Suicide or Samadhi? || Acharya Prashant, on World Suicide Prevention Day (2022)
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Video Information: 10.09.2022, Vedant Mahotsav, Bangalore
Context:
~ Why do people commit suicide?
~ What is the end of suffering?
~ Are we actually living?
~ What is the worst that happens when I die?
¬ Where to go for the root of this problem of suicide?
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: 10.09.2022, Vedant Mahotsav, Bangalore
Context:
~ Why do people commit suicide?
~ What is the end of suffering?
~ Are we actually living?
~ What is the worst that happens when I die?
¬ Where to go for the root of this problem of suicide?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Pranam Acharyaji. I am very happy to see you personally. I have been hearing you since
00:10six months, brought lot of changes. Today my question is about suffering in the life
00:18and about suicidal tendencies. As today is the world's suicide prevention day, so my
00:24question is regarding that. I am doctor by profession, gynecologist. I work in a rural
00:31health sector. There are many patients I see, they are suffering like anything. They are
00:37very poor and illiterate and even the disabled people, they come with the full of tears in
00:44their eyes and telling like it's because of our last curse, last janma curse and I have
00:50become disabled like that and every alternative days, I see there are cases of the suicides,
00:58like either attempt or the successfulness. Two of the people, I have myself done the
01:05post-mortem of that. The age was around 24 and 26 and in the last 2021, in India there
01:13was 1,64,000 suicides rate was there and in the whole world, it was 8,00,000. So my
01:22question was like how actually by seeing all these sufferings, even sometimes I feel like
01:28ending of the life. It is like where to go the route of this problem. How exactly, for
01:36me it is a challenging to be peace by seeing all these things and work at that place and
01:44top of that my own suicidal tendencies also I want to fight it. Even this many times in
01:49my life, I have faced that tendency because of the stress of life. I have seen so many
01:57people who are well educated, well affluent, they have committed suicide. Even my own colleagues,
02:03being a doctor, she had committed. In the last year, the ex-Chief Minister Edurapa's
02:11granddaughter, she was doctor by herself, she committed suicide. So by seeing all these
02:16things, sometimes we feel like what is the end of all these sufferings. If Samadhi is the end,
02:23like not to be affected and be Samadhi, it is very difficult. Sometimes we feel like suicide
02:29is the easy route. See, the primary cause of suicide is birth itself. The data that you have,
02:44that 1.5 or 2 lakh people committed suicide in India the last year, is actually existentially
02:59wrong. The thing is that the entire population, every single human being born ends up committing
03:18suicide. Birth itself is suffering. And the purpose of life is to get rid of suffering.
03:46Even if you live for 80 years or 100 years, without attaining that sole purpose of life,
04:04what you have died cannot really be called as proper death. It is suicide. You have ended
04:16life without letting it attain its climax. What do we call it if not suicide? In general,
04:28when a person who is 25 or 40 or something or 15 dies by suicide, we find it so regrettable.
04:46Why? Because there was so much more to be done and that person ended his or her life
04:57and therefore deprived himself of the opportunity to do more and be more in life.
05:07And that's why when there is a suicide, we all feel sad. Because a suicide is wastage of opportunity.
05:17That's how we define it. And that's why suicides are so very lamentable. The moment we hear that,
05:28especially if a young person is gone because of suicide, it hurts us badly. Why does it hurt us?
05:39Because there was an opportunity and that opportunity was wasted.
05:46That person will not be able to now live, learn, grow, experience, realize and be liberated.
05:58Do you see this? Otherwise, why would we find it sad or bad that a fellow is gone early?
06:05Oh, he is gone early. There was a potential to be met, a possibility to be realized. The potential
06:18and the possibility have been squandered. That's the reason suicide is a curse. Now tell me,
06:28how many of us, even if we live till 80, actually manage to realize our possibility and potential?
06:37Hardly anybody. So are we all not then guilty of suicide?
06:44But then we say a fellow has committed suicide only if he hangs himself or poisons himself
06:52or jumps from a building. That's when we feel, because we are body-identified people
07:06and we give credence only to tangible events that are gross, thool.
07:14So when that kind of a sight appears in front of us, we label it suicide.
07:18Oh, this fellow is gone by suicide because I can see him hanging there. I can see, my eyes can see.
