Before you fight the society, fight yourself || Acharya Prashant, on 'The Fountainhead' (2019)

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  ➖➖➖  #AcharyaPrashant #आचार्यप्रशांत #Philosophy #BhagavadGita  ➖➖➖  Video Information: Shastra Kaumudi Live, 16.09.2019, Advait Bodhsthal, Greater Noida, India   Context:  ~ Why are we affected by the society? ~ How to see Howard Roark while reading The Fountainhead? ~ How to look at someone's life? ~ How to understand the evil? ~ What are the complexities of human nature that Ayn Rand's portrayal of Howard Roark overlooks?  Music Credits: Milind Date

Transcript

00:00:00Next one is from Sandhya Rayapalli. Pranam Acharyaji, after Bangalore Vishwanthi, I have

00:00:18now enrolled for this MAG session. I am admiring Rourke's character and wish to be like him.

00:00:25I find that Rourke lives life on his own terms. People around him do not approve of his ways

00:00:32but this does not impact him. There are many instances in the chapter where people around

00:00:37him feel uncomfortable in his presence. At the same time they don't feel directly offended

00:00:42by Rourke. Rourke seems to respond naturally to people around him with ease. Currently

00:00:50I notice that as I am understanding life better, my opinions, thoughts, priorities

00:00:56are changing. This change in me is impacting my relatives, especially my mother. Sometimes

00:01:02I try to make her understand, sometimes I argue, sometimes I ignore. But they get offended

00:01:09easily and this disturbs me. Can you please help me understand how can I live life without

00:01:15getting influenced by others' opinions?

00:01:22Sandhya, one has to be cautious in emulating Rourke. You say within quotes, I am admiring

00:01:42Rourke's character and wish to be like him. Then you say, can you please help me understand

00:01:56how can I live life without getting influenced by others' opinions?

00:02:03Rourke, his character has been crafted by Rand in a way to demonstrate, to showcase

00:02:23someone who is just not influenced by others, just not influenced by others. When she has

00:02:47painted Rourke, it is in the background of a contrasting world. The contrast is necessary

00:03:13to bring out the nuances of Rourke's character. So the background in the novel is full of

00:03:33people who are very easily influenced by others. And then against this sorry background,

00:03:46remains the incorruptible, stain free, blemish free figure of Rourke. The duality is stark.

00:04:09The world is populated by beings who are just too vulnerable to other beings, to tradition,

00:04:26to social norms. And in this world, there is Rourke who is very, very immune to others.

00:04:37He is so immune to others that neither does he get affected by others, nor does he want

00:04:46to affect others in any way. So that's the portrayal that Rand has shown us. Obviously

00:05:05no work of fiction can capture life fully. It's one part of reality that Ayn Rand wanted

00:05:15to show us and she has done a magnificent job of it. So she has shown two categories.

00:05:27The difference is binary. There are those who get affected by others and then there

00:05:32are those who just don't get affected by others. And there is a bit of a spectrum in between.

00:05:40And the spectrum consists of people like Gail Van Hand and Dominic Franken. They lie somewhere

00:05:53between zero and one. However, they all lie in the same dimension. That's the way Ayn Rand has

00:06:02built them up. The only way to judge them, according to her, is to see the extent to

00:06:14which they get influenced by others. The only way to judge them is to see the extent to which

00:06:23they get influenced by others, the world. So in the author's world view, corrupt influences

00:06:36upon a person come from others. In fact, she has gone so far as to say that others can only

00:06:52have a mostly corrupting influence upon a person. Are you getting it? What is the problem with the

00:07:03world? What is the problem with Peter Keating? What is the problem with Guy Franken? What is

00:07:12the problem with Prescott or Kiki? What's the thing about Alwaas Karat? What's the thing about

00:07:30Catherine? What is the central disease Ayn Rand points out in their characters? That they get

00:07:43influenced by others. And what is the one shining strength in Rock's character? That he does not get

00:07:53influenced by others. That's how the binary has been constructed. There are those who get influenced

00:08:00by others and then there are those who don't get influenced by others. A division has been made.

00:08:10It's quite a neat division. One side of this boundary is heavily populated. On the other

00:08:19side, there are only a selected few. Cameron, Mike, of course, Rourke. Then later on you would

00:08:33see Dominique and Gail Winant. So the majority inhabits one side of the divide and around 2%

00:08:45maybe. Like the fellows who sometimes give assignments to Rourke. Austin Heller, let's say.

