Superstitions are your worst enemy || Acharya Prashant (2019)

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: Vishranti Shivir, 01.11.2019, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India  Context: What is real spirituality? How do rituals take up the name of spirituality? How to get rid of superstitions?  Why did we devalue religion to the point of materialism?  What is the question the religion deals with?  Music Credits: Milind Date ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Transcript

00:00I had been introduced to a fire ritual, it's Agnihotram, which is performed during every

00:15sunrise and sunset.

00:18But in this ritual, we use ghee, the cow dung, everything.

00:23Once I got to know that use of ghee is there in this, and I'm using the cow dung, I'm

00:28not willing to continue this any further.

00:31In English, they had translated it as fire sacrifice.

00:35I did not actually get the actual meaning of that word.

00:41Let's say your son is in class 10th, he would be one day.

00:54And he comes to you with his board exams results.

01:05And he has flung in science, 15 out of 100.

01:13And you ask him, how come?

01:18How did you manage this?

01:20And he says, but I did study science, I invested so much time in studying science.

01:29And you say, okay, let me see, show me your books.

01:34And he brings the books to you and the books appear so very untouched, they look brand

01:42new, virgin.

01:46And the pages are smelling as if they are freshly out of the printer's shop.

02:00You ask him, my son, it is very clear that you never even once opened your science books.

02:06And you are lying to me, stating that you have been diligent with your science studies.

02:17He says, no, I have been studying science.

02:19You ask him, from whom?

02:23And he says that, Panditji, he is my science teacher.

02:34That Mohalla temple is there and that Panditji is there.

02:37And he knows all the sciences in the world.

02:41And he has been my science teacher.

02:48I used to go to him to understand Newton, Pascal, Bernoulli, Kepler.

03:00And he used to tell me, he used to perform all kinds of sacrifices and tell me, see this

03:05is how you have to understand Archimedes.

03:19If the matter at hand is scientific, if it relates to matter, then would you refer to

03:34Pandits and scriptures or must you refer to scientists?

03:52Please!

03:5350 years back, 100 years back, when people used to fall ill, even then they would go

03:57to the local priest and he used to perform all kinds of wonderful miracles.

04:08He would beat someone up with some stick and the fellow would get cured.

04:15Cured as in cured of this worldly existence.

04:24And at that time it was considered medicine.

04:29Today if you do that, you will say the fellow is so foolish, illiterate, full of superstition.

04:45But maybe even today in some remote interior part of the country it is still happening.

04:54If the matter refers to medicine, would you go to a priest or to a doctor?

05:07So if you have to talk about gases and environment, would you listen to the so called religious

05:19people and priests or would you rather consult a scientist or environmentalist?

05:27Tell me.

05:31And when I say that you have to go to a scientist, that does not mean YouTube.

05:36Scientists are not found on YouTube.

05:38If you have to take the opinion of a scientist, go to a proper scientific book or refer a

05:46research journal.

05:50What kind of scientific literature is this that certain people who were performing a

05:55certain ritual sacrifice got saved at the time of Bhopal gas tragedy and the poisonous

06:05gas could not impact them because they were performing a certain yagya or something else.

06:12What kind of science is this?

06:14Where does this science come to you from?

06:16WhatsApp?

06:17YouTube?

06:18I often ask people, how do you know this?

06:23They say, you know, science is proving this.

06:26Somebody, rather a lot of people have been telling me water has memory.

06:32A month or so back, it happened.

06:39Somebody asked me about it and a video was published.

06:41And I rubbished this thing.

06:45The molecule is a molecule.

06:46What do you mean by memory?

06:49So people have been coming to me with proofs.

06:51And what proofs?

06:53The proofs are YouTube videos.

06:57It is news to me that now scientists publish themselves on YouTube.

07:08Scientists are not found on YouTube.

07:12Pseudo-scientists can be found.

07:16Scientific superstition can be found.

07:20Scientists are found elsewhere.

07:21Go to them and ask them.

07:25The matter is very simple.

07:28Elementary science would give you conclusive answers to the question that you have.

07:35There is a certain chemical reaction happening, right?

07:38You say you pour ghee, you put in dung, and there must be some wood and some other material.

07:48And then all of that is put to fire.

07:52And then there is a flame and there are gases.

07:55It is a very easy experiment.

07:56It can be conducted even in a school laboratory, a high school laboratory.

08:01Just collect the gases and analyze which gases are present.

08:07And then ask yourself if this chemical reaction is producing nitrous oxide, carbon monoxide,

08:15carbon dioxide, various oxides of sulfur, a little bit of maybe methane, a lot of water

08:31vapor.

08:33How can it contribute to the cleansing of environment, Bhai?

08:38How?

08:39How exactly?

08:40If anything, it will contribute to climate change.

08:44If anything, it will produce a lot of ash which will increase the amount of suspended

08:52particulate matter in the air.

09:00I do not know of any gas that can purify the environment.

09:12In markets, you do have air purifiers, but they are not purifiers.

09:17Air has a certain composition.

09:19What do you mean by adding something to the air so that it gets purified?

09:24What kind of logic is this?

