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Video Information: 20.07.2024, Vedant: Basics to Classics, Greater Noida
Context:
How to stop thoughts?
What to do when thoughts trouble?
Where does all thought arise from?
What is the real definition of the Self?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~
Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/enquir...
Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books?
Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...
➖➖➖➖➖➖
#acharyaprashant
Video Information: 20.07.2024, Vedant: Basics to Classics, Greater Noida
Context:
How to stop thoughts?
What to do when thoughts trouble?
Where does all thought arise from?
What is the real definition of the Self?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00:00All words are constructs.
00:00:19Behind every word is thought, mental activity.
00:00:39There is no word whose definition does not depend on other words.
00:01:00You cannot ever have a single word, it will be absurd.
00:01:13That's the problem with concepts, thoughts and words in which concepts have been crystallized.
00:01:38They cannot stand on their own, there is no independence there.
00:01:55What is a concept?
00:01:58That which depends on another concept for its definition.
00:02:10What is a word?
00:02:11That which depends on another word.
00:02:14What is a thought?
00:02:16That which depends on another thought.
00:02:36And at the center of all of these is the I-sense, not the pure I-sense, but the I-sense that
00:02:56has gathered itself through sensory experience and physical processes.
00:03:17If that be the constitution of the usual I-sense, then all thoughts, words, concepts around
00:03:31it will have their origin in just the body.
00:03:52Without the body, no I, without the I, no concept.
00:04:10All concepts then become subservient to what the I is composed of.
00:04:40And this, as we said, is the false I, it's the gathered I.
00:04:56Some of it comes from the body, some of it comes from time, some of it comes from random
00:05:04experiences.
00:05:14All mental activity is then very helplessly dependent, dependent on the constitution of
00:05:37the false I.
00:05:46Thought is nothing that has a value of its own.
00:06:02We always have chains of thoughts.
00:06:12You cannot have a thought if it is not associated to the previous rung of the chain, impossible.
00:06:33A totally free piece of thought, if there could be one, would be a ridiculous absurdity.
00:06:54Thought is always a progression.
00:07:00What you are thinking right now is dependent on what you were thinking a minute back.
00:07:10Or what you are thinking of right now is dependent on something that just happened five seconds
00:07:16back.
00:07:22Take both these cases.
00:07:26If thought is dependent on the previous piece of thought, then the previous piece of thought
00:07:31is dependent on the one that came before it.
00:07:37And ultimately all of that is coming from the I sense.
00:07:48Your thought is existentially tied to the I, wherever the I is, thought cannot go too
00:08:01far from it.
00:08:05Like a tethered animal, we talk of freedom of thought, don't we?
00:08:16That's a very common phrase.
00:08:20That's like talking about the freedom of the tethered cow.
00:08:25Yes, it can have some freedom.
00:08:37But not much.
00:08:44The center has already decided how far the cow can go.
00:08:50Similarly, the I has already decided how far the thought can go.
00:09:03In the other case, even if thought is a reaction to a happening, who is the experiencer of
00:09:12that happening?
00:09:16The I.
00:09:17So, again, thought has no freedom even in reacting to an external happening, external
00:09:25as in external to the body.
00:09:30Some random small projectile hits you, will you have the same thought as this person if
00:09:36the same thing happens to him?
00:09:39No.
00:09:42I throw this thing at you, I throw this thing at him, the two of you are unlikely to get
00:09:47exactly the same thoughts.
00:09:49Why?
00:09:50Because thought is not just a function of this.
00:09:54Thought is much more a function of the one who received the impact within.
00:10:01Otherwise the happening is just the same.
00:10:03The same towel thrown at him, same towel thrown at him, but the mental reaction is likely
00:10:11to be different.
00:10:12The towel is the same, the reaction is different.
00:10:16Why?
00:10:17Because there is somebody mediating the happening and the reaction.
00:10:24There is a mediator.
00:10:25Who is the mediator?
00:10:26The I is the mediator.
00:10:29So, again here thought has no freedom.
00:10:35Thought is bound to the I.
00:10:42If thought is bound to the I, thought cannot go too far from the I, we talked of the cow.
00:10:51Even if the cow is given a long rope, can it fly?
