Is time travel possible? || Acharya Prashant, at IIT-Delhi (2023)

Acharya Prashant

🧔🏻‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquiry-gita-course?cmId=m00021  📚 Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books? Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?cmId=m00021  📝 Read 3 handpicked wisdom articles, just for you: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/articles?cmId=m00021  ➖➖➖  #AcharyaPrashant #आचार्यप्रशांत #Philosophy #BhagavadGita  ➖➖➖  Video Information: 02.04.23, IIT-Delhi, Delhi  Context: ~ Is time travel possible?  ~ Do you think that people will achieve time travel in the future? ~ Imagine people can time travel. ~ Imagine you could time travel. ~ If you could stop time, what would you do and why? ~ Who said time travel possible?  Music Credits: Milind Date

Transcript

00:00Acharyaji Pranam. I am Pranjul, student of IIT Delhi. I want to understand the concept

00:07of time travel or timelessness. Is it there, is it any spiritual side to it or it's just

00:14a product of human mind? It's a fantasy. Where does the future come from? Where does

00:22the future come from? The future comes from the choices that you make today, right? You

00:29are there and the material world is there and you are a creature of choice. If you are

00:36not a creature of choice, everything is deterministic and then life is not worth living. There is

00:44no freedom. If everything is predetermined, where is the question of freedom then? And

00:51freedom is the highest spiritual ideal. So you are a conscious person and by definition

00:58consciousness is choice, which means there are an infinite number of futures possible.

01:06If you say you are travelling into the future, which particular future are you travelling

01:10into? Which particular future? So all this time travel is just fantasy, a nice thing

01:18to entertain the mind, there is not much more in it. Sir, some related with the gravity,

01:24more the gravity, slower the time would be and some say when you travel more than the

01:30speed of light, the time slows down. So is there any sense to it or it's just for fun?

01:42Slowing down of time is one thing, negative time is a totally different thing, right?

01:52Also remember that when you travel at the speed of light, you are not you anymore. So

02:05we talk of travelling at the speed of light as if some new technology is just on its way.

02:12What is your weight by the way? Let us say 70 kg. You know how mass behaves with speed,

02:21right? What will happen to your mass? You will be an impossible mass as your velocity

02:34approaches that of light. Have you not heard of that m is equal to m naught by root 1 minus

02:42v square by c square, standard equation? And then from where will the energy come to

02:48accelerate you any further? If mass is increasing to those levels, from where will you get the

02:56energy for acceleration? Infinite mass will require infinite energy. So all that is quite

03:10titillating but still quite pointless. Sir, I have often heard mostly from women that they have

03:25sixth sense. Is it for real or just a man-made theory, woman-made theory? It's not a new thing

03:37nor is it specific to women. The scriptures have always said that the mind is the sixth

03:47Jnanendriya. So classically that's the way they put it. They said there are five senses of

03:54knowledge, there are five senses of action and then they also talk of eleventh sense. That's

04:02the mind. How? To watch something you require this particular sense, right? It is called the

04:11eye. So watching should be dependent on the eye. Let's see. Close the eyes. Close your eyes. How

04:23many of you are still not watching something? Is it so that you are not watching anything now? You

04:30are still watching, right? From where is that coming? That's coming from the mind. That's the

04:35sixth sense. Even if you plug your ears, you'll still hear sounds. From where are those sounds

04:41coming? From where do dreams come? They all come from the mind. So the mind is the sixth sense,

04:48nothing else. So what is this thing that you classically call as the sixth sense? It is

04:54nothing but the deposit of past experiences. You see each single one of us is carrying millions

05:04of years of experiences in every single cell, right? That's the process of evolution. We have

05:12not just descended in one particular day. All those experiences are contained within us. There

05:18is a reason why you have the thumb. Why do you have the thumb? So this thumb is coming from

05:24experiences of the past, right? There is a reason why you don't have a fifth finger. When you have

05:30a thumb, then you are able to do something very special. What is it? This kind of a posture is

05:38not possible with a fifth finger. And the moment you can do this, you can hold something. Are you

05:46getting it? There is a reason why your brain is more developed than the brain of the monkey or

05:52the chimpanzee. Because you walk on these two feet and therefore you can have subtler blood

05:59vessels in your brain. The blood pressure reduces when the head is erect. If you are walking on all

06:07fours like animals, then the head and the heart are at the same horizontal level. The blood pressure

06:15is higher. So finer vessels cannot develop there. And when you have finer vessels, then you have

06:21finer intellect. So all this is coming from the past and we have accumulated experiences of the

06:28past. And those experiences are helpful. A little rabbit, tell me, how does it know that it has to

06:39become alert when a cat approaches it? Has the rabbit been shown pics in advance? This is catty

06:48and run away when you see her. Has that happened? But very small rabbit, 15 days old and still if

06:56it sees a cat, it knows, run, run. How does it know? That knowledge is contained in the body.

07:06That knowledge is contained in the body. So the human body too, just like the rabbit's body,

07:12contains a lot of knowledge from the past. And that knowledge is helpful when you have

07:21situations that are identical to those in the past. That's a huge condition, mind you. For a rabbit,

07:31knowledge of the body is sufficient because the rabbit never faces a condition that is

07:35not similar to conditions it has faced in the past. The rabbit was living in a jungle 10 lakh

07:42years back, the rabbit is still living in the jungle. So all the physical knowledge is helpful

07:48because the conditions are repeating themselves. But human beings, we are no more living in

07:56conditions that are identical to the ones millions of years back. So the knowledge that is there in

08:03the body can be helpful or can be very dangerous. The knowledge in the body can be helpful or can

08:11be very dangerous because our conditions have changed. Are you getting it? A rabbit looks at

08:19a female rabbit and runs after her. And that is all okay because the rabbit is in the jungle where

08:27it is an animal of prey, which means its population is constantly being attacked.

