Shorts, Reels and short attention spans || Acharya Prashant, with Delhi University (2023)

Acharya Prashant

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Transcript

00:00So good afternoon, sir.

00:11My question is, nowadays we use YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels and other such short video

00:16platforms and they are really shortening our attention span.

00:20So my question is, how can we use technology and media in such a way that it does not affect

00:25attention span and what are some ways to maximize it?

00:30Thank you, sir.

00:35You know, see, it is primarily

00:42not about the span of attention. The important thing is not really for how long you can

00:55hold your attention on an object. The important thing is what is the quality of the object

01:06you are attending to. And the nature of human consciousness is such that

01:16only very specific type of objects can really hold your attention for long.

01:31Let me go a little deeper into it. You see, our mind, our consciousness is constantly

01:39searching for something.

01:43Getting it?

01:45Man is the name of a lifelong craving.

01:53We are continuously a longing.

01:59And the world is full of infinite objects and we do not know those objects.

02:06Therefore, we keep approaching those objects one after the other, incessantly, all our life

02:14in the hope that our internal longing will come to rest through one of those objects.

02:27That's why we are constantly restless. That's why we are constantly trying, experimenting.

02:36Knocking at one door after the other.

02:40Getting it?

02:43Now, that is the reason why the short format, the short video format in social media

02:54has been inevitable. And since it has arrived over the last few years, it has

03:02been more successful than the longer formats. Because the audience, without even knowing it,

03:10in an unconscious way, is looking for something extraordinary.

03:18Now, if you give them a 30 minute piece to watch,

03:23by the second or third minute, it is anyway clear that the thing that you are looking for

03:29is not going to be found in that long video.

03:35So, after the third minute, the audience will drop out.

03:41After the third minute, the audience will anyway drop out. Because it has become clear that the

03:47video is not what your deepest self wanted.

03:51So, how do the video makers, how do the so-called content creators cope with this?

04:00They said, we know that we cannot hold the audience anyway for more than three minutes.

04:10So, we will give them just one minute of content.

04:14And then the danger of the audience running away reduces.

04:21And then the proportion of the video that has been watched improves. Because if you see,

04:28on an average, if people are watching three minutes out of 30 minute content, that is just 10%.

04:35Right? The algorithm will record that the average duration viewed is just 10% of the video length.

04:46Whereas if you serve them just a 50 second thing,

04:51the audience will watch it for 30-40 seconds before they can make up their mind to drop out.

04:59Right? Even if you discover that the video is trash,

05:02still you would have spent a few seconds on the video, 10, 20, 30 seconds, something.

05:07So, even if you spend 15 seconds on a 45-second shot or reel or something,

05:18you have still watched 33% of the video length.

05:22Now, this 33% is far better than the 10% that you watch on the long video.

05:27So, this little thing gets more favorably ranked on the YouTube or Instagram algorithm.

05:35Right? Do you see the fundamental reason? The fundamental reason is,

05:39everybody, be it the long video creator, the short video creator, the movie maker,

05:44the Netflix maker, it does not matter who he is, everybody knows that the content that you are

05:49serving does not have that touch of eternity in it. It does not have that all essential

06:02quality in it that can simply bind the viewer to the screen.

06:13So, people are trying all kinds of tricks. They have to try these tricks because they are finding

06:21themselves unable to address the central problem. And the central problem, as I mentioned right in

06:28the first sentence today, is not the length of the attention span. The central problem

06:38is the quality of the object you are serving to your audience. Is the content worth it?

06:48If the content is worth it, then people can watch even for one hour, two hours and

06:53more. Any length does not matter. The epics have been so long lasting.

07:01And do you know the number of verses they contain?

07:05The number of verses run into scores of thousands.

07:0910,000 verses, 20,000 verses, 40,000 verses, more than a lakh verses.

07:18And yet they have been eternal and immortal.

07:20If you talk of the Vedas, the Rig Veda itself has 10,000 verses.

07:30Or if you go to Homer and talk of Iliad and Odyssey, again there the length of the work

07:37is so daunting. But still it has been with the people and they have just loved it.

07:45So, it's not that people are afraid of length really. People are just fed up of trash.