00:11:04It is not possible.
00:11:16Then thought too cannot violate the dimension of the self.
00:11:27When I say self, I mean the usual accumulated false self, impossible for thought to do that.
00:11:40We do not realize that.
00:11:45Because the cow can roam endlessly, even while being tethered, we get the false impression
00:12:01that thought has endless freedom.
00:12:05Isn't the cow able to move continuously?
00:12:11The cow is just doing circles, going round and round.
00:12:17Yes, there is a lot of movement, but the cow has not reached anywhere.
00:12:26We are unable to appreciate that.
00:12:30What we see is that there is no stopping the cow.
00:12:35Just as there is no stopping the endless thought process, so we get a feeling that the fellow
00:12:41within is free.
00:12:45Free because nobody can stop him.
00:12:46If there is somebody who cannot be stopped by anybody, you get the impression that the
00:12:51fellow is free.
00:12:54Similarly, can anybody come and stop your thinking?
00:13:00We think endlessly.
00:13:04We think endlessly.
00:13:06And that gives the impression that thought is free.
00:13:09It's not free.
00:13:10We are doing rounds, not reaching anywhere.
00:13:24And even when we are doing those circles, at no point are we allowed to violate the
00:13:36dictums of the false center.
00:13:42Irrespective of where the cow is, can the distance between the cow and the center exceed
00:13:55the length of the rope?
00:13:59We do not see that.
00:14:06Endless movement fools us.
00:14:09We feel we are doing something and that we are free to do something.
00:14:15There is no freedom.
00:14:20There is no freedom in thought.
00:14:26Thought is servile, helpless.
00:14:39Similarly, don't you take care of the rope and the pin?
00:15:06Don't you ensure that the cow is never strong enough to break the rope?
00:15:31Similarly, thought too is never allowed by its center to violate the center itself.
00:15:51If you have a calf, what kind of rope do you use?
00:16:00A normal thin kind of rope would do.
00:16:06If you have a bull, you will bring a thick one.
00:16:16What is always ensured is that the animal is never able to get away.
00:16:26The animal should never be able to violate the center of movement.
00:16:30You can keep moving, but you will never violate the center.
00:16:36That's the condition, correct?
00:16:39The same condition is on thought.
00:16:41You can keep moving, but sorry sir, you will never move in a way that uproots the center
00:16:51itself, which means that thought can never expose the falseness of I.
00:17:01Thought can never uproot the false ego.
00:17:13One thing, thought can never break the rope, which means thought is not free.
00:17:20That is the first thing.
00:17:21We got that, right?
00:17:25Thought is not free.
00:17:26Thought cannot fly away.
00:17:28Second thing, thought must respect the center.
00:17:44No cow is ever allowed to run away with the entire arrangement, is she?
00:17:55Similarly, thought is never allowed to uproot the ego.
00:18:04That's the arrangement within.
00:18:09Extending the argument, you should write, thought exists to serve the ego, not expose
00:18:23or uproot it.
00:18:40But the ego is false, and thought exists to serve the ego, and the ego is false, so thought
00:18:51exists to serve falseness.
00:18:58We think that by thinking more and more, we will be able to reach the truth.
00:19:04Sir, thought is designed to never reach the truth.
00:19:11Thought is designed to protect its own center.
00:19:17Thought simply does not have the capacity, the brief power to uproot its own center,
00:19:34just like the cow.
00:19:38You may keep thinking endlessly about yourself, you will never know your truth, because thought
00:19:44itself is coming from the false.
00:19:55Thought exists to serve its master, the ego.
00:20:06So thought is wonderful.
00:20:09As far as furthering the flimsy superficial interests of the ego is concerned, thought
00:20:18has proven to be wonderful.
00:20:22Thought has proven to be a great servant to the ego.
00:20:27If the ego wants something, if there is a desire that the ego has, not the ultimate
00:20:32desire, desire of the usual kind, if there is a desire that the ego has, we have seen
00:20:44thought is ever ready to please its master and fulfill the master's desire.
00:20:56If the room is too hot and humid, what does thought, like the proverbial jinn, bring you
00:21:14immediately?
