How to become mentally and emotionally strong? || Acharya Prashant, with NIT Trichy (2024)
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Video Information: NIT-Trichy, 06.04.2024, Greater Noida
Context:
~ Why an IITian loses focus - and what's the purpose of life
~ Why there is so much suffering in life?
~ Do we suffer by our own choice?
~ How to avoid pain and suffering?
~ How to become mentally and emotionally stronger?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquir...
Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books?
Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Video Information: NIT-Trichy, 06.04.2024, Greater Noida
Context:
~ Why an IITian loses focus - and what's the purpose of life
~ Why there is so much suffering in life?
~ Do we suffer by our own choice?
~ How to avoid pain and suffering?
~ How to become mentally and emotionally stronger?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Good evening to everyone present in the session. I am Dr. Madhukrishna Kedarshani, Faculty
00:09Advisor of Omega Science and Spirituality Club of NIT Tiruchirappalli, share my immense
00:15pleasure to provide an introduction for today's event. Today we are truly blessed to have
00:21with us Acharya Prasann, who has graciously agreed for an interaction with NIT 3G students
00:27and faculty. He has been kind enough to accept our invitation for the second time. We thank
00:33him for that. Thank you, sir. Acharya Prasann is a powerful voice of socio-spiritual awakening
00:41in today's world. He is an acclaimed Vedanta teacher and author of over 150 books, including
00:48multiple national bestselling titles like Karma and Vedanta. An alumnus of IIT Delhi,
00:55I am Ahmedabad and a former civil services officer. He is an exponent of pure Vedantic
01:02wisdom, a vocal warrior against superstition and inner weaknesses, a promulgator of pure
01:09spiritual veganism, a proponent of women's liberation and an expander of essential human
01:16freedom. With over 55 million followers across social media, Acharya Prasann is by far the
01:24highest followed wisdom teacher in the world. I now pass on the session to members of Prasanth
01:30Aditya Foundation and NIT 3G to take the interaction forward. Over to you.
01:40Thank you, Madhu Krishnaji, for the introduction. So with your permission, we may start with
01:46student questions. Sure. Question for today is from Nitesh. Nitesh, you may go ahead and
01:54ask your question. Pranam Acharyaji. Welcome Nitesh. So, Acharyaji, I am Nitesh Kumar from
02:04final year chemical department and I have been interacting last time also with you.
02:11So my question this time is how to become mentally and emotionally stronger in college life and how
02:17to protect myself from bad content and how to know it's actually bad for me.
02:26Strength is not something that you have to actively cultivate.
02:33Your question is positing, assuming something.
02:43You are assuming that weakness is innate and strength has to be imported or cultivated or learnt.
03:02You don't have to cultivate strength. You have to decultivate weakness.
03:13You don't have to learn strength. You have to unlearn weakness.
03:20Please remember, strength is nature itself. Your very Swabhav.
03:31The purity of your being itself is strength and that strength is not a showy thing.
03:43That strength is not a comparative thing.
03:51That strength is not about the capacity that you have to fulfill your desires.
04:03That strength is a particular ease.
04:08That strength is something that as we said is not showy.
04:17It will not be visible until and unless a challenge throws itself upon you.
04:28It is something that you carry smoothly within yourself.
04:35It remains there but manifests only when there is a need or a challenge.
04:45It sits lightly within.
04:49All that is hunky-dory. The problem is that this natural, smooth, easy strength within us
04:59is shrouded by, covered by a lot of what we have learnt or imbibed or imported from here and there.
05:16So kindly adjust your model. Rather append it.
05:23The model that you have says you are weak and you have to become strong.
05:31That's the model most of us carry. I am weak. I must become strong.
05:37Is that not often the desire expresses itself? I am weak. I must.
05:43So first thing is to correct the fundamentals.
05:47You are strong and for some very special reason you have covered yourself with weakness.
06:00So uncover yourself. Unlearn weakness.
06:09Append the model. You are strong already. You don't have to learn strength from anywhere.
06:17First thing, I am already strong.
06:21Then the mysterious question is from where did weakness come?
06:26That's the question to go into.
06:30If I am already strong, from where did this mirage called weakness become so big upon me?