09:25What kind of science is this?

09:32Even a class 6 student knows the chemical composition of air.

09:35It is a mixture of gases.

09:40Gases combined in a certain proportion, just mixed.

09:46Combined not in the sense of chemically reacting, just mixed.

09:51All the gases retain their individuality.

09:54Nitrogen is nitrogen, oxygen is oxygen.

10:00Now there is 80% nitrogen in the air and if you add oxides of nitrogen to air, how is

10:07air getting purified?

10:09Tell me.

10:13And do not trust me on this because on this matter, I cannot be an authority.

10:19Go and consult a scientist.

10:23And there are so many scientists who are public figures as well, who will be prepared

10:30to answer your questions online.

10:34Just send this query to them.

10:43We have greatly reduced religion and brought it down to the level of crass materialism.

10:53Why?

10:54Because we are material fellows.

11:01What is the domain of religion?

11:05What is the question that religion deals with?

11:08Religion does not deal with gases and material and fire and oxidation.

11:17All that is not the rightful domain of religion.

11:20Religion deals with only one question.

11:23What is this I?

11:26What is it up to?

11:28What does it want and why does it suffer?

11:32Religion deals only with ego and the liberation of ego.

11:40If in the name of religion you find other things being discussed, then this is the work

11:49of some fraud.

11:53Do you get this?

11:57The proper domain of religion concerns just one question.

12:03What is this ego, this I?

12:08Why does it suffer and how can it be liberated from its suffering?

12:12That is all.

12:14Finished.

12:15But if you find that religion is talking of other things, then that is not religion.

12:26That is some kind of tribal superstition.

12:36In the name of religion, if you are talking of fruits and vegetables, wear this, don't

12:42wear that, eat this, don't eat that, your house should face this direction and a thousand

12:59other things that you associate with religion.

13:04Those are not in the purview of religion at all in the first place.

13:10Religion has nothing to do with those things.

13:17Nothing at all.

13:24Are you getting it?

13:31So please tell me, what is the one thing that religion concerns itself with?

13:37Ego and its liberation.

13:41That's all.

13:42What is the ego, from where does it come and hence how it can be liberated.

13:47That's all.

13:51Instead if you find that in the name of religion somebody is talking about planets and stars

13:58and this and that and a thousand other things, then all that is just a sham.

14:05Either the fellow himself knows nothing or he is out to fool an entire population.

14:20Getting it?

14:28Clear?

14:35No religion can save you from carbon monoxide, not at all, or from the gas that was released

14:50in the Bhopal gas tragedy.

14:52Which gas was it?

14:58Whichever gas.

14:59It doesn't matter how spiritual you are.

15:05If your neck is inserted in a container of nitrous oxide or carbon monoxide, you will

15:12not be saved.

15:15Material is material, the body is material and the body will react to material just as

15:20material reacts with material, just as molecule reacts with molecule.

15:26It doesn't matter whether it is the lung of a Buddha or the lung of the most fallen

15:39being in the universe.

15:44Both will react similarly to a poisonous gas.

15:49All these miraculous things that you hear that some great Babaji was there and Babaji

15:54was given poison and Babaji still did not die.

16:01Surely the poison was supplied by Babaji himself.

16:07Babaji is running a lot of shops in the background.

16:11One of the shop sells fake poisons like everything else that is fake in his shops.

16:20Did Socrates not die when he had to drink poison?

16:25Hemlock it was, I suppose.

16:31Or did it happen that because Socrates is Socrates, so he will not die?

16:36Did Christ not bleed when he was impaled?

16:49A very ordinary hunter struck Krishna and that was enough for his body to succumb.

17:02He is body.

17:12Ramana Maharshi, Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Jiddu Krishnamurthy all died of cancer.

17:25Gautam Buddha himself died of a stomach ailment and they were luminaries.

17:38They could have performed some yajna and said, you know, to hell with cancer.

17:45Here is the divine yajna.

17:50If you want to really understand what yajna is, then go to the Bhagavad Gita.

17:55There Shri Krishna has explained the real meaning of yajna.

18:00Yajna means to devote your actions to the Almighty.

18:07That is yajna.

18:09Not that material thing that you keep doing in the morning and evening, burning wood,

18:15putting in ghee and all that.

18:17That is a very gross form of yajna.

18:23Real yajna is what Shri Krishna talks of in the Bhagavad Gita.

18:32And please get rid of this myth that yajna releases gases that purify the atmosphere.

18:38No, not at all.

18:44So the Amazon is burning, just pour a lot of ghee on it.

18:48That will be a great yajna.

18:51And the great atmosphere of not only the earth but the entire solar system will be purified.

18:59Nonsense.

19:03These are the people who have no respect for religion.

19:06These are the people who have no respect for Shri Krishna.

19:08And these are the people who actually have no respect for the great word that is yajna.

19:14Yajna is a beautiful and a great word.

19:18But these people who do not understand anything and yet are very egoistic have spoiled everything.

19:27They just touch even the most sacred of words, institutions, pointers and distort them.

19:46No part of this recording may be reproduced

19:48without Mooji Media Ltd.'s express consent.

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