07:27There is a tangible event happening. The body is there, the body is hanging and therefore,
07:39it is possible for me to call it a suicide.
07:42It is possible for me to call it a suicide.
07:46Why not call it a suicide when the body is not hanging that way,
07:51but the mind is hanging that way all your life? The body is alive, the mind is suffering.
08:02The body is walking, moving, eating. The mind,
08:07it can't breathe, it can't fly. Is that not suicide?
08:13Remember the definition of suicide and remember why a suicide is a sad event.
08:18A suicide is a sad event because it prevents us from realizing our possibility.
08:25And when you know that there is no chance of realizing your possibility,
08:30then even euthanasia is allowed.
08:36I might be only 22,
08:40but if it is fully established that due to physical reasons, I will never be able
08:49to move or cognate or live any kind of half-decent life,
09:00then even law in several countries allows me to end my life.
09:06Why is that kind of suicide permissible?
09:09Why is that kind of suicide permissible?
09:16Because it is known then, in such cases, there is no point living on.
09:23You will not be able to, as we said, experience, learn, grow and be liberated.
09:30And if you cannot learn and grow and be liberated,
09:36then even law allows you to end your life.
09:38Do we see this?
09:43So, you must remember that it is not the end of body that you must call as suicide.
09:48It is the end of possibility and potential that you must call as suicide.
09:54That is the real definition. Do we see this?
09:57Do we see this?
09:58It is not merely the end of the body that is to be labeled as suicide.
10:03It is the ending of potential that is to be called as suicide.
10:07And when the potential is not available to be realized,
10:11then we are saying that even the society and the law allow us to end the body.
10:18Because the body by itself means nothing.
10:22The body by itself is just biology.
10:24And we are creatures of consciousness, not just biology.
10:28Biology is secondary. Consciousness is primary.
10:32The consciousness has to be alive.
10:35Being alive just bodily and physically does not suffice at all.
10:42Are you getting it?
10:43So, if suicide is to be defined as the ending of potential and possibility,
10:52please tell me, are we all not guilty of suicide?
10:59Please tell me.
11:00We have come to our respective ages.
11:04Somebody here is 25, there is somebody is 35, somebody is 55.
11:12How far have we come in the direction of our absolute potential?
11:20Do we even intend to live fully?
11:24To live fully?
11:28Then are we not committing suicide every passing day?
11:31Please tell me.
11:35Please tell me.
11:36But we live very unsubtle lives.
11:43So, we do not see that the mind is dying.
11:48We are just relieved and satisfied that the body is alive.
11:54But then the body being alive cannot be termed as life in case of human beings.
12:00We are not animals.
12:02How do you know that an animal is alive?
12:05You will perform some physical tests and the tests are positive, the animal is alive.
12:10That cannot be the definition of life when it comes to our species.
12:15Just because a person is moving, walking, seeing, hearing, eating,
12:24inhaling, exhaling, you cannot call that person alive.
12:28We are alive when we are conscious and the extent of our aliveness depends on,
12:40is proportional to the freedom and the height of our consciousness.
12:47That's the definition of life when it comes to Homo sapiens.
12:52Now are we alive?
12:54Or are we just walking around like machines, like robots?
13:02Robots do walk, they even talk.
13:05And if you are not attentive enough, you might feel the robot is a sentient being.
13:10We have very advanced robots now.
13:16They can almost emote.
13:18They can read your face, they can judge your expressions, they can respond accordingly.
13:26What's the difference between a robot and a human being?
13:29You don't call a robot as alive, right?
13:32Why do you call a human being alive?
13:34Because we are conscious, we can understand.
13:37No robot can ever understand.
13:40We'll be taking up the Bhagavad Gita today.
13:45Verses from chapter 4.
13:48Even the most advanced supercomputer can translate those verses.
13:53It can never understand them.
13:57Get the difference right, please.
13:59No robot can ever understand what the Gita is saying.
14:03Not today, not 10,000 years into the future.
14:08That's what is the definition of life.
14:11Your ability to understand and understanding comes with freedom.
14:16Understanding and freedom are actually the same thing.
14:22No robot will ever yearn for freedom.
14:24No robot will ever say, why am I programmed?
14:27And every machine is programmed, right?
14:31No robot will ever rebel against its internal conditioning and programming.
14:37A human being does.
14:39And the intensity of your rebellion is the extent of your aliveness.
