Video Information: 13.04.23, IRMA (Online), Greater Noida
Context:
~ Why should we not trust blindly?
~ Why do I trust people blindly?
~ What does blindly listening mean?
~ Can you blindly trust someone?
~ Why don't we try to mitigate climate change?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Context:
~ Why should we not trust blindly?
~ Why do I trust people blindly?
~ What does blindly listening mean?
~ Can you blindly trust someone?
~ Why don't we try to mitigate climate change?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00So, I am Darshana and my question is very simple yet complicated.
00:07So, why do we not work?
00:11So, even after knowing that, you know, if we work, we will get something that we are looking for.
00:17So, to take an example, I had the opportunity to interact with a lot of social startups.
00:25So, many of them are working towards climate change.
00:28So, a few startups, though they might be working towards the climate change, even if we see at individual level.
00:34So, we know that, you know, if we do not use plastic or if we segregate the garbage waste,
00:43or even not use AC or maybe some other alternative for that matter,
00:47we could actually bring in a lot of change.
00:50Like we are 8 billion people and individually, everyone, maybe even half the world is, you know, working towards it.
00:57There could be a drastic change in the climate, you know, though we are not actually working on it.
01:04So, what can be the reason for that?
01:08See, when you say we do not work, it's not that we really do not work.
01:27Every single person is indeed working.
01:32But just according to his or her own limited perception and self-interest.
01:40There is nobody who does not work.
01:45Even if somebody decides not to work, that's that person's definition of work.
01:51So, for example, when you ask someone, hey, what did you do all day?
01:57And the fellow says, oh, I just slept or I was just lying on the bed.
02:03Isn't that in response to what did you do all day?
02:09So, that's what he was doing, lying on the bed.
02:15So, that's his doing. He's working.
02:18The trouble is, according to his perception from where he is looking and with the limited clarity that he is looking,
02:30that was the suitable work he could take up.
02:37Lying on the bed, dozing, sleeping.
02:40Are you getting it?
02:45So, if you want people to do the right work, you first of all need them to have the right clarity.
02:59When I know who I am, then I also know what I must do.
03:08At least let me know what my situation is.
03:12There is a fire in the room and you are fast asleep.
03:17Somebody comes and just wakes you up.
03:27And then you are not needed to be told what to do.
03:34Nobody needs to motivate you either.
03:40Just having seen what the situation is like, you gallop away at top speed.
03:49There is a fire in the room, you have to run away.
03:53Don't you?
03:56Now, if you are sleeping and a friend of yours comes to me and asks, why doesn't she work?
04:03I mean, why doesn't she move?
04:06The answer is because she is asleep.
04:10Because she is not conscious.
04:13So, people do not work because they do not know, they are not conscious.
04:18Even if they think that they know, they know in a very hazy kind of way in an inebriated state.
04:29Their vision is quite blurred.
04:34If you are drunk, what happens to your vision?
04:37Or if the windscreen has a lot of moisture deposited on it, what happens to your vision?
04:46And what happens when you drive in the fog?
04:52So, the real problem is not about action.
04:55The real problem has to do with the actor.
04:59The actor is not alright.
05:02The nature of the actor is consciousness and the actor is not fully conscious.
05:09And therefore, the actor is making very wrong kind of wasteful, suboptimal, even harmful decisions.
05:25Are you getting it?
05:27So, when I have no idea about my being, I have neither bothered to have knowledge of the world,
05:41nor have I bothered to observe my own ways.
05:46So, I know neither the world nor myself.
05:50Then why will I worry about something like climate change?
05:56I know neither the facts of the world nor do I know what is it within the human being that leads to the climate catastrophe.
06:05Why will I work?
06:09Climate activists often ignore this basic thing.
06:14So, they want to steer us into action without first of all ensuring that we have enough clarity.
06:24An action without clarity is just a blind rush.
06:29A blind rush that won't last.
06:31You will stumble, you will fall and you will fall asleep.
06:40Are we together?
06:42Is this clarifying the thing or is there something else you want to ask?
06:47I understand it.
