What is the Truth? || Acharya Prashant, with NIT-Warangal (2022)

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?...   Read 3 handpicked wisdom articles, just for you: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/articl...  ~~~~~  Video Information: NIT-Warangal, 30.03.2022, Greater Noida, India  Context: ~ What is truth? ~ How can one remove falsehood from life? ~ What is the importance of truth in life? ~ What is the method to read the Upanishads? ~ What is the difference between believing and understanding?   Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~

Transcript

00:00Good evening Ajayaji. I am Jhansi and currently I am pursuing triple A, B.Tech in NIT Varanbal.

00:15It's been grateful for me for interacting with you. So, one doubt I have is what is

00:22actually the truth, Sir? I mean, when we are negotiating with the people, either we or

00:30them or they, we are closed with the feelings that we are believing inside. I mean, like,

00:40if we believe strongly in anything, we feel it is the truth. So, there is no part of learning.

00:47I feel like life is a journey of learning. So, if we feel like something is the truth and

00:54something what we believe is the ultimate sense, how can we negotiate with the people and how can

01:01we learn? What is the better way of communicating and how do we need to feel, Sir, exactly?

01:09That's my question.

01:10We believe. We believe in something.

01:19Yes, Sir.

01:20Right? And there is somebody within who has a stake in believing.

01:30Right? So, we believe because it is difficult to go through life with a feeling of inadequacy,

01:45not knowing, ignorance. It becomes too much to bear that. No? I do not know. How long can you

01:58can you keep admitting? Something comes to you, I do not know. Something comes to you,

02:06I only partially know. Something comes to you, oh, I am in the process of knowing.

02:12This is too much for the ego. So, the ego settles into easy beliefs

02:22and beliefs are a quick and cheap substitute for real knowing.

02:36You want to really know, you will have to give up some part of yourself that is satisfied with

02:50satisfied with not knowing.

02:56Unfortunately, that's almost the entirety of what we are born with.

03:10A collection of selves, of parts

03:16that are

03:19all right without knowing, but with believing.

03:27You look at a young child

03:33and you will see how quick she is in settling into a belief.

03:45Just two years old, four years old and she would actually be believing that there is a large cat

03:57that comes to the house every night

04:01and cooks the breakfast.

04:05And so, every morning when you wake up, the breakfast is ready because the large cat had come.

04:16And the kid would be utterly serious about it.

04:23We have something at stake in just coming to a belief and ending it there.

04:36What is it that is at stake?

04:38A lump of ignorance is born, however, with a desire to know.

04:49You could say a lump of ignorance is born with a desire to not remain as ignorant as it is.

04:58So, the desire against itself is there. I know I am ignorant and I do not like my position.

05:12I'm stating the condition of all humanity. I know I am ignorant and I do not like myself

05:22in this situation. Now, there are two options.

05:29One, I work hard and tirelessly and endlessly to keep knowing and the second option

05:39is that I just convince myself that I already know or that with some little effort

05:49I can know. This second option is very lucrative.

05:55Why? Because it is lucrative to the one within who values self-preservation more than the truth.

06:08That's who we are. We value self-preservation more than the truth

06:16and real understanding cannot happen with self-preservation. We said as you proceed

06:31along the way to understanding, you keep losing big parts of yourself that were satisfied

06:40without understanding.

06:45So, understanding is a process of self-dissolution.

06:51That's the price you pay to understand. You cannot understand remaining who you already are.

07:00You can gather knowledge remaining who you already are, but knowledge and understanding

07:04are different. When you understand internally, you keep losing your concept of the self because

07:15your concept of the self within is as false as your beliefs without.

07:26There are two things that we believe in. Outside, we believe in things about the world.

07:32Inside, we believe in things about ourselves

07:35and these two beliefs go together and mutually reinforce each other.

07:43If you want to drop your false beliefs about the world,

07:49you will have to correspondingly drop your false beliefs about yourself

07:57and to lose beliefs about oneself is a bit like death.

08:07We don't want to die. Since we don't want to die, so we keep

08:13holding on to all that we think and believe about the universe.

08:20If something in your belief system changes, something within you will have to correspondingly

08:26change. We do not like that. That change is hurtful. Nobody wants to take hurt.

08:37Nobody wants to take hurt.

08:43Are you getting it? So, one requires to have courage and one requires to have love.

08:54The good news is that love is already there. It's just wrongly directed.

09:00Love towards truth is the source of love towards all that you are attracted to in the world.

09:11There is nobody who is not attracted to anything. In fact, we are all attracted to a thousand things.

09:20The attraction that you feel towards the thousand things in the world is just

09:28a manifestation of your fundamental love towards the truth. So, you do indeed already love the truth.

