Video Information: 18.07.2022, BITS Pilani, Goa
Context:
~ What is consciousness?
~Is consciousness just physical?
~ What is capitalism?
~ How can one understand the Vedanta?
~ What is class consciousness
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
#acharyaprashant
Context:
~ What is consciousness?
~Is consciousness just physical?
~ What is capitalism?
~ How can one understand the Vedanta?
~ What is class consciousness
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
#acharyaprashant
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00I am an analyst of BITS Pilani campus and then I went on to do my MBA from IIM Ahmedabad.
00:16So I have had an interest in economics and you have often said that one of the problems
00:22with us is that we don't understand certain terms but we use them very often.
00:26So capitalism is one such term.
00:28So recently I read Das Capital, the first volume by Karl Marx, so I have a question
00:32related to that.
00:34So in the first chapter itself, there is a term that Marx coins which is commodity fetishism.
00:41And what he says is that we have made everything into commodities, that's the basic unit in
00:45capitalism and we think that we can assign it a certain value.
00:51That value is actually a composition of two things, a use value and an exchange value.
00:56And the use value is what we do with that thing, for example a mobile phone can be used
01:01by some terrorist to launch an attack or somebody to connect to your session.
01:07So that means there is no unique way of assigning a value using the use value.
01:11But at the other end we can look at it as exchange value.
01:14So the labor theory of value says that, that's what Marx arrives at, is that the exchange
01:21value or the cost that we think of things comes from the associated labor that has gone
01:26into it.
01:28And if we look at even something like a mobile phone, if we break it down into its components
01:33and we keep going deeper and deeper, eventually we will reach physical nature.
01:36So there is physical nature and then there is a lot of human labor that has conditioned
01:41the physical nature into an object that we are using.
01:44So you have often said that we should stay in this world, we have to use the things around
01:53us in the right way.
01:55So focusing on the use value, it doesn't mean that we should leave everything, we should
01:59not use mobile phones, we should use things around us in the right way but at the other
02:04end of the spectrum where we are talking about exploitation of labor, laborers, wage laborers
02:11as well as physical nature itself, when we go right to the bottom, in fact like in mining
02:16and in industries where we literally take earth elements, there is a lot of exploitation,
02:21literal exploitation and that's the source.
02:24So the great success of capitalism according to Marx is alienation.
02:27Why I am saying that is because where we sit most of the times, we don't know what is happening
02:32at the bottom of the chain.
02:34So my question is, without class consciousness, which is ultimately what Marx arrived at,
02:40what we can do to rectify this is class consciousness which will take care of that exchange value
02:44problem.
02:45People aren't even aware that they are part of a huge matrix and so with spirituality
02:51and the way you put it, we are focusing on the use value.
02:54So how do we, I mean we are tackling one part of the value, value definition but the other
03:00part of the definition is tackled by class consciousness according to Marx.
03:04So I just wanted to ask your views about that.
03:07That's not really true.
03:08If use value is the only thing that spirituality talks of, then we would be very happy to accept
03:22animal flesh for example.
03:27It has a certain use.
03:29But is that what spirituality advocates?
03:33Don't we talk of knowing where the stuff in your plate comes from?
03:42You took the example of the mobile phone and you said that you must be conscious of the
03:47mind that rare earth let's say comes from, that goes into the mobile.
03:56Similarly have we not been continuously talking of knowing where the stuff in that packaged
04:08item, food item is coming from?
04:13So use in spiritual terms includes being conscious of everything in totality.
04:28Use as Marx puts it is just about fulfilling your desire.
04:40If something fulfills your desire, Marx would say it's useful to you.
04:43But that's not how Vedant would look at it.
04:48Vedant would not say that if something is fulfilling my desire, I call it useful.
04:54No, not that way.
04:56I have to know because ultimately the thing of use to me is understanding, bodh, realization.
05:06How can I reach that ultimately useful thing if I do not know what is useful to me right
05:16now, if I do not know the totality of it.
05:20So I really have to know everything.
05:23If you are using the mobile phone, that includes knowing all the constituents, components,
05:31even the taxation part, even the foreign policy part involved.
05:38No mobile phone, at least in India, is fully indigenous.
05:43When you are paying for it, you must know where the money is really going to.
05:52Same goes with things like selecting a job.
05:58Once you accept a job offer, let's say in the campus, it could be the Pilani campus
06:02or the IIM campus, is it just about the job being useful to you or must you also know
06:12what your labor is really going towards.
06:17In fact, I used to say you must, before you take up an offer, you must also ask who the
06:24shareholders are and how their CVs look.
