Video Information: 12.01.23, BITS, Goa
Description:
In a compelling session for National Youth Day, Acharya Ji draws inspiration from Swami Vivekananda's legacy, highlighting the timeless challenges faced by youth. He emphasizes that while young people today experience rapid biological maturity, they often lack the inner development needed to navigate life's complexities.
Acharya Ji critiques the societal conditioning that fosters superficial confidence and consumerism, urging the youth to engage in deep self-inquiry and challenge their unexamined beliefs. He asserts that true empowerment lies in transcending these limitations, echoing Vivekananda's call for strength and resilience. Ultimately, he inspires today's youth to embrace their potential and redefine their paths, reminding them that the quest for truth and self-awareness is as vital now as it was in Vivekananda's time.
Context:
~ Has religion really been successful in its purpose?
~ Is a man better off without religion?
~ What is the role of religion in a man's life?
~ Are there more changes now than there were then?
~What is the primary distinction between youth participation during the time of Swami Vivekananda and today?
🎧 Listen to Acharya Prashant on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/2QmVEAAnsNE7Xs0MW0Li8Y?si=09fbcbc7c99c469b
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~
Description:
In a compelling session for National Youth Day, Acharya Ji draws inspiration from Swami Vivekananda's legacy, highlighting the timeless challenges faced by youth. He emphasizes that while young people today experience rapid biological maturity, they often lack the inner development needed to navigate life's complexities.
Acharya Ji critiques the societal conditioning that fosters superficial confidence and consumerism, urging the youth to engage in deep self-inquiry and challenge their unexamined beliefs. He asserts that true empowerment lies in transcending these limitations, echoing Vivekananda's call for strength and resilience. Ultimately, he inspires today's youth to embrace their potential and redefine their paths, reminding them that the quest for truth and self-awareness is as vital now as it was in Vivekananda's time.
Context:
~ Has religion really been successful in its purpose?
~ Is a man better off without religion?
~ What is the role of religion in a man's life?
~ Are there more changes now than there were then?
~What is the primary distinction between youth participation during the time of Swami Vivekananda and today?
🎧 Listen to Acharya Prashant on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/2QmVEAAnsNE7Xs0MW0Li8Y?si=09fbcbc7c99c469b
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00:00Today happens to be the National Youth Day on the occasion of Swami Vivekananda's birth
00:00:07anniversary. His mission was to bring about a change through mobilization of the youth.
00:00:12You too have been referred to as the Swami Vivekananda of today by many media articles.
00:00:17Since you work quite intensively with the young population, especially with the leading
00:00:21institutions of the country like IITs, IIMs, AMs etc. Sir, I would like to ask what you
00:00:28think is a major difference in youth engagement from Swami Vivekananda's time to today.
00:00:34Is it easier now or is it more difficult or are there the same challenges? I would request
00:00:40you to please throw some light on this.
00:00:43You see, the youth is always in a peculiar condition and the peculiar condition is that
00:01:01the body in a short span of let's say 6-7 years attains almost a sudden maturity.
00:01:16If you consider the lifespan of a human being, 75-80 years on an average, 6-7 years is almost
00:01:27sudden and you are a very changed biological being at 18 compared to what you are at 12.
00:01:43It just happens and you have attained biological maturity, which means you can do a lot of
00:01:56things that adults can and also you have energy comparable to other more grown-up adults,
00:02:07let's say those who are 30-35 years old and all that has just happened.
00:02:21When you were passing through your formal schooling and college or university education,
00:02:30suddenly you find yourself a grown-up adult.
00:02:38Life has not yet given you too many years to gather experience from, but it has given
00:02:46you the energy to shake things up, the power to procreate and the responsibility to build
00:03:08systems, engage with systems, earn for yourself.
00:03:15All these things have suddenly come to you.
00:03:20You think of the two important decisions that people make in their lives, which is choosing
00:03:32their education and career, that's the first part of the decisions and the second one being
00:03:39engaging with another human being of the other gender and possibly marrying.
00:03:48Both these things get done right when you are quite young and you don't really know
00:03:59the world too much.
00:04:02So that's the condition of the youth.
00:04:07Having a lot of potential, having a lot of energy, but not having enough understanding.
00:04:20Your schooling, your college education during which you are growing up does not cater to
00:04:30your inner development needs, that is taken as a given.
00:04:37It is assumed that the person is growing up in a physical way, therefore the person is
00:04:45also gaining inner maturity parallelly, which is a huge assumption, which is an erroneous
00:04:53assumption that does not just happen.
00:04:57So what happens is that all this energy that the youth has is driven not by the understanding
00:05:05of the youth, but by the random forces of social, cultural, biological conditioning
00:05:16that operate upon you.
00:05:19That was the situation a hundred years back, a hundred and twenty, hundred thirty years
00:05:26back if you are talking of Swami Vivekananda's times and that is also the condition today
00:05:31and that will be the condition forever because that's how biology shapes up the youth.
00:05:42Puberty used to happen at a certain age, in Vivekananda's time it happens at almost the
00:05:48same age even today.
