Full Video: Only for genuine lovers of Truth || Acharya Prashant, Vedant Mahotsav (2022)
Link: https://youtu.be/8jsBC-QBp4U
Video Information: 16.07.2022, Vedanta Mahotsav, Goa
Context:
~ Why do mainstream education neglect wisdom studies?
~ Why should one read scripture, if one can learn from life itself?
~ Are reading scriptures just an acknowledgment of knowledge?
~ What is scripture?
~ How one can gain from Scriptures?
~ What are Scriptures?
~ Do scriptures heal?
~ How to read the Scriptures?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Link: https://youtu.be/8jsBC-QBp4U
Video Information: 16.07.2022, Vedanta Mahotsav, Goa
Context:
~ Why do mainstream education neglect wisdom studies?
~ Why should one read scripture, if one can learn from life itself?
~ Are reading scriptures just an acknowledgment of knowledge?
~ What is scripture?
~ How one can gain from Scriptures?
~ What are Scriptures?
~ Do scriptures heal?
~ How to read the Scriptures?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Does the person you are with encourage you to read?
00:06You have to ask, what does he bring for me? Roses or books?
00:11If someone has a stake in making you better, that person will push you towards books.
00:17Books are what we all need.
00:30I have been listening to you for the last six months and the kind of clarity that I have got is so deep and so amazing that so many things I had taken for granted as a spiritual seeker have fallen off.
00:50And what I find in you is, you come to the core, you just cut all the side crap and everything. Like when you come here, there are no rituals, customs, lighting lamp or anything.
01:05You just say, okay, start the questions. I have never seen this kind of looking at the truth nakedly.
01:14So my question is, I have been listening to you for the past six months and I have listened to you in each and every nook and corner of my house, hall, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, toilet, bus stand, railway station, everywhere.
01:33Now I want this listening to go much deeper.
01:40There is something that is listening. It is making sense.
01:45But slowly there are some videos where it seems to be very superficial listening.
01:51The video that is trying to make sense to me, it is not going deeper inside.
01:55So how do I approach from now onwards when I listen to you?
02:00What kind of approach I should have?
02:03And another thing is, now I just pick up random videos and listen.
02:08Is there kind of approach that I should choose the video depending on what my seeking is?
02:17And how as a listener I should approach my listening to your videos?
02:22Thank you so much.
02:32What I will say now applies only to those who have been into the spiritual process,
02:45wisdom literature for a length of time.
02:53A point comes when it is not sufficient to just like or enjoy or be gratiated by what you experience from the speaker.
03:16That kind of thing is for the beginners.
03:20The speaker says something, gives something, the listener receives it, experiences it and benefits.
03:34And benefits.
03:35That's almost like the pharmacist handing over a particular drug to you.
03:45You take it in and you benefit from it.
03:49And that works.
03:51Not only does that work, for most people it is sufficient.
03:54But then there are some who need to go beyond this.
04:01They want to know what the drug really is about.
04:07Then you have to come to the place the drug is coming from.
04:12It is no more sufficient to just experience what the speaker is saying.
04:19Then you have to come to the point the speaker is coming from.
04:22But that, however, depends totally on the extent of your curiosity, inquiry, whether you have that smoldering desire inside.
04:46Otherwise it is alright and enough to just take in what is being given and it will serve its purpose.
05:02What do you do when you want to go beyond that?
05:07Because the medium you are using is video.
05:14So, do not now limit yourself to experiencing the video.
05:24What does it mean to experience the video?
05:26It means to run the video as I am running myself live here.
05:31Right?
05:33So I am saying something, you are here.
05:35And you are soaking it in.
05:38Pause the video.
05:39Having gone through it once, pause the video.
05:45Don't just be satisfied with the output.
05:52Now try to probe into the process.
05:56One thing is to have the pizza served to you.
06:02And you relish it.
06:04And it's delicious.
06:05The other thing is to now try to enter the kitchen.
06:10And then after the kitchen you also want to go to the fields.
06:15And then you also want to examine the seeds.
06:20That's what you would need to do now.
06:24So pause the video.
06:27See where a particular word is coming from.
06:29The job of the speaker is to simplify.
06:39The job of the speaker is to make the highest accessible to everybody.
06:45So he simplifies.
06:53But the simplification is actually deceptive.
06:57It is deceptive because what is very very difficult to get ordinarily has been served on a platter.
07:10And when you serve it on a platter, it starts appearing very easy, very commonplace, something very ordinary, something very obvious, which it actually is not.
07:28So it is possible that the listener gets into a deception, which is actually self-deception.