06:40How did this become identical to me?
06:43How did that happen? That's the question you must meditate upon.
06:49And how to meditate upon it? Not by excusing yourself from the world and sitting in some corner and thinking about it.
06:58By seeing how weakness operates in your day to day matters in the world.
07:07Because it is in your day to day existence and it is from the world that one imports weakness.
07:17So therefore one has to catch exactly when weakness is about to percolate us, seep into our existence.
07:27That's the point to catch yourself. No entry for you ma'am or sir, whatever.
07:34No entry for you.
07:39Right to admission reserved.
07:44I don't allow free access to my interiors.
07:53This is not some public space.
07:57Trespassers shall be prosecuted.
08:01It is the trespassers who bring something with them and leave it behind as garbage within you and that is weakness.
08:13That brings us to an interesting definition of weakness.
08:16Whatsoever is not yours is weakness.
08:19Whatsoever has been brought to you by random forces of society, time, your biochemical physicality, all that is weakness.
08:44Arrest that before it strikes you.
08:49See how they make you believe in their lies.
08:59Don't be so gullible.
09:02And you are mastering in chemical engineering.
09:09It should be easier for you to see how they turn your entire existence into chemistry.
09:19They know what you are reactive towards and that particular chemical reagent is selectively brought to you so that you can react as per their convenience, their interests and become a slave.
09:40Because they don't have any individuality, any freedom of their own.
09:46So they despise those who are free or who are even relatively freer.
09:57Are you getting it?
10:00You cannot live without such and such thing.
10:04Don't you see weakness is being introduced into yourself?
10:07This is weakness.
10:10And you are made to learn this. I am saying unlearn.
10:14You are successful only if you have these particular things in your life.
10:21Nobody will say this is a statement of weakness. But it is.
10:27And you are made to buy into all this.
10:31And you do.
10:34Because you don't examine what is entering you.
10:39Especially if those who are bringing these things to you happen to be your so-called well-wishers, friends, family or knowledgeable people.
10:50Then you think if something is coming from them, it surely is for your good. Not necessarily.
10:57More often than not, things that come to you from all these easy and all pervasive sources around you are toxic.
11:10Toxic goodness in a human being is not something very readily found, sadly.
11:29It's a rarity.
11:30Therefore, if you want to use someone for the purpose of learning, then you have to be very careful.
11:47You cannot just randomly listen to anybody and think that his words or influence would be a source of strength to you.
11:55That fellow will say something and whatever he says may not even include the words strength and weakness.
12:02And yet you will find that if the fellow is not coming from a point of inner realization, his influence upon you is toxic and debilitating.
12:15Are you getting it?
12:17Let's take the example. Basic example. Because again, chemistry.
12:22Let's take the basic example of sugar.
12:27Let's say you are a diabetic.
12:34First of all, how did you turn diabetic?
12:39Consuming more amount of sugars and not appropriate diet.
12:45Diabetes is not about consuming more amount of sugar. Diabetes is about your pancreas losing the ability to secrete insulin.
12:57Now insulin is supposed to be something within you, right?
13:00You do not say, sir, please tell me how do I secrete or learn insulin?
13:06You don't have to learn it. It is already there within you.
13:09You don't have to learn it. It's there.
13:11But then you have taken a lot of random stuff from outside and whatsoever you have taken has been harming your inner system, your pancreatic system since long.
13:24And then your system gets so badly hurt that slowly the secretion of insulin stops altogether.
13:34Right? Are you getting it?
13:38Are you getting it?
13:40Does that not happen?
13:42Now, have you lacked in something or have you had an excess of something?
13:49Have you lacked in insulin or have you had an excess of toxicity?
13:55Excess of toxicity.
13:57Nobody lacks in strength. We have had an excess of debilitating influences.
14:03You understand debilitation?
14:04Weakening of something, turning something weak.
14:11Nobody lacks strength.
14:13It's just that we consume so much of weakness from outside that the inner strength is covered, obfuscated and therefore lost to us.
14:28Right?
14:30Now that your pancreas have become dysfunctional, what do you do?
14:36You look at the world outside and you can still continue to consume something random.
14:42What will that do to your body?
14:44Deteriorate it even further.
