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00:00We talked of, we said that nothing has inwardly changed, so we are essentially inwardly the
00:11same people who are roaming the jungle, so but a question comes in that definitely somewhere
00:23during the course of evolution, we became this human species, so there has, so somewhere
00:30there has been inward evolution also or has there been no inward evolution?
00:36There has been no inward evolution, let's discuss that, look at an amoeba or a paramecium,
00:52don't you see that it's basic instinct is just the same as that of the most evolved
01:02human being, it wants to exist, you want to exist, what has changed?
01:17You are still the amoeba or you can contradict me in a thousand ways possible, what I am
01:25saying is so vulnerable to arguments that you can trash it in no time, but with some
01:42empathy and understanding, try to get into the truth of it, with all our evolutionary
01:55gifts, intellect, memory, muscle, the subsequent development of a suitable and comfortable
02:11ecosystem aided by technology, are we still fundamentally different from any other kind
02:22of conscious life form on the planet, anywhere else, tell me please, an amoeba reproduces,
02:35so do we, an amoeba eats, so do we, no sir, but you know there is so much that we do not
02:50share with amoebas, let's see please, is there anything that you do that is fundamentally
02:59not centered on stuff that amoeba does, an amoeba wants its space, its territory, even
03:15a little plant does, a blade of grass does, the most primitive being does, see what do
03:28you use your knowledge and your skills for, aren't your resources, your money going so
03:40much towards acquiring space and territory, both physical and psychological, tell me please,
03:51an amoeba wants to have personal space, space that it can declare as its own, territory that it can
04:02monopolize, that's what even an amoeba wants, you could say we do so much, but aren't we doing so
04:16much just to do what the amoeba does, the amoeba obviously doesn't go to the office every day,
04:24you do go to the office, but you go to the office to do what the amoeba does,
04:29amoeba has no laboratories, it does not develop technologies, but we have laboratories and we
04:44have developed technologies to do what the amoeba does, the amoeba does not have language,
04:54we have language, what do we use language for, to do what amoeba does, what do you speak for,
05:07please tell me, we said the session today started late because the people around were playing loud
05:16music and such stuff, what were all those songs about, they were about reproduction, you see,
05:28let's put it bluntly, the fellow wants to meet, he is using words to invite the other human,
05:40the other human of the opposite gender to meet and that's what we call as songs,
05:47you know, at least that's the kind of songs we use on celebratory New Year Eve,
05:56so you have language, what do you use language for, you use language to meet,
06:02that's also what the amoeba does without using language, in fact the amoeba is more efficient,
06:15you use so many words just because you are wooing a female, words and instruments and loud speakers,
06:26goodness, you know amoeba is so efficient that not only does it not need words,
06:40it does not even need a female, it just multiplies on its own,
06:49it's both a male and a female, it's neither a male nor a female,
06:56is there anything that you do that is fundamentally different from what an amoeba does,
07:03so where is evolution, please tell me, whatever we do, we do for the sake of existence,
07:16we want to remain, we want to remain as we are, that's also exactly what the amoeba wants,
07:23how are you different?
07:37Now today we have taken the amoeba, at other times I have taken up the dog, we will find that offensive,
07:49so I said fine amoeba, but I still maintain that the dog is more handy,
07:57if you look at all that a dog does and you look at all that you do, it would be so easy
08:08to establish a clear mapping, a very direct correlation,
08:13there is not a single thing that you do and a dog doesn't,
08:23where is your evolutionary superiority, tell me please, but we read, for what do you read?
08:37You read to feed yourself, you read to clothe yourself, you read to acquire physical, psychological space,
08:52a dog manages all of that, even without reading,
08:56even without reading,
09:01you need to draw international boundaries, the dog just has to lift his leg,
09:13the dog doesn't have to appoint a commission, MacMohan or something to
09:17draw a meticulous international boundary,
09:28this is my territory, how do I mark it? By peeing,
09:36you know that's the truth of all territorial occupation, all territorial obsession,
09:42you want territory so that you can pee and shit over it,
09:47irrespective of whether that territory is physical, mental or bodily,
09:56why do you want to acquire territory in the form of a human body, I own you, you are mine,
10:02you are my territory, just as that's my scooter, that's my car, that's my bungalow,
10:07that's my wife or husband, what do I do once I acquire the territory?
10:19I'll pee over it, that's already offensive, but can't help it.
10:28What else do you do once you have acquired a man or a woman? Think of it, please. There was one
10:35thing that you could not do without acquiring that person, a spoil his or her body, once you acquired him,
10:44then literal shit,
10:57no?
11:14No, but we keep our houses clean, why are you saying that we acquire territory
11:27to spoil it? Once we acquire territory, in fact, we make additional efforts to keep it clean,
11:32that's what the cleanliness that you're talking of is shit.
11:36You acquire territory to use it to maintain yourself, the dog uses territory to suit
11:52its own personal purpose, that's what we are calling as spoiling or dirtying.
11:58So, it might appear that you are keeping your place very clean, but still the purpose is very dirty,
12:05the purpose is continuation of my existence as I am, my place will be used
12:14to provide me comfort and security, that's a very dirty purpose.
12:20Evolution will not take you beyond the body or the self,
12:29wisdom would, that's why I keep harping,
12:36don't let your ego take you beyond the body or the self,
12:46that's why I keep harping, don't attach too much significance to age, no age is small enough
13:07to prevent you from moving into wisdom.
13:17And no age is advanced enough to prevent you from moving into wisdom.
13:27Evolution will not help, experience will not help, age will not help,
13:34only wisdom would help. If you think that experience will deliver wisdom to you, you are badly mistaken.
13:42If you think being called a senior citizen will deliver you from maya, you are in a fool's paradise.
