Video Information: NIT-Trichy, 06.04.2024, Greater Noida
Context:
~ Why an ITian loses focus—and what's the purpose of life?
~ Why is there so much suffering in life?
~ Do we suffer by our own choice?
~ How to avoid pain and suffering?
~ How to become mentally and emotionally stronger?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#acharyaprashant #NIT-Trichy #suffering
Context:
~ Why an ITian loses focus—and what's the purpose of life?
~ Why is there so much suffering in life?
~ Do we suffer by our own choice?
~ How to avoid pain and suffering?
~ How to become mentally and emotionally stronger?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#acharyaprashant #NIT-Trichy #suffering
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
00:30Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
01:01Good evening to everyone present in the session.
01:10I am Dr. Madhukrishna Kedarshani, Faculty Advisor of Omega Science and Spirituality Club of NIT Tiruchirappalli,
01:17share my immense pleasure to provide an introduction for today's event.
01:22Today we are truly blessed to have with us Acharya Prasann,
01:26who has graciously agreed for an interaction with NIT Tiruchirappalli students and faculty.
01:32He has been kind enough to accept our invitation for the second time.
01:36We thank him for that. Thank you sir.
01:39Acharya Prasann is a powerful voice of socio-spiritual awakening in today's world.
01:46He is an acclaimed Vedanta teacher and author of over 150 books,
01:51including multiple national bestselling titles like Karma and Vedanta.
01:56An alumnus of IIT Delhi, I am Ahmedabad and a former civil services officer.
02:02He is an exponent of pure Vedantic wisdom, a vocal warrior against superstition and inner weaknesses,
02:10a promulgator of pure spiritual veganism, a proponent of women's liberation,
02:17and an expander of essential human freedom.
02:20With over 55 million followers across social media, Acharya Prasann is by far the highest followed wisdom teacher in the world.
02:30I now pass on the session to members of Prasann Aditya Foundation and NIT Tiruchi to take the interaction forward.
02:38Over to you.
02:40Thank you for the introduction.
02:46So with your permission, we may start with the student questions.
02:50Sure.
02:51The question for today is from Nitesh.
02:55Nitesh, you may go ahead and ask your question.
02:58Pranam Acharya ji.
03:01Welcome Nitesh.
03:04So Acharya ji, I am Nitesh Kumar from final year chemical department and I have been interacting last time also with you.
03:15So my question this time is how to become mentally and emotionally stronger in college life
03:20and how to protect myself from bad content and how to know it's actually bad for me.
03:27Strength is not something that you have to actively cultivate.
03:35Your question is positing, assuming something.
03:45You are assuming that weakness is innate and strength has to be imported or cultivated or learnt.
04:04You don't have to cultivate strength.
04:12You have to decultivate weakness.
04:16You don't have to learn strength.
04:20You have to unlearn weakness.
04:26Please remember, strength is nature itself.
04:31Your very Swabhav.
04:34The purity of your being itself is strength.
04:41And that strength is not a showy thing.
04:48That strength is not a comparative thing.
04:54That strength is not about the capacity that you have to fulfill your desires.
05:07That strength is a particular ease.
05:15That strength is something that as we said is not showy.
05:20It will not be visible until and unless a challenge throws itself upon you.
05:31It is something that you carry smoothly within yourself.
05:38It remains there but manifests only when there is a need or a challenge.
05:49It sits lightly within.
05:52All that is hunky-dory.
05:56The problem is that this natural, smooth, easy strength within us is shrouded by,
06:07covered by a lot of what we have learnt or imbibed or imported from here and there.
06:20So kindly adjust your model.
06:24Rather append it.
06:28The model that you have says you are weak and you have to become strong.
06:35That's the model most of us carry.
06:38I am weak. I must become strong.
06:41Is that not often the desire expresses itself?
06:45I am weak. I must.
06:47The first thing is to correct the fundamentals.
06:51You are strong and for some very special reason you have covered yourself with weakness.
07:04So uncover yourself. Unlearn weakness.
07:13Append the model.
07:14You are strong already. You don't have to learn strength from anywhere.
07:21First thing, I am already strong.
07:24And then the mysterious question is from where did weakness come?
