Scoundrel Turned Hero: A Surprising Transformation || Acharya Prashant (2022)

Acharya Prashant

‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? 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: 17.10.2022, IIT Mumbai  Context: ~ Unhappy with your job? ~ What to do if I hate my job? ~ When should one quit his or her job? ~ Why do we take nature for granted? ~ Why am I so unhappy? ~ What is the cause of climate crisis? ~ Who are your role models?   Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~

Transcript

00:00My question is, there is enough evidence these days that, you know, the people who are unhappy

00:15with their jobs are having more carbon footprint in the nature.

00:19And I've also been listening to you for over a year and I've listened to your videos on

00:23climate change where you said that the only solution to climate change is spirituality

00:27alone.

00:28I've been reading books on climate change and one such book is Less is More, where they

00:33talk about degrowth to be the solution.

00:38And in the book, they also talk about dualism being the reason why we exploit nature and

00:44why we take nature for granted.

00:47The solutions of climate change also being animal exploitation, less population.

00:52But we also have influential leaders like Elon Musk who talk about, who say, who ask

00:58us to increase population without caring about this.

01:01So, my question to you is about this degrowth and non-dualism, like whatever the actions

01:10that we do is we are, you know, using the resources of nature, right?

01:15So, and they will have carbon footprint.

01:17So, what is it meant to be non-dualistic in that aspect and how can the society be non-dualistic

01:25with all these influential leaders talking to you, otherwise that the science is talking

01:29to you and in this capitalist world, what is it meant to be degrowth?

01:34This is what is my question.

01:36What is duality in the first place?

01:40The feeling that there are two truths, this and the world.

01:50And both these truths are incomplete and dependent on each other, that's duality.

01:58That there definitely exist two and of the two, I am one and I am incomplete.

02:08How do I become complete?

02:11By feasting on the world, by exploiting the world.

02:17That's the reason the book you have read says that duality is one of the reasons behind

02:26climate change.

02:29Climate change is nothing but a crisis of consumption.

02:34We are so terribly incomplete and hurt and restless that we want happiness at any cost.

02:47And to get happiness, we exploit everything around us.

02:52We exploit our own bodies, we exploit the ones we are related to and obviously we will

02:59exploit the animals, the birds, the trees, the forest, the rivers, the atmosphere.

03:08We exploit everything.

03:10We are so crazy and so deeply in pain.

03:17Think of a person who is both in agony and in illusion, suffering deeply and also crazy.

03:38What will he do?

03:39He will do anything to get rid of his pain, no?

03:43And that's what mankind is doing.

03:46All kinds of unthinkable stuff so that we can somehow feel happy.

03:53Kill, eat, exploit, plunder, rape, do whatever can be done just so that you can have a fleeting

04:04glimpse of happiness.

04:07And because that is fleeting, so you have to do more and more of it to sustain even

04:16the semblance of being all right.

04:19Are you getting it?

04:24So you said anything that we do has a footprint.

04:30See climate change is not caused by all the little things that you do.

04:36You can relieve yourself of that guilt.

04:41It's not you and me who are responsible for climate change.

04:48If just to exist is to contribute to the climate crisis, then we would all be guilty.

04:55But that's not really the case.

04:58There is a perfect balance that nature provides.

05:03You have agents that emit carbon and equally you have agents that absorb carbon.

05:15What are those agents known as?

05:17Trees and the oceans, they absorb these gases.

05:27What's happening is that you have crossed all limits by a long distance, 280 ppm to

05:38440 ppm and increasing and increasing at an accelerating rate.

05:44Who's doing that?

05:47Not the common man, though there are vested interests that are trying to put the guilt

05:56of climate change on the common man.

05:59The common man is not really responsible.

06:01The common man is responsible but in some other way, indirectly, we'll come to that.

06:07The richest 10% of the world's population is causing 90% of the carbon emissions.

06:24And if you bring that down to the richest 1%, that still remains close to 30-40%.

06:33It's so skewed.

06:38The per capita emissions of an Indian are only a small fraction of those of an American

06:47or a Briton.

06:51It's coming from there.

06:54There is enough allowance for everybody to peacefully survive.

07:00What we do not have is the allowance to consume endlessly.

07:11So it's not as if doing anything contributes to carbon emission, no, not that way.

07:17And if it does, then there is stuff to take care of that.

07:22and other physical mechanisms, natural mechanisms.

07:26But when you are burning oil endlessly so that you can have physical comforts and all

07:39kinds of vanities, then there is obviously no solution.

07:48How do you take care of that?

07:51Now here comes the role of the common man.

07:54This has to be turned into an electoral issue.

07:59You have to elect governments that are prepared to tax vulgar consumption.

08:10You have to have governments that are prepared to tax the ultra-rich.

08:17You cannot let them go scot-free with all the damage they are causing to the environment,

08:26to the planet itself.

08:27We were talking of the sixth mass extinction.

08:31That sixth mass extinction is not being brought about by the lower-middle-income countries

08:40and the middle-income countries.

08:41That is being brought about by the first world, the developed world.

08:49They are the culprits and they'll have to bear the burden.

08:52And even in countries like India, if the per capita emissions are rising, the responsibility

09:03lies with only a handful of people compared to our population.

09:09They are the ones who have to be singled out and taxed.

09:16Are you getting it?

09:17It is a very clever ploy to make the common man feel responsible.

