Video Information: 12.01.2023, BITS, Goa
Context:
~ Has religion really been successful in its purpose?
~ Is a man better off without religion?
~ What is the role of religion in a man's life?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Context:
~ Has religion really been successful in its purpose?
~ Is a man better off without religion?
~ What is the role of religion in a man's life?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00:00 Today happens to be the National Youth Day on the occasion of Swami Vivekananda's birth
00:00:07 anniversary.
00:00:08 His mission was to bring about a change through mobilization of the youth.
00:00:12 You too have been referred to as the Swami Vivekananda of today by many media articles.
00:00:17 Since you work quite intensively with the young population, especially with the leading
00:00:21 institutions of the country like IITs, IIMs, AMs etc.
00:00:25 Sir, I would like to ask what you think is a major difference in youth engagement from
00:00:31 Swami Vivekananda's time to today.
00:00:34 Is it easier now or is it more difficult or are there the same challenges?
00:00:39 I would request you to please throw some light on this.
00:00:43 You see, the youth is always in a peculiar condition and the peculiar condition is that
00:01:01 the body in a short span of let's say 6-7 years attains almost a sudden maturity.
00:01:16 If you consider the life span of a human being, 75-80 years on an average, 6-7 years is almost
00:01:27 sudden.
00:01:31 And you are a very changed biological being at 18 compared to what you are at 12.
00:01:43 It just happens.
00:01:44 And you have attained biological maturity, which means you can do a lot of things that
00:01:57 adults can and also you have energy comparable to other more grown up adults, let's say
00:02:07 those who are 30-35 years old.
00:02:14 And all that has just happened.
00:02:21 When you were passing through your formal schooling and college or university education,
00:02:30 suddenly you find yourself a grown up adult.
00:02:38 Life has not yet given you too many years to gather experience from, but it has given
00:02:46 you the energy to shake things up, the power to procreate and the responsibility to build
00:03:08 systems, engage with systems, earn for yourself.
00:03:15 All these things have suddenly come to you.
00:03:20 You think of the two important decisions that people make in their lives, which is choosing
00:03:31 their education and career.
00:03:35 That's the first part of the decisions.
00:03:38 And the second one being engaging with another human being of the other gender and possibly
00:03:46 marrying.
00:03:48 Both these things get done right when you are quite young and you don't really know
00:03:59 the world too much.
00:04:02 So that's the condition of the youth.
00:04:07 Having a lot of potential, having a lot of energy, but not having enough understanding.
00:04:20 Your schooling, your college education, during which you are growing up, does not cater to
00:04:30 your inner development needs, that is taken as a given.
00:04:37 It is assumed that the person is growing up in a physical way, therefore the person is
00:04:45 also gaining inner maturity parallelly, which is a huge assumption, which is an erroneous
00:04:53 assumption, that does not just happen.
00:04:57 So what happens is that all this energy that the youth has is driven not by the understanding
00:05:05 of the youth, but by the random forces of social, cultural, biological conditioning
00:05:16 that operate upon you.
00:05:19 That was the situation a hundred years back, a hundred and twenty, a hundred thirty years
00:05:26 back if you are talking of some Vivekananda's times.
00:05:30 And that is also the condition today and that will be the condition forever because that's
00:05:35 how biology shapes up the youth.
00:05:42 Puberty used to happen at a certain age.
00:05:45 In Vivekananda's time it happens at almost the same age even today.
00:05:50 So in that respect the youth was vulnerable then and the youth is equally vulnerable today.
00:05:59 The blink of an eye, the kid who used to play at home is interested with the responsibility
00:06:07 to earn, make life decisions, choose a career, choose a partner and all that happens.
00:06:15 I said just so quickly.
00:06:18 Has the youth been equipped decently, responsibly to take all those decisions?
00:06:27 No, that does not happen.
00:06:29 So instead of understanding what we have is conditioning.
00:06:35 What was the conditioning operating at the time of Swami Vivekananda?
00:06:43 The conditioning was twofold.
00:06:47 Biologically in the physical sense, the youth of that time was not quite strong and mentally
00:06:58 the youth had been conditioned to believe that life is all about weakness and misery
00:07:07 and defeat and subjugation.
00:07:13 The genius of that monk lies in challenging both these conditionings.
00:07:23 He said first of all you need to be physically strong.
00:07:28 If you are little and weak and sick all the time then there is not much that life can
00:07:41 offer you.
00:07:44 He said strength must be the first quality and weakness must be considered as the foremost
00:07:54 problem, even the first sin.
00:07:59 Weakness must be considered extremely abhorrent.
00:08:05 Any feeling of helplessness or subjugation has to be kept aside.
00:08:14 So he said those things but if you see what he was challenging, he was not really challenging
00:08:21 weakness, he was challenging conditioning.
00:08:24 It's just that in those times conditioning expressed itself as weakness.
00:08:33 If you look at the average height of a 20 year old today, you take a sample 100-200
00:08:43 youngsters all 20 years old and you look at their average height and average weight, you
00:08:49 will find the average height a couple of inches more than the height that was there in 1890
00:08:57 or the year 1900, Swamiji's times.
00:09:01 Similarly weight, you all have gained in weight.
00:09:04 The youth of that time was quite emaciated and if you look at girls especially, the difference
00:09:11 in height and weight might be even more significant.