07:55Trash. And trash does not necessarily refer to production values. It does not really

08:05refer to how attractively, how lucratively you have packaged the whole thing.

08:13It refers to what is inside the package. It is the stuff that is inside the package that's what

08:21I am referring to as trash. What is the message you are delivering? What is the insight you are

08:28providing through your video? Is there something in the video that will give some relief to my

08:36that will give some relief to my otherwise tormented life?

08:43Be it a youngster, a man, a woman, a professional, a student, an old man, a Hindu, a Muslim,

08:53a rich man, somebody looking for a job.

08:57It does not matter. We all are missing something very essential in our life.

09:02Now, is your video or your story or whatever you have as an artist,

09:08is that able to provide me something that will fill up the hollow here in my chest?

09:17At the center of my existence is a big void and it pains. It pains me.

09:26It pains incessantly. If you are a video creator, you're an artist. If you're a painter or a story

09:34teller, you're an artist. Do you have it in you? Does your art contain that beauty, that truth

09:45that will bring some succor to my charred life?

09:53A few drops of relief to my parched existence.

10:04So that's the problem. And if you don't solve that problem,

10:07you'll find even one minute is too much. People will run away from you in five seconds

10:17because what you are bringing to them is just so repetitive and old and dull and boring.

10:27Within five seconds, people have begun to discover that the stuff being served

10:32is just a rehash of something old. Now the old thing itself was unable to provide any relief.

10:40What will this thing in the new package do? No hope. So one just scrawls away.

10:48And you hold your mobile phone like this and with one thumb or one finger you are just

10:53scrawling away. Even five seconds is too much now.

10:59So that's the thing. Ours is an age of a very special kind of crisis you see.

11:08There is a complete proliferation of all kinds of colorful objects all around.

11:14You want to buy a car, you will be flooded with choices.

11:20You specify a budget and 15-25 kinds of models are available.

11:26You want to buy a shirt, n numbers of brands.

11:30You want to visit a place, so many options and so many to travel operators.

11:35You want to eat, just look at the ever lengthening menu.

11:42The entire culinary expanse of the world is available on your table.

11:50So choices, choices everywhere. That's what the industrial age has done. Go to Amazon.

11:59Does not matter what you want, it will be delivered at your doorsteps.

12:04People are truly empowered. So objects all around and yet nothing that can satisfy you.

12:11I'm reminded of that beautiful poem. Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink.

12:27A lost ship in the middle of a vast ocean.

12:32Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink. That's our state.

12:41In the language of social media, you could say content, content everywhere, but not one video

12:53of relief.

12:58So instead of taking the issue head on, instead of discovering the root cause,

13:06as usual, we have relied more on trickery and cunningness

13:15and shortcuts. So we have said, okay, we will keep reducing the length of the video. We'll

13:21keep loading it with special effects. Look at the VFX content in movies these days.

13:28VFX content in movies these days. Why do you need that so much?

13:33Why? There is a reason and unless you understand that reason, you will not

13:38understand the age you are living in. You will not understand the world,

13:42you will not understand your own life. Why so many filters are needed?

13:50There is a reason and the reason is very important to know.

13:54You cannot have a video where you are just saying something, something important in a simple way.

14:04Because nothing important is being said at all.

14:10Trash is being served in innumerable avatars and therefore you require all kinds of embellishments

14:19and filters and decorations, editing and effects and

14:31all the jazz.

14:37Getting it? Yes, sir.

14:40Is this making sense or is this looking all very incoherent?

14:45Sir, it's related to the question and it provided a deeper perspective.

14:50You were talking about trash, like there is a lot of trash in nowadays, you know, media.

14:54So how to pick out, you know, what is, you know, not trash and my question was, you know,

15:01that when we try to focus on what's good, you know, so how much trash, you know, has been fed to us?

15:08How much trash, you know, has been fed to us?

15:12So much trash, so much amount of irrelevant videos have been thrown to us.

15:18So we find it really difficult to focus on what's really important.

15:22So I was talking about that perspective.

15:25Yes, yes, yes, that's very important to ask.

15:29You see, before I can be able to sift the trash from the useful,

15:40I must know who I am because all the usefulness will be to me.

