Suffering is a choice || Acharya Prashant, On Vedanta (2021)
Video Information: 22.11.21, Shastra Kaumudi, Rishikesh, Uttar Pradesh
Context:
~ Why there is so much suffering in life?
~ Do we suffer by our own choice?
~ How to avoid pain and suffering?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Context:
~ Why there is so much suffering in life?
~ Do we suffer by our own choice?
~ How to avoid pain and suffering?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Transcript
00:00 Vedanta is concerned with our suffering and it is not the body that suffers.
00:12 The body might get hurt, wounded, diseased or aged but it never suffers.
00:32 The body can become an object in the field of suffering but the body itself is never
00:47 the experiencer of suffering.
00:53 The mind can suffer when the body is in pain.
01:01 The sufferer is always the mind.
01:03 The mind is the subject, the sufferer and it is possible that the subject mind is suffering
01:15 because the object body is in pain but that's not a compulsion upon the mind.
01:31 The mind has a choice.
01:35 Mind always has a choice whether it wants to suffer or it wants to realize.
01:49 Vedanta is concerned with suffering therefore Vedanta is concerned with the mind.
01:56 Let's please remember the body never suffers.
02:02 A particular condition of the body can cause suffering in the mind, can potentially cause
02:14 suffering in the mind, not necessarily.
02:20 The body is in one configuration, the mind says the body is healthy therefore I am satisfied.
02:29 The body shifts to another configuration, the mind says the body is not alright, the
02:36 body is diseased, the body is paining and because the body is paining therefore I am
02:43 suffering.
02:47 It's a decision made by the mind and as it is with every decision here again the discretion
03:04 or indiscretion of the decision maker is involved.
03:13 So the aim of Vedanta is to bring discretion to the mind so that the mind does not suffer.
03:27 Having known that the subject matter of Vedanta is the mind and it's suffering and Vedanta
03:35 wants to put an end to the suffering of the mind we read the verse in the right light.
03:47 When the mind comes to an end it goes beyond death in the sense that as long as the mind
04:04 is alive it is alive in the realm of beginning and ending.
04:17 The life of mind is the tick tock of time.
04:28 Time denotes an initiation and a closure, a rise and a fall therefore the mind lives
04:39 in perpetual death.
04:44 Equally you could say that the mind lives in perpetual beginnings but then you see beginnings
04:53 are not so much of a nightmare.
04:59 Beginnings are associated with hope therefore though beginnings are synonymous with endings
05:13 it is not the beginnings that haunt the mind so much.
05:20 The mind is befitted by endings, death.
05:29 Death matters a lot to the mind and the mind continues to live in a domain where the specter
05:38 of death keeps looming large.
05:44 Therefore the life of mind is always in the shadow of death.
05:54 Therefore when the mind comes to an end death comes to an end.
06:01 You'll have to pay attention.
06:04 As long as the mind is alive it is alive in the cycle of birth and death, rise and fall,
06:18 entries and exits, beginnings and ends.
06:26 That's the life of mind.
06:29 In this life of mind there is suffering.
06:35 Therefore this life of mind must come to an end and when this life comes to an end death
06:43 comes to an end.
06:48 The death of mind is actually the death of death of mind because the mind lives in death
07:01 and hence when the mind meets death it is death to death.
07:10 It is getting too complex.
07:24 The matter is simple.
07:28 It is not your nature to suffer.
07:30 Nobody likes to suffer.
07:31 It is an obvious thing.
07:34 No?
07:35 We are not dealing with the stars here.
07:39 We are dealing with ourselves here and there is nobody who finds joy in sorrow.
08:01 Human beings across times, cultures, continents, ethnicities, ideologies, genders, they all
08:21 crave joy.
08:28 When they can't have joy they settle for its cheap substitute called happiness.
08:34 That's what we all want.
08:36 No?
08:37 Without exception.
08:38 Not only human beings, even animals and other conscious beings do not like to suffer.
08:53 If you observe the behavior of any conscious being you will find that it acts in a way
09:03 that would avoid suffering.
09:06 Wherever it finds suffering it turns away from there.
09:12 These are fundamentals.
09:15 You must keep these in mind.
09:18 Vedant does not operate in a vacuum.
09:24 Vedant does not vaguely utter something for the sake of it.
09:32 The purpose is very clear.
09:35 The purpose is to rid man of his needless suffering.
09:43 That's the purpose of Vedant very clearly.
09:48 To that end Vedant explores what is it that suffers.
09:53 Who is it that suffers?
09:57 That's the reason why the question of identity is so central to Vedant.
10:01 That's why Vedant keeps asking who are you?
10:03 Who are you?
10:04 Who is the doer?
10:05 Who is the sufferer?
10:06 Who is the speaker?
10:07 Who is the experiencer?
10:10 This question is intimately linked to the situation of suffering.
10:16 Because if you want to remove your suffering you have to first of all know who the suffering
10:22 entity is.
10:23 If you do not know who is suffering how will you get rid of the suffering?
10:30 Common sense?
10:33 Having known who is suffering, the mind, you want to see what is it in the mind that suffers.
10:41 What is the process of suffering?
10:44 And when you investigate the mind you find that the mind does not have to do anything
10:52 special to suffer.
10:54 The way the mind is a product of imperfect consciousness, a product of conditioned consciousness,
11:04 its very existence is suffering.
11:09 Not that the mind has to get into something outrageously bad or be subject to vices or
11:23 evil to suffer.
11:28 The way the mind is, it is designed to suffer.
11:33 It does not have to do anything extraordinary to suffer.
11:37 It does not have to go out of its way to suffer.
11:43 The very default situation of the mind is suffering.
11:50 So if you are suffering, there is nothing extraordinary about it.
12:01 It is the most common thing to suffer.
12:07 Having seen that the mind and suffering are just one thing, they cannot be separated.
12:19 The mind and suffering are just one thing.
12:25 It is not even proper to say that the mind suffers.
12:31 It is more accurate to say the mind is suffering.
12:38 Because when you say the mind suffers, you entertain yourself with the hope that it is
12:44 possible that the mind may not suffer.
12:46 That is not possible.
12:49 If the mind is, it will suffer.
12:52 If the mind exists, it will suffer.
12:57 So the mind is suffering.
12:59 Therefore, if you want to bring an end to the suffering, you have to bring the mind
13:06 to an end.
13:07 That is what this verse is referring to.
13:11 The mind, the common mind, mind as we know it, mind as we experience and live it, has
13:20 to be brought to an end.
13:23 Life as we know it, has to be brought to an end.
13:29 Our existence as we have experienced it, the familiar kind of existence, the routine pattern
13:47 based life, it has to end if suffering is to end.
13:57 Are you getting it?
14:02 And that ending of suffering, you can call as the mind's liberation into Brahma.
14:11 Thank you.
14:15 [Music]