00:09:16 Now I am saying this from my hunch, you can corroborate the data from wherever it is available,
00:09:23 if at all it is available.
00:09:24 I think the data will validate what I am saying.
00:09:29 So there was a lot of weakness at that time and poverty and subjugation.
00:09:38 India had simply been crushed and trampled over and there was so much illiteracy and
00:09:49 the result was that the youth was in a state of complete lack of self-assuredness.
00:10:01 Instead what the youth had come to believe was that misery, defeat, weakness, surrender,
00:10:10 meekness is the only and inevitable way of life.
00:10:18 Just bow down, bow down to life, bow down to oppressors, bow down to poverty, bow down
00:10:27 to ignorance, lack of knowledge, bow down to all the random forces of situations that
00:10:36 hit a human being.
00:10:37 Swamiji said, "No, no, no, that's not the truth.
00:10:42 That's simply the way you are conditioned.
00:10:46 Mind you, that's not the truth.
00:10:48 That's simply the way you are conditioned."
00:10:51 So it is important to remember that the central work of Vivekananda was not really against
00:10:59 just weakness or ignorance or whatever.
00:11:04 It was against conditioning.
00:11:06 It's just that conditioning expressed itself at that time as weakness and illiteracy and
00:11:15 helplessness and ignorance.
00:11:18 Now you tell me, as the youth of today, what does conditioning express itself as today?
00:11:29 Because had Swamiji been alive today, he would not have conveyed the same message he did
00:11:39 a century and a quarter ago.
00:11:44 The message would have changed because the conditions have changed.
00:11:50 See the work of a spiritual revolutionary is to bring the truth to you.
00:12:03 And what is the truth?
00:12:05 Truth is not a concept.
00:12:06 Truth is not a statement.
00:12:09 Truth is not a principle to live by.
00:12:11 Truth lies simply in getting rid of one's inner patterns, that which you have believed
00:12:21 yourself to be.
00:12:23 Drop that and what remains is the truth.
00:12:27 Whatever you have become by chance, by ignorance, drop that and what remains is the truth.
00:12:36 So had he been around today, how would he have conveyed the message of truth?
00:12:43 What has the youth of today become?
00:12:46 Are we together?
00:12:50 You see, his work lied in challenging what we have erroneously, falsely become.
00:13:09 Year 1900, year 1890, that was the time when he was the most active.
00:13:18 What had the youth become then?
00:13:21 At that point, what was the condition of the youth?
00:13:26 You remember condition, conditioning.
00:13:30 How had the youth of that time taken shape?
00:13:41 What was the condition?
00:13:42 What were they thinking?
00:13:43 What did they look like?
00:13:44 What was their belief system?
00:13:46 Think of that.
00:13:48 What were they saying?
00:13:49 Let's say you meet someone from that time, right?
00:13:51 20 years old or 25 and what is that person saying?
00:13:57 What is that person saying?
00:14:02 Come on, come on, please.
00:14:04 First of all, how does he look?
00:14:06 He or she?
00:14:07 How does he look?
00:14:08 Famished.
00:14:09 Famished.
00:14:10 And?
00:14:11 Skinny.
00:14:12 Because famished, hence skinny.
00:14:13 And?
00:14:14 Is he well read?
00:14:21 What does he believe in?
00:14:22 Superstitions.
00:14:23 Wonderful.
00:14:24 Lovely.
00:14:25 When he looks at a white man, how does he feel?
00:14:32 Inferior and afraid.
00:14:37 And what else?
00:14:38 How does he, for example, look at other castes?
00:14:42 Let's say he belongs to one of the so-called upper castes.
00:14:44 How does he look at the so-called lower castes?
00:14:49 Now this fellow himself isn't tatters, but he is looking at a fellow human being, a fellow
00:14:55 Indian as untouchable, probably.
00:15:00 If he is a male, how does he look at women?
00:15:03 Lower, inferior beings.
00:15:08 And he is conditioned to believe all of that.
00:15:13 Probably he is a flat earther.
00:15:16 Quite probable, right?
00:15:19 Does he know where America is?
00:15:24 Quite possible he also looks at other communities with a lot of distaste.
00:15:33 How much geography or history or biology does he know?
00:15:37 Not much.
00:15:40 The literacy rates had plummeted to almost single digit levels in most parts of the country
00:15:48 by that time.
00:15:52 Such was the devastation, such was the havoc wrecked upon the education system especially
00:16:00 after 1857.
00:16:03 People were not getting to learn, to read, to write.
00:16:10 The existing system of education had been devastated and no alternative, no mass-based
00:16:18 alternative at least had been created.
00:16:21 So people were largely illiterate.
00:16:26 So that's his situation.
00:16:27 And when you look at him today, what do you say?
00:16:31 He is so blinded by his beliefs.
00:16:38 You know, when you look at him, you will say a poor fellow.
00:16:43 Inwardly that fellow is very very confident.
00:16:47 He was so confident that in some way he actually managed to obstruct Swami Vivekananda.
00:16:56 One of the reasons he died so early was because he faced such stiff resistance, not from the
00:17:01 Europeans or Americans but from the Indian population itself.
00:17:08 He did the best he could and that was not really the age of technology.
00:17:14 A lot of travel that he undertook was quite a burden on the body.
00:17:23 Very painstakingly he travelled, sometimes on foot.