14:50You can lay your hands on something random that is available as edible stuff.
14:57And there is a 99% probability it will only worsen your condition. Right?
15:03But there does exist something outside of you that will improve your condition.
15:10What's that called?
15:12That's called medicine.
15:15Or that could be a dose of external insulin.
15:19But what is the probability that just randomly you will consume external insulin?
15:28Not even 1%. Right?
15:31You consume anything that is either sugar or it will turn into sugar in your body.
15:39You see, I don't like sugary stuff.
15:43What do you like?
15:45I like things rather salty.
15:47So you go and have a pizza.
15:49The pizza turns into sugar within the body.
15:52You think the pizza is not sugary? It is.
15:55Goes in and turns into sugar.
16:00You take anything, you are de facto taking in sugar.
16:07What is the probability that you will take in insulin?
16:10Very little.
16:12But is insulin not available at all in the universe?
16:17It is.
16:19It is rare.
16:21You will have to be extremely selective, extremely choosy.
16:25And that's what I said about the learned man.
16:29He is available but is rare.
16:32Others are either directly toxic like sugar or indirectly toxic like pizza.
16:38So the first thing is that you should not let it come to the stage where your inner strength is lost to you.
16:52But if unfortunately you have come to that point,
16:56then you have to look at the world very selectively.
17:01Which means you have to do two things.
17:03One, you have to stop unlimited access to those who have been entering you so far.
17:15They are the ones who get in and become your weakness.
17:22And secondly, because it may not suffice to just stop the intake of sugar.
17:28Anybody who is diabetic or knows somebody diabetic,
17:33till some point it is sufficient that you cut down on your sugar.
17:38Beyond that it does not suffice.
17:40After that you have to take in insulin or some other medicine.
17:45So the first thing obviously is neti neti,
17:48which is that you must stop the toxicity from entering you.
17:53But that may not suffice.
17:54And then you have to, with dedication, search for sources that get inside you
18:02and cut down the pre-existing, pre-accumulated sugar.
18:07Sugar which is, in our example, sugar stands for weakness.
18:14So one, stop the intake of what has been going in actively.
18:18So one, stop the intake of what has been going in actively.
18:24Secondly, if that does not suffice,
18:27then with great care and great discretion,
18:31look for something that is external but will go inside to remove the external.
18:40That would have given you a distinction between external and external stuff.
18:46There is an external stuff that goes in and retains its external identity.
18:54That's a toxin.
18:56And there is external stuff that goes in and removes all that
19:01which has already accumulated as external.
19:05Why do we want to remove the external stuff?
19:07Because the internal is strength.
19:11The external is weakness.
19:17It does not occur to us that way.
19:21We are not weak. We have been made to feel weak.
19:27Every bit of weakness that you feel or identify with is not yours at all.
19:36Those who have known,
19:39in a poetic way they have exclaimed,
19:41in a poetic way they have exclaimed,
19:44you are strength as a person.
19:48You are power personified.
19:51That's not me.
19:53That's coming from people who invested themselves all their life
19:58into investigation of existence.
20:02And they started with a disgust for weakness.
20:06They said, what is this weakness that we find so pervasive all around us?
20:11Take it.
20:15And to their delight,
20:17when they went very deeply into weakness,
20:20they discovered strength.
20:26They said, peel the layers of weakness off.
20:31And at the core, we are all strong beyond our imagination.
20:37Your fears are all imaginary.
20:41Your limits are self-made.
20:47All that you find small or brittle or limited or fragile about you
20:56is just a concept, not reality.
21:02Can you find out where did you learn it from?
21:08That will do two things to you.
21:10One, you will know it is not innate.
21:13Innate means internal, original.
21:17It is not original from within you.
21:22It came from somewhere.
21:25Once you go into your weakness,
21:28once you go into your weakness,
21:31you discover it came from somewhere.
21:34So first thing it tells you is, it's not mine, not innate.
21:37Second thing, you learn from where it came.
21:40So you can block the way now.
21:42The moment you learn where that weakness came into you from,
21:47you can block the route.
21:50It will no more enter you from there.
21:53Yes, the doors that you have already taken in
21:57will and does take some time to be cleared away.
