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#AcharyaPrashant #आचार्यप्रशांत #Philosophy #BhagavadGita
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Video Information: 22.06.2023, GSE, Goa
Context:
What is Prakriti?
From where biological tendencies arise from?
What is the real definition of observation?
What is the purpose of life?
What is ego?
What is Sankhya Philosophy/ Darshan?
Is there an Almighty Creator?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~
#AcharyaPrashant #आचार्यप्रशांत #Philosophy #BhagavadGita
➖➖➖
Video Information: 22.06.2023, GSE, Goa
Context:
What is Prakriti?
From where biological tendencies arise from?
What is the real definition of observation?
What is the purpose of life?
What is ego?
What is Sankhya Philosophy/ Darshan?
Is there an Almighty Creator?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Namaskar Acharya ji. So, everything is dead and everything are basically molecules that
00:12are just in a default arrangement. So, can we say that Prakriti has induced us into a
00:23falseness that there are these biological senses and these compulsions that we have
00:31of our emotions. So, observing these emotions and observing these compulsions
00:38and avoiding them, is that a first way to move towards being truly alive?
00:45Yes, observe them, but without blaming Prakriti or anybody. Nobody has brought you to this condition.
00:56You wanted to exist, therefore you gave yourself a condition.
01:02Anything that exists, exists in some condition, right?
01:07So, you want to exist, so sometimes you give yourself a good condition, sometimes a bad condition.
01:12Just observe. Yes, is that the entire purpose of life is to just observe and then
01:26not be like just swayed away by it?
01:29The ego does not need an entire purpose of life. It's so much in pain and so full of immediate distress
01:46that it's enough for it to pay attention to its immediate surroundings
01:52and the most immediate to the ego is itself.
01:58So, words like ultimate mean nothing to the ego. The ego is like a patient on ventilator.
02:08If you talk about life after 10 years to somebody who is on ventilator, assuming that he is able to
02:17talk, it's quite meaningless. That fellow is looking forward to the next one hour. Will I see
02:26the next day? Will I survive the next hour? That's the ego. So much in distress that even the next
02:34one hour is difficult to predict or see through or navigate.
02:41It's fascinating how all this relates to evolutionary biology, like so much of it.
03:00You cannot appreciate Sankhya Yoga if you do not appreciate evolution.
03:08Entire Sankhya Yoga is evolutionary. But unfortunately, so much of religion
03:19has been about creation, not evolution.
03:26Religion says man came through a process of creation and who was the creator? Some God.
03:36Now the fact is in Sankhya Yoga, there is really no place for any God. You call it one of the
03:42Astik Darshans. But in reality, in the Darshan itself, there is no God. There is no God in Sankhya.
03:54And there can be no God in Sankhya because Sankhya is continuously about evolution.
04:00Evolution. If things are evolving, how can there be a creator?
04:07If one thing evolves into another thing, show me where is the creator then?
04:11When you say creation, you mean there is somebody who just made this thing into what it is.
04:17But the fact is that the thing did not become what it is in one go, in one stroke.
04:23It has continuously been evolving. So, that's the great contribution of Sankhya Yoga.
04:33And that's also what Yoga borrows from Sankhya. That's also what Vedanta owes to Sankhya.
04:43That's also what Buddhism owes to Sankhya.
04:47The thing that entire existence is a flow. Everything is a process. Everything is ever-changing.
05:00That's Sankhya. And the very common tripartite division of Prakriti into Sat, Raj and Tam.
05:11Today we take that as commonplace. But all that comes from Sankhya.
05:18So, yes. That's the reason why I continuously say evolutionary biology is so important.
05:27When I say evolutionary biology is important, actually what I am saying is Sankhya Yoga is important.
05:32But if I just say Sankhya Yoga, this generation might not appreciate that. So, I say evolutionary biology.
05:47Thank you, Acharya ji.
05:52Sir, my question revolves around the statement that you said that we all actually don't exist.
05:59And even our consciousness is also false. And if I look at Arjun at that moment,
06:06then even Arjun is being driven by his bodily tendencies only. So, even he is dead, right?
06:13So, to whom Shri Krishna is teaching at that moment? So, what is still alive inside Arjun at that moment,
06:23even after being dead inside out?
06:26The dead man walking is the dead man suffering. He needs to be cremated.
06:32That's what the instruction is all about. You are already dead. Why do you continue to walk and suffer?
06:41Let's put you to rest. Let's cremate you. That's the Bhagavad Gita.
