Dealing with negative vibrations || Acharya Prashant, at BITS Pilani, Goa (2022)

Acharya Prashant

‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/enquir...   Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books? Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...  ~~~~~  Video Information: 18.07.2022,  BITS Pilani, Goa   Context: What is the source of subjective opinions and beliefs? How has science led to a rise in materialism? How to be free of biased opinions and beliefs? How does science lead to ego boost? Why is it a challenge to be scientific and yet spiritual?   Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~

Transcript

00:00Pranam Acharyaji, my question to you is about misconceptions.

00:09So we see a lot of misconceptions in society on religion and there is a lot of stupidity

00:16that goes on.

00:17We are taught so many things in the name of fear and we just accept it like right now

00:22I will give an example on festivals.

00:25We don't care about what the actual meaning of the festival, all it is to youngsters is

00:30about planning this and even when you talked about vibrations, so I was having a conversation

00:38in which I heard that if you go out during the solar eclipse, there are negative energies,

00:46negative vibrations and I was like what negative vibrations, transverse vibrations, what is

00:53that scientific term you are talking about.

00:55So there are so many misconceptions, there is so many stupidity in the society that goes

01:01on and sometimes I hear about stories where it results in violence and I am disturbed

01:08by that.

01:09So I wanted to ask you how do we avoid all that?

01:13I think the first step has to be to make science compulsory till class 12th.

01:21I really cringe when I hear somebody talking of positive negative vibrations and positive

01:28negative energies and such things.

01:32The thing is that this fellow didn't take physics seriously even till class 10th.

01:37Otherwise how can you talk of negative vibrations, what exactly does that mean?

01:43And from that comes the word vibes.

01:46Everybody is talking of vibrations continuously.

01:49This fellow came in and the moment he entered the room, I experienced negative vibrations.

01:55What do you mean by that?

01:57Negative vibrations?

01:58If there are vibrations, let there be an instrument to capture them, record them and tell me the

02:04intensity.

02:05There has to be a waveform, I want to see that waveform on paper.

02:10And then I want to accord an equation to it.

02:13What vibrations?

02:17But there is an entire cult, huge cult of vibrations.

02:22What's going on?

02:24The problem is illiteracy at both levels, scientific and spiritual.

02:31We do not know science and we do not know spirituality.

02:35So anything goes.

02:39But we have heard of these terms because they have become commonplace.

02:43The blessing of science is that it has given even the scientifically illiterate people

02:51the fruits of technology.

02:53You might not know science at all, yet the fruits of technology like the mobile phone

03:00are easily accessible to you.

03:01In fact, you might be someone who is contemptuous towards science.

03:05So many people are, aren't they?

03:08For example, somebody would say, oh, COVID is just a hoax.

03:10The virus does not exist at all.

03:13Even if you display to him the entire structure of the virus, this is the virus, he will say

03:19no, it does not exist.

03:20Even this kind of a person will be happily roaming about with a mobile phone.

03:26If you have so much contempt towards science, why are you using the products of technology?

03:33Why are you using the products of technology?

03:38So that's the thing, you see, I keep emphasizing wherever I go, including in campuses.

03:44When I came here, I just said, please keep inner education compulsory.

03:50Have one course per semester or at least every odd semester.

03:55Otherwise, in spite of being scientifically literate, the fellow might still turn up superstitious

04:03and that's possible.

04:05I have seen eminent scientists, deeply superstitious, not just in ISRO, but even in other agencies,

04:14NASA.

04:16Very eminent scientists, often of the status of a director and the fellow is still superstitious.

04:23Why?

04:25Because you do not have inner education.

04:26You require both in tandem.

04:29You require science and you require spirituality.

04:32You require the outer education that Vedanta calls as avidya and you require the inner

04:38education that Vedanta calls as vidya.

04:40If you lack in either of them, then you will be just roaming around in ignorance of all

04:47kinds.

04:49Of these two, obviously, the inner ignorance is more fatal.

04:55Sir, even not only misconceptions about science, but also misconceptions about religious concepts

05:04and spirituality.

05:05That's true.

05:06That's very true.

05:07See, we just believe.

05:08The fundamental attitude is of belief, not inquiry.

05:13We don't want to know.

05:14We just want to take in anything.

05:17That's inner laziness.

05:20You just want to take in anything and you don't want to go into it.

05:24The spirit of exploration, inquiry, investigation is not there.

05:29It's not a part of our culture as such.