00:21:16Here is AC, my master.
00:21:22You ask for it and thought will bring it to you.
00:21:26Thought is the air conditioner, a product of human thought, right?
00:21:34And that is the reason why our rabbits have been unable to invent or discover much, that's
00:21:46an exaggeration, they haven't discovered anything.
00:21:56The human system, not that we are wonderfully blessed or something, just the human physical
00:22:02system, physical, which is a thing of evolution, you evolved in a different way compared to
00:22:09the rabbits, that's all.
00:22:11Not that you are finer products of God or something, no.
00:22:16The human system is such that it has the capacity for thought.
00:22:20Even animals think, not that they don't think, but the thought chain in their brains does
00:22:27not go too far.
00:22:33If you read up on that, it is very interesting.
00:22:37Thought becomes more and more productive as its chain elongates, then you are able to
00:22:43conceptualize and relate this concept with that one.
00:22:50And from that come all philosophy, science and all the fine things that we relish and
00:22:59consume.
00:23:00Even animals think, but their chain of thought does not go beyond a few pieces.
00:23:09After that they get confused.
00:23:14So I saw that particular post on the community, this cat, and you show one finger to it and
00:23:25the cat says, I'll bite, you show two fingers and the cat is, and you show four fingers
00:23:37and the cat is now dumbstruck, what to do?
00:23:43And the fellow said, that's like facing MCQs in the test, four of them and all of them
00:23:52look equally lucrative, which one to go for?
00:24:00So one finger, the cat doesn't have to think much, so she is okay with it.
00:24:06Two, this much her thought process can probably accommodate, so even two she is okay.
00:24:12The moment you show four fingers, the cat is stupefied.
00:24:21Human beings can extend this number four to four million, four billion and that's why
00:24:27cats are where they are and we are where we are.
00:24:32So thought has been humble, very productive, extraordinary servant to us.
00:24:42Thought has given us language, culture, civilization, all of it is product of thought.
00:24:53But thought cannot give you freedom.
00:24:59Thought cannot liberate you from who you are.
00:25:02Thought only serves you as you are, please understand.
00:25:19Thought serves you exactly as you are.
00:25:24Even if thought helps you improve, it will help you improve as per your demand.
00:25:32It will not take you beyond yourself.
00:25:39The little problem is as human beings, we are contended only when we go beyond ourselves.
00:25:50The cat has no such problem.
00:25:52The cat is very fine just being a cat.
00:25:56No human being is fine being a human being and that's why human beings over the history
00:26:06have tried to become everything that they can including cats, rats.
00:26:16Have you ever found a cat trying to be a rat?
00:26:23But look at human beings, they want to be everything that's possible, to be had and
00:26:41none of that suffices.
00:26:53So the jury is still out and will remain that way on thought.
00:27:01What do we call thought?
00:27:04A wonderful servant or a criminal distraction.
00:27:22You can keep thinking all the time and the more you think, the more thought will be able
00:27:27to bring you the next object of your desire.
00:27:35On one hand, that's fulfillment of desire.
00:27:37On the other hand, that's also criminal distraction because your time has been taken away.
00:27:48You have been kept in a fool's paradise.
00:27:56Thought gives you a lot of false positives.
00:27:59Yes, something great is happening.
00:28:05When actually what you want is freedom from yourself, thought brings you more ingratiation
00:28:17and even as you remain as yourself, a crude analogy would be, you're sitting at a restaurant
00:28:43and the menu card is extensive, let's say thousands of items, but you're sick, your
00:29:03heart is aching, but you're also gluttonous, desirous,
00:29:32easily seduced by the goodies of life like food, there is a heartache, there's something
00:29:43terribly wrong with the core itself and thought is the waiter at the restaurant.
00:29:58Thought looks at you, finds you a little queasy, thought says, fine, this is the latest
00:30:07dish from Italy and as you relish that dish, you forget your heartache for a while.
00:30:22The relief doesn't last, soon after you are again squirming, there's discomfort, something
00:30:29is happening.
00:30:30What does thought do?
00:30:33You just put your finger anywhere on the card, five minutes it's all I'll take and it brings
00:30:41you the next goodie.
