Video Information: 26.04.2022, IIT Hyderabad, Greater Noida, India.
Context:
~ What role does social media play?
~ What is the importance of real spirituality?
~ Can ancient texts help solve modern problems?
~ Is there any connection between mind, Vedanta & social media?
~ Why is mind at odds with it's real interest?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Context:
~ What role does social media play?
~ What is the importance of real spirituality?
~ Can ancient texts help solve modern problems?
~ Is there any connection between mind, Vedanta & social media?
~ Why is mind at odds with it's real interest?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00I am a PhD student in my fourth year in the design department and I am mainly working
00:07with educational games and how we can use games to harness some sort of education because
00:12I've seen a lot of children learning vocabulary through playing games like PUBG and other
00:18things.
00:19So I thought why not try to, you know, intentionally harness that.
00:22So that is what I do.
00:25My question to you was, so I was reading somewhere that Chanakya in Arthashastra, and I might
00:31be mistaken.
00:32So sorry about the specifications, apologies about that, pointed out the fact that a king,
00:37if he needs to be successful and wants to rule his kingdom successfully, not just with
00:43dictatorial absolute power, but successfully, he or she needs to pay attention and extract
00:48the power of alcohol.
00:50So Chanakya did not pass judgment on whether alcohol is good or bad, but he did understand
00:55that a tool which is powerful has to be understood by the person who is leading the kingdom.
01:03So that is when I was struck with the idea that ancient texts might have ancient texts
01:07and you know, knowledge that has been written in olden times might have some answers or
01:12some insights into the contemporary problems that we have.
01:15So I was wondering that in the contemporary current intellectual discussions that happen
01:20in India, I often see a lack of or at least an inadequate importance that is put upon
01:28the role that social media plays in our current consciousness.
01:31I see that they do discuss it, but they hand wave it as a technology that it is there and
01:35it has some influence.
01:36But I rarely see that in Indian discussions, we really dive into it of what the problem
01:42it is creating or benefits.
01:45I understand my question here is that do the Vedantic teachings have any insight on a spectacle
01:52like this?
01:53Or if it did try to comment on such a contemporary phenomenon, how would it perceive social media
01:58and its ever-increasing role in our current society?
02:01The Vedanta investigates the mind and whereas the deepest desire and the ultimate destiny
02:18of the mind is liberation, yet it is habituated to all kinds of bondages.
02:39That's the condition of the mind.
02:45You can call that as human consciousness.
02:49Our inclinations, our tendencies, our habits are at odds with our welfare.
03:06We need to be liberated, but we want and slip towards bondages.
03:22So that's what the mind is.
03:25An entity at odds with its own real interests.
03:39So the mind is very easily attracted towards form, show, sexuality, display of riches.
04:03It likes to be entertained so much that it sometimes even deliberately wants to keep
04:11itself in illusions.
04:19That's how the mind is.
04:21The mind slips easily towards falseness, but requires discipline and deliberate effort
04:33to rise towards knowledge, understanding, and liberation.
04:47With the mind being like this, you have the social media technology in front of you and
04:59it is one of the things of the mind to feel lonely since birth and clamor for company
05:11and social attention and now you have Facebook or Twitter and you want attention.
05:24You want attention, that's your mind.
05:29The others want to be entertained and titillated, that's their mind.
05:38You do not really want the truth.
05:41You need the truth though, but you do not want the truth.
05:46That's your mind and the others too equally want to avoid the truth even though they equally
05:58need the truth.
05:59That's the other's mind.
06:01Everybody has one mind, its expressions are varied, but fundamentally the tendencies of
06:12the mind are the same and equally the final destiny of the mind is one.
06:25So what do I do?
06:29I feel lonely, what do I do?
06:32I look around for attention, I look around for attention, the easiest way to gain attention
06:39is to peddle mischief.
06:42Why?
06:44Because the others too are attracted towards mischief.
06:52The lowest common denominator has a tendency to catch on spread like wildfire.
07:03All that is worst about us will be the fastest to spread and we just said that that which
07:17is sublime in us, worthy within us, requires first of all effort, time, patience, discipline
07:30to cultivate and a lot of equal effort to propagate, whereas mischief spreads on its
07:42own.