09:40You just have to be reminded of that and to be reminded of that you need good books,

09:49you need good company or you need a heavy dose of good luck.

09:58Good luck we cannot count on. Who knows where it would come from.

10:06But company is something we can actively choose. Books are something we can consciously pick

10:15and that will tell you what you really want.

10:19What you really want is not shallow beliefs. What you really want is something deeper.

10:24That's where you would be satisfied.

10:31Is this too heavy?

10:35No, sir. Actually, that's what I needed. And one more thing I want to ask is...

10:41No, first of all, first of all, is this clear?

10:44Yes, sir. I'm clear with it.

10:48That's too good to be true.

10:50Thank you, sir. And another part is courage, sir. I personally feel I am not so well in

10:59expressing my views and opinions in front of my peers and my family members when we are in a

11:06discussion. The thing what happens is, for example, if we are discussing and we are about to take a

11:13decision, I will just be convinced by the others. Although I feel like they are wrong in some

11:26corners and I may feel like I am strong and what I understood is clear, I cannot express myself

11:36like I cannot offend them. I cannot contradict them and I shall go with them. I cannot

11:44strongly and with confidence, I cannot stand up on my own decision and opinion.

11:53That is what the problem is. So how can I improve the courage

11:58from my, I mean, in front of my peers and family in my life?

12:06You have a

12:10rupees 10 note.

12:19A small note you are carrying, just 10 rupees.

12:26And you are carrying a huge, big bundle of currency.

12:31Let us make it large, what, 10 lakhs, 10 crores, something.

12:39Now somebody comes and takes away rupees 10, you probably won't react or object or resist.

12:50Somebody comes and takes away 100 rupees, somebody comes and takes away 200 rupees.

12:56And you might ignore these things.

13:05Would you continue to ignore if somebody comes and snatches away the entire big currency bundle?

13:16Not at all, sir, probably.

13:17Not at all. So if you are continuously remaining silent,

13:23when others are unfairly

13:30dealing with you, what does that tell you about the stuff they are walking away with?

13:39Are they taking away rupees 10 or rupees 10 crore?

13:43Are they taking away rupees 10 or rupees 10 crore?

13:49It may be a large amount, sir, but when it comes…

13:53But you, wait, wait, wait, but you said that if somebody walks away with a large amount,

13:58you will not at all remain silent, right? These are your own words.

14:05You said if somebody is indeed walking away with your treasure,

14:09then you will not at all remain silent. But you do remain silent.

14:15What does that tell you about the amount others are walking away with?

14:21Is it rupees 10 or rupees 10 crore?

14:25It's 10 crore, sir. That is what my problem is, sir.

14:29But you said that if others take away rupees 10 crore, you will not at all remain silent.

14:35Yeah, yes, sir. I want to say one thing. If the person is a stranger, I can easily offend that.

14:43That's not a dimension we want to get into right now.

14:49That's not a dimension we want to get now. Please stay with me.

14:56You must be having something in life that is non-negotiable.

15:04Where you would say, if somebody touches this,

15:07then I will not at all tolerate. You must be having something, right?

15:15So, if you are tolerating a lot, what does that tell?

15:20It's not such an obvious value. Right. So, that's what is happening.

15:26You see, you are not able to decisively take a position

15:33because there is nothing worth taking a position for.

15:40When something very important will be at stake,

15:45then you will find yourself rising, responding, resisting,

15:53responding, resisting without even thought.

16:01When small things are at stake,

16:05then one can ignore and that's what you are doing.

16:09The trouble is not that you are ignoring. The trouble

16:14is that the things you are involved in are all small.

16:19And when small things are there, how will you summon your energy

16:24to defend those small things with a lot of courage and application?

16:33That won't just rise.

16:40When you are representing something very, very important,

16:43it's only then that you don't want to buckle down.

16:50First of all, are you sure that in front of your friends or relatives or whoever they are,

16:58batchmates, you stand to represent something extremely important?

17:05When you do that, then it becomes impossible for you to back off.

17:10Then it becomes impossible for you to buckle down or to surrender.

17:16I am not talking of being aggressive or violent here.

17:23I am talking of not kneeling down.

17:29There are certain matters on which it is easy to compromise and everybody would compromise

17:35and those matters are anyway not worth fighting for.

17:41I am sitting and I am eating and you come and you take away a bit of my food.

17:48I am not going to quarrel with you.

17:51This is not a big issue.

17:55One piece of bread less doesn't matter so much.

18:02But if you come and you are not willing to compromise,

18:07but if you come and you want to walk away with my truth,

18:12then I'll fight with all that I have.

18:18But for that, first of all, I must have the truth.

