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~~~~~
Video Information: 25.03.23, Acharya Prashant Workshop, Rishikesh
Context:
~ What is real feminism?
~ When should we express our emotions?
~ What is the worst enemy of women?
~ When should one talk back to their parents?
~ How to bring woman's revolution?
~ How to bring about a Total Women's revolution?
~ Why is there a need for women empowerment?
~ Are man and woman equal?
~ How women can be empowered?
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: 25.03.23, Acharya Prashant Workshop, Rishikesh
Context:
~ What is real feminism?
~ When should we express our emotions?
~ What is the worst enemy of women?
~ When should one talk back to their parents?
~ How to bring woman's revolution?
~ How to bring about a Total Women's revolution?
~ Why is there a need for women empowerment?
~ Are man and woman equal?
~ How women can be empowered?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Sir, as a woman, how should I perceive religion?
00:07Religion and culture are supposed to help one through life, but I have practically seen
00:13that religion is associated with patriarchy and misogyny.
00:17Please tell me, as a woman, how should I look at religion?
00:22See the relationship between women and religion has been pretty interesting and mostly tragic.
00:43On one hand, religion, rather core spirituality, is the woman's best friend because it helps
01:01her be liberated from all that which oppresses her and it tells her that no price is too
01:13big to be paid for liberation.
01:18The best help that self-knowledge and Vedanta extend to women is that they tell her that
01:26being a woman is not her primary identity, that body identification is the root cause
01:35of all kinds of suffering and that if you can take your physical self and your mental
01:47conditioning lightly, then it will be very difficult for Prakriti and society, even if
02:00it's a very toxic and patriarchal society to enslave you.
02:09The woman can be enslaved only as long as she is body identified and socially conditioned.
02:18Vedanta is about the person gaining liberation from both of these, body identification and
02:27mental conditioning.
02:29So ideally, spirituality should be the woman's best friend.
02:37But practically, evidence has been rather mixed.
02:46In fact, evidence has been that religion historically has been on the side of the oppressors when
02:54it comes to women, oppressors of the woman.
02:59The reason is that religion itself has not been well understood.
03:12Religion itself has been a victim of contamination and when religion is contaminated, then religion
03:25becomes a tool towards exploitation of women.
03:34So much so that a lot of very negative attitudes that you see existing towards women today,
03:46they are claimed to be sanctioned by religion.
03:55So as you are saying that the woman should continuously be dependent, that's an attitude
04:04that finds its source in some so-called religious books.
04:13And there are verses exactly to this effect that let the woman never be independent.
04:22Not only that, there have been so-called books that have talked of the woman as a very
04:32clearly inferior person, some kind of a different species altogether.
04:45So she is guilty of this, this, this, this, this, this, so many things are inferior and
04:52condemnable in her and therefore she does not merit responsibility or freedom or many
05:00other things.
05:01Now what's the problem here?
05:04The problem here is that these two kinds of attitude towards women are actually coming
05:12from two kinds of different religions.
05:15There is a religion that uplifts women, that's called Vedanta and there is a religion that
05:22oppresses women, that's your normal cultural religion.
05:31And whenever Vedanta will shine, one of its effects will be the emancipation and empowerment
05:39of women.
05:44Whenever the real religion will show up, it will help women and that will deeply frustrate
05:57the traditional kind of religionists.
06:06Because the difference is stark, real religion, if I said the woman's best friend and false
06:16religion, prevalent religion, mainstream religion is the woman's worst enemy and it's very
06:24important to differentiate between these two kinds of religions.
06:35The tragic thing is most women themselves follow the false kind of religion.
06:43They are aghast, why I am talking to women and telling them that they are not baby producing
06:51machines, that it is not their fate to be firstly dependent on the father and then on
06:58the husband.
07:01But what I am saying is Vedanta and the amusing thing is that what I am saying is probably
07:09not finding too much acceptance among women themselves.
07:16So now the question is who should be blamed, religion or women?
07:24Because when, you see, if you go to places where in the name of religion all kinds of
07:32nonsense is happening, 80-90% of that crowd will be women.
07:41What to do?
07:44It is as if women themselves are hell bent on proving that they do not deserve the real religion.