15:47Before I can put my finger on a specific medicine or a food item, I must know what I need.

15:57Right?

15:57Before I can discover what is the kind of video content or content in literature or arts

16:05or anywhere I can pick for myself, I must know what I truly need.

16:11That's called self-knowledge.

16:14Knowledge of yourself.

16:16When you know who you are, then you will be able to put all useless content aside.

16:23Not much thought will be needed then, and you will not be indecisive.

16:28You will immediately know that's the point I need to go to because that's what I'm looking for.

16:33And when you do not know who you are and therefore you do not know what you're looking for,

16:39all kinds of diverse options remain open and available and compelling to you.

16:48They all keep calling you.

16:49Because you do not know what you want.

16:53See, you go to a supermarket and you have no idea what you have come there for.

17:02Can you imagine your condition?

17:05You will be standing in the center and at that center you will be gawking at all kinds of shops.

17:11And no option will be available to be discounted.

17:22And have you not seen people saying, right, this is right, even that is right, and then even that is right.

17:31And then something else comes up, a fourth or fifth option, and that fellow says,

17:37else comes up a fourth or fifth option and that fellow says, well, now even this thing sounds right.

17:45That's the condition of the commoner.

17:48Everything appears right and nothing appears fully right.

17:57So there is no option that appears so absolutely right that you commit yourself to it.

18:03And there is no option that appears so obviously wrong that you totally discard it.

18:11So you remain in the middle of that super mall with options surrounding you from all sides.

18:23And you are unable to cross out any of the options.

18:29That's what is happening when you are scrolling through your shorts feed.

18:35You just do not know what is it that you want. So your entire night, two hours, four hours,

18:40you just keep watching everything. And have you seen how the algorithm performs?

18:44It serves you a mix of everything and then it tries to see what is it that you spend more time on.

18:53And then it starts serving you more of that content. But it never serves you 100% of anything.

19:01It just keeps mixing and rotating. Because it knows fully well that you will be very soon bored out.

19:09Because you are not committed to anything. And that is all right.

19:13Because how do I commit to anything if I do not know that that thing is perfect for me?

19:18And before I can know what is perfect for me, I should know

19:22who I am, what I lack, where do I stand, what do I identify with, what do I therefore want.

19:31Our education or upbringing just do not impart any kind of self-knowledge to us.

19:39They do not even encourage us to give importance to self-knowledge.

19:47Because self-knowledge is not really so much about memorizing something in a given book.

19:56A large part of the process of self-knowledge is just about observing your own life,

20:02thoughts, actions, emotions, relationships, all these things.

20:06So, all that can be done internally in solitude as a solo inquirer who wants to know himself.

20:17All that can be done. But only if first of all somebody points it out to us that self-knowledge

20:24is extremely important. That does not happen in the kind of system we are brought up and educated.

20:35So, we just totally sit with yourself and ask yourself, what is truly important for me?

20:45And it's not that you will not get some kind of answer. Maybe the answer will not be perfect.

20:49Actually, the answer will not be perfect. But you will get some kind of an answer.

20:55You will at least get a tentative list of priorities.

21:00One, two, three, four, five, six. These six things are important to me. And roughly,

21:05I can say that item number two is more important than item number five.

21:12You'll have to sit with yourself in a relaxed, calm way. Collect yourself and ask truly,

21:20keeping all the thrills and all the trash apart. What do I really want? What do I really want?

21:28What do I really want? And once that list is there, then commit yourself to the top items

21:35in that list. Search for them. Not that there cannot be anything more important than the stuff

21:43you have put on your list. But you cannot do better than what you're currently doing.

21:50The thing that still remains undisclosed to you will be revealed in due time.

21:58Till that time, you can do no better than doing justice to what you already know of.

22:06I know that I need to have awareness of what's happening to the environment, let's say.

22:15Is that one of your priorities? I do not know. It might be. Give me one nice thing you

22:22are convinced is important and worth knowing. Tell me, please.

22:33Sports, politics, environment, science, spirituality, literature, art, something.

22:41Sir, currently, it's knowing my strengths and my weaknesses. So, I'm really in the process

22:50of finding myself and I was looking into what are the things which I can

22:57look into and dive deeper into. So, that connects three different fields.

