Video Information: 20.03.23, IIT-Patna (Online), Greater Noida
Context:
~ Tools and techniques for awareness
~ What is awareness?
~ What is meant by self awareness?
~ What is meaning of 'Awareness alone is'?
~ What is self-awareness?
~ What is the use of knowledge in self-awareness?
~ What is the importance of the knowledge?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
#acharyaprashant
Context:
~ Tools and techniques for awareness
~ What is awareness?
~ What is meant by self awareness?
~ What is meaning of 'Awareness alone is'?
~ What is self-awareness?
~ What is the use of knowledge in self-awareness?
~ What is the importance of the knowledge?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
#acharyaprashant
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Namaskar Acharyaji, this is Akshay Saxena from PhD Scholar, Mechanical Engineering Department
00:07at IIT Patna. I am privileged to meet you once again. And my question is, today all
00:15over the world we are trying to develop new technologies and we are moving ahead. And
00:20if technology is a boon, why mental distress and mental health problems are increasing
00:26day by day? Aren't we at peace when we have limited resources?
00:31It's not about how much one has, it's about how one is. So, irrespective of the amount
00:49of stuff in your hands, the mind can continue to be at unease. Science and technology, they
01:06can at most give you a lot of objects to play with, to consume, to explore. But they cannot
01:19tell you who you are and therefore what to do with those objects. You have something
01:27in front of you. Do you know its utility in your inner scheme of things? And if you do
01:39not know its utility, then how will it give you that inner thing that is at the focus
01:47of your question? You are talking of mental peace. Are you not? So, you are talking of
01:54mental peace and you are talking about the abundance of objects that science and technology
02:01have given us. Tell me, when do we bother to figure out how a particular object would
02:10give us peace? There is neither a relationship nor is there an attempt to see whether there
02:25is a relationship. So, if you would ask, has science given you a lengthier lifespan? The
02:38answer is yes, because that is what medical science aims at. You could ask, has technology
02:49given you ease in communication, in transport? The answer again is yes, because that is the
02:59purpose for which you designed your vehicles, your aircrafts, your entire telecom industry.
03:10You wanted to communicate and you wanted to move. So, the thing is serving its purpose and the thing
03:20given by technology cannot exceed its purpose. Is there anything that you have ever designed for
03:28the sake of peace? Go into it. There is hardly anything there. Things have their purposes and
03:37the purposes are all material and that is alright. There is something with a material purpose. But
03:46then if the thing by definition has been designed to serve a material purpose, why are you expecting
03:54that thing to provide inner peace to you? Why are you placing the burden of this additional
04:03expectation on that thing? There is the car. The car is meant to take you from point A to B and
04:14that's okay. The car does that. Now you start saying, oh I have cars but I don't have peace.
04:20But then the car never promised you peace. The car promised you transport. So, the fault lies
04:30in the one who is seeking something absurd, something impossible from products of technology.
04:40You do not have peace and you go and buy a new mobile phone. How will that help? The mobile phone,
04:48neither in its ad nor in its brochure ever said that it is going to provide peace to you. Though,
04:56from a marketing perspective, they can try to hint at those things. They may say,
05:05you will have a peaceful experience with this new product. All that is okay but you must know very
05:11well as a conscious buyer that a material product is meant to serve only material needs,
05:22not subtle inner needs. But those inner needs remain and we have just said that those inner
05:33needs cannot be met by outer products or services because those outer things are first of all,
05:41not designed to serve the inner need. What to do with the inner need then? Then you have to
05:49realize that it is a special need. The inner dimension is a special and a separate one and
05:57it requires a special treatment. First of all, it requires attention. If you do not even attend to
06:09it, if you do not even acknowledge that there is restlessness within, that there is a hollow in
06:17the heart waiting to be filled, how will you ever address it? If there is no acknowledgement of
06:25sickness, how can the treatment even begin? Are you getting it? So, if you go into the
06:33assumption behind your question, the assumption is that outer prosperity can bring inner peace,
06:44right? That is the assumption. But then that assumption is just invalid and you must ask,
06:52where is that assumption coming from? Am I saying that outer prosperity is of no use? No,
06:58I am not at all saying that. I am saying outer prosperity is of outer use. Everything serves the
07:08purpose it is created for. The shoe cannot substitute for your specs or can it? Footwear
07:29cannot become eyewear and socks cannot substitute for hats. Even in the outer world,
07:41things have their specific purposes, right? Then how do you presume that a thing meant
07:52to fulfill an outer need will simply plug in the inner hole? That cannot happen, right? Obviously,
08:02that cannot happen. The outer thing is useful. Nobody denies that. We would not be having this
08:08conversation. But for sharp state-of-the-art technology, there is this laptop, there is a
08:19beautiful software. I have these pieces of hardware in front of me. I am sure you too
08:27have something in front of you. And there is a telecom network aided by satellites right up in
08:37the space. And all that is coming together to enable us to have this conversation, which is
08:46all very good, very nice. I respect science. And I find it amazing to look at the products
08:58of technology. All that is wonderful. But let us not have misplaced expectations. Laptop cannot
09:10become wisdom just automatically. A laptop is a beautiful thing, a product of sharp intellect.
