Video Information: 19.02.23, IIT-Guwahati, Guwahati
Context:
~ Cult of vibrations
~ Should one take vibes seriously?
~ Should one avoid people with negative vibes?
~ How is superstition still persisting?
~ Can modern science defeat superstition?
~ Can I trust my experiences?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Context:
~ Cult of vibrations
~ Should one take vibes seriously?
~ Should one avoid people with negative vibes?
~ How is superstition still persisting?
~ Can modern science defeat superstition?
~ Can I trust my experiences?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00It is our profound honor to have the renowned teacher and philosopher Acharya Prashant amongst
00:08us today.
00:09A social reformer and educator of true spirituality in the world, Acharya Prashant speaks strongly
00:16for female empowerment, protection of the natural world, compassion for animals, Vedantic
00:21wisdom for living rightly and campaigns against superstition.
00:28He leads the global movement of freedom and liberation from the societal chains that pull
00:33us away from truth and peacefulness.
00:35With more than 15 million followers on social media, Acharya Prashant has been inspiring
00:41people with his profound teachings and insights for many years.
00:46His teachings are known for the depth, clarity and relevance to the challenges of our times.
00:52Through his teachings, he guides people towards a deeper understanding of themselves and the
00:58world around them, helping them to find purpose and meaning in their lives.
01:03An IIT Delhi IIM Ahmedabad alumnus, an ex-civil servant, the recipient of PETA's Most Influential
01:11Vegan Award and the author of over 100 books on karma, joy, love, marriage, spirituality
01:19and more, please join me in welcoming Acharya Prashant with a big round of applause.
01:28Sir, kindly please raise the stage to address the audience.
01:46Sir, when it is said that a person or a place has positive or negative vibrations, you strongly
01:52disagree with this point of view.
01:54Why is it so?
01:56The reason is philosophical, the reason has its roots in Vedanta, but I will narrate it
02:05in layman's language.
02:11You remember the witch hunt, have you read of it, medieval Europe?
02:19Women were declared to be witches and burnt alive, stoned, executed by various means,
02:34the most ghastly kind of means possible and what was the justification that was offered?
02:44I sense that the woman has evil, in today's language they would have said she is sending
02:54me negative vibes, she is sending me bad vibrations or as the culture to say low frequency vibrations
03:07or her aura is bad, that was the kind of reason that was offered.
03:17Yes, it is true that often when you look at a person or a place, you experience a certain
03:33feeling, in fact that always happens.
03:35Even if you look at a stranger, there is a certain reaction that arises from within.
03:41Yes, that does happen, but please tell me as students of science, does that necessarily
03:49have to do with the object that you are viewing or experiencing or does it have more to do
03:57with your own prejudices, patterns, attitudes, way of looking at the world, bent of mind,
04:06please tell me.
04:07The moment you talk of people as emitting good waves or bad waves, positive or negative
04:19vibrations, you completely stop looking at your own self, you start saying if I am experiencing
04:32something, it is because of the object of experience.
04:38Please do something about the sound, there is a lot of echo.
04:44The thing is, I look at something and what do I declare, the feeling that I am experiencing
04:52upon coming in contact with that particular object is because of that object.
04:58I am nowhere in the picture, I am neutral, I am transparent, I am nobody.
05:07The thing is, what you are experiencing is totally subjective to you, it is your own
05:15feeling, but you are imposing your feeling upon that object.
05:25You look at a person and you say this fellow gives me bad vibes, now those bad vibes are
05:33your feelings about that person, but you are pretending as if your feelings are his quality.
05:43Now those are your feelings, why don't you admit that?
05:48Why are you superimposing your experience upon that object?
05:54And the experience is extremely subjective.
05:58The same person who gives you negative vibes gives very positive vibes to somebody else.
06:06So what you are experiencing has very little to do with the object, it has much more to
06:11do with who you are or what you have become.
06:17Are you getting it?
06:19Think of a particular color.
06:22The same color gives very sacred vibes to one community and very profane vibes to another one.
06:31Does it happen or not?
06:33Think of a place of worship.
06:36A religious fellow belonging to a certain denomination would say, whenever I come close
06:44to this place, I experience divinity.
06:48You experience divinity only because you are already conditioned to experience that way.
06:54A person who does not subscribe to religion or believes in some other religious path experiences
07:03nothing of the sort that you do.
