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00:00Hello everyone, Acharya Ji is here.
00:13Good evening and welcome everyone.
00:15I am Vaishnavi Menon and it's an absolute honor to introduce a remarkable individual.
00:20Someone who has profoundly impacted the lives of countless people through his wisdom, insight and spiritual guidance.
00:27Please join me in welcoming Acharya Prashant, a Vedanta exegete, philosopher, social reformer, columnist and a national best-selling author.
00:37He has written over 160 books and is recognized as the world's most followed spiritual leader with over 55 million YouTube subscribers.
00:45He is an alumnus of IIT Delhi and I am Ahmedabad.
00:49He also conducts the world's largest continuous online teaching program on the Bhagavad Gita and Vedanta.
00:55He is renowned for his unique approach to spirituality, combining ancient wisdom with modern thought.
01:01With his vast knowledge in Vedanta, yoga and various philosophical tradition,
01:06he helps individuals to break free from the limitations of their minds and connect to their higher selves.
01:11What makes Acharya Prashant's teachings so exceptional is his ability to simplify complex concepts,
01:18making them accessible to people from all walks of life.
01:21His profound understanding of human nature, coupled with his deep compassion,
01:26has inspired and guided thousands on their journey towards self-realization and peace.
01:31Today, we are fortunate to be in the presence of a true beacon of wisdom.
01:35So, without further ado, let us open our hearts and mind as we dive into the profound insights that Acharya Prashant is about to share with us.
01:42Let's welcome him with a huge round of applause.
01:54I request our Student Council Chairman Chiranjeevi Sadhana and Professor Asha Bharadwaj to come and hand over a bokeh to Acharya Ji.
02:03Thank you and I request Acharya Ji to take over the session.
02:13It feels great to be back to a temple of science.
02:22This is the second time probably I am in the same auditorium, or maybe it was the neighbouring one.
02:30It was four or five years back, or three years back, two years back?
02:39No, not twenty-three.
02:40Twenty-two.
02:41Twenty-two.
02:42Three years back.
02:43Three years back.
02:44Three years back.
02:47So, at that time it was mostly people from Bangalore interested in Vedanta who were with us.
03:01Not so much student participation was there.
03:04I suppose this time the majority of the audience present here is from the campus itself.
03:11Is that so?
03:12Yes.
03:13Right.
03:14I am glad.
03:15Thank you so much.
03:16Fine.
03:17It's a wonderful opportunity for me and I want to make the most of the next few hours conversing
03:27with bright minds, full of, full of ruthless enquiry, I hope.
03:38We don't want to stop at anything.
03:41Nothing is beyond our questions, our approach, our experiments.
03:53So, let's see.
03:54Just give me reasons to be louder.
03:56Then I have to be interrupted to be milder.
03:57Right.
03:58So, I am saying nothing is going to be beyond our approach.
04:09We are not going to take stuff as sacred.
04:13Let's talk about everything.
04:14Let's talk about everything.
04:16And let this be a deep and intense few hours.
04:20Let's start.
04:21Yes.
04:22We are inviting questions for the sake of conversation.
04:28So, it would be a to and fro thing.
04:31Right.
04:32So, my name is Hiran Patel.
04:34I am a PhD student in physics department.
04:37So, I am also exploring the other science branches.
04:40Like, we have a neuroscience and cognitive science to understand ourselves, to understand the
04:45human behaviour.
04:46So, why we need a spirituality and Vedas?
04:49Like, what type of the question it will address is that is not covered in our science branches?
04:55Yes.
04:56The difference, primarily, is that when you go into neuroscience, or the very implicit, or
05:08the science of cognition, the various branches of philosophy, including psychology, you remain
05:17at your own centre, you hold on to your identity, the self, and holding on to yourself, you want
05:26to accumulate knowledge about this and that.
05:29Which might even include knowledge about the self.
05:32For example, neuroscience.
05:34In neuroscience, right?
05:37So, here am I.
05:39What is the name, please?
05:40Hiran.
05:41So, I am Hiran.
05:42I am Hiran.