00:30:47Thought keeps fulfilling your endless desires one after the other or at least promises to
00:30:54do so.
00:30:55If a desire is not being fulfilled, thought says, I'm attempting, I'm finding out a way,
00:31:01I'm thinking, sir, bring me this particular one.
00:31:06Sir, right now it's not available, but I'll get it made for you, it will take a little
00:31:14longer than usual, 40 minutes, but I'll get it for you, don't they do that?
00:31:22And you say, fine, I'll wait, 40 minutes is okay, either I'll get it within five minutes
00:31:28or I'll get it in the future, that's thought, it's available and I'm finding out a way to
00:31:34pick it up or I'm arranging for it in the future.
00:31:41And just as all this is happening, your heart is crying, why is it the jury is still out?
00:31:58It's possible that the doctor ultimately just sadly shrugs his shoulders and says,
00:32:10you know, too late, why couldn't you bring him in half an hour earlier?
00:32:24He could not be brought in because the servant was busy fulfilling his desires and the servant
00:32:32is an able one.
00:32:35He does fulfill desires, desires of the, get me a little more seasoning please, desires
00:32:50of that nature, are you getting it?
00:32:59But since thought is skilled at fulfilling desires or at least attempting to fulfill
00:33:05desires, the ego relies on thought a lot just as a master relies on a faithful servant.
00:33:17The ego leans on thought heavily.
00:33:22You look at people, you know, I'm thinking, but I thought, I went by my thought.
00:33:29The thought is the minister, the wazir, the prime counsellor, the trusted friend of the
00:33:41ego.
00:33:42If there is a problem, I'll consult thought.
00:33:53Bigger problem is thought will never tell you anything beyond yourself.
00:34:00Thought is not meant to change your constitution.
00:34:06In some sense, thought is like your shadow.
00:34:12Depending on the position of the source of light, the shape etc. of the shadow can change.
00:34:18Nevertheless, the shadow will remain true to the figure and the shadow will remain tied
00:34:25to the feet.
00:34:29Similarly, thoughts come in all shapes and sizes, but they remain tied to your feet.
00:34:36Where you are, there your thought is.
00:34:40So never say, you know, my thought suggested me this particular action, hence I went ahead.
00:34:50No, thought cannot suggest you anything.
00:34:55Thought suggests to you what you have already suggested to thought, because the thought
00:35:01is the servant, sir.
00:35:03If thought is telling you something, that something is what you have already told thought.
00:35:11Thought just echoes it back to you with some garnishing.
00:35:24Can a servant tell a master something drastically unpleasant?
00:35:32Something like you don't deserve to be a master.
00:35:37Can a servant tell the master something as unpleasant as, you are false.
00:35:44You don't deserve to be a master.
00:35:47Similarly, the thought does not simply have the capacity to bring the truth to the ego.
00:36:00Thought is alright when you want to solve a problem in mathematics.
00:36:04Thought is not alright when you want to live a fulfilled life.
00:36:11To the extent a fulfilled life involves solving problems in mathematics, thought is a useful servant.
00:36:22To the extent our fulfillment depends on temperature control in this room, thought is a useful servant.
00:36:33But we very well know that we are not sitting here to enjoy the right temperature or meticulous
00:36:45climate control, or is that what brings you here?
00:36:50So, the supreme stupidity then is to refer to thought in central matters of life.
00:37:09That's the reason the method for self-realization is self-observation.
00:37:31Not thinking about the self.
00:37:40You are asked to look at things as they are right now.
00:37:52Thinking about events that have now been left behind doesn't help you much.
00:38:17To observe something is to know it as it is happening right now.
00:38:28And that's what leads to self-knowledge.
00:38:33I have to watch it as it is happening right now, with no interference of thought whatsoever.
00:38:43I am looking at you, not thinking about you.
00:38:48That's observation, ātmavlokan.
00:38:55I am looking directly at you, instantaneously.
00:39:01Thought would require time when I would miss the bus.
00:39:10The happening would slip into the past.
00:39:13That's not observation.
00:39:15That's recollection.
00:39:19A lot of us just start recollecting instead of observing.
00:39:35Observation is like examining a patient.