07:06Actually there is nothing magical or special about that religious place that appears to
07:14give you sacred vibes.
07:17But then that's the culture today, not to look at yourself and look only at the world.
07:23And this philosophy is called materialism.
07:28Do you see this?
07:31The philosophy that says do not look at yourself, look only at the world.
07:37That philosophy is called materialism.
07:39The material is the truth.
07:42And the second truth is who you are.
07:47So there are two truths in materialism.
07:49It's a dualistic philosophy.
07:51It says you exist to consume the world.
07:55You exist to consume material and consumption of material gives you happiness.
08:00So in the name of spirituality, in the name of vibes and energies and auras,
08:07what is being propagated is rank materialism.
08:11That's the philosophy of today.
08:15Vedanta on the other hand says something very sensible.
08:20It says, son, you are the source of all your experiences.
08:27If you experience something, the experiencer is the experience.
08:34J. Krishnamurti very famously said, the observer is the observed.
08:40And modern physics, we all know, says very clearly
08:45that you cannot observe elementary phenomena without interfering with them.
08:54Which means there is nothing called objectivity.
09:01When you look at the macro level, then you say,
09:04just because I am looking at that wall, that wall does not change.
09:09At the macro level, at the Newtonian level, that holds good.
09:14The object of observation does not change with respect to the observer.
09:21The observed object is not a function of the observer.
09:26But when you go to the elementary level,
09:31to the minutest level possible,
09:39then it is very clear that observation changes the observed phenomena,
09:46the observed object.
09:49Which means nothing holds its own properties.
09:54The properties that anything holds
09:57are actually a function of the observer of those properties.
10:04If I put it in layman's language,
10:06your girlfriend holds certain properties for you.
10:09She does not hold those properties for her neighbor or her father or her brother.
10:15Is that true or not? Obviously yes.
10:20But when you talk of vibes and all, then you want to say,
10:23no, no, no, I am not prejudiced, I am not conditioned, I am not flawed.
10:29That fellow sends me bad vibes.
10:32Well, that fellow sends sacred vibes to somebody else.
10:38Don't you see that your perception is totally subjective?
10:43But we do not realize that.
10:46So this cult of vibrations and auras and energies
10:50and positivity and negativity,
10:53it is an enemy of self-observation.
10:56It will not allow you to look at yourself.
10:59Whatever is happening within,
11:01you will think it is happening as a result of some external happening.
11:08You will keep looking outwards.
11:11And that's a great damage that this cult inflicts on you.
11:19It is a mark of wisdom
11:22to be a little detached to your experiences.
11:26Not to take your experiences as the truth.
11:33Because when you are taking the experience as the truth,
11:36you are actually taking the experiencer as truthful.
11:40The fact is that the experiencer
11:43is a very, very corrupted, conditioned,
11:47actually fictitious entity that exists within.
11:50It is classically called as the
11:53It is called as the ego.
11:58And the ego is a product of physical and social conditioning.
12:05The ego is the experiencer.
12:07Which means all your experiences are with respect to your ego.
12:12That's why your experiences keep changing
12:18so frequently and often so totally.
12:22Are you getting me?
12:28So to believe in your experiences,
12:31then you say, oh I experienced bad vibes.
12:34That's why that fellow is bad.
12:37To believe in your experiences is to worship your ego.
12:40Because the experiencer is the ego.
12:43It is the cult of the ego.
12:46And such a cult is profanity itself.
12:50It is directly opposed
12:53to any kind of inwardness, wisdom or spirituality.
12:58And when this thing happens,
13:01then there is a lot of violence, a lot of ignorance
13:04and obviously a lot of sorrow.
13:07If you don't want to suffer,
13:10do not take yourself seriously.
13:13What do I mean by yourself?
13:16The ego itself, the experiencer.
13:19Do not take them very seriously.
13:22You very well know they are a product
13:25of the influences you experienced,
13:28the education you went through,
13:31the family you came from,
13:34the indoctrination that you received.
13:37That's where the experiencer comes from.
13:40Every single experience is changing the experiencer.
13:43How can you rely on the experiencer?
13:46All wisdom is about,
13:49you are not the experiencer.
13:52You are not the experiencer.
13:55You are not the experienced object,
13:58you are not the experiencer
14:01and you have nothing to do with the experience.
14:04You have to stay clear of this triad.
14:07Then who am I?
14:10That's what is to be sought.
14:14I cannot take myself so seriously.