00:05:50So in that respect the youth was vulnerable then and the youth is equally vulnerable today.
00:05:59The blink of an eye, the kid who used to play at home is interested with the responsibility
00:06:07to earn, make life decisions, choose a career, choose a partner and all that happens I said
00:06:15just so quickly.
00:06:18Has the youth been equipped decently, responsibly to take all those decisions?
00:06:27No, that does not happen.
00:06:29So instead of understanding what we have is conditioning.
00:06:35What was the conditioning operating at the time of Swami Vivekananda?
00:06:43The conditioning was twofold, biologically in the physical sense the youth of that time
00:06:54was not quite strong and mentally the youth had been conditioned to believe that life
00:07:05is all about weakness and misery and defeat and subjugation.
00:07:13The genius of that monk lies in challenging both these conditionings.
00:07:23He said first of all you need to be physically strong.
00:07:28If you are little and weak and sick all the time then there is not much that life can
00:07:41offer you.
00:07:44He said strength must be the first quality and weakness must be considered as the foremost
00:07:54problem, even the first sin.
00:07:59Weakness must be considered extremely abhorrent.
00:08:05Any feeling of helplessness or subjugation has to be kept aside.
00:08:14So he said those things but if you see what he was challenging, he was not really challenging
00:08:21weakness, he was challenging conditioning.
00:08:24It's just that in those times conditioning expressed itself as weakness.
00:08:33If you look at the average height of a 20-year-old today, you take a sample 100-200 youngsters
00:08:44all 20 years old and you look at their average height and average weight, you will find the
00:08:49average height a couple of inches more than the height that was there in 1890 or the year
00:08:571900, Swamiji's times.
00:09:01Similarly weight, you all have gained in weight.
00:09:04The youth of that time was quite emaciated and if you look at girls especially, the difference
00:09:11in height and weight might be even more significant.
00:09:16I am saying this from my hunch, you can corroborate the data from wherever it is available.
00:09:23If at all it is available, I think the data will validate what I am saying.
00:09:29So there was a lot of weakness at that time and poverty and subjugation.
00:09:38India had simply been crushed and trampled over and there was so much illiteracy and
00:09:49the result was that the youth was in a state of complete lack of self-assuredness.
00:10:01What the youth had come to believe was that misery, defeat, weakness, surrender, meekness
00:10:13is the only and inevitable way of life.
00:10:18Just bow down, bow down to life, bow down to oppressors, bow down to poverty, bow down
00:10:27to ignorance, lack of knowledge, bow down to all the random forces of situations that
00:10:36hit a human being.
00:10:37Swamiji said, no, no, no, that's not the truth, that's simply the way you are conditioned.
00:10:46Mind you, that's not the truth, that's simply the way you are conditioned.
00:10:51So it is important to remember that the central work of Vivekananda was not really against
00:10:59just weakness or ignorance or whatever.
00:11:04It was against conditioning.
00:11:06It's just that conditioning expressed itself at that time as weakness and illiteracy and
00:11:15helplessness and ignorance.
00:11:18Now you tell me, as the youth of today, what does conditioning express itself as today?
00:11:29Because had Swamiji been alive today, he would not have conveyed the same message he did
00:11:39a century and a quarter ago.
00:11:44The message would have changed because the conditions have changed.
00:11:50See the work of a spiritual revolutionary is to bring the truth to you.
00:12:03And what is the truth?
00:12:05Truth is not a concept, truth is not a statement, truth is not a principle to live by.
00:12:11Truth lies simply in getting rid of one's inner patterns, that which you have believed
00:12:21yourself to be, drop that and what remains is the truth.
00:12:27Whatever you have become by chance, by ignorance, drop that and what remains is the truth.
00:12:36So had he been around today, how would he have conveyed the message of truth?
00:12:43What has the youth of today become?
00:12:46Are we together?
00:12:50You see, his work lied in challenging what we have erroneously, falsely become.
00:13:09Year 1900, year 1890, that was the time when he was the most active.
00:13:18What had the youth become then?
00:13:21At that point, what was the condition of the youth?
00:13:26You remember condition, conditioning.
00:13:30How had the youth of that time taken shape?
00:13:41What was the condition?
00:13:42What were they thinking?
00:13:43What did they look like?
00:13:44What was their belief system?
00:13:46Think of that.
00:13:48What were they saying?
00:13:49Let's say you meet someone from that time, right, 20 years old or 25 and what is that
00:13:54person saying?
00:13:57What is that person saying?
00:14:02Come on, come on, please.
00:14:04First of all, how does he look?
00:14:06He or she?
00:14:07How does he look?
00:14:10Famished and skinny because famished and skinny.
00:14:18Is he well-read?
00:14:21What does he believe in?
00:14:23Superstitions, wonderful, lovely.
00:14:27When he looks at a white man, how does he feel?
00:14:32Inferior and afraid, right?
00:14:37And what else?
00:14:38How does he, for example, look at other castes?
00:14:42Let's say he belongs to one of the so-called upper castes.
00:14:44How does he look at the so-called lower castes?
00:14:49Now this fellow himself isn't tatters but he is looking at a fellow human being, a fellow
00:14:55Indian as untouchable, probably.
