Video Information: 28.09.2024, Gita Samagam English, Greater Noida
Description:
In this conversation, the questioner, coming from an Abrahamic religious background, discusses the deeply ingrained concepts of heaven and hell, acknowledging their fear-based nature. They express concern about how these beliefs can overshadow the present reality and lead to harmful actions, even when individuals are well-meaning and compassionate.
Acharya Ji responds by emphasizing that if the foundational beliefs are flawed, then the resulting actions, no matter how virtuous they seem, are ultimately harmful. He critiques the theology present in major religions, asserting that true understanding comes from awareness rather than intentions.
The discussion highlights how belief systems can blind individuals to immediate realities, causing them to overlook suffering and perpetuate cycles of misery. Acharya Ji encourages a focus on direct realities and the importance of acting with intelligence and love, while leaving the outcomes to unfold naturally.
🎧 Listen to Acharya Prashant on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/2QmVEAAnsNE7Xs0MW0Li8Y?si=09fbcbc7c99c469b
Description:
In this conversation, the questioner, coming from an Abrahamic religious background, discusses the deeply ingrained concepts of heaven and hell, acknowledging their fear-based nature. They express concern about how these beliefs can overshadow the present reality and lead to harmful actions, even when individuals are well-meaning and compassionate.
Acharya Ji responds by emphasizing that if the foundational beliefs are flawed, then the resulting actions, no matter how virtuous they seem, are ultimately harmful. He critiques the theology present in major religions, asserting that true understanding comes from awareness rather than intentions.
The discussion highlights how belief systems can blind individuals to immediate realities, causing them to overlook suffering and perpetuate cycles of misery. Acharya Ji encourages a focus on direct realities and the importance of acting with intelligence and love, while leaving the outcomes to unfold naturally.
🎧 Listen to Acharya Prashant on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/2QmVEAAnsNE7Xs0MW0Li8Y?si=09fbcbc7c99c469b
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00We have been fed since childhood about the afterlife, heaven and hell concept.
00:07If you meet Buddhists, you'll be surprised by how many of them still do believe,
00:12especially in India, believe in personal rebirth.
00:16Whereas the Buddha makes it clear that there is nobody here to take rebirth.
00:21So all this is not even philosophy, this is just theology.
00:24Now, all of the people who really believe in this, they're not bad human beings.
00:29They're really doing their best through this path, through this idea.
00:34I often say intentions don't matter, awareness does.
00:38Right, I'm a father, I'm a mother, I want the best for my kids,
00:42without knowing what goodness really is.
00:45And you cannot see that you are pushing them deeper into misery
00:49and you still think that you are a virtuous person
00:52because you are acting as per a belief system.
00:54It blinds you to the immediate direct reality.
00:59Namaste Acharya ji.
01:05Welcome.
01:06So, since I'm belonging to the Abrahamic religion background,
01:11we have been fed since childhood about the afterlife, heaven and hell concept.
01:18I understand that this concept is also fear-based.
01:21And over the years, you make sense of what direction you want to go to
01:27in terms of afterlife.
01:29But it is so deeply ingrained and fed that there's nothing else that can be the truth.
01:36I mean, even thinking about something different than this is so challenging
01:41because we are deeply conditioned.
01:43Now, all of the people who really believe in this, they're not bad human beings.
01:48They're really doing their best through this path, through this idea.
01:53And they're compassionate.
01:55They are helping others.
01:57And most of the things that we read and we understand from the Gita,
02:02they're pretty much even applying that in their day-to-day life.
02:06But then, with the afterlife not being the ultimate truth,
02:12does it negate everything that they are doing in this life?
02:17Ultimately, you see, it does.
02:19If people are on their road to destruction,
02:26should I facilitate their journey and be called a good, nice human being?
02:35Should I set up relief camps along the way?
02:40Free medical aid, free food, obviously free water and such things.
02:45That's what the stupid kind of goodness means.
02:53I'm a good human being. I'm a nice human being.
02:55And what am I doing? I'm assisting people on their way to destruction.
