Video Information: 9.12.22, SPIT-College, Mumbai
Context:
~ How to overcome fear?
~ How are humans different from other animals?
~ Who am I?
~ What makes humans special?
~ How to not be scared?
~ When humans fall madly in love
~ Is falling in love important for us?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Context:
~ How to overcome fear?
~ How are humans different from other animals?
~ Who am I?
~ What makes humans special?
~ How to not be scared?
~ When humans fall madly in love
~ Is falling in love important for us?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Hello Sir, Today's session is on Fearless Living. So with respect to this topic, I would
00:14like to ask you, aren't we going against the nature if we try to be fearless, because in
00:22the course of evolution, the emotion of fear has never been eliminated. Also it helps many
00:31species in the race of survival. Also it plays a huge role in avoiding wars and conflicts
00:37not only among humans but also among other species. So it's the nature which favours,
00:46which has planted the emotion of fear in all of us. So it will be in some sense we are
00:54going against the nature.
00:55Very very good question, lovely. Great one to begin with. What's your name?
01:07Lokesh Choudhury.
01:08Lokesh, good. Lokesh, you said, fear is an evolutionary tool embedded within us. So you're
01:22talking about the self. You're saying within me, nature, mother nature, Prakriti has embedded this
01:32thing called fear to help us in some way. Who are you? Who are you? Who's being talked
01:41of here? Remember you are not one but two. One of you two is the body. Right? The body.
01:57And whatsoever Prakriti or mother nature has given you pertains to the body. The other
02:08you is consciousness. The body as birthed by, as controlled and programmed and conditioned
02:22by Prakriti demands survival, demands security, demands pleasure and demands reproduction.
02:34That's what the body wants. The body of the human being as well as the body of the animal,
02:43irrespective of whose body it is, the bodily needs are the same. The animal wants sleep,
02:51you too want sleep. The animal wants food, you too want food. We are talking at the level
02:56of the body. The animal wants bodily security, comfort, you too want that. And the animal's
03:07body reproduces, your body too reproduces. So whatsoever is there as a bodily mechanism
03:20is something animalistic. It helps, but it helps only one of you two. Who are the two
03:29first of all? I said we are two. One is body, the other is consciousness. So fear helps,
03:38but helps only the? Only the? You'll have to be with me. Only the? Body. Fear is indeed
03:47great, but for whom? For the body. So that's the reason why all these things we find shared
03:56amongst humans and the other sentient beings, animals, flies, mosquitoes, birds, fish,
04:04all experience fear. Fear is something animalistic and that does not take away from the fact that
04:14fear helps. Fear helps, but it helps the survival of the? Body. But who are you? If I tell you,
04:26for example, Lokesh, if I tell you, you look ugly and I tell you, you are simply mad,
04:37which of these two is a bigger insult? If I say, you are dumb, stupid, and if I say,
04:46oh, you look ugly, which of these two is a bigger insult? Stupid, right? If I say,
04:52your looks are outright bad, and I say your IQ is 8.8, which of these two is a bigger humiliation?
05:04The IQ part. So what are you? Consciousness or body? Anything that relates to the body is
05:12important, but far less important than anything that relates to your? Consciousness. So even you
05:21make this choice without any teaching, without any guidance, even you daily make this choice
05:26that between the body and consciousness, you are actually the consciousness, not the body.
05:30So we said, first of all, we are not one but two, the body and the? Next we have said that
05:40between the body and the consciousness, all human beings prefer to be the? Consciousness.
05:48What do animals prefer? Body. In animals, consciousness is not that greatly developed.
05:54And when you go down to plants, their consciousness is even more limited. Are you getting it? So who
06:02are we? We are consciousness. Of course, we are the body as well. But between these two,
06:08which one is more important? Consciousness is more important. Now, so we are two, out of these,
06:14one is higher. Now, can we allow the lower one to dominate the higher? Please tell me.
06:21If something helps the lower one, but hurts the higher one, would you allow it? Please tell me.
06:32Okay, you have exams tomorrow morning, right? You set up the alarm, the alarm for 5 a.m. The
06:42consciousness is saying you must get up and study. And the body is saying you must keep sleeping.
06:49Which one do you prefer? Consciousness. And if you side with the body, then you regret,
06:55right? Don't you? You don't feel good. You say, oh, something bad I have done. The alarm rang and
07:03I still put it down. And then you wake up an hour later and you say, why did I do that? Good for the
07:14body, bad for consciousness, you don't like it. Do you agree? Something good for the body and bad
07:20for the consciousness, you don't like it. Though it is good for the body. You got an extra hour of
07:26sleep, the body is happy, very happy. Had you actually woken up at 5 a.m., the face would have
07:33been a bit swollen and the eyes would have been a bit red. And people would have asked you,
07:39oh, are you short of sleep? It shows on the face, right? So the body would have felt bad,
07:43had you woken up in time. But the consciousness would have felt great. And that would have shown
07:51up on your mark sheet. So what is good for the body but bad for consciousness is not acceptable.
08:00Do you get this? What is good for the body but bad for consciousness is not acceptable. Fear is that.
08:09Fear is something that is good for your physical survival. Fear is an evolutionary tool,
08:16helps you live a longer life. But it is not good for your consciousness. What's the point
08:25in living a long life if life is full of fear? Please tell me. What would you prefer? Living
08:33for a hundred years, all afraid and insecure, doubtful, shivering, or living for just,
08:46just let's say, like Bhagat Singh, only 23 years, but bravely, stoutly, like a man. What would you
08:56prefer? That's what. Because we are not animals. No animal ever prefers to be martyred. No animal
09:06would ever say I want a short but meaningful life. For animals, body is everything. You are
09:12human beings precisely because for you body is not everything. You can overrule your body. You
09:18can dictate your body. For you body is just an instrument. You can use your body towards a
09:23higher purpose. That's why you're human beings. And that's why fear is such an obnoxious thing.