00:17:31 Did not take care of his food, his health, his various diseases and before he could be
00:17:38 40, he was gone.
00:17:41 Think, who troubled him so much?
00:17:47 Who troubled him so much that he had to depart?
00:17:49 And he was a well built man, strong, pretty strongly built.
00:17:55 And it's not as if he miraculously just chose to disappear or depart at that young age.
00:18:05 He was brought down by ill health and disease.
00:18:12 Who troubled him so much?
00:18:18 Think of it, who?
00:18:19 He is a strong man and he is a well read man.
00:18:23 I mean well read is an understatement.
00:18:27 He is a champion author.
00:18:33 And there is somebody who just pulverizes him to the ground.
00:18:37 Who is this?
00:18:43 That famished, ill read, ill bred, ill fed fellow.
00:18:52 He defeated Swamiji.
00:18:56 Not in the final count obviously, but at least temporarily.
00:19:04 He kept on saying, if I just get 100 suitable young people, I'll change the face of India.
00:19:16 He didn't get that many.
00:19:20 It's debatable whether he got even 10 of them.
00:19:27 You do not need to kill a man always directly.
00:19:35 He is asking for something.
00:19:37 He is betting his life on something.
00:19:40 You devoid him of that which he wants so desperately, that which he loves with all his heart, he
00:19:48 won't be able to live.
00:19:50 You see this.
00:19:51 It's just that we never love anything that heartfully.
00:19:56 So we do not know what a real lover goes through.
00:20:03 But if you ever want something really worthy, something really beautiful, with all your
00:20:10 life, with all your energy, and you don't get it, you just don't feel like living.
00:20:25 The youth of that time deprived Swami Vivekananda of what he wanted from them.
00:20:33 And how did the youth deprive him?
00:20:35 By blindly believing in whatever they believed in, whatever their concepts were.
00:20:49 The way you look at that fellow, we just talked of, and you say, "Oh, 5 feet 4 inches, can't
00:20:59 even write properly."
00:21:04 You ask him to just tell how many major rivers are there in North India, he might not know.
00:21:11 Ask him where do smallpox and chickenpox come from.
00:21:16 He will say divine curse.
00:21:20 That kind of a fellow.
00:21:21 But that fellow, who is most probably racist, casteist, sexist, ignorant, that kind of a
00:21:34 fellow manages to obstruct the work of a giant like Swami Vivekananda.
00:21:45 That is the power of conditioning.
00:21:49 It is conditioning that the Swami was fighting against.
00:21:55 It's always possible and easy rather to look at someone else, especially from some other
00:22:04 age and see very clearly that the fellow is conditioned.
00:22:09 Right?
00:22:12 For example, today, if that fellow, imagine him standing here.
00:22:17 Imagine.
00:22:18 Today that fellow tells you, "Women do not need to be educated.
00:22:24 You won't even feel like countering him."
00:22:28 Right?
00:22:30 Some of you would laugh at him, others won't even feel like laughing at him.
00:22:36 You would simply want to look elsewhere at something that is more pleasant, more meaningful,
00:22:42 more sensible.
00:22:44 But that fellow is very very confident.
00:22:49 He is saying, "But you know, women, they are for the kitchen and taking care of the kids
00:22:55 and what do they have to do by studying, reading, educated?
00:23:00 I mean, will they wear coats and pants and go out to work like men?
00:23:07 Ha ha ha!"
00:23:08 He will be very sure of himself.
00:23:12 He will be, catch that word, he will be very, he will be very sure of himself.
00:23:21 That's what.
00:23:22 When you are so sure of yourself, then you can defeat even the most beneficial, most
00:23:32 benevolent power that stands in front of you to help you, to uplift you.
00:23:42 Conditioning manifests itself in, come on, come on, come on, repeat the word, sureness.
00:23:52 And what's the popular word for sureness?
00:23:59 Sureness.
00:24:03 That skinny fellow, if you send his blood to some pathology lab, he would be found deficient
00:24:14 in 20 things.
00:24:16 In fact, he would be found deficient in everything.
00:24:20 He might even be found deficient in a few organs.
00:24:24 The fellow does not have a liver, that kind of deficiency.
00:24:33 But he is not deficient in confidence.
00:24:39 Deficient in everything, but not in confidence.
00:24:46 And that's what troubled Swami Vivekananda so much.
00:24:54 He actually laid down his life.
00:24:57 It's just that when you are killed by a gun, then you can see the blood flowing.
00:25:08 Or when you wear a crown of thrones as Jesus did, again you can see the cruelty there,
00:25:22 out there in a very obvious way.
00:25:27 Or you find Socrates being made to, say, drink poison.
00:25:41 You can see it.
00:25:42 Your eyes can see that.
00:25:43 So you know this is murder.
00:25:47 But when a Vivekananda dies that way, you do not see the blood flowing and you do not
00:25:51 see the thorns and you do not see the poison.
00:26:03 You do not see a head being chopped off because you do not see.
00:26:07 So you say, "Oh well, he just died out of some sickness.
00:26:12 He was diseased."
00:26:13 No, he was not diseased.
00:26:14 He was killed.
00:26:16 What killed him?
00:26:17 The headstrong confidence that we have.
00:26:30 You could call them headstrong jugheads, extremely confident of themselves and what they were
00:26:38 then confident of, today we laugh at.