00:39:40Recollection is like post-mortem.
00:39:45You could not do anything when he was alive.
00:39:48Now that he is gone, you are all over his body.
00:39:55To observe is to see the situation as it is right now.
00:40:01Not think about it.
00:40:03Just see.
00:40:12Thought has its rightful place,
00:40:18but not in the domain we are concerned with right now.
00:40:28Are you getting it?
00:40:31It's very easy to forget.
00:40:36Your thought is your servant.
00:40:42No, no.
00:40:44That's too mild a way to put it.
00:40:50Your thought is an idiot's servant.
00:40:55First of all, a servant.
00:40:58On top of that, servant to an idiot.
00:41:02Who is the idiot?
00:41:07How much respect can you give to an idiot's servant?
00:41:14And if you give respect to an idiot's servant, who are you?
00:41:22But just too many of us prefer to go by our thoughts.
00:41:26You know, my viewpoint, my thought.
00:41:28I thought so.
00:41:29I felt so.
00:41:32And that's what brings all kinds of nonsense to you.
00:41:44You know, but I thought hard.
00:41:47That's like the cow running a marathon
00:41:55around the center, thinking it to be some stadium.
00:42:08Are you getting it?
00:42:11The truth is not something to be attained.
00:42:18It is never distant.
00:42:26It is lovelessness to try to approach truth through an intermediary.
00:42:45Some idiots use some messenger even to send a flower or a love letter to the beloved.
00:43:05Don't have the guts.
00:43:10And they strongly believe that they might be slapped.
00:43:14The probability is high.
00:43:18So, they want the messenger to run the risk.
00:43:28This is a great love affair in which no middleman is allowed.
00:43:38Facts are not even the door to truth.
00:43:43If you can be in instantaneous contact with the fact, here is the truth.
00:43:53You are in already.
00:43:56The door is flung open.
00:44:00The door is wide open.
00:44:02There never was a door at all.
00:44:08But we miss the bus.
00:44:11The thing is right there.
00:44:14But we don't show the love or the guts to approach it directly.
00:44:24What do we bring in between?
00:44:27Thought.
00:44:28The middleman.
00:44:34When you don't want to confront the truth, one thing you will have in ample measure is thought.
00:44:52Before every sentence you will have to think for 5 minutes.
00:45:04I will send you a message and ask for a reply.
00:45:08For 20 minutes, the screen will show Sanjay is typing and ultimately no message will arrive.
00:45:21Because he was just running round and round the false self to save a particular species of quadrupeds.
00:45:47Hindi is far better.
00:45:48I can simply say Gadaha.
00:45:50But in English if I say he was running round and round to save his ass.
00:46:01Gadhaya ko bachana is far more decent than saving the ass.
00:46:07Though that's exactly what I want to communicate.
00:46:16Anupam, why did you do what you do?
00:46:24For 3 minutes, first of all, there is invention of language.
00:46:33You can see the entire process of human evolution happening right in front of your eyes.
00:46:44Here is some organism from the jungle just beginning to learn language.
00:46:50Then comes the tribal.
00:46:55He is able to utter a few incoherent words.
00:46:59And then finally after 3 minutes comes some reply in a supposedly human language.
00:47:12What is happening?
00:47:14Why can't there be spontaneity?
00:47:17Why?
00:47:19Because there is a lot of thought.
00:47:23Why?
00:47:25Because thought's purpose is to defend its centre which is false.
00:47:30Thought exists to defend falseness.
00:47:33Therefore, wherever you find a lack of spontaneity, you must stand assured that there is a strong attempt to save, defend and secure the false.
00:47:57Yes Raghav, where were you the entire night?
00:48:01The fact can be instantaneously uttered.
00:48:12But stories take time to cook.
00:48:15And you also have to remember the story.
00:48:18Otherwise the story coming from you will be very different from the story coming from them.
00:48:25And the next morning your own story will change.
00:48:30Because your own memory is so unreliable.
00:48:33Do you see where thought is found so useful by the ego?
00:48:42In escaping the fact.
00:48:47In denying the truth.
00:48:55You could extend this line to say that even all this that thought fetches its master as means of desire fulfilment are only things to deny the truth.
