Video Information: IIT Kharagpur, 04.02.2022, Greater Noida, India
Context:
~ What are humiliation and insult?
~ How does suffering help the one?
~ How to realize one's true strength?
~ Why we have extreme possessiveness?
~ How can one overcome anger issue?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
#emotion #acharyaprashant
Context:
~ What are humiliation and insult?
~ How does suffering help the one?
~ How to realize one's true strength?
~ Why we have extreme possessiveness?
~ How can one overcome anger issue?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
#emotion #acharyaprashant
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Acharya ji, I have observed a trend that in the recent past, the number of people who
00:09are resorting to extremities for any reason, be that be political, be that be religious,
00:15be that be just social extremities have just increased in number and this specifically
00:24if we put this in a world view context, this is a problem that is gonna emerge and haunt
00:32specifically our culture in the coming future and I feel that it is, that we just see a
00:40trend where extremities is, extremity as a behavior is penetrating things that were not
00:46extreme to begin with and this has been more of a reactive kind of mechanism, say I'm talking
00:53about the people who associate themselves with Sanatan Dharam or people who associate
00:58themselves with specific ideologies that are non-extreme and there have been sects and
01:04there have been people who have resorted to extremities more of as a reaction because
01:11they see no other way out or whatever may be the reason that they cite but then what
01:15like do we as a society want to see ourselves develop in that fashion or how exactly should
01:26we have a vision of the future like where exactly are we heading and should we be heading that way.
01:35See every extreme denotes a thirst, be it the extreme food consumption of somebody recuperating
01:58from a fresh breakup, the extreme possessiveness of a protective husband, the extreme competitiveness
02:26of a job seeker, the extreme anger of a jilted lover, all these extremes denote a thirst.
02:48Do you see this?
02:56Extreme anger, extreme anything.
03:03If today you are seeing so many extremes in all ways in the society, they are indicative
03:12of a central common problem and there is not just religious extremism.
03:26Even global temperatures are rushing towards an extreme, are they not?
03:32Even sea levels are rushing towards an extreme, are they not?
03:39And I am inviting you to see that all these are interrelated.
03:49The global forest cover currently stands at an extreme.
03:54What kind of an extreme?
03:56Minimum.
03:58It is lower than it ever was in history.
04:07Animal flesh consumption both in absolute and per capita terms today stands at an extreme.
04:18Humanity was never killing so many animals per minute ever in history.
04:26The average person was never consuming so much flesh ever in history.
04:39The quantum of fissile material, weaponized fissile material with the world today stands
04:44at an extreme, does it not?
04:55Material processing speed today stands at an extreme, does it not?
05:03Would you want to see how all these extremes are linked?
05:07We said all extremes come from a certain thirst, rather a central thirst.
05:20Religious extremism is gross, it's very visible, it's right there on the roads.
05:26It carries banners and flags, so it's obvious because there are slogans and often there
05:34are riots as well, so it's obvious.
05:38But think of this age of extremes as one composite unit.
05:51All of this is arising from the kind of despondency in the human mind that is unequaled in history.
06:06Have you ever had such a large proportion of humanity in a state of neurosis?
06:19Such a huge mass of people suffering from all kinds of mental disorders, was it ever
06:26the case?
06:28The average anxiety levels in the population today are at an unthinkable extreme
06:43and the world today is more prosperous than it ever was.
06:49The per capita average global income is an extreme today.
07:01Mankind has more knowledge than it ever had.
07:10Do you see what is happening?
07:14What is common among all those extremes is that they are all external, they are all external,
07:24they are all external extremes, be it the processing speed part, be it the consumption
07:34part, be it the knowledge part, they are all outside of the human being.
07:46In the external world, man is rushing to deeper and deeper extremes.
08:02Actually the reason is that the void in our center today is deeper than ever and this
08:16internal hollow, its extreme hollowness is causing us to rush to extreme measures in
08:30the external world.
08:43Where is this internal hollowness coming from?
08:47This internal hollowness is coming from a combination of mainly two things.
08:58One, a state of technology that can produce more and more for consumption and a state
09:09of philosophy that is liberal enough to deny liberation.
