54You opened the doors of your mind because that fellow said, knock, knock, praise.
07:59The moment the doors are open, they have been opened even for insult.
08:08And nobody can enter your life just by insulting you.
08:12Do you mind insult from strangers?
08:16No.
08:18Insult is especially caustic when it comes from those who know you, right?
08:26You're walking down the road and some strange fellow not known to you says something, yells
08:32a word at you.
08:33You don't especially mind it.
08:36You mind it when that fellow is someone who has been allowed entry already, then he hurts
08:45because he has been given access to the insides.
08:48Now he can hurt you from the inside.
08:53And access is given only when there is praise.
08:59Don't be vulnerable to praise.
09:06If you know where you stand, why should you allow someone to sketch a bigger figure of
09:15you?
09:17I know my size.
09:19Why are you portraying me as bigger than what I actually am?
09:25That's not allowed.
09:26You should not do that.
09:28I know my worth.
09:32Why are you praising me beyond my worth?
09:34And if you find somebody praising you beyond your worth, you should immediately become
09:40cautious.
09:45This fellow is not your friend.
09:49I know I'm not doing something right.
09:52Why are you supporting me at this moment?
09:54You should not be supporting me.
09:57This is called self-knowledge.
10:00I know what I'm doing is not right.
10:03So if you really are my well-wisher, you should not be supporting me, instead you should be
10:07stopping me.
10:08Instead of stopping me, you are, but we love it when somebody supports us, right?
10:14No, that's called not knowing yourself.
10:20If you really are a friend, come on, stop me.
10:23That's what friendship is all about.
10:27So if you want to be insult proof, be ignorant proof.
10:37If you are ignorance proof, you will be insult proof.
10:42People will come and say a thousand things to you.
10:47That's what the world is for.
10:50The world is there to give you a billion kinds of experiences.
10:55So the world is constantly coming to you, making you feel this way, that way.
11:01Your job is to not to get easily swayed.
11:06Let the world see what it has to.
11:09Am I not conscious?
11:13There is an object, this.
11:22This lid on the tumbler.
11:27Does it have any free will, any volition?
11:31I wanted to pick it, I have picked it up.
11:35If I drop it from here, it will fall or can it say, why are you being so cruel?
11:42Why did you raise me?
11:45Now why are you letting me go?
11:48But this is how most of us are, right?
11:51Someone wants to raise you, he can.
11:56Someone wants to break you, he can.
12:00So Vedant says, Jada and Chetan are different and the job of Chetan or Chetana is to not
12:23let Jada, unconsciousness become dominant on itself.
12:34If I am a slave to circumstances, then I'm just like this dead object.
12:40Am I dead?
12:41No.
12:42But please see, that every time you allow circumstances to rule you, you are actually
12:53acting like a dead object.
12:55Does that sound very nice?
12:58No, that does not.
13:01I should be so strong from within that circumstances should not be able to affect me beyond a point.
13:13Outside, everything is changeable, inside there should be an unchanging core.
13:25This is skin, obviously, sun, heat, cold, water, wind will affect it.
13:36But all those things should be able to affect only my external shells.
13:44My core, my interiority should remain untouched by whatsoever is happening in the world.
13:52And that thing that must always remain untouched.
13:56What do you call it?
13:59What do you call it?
14:04That's called Atma, the self, the truth.
14:13If you are alive, then this is the definition of being alive.
14:17Please note with care.
14:20You are alive only if you have something within that circumstances cannot even touch.
14:30Then you say, I am truly alive.
14:32Others just appear to be alive.
14:39They are not really alive.
14:40They are like.
14:41Have you seen leaves falling from trees?
14:46Do they own their destiny?
14:53They are ruled by the winds.
14:56Most of us, unfortunately, are like fallen leaves.
15:00We have no interior locus of control.
15:06There is no Atma.
15:11All we have is strings that others are pulling all the time, puppets.
15:20We are young, intelligent, vigorous people.
15:26We will not live like puppets or would we?
15:30That's all.
15:31That's all.
15:32Yes.