23:04Psychology, philosophy, spirituality. Psychology, philosophy and spirituality. By spirituality,

23:14I do not mean spirits and all kinds of superstition. By spirituality, I simply mean self-knowledge.

23:23So, these three fields. Now, once you know that these are the three things

23:27that as a youngster, you are interested in,

23:31you have discovered these three things are important to you, what do you do next?

23:35Come on. I know that these three things are important and

23:39now if I am a human being, I must live by my conviction.

23:48Yes, sir. I try to find relevant information and knowledge.

23:50That's all. That's all. That's what.

23:54Yeah, but sir, there's also a different kind of conviction.

23:58That's what. That's what.

24:01Yeah, but sir, there's also a different kind of question that arised. So, I've been in this

24:07self-discovery process for a while and while I was in that process, I found that, okay,

24:13this is what I need. This is something I want to be and when I've been there, when I've done that,

24:18I realized that no, this is not what I wanted. I must present that.

24:23That's not just all right. That's actually great. Sorry, I forgot your name, please.

24:31Samarth.

24:31Samarth. Samarth, that's just great. See, youth is the time to experiment and make mistakes.

24:41Didn't I say that the stuff that you will list down in your priority list

24:46will never be absolutely perfect. There would always be something higher, something better

24:54that remains yet undisclosed and hidden.

24:59But that's the thing. The process of learning is like going up a staircase.

25:06Right? You keep your foot on the next step, on the next rung and only then you discover

25:16how to move to the one beyond that, like a dimly lit staircase.

25:22Right? You cannot look too far ahead of yourself.

25:28Only when you move ahead do you discover what lies further ahead.

25:35Correct? So, that really cannot even be called a mistake, Samarth.

25:39With an open mind, with an inquisitive mind, you try something out.

25:45And if that attempt reveals to you that this is not the ultimate thing I'm looking for,

25:52then at least you have been able to strike out something from the list of available options.

25:58Right? And that's not a mean thing. That's a blessing to know clearly that this is not what

26:06you want. In Vedanta, that's the process of niti-neti, the ultimate process of negation,

26:16to know what the truth is not. And it's not just about Vedanta enough. Even if you

26:23go to the ancient Greeks or to the more contemporary western philosophers,

26:29the highest among them have said that the truth can be approached only via negation.

26:36It is not possible to go to the truth with your established set of internal affirmations

26:45because all affirmations are just the ego.

26:50Inquiry can at most result in negation. It's ego that results in affirmation.

26:58So, the process has to be of negation, which is okay.

27:02With an honest intent, you tried something out. It didn't work out. You haven't failed.

27:09It's not a disappointment. And if that's a disappointment, then I failed all my life

27:14because my entire journey has been of trying things out and then moving on.

27:22And there's a beauty to that. There's a beauty to not settling down at the wrong place.

27:29There's a beauty in having the courage to move on even if that place beckons you via attachment,

27:41via relationships, via memories, adjustment and habit. Once you have been with something,

27:49all these things keep you in bondage via a certain stickiness, don't they?

28:04You want to stay there just because you have stayed there for long.

28:08No, move on. Once you know that a certain thing has yielded to you all that it could,

28:15honesty demands that you try out something higher because the purpose of life is learning,

28:20a constant movement. You are not born to stagnate. There is no point called the final one.

28:28There is just no possibility of you ever becoming saturated with knowledge or realization.

28:36The potential to be bigger and better and more fulfilled and more joyful will remain last

28:43to try till your last breath.

28:47Are you getting it? And these things should never, never be considered as failures.

28:54Somebody who has settled down and made a home at some ordinary place as most commoners do,

29:05as most worldly men do, cannot be called successful.

29:12Far more successful than such a person is someone who tried out a thousand things

29:19out of which nothing succeeded. He was committed to excellence. He was experimenting.

29:28He was putting himself at risk. He was not saying that he is a sucker for security and stability

29:37and respect. He said, no security, everything is risked and people will not respect me.

29:46The world will call me a failure. All that is okay.