07:54All kinds of story telling and nonsensical dancing and gossiping, all this in the name
08:01of religion and you will find women very eager.
08:07But when Vedanta speaks truly in the favor of liberation of women, women themselves do
08:12not come forward to support.
08:15How can they support?
08:16They do not want to even accept the help.
08:19Because this help is expensive and demanding.
08:22Vedanta is saying you have in you to lead a free and independent life.
08:30But the woman has become accustomed to support and crutches.
08:36When Vedanta tells her you must live freely.
08:42Whenever you are a woman, you are first of all a consciousness.
08:46And consciousness is your first identity.
08:48When the woman is told all this, then she gets scared.
08:52Because patriarchy is not just about oppressing the woman.
08:58Patriarchy is also about giving her a safe nest.
09:02And the woman has become accustomed to that safe nest.
09:07Somebody is always taking care of me.
09:10I am not burdened with being a provider, a keeper, a protector.
09:17And all this has continued and it has made the woman internally very weak.
09:23And she has become so weak that today even if the right religion comes to help her, she
09:30is probably not in a position to accept the help.
09:37It's a very strange thing.
09:39I think it's called the Stockholm syndrome, right?
09:41When you fall in love with your oppressor, that's what has happened to the woman.
09:49You will be amazed, a lot of those who are criticizing me very sharply are women.
09:58How can you criticize me for something that I am obviously doing to help you and support
10:06you?
10:13Do you understand this?
10:15It's a very tragic thing that happens to those who are caged for long durations.
10:27Even if you open the door of the cage, they will now not want to fly away.
10:41They have become accustomed to the cage.
10:44They have discovered security within the cage.
10:53And outside the cage are challenges and competition.
10:58Freedom is not really free.
11:02Freedom comes when you pay the price.
11:08And we don't want to pay the price.
11:11Even men don't want to pay the price.
11:13But it breaks my heart when I find women content with their own encased and miserable
11:26conditions.
11:29And to top it, you have told the bird that she is very respectable if she accepts the
11:36cage.
11:37And that's what she has done.
11:41She has become a respectfully caged woman.
11:45And if she flies out, the entire society will say, oh, look at her.
11:51There she is, the slut.
11:53And the woman does not want to be called that.
11:55And why does she not want to be called that?
11:56Again, that's a social value that's been embedded into her.
12:00You must remain respectable.
12:02Let nobody talk harshly to you.
12:05So boys, they slap each other and abuse each other and nobody minds.
12:11But if you say one harsh word to a woman, she doesn't forget it.
12:16She says, you know, speak politely to me, mind your language.
12:22This kind of attitude simply means that she becomes very controllable.
12:25Whenever you want to control her, just threaten her with abuses, and she will become so terrified
12:32that she will relent, she will succumb, surrender.
12:37If you want independence, you must be prepared to take abuses.
12:45Let them call you a whore, a slut, someone of loose character and whatever else they
12:50have to.
12:51Let them throw all these things at you.
12:53Fine, I am a slut, that's okay.
12:59But you have been turned into some kind of a goddess, a goddess who must be respected.
13:06And you say it is a part of our culture that we respect women.
13:10And the woman says, yes, I am respectable.
13:14I am respectable.
13:15And if somebody is insulting me, then no, no, no, I will not take that path.
13:22The fact is that the path of freedom is necessarily a path where your oppressors will insult you.
13:32Why will they not?
13:33Think of it.
13:35You are running away from their captivity.
13:38Will they worship you?
13:39Will they praise you?
13:40They will obviously throw abuses at you and you have to be ready to accept all that.
13:47And you have to be ready for hardships.
13:50But again in that, the woman's softness has been venerated.
13:57So she is told you remain soft.
13:58Now, if she remains soft, how will she face the hard challenges of life?
14:02But you say the woman's glory lies in her softness.
14:06Look at how soft her emotions are.
14:10Look at how soft her cheeks are.
14:14Look at how glorious her long hair are with all these things.
14:18How will you survive the challenges of real life, real society?
14:21Please tell me.
14:23All the time, if your hair are so long, all the time you are taking care of just your hair.
14:28How will you fight battles with such long hair?
14:34I'm using hair as a symbol.