06:49But again, is it because we are not aware and even if we are aware, we are not actually doing something.
06:56So, is it because of internal motivation?
06:59Because as a human, human beings are innately lazy.
07:05That can be one of the reasons, right?
07:08No, it's not that we are lazy.
07:10We do not prefer to do a few things.
07:13Nobody is lazy.
07:15When you do not prefer to do something, you unconsciously call it laziness.
07:23Is anybody ever so lazy that he doesn't fall on the bed?
07:34Is somebody ever so lazy that he misses her meals?
07:41So, it's not that people are lazy.
07:48Students are lazy to come to the college.
07:55But are students ever so lazy that they refuse to return from the college?
08:03And the distance between the home and the college remains the same, right?
08:08You say, I was so lazy, oh, the distance is 12 kilometers, I didn't come.
08:12Now that you have come, the distance is still 12 kilometers.
08:17Why aren't you lazy enough to stay put in the college?
08:20Why are you now going to home?
08:22So, laziness is just a preference.
08:26Nobody is really lazy.
08:28When it comes to fulfillment of desire, even the laziest person becomes super active.
08:35Just check what a person really desires and you will find how quickly he shuns his laziness.
08:48So, why do people not act?
08:51Why do people not act?
08:52Because even if they know the facts of the world,
09:02they do not see how those facts affect their own being.
09:10If you can make them see that, they will move, they will act.
09:17So, biodiversity is depleting.
09:21Species are going extinct.
09:25CO2 levels are 420 ppm.
09:30And the fellow says, well, how does any of that matter to me?
09:37How does any of that matter to me?
09:39That's the missing link.
09:43Can you establish the link?
09:46Can you display to him that it indeed does matter to you?
09:50It's a personal thing.
09:52It's not about what's happening in the world.
09:55It's happening to you actually.
09:59You are being personally hit by the climate change.
10:02If he can see that, he will move.
10:05As long as he cannot see that, he will not act.
10:09But we expect them to act out of a moral obligation or a social responsibility
10:16that does not last long.
10:20Just to look good or just to please his conscience,
10:26he will act for a while in a timid way.
10:30Take some half-hearted measures and then he will drop out.
10:37If you want somebody to be fully enrolled in a massive project,
10:46first of all, you have to ensure that the project becomes a personal thing to him or her.
10:52It cannot remain professional or social or external.
10:57It has to become internal and personal.
11:01It is my thing.
11:04I'm not fighting for the climate.
11:06I'm fighting for myself because now I see that the climate is me.
11:12I'm not fighting for the other species.
11:14I'm fighting for myself because now I see that the other species are all me.
11:22I'm not fighting for the kids or the elderly or for women.
11:26I'm fighting for myself because I see that I am the kid, I am the elderly, I am the woman.
11:33If I do not see that, then I'll just be an ordinary do-gooder.
11:40And those don't go far.
11:45As long as the feeling of otherness will remain,
11:51your openness to help the other will remain limited.
11:56Nobody can go beyond a point to help the other because the other by definition is the other.
12:03You have to have the clarity to see the other as yourself.
12:11Are you getting it?
12:12There is a fire in the neighbor's house and you are smug and selfish and you're not doing anything about it.
12:19But the fire now spreads so much that the flames are about to consume your own house.
12:27Then you will become suddenly a social activist.
12:36Then you will say, oh, I want to douse the flames in my neighbor's house.
12:40Because now you can see that the neighbor's house is your own house.
12:47And the other house gutted is your own house gutted.
12:53If he goes, you two go, the two of you are one.
12:57That has to be shown and that remains to be shown.
13:01That has not been shown.
13:04NGOs, student groups, activists, they all still talk the language of selflessness.
13:17They say you must be selfless to help the other.
13:21The fact is you must realize where truly your selfish self-interest lies.
13:31And when you realize that, you see that your self-interest is inseparable from that of the other.
13:38And that's when you are moved into action.
13:41And that's why Vedanta is so important because it brings forward that which unites us.
13:52Then the differences disappear and when differences disappear, only then you are able to be good to the other.
14:00If the other is outside, on the other side of the wall, why should the other matter to me?