07:46Falseness is contagious.
07:52One person with the inclination to spread false ideas or information can do it very
08:04easily, whereas somebody with the intention to counter falseness will have to work ten
08:12times as hard.
08:16So now you see when we get a propagating machinery like social media in our hand, what use is
08:28it going to be put to?
08:33It has amplified the worst within us, though it's just a technology as you put in your
08:42question but we being the users of that technology, we have put it to the worst use as is our
08:53habit to put everything at our disposal, at the service of our lowly tendencies and
09:06so social media too has been made a servant to our lowly tendencies.
09:16So you rightly put it, there is no accountability, anybody can say anything and that gets magnified
09:26very soon.
09:29In fact, the worst the kind of content, the faster the speed with which it spreads and
09:43that becomes known to all and we all are hungry for recognition, prestige, attention.
09:58So we very quickly take the hint, we very quickly see what is it that sells, what is
10:08it that brings instant rewards and also a lot of money is at stake.
10:16If you can become a good YouTuber or a recognized social media personality that fills up your
10:26coffers as well.
10:29So now a very easy, a very cheap formula has been revealed, do the worst kind of nonsense
10:44and make a fortune out of it and this formula has been picked up by the society in general,
10:54by politicians, by corporations, by everybody.
11:02So that's what is happening when you had regulated bodies then they were answerable and you knew
11:16the names and faces of those who are in charge.
11:21When it comes to social media, hardly anybody is in charge.
11:26Now the mischief maker is faceless, anonymous, because there are just so many of them that
11:32you cannot call out or point out one single face.
11:40Anonymity does not consist of nobody having a face.
11:51These days anonymity really means billions of faces.
11:59When there are billions of mischief makers, how many will you block?
12:07How many will you call out?
12:11So that's what has happened and regulation cannot be the answer now because regulation
12:20is now impractical, impossible.
12:24You cannot regulate so many people and you cannot have laws that punish people for their intentions.
12:36Of course, if there is explicit content, you can punish it.
12:40If somebody is saying something that is factually misleading, you can punish it.
12:45But then mischiefs can be of thousand kinds and those kinds are all very subjective.
12:54You cannot identify them.
12:58So regulation has become impossible.
13:02What then is the way ahead?
13:07The only solution then is individual responsibility and individual responsibility cannot come
13:14by way of legislation or regulation.
13:22Then the only solution is a cultural environment with spirituality at its center.
13:37Only then can people be self-regulated.
13:44Or you could have a situation similar to one in China where the state has a million
13:58eyes and hands and is clamping down on everybody and anybody who dares to transgress.
14:10But obviously we do not want that to happen.
14:14That benefits no one.
14:16Secondly, that will very soon prove ineffective.
14:23So then you need people with their minds awakened.
14:36You need people who can operate from a position of internal discipline.
14:47And this is not a mere utopia.
14:50I'm not talking idealism.
14:53I'm talking of the only practical solution possible now.
15:01So what do we do then?
15:05Spirituality has to be promoted.
15:09You cannot leave it at the mercy of blind social forces or market forces or even the
15:23whims of democracy.
15:28A few things have to be recognized as being fundamentally important and therefore be patronized
15:41by the society.
15:45I'm talking of Vedanta here.
15:47I'm talking of core self-inquiry here.
15:53That has to become a part of mainstream education.
16:02Education cannot now remain a means to just earn your bread.
16:13Education cannot be just about building a career.
16:20We are into rough terrain and choppy waters now.
16:34Humanity does not have much time left.
16:40We need to be awakened very quickly.
16:46It's a historical emergency.
16:51The problems that you see with social media are but a tiny reflection of the real catastrophe
17:00we unfortunately have at hand.
17:07So that needs to be done.
17:11The real inner center being promoted, self-inquiry being promoted is the most important need
17:26of the hour and I'm saying that not as an exaggeration but with very careful deliberation
17:34over long years.
17:37There is nothing more important today than awakening the individual.
17:46It was always important historically but today it's a do or die thing.