09:24So there is the factory yielding more and more goods and there is the philosophy telling
09:31you that consumption of these goods is the purpose of your life.
09:40But the purpose of your life is something else and that purpose sits as a deep unaddressed
09:49extreme hollow in our chests.
09:56Technology, economy and philosophy have combined to bring humanity to probably its lowest state
10:11in terms of consciousness in its history and that's why you see all kinds of extremism
10:18everywhere in the world.
10:25Because of the misdoings of organized religion, the last two to three hundred years have been
10:36of the decline of religion ever since the Enlightenment period in Europe.
10:46There was a lot in religion that obviously deserved to be rejected but the core of religion
10:57which is the spiritual urge to be liberated had to be preserved as the most precious diamond
11:05mankind can ever have.
11:09Instead we chose to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
11:19So liberation has been junked along with religion and consumption has been foisted upon us,
11:34mandatory consumption.
11:41That's the reason why you see people running to all these extremes because it's scary.
11:48We need meaning, we need purpose to life and when we do not find meaning and purpose in
11:54life we do stupid things like religious extremism.
12:02Like extremism in merrymaking, people want to go to the Mars to get some pleasure, an extreme step.
12:20Acharyaji, just another thing which is slightly off from this but then I feel that that has
12:31been something on my mind ever since you talked about liberalism in the current society
12:38and all of us these external extremities relating with the hollow that is in our chest is a
12:47common observation about people or intellectuals claiming how a liberal society should be but
12:56in fact not doing it and I mean that's a statement but then I want to know your opinion
13:04about say how recently we have seen a surge in the people who say that they are homosexuals
13:16and who say that they associate saying that sexuality is fluid is one thing but this has
13:26extended to the point where people say gender is fluid people say I mean it's not far away
13:32when they would even claim that age is fluid there have been cases where there have been
13:38some specific say perversions claiming some sort of there has been this specific case in UK where
13:51a specific group of people have claimed some sort of security under the LGBTQ plus movement
13:59and I just want to know your opinion about this particular thing why the rise on this
14:04because this is something which is relatively internal I feel but then again we as a society
14:11are moving to its extreme. Is it not obvious Devan? I mean you want something in life when
14:19you don't get it at several places you try it at this place as well and if you start seeing
14:28some little success in playing with your sexuality then you just squat there and you
14:39start insisting that this maybe is the thing that will take me all the distance.
14:50The little kid wants the real thing it cannot get that
14:59so it starts sucking its thumb or its big toe
15:06it starts playing with its own body but its own body is not what it wants
15:13that which it really wants
15:18we have assigned to test bin in the name of progress in the name of liberalism in the name of
15:25science atheism in the name of several
15:35modern and postmodern ideologies
15:40the real thing is there and if you will be restrained from having the real thing
15:48you will do a lot of strange things that's what we find humanity doing today
15:55strange and self-destructive we are closer to self imploding today than we ever were
16:07think of this extreme think of the doomsday clock
16:11think of the doomsday clock
16:15think of all the Kyoto protocols and the Copenhagen thing and the Rio de Janeiro and
16:21the Paris thing think of what kind of extreme failures they have been
16:30think of why mankind is so suicidal today
16:34and you will know what we are missing. We are missing the real thing we are born for.
16:41In the long run like right now in the present state the society is in a manner moving towards its self-destruction
17:10so is there any way is there any particular way we can always have these sporadic set of
17:18individuals who have been a little more enlightened than the masses who have served
17:24as guiding poles for the masses in general but then do we see a future for our society
17:33where we might not directly be led to that doomsday
17:41you see you have to do things if you want to
17:51avert what clearly awaits us
17:59you need to have a thousand such discussions happening every minute at a million places
18:08across the globe
18:15we have started a little initiative called Gargar Upanishad
18:19it's just too small it needs to be amplified a million times
18:28this is what needs to happen we clearly know what can save us
18:32we know that it's just that we we need to work on it we need to feed resources into it
18:43we need to build an opinion and understanding around it
18:54we need to
18:55we need to have more and more people enrolled by way of understanding
19:09there needs to be a lot of information dissemination a lot of a lot of publicity
19:17a lot of propaganda
19:25so
19:37yes this is it