09:28Fear lowers consciousness and protects just the body. Fear says the body is everything. Please,
09:41please, please save yourself, save yourself. That's the reason why courage is such a high
09:48quality. Because courage enables you to go against your physical nature. Remember again and again,
09:59we are not animals. So we should not do the stuff that Prakriti designs us to do, if that stuff
10:10lowers our consciousness. You say that we are products of nature. So we should follow what
10:22nature tells us. Does nature tell you to wear clothes? Does nature tell you to wear clothes?
10:29Does nature tell you to wear these specs? Or use Twitter? Or use mobile phone? Or study engineering?
10:39Does nature tell you any of these things? Nature will be very happy. You just go and
10:44roam about in a jungle. Nature is very happy. And find a mate there and procreate. Like animals.
10:50That's all that nature wants from you. Live and produce more beings that would live. That's all
10:57that Prakriti wants from you. Prakriti does not want you to know, be enlightened, be liberated.
11:02Prakriti has no such objective for you. In fact, when you try for realization, for knowledge,
11:08for freedom, Prakriti is not very happy then. Don't you see how your body rebels against you
11:17when you sit down to do something important? Have you seen that? You are okay. The moment
11:24you sit down to study, you start feeling drowsy. How many of you have experienced that? There was
11:29no sleepiness at all. But the moment you open the book, you feel like crashing on the bed.
11:37Experienced that? That's what Prakriti wants you to do. Just sleep and protect the body and keep
11:45the body happy. Prakriti has no intention to have you as a great one, as a realized one,
11:57as an elevated one, a free one, a liberated one. No. Prakriti does not want any of that.
12:03That does not mean that Prakriti is our enemy. That does not mean that we have to assault the
12:10body. That only means that we do not have to be ruled by our body. We cannot allow the body to
12:18dictate us, to gain control over us. We cannot allow that. And what do we mean by the body?
12:25Most of the emotions that you experience are simply physical. Most of the thoughts
12:33that we have are just biochemical things. If some additional chemical is injected in
12:42your body, your thoughts will change. Angry people will get placated. Peaceful people
12:50will suddenly erupt in anger. One injection and you can suddenly start feeling extremely
12:58violent or lustful. But you will say, oh, these are my emotions. No, these are not your emotions.
13:03These are things of the body. And we are not supposed to be slaves of the body. So we are
13:12not supposed to be slaves of our foolish emotions and desires. Because they are all bodily. Remember,
13:23that which appears as desire or emotion is just a bodily thing. It is arising from your body.
13:32Certain emotions, for example, do not arise in you before the age of 12 or 14. Don't you know that?
13:40Where do they come from? They are coming from chemicals. And if there is an under secretion
13:47or overproduction of those chemicals, then your emotions will change accordingly. You
13:54can be made to fall in love just using one injection or one pill. You will be head over
14:02heels in love. Madly in love. Why? Some chemical affecting the body. So these are all bodily
14:12things. We are not supposed to give them too much importance because for us, among the two things,
14:17which one is more important? Consciousness. Remember, you are born to be liberated. You
14:24are not born to follow the commands of the body. That's not the purpose. The body will tell you,
14:31get a lot of money, earn security, a bigger house. Don't you know what a bigger house in
14:40the city corresponds to in the jungle? In the jungle, all animals, what do they build?
14:47They have territorial occupation. They occupy dens. They build nests. And the equivalent of
14:58that is that you spend all your life trying to get a good bigger home for yourself. That is just
15:05bodily. That is not the purpose of life, to have a great house. Look at all the animals in the
15:12jungle. They are all running after mates. And males are fighting for the female and females
15:19are fighting for the male. The same thing is happening among human beings also. What is this?
15:23Does this relate to consciousness or just the body? The body. Are we supposed to do that? No,
15:29that's not the purpose of life. That's not the purpose of life. You have to be very cautious.
15:34Never defend your attitudes or behaviours by saying, oh these are natural. You are not supposed
15:41to be natural. Animals are supposed to be natural. You are not supposed to be natural. Is this
15:47auditorium a natural place? Is this a cave? Is this a treetop? What is it then? It is a product
15:58of human consciousness. So don't keep parroting the argument. But this is not natural. If this
16:04is not natural, nothing is natural. Animals don't get haircuts, do they? Pedicure, manicure, saloons,
16:10airports. Do animals have any of these? Language. Do animals have language? Do animals brush their
16:17teeth? Then why do you keep repeating the natural argument? No, this is natural. Animals do this,
16:24so we will also do this. This is natural. Animals do this. No animal ever washed his face.
16:40No animal ever cared for a degree. No animal ever cleared an entrance examination.
16:47Why do you keep saying I have to do what is natural? Are you an animal or what?
16:56I repeat, that does not mean that you have to be anti-natural.
17:01Be careful. We are not saying we have to be anti-natural. We are saying we have to rise
17:07above our physical nature. We have to utilise our thoughts and emotions and body in a way that is
17:16conducive to consciousness. The body is not something to be beaten down. You don't have to
17:23exploit your body or torture it. That's not what we are saying. We are saying let consciousness
17:28decide the purpose, the destination. Let the body be the tool or the vehicle.
17:35That's what we are saying. Is that clear? Lokesh, where are you? Is that clear? We are not animals.
17:41So the nature argument does not work with us. Remember, you are always two. Whenever you are
17:50behaving in a certain way, ask yourself, is it the animal within me or is it my consciousness?
17:55Ask. Whenever you are to make a major decision, ask. What am I deciding as? As the animal
18:04or as a conscious entity? Who am I? That's the most fundamental question. Am I the animal
18:11or am I consciousness? Will you remember this? Good.