08:33Therefore, it needs to procreate at a rapid speed. Therefore, the rabbit's body says the

08:40moment you look at a female, pounce upon her. Otherwise, the entire species will go extinct

08:45and that is all right. But the same knowledge is there in the man's body as well. It's just that

08:51you are no more threatened. In fact, today you are the species that is threatening all other

08:56species. But still the man's body, because of the past experience, feels like pouncing upon

09:02the woman's body. It's not that the man is to be condemned as over-sexual. It's just the

09:11evolutionary training of the past. To have a stable population, you needed to have the woman

09:18constantly pregnant. Otherwise, mankind would have gone extinct. But that kind of an obligation,

09:26does it exist even today? It does not exist today. So, conditions have changed, but the body

09:30has not changed. Body is still behaving as if you are living in the… that's why the woman's sixth

09:38sense often betrays her. Because it is acting as if the conditions are primitive, but the conditions

09:50are no more privative. Therefore, you have to be very careful when you have intuitions or instincts

09:57and advisors from your sixth sense. You have to be very careful. It can be useful and it can be

10:03very dangerous. Are you getting it? Sometimes it can be useful. For example, you smell smoke,

10:12immediately the adrenaline levels in your blood will spike. Why has adrenaline risen in your blood?

10:24So that you can have more glucose, which is more energy. Because you used to have forest fires in

10:36the past as well. So, the body has learned that the moment you smell smoke, you get a rush of

10:42energy, so that you can run fast. If you don't run fast, you will be consumed by the fire. So,

10:47all that is okay when it comes to those physical things. But that is not okay when it comes to

10:53all the matters that involve events, incidents of today. Are you getting it? So, you should learn

11:04to be a witness of your sixth sense, which means you must learn to be a witness of your mind.

11:09The mind will tell you something. Does it happen or not? Someone comes to you and even without

11:15knowing much about the person, you feel like saying, oh, this is a wicked fellow. Does it

11:21happen or not? Women claim to have a more active sixth sense. So, it happens more with them. Now,

11:29why does it happen more with them? Because historically, they have been physically the

11:34weaker sex. Therefore, they were more in need of protection. One, the body was weaker. Second,

11:41there were large periods of pregnancy, extended periods of helplessness. So, she needed to rely

11:50on advanced instinct. Otherwise, she would have been killed. She can't run. She's pregnant. Even

11:58if she can run, how about the chotu? So, she needed to be cautious in advance. Therefore,

12:05she developed the sixth sense more than the man. That was a historical imperative. Is that historical

12:13imperative needed even today, I'm asking? No. So, there is no need to talk so much about the sixth

12:19sense, etc. Rather, talk about wisdom. Your wisdom is far more important than any sense or something.

12:26Spirituality is about transcending all senses. All wisdom is about transcending the mind. Do

12:33not depend on your thoughts, your emotions and also your instincts. None of them matter too

12:39much. To some extent, they are useful. Yes. Beyond that, you should know that they are just biological,

12:45physical. So, they cannot be trusted. Are you getting it? Do not just say, it is my gut feel.

12:52The gut feel and all is not of much worth. Or that thing today, the vibes. I am not getting

13:04the right kind of vibes from this fellow. That's the function of an animal. Are you still an animal

13:09to trust vibes and all? If you are a human being, you will not trust vibes. You will inquire. You

13:15will go close. You will ask, who are you? Where are you coming from? What do you mean? You will

13:20engage that person in an argument. Or if you are too suspicious, you will do a background check.

13:25Right? You will not say, I am getting vibrations. What is this? So, all that is a thing of the

13:34animal. Do not be too respectful of that. Now, you also know what this thing about falling in

13:54love is. That too is a biological thing coming from the past. Just as you get bad vibes,

14:01they also call it low frequency vibrations. Right? Science is indeed progressing. Low

14:07frequency vibrations. Wow! So, not all that. The other side of the coin is, you look at someone

14:21and say, oh, this is the one for me. I am getting just the right kind of vibes. No,

14:25you will not get it this way. Senses are not trustworthy. Thoughts deceive. Experiences

14:39are partial. Do you know the great thing about the Jain philosophy? From where has it brought

14:51non-violence to you? It is called Nayavada. It says, do not trust, do not trust. All experiences

14:59are to the ego, do not trust. No experience is trustworthy. All the knowledge that you have is

15:06partial because you are the partial entity. You are the ego and the ego is never complete. The

15:12ego is an appurna thing, partial. Therefore, never trust your senses, which means do not trust your

15:18eyes, do not trust your ears and never, never trust your enquire, enquire, enquire. And that

15:25is what gives the Jain path and consequently the entire Indian thought a lot of tolerance.

15:33Because you say, whatever I am saying is partial. Whatsoever he is saying is partial. So,

15:40how do I attack him? I cannot say what I am saying is the absolute thing and even that which he is

15:46saying can never be the absolute thing. So, how can I attack him? How can I attack him?

15:51Know that all this is just very partial because the recipient of all sensory input is the ego.

16:00It is the ego to which all the senses deliver their messages and that is the ego by definition

16:08is partial, partial, not absolute. So, enquire, know, know. Be a witness of the mind. In that,

16:20the knowers have said that there is completeness.

16:40No part of this recording may be reproduced

16:43without Mooji Media Ltd.'s express consent.

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