29:49My job is to remain a traveler. Read that poem, Ithaka, and at just the most inopportune time,

29:58I have forgotten the name of the poet. Somebody help me please, Ithaka. It's one of my favorite

30:10poems and I have taught this poem as well. And this is very intimately linked to the question

30:17you are raising.

31:17Kawafi, C-A-V-A-F-Y.

31:36Let me quote something from here.

31:37So, Ithaka is a place that young people set out to. It's a fabled place and it's said that if you

31:46reach Ithaka, you'll find huge treasures there and probably even

31:55all kinds of excitement and fame and glory and all that.

32:03So, Ithaka beckons, attracts. But it is said that it often happens that those who face all the

32:12obstacles and manage to reach Ithaka, they don't find anything there. Most people do not reach

32:18Ithaka because there are huge obstacles in the way. Some people indeed do manage and when they

32:27reach there, they find that there is none of that fairy tale stuff there that was promised to them

32:34and to those people, the poet says. And I'll quote from an earlier point.

32:48Keep Ithaka always in your mind. Arriving there is what you are destined for.

32:54But don't hurry the journey at all. Better if it lasts for years. So, you are old by the time you

33:02But don't hurry the journey at all. Better if it lasts for years.

33:08So, you are old by the time you reach the island. Wealthy with all you have gained on the way.

33:19Not expecting Ithaka to make you rich. It's the journey that has the riches, not the destination.

33:27And you cannot journey if you settle down too quickly.

33:33Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey. Without her, you wouldn't have set out.

33:40She has nothing left to give you now. The journey is all that there is.

33:48The journey is all that there is. So, keep experimenting, keep trying, keep failing. It's okay.

33:55It's okay. And if you find her poor, Ithaka won't have fooled you.

34:04Wise, as you will have become so full of experience, you'll have understood by then

34:11what these Ithakas mean.

34:18It should be a compulsory read, especially for young people.

34:25With your limited understanding, with your little experience,

34:34with your little and half knowledge, still set out. Knowing fully well that you do not

34:43completely know who you are. You also do not completely know what the world and life are all

34:50about. You do not know anything perfectly. Still, you have nothing more than what you currently

34:59know, right? At this moment, you have nothing more than what you currently know. And

35:08put your finger on, bet on the best that you know of currently. With all your limitations,

35:15of currently. With all your limitations, there is something that you hold as the highest, right?

35:21Commit yourself to it. But that commitment has to be conditional.

35:28In the sense that if you find something better than that along the way, you say, fine, thank you

35:33so much. You brought me to this point. Now I commit myself to that which I find the highest

35:40at this point, at this moment. So I'm constantly progressing from one step of the case to the

35:49next one, right? I'm not making a house here. I'm not saying I have arrived. I'm not saying

35:59my journey has ended. It's an infinite staircase. If at all I have a home, it is in the sky.

36:10Is this getting too poetic and abstract, Samarth?

36:18No, sir. It's getting really interesting. So I have this question coming up, sir.

36:23So, as you talked about self-realization, so how can we balance the journey of finding ourselves

36:29if we are busy pursuing the unending staircase?

36:35You'll have to explain what is it more specifically.

36:40So, sir, you were talking about you have to find yourself first in the beginning.

36:45It's a process. It's a process. Even finding yourself is an unending thing.

36:51Yeah, yeah, yeah. So now the question is that when I'm into these endeavors of doing different

36:58things, trying something out and that, so I'm really concentrated on that thing. So how can I

37:05balance like meditation and not in like just sitting down and doing nothing, like really

37:12contemplating about life and what I am and what I'm not, like that kind of contemplating things.

37:17When you say balance, there have to be two things. So you said probably one thing is

37:24that kind of meditation in which you just sit down and contemplate. What is the other thing?

37:28Sir, another one as I've read is concentrative meditation and there are different kinds of

37:37the meditations I've read in some books.

37:41Yeah, it's not that way. It's active exploration. It's active learning,

37:49which means that it's in your activity that your learning is happening,

37:55not in your passive contemplation. I'm not denying the utility of passive contemplation,

38:04but then that's not the foremost thing. You see right now the two of us are not in a passive

38:12relationship. There is an activity happening. There is an exchange happening and you attend

38:21to it. So do I and we learn from it. Similarly, the two of us could have been engaged

38:31in a tennis match, right? And there is constant activity, rigorous physical activity happening

38:40and you learn and you learn in the moment, along the process. That's the nature of life.