03:00So, on his way to destruction, somebody fell and bruised his knee.
03:06So, I rushed to him with first aid.
03:09I'm a good human being. Am I not?
03:12I rushed to him with a bandage and I helped him get up.
03:17And I also offered him food.
03:19And I do all the goodies, all the niceties, all the virtues.
03:22I display.
03:23But all the virtues that I display are ultimately assisting people on their road to destruction.
03:29So, all that in total is just very harmful towards oneself.
03:37You see, when the fundamental itself is flawed,
03:42anything branching out from that just cannot be virtuous,
03:47even if it appears to be virtuous.
03:53I often say intentions don't matter. Awareness does.
04:01I want the best for my kids.
04:04I'm a father. I'm a mother. I want the best for my kids.
04:07Without knowing what goodness really is.
04:11And I want my kids to have the best.
04:14And what does that result in?
04:17We know the state of the world today.
04:19We also know that all the adults were once kids.
04:26We say the world is in such a despicable state.
04:30And people are monsters.
04:32A lot of people are monsters.
04:35But if people are monsters, they were all kids once.
04:40And they were all raised by well-meaning parents.
04:43How did they turn into monsters?
04:46It is because our intentions and our claims to beatification,
04:56they in reality mean nothing.
05:00What is really of importance is the understanding or absence of it.
05:09Mostly there is just the absence.
05:15I also understand about the internalizing of heaven and hell
05:20and the externalizing of heaven and hell.
05:22This concept also is very flawed.
05:25And some people get it.
05:26They say, yes, we are going to feel a little bit of the internal hell and internal heaven
05:32so that we are prepared for the external heaven and hell.
05:35They always give excuses and they have their reasoning.
05:40This is not even philosophy.
05:43This is not even a concept.
05:47This is simply theology.
05:50And this theology is present in every single major religion of the world.
05:54Every single.
05:57Even the message of the Buddha has not really been understood by most of the Buddhists.
06:03If you meet Buddhists, you will be surprised by how many of them still do believe,
06:12especially in India, believe in personal rebirth.
06:16Whereas the Buddha makes it clear that there is nobody here to take rebirth.
06:23So all this is not even philosophy. This is just theology.
06:26And to debunk this theology, you don't need an alternate belief system.
06:33All you need is science.
06:36For somebody to go to heaven or hell, there must be somebody inside you.
06:43There has to be somebody.
06:46The question that Vedanta would ask is, for whom?
06:49For whom is heaven or for whom is hell?
06:52And science today is in a position to answer that.
06:55There is actually nobody inside your body.
06:58There is just the body.
07:01The consciousness that you identify with is actually a product of the body.
07:08It arises with the body and it's gone with the body.
07:11There is nothing that survives the body.
07:14So for whom is heaven and for whom is hell?
07:17That's true.
07:20It's just a belief system and it's an extremely harmful belief system.
07:25I could have said it's just vapid but it's actually venomous.
07:33It took me so many years to really unlearn all of that.
07:37Being in the journey of being a student of religion from a very very young age,
07:43it takes you lots and lots of unlearning, relearning to really change this whole concept.
07:50You know what it does?
07:52It takes you away from the direct realities and facts of life as it is.
07:59Because you are all the time just dreaming of the afterlife.
08:03You say this duniya, this means nothing.
08:06You are just a traveler, you have checked in, you will check out and this is just a sarai.
08:12It means nothing.
08:15To some extent that reduces your attachment with the worldly goodies.
08:21So as you said, ostensibly there are some benefits that accrue from this line of thinking.
08:27But all in all, it's a very loss making proposition.
08:32Simply because it stops you from attending to the present reality.
08:37You just don't see things as they are.
08:40You are enclosed in your belief and that just makes everything very nebulous.
08:50You are just shuffling between these few options that you have. That's it.
08:54You are not allowed to see beyond that.
08:57You cannot see beyond that and you cannot see even that which is in front of you.
09:02Beyondness comes much later.
