Video Information: Reconnect Session, 04.09.2019, Advait BodhSthal, Greater Noida, India
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Context:
What makes Howard Roark of The Fountainhead so admirable?
What is an uninfluenced ego?
What does the character of Howard Roark represent?
How to understand the book Fountainhead?
What comes under public canvas?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~
#acharyaprashant #books #ego
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Context:
What makes Howard Roark of The Fountainhead so admirable?
What is an uninfluenced ego?
What does the character of Howard Roark represent?
How to understand the book Fountainhead?
What comes under public canvas?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~
#acharyaprashant #books #ego
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Anna, Dear Acharya ji, two sample descriptions of Howard Rourke are as follows.
00:18One I am not capable of suffering completely.
00:21I never have.
00:22It only goes down to a certain point and then it stops.
00:24Second, I don't care whether you agree with me or not.
00:29He has said it so simply that it doesn't sound offensive.
00:33It sounds like the statement of a fact.
00:36These and many other descriptions of Rourke as an awakened being give the impression that
00:42it's been his nature all along without having acquired anything on the way.
00:47Good.
00:49So the question is, if indeed enlightenment is an innate gift, what chances do we seekers
00:55of truth have in ever coming near to anything that Rourke represents?
01:00Thank you for your guidance.
01:01No Anna, no.
01:02Either Rand wants us to believe that Rourke is a freak of nature who didn't have to
01:09go through the tedious and rigorous spiritual process to be an awakened being or you could
01:25speculate that Rourke has had one or several capable teachers in the past.
01:34Don't forget that you meet Rourke when he is already 21.
01:43Either he is a freak of Prakriti.
01:45There are such cases possible where you are born so particularly conditioned that your
02:00tendency is not to be conditioned more rather to give up the conditioning.
02:07It is possible.
02:10It is possible that a child is born with such an internal configuration, with such a typical
02:23peculiar configuration of Satrajitam that he is conditioned to get progressively deconditioned.
02:37It is possible.
02:40But the probability is one in a million, one in a billion.
02:47Such a student, such a candidate, such a prodigy will not require too many teachers.
03:01He will move ahead on his own.
03:06Being guided by his life experiences, seeking knowledge here, seeking clarity there.
03:16In fact, I forget it but Patanjali Yoga Sutras have a specific name for such a phenomena.
03:27The Yoga Sutras talk of the various methods of liberation and then in between they say
03:37that one of the ways in which a person can get liberated is by being born
03:49in a configuration that is very suitable for liberation.
03:57But Ana, please, please forget all this because the probability of that happening, I say is
04:03one in a million, one in a billion, one in a trillion, I do not know.
04:07It's a freak of nature if that happens.
04:10The others must go through some kind of spiritual discipline.
04:17So for your purposes, it would be safe to imagine that Rourke has had several teachers
04:25in the past.
04:27Those teachers might not have been strictly spiritual teachers but their teaching has
04:34had to be deeply spiritual at its core.
04:38Are you getting it?
04:41So let's say there is somebody who is teaching Rourke the trade of plumbing.
04:48Rourke has been into all these trades to eke out his livelihood.
04:56He has walked his way through college.
05:00So surely he would have learnt all these things from someone.
05:03So let's say there is somebody who is teaching him plumbing.
05:05Now it's possible that in the process of teaching plumbing to him, several spiritual
05:11inputs were also indirectly delivered.
05:16Are you getting these things?
05:23Now those things are not mentioned in the text.
05:27So you can only conjecture.
05:33But do not think that awakened beings drop from the trees or the skies.
05:45Spiritual rigor, discipline, education is an absolute necessity.
05:53In fact even the text so very gloriously showcases us the relationship between Rourke
06:09and Cameroon.
06:13If you will look closely at it, it is a beautiful Guru-Shishya relationship.
06:18Rourke is not with Cameroon merely to learn architecture.
06:25Look at their conversations.
06:27Cameroon is teaching life to Rourke.
06:33So Rourke has had teachers.
06:37Cameroon is probably the last of the living ones.
06:44After Cameroon, Rourke probably does not need a teacher in flesh and blood and it would
06:51be safe to assume that Cameroon is only the last teacher in an entire series of teachers.
06:57There might have been, there are most likely to have been a few teachers even before Cameroon
07:03in the life of Rourke.
07:10But Rourke did not learn at Stanton whatsoever.
07:13That is certain.
07:15Supranil, dear Acharyaji Pranam.
07:22Then he quotes a conversation between Rourke and the Dean.
07:26Dean, you don't care what others think and this might be understandable but you don't
07:32even care to make them think as you do?
07:35Rourke, no.
07:36Dean, but that's monstrous.
07:38Rourke, is it?
07:39Probably.
07:40I can't say.
07:41So then Supranil is asking, self-assertion it seems is an act for the ego to confirm
07:48its own validity and superiority.
07:50But Rourke feels no need for validation of qualification.
07:55How is that possible as we know that ego by its very nature is insecure?
07:59Won't that type of ego impart monstrosity to a nihilistic or narcissistic mind?
08:06Where is the fundamental difference?
08:07Kindly guide.
08:09But then that ego that you are seeing here in Rourke is not at the center of a nihilistic
08:14or narcissistic mind.
08:18If a nihilistic or narcissistic mind emulates Rourke, then there is a problem.
08:26But when at the center of the mind is a Rourke-like ego, then the mind cannot be nihilistic.
08:36Are you getting it?
08:41The ego, the I sits at the center of the mind, correct?
08:46The I sits at the center of the mind and the quality of I decides the quality of the mind,
08:55the entire mental landscape.
08:59If the I is Rourke-like, then how can the mind be nihilistic or narcissistic?
09:09So that which you are hypothesizing is impossible.