14:17If I take myself very seriously,
14:20then I have turned into a worshipper of the ego
14:23and that's very problematic
14:26because it pushes me deep into suffering.
14:29Who was the questioner?
14:32Is this more or less clear?
14:35Any follow ups on this?
14:38Don't you all wonder,
14:41do the philosophical texts
14:44talk of vibrations
14:47and auras and energies?
14:50Do they? No, they don't.
14:53Go to the Sankhya Kadaka
14:56or Yog Sutra
14:59or the Upanishads
15:02or Nyaya Sutra.
15:05Do you find such fancy terms there?
15:08Or their equivalents in Sanskrit?
15:11No, you don't find them
15:14because they were thinkers.
15:17They were not foolish people
15:20to believe in all these things.
15:23More recently,
15:26do you have a Ramakrishna Paramhansa
15:29or a Vivekananda or a Ramana Maharshi
15:32or a J. Krishnamurthy talking of vibrations?
15:36Did any wise fellow ever talk of vibrations
15:39or energy or all these stupid things?
15:42No.
15:45It's only in the last 20-30 years
15:48that this kind of thing has come up
15:51and a lot of that is because of spiritual illiteracy
15:54and also because we don't know science.
15:57So we start believing in these things.
16:00Somebody says negative energy, negative vibrations beats me.
16:03I once asked, can you please demonstrate to me
16:06by way of an equation
16:09what would a negative vibration really look like?
16:12Negative with respect to what? What is the origin?
16:15All positive and negative is with respect to some origin.
16:18How do you define the origin here, please?
16:21Sir, the origin is the ego.
16:24What pleases the ego you call as positive.
16:27What displeases the ego you call as negative.
16:30It was a test match.
16:33It was positive for the Indian.
16:36It was negative for the...
16:39There is no absolute truth in positivity or negativity.
16:42It is all with respect to who you have become
16:45and what you have become today would change tomorrow,
16:48would it not? Please tell me.
16:51Something that you absolutely loved
16:54two years back is something
16:58that you so viciously hate today.
17:01Does that happen or not?
17:04So what is positive and what is negative?
17:07But we just fall for it.
17:17Low frequency vibrations.
17:20How exactly are you calculating
17:23the vibrational frequency of a person?
17:26And if you want indeed,
17:29if you want to go by the wave-particle duality
17:32and posit that all particles
17:35are waves as well,
17:38then we must understand that
17:41only very elementary particles like electrons
17:44can have any kind of substantial
17:47wavelength or frequency associated with them.
17:50We know all that. Class 12.
17:53Forget about a human being weighing
17:5660 kilograms.
17:59Can some smart fellow from here
18:02who remembers his physics calculate even
18:05the wavelength of a tennis ball
18:08or a cricket ball?
18:11Can you? You can.
18:14There is a formula. But the wavelength
18:17would be of a dimension
18:21that you would rather want to ignore.
18:24And here we are talking just of a small ball.
18:27And when you talk of a human being
18:30weighing 60 or 80 kilograms,
18:33what kind of vibration are you imagining?
18:36No.
18:47Good we have started with this question.
18:50I am pretty sure that we have many
18:53amongst us here,
18:56even in the IIT fraternity, who believe in such things.
18:59And all that is quite unfortunate.
19:02And I also know that in spite of
19:05me having said what I just did,
19:08we would probably continue to believe in such things.
19:11Because there is something within us that just
19:14doesn't want to accept facts.
19:17That just doesn't want to live
19:20in understanding and wisdom.
19:23It's a very difficult thing to fight.
19:26But anyway,
19:29any follow-ups on this?
19:35And let the
19:38follow-ups be very closely related
19:41to the topic at hand, please.
19:50Namaste Acharya ji.
19:53So I have one follow-up question.
19:56So I have a question for you.
19:59I have a question for you.
20:02Namaste Acharya ji. So I have one follow-up question.
20:05So I also don't believe in higher frequency
20:08or lower vibration.
20:11But I have one question.
20:14So if I meet with certain set of people,
20:17I feel very much excited.
20:20And if I meet with other people,
20:23I feel very much demotivated or exhausted.
20:26Then how will you explain this?
20:29It's your own inclination.
20:32It's your own tendency.
20:35Let's name the first group of people as A.
20:38A motivates you.
20:41And let's call the second group of people as B.
20:44The presence or experience of B demotivates you.