18:21If all I have in life is just rupees 10 and rupees 100 and rupees 1000 and breadcrumbs

18:29and a few pieces of clothing and something here and there,

18:34and this is all that I have in life, nothing of great value,

18:40then why will my energy arise to defend when I am attacked?

18:47I anyway do not have anything.

18:51You have your room in which only trash is stacked.

18:59Do you even care to lock it?

19:02Even the lock is more valuable than the things it locks.

19:09If you don't even want to lock that room,

19:12then somebody walks in and walks away with all that your room had.

19:17Do you care?

19:20That's the situation of most people.

19:23All that you have in your life is of so little value

19:27that it can be violated, it can be trampled on.

19:36And you'll find yourself just not willing to put up a fight.

19:43A day will come when you will have something to fight for

19:49and only then the fight has a meaning.

19:53And then you cannot help fighting.

19:58Then you will find that the option to not to fight is no more available.

20:05When I say fight here, I repeat, I am not denoting aggression or violence.

20:12I mean something else. I hope you are with me on that.

20:14So, this usual spinelessness that we find in most of us

20:21does not come as a result of lack of courage.

20:25It comes as a result of lack of truth.

20:30In fact, if you have a lot of courage without having the truth,

20:35then it is quite dangerous because then your courage is being used to

20:39without having the truth, then it is quite dangerous

20:42because then your courage is being used to defend all falseness.

20:50Courage must be a product of your proximity to the truth.

20:56I know I have something very tremendous to be with.

21:03I know this is what gives meaning and value to my life.

21:07How can I part with this?

21:09You can take away all that I have, but this is something I won't give.

21:20Then you are a lioness.

21:23Then let us see who can misbehave or dominate or violate.

21:33Real courage therefore is necessarily a spiritual thing.

21:40It is not about your genes or training or ideology.

21:46It is a spiritual thing.

21:49It is related to the word love.

21:53Have you seen videos how cows fight tigers to save their calves?

22:04And that's not even proper spiritual love.

22:10That's just a worldly and carnal shadow of spiritual love.

22:18But even that shadow has so much power, it can fight away a tiger.

22:25Think of a cow, a mere cow.

22:30With not much strength in her body, her body is not made to fight.

22:34All that she has.

22:39It's just the two things on her head.

22:45Of what utility are they in front of the size, the weight, the aggression,

22:53the claws, the teeth of the tiger?

22:59But you will find her fighting to death.

23:03And there are times when she can actually scare away the tiger.

23:09Not because of her power, but because of her ferocity and determination.

23:15The tiger now knows that she will fight till death.

23:20So, I don't want to take chances here.

23:29She will die but will not succumb.

23:33She has something very, very important to defend and that's just a calf.

23:38That's not even the truth.

23:43You have to have the truth like your baby.

23:50Right?

23:51Like how a woman, a mother defends and nurses and takes care of her baby.

24:02That's how you have to be with the truth.

24:09Very gentle, very motherly, very soft, yet extremely ferocious.

24:21Then let us see how these wolves and hyenas manage to scare away the tiger.

24:39How do they scare you?

24:47Sir, another point I want to add is...

24:50This one is clear?

24:51Yes, sir. Thank you for that.

24:54And the main thing, I mean, the practical thing what I faced is when the reality comes,

25:04our parents insist us to choose a path and we, with the optimistic ideology,

25:13tries to choose our wishes and our choices of what we love, our passions.

25:23So, how can we defend our parents and choose our ways?

25:28Is it correct or not?

25:35See, even for your parents, it is better if you choose the right thing, right?

25:42Is it not?

25:48You want to go to the market to fetch something.

25:58You must take the road to the right.

26:01Somehow your parents feel that you must go towards the left.

26:10If you go towards the left, you will not reach the market or you will reach quite late.

26:18The thing that you have to bring home will be delayed.

26:22Who will suffer?

26:24Obviously, you will suffer because you needlessly travelled a lot.

26:31But even the parents will suffer because the thing that you are bringing is not only for yourself.

26:37Being a good daughter, whatever you bring to your life, is it only for yourself?

26:44It's for everybody, right?

26:47So, if you go towards the left and are unable to bring the nice goods home,

26:57everybody will suffer, right?

27:00Including the parents, the parents too will suffer.

27:06They will have the shallow satisfaction that their daughter obeyed them.

27:10They wanted her to go left and she went left.

27:14But after that, they'll find that the daughter is suffering because she could not get anything

27:19going down left.

27:21And even they are suffering because the things that she wanted to get for herself

27:26would have benefited the entire family.

27:28So, the entire family has suffered, right?

27:32Whereas, if you go towards the right,

27:34initially they might have the dissatisfaction that their daughter violated.

27:38But soon, they will find that going towards the right has brought her good benefits.