05:43And Hiran wants to know about the inner neural networks.
05:48But, Hiran wants to know about them remaining.
05:52That's not something to be questioned.
05:55And even if some kind of questioning does occur, even if some kind of deconstruction does
06:03occur, it's going to be accidental.
06:06Otherwise, remaining myself, I want to accumulate knowledge around myself.
06:12So, here I am.
06:13I sit on this chair, and there is knowledge on my table.
06:18Bring me more books here.
06:19Bring me more knowledge here.
06:20All around myself, I gather knowledge, and what does that knowledge do?
06:23It fortifies me.
06:25It becomes my armour.
06:27It protects me.
06:29Now, who is being protected?
06:31Who is at the centre of everything?
06:33Hiran.
06:34Now, spirituality, or rather the field of self-knowledge, starts from a very different point.
06:42It does not say, I will remain myself, and I will accumulate knowledge, and that knowledge
06:47might actually reinforce who I am, or have accidentally become, unconsciously become.
06:52I do not rule that.
06:54I start from my suffering, my inner angst.
06:57I see I am not alright.
07:00I have no primary interest in knowledge.
07:03When you are a student of, let's say, psychology, then your primary interest is psychology.
07:10In spirituality, the primary interest is not in any kind of knowledge.
07:14Neither the knowledge of the world, nor the knowledge of the self.
07:18The primary problem is the problem of human suffering.
07:24The problem of the fundamental human condition.
07:27We are born, we live, we die, what the hell is this?
07:31That's the primary problem.
07:33And I am looking at it, not just as an objective spectator, but as an active participant.
07:39It is happening to, it is happening to me.
07:43It is very personal, it is happening to me.
07:46But at the same time, it is universal, because it is happening to everybody else.
07:51And it's a general problem worth addressing, because it is a universal problem.
07:56What can be a bigger problem than the problem of universal human suffering?
08:03What can be a bigger challenge than that of universal human suffering?
08:11The same suffering that we hide behind so many things?
08:15Entertainment, even knowledge, so-called distractions, achievements, pleasures, accumulations, prestige,
08:29sanctions and approvals from all around?
08:35We hide that fact of human suffering behind all these things.
08:41So it's a big problem.
08:43It's a big problem that we want to address.
08:45So now I want to look at, why am I suffering?
08:48Why am I suffering?
08:50And that immediately takes me to the question, who am I?
08:55And when I look at myself, I say, I might be hearing who is a student.
09:03But I am still suffering.
09:05And suffering does not really mean that you have to exhibit loud symptoms of suffering.
09:10You don't really have to groan.
09:13You don't really have to yell.
09:15Suffering can be very subtle.
09:20For example, ambition.
09:22Ambition is a subtle form of suffering.
09:24Are you kidding?
09:27And obviously, we know about anxiety and depression and other kinds of mental ailments.
09:34With them, it is easier to associate the word suffering.
09:38But when we say, love is another form of suffering, that raises heckles.
09:44How come love is another form of suffering?
09:46Because most of what we call as love is just biological movement resulting in attachment.
09:51There is no real love in it.
09:53So even ambition is suffering.
09:54Love is suffering.
09:55Whatever else we call as stuff that we venerate is suffering.
09:59So there is Hiran.
10:00Hiran is a student, but he is a suffering student.
10:03Hiran is a male, but he is a suffering male.
10:07Hiran is an Indian, but he is a suffering.
10:10Hiran is a cricket lover or a rugby lover, but he is a suffering cricket lover.
10:14Hiran is a well paid employee, but he is a suffering well paid employee.
10:19So if I want to address my condition, what is my fundamental condition?
10:24The underlying all pervasive foundation, what is it?
10:29Suffering.
10:30So when I say, why am I suffering?
10:32I said, that brings us to the question, who am I?
10:34And the only answer to that is, I am the sufferer.
10:37Because whatever else I might be, I suffer in that condition.
10:44I am laughing.
10:45Even while laughing, I remain suffering.
10:49Now that kind of sensitivity is rare.