20:47Does A demotivate everybody?
20:50Does that happen?
20:53Does that happen?
20:56And does the presence of B motivate everybody?
20:59It is something within you specifically
21:02that gets motivated or demotivated.
21:05Somebody else will have a totally different experience.
21:08Think of a flag.
21:11If you think of
21:14one particular country's flag,
21:17the moment you look at that flag,
21:20you will experience what you call as positivity.
21:23There are 200 plus countries
21:26in the world
21:29and they all have their flags and national anthems.
21:32And when the citizen of a country
21:35hears his anthem,
21:38what does he experience usually?
21:41What does he experience?
21:44Come on, please. Positivity.
21:47And when an enemy country
21:50hears the same anthem,
21:53what do they experience?
21:56What do they experience?
21:59Now, what if you change your citizenship?
22:02Tell me, that does happen, right?
22:05People in large numbers,
22:08in several lakhs,
22:11give up citizenships.
22:14And that's happening all over the world.
22:18So today, one particular sight or sound
22:21used to be very positive for you.
22:24Tomorrow, another thing will become very positive for you.
22:27Now, please tell me, is the thing or the sound positive
22:30or is it about your own mind?
22:33It's your own mind.
22:36Now, do not
22:39allege that the thing has certain properties.
22:42The thing is just a thing.
22:45The thing is just a thing.
22:48It is neither positive nor negative.
22:51With respect to the thing, you experience something
22:54because you have an attitude towards the thing.
22:57Because you are biased for or against.
23:00Because you are prejudiced.
23:03Or because you are inclined towards the thing.
23:06Have inwardness, please.
23:09Inwardness means,
23:12if I have a certain experience, I will look at myself.
23:15That's what comes first.
23:18I come first.
23:21Later on, I'll also look at the object
23:24or the stimulus that arouse the experience.
23:27Fine, that is okay. I'll look at that.
23:30I'm not saying I'll ignore totally the object in front of me.
23:33No, it's not to be totally ignored.
23:36But the first thing to be investigated is the self.
23:39That's the basis of all wisdom, all philosophy.
23:42That's Vedanta. And that's also common sense.
23:45Does that satisfy you?
23:48Where are you?
23:51Does that help? Thank you.
24:02Good evening, sir. And thank you for debunking
24:05the vibration theory.
24:08Is this same concept, same
24:11thing related to people
24:14selling things like stones and all like
24:17some people say, if I keep this stone,
24:20say they buy something, a stone or some motif
24:23and they get some good vibe, good aura
24:26from that particular stone or any object.
24:29Stone, you say. Stone or any object. Right, right, right.
24:32So is it the same? Right, right, yes, yes.
24:35Stones and stones and all these things,
24:38they all belong to the same field.
24:41A thing is a thing.
24:44A thing is just a thing.
24:47If you talk of a thing like a
24:50bullet, I understand. It hurts your physicality.
24:53If you talk of a thing like
24:56a medical pill, we again understand because
24:59it has a certain effect on your physicality.
25:02And the physicality is a fact.
25:05But when you talk of a thing affecting
25:08your mind, then mind you
25:11that it is the mind that decides
25:14what to be affected by.
25:17The body has no choice. Mind is another
25:20name for choice.
25:23If you bring
25:26a flame to your arm,
25:29a torch,
25:32the skin will not have a choice in
25:35reacting to the heat.
25:38Doesn't depend whether it is the skin of the Buddha or Krishna.
25:41If there is
25:44a bacteria or a virus, it will
25:47affect the saint and the sinner alike
25:50because the body is just a body.
25:53Right? Ramana Maharshi,
25:56Ramakrishna, they both died of cancer.
25:59And legend has it
26:02that an arrow pierced
26:05the foot of Shri Krishna and he had to go.
26:12The Buddha too died
26:15of stomach ailment
26:18or some other ailment, some other physical disorder.
26:21So the body is the body. It does not matter whose body it is.
26:25But the mind is a totally different thing.
26:28The mind is consciousness and consciousness is synonymous
26:31with choice. Consciousness
26:34decides. And when you say
26:37I have no choice. She came in front of me
26:40and I just went bonkers.
26:43Then you are defying
26:46and denying consciousness. And if you are not conscious
26:49then you do not deserve to be called human.
26:52Why do we worry people when they are
26:55dead? Because they cannot have
26:58consciousness anymore. Even the
27:01possibility of them ever becoming conscious again
27:04in the future is now zero.