00:08:54The minority 2% inhabit this side of the divide. That's how the canvas has been painted. So there

00:09:11are the goodies and there are the baddies. The goodies are 2% of the population led by Howard

00:09:18Rourke and the baddies constitute 98% of the population and they are all very powerful. They

00:09:27control the society, they run the systems, they own the media. What defines the baddies? They are

00:09:37influenced by others. What defines the goodies? They are not influenced by others. Now this can

00:09:52confuse you, Sandhya. The primary corrupting influence upon man does not come from others.

00:10:02It comes from within himself. Ayn Rand has decided to totally avoid that aspect of human

00:10:12corruptibility. She has totally swept that under the carpet. She doesn't want us to think about

00:10:19it or talk about it. So we know nothing about Rourke's past and Rourke has been conveniently

00:10:31showed to have no family at all. Family means past, family means the influence that others

00:10:41have had upon you and more importantly your genetic stuff. There is nothing called the

00:10:52making of Howard Rourke. It's almost as if Rourke was born perfect. The thing is Sandhya,

00:11:01nobody is born perfect. We are all born as bundles of genetically conditioned masses

00:11:14of flesh and bones and that's how Howard Rourke is also born. It really appeals to the ego to

00:11:30emulate Howard Rourke. Why? Because one feels that zippy thing. I do not listen to anybody,

00:11:41you know. I will not bow down in front of anybody, you know. But we very conveniently forget that

00:11:50corruption comes not so much from others but from within ourselves. We have taken up the

00:12:01fountainhead for discussion in MAG so that you can see how it is possible to not to let

00:12:20society dictate terms to you and that's all very noble. There is a greatness in not allowing the

00:12:30world, the society to mean too much to you. There is a greatness in standing up to the

00:12:37temptations and the fears that society maims you with. But do not be persuaded to think that if

00:12:55you do not listen to society, you are all pristine and pure and virgin. Not at all. This

00:13:08division that Ayn Rand has presented us with is useful but not total. Obviously there are some

00:13:17people who are very corruptible and they are easily influenced by social forces and obviously

00:13:29there are some people who are not so vulnerable to social influences but that does not mean that

00:13:36people who are not vulnerable to social influences are the 2% goodies as Ayn Rand would want us to

00:13:44believe. In fact some of the worst villains and offenders in the history of mankind are people

00:13:57who had no respect for the society. Society is often a culprit but it is not the primary

00:14:14culprit. Never forget who the primary culprit is. If today you find the bulk of mankind corrupted,

00:14:23it is not because others are corrupting every single person. It is because the seeds of

00:14:34corruption lie very much within our bodies. In Ayn Rand's perspective, if there is no society,

00:14:46then there will be no corruption and then everybody will be a Howard Roark but that

00:14:55is not the case. If there is no society, then it is not Howard Roark that you can expect.

00:15:03All you will have is boorish remains of what you call as the human being. It is very very

00:15:25relieving and fascinating to shift all the blame of one's deprivation and conditioning to the

00:15:38society. It appears so heroic, doesn't it? It is great to feel like fighting the society.

00:15:52Again, there is a lot of heroism involved in fighting others. The thing is Sandhya,

00:16:03at no point has Roark been shown as fighting himself and even if there was a process involved

00:16:15in his development, the process has never been shown. You cannot just be born a Roark.

00:16:30If it is not impossible, then it is highly unlikely, maybe a freak of Prakriti. One in

00:16:43a million cases can be born a Roark. Others have to be relieved of their physical tendencies,

00:16:57vrittis. That aspect has not been shown here and you must not become a victim of this omission.