10:53Gautam Buddhist sensitivity.
10:56Where you can see suffering and angst, even in a laughing face.
11:02In tears, obviously, we all see suffering.
11:06While it is not really necessary that tears are symptomatic of suffering.
11:11But it requires a really sensitive mind to see that most of what we call as laughter and pleasure and enjoyment too is a product of suffering.
11:23So spirituality addresses the sufferer.
11:26The one sitting here.
11:28The one sitting here.
11:29Now to address it, then you might require knowledge.
11:34Then you might require knowledge.
11:36For example, the Upanishads will say, that if you want to go beyond this vast pool of suffering, the Bhavasagar, then you require both Vidya and Avidya.
11:49What is Vidya?
11:50Knowledge of the Self.
11:51How my inner processes operate.
11:53What is Avidya?
11:54Knowledge of all the other things in the universe.
11:56You require both of them.
11:58And not only do you require both of them.
12:01When the knowers are asked to choose which of these two is more important when it comes to liberation.
12:10You know what the sages said?
12:12They said Avidya is more important.
12:14Avidya meaning this worldly knowledge.
12:17Worldly knowledge means knowledge of objects.
12:19Things that you perceive through your senses.
12:22So, this seeker of liberation is going to chase knowledge.
12:30But not for the sake of knowledge, but for the sake of freedom from suffering.
12:35That's the difference between something like neuroscience and spiritual science.
12:40Neuroscience, you can sit here, become somebody, become a scholar, become an HOD and yet remain suffering.
12:49Because it was never your intention in the first place to get rid of suffering and live life as joyfully as possible.
12:58The very starting point was that of remaining who you are and gathering more knowledge to appear knowledgeable or to earn worldly goodies.
13:08Or to just become respectable and knowledgeable in your own eyes.
13:13Spirituality too gathers knowledge.
13:15It is indispensable.
13:17You cannot not know the sciences, the arts.
13:22You cannot be low on general awareness and yet hope to be liberated.
13:27So, even in the field of self-knowledge, there is a great emphasis on being knowledgeable in as many fields as possible.
13:35But knowledge not for the sake of knowledge.
13:38Knowledge for the sake of liberation.
13:41That's the difference and that's a massive difference.
13:44Massive difference.
13:45Because we have just so many examples of people who are just so knowledgeable, extremely scholarly, encyclopedias in flesh and blood.
13:59And yet, their insides are very rotten.
14:02Don't we come across such people everyday?
14:05Sometimes we come across such a figure even in the mirror.
14:08Does it not happen?
14:09You know so much and yet you know that you sting from within.
14:12Does it not happen?
14:14It does happen with me sometimes.
14:16Doesn't happen with you?
14:17Surprise!
14:19So, you get the difference?
14:21The difference is in the very intention.
14:23And the commonality is that both of these fields respect knowledge a lot.
14:30Kindly do not think that spirituality implies becoming a Baba Ji who gives two hoots to the world.
14:36No!
14:37If you do not know how the world operates, you cannot know how the self operates because the world and the self are mirror images of each other.
14:44And the world is a place that is verifiable, where you can conduct experiments, where somebody else can come and falsify what you are claiming.
14:57When it comes to objective material, there your claims can be verified, falsified, peer reviewed, everything.
15:04But when it comes to the inner world and you say, you know, I am feeling blissful because I am meditating.
15:09Nobody can come and verify it and you might be bluffing to yourself, as most meditators do.
15:14And you are telling yourself, you know, I am all full of peace.
15:18How do we know? How do even you know?
15:21What's your definition of peace sir? And where is it coming from?
15:26So, if you want to know the self, you will have to know the world because these two move in tandem.
15:32These two move in tandem.
15:34Even the spiritual person, really spiritual person is very, very keen on knowing the latest developments in science and all other fields.
15:45But not so that he can become more full of knowledge.
15:51In fact, if you go to the highest scriptures, they will say the final bondage is knowledge itself.
16:00Because if you are identified with your knowledge, then you remain just a gyani, not a mukta.