38:48See, as a young man, you are unlikely to get a long occasion to just sit and meditate.

38:59In fact, I'm not really in favor of the kind of meditation that necessitates sitting down.

39:10Because if you are leading a really rich life, a vigorous life, a purposeful life,

39:18the opportunity to sit down might not really be abundant.

39:25You might find that your active day, your rich day

39:30involves 16 out of the 24 hours of the day. How will you eke out the time to

39:39meditate in a corner? Equally meditation is very important.

39:46So what is the kind of meditation that is needed? You need active meditation.

39:53So even as I speak to you, I am meditative.

39:58And even as you listen to me, you are meditative. This is real meditation. You are knowing

40:09alongside acting.

40:14And this is also more useful because in the middle of your daily action, in your relationship,

40:23in your associations, in the way you approach your targets, you discover who you truly are.

40:34Let's say you want something. You are engaged in some activity between 1 pm and 3 pm,

40:43the peak hours of the day. And you want something. You say this is my target and

40:47that has to be completed till 3 pm. And you perceive an obstacle.

40:53And you succumb to that obstacle. What will that tell you about yourself?

41:04That will tell you something very important about yourself that there sits something inside you

41:09that yields to challenges, that surrenders to problems.

41:16Right? And that can be known only first of all when you confront a problem.

41:24If you say that my meditation is limited to the time between 6 and 6.30 am,

41:30will you ever realize this thing about your inner self?

41:35Because between 6 and 6.30 am, you are anyway not facing the problem that you faced at 2 pm.

41:44That problem can be encountered only in the middle of hectic activity.

41:50So that hectic activity alone can tell you what your real self is like.

41:55Otherwise, you can live in your imaginations about yourself. You can say, I am very brave,

42:00very courageous. But when you are faced with a challenge, you got afraid. You retreated.

42:10All those aspects of your inner personality get exposed only in real life situations.

42:18The kind of meditation in which you have to sit in a corner and meditate,

42:22the kind of meditation in which you have to sit in a corner in solitude,

42:28aloof from the world, that's largely an artificial setting, is it not?

42:35You have already created an artificial condition. You are saying, I'll be sitting in a corner.

42:39Now is life, real life about sitting in a corner? In real life, you are in the middle of the worldly

42:47flow. But here, in the name of meditation, you have created a corner. Then you say,

42:51in my meditation room, there should be no noise. Now is real life full of noise or not?

43:01That's like practicing for a test match with, let's say, a tennis ball.

43:11How many runs will you secure in the real match?

43:19First of all, you are practicing with a tennis ball. Secondly, you have put an under 11 bowler

43:27in front of you, that too on a 44 yard pitch. And then you feel very confident that you have scored

43:35a century during net practice. That's the usual kind of meditation. You have created a very

43:44unreal and artificial condition that you will not get in the real match.

43:50In the real match, you will have a hunk coming at you,

43:57a hunk coming at you,

44:0122 yard pitch with a proper cricket ball, not a soft ball.

44:12So, it doesn't help. That's the reason why so many people meditate for 20 years, 40 years,

44:20and yet get only very marginal benefit.

44:27So, be immersed in life. Be attentive to whatsoever is happening. Learn even from your mistakes.

44:37Know how you are reacting to everything that's around you.

44:43A defeat comes, a disappointment comes. See how yourself reacts.

44:48Something comes and offers great temptation.

44:52A group of people is praising you. A job offer comes your way.

44:59Some pretty girl has proposed to you. See how something within reacts. See how there is something

45:08within that very readily wants to forget the truth.

45:15You know, for example, that you are not the tallest guy in your batch

45:22and three or four random people come and say, wow, this dude is really tall.

45:31And you see how something within wants to accept their compliment.

45:35You know fully well that you are not the tallest one

45:39and yet you will not refute them on their face. You will not say, sir, please, you are mistaken.

45:47There are two dozen taller fellows in my batch.

45:50Why are you complimenting me on something that I am not?

45:54Does that happen that you quickly refute somebody's compliments? No, that doesn't happen.

