Is astrology spiritual or scientific? || Acharya Prashant, with DU (2023)

Acharya Prashant

🧔🏻‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquiry-gita-course?cmId=m00021  📚 Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books? Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?cmId=m00021  📝 Read 3 handpicked wisdom articles, just for you: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/articles?cmId=m00021  ➖➖➖  #AcharyaPrashant #आचार्यप्रशांत #Philosophy #BhagavadGita #astrology #pseudoscience #science #scientific #spirituality  ➖➖➖  Video Information: 24.01.23, DU-Law College, Greater Noida  Context: ~ Is astrology scientific? ~ Is spirituality pseudo-science?  ~ Are horoscopes real? ~ Can astrology reveal my future?  ~ Can one's Zodiac sign tell about his or her personality?   Music Credits: Milind Date

Transcript

00:00Warm greetings to one and all present in the session. Today, we are lucky to have with

00:07us Acharya Prashant Sir, who has been kind enough to accept our invitation for the second

00:12time. Thank you, sir. Acharya Prashant Sir needs no introduction. From being an acclaimed

00:22Vedanta exegete to a national bestselling author of over 100 books, he is a powerful

00:27voice of social spiritual awakening in today's world. Today, tens of millions of people,

00:33especially the youth, get inspired daily by Acharya Prashant Sir through his direct contact

00:39with people and through various online channels. He continues to bring clarity to all. Sir,

00:45it's an honour to welcome you to address us lost students of TU. On behalf of all of us,

00:52we thank you for accepting our invitation. I welcome everybody in the session and hope

00:59we'll have a warm, open, direct interaction. Sir, my question is very blatant. My question

01:08is what is your opinion about astrology? Because a large chunk of people with a rational attitude

01:15with even rational mindset, they also believe in astrology. Do you believe in it personally?

01:22If yes, why and why not? If no, why not? Why must one give importance to believing in the

01:32first place? Do we live in the Stone Age? Why do we need to rely upon belief? Today,

01:50is it sensible at all to rely on belief when you can assess, evaluate, check, validate?

02:10Why do you need to talk of beliefs? Since you have asked it directly, so here is the

02:25point-blank answer. Anybody who believes in astrology cannot be a rational person.

02:31Yes, sir. Of course. Let there be a thesis, let there be a set of propositions that are

02:45available to examination and then I'll be very happy to accept the conclusions that

03:00astrologers etc. propound. First of all, there has to be a set of principles, verifiable principles.

03:12A narrative cannot be termed as a science. I come up with a story and I say this story is science.

03:24No, the story is not science. Science is based on verifiable and falsifiable experiments. Show

03:37me that it works. Display it right in front of me and I'll be very happy to accept and nothing can

03:46ever be displayed in this field. All you have is a set of beliefs. Belief that this thing will

03:53happen. Why to believe it? Because, you know, some person has been talking of these things. So

03:59you too should believe. If you don't believe, maybe you'll meet some harm. So it's safer for

04:05you that you just believe. There's no sense in this. There's just fear and insecurity.

04:23I have nothing against things that emerge freshly and invalidate the pre-existing knowledge. But

04:42there has to be authenticity, right? There has to be verifiability. And an experiment should hold

04:57demonstrative value. If you conduct an experiment two times under the same conditions, the result

05:09must be the same. These are some basic prerequisites, right? Before you can call anything

05:15as science. Else how do you term it as science? Take the basic Newton's laws of motion. By the

05:31Newton's laws, if I pick this thing up and I drop it from here, it should take a certain time hitting

05:42this table. And if I start at zero velocity, it would attain a certain velocity as it hits the

05:53table. And those laws are expressed in basic equations such as the final velocity will be

06:02equal to the initial velocity plus gravity times the time elapsed. V is equal to u plus at. You

06:18can calculate the time taken. If I do it hundred times, the result will be the same. Assuming that

06:30this is a vacuum. Assuming there is no air resistance. I may perform this experiment with

06:38objects of any shape, any size. The result will be the same. Assuming there is no air drag.

06:43Now demonstrate that to me in astrology and I'll be very happy to accept it as a science. Else it's

06:52a myth. It's a bundle of unverified beliefs and in that we all are entitled to believe as we want.

07:04Nobody will jail you for your beliefs. You want to believe in something and continue to believe

07:11in it. But don't term it as logical or rational or scientific. There is no logic. There is a story.