16:10So, a point has to come where even knowledge becomes your plaything.
16:14Not that you delete it from your memory, not that you stop using it, but you stop identifying with it.
16:20Otherwise, knowledge can be a big burden.
16:21But the final thing is, keep all your knowledge aside and become free.
16:28Become free.
16:30This ultimate freedom is not something that scholars target, usually.
16:34That's the difference.
16:36Yes, yes, more on this, please.
16:38Yes, please.
16:40Hi, myself, Uspendra.
16:41I have some questions.
16:44Before that, I will make some.
16:47So, as you have claimed in your YouTube videos, you have a read and knowledge of so many Upanishad Gita and other religious scriptures.
16:55And in few videos, you claim that our society have downfall because of the corrupted or explanation by the people who are self-proclaimed owner of the religious.
17:05And now, can I believe on you?
17:08You will provide exact meaning of these books, what they want to provide or they want to convey the meaning.
17:13Very good question.
17:15Please.
17:17And I am not asking you the question like that.
17:19If I know you, you are correct explaining it, I will become your followers blindly.
17:23I will recheck it.
17:25But I want to read because I also want to read this book from basics.
17:30At least I should know basics of this.
17:32Yes.
17:33One more.
17:34I have confusion from my childhood.
17:36For the basic question, what is right and wrong?
17:38What is right?
17:39Wonderful.
17:40So, this what is right and wrong can also be applied to the first part of your question.
17:44How do I know which one is the right interpretation and which one is the wrong one?
17:48Good. Nice.
17:50See, you have to go, first of all, to yourself.
17:57There has to be a reason behind all human action.
18:03We will start from the utter basics.
18:06So that there is no question of believing in anything or following anybody.
18:10What is the one thing that anybody can be absolutely sure of?
18:21Good.
18:22But you have skipped five steps in the equation and taken the pleasure out of it.
18:32This answer will be evident to a few and not so evident to many.
18:42All right.
18:43Why do you say that we cannot be absolutely sure of the existence of this material here in the background, this thing?
18:48How do you say that we cannot be absolutely sure of the existence of this?
19:00Yes.
19:01Who said our own existence?
19:02Yes.
19:03How do you, how do you claim that we cannot say that this would here exists?
19:10Elaborate.
19:13Elaborate on that.
19:14I mean, if I spoke something, I can see a dinosaur standing there.
19:20Right?
19:21So, it is impossible to ask.
19:23So take that to the fundamentals, so that people can come to the same page.
19:28So, I am just saying that anything you perceive externally, it comes through your five senses.
19:36Yes, the word, the key word here is senses.
19:39And the next word would be subjectivity.
19:41Yeah.
19:42Key word here is senses.
19:45And so we have moved into epistemology.
19:47Right?
19:49The field of the proof of truthfulness of knowledge.
19:55Whether or not what you call as knowledge is knowledge or just subjective perception.
20:00So, we as human beings, we perceive through our senses and process through our mind.
20:06And mind has its own internal divisions within which is another thing.
20:11We perceive through these things.
20:13And a very basic practical experiment would reveal, let's say we say we have been speaking here, conversing here for the last 15 minutes.
20:21Right?
20:22If I ask each of us to write down, what is it that we have discussed?
20:28Objectively, in let's say five points.
20:32And we ask you to exchange your notes with your neighbour.
20:36You will find a great degree of divergence.
20:41Right?
20:42And not just divergence, you might find what you are writing is actually opposite to what your neighbour has written.
20:50Now, how is that possible?
20:51If you all perceive that there is just one speaker who is uttering just one line of these oral signals,
21:07then how is it that each of us are writing down different things in notebooks?
21:12Subjectivity.
21:14Subjectivity.
21:15Now, this subjectivity means that we do not know facts.
21:20We know our own facts.
21:23So, we cannot be too sure of that.
21:26The moment we come to see and accept that,
21:30anything and everything that is being perceived by the inner experiencer,
21:38comes into scrutiny and loses its absolute claim as being the truth.
21:54Right?
21:56What is it then that remains and can be said to exist?