27:07So we say fine, dispose the body.
27:10What is consciousness?
27:13What is the mind? Mind is the power
27:16to choose. Power
27:19to be. You can decide
27:22what is right. You can inquire. You can investigate.
27:25You can figure out. One thing
27:28appears very appealing to you today.
27:31We are not animals to be just
27:34drawn towards it. As intelligent human
27:37beings, what do we do?
27:40We go and we investigate. We say fine, this thing appears
27:43quite lucrative. It is attracting me.
27:46But what is it really about? So you investigate, you investigate.
27:49And if your investigation
27:52tells you that the thing
27:55is not how it appears to be, then what do you do
27:58with the thing? You drop it. So you have
28:01choice.
28:04Are you getting it?
28:07A stone
28:10can affect you only
28:13if you first of all already believe
28:16that it is going to affect you.
28:19So it is not the stone that is having an effect on you.
28:22It is your belief that is having an effect on you.
28:25But we don't see this. We think it's about the stone.
28:28No, it's not about that. It's about
28:31that's Vedanta. It's not about
28:34that. It's about this.
28:37And those who have known have gone on to say
28:40that this is the source of
28:43all that.
28:46So never be too bothered with that, that, that, that, that.
28:49Always go within. Ask yourself
28:52why is this thing affecting me? There is nothing special
28:55in the thing. There is nothing special
28:58in any kind of stone or Rudraksha or anything. No.
29:01But if you
29:04feel affected, it is because you have been
29:07strongly conditioned to believe that way.
29:10And there are a lot of people who have vested interests
29:13in conditioning you, in making you believe
29:16that a certain crystal or stone
29:19will have a beneficial effect on your life.
29:22Or if you wear
29:25a certain bracelet or whatever
29:28then your life will improve.
29:31Often they are the ones
29:34selling those stones, right?
29:37And if you have
29:40interest or stake, some kind of
29:43benefit you are drawing
29:46from
29:49propagating
29:52misbelief
29:55and superstition, then nothing
29:58stops you from turning an entire population
30:01superstitious.
30:04It's not without reason that people
30:07want everybody to turn superstitious
30:10because people are controllable when
30:13they are superstitious.
30:16You can command people, you can make them
30:19do as you wish if you can make them superstitious.
30:22Superstition is just conditioning, right?
30:25If you can condition people to be a certain way,
30:28to think a certain way, to hold certain
30:31beliefs as truth, then those
30:34people can be enslaved and that's what you
30:37want to become, their master.
30:40It's power that you are after.
30:43Don't let them have power.
30:46Your concern should be of freedom.
30:49As human beings and especially as young
30:52people, you should value nothing higher
30:55than freedom.
30:58Getting it?
31:04Hello, Namaste Acharya ji.
31:07So you spoke about vibrations,
31:10about stones. So I
31:13find this as abuse of science
31:16as in to justify superstitions
31:19and there are more other types of abuse
31:22of science like people are using
31:25science to justify not only just superstitions
31:28but profit mongering and
31:31misconducts even in the science.
31:34There was a time when science was seen
31:37similar to spirituality because
31:40it is the outcome of the same question
31:43just directed towards outside.
31:46So from such state now it has
31:49reached to abusive state.
31:52So how has this happened? That is my question to you.
31:55It was always this way.
31:58Think of Galileo, think of Newton,
32:01think of the attitude of the church towards
32:04them. It was always this way.
32:07It's just that today it's
32:10all the more tragic
32:13because we have a vast body of scientific
32:16literature available.
32:19Something that we never had
32:22in history.
32:25So if people were superstitious historically
32:28that is probably pardonable, right?
32:31Because the way of science,
32:34the discoveries of science,
32:37the proofs that science offers
32:40were not freely available to them.
32:43It's understandable if they had irrational beliefs.
32:46But today when all those things
32:49are freely available,
32:52there is the internet, literacy
32:55is at an all time high.
32:58You can access whatever
33:01scientific discipline you wish to.
33:04All that is available and still people are superstitious.
33:07That's tragic.
33:10And that's something that must make all of you wonder.
33:13Because we often think that
33:16if science progresses
33:19then all kinds of stupidities
33:22in the human species
33:27will be taken care of automatically, right?
33:30That has been the hope. We say a fellow is educated.