14:46If you cannot rebel against your inner conditioning, programming, your inner bondages,
14:52your biological patterns, how do you call yourself alive?
14:59The robot never rebels.
15:00Ever seen a machine rebelling against itself?
15:04And every machine is designed by somebody else, controlled by somebody else,
15:07programmed by somebody else.
15:09No machine rebels.
15:10And if we do not rebel against our external and internal masters who drive us,
15:17program us, control us remotely, how are we alive?
15:23And if we are not alive, how are we not very, very sad and guilty
15:34that suicide is happening each passing moment?
15:41Suicide is not just an event.
15:43Suicide is not just an event.
15:47It is a process.
15:51It is a process.
15:52And that's the reason saints have cried in compassion.
15:57They see corpses walking all around.
16:04They see life being turned to ashes.
16:07They see a man spending 60, 80 years of his life
16:13and then dying without ever coming close to what he could possibly have been.
16:21Ask yourself honestly, how close are you to the best you could have been?
16:29I repeat, how close are you to the best you could possibly have been?
16:34Why have you killed your potential?
16:37Why are you so suicidal?
16:44Go back 20 or 30 years in time.
16:49The life that you are living today, would you have settled for this life 20 years back?
16:5720 years back, had someone come and told you this would be your life 20 years from today,
17:03would you have taken the deal?
17:06Then why are you content with your current situation today?
17:11When you were 20 or 25 or 30 or whatever, you had great dreams for yourself.
17:20You wanted to be big.
17:21You wanted to be best.
17:23You wanted to soar high.
17:25How today are you satisfied in your chained, controlled, caged condition?
17:35And how is that very different from someone who just hangs himself?
17:46We are born in chains.
17:49Someone said, man is born free but is everywhere in chains.
17:53The fellow didn't really go very deep.
17:56The fact is, we are born in chains.
18:00The purpose of life is to set yourself free.
18:06Are you getting it?
18:11The purpose of life is to set yourself free.
18:13There are only two solutions.
18:19The suffering self has to come to an end because we are born suffering.
18:24Right?
18:25And you cannot carry on with the suffering self.
18:28It has to come to an end.
18:32There are only two ways.
18:34One, suicide.
18:35What I am calling as biological suicide, you call as natural death.
18:40What you are calling as natural death is not natural death.
18:46What I am calling as suicide happens in two ways.
18:51One man-made suicide, second biological suicide.
18:58What I am calling as biological suicide, you call as natural death.
19:03What you are calling as natural death, someone dies at the age of 90, peacefully in his sleep
19:13he has a heart attack and he is gone.
19:18And you say, oh, he was already 90 and it is a natural death.
19:23It is not natural death.
19:26It is biological suicide.
19:27The body is gone, consciousness did not get what it craved for its entire life.
19:37So we said, there are only two possibilities when it comes to the life of a human being,
19:43either suicide or samadhi.
19:45And suicide is of two types.
19:48One when you throw yourself on a railway track, two when you live the so-called normal life
19:59and pass away in a hospital when you are 80 or 90.
20:04The state, the doctors, the society, they will certify that you have died a natural
20:09death.
20:10No, it is not a natural death.
20:13It is natural suicide.
20:19So there is suicide and there is samadhi and suicide is of two types.
20:22We regret only one type of suicide.
20:29We do not regret the other kind of suicide that we witness every day, that we commit
20:33every day to ourselves.
20:40Is it not so?
20:45One kind of suicide cannot be better than the other kind or can it be?
20:49Yes?
20:51So instead of opting between 1A and 1B, 1A is what you officially call as suicide.
21:05Somebody jumped from the 10th floor.
21:07That is what we officially call as suicide.
21:091A is official suicide.
21:121B is biological suicide.
21:15What is 1B?
21:17The fellow lived for 80-90 years his usual mediocre enslaved life and then died.
21:27Is 1B really better than 1A?
21:30I am asking you.
21:32So do not try to reduce 1A so that 1B increases.
21:39Check both 1A and 1B, opt for 2.
21:46That is what mankind needs today.
21:49A movement from 1A to 1B is no progress at all.
21:56The real movement is, the real progress is when you move from 1 to 2 and 2 is samadhi.
22:04If not suicide then samadhi is the only option because the thing has to end.
22:08We are born suffering.
