Break Free from the Ego’s Trap || Acharya Prashant (2023)

Acharya Prashant

‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/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...  ➖➖➖➖➖➖  #acharyaprashant  Video Information: 22.06.2023, GSE, Goa  Context: What is Prakriti?  From where biological tendencies arise from?  What is the real definition of observation?  What is the purpose of life? What is ego?  What is Sankhya Philosophy/ Darshan?  Is there an Almighty Creator?   Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~

Transcript

00:00Namaskar Acharya ji. So, everything is dead and everything are basically molecules that

00:12are just in a default arrangement. Can we say that Prakriti has induced us into a falseness

00:23that there are these biological senses and these compulsions that we have of our emotions.

00:32So observing these emotions and observing these compulsions and avoiding them, is that

00:42a first way to move towards being truly alive? Yes, observe them but without blaming Prakriti

00:51or anybody. Nobody has brought you to this condition. You wanted to exist, therefore

00:59you gave yourself a condition. Anything that exists, exists in some condition, right? So

01:08you want to exist, so sometimes you give yourself a good condition, sometimes a bad condition.

01:17Just observe. Is that the entire purpose of life, to just observe and not be swayed away by it?

01:33The ego does not need an entire purpose of life. It's so much in pain and so full of

01:43immediate distress that it's enough for it to pay attention to its immediate surroundings

01:54and the most immediate to the ego is itself. So, words like ultimate mean nothing to the

02:02ego. The ego is like a patient on ventilator. If you talk about life after 10 years to somebody

02:15who is on ventilator, assuming that he is able to talk, it's quite meaningless. That

02:21fellow is looking forward to the next 1 hour. Will I see the next day? Will I survive the

02:28next hour? That's the ego. So much in distress that even the next 1 hour is difficult to

02:39predict or see through or navigate. It's fascinating how all this relates to evolutionary biology,

02:49like so much of it.

02:59You cannot appreciate Sankhya Yoga if you do not appreciate evolution.

03:08Entire Sankhya Yoga is evolutionary. But unfortunately, so much of religion has been about creation,

03:21not evolution. Religion says man came through a process of creation. And who was the creator?

03:34Some God. Now the fact is, in Sankhya Yoga, there is really no place for any God. You call it one of the

03:42astik darshans. But in reality, in the darshan itself, there is no God. There is no God in Sankhya.

03:52And there can be no God in Sankhya because Sankhya is continuously about evolution. If things are

04:03evolving, how can there be a creator? If one thing evolves into another thing, show me where is the

04:10creator then. When you say creation, you mean there is somebody who just made this thing into what it is.

04:16But the fact is that the thing did not become what it is in one go, in one stroke. It has continuously

04:26been evolving. So that's the great contribution of Sankhya Yoga. And that's also what Yoga borrows

04:39from Sankhya. That's also what Vedanta owes to Sankhya. That's also what Buddhism owes to Sankhya.

04:48The thing that entire existence is a flow. Everything is a process. Everything is ever changing.

05:00That's Sankhya. And the very common tripartite division of Prakrit into Sat, Raj and Tam.

05:11Today we take that as commonplace. But all that comes from Sankhya. So yes, that's the reason why I continuously say evolutionary

05:23biology is so important. When I say evolutionary biology is important, actually what I am saying

05:30is Sankhya Yoga is important. But if I just say Sankhya Yoga, this generation might not appreciate that.

05:36So I say evolutionary biology.

05:51Sir, my question revolves around the statement that you said that we all actually don't exist.

05:59And even our consciousness is also false. And if I look at Arjun at that moment, then even Arjun is being driven by his bodily tendencies only.

06:10So even he is dead, right? So to whom Shri Krishna is teaching at that moment?

06:19So what is still alive inside Arjun at that moment, even after being dead inside out?

06:26The dead man walking is the dead man suffering. He needs to be cremated.

06:32That's what the instruction is all about. You are already dead. Why do you continue to walk and suffer?

06:41Let's put you to rest. Let's cremate you. That's the Bhagavad Gita.