33:33We say a fellow is well read.
33:36We say the fellow knows science.
33:39So he would probably not be superstitious.
33:42But that's not come to pass.
33:45Instead we find even
33:48people well versed in science
33:51being quite superstitious.
33:54Just today we received a message
33:57from a person.
34:00I was at IIT Roorkee a few months back.
34:03Somebody wrote from there.
34:06He has been
34:09refusing proposals for my sister
34:12one after the other.
34:15For some reason related to the Kundali, the horoscope.
34:18So,
34:21I don't know what he wrote.
34:24Either she is Manglik, the fellow is Manglik, something.
34:27So,
34:30how is it possible that
34:33even education has not been able to take care of these things?
34:36If you will think on this,
34:39the answer will scare you.
34:42The answer is that there sits within all of us
34:45a very ancient and terrible
34:48beast.
34:51Very ancient beast.
34:54If you want to look
34:57disparagingly at that beast,
35:00then that beast has been called as the unconscious
35:03by Freud.
35:06I have been calling that beast
35:09as the inner animal, just the animal,
35:12the forest, the jungle.
35:15India has called that beast as
35:18Aham Vritti.
35:21And when you
35:24want to look at
35:27how
35:30understanding that beast can result
35:33in your liberation,
35:36then you want to address it
35:39with a more favorable name.
35:42So, in that case
35:45it has been called as
35:48Prakriti.
35:51And when you realize
35:54that going close to Prakriti
35:57which is your own
36:00primordial nature will result
36:03in your liberation,
36:06then you worship Prakriti by the
36:09name of Devi.
36:12And India has had
36:15Prakriti worship
36:18and Devi worship since long
36:21for a good reason.
36:24So, what we know of ourselves
36:27is the conscious
36:30part.
36:33We know
36:36of ourselves
36:39not too much.
36:42We do not realize
36:45where the bulk of our existence
36:48comes from.
36:51You realize
36:54that you are angry after you are angry.
36:57You do not realize
37:00for example where your instincts
37:03and feelings come from.
37:06And that's the bigger part of the
37:09self inside.
37:12And that self inside is very
37:15ancient. And by ancient
37:18I do not mean sacred. I simply mean
37:21animalistic.
37:24And it wants to remain that way.
37:27See, human beings have made rapid
37:30progress.
37:33Only 70,000 years ago did we
37:36begin to think. That's not much.
37:39And that's when we got
37:42our current name, Homo sapiens sapiens
37:45when we started thinking, when we started
37:48displaying some sapiens.
37:51But we are far older than
37:5470,000 years, right? We are millions of
37:57years old. And 70,000 years is
38:00nothing compared to how old we actually
38:03are. So, it's almost
38:06like in a flash,
38:09in a split second,
38:12we have become cultured and civilized
38:15externally. But internally the old
38:18thing has continued. Internally we are still animals.
38:21Internally we are still animals.
38:24Our instincts, our feelings belong to the
38:27animals. We share them with the animals.
38:30Attachment you find in animals, you find in human beings as well.
38:33Jealousy, possessiveness, you find
38:36all across the jungle,
38:39also in cities.
38:42You find somebody covetous,
38:45you find somebody
38:48violent, you find that in the jungle as well.
38:51Human beings are so
38:54territorial, fighting for land.
38:57Look at Russia and Ukraine.
39:00And look at the dogs in front of your house.
39:03They too keep fighting for land and
39:06dogs get very angry if some alien
39:09dog comes and starts
39:12squatting on the space they call as their own.
39:15Right? So we are doing all the
39:18things that animals do and that's what fundamentally
39:21drives us.
39:24One very strong
39:27thing that drives all animals
39:30is biology.
39:33Right?
39:36Those who have tried to understand it
39:39sometimes have said it's just the
39:42sexual urge or
39:45they have said well it is libido
39:48or elan vital but that's
39:51whatever, however you call it.
39:54It's something that you share with animals.
39:57Look at the human male rushing after
40:00the human female and doing that all his life.
40:03And look at the monkey running after the
40:06female monkey and doing that all his life.
40:09How are these two any different?
40:12And these are our primary motivators, are they not?
40:15Grabbing some land, grabbing some authority,
40:18getting some sex, possessing the
40:21object of sex,
40:24continuing to live.
40:27That's what
40:30Darwinian competitiveness was all about, right?
40:33You want to live and the other one also wants to live.
