Evolution is a myth; we are still animals || Acharya Prashant

Acharya Prashant

Video Information: Shastra Kaumudi, 20.12.2021, Rishikesh, India  Context: ~ Why there is so much suffering in life? ~ Do we suffer by our own choice? ~ How to avoid pain and suffering?   Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~  #acharyaprashant

Transcript

00:00 We said that nothing has inwardly changed, so we are essentially inwardly the same people

00:08 who are roaming the jungle.

00:11 So, but a question comes in that definitely somewhere during the course of evolution we

00:22 became this human species, so there has, so somewhere there has been inward evolution

00:28 also or has there been no inward evolution?

00:32 There has been no inward evolution.

00:35 Let us discuss that.

00:41 Look at an amoeba or a paramecium.

00:48 Don't you see that its basic instinct is just the same as that of the most evolved human

00:58 being?

01:06 It wants to exist.

01:09 You want to exist.

01:12 What has changed?

01:13 You are still the amoeba.

01:16 You can contradict me in a thousand ways possible.

01:21 What I am saying is so vulnerable to arguments that you can trash it in no time, but with

01:37 some empathy and understanding try to get into the truth of it.

01:44 With all our evolutionary gifts, intellect, memory, muscle, the subsequent development

02:01 of a suitable and comfortable ecosystem aided by technology, are we still fundamentally

02:14 different from any other kind of conscious life form on the planet anywhere else?

02:23 Tell me please.

02:27 An amoeba reproduces.

02:31 So do we.

02:34 An amoeba eats.

02:37 So do we.

02:38 No sir, but you know there is so much that we do not share with amoebas.

02:47 Let's see please.

02:50 Is there anything that you do that is fundamentally not centered on stuff that amoeba does?

03:00 An amoeba wants its space, its territory.

03:08 Even a little plant does, a blade of grass does, the most primitive being does.

03:21 See what do you use your knowledge and your skills for?

03:29 Aren't your resources, your money going so much towards acquiring space and territory,

03:42 both physical and psychological?

03:45 Tell me please, an amoeba wants to have personal space, space that it can declare as its own,

03:56 territory that it can monopolize.

03:59 That's what even an amoeba wants.

04:09 You could say we do so much, but aren't we doing so much just to do what the amoeba does?

04:18 The amoeba obviously doesn't go to the office every day.

04:21 You do go to the office, but you go to the office to do what the amoeba does.

04:34 Amoeba has no laboratories, it does not develop technologies, but we have laboratories and

04:40 we have developed technologies to do what the amoeba does.

04:48 The amoeba does not have language, we have language.

04:52 What do we use language for?

04:55 To do what amoeba does.

05:03 What do you speak for, please tell me?

05:06 We said the session today started late because the people around were playing loud music

05:12 and such stuff.

05:15 What were all those songs about?

05:22 They were about reproduction, you see, let's put it bluntly.

05:28 The fellow wants to mate, he is using words to invite the other human, the other human

05:39 of the opposite gender to mate and that's what we call as songs.

05:46 At least that's the kind of songs we use on celebratory New Year Eve.

05:55 So you have language, what do you use language for?

05:57 You use language to mate.

06:02 That's also what the amoeba does without using language.

06:09 In fact the amoeba is more efficient.

06:13 You use so many words just because you are wooing a female.

06:18 Words and instruments and loudspeakers, goodness.

06:31 You know amoeba is so efficient that not only does it not need words, it does not even need

06:37 a female.

06:43 It just multiplies on its own.

06:48 It's both a male and a female.

06:49 It's neither a male nor a female.

06:55 Is there anything that you do that is fundamentally different from what an amoeba does?

07:02 So where is evolution, please tell me?

07:08 Whatever we do, we do for the sake of existence.

07:12 We want to remain, we want to remain as we are.

07:16 That's also exactly what the amoeba wants.

07:19 How are you different?

07:33 Today we have taken the amoeba, at other times I have taken up the dog.

07:39 We will find that offensive.

07:42 So I said fine, amoeba.

07:48 But I still maintain that the dog is more handy.

07:53 If you look at all that a dog does and you look at all that you do, it would be so easy

08:01 to establish a clear mapping, a very direct correlation.

08:13 There is not a single thing that you do and a dog doesn't.

08:18 Where is your evolutionary superiority?

08:22 Tell me please.

08:25 But we read, for what?