14:08That's a practical question. The other will not matter to me.
14:12Let there be life and let's assume there is life on some other distant planet as well.
14:18There must be. The universe is just so large.
14:21It's quite probable there is life elsewhere as well.
14:25Does it matter to you what's happening on that particular planet?
14:29Because the other is the other and your life is not connected to the life on that planet.
14:35So even if there is a huge nuclear war or something, a mass extinction on that planet,
14:42you do not bother and you actually need not bother.
14:49Here you need to understand everything is interrelated.
14:53Interrelated, not just in the physical sense, but also in a very inner and metaphysical sense.
15:00That's Vedanta. And if you want to keep Vedanta aside,
15:05because sometimes people take it as some kind of sectarian partisan thing,
15:11then keep Vedanta aside, just talk of self-knowledge.
15:13Self-knowledge. The more you know yourself, the more you know that you are not a distinct entity,
15:22that the world is not comprised of a million distinct entities.
15:30We are together. We are one. And we are not one just externally.
15:37Internally, there is a point where there are no differences.
15:41And we all aspire to reach that point.
15:47And if we cannot reach that point, then there is no hope, no peace, no joy for any of us.
15:56If we remain in that which makes us distinct from others, we will remain restless.
16:05Usually the woman likes to remain as a woman, the man likes to remain as a man.
16:16Now there can be no peace in that.
16:20The Hindu likes to remain as a Hindu, the Muslim as a Muslim, the rich as the rich, the poor as the poor.
16:26There can be no peace because you are remaining in that which makes you distinct from the other.
16:33Vedanta makes it clear that you have to abide in that which makes you indistinct from anybody, anywhere.
16:49What is that thing that is indistinct, common, universal, beyond change, beyond division?
16:57When you start going into that, that's when there is a flowering of real compassion.
17:05Then you can work for the animals, for others, for the world in general.
17:12So I keep telling whenever I meet climate activists or vegan activists,
17:18or people who work against animal cruelty or for other noble generous causes,
17:26I keep telling them, unless there is a spiritual core to your work, it won't go far.
17:36The climate crisis cannot be handled without an awakening of self-knowledge.
17:43People will continue to be cruel to animals if they do not know who they are internally.
17:55Is it all going to abstract or fast?
18:01So I have a follow-up question.
18:03I understood that there is a need of desire that you need, something that you're doing for yourself.
18:09There should be a feeling because to being selfless, there's a limitation.
18:16So my question is, how do you awaken that selfishness or that desire within a person or yourself?
18:26So I know there is going to be certain benefits.
18:30If I study, I'm going to get good scores.
18:35So how do I bring that desire of studying to get that good score?
18:40Because even if I know I'm not actually studying.
18:46You have to link your good scores to the fulfillment of your most basic and most important desire.
18:58So that's true. If you study, you will get good marks.
19:00If you get good marks, you get good grades.
19:02And then an overall better CGP or something.
19:08And then maybe you will be a gold medalist.
19:11Maybe, maybe.
19:12But that inner restless thing asks, so what?
19:18You tell yourself, you have an exam coming.
19:23You tell yourself, I must study, I'll get good marks.
19:26The inner bird says, so what?
19:29Then you tell yourself, good marks mean good grades.
19:32The inner bird again asks, so what?
19:35Then you say, a higher, whatever, a better placement.
19:41Yes, a better placement.
19:43The inner one again says, so what?
19:47Then you say, better placement means more money.
19:50More money, more respect.
19:52The inner one again says, so what?
19:55What does this series of so what's tell you?
20:00It tells you that the inner thing is desirous of neither of these actually.
20:09The inner human discontent that we all have, irrespective of who we are, where we come from, etc.
20:17That inner discontentment cannot be fulfilled by marks or grades or placement or money or whatever.
20:25Otherwise, the inner bird would have just smiled and gone silent.
20:33But it keeps retorting, does it not?
20:35So what?
20:37And unless you take it on board, unless you convince it, you will not get its cooperation.
20:44So it does not cooperate.
20:46You want to study, it says, so what?