00:15:00If he is a male, how does he look at women, lower, inferior beings, right?
00:15:08And he is conditioned to believe all of that.
00:15:13Probably he is a flat earther, quite probable, right?
00:15:19Does he know where America is?
00:15:24Quite possible he also looks at other communities with a lot of distaste, right?
00:15:33How much geography or history or biology does he know?
00:15:37Not much.
00:15:40The literacy rates had plummeted to almost single digit levels in most parts of the country
00:15:48by that time.
00:15:52Such was the devastation, such was the havoc wrecked upon the education system especially
00:16:00after 1857.
00:16:03People were not getting to learn, to read, to write.
00:16:10The existing system of education had been devastated and no alternative, no mass-based
00:16:18alternative at least had been created.
00:16:21So people were largely illiterate.
00:16:26So that's the situation and when you look at him today, what do you say?
00:16:31He is so blinded by his beliefs.
00:16:38You know, when you look at him, you will say a poor fellow.
00:16:43Inwardly that fellow is very very confident.
00:16:47He was so confident that in some way he actually managed to obstruct Swami Vivekananda.
00:16:56One of the reasons he died so early was because he faced such stiff resistance, not from the
00:17:01Europeans or Americans but from the Indian population itself.
00:17:08He did the best he could and that was not really the age of technology.
00:17:14A lot of travel that he undertook was quite a burden on the body.
00:17:23Very painstakingly he travelled, sometimes on foot, he did not take care of his food,
00:17:33his health, his various diseases and before he could be 40, he was gone.
00:17:42Think who troubled him so much?
00:17:47Who troubled him so much that he had to depart and he was a well-built man, strong, pretty
00:17:53strongly built and it's not as if he miraculously just chose to disappear or depart at that young age.
00:18:05He was brought down by ill health and disease.
00:18:10Who troubled him so much?
00:18:18Think of it, who?
00:18:20He is a strong man and he is a well-read man.
00:18:23I mean well-read is an understatement.
00:18:27He is a champion author and there is somebody who just pulverizes him to the ground.
00:18:37Who is this?
00:18:43That famished, ill-read, ill-bred, ill-fed fellow.
00:18:52He defeated Swamiji, not in the final count obviously but at least temporarily.
00:19:04He kept on saying, if I just get 100 suitable young people, I'll change the face of India.
00:19:16He didn't get that many.
00:19:20It's debatable whether he got even 10 of them.
00:19:27You do not need to kill a man always directly.
00:19:35He's asking for something.
00:19:37He's betting his life on something.
00:19:40You devoid him of that which he wants so desperately, that which he loves with all his heart.
00:19:48He won't be able to live.
00:19:50You see this.
00:19:51It's just that we never love anything that heartfully.
00:19:56So we do not know what a real lover goes through.
00:20:03But if you ever want something really worthy, something really beautiful with all your life,
00:20:10with all your energy and you don't get it, you just don't feel like living.
00:20:25The youth of that time deprived Swami Vivekananda of what he wanted from them.
00:20:33And how did the youth deprive him?
00:20:35By blindly believing in whatever they believed in, whatever their concepts were.
00:20:49The way you look at that fellow, we just talked of, and you say, oh, 5 feet 4 inches.
00:20:59Can't even write properly.
00:21:04You ask him to just tell how many major rivers are there in North India, he might not know.
00:21:11Ask him where do smallpox and chickenpox come from.
00:21:16He will say divine curse.
00:21:20That kind of a fellow.
00:21:21But that fellow who is most probably racist, casteist, sexist, ignorant, that kind of a
00:21:34fellow manages to obstruct the work of a giant like Swami Vivekananda.
00:21:45That is the power of conditioning.
00:21:49It is conditioning that the Swami was fighting against.
00:21:55It's always possible and easy, rather, to look at someone else, especially from some
00:22:04other age and see very clearly that the fellow is conditioned.
00:22:12For example, today, if that fellow, imagine him standing here, imagine, today that fellow
00:22:19tells you, women do not need to be educated.
00:22:24You won't even feel like countering him.
00:22:30Some of you would laugh at him, others won't even feel like laughing at him.
00:22:36You would simply want to look elsewhere at something that is more pleasant, more meaningful,
00:22:42more sensible.
00:22:44But that fellow is very, very confident.
00:22:49He is saying, but you know, women, they are for the kitchen and taking care of the kids
00:22:55and what do they have to do by studying, reading, educated?
00:23:00I mean, will they wear coats and pants and go out to work like men?
00:23:08He'll be very sure of himself.
00:23:12He'll be, catch that word, he'll be very, he'll be very sure of himself.
00:23:21That's what.
00:23:22When you are so sure of yourself, then you can defeat even the most beneficial, most
00:23:32benevolent power that stands in front of you to help you, to uplift you.
00:23:42Conditioning manifests itself in, come on, come on, come on, repeat the word, sureness.
00:23:52And what's the popular word for sureness?
00:23:59That skinny fellow, if you send his blood to some pathology lab, he would be found deficient
00:24:14in 20 things.