07:30And that's the question to go into.
07:33If I am already strong, from where did this mirage called weakness become so big upon me?
07:43How did this become identical to me?
07:47How did that happen? That's the question you must meditate upon.
07:53And how to meditate upon it?
07:54Not by excusing yourself from the world and sitting in some corner and thinking about it.
08:01By seeing how weakness operates in your day to day matters.
08:09In the world.
08:13Because it is in your day to day existence and it is from the world that one imports weakness.
08:23So therefore one has to catch exactly when weakness is about to percolate us.
08:29Seep into our existence.
08:32That's the point to catch yourself.
08:34No entry for you ma'am or sir, whatever.
08:39No entry for you.
08:43Right to admission?
08:46Reserved.
08:48I don't allow free access to my interiors.
08:57This is not some public space.
09:01Trespassers shall be prosecuted.
09:06It is the trespassers who bring something with them.
09:12And leave it behind as garbage within you.
09:15And that is weakness.
09:17That brings us to an interesting definition of weakness.
09:19Whatsoever is not yours is weakness.
09:26Whatsoever has been brought to you by random forces of society, time, your biochemical physicality,
09:42all that is weakness.
09:48Arrest that before it strikes you.
09:57See how they make you believe in their lies.
10:04Don't be so gullible.
10:06And you are mastering in chemical engineering.
10:12It should be easier for you to see how they turn your entire existence into chemistry.
10:23They know what you are reactive towards.
10:26And that particular chemical reagent is selectively brought to you so that you can react as per their convenience, their interests and become a slave.
10:43Because they don't have any individuality, any freedom of their own.
10:49So they despise those who are free or who are even relatively freer.
11:01Are you getting it?
11:03You cannot live without such and such thing.
11:07Don't you see weakness is being introduced into yourself?
11:11This is weakness.
11:13And you are made to learn this.
11:15I am saying unlearn.
11:19You are successful only if you have these particular things in your life.
11:26Nobody will say this is a statement of weakness.
11:29But it is.
11:31And you are made to buy into all this.
11:35And you do.
11:39Because you don't examine what is entering you.
11:43Especially if those who are bringing these things to you happen to be your so-called well-wishers, friends, family or knowledgeable people.
11:54Then you think if something is coming from them, it surely is for your good.
11:59Not necessarily.
12:01More often than not, things that come to you from all these easy and all pervasive sources around you are toxic.
12:15Goodness in a human being is not something very readily found, sadly.
12:32It's a rarity.
12:34Therefore, if you want to use someone for the purpose of learning, then you have to be very careful.
12:51You cannot just randomly listen to anybody and think that his words or influence would be a source of strength to you.
13:00That fellow will say something and whatever he says may not even include the words strength and weakness.
13:06And yet you will find that if the fellow is not coming from a point of inner realization, his influence upon you is toxic and debilitating.
13:19Are you getting it?
13:21Let's take the example, basic example, because again, chemistry.
13:26Let's take the basic example of sugar.
13:30Let's say you are a diabetic.
13:38First of all, how did you turn diabetic?
13:43Consuming more amount of sugars and not appropriate diet.
13:50Diabetes is not about consuming more amount of sugar.
13:53Diabetes is about your pancreas losing the ability to secrete insulin.
14:01Now insulin is supposed to be something within you, right?
14:05You do not say, sir, please tell me how do I secrete or learn insulin?
14:10You don't have to learn it. It is already there within you.
14:14You don't have to learn it. It's there.
14:17But then you have taken a lot of random stuff from outside and whatsoever you have taken has been harming your inner system, your pancreatic system since long.
14:30And then your system gets so badly hurt that slowly the secretion of insulin stops altogether.
14:40Right?
14:42Are you getting it?
14:44Does that not happen?
14:46Now, have you lacked in something or have you had an excess of something?
14:53Have you lacked in insulin or have you had an excess of toxicity?
14:59Excess of toxicity.
15:01Nobody lacks in strength. We have had an excess of debilitating influences.
15:07You understand debilitation?
15:09Weakening of something, turning something weak.
15:11Nobody lacks strength.
15:14It's just that we consume so much of weakness from outside that the inner strength is covered, obfuscated and therefore lost to us.