00:17:08Fighting others is alright Sandhya. Who will remember fighting herself first? Remove the

00:17:22others. Does that bring purity and aloneness and joy to you? Does that happen? If others

00:17:31are the villains, if others are the culprits, then let's keep each person solitary. Hypothetically,

00:17:48if you put people in solitary spaces, would that purify them? No, that would not purify them

00:17:58because it is not so much the society that corrupts a human being. I repeat, corruption

00:18:05is inherent, embedded in the body itself. Now if at the age of 21, Roark is how we see him,

00:18:21and that is also quite clever to show Roark straight away at the age of 21. I said the

00:18:28making of Howard Roark has not been revealed to us. If Roark is as we see him at the age of 21,

00:18:37then either he is a freak of Prakriti, born liberated, of which the chances are 0.0001%

00:18:52and you cannot take such a chance, or he has gone through a process of liberation. Going

00:19:03through that process of liberation is important Sandhya because your real fight is not against

00:19:08the society. Your real fight is against yourself. We have discussed so often, there are two types

00:19:19of conditioning, physical and social. Even the social conditioning happens because we are

00:19:29physically born vulnerable to be socially conditioned. Do you understand this? Physical

00:19:38conditioning is the thing inherent in the hardware. Social conditioning is a software

00:19:45that sits upon the hardware. Even the social conditioning is made possible by the physical

00:19:56construction of the human being. So which one then is a greater problem, the physical conditioning or

00:20:04the social? It is the physical conditioning that's the bigger problem. Howard Roark is a

00:20:12great and shining example of someone who resists and is immune to social conditioning. But social

00:20:23conditioning is only 10% of the problem. 90% of the problem is what sits in your body and the

00:20:32society is not responsible for what sits in your body. It is evolution. It is what this entire

00:20:43journey through time has given us. How is society responsible for that? So when it comes to that

00:20:5510% sector, Howard Roark is wonderful. If ever you feel pressurized by the society,

00:21:04Howard Roark is a great, great inspiration to follow. But remember that what Howard Roark

00:21:15corresponds to is only 10% of the problem of the human being. 90% problem is not that

00:21:29others dictate you a lot. 90% problem is that you dictate yourself a lot. So don't be in a hurry to

00:21:41emulate Howard Roark, Sandhya. Fighting the society is a great ideal. But the fight against

00:21:51society will become very easy, very facile if you have first fought against yourself and earned a

00:22:03victory. Once you have conquered yourself, conquering others is no big deal. In fact,

00:22:09having conquered yourself, you do not even remain greatly interested in conquering others.

00:22:14Do not be so swayed by the fountainhead and it's one of my favorites. But do not be so swayed by

00:22:26the fountainhead that you totally forget that the real culprit sits within, not outside. It

00:22:39is not Professor Peter Kin who has corrupted Peter Keating. It is not even Peter Keating's

00:22:48mother who has corrupted Peter Keating. They all have only secondary roles to play in Peter

00:22:57Keating's degradation. The primary role is played by Prakriti. Let's not forget that.

00:23:06The child is born vulnerable to corruption. Vrittis sit in the newborn. We do not have

00:23:25enough immunity when we are born. What kind of immunity are we talking of? Immunity against

00:23:32conditioning. And if you have an immunity problem, do you want to blame the pathogen?

00:23:44If your problem is your weak immunity, do you want to blame the virus and the bacteria?

00:23:54Blaming the society is like blaming the virus and the bacteria when the real, the central,

00:24:03the core problem of the human being is its lack of immunity. And this problem is not social. This

00:24:14problem, I repeat, is physical. Therefore, those who have known have repeatedly said that body

00:24:22identification is the root cause of all evils. Sandhya, have you read somewhere that society

00:24:30identification is the root cause of all evils? Body identification is the root cause. Society

00:24:41plays a secondary role. And if you have identified how hormones and glands and the

00:24:58inner chemicals dictate you, and if you can see that fastidiously, if you can see that very clearly,

00:25:09then you would anyway not be vulnerable to the society anymore. Therefore,

00:25:16no point trying to fight the wrong battle. Focusing all your attention on the society

00:25:25and thinking that the society is the villain, the society is the culprit is like barking up

00:25:31the wrong tree. You do not even know who your real enemy is. Your real enemy is not the AGA.

00:25:40Your real enemy is not Guy Franken. Your real enemy is not the Stanton Institute of Technology.

00:25:49Your real enemy is your own brain. And once you can see how the brain is a conditioned machine,

00:26:02designed to function only in a specific way, then there is a possibility to stand apart from all

00:26:12this hodgepodge. And once you stand apart, then you let the machine be. The machine then does

00:26:23what it has to do. And then what you do is called genuine creativity. Howard Roark is my favorite.

00:26:38I met him when I was 20. And my adulation for him hasn't fainted since the last 20 years.