22:02The one who is perceiving, even if he is perceiving all kinds of nonsense and our friend used the word dream.
22:15Even if he is dreaming, there is somebody dreaming.
22:18So, there is a dreamer.
22:19Even if somebody is hallucinating, there is somebody who is hallucinating.
22:23Then somebody could come up and say that the hallucinator or the dreamer himself, the experiencer himself is false.
22:29Is false?
22:31Is false?
22:33Well, that might be true.
22:35But that does not reduce your suffering.
22:38That does not reduce your suffering.
22:40Many of us suffer in dreams, don't we?
22:42Don't we?
22:44Even if it is a dream, we do suffer and that suffering is real.
22:48People have died in their sleep.
22:51Heart attacks because they were dreaming something very terrible.
22:55Right?
22:56Similarly, even if, you know, I show you this and you say these are six fingers.
23:02And you have this concept here that if you find a man with six or six and a half or seven fingers,
23:07then that means your death is imminent.
23:10And that makes you collapse.
23:11You are still suffering.
23:12Even if what you are seeing is totally false.
23:15Getting it?
23:16So, the sufferer must be taken as real because the sufferer is who we are.
23:21Even if that sufferer is suffering for false reasons, yet the sufferer does exist.
23:26There is somebody who is saying, I am.
23:31Even if the claim I am is false, yet this claim has to be taken with seriousness because that's a claim we all make and we all suffer.
23:39You remember we said, I am a student and what's the missing word there? What's silent in this statement?
23:48I am a suffering student.
23:51I am an employee and what's silent over there? Again, I am a suffering employee.
23:56So, the sufferer is definitely there.
23:58We start from there.
23:59So, first of all, the foundation has been solidly laid.
24:03I am not starting from a belief.
24:06I am not starting from a superstition.
24:09I am not saying that to enter the Upanishads, Vedanta, Bhagavad Gita, you have to have an a priori belief in something.
24:18Which many of the world's religious systems mandate.
24:22They say, if you want to enter our fold or if you want to go through our text.
24:28First of all, you have to believe that there is this special thing sitting in the skies and he made the world and we all have to obey his command.
24:38No.
24:40We are not starting from there and we have not yet gone to the Upanishads.
24:45It is not due to our belief in the Upanishads as secret scriptures that we are starting from this point.
24:50We are still with ourselves.
24:53We don't know what the Upanishads are.
24:55We just don't know what the Upanishads are.
24:56We are purely with ourselves.
24:58And this is a very, very scientific thing.
25:00I am with myself and I see that I suffer.
25:02Right?
25:04So, what's the next thing?
25:06If I want to take...
25:12Yes, yes, yes.
25:14I am saying that the same logic can be extrapolated to enjoy.
25:16The only difference is, in your moments of true enjoyment, the question, who am I, where am I, this question disappears.
25:26So, as long as there is the question, who am I, it indicates presence of suffering.
25:30When you are joyful, do existential questions arise in your mind?
25:36And I am not talking of flimsy happiness.
25:38I am talking of joy of immersion in something very meaningful.
25:42So, this question of identity and all kinds of...
25:46See, every question denotes a problem behind.
25:48Joy is not a problem.
25:50Joy is not a problem.
25:51Suffering is a problem.
25:52So, when you are joyful, then this question, who am I, why do I exist, and where is this suffering coming from, then it does not remain there.
26:01So, the whole thing gets invalidated.
26:03Gone.
26:05So, the problem, who am I, is only to the one who suffers.
26:09Otherwise, there is no question of who am I.
26:10The Jnani, the Mukta, if I refer to the scriptures, they do not ask Koham, who am I.
26:17Koham is for the one who is entangled.
26:20Koham is simply simple, who am I.
26:23So, I start from there, I am the sufferer, and I have yet not gone to the Upanishad or the Gita.
26:29Now, to whom should I go?
26:31If the I is the problem, if the I is the problem, and when I ask who am I, I don't get an answer.
26:38Then please tell me, logically.
26:43What should I do?