00:24:15In fact, he would be found deficient in everything.
00:24:20He might even be found deficient in a few organs.
00:24:24The fellow does not have a liver, that kind of deficiency.
00:24:33But he is not deficient in confidence, deficient in everything, but not in.
00:24:46And that's what troubled Swami Vivekananda so much.
00:24:54He actually laid down his life.
00:24:57It's just that when you are killed by a gun, then you can see the blood flowing.
00:25:08Or when you wear a crown of thrones as Jesus did, again you can see the cruelty there,
00:25:22out there in a very obvious way.
00:25:30Or you find Socrates being made to drink poison.
00:25:41You can see it.
00:25:42Your eyes can see that.
00:25:43So you know this is murder.
00:25:47But when a Vivekananda dies that way, you do not see the blood flowing and you do not
00:25:51see the thorns and you do not see the poison.
00:26:03You do not see a head being chopped off.
00:26:07Because you do not see.
00:26:08So you say, oh well, he just died out of some sickness.
00:26:12He was diseased.
00:26:13No, he was not diseased.
00:26:14He was killed.
00:26:15What killed him?
00:26:16The headstrong confidence that we have.
00:26:30You could call them headstrong jug heads, extremely confident of themselves.
00:26:38And what they were then confident of, today we laugh at, correct?
00:26:43What he was confident of that time, today we laugh at all those things, don't we?
00:26:49Maybe someone else would laugh at the things that we are today confident of.
00:26:57And confidence continues to be a buzzword even today, especially in the youth, does
00:27:03it not?
00:27:04You all like to be confident and you all admire confident people.
00:27:09Look at your role models.
00:27:10Don't they all act very confident?
00:27:17The ego to sustain itself, all ignorance to sustain itself must act very, very confident.
00:27:25Now fast forward to 2023, what are we confident of?
00:27:35What are we confident of?
00:27:40And the inner confidence that we have is very, very stubborn.
00:27:47Times change.
00:27:49The ego tendency does not change.
00:27:54All change is just superficial, apparent, external.
00:28:01Obviously human beings continue to be the way they always were.
00:28:12What are we confident of?
00:28:16Obviously if Vivekananda comes here today, he will not tell us to be physically strong.
00:28:21Most of us are already reasonably strong, right?
00:28:28You have gyms, the nutrition that you take is more or less okay.
00:28:38All kinds of sports facilities are there right within the campus.
00:28:45So he will not talk of nutrition.
00:28:46At that time he was talking a lot about good food and he would say, come on, leave your
00:28:51ignorance behind, get up, go and play football.
00:28:54Today he does not need to tell you to play football.
00:28:56You already play football.
00:29:03What will he need to address today?
00:29:06What are you confident of today?
00:29:10Hint, you will resist him every bit as much as that fellow from the last century.
00:29:24Everybody wants to accept a Swami Vivekananda.
00:29:31His lot, his fate is to be resisted.
00:29:37He was resisted, then he would be resisted even today.
00:29:42He was resisted by everybody including the youth, then it is the youth that would resist
00:29:47him even today.
00:29:49Now that's very counter intuitive because we love to talk of Swami Vivekananda as a
00:29:55youth icon, right?
00:29:57Swami Vivekananda, the favourite of the youth, youth icon, youth icon and here I am asserting
00:30:04that were he to be here today, it is the youth that would resist him the most.
00:30:13Because the work of a spiritual revolutionary, of the knower of Vedanta and it is Vedanta
00:30:23that Swamiji was most fond of.
00:30:25He worshipped Vedanta, not any God.
00:30:30To him Vedanta was secret.
00:30:35His work is to challenge the conditioning of the day.
00:30:40In that alone lies the worship of the truth.
00:30:46Challenge conditioning.
00:30:48What are we conditioned as?
00:30:51What are you conditioned to believe in, tell me please?
00:30:59His work would be equally difficult today.
00:31:06Beliefs have changed, the believer has not.
00:31:11The one who loves to live in beliefs has not changed, it's just that he has changed his
00:31:19beliefs.
00:31:22So there was one set of beliefs then, be with me, come on, there is another set of beliefs
00:31:30now.
00:31:32But the tendency to live in beliefs has not changed.
00:31:37He will have an equally tough task today with you guys.
00:31:44You will not question him as a youth icon.
00:31:49After he is gone, then another generation would, not you.
00:31:54You would not like to listen to him.
00:31:57Listening to someone who brings the truth to you is always a difficult task.
00:32:04The nature of truth is that it cannot be pleasant, irrespective of how much you try to sweeten
00:32:19it or smoothen it.
00:32:27Are you getting it?
00:32:29Think of this.
00:32:30So many people would assemble to listen to him.
00:32:34When he returned from the States, a huge procession greeted him right at the port.
00:32:44But when he asked for just a hundred people who could be soldiers, he was denied.
00:33:01Beliefs are superstitions, just that it is easy to call the other's superstition as superstition.
00:33:12Our own superstition we call as a sacred belief or holy culture or passion, right?
00:33:25In a non-religious, non-cultural context, your personal belief you will call as your
00:33:32passion but even that is superstition.