07:40But the speaker has no choice.
07:45If the speaker does not make it so simple, the audience won't get it.
07:51The speaker is left with no choice, he has to simplify it so that people understand it.
08:01And especially in my case where I know that most of my audiences access me through the video medium,
08:16it is even more important to simplify.
08:20Right now you are sitting in front of me, I can pause, I can look at your face, I can have eye contact, I can repeat, I can even admonish.
08:29And I can ensure that you do not walk away in the middle of the session.
08:33So there are so many things I can control here, but I control nothing when it comes to the video medium.
08:43Once the video is out, you have all the control over it.
08:50Right?
08:51So things have to be said in a way that make the stuff very easy to absorb.
09:06Technology has enabled us, technology has enabled the work that I am doing in terms of providing reach to the work.
09:18These words that you hear here will reach millions once the video is published.
09:29That's the benefit.
09:31But there is an associated problem and it's not a small problem.
09:36The problem is I have no control over how the video content will be consumed.
09:42No control at all.
09:43And if the thing is even a little abstruse, a little difficult to comprehend or subtle enough to demand attention,
10:11then there is a great danger that people will move to something else and quit the video.
10:21So it's a great challenge to continuously know that the listener is short of attention.
10:34And therefore, I have to not only speak, but actually ensure that my words grip him.
10:46The teachers of yesteryears did not really have to face this problem.
10:52Lucky, no?
10:55Lucky, no?
10:59They would speak and they really didn't have to worry what would happen to the spoken word.
11:05So they could enjoy the privilege of speaking as the words arose to them.
11:21It arises from the heart and they could just, with a lot of freedom, abandon, express it in a carefree manner.
11:37I do not have that luxury.
11:48One part of me is always with you.
11:53It is wondering whether you are getting what I am saying.
11:56Because this is the age of prolific video content and very very short attention spans.
12:11So I can never be very certain that you are with me.
12:16That makes it difficult for me.
12:21That makes it difficult for me.
12:23I have to simplify it, simplify it, simplify it without diluting it.
12:30You know?
12:37And it's a tremendous challenge.
12:39You will know this challenge when you will try to explain something to somebody.
12:50You can make this challenge easy for yourself by simply diluting the content.
12:59But that's something I completely forbid to myself.
13:05Stuff cannot be diluted.
13:09But it has to be simplified.
13:15So now do you want to go into where the thing is coming from?
13:19Because it is not as simple as it sounds in the video.
13:26Make notes.
13:28It's very mathematical.
13:29Can you see the relationship between what was said in the 5th minute and what was said in the 18th minute?
13:41If you just look at it or listen to it like one deals with any kind of entertaining content or a movie
13:54or something else, there is so much frivolous content on the media, then you will miss the point the content is coming from.
14:10You will just miss it.
14:11A hint.
14:12When you can see that the entire bundle of words of, let's say, 22 minutes is actually a very tiny
14:39mathematical equation.
14:43Then you know that you are approaching the source the words are coming from.
14:49The speaker might appear to be saying 40 different things.
14:56You pick up a topic and several aspects have to be considered at once.
15:04So the thing might appear a bit scattered when you just ordinarily listen to it.
15:13But if you pause it, make notes, connect one thing to the other, and you find yourself coming to see that the entire thing is just one.
15:27One.
15:28Just one.
15:29And it is so much one that it can be condensed in one paragraph, one sentence, one word, then silence.
15:44That's when you know you got it.
15:51Else you will remain a mere consumer of content.
15:57And that is not sufficient.
16:00That is not sufficient for someone who is serious enough.
16:04The bulk of the population is not serious enough.
16:07So what I am saying acts at two levels.
16:15It is simplified for the sake of those who are prone to running away and therefore have to be gripped.
16:26For them it works in one way.
16:28But that same content, that same talk, that same video is designed to work in a far deeper way for a serious seeker.
16:42And there are no two categories of content.
16:47The same video, the same video that can be mere entertainment to a beginner, can actually mean the deepest spiritual fundamentals to a serious seeker.
17:05But then you will have to approach it differently.
17:12You will have to see that even when the speaker is joking.
17:17He is probably coming right from the Upanishads.
17:22It is an Upanishadic joke.
17:25The joke is good for laughs.
17:28When it comes to, let us say an 18 year old beginner, you have to go into the depths of it.
17:39The thing comes to you in a very processed way.
17:45You have to discover the raw material it comes from.
17:49As we said, consuming the pizza is just a little bit of pleasure.
17:59If you really like it, then go right till the seed it comes from.
18:05There are no problems ramps from.