00:49:16Not that thought is useful to deny the truth only in matters of day to day integrity.
00:49:28But everything that thought has brought man is in some way, direct or indirect, a means to deny the truth.
00:49:39Ideally I should be comforted only by the truth.
00:49:45I should be happy only when liberated.
00:49:49But thought can bring me some nice toy and I will become happy for a while.
00:49:55So what has the toy meant to me?
00:50:01It has meant denial of truth to me.
00:50:09No, we are not saying we should not think.
00:50:13We are examining the entire process of thought.
00:50:22Now there can be two possibilities other than thought.
00:50:27Two, not one.
00:50:29We named just one and that is dangerous.
00:50:32We said there can be courageous, unafraid, instantaneous observation.
00:50:37That's one possibility.
00:50:39That's a beautiful one.
00:50:41But there is another one which is very dangerous, lower than thought, worse than thought.
00:50:49Which is not to see at all and also not think.
00:50:55In direct observation there is no need to think.
00:51:00Because you are seeing in the moment itself without any use of time.
00:51:07Better than that, higher than that.
00:51:11Higher than thought.
00:51:15So if someone is looking at something and then going back to his cave
00:51:21and then retrospectively collecting pieces of information and assimilating them as per his convenience.
00:51:29We said that's just recollection.
00:51:33There is nothing called retrospective observation.
00:51:37That's just recollection.
00:51:40So direct observation is better than recollection.
00:51:45Direct observation is better than having thought as the intermediary.
00:51:52But there is a third and far worse possibility.
00:51:56What is that?
00:51:58You neither think nor see, you just imagine.
00:52:06Imagine.
00:52:08You don't even recollect.
00:52:11There must at least be a photograph.
00:52:15There must at least be an imprint of the present, if not the present itself.
00:52:21The third possibility is I neither saw, seeing is obviously lost on me, beyond my capacity.
00:52:30I didn't even think.
00:52:34To me, what comes as a dirty substitute to thought, not observation, but belief.
00:52:42I will not think and that does not mean that I am seeing.
00:52:47I'll not think, I'll just shoot from the hip.
00:52:52And that's called unthinking.
00:52:56That is not thinking transcended.
00:53:03That's thinking betrayed.
00:53:08Not that you have gone beyond thought.
00:53:12You have not even thought.
00:53:15And that's why thought is no mean thing.
00:53:19Even thinking is a faculty that the bulk of human beings hardly fully use.
00:53:30Most of us are unthinking people.
00:53:35We don't even think.
00:53:37What do we do?
00:53:39We imagine.
00:53:41We believe.
00:53:43If there is no one else to give us something to believe in, we simply cook up something.
00:53:55Just cook something.
00:54:00I'll show you an object you might never have seen.
00:54:04I'll ask you what it is.
00:54:06In usual circumstances, nobody would say that he knows nothing about that object.
00:54:12You'll cook something up.
00:54:14Something.
00:54:16And that something can be cooked up extremely quickly.
00:54:26Thought is needed.
00:54:28Not even there.
00:54:30I'll show you.
00:54:33Okay.
00:54:35What is this?
00:54:37And an almost instantaneous reply can come without knowing anything about this.
00:54:44That does not mean you have observed.
00:54:46That means you have not even thought.
00:54:49That does not mean, I repeat, that you have transcended thought.
00:54:52That means you have not even thought.
00:54:57You are so disrespectful towards life
00:55:01that you have just uttered something.
00:55:08Life came to you with a situation.
00:55:13The greatest response would have been observation.
00:55:18Lower than that, I look at it, then I try to match it with my past.
00:55:24I think at least some effort is being made.
00:55:29Thought is not easy.
00:55:31We don't have thinkers aplenty.
00:55:36Only one out of ten people really even thinks.
00:55:42Nine out of ten people will look at it
00:55:46and will give some random, absurd, ludicrous reply
00:55:52even without thinking.
00:55:57And that's unfortunately what the entire field of spirituality has become.
00:56:05Masters taught us that thought is not the ultimate thing.
00:56:10Thought has to be transcended.
00:56:14And what is the transcendence of thought?
