Evolution is a myth; we are still animals || Acharya Prashant, on Vedanta (2021)

Acharya Prashant

🧔🏻‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquiry-gita-course?cmId=m00051  📚 Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books? Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?cmId=m00051  📝 Read 3 handpicked wisdom articles, just for you: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/articles?cmId=m00051  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~  Video Information: Shastra Kaumudi, 20.12.2021, Rishikesh, India  Context: ~ Why there is so much suffering in life? ~ Do we suffer by our own choice? ~ How to avoid pain and suffering? ~ What is the relationship between human evolution and our inner nature? ~ Why do many people fail to achieve wisdom and liberation from the self?   Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~  #acharyaprashant #suffering

Transcript

00:00If you look at all that a dog does and you look at all that you do, it would be

00:10so easy to establish a clear mapping, a very direct correlation. There is not a

00:23single thing that you do and a dog doesn't. Where is your evolutionary

00:30superiority? Tell me, please. But we read. For what? For what do you read? You read

00:45to feed yourself, you read to clothe yourself, you read to acquire physical

00:54psychological space. A dog manages all of that even without reading. You

01:07need to draw international boundaries. The dog just has to lift his leg. The dog

01:19doesn't have to appoint a commission, MacMohan or something to draw a

01:27meticulous international boundary. This is my territory. How do I mark it? By

01:38peeing. You know, that's the truth of all territorial occupation, all territorial

01:46obsession. You want territory so that you can pee and shit over it. Irrespective of

01:55whether that territory is physical, mental or bodily. Why do you want to

02:03acquire territory in the form of a human body? I own you, you are mine, you are my

02:09territory. Just as that's my scooter, that's my car, that's my bungalow, that's

02:15my wife or husband. What do I do once I acquire the territory? I'll pee over it.

02:28That's already offensive but can't help it. What else do you do once you have

02:39acquired a man or a woman? Think of it please. There was one thing that you

02:45could not do without acquiring that person. Spoil his or her body. Once you

02:52have acquired him, then literal shit.

03:23No, but we keep our houses clean. Why are you saying that we acquire territory? To

03:32spoil it. Once we acquire territory, in fact, we make additional efforts to keep

03:36it clean. That's what the cleanliness that you are talking of is shit. You

03:46acquire territory to use it to maintain yourself. The dog uses territory to suit

03:57its own personal purpose. That's what we are calling as spoiling or dirtying. So,

04:09it might appear that you are keeping your place very clean but still the

04:13purpose is very dirty. The purpose is continuation of my existence as I am. My

04:21place will be used to provide me comfort and security. That's a very dirty purpose.

04:30Evolution will not take you beyond the body or the self. Wisdom would. That's why

04:51I keep hopping. Don't attach too much significance to age. No age is small

05:08enough to prevent you from moving into wisdom and no age is advanced enough to

05:28prevent you from moving into wisdom. Evolution will not help. Experience will

05:35not help. Age will not help. Only wisdom would help. If you think that experience

05:42will deliver wisdom to you, you are badly mistaken. If you think being called a

05:52senior citizen will deliver you from Maya, you are in a fool's paradise. So, we as

06:12human beings do have the possibility of going beyond what is fundamentally the same with

06:21all other animals. Because if we are the human beings, we can perform these five steps

06:28and go towards liberation which an animal cannot do. An animal does not want to do.

06:36That's not how it is biologically constituted. So, this quest is, this potential, is this

06:43also biological? Yes, this potential is the potential of your body. Only your body is

06:58designed in a way that the consciousness attached to it can seek freedom from it. You could

07:13even say that only man is unfortunate enough to not remain contended with the body. All

07:27other life forms are contended with the body. Only man is born with a special urge. This

07:41you could take as his superiority or his misfortune. No animal experiences the angst

07:53that a human being does. Animals don't have to go through so much tension and inner strife.

08:06They don't turn depressed, neurotic, suicidal so easily. We do because we are special. We

08:25are special animals. Hello. Not that we are absolutely special. We are just special animals.

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