00:33:36And when that is challenged, one does not like it.
00:33:42The superstitions of that time are quite evident.
00:33:47The fellow is for example saying that snakes live for 2000 years or that a certain tree
00:33:55turns into a beautiful lady every fortnight and today you can laugh those things away.
00:34:04How about the superstitions of today?
00:34:07Have we tried to inquire the superstitions that we carry?
00:34:13Come on, risk a guess at least.
00:34:26Can you watch me from there, otherwise the seat is available.
00:34:30Come over to this side.
00:34:33I'll have to bend to look at you and same with you.
00:34:46What are the superstitions we carry?
00:34:50Please, consume, consume and consume, consume, come on.
00:35:03Have more.
00:35:04That's the purpose of life.
00:35:07Happiness is the purpose of life and happiness is obtained through consumption.
00:35:14Happiness is the purpose of life and happiness comes through consumption.
00:35:20And Swami Vivekananda will again have to fight this superstition till his last breath.
00:35:30And he'll again be defeated.
00:35:32We'll not let him win.
00:35:39Consume everything you can lay your hands on.
00:35:45Consume your own body, consume somebody else's body, consume all the resources the earth
00:35:50does not even have to offer.
00:35:53Consume the plants, the animals, the mountains, the trees, the rivers, the air.
00:36:01Consume just everything possible.
00:36:04Have it.
00:36:07We don't like to call it a superstition, we'll say, oh but you know, it's a choice, it's
00:36:11a way of life.
00:36:13It's not even a way of life, it's the purpose of life.
00:36:26That's what he would do today.
00:36:30What is a superstition?
00:36:36What is a superstition?
00:36:42Believing in something without having enquired till the last detail, right?
00:36:55And when I talk of the last detail, do you know what I mean?
00:36:58The belief is something here, out here, this is.
00:37:06When you want to go to the last detail, you have to think of the believer.
00:37:12Who is the believer?
00:37:18You have to look into the fact of the belief, obviously, and then you have to go into the
00:37:24mind of the believer and ask, why does he have to stick to this concept or assumption?
00:37:31Why does he have to stick to it?
00:37:33And that's when the enquiry is complete.
00:37:36And if the enquiry is not complete, whatsoever you hold as true is not only belief, but actually
00:37:42superstition, superstition, and our education, the thing that we talked of right in the beginning,
00:37:52does not equip us to go into self-enquiry.
00:37:58We do not know why we think the way we do.
00:38:02We do not know why we desire the way we do.
00:38:05We all want so many things in life, but we do not know why we want something.
00:38:10And if you do not know why you want something, whatever you want will be perilous to you.
00:38:17Irrespective of what you want, it will hurt you.
00:38:27Are you getting it?
00:38:33Come on, come up with a few more superstitions.
00:38:36It's fun.
00:38:42Come on, come on, come on, come on, yes, technology and technical growth can offer you redemption
00:38:52from your suffering.
00:38:59Technology can only do what you want it to do.
00:39:03Technology is a slave.
00:39:08Your imagination comes first.
00:39:10Your desire comes first.
00:39:12And then comes the technology to fulfil your desire, to materialise your imagination.
00:39:20That's what technology does.
00:39:23If your desire itself is a rotten thing, how can technology help you?
00:39:29Please tell me.
00:39:30Your desire is to kill the other.
00:39:33You come up with the most powerful fusion device possible.
00:39:37It's a state-of-the-art thing, the greatest hydrogen bomb ever made.
00:39:43Where is that coming from?
00:39:48Your rotten, hateful desire to kill the other.
00:39:53And why do you want to kill the other?
00:39:54Because he does not worship the same God as you do.
00:39:59Because you want a piece of land and the other does not agree, so you want to kill him.
00:40:06Such an animalistic desire, right?
00:40:09But to fulfil this desire, what do you use?
00:40:16The latest, most modern, state-of-the-art technology.
00:40:21What can technology bring to you?
00:40:23If you are inwardly rotten, what can technology bring to you?
00:40:29Technology will simply become an expression of your inner diseased state.
00:40:38Right?
00:40:42What other superstitions?
00:40:47I hope we are capturing this, this is very important, yes.
00:41:06See wherever there is desire, there has to be a wait for tomorrow.
00:41:12What does a life based on desire mean?
00:41:15Work today based on your desire and tomorrow you will have fruits of your action.
00:41:21So you will have to necessarily live in tomorrow.
00:41:26And what does that entail?
00:41:28Something very dangerous.
00:41:29What that means is you cannot live in love.
00:41:34You cannot work in love.
00:41:38You cannot do something just because you love it.
00:41:45This quest for tomorrow means that all the value has been postponed to the future.
00:41:52Where does value lie?
00:41:55Where does value lie?
00:41:57In the desirous mind, where does value lie?
00:42:00In the future, because that's where the imagined fulfilment of desire is.
00:42:05No desire gets instantaneously fulfilled, right?
00:42:08What is the nature of desire?
00:42:09You desire something, then you work to attain it and you attain it two days later.