00:26:42 Correct?
00:26:43 What he was confident of that time, today we laugh at all those things, don't we?
00:26:49 Maybe someone else would laugh at the things that we are today confident of.
00:26:57 And confidence continues to be a buzzword even today, especially in the youth, does
00:27:03 it not?
00:27:04 You all like to be confident and you all admire confident people.
00:27:09 Look at your role models.
00:27:10 Do they all act very confident?
00:27:17 The ego to sustain itself, all ignorance to sustain itself must act very, very confident.
00:27:25 Now fast forward to 2023, what are we confident of?
00:27:35 What are we confident of?
00:27:40 And the inner confidence that we have is very, very stubborn.
00:27:47 Times change.
00:27:49 The ego tendency does not change.
00:27:54 All change is just superficial, apparent, external.
00:28:01 Only human beings continue to be the way they always were.
00:28:12 What are we confident of?
00:28:13 Obviously, if Vivekananda comes here today, he will not tell us to be physically strong.
00:28:22 Most of us are already reasonably strong, right?
00:28:28 You have gyms, the nutrition that you take is more or less okay.
00:28:38 All kinds of sports facilities are there, right within the campus.
00:28:45 So he will not talk of nutrition.
00:28:46 At that time he was talking a lot about good food and he would say, "Come on, leave your
00:28:51 ignorance behind.
00:28:52 Get up, go and play football."
00:28:54 Today he does not need to tell you to play football, you already play football.
00:29:03 What will he need to address today?
00:29:06 What are you confident of today?
00:29:10 Hint, you will resist him every bit as much as that fellow from the last century.
00:29:24 Nobody wants to accept a Swami Vivekananda.
00:29:31 His lot, his fate is to be resisted.
00:29:37 He was resisted then, he would be resisted even today.
00:29:42 He was resisted by everybody including the youth then, it is the youth that would resist
00:29:47 him even today.
00:29:49 Now that's very counterintuitive because we love to talk of Swami Vivekananda as a
00:29:55 youth icon, right?
00:29:57 Swami Vivekananda, the favourite of the youth, youth icon, youth icon.
00:30:01 And here I am asserting that were he to be here today, it is the youth that would resist
00:30:08 him the most.
00:30:13 Because the work of a spiritual revolutionary, of the knower of Vedanta, and it is Vedanta
00:30:23 that Swamiji was most fond of, he worshipped Vedanta, not any God.
00:30:30 To him Vedanta was secret.
00:30:35 His work is to challenge the conditioning of the day.
00:30:40 In that alone lies the worship of the truth.
00:30:46 Challenge conditioning.
00:30:48 What are we conditioned as?
00:30:51 What are you conditioned to believe in?
00:30:53 Tell me please.
00:30:59 His work would be equally difficult today.
00:31:06 Beliefs have changed.
00:31:08 The believer has not.
00:31:11 The one who loves to live in beliefs has not changed.
00:31:17 It's just that he has changed his beliefs.
00:31:22 So there was one set of beliefs then.
00:31:24 Be with me, come on.
00:31:29 There is another set of beliefs now.
00:31:32 But the tendency to live in beliefs has not changed.
00:31:37 He will have an equally tough task today with you guys.
00:31:44 You will not question him as a youth icon.
00:31:49 After he is gone, then another generation would.
00:31:52 Not you.
00:31:53 You would not like to listen to him.
00:31:57 Listening to someone who brings the truth to you is always a difficult task.
00:32:04 The nature of truth is that it cannot be pleasant irrespective of how much you try to sweeten
00:32:19 it or smoothen it.
00:32:22 Are you getting it?
00:32:29 Think of this.
00:32:30 So many people would assemble to listen to him.
00:32:34 When he returned from the States, a huge procession greeted him right at the port.
00:32:44 But when he asked for just a hundred people who could be his soldiers, he was denied.
00:33:01 Beliefs are superstitions.
00:33:02 Just that it is easy to call the other's superstition as superstition.
00:33:12 Our own superstition we call as a sacred belief or holy culture or passion.
00:33:25 In a non-religious, non-cultural context, your personal belief you will call as your
00:33:32 passion but even that is superstition.
00:33:36 And when that is challenged, one does not like it.
00:33:42 The superstitions of that time are quite evident.
00:33:47 The fellow is for example saying that snakes live for 2000 years or that a certain tree
00:33:55 turns into a beautiful lady every fortnight and today you can laugh those things away.
00:34:03 How about the superstitions of today?
00:34:07 Have we tried to inquire the superstitions that we carry?
00:34:13 Come on.
00:34:21 Risk a guess at least.
00:34:26 Can you watch me from there?
00:34:29 Otherwise this seat is available.
00:34:30 Come on, come on to this side.
00:34:33 I will have to bend to look at you and same with you.
00:34:46 What are the superstitions we carry?
00:34:50 Please.
00:34:51 Consume, consume and consume.
00:34:54 Consume, consume and consume.
00:34:58 Consume, consume and consume.
00:35:01 Come on.
00:35:03 Have more.
00:35:04 That's the purpose of life.
00:35:07 Happiness is the purpose of life and happiness is obtained through consumption.
00:35:14 Happiness is the purpose of life and happiness comes through consumption and Swami Vivekananda
00:35:21 will again have to fight this superstition till his last breath and he will again be
00:35:30 defeated.