15:31Right?
15:33Now that your pancreas have become dysfunctional, what do you do?
15:37You look at the world outside and you can still continue to consume something random.
15:42What will that do to your body?
15:45Deteriorate it even further.
15:51You can lay your hands on something random that is available as edible stuff and there's a 99% probability it will only worsen your condition.
16:02Right?
16:03But there does exist something outside of you that will improve your condition.
16:09What's that called?
16:11That's called medicine.
16:14Or that could be a dose of external insulin.
16:20But what is the probability that just randomly you will consume external insulin?
16:27Not even 1%. Right?
16:30You consume anything that is either sugar or it will turn into sugar in your body.
16:37You say, you know, I don't like sugary stuff.
16:41What do you like? I like things rather salty.
16:44So you go and have a pizza.
16:46The pizza turns into sugar within the body.
16:49You think it's sugar?
16:51No.
16:52You go and have a pizza.
16:54The pizza turns into sugar within the body.
16:57You think the pizza is not sugary? It is.
17:00Goes in and turns into sugar.
17:04You take anything, you are de facto taking in sugar.
17:11What is the probability that you will take in insulin?
17:15Very little.
17:17But is insulin not available at all in the universe?
17:21It is. But it's rare.
17:24You'll have to be extremely selective, extremely choosy.
17:28And that's what I said about the learned man.
17:32He is available but is rare.
17:35Others are either directly toxic like sugar or indirectly toxic like pizza.
17:40So the first thing is that you should not let it come to the stage where your inner strength is lost to you.
17:56But if unfortunately you have come to that point,
18:00then you have to look at the world very selectively.
18:05Which means you have to do two things.
18:07One, you have to stop unlimited access to those who have been entering you so far.
18:18They are the ones who get in and become your weakness.
18:25And secondly, because it may not suffice to just stop the intake of sugar.
18:33Anybody who is diabetic or knows somebody diabetic,
18:39till some point it is sufficient that you cut down on your sugar.
18:44Beyond that it does not suffice.
18:46After that you have to take in insulin or some other medicine.
18:50So the first thing obviously is neti neti,
18:54which is that you must stop the toxicity from entering you.
18:59But that may not suffice.
19:00And then you have to, with dedication, search for sources that get inside you
19:10and cut down the pre-existing, pre-accumulated sugar.
19:15Sugar which is, in our example, sugar stands for weakness.
19:21So one, stop the intake of what has been going in actively.
19:27Secondly, if that does not suffice,
19:31then with great care and great discretion,
19:35look for something that is external but will go inside to remove the external.
19:43That would have given you a distinction between external and external stuff.
19:50There is an external stuff that goes in and retains its external identity.
19:58That's a toxin.
20:00And there is external stuff that goes in and removes all that
20:05which has already accumulated as external.
20:09Why do we want to remove the external stuff?
20:11Because the internal is strength.
20:15The external is weakness.
20:21It does not occur to us that way.
20:25We are not weak. We have been made to feel weak.
20:31Every bit of weakness that you feel or identify with is not yours at all.
20:40Those who have known,
20:43in a poetic way they have exclaimed,
20:45in a poetic way they have exclaimed,
20:48you are strength as a person.
20:52You are power personified.
20:55That's not me.
20:57That's coming from people who invested themselves all their life
21:02into investigation of existence.
21:06And they started with a disgust for weakness.
21:09They said, what is this weakness that we find so pervasive all around us?
21:15Right?
21:19And to their delight,
21:21when they went very deeply into weakness,
21:24they discovered strength.
21:30They said, peel the layers of weakness off.
21:35And at the core, we are all strong beyond our imagination.
21:42Your fears are all imaginary.
21:46Your limits are self-made.
21:52All that you find small or brittle or limited or fragile about you
22:02is just a concept,
22:05not reality.
22:06Can you find out where did you learn it from?
22:12That will do two things to you.
22:14One, you will know it is not innate.
22:17Innate means internal, original.
22:21It is not original from within you.
22:26It came from somewhere.
22:29Once you go into your weakness,
22:32you discover it came from within you.
22:35You discover it came from somewhere.