27:46And being a good daughter, she is sharing the benefits.

27:53And then they'll be happy.

27:57They may even say, sorry, we doubted you.

28:02We were harsh.

28:04We suspected.

28:05So, you have to see what do you want to give them.

28:11Shallow satisfaction or deeper benefits?

28:17Deeper benefits and happiness.

28:20But initially, you will run the risk of making them unhappy.

28:26You must be prepared to run that risk.

28:30But if you are not prepared, you will not be able to give them happiness.

28:35But keep in mind, before you allow yourself to violate your parents' wishes,

28:45you have to ask yourself, how sure are you

28:50that you are doing the right thing?

28:54That's not with respect to what your parents are saying.

28:57You want to go right.

29:00Irrespective of whether your parents are supportive or not,

29:06you have to be sure that going to the right is the right thing to do.

29:15So, have that assurance and after that, don't budge.

29:24I just want to caution that this must not be used

29:30to blindly follow your inclinations and desires.

29:39Going to the right has actually to be the right thing to do, not the desirous thing to do.

29:50There is a difference between what is right and what is desirable.

29:57Often we clash with parents because our desires are different from theirs

30:04and a clash of desires means nothing.

30:07One blind desire against another blind desire

30:12is hardly a battle to watch. It is a meaningless battle.

30:16Rightness against desire is watchworthy.

30:34So, you have to first of all be convinced that you are doing the right thing

30:39and then if needed,

30:44parents' wishes can be opposed or suspended,

30:49but not before you have done your best to try to convince them and educate them.

30:59So, it's a three-step thing. First of all, you have to be internally convinced that you are taking the right path.

31:05First of all, you have to be internally convinced that you are taking the right decision.

31:11Secondly, try to bring your parents on board.

31:18Resistance cannot be the first option.

31:22First of all, you have to try to take them along.

31:26Then you come to the third thing. If they still do not understand

31:31and you are utterly convinced that you're doing the right thing,

31:35then you can do what is imperative to be done, the right thing to do

31:45and pray that sooner than later they will understand and chances are that they will understand

31:55because the right decision will bring the right benefits.

32:02Those benefits will be there for all to see. So, they will probably understand.

32:12So, actually in the step one what you have said, we have to be so sure that we are going in the right way.

32:21As the parents suggest us a way, as a kid of them, we feel that our parents knew

32:30more than what we knew and we believe in their experience.

32:36So, we fall in a confusion that either we are right or parents are right.

32:43There comes the confusion, sir.

32:46No, no. It's not about am I right or are the parents right? It's about what is right.

32:53That which is right is obviously not confined to only these two positions,

32:58your position and your parents' position.

33:02The right is absolute and has to be chased,

33:08not necessarily from where you are understanding. Your own position does not matter.

33:15Does not matter.

33:19It's not a debate between these two sides, the kid versus the parent.

33:27The position that the kid is having, meaningless.

33:31The position that the parents are having, that too is meaningless.

33:38What's meaningful? Only the truth.

33:40So, it's not your position that… and if you are proven false,

33:47that does not necessarily mean that the parents are right.

33:52It could be that both the parties are mistaken.

33:59Vice versa, if the parents are proven to be mistaken, that does not necessarily mean

34:05that you are right.

34:12It could be that both of you are totally off the mark.

34:20So, you have to relentlessly try to know what is right.

34:25Most often, both the parents and the kids are deluded and equally so.

34:33So, if it is just a choice between these two positions,

34:38one position is hardly any better than the other.

34:44The best option could be that parents and kids search for the right thing together

34:53without insisting on their respective positions.

34:57But that is hardly a thing we see in families, especially in India.

35:03So, I do not know whether there can be that kind of a collaborative search.

35:10Anyway, you must endeavor on your own.

35:15One can see, as a young person, never be absolutely sure.

35:20I empathize with that.

35:23You can never be 100% sure that you are doing the right thing.

35:28But at least to the best of your ability,

35:35you must try to know.

35:36You might still be proven wrong, there is a probability.

35:39But do not be proven wrong for lack of effort, for lack of sincerity.

35:48You must be very sincere.

35:52And after that, if you are proven wrong or defeated,

35:55it is alright.

35:56You did the best you could.

36:00And if you have done the best you could, it has immediately given you great results within.

36:09Irrespective of the results you get outside, the right action builds you up from within.

36:16You become a far better human being and that's no mean thing.

36:22So, invest a lot in trying to investigate.

36:30What is life?

36:31What decision do I want to take?

36:32Where is the decision coming from?

36:34What really are the consequences?

36:36What are the facts on ground?

36:38Be relentless in your inquiry.

36:40Hmm?

36:50Welcome.

Category

Transcript

Recommended