06:47The ego is the dead man walking.
06:53Dead, still suffering. Rather suffering exactly because it is dead.
07:01So, that's a delicate thing to appreciate.
07:04You are not. Yet, you insist that you must be.
07:09You forcefully insist that you must be and in that you create yourself.
07:14But your creation is needless. Therefore, you suffer.
07:20It's like a car already packed full of five passengers.
07:28And those five are sufficient. They can deliver the car.
07:33They can deliver the goods. There is a nice network, a perfect equilibrium
07:41that those five passengers or five elements very ably serve.
07:49Then a sixth one tries to barge in. He says, I must fit in. I must fit in. I am needed.
07:57Now, this sixth one is outside Prakriti.
08:02But he forcefully enters the car. What does he do? He creates suffering.
08:08He is not needed. He is coming in and he creates suffering.
08:13Everything is proceeding very nicely and then something happens.
08:27An unwanted intrusion. That's what the ego is about.
08:34A needless thing and therefore a thing that causes suffering. Obviously, only to itself.
08:41We said today that it's a belief.
08:45And I am fond of often saying the ego is the most fundamental superstition.
08:52So, it's a thing of the mind.
08:53You remember the Abrahamic story about the origin of everything?
08:59So, there is God and there is Adam.
09:04And to give Adam some company, there is Eve.
09:08And that's Prakriti. Adam, Eve and the great garden.
09:15Appreciate the symbolism. There is Adam, there is Eve and there is a great garden
09:19and they are just roaming about happily.
09:23And God has instructed them, there is that particular tree and there is that apple.
09:30Do not take that apple. And that's the apple of knowledge.
09:36And then this mischievous snake comes and says, you know, there is a special apple
09:39that God is probably reserving for himself and you must have it.
09:43So, it was needless.
09:46Needless knowledge is ego and it results in suffering.
09:49And it results in suffering.
09:51That which you need not know but in a spell of mischief, you start knowing.
10:00That's ego.
10:01What is that needless knowledge? Belief.
10:04Useless knowledge. Needless knowledge. Just superstition.
10:09Something that you should have never believed in.
10:12But now you have taken it in.
10:14Now you have taken it in and it cannot be just ejected out.
10:20So, God says, now that the two of you have done this, alright.
10:24Go to earth and breed kids and, you know, the entire humanity will proceed from there.
10:31And these two were really in a state of bliss.
10:36Sahajata.
10:38Sahajata. Ego-less sahajata.
10:40These two were in an ego-less sahajata.
10:44You know, it is said that the moment they ate the apple,
10:49they became conscious of the eye, which is called self-consciousness.
10:54Conscious of the eye. Self-conscious.
10:58So, what did they do?
10:59They covered their genitals.
11:03They became ashamed.
11:05Conscious of the eye.
11:08Because the eye sprung up.
11:10There was no eye.
11:12There was no eye.
11:13That false belief gave them the eye.
11:16So, they became self-conscious.
11:18So, they covered their body parts.
11:22They covered their body parts.
11:24And then God banished them from the garden of bliss.
11:29He said, you go now.
11:30You go out.
11:32You have defiled your own prakritic purity.
11:39You have violated my instruction.
11:40There was no need.
11:41You go.
11:45So, needless.
11:47Everything is alright.
11:49Everything is already alright.
11:51And the ego comes and says, no, something extra is needed.
11:55The ego is the fifth person in the car.
11:58Somebody extra.
11:59Who is not needed at all.
12:03The ego is a kind of overpopulation.
12:08Tonight itself, I have like got...
12:11We can publish a mini book of the number of definitions we have accorded the ego.
12:18Yes.
12:22So, sir, what we call as consciousness is also a part of my ego itself?
12:29What you call as consciousness is just material reactivity.
12:37When you say you are conscious of something,
12:40you are just reacting to that thing.
12:46It's like we said iron being conscious of the magnet.
12:53Just as iron experiences the magnet.
12:57Similarly, we experience the world in very, very predictable and pattern-based ways.
13:04There is no real wisdom or realization in that.
13:10And the test of that is iron cannot not react to the magnet.
13:20Iron cannot not react to the magnet.
13:23And that's what is called compulsive reactiveness.
13:29Man cannot not react to the abuses.
13:33Woman cannot not react to the man.
13:37That's a compulsive magnet and iron relationship.
13:41There is no real life in that.
13:45Spirituality is about bringing life by putting the dead to death.
14:00Okay. Thank you so much.