14:38Not really that I have something against.
14:42But please understand.
14:45Her subjugation is so total, so complete that it has become very difficult to liberate her.
14:54So much so that in the name of liberation, she starts doing awkward things.
15:01Instead of accepting real liberation, in the name of liberation, she starts doing very
15:08childish things.
15:09I am liberated.
15:11So I'll expose my body.
15:12No, it's okay.
15:13You expose your body.
15:15But that's not called liberation.
15:19And all that is just a very childish tactic to avoid real liberation.
15:25Because you want to avoid real liberation.
15:28So you are opting for that liberal kind of liberation.
15:35You know of these liberals.
15:36They think liberation lies in running around naked.
15:40Again, I have nothing against running around naked.
15:43Please do that.
15:46My point is that is not liberation.
15:50That is not liberation.
15:56So it's a very moot question, you see.
16:01You have to ask yourself as women, and I'm glad I see a lot of women here.
16:05You have to ask yourself, what does religion mean to you?
16:11And just because religion has meant bad things to you, historically, I request you kindly
16:19do not discard religion itself.
16:23Religion is your best friend.
16:25If you have to discard, discard the rotten kind of religion.
16:30And religion is both the highest and the lowest, mind you.
16:35Religion is your highest possibility and your lowest state as well.
16:43Religion has given the world both the things.
16:45If you look at the highest figures we have had, they are religious.
16:49And if you look at the worst acts that we have done, they too have been done in the
16:54name of religion.
16:56Religion is the highest and religion is the lowest.
16:59You have to make a choice.
17:02Which religion do you want to choose?
17:06And I assure you, when you will choose the right religion, you will face abuses, just
17:11as I do every day.
17:16The thing is, I'm not a woman.
17:19It's for you to face those abuses.
17:21Why must I keep facing them on your behalf?
17:23And for how long can I do that?
17:30And when I face abuses on your behalf and I look around, I do not find too many women
17:35coming around to support me.
17:37Not that I need your support.
17:38Please, I am here to support you.
17:40I don't need your support.
17:43But just as an assessment, just as a yardstick of how successful my work is, when I look
17:50around, I do not see women really rising, all kinds of superstitions, who is supporting
18:04them?
18:05The women.
18:06And who is the victim?
18:08What kind of self-destructive attitude is this?
18:16What is this?
18:27Women.
18:32Do you know that it is established?
18:39I'm talking of bad religion.
18:43And it's such a dirty statistic.
18:45I hate to look at it.
18:49The more religious a person is, the more uneducated he is likely to be.
18:56The more religious a person is, the more poor he is likely to be.
19:03Uneducated, poorer, and also the more uneducated a person is, the more is the number of children
19:11he is likely to have.
19:16Religion should have been the highest in our life.
19:18Instead, this is what religion has become.
19:22It has become so bad that no intelligent person now wants to look towards religion.
19:29They all feel proud in declaring that they are atheists.
19:35If a person has some wits, some sense, very quickly he starts declaring, no God, no religion
19:43for me.
19:44I am simply an atheist.
19:45Whereas the thing is that religion is the very nectar of a life.
19:53Without religion, how will you ever be liberated?
19:57Without true religion, that is spirituality, that is self-knowledge, how will you ever
20:04attain the highest in life?
20:07How will you ever realize your potential, your purpose?
20:11But because of this all-pervasive bad religion, even genuine spirituality has become untouchable.
20:25Then it always mesmerizes me that how can a victim of something be a supporter of that same thing?
20:55In some sense, when it comes to this man-woman question, I have no issues in admitting that
21:08I am biased towards women and I have my reasons.
21:13Why should I not be?
21:19There are two persons and one of them keeps facing more challenges throughout her life.
21:28Even if those challenges come in form of security, comfort and conveniences, still they are challenges
21:35because they prevent her from recognizing, realizing her true final potential.
21:43Why should I not lean towards her?
21:51But to no avail.
21:54You lean towards women and they get afraid.
21:58Surely he intends to hurt.
22:02Oh, he is rough.
22:12If I become soft like you, how will I help you?
22:42Sir, you have said that how a victim of something can be a supporter of something, can be a
22:56supporter of the same thing.