00:42:14And two days later, you imagine that you will be fulfilled, it's just that two days later
00:42:18there is something else.
00:42:20And you are never really fulfilled.
00:42:22But forget about the future, what does this continuous state of desire do to the quality
00:42:28of your existence, which is right now?
00:42:33It leaves you deprived, impoverished.
00:42:38You have nothing right now.
00:42:40Everything has been scheduled to the future.
00:42:43All the goodness, all the fun, all the joy has been marked to the future.
00:42:52So how are you right now?
00:42:53That nobody wants to talk of.
00:42:56Come on, become something.
00:42:58Now all becoming again lies in the?
00:43:02So how are you right now?
00:43:06Blank, nothing, I have nothing, I have nothing.
00:43:14But nobody wants to call it as a superstition.
00:43:16You see, the usual superstitions have all been killed by science, mostly, because they
00:43:24were objective superstitions, like you must not take food at the time of the lunar eclipse.
00:43:36Now that's an objective superstition, it has something to do with objects.
00:43:40Which objects are we talking of?
00:43:42The moon, the earth and the food.
00:43:44All these three are objects.
00:43:47Now science will defeat all these superstitions because science is very well equipped to deal
00:43:51with objects.
00:43:55So all the objective superstitions are gone.
00:43:58Swamiji would be very happy.
00:44:03But then he will look at the other side, the subjective side and his face will turn pale.
00:44:16All the superstitions are now subjective and how do you defeat them?
00:44:25Objective superstitions can be defeated.
00:44:28For example, it was superstition that let's say the Nazi blood is superior to and purer
00:44:37compared to the other races.
00:44:40How was this defeated?
00:44:42You just take blood samples and compare and science has defeated that, right?
00:44:45So we kept talking of the pure Aryan blood and nobody talks of that today.
00:44:50There is nothing called the pure Aryan blood.
00:44:53You could be an Aryan, a non-Aryan, you could be anybody, blood is blood.
00:44:59Science defeated that.
00:45:01But if you say, in your mind, for example, that getting settled quickly or getting retired
00:45:08quickly is the purpose of life, how does science defeat that?
00:45:12Tell me.
00:45:13Science has no answer there.
00:45:14And that's the superstition of today.
00:45:17Hustle on quick bucks by doing any damn rotten thing and then retire at 35.
00:45:27And if you don't feel like doing that thing exactly because it is so rotten it cannot
00:45:33be done, then listen to some huge money bag, industrialist, capitalist, influencer or motivator
00:45:46and push yourself back to that same rotten job so that you may retire early.
00:45:51Science has no answer to this kind of superstition.
00:45:55Because it is, because it is, come on, come on, be with me, subjective.
00:46:00Science cannot deal with subjective things.
00:46:04You fall in love with a pig.
00:46:07Science cannot correct you.
00:46:09All that science can tell you that it is a pig.
00:46:11You still say it's my subjective decision to roll in the shit with the pig.
00:46:19Science will remain silent.
00:46:21What can science do now?
00:46:22Science can at max tell you what all kinds of bacteria are present in that filth.
00:46:30And that science can't do much.
00:46:31It's a subjective thing.
00:46:32And the superstitions today are all subjective.
00:46:39How do you fight that?
00:46:43Swami Vivekananda is saying the challenges of the last century were actually easier to
00:46:54deal with.
00:46:57At this moment, the challenges are almost impossible to tackle.
00:47:03You could demonstrate to someone that his belief is a mere superstition.
00:47:07But how do you demonstrate that your subjective concepts, your way of life, your principles,
00:47:15these are all just worthless, false, baseless.
00:47:22How do you demonstrate that?
00:47:24It's very difficult.
00:47:27And the youth has been greatly indoctrinated today, especially in a country like India
00:47:32because it's a young country.
00:47:34So if you can capture the youth, you have captured everything.
00:47:38You have also captured the future.
00:47:40The ones who are young today will be the earners of tomorrow.
00:47:45Catch them young.
00:47:46That's how they say.
00:47:48Catch them young.
00:47:52And you have been indoctrinated.
00:47:54That which you think of as normal is not at all normal.
00:47:59To that fellow, see he is still standing here.
00:48:01Do you see him?
00:48:03To that fellow, it is very normal to think that the sun goes around the earth.
00:48:09And he says, but I see that happening every day.
00:48:11Rises this side, sets that side.
00:48:14The sun obviously goes around the earth.
00:48:16It's a very normal thing.
00:48:18Don't you have common sense?
00:48:19Come on.
00:48:20When you will dispute what he says, what will he say?
00:48:25Can't you see the obvious?
00:48:28It's commonsensical.
00:48:29The sun goes around the earth.
00:48:34Think of what all is normal and obvious and commonsensical to you.
00:48:39Please, please do that.
00:48:42It is that which you take as common sense that is defeating you, that is a nemesis,
00:48:51that is killing you.
00:48:54That which you think of as obvious and certain and feel very assured of, so assured of that
00:49:00you don't even want to question it.
00:49:02That's what is defeating you.
00:49:06Am I making sense or is it?
