🧔🏻♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant?
Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquiry-gita-course?cmId=m00056
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~~~~~
Video Information: with BITS Hyderabad, 28.03.2022, Greater Noida, India
Context:
~ What is free will?
~ What is that which really chooses?
~ Do we really have the right to choose?
~ Is your life your choice?
~ What is a choice?
~ How liberation depends on you?
~ How to get rid of the fear of making the wrong choice?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
#acharyaprashant #ambition
Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquiry-gita-course?cmId=m00056
📚 Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books?
Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?cmId=m00056
~~~~~
Video Information: with BITS Hyderabad, 28.03.2022, Greater Noida, India
Context:
~ What is free will?
~ What is that which really chooses?
~ Do we really have the right to choose?
~ Is your life your choice?
~ What is a choice?
~ How liberation depends on you?
~ How to get rid of the fear of making the wrong choice?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
#acharyaprashant #ambition
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Acharya Prashant is a powerful voice of social-spiritual awakening in today's world.
00:07He is the author of over 80 books, including the national bestseller, Karma, why everything
00:14you know about it is wrong.
00:16An analyst of IIT Delhi, IIM Ahmedabad and a former civil service officer.
00:21He is an exponent of pure Vedantic wisdom, a vocal warrior against superstition and inner
00:28ignorance, a promulgator of pure spiritual veganism and an expounder of essential human
00:33freedom.
00:34I would like to welcome Acharya Prashant to Mitzpalani Hyderabad campus.
00:41Hello sir.
00:43I am Devansh and I am a student in Electronics and Instrumentation Department.
00:47So sir, my question is regarding the movie Three Idiots.
00:51Everyone of us has seen the movie and in that movie it was shown that we should rely on
00:57practical knowledge instead of the book knowledge.
01:01But one cannot understand everything practically until and unless they have a basic theoretical
01:07knowledge.
01:08So, what should be the ratio of book knowledge to practical knowledge for the best understanding
01:14of any subject or anything?
01:19These two obviously have to go together.
01:27There is an unfortunate tendency especially in our country to berate, underestimate and
01:46sometimes make fun of institutionalized knowledge, academic knowledge contained in books.
01:57In fact, I do not quite understand how there can be some kind of knowledge that is not
02:13contained in books.
02:18As if the books contain falseness or incomplete information or data or knowledge and by doing
02:35things practically one would know of what is missing in the books.
02:42This is quite strange.
02:45I understand there might be badly written books and when you have a badly written book
02:54then it is possible that the knowledge it has does not serve its purpose.
03:05But to say that the stuff contained in books does not deeply apply to the so called practical world
03:19and the ones who live with books or fond of books, go deeply into books are just bookworms
03:31is to betray both ignorance and probably malicious intent.
03:47You see it requires a lot of patience, application and attention to learn from a book.
04:00I am not talking of rote learning.
04:03I am not talking of parrot like memorization.
04:08I am talking of actually learning from books.
04:12And books since the dawn of history have been probably the most potent vehicle
04:26in the conveyance and dissemination of knowledge.
04:32So it is alright if a pop movie totally underrates and underestimates the importance of books.
04:48But that's not what reality is like.
04:53There are many fields of let's say theoretical physics or mathematics
05:07where there can be nothing like practice or practicality.
05:15Where the entire stuff is bound to be merely theoretical.
05:22Theoretical but very useful.
05:25Theoretical but very applicable.
05:32Now how will you say that you don't want to learn from books and you just want to have practical knowledge.
05:42If I am talking of quarks and bosons and string theory
05:47how exactly are you going to put practice over book knowledge.
05:56Are you getting it?
05:59Yes sir.
06:00So you know when I talked of malicious intent you see.
06:08When the intent is to not put in that kind of work and concentration into books
06:16then it becomes quite tempting and facile to simply make fun of books.
06:25And the proportion of people who are not very fond of knowledge is always very high.
06:40They will greatly outnumber those who can put in the hours, the attention that is needed to humbly learn and absorb from a book.
06:54And if there is a movie obviously the producer, the financer they are looking for numbers.
07:04If you produce a movie that venerates books it's not going to gross you the revenue that you expect.
07:13Your desire regarding box office collections cannot come fulfilled from a right movie.
07:29So then there is this trend and it's not a new trend.
07:35It's been there since long to for example extol somebody who has let's say a CGPA of 5
07:49and you will have pop literature coming of that kind.