26:45If the I is the problem, I is the sufferer, and I do not get an answer to who am I, and why do I suffer?
26:52Who should be approached now?
26:56The I has to be approached, right?
26:58First of all, I will try things within myself.
27:00I will try thinking, I will try observing, I will do as much as I can.
27:04That's the basic prerequisite of honesty.
27:05If I have a problem, the onus of challenging it lies on, firstly, on myself.
27:12So, I will try things at my own level, with my own capacity, I will do all those things.
27:17And when I find that I am getting saturated in terms of my own efforts, who will I go to?
27:22The I is the problem, so I will go to, come on.
27:38No, no, the I is here, and I have tried out everything, and I have gained some success.
27:42I find I am better illuminated than before, but yet there are lots of cobwebs within.
27:48There is a haze I cannot penetrate.
27:51Who? Who? That's true. I have to go to now, somebody who is outside, but how do I know who is the one outside I need to go to?
28:01The question is so easy. The I is the problem, so I will have to go to?
28:14Yes, please.
28:16The I is the problem.
28:18The I is the problem.
28:19And I am not talking of going to a person.
28:22Because he is talking of the Gita and the Upanishads.
28:25So, if I is the problem, what kind of books will I go to?
28:30Or should I go to?
28:32No, don't name Vedanta. Don't say Vedanta.
28:34Yes.
28:39If I is the problem, then I should not go to me?
28:42I have already gone within myself and found that I am getting obstructed, because I myself am the problem.
28:46So, now I have to go to something else.
28:50Anything that is not me might further complicate the problem of me, because that is my own object.
28:59If I am confused, and if I go to something random, who is choosing that random thing? I.
29:05Wait, wait, wait. Let me first finish off with my line of inquiry.
29:08Okay, I will go to something that talks exclusively of the eye.
29:18If I have trouble in my tooth, I am not going to visit a cobbler.
29:24If I have trouble in my nose, I am not going to visit the renal department, nephrology.
29:30I am not going to do that.
29:33So, if I is the problem, I will have to go to a book that talks exclusively of the eye.
29:39Purely of the eye.
29:41And using my own discretion, I will have to see whether the book is being honest about it.
29:46Or if there is a hidden agenda.
29:48Is the book trying to push stories, belief systems?
29:51Or is the book helping me inquire in a better and more refined way?
29:58The Upanishads are such books because their subject matter is nothing but the eye.
30:03Nothing but the eye.
30:05And to the extent, the Upanishads too, some of the primary Upanishads,
30:09including some of the Pramukh Upanishads,
30:11they have other subject matter as well.
30:14Because they are the primary ones, the first ones.
30:18So, they are not yet as refined and they are very thick volumes.
30:23Being thick, it means that they may contain other things as well beyond the inquiry into the eye.
30:29And as you move on, you find that the later Upanishads,
30:33they keep gaining in brevity.
30:36They keep on becoming smaller in terms of the length of the volume.
30:41And they do not deviate from the central problem of the Self.
30:46That's the reason why we go to the Upanishads.
30:51Okay? Getting it?
30:53Not because we are Hindus or Sanatanis.
30:55Not because we have to believe in some creed.
30:58But because eye is a real problem that I must find a real solution to.
31:03That's why we go there.
31:04Now, even among the Upanishads, there is diversity because they were composed over a long stretch of time,
31:13extending even the Upanishads. I am not talking of the Sangeeta part of the Vedas.
31:17Even the Upanishads were composed over a period of around 10 centuries.
31:2110 centuries. And spread across a vast geography.
31:26Right from, you could say, Sindh and parts even to the west of Sindh.
31:31Extending right till almost Bengal.
31:35And then from there, Kashmir till down south.
31:38As south as the sages of that time could have gone.
31:43So, it's a vast territory and the means of communications were not very well developed.
31:48So, even among the Upanishads, there is a fair degree of diversity.
31:51So, how do we know?
31:52What is the very, very precise subject matter of the Upanishads?
31:59Because I am looking for something very precise.
32:01I.
32:03So then, we refer to the Mahabakyas of the Upanishads.