45:59If praise comes our way, something within us is eager to lap it up.

46:05Equally, if someone comes and criticizes us, even if the criticism is real,

46:11there is something within us that wants to refute the criticism.

46:18Even if that person is speaking as a well-wisher, that fellow still appears as an enemy. Does he not?

46:26So you have to observe all these things within you.

46:29How suddenly and forcefully disgust arises and opposition arises.

46:35Without even your consciousness, a reaction happens within.

46:40These are the things to be observed. That's real meditativeness.

46:43And that can happen only in the flow of life.

46:47The real thing is not victory.

46:50Obviously, even defeat is not the real thing.

46:53Obviously, even defeat is not the real thing.

46:56The real thing is observing what victory and defeat mean to this one sitting inside.

47:05Because that's who you are.

47:07And the purification and sublimation of that is the very purpose of life.

47:12We don't live in the world, we live within ourselves, don't we?

47:18Apparently, we live in the world.

47:19You say, I live in my house, I am sitting in my classroom.

47:22But the fact is we all live here within ourselves.

47:25So that's where we are.

47:27So if we have to improve ourselves, that's where the improvement is.

47:32And you cannot improve that because the eyes are unable to look at that.

47:37The eyes look only at the world.

47:42So that inner thing can be seen only in your reactions.

47:46Only in your relationships.

47:48Only in your thoughts and emotions and how they get provoked.

47:52You observe them.

47:54Impartially, you look at this thing called the self.

47:58That's self-observation.

48:00That's also meditativeness.

48:02And that's the entire thing in life.

48:11Have I drifted too far away from what you wanted?

48:14No, no, sir.

48:15It was really informative.

48:16I even wanted to ask some of these kind of questions to you.

48:19I'm glad.

48:20That was really an eye-opening session.

48:21Thank you so much.

48:27Sir, I have a follow-up question.

48:29I wanted to ask that YouTube videos full of information get lesser views.

48:36On the other hand, YouTube videos full of entertainment get more views.

48:42So my question is, isn't it justified to the content creators

48:47to upload videos which get more views?

48:51And if it is so, then why do we criticize them?

48:55What do you mean?

48:55Because they are doing their job.

48:57Shubhra, you said, right?

48:59Yes, sir.

49:00Shubhra, what do you mean by justification?

49:04So let's say you are a video uploader.

49:07What do you mean by justification?

49:11Sir, I myself am a content creator.

49:13Oh, you are.

49:14And yes, and I just meant to say that justified is like

49:21when we are uploading videos full of entertainment, we are getting criticisms.

49:25So it's not justified to the content creators because they are getting views from that.

49:30No, I understand.

49:32But as a content creator, you know, the word creator is such an important word.

49:39A creator is an artist.

49:41A creator is the highest function one can perform.

49:48Creator.

49:49So do you create for views and views only?

49:57No.

49:58Sir, I wanted to tell you one more thing.

50:00When I started to upload videos on Bhagavad Gita,

50:03I uploaded videos of so many verses of Bhagavad Gita and it was very useful and informative.

50:09But I got less views.

50:11But when I started to show people some big institutions and made vlogs that

50:16this is Hindu College, that is Hansraj College, so those videos got so many views.

50:21So isn't it justified to me that I would upload those videos and not just…

50:25I'll go back to that same word, justification.

50:30The word justice means setting something right.

50:37So justification has to be related to the rightness of something.

50:43So, I am somebody who uploads videos, let's say.

50:46Right?

50:48Is it just for the sake of getting a particular number of views?

50:55I'll share a few other concerns with you.

50:58Who are these people who are watching my videos?

51:02One lakh people watching a particular video

51:06might be much more important than 10 lakh people watching some other video

51:16if the quality of these one lakh is far superior.

51:20That's one concern.

51:22Second, what is the impact of my video on the 10 lakh people who watch it?

51:29Are these things not important when it comes to justification?

51:37Unfortunately, YouTube will only show you the aggregate number of views.

51:43It will not tell you the quality of your audience, though that can be known.

51:48Through some indirect matrices that can be kind of judged.

51:54What is the quality of people who watch your video?

51:56What is the quality of people who watch your video?