09:19But the deficiency of wisdom within cannot be treated by ownership of a laptop without. You
09:39carry a laptop bag in your hands. I am saying something very commonsensical, but it needs to
09:49be said because we often forget it. The laptop bag in your hands cannot compensate for the lack
10:01of wisdom in your mind, or can it? A great missile system, intercontinental ballistic
10:16missile, 20,000 kilometres range, cannot compensate for lack of love or compassion,
10:25or can it? Here the contrast is just too stark. So take something more subtle.
10:40The greatest of technologically enabled gifts offered to a loved one cannot substitute for
11:06the absence of real love in the mind, can they? So you take a Mercedes or you take a high-tech
11:19home and you offer these things to someone you say you love. All that is okay. But they cannot
11:36really by themselves become love. Acharya ji, I got to what you said, but the thing is,
11:52on the same time we are not looking peace on the materialistic things. If we are not looking for
12:01peace from these materialistic things, but somehow they just disturb our day-to-day life also.
12:09Although it helps our life, it is our life, but somehow we are not able to find the time to
12:16connect ourselves. We are just kind of busy in like, for example, social media or we are just
12:24busy in a lot of things because of this technology itself and we are not able to connect the
12:30people nearby us, but we are able to connect with the world. You see, social media is a tool. It
12:43depends on you what you use it for, right? You can use social media for absolutely great purposes.
12:53There is just so much knowledge available on YouTube. The internet has provided you access
13:02to information that would have otherwise taken you a lot of effort, time, even money to obtain.
13:12So, it's upon you how you use it.
13:22There is a 90% chance you first met me on social media.
13:29Is that not so?
13:32I actually met you offline first time. It is a chance that we meet people first time online.
13:41Right, right, right. Wonderful. In general, people see me first on social media.
13:51So, it depends on you what you want to use the thing for. It is an opportunity. You make good
14:00use of it. The algorithms are such that they keep serving to you stuff that you have been curious
14:17about. Once you display to them what is it that you like to watch or read or listen to, that's
14:27the thing that will be served to you again and again and that thing will become your little
14:32universe on social media. Whenever you will go to a YouTube or an Instagram, things from that same
14:41universe will again and again come to you and you will feel as if that's the only content that's
14:46available on social media. No, that's not the only content that's available. That's the content
14:53that's being selectively served to you because the algorithm thinks that that is the content that
14:59you prefer to consume. So, it's a matter of choice. If I'm reading your question rightly,
15:09if there's something else you're pointing at, kindly clarify.
15:13No, no, it's the same thing what you just said and I got it that how we are using technology
15:20is important rather how it is. Only thing is it's really hard in today's world to keep yourself
15:30disengaged or use it in the right way. That's right. But if you count the blessings of technology,
15:37they are numerous. 20 years back had I said, please go and read a few Zen Koans,
15:49would have been difficult for you to obtain a good book. Today, you can get that done within
15:57an hour. If I tell that to you at this moment, you will be back before this session ends,
16:08having done the required reading because it's all available on Google. Just search and you
16:17get those Koans and you read them. If I ask you to, let's say, read a few verses from the Ashtavakra
16:25Gita, that's not a very popular document. If you want to obtain a hard copy, that won't be so easy.
16:33If I ask you to read a few Sufi stories, again that won't be tremendously easy
16:38if technology does not assist you. So, technology is a great enabler.
16:47It's just that growth in technology must not outpace the growth in wisdom
17:00because technology is not just a tool. It's a tremendous tool. It can become an overpowering
17:07tool. We are anyway so short of wisdom and technology can become so humongous,
17:17it can totally overwhelm our wisdom, our little wisdom. It's anyway so small.
17:25So, as technology is growing, the onus is on us to ensure that wisdom is growing at a proportionate
17:34pace. Otherwise, we'll be like very little beings with very little wisdom, animals,
17:42monkeys people with access to very powerful technology and then that power will be
17:50unleashed only towards destruction. Destruction of the world and destruction of the self.
17:56If I read you rightly, that's something you wanted to point at?