00:35:31 We will not let him win.
00:35:39 Consume everything you can lay your hands on.
00:35:45 Consume your own body, consume somebody else's body, consume all the resources the earth
00:35:50 does not even have to offer.
00:35:53 Consume the plants, the animals, the mountains, the trees, the rivers, the air.
00:36:01 Consume just everything possible.
00:36:04 Have it.
00:36:07 We don't like to call it a superstition.
00:36:09 We will say, "Oh, but it's a choice, it's a way of life."
00:36:11 It's not even a way of life, it's the purpose of life.
00:36:26 That's what he would do today.
00:36:30 What is superstition?
00:36:36 What is a superstition?
00:36:41 Believing in something without having enquired till the last detail.
00:36:55 And when I talk of the last detail, do you know what I mean?
00:36:58 The belief is something here, out here, this is.
00:37:06 When you want to go to the last detail, you have to think of the believer.
00:37:12 Who is the believer?
00:37:18 You have to look into the fact of the belief, obviously.
00:37:22 And then you have to go into the mind of the believer and ask, "Why does he have to stick
00:37:28 to this concept or assumption?
00:37:31 Why does he have to stick to it?"
00:37:33 And that's when the enquiry is complete.
00:37:36 And if the enquiry is not complete, whatsoever you hold as true is not only belief but actually
00:37:42 superstition.
00:37:45 Superstition and our education, the thing that we talked of right in the beginning,
00:37:52 does not equip us to go into self-enquiry.
00:37:58 We do not know why we think the way we do.
00:38:02 We do not know why we desire the way we do.
00:38:05 We all want so many things in life but we do not know why we want something.
00:38:10 And if you do not know why you want something, whatever you want will be perilous to you.
00:38:17 Irrespective of what you want, it will hurt you.
00:38:27 Are you getting it?
00:38:33 Come on, come up with a few more superstitions.
00:38:36 It's fun.
00:38:37 Come on, come on, come on.
00:38:44 Yes, technology and technical growth can offer you redemption from your suffering.
00:38:59 Technology can only do what you want it to do.
00:39:03 Technology is a slave.
00:39:08 Your imagination comes first, your desire comes first and then comes the technology,
00:39:14 correct?
00:39:16 To fulfil your desire, to materialise your imagination, that's what technology does.
00:39:23 If your desire itself is a rotten thing, how can technology help you?
00:39:29 Please tell me.
00:39:30 Your desire is to kill the other.
00:39:33 You come up with the most powerful fusion device possible.
00:39:39 It's a state of the art thing.
00:39:41 The greatest hydrogen bomb ever made.
00:39:43 Where is that coming from?
00:39:48 Your rotten hateful desire to kill the other.
00:39:53 And why do you want to kill the other?
00:39:54 Because he does not worship the same God as you do.
00:39:59 Because you want a piece of land and the other does not agree.
00:40:03 So you want to kill him.
00:40:06 Such an animalistic desire, right?
00:40:09 But to fulfil this desire, what do you use?
00:40:16 The latest, most modern, state of the art technology.
00:40:21 What can technology bring to you?
00:40:23 If you are inwardly rotten, what can technology bring to you?
00:40:29 Technology will simply become an expression of your inner diseased state.
00:40:37 Right?
00:40:39 What are the superstitions?
00:40:47 I hope we are capturing this.
00:40:48 This is very important.
00:40:49 Yes?
00:40:50 See, wherever there is desire, there has to be a wait for tomorrow.
00:41:12 What does a life based on desire mean?
00:41:15 Work today based on your desire and tomorrow you will have fruits of your action.
00:41:21 So you will have to necessarily live in tomorrow.
00:41:26 And what does that entail?
00:41:28 Something very dangerous.
00:41:29 What that means is you cannot live in love.
00:41:34 You cannot work in love.
00:41:38 You cannot do something just because you love it.
00:41:45 This quest for tomorrow means that all the value has been postponed to the future.
00:41:52 Where does value lie?
00:41:55 Where does value lie?
00:41:57 In the desirous mind, where does value lie?
00:42:00 In the future because that's where the imagined fulfilment of desire is.
00:42:05 No desire gets instantaneously fulfilled.
00:42:07 Right?
00:42:08 What is the nature of desire?
00:42:09 You desire something, then you work to attain it and you attain it two days later.
00:42:14 And two days later, you imagine that you will be fulfilled.
00:42:16 It's just that two days later there is something else.
00:42:20 And you're never really fulfilled.
00:42:22 But forget about the future.
00:42:24 What does this continuous state of desire do to the quality of your existence, which
00:42:30 is right now?
00:42:33 It leaves you deprived, impoverished.
00:42:38 You have nothing right now.
00:42:40 Everything has been scheduled to the future.
00:42:43 All the goodness, all the fun, all the joy has been marked to the future.
00:42:52 So how are you right now?
00:42:53 That nobody wants to talk of.
00:42:56 Come on, become something.
00:42:58 Now all becoming again lies in the...
00:43:02 So how are you right now?
00:43:05 Blank.
00:43:07 Nothing.
00:43:09 I have nothing.
00:43:13 But nobody wants to call it as a superstition.
00:43:16 You see, the usual superstitions have all been killed by science, mostly.