51:58You can, for example, look at the quality of comments.

52:01You can also look at some numbers in your dashboard and you will come to know

52:07what approximately is the composition of your audience,

52:12where are they coming from and all those things.

52:16You can also see what are the other videos and channels that your audience watches.

52:22That too is available to be seen in the dashboard.

52:25You will realize that this is where my people are coming from.

52:29Now, is that not a source of satisfaction or dissatisfaction?

52:35What would you rather have?

52:38Two great friends or a group of 20 hooligans?

52:44Friends.

52:45That's what.

52:47Now tell me, what is justified?

52:51Two or 20?

52:52It's a two.

52:55So that's what, that's what.

52:57Quality is more important than quantity.

53:03You go, for example, to J. Krishnamurthy's channel

53:10and several videos there, probably most videos there, will not have even one lakh views.

53:16Will not have even one lakh views.

53:21And you can go to the channels of the biggest YouTubers and you know the kind of content there.

53:31So it is obvious that the number of followers or likes can only be of secondary importance.

53:41The first thing is something else.

53:43The artist is, first of all, accountable to herself, right?

53:49When you look at what you have created, first of all, you must be able to feel a certain pride.

53:57Or is it better to be ashamed of what you have created?

54:00Though your video is awash with views.

54:05Your video has two million views and you cannot bear to look at your own video.

54:10Would you, would you want to be in that situation?

54:14Unfortunately, that's the situation most people are in.

54:18Most of these so-called content creators cannot tolerate their own videos.

54:24It's just that the quality of the audience is so poor that

54:31the more mediocre and vulgar your video is, the more views it's likely to fetch.

54:42Don't get into that. Remember, two is bigger than twenty. Quality matters.

54:49And also, there is no need to be cynical, Shubhra.

54:54It's not that the world is totally empty of good people.

54:57They are not in a majority, we concede.

55:00But it's not as if good people are nowhere to be found.

55:04We all are looking for a rarity, are we not?

55:10We are not looking for the majority. At no point do you look for the majority.

55:16You are enrolled in a great college, a good course probably.

55:21And you, you are not looking for the majority.

55:25And you would have seen only, only a tiny minority gaining admission to your course.

55:34I do not know the details. I'm speculating.

55:37So out of a thousand people who would have applied, let's say no more than 10, 20, 50

55:42would have gained admission. That's what would have happened.

55:47Right? So would you want to be with the minority or the majority?

55:55Remember, the majority was denied admission.

56:02Remember, the majority was denied admission.

56:06It's the minority always that is, that is important.

56:12It's the minority that matters and it's that, it's that rarity, not the abundance that we all are looking for.

56:19You will want to pursue a career. Will you want to take up any kind of job that comes your way or

56:25will you be selective and choosy?

56:28Selective.

56:29So that's it. You want that, that one among the 10.

56:35And 9 out of 10 are always fit to be just rejected.

56:43Right?

56:43You will probably choose a friend or a partner at some point.

56:47You might already have. We all are making friends since we are kids.

56:52Do you make friends with just about anybody?

56:57Or are you quite choosy in that?

57:03You want to say, my fellow is one in a thousand.

57:08You want to say, my fellow is one in a thousand.

57:14One in a thousand, right? That's what you want for yourself.

57:19Then why don't you want the same thing for your video?

57:23You should actively wish that 999 out of 1000 people refuse your video.

57:31Because your video too has to be one in a thousand.

57:34In some sense, it can be a reason to celebrate if only worthy people watch your videos.

57:42Let your video be the touchstone of worthiness.

57:47You should be able to say, not everyone comes to my channel.

57:53Only very special people come to my channel.

57:56I do not mean to say that you should consciously avoid getting views.

58:04No, that's not the assertion.

58:09The point I'm trying to make is, it's not crowds that you should be after.

58:14It's quality you should pursue.

58:17And if you are pursuing quality, remember that good people exist to be appreciated.

58:24That good people exist even though they are in a minority.

58:31You'll get sufficient number of views.

58:35You'll get a good quality audience to be with.

58:38And that's a great pleasure to have in life.

58:40The company of good people, no?

58:43Right, Swamiji. Thank you so much.

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