22:57So, isn't it a question of conditioning that they conditioned in this way that even they
23:04do not realize that what they are doing or what they are opposing.
23:12It's a matter of conditioning, but you want to use that word to justify your own lifelong
23:21state of suffering.
23:23As a woman, you suffer your entire life and then you want to somehow rationalize that
23:28by saying, oh, because I have been conditioned, therefore I suffer.
23:33Does not matter why you suffer.
23:34The thing is, is life meant for suffering?
23:41How can you justify suffering by saying I am suffering just because I am conditioned?
23:46You might be suffering for any reason X, Y, Z.
23:48Suffering is suffering and suffering must be discarded and you have to rise up and revolt.
23:56Even if you are conditioned, does your conditioned assuage your suffering?
24:02The suffering remains, right?
24:03Does it not?
24:08As a category, as a gender category, when you look around, when you do not find women
24:15in parliament, when you do not find women in positions of power, when you do not find
24:20women among scientists, how is it that you do not acknowledge your suffering?
24:31How is it that you do not acknowledge your suffering?
24:34All that which is the highest in life, women are rarely found there, especially Indian
24:42women.
24:43How is it that you do not see that you are suffering?
24:54For money, on an average, the Indian woman remains dependent.
24:58How do you not see that you are suffering?
25:00Come on.
25:02That should be visible even to a blind person.
25:06So how do I justify that suffering by saying, but I am conditioned to suffer?
25:11Where is the courage, where is the direct honesty to acknowledge the fact?
25:24And when I say all this, all the men start chasing me with swords, they say he is inciting
25:31our women, ours is a well settled family, everything is going okay, the woman is very
25:42silent in her state of oppression.
25:46So no noises in our family, it is a great family, everything is well settled and silent
25:52and this man is coming and inciting and igniting.
26:01And I will stop doing all this, you take care of your business.
26:14Why must I fight your wars and for how long?
26:27My problem is, the categories that I fight for, most of them have no voice.
26:35I fight for the animals, they have neither money nor voice nor vote.
26:42So irrespective of how much I do for them, they can't do anything in return.
26:50These rabbits, I sometimes ask them, all the time you are eating.
26:56Since one decade you are only eating.
27:02So one day I actually got them to produce a rather short movie ad.
27:08You would have seen that.
27:09The rabbits were the actors in that one, I said you do something and get me some donations
27:14at least.
27:20I am supporting the cows, the buffaloes, the environment, the rabbits, the insects, all
27:28these species that are turning extinct and they are poor and powerless and that is exactly
27:37the reason I am supporting them.
27:41And the same thing I started applying to women, you keep supporting them, they remain voiceless.
27:50So then I limit myself to supporting the rabbits.
28:00In general, you see, gurus choose their target segment very nicely.
28:07They target the most affluent and powerful class.
28:14They say if we act on this class, then the returns will be awesome.
28:25First of all I am working in North India, the poorest part of the country.
28:32And I speak majorly in Hindi, so I am not addressing the English speaking population.
28:39And then I am working for the rabbits, the cows and the women and the unemployed.
28:58So it starts becoming a little absurd.
29:06So sir, in this section you talked about revolt and courage, so I am not talking about those
29:20women who belong to central place such as Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, I belong to rural
29:26background.
29:27When women take a step, their step I mean, society has fixed age for everything and when
29:34one is crossing that, one finds a tremendous pressure, tremendous social control, social
29:40pressure.
29:41Even pressure not directly to oneself rather than through parents that they are emotionally
29:48lynched.
29:49So how to cope up with that?
29:51Like even you said that, yeah I stop here.
29:57How do they apply that pressure?
29:59They press against your arm, your head, your neck, how do they apply that pressure?
30:05Conduct of the conduct, conduct of the conduct, like they do not do anything to me, they are
30:13not in touch with me, I am not talking to anybody, but the pressure comes to me.
30:19How it works?
30:20It works through the chain, through the parents, how parents come in that grip, they get any
30:26public platform, any festivals, functions, so they face.
30:32Listen, one must know, please understand, one must know the relative value of things.
30:40No function, no celebration is worth going to.
30:44If it is crowded with people who don't have the basic, basic sense of life, why should
30:55I go to a place that's infested with, with animals?