18:00So, however, this knowledge what we are gathering from social media, Google in a span of time,
18:08but it also just kind of restricting us to do actual work because we start
18:14exploring, finding the answers and curiosity. We are just going into the depth of the sea
18:21with an abundance of knowledge. Correct. So, I'll begin with addressing
18:28one part of your query that I left unaddressed, which was that because of social media,
18:35we are talking to the entire world, but ignoring the people around us.
18:42You see, that too can be a boon or a bane. It totally depends. Why do you want to be confined
18:53to the people around you and what's so great about the people around you that you want to
18:58be continuously engaged with them? Greatness does not reside selectively in your locality or does
19:08it? And think of the people who have no access to any kind of technologically enabled communication
19:16and therefore, they are compulsively restricted to the people around them.
19:22Think of their misfortune, please. Think of some backward village in some remote area
19:32in eastern UP or Bihar, Odisha or somewhere that's still not very well connected to the
19:44rest of the world. I hope there are no more any such areas.
19:49And then think of a person born there, let's say a little girl,
19:57and she hardly has anybody to look up to. All around her are people belonging to that
20:05little village with regressive mindsets, very little knowledge.
20:15Orthodox attitudes.
20:21Now, in this scenario, if she gets hold of a mobile phone,
20:27then that mobile phone is actually her wings.
20:33She gets to know of an entire universe beyond her little hamlet.
20:37Are you getting it? So, think of it. Why is it important that,
20:51let's say you are staying in the IIT hostel, why is it necessary that you keep restricted to
20:59your wing mates, your floor mates, your hostel mates?
21:07Very bluntly put, is that not tribal? Is that not parochial?
21:14I'll limit myself to the five people around me
21:18because that's my tribe, that's my family, that's my Kumbha, that's my group.
21:23Why must one not have a broader consciousness? Why must relationships
21:29be defined by locality and geography and physical proximity?
21:38If I find a beautiful person in Mexico, in Russia, in Hungary, in Finland,
21:46in Brazil, in Africa, in Japan, anywhere in the world, why must I not connect to her?
22:00Why must greatness be circumscribed
22:07by something as trivial as space? Is that not Vedanta?
22:23Not to give too much importance to space and time.
22:28So, when it comes to space, you must have the freedom to connect beyond your physical frontiers.
22:38And when it comes to time, you must have the freedom to connect beyond your current age,
22:44your own epoch. Why must I not be able to connect to somebody from the 13th century,
22:51the 5th century? Because if you say that you want to connect only to those who are around you,
22:59then the dead are obviously not around you.
23:04And the greats that we know of are unfortunately mostly all dead.
23:09How will you connect to them if you want to connect only to your own village folk?
23:16Now by this in no way do I mean that you should disregard your family members or your community
23:22members. No, I don't mean that. But I am pointing at the excessive importance that we give to those
23:32who are related to us by way of blood or coincidence. Because you don't choose your
23:42neighbor. It's a coincidence who resides in your neighborhood. You don't choose your relatives.
23:49But it is cited as one of the great falls of this age, one of the great, what should I say,
23:59evils of this age that people don't talk to their neighbors. The question is why must one be talking
24:05to his neighbor? Now this would sound atrocious to many. Please do listen. Why must you talk to
24:12your neighbor? The neighbor is just a coincidence. Why must that coincidence be given additional
24:20importance? I will talk to someone I choose. The ones I relate to must come to me by conscious
24:31choice, not just by mere coincidence. Somebody happens to be my neighbor and that's okay.
24:37That does not mean that I'm going to blast him away or insult him or something. No,
24:44you stay at your place. I stay at my place.
24:48Love must not be situational. Do you agree?
24:52I agree.
24:53Right. So love has to emerge out of your consciousness, your chetna, not out of a thing
25:00like, you know, that fellow happens to be my brother-in-law. Therefore, I have to be kind to
25:09him. Hell, that fellow has to be evaluated as a person, not as a relation. That fellow happens to
25:20be my nephew or niece or aunt or somebody, uncle. Therefore, that person has to be special to me.
25:28Why does that person have to be special to you? The special ones are special by dint of their
25:34merit, by dint of their deeds, their courage, their love, their compassion.
25:41That's what makes a person special, not his relationship to you.
25:47If you evaluate a person by his or her relationship to you, then you are simply being partial,
25:54prejudiced, parochial.
26:09There are two kinds of brothers, mind you. Brothers of body and brothers of spirit.
26:15Brothers of body are all okay. Give them their due. Don't deprive them of what they deserve.
26:24But the real brothers are brothers of spirit. Always keep that in mind.
