Why Misinterpretations of the Gita Still Influence Millions? || Acharya Prashant (2024)
Video Information: 12.10.2024, Vedanta: Basics to Classics, Greater Noida
📋 Video Chapters:
0:00 - Introduction and Premise
0:34 - Impact of Desires on Rationality
2:40 - The Dice Analogy
8:20 - How Astrologers Exploit People's Ignorance
Description:
Acharya Prashant highlights the disconnect between the true teachings of the Gita and popular interpretations. He explains how a mind filled with desires becomes irrational, leading people to misinterpret reality and attribute fulfilled wishes to divine intervention. Using the analogy of rolling dice, he shows how repeated attempts increase success probability, which is falsely seen as divine blessings.
Unfulfilled desires are often blamed on negative karma, reinforcing ignorance and self-deception. Critiquing the astrology industry, he reveals how vague predictions gain credibility when they occasionally come true. He concludes with a simple algebraic trick, illustrating how ignorance can make people vulnerable to deception.
🎧 Listen to Acharya Prashant on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/2QmVEAAnsNE7Xs0MW0Li8Y?si=09fbcbc7c99c469b
Video Information: 12.10.2024, Vedanta: Basics to Classics, Greater Noida
📋 Video Chapters:
0:00 - Introduction and Premise
0:34 - Impact of Desires on Rationality
2:40 - The Dice Analogy
8:20 - How Astrologers Exploit People's Ignorance
Description:
Acharya Prashant highlights the disconnect between the true teachings of the Gita and popular interpretations. He explains how a mind filled with desires becomes irrational, leading people to misinterpret reality and attribute fulfilled wishes to divine intervention. Using the analogy of rolling dice, he shows how repeated attempts increase success probability, which is falsely seen as divine blessings.
Unfulfilled desires are often blamed on negative karma, reinforcing ignorance and self-deception. Critiquing the astrology industry, he reveals how vague predictions gain credibility when they occasionally come true. He concludes with a simple algebraic trick, illustrating how ignorance can make people vulnerable to deception.
🎧 Listen to Acharya Prashant on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/2QmVEAAnsNE7Xs0MW0Li8Y?si=09fbcbc7c99c469b
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Namaste Acharya ji. The actual verses of the Gita by Shri Krishna seem totally opposite
00:09of what we interpret them to be today. But how it is possible that still many people
00:16get their wishes fulfilled and then there are many places and deities who are popular
00:22today just because people's desire get fulfilled by visiting them. Why is the wrong interpretation
00:27of Gita still working for people and even getting popular with the so-called intellectuals?
00:35He says here, a mind full of desires becomes insane. So you just forget the basics of logical
00:55and critical thinking. You start losing sense of the entire field of probability. What is
01:16stochastic starts appearing divine to you. You know of the one dozen kind of biases in
01:30the field of psychology, don't you? A mind full of desires gets blind. It comes supremely
01:45stupid conclusions and it refuses to see or acknowledge facts that disrupt or disprove
02:00its biases. Any desire stands some chance of fulfillment, does it not? It's just that
02:11the fulfillment of the desire stands zero chance of your fulfillment. But there is definitely
02:20some chance that desire can get fulfilled. And if you are stupid enough and laborious
02:32enough, the chance of desire fulfillment can also multiply. So there is a 20% chance of some
02:49desire getting fulfilled. You visit a divine place 50 times. Obviously, the probability is nearly 100%
03:12that your desire will get fulfilled. You know of the common kind of dice, right? What is the
03:21probability of getting a six? One by six. You desperately want a six. Six can mean something
03:34to you. Lot of money or sex. Six. Or a son or whatever is your desire. Now there is anyway a one by six
03:52probability of getting a six. Now you visit a temple once and then twice and thrice and then
04:0250 times you visit. Which basically means that you are tossing the dice 50 times. Now is it
04:11possible that you will never get a six? If you toss the dice 50 times, is it going to happen that you will
04:24never get a six? And when you get a six, you will attribute it to divine interference. You will say
04:36your favorite deity has been so benevolent. You have been blessed with both sex and son. Sometimes
04:47the deity is bypassed. And the priests are so benevolent that they bless you with a son even
04:54without sex. And then you are so amazed, you praise your great luck no end. See, I didn't even have
05:06sex. And still look at the benevolence of the priest. Here is the son. This is just basic probability.
05:19Are you getting it? And how do biases operate? Every time your desires do not get fulfilled,
05:36even after trying with the priests and the deities 100 times, you have the concept of karma to fall
05:49back upon. You will say, you know, how can my desire get fulfilled? I am such a sinner. It is not that
06:00the deity is not blessing me. The deity is indeed blessing me. But those blessings are getting
06:12neutralized by what is accumulated in my karmic account. So I have minus 20,000 in my karmic
06:25account. I have been such a sinner. The priest told me. And he said, you stay outside of your house.
06:33You are such a sinner. So I have minus 20,000 of negative karma in my account. I don't know what
06:51kind of pervert I was in my last birth. So when I go to the temple, I get blessed with plus 500 each time.
07:04But that plus 500 is too little to offset minus 20,000. And therefore, it is not as if my beliefs are false.
07:17It's just that I have been a special kind of pervert. So that's how the system of ignorance and biases operates.
07:37If you get a favorable result, you attribute it to your favorite cause.
07:46If you do not get a favorable result, then you say, you know, maybe there is some good in it for me.
07:56So if my wish has not been granted, maybe there is a greater good in it for me.
08:06The whole maze of beliefs has been built just to keep you trapped inside.
08:16Don't you see how this field of astrology works?
08:31I mean, you can be a great astrologer.
08:34You can be a great astrologer. Just predict 20 great things each to 20 stupid people.
08:51Some of that will indeed materialize and because you have only predicted great things.
08:58Therefore, when those things materialize, those stupid people will climb to the rooftops and sing your glory.
09:16All you have to ensure is that those people are supremely stupid and for that you don't have to work hard.
09:25People are in general supremely stupid.
09:32Anybody who comes to you, just say 20 general things.
09:39Wow! Something will be.
09:45A stupid man comes to you and you predict within the next one year, somebody will slap you so hard,
09:49your jaws will drop out. Now he is anyway so stupid that he is likely to be slapped.
10:00And your prophecy has come true.
10:05All glory is to Jyotish Acharya.
10:07Let me come up with an equation. Right now, I'll read your mind.
10:37I'm going to read his mind right now.
10:52Think of any number.
10:53Any number. Don't mess with the gods. You could even think of a complex number.
11:03Done that? Multiply it by 3.
11:13Multiply it by 3.
11:25Think of the same number again. Multiply it by 4.
11:37Add the two results.
11:43Divide the result by the original number.
11:50Just showing in advance that I am a Jyotish Acharya.
12:05This will be his answer.
12:13What is the number you are left with? 7.
12:17What was written here?
12:32I wanted so desperately to hide that I am enlightened.
12:36But now that the thing is out, you are free to come and worship me.
12:43It's just that this is class 5 algebra. 3n plus 4n by n is 7.
12:50But if you are not educated enough even to class 5, you will fall for this thing.
13:03This is how it has been.