31:00I mean, that's the reason I asked how exactly do they apply pressure to you?
31:08They say things, right, that's the only way they do stuff, right, they say things.
31:13First of all, why are you available to listen to them?
31:16Secondly, even if you do get to hear what they are saying, why must you accord importance
31:25to what they are saying?
31:29A madman is saying things to you, will that affect you, hurt you?
31:37Please, there can be no liberation if first of all your priorities are not clear.
31:46If you keep giving priority to stuff that is anyway valueless, then you will never be
31:55able to break free, never, never.
32:03Some random person comes and says something and that becomes a headache to you, why, why?
32:13Why must you mind the fools so much?
32:19Why must you be so reticent, so reluctant in declaring fools as fools, announce that
32:28on their face?
32:30Sir, now that you have said this, let me say something, you are an idiot, utter that and
32:42be relieved for good, now he will never dare to say anything else, that's all.
32:49But you know, when I say this, this sounds so unbelievable, right?
32:54But we are dainty, cultured, educated girls, we have been trained to be polite and respectful,
33:05so you keep your politeness, learn to be disrespectful and learn to be disrespectful right on the
33:17face and for your own sake, memorize a few nice heavy abuses and get some practice in
33:35using them, in front of the mirror maybe.
33:46And do not use them only in front of your friends, throw those abuses to those who act
33:53as your elders, your well-wishers and in the name of care and love, they want to throw
34:05you into captivity, when that happens, that's the occasion to just shoot the abuse.
34:26When you needed money for your education, did that fellow come to offer you money?
34:44When you needed various kinds of help, support, guidance, where were those well-wishers, relatives,
34:54they will throw you into some kind of life and thereafter whatever happens to you,
34:59will they come to partake in that? Then who are they to push you towards something?
35:06Just so mediocre and engaging.
35:36I'll tell you who your well-wisher is, somebody who supports you in your education, first thing,
35:43nothing more important than that. Even your parents are your well-wishers, only first of all,
35:58they keep pushing you to get more and more educated. If they find you have gained admission
36:05in some place where lot of money is to be paid as fees, they should be willing to come
36:14up with either the money or the guarantee, only then they can be called as well-wishers.
36:27Those relatives come to you and ask you, which sport have you taken up? Tell the hobby you excel in.
36:38Let's discuss the Ukraine war. So people who take you as consciousness that deserves to be awakened,
36:54they are your well-wishers, not people who keep asking you random stuff.
37:03The true religion is your real well-wisher. Vedanta is the religion for women.
37:33Practical implications are very difficult. I said practical implications are very difficult.
37:42Execution. First of all, define your bottom line. What is it that you need in order to survive?
37:50If you need too much to survive, then life will be very difficult and anybody will be able to control you.
37:57What is it that you need? What is it that you can survive with without trading away your freedom?
38:04You need some food, you need money and you need a roof over your head.
38:11And this much you can easily have without selling away your freedom. So how is life difficult? Please tell me.
38:20As an individual, as a human being, you require money for your needs and also for your growth.
38:32So money should be there. That money will come to you out of your education.
38:38So you need money, you need a place to live in, you need food, you need clothes.
38:46Beyond this, why do you need anything? And when you start needing too much, that's when you become enslaved.
38:56Nothing gets you enslaved except your own demands and greed. Drop your greed, drop your demands and you will live freely.
39:08How difficult it is, I am asking you, as a man, as a woman, how difficult it is to have enough money to survive?
39:22To pursue your hobby, your interest, your passion, whatever you want to call it.
39:28Have enough good books to read. As a person how many rooms do you really require to live in?
39:371BHK flat, 2BHK flat should suffice in a decent locality, correct?
39:44So there is not much that is needed to just happily, joyfully live.
39:53Why then must you accept slavery if freedom is actually so easy? Why do you accept slavery?
40:02Apart from the fundamental necessities, what you said, food and finance and education and roof, family, that includes parents.
40:20That's why you need Vedanta.
40:25Here, the Bap is here, Bhagavad Gita.
40:33And his name begins with K.
40:40That's family.
40:43That's family.
40:45Family is those who uplift you.