07:19You may love a story. Fine. That's your subjective choice. But don't call it a science. It's a story

07:29and quite an entertaining story. Also quite a profit-yielding story. If I look at the size

07:42of the astrology industry today and the number of astrology apps that are available on Play

07:48Stores etc. So it's a story that is making big money for a lot of storytellers. Fine. It's

08:01between them and their clients. If the clients choose to pay just to hear stories, who am I to

08:12object? And I'm not trying to offend the religious feelings of people. All I am saying is,

08:36whatsoever is postulated there is just that. A postulate. You are supposing something. You are

08:47positing something. It is not available to verification. And since it is not available

08:57to verification, to me it is a story. Sir, I am following up with that. Sir,

09:09I am merely rejecting something as a fact of pseudoscience. But sir, if someone is believing

09:19a different side of pseudoscience and the other party is believing a different philosophy of

09:29pseudoscience. So aren't both are on the same page. I am not a passionate believer of astrology and I

09:41also think it's a myth. But I believe some different pseudoscience. So aren't both are

09:49on the same page. Obviously. And also spirituality is also not scientific. So sir, how come as a

09:58propagator of spirituality, one must look into science. Spirituality is not supposed to be

10:09scientific. What is spirituality? What is the very definition of spirituality? Tell me, please.

10:20Sir, spirituality starts from the beginning. It says that it is not related to science.

10:33What is the definition of spirituality? You are defining spirituality with respect to science.

10:38You are saying spirituality is that which is not science. I am saying what is spirituality?

10:43Give me a positive definition. Sir, spirituality, right now I am not aware. Then how did you make

10:54the claim that spirituality is not scientific if you don't know about spirituality? But sir,

11:00how can spirituality be scientific? So what is spirituality? What are we talking of? I am not

11:07claiming spirituality is scientific. I am asking you. You are using a term spirituality. What is

11:12that term about? Sir, as of now, currently, I may not have the exact idea of what is the positive

11:19definition of spirituality is. So please listen. Please understand. The definitions are very clear

11:28and mutually exclusive. Science is the study of the objects. Spirituality is the study of the

11:36subject. Full stop. So looking for science in spirituality is as weird as looking for spirituality

11:50in science. Do you ever go to science and confront it and ask why are you not spiritual? Science is

12:02not supposed to be spiritual because science is the study of objects, the objective world,

12:09the material universe. That's what science is supposed to study. So science is not supposed

12:15to be spiritual. Same way, spirituality is supposed to study the subject. Who is the subject?

12:21You are the subject. Science is not supposed to study you, the one who says I. Spirituality

12:40studies that. So before you use words like pseudoscience and all, also think of using

12:50words like pseudo-spirituality. Science is pseudo-spirituality. How does that sound? Absurd.

12:54Yes. Equally absurd is to say that spirituality is pseudoscience and we say all these things

13:05because we don't know the basic definitions and yet we are too eager to talk with confidence.

13:13No sir, nothing like that. How can I be confident in front of you? I don't mean to offend you.

13:25Do you think you can? No sir, of course not. You are taking me otherwise. This is called confidence.

13:37Sir, I'm glad you think so. An honor to talk to you like that.

13:48It's not about smart quips. It's about seeing that at the center of the mind is sitting someone who

14:04just believes and is insecure about the beliefs. When you ask the question that just as it

14:16is unscientific to believe in spirituality, how is it not unscientific to believe in spirituality?

14:23Do you see what you are very confident of? Please tell me objectively. Your question

14:30was, sir, you just demolished astrology. Astrology is pseudoscientific, but then how

14:39can one kind of pseudoscience be superior to another kind of pseudoscience and the

14:44other kind of pseudoscience is spirituality. So do you see what you are very confident about?

14:48Sir, I was not confident. I was curious. I'm just quoting what you said. I'm just

14:56quoting what you said. So you are confident that spirituality is pseudoscience? No, sir.

15:04Now I have a different view since I was only curious. That's why I asked. Curiosity does

15:11not take assumptions as its foundation. To be curious is to not assume anything and it's

15:23a huge assumption to begin with and if you begin with that assumption, you will not always

15:29get somebody like me who has the time, the energy and the care to challenge the very

15:37assumption. If you base your entire thesis, your proposition on an assumption, mostly

15:48you will get what you began from. You will get somebody who either validates your assumption

15:57or somebody who invalidates your assumption, but very few people will come and tell you,

16:04son, all you have is an assumption. You know, the question then becomes something like this.

16:16You meet someone and you ask him, so did you emerge from the jail today or yesterday? Is it

16:29curiosity or an allegation? You said you were just being curious and very curiously I ask you,

16:40did you emerge from the jail today or yesterday? Is it curiosity or an allegation? Do you see

16:48the huge assumption involved here? What is the huge assumption? Be with me. So the huge

17:01assumption that you had was spirituality is definitely a pseudoscience and based on that

17:07assumption, then you raised another kind of curiosity. The curiosity was not whether

17:11spirituality is pseudoscience. The curiosity was, is one pseudoscience better than another

17:16pseudoscience? That was the curiosity. Similarly, my curiosity is, were you released from jail

17:22yesterday or today? Now, this curiosity is no good because this curiosity settled either way

17:29does not challenge the assumption. The answer could be, yes, I was released yesterday. The

17:37answer could be I was released today. In either case, what remains certain is that you indeed

17:44went to jail and that assumption you are taking as a fact. That's where we all lose it.

17:53Yes, sir. Correct. So please avoid.

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