22:10Suffering has to end.
22:11It can end only in these two ways, either suicide or samadhi.
22:19Now instead of samadhi, we go for 1B.
22:231B is, oh come on, come on, don't commit suicide.
22:30Just live on.
22:31Keep suffering.
22:33Keep bearing all the humiliation life heaps on you.
22:36And continue living, continue living, live till the age of 90.
22:411B is no better than 1A.
22:442 is better than both 1B and 1A and 2 is the real solution to the problem of human suicide
22:54rather to the problem of human birth, human suffering, the very human condition.
23:01Only 2 is the solution.
23:02Samadhi is the solution.
23:05And if not samadhi, you will either hang yourself or will continue to live a tortured
23:11life which is hardly better than hanging yourself.
23:19What is samadhi?
23:23Nothing exotic, nothing of the kind that our fantastic storytellers have fed us.
23:33Samadhi simply means a deep, true, lasting solution.
23:41A true and lasting solution, that's what is called samadhi.
23:47Life itself is the problem.
23:49When the kid is born, the problem is born.
23:52When the kid is born, the bondages are born.
23:56And therefore life itself is the problem.
23:58How to solve that problem?
23:59The solution is called samadhi.
24:03How to solve that problem?
24:04Know the problem.
24:06Can you solve a problem without knowing what it is?
24:10Get into the problem, observe your daily movements, see what you are doing, see where it is coming
24:17from and it will become very clear to you whether you must continue doing what you do
24:25and continue living as you do.
24:32That simple thing is called samadhan, more precisely samadhi.
24:46Life is a challenge.
24:50Meet it with wisdom and courage.
24:54And then life is good fun.
24:57Life is far better than having a good challenge to deal with.
25:04Is that not exciting?
25:07Does that not elevate you?
25:09Does that not awaken and arouse you when there is a proper challenge in front of you?
25:15And you are not afraid of the challenge?
25:17You want to meet it head on?
25:19And you don't want to ram your head into it?
25:22You want to meet it head on?
25:23Wisely, we said, with wisdom and with courage.
25:34Most of us simply balk away from life.
25:42Life hurts us so much that we become insensitive to ourselves.
25:48That's the only way we think we can survive.
25:52If we do not become numb, it pains.
25:55So we choose to become insensitive.
26:00No.
26:01Gather some courage.
26:05Open up to your own hurt.
26:09Admit that you are suffering.
26:13And that is not a sign of weakness.
26:19The day you open up and acknowledge your sufferings is the day you are standing up
26:25to your suffering.
26:30What's worst is when we refuse to acknowledge that life is really bad for us.
26:38That's the worst we can do to ourselves.
26:40That's a sign of deep cowardice, weakness and lack of faith.
26:51The moment you say, yes, it is bad, very bad.
26:55How is it?
26:56Smile and say, very bad.
26:59There's no reason to keep uttering to others, oh, good, good, I am doing good.
27:05You don't need to weep.
27:08But you also don't need to be a liar.
27:13You are entitled to smile.
27:15But smile and express the truth.
27:18With a smile say, yes, I am hurt, I am vulnerable, I am beaten, I am bruised.
27:23There are so many wounds.
27:24It pains everywhere.
27:27Life is not good.
27:28And I say that with a smile.
27:30Life is not good.
27:31Life is not good.
27:32But I have not been finally beaten because I have not yet surrendered.
27:39I have faith.
27:41I'll fight it out.
27:45I'll look my enemy in the eye.
27:49If you do not squarely look at your enemy, how will you identify it?
27:54How will you know it?
27:57In the doctrines of warfare, they say Shatrubodh is very important.
28:02What is Shatrubodh?
28:04To really know who your enemy is.
28:06If you do not even identify and acknowledge your enemy, how will you win the war?
28:19Yes, Maya is immense, big, huge.
28:23And she kicks us in the face every day.
28:26But call her out with a smile, obviously.
28:31You don't need to turn bitter.
28:39And then you will realize that Maya will also by herself provide the solution.
28:46She is the problem.
28:47And the solution also goes from within her.
28:57Yes, being beaten is all right.
29:02Opting out of the arena is not all right.
29:10The worst defeat is when you decide to not to fight.
29:16Otherwise, biting the dust even a hundred times is okay.
29:22After all, it's a rigged kind of match, a rigged kind of battle, no?