22:02But at least the accumulation, the aggravation will stop.
22:10Are you getting it?
22:12Don't look for strength.
22:14Strength is not something so small that our little hands will look for it
22:19and clutch it and intake it.
22:23You cannot take strength in.
22:29But you can throw weakness out.
22:34Throw weakness out.
22:36Strength is not needed.
22:38You already have ample of it.
22:41Yes, sir.
22:43You already are strong.
22:46And the proof of that is when you listen to this.
22:52There is something in you that says,
22:55I don't feel like believing this because the moment you accept this,
23:03you bring a lot of responsibility upon yourself.
23:08The moment you accept that you are actually very strong,
23:13you find a lot of responsibility coming your way.
23:16Who gives responsibilities to a weakling?
23:18Who gives responsibilities to a weakling?
23:20If you are strong, what do you find coming your way?
23:23Loads and loads of responsibility.
23:27So you don't want to accept that you are strong.
23:30But still, something that is beautiful, original and already strong within you
23:36silently murmurs, yes, this is not wrong.
23:41This cannot be wrong. I am strong.
23:43I am strong.
23:45Discard people or situations or sources
23:51who as tricksters
23:59inject weakness into you.
24:03Often weakness is injected into you in the name of care or love.
24:10Don't let that happen.
24:14I will not let you go out.
24:17It's already 8 pm, you know.
24:20Get of the night.
24:22The roads are infested with wolves and jackals.
24:24I will not let you go out. I love you so much.
24:27Kick this person the hardest way at his softest place.
24:35He is not a well-wisher, I tell you.
24:38Not a well-wisher.
24:41He is loading you with a sense of weakness.
24:47Care is an entirely different thing.
24:54Care looks at facts.
24:59Precaution is one thing. Fear is a totally different thing.
25:04Precaution is based on facts.
25:08And fear is based on nothing.
25:10Fear is based just on an imaginary sense of an afraid self.
25:21To wear slippers while walking on a road might be precautionary.
25:26But to wear gumboots?
25:30I mean, there is a problem somewhere.
25:38Are you getting it?
25:40Yes, sir.
25:41You are not worth loving if you don't get a fat enough package.
25:44You are in your 4th year, right?
25:46Yes, sir.
25:51Learn to raise not your voice but your legs.
25:56So that you can kick people hard.
26:00That must be the environment in the campus these days, no?
26:05Your worth is measured on the size of your package.
26:13Or the university you get a call from.
26:20All this is fear.
26:25We don't use the word fear for all these things.
26:29But this is fear and fear is weakness.
26:35You have a friend.
26:39And he starts overflowing with joy.
26:43The moment he finds that you got a package of whatever.
26:47It's a package considered fat enough.
26:52And he goes bonkers.
26:54You will say, you know, this is what a great friend is like.
26:58See how he is celebrating my success.
27:01I got a great job and great means lots of money.
27:05I got a great job.
27:08And see how celebratory he is.
27:11This man is injecting weakness in you.
27:14What he is telling is that I am celebrating you because you have a job.
27:20And a job is an external thing.
27:21Tomorrow you might not have that job.
27:25And then you will feel small and weak.
27:31Anybody who celebrates you or loves you conditionally
27:38is actually celebrating and loving the conditions, not you.
27:44And conditions as we know are all fickle.
27:48Bubbles there disappear in no time.
27:53And then you will be very very anxious about protecting those bubbles and that's weakness.
28:01Think of a person whose self-worth is contained in a bubble.
28:06How anxiously he would be living.
28:11Think of something as weak as a bubble.
28:13If your self-worth is tied to a bubble, can you ever feel strong?
28:22But if there is someone who is envious of your fat package,
28:26you will immediately declare, ah, an enemy there.
28:30Enemy spotted there.
28:32The enemy is not only the one who detests your success.
28:38Your enemy is also the one who celebrates your success.
28:41Because he is celebrating your success, not you.
28:45His success is conditional.
28:47Now this would sound counterintuitive.
28:49Let this sink in. Take time.
28:54The fellow is saying, you were not worth celebrating had you not had this job.
29:01Somebody who is celebrating your beauty, your physicality or whatever,
29:12he would not celebrate you if you lose your beauty or your manliness or whatever.