00:56:17Instantaneous observation.
00:56:19That's what the teachers told us.
00:56:22That thought is not the final thing.
00:56:26What did we reduce that to?
00:56:29We said, okay, that means thought is not needed.
00:56:33So I can simply dream.
00:56:35The master said, you must exceed thought.
00:56:40And what did we bring down that advice to?
00:56:44We abandoned thought.
00:56:47We are not even thinking.
00:56:52Getting it?
00:56:54Now see what Shri Krishna is saying here.
00:56:58It's a beautiful commentary on mentation.
00:57:06These two words are beautiful.
00:57:08When you think, that's mentation.
00:57:10When you observe, that's meditation.
00:57:14And lower than both of these is imagination.
00:57:19Imagination, mentation, meditation.
00:57:26Hmm?
00:57:32Chapter 2, verse 29.
00:57:39Some look at the Self, Atma, as marvellous.
00:57:49Various approaches, varied attitudes.
00:57:53Others speak of it as wonderful.
00:57:58And others hear of it again as a wonder.
00:58:06And then there are others who keep hearing and do not understand anything.
00:58:15Irrespective of what you say about the truth, it's a violation.
00:58:30Because your words are coming from your mental activity.
00:58:39The cow is not to use its time imagining about the lush green forest or the grassy plains.
00:59:09The cow is to exert itself fully to break the rope.
00:59:19Remaining where the cow is, it is extremely dishonest of it.
00:59:30Dishonesty towards its own condition.
00:59:33It is extremely dishonest of it.
00:59:38To just dream of green pastures.
00:59:46Dreaming of those green pastures, extensive grassy plains.
00:59:58The cow can say, oh you know, those plains are infinite.
01:00:09Technically she might be right, probably.
01:00:13But existentially she is a fraud.
01:00:17Remaining within your little loop, you have used the word infinite.
01:00:27Shame on you.
01:00:30Technically you are right, existentially you are a fraud.
01:00:38Look at your condition.
01:00:40How dare you bring the word infinite to your lips.
01:00:55And do words have objective or absolute meanings? No.
01:01:00The meaning of a word is not independent of the one uttering it.
01:01:11The word infinite becomes very finite when uttered by you.
01:01:20So now even technically you are wrong.
01:01:24You have lost it, both existentially and technically.
01:01:35What does a cow, a robed one at that, an enslaved one, know about infinity?
01:01:49What right does a slave have to compose a poem on freedom?
01:01:58You will say, no, but if he is a slave, why can't he dream?
01:02:02Why can't he compose a poem? Because that's dishonest.
01:02:05That time should have been used to challenge his slavery.
01:02:11If he took two hours composing that poem, that's dishonesty towards his condition.
01:02:20Those hours should have been used to challenge his condition.
01:02:28I understand if the fellow has been fighting hard for freedom the entire week
01:02:36and on the weekend for two hours he composes a poem that might be passable.
01:02:42I understand that.
01:02:44But what about those who make no attempt to be free but keep singing of freedom?
01:02:51Those who keep themselves limited in all ways possible,
01:02:59make no effort to challenge their limits,
01:03:03but keep tossing words like unlimited and limitless
01:03:08as if those words come for free.
01:03:16I am asking, is that not an existential fraud?
01:03:31All concepts are very poor things.
01:03:36They will not enrich your life.
01:03:40They can fulfil some desires,
01:03:49but they will not please your heart.
01:03:59And since concepts are such poor things,
01:04:02Shri Krishna is saying, kindly do not reduce Atma to a concept.
01:04:10There are many who would take exception to this.
01:04:16They will be outraged, especially academics and philosophers.
01:04:19They will say, no, but Atma is a concept.
01:04:22No sir, if Atma is a concept, then it is not useful.
01:04:28We are not here to learn concepts.
01:04:30We are here to be liberated.
01:04:33If I take Atma to be a concept, then Atma is a small thing within the mind.
01:04:39And how can a small thing within the mind enable the ego to be free?
01:04:48The mind is a slave to the ego.
01:04:52If the Atma is a concept, then Atma is a small thing owned by the slave.
01:04:58Of what use is a small thing owned by the slave to the master?