20:49I want to do something else.
20:52And whatever else you do, it again says, so what?
20:58When you were studying, she was saying, no, no, no, so what?
21:03And then you said, fine, let me watch a movie.
21:07To your horror, she again says, so what?
21:11What does that tell you?
21:12That tells that there is something very unique, very special that the inner thing is longing for.
21:22And the purpose of life is to identify that thing that you really want
21:28and then go after it with all your might, endlessly.
21:34And that's true selfishness.
21:37To ask yourself, hello, hello, beyond all the little objects of desire,
21:44all the common things that people run after,
21:48what is it that I truly want?
21:51Let me be absolutely selfish.
21:55And it's not a superficial thing.
21:57It's not a superficial thing.
22:01You will not just be served the inner secret on a platter.
22:11You will have to observe yourself, you will have to ask yourself difficult questions
22:16and you will have to be patient with yourself to know what your heart really beats for.
22:20What that little bird pines for.
22:33And that true selfishness, the wise ones have told us, is all-inclusive.
22:44Once you know what you want,
22:46immediately,
22:51without fail,
22:54you also know that's the thing that everybody wants.
23:01Outside we are all different, distinct.
23:05Inwardly, we all have a common want.
23:10Once you come in touch with your own want,
23:13it becomes impossible for you to remain indifferent, insensitive or cruel to others.
23:22That we said is the flowering of true compassion.
23:26True selfishness is true compassion.
23:30Knowing yourself, it becomes impossible for you not to help others.
23:37In fact, then you even do not try to help others.
23:41Your every action assumes the nature, the quality of help.
23:49Irrespective of what you are doing, you find you are in some way helping the universe.
23:59Are you getting it?
24:01Selfishness is not about pinching something from a shop without paying for it.
24:07Or about copying from somebody's answer sheet or stealing somebody's assignment and submitting it in your name.
24:17No, no, that's not selfishness.
24:21Selfishness is a great, great virtue.
24:25Selfishness is self-love. Selfishness is self-knowledge.
24:30It is superfluous selfishness that we must watch out against.
24:34True selfishness is something we must aspire for and it's inexorable.
24:44You are the self, right?
24:46How can you not be selfish?
24:48It is your duty towards yourself to be truly selfish.
24:51It is your duty towards yourself to be truly selfish.
24:57If you are not being selfish, then in some sense you are guilty of a crime against yourself.
25:09So see who you are, see what is it that you want.
25:14Speak to that bird with some intimacy, some love.
25:21People find whether then it's the cause of the climate or the oppressed sections of the society
25:30or the cause of the homeless or the malnourished ones.
25:40There is just so much suffering in the world, is there not?
25:43If you start listing the causes a young person can possibly take up,
25:50they are just endless.
25:54It is estimated we are losing probably hundred, probably thousand species per day today.
26:03So there is so much that needs to be done.
26:05There is so much that a young person must invest herself into.
26:11But none of that will be possible if you are not in touch with the inner bird.
26:19What I have understood is that for us to do any work, any kind of desire or any goal that you want to achieve,
26:39there is a need for finding a desire towards it.
26:42That is something that is parallel with your small bird or the small voice that you have inside of you.
26:53Yes, that desire must come from the right reason and the right reason arises from the right realization.
27:01Otherwise desire is usually blind.
27:05Everybody is desirous and that does not help.
27:07That desire must come from clarity.
27:11The clarity must be the reason why you desire.
27:15You say I want something.
27:17There has to be reason, right?
27:18Somebody can ask, why?
27:20And then your clarity must have the answer.
27:25For that clarity you need to observe your life, your ways, your instincts, the way thoughts arise, feelings arise, everything.
27:33You need to observe the world, the way people operate with each other, the way companies go for profits,
27:40the way nations squirrel with each other, the way the entire course of history has been.
27:45So you have to read a lot and that helps.
27:47And you also have to observe your own life.
27:54There was a book I read, Men's Search for Meaning.
27:59Viktor Frankl, yes.
28:01Something similar to that.
28:03Yes, of course.
28:07All the best.
28:09Thank you so much.