The animal inside us - what to do with it? || Acharya Prashant, with IIT Delhi (2022) - video Dailymotion

Acharya Prashant

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Transcript

00:00Namaste Acharya ji. I am a graduate from the year 2011, B.Tech and M.Tech from Biochemical

00:10Engineering. My question is actually an extension of what you were saying earlier in the conversation,

00:16perhaps I did not understand it completely, which is why I'm asking my question. When you were

00:20talking about how our current systems are a whitewashed extension of what already exists in

00:25the jungle, my question is if the animalistic nature is so innate, natural and core to the

00:32human experience, is your view that one needs to embrace it and perhaps enhance it in one's

00:39everyday life or that one needs to be able to tame it, harness it, mold it in a way that

00:46makes us human and different from animals? Lovely question Ruchira and great that you

00:53asked it because I myself felt that probably the discussion was not complete at that moment.

01:02You see this is really the only spiritual question possible. What to do with Prakriti,

01:10that which you are calling as one's innate nature. Classically we just call it as Prakriti. Prakriti

01:17exists both outside us in the form of the jungle we refer to and it exists in our person as well.

01:29This body and all its systems, they too are Prakritic. Right? Now that's the question,

01:36what to do with it? You can't live without it and you can't live with it as it is.

01:44So who are you? That's classically called as the Purush. Purush refers to consciousness and what

01:51is everything that you can perceive, experience, see, talk of, think of, meditate, that is called

01:59as Prakriti. Whatever you can lay your hands on, whatever your eyes can look at, that is called as

02:06Prakriti. Whatever you can even imagine or think of, that is Prakriti. So you are the subject,

02:12the Purush and all your objects are called as Prakriti and indeed the aim of all philosophical

02:20systems and all spiritual inquiry is to determine the right relationship between Purush and Prakriti.

02:28And so that's what you have asked. Do we tame it? Do we ignore it? Do we transcend it?

02:34What do we do? It's a very delicate thing, this relationship. You have to come very close to it,

02:43you have to understand it, but you have to avoid getting engaged and that is again classically

02:54called as witnessing. You cannot run away from it just as you cannot run away from your own body.

03:01That's a privilege not given to us. Can one run away from the body? No. Is there consciousness

03:08without body? Well, no. Absolute consciousness, it is said that it's metaphysical, not corporal.

03:19But we are not creatures of absolute consciousness, no? We are creatures of dualistic

03:25consciousness and our personal consciousness depends totally on the body.

03:31If you sleep, the state of consciousness changes. If you get drunk, your consciousness again changes.

03:38So can there be our personal consciousness without the body? Well, no. So then what can Purush do?

03:45It cannot run away from Prakriti just as our consciousness is always wedded to Prakriti,

03:51which is the body. You cannot run away from it. Can you fight it? Well, that method has been tried.

03:58A lot of people have tried that method. They said, we'll do exactly the opposite of what Prakriti

04:03says. Then Prakriti laughs at them and that's the reason Prakriti is also called as Maya.

04:11Prakriti laughs at them, says, will you stop breathing? Can you stop breathing? Now, breathing

04:17too is an animalistic thing. It was happening in the jungle. It is happening in the cities as well.

04:22Can you stop breathing? You cannot stop breathing. Can you stop looking, perceiving? Can you stop

04:27getting attracted? Can you stop the force of inquiry and curiosity that arises in a child's

04:34mind? You cannot stop all these things. So you cannot fight me. You cannot run away from me.

04:39You cannot fight me. So what is the relationship that you need to have with me?

04:46India came up with a beautiful answer. India said, worship her. Worship her,

04:50but do not try to own her. Worship her from a reverent distance. So India then started calling

05:01the jungle as Ma. This entire system of mother worship, the Shakt stream where you have Devi

05:12puja and such things is nothing but an answer to the question of right relationship.

05:18Durga or Ambika or Kali, they represent Prakriti. What to do with them? Worship them.

05:28Worship them as mother. Be close to them without the intention to possess them or exploit them.

05:38So go close to the jungle. Observe it. Know it. Have reverence towards it, but do not

05:47aim to own it, possess it, exploit it or consume it. That is the right relationship.

05:54And when that right relationship is there, then somehow, magically, Prakriti herself

06:03comes to redeem you, liberate you. So India said that liberation will not happen if you run away

06:10from her. It is not possible. Because wherever you go, you will be still within her domain.

06:19There is no point in space away from her. All space is her own extension. All time

06:30is her own continuation. So thinking of somehow escaping or eloping or whatever

06:44is just impossible. You are her own product in the corporeal sense. How will you run away?

06:51So come close. Come close. But do not come close as the ordinary consumer does.

06:59When we ordinarily come close to something, we want to lay our dirty hands on that thing.

07:05And we want to pick that thing up and consume it and ingratiate us and feel the pleasure.

07:11India said, no, that is not the way. Go close. Go close with the spirit to really know.

07:18Go close without the intention to exploit and that is called love.

07:23Love involves intimacy without the intention to exploit. So know her. Know her. Know life.

07:33Know every aspect of life. Do not shy away. Do not run away. Be fully immersed. But being immersed

07:41is just not the same as being exploitative. Being immersed is not the same as being inebriated.

07:53Know it without falling prey to it. Neither should you fall prey to it nor should you allow

08:01that thing to own you and possess you. And that is the reason why there is so much emphasis

08:09then on renunciation. Renunciation, therefore, is not about giving up. Renunciation is about not

08:20acquiring what is anyway not yours. And if somehow mistakenly you have picked it up,

08:28then respectfully just keep it back. It is not yours.

08:32Why do you want to act like a thief? Do you see how all these things are interlinked?

08:39So that's the most fundamental question. The kid is born. The kid is born as the body.

08:45But remaining the body, the kid never feels satisfied. And that's why the human being is

08:51the most restless among all species. We are endowed with a special quality of consciousness

08:57that is not content with its prakritic, animalistic existence. No animal ever feels

09:05the kind of existential restlessness that we do. So what to do then? How to live? That's the

09:13question all spirituality wants to address. Who are you? Why are you born? What to do with this

09:19life? What kind of relationship to have with this world? The right relationship is a thing

09:28of deep sadhana. You have to master it. Because if you go close to her, there is the risk of getting

09:39sucked in. You have to go close. You have to go close to observe, to know. And that is what

09:46is called as worship. Worship is not just about bowing your head in the physical sense. Worship

09:55is about going close just as there is a deity in the temple. No, you go close to the deity.

09:59You go close to the deity and then you bow your head down. What does that mean? That means I am

10:04coming close to you without letting my head dominate what I will do in the moment of closeness.

10:13So I'll come close to you. But just because I'm coming close to you, I'll not start. For example,

10:18the deity might be decked with a lot of gold. In India that often is the case, no? There is a lot

10:23of gold on the deity. Now you can go to the deity and look at the gold and say, oh, I'll take all

10:30this away. That's not what you do. You go to the deity and you bow your head down. That's what you

10:36are to do with this life, with everything that is there in physical existence. Be it the jungle,

10:43be it the animals, be it the natural resources, be it the opposite gender or be it your own body.

10:50Live a life of deep immersion. But now I'm going into the preachy aspects of it. Hope I've answered.

11:20you

The animal inside us - what to do with it? || Acharya Prashant, with IIT Delhi (2022)

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