05:31It's not a part of most of the cultures.

05:32Even in the West, it is not really very prominent.

05:37So when it comes to science, we believe in anything.

05:41And when it comes to spirituality, there also we believe in anything.

05:43We do not know a thing about the objective world.

05:47We also do not know a thing about our religions.

05:50So we do not know why festivals exist.

05:53There might be a very important reason why the institution of a festival has been wisely

05:59constructed.

06:00But that reason is lost on us.

06:01We have no idea at all.

06:03We just celebrate.

06:04So Diwali is just about crackers and lights and sweets and gifts and such things.

06:11What actually does Diwali stand for?

06:13Very few people know.

06:14When you do not know, how can you celebrate Diwali in its true spirit?

06:18The spirit is also gone.

06:20Any festival.

06:22You just had Bakrid and it has become, to the vast majority of Muslims, a day of slaughter.

06:31What is this?

06:33Are festivals about such things?

06:36What is holy?

06:38The day when you throw balloons at all kinds of people, especially girls, that's holy.

06:46What are we doing?

06:48Christmas is all about consumerism, shopping.

06:51You go shop, that's Christmas.

06:54You shop right till the New Year Eve.

07:00These two are one.

07:02Just as we do not know what's going on in the universe, we also do not know what is

07:07going on within us.

07:11So somebody comes up and says, oh you see, this particular pic has been taken by NASA

07:20on the Diwali night.

07:24It's a pic showing the map of India on Diwali night.

07:29And it goes viral on WhatsApp.

07:31Everybody is sharing it.

07:33And India is resplendent in that pic, lightened up.

07:39And those lights are visible 6000 km up in the space.

07:46And we are so proud.

07:47We are so proud.

07:48See NASA has sent us this pic.

07:50Entire India is illuminated.

07:54And you have pics of Ram Setu.

07:55See NASA has again sent this pic and Ram Setu is visible between India and Lanka.

08:03The level of scientific literacy is so low, we tend to believe in just about anything.

08:11We believe in anything in the world and we believe in anything in the inner world.

08:17So somebody tells you inside there are waves, positive vibrations, you'll believe it.

08:23Somebody tells you inside there is some kind of Ruh or Soul.

08:30And if you sleep with your mouth open, it's likely to escape.

08:36So you better keep things locked and tight over here and you'll believe it.

08:45If you take it from me, there are 40 times more ridiculous kinds of beliefs circulating

08:54and people are damn serious about them.

08:58And I won't be amazed, unfortunately, if even a few in the audience here subscribe

09:03to those beliefs.

09:05Sir, I think a major reason for all of this is our media and what we are shown.

09:13There was no media a thousand years back.

09:20But you still thought that eclipses can mean evil to you.

09:27Was it the media's doing?

09:29No.

09:30Who did it then?

09:31You go to tribal societies and they're mired in superstition.

09:38Are they victims of media work?

09:42They don't have any access to media.

09:45Why are they still so terribly superstitious?

09:49Please tell me then, where does it come from?

10:01Where does it come from?

10:05Where does it come from?

10:11The real culprit is so close to you, you can't put a finger on it.

10:17Where does it come from?

10:25Superstition existed then, superstition exists now.

10:28Superstition exists in illiterate people.

10:30Superstition exists in PhDs and scientists.

10:38Where does then superstition really come from?

10:40Superstition exists in the field of religion.

10:43Superstition exists even in science.

10:46Superstition percolates every dimension of our being, our thought.

10:55Where does it come from?

10:57It comes from us.

11:04What do you mean by us?

11:05Deeper, deeper, deeper, deeper, you are close, deeper.

11:12No, no.

11:13Where does it come from?

11:14What do you mean by the mind?

11:17It comes from this, the body.

11:20That's the way our bodies are.

11:22It comes from our tissues, our cells, our DNA.

11:27That's the way human beings genetically are.

11:30That's where superstition comes from.

11:33Biologically, we are not created to really know.

11:39We are created to believe.

11:44Knowing is dangerous for the biological self.

11:49Tell me why?

11:55Because a lot of things that please the biological self show up their real and ugly face when

12:07you know.

12:11So your prakritic nature, your biological nature is to not to know and just to believe.

12:19Knowing is dangerous.

12:23Knowing is dangerous.

12:24Have you experienced that?

12:26How dangerous knowledge can be?

12:27It can shatter your entire identity.

12:30Therefore, people prefer to live in ignorance.