00:26:50But then I also know his place in the larger scheme of things. He's a great role model when

00:27:04it comes to fighting the society. But only to that extent. That's his domain. If your real

00:27:13problem is jealousy or anger, if your real problem is hormonal, how will emulating Howard Roark help

00:27:25you? In fact, that will only distract you from your real problem. Instead of fighting yourself,

00:27:32you will start fighting your neighbor, thinking that your neighbor is your oppressor. Like you

00:27:38have put in your question that I try to say so many things, but my mother doesn't listen to me.

00:27:43So what do I do? Do you know what this is hinting at? You will shift all the blame to your mother.

00:27:52In fact, that's what your question does. The fundamentals of wisdom says, look at yourself

00:28:06first. Look at yourself first. Don't blame your relatives or your mother. But in the Randian

00:28:19heroism, all the blame is shifted to the society, the others. By no means I am giving the others a

00:28:37green chit. All I'm saying is the others constitute only 10% of the problem. It's foolish to fight

00:28:46that 10% of the problem without having fought the 90% part, which is your own mind, your own body.

00:29:00And when you want to worship Roark, do not forget that even Ayn Rand could not

00:29:10conjure or speculate how to show Roark communicating with his father or mother or uncle.

00:29:21So she took a very convenient route. Roark has no childhood. Roark has no years of growing up

00:29:29and Roark has no mummy, no papa. That does not happen with you. You do have parents.

00:29:36You do have a childhood. You do not straight away jump into the world at the age of 21 or 22 as

00:29:45Roark does in the novel. Are you getting it? Don't you see what is happening? Peter Keating

00:29:54has been shown to have a mother. Roark, no mother at all. Now what do you mean? If you have a mother,

00:30:01should you murder her? Should you murder her? Because you want to emulate Roark, right? And

00:30:07Roark has no mother. Roark has no father. Roark doesn't even have distant relatives.

00:30:17Ayn Rand has taken a very easy route.

00:30:24Roark has been shown to be almost bodiless.

00:30:27When I say body, what do I mean? The ones who are related to you via the bodily route.

00:30:33So Roark has been shown almost as a spirit with no body involved. That is not the case with you.

00:30:42When Roark has been shown just as a spirit with hardly anybody, then there is no need to conquer

00:30:48the body. Are you getting it? Had Roark been shown to have a past, had Ron been shown to have

00:30:56relationships with family and this and that, then there would have been a need to conquer the body.

00:31:04The easy way out is do not give him a body, do not give him a past, do not give him bodily

00:31:08relationships. Then there will be no need to show how to conquer the body. Because if you want to

00:31:14show how to conquer the body, then you will have to get into spirituality and mysticism. And that

00:31:21is one thing that Ayn Rand was not very interested in talking about. So she just suppresses that part

00:31:29of Roark's personality. He is shown to us as already perfect, already perfect. He is not on a journey.

00:31:41Dominique is on a journey. Everybody else is on a journey. Roark is hardly on a journey. In fact,

00:31:48the very opening paragraph says, not the opening paragraph, I mean the opening few lines,

00:31:56first page, second page, all that had to be thought had already been thought of.

00:32:03Howard Roark knew that he must think. He also knew he would not think because all that had to

00:32:10be thought of had already been thought of. Now it would have been splendid. Had the reader been

00:32:17given into an insight, had the reader been given an insight into what needed to be thought of and

00:32:26what is it that already had been thought of and how? What is Roark's inner mechanism? But Rand

00:32:34never reveals that to us what Roark's inner mechanism is. Because inside you see there are

00:32:41and tendencies and feelings and all the hodgepodge. The way you come upon Roark is,

00:32:52Roark does not have any of those things. But you do have those things. What to do? How will you

00:32:56emulate Roark? And if you want to emulate Roark, then you have to first come to a condition

00:33:01where you do not have those things. If you want to emulate Roark, you have to first come to a

00:33:09point where the inner glandular functioning, the inner hormonal functioning, the inner conditioning

00:33:21is no more functional upon you. And then you can say I want to emulate him.

00:33:26But then there will be no need to emulate him.

00:33:28Are you getting it? I would be glad if somebody takes up the project of writing

00:33:45a piece that is titled The Making of Howard Roark. That would be far more useful.