08:31 For what do you read?

08:35 You read to feed yourself, you read to clothe yourself, you read to acquire physical, psychological

08:45 space.

08:49 A dog manages all of that, even without reading.

08:58 You need to draw international boundaries.

09:01 The dog just has to lift his leg.

09:09 The dog doesn't have to appoint a commission, MacMohan or something to draw a meticulate

09:20 international boundary.

09:24 This is my territory.

09:25 How do I mark it?

09:28 By peeing.

09:33 That's the truth of all territorial occupation, all territorial obsession.

09:39 You want territory so that you can pee and shit over it, irrespective of whether that

09:46 territory is physical, mental or bodily.

09:53 Why do you want to acquire territory in the form of a human body?

09:57 I own you, you are mine, you are my territory.

10:00 Just as that's my scooter, that's my car, that's my bungalow, that's my wife or husband.

10:08 What do I do?

10:09 How do I acquire the territory?

10:11 I'll pee over it.

10:20 That's already offensive, but can't help it.

10:29 What else do you do once you have acquired a man or a woman?

10:32 Think of it, please.

10:35 There was one thing that you could not do without acquiring that person, spoil his or

10:40 her body.

10:42 Once you have acquired him, then...

10:48 Literal shit.

10:51 No?

10:54 No, but we keep our houses clean.

11:19 And why are you saying that we acquire territory?

11:23 To spoil it.

11:24 Once we acquire territory, in fact we make additional efforts to keep it clean.

11:29 That's what.

11:30 The cleanliness that you are talking of is shit.

11:37 You acquire territory to use it to maintain yourself.

11:44 The dog uses territory to suit its own personal purpose.

11:51 That's what we are calling as spoiling or dirtying.

11:56 So, it might appear that you are keeping your place very clean, but still the purpose is

12:05 very dirty.

12:06 The purpose is continuation of my existence as I am.

12:12 My place will be used to provide me comfort and security.

12:18 That's a very dirty purpose.

12:31 Evolution will not take you beyond the body or the self.

12:39 Wisdom would.

12:41 That's why I keep hopping.

12:46 Don't attach too much significance to age.

12:53 No age is small enough to prevent you from moving into wisdom.

13:13 And no age is advanced enough to prevent you from moving into wisdom.

13:24 Evolution will not help.

13:26 Experience will not help.

13:27 Age will not help.

13:30 Only wisdom would help.

13:31 If you think that experience will deliver wisdom to you, you are badly mistaken.

13:41 If you think being called a senior citizen will deliver you from Maya, you are in a fool's

13:55 paradise.

13:57 So, we as human beings do have the possibility of going beyond what is fundamentally the

14:10 same with all other animals.

14:13 Because if we as human beings we can perform these five steps and go towards liberation

14:22 which an animal cannot do.

14:25 An animal does not want to do.

14:26 That's not how it is biologically constituted.

14:30 So, this quest, this potential, is this also biological?

14:36 Yes.

14:37 This potential is the potential of your body.

14:45 Only your body is designed in a way that the consciousness attached to it can seek freedom

14:59 from it.

15:04 You could even say that only man is unfortunate enough to not remain contended with the body.

15:17 All other life forms are contended with the body.

15:26 Only man is born with a special urge.

15:32 This you could take as his superiority or his misfortune.

15:41 No animal experiences the angst that a human being does.

15:52 Animals don't have to go through so much tension and inner strife.

15:58 They don't turn depressed, neurotic, suicidal so easily.

16:10 We do because we are special.

16:15 We are special animals.

16:18 Hello.

16:20 Not that we are absolutely special.

16:22 We are just special animals.

16:30 Acharyaji previously in the answer you specified that there is nothing evolutionary which is

16:38 in us.

16:39 But in our Vedas and scriptures, in the ten avatars, we were marine first and then gradually

16:52 the last stage is the meditative man.

16:55 That has been described.

16:58 And meditative as in the current state which has the potential of, which is able to discuss

17:05 this.

17:08 And while we see that this is the potential which has come through the evolution which

17:13 we just came to, but you also straight away disagree that there is anything biologically

17:24 evolutionary that is going to come which will uplift us.

17:29 So how to reconcile?

17:32 The problem is potential is a very deceptive word.

17:38 You use the word potential to defend your notion that man is special.

17:55 You say man has the potential for liberation therefore man is special.