13:54So, we as human beings do have the possibility of going beyond what is fundamentally the same
14:15with all other animals, because if we as human beings, we can, let's say,
14:20perform these five steps and go towards liberation, which an animal cannot do.
14:28An animal does not want to do, that's not how it is biologically constituted.
14:34So, this quest is, this potential, is this also biological?
14:39Yes, this potential is the potential of your body.
14:48Only your body is designed in a way that the consciousness attached to it can seek freedom from it.
15:04You could even say that only man is unfortunate enough to not remain contended with the body.
15:21All other life forms are contended with the body.
15:29Only man is born with a special urge.
15:34This you could take as his superiority or his misfortune.
15:44No animal experiences the angst that a human being does.
15:48Animals don't have to go through so much tension and inner strife.
15:59They don't turn depressed, neurotic, suicidal so easily.
16:08We do, because we are special.
16:13We do, because we are special.
16:19We are special animals, hello.
16:24Not that we are absolutely special, we are just special animals.
16:30Acharya ji, previously in the answer you specified that there is nothing evolutionary which is in us.
16:40But in our Vedas and scriptures, in the avatars, ten avatars, it is, you know, we were marine first and then gradually the last stage is the meditative man, that is, the one who is in charge of the body.
16:58That has been described, so, and meditative as in the current state, which has the potential of,
17:08which is able to discuss this, so, but, and while we see that this is the potential which has come
17:15through the evolution, which we just came to, but you also straight away disagree that there is
17:25anything biologically evolutionary that is going to come which will uplift us, so.
17:35How to reconcile? The problem is potential is a very deceptive word. You use the word potential
17:47to defend your notion that man is special.
17:56No? You say man has the potential for liberation, therefore man is special.
18:05You say man has the potential for liberation, therefore man is better than animals.
18:12I take potential
18:18as a phantom,
18:19as maya, myth. Potentially, we are all divine. Potentially, we are all the true self, atma.
18:28So what? So what? Where is that potential expressing itself in your life?
18:38The only use you have for that potential is that you use it
18:45is that you use it to defend your unreasonable sense of grandeur and superiority. We are
18:54potentially great. Two hoots to your potential. What are you really? What are you living as?
19:04Potentially, yes, you could be sage Angiras. What are you living your life as? Tell me that.
19:12You're living your life as the amoeba, therefore I'll call you the amoeba. I won't call you Angiras.
19:23You might be born with so much potential.
19:27That's actually unfortunate because you will die with so much potential.
19:34Would have been better had you been born with no potential
19:37because that potential is never going to fructify. You will just die with it.
19:45With you, it would be turned to ashes.
19:52What's the point in
19:55talking of that mythical potential and singing and dancing around it?
20:02You know, our possible glory. Possible glory or current debauchery.
20:21I want to talk of the latter
20:23because without talking of your current debauchery, your possible glory is anyway always going to remain
20:34just a myth, a utopia, a chimera.
20:47A utopia, a chimera.
21:09Like people talk of their great ancestors.
21:12You know, I come from the line of the great king who once used to rule Delhi.
21:22How does that help you? Look at your life.
21:27How does that help you? I come from the line of the Buddha or Mahavir. Who are you?
21:35Who are you? Look at your life.
21:44All the time you are violent and you are talking of Buddha and Mahavir.
21:51But you know, I am a Bharadwaj Brahmin
21:57or some other Brahmin. I come from the line of sage Agastya.
22:04And even as you say this, you are spitting
22:12chicken bone out from your mouth.
22:19Steeped in ignorance, you are talking of this glory, that glory, this highness, that beauty.
22:35Potentially, you could have been the topper of your class.
22:44No? I want to know what you actually did.
22:55Potentially, you could have won eight Nobel Prizes by now.
23:05But I know you couldn't have graduated without cheating. That's your reality.
23:21Isn't it actually
23:25a disgrace that in spite of having a potential, we live the life of an amoeba?
23:33Doesn't that not only make us equal to but rather worse than the amoeba?
23:43The amoeba never had the potential of being anything beyond the amoeba. You had the potential
23:50and you still lived as the amoeba. Now tell me, are you better or worse than the amoeba?
23:56Worse than the amoeba. That's the reason I keep saying the dogs are better than us.
24:03They are at least performing to their average.
24:07You know, there is a tail ender. I am talking of cricket.
24:14His average is 10, batting average 10. He has no more potential. His batting average is 10
24:24and he comes to bat and gets out at 10.
24:26Is that bad performance? Not at all. He is performing to his average.
24:32Now you are a top order batsman. Your average is 58. That's your potential. You could have made 58 or more
24:43and you come and you get out at 10.
24:49Who's better? The tail ender or you? So the dogs are better than us.
24:56So,
25:09happened with me. I stood third in my class, class four or five
25:19and got bashed up at home.
25:27It wasn't a bad performance by any means. Third in a class of 40 or 50.
25:36Got beaten up and then
25:47I rebelled. I said this, my sister,
25:56she never even manages a single digit rank but happily she carries her report card,
26:05comes in, throws it away and starts rolling on the bed and nobody utters a word to her.
26:17All the time she is just happy.
26:18I burn the midnight oil. She keeps snoring.
26:27She comes 13th in her class. I came third.
26:33She is still happy.
26:38I have been bashed up. This won't do.
26:41My mother said you have done far worse than her.
26:45I couldn't really grasp. Now I think I do.
27:00I have been bashed up.
27:02Now I think I do.
27:12If you have potential and you don't live up to it,
27:20life will offer you the harshest punishment
27:25because you have failed in your one duty as a human being
27:31to materialize your potential. That's your only dharma.
27:36Your potential, the Upanishads call as Atma.
27:44You have it and yet you do not have it.
27:46You have it and yet you do not have it.