22:38So first thing it tells you is, it is not mine, not innate.
22:41Second thing, you learn from where it came.
22:43So you can block the way now.
22:46The moment you learn where that weakness came into you from,
22:51you can block the route.
22:54It will no more enter you from there.
22:57Yes, the doors that you have already taken in
23:01will and does take some time to be cleared away.
23:06But at least the accumulation, the aggravation will stop.
23:14Are you getting it?
23:16Don't look for strength.
23:18Strength is not something so small that our little hands will look for it
23:22and clutch it and intake it.
23:24You cannot take strength in,
23:30but you can throw weakness out.
23:35Throw weakness out.
23:37Strength is not needed.
23:39You already have ample of it.
23:42Yes, sir.
23:44You already are strong.
23:47And the proof of that is when you listen to this,
23:51when you listen to this,
23:55there is something in you that says,
23:58I don't feel like believing this,
24:02because the moment you accept this,
24:07you bring a lot of responsibility upon yourself.
24:12The moment you accept that you are actually very strong,
24:16you find a lot of responsibility coming away.
24:18Who gives responsibilities to a weakling?
24:22If you are strong, what do you find coming your way?
24:26Loads and loads of responsibility.
24:29So you don't want to accept that you are strong,
24:32but still something that is beautiful,
24:36original and already strong within you,
24:39silently murmurs,
24:41Yes, this is not wrong.
24:44This cannot be wrong.
24:46I am strong.
24:49Discard people or situations or sources
24:55who, as tricksters,
25:03inject weakness into you.
25:07Often weakness is injected into you in the name of care or love.
25:14Don't let that happen.
25:18I will not let you go out.
25:21It's already 8 pm, you know.
25:24Get of the night.
25:26The roads are infested with wolves and jackals.
25:29I will not let you go out. I love you so much.
25:32Kick this person the hardest way at his softest place.
25:40He is not a well-wisher, I tell you.
25:43Not a well-wisher.
25:45He is loading you with a sense of weakness.
25:51Care is an entirely different thing.
25:58Care looks at facts.
26:03Precaution is one thing.
26:05Fear is a totally different thing.
26:08Precaution is based on facts.
26:11And fear is based on nothing.
26:14Fear is based just on an imaginary sense of an afraid self.
26:25To wear slippers while walking on a road might be precautionary.
26:30But to wear gumboots?
26:34I mean, there is a problem somewhere.
26:42Are you getting it?
26:44You are not worth-loving if you don't get a fat enough package.
26:48You are in your fourth year, right?
26:50Yes, sir.
26:54Learn to raise not your voice but your legs
26:59so that you can kick people hard.
27:03That must be the environment in the campus these days, no?
27:09Your worth is measured on the size of your package.
27:15Or the university you get a call from.
27:23All this is fear.
27:28We don't use the word fear for all these things.
27:32But this is fear.
27:34And fear is weakness.
27:38You have a friend.
27:39You have a friend.
27:43And he starts overflowing with joy.
27:47The moment he finds that you got a package of whatever.
27:51It's a package considered fat enough.
27:56And he goes bonkers.
27:58You'll say, you know, this is what a great friend is like.
28:02See how he is celebrating my success.
28:05I got a great job.
28:06And great means lots of money.
28:09I got a great job.
28:12And see how celebratory he is.
28:15This man is injecting weakness in you.
28:18What he is telling is that I am celebrating you because you have a job.
28:24And a job is an external thing.
28:25Tomorrow you might not have that job.
28:29And then you will feel small and weak.
28:35Anybody who celebrates you or loves you conditionally
28:42is actually celebrating and loving the conditions, not you.
28:48And conditions as we know are all fickle.
28:52Bubbles there disappear in no time.
28:57And then you will be very very anxious about protecting those bubbles.
29:02And that's weakness.
29:05Think of a person whose self-worth is contained in a bubble.
29:10How anxiously he would be living.
29:15Think of something as weak as a bubble.
29:17If your self-worth is tied to a bubble, can you ever feel strong?
29:26But if there is someone who is envious of your fat package,
29:30you will immediately declare, ah, an enemy there.
29:34Enemy spotted there.