29:30We are born in chains.
29:32We cannot say it's a level playing field.
29:41It's okay.
29:44It's okay to meet defeat daily, but it's not okay to surrender.
29:52It's not okay to be so intimidated by her that you run away from her.
29:57Stay close to her.
29:58Watch her.
30:00Even if coming close to her would mean that you
30:05land some extra punches on your face, that's okay.
30:08Still come close to her.
30:13See how she operates.
30:15And where is she?
30:16She sits within each of us.
30:18She sits in the body and then after the body, she sits outside of us in the society,
30:26in the world, everywhere.
30:31First of all, she sits here.
30:34See how she functions.
30:37Observe her.
30:40That observation of her is the key to success in life.
30:44Observe her.
30:47That observation of the problem will lead you into the solution.
30:54That solution is Samadhi, the only alternative to suicide.
31:06It's not that we are bad problem solvers.
31:11The problem is that we do not even know the problem.
31:15The problem is that we address the problem by very decorated names.
31:24We are so attached to the problem that we hesitate calling the problem a problem.
31:33It's okay.
31:36A problem simply means something that troubles you.
31:39It has no moral connotations attached to itself.
31:43It's something very factual.
31:49You are infected by a virus.
31:50That does not mean you have to curse the virus.
31:52But you must know the facts of your condition.
32:00Why don't we know the facts of our life?
32:04Why are we so afraid?
32:06What has sapped away our energy, our honesty, our courage?
32:14Why are we so reluctant calling a spade a spade?
32:20What will you lose?
32:22What do you have to lose?
32:28What really do you have to lose?
32:29Why are you so afraid?
32:35You only have lots to gain and that's what we are calling as your potential, right?
32:39Life can be tremendously rewarding.
32:44But life rewards only those with guts, guts and wisdom.
32:50That's all.
32:52And where guts and wisdom combine, there is true love.
33:09It's great we are here today on Rishikesh.
33:12It's great we are here today on Suicide Prevention Day.
33:15Wonderful.
33:18I wish the question were asked a few days back so that we could have published it today.
33:23But anyway.
33:30My another question was that how to be unaffected by the sufferings of the patients and the
33:36physically disabled when they come to hospital.
33:39It's making me depressed and...
33:42No, no. There is something missing here.
33:47When you say you are affected by the other's suffering,
33:51please ask yourself, is it not because
33:54you take the suffering as something exclusive to that person?
34:01All are suffering, but...
34:04Forget about all.
34:05Do you see yourself as suffering in the same way and equally?
34:10Once you see that, you'll find that you are not affected.
34:14Rather, you are compassionate.
34:18That's the difference between being affected,
34:25between being merciful
34:31and being compassionate.
34:32Compassion is when you can see that condition within yourself as well.
34:43That's when you realize that in helping the other, you are helping yourself.
34:49That's compassion.
34:49Sir, I try to help, sir.
34:52But what happens like daily from 10 to 2 o'clock,
34:57I see everybody coming and telling their suffering.
35:00Always, it makes me feel like there is one proverb in Kannada.
35:05In Samsara, there is...
35:07Sāsvi ashtu sukha, sāgara ashtu dukha.
35:10It means like the mustard, the happiness in the life is like a mustard seed kind
35:16and the sadness is like an ocean.
35:18But always we are zooming in that mustard seed and thinking like
35:23somebody is happy and like, you know,
35:26happy and like, you know,
35:28only the particular people are in that suffering.
35:32So, you get to hear people's problems and see their suffering every day
35:38and that influences you badly.
35:40I feel so compassionate.
35:42I feel like what to do for these people.
35:44How am I supposed to feel now?
35:46That is what even I wanted to ask.
35:51How you feel like every people come and tell you their sufferings,
35:54how you manage that stress?
35:57There is no special or additional stress.
36:02Whatever stress is there is already there.
36:08So, it's just an extension of my own battle.
36:12I am not fighting any special or exclusive or additional battle for your sake.
36:21Life is the same.
36:22Be it in my form or your form.
36:27Our predicaments, our agonies, our hopes, our disappointments,
36:34they are also the same.
36:36So, what I hear from you is nothing but my own story
36:39narrated in another form, in another situation.
36:44And that's why I think sometimes I am able to offer solutions.
36:49I am able to offer solutions.