12:35Even if the option to really know and understand and realize is available, they would rather

12:40not exercise that option.

12:44Once you know of your inner darkness, it is terrible and humiliating and also then it

12:49puts a responsibility on you.

12:51If you know there is a lot of dirt inside, then you have to become responsible to clean

12:56it up.

12:58Who wants to own that responsibility?

13:00Who wants to put in that effort?

13:03It is far more easier, comfortable to just let the dirt and the darkness remain and you

13:12can comfortably sleep.

13:14Are you getting it?

13:18So we are not designed to know.

13:21We are designed to remain ignorant and belief assists ignorance.

13:29Just believe.

13:30Somebody has told you something, trust, believe.

13:35Do not know.

13:36Now you know why knowing requires so much effort whereas believing comes so easy.

13:49Would you voluntarily want to do something that requires effort?

13:52Difficult.

13:53Right?

13:54What would happen, there is an option to go for something that is so easy.

14:01You can sleep and it still gets done.

14:04And then there is something that requires continuous work, diligence.

14:11How many people choose the latter option?

14:14That is the reason why knowledge is precious but difficult and wisdom is even rarer.

14:23Knowledge is about knowing this, wisdom is about knowing this plus this.

14:33So we have to be very cautious of ourselves.

14:38A real enemy sits within here, in the body itself, in the DNA itself.

14:46We don't need external enemies.

14:49We already have an in-house one and you can't really get rid of it.

14:55It will continue to sit next to you as long as you are embodied.

15:06You see we are in a difficult position.

15:10To be born is to be born in a difficult state.

15:17To be born is to be born along with an enemy.

15:21The two of you are born together, you and your enemy.

15:24You are consciousness and the very old primitive tendencies are your enemy, the body.

15:33But these two have to co-exist, so they are tied together, they are wedded together.

15:39It's a difficult marriage that has to last the entire life.

15:44A difficult marriage where the two are antagonists.

15:53Spirituality you call consciousness as Purush, the body as Prakriti.

16:00The task of the Purush is to be with Prakriti and yet not get allured, be with her and yet

16:12not allow her to dominate you.

16:16So following up a question to what you just answered, let's get an example.

16:22Let's say I am a 7 year old kid who goes to school and learns something that is non-superstitious.

16:27Let's say my parents are superstitious and when I come back home they say what you learned

16:32at school was wrong and you have to learn this superstitious thing.

16:35Now according to me my parents are more important to me because they have given me birth and

16:39all those things.

16:40So while getting these two conflict ideas, I may go to the wrong idea because that person

16:48was important to me.

16:49So how do you remove this factor of importance of people and getting into the importance

16:54of idea?

16:56You should utter the word I or me with great care because it's quite possible that something

17:04alien that you have absorbed within is speaking as I.

17:13It is not really I.

17:15It is not internal.

17:16It is actually external, alien.

17:19But in your subconscious state, in your sleep, you just happened to take it in and now it

17:26has come in and is masquerading as, pretending to be the I.

17:34So when you say I believe that my parents are more, what my parents say is more education,

17:41is more important than what my teachers say, that's not what you believe in.

17:47That's what you have been taught to believe in.

17:50So don't say it is my belief that parents' word is more important.

17:55Even this belief that parents are more important than let's say books is coming from the parents.

18:03What else would they tell you?

18:05What else would they tell you?

18:07So it's not your belief.

18:10Even the belief that parents are sacrosanct is a belief given to you by parents.

18:16What else do you expect them to do?

18:19So be very careful what is really your own.

18:22That's not your own.

18:23That's a cultural belief.

18:25That's a familial thing.

18:26And those cultural beliefs vary from land to land and time to time, don't they?

18:31The kind of importance you give to parents in India is very different from what you give

18:34to them in the US, let's say.

18:38The kind of importance you give to marriage is very difficult, is very different from

18:44country to country, even community to community, age to age.

18:48Then how can it be something internal to you?

18:51It's a function of time, culture, society, norms.

18:55It's not yours.

18:56And that's the freedom a young man should seek, to not to be a victim of cultural norms

19:04of what goes around.

19:07And that is true religiosity.

19:11That is true spirituality.

19:13True spirituality is not about beliefs.

19:15Beliefs are bondages.

19:16True spirituality is about freedom.

19:18Freedom from all beliefs, your commitment, your allegiance has to be solely to the truth.

19:24Nothing else.