00:43:24 Because they were objective superstitions.
00:43:26 Right?
00:43:28 Like, like you must not take food at the time of the lunar eclipse.
00:43:36 Now that's an objective superstition.
00:43:38 It has something to do with objects.
00:43:40 Which objects are we talking of?
00:43:42 The moon, the earth and the food.
00:43:44 All these three are objects.
00:43:47 Now science will defeat all these superstitions because science is very well equipped to deal
00:43:51 with objects.
00:43:55 So all the objective superstitions are gone.
00:43:58 Swamiji would be very happy.
00:44:03 But then he will look at the other side, the subjective side and his face will turn pale.
00:44:16 All the superstitions are now subjective.
00:44:21 And how do you defeat them?
00:44:25 Objective superstitions can be defeated.
00:44:28 For example, it was superstition that let's say the Nazi blood is superior to and purer
00:44:37 compared to the other races.
00:44:40 How was this defeated?
00:44:42 You just take blood samples and compare and science has defeated that.
00:44:45 Right?
00:44:46 So we kept talking of the pure Aryan blood and nobody talks of that today.
00:44:50 There's nothing called the pure Aryan blood.
00:44:53 You could be an Aryan, a non-Aryan.
00:44:55 You could be anybody.
00:44:57 Blood is blood.
00:44:59 Science defeated that.
00:45:01 But if you say in your mind, for example, that getting settled quickly or getting retired
00:45:08 quickly is the purpose of life.
00:45:10 How does science defeat that?
00:45:12 Tell me.
00:45:13 Science has no answer there.
00:45:14 And that's the superstition of today.
00:45:17 Russell, earn quick bucks by doing any damn rotten thing and then retire at 35.
00:45:28 And if you don't feel like doing that thing exactly because it is so rotten it cannot
00:45:33 be done, then listen to some huge money bag, industrialist, capitalist, influencer or motivator
00:45:46 and push yourself back to that same rotten job so that you may retire early.
00:45:51 Science has no answer to this kind of superstition.
00:45:55 Because it is.
00:45:57 Because it is.
00:45:58 Come on, come on, be with me.
00:46:00 Subjective.
00:46:01 Science cannot deal with subjective things.
00:46:04 You fall in love with a pig.
00:46:07 Science cannot correct you.
00:46:09 All that science can tell you that it is a pig.
00:46:11 You still say it's my subjective decision.
00:46:14 To roll in the shit with the pig.
00:46:19 Science will remain silent.
00:46:21 What can science do now?
00:46:22 Science can at max tell you what all kinds of bacteria are present in that filth.
00:46:30 Beyond that science can't do much.
00:46:31 It's a subjective thing.
00:46:32 And the superstitions today are all subjective.
00:46:39 How do you fight that?
00:46:47 Swami Vivekananda is saying the challenges of the last century were actually easier to
00:46:54 deal with.
00:46:57 At this moment the challenges are almost impossible to tackle.
00:47:03 You could demonstrate to someone that his belief is a mere superstition.
00:47:07 But how do you demonstrate that your subjective concepts, your way of life, your principles,
00:47:15 these are all just worthless, false, baseless.
00:47:22 How do you demonstrate that?
00:47:23 It's very difficult.
00:47:27 And the youth has been greatly indoctrinated today.
00:47:31 Especially in a country like India, because it's a young country.
00:47:34 So if you can capture the youth, you have captured everything.
00:47:38 You have also captured the future.
00:47:40 The ones who are young today will be the earners of tomorrow.
00:47:45 Catch them young.
00:47:46 That's how they say.
00:47:48 Catch them young.
00:47:52 And you have been indoctrinated.
00:47:54 That which you think of as normal is not at all normal.
00:47:59 To that fellow, see he is still standing here.
00:48:01 Do you see him?
00:48:02 To that fellow it is very normal to think that the sun goes round the earth.
00:48:09 And he says, but I see that happening every day.
00:48:11 Rises this side, sets that side.
00:48:14 The sun obviously goes round the earth.
00:48:16 It's a very normal thing.
00:48:17 Don't you have common sense?
00:48:20 Come on.
00:48:21 When you will dispute what he says, what will you say?
00:48:25 Can't you see the obvious?
00:48:27 It's commonsensical.
00:48:29 The sun goes round the earth.
00:48:34 Think of what all is normal and obvious and commonsensical to you.
00:48:38 Please, please do that.
00:48:42 It is that which you take as common sense that is defeating you, that is a nemesis,
00:48:51 that is killing you.
00:48:54 That which you think of as obvious and certain and feel very assured of, so assured of that
00:49:00 you don't even want to question it, that's what is defeating you.
00:49:05 Am I making sense?
00:49:13 Or is it?
00:49:23 I'll do my BTech and three roads arise from there.
00:49:34 Or maybe four or five max.
00:49:36 A job, MS, MBA.
00:49:46 Or I go and fall into the lap of my family and say I'll be part of the family business.
00:49:52 That's all.
00:49:56 That's all.
00:49:57 Start.
00:49:58 It's fine.
00:50:02 How do you know that all this is not superstition?
00:50:05 Come on, please.
00:50:07 How do you know?
00:50:08 Now don't dismiss it as being obviously an insane question to ask.
00:50:17 You all are very sane people.
00:50:21 For the next hour, just bear being a little insane with me.