36:56Sometimes they work.
36:57Sometimes they don't.
37:04We all are one.
37:09There are no different stories.
37:15Right?
37:16As I am a gynecologist, I see many pregnant patients in the rural areas.
37:23They don't even have money to live a good life.
37:27They go on giving birth three, four.
37:31I got fed up of explaining them, like,
37:34no, still they will have three females and they want one more male.
37:41Last week only I have conducted one caesarean section.
37:44It was the third caesarean section of hers.
37:46Because she still refused to do Tubectomy because she wants a male child.
37:51I seriously have a…
37:52Is this condition specific to that patient?
37:56Think of it.
37:58Everywhere it is.
37:59Repeating the same mistake over and over,
38:05again and again.
38:06Is this something only that particular patient is doing?
38:09So, on one hand, it's something that really concerns us.
38:16On the other hand, it should bring that little smile to us.
38:23That patient is who I am, who you are.
38:28Do we ever commit a mistake only once?
38:33Has it happened?
38:34Are there any new mistakes ever?
38:41She has given birth three times.
38:43She is pregnant the fourth time again.
38:48We all are pregnant people.
38:53Ready to give birth to another mistake.
38:56It's just that the woman you are giving birth to,
38:57she is not ready to give birth to another mistake.
39:00Ready to give birth to another mistake.
39:02It's just that the woman you are talking of will give birth in the form of a baby.
39:08We will give birth in other forms.
39:12This day itself, so many of us will give birth.
39:16A new mistake is born.
39:18And that mistake will now run its course.
39:21Mistakes have their own life cycle.
39:24And before one mistake is expired,
39:27five more are born.
39:29And these five, that's the worst thing,
39:32are nothing but mirror images of the previous one.
39:36We don't learn.
39:38We don't learn.
39:41For those who learn, a few years are enough.
39:47Sage Ashtavakra is said to have taught King Janaka at the age of 11 or 14.
39:52It's possible.
39:53Even by that age, you have sufficient experience and exposure
39:58to have known all the possible mistakes one can commit.
40:02That huge universal set is actually contained only in a few basic elements
40:09that we somehow manage to combine through various permutation combinations in an infinite ways.
40:16If you have three variables, x, y and z,
40:18how many numbers or how many possible points can result from just these three variables?
40:30An infinite number, right?
40:33In Cartesian geometry, x, y, z means the entire universe.
40:39So, all that we have is just x, y, z.
40:41You could call that as Satrajitam.
40:43And from that, the universal set of our mistakes is born.
40:55Acharyaji, Pranam.
40:58Deepest gratitude for your teachings.
41:01In the last three years, I have experienced a profound shift in the way I think and the way I live my life.
41:08And yet, when you say that I am not aware of my mistakes,
41:11I am aware of the way I live my life.
41:12And yet, when you say, aren't we all committing suicide, it hits you like a 400 volt.
41:20What am I doing?
41:21How much more can I do?
41:22And where am I stopped?
41:24And what are my barriers?
41:26So, my question is also about somewhat related to mental health.
41:30But this is coming to me as I read your book on the Upanishads,
41:34where you talk about the vritti, about tendency.
41:37And a lot of your question-answer sessions that I've listened to about vritti.
41:42So, I'm a psychotherapist.
41:43I work with people who come from, again, a lot of victimhood.
41:48And so, in the initial stages, I'm empowering them to think for themselves
41:52and to take affirmative actions to recognize what their patterns are
41:56and how those patterns got constructed.
41:59But the basis is that I was born as a blank sheet
42:02and then the patterns got constructed based on the environments I lived in,
42:06the people I met and how I responded to them.
42:10And now I'm reading now, I wasn't a blank sheet.
42:19So, where does one go from here?
42:21We were born flawed.
42:22We were born to self-destruct.
42:24See, we have everywhere to go.
42:28When you are in such a bad condition,
42:33that's good news as far as your potentiality goes.
42:38If you are already on the top of your curve,
42:43you cannot go anywhere from there except sliding down.
42:49But when you are right at the bottom,
42:52the entire universe is waiting for you.
42:54Good news!
42:57We are in such a bad condition
42:59that from here only better things can happen to us.
43:03Is that not nice?
43:08So, in some sense,
43:11Prakriti, the mother loves us.
43:14She gives birth to us in such a wretched form
43:20that from there we can only improve.