29:36The enemy is not only the one who detests your success.
29:42Your enemy is also the one who celebrates your success.
29:45Because he is celebrating your success, not you.
29:49His success is conditional.
29:51Now this would sound counterintuitive.
29:53Let this sink in. Take time.
29:58The fellow is saying, you were not worth celebrating had you not had this job.
30:05Somebody who is celebrating your beauty, your physicality or whatever,
30:15he would not celebrate you if you lose your beauty or your manliness or whatever.
30:23The result, you will be turned anxious about preserving something
30:29that by definition cannot be preserved for long.
30:34Who can be beautiful for long?
30:36By beautiful I mean attractive in a physical way.
30:39In the sense we are using here.
30:43But the fellow comes and says, ah, so beautiful.
30:46And you feel delighted. It's not a thing of delight.
30:49It's a thing of concern.
30:52Tomorrow I will not be equally beautiful.
30:57By way of my face, by way of the body.
31:00And then those same eyes will not look at me or turn elsewhere.
31:06And then I will be depressed. This is weakness.
31:10Weakness is always a foreign element, an import.
31:15Something that comes to you via others.
31:19And it rarely comes to you as weakness itself.
31:24It comes to you as something worth celebrating.
31:26Be very cautious of your celebrations.
31:29Be very careful about your happiness.
31:32What you celebrate as happiness is what you will later repent as misfortune.
31:46It is in your moments of happiness that you throw the door open to all kinds of pathogens.
31:56Does that not happen?
31:59When there is a function in the house, the main door remains open.
32:08Now anybody can enter.
32:10You don't even want to keep a watch.
32:19And also in moments of deep grief, the main door is kept open.
32:25Some really sad thing has happened in the house.
32:27The door remains open.
32:29So that people can come in and express condolences.
32:37It is in these moments of emotional vulnerability that the risk is amplified.
32:50Some nonsense will enter you.
32:54In some name, obviously nonsense never declares itself to be nonsense.
33:01It will take some sweet name to gain access.
33:14Are you getting it?
33:16Yes sir.
33:25Dependency.
33:28Attachment.
33:32Are they not weakness?
33:37See what keeps a person from doing the right thing in life.
33:41And you will find these things.
33:44He has dependence or he is a dependent.
33:48Either he has dependence or he himself is dependent.
33:52Or he is attached to something.
33:55There is so much of open evil all around us.
33:59Is there not?
34:01And yet you find so few people showing up to take a stand.
34:07Why? Because they are afraid.
34:09Why? Because they either have dependence or they are dependent.
34:16Or because they are attached.
34:17They are attached.
34:19If I show up, some harm may come to those I am attached to.
34:27Or if I display courage and resist the evil,
34:35then my wealth and privileges might be compromised.
34:41Privilege never declared itself to be a weakness.
34:49Did it?
34:51Comforts never entered your life openly admitting that we will become your weakness.
35:00Did they?
35:02But see, in the moments when you will need to summon strength,
35:08you will find all these things,
35:12comforts, attachments, dependencies,
35:16they have blocked your way.
35:21You will be standing aghast.
35:24I thought I was strong.
35:27But this moment when the strength needs to roar aloud,
35:34it's been muffled.
35:38The roar has been suffocated
35:44by the things that I made so dear to myself.
36:02If a person is teaching new patterns to you,
36:07the person is not worth listening to.
36:10Whereas if the person is breaking your patterns,
36:14then the person is worth listening to.
36:16Two people come to you.
36:18Both admonish you.
36:20One says you need to be admonished because you do not speak in a particular way,
36:26because you do not dress up in a particular way,
36:29because you don't know how to use the cutlery properly.
36:33The other one scolds you and says,
36:37in the way you dress up and in the way you speak, I smell fear.
36:42The first one must not be listened to.
36:45What he is saying is, if you learn a particular way of dressing and eating,
36:50then I will respect you.
36:53No.
36:55The way of dressing and eating that he is trying to teach you
36:58is just another pattern. Right?
37:01You might be coming from a rural area
37:05and you have never used a knife or a fork or probably even a spoon.
37:09Happens.
37:11There is nothing insulting about it.