00:50:31 How do you know that this is not a superstition to choose just one among these four or five
00:50:36 options?
00:50:40 Please tell me.
00:50:53 You are not a previous one.
00:50:56 You are a current one.
00:50:59 The previous ones are all dead and they didn't live exactly glorious lives.
00:51:06 Why do you want to emulate them?
00:51:11 The friend we have standing here is also a previous one.
00:51:16 Want to be like him?
00:51:18 Why not?
00:51:20 If the old is to be emulated, let's go for the older one.
00:51:26 And why stop at the older?
00:51:27 Let's go for the oldest one.
00:51:29 The one who is in the cave, in the jungle, sitting on the treetop and chasing monkeys
00:51:37 from there.
00:51:41 Why not copy that one?
00:51:43 Something to be said.
00:51:49 So we live in a country like India where the daily need of a person is to have a piece
00:51:56 of bread and butter daily.
00:51:58 So if you do not choose any of the four paths and try to think that I'll speculate today
00:52:02 and maybe after two to three days I will go on to some other thing that will give me bread
00:52:08 and butter.
00:52:09 That is not how the life works.
00:52:11 You can't stay impoverished for say more than four to five days.
00:52:16 Sir, how do you know?
00:52:18 So this is the question.
00:52:21 A superstition involves something that you have not enquired into.
00:52:25 How do you know that bread and butter is possible only via these four or five paths?
00:52:31 How do you know?
00:52:32 What's the basis?
00:52:34 How much have you seen the world?
00:52:36 How much have you enquired?
00:52:37 How much knowledge, experience do you have?
00:52:39 At this young age, how do you feel so convinced that unless you follow the well-trodden path,
00:52:47 you won't even physically survive?
00:52:49 We are talking of starvation.
00:52:51 As extreme as that.
00:52:53 Yes, sir, I would like to counter that.
00:52:57 Sir, see the thing is that when you are talking about living in this world, it is not only
00:53:02 that you, that person as a whole is living.
00:53:05 It is not Mahabharata going on that Lord Krishna can pause the time and everything will and
00:53:11 he can say any sermon and then that can be believed or he can do any action and ask other
00:53:17 people like he, like for example, when this Karan was killed, the brother of Arjun, step
00:53:25 brother of Arjun.
00:53:26 Leave all that aside because all that is not fact.
00:53:28 Fine, fine, fine, sure, we'll leave that.
00:53:31 Sir, so whatever happens in this world is a mutual thing, a mutual action by you and
00:53:38 the surrounding how it reacts to you.
00:53:40 So the thing is that if you are not doing some work or maybe you are thinking that there
00:53:44 is some other path which may lead you to some work, like you said that there are only four
00:53:49 options after engineering, four to five options maybe.
00:53:52 So, so in that way you would be, I think that that would be correctly the way to think as
00:53:57 it is because if you do not work into a particular direction or if you are trying to choose a
00:54:04 new path, it's most probable that the surroundings, the surrounding people would not react to
00:54:09 you in the same way.
00:54:11 How do you know?
00:54:12 Sir, that's a known fact.
00:54:13 How do you know?
00:54:14 Again, that argument of obviousness.
00:54:17 How do you know?
00:54:18 Very obvious, like, sir, okay, fine, fine.
00:54:23 I'll give you an example.
00:54:24 No, no, no, my question is how do you know?
00:54:26 Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll give you an example.
00:54:28 The question is how do you know, not give me an example.
00:54:30 How do you know?
00:54:32 It's an epistemological question.
00:54:35 How do you know?
00:54:36 Sir, can you speak, sir, you give podcast on YouTube.
00:54:40 Is it possible for you to say something against the Prime Minister of India today in your
00:54:44 podcast?
00:54:45 I actively say when I need to.
00:54:47 Sir, but, sir, the Prime Minister probably knows that.
00:54:51 Sir, but that would lead you into trouble.
00:54:54 Probably, it already does, but fine.
00:54:57 It's okay.
00:54:59 So, sir, it's a subjective thing, right?
00:55:02 Exactly.
00:55:03 My question was, how do you know?
00:55:05 Get into that.
00:55:07 How do you know that you'll starve if you do not take these four, five paths?
00:55:10 Sir, because it is scientifically proven.
00:55:13 Scientifically proven.
00:55:14 Which journal, which research paper, which lab, which scientist?
00:55:21 Sir, that I do not know exactly, but…
00:55:23 Then how do you know?
00:55:24 Sir, because that is what we have been taught in our earliest classes.
00:55:28 In your classes?
00:55:29 In school.
00:55:30 Which book?
00:55:31 Sir, textbooks.
00:55:32 Which particular syllabus?
00:55:33 Which board do you come from?
00:55:34 Sir, ICSE.
00:55:36 Any other person from ICSE here?
00:55:39 By the way, I too am an ICSE product.
00:55:41 Did you have any book that told you that you'll starve if you do not follow any of these four
00:55:45 paths?
00:55:47 Any course, any book?
00:55:49 How do you know?
00:55:50 Sir, you need money to survive, right?
00:55:53 How do you know that you won't have money outside these four, five paths?
00:55:57 Sir, you don't have time to speculate over that.
00:56:01 It's just that we have seen other famous people who are at a good position right now
00:56:11 and we know that they have taken those paths.