40:36Let's see who succeeds in living.
40:39Now that's what animals compete for.
40:42That's what we also compete for.
40:45Let's see who succeeds in living. I'll kill you.
40:48And if we will cooperate, we will cooperate
40:51only to the extent our interests overlap.
40:54Otherwise we'll be at war.
40:57So that's the animal within us
41:00and it is that animal that is superstitious.
41:03When you are being superstitious
41:06you are simply
41:09displaying
41:12that you might have come out of the jungle
41:15but the jungle has still not gone
41:18out of you.
41:21Getting it?
41:24Does the animal have thought?
41:27No.
41:30The animal only has his physical
41:33conditioning. Human beings are
41:36human beings, we said because
41:39just a few thousand years ago
41:42we started
41:46The superstitious mind is the one
41:49that prefers not to think, not to know
41:52not to understand. It just wants
41:55to believe and says well you know
41:58if everybody has been
42:01believing this way, it must be right. Who am I to disagree?
42:04Is that not the favorite argument
42:07of the superstitious ones?
42:10But when all the people have been believing in it since
42:13centuries there must be something in it
42:16and if you tell them what you are saying is unscientific
42:19they say oh but science does not know anything.
42:22So your little science is a baby in front of our
42:25ancient civilizations.
42:28First thing I want is that mobile phones must be
42:31snatched away from such people.
42:34If they have no respect for science they should not be allowed
42:37to enjoy the fruits of science.
42:40Let them walk barefoot in the jungle.
42:43They should not be using cars, mobile phones, computers
42:46they should not even be wearing clothes.
42:49The kind of disrespect people display towards science
42:52unbearable.
42:55Have you not heard phrases like these?
42:58Oh but your science has so much still to know.
43:01Oh but your science has till now explored only 0.01%
43:04of the universe. Your science is nothing.
43:07My superstition is everything.
43:10Babaji will tell something much higher than science.
43:13Babaji is someone who could not clear
43:16even his class 8 science exams
43:19and since then he has been so humiliated
43:22that he has been routinely
43:25abusing science. That's the fundamental reason.
43:38I am saying all this because I think you will be
43:41a receptive audience.
43:44I am hopeful
43:47I am talking to people who have not used
43:50science just as a means to clear the
43:53JEE and EARN placements.
43:56I hope science is not just a subject but a matter of attitude.
43:59Right? Never keep
44:02your thinking faculty away.
44:05Ask, ask, keep enquiring.
44:08Always seek to understand.
44:11Belief is not the answer
44:14to anything you come across.
44:17Even if you cannot come to a conclusion
44:20in your enquiry, it's far better
44:23to just stay in the process of investigation.
44:26Even if your entire life
44:29you cannot come to a definite answer, it is alright.
44:32But never come to a false answer.
44:35Never settle down too easily.
44:38Yes? Yes.
44:41You see,
44:44had I been
44:47had I been
44:50going by my feeling,
44:53I wouldn't have been standing here in front of you.
44:56My father
45:00who was not just my father
45:03but also
45:06my teacher
45:09he
45:12left me on the third of this month.
45:15There was no way I could have
45:18travelled so far to come to you.
45:21That's what my feeling said.
45:24In fact,
45:27my foundation had communicated
45:30to your organizing committee that I won't be able to come.
45:33But then
45:36we were told that it's a
45:39group of enthusiastic seekers
45:42who will have very
45:45relevant questions and who really want to benefit.
45:48So I put my feeling aside
45:51and came here.
45:55I'm pretty sure if I
46:03I'm pretty sure if I
46:06consult a whole lot of Pandits
46:09and other people, some of them might even suggest
46:12that it is not proper to travel so soon
46:15especially to the
46:18Purab Disha.
46:22And that's how things are.
46:25One direction is sacred.
46:28The other direction is to be avoided.
46:31So many
46:34other things.
46:37A
46:40ritualistic mind becomes insensitive
46:43and incapable of love. Do you see that?
46:46When you are superstitious
46:50you turn insensitive.
46:53Don't let that happen to you.
46:56Yes, question.
47:04I'm really sorry about your father
47:07but I just don't want to stop at a false
47:10answer as you have told.
47:13Your first topic was about negative vibes.
47:17Long time ago when humanity was still uncivilized
47:20we were scared of dark places
47:23because there might be wild animals.
47:26Based upon all those experiences they had
47:29they built up
47:32they started getting negative vibes from those dark places.