06:46The ego is the dead man walking. Dead, still suffering. Rather suffering exactly because it is dead.

06:59So that's a delicate thing to appreciate. You are not, yet you insist that you must be.

07:11You forcefully insist that you must be and in that you create yourself.

07:16But your creation is needless. Therefore you suffer.

07:20It's like a car already packed full of five passengers.

07:28And those five are sufficient. They can deliver the goods.

07:35There is a nice network, a perfect equilibrium that those five passengers or five elements very ably serve.

07:49Then a sixth one tries to barge in. He says I must fit in, I must fit in. I am needed.

07:57Now this sixth one is outside Prakriti. But he forcefully enters the car.

08:05What does he do? He creates suffering. He is not needed. He is coming in and he creates suffering.

08:12Everything is proceeding very nicely. And then something happens.

08:23An unwanted intrusion. That's what the ego is about.

08:31A needless thing and therefore a thing that causes suffering. Obviously only to itself.

08:40We said today that it's a belief. And I am fond of often saying the ego is the most fundamental superstition.

08:51So it's a thing of the mind. You remember the Abrahamic story about the origin of everything.

09:00So there is God and there is Adam. And to give Adam some company there is Eve.

09:08And that's Prakriti. Adam, Eve and the great garden.

09:15Appreciate the symbolism. There is Adam, there is Eve and there is a great garden and they are just roaming about happily.

09:23And God has instructed them there is that particular tree and there is that apple.

09:31Do not take that apple. And that's the apple of knowledge.

09:36And then this mischievous snake comes and says there is a special apple that God is probably reserving for himself and you must have it.

09:43So it was needless. Needless knowledge is ego and it results in suffering.

09:50That which you need not know but in a spell of mischief you start knowing.

09:59That's ego. What is that needless knowledge? Belief.

10:03Useless knowledge. Needless knowledge. Just superstition.

10:08Something that you should have never believed in but now you have taken it in.

10:13Now you have taken it in and it cannot be just ejected out.

10:18So God says now that the two of you have done this, alright.

10:23Go to earth and breed kids and you know the entire humanity will proceed from there.

10:31And these two were really in a state of bliss.

10:36Sahajata. Ego-less sahajata. These two were in an ego-less sahajata.

10:45You know it is said that the moment they ate the apple, they became conscious of the eye.

10:54It is called self-consciousness. Conscious of the eye. Self-conscious.

11:00What did they do? They covered their genitals.

11:05They became ashamed. Conscious of the eye.

11:10Because the eye sprung up. There was no eye. That false belief gave them the eye.

11:16So they became self-conscious. So they covered their body parts.

11:23And then God banished them from the garden of bliss.

11:28He said you go now. You go out. You have defiled your own prakritic purity.

11:38You have violated my instruction. There was no need. You go.

11:43So needless. Everything is alright. Everything is already alright.

11:50And the ego comes and says no something extra is needed.

11:54The ego is the fifth person in the car. Somebody extra.

11:59Who is not needed at all. The ego is a kind of overpopulation.

12:05Tonight itself we can publish a mini book of the number of definitions we have accorded the ego.

12:18Yes.

12:22Sir, what we call as consciousness is also a part of my ego itself?

12:28What you call as consciousness is just material reactivity.

12:36When you say you are conscious of something, you are just reacting to that thing.

12:43It's like we said, iron being conscious of the magnet.

12:51Just as iron experiences the magnet, similarly we experience the world.

12:59In very very predictable and pattern based ways.

13:03There is no real wisdom or realization in that.

13:08And the test of that is iron cannot not react to the magnet.

13:16Iron cannot not react to the magnet.

13:22And that's what is called compulsive reactiveness.

13:25Man cannot not react to the abuses.

13:31Woman cannot not react to the man.

13:36That's a compulsive magnet and iron relationship.

13:41There is no real life in that.

13:44Spirituality is about bringing life by putting the dead to death.

14:00Okay. Thank you so much.

14:11No part of this recording may be reproduced

14:14without Mooji Media Ltd.'s express consent.

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