01:05:10Academically, therefore, even if Brahman, Atman are concepts,
01:05:17to you they should not be.
01:05:20If they are concepts, then you will come up with a definition, won't you?
01:05:25Is there any concept that cannot be defined or expanded?
01:05:31The moment you come up with a definition, the game is over for you.
01:05:40I often say, one of the chief reasons behind India's decline
01:05:51over the last 1200 years has been the abuse of the word Atma.
01:06:01It's been more than around 1200 years to Acharya Shankar.
01:06:12And he very clearly, very sharply, very unambiguously
01:06:21brought out the unapproachable, unthinkable nature of the true self.
01:06:44It was very clear. Atma is not something you can
01:06:47write songs about,
01:06:55create stories, imagine fantasies.
01:06:59It was very clear. But after him,
01:07:03the word Atma got totally corrupted and polluted.
01:07:08The word Atma got totally corrupted and polluted.
01:07:13And that coincides with the period of India's downfall.
01:07:28Please see.
01:07:30Exactly the period where India messed up with Atma
01:07:37is the period of India's decline.
01:07:41Because India came up with the highest.
01:07:44All philosophy stops there.
01:07:50The unknowable, the unspeakable, the unthinkable.
01:07:54Full stop.
01:08:00And then we regressed.
01:08:04After the summit came the fall.
01:08:09And we started creating all kinds of stories about Atma.
01:08:14And all kinds of Puranic literature came up
01:08:20and said Atma is doing this and Atma is of this colour
01:08:24and Atma is of that size.
01:08:26And Atma flies and Atma crawls and Atma enters the womb.
01:08:34Some of these so called great philosophers also said
01:08:38that some Atma, of course there are as many Atmas as there are people,
01:08:42some Atmas are condemned to eternal suffering.
01:08:49Not that everyone is even qualified for liberation.
01:08:54Some Atmas are so evil that they are meant to suffer eternally.
01:09:02All this kind of nonsense about Atma was peddled
01:09:06and that was taken as commentary on Vedanta.
01:09:11And mind you that was the time of India's decline.
01:09:18We lost it out in all ways possible.
01:09:27How can you be excused?
01:09:30When you have the highest and you corrupt it, how can you be excused?
01:09:39Atma gets stained by your karmas.
01:09:43Atma shrinks, Atma expands.
01:09:49And these people kept waxing eloquent on the Atma endlessly.
01:10:03Just the ego trying to lay its dirty hands on the highest possible.
01:10:08If somebody asks you, can you name, can you give one and only one central reason behind India's decline?
01:10:21Say the people who corrupted Atma, they are the ones responsible.
01:10:29There is Atma, then there is Parmatma, then there is Jeevatma.
01:10:35Chaos of all kinds.
01:10:40And side by side they also kept saying Atma is immortal.
01:10:59The body dies, Atma is immortal.
01:11:05If Atma is immortal, what is this thing that you talk of as flying from body to body?
01:11:14And being barbecued in hell?
01:11:24No logic whatsoever.
01:11:28And we as Indians should be ashamed that we allowed this nonsense to pass.
01:11:36We didn't question it, we didn't reject it.
01:11:39We didn't call out the bluff.
01:11:43We let the idiots rule.
01:11:45Even today Atma has become the preferred word for any vague emotion that you have.
01:12:09If there is something that you are unable to look at clearly, you simply say this is Atma.
01:12:23Evolution has gifted every organism with intuition.
01:12:28If you just intuitively feel something, you say it is coming from Atma.
01:12:38The fellow has some gastric trouble.
01:12:42Some gas problem and he says my Atma is paining.
01:12:51We keep writing these things and we don't even ask what is going on.
01:12:59What is this?
01:13:02What are you uttering?
01:13:08Don't you see the falseness, the illogic, the stupidity, the contradiction?
01:13:29It goes on and on.
01:13:39When a nation loses its philosophy, it has lost its life.
01:13:53We are not beasts.
01:13:57And a nation is not a jungle.
01:14:00We are human beings.
01:14:02And a nation is built on a philosophical foundation.
01:14:05If the philosophy itself gets rotten, how will the nation not decline?