47:35So if they didn't believe
47:38in those negative vibes, natural selection
47:41would have eliminated them.
47:44That's true but that's a matter of the past, that's a thing of history.
47:47You are very right.
47:50You see what he is pointing at is that instinct does not come from nowhere.
47:53If for example
47:56even a small kid is afraid of the dark
47:59small babies are afraid of the dark
48:02nobody taught the infant to be afraid of the dark
48:05but the infant is nevertheless
48:08definitely afraid of the dark. Why?
48:12Our eyes are unable
48:15to have any power
48:18in the dark, right?
48:21So human beings have been since millions of years
48:24hunted in the dark.
48:27The nights used to be terrible hours
48:30so the fear of the dark has gone
48:33deep into our psyche and that fear has helped us
48:36because when you are afraid
48:39that turns you more alert, right?
48:42Something bad can happen. Let's group up.
48:45Where is the wood?
48:48Let's light the fire. It's dark.
48:51Where are the kids? Let's get all of them in. It's dark.
48:54And that has helped us survive. So that is alright.
48:57The reason was evolutionary and that is okay.
49:00But today, do you need to live by evolutionary reasons?
49:03Remember that human beings
49:07have come too far, too swiftly
49:10rather too suddenly ahead
49:13of the evolutionary curve. We talked of that, right?
49:16We have leaped ahead
49:19and those kinds of reasons
49:22were anyway quite imperfect.
49:25I'll tell you the kind of conditioning
49:28that the psyche experiences.
49:31If in your childhood
49:34you have been routinely smacked
49:37by your
49:40classmates who were fair in colour
49:43then it's
49:46proven that you will continue to have a bias
49:49against fair people for
49:52many decades thereafter
49:55and you will not even know why you dislike fair people.
49:58The simple reason is when you were 3, 4, 5,
50:016 years old then you were routinely
50:04being beaten up by fair looking kids
50:07and that has gone deep into your psyche
50:10and so now all your life you will be biased against fair people
50:13but because you do not know why so you will come up
50:16with very rational looking arguments.
50:19You will say, you know, why are people fair?
50:22Because their skin is not absorbing sunlight.
50:25That's why the pigment is not getting activated
50:28and if their skin is not absorbing sunlight
50:31that's an insult to the sun god
50:34and I cannot tolerate someone who insults my sun god
50:37so I'll kill all fair looking people.
50:40Now that's the argument you will come up with
50:43and that's how all rationalizations and
50:46justifications are
50:49but the simple reason is
50:52that in your unconscious sits a very old experience
50:56and here I have talked of an experience
50:59that you have had in your lifetime.
51:02The fact is that your cells carry the
51:05experience of entire mankind.
51:08So all those things that were happening then
51:11are there with you even today but you need not
51:14live by that. That's the reason why Vedanta
51:17continuously tells you, see you are not the body.
51:20Naham dehasme.
51:23What is that supposed to tell you?
51:26That you have no obligation to live by your bodily
51:29compulsions. That you have no obligation
51:32to live by your hormonal pressures.
51:35All that is the body, right?
51:38The body might keep saying something but please
51:41you are
51:44nothing but understanding. Bodho aham.
51:47I am understanding.
51:51I am not someone who has to be necessarily driven
51:54by the bodily and ancient and historical
51:57compulsions. No, I will not follow that.
52:00I am understanding. I will understand what's going on.
52:03The body might say sleep
52:06but I know I have an exam tomorrow. I won't sleep.
52:09The body has its own agenda and the agenda comes from
52:12evolution. The agenda of the body is
52:15continuity. Just secure itself and continue.
52:18Continue today and continue tomorrow
52:21in the form of kids. So that's what the body wants.
52:24That's all that the body wants.
52:27Eat and be married today and also have
52:30good sex and produce 40 kids
52:33so that your DNA proliferates.
52:36The body wants nothing more than that. Now do you want to
52:39live as the body? Animals live as the body.
52:42And if you are living as the body then there is no
52:45scope of consciousness and then
52:48one is no better than an animal.
52:51Right? I do not mean to disregard
52:54all your instincts and intuitions but you must know
52:57them as coming from stored
53:00experience of the past which might not be applicable
53:03today, which might be totally invalid today.
53:06Also which might be valid today but needs to be
53:09disregarded in light of consciousness.
53:12Getting it?