29:19The result, you will be turned anxious about preserving something
29:25that by definition cannot be preserved for long.
29:30Who can be beautiful for long?
29:32By beautiful I mean attractive in a physical way.
29:35In the sense we are using here.
29:39But the fellow comes and says, ah, so beautiful.
29:42And you feel delighted. It's not a thing of delight.
29:45It's a thing of concern.
29:48Tomorrow I will not be equally beautiful.
29:53By way of my face, by way of the body.
29:56And then those same eyes will not look at me or turn elsewhere.
30:02And then I will be depressed. This is weakness.
30:06Weakness is always a foreign element, an import.
30:12Something that comes to you via others.
30:16And it rarely comes to you as weakness itself.
30:20It comes to you as something worth celebrating.
30:23Be very cautious of your celebrations.
30:26Be very careful about your happiness.
30:29What you celebrate as happiness
30:33is what you will later repent as misfortune.
30:43It is in your moments of happiness
30:46that you throw the door open to all kinds of pathogens.
30:52Does that not happen?
30:55When there is a function in the house,
31:00the main door remains open.
31:04Now anybody can enter.
31:06You don't even want to keep a watch.
31:15And also in moments of deep grief,
31:19the main door is kept open.
31:21Some really sad thing has happened in the house.
31:23The door remains open.
31:25So that people can come in
31:28and express condolences.
31:33It is in these moments
31:37of emotional vulnerability
31:41that the risk is amplified.
31:47Some nonsense will enter you.
31:50In some name.
31:51Obviously nonsense never declares itself to be nonsense.
31:57It will take some sweet name
32:01to gain access.
32:10Are you getting it?
32:12Yes, sir.
32:20Dependency.
32:23Attachment.
32:27Are they not weakness?
32:32See what keeps a person from doing the right thing in life
32:36and you will find these things.
32:39He has dependence or he is a dependent.
32:43Either he has dependence or he himself is dependent.
32:46Or he is attached to something.
32:48There is so much
32:50of open evil all around us.
32:52Is there not?
32:53And yet you find so few people
32:56showing up
32:59to take a stand.
33:00Why?
33:01Because they are afraid.
33:02Why?
33:03Because they either have dependence or they are dependent.
33:10Or because they are attached.
33:13If I
33:15show up,
33:17some harm may come to those I am attached to.
33:23Or if I
33:25display courage
33:27and resist the evil,
33:31then my
33:33wealth and privileges
33:36might be compromised.
33:40Privilege never
33:41never
33:43declared itself
33:45to be a weakness.
33:46Did it?
33:48Comforts never entered your life
33:52openly admitting that we will become your
33:56weakness.
33:57Did they?
33:59But see,
34:02in the moments when you will need to summon strength,
34:04you will find all these things.
34:09Comforts, attachments,
34:11dependencies,
34:13they have blocked your way.
34:18You will be standing aghast.
34:20I thought
34:21I was strong.
34:23But this moment when the strength needs
34:27to roar aloud,
34:31it's been muffled.
34:35The roar has been suffocated.
34:38By the things that
34:40I made so dear to myself.
34:56If a person is teaching new patterns to you,
35:02the person is not worth listening to.
35:04Whereas if the person
35:06is breaking your patterns,
35:08then the person is worth listening to.
35:10Two people come to you.
35:12Both admonish you.
35:14One says you need to be admonished
35:17because you do not speak in a particular way,
35:20because you do not dress up in a particular way,
35:23because you don't know how to use the cutlery properly.
35:29The other one scolds you
35:31and says
35:32in the way you dress up and in the way you speak,
35:35I smell fear.
35:38The first one must not be listened to.
35:39What he is saying is
35:40if you learn a particular way of dressing and eating,
35:45then I will respect you.
35:48No.
35:49The way of dressing and eating that he is trying to teach you
35:52is just another pattern, right?
35:57You might be coming from a rural area.
35:59You might be coming from a rural area
36:03and you have never used a knife or a fork
36:05or probably even a spoon.
36:06Happens.
36:08There is nothing insulting about it.
36:14We have been using our hands to eat
36:17and I don't think there is anything particularly disgusting about it.