00:33:50Roark as has been shown in the novel is just a shining star.

00:33:58He is lovely. But to most people, he is just intimidating.

00:34:09He teases more than he inspires. Because he does not show a way

00:34:17to reach him. He is perfect. That's all. That's all.

00:34:23One can then only curse his luck. Oh, I was not born like Roark.

00:34:32Now what to do? And he is born special in every way.

00:34:36His body is just like his drawings and his buildings.

00:34:40No curves, only straight lines, a gaunt figure.

00:34:49Nothing unnecessary upon his body, not even clothes.

00:34:52Many a times. Nothing unnecessary in his mind.

00:34:59Just like his buildings have nothing unnecessary in them and upon them.

00:35:08So he is wonderful as a portrayal of the perfectly society-proof man.

00:35:15He is a portrayal.

00:35:26The picture of a car will not tell you how to make a car.

00:35:33Or will it? Roark is the picture of a car.

00:35:38You never come to know where that car comes from.

00:35:41In fact, I would want to ask Ayn Rand, why don't you tell us where that car comes from?

00:35:45For sure that car doesn't come from the mother's womb.

00:35:50For sure that car does not come from the mother's womb.

00:35:54Why don't you tell us where that car comes from?

00:35:56You won't tell us because if you tell that to us, you will have to accept spirituality and mysticism,

00:36:05which you do accept.

00:36:06I admire you for that, but you accept it in very, very implicit ways.

00:36:13Ayn Rand is highly spiritual, but only at a very deep level.

00:36:21Explicitly, she keeps cursing the mystical figures.

00:36:30If you go to Atlas Shrugged, especially, there she has explicitly taken a position against mysticism.

00:36:38But the fact is that without mysticism, somebody like Howard Roark cannot exist.

00:36:42Or was he born perfect like Lao Tzu at the age of 84?

00:36:48About Lao Tzu, it is said that at the age of 84, he was born perfect.

00:36:56About Lao Tzu, it is said that at the age of 84, he was born with a glistening white beard.

00:37:03That's how he came out from the mother's womb.

00:37:10But that is myth.

00:37:11And I'm sure Ayn Rand doesn't believe in myths.

00:37:19Are you getting it?

00:37:20So don't be too carried away, Sandhya and others.

00:37:26Fight against others, but firstly fight against yourself.

00:37:32Otherwise, it is the typical teenage fantasy.

00:37:36I'll fight the world.

00:37:41I am the warrior, the knight in a shining armor out to save the world.

00:37:52I am the one goody against all baddies.

00:37:57That's more of Rajinikanth than spirituality, is it not?

00:38:04One goody taking on all the baddies of the entire world.

00:38:09It's not that way.

00:38:18It's oversimplification.

00:38:20The baddies are not people, the baddies are our innate tendencies.

00:38:32It is not people who are bad.

00:38:33Do not start cursing people.

00:38:36Here you are cursing, almost cursing, that is your mother.

00:38:43The fact is, Sandhya, you will have a lot of your mother inside you.

00:38:48You will have a lot of your mother inside you.

00:38:51Why don't you talk about that?

00:38:58A lot of your mother would already be present inside you

00:39:01and guiding you and dictating you and ruling you from within.

00:39:05But you do not want to talk about that.

00:39:06You want to talk about your mother, the other person.

00:39:12Be cautious of that, please.

00:39:14Your mother, I do not know to what extent she hurts and harms you from the outside.

00:39:20But I am very sure that your mother might be quite poisonous,

00:39:27ruling and commanding you from the inside.

00:39:33So explore your insides.

00:39:35That is far more important.

00:39:38Maya is not other people.

00:39:40Maya is your insides eating you out from within.

00:39:50But we love to blame others for all that we have, right?

00:39:55And that is a very common tendency.

00:39:58Ayn Rand has also just been a victim of that tendency.

00:40:02Blaming others, blaming society.

00:40:06Oh, the society is blaming you.

00:40:07Others blaming society.

00:40:09Oh, the society is so bad, it does not care for a genius like Howard Roark.

00:40:17A black and white thing has been painted.

00:40:19The society is all black and Howard Roark is all white.

00:40:23It does not happen that way.

00:40:30Be very, very careful before acting like a victim of others.

00:40:37The ego relishes self-victimization.

