Video Information: Delhi University, 15.01.2022, Rishikesh, India
Context:
~ What work to choose in life?
~ Should one seek social validation while choosing work?
~ How important is money while choosing work?
~ Why do we often underestimate the circumstances?
Music Credits: Milind Date
#AcharyaPrashant #आचार्यप्रशांत #Philosophy #BhagavadGita #DU
Context:
~ What work to choose in life?
~ Should one seek social validation while choosing work?
~ How important is money while choosing work?
~ Why do we often underestimate the circumstances?
Music Credits: Milind Date
#AcharyaPrashant #आचार्यप्रशांत #Philosophy #BhagavadGita #DU
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Namaskar Acharya ji. My question to you is, why is it and how is it that the purpose of
00:14life is to get Moksha, which is basically ki hum maut ke aur jeevan ke bandhan se hum
00:24Why isn't that knowledge of power is the purpose of life? Like, I am studying philosophy from
00:30Hansraj College, so I've read that Hegel's philosophy was that from, if you look at the
00:35history of human beings, what we have been doing is, we have been increasing our knowledge about
00:41ourselves and about our surroundings and hence we are increasing our power. So our projected
00:48purpose of life might be that we become the most powerful being or the most knowledgeable being,
00:54so why is it that according to spirituality the purpose of life is Moksha? So it is not about
01:03your opinion versus somebody else's opinion, it is not about
01:07Hegel versus Vedanta or something, it is about reality.
01:17If knowledge or power can give you fulfillment, by all means go for knowledge and power.
01:27Purpose of life is a very subjective thing and when I say subjective,
01:34I do not mean variable as per the subject, I mean it is something that's intimately got to do with
01:43the subject and you are the subject, you are the subject, because we are talking of your life,
01:50we are talking about the purpose of your life. Why do we need to talk of purpose of life?
01:58Because we do not feel all right as we are and where we are, because we do not feel all right
02:09where we are, therefore we need to be somewhere else, because we do not feel good the way
02:18our self-concept, our self-image is, therefore there is the need for change.
02:23Right? So it all starts from you, it does not start from the Upanishads or Hegel or Kant or
02:29Voltaire, no not from there, it starts from you. What is it that would fulfill you? Because you
02:37are the one who is restless. Over the millennia, countless people have tried power and countless
02:47have tried money and knowledge and prestige and adventure and you name it sex, man has tried all
02:57kinds of possible means to come to a certain fulfillment, because there is a gaping hole within.
03:05We are not at rest, we are not all right. The child is born crying, human beings are
03:13always running hither thither to gain some satisfaction which is even, which in itself
03:19a far cry from fulfillment. But we all are looking for something, the eyes are continuously
03:26wandering in search of something, the ear wants to hear some special kind of news,
03:32the mind is continuously restless and that is why there is the question, what do we want?
03:42What is all this desire for? We are desiring all the time and then there were those who realized
03:49that we want an end to all wants, we desire the end of desires and that is called liberation
03:57and that is Moksha. Coming to the end of desire itself, that's what desire wants.
04:03Now, power or knowledge do not bring you to the end of desire, because after power you can want
04:11more power and there is nothing called absolute power, because the hunger for power will still
04:17remain, there is no end to knowledge, because the one who is seeking fulfillment through
04:25knowledge will never be satiated through knowledge.
04:33According to spirituality, like there is God who is all powerful, so there is,
04:39according to Christianity, I mean, so there is a kind of power, a kind of person who is
04:45all-powerful and all-knowledgeable. None of that. Vedanta does not admit any God.
04:53Brahma or truth or Atma are not God. In fact, Vedanta categorically dismisses
05:01all Devi, Devata and Eshwar. Brahma is not God, Brahma is not Eshwar.
05:08So, the truth is devoid of everything that you can think of.
05:18We want to know who we are and why are we so restless and so confused.
05:28We want to come to terms with our own existence, that's what Vedanta is all about.
05:33And when we come to who we really are, we discover that the reality that we perceive
05:41outside of ourselves is identical with the reality within, that is Vedanta.
05:48So, Vedanta is not about believing in some creator God and his created universe.
05:56Vedanta says, who is the perceiver of the universe? I am that.
06:00And who am I? Somebody who is half mad. This kind of honesty Vedanta begins with.
06:08Who am I? Someone who is utterly confused. Somebody whose perceptions and conclusions
06:15are heavily unreliable. And if the world is my own perception, how do I begin with the world?
06:23I do not know whether even the world exists. All I can say is that I am not all right,
06:30this much I can say. So, Vedanta begins with this simple observation.
06:36All that I see around me is my own perception, my own experience and I am not all right. So,
06:44I will not talk of my experience. I am the kind of person who can say these are 24 fingers.
06:50So, how do I go about finding out who made these 24 fingers when they don't even exist?
06:56How can I talk of a creator God when the creation itself is still not something to be certain of?
07:08You know, before I say who was the God who made the mountains and the trees,
07:13I have to ask myself, do the mountains and the trees even exist at all?
07:17And who am I to say they exist? I am saying they exist based on my own experience,
07:22but I am a lunatic. I am very humbly, I admit I am a lunatic.
07:29And if I am a lunatic, how do I ever, that the mountains do definitely exist? They probably don't.
07:36So, I will not talk of the mountains. I will talk of myself and I will ask myself,
07:41I will ask myself, why am I so restless? Why don't I see things as they really are?
07:47Why do I project my desires upon everything? That's what Vedanta does, right? And Vedanta
07:53keeps peeling off layers after layers of impurity and conditioning and comes to the pure mind or no
08:02mind or the core mind and that is the Atma, the pure self, also called as the truth.
08:09And when you are there, then what you see through your senses gains an immense clarity
08:17and then you do not see distinctions outside of you, not that the eyes do not see distinctions
08:23and black and white appear as one, but the meanings that those distinctions use to carry,
08:30they are no more there and then you say all is Brahm, all is Brahm. That's what Vedanta is about.
08:37Vedanta is not about worshipping a God or worshipping this or that or believing in a
08:42certain creator. Vedanta believes in nothing. Vedanta is ruthless inquiry, no belief,
08:50no superstitions, no mandates, no commandments, nothing of that kind.
08:56Very, very pure and solid and ruthless inquiry. That's all.
09:01Thank you, sir.