43:24We are in such terrible shape
43:28as we take birth that from there, there is no possibility
43:32but to become better.
43:36So, the thing is that some people manage to become worse
43:41even from there.
43:43That's another story.
43:46Those are the stories that come to me to be counseled.
43:50No, but even those who become worse, remember,
43:54you cannot be influenced
44:00or enslaved
44:02if it is not for something within you
44:05that cooperates with the enslavement.
44:09And that something is our genetic composition itself.
44:14It's a very flawed concept
44:18that the kid is born clean or innocent.
44:24In the shape of the kid, a severe problem is born.
44:29In the shape of the kid,
44:32deep enslavement is born.
44:35Don't you see that the human kid requires something like 20-25 years of education?
44:42If you were born alright, why would you require two and a half decades of education?
44:48And even after two and a half decades of education, we are still internally illiterate.
44:55That's how great we are.
44:59And that's how bad our situation is at the time of birth.
45:06Any other species that needs so much education,
45:09we spend a quarter of our life, including the prime of our life,
45:14just getting educated.
45:17And in certain streams, your education lasts till you are 35 or even 38, 40.
45:29Never wondered, why do we need to be?
45:32And this is only with respect to the external kind of education, worldly education.
45:39You are reading about accounts or arts or science or technology or medicine or law
45:46and that consumes so many years.
45:50Internal education, the real education that makes you a human being, a proper human being,
45:57that takes even longer.
46:01That kind of education might not be complete even by the time of your death.
46:05Even 80 years do not suffice for that.
46:13If we are beings who cannot be properly internally educated even in 80 years,
46:20think of how we are at the time of our birth.
46:26Think of how lonely the kid is that even 80 years are not sufficient
46:32to sufficiently illuminate him internally.
46:39Now do you realize why saints have repeatedly prayed to get freedom, liberation
46:48from the bhava chakra, the cycle of birth and death?
46:53Who wants to be born?
46:55To be born is the worst thing that can happen to me.
47:00I don't want to repeat the mistake.
47:06Once you realize that you have not come to this world to enjoy, celebrate or have fun,
47:14then you have known the purpose of life, now you can be liberated.
47:18But to realize that you have not come here to have a gala party,
47:23you first of all need to know that the kid that you have in your lap is seriously diseased.
47:32In fact, the scriptures say, a bundle of diseases is born.
47:39Only ahamavritti takes birth.
47:42The mother disease, that's what takes birth.
47:47Once you know that you have been blessed with a mass of disease,
47:52now you will live your life rightly.
47:56Because you know your situation.
47:57When you know your situation, you know what to do with it.
48:00We do not know our situation.
48:01We celebrate when a kid is born.
48:05And we say, oh the kid is cute, innocent, masoom, pyara, clean, nirdosh, whatever.
48:11That's the fundamental mistake.
48:13And from that mistake, all other mistakes ensue.
48:22A challenge is born and it has to be met with wisdom.
48:32Are you kidding?
48:34Then the purpose of life is not happiness but liberation.
48:41What kind of happiness?
48:43What celebration?
48:45What song and dance?
48:46You are a captive.
48:47You are a prisoner.
48:50Your state is pathetic.
48:56If you want to write a song, it must be written in your blood.
49:00If you want to sing, the words must arise from your deep pain.
49:09And there have been people who have written from a point of truth.
49:14Only their songs, only their literature is worth reading.
49:21When you listen to those songs, you feel elevated.
49:31When you listen to those songs, you feel liberated.
49:34Those songs are coming from a recognition of the true human condition.
49:44Are you getting it?
49:49You feel disappointed only when you compare
49:54your current state to the imagined party state in which you are.
49:59Your current state to the imagined party state you have been led to believe belongs to you.
50:08The world and its markets and its institutions and the family and education,
50:14they have misled you.
50:17They have told you, you are here to party.
50:20And when you find that your life is not exactly a party,
50:24then you feel disappointed as is evident in your question,
50:28what do I do? There is disappointment.
50:30That disappointment is coming from comparison.
50:34You are comparing A to B. The problem is B is fictitious.
50:38So the comparison makes no sense.
50:40What is B?
50:42The feeling, the concept that I am born to be happy, that I am born to party.
50:48You are not born to be happy. You are not born to party.