06:29Because ultimately a company exists for the shareholders profits, does it not?
06:36That's the sole purpose of its existence.
06:39It exists to maximize shareholder profit.
06:43So that's what you work for there.
06:46You want to know how they would utilize the profits you are giving them.
06:55You work very hard, you give them certain money and they fly to Dubai and purchase heavy
07:03jewelry for their wives and keeps.
07:07How does that sound to you?
07:09That's the output of your entire month's or year's work.
07:14Some random fat woman is now walking around with loads of jewelry.
07:21That's what you work for really.
07:23How does that sound?
07:26And ostensibly the company might exist to uplift the face of technology in the country
07:36and you may feel very happy.
07:38You might say, oh, this is useful.
07:40You might say it is useful.
07:41I'm working here.
07:44But the company does not exist merely for its abode objective.
07:48Remember it exists for the shareholders and the other stakeholders to the extent practically
07:57possible.
07:58You must go into all of this.
07:59You must ask yourself, what am I doing?
08:03That was the reason why I left the bureaucratic option.
08:09I would be working in the government without having any control over what my work, my labor,
08:17my time is really resulting into.
08:22Even if I am the district collector, let's say, I'm a very small pawn.
08:30The ones sitting on top are far too powerful to let me work with freedom, let alone go
08:39beyond the system.
08:42So should I just look at the use that job offers to me and it could be a very ethical
08:48use as well.
08:49You know, I could usefully convince me that I am doing some good work on the ground as
08:54many bureaucrats do.
08:56They actually do some good work on the ground.
09:00But in totality, what does that result into?
09:04What does that mean?
09:06Some hideous politician will come and say that all the development work I have done
09:10in the district has been powered by the funds sanctioned by him and that will enable him
09:18to win the next elections.
09:20That's the net output of all the work that I have done as the district collector.
09:25Penny wise, pound foolish.
09:27That's the reason I dropped that idea.
09:33So that is enabled greatly, that consciousness you are talking of, that is enabled greatly
09:39in this age by technology.
09:42Today you can really know and that's what I was just talking of.
09:48Use technology to the fullest.
09:52How was our friend here saying that he feels lonely?
09:56Why don't you get into the integrity of everything?
09:58Don't you want to know where your t-shirts come from?
10:02It's probably coming from Bangladesh.
10:04Do you know the kind of shop it's being produced in?
10:10Not sure.
10:12But there might be child labour, who knows?
10:16And it's interesting, you know, Google is a blessing, is it not?
10:24Your t-shirt, your specs, your cosmetics, your shoes, don't you want to research on
10:34all those things?
10:36Today you need not even move to a physical library.
10:42Everything is available, mostly for free.
10:45And even if there are subscriptions, they are very affordable.
10:50So know, know and know.
10:52And I'm talking of very basic, objective, worldly knowledge, not even inner realisation.
11:00That's the right use of technology.
11:04Let it enable knowledge.
11:09No point, for example, cursing China and not even knowing the depth of Chinese investment
11:17in India.
11:19What kind of patriotism is this, where you know neither India nor China, nor trade and
11:25not even patriotism.
11:28You know none of these and yet you shout aloud as a patriot.
11:32What's going on?
11:36Are we really even literate?
11:42This mobile phone in your hand is your great enabler towards freedom.
11:53If you know really how to use it, it will tell you of things that will be very disturbing
12:01and therefore very liberating.
12:07I talk so much of food, for example.
12:13Animal flesh is obviously obnoxious for a thousand reasons.
12:17But even the vegetarian food that you are taking, do you bother to read up about it?
12:24Do you know what's going on?
12:29And it does not really require class consciousness, believe me.
12:32It just requires consciousness.
12:35If you start belonging to a class, it impedes consciousness.
12:40You need not be identified with a class or community or any division of any kind.
12:48That hinders consciousness.
12:49Don't you see that?
12:51The moment I belong to a certain group, will I have the freedom to really know or will
13:00I be constrained by the dynamics and identities of that group or class or whatever.
13:08So all you need is consciousness.
13:15Is it getting too heavy?
13:16I think it is.
13:22You are great people really.
13:23When I was your age, I wouldn't have tolerated this kind of thing.
13:28Disgusting.
13:30Disgusting.
13:31For two hours, somebody is talking some Archean stuff, no?
13:55You are a wonderful audience.
13:57Seriously.
13:58How old are you?
13:59Seventeen?
14:00Eighteen?
14:01Twenty?
14:02Nineteen.
14:03Wonderful.
14:04Wonderful.