32:07Mahabakyas.
32:09So, four of them are universally accepted.
32:12We know of them. General knowledge.
32:14But it's not just four.
32:16The list can be extended to 20 or 40.
32:18Right?
32:19Then you see from there, that the Upanishads talk of nothing but the problem of the Self.
32:24They are philosophical documents.
32:26They are talking of the problem of the Self.
32:29Which means,
32:31which means,
32:32that anything that claims to be based on the Upanishads.
32:36But talks of things other than the Self has to be negated.
32:40Right or wrong.
32:42That is how you detect,
32:44when you are reading a wrong kind of line of interpretation.
32:47Sir,
32:49the agenda of the meeting was
32:52Self.
32:53And you are blabbering about something else.
32:55You are talking about this kind of ritual, that kind of ritual, this belief, that belief,
32:59the world system, the ashram system.
33:01Sir, we are not here to talk of that.
33:03We are not here to talk of the wife's responsibilities towards the husband.
33:06We are here to talk of the central and universal problem of the Self.
33:12And you say,
33:14that your interpretation, your Bhasha, your Vyakhya, your Tikha, your Exodus, is based on Vedanta.
33:20But Vedanta is Self. Why are you talking of other things?
33:23And so many stories you have come up with.
33:26What does the problem of Self have to do with stories?
33:28So many stories you are coming up with.
33:31Sometimes the stories can be useful in delivering a point.
33:35But that point has to be the Self.
33:38But look at your stories. To what extent are your stories bringing me closer to myself?
33:43And to what extent are they taking me actually away from myself?
33:46So whenever you come across something that is dealing in stories and beliefs, you must know that is not Vedanta.
33:53That is not Vedanta at all.
33:58This is how you detect right and wrong.
34:01This is how you know which interpretation is worth it and which of is just a product of human mind, human thought, human imagination.
34:08We have imaginations of our own.
34:10Why do you want to overload ourselves with imaginations of others as well?
34:13Sir, if I have to dream, I have my own dreams.
34:17If I have to hallucinate.
34:19If I have to be foolish.
34:21I already have my own foolishness.
34:23Enough of them.
34:25Why do I have to embrace your foolishness as well?
34:28So, Vedanta and anything related to Vedanta has to deal exclusively with the Self.
34:34A little bit of deation from the Self.
34:37And you must keep the book abe.
34:39This is not worth it.
34:41You do not understand Vedanta.
34:42Instead of Vedanta, you are dealing in something else.
34:45You are bringing your personal prejudices in.
34:48Your thoughts of your racial superiority or the supremacy of your beliefs or the greatness of your land.
34:58All those things you are bringing it in.
35:00Vedanta has no time for this kind of stupidity.
35:03This place is superior.
35:05These people are superior.
35:06This gender is superior.
35:07This is superior.
35:08That is superior.
35:09You have to believe in this.
35:10Those who don't believe in this, they go to Swarg and Narg.
35:13Sir, we are not interested in going to Swarg.
35:15We are interested in getting liberation from the inner hell we currently, right now, presently are in.
35:23I don't want relief after death.
35:25I want relief right now.
35:27So, anything that talks of all these things, what will happen to you after you die, what was happening to you before you took birth, that's not Vedanta.
35:33Vedanta deals with only one problem.
35:37The problem of the self.
35:39The false self is Aham.
35:41The final truth is Atma.
35:44That's the importance Vedanta accords to the self.
35:49The self itself is the absolute truth.
35:52Because everything else is just a product, a manifestation, a projection of the self.
35:58The final truth itself is Atma.
36:00And by Atma, we do not mean the thing that flies out of your body after your death.
36:05We are not talking about something bodily.
36:08Atma is the absolute truth, not something related to the body.
36:13Not something that enters your body when you are in your mother's womb, and then flies away, and goes to some other loke, and then enters your body when you are about to take another birth.
36:23No, no, no, no. That's not Vedanta. No.
36:24No. These are very, very, very easy kind of beliefs that were slipped into the system later on.
36:37So here I am.