00:49:23I'll do my B.Tech and three roads arise from there, or maybe four or five max, a job, MS,
00:49:42MBA, or I go and fall into the lap of my family and say, I'll be part of the family business
00:49:50and that's all, that's all, a start-up is fine.
00:50:02How do you know that all this is not superstition?
00:50:05Come on, please.
00:50:07How do you know?
00:50:08Now, don't dismiss it as being obviously an insane question to ask.
00:50:17You all are very sane people.
00:50:21For the next hour, just bear being a little insane with me.
00:50:31How do you know that this is not a superstition to choose just one among these four or five
00:50:36options?
00:50:37Please tell me.
00:50:53You are not a previous one, you are a current one.
00:50:59The previous ones are all dead and they didn't live exactly glorious lives.
00:51:06Why do you want to emulate them?
00:51:11The friend we have standing here is also a previous one, want to be like him.
00:51:18Why not?
00:51:20If the old is to be emulated, let's go for the older one.
00:51:26And why stop at the older?
00:51:27Let's go for the oldest one.
00:51:29The one who is in the cave, in the jungle, sitting on the treetop and chasing monkeys
00:51:37from there.
00:51:41Why not copy that one?
00:51:48Something to be said.
00:51:49Sir, we live in a country like India where the daily need of a person is to have a piece
00:51:56of bread and butter daily.
00:51:58So if you do not choose any of the four paths and try to think that I'll speculate today
00:52:02and maybe after two to three days I will go on to some other thing that will give me bread
00:52:08and butter.
00:52:09That is not how the life works.
00:52:12You can't stay impoverished for say more than four to five days.
00:52:16Sir, how do you know?
00:52:18This is the question.
00:52:21A superstition involves something that you have not enquired into.
00:52:25How do you know that bread and butter is possible only via these four or five paths?
00:52:31How do you know?
00:52:32What's the basis?
00:52:34How much have you seen the world?
00:52:36How much have you enquired?
00:52:37How much knowledge, experience do you have?
00:52:39At this young age, how do you feel so convinced that unless you follow the well-trodden path,
00:52:47you won't even physically survive?
00:52:49We are talking of starvation.
00:52:51As extreme as that.
00:52:54Yes, sir, I would like to counter that.
00:52:57Sir, see, the thing is that when you are talking about living in this world, it is not only
00:53:02that you that a person as a whole is living, it is not Mahabharata going on that Lord Krishna
00:53:08can pause the time and everything will and he can say any sermon and then that can be
00:53:13believed or he can do any action and ask other people like he like, for example, when this
00:53:21Karan was killed, the brother of Arjun, stepbrother of Arjun, leave all that aside, fine, fine,
00:53:28sure, we'll leave that, sir, so whatever happens in this world is a mutual thing, a mutual
00:53:36action by you and the surrounding how it reacts to you.
00:53:40So the thing is that if you are not doing some work or maybe you're thinking that there
00:53:44is some other path which may lead you to some work, like you said that there are only four
00:53:49options after engineering, four to five options maybe, so in that way, I think that would
00:53:56be correctly the way to think as it is, because if you do not work into a particular direction
00:54:03or if you are trying to choose a new path, it's most probable that the surroundings,
00:54:08the surrounding people would not react to you in the same way.
00:54:11How do you know?
00:54:12Sir, that's a known fact.
00:54:13How do you know?
00:54:14Again, that argument of obviousness.
00:54:17How do you know?
00:54:18Very obvious, like, sir, okay, fine, fine, I'll give you an example.
00:54:24No, no, no, my question is how do you know?
00:54:26Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll give you an example.
00:54:28The question is how do you know, not give me an example.
00:54:30How do you know?
00:54:32It's an epistemological question.
00:54:35How do you know?
00:54:36Sir, can you speak, sir, you give podcast on YouTube, is it possible for you to say
00:54:41something against the Prime Minister of India today in your podcast?
00:54:45I actively say when I need to.
00:54:47Sir, but, sir, even the Prime Minister probably knows that.
00:54:51Sir, but that would lead you into trouble.
00:54:54Probably, it already does, but fine, it's okay, it's a subjective thing, right?
00:55:03My question was, how do you know, get into that?
00:55:07How do you know that you'll starve if you do not take these four, five paths?
00:55:11Sir, because it is scientifically proven.
00:55:13Scientifically proven?
00:55:14Which journal, which research paper, which lab, which scientist?
00:55:21Sir, that I do not know exactly, but…
00:55:23Then how do you know?
00:55:24Sir, because that is what we have been taught in our earlier classes.
00:55:28In your classes?
00:55:29In school.
00:55:30Which book?
00:55:31Sir, textbooks.
00:55:32Which particular syllabus?
00:55:33Which board do you come from?
00:55:34Sir, ICSC.
00:55:36Any other person from ICSC here?
00:55:39By the way, I too am an ICSC product.
00:55:41Did you have any book that told you that you will starve if you do not follow any of these
00:55:45four paths?
00:55:47Any course, any book?
00:55:49How do you know?
00:55:50Sir, you need money to survive, right?
00:55:53How do you know that you won't have money outside these four, five paths?