40:50There is family of flesh and there is family of spirit.
40:58And the family of spirit is far more important than the family of flesh.
41:04Family of flesh is something that is given to you by accident, by birth.
41:09Family of spirit is something that you consciously cultivate.
41:14Give more respect and importance to the family of spirit.
41:18Do away with all this softy emotionality, please.
41:23Do away with all this softy emotionality, please.
41:27Do away with all this softy emotionality, please.
41:30Do away with all this softy emotionality, please.
41:34Do away with all this softy emotionality, please.
41:37Do away with all this softy emotionality, please.
41:40Do away with all this softy emotionality, please.
41:43Do away with all this softy emotionality, please.
41:46Do away with all this softy emotionality, please.
41:50These emotions are not your well-wishers.
41:58Women are not only emotions.
42:01They are more than that.
42:03Money we have topped off, emotions we have topped off, now what remains?
42:12I have studied somewhere.
42:13I have studied that Adi Guru Sankaracharya was very fond with her mother.
42:20Pardon?
42:23Somewhere I have studied that Adi Guru Sankaracharya was very attached with her mother.
42:38Thank you so much.
42:40I am done.
42:43And I am realizing I am wasting my life.
42:50You people will not wake up.
42:53Even if I get killed, you will still keep sleeping.
43:01The one who says, Name Deha Bhavo.
43:04Have you heard of Niran Shatkam?
43:09I am not the body.
43:11And you are saying you are attached to the mother of the body.
43:19You continue doing what you want to do.
43:22I don't think anybody can help.
43:24There must be some reason why historically nobody has been able to help.
43:31This attachment and body and baby and father and mother and relatives and emotions.
43:38Who can help?
43:41Nobody can help.
43:45No space for wisdom.
43:47No space for courage.
43:49No space for liberation.
43:51Only emotion.
43:53As long as emotion remains more important than liberation, no hope.
43:58No hope.
44:24Okay.
44:25Pranam Acharya ji.
44:29Related exactly to what you just said about women.
44:33I am the father of a high school daughter.
44:36And I have just one daughter.
44:39And probably I have tried to raise her exactly on the lines that you have always told me.
44:46She is very good at studies.
44:49She is a fantastic dancer.
44:52She can dance.
44:54She completed her Arrangetram and graduated in Bharatanatyam already.
44:59She is in her high school basketball team.
45:04She knows how to play musical instruments.
45:08She wins poem competitions every year in her school and amongst all the regional school districts.
45:16And she was recently selected into one of the top high schools
45:23by clearing an entrance exam.
45:26And you won't believe the pressure she has.
45:29Because in the school that she was selected,
45:32there are more girls than boys actually.
45:35So the ratio is a little squid.
45:37And the pressure that she feels is that some of the other girls
45:45are more better in, I am unable to come up with the word, Adai,
45:50that the other girls have boyfriends in there,
45:55but she is more focused in all of that thing.
45:58And how do I convince my daughter, I would say,
46:03how do I raise my daughter so that she doesn't feel that pressure?
46:06Even though she is doing better in all the life.
46:10And second thing is just related exactly to that,
46:13is how women are unable to do is, think about it.
46:18At the same time when the soccer world cup was happening last year,
46:23everybody was glued only to the men's Argentina cricket team
46:28and how Messi was playing, which is great, I am not against Messi here.
46:32But at the same time, the Indian women's cricket team was also doing really well.
46:38And nobody was discussing that at all.
46:40And I feel sometimes it is not, I feel that women themselves
46:46do not watch, whether it is women's cricket or women's basketball
46:51or any of the women's sports.
46:53The day when women will start watching women's sports
46:57and support women's sports activities, they themselves will do well.
47:01So, you know, that's that.
47:04So there are two questions, one at a generic level
47:07and one at a personal example level.
47:09That's what my question is.
47:11You see, the standards have to be set very high.
47:22See, it's like when you exercise with 15 kg weights.
47:30After that, the 5 kg ones just stop mattering.
47:36Because the standards have been raised.
47:39Similarly, she has to be introduced to women
47:47who really are worthy of being remembered.
47:52And then her internal standards will rise to a point
47:57where she will stop caring for the stylos and the hipsters.