26:31And the brothers of spirit are often brothers not from the same mother.
27:01So, I clearly found my answers for most of the things. The only thing I'm still curious to know
27:17the part that there's a lot of wisdom around on the internet, but we lost in this ocean.
27:25Because of curiosity. So, therefore, we said we are in a sensitive period where the growth of
27:34inner wisdom must keep pace with the growth of outer technology. So, the role of spiritual
27:43development or spiritual education has become even more important in today's age. And that's
27:52why I repeatedly keep emphasizing that this thing, spiritual education, which is nothing but
27:57knowledge of the self, must find its place in school and college curricula.
28:16Thank you Acharya ji for listening me patiently and answering my queries.
28:20I'm glad.
28:27Am I audible to you, sir? Yes. Good evening, sir.
28:34Like you said, sir, like Akshay has pointed out that there is a technology and why we are not
28:40getting the mental peace. And you said illuminated it well, very well that I'm also relating to it.
28:47So, there is some minor thing that I have a doubt. We talk about our society in previous
28:59generations. They used to have a mental peace with the work they do, the hard work they do.
29:05But with the ease of technology, we are getting a little bit lazy. And there is also mental
29:12pressure besides the physical ones. So, sir, how to manage those things together
29:21in a way so we can work wonderfully with the technology?
29:26Again, you see, I think I understand your question and I respect the sentiment.
29:38But I think it's again founded on an assumption. The assumption is that the bygone ages
29:48were better off in terms of inner peace. Now, how do you know that? How do you know that
29:59it's prosperity and technology that has disrupted mental peace?
30:07I do not quite agree that people in the previous generations were better off in terms of
30:18inner peace. Let me quote a few instances. And by quoting these, I do not mean to say
30:25that we are better off today when it comes to inner wisdom or peace. It's just that
30:31I feel that the myth of a glorious past in terms of inner peace and wisdom, etc.
30:45needs to be challenged a little. Think of a few things.
30:53Were we not more superstitious in the past?
30:55If we were more superstitious, would we have been more peaceful or less peaceful?
31:01Just think of it. There is no need to answer me quickly because even I do not have
31:07fact-based answers. I am just lobbying a few random questions.
31:14Were we not more communal in the past or at least as communal as we are today?
31:20Think of the 1947 partition. Think of just the number of millions of people who were killed
31:30and then the additional millions who were rendered homeless and rootless,
31:40and jobless and moneyless.
31:42Did we really, as humanity, have a golden past? Think of all the great
31:50massacres that have happened. Are they happening today in the last 20-30 years
31:56or were they all in the past?
32:00Can somebody like Hitler today do what the German one did some 70 years ago?
32:09The German one did some 70-80 years back.
32:14The situations today are such that it is difficult for a new Hitler to rise. Is it not?
32:23Think of all the genocides and instances of ethnic cleansing. Are they even possible today?
32:31They are possible but not quite probable. Think of another Shah, think of a
32:37Tamerlan, think of a Pol Pot.
32:41Today, how many surviving and thriving dictatorships do you have in the world?
32:47Hardly a few. And just a couple of centuries back,
32:55centuries back, probably everywhere you had dictatorships, democracy was a new concept.
33:06Am I right? Even after the Second World War, you think of Russia, you think of China,
33:15you think of the entire Second World, you think of the number of deaths
33:21caused by Stalin or Mao. Were the dying at peace? Those who are being executed either
33:40through the bullet or through starvation as in China, were they really at peace?
33:46So, why do we try to attribute peace to some kind of imaginary golden past? Obviously,
33:52the present has its problems and I keep calling out the present for its attitude and its problems
34:00and all the destruction it has wrought upon us. So, I am not trying to say that the present
34:05is the golden period of humanity. Far from that, far from that. We are very close to
34:10We are very close to annihilation. I keep talking of the climate crisis and the mass
34:15extinction and all those things. But equally, I do not want to support the idea
34:21that we were somehow better off in the past in the inner sense. I don't want to support that idea.
34:34So, we have been animals in the past and we are animals even today.
34:41We are human. That humanness is yet to develop.
34:47We are human only in a very peripheral way. Internally, we are still governed by our
34:54animalistic instincts and that is the reason behind all our problems in the past and all our
35:00problems today as well. In between, we do have periods of brilliant reforms and renaissance.
35:12Happens everywhere. Gautam Buddha comes over, a saint Kabir shows up and then you say, wow,
35:24we are improving. Such a recovery, such a brilliant renaissance. But then more or less, the
35:35overriding theme is of darkness. Darkness that needs to be continuously challenged
35:43through wisdom, through inner light.
35:45Thank you. Thank you.