00:55:57Sir, you don't have time to speculate over that.
00:56:00It's just that we have seen other famous people who are at a good position right now
00:56:11and we know that they have taken those paths, so we try to replicate their path saying that
00:56:15if we take the path, we will also reach at where they are right now.
00:56:20How do you know wherever they are, they are actually feeling okay?
00:56:26How do you know?
00:56:27We don't know that, but because of the fame, the popularity…
00:56:31Somebody is famous.
00:56:33Look at the logic, please.
00:56:35You are saying somebody is famous, so I want to be like him.
00:56:38Now anybody can be famous for whatever reason, good, bad, whatever.
00:56:43You want to be like somebody who is famous, but how do you know that his own position
00:56:50is something that would give you whatever you want, peace, fulfillment, joy, fun, whatever.
00:56:55How do you know?
00:56:56But what if something you want is being famous itself?
00:56:59It's not…
00:57:00How do you know being famous will give you something that you would really enjoy?
00:57:05How do you know?
00:57:07You can be famous overnight.
00:57:10You can be famous tomorrow morning, right?
00:57:14It's quite possible in the age of social media and you can actually plan it out.
00:57:18You want to be famous, you can be famous before the session ends and all that happens.
00:57:23We know how things go viral and what all things go viral.
00:57:26How do you know being famous will bring to you something that would please you?
00:57:32How do you know?
00:57:33We don't know it until we reach that part.
00:57:37How have you chosen a destination without knowing anything about the destination?
00:57:43How have you…
00:57:45You can even choose, but you know, how have you simply committed yourself to that one
00:57:50thing as obvious and the right thing and the purpose of life?
00:57:56How have you done that?
00:57:57Our belief.
00:57:58Because it's like, it's our belief like…
00:58:01That's what, that's what.
00:58:04It's just blind belief.
00:58:07That's what he was fighting, blind belief.
00:58:13You know, one of the beliefs of those times was that the white man is made to rule.
00:58:21And if you challenge that belief, you will have a hard time, not among the white ones,
00:58:26but actually more among the brown ones.
00:58:31How do you know that you are not living in similar beliefs today?
00:58:36Similar in the sense of the believer remaining to be the same.
00:58:39The beliefs have obviously changed.
00:58:45How do you know anything you believe in is of any value?
00:58:50And it's not impossible to test things out.
00:58:53Inquiry is possible.
00:58:54And it's not as if it takes an entire life to inquire.
00:58:59You have a lot of time.
00:59:02A lot of things that we believe in would simply fall to pieces if we sincerely inquire even
00:59:11for a couple of hours or a couple of days.
00:59:13It is possible.
00:59:14We don't even Google properly.
00:59:18Come on.
00:59:19Look at most of the stuff that is circulated on WhatsApp etc.
00:59:24Have those people even Googled for the facts?
00:59:27Is it so impossible to know that what you are believing in is just hogwash?
00:59:40You want to be like someone.
00:59:42Have you even bothered to look at the facts of that person's life?
00:59:48Obviously you cannot enter his kitchen or bedroom and look for first-hand information.
00:59:55But have you even bothered to glean through the publicly available information?
01:00:00Have you?
01:00:02How then have you accepted that person as your role model?
01:00:14Sir, human brain works in the way the previous experiences have taught him to be like.
01:00:37In that way, sir, if you could say that maybe 100-150 years ago Swami Vivekananda believed
01:00:44in a certain kind of ideology.
01:00:45No, he didn't believe in any ideology.
01:00:47I mean certain principles that...
01:00:49No, he didn't believe in principles.
01:00:50Sir, you said right now...
01:00:51No, I didn't.
01:00:52Sir, that the stubborn man at that time was not...
01:00:55The stubborn man had principles.
01:00:57Swamiji didn't have principles.
01:00:58He was a destroyer of principles.
01:01:00Sir, but you eventually, if you are destroying some principle, you are entrusting some...
01:01:05How do you know that destruction of principle is another principle?
01:01:08How do you know?
01:01:09Why do you come to such quick inferences?
01:01:14Sir, I think that's really the problem is, we see what others are telling us.
01:01:20We don't go to the last details about everything.
01:01:23So that's what I think superstition was, is and will remain.
01:01:27Right.
01:01:28Now what to do about it?
01:01:29I don't really know what we can do about it.
01:01:31But you are already doing something about it.
01:01:33Try acknowledging that that is the biological tendency of this animalistic brain.
01:01:41I think the first step itself is acknowledging the problem.
01:01:44Acknowledgement.
01:01:45Yes, that's the first step.
01:01:47Acknowledge that beliefs come quick and cheap and they are most likely to be not only false
01:01:54but very, very dangerous.
01:01:57They'll consume your entire life.
01:02:00They'll consume your entire life.
01:02:03You could even say a man is nothing but his bundle of beliefs.
01:02:10You have to be very, very careful the bundle that you are carrying.
01:02:12That does not mean there are good bundles and bad bundles.
01:02:15All bundles are just bad, just as there are no good diseases.
01:02:21That's what I really think.
01:02:22Yes, wonderful.