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Video Information: 25.09.20, IIT-Kharagpur - Webinar, Greater Noida

Context:
~ Why does the law of Karma not apply to animals?
~ What is the difference between man & animal?
~ Why does man suffer after entering bad Karma?
~ What is Bad Action?
~ What is reward and Punishment?


Music Credits: Milind Date
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Transcript
00:00It is said that human beings get bad results and punishment if they enter into bad actions.
00:28But nothing of this sort is said for animals.
00:36Why does the law of karma not apply to animals?
00:48The law of karma does not apply to animals because animals do not really have a choice
00:56in their actions.
01:00And when there is no choice, there is no question of reward or punishment.
01:06Human beings are in a peculiar situation.
01:12They can choose to side with their animalistic conditioning or they can choose something
01:24higher.
01:26They can choose freedom, joy, love, liberation, compassion.
01:33Therefore humans have a responsibility.
01:42Animals don't have that responsibility.
01:46Animals are dictated fully by their biological conditioning.
01:56If there is a road accident here, on the road outside,
02:15you do not really expect the street dogs to come to rescue and help the victims of
02:26the accident, do you?
02:33They are not supposed to.
02:36So you will not get angry at the dogs when they do not come to help the injured ones.
02:47A couple of bike riders have met an accident and they are lying on the road.
02:59And then there are birds on the trees and there are dogs roaming about.
03:12They will not take any special interest.
03:15There are so many insects around, aren't there?
03:23Some snake is there in the bush, right?
03:31They do not really care for these two creatures who are lying bleeding on the road.
03:43And they do not care and they will not attract any punishment because they are not supposed
03:50to.
03:51They just do not have the option to act in compassion.
03:59No animal can be compassionate really because an animal is completely just prakriti.
04:14Animal really does not have the option to be a liberated consciousness.
04:24The animal's consciousness is completely dominated by its physical conditioning, are you getting
04:32it?
04:33Therefore the animal gets neither reward nor punishment, which is comfortable in a sense
04:42because the animal lives in a secure zone.
04:55A dog is born a dog, lives as a dog and dies as a dog and no dog lives in a state of consciousness
05:08that is very different from that of another dog.
05:12Are you getting it?
05:16You cannot say one dog is liberated and the other dog is not.
05:19You cannot say one dog is joyful and compassionate and the other dog is not.
05:28Dogs can have varying external situations but internally all dogs are just dogs.
05:37This is not the case with human beings.
05:41Human beings can vary greatly in their internal states.
05:51One human being can be full of compassion and the other one can be spiteful, angry,
06:03vicious and violent, getting it?
06:13Therefore the one who is compassionate is rewarded, he made the right choice.
06:20The one who is vicious is punished by his viciousness itself, he made the wrong choice.
06:30So there is this great difference between animals and human beings, which also means
06:36that human beings must never justify their actions by taking examples of animals.
06:48For example, if you eat animal flesh, you cannot justify it by saying that a lion or
06:57a wolf too kills other animals to eat.
07:04A lion or a wolf has no option not to kill.
07:12You have that option.
07:16Man is not necessarily a herbivore.
07:21Man is more of an omnivore, therefore that option is there.
07:26You could have decided not to kill but you chose in favor of killing, therefore you will
07:31be punished.
07:33A lion is never punished because the lion had no option.
07:42A lion has done nothing wrong.
07:48In fact, even if a lion kills a human being, really it has not committed a crime.
07:57That's how lions are.
07:58They are supposed to kill to eat.
08:04But if a man needlessly kills an animal, then the man will be punished.
08:13If not by law, then by existence.
08:17Are you getting it?
08:21So that is a human being in the most clear terms.
08:31A human being is a decision maker.
08:34A human being is someone who has a choice.
08:37How do you define a human being?
08:42He is someone who has a choice.
08:46And how you exercise these choices decides your life.
08:54Use very, very carefully, right?

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