Man is an Animal with Special Powers || An Interview with Acharya Prashant (2019)

Acharya Prashant

🧔🏻‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquiry-gita-course?cmId=m00026  📚 Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books? Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?cmId=m00026  📝 Read 3 handpicked wisdom articles, just for you: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/articles?cmId=m00026  ➖➖➖➖➖➖  Video Information: Interview session, 07.10.2019, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India   Context:  ~ Who is Acharya prashant? ~ Candid interview with Acharya Prashant ~ What made Acharya Prashant? ~ What makes you do this, Acharya Prashant? ~ What are the special powers of Man?  Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .

Transcript

00:00Man is the only creature who has a choice in food. Right? Isn't it obvious? The lion

00:12has no choice. The elephant has no choice. The fish has no choice. The bird has no choice.

00:18The rabbit or the cow have no choice. They will eat what they are prakritically. You

00:26could call that nature. I don't want to equate nature with prakriti but that's the common

00:31equation so I'll proceed with it. What they are naturally designed to eat. Man is the

00:38only one who has a choice in everything. Prakriti didn't tell man to raise houses for himself

00:46but man raises houses. Prakriti didn't tell man to fly to the mars or to the moon but

00:52man flies to mars or the moon. Man has a choice. Man need not abide by prakriti. All

01:01other animals, all other creatures must live strictly by their prakritic code. The moment

01:09it is close to sunset, at the time of dusk, what do you find the birds doing? Going back.

01:17And just before twilight, what do you hear? The birds start chirping. So they live strictly

01:25by the prakritic code. Man, he works all night. The place where I am staying, people have

01:33been shooting the entire night. I suppose they find nights more conducive for having

01:38a shoot. Man does what he does. Man is not confined by the rules of prakriti except that

01:46he has to take birth and die. But even in that he has a choice. No other animal has

01:50a choice. Man can abort birth and man can delay death. Or man can bring about his death

01:58sooner than usual. Both things. So even in food man has a choice. What must man choose?

02:10What must every choice take into account? Man is fundamentally restless. Is he not?

02:19So every choice must be in a way that it brings rest and peace to man. Are you getting it?

02:28Man must choose because man is the only being in the entire universe that is so restless.

02:34Animals are alright. Give them food, give them their right habitat and they are alright.

02:40They don't complain then. Man always keeps complaining. Right from his moment of birth

02:44till his moment of death, man is an animal that complains. Correct? So man must choose

02:51in a way that brings peace to him. That is his most fundamental requirement. Accordingly

02:57he must decide his diet. Now will killing an animal make you more peaceful? If it does

03:05go ahead and kill it. Will killing an animal make you more peaceful? Go ahead and kill

03:12it. The thing is you are already troubled. And when you kill an animal, look into its

03:20eyes, you are creating trouble for the animal. Are you not? You are already suffering a lot.

03:27And now you are making the other creature suffer. Is that reducing your suffering or

03:32compounding your suffering? So it is not even so much a matter of having pity or compassion

03:38for the animal. The moment you kill an animal, you have compounded your own suffering. You

03:44must choose to eat in a way that relieves you of your inner turbulence and conundrums.

03:53If you choose to eat flesh, you are making life worse for you. That is why the spiritual

04:01seeker cannot eat flesh. If he is really seeking, if he really wants to bring calmness to his

04:11consciousness, how can he go about slaughtering consciousness? Do you understand? On one hand

04:18our consciousness is troubled, on the other hand we are slaughtering the animal and the

04:24animal too is consciousness. How can you do that? Some people argue that even when you

04:30eat plants, aren't you slaughtering consciousness? But that is the very minimum that this body

04:36requires. You see you have a choice. You have a choice. And living on this earth, everything

04:43is relative. No choices can be absolute. So living on this earth, eating a leaf or

04:50a fruit is the minimum that you require for physical survival, to the extent physical

04:57survival is needed. So that is something that you will have to do. But even in that, the

05:04best way would be to live not through a farm but to live through an orchard. Fruits and

05:16leaves. When you live on fruits and leaves and there can be abundant diversity in that,

05:22then you don't really have to kill a tree. The present mode of feeding populations is

05:29through agriculture. And agriculture is quite violent. Not as violent as meat consumption.

05:36But still there is a lot of blood involved in agriculture as well. So when people say…

05:43Blood involved in agriculture, I didn't understand. You see you cannot raise crops without first

05:47clearing fields. For people to eat, first of all forests must be cleared away. And when

05:54you clear away a forest, you have made so many species to go extinct. You won't even

06:00realise that your simple potato or chapati is soaked in blood. But it is. Obviously that

06:10is nothing in comparison to the violence that happens when you eat meat. But what I am saying

06:16is in response to the argument that even vegetable consumption involves a certain level

06:24of violence. I agree to that. Even a vegetarian diet involves a certain level of violence.

06:31But then that is the very basic minimum violence that you have to do because you carry a body.

06:39Even that is bad that to maintain this body you have to kill a plant. Even that is bad.

06:45Why do you want to make it worse by slaughtering an animal? And if you are saying that it does

06:52not matter whom you slaughter, then why stop at animals? Go ahead and slaughter a human being.

07:01The question is why don't we eat human beings? We don't eat human beings because they carry

07:05a certain consciousness. By the same logic you should not kill animals. And if you say

07:11that consciousness does not matter, then go ahead and eat human beings as well. But

07:16even the most prolific meat eater does not eat human beings. So just as you can spare

07:23human beings, please try sparing animals as well. And try sparing plants as well. Try

07:31eating in a way that involves minimum destruction of plant life. If mankind evolves, you see,

07:41if we really become a spiritual people, then the future is not farms, I say, but orchards.

07:48We will learn to live through orchards. We will have trees.

Category

Transcript

Recommended