37:16We have been using our hands to eat
37:20and I don't think there is anything particularly disgusting about it.
37:23What's so wrong with our hands?
37:26And someone comes and says, you know,
37:28even rice you have to take with a fork.
37:38Problem. There is a problem.
37:43Your psyche has just been loaded with a complex.
37:47Its simplicity has been taken away.
37:52Even while eating, now you will have a complex.
37:56While eating, now you will have to be unduly careful of something very valueless.
38:06Do not listen.
38:08This person is not teaching you.
38:10He is just loading you with a particular concept of his choice.
38:16Mankind has not always eaten in one particular great final and appropriate way.
38:25Different cultures, different times, different ways of eating.
38:30You sit on the floor and eat.
38:32There are places where you stand and eat.
38:35Even tables and chairs have varied.
38:39Someone says, no, no, no, unless you do all these things,
38:43your life is not worth living.
38:45Do not listen to this person.
38:47And there is another one who is coming to scold you and he says,
38:50it's alright the accent that you carry.
38:52The problem is not your accent.
38:54The problem is the fear in your words.
38:57This person can be listened to.
39:00One person scolds you on your accent.
39:04The other one says, the accent is alright.
39:07We are all entitled to our particular nativity.
39:12But what I hear is your fear and that fear is something I don't like in you.
39:23Even your accent probably comes from your fear.
39:27And that's why I don't like your accent.
39:31Now in this situation, both the fellows who have come to scold you or teach you or whatever
39:39are finding fault with your accent.
39:44But the reasons are very different.
39:46This one is saying, you have a thick Indian accent.
39:49You must anglicize it.
39:53I like the Irish one.
39:56Now this is one thing to say.
39:58The other one says, you are wearing this accent only because you are afraid
40:05and therefore I don't like your accent.
40:07Now this is a totally different approach. Is it not?
40:10The first approach will instill fear in you.
40:16The second approach makes you fearless.
40:19The second approach says, I understand that one has to be careful with accent
40:26to the point that you are legible to the other.
40:33If I speak in an accent that you cannot even comprehend,
40:38then there is a problem with communication.
40:40So to that extent I will take care of my accent.
40:42But beyond that it's my content that matters, not my accent.
40:48Now this is another approach altogether.
40:55You have to be very careful of what you are lending your ears to.
41:03See whether that thing is more of fear or freedom from fear.
41:10More often than not it will be more of fear.
41:28Fear seeps in, in a moment to moment way.
41:32Every particular interaction.
41:35Every particular interaction.
41:38And over time it becomes internal.
41:42Rest assured it can never become fully internal.
41:46Fully internal is strength itself.
42:00What is the way to awaken your strength?
42:02You cannot awaken your strength.
42:05Just challenge your fears.
42:07Ask them to show up.
42:09Let me just check how real you are.
42:13Come, let's play.
42:17Challenging your fears is the only way to awaken your strength.
42:26Our build is such that we need a bit of competition.
42:33Alright, run from here till the end of the road.
42:38Let's say that's some 300 meters.
42:41Just run. No, don't start running.
42:47And we'll keep the time.
42:50You took some time.
42:56300 meters you ran.
42:58Let's say you took some 60 seconds, 1 minute.
43:02Most likely the time you will take.
43:04More than that maybe. 80 seconds, 100 seconds.
43:09Next we say fine.
43:12Take this timer, wear it and run.
43:16For sure the time will reduce.
43:19If you took 80 seconds, now you will take 65 or 70.
43:25And then I say here.
43:27You have a competitor.
43:29The two of you will run. Let's see who wins.
43:32Now the time will reduce by another 5 seconds.
43:36That's the way to awaken your potential.
43:40Have a challenger.
43:45Run without keeping time, you will take a certain time.
43:49Run with a timer, the time will reduce.
43:52Run with a challenger, the time will be reduced even further.
43:56Provided the challenger is capable enough.
43:59If you run with a kid, the example won't hold good.
44:07Challenge your fears.
44:12Even if your challenger beats you, you will find your time has improved.
44:18It's alright to be beaten by your fears,
44:21than to never challenge them at all.
44:23Even if you get beaten by your fears, your timing will improve.
44:33That's what is called as daring.