19:25I'm not obliged to honor anything except the truth.

19:32You get this?

19:33You're not obliged.

19:35Rid yourself of all other obligations and promises.

19:39No, you're not obliged.

19:41Your only responsibility, your only commitment is towards the truth.

19:46All else is dispensable.

19:50All else can be given up if it's proven to be untrue, including the things that you are

19:58taught to hold as sacred.

20:03Sacredness is not higher than truthfulness because only the truth is sacred.

20:10If something that you hold as sacred is not the truth or truthful, how exactly is it sacred

20:17in the first place?

20:21Only am I making sense?

20:26Convince me you are with me.

20:27Am I making sense?

20:28All right.

20:29Only the truth is sacred.

20:32What is sacred?

20:33Something that you unconditionally honor.

20:37Something that you never want to breach or violate or disrespect, right?

20:43That's sacredness.

20:45Something that you take as beyond yourself.

20:49Something that you take as transcending yourself, so you always bow down to it.

20:54That's sacredness.

20:55Only the truth is sacred.

20:58No belief, no relationship, no experience.

21:04Everything in life is sacred except the one.

21:07And if you can see that, and if you can practice that, then you will experience a great freedom

21:13in life, which actually is your birthright.

21:17A birthright that is denied to most of us, unfortunately.

21:22Getting it?

21:26So like when we say that we are free to believe what we want to believe, no like from our

21:32side, we have to believe the truth.

21:35And we can, we have to, we are not obliged to anything.

21:38Wait, wait, wait.

21:39There's a problem here.

21:41When you say you are free to want anything or believe in anything, that's not freedom

21:47at all.

21:49Freedom does not rush after wants or desires or beliefs.

21:53They are all one.

21:54They come from your darkness.

21:56Freedom questions everything.

21:58Because freedom wants to accept only the real.

22:03Freedom has a great distaste for fakeness.

22:06Do you want or like fake stuff?

22:08How many of you?

22:11To not to like fakeness is freedom.

22:14What if your desires themselves are fake?

22:17What is fake?

22:18That which is second-handed.

22:21Somebody installs a desire inside you.

22:25Why do you want to call it your desire?

22:26Please tell me.

22:27Please tell me.

22:28A clever marketer comes here, for example, and in some cunning way starts advertising,

22:45let's say a new mobile phone to you, without even explicitly saying that he is here to

22:51advertise.

22:55And because he is advertising his stuff, you develop a desire for it.

23:00That's what advertising does.

23:01Does it not?

23:02What happens when you watch an ad?

23:06You become desirous and then you call that desire as your desire.

23:13How is it your desire?

23:14Please tell me.

23:16So how is it freedom then to rush after an imported desire?

23:22Somebody has installed a desire in you and now you are investing your time and energy

23:29and life in fulfilling that desire.

23:32Is that a wise thing to do?

23:34So that's not freedom.

23:35That's bondage.

23:38Freedom is not about doing what you want to do.

23:42As young people, please get that right out of your mind.

23:46Because that's the popular notion of freedom young people love to have.

23:51I'm free to do whatever I want to do.

23:53If you are free to do whatever you want to do, then you are a terrible slave.

23:59Not a free man.

24:02Because all desires, all desires, remember this, are external impositions that you take

24:12in in your ignorance, you do not realize they are external things.

24:18Desires come either from your body or from your sensual experience or a combination of

24:26the two.

24:27Are you getting it?

24:30Food, for example.

24:32The fundamental urge arises from the body.

24:36But you might not be according it much weightage.

24:39And then somebody brings a platter of something delicious in front of you and there is the

24:47tempting aroma and what do you find?

24:49You find desire arising with all its force.

24:53The two have combined.

24:55The basic urge was bodily, the body was saying I'm hungry.

25:00And then there was an external stimulus, the sight and the smell.

25:07And the result was deep desire.

25:10That's the anatomy of desire.

25:12That's how it arises.

25:13Now do you want to really call it your own?

25:15And food is a fundamental bodily thing.

25:19So it's alright if you have that desire.

25:22Think of the several other things.

25:28I said desire makes you a terrible slave.

25:31Why?

25:32Because everybody knows how to excite you.

25:38If you have some money in your pocket and if I come and snatch it, I would be called

25:42a thief and a robber.

25:44You would launch an FIR, right?

25:47What if I just tempt you and you give that money to me?

25:52Now the transaction is legal and acceptable.

25:55But the same thing has happened.