36:20What's so wrong with our hands?
36:24And someone comes and says, you know,
36:27even rice you have to take with a fork.
36:37Problem. There is a problem.
36:43Your psyche has just been loaded with a complex.
36:47Its simplicity has been taken away.
36:52Even while eating,
36:53you will have to be unduly careful of something very valueless.
37:02Do not listen.
37:04This person is not teaching you.
37:06He is just loading you
37:08with a particular concept of his choice.
37:12Mankind has not always eaten in one particular great final
37:19and appropriate way.
37:21Different cultures, different times, different ways of eating.
37:26You sit on the floor and eat.
37:28There are places where you stand and eat.
37:31Even tables and chairs have varied.
37:35Someone says, no, no, no.
37:36Unless you do all these things,
37:39your life is not worth living.
37:41Do not listen to this person.
37:43And there is another one who is coming to scold you and he says,
37:46it's alright the accent that you carry.
37:49The problem is not your accent.
37:51The problem is the fear in your words.
37:54This person can be listened to.
37:57One person scolds you on your accent.
38:01The other one says the accent is alright.
38:04We are all entitled to our particular nativity.
38:09But what I hear is your fear.
38:12And that fear is something I don't like in you.
38:19Even your accent probably comes from your fear.
38:23And that's why I don't like your accent.
38:27Now in this situation, both the fellows who have come to scold you
38:33or teach you or whatever
38:35are finding fault with your accent.
38:40But the reasons are very different.
38:41This one is saying, you know,
38:43you have a thick Indian accent.
38:46You must anglicize it.
38:49I like the Irish one.
38:53Now this is one thing to say.
38:54The other one says, you know,
38:56you are wearing this accent only because you are afraid.
39:01And therefore I don't like your accent.
39:03Now this is a totally different approach.
39:05Is it not?
39:07The first approach will instill fear in you.
39:13The second approach makes you fearless.
39:16The second approach says,
39:18I understand that one has to be careful with accent
39:23to the point that you are legible to the other.
39:31If I speak in an accent that you cannot even comprehend,
39:35then there is a problem with communication.
39:37So to that extent I will take care of my accent.
39:40But beyond that it's my content that matters,
39:43not my accent.
39:45Now this is another approach altogether.
39:52You have to be very careful of what you are lending your ears to.
40:01See whether that thing is more of fear or freedom from fear.
40:10More often than not it will be more of fear.
40:27Fear seeps in, in a moment to moment way.
40:31Every particular interaction.
40:35And over time it becomes internal.
40:39Rest assured it can never become fully internal.
40:43Fully internal is strength itself.
40:56What is the way to awaken your strength?
40:59You cannot awaken your strength.
41:01Just challenge your fears.
41:03Ask them to show up.
41:05Let me just check how real you are.
41:09Come, let's play.
41:13Challenging your fears is the only way to awaken your strength.
41:22Our build is such that we need a bit of competition.
41:29Alright.
41:31Run from here till the end of the road.
41:34Let's say that's some 300 meters.
41:37Just run.
41:38No, don't start running.
41:43And we'll keep the time.
41:46You took some time.
41:49Right?
41:52300 meters you ran.
41:54Let's say you took some 60 seconds, 1 minute.
41:57That's most likely the time you will take.
42:00More than that maybe, 80 seconds, 100 seconds.
42:05Next we say fine.
42:08Take this timer, wear it and run.
42:12For sure the time will reduce.
42:15If you took 80 seconds, now you will take 65 or 70.
42:21And then I say here.
42:23You have a competitor.
42:25The two of you will run.
42:26Let's see who wins.
42:28Now the time will reduce by another 5 seconds.
42:32That's the way to awaken your potential.
42:36Have a challenger.
42:39Run without keeping time, you will take a certain time.
42:45Run with a timer, the time will reduce.
42:47Run with a challenger, the time will be reduced even further.
42:52Provided the challenger is capable enough.
42:56If you run with a kid, the example won't hold good.
43:04Challenge your fears.
43:09Even if your challenger beats you, you will find your time has improved.
43:15It's alright to be beaten by your fears.
43:18Than to never challenge them at all.