09:05I will not be able to see, as Krishnamurti says, ever seen a tree?
09:12I will never be able to see the real face of my spouse, my kid, my neighbor.
09:20To me, everything is about that.
09:24That which will come after death.
09:27That also makes some people get in a terrible hurry to reach death.
09:35Because they say, you know, real life begins only after death.
09:39So let me dispose of this life as soon as possible.
09:44In fact, that is another reason that is extended in favor of killings.
09:52They say, you know, if this fellow is allowed to live any longer,
09:58then he will only accumulate actions that will further ruin his afterlife.
10:04So by killing him as soon as possible, we have actually redeemed his afterlife.
10:10Fantastic argument.
10:16And then you cannot see the face of the one you have killed.
10:19You don't see his tears, his blood, his agony.
10:23Instead, you console yourself. Not just console yourself.
10:26You actually glorify yourself by saying, I am his savior.
10:36I have rescued him.
10:40Now he will get a better afterlife. Had he continued to live, he would have accumulated sins.
10:44I have prevented him from accumulating sins.
10:47And you cannot see that the fellow is withering in pain.
10:51You cannot see that he is gasping for breath.
10:54You cannot see that you have shot him and he still wanted to live.
10:58You cannot see that all his potential has gone wasted.
11:02All that cannot be seen because your eyes are covered with belief.
11:07Yeah, we see all this every time.
11:10And today's time we are seeing it mostly in the wars that are happening.
11:14It's all aimed in securing some space in the afterlife
11:19when you have not been able to secure today in the present.
11:22And when we talk of war, usually in wars we shoot at strangers.
11:29But you cannot even know the fact of how your wife is.
11:39Your very relationship with your spouse is through a belief system.
11:45And that's causing you to heap agonies after agonies on her.
11:51And you are wrapping her up in all kinds of rituals and clothing that makes no sense.
12:04You don't want her to get educated.
12:07And we are talking about your son, your daughter.
12:10We are talking about your wife.
12:12And you cannot see that you are pushing them deeper into misery.
12:16And you still think that you are a virtuous person
12:19because you are acting as per a belief system.
12:22It blinds you to the immediate direct reality.
12:27Yeah, absolutely true.
12:30The blinding part is I have experienced myself so I know that
12:35you cannot really see.
12:37Even if the truth comes to you, you will not be able to see it.
12:40And actually the Quran warns you about this.
12:44It's very interesting because my learning of Quran has become better
12:47after I joined your Vedanta sessions.
12:49Because now I can interpret the Quran in a much more internalized manner
12:55rather than putting all the metaphors outside.
12:59So in the Quran Allah says that
13:05means they will become deaf and blind to the signs of God.
13:13And these signs have been coming all the time to you.
13:16But we think about the very different signs that we have made them as our belief.
13:21Imaginary signs.
13:23Exactly.
13:24Imaginary signs.
13:25To us, these are not signs at all.
13:28Look at the face of the crying child.
13:32How is that not a very direct and potent and telling and living sign?
13:40No, that cannot be seen.
13:42Because that's the face probably of a Muslim or a Jew.
13:46So I cannot see.
13:48My belief does not allow me to see anything.
13:55Hopefully we all can rise and bring the truth forward
14:00one day at a time, one moment at a time.
14:03We are doing our best that we can.
14:07But it's really a sad situation when you see around people.
14:11How can we, like really the pace that we are going.
14:14I know we are leading somewhere, but still I feel there is so much only that we can do.
14:22One tries with intent and with the maximum application of intelligence.
14:29And beyond that, as Lao Tzu was saying yesterday,
14:34beyond that is not your province to venture.
14:39If you want too much from your actions, then the actions themselves will get compromised.
14:49Yeah, and you'll get trapped in those actions.
14:53Yes.
14:54So one's job is to do as much as possible, as vigorously, as lovingly.
15:01And then you leave it at that.
15:05Let the results come as they would.
15:10Yeah, beautiful.
15:12Thank you so much, Jai Reddy.
15:15You're welcome.