00:40:41There is nothing so pleasing to the ego as to say the others are all baddies and I am the goody

00:40:47and the baddies are all ganged up against me and they are not giving me contracts and commissions.

00:40:53But I am the good one.

00:40:54I am the savior of the world.

00:40:55I am the only shining light of the world.

00:41:00No, no, no.

00:41:00This kind of a black and white segregation is unreal.

00:41:06I have seen this with so many people and I often wonder what is happening.

00:41:13You see, there are two kinds of responses to the fountainhead that always amaze me.

00:41:21And since the last 20 years, I would have recommended the fountainhead to innumerable people,

00:41:28running into hundreds maybe.

00:41:29And I am talking about the two specific sets of responses that never cease to amaze me.

00:41:37One is when somebody goes through the fountainhead and says, yeah, yeah, it was good.

00:41:42I finished it all off in three days, you know, it was nice, fine.

00:41:46Who was that fellow?

00:41:47Rohr, yeah, nice fellow, nice chap, it was good.

00:41:54Yeah, nice fellow, nice chap, it was good.

00:42:01And Neil, Neil Wynand and Peter Kittredge, their characters are also nice.

00:42:08So that is one kind of response.

00:42:15And the fellow belonging to this first kind may even say that he has become a fan of Ayn Rand.

00:42:22Oh, I really loved it.

00:42:23And even as he is saying that he has become a fan of Ayn Rand, he is haggling with

00:42:30a vegetable vendor, somebody on a pushcart.

00:42:35So haggling with the pushcart chap for two rupees, he says, I am a big Ayn Rand fan.

00:42:45Absolutely amazing, this set of people.

00:42:48And then there is another set of people.

00:42:50Their reactions have worried me.

00:42:52They are the ones who become absolutely belligerent after meeting Rohr.

00:43:00They go totally and militantly ballistic.

00:43:06They say, now I have seen that this entire society is a bunch of cowards and good for nothings.

00:43:14Bunch of cowards and good for nothings.

00:43:18Now I see how a great genius like me is not being appreciated.

00:43:25Ayn Rand is my goddess.

00:43:27She has come and told me that I am Howard Roark incarnate.

00:43:33I always suspected that there is nothing wrong with me.

00:43:38It's the world.

00:43:41That's absolutely foolish.

00:43:43Now Ayn Rand has vindicated me.

00:43:47And these people become absolutely arrogant after reading the Fountainhead.

00:43:53Obviously, their arrogance does not last long.

00:43:56Two slaps from the world and they are back to their normal self.

00:44:00But for a period of a month or two, they act almost like Roark.

00:44:07What are the elements of acting like Roark?

00:44:09Carry a stony expression in the eyes.

00:44:12Because Ayn Rand says, an expression or an emotion was the equivalent of seeing Howard Roark broken.

00:44:20So especially the young men and young women who are recent entrants to the Roark fan club.

00:44:28They start carrying a very dead stone expression on their faces.

00:44:35And they would speak very little because Howard Roark has been showing it.

00:44:40And they would deliberately act harsh because Roark has not been shown to deal in social pleasantries.

00:44:57And they would deal in short and crisp sentences very curtly, the way Roark does.

00:45:06Yes, no, I didn't say sorry.

00:45:09And this way they copy and emulate Roark for a while and then they come back to what they really are.

00:45:27All this is quite foolish.

00:45:36And who becomes an easy victim?

00:45:38Professors, parents.

00:45:41So Roark's discussion with the dean is iconic.

00:45:45And if you can get hold of some old and about to retire professor,

00:45:57then that is your best shot at Roarkhood.

00:46:08And your wildest fantasies are materialized if ever, by chance, he happens to say,

00:46:16but son, who will allow you to do these things?

00:46:19And then you say, this is my moment.

00:46:22And you catch the moment with the greatest of delights.

00:46:26And you say, the question is not who will stop me?

00:46:30Who will allow me?

00:46:32The question is, who will stop me?

00:46:34And having said that, you do an internal high five to yourself.

00:46:39And you say, yes, I just proved to the entire world that I am the one Roark visualized in her dreams.

00:46:53The world does not give two hoots to such phony fantasies.

00:47:00Over the last two decades, I have seen, I repeat, hundreds fall prey to such inner tricks

00:47:09and then come back to their normal decadent selves.