07:55A fellow who has a 3 point CGPA, 4 point CGPA is actually the real stud.
08:05And the ones who work and exert themselves as per the system
08:16they are just fools, dull boring idiots, uninspiring bookworms.
08:25It sells, it sells.
08:30In no way am I saying that practice of learned concepts in the material world is unnecessary or secondary.
08:46I opened my reply with the clear acceptance that the classroom, the library and the laboratory plus field work have to go together.
09:08So these have to go together but I just do not see the point in being in a chemistry lab
09:16without knowing what the compounds are like.
09:21You first of all have to be with the books only then the laboratory can be of some use to you.
09:30You can go to your computer lab and you don't know a thing about coding.
09:36What will you do there? What will you type on the machine?
09:41You have not learned coding at all and coding you can learn only through books.
09:48I would be very eager to understand how one can simply hit the field and learn coding on the job.
10:07You have to master some language, C++, Java, whatever is the language you are looking for.
10:19Show me how you can do it without a book.
10:22Books are very very important.
10:27The more you think about it the more you will realize that we have not been as respectful to books as we need to be.
10:44We have not given knowledge its due place and due attention and due respect.
10:59So equally I accept that if we look at for example the Indian education system
11:11there are lot of people who will do very well in the exams but when they go to their jobs
11:19they don't seem to be able to perform at all.
11:25That's not the fault of the concept of the book per se.
11:34That is really the problem with a badly executed examination system, teaching system,
11:47the evaluation, the expectation of the teachers and obviously as we had said
11:56the problem lies with badly written books.
12:01So the book itself is written in a way that it does not encourage the student to go deep into itself
12:12that the book itself is nudging the student to just remain superficial
12:20and just cram the sentences or the numbers and secure the grades.
12:39And the book and the assessment system are hand in glove in discouraging real immersion into knowledge.
12:53That's what we see especially in India.
12:59But let's not put the blame on books. Books are great, books are important.
13:10We require lots and lots of people especially youngsters to have love for books
13:18and not only academic books but books pertaining to all dimensions of life, all areas, all fields, all places.
13:36Behind this ill informed contempt for books if you will see probably lies a deeper contempt for knowledge itself.
13:56What we are saying is knowledge is not important, being street smart is more important.
14:05And that's a very dangerous thing to say, very very dangerous thing to say.
14:14Tell me, you talked of that movie, how could that movie have been made without the knowledge that comes from books.
14:30Show me how the theatre can be erected, show me how the camera can be made,
14:38show me how all the processing equipment can be made without the aid of books.
14:43It is from books that all those things arise, not from general street smartness.
14:51And this idea is gripping especially your generation in a wise like way that knowledge is of very little use.
15:06You need to have the worldly smarts, those smarts can't help you beyond a point.
15:23Having a strong academic theoretical foundation is of supreme value.
15:34Even the smartest of mechanics cannot outsmart an engineer.
15:42And even the smartest of engineers cannot outsmart a researcher.
15:54Are you getting it?
16:03So, please let's all have deep respect for knowledge and books are important because they carry knowledge.
16:14And let not this dangerous and shallow idea about practicality influence us too much.
16:35The ones who work in laboratories, in research labs for example, are very very knowledgeable people.
16:49Even practical experiments cannot be conducted except on a solid foundation of knowledge.
17:01You cannot just walk into a lab like a novice and say now I learn from here.
17:08That's not the way it can work.
17:10If you want to contrast the fellow in the library against the fellow in the laboratory,
17:22remember the fellow in the laboratory has first of all already spent a lot of time in the library.
17:29Without spending time in the library, you cannot even enter the laboratory.
17:36What will you do there?
17:39These two go hand in hand and out of these two, to a student, the library, the classroom and the books come first.
17:53So, let not Three Idiots or some other movie of that kind delude you.
18:00Anything more you want to investigate on this?
18:17Yes sir, I have a follow up question related to the same movie Three Idiots.
18:21It builds a false perception. I would justify why I am calling it false.
18:28The perception about college life is that everything is chilled, everyone is full of enthusiasm and a different kind of scenario.
18:36But at present when students are at the campus, they are missing those things which is bringing anxiety to them.
18:44So, that's why I am calling it as a false perception.
18:46So, how to deal with this?
18:48Because they have already imagined a lot about college and for a long, long time.
18:53And now when it is breaking, they are not able to handle it.
18:56No, I am not getting it.
