Video Information: 15.04.2022, IIT-Delhi, Delhi
Context:
How to know right and wrong?
How to take right decisions in life ?
How to be happy ?
What is Joy ?
How can one be joyful?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#acharyaprashant #IIT-Delhi #IIT-D
Context:
How to know right and wrong?
How to take right decisions in life ?
How to be happy ?
What is Joy ?
How can one be joyful?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#acharyaprashant #IIT-Delhi #IIT-D
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Sir, is there an absolute notion of what is right and what is wrong?
00:20The question is, is there an absolute notion of right and wrong?
00:28All rights and wrongs, everything in the universe exists for you.
00:36So all rightness is with respect to you, all wrongness is with respect to you.
00:43This is a bit delicate, you'll need to be attentive.
00:48You are someone who is not all right, that's our fundamental condition, that's what makes
00:56us move.
00:57Otherwise, no one would desire change or betterment.
01:00We are entities, unfulfilled, dissatisfied, therefore not all right.
01:07Is that not true?
01:08Both at the physical and the mental level, we are never okay.
01:15Sometimes we feel okay, only in a relative sense.
01:19I had a headache in the morning, I no more have the headache, so I'm feeling okay.
01:24It's only relative to my condition in the morning.
01:28Perfectly we are never okay.
01:31Perfection has a unitary characteristic, it cannot change.
01:40Had you been perfectly okay?
01:42You would have never lapsed into imperfection again.
01:47But we do that, right?
01:48Even when you say, oh, all is well for me, life is great.
01:53Something happens the next hour and we start feeling miserable.
01:57So who are we?
01:58We are imperfect entities striving for perfection.
02:04That's the definition of the human being.
02:07That's the central characteristic of the human consciousness.
02:12It is unfulfilled and seeks fulfillment.
02:17It is incomplete and is constantly trying for completion.
02:27If that's who we are, what's right and what's wrong?
02:33We have defined the one we are.
02:36Now tell me what is right and what is wrong?
02:40If I am by definition a dissatisfied entity, what is right?
02:48What is right?
02:52What is right?
02:55Obviously, that which will lead me towards satisfaction is right.
03:05That which will lead me towards perfection and contentment is right.
03:09And that which will further aggravate my diseased condition is wrong.
03:19The thing does not stop here.
03:20We said the matter is delicate.
03:23Now, if I am by definition, if I am by definition imperfect and I want perfection, so what happens
03:37then to the I as I move towards perfection?
03:43I equals imperfection, right?
03:49However, this I desires perfection.
03:55So as the I move towards perfection as a result of its desire, what happens to the I?
04:02It keeps reducing.
04:04The bigger the imperfection, the bigger the I.
04:09That's what is called as the ego.
04:10The more imperfect you are, the bigger is the ego.
04:16The more perfect you become, the same I that wanted perfection starts reducing.
04:23Now the I does not like that.
04:26I wanted perfection for itself.
04:29I want to be perfect.
04:31Now as it is nearing perfection, I is getting smaller and smaller.
04:36Now who will be then left to experience perfection?
04:41So the I starts resisting perfection.
04:43And perfection is what it wanted.
04:45But as it gets closer to perfection, it reduces and it does not like its reduction because
04:50reduction is like death.
04:52It says, what is the benefit in achieving such a perfection?
04:58Perfection will be there.
04:59I will not be there.
05:00Who will take benefit of perfection then?
05:03Who will claim to be perfect then?
05:06So the right thing is that which reduces you.
05:10That's why the right thing is so difficult to do.
05:16When I said the right thing is that which takes you towards satisfaction, many of you
05:22might have felt great because we feel satisfied with all kinds of awful things.
05:29If you do a secret poll, asking people what is it that satisfies you, you will get the
05:36kind of list you will not want to read, let alone show someone or publish somewhere.
05:45All kinds of funny and debauched things satisfy us, do they not?
05:54So this disclaimer has to be added.
05:57Where there is real satisfaction, you will feel threatened and reduced.
06:05That is the litmus test.
06:09If you are feeling satisfied without feeling threatened, then your satisfaction is a problem.
06:15It is dangerous.
06:16Wake up.
06:17Wherever in life there would be something real, it will make you very, very afraid.
06:27The right thing is always a very fearful thing.
06:34It horrifies you.
06:35Are you getting it?
06:36As a corollary, the wrong thing is very attractive.
06:48Why?
06:49Because it consolidates and fattens the eye.
06:54Now you know why people have to be encouraged and inspired to do the right thing.
07:03But they do the wrong things on their own.
07:05Have you ever motivated someone to do all kinds of rubbish?
07:12No.
07:13That requires no motivation.
07:18But to do the right thing, someone has to constantly push you, constantly push you.
07:23Teachers, saints, seers, scriptures, they all have been trying so hard and yet it is
07:30so difficult to do the right thing.
07:32The wrong thing, it exists and sits within us.
07:38No effort is required to do the wrong thing.
07:41It is almost natural.
07:46In fact, most of that which we call as natural is the wrong thing.
07:50The right thing does not come naturally to you.
07:53Whatsoever comes naturally to you is most probably wrong.
07:59So never use the word natural to defend some rubbish that you are getting into.
08:06For example, at your age, love is natural.
08:10That kind of love is extremely problematic.
08:12It destroys your life.
08:14The natural kind of love, falling in love at the first sight, falling in love with looks
08:20or not knowing why you have fallen in love at all.
08:23Somebody asks you, what is so worthy of love there in that person?
08:28You say, I do not know.
08:30Love is an inexplicable feeling.
08:33That's what all the shayars have told us.
08:37You are trying very hard to enter hell, kindly avoid.
08:47By nature, I mean physical, biological nature.
08:50Stuff that happens just biologically to you is stuff that's coming from the jungle because
09:01that's where our biology comes from.
09:05The right thing is a product of deep thinking, courage, discipline, and true love.
09:19The wrong thing is a result of waywardness, forgetfulness, and our natural tendencies.
09:29However, the right thing, howsoever difficult and threatening it is, brings with itself
09:38that one thing we just talked of.
09:41What?
09:42If you do the right thing, what is it that you get?
09:48Joy.
09:50It's a very expensive joy.
09:52It's like the joy a fighter gets bathed in his own blood.
10:00A tremendous battle has been fought, a worthy battle has been fought, and now there is just
10:05blood that I can see, my own blood, my own blood.
10:11No part of my body has been left unwounded, there are cuts all over.
10:17And yet there is a joy in my heart that no commoner can ever experience.
10:25That's what we are born for, that kind of joy.
10:30Without the kind of pleasure that you get relaxing in some comfortable bed in a seven-star
10:41mansion, that's cheap pleasure.
10:46However expensive that hotel is, that pleasure is cheap.
10:59So be very careful, life is very short, today you are sitting here, just yesterday I was
11:07sitting there, ephemistically, not yesterday really.
11:14And I do not know where my last 24 years have gone.
11:23One day you will find, you have grey hair, and you are thinking of life insurance, not
11:40that I do, time flies, do not therefore waste it.
11:52It is anyway flying away.
11:55It will take you no time to turn 40, then 60, and then be at the cremation ground.
12:06Death is not as far away as it seems.
12:11Be very very particular about your life, your time, your decisions.