50:50You are born to struggle. You are born to strive.
50:53You are born to fight it out.
50:55And if you really fight it out, then you get something higher and heavier than happiness.
51:00That's called Anand. That's joy.
51:03But that's not a cheap thing. You have to pay for it dearly.
51:11Most people get neither happiness nor joy.
51:16You don't get happiness because happiness is not possible.
51:20The more you chase happiness, you get its opposite.
51:22Its dual companion, sadness and disappointment.
51:30And Anand, which is indeed possible and which is actually your birthright,
51:36joy that you must really attain,
51:38that you keep yourself deprived of because you never even target it.
51:43You target happiness instead of joy.
51:53I sometimes say that the knowers, the sages,
52:00they were hedonists in the real sense.
52:05We aim for petty happiness.
52:08They targeted real joy. They were the really ambitious people.
52:15The ambitions of today's CEOs and multi-billionaires
52:20multi-billionaires
52:22is childish in front of their aspirations.
52:26Their aspirations were beyond all these petty ambitions.
52:33Transcendental ambition they had.
52:38Their ambition was to get rid of that itself,
52:42which is sad and hence seeks happiness.
52:46They said happiness is sought only when I'm sad.
52:48I'll finish the seed of sadness itself.
52:55Who will need happiness then?
52:57And when happiness is not even needed, that is called joy.
53:06Whenever you will be a happiness seeker,
53:10your face will carry
53:14imprints of your failures and disappointments.
53:19As you said,
53:23in this world happiness and sadness exist in the ratio of one is to a thousand.
53:35And that's an understatement.
53:37As if even one is possible.
53:39Am I being pessimistic?
53:43Realistic.
53:44I'm being realistic.
53:49I'm being joystick.
54:02I'm asking you,
54:03I'm asking you to go for something finer than happiness.
54:09I'm asking you to go for real happiness.
54:13That's not pessimism.
54:14Pessimism is such a small thing.
54:15I'm destroying pessimism itself.
54:18This is the height of pessimism.
54:23To get rid of both pessimism and optimism,
54:26all kinds of dualities, all kinds of dualities,
54:29to get rid of both pessimism and optimism,
54:32all kinds of dualities all together, happiness, sadness, pessimism, optimism.
54:37This is the cycle of our suffering, to be caught in duality.
54:51If things are bad, that's how they are.
54:56You cannot avoid that.
54:59If you really wanted to avoid bad things,
55:04you should not have taken birth.
55:07I didn't have a choice.
55:09But now you do have.
55:11Right?
55:13To be born is to be born in choice.
55:16Now the choice is happiness or joy.
55:19What do you choose?
55:19Joy.
55:20And if you choose joy,
55:23then do not be reluctant to embrace pain.
55:29Those who cannot bear pain will never know joy.
55:35It's in the depths of your pain that joy will emerge.
55:41If you will continue to harp for shallow happiness,
55:45joy will elude you.
55:49Be brave.
55:53The only way to embrace life
55:58is to have a head-on collision with it.
56:02That's the only way you can even touch life.
56:04Otherwise life will be all around you,
56:07but you will never touch it.
56:12You talked of the 440-year-old shock.
56:16Whenever you will touch life, that's what you will get.
56:19And that's why we are so afraid to get in real contact with life.
56:23We are life evaders.
56:26But that's also how this beautiful lady called life can be embraced.
56:30She will give you a 440-year-old shock.
56:34Embrace her.
56:39The moment you embrace her, you will be thrown away.
56:44Embrace her again.
56:46Develop the stamina.
56:53Lady for the men, handsome hulk for the women, whichever way you want to take it.
57:00One thing is certain.
57:01Whatsoever is real will also be shocking.
57:05If you have no stamina, no taste for shocks,
57:10then you will live in ignorance.
57:12If you have no taste for shocks,
57:16then you will live in your little petty dark cave.
57:20That's the only place that is shock-proof.
57:25Reality is always shocking.
57:31And to embrace reality is to embrace 440 volts.
57:36After a while, you discover that's the only way you want to live.
57:45Initially, it is very very bad.
57:47You want to run away.
57:49After a while, you cannot live without it.
57:51After a while, you discover this is what you have always wanted.
57:56This is your deepest longing.
57:58This is what you were born to love.
58:06Remaining protected, covered, insulated, secured—that's not the way of life.