44:36Daring.
44:38Come on.
44:40And when you do this kind of a heroic thing,
44:44then something will tremble within. Let it tremble.
44:48It's like inviting an established boxer.
44:51You know what's going to happen next.
44:54Still invite him. Come. Let's see.
45:02You will most probably get beaten.
45:06But you will improve.
45:07You will most probably get beaten.
45:11But you will improve.
45:17Remember, fears are external, strength is internal.
45:20The internal will always be more powerful than the external because the internal is internal.
45:30Fears didn't accumulate in a day.
45:33So you can't clean them up in a day.
45:39Start today.
45:42See what you are afraid of.
45:44Go and discover its source.
45:46The moment you will see or get a glimpse of the source those fears came to you from,
45:55you will feel like challenging them.
45:57Because some kind of repugnance will arise.
45:59Some kind of repugnance will arise.
46:01It's an external thing.
46:03How did it colonize me?
46:06It's an external thing.
46:08You will feel like challenging it.
46:10And when you challenge your fears, we said you awaken your strength.
46:20Observation, seeing, paying attention to the small things of life.
46:26How a shopkeeper induces greed in you.
46:29See that.
46:32How everything is a big shop.
46:36See how all the great events exist for the sake of advertisements.
46:45Where does a newspaper, for example, make its money from?
46:50Not from the rupees 5 or 10 that you spend on a copy of it.
46:59Think of the amount of paper the newspaper brings to you.
47:04Rupees 5 is not sufficient even to cover the paper.
47:09So how is the newspaper so inexpensive?
47:12Because they are making the bulk of their money from advertisement.
47:19And if the ad is what the newspaper exists for,
47:26then what do the news exist for?
47:30If the newspaper is not to bring you news but ads,
47:37please understand, somebody is publishing the newspaper.
47:40He is making his money from ads.
47:42So the newspaper is actually to bring you ads, not news.
47:47So the ads are important, the news are not.
47:50Hence the news will be selected in a way that facilitates the ads.
47:56Now ads are about consuming something, all ads are about that.
48:01So the news will be put in a way, chosen in a way and presented in a way
48:06that turns you into more of a consumer.
48:11For example, if there is a big advertisement of a security company,
48:17half a page,
48:18then the upper half of the page must preferably have news that make you feel insecure.
48:30So the top half makes you feel insecure, that's news.
48:34The bottom half has an ad of a security company.
48:38That goes well, right?
48:40That's how weakness is introduced into you and you must see that very carefully.
48:45When you read a newspaper, don't just read the newspaper.
48:48Look at the whole thing.
48:50How is it laid out? What's happening?
48:52Where is it making money from?
48:54That's why education is so important.
48:56That's why knowing a bit of economics is so important.
48:58If everybody is operating for the sake of profits, you must know the money trail.
49:02You must know where the whole thing is going from.
49:05The money comes from here, then goes to that person.
49:07That person has this much of a cut in it.
49:09Okay, that's the way the whole system is operating.
49:12And then you will not allow them to colonize you.
49:17For example, where is the news channel making its money from?
49:24Where is the news channel making money from?
49:26Again, ads.
49:28What percentage of the ads are government spends?
49:33A large percentage?
49:35For some channels, more than 50%.
49:38So if the news channel is actually making its money from the government,
49:44what will it do?
49:46What will be the content of the news?
49:51And if the government ensures its own sustenance by making you feel insecure,
49:59what will be the content of the TV news?
50:01That makes you feel insecure.
50:04Some imaginary enemy is closing in upon you.
50:07You are besieged.
50:09Somebody has to be an enemy.
50:12Somebody has to be an enemy.
50:16That will be the content of the news.
50:18Pure economics, nothing else.
50:24They ensure their sustenance by making you feel weak.
50:28But you don't see that.
50:30Instead you say, how do I feel strong?
50:32But you are strong.
50:34Their own dirty self interests are making you unnecessarily feel weak.
50:41You are not weak.
50:47You can extend the list of examples.
50:50I will stop here because I can continue with the list unendingly.
50:57Let's move to the next question now.
51:00Thank you so much, Ashant.
51:12Thank you so much, Ashant.