00:56:13 So we try to replicate their path saying that if we take the path, we will also reach at
00:56:18 where they are right now.
00:56:20 How do you know wherever they are, they are actually feeling okay?
00:56:26 How do you know?
00:56:27 We don't know that, but because of the fame, the popularity…
00:56:31 Somebody is famous.
00:56:33 Look at the logic, please.
00:56:35 You are saying somebody is famous, so I want to be like him.
00:56:38 Now, anybody can be famous for whatever reason, good, bad, whatever.
00:56:43 You want to be like somebody who is famous, but how do you know that his own position
00:56:50 is something that would give you whatever you want, peace, fulfillment, joy, fun, whatever.
00:56:54 How do you know?
00:56:55 But what if something you want is being famous itself?
00:56:59 It's not…
00:57:00 How do you know being famous will give you something that you would really enjoy?
00:57:05 How do you know?
00:57:07 You can be famous overnight.
00:57:10 You can be famous tomorrow morning, right?
00:57:14 It's quite possible in the age of social media and you can actually plan it out.
00:57:18 You want to be famous, you can be famous before the session ends and all that happens.
00:57:22 We know how things go viral and what all things go viral.
00:57:26 How do you know being famous will bring to you something that would please you?
00:57:32 How do you know?
00:57:33 We don't know it until we reach that part.
00:57:37 How have you chosen a destination without knowing anything about the destination?
00:57:43 How have you… you can even choose, but you know, how have you simply committed yourself
00:57:50 to that one thing as obvious and the right thing and the purpose of life?
00:57:56 How have you done that?
00:57:57 Our belief.
00:57:58 Because it's like it's our belief like…
00:58:01 That's what, that's what.
00:58:04 It's just blind belief.
00:58:07 That's what he was fighting.
00:58:09 Blind belief.
00:58:13 You know, one of the beliefs of those times was that the white man is made to rule and
00:58:21 if you challenge that belief, you will have a hard time, not among the white ones, but
00:58:26 actually more among the brown ones.
00:58:31 How do you know that you are not living in similar beliefs today?
00:58:36 Similar in the sense of the believer remaining to be the same.
00:58:39 The beliefs have obviously changed.
00:58:45 How do you know anything you believe in is of any value?
00:58:50 And it's not impossible to test things out.
00:58:53 Inquiry is possible.
00:58:54 And it's not as if it takes an entire life to inquire.
00:58:59 You have a lot of time.
00:59:02 A lot of things that we believe in would simply fall to pieces if we sincerely inquire even
00:59:11 for a couple of hours or a couple of days.
00:59:13 It is possible.
00:59:14 We don't even Google properly.
00:59:18 Come on.
00:59:19 Look at most of the stuff that is circulated on WhatsApp etc.
00:59:24 Have those people even Googled for the facts?
00:59:27 Is it so impossible to know that what you are believing in is just hogwash?
00:59:40 You want to be like someone.
00:59:42 Have you even bothered to look at the facts of that person's life?
00:59:48 Obviously you cannot enter his kitchen or bedroom and look for first-hand information.
00:59:55 But have you even bothered to glean through the publicly available information?
01:00:00 Have you?
01:00:02 How then have you accepted that person as your role model?
01:00:14 Asking you, please.
01:00:20 Son, how do you know?
01:00:26 The question has still not been answered.
01:00:30 Still not been answered.
01:00:31 Sir, the human brain works in the way the previous experiences have taught him to be
01:00:36 like.
01:00:37 Sir, in that way, sir, if you could say that maybe 100-150 years ago Swami Vivekananda
01:00:43 believed in a certain kind of ideology.
01:00:45 No, he didn't believe in any ideology.
01:00:47 I mean certain principles that…
01:00:49 No, he didn't believe in principles.
01:00:50 Sir, you said right now that the stubborn man at that time was not…
01:00:55 The stubborn man had principles.
01:00:57 Swamiji didn't have principles.
01:00:58 He was a destroyer of principles.
01:01:00 Sir, but you eventually, if you are destroying some principle, you are entrusting some…
01:01:05 How do you know that destruction of principle is another principle?
01:01:08 How do you know?
01:01:09 Why do you come to such quick inferences?
01:01:13 Sir, I think that's really the problem is, we see what others are telling us.
01:01:20 We don't go to the last details about everything.
01:01:23 So that's what I think superstition was, is and will remain.
01:01:27 Right.
01:01:28 Now what to do about it?
01:01:29 I don't really know what we can do about it.
01:01:31 But you are already doing something about it.
01:01:33 By acknowledging that that is the biological tendency of this animalistic brain.
01:01:41 I think the first step itself is acknowledging the problem.
01:01:44 Acknowledgement.
01:01:45 Yes, that's the first step.
01:01:47 Acknowledge that beliefs come quick and cheap and they are most likely to be not only false
01:01:54 but very very dangerous.
01:01:57 They will consume your entire life.
01:02:00 They will consume your entire life.
01:02:03 You could even say a man is nothing but his bundle of beliefs.
01:02:10 You have to be very very careful the bundle that you are carrying.
01:02:12 That does not mean there are good bundles and bad bundles.
01:02:15 All bundles are just bad, just as there are no good diseases.
01:02:21 That's what I really think.
01:02:22 Yes, wonderful.
01:02:22 Thank you.
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