18:01 You say man has the potential for liberation therefore man is better than animals.

18:08 I take potential as a phantom, as Maya, myth.

18:22 Potentially we are all divine.

18:24 Potentially we are all the true self, Atma.

18:26 So what?

18:28 So what?

18:29 Where is that potential expressing itself in your life?

18:36 The only use you have for that potential is that you use it to defend your unreasonable

18:47 sense of grandeur and superiority.

18:50 We are potentially great.

18:52 Two hoots to your potential.

18:57 What are you really?

18:59 What are you living as?

19:00 Potentially yes you could be sage Angiras.

19:06 What are you living your life as?

19:07 Tell me that.

19:08 You are living your life as the amoeba.

19:12 Therefore I will call you the amoeba.

19:13 I won't call you Angiras.

19:19 You might be born with so much potential.

19:24 That's actually unfortunate because you will die with so much potential.

19:28 Would have been better had you been born with no potential because that potential is never

19:36 going to fructify.

19:38 You will just die with it.

19:41 With you it would be turned to ashes.

19:48 What's the point in talking of that mythical potential and singing and dancing around it?

20:03 You know our possible glory or current debauchery.

20:20 I want to talk of the latter because without talking of your current debauchery, your possible

20:32 glory is anyway always going to remain just myth, a utopia, a chimera.

20:57 Like people talk of their great ancestors.

21:10 You know I come from the line of the great king who once used to rule Delhi.

21:19 How does that help you?

21:20 Look at your life.

21:21 How does that help you?

21:28 I come from the line of the Buddha or Mahavir.

21:31 Who are you?

21:34 Who are you?

21:36 Look at your life.

21:40 All the time you are violent and you are talking of Buddha and Mahavir.

21:47 What do you know?

21:51 I come from the line of sage Agastya and even as you say this you are spitting chicken bone

22:08 out from your mouth, steeped in ignorance.

22:19 You are talking of this glory, that glory, this highness, that beauty.

22:36 Potentially you could have been the topper of your class.

22:40 No?

22:44 I want to know what you actually did.

22:52 Potentially you could have won 8 Nobel prizes by now.

23:01 But I know you couldn't have graduated without cheating.

23:04 That's your reality.

23:17 Isn't it actually a disgrace that in spite of having a potential we live the life of

23:27 an amoeba?

23:29 Doesn't that not only make us equal to but rather worse than the amoeba?

23:39 The amoeba never had the potential of being anything beyond the amoeba.

23:44 You had the potential and you still lived as the amoeba.

23:48 Now tell me are you better or worse than the amoeba?

23:52 Worse than the amoeba.

23:53 That's the reason I keep saying the dogs are better than us.

23:59 They are at least performing to their average.

24:03 You know there is a tailender, I am talking of cricket.

24:10 His average is 10, batting average 10.

24:15 He has no more potential.

24:16 His batting average is 10 and he comes to bat and gets out at 10.

24:25 Is that bad performance?

24:26 Not at all.

24:27 He is performing to his average.

24:28 You are a top order batsman.

24:34 Your average is 58.

24:36 That's your potential right?

24:37 You could have made 58 or more.

24:41 And you come and you get out at 10.

24:47 Who is better?

24:48 The tailender or you?

24:50 So the dogs are better than us.

25:05 Happened with me.

25:08 I stood third in my class, class 4 or 5 and got bashed up at home.

25:23 Wasn't a bad performance by any means.

25:27 Stood in a class of 40 or 50, got beaten up.

25:38 And then I rebelled.

25:44 I said this my sister, she never even manages a single digit rank.

25:57 But happily she carries her report card, comes in, throws it away and starts rolling on

26:05 the bed.

26:08 And nobody utters a word to her.

26:13 All the time she is just happy.

26:19 I burn the midnight oil.

26:22 She keeps snoring.

26:27 She comes 13th in her class, I came third.

26:34 She is still happy.

26:38 I have been bashed up.

26:40 This won't do.

26:51 My mother said you have done far worse than her.

26:54 I couldn't really grasp.

26:58 Now I think I do.

27:08 If you have potential and you don't live up to it, life will offer you the harshest

27:20 punishment.

27:26 Because you have failed in your one duty as a human being, to materialize your potential.

27:34 That's your only dharma.

27:37 Your potential, the Upanishads call as Atma.

27:45 You have it and yet you do not have it.

27:52 (electronic music)

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