18:58You are talking about your college campus?
19:01No sir, in general.
19:03In general, yes, what is happening?
19:05In general, it is happening that everyone has seen Three Idiots.
19:09They built a perception of college life.
19:11That it would be great, it would be full of enthusiasm and a lot of activities.
19:16Which when they reach campus, they are not able to find it.
19:19But the campus is most definitely a fun place, is it not?
19:25Yes.
19:26It's just that the way the campus is actually an interesting place does not tally with the cinematic image of the campus that you have absorbed from movies like these.
19:45You come to the campus thinking that the campus will be a place like the one shown in the movie.
19:54The campus is actually a very good place to be in.
20:00But not in the way the movie has portrayed.
20:06If you belong to a good campus, there are all kinds of sporting facilities.
20:14For self-development, there are dozens of avenues.
20:20You meet competent and competitive students and that company brings out a lot of good things from within you.
20:36Equally, there is a discipline of the classroom, of the examinations, of the assessment system.
20:44And so, you are kept on your toes.
20:50And plus, most students, in India at least, get to be away from their homes only when they enter an institution of higher learning, typically professional learning.
21:06So, there is the newly found freedom and you have mates of your age group and you can mingle and you can travel.
21:15You cannot do that very frequently, obviously.
21:17But maybe once or twice a semester you can go out to some other city and you can go to the hills.
21:24Or if you have graduated to the third or fourth year, there could be a biker's group or something.
21:30I am not saying that you are going to do every week or every weekend.
21:34But those things do happen and they are immensely enriching adventures.
21:40I mean just the fact, where else will you get to enjoy so many sporting facilities almost free of cost?
21:55Later on, after you graduate, if you want those same facilities, you will have to take a club membership.
22:05And that costs a fortune, especially to someone who has just started his professional career.
22:16And here you would be having a huge library and that library has all kinds of sections.
22:23And so campus is most definitely a great place to spend 4 years or 6 years, even 8 years if you are a medical student.
22:38Then there is also the thing that you get to socialize with a very decent and filtered and may I say elite crowd.
22:52And when it comes to socializing in your age group, there is also the fact that there are boys, there are girls and you meet each other for the first time.
23:04So there is that added dimension to the excitement.
23:11I do not see how somebody can get depressed after landing on the campus.
23:19Do you have 14 hours of classes daily or what?
23:28There is the movie club, there is the dance club, there is the dramatics club and debating and so much else and college fests and you can take leadership roles.
23:39There is so much opportunity for developing yourself, it beats me how all this can be depressing or frustrating to someone.
23:54Even the labs you see, I understand there is the pressure of performance and marks, but the foundry or the sheet metal lab, they are exciting places as well, are they not?
24:09Yes sir, they are.
24:19Sir, what I think is, it is all about the perception, they are not actually seeing the things which they are getting, but they are demanding for something more which is practically not possible.
24:32What are they demanding?
24:35They are demanding like competition out of stress, like basically they don't want to study, they are 3 years type, no theoretical knowledge, only the practical knowledge, that kind of things.
24:48Then you need to take admission in some kind of loafer's club or something.
24:52Why come to an engineering college?
24:55Yes sir.
24:57And I concur, if there are movies that equate engineering colleges with fun clubs, then this is what the result will be.
25:12An entire generation of youngsters will opt for engineering thinking that the place will be simply a laughter club or chill out with the friends, hang out with girls, that kind of opportunity.
25:39And that's not going to materialize and then there will be frustration.
25:46Engineering colleges, management colleges, all kinds of places, whether you are talking of professional education or education in humanities, they are all great places to be in.
26:01And I think being in a college campus, especially as a hosteler, is the best part of your youth.
26:10It really builds you up.
26:13So we had the BRCA in IIT Delhi, Board of Recreational and Cultural Activities.
26:23And our professor, when we were being oriented in the first semester itself, he said, you enter the BRCA as a child and you walk out as a man.
26:41That's what the campus does to you.
26:44It transforms, it metamorphoses the child into the man, the caterpillar into the butterfly.
27:01But obviously not in the way pop fiction or pop movies demonstrate.
27:13So one has to have some maturity to understand that fiction is fiction.
27:19Fiction does not even attempt to be loyal to the truth.
27:26Its primary allegiance is towards worldly success, the revenue it rakes in, the weekend collections.
27:36So let's not take all that too seriously.
27:52Yes, sir.