00:47:15I love Howard Roark, but this is not what I want you to do with him.

00:47:21I mean, not that I do not want you to love him.

00:47:24I'm saying, I do not want you to emulate him.

00:47:28Let him stand like a pole star.

00:47:31See that it is possible to resist the greatest of fears and temptations.

00:47:41That much and only that much.

00:47:48I repeat, that much, surely that much.

00:47:51That is why this course has chosen the fountainhead as the text.

00:47:56I want you to learn that much, but I want you to learn only that much.

00:48:02Beyond that would be foolhardy.

00:48:12Real rebellion is not so dramatic.

00:48:16Real rebellion does not consist of turning in a poem in Hindi

00:48:27in response to an assignment in Hindi.

00:48:34Turning in a poem in Hindi in response to an assignment in English literature class.

00:48:50But that is what, unfortunately, I have seen many people learn from Roark.

00:48:56You remember his conversation with the dean?

00:48:59The dean says, when in a course on aesthetics in architecture,

00:49:06you are asked to submit a design in Renaissance or Gothic,

00:49:14you turned in something modernistic.

00:49:18Now, that is not bravado, that is foolishness.

00:49:23If you have enrolled in a four-year course, you very well know

00:49:29what all courses per semester there are, right?

00:49:34You know that in advance.

00:49:36If you are enrolling in a four-year B.Tech course, don't you know?

00:49:42In a four-year B.Tech program, you know what all courses you would be doing per semester,

00:49:46that you are intimated of well in advance.

00:49:53Now, in a mechanical engineering course, in a thermodynamics course,

00:49:57you turn in a code in C++ that does not tell of your love for C++.

00:50:09That merely is foolish.

00:50:14So, don't start copying that.

00:50:18And it is quite attractive to copy, especially if you are bad in thermodynamics.

00:50:23You would say, that is what Rock did, didn't he?

00:50:26He loved his modernistic style so much

00:50:31that even in the other courses, he started turning in modernistic answers.

00:50:43Why are you doing that?

00:50:53Now, having said all this, now I am afraid that I am putting you off Howard Rock.

00:51:07It's a very delicate balance, you see.

00:51:14You people have the tendency to be either fanboys

00:51:21or adversaries.

00:51:23You know only these two positions.

00:51:27So, if you are not a fanboy, then you immediately turn an adversary.

00:51:34Right now, as I look at this, most of the questions are coming from Howard Rock fan club.

00:51:40And because they are coming from Howard Rock fan club, I'll have to demolish them.

00:51:44And if I demolish them, then I fear that in the next session,

00:51:49we will only have vituperative remarks about Rock.

00:51:53People would be scolding him, oh Rock, you know, he's such a scoundrel.

00:51:57You do not know the thing called perspective.

00:52:01Do you understand what perspective is?

00:52:03To put a thing in exactly its right place.

00:52:08Neither up nor down.

00:52:13Neither up nor down.

00:52:19Many years back, I had a student named Ali, he sent me a book.

00:52:29The book was titled Stripping the Gurus.

00:52:32And it took all the famous gurus and teachers and prophets in history, not all, obviously,

00:52:41not all, obviously, several of them.

00:52:45And said unkind and scandalous things about them.

00:52:51So, I read the book with interest.

00:52:54It talked of Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Jesus, if I remember correctly, Krishnamurthy.

00:53:00And obviously, you cannot keep Osho out of such things.

00:53:03So, I read the book and it was a soft copy, and I immediately broadcasted it to everybody.

00:53:13And the team was shocked.

00:53:17They said, Acharya ji, you are sending this stuff to everybody.

00:53:22I said, but it's important that everybody must know this.

00:53:25They said, but I said, I already knew of all these things.

00:53:29They said, but you respect them so much, you worship them so much.

00:53:32I said, I respect them a lot in spite of knowing all these things.

00:53:38I'm not a blind follower.

00:53:42I really know people for what they actually are.

00:53:48So, when it comes to an Osho, I know all the stuff about him.

00:53:52In fact, I know of more incarnations of Osho than I know of Ramakrishna Paramhansa.

00:53:59I know of more inconsistencies in his argument than even his worst detractors do.

00:54:06But in spite of that, I love him.

00:54:08Because it is not only flaws that he is offering.