48:02Otherwise, if she feels that these are the only ones
48:09available in her world to compare herself against,
48:15obviously, she'll feel left behind or disadvantaged.
48:22The standards have to be very, very high.
48:25And why must you allow your environment to dictate your standards?
48:29Let those standards come from books and documentaries and videos
48:34and other places. Books primarily.
48:38If she, for example, spends an entire week
48:44reading the life story of Marie Curie,
48:47how after that will she afford to give respect to a certain,
48:55let's say, Pari.
48:59Pari in her class, who is a dimwit from here,
49:05but is fantastically regarded because of her body and her style
49:11and her dressing and her boyfriends.
49:14After you have been with Curie, how will you respect Pari?
49:20That's the thing.
49:24That's why education is the real thing.
49:28Give her real solid role models.
49:32And then she will become not just disregardful,
49:38but disdainful of all these typical teenagers.
49:46So that's what.
49:50If I do not know what kind of highness is possible,
49:57then any kind of lowness will become the gold standard for me.
50:03That's why reading is so important.
50:07Otherwise, anybody in your environment will come and influence you
50:12and boss you from within.
50:17And it happens a lot in school and in college.
50:21Some local kind of stud just becomes the dominant hero.
50:30And who is he? Worthless chap.
50:33But he can take away a very large chunk of your mind and life.
50:38We all know of these people from our college days, don't we?
50:43Some random worthless fellow, but he dominates the scene
50:47in the school, in the college, in the university.
50:50And he dominates it so much that he can influence
50:56a lot of his batchmates to take wrong kinds of decisions.
51:02Inductive effect, no?
51:06One wrong role model, one very wrong kind of,
51:10very mediocre but powerful.
51:13Mediocre but powerful and attractive and glitzy.
51:18And this fellow becomes the impression creator, the goal setter.
51:26And he induces a lot of batchmates into the wrong kind of attitudes,
51:33lifestyle and ultimately wrong life decisions.
51:37And that can be taken care of very easily.
51:42Just give your daughter the right role models.
51:46Give her great books, see what her preferred mode of assimilation is.
51:53If it's visual, take her to the right documentaries, the right movies.
51:57See how she likes to absorb information and give that to her.
52:02And there are just so so many names, so many names.
52:06We have talked of them frequently even on AP Circle.
52:10Women worth respecting, women worth even worshipping.
52:18And they exist, they have existed in history.
52:21Why must we not take note of them?
52:24Why must we not introduce those glorious women to our daughters?
52:28But that's not being done.
52:30Mainstream education is not doing that.
52:33Let fathers and mothers do that.
52:37Otherwise the danger is very real.
52:41Some Pari will become her idol.
52:46I want to be like Pari.
52:48And then she will drop her dancing, her sports, her recitation, her poems,
52:52her elocution, her passion, everything she will drop.
52:55And she will just start chasing boyfriends.
52:56So that she can stand up to somebody like Pari.
53:13I call these nodes of evil.
53:17They are not too many.
53:19But they are highly influential.
53:23They set the bar.
53:26They have to be fought against.
53:30And they can be very young.
53:32Typically we don't want to associate the word evil with a teenager.
53:38But the reality is, yes even teenagers can be evil.
53:42A 15 year old can be evil.
53:47That does not mean that the 15 year old has to be killed.
53:50That means that he has to be corrected.
53:56Maybe as parents, you and her mother, you need to sit together and first of all figure out.
54:13Who are the names you must introduce your daughter to?
54:18Right?
54:20Is she reading something from Sarojini Naidu?
54:24If she is interested in Hindi, has she been brought to Mahashweta Devi or Mahadevi Verma?
54:35The names are comparatively fewer when it comes to women.
54:40Fewer, but they still exist, don't they?
54:45For 10 male poets, you will have 4 female poets as well and 4 is sufficient.
54:51You introduce her to these 4.
54:54You have freedom fighters, you have scientists, you have politicians, you have sports persons.
55:00In all walks of human activity, you do have women role models.
55:07And young girls must be introduced to them.
55:10Otherwise they will simply chase boyfriends just as boys chase girlfriends.
55:16And they will dress up and try to act adult and get into all kinds of nonsense.
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