25:57The robber has just grown clever.

26:01Instead of snatching it from you, he advertised something useless to you and you bought it

26:09and you gave the money.

26:11It's just robbery.

26:13And you are very happy that you have fulfilled your desire.

26:18No, it's not your desire you have fulfilled.

26:21If anything, it was probably the robber's desire you have fulfilled.

26:26Have you not?

26:29It's not your desire.

26:30Whenever desire arises, ask yourself, how is it mine?

26:35How really is it mine?

26:36It is either the body's thing or the senses thing.

26:41When you are in a state to discount these two kinds of desires, the bodily one and the

26:48external social one, then you will be faced with something very, very important.

26:57Once these two desires are discounted, then you are left with your deepest, pure, original

27:06desire.

27:08And the wise ones have told us that the purpose of life is to fulfill that one deepest desire.

27:16Not the thousand shallow miscellaneous ones.

27:21If you spend your life fulfilling the various miscellaneous desires, that's just wastage

27:27of life.

27:28But beneath the thousand shallow desires, the real one deep desire remains hidden.

27:36You never come to know of it.

27:38When you don't come to know of it, there is no possibility of fulfilling it.

27:45First of all, keep the false desires aside, so that you can see the real desire.

27:52And once you see the real desire, it's so fascinating to try to fulfill it.

27:58That real desire is denoted by a better word, it's called love.

28:04It's no more a desire then, it's love.

28:08And then what you get is a life spent in love.

28:11Not love of the kind you watch on the screens, real love.

28:16Not love of the kind that necessarily includes a person, mostly of the other gender, no.

28:24Love of the real kind, love that brings life to life.

28:32That's the kind of life you all deserve to live.

28:37But you'll squander the opportunity if you think that you want to buy a t-shirt and that's

28:43what you want, or you want to attend a rock concert and that's what you want.

28:49All these are little things, petty desires.

28:57You can't invest too much in them.

29:04Sir, I want to know that how do we explore what's inside of us?

29:08Like in the starting of the session, you said that what sees through our eyes or what listens

29:12through these ears.

29:13So how do we explore what that is, or if we Google this out, so there's so many religions,

29:19they all have different methods of doing that.

29:21So how do I know what's right for me?

29:25Start by discounting.

29:27That's the way.

29:28You will probably never come to know the perfect answer.

29:34But I said that you should be grateful if you can discount the gross imperfections.

29:41That's the way.

29:42If you keep waiting for the perfect one or perfect thing or perfect answer, you'll keep

29:48waiting.

29:49Don't wait.

29:53Start by rejecting, negating, discounting.

29:57Have the heart to disown and be detached.

30:01Keep things aside.

30:02The moment you honestly know that they are not what you must value, keep them aside.

30:19Is all this sounding very dry?

30:21No, it is not.

30:22It is not.

30:23It's just that we have been trained in the wrong kind of juices.

30:31What I'm talking of is actually something very lively, very exciting.

30:40It's just that you need to experiment a bit, you need to try it out.

30:48And you need to hold on for a while.

30:51There would be the initial resistance, don't bow down to it.

30:59Stand firm for a while and then you'll start seeing that this way of living in true freedom

31:11is actually very enticing.

31:15And once you get the taste of it, the hang of it, you'll forget all about the usual juvenile

31:21stuff.

31:22You'll laugh at it, you'll not look at it, you'll discard it.

31:26This is so enticing.

31:30You'll need to begin.

31:31You'll need to try things out.

31:34You said two things.

31:38One is body and other is consciousness.

31:40Body has a shape and we can feel it.

31:44What about consciousness?

31:46How do you?

31:47Pure consciousness is formless, attributeless, nameless.

31:51The senses cannot perceive it, the mind cannot think of it, but our consciousness definitely

31:56has a shape.

31:57For example, if you are body identified, then your consciousness has the shape of the body.

32:04If I am greatly enamored by this mug, then my consciousness takes almost the shape of

32:11this mug.

32:12It becomes this.

32:13Have you seen, when you are very fascinated by something, you lose sense of everything

32:21else and your entire mind is focused on that one thing itself.

32:27So consciousness as we have it, is an adulterated thing and is intertwined with one object or

32:35the other.

32:36But pure consciousness, no shape, nothing.

32:40And that's what its purity is all about.

32:41To be free of everything that has shape and form and name.

32:46That's why it is called pure, pure of, pure of shapes, norms.

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