00:54:13There is a great intelligence behind what he is doing and also great love.

00:54:17I have to respect that.

00:54:22Am I a fly to look only for dung?

00:54:30Or do I know how to worship cleanliness as well?

00:54:44That's called perspective.

00:54:48Know where Howard Rourke really stands and then love him.

00:54:54Because he is still very, very, very lovable.

00:55:00Know where all the luminous figures in history really stand and then still love and respect them.

00:55:09Because they are really the salt of the earth.

00:55:29Are you getting it?

00:55:33We have a tendency to idolize.

00:55:37And it is a very convenient tendency.

00:55:39Because when you totally idolize somebody, then you turn him into someone out of this world.

00:55:49You say, oh, this person belongs to another dimension.

00:55:51The fact is, all are bodied beings.

00:56:05All are like you.

00:56:08And it should be a matter of introspection.

00:56:14Why another being born with all the physical tendencies just like you was able to rise so high?

00:56:26Such an introspection would really be an agent of change within you.

00:56:33It would provoke some soul searching, some humiliation.

00:56:49It would ask you to wonder whether you have done justice to your potential.

00:56:55You were born and the other was born.

00:56:58And there are just two babies who are born.

00:57:01How was that other baby able to rise to the heights of a Paramhans or a Jesus or a Krishnamurti?

00:57:10Why did you not do all those things that he did?

00:57:14After all, in spite of all the conditioning, there is choice involved.

00:57:18Why did you not exercise your choices rightly?

00:57:20To get over our guilt, we declare that the other person was born perfect.

00:57:34We say, no, no, he was born in a special mohurt.

00:57:39He was born like Howard Roark, perfect at 21.

00:57:42These luminous figures in history have to be seen both ways.

00:57:55In one way, they are very much like you.

00:57:58And in another way, they are totally unlike you.

00:58:02And when you see them in both these ways parallelly, simultaneously,

00:58:10then it will provoke a guilt, a shame, a fire within that will cause you to change.

00:58:18Because then you will have to accept that somebody who is totally like you is also totally unlike you.

00:58:29Now that's a shame.

00:58:31That's a shame.

00:58:33If you just say that the other person belongs to the stars, then there is no shame.

00:58:37He is superior because he belongs to the stars.

00:58:42Why should there be any shame then?

00:58:44After all, he belongs to another planet.

00:58:46So he has some additional senses in his body maybe.

00:58:52Maybe you have five senses, he has 52.

00:58:55Now there is no reason to be ashamed.

00:58:57Now there is no reason to introspect and change.

00:59:00But the fact is the other person is just like you and is yet stellar.

00:59:09Now it humiliates.

00:59:15And that is what you must always consider.

00:59:18This is what I'm calling as perspective.

00:59:22In one sense, the other person is very much like you.

00:59:26And yet he is stellar, sitting upon the stars.

00:59:30How did he make it happen?

00:59:31Why couldn't you make it happen?

00:59:37The more you expose or reveal that the other person also belongs to the earth,

00:59:45the more you are bringing humiliation upon yourself.

00:59:48Because he indeed does belong to the earth.

00:59:50Just as you do.

00:59:56How was he able to launch himself from the earth to the stars?

01:00:01Why did you not make the attempt?

01:00:03So know Rourke with all the shortcomings that abound in his portrayal.

01:00:13Know of all his shortcomings and then your admiration and affection for him will be true.

01:00:22Do you get this or do you find this highly contradictory?

01:00:30Do you want to look at Rourke

01:00:34just as a fanboy,

01:00:38glossing over his shortcomings?

01:00:40Do you want to look at Rourke just as a fanboy?

01:00:44Do you want to look at Rourke just as a fanboy?

01:00:47Glossing over all the inconsistencies in his character?

01:00:53Or do you want to look at him

01:00:57really, truly, with a discerning eye

01:01:04and then still find him lovely?

01:01:06What is it that you want?

01:01:11Yes, look at him with a discerning eye.

01:01:13See that Ayn Rand has

01:01:23left many areas unanswered.

01:01:43See that Rourke is not

01:01:49the ultimate beautiful being

01:01:54and then love him for the beauty he has.

01:02:01That is perspective.

01:02:07Do you get this?

01:02:13Hmm?

Category

Transcript

Recommended