43:23Even if you get beaten by your fears, your timing will improve.
43:33That's what is called as daring.
43:36Daring.
43:37Come on.
43:39And when you do this kind of a heroic thing,
43:43then something will tremble within.
43:45Let it tremble.
43:49It's like inviting an established boxer.
43:53You know what's going to happen next.
43:55Still invite him.
43:56Come.
43:57Let's see.
44:03You will most probably get beaten.
44:08But you will improve.
44:13Remember, fears are external, strength is internal.
44:17The internal will always be more powerful than the external because the internal is internal.
44:27Fears didn't accumulate in a day.
44:31So you can't clean them up in a day.
44:37Start today.
44:40See what you are afraid of.
44:42Go and discover its source.
44:44The moment you will see or get a glimpse of the source those fears came to you from,
44:52you will feel like challenging them.
44:54Because some kind of repugnance will arise.
44:57You will say, external thing.
45:00How did it colonize me?
45:03It's an external thing.
45:05You will feel like challenging it.
45:06And when you challenge your fears, we said you awaken your strength.
45:16Observation.
45:17Seeing.
45:18Paying attention to the small things of life.
45:22How a shopkeeper induces greed in you.
45:24See that.
45:28How everything is a big shop.
45:30See how all the great events exist for the sake of advertisements.
45:36See.
45:40Where does a newspaper, for example, make its money from?
45:45Not from the rupees 5 or 10 that you spend on a copy of it.
45:54Think of the amount of paper the newspaper brings to you.
46:00Rupees 5 is not sufficient even to cover the paper.
46:05So how is the newspaper so inexpensive?
46:08Because they are making the bulk of their money from advertisement.
46:15And if the ad is what the newspaper exists for, then what do the news exist for?
46:24If the newspaper is not to bring you news but ads, please understand.
46:33Somebody is publishing the newspaper.
46:35He is making his money from ads.
46:37So the newspaper is actually to bring you ads, not news.
46:42So the ads are important, the news are not.
46:45Hence the news will be selected in a way that facilitates the ads.
46:52Now ads are about consuming something.
46:55All ads are about that, right?
46:57So the news will be put in a way, chosen in a way and presented in a way
47:02that turns you into more of a consumer.
47:07For example, if there is a big advertisement of a security company, half a page.
47:14Then the upper half of the page must preferably have news that make you feel insecure.
47:26So the top half makes you feel insecure, that's news.
47:30The bottom half has an ad of a security company.
47:34That goes well, right?
47:36That's how weakness is introduced into you and you must see that very carefully.
47:42When you read a newspaper, don't just read the newspaper.
47:44Look at the whole thing.
47:45How is it laid out? What's happening?
47:47Where is it making money from?
47:48That's why education is so important.
47:50That's why knowing a bit of economics is so important.
47:53If everybody is operating for the sake of profits, you must know the money trail.
47:58You must know where the whole thing is going from.
48:00All the money comes from here, then goes to that person.
48:02That person has this much of a cut in it.
48:04Okay, that's the way the whole system is operating.
48:08And then you will not allow them to colonize you.
48:15For example, where is the news channel making its money from?
48:22Again, ads.
48:23What percentage of the ads are government spends?
48:28A large percentage?
48:30For some channels, more than 50%.
48:34So if the news channel is actually making its money from the government,
48:40what will it do?
48:41What will be the content of the news?
48:47And if the government ensures its own sustenance by making you feel insecure,
48:54what will be the content of the TV news?
48:56That makes you feel insecure.
48:59Some imaginary enemy is closing in upon you.
49:03You are besieged.
49:04Somebody has to be an enemy.
49:08Somebody has to be an enemy.
49:11That will be the content of the news.
49:13Pure economics, nothing else.
49:20They ensure their sustenance by making you feel weak.
49:24But you don't see that.
49:25Instead you say, how do I feel strong?
49:27But you are strong.
49:29Their own dirty self-interests are making you unnecessarily feel weak.
49:37You are not weak.
49:55You can extend the list of examples.
49:57I'll stop here because I can continue with the list unendingly.
50:04Let's move to the next question now.
50:09So much energy.
50:25Let's move to the next question now.