09:27So what does the common man start doing to alleviate his guilt?

09:33He feels fine, I am recycling, I am not using plastic that much now, or I am turning organic,

09:44or I am reducing my electricity consumption by 15%.

09:48The question is, dear, how much electricity does the common man anyway consume?

09:56It is not the common man who is causing all this.

09:59I will tell you who is causing it.

10:01Your role models are causing all this.

10:05The influential fellow you referred to is causing all this.

10:11And it's a great tragedy when the ones who are influential are neither intellectual nor

10:16spiritual.

10:18Think of it.

10:19A braindead fellow is so influential just because he has so much money.

10:25And you can have a lot of money without being intellectual at all.

10:29It is possible.

10:30It is happening.

10:32Your role models are very unworthy people.

10:36And they are role models exactly because you find them consuming a lot and you all aspire

10:42to consume that much.

10:43So they become your role models.

10:45You say, wow.

10:49Somebody asked a famous soccer player and he says, I have 20 cars, all luxury ones.

10:57And that simply charms you so much, wins you over, 20 cars, five Rolls Royce.

11:08He does not even want to own a cheap thing like Mercedes.

11:18Not one, but multiple private planes, super expensive yachts, yachts to take care of yachts.

11:28And that's what we all aspire for.

11:31Why?

11:32That brings us to the point we started from, our dualistic philosophy of life.

11:39We all have been taught wrongly.

11:42We have been trained wrongly.

11:46Life education, we have been deprived of.

11:52So all that you want through all that you do is consumption.

11:57What do you live for?

11:58Consumption.

11:59How do you know a fellow is doing well in life?

12:01He's able to consume a lot.

12:04When consumption is the ideal, climate change is the result.

12:10And all these role models, people you follow, the ones who have 50 million on Instagram

12:16and places, what are they displaying to you except their ability to consume?

12:24Either they display their own ability to consume or they present themselves in certain cases

12:33as tough to be consumed.

12:37For example, a voluptuous female model, why does she command that kind of a following?

12:47She's saying, I am available to be consumed, at least optically.

12:53Consume me.

12:54Or you will follow a billionaire, a millionaire or somebody.

13:00We have been taught the wrong purpose of life and the results are catastrophic.

13:07We do not know why we exist.

13:09And climate change, therefore, is a result of a totally wrong kind of education, the

13:16wrong fundamental philosophy of life.

13:21Is all this coming together and making sense or is it appearing too scattered?

13:27Do you see how it is all integrated?

13:30Do you see how the one you follow on Instagram and the rising PPM levels are directly correlated?

13:41Do you see all these things?

13:44In general, they will appear different issues, not related, but they are very much related.

13:53The very concept of good life is a carbon intensive one.

13:59The very concept of happiness is carbon intensive.

14:08When you become richer, you typically become a meat eater.

14:11Do you know how much does animal agriculture contribute to climate change?

14:17Just as much as fossil fuels do.

14:25Something that makes you happy is actually something that is destroying the earth.

14:33The saving grace is as Indians, as middle class Indians, you still are not in a position

14:38to consume too much.

14:39Therefore, you are still not directly responsible for destroying the earth.

14:46But there is an indirect culpability, which is that you are following and admiring the

14:52ones who are in fact destroying the earth.

14:59And if you keep following them, you will become like them.

15:03That's the whole purpose of being an admirer, right?

15:05I want to be like him.

15:08You want to be a murderer?

15:12You want to be like someone responsible for genocide?

15:19You want to be like someone responsible for wiping out hundreds of species of organisms

15:28per day?

15:32It's a sad commentary on our times that people who should be behind bars are actually hemming

15:40top positions in industry, in government, everywhere.

15:54Choose your role models very carefully.

16:01It's got something to do with love.

16:03Be very careful about the ones who appeal to you.

16:11Don't be just driven to anything that appears attractive.

16:18We do not know whether much can be done to save the planet.

16:25Unfortunately, we are all inexorably on our way to extinction.

16:36But still, you have a life to live.

16:39Be very careful.

16:45Most people we follow, we admire, we respect are terribly unworthy.

16:51Don't fall for the gloss.

16:59Are you getting it?

17:00Even if you find you are being left alone, that aloneness has a dignity.

17:10Learn to enjoy that dignity.

17:12This brings us to the end of the Q&A session.

17:20Thank you Acharyaji for patiently answering all the questions.

17:23I am sure students are enlightened after this session, or at least started the process.

17:30I request Professor Bapat to present a vote of thanks.

17:34For the last three and a half hours, we are really mesmerized.

17:40I know big, big speakers come to IIT and we have just an audience of 20-25.

17:48This goes to Shri Acharyaji.

17:51Frankly, we do not have the exposure of such knowledge.

17:55I think that we are experiencing something.

17:58In Upanishads, it is like Acharyaji said,

18:02questions and answers.

18:04We may have received answers to many questions,

18:07but we may not have received answers to many questions.

18:11Because this is just the beginning.

18:14I think we need to go much, much further than this.

18:18But I am sure we have received His inspiration.

18:21He will take us all.

18:23I bow down to Acharyaji.

18:27I thank all the volunteers.

18:30PG, Council, Yogastha, Think India, IITB for Bharat,

18:37everyone has helped us.

18:39I thank everyone.

18:42Because you should continue in this debt and continue on this journey.

18:47Namaste.

Category

Transcript

Recommended