Nobody wants to talk about this Violence! || Interview with Acharya Prashant (2019)

Acharya Prashant

Full Video: The Climate Crisis is a Spiritual Crisis || Interview with Acharya Prashant (2019) Link:      • The Climate Crisis is a Spiritual Cri...    ➖➖➖➖➖➖  ‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquir...  ⚡ Want Acharya Prashant’s regular updates? Join WhatsApp Channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Va6Z...   Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books? Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...   Want to accelerate Acharya Prashant’s work? Contribute: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/contri...   Want to work with Acharya Prashant? Apply to the Foundation here: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/hiring...  ➖➖➖➖➖➖  Video Information: Advait Learning Camp, 28.09.2019, Advait BodhSthal, Greater Noida, India   Context: ~ Why is Nature so violent? ~ How are we associated with the body? ~ Why does man need liberation? ~ Must man kill and slaughter in order to survive? ~ Why does man kill other animals? ~ Why is man destroying the nature? ~ Is there Universe without consciousness?  Music Credits: Milind Date ~~~~~~~~~

Transcript

00:00 Every bit of consumption that man does is carbon intensive, is it not?

00:13 And of the three legs of consumption that I just mentioned, consuming man-made stuff,

00:24 consuming trees and animals and fish and mountains and trees and rivers and consuming other men

00:35 and women.

00:36 Nobody wants to talk about this elephant in the room, consuming other men and women.

00:45 And when we take this discussion further, we will probably be a bit surprised to see

00:56 that it is this leg of consumption that is the most responsible for the climate adversity

01:04 that we see and is the most ignored one.

01:09 Do I call it ignorance?

01:10 Do I call it deliberate mischief?

01:13 People talk about cutting down on consumption of air conditioners and cars.

01:20 People also talk about planting trees and not cutting down trees.

01:26 But nobody wants to talk about the gorilla in the room.

01:34 Well, there are many, but the biggest one.

01:40 Nobody wants to talk about the consumption of one body by another body and the happiness

01:48 that it seems to bring and the resulting numbers it is bound to create.

02:08 And all animals do that.

02:11 Man is not the only animal who does that.

02:13 It is just that man is intellectually much more capable.

02:18 His intellectual ammunition is devastating.

02:27 So he does that on a scale that is just not possible for animals.

02:34 Animals too consume the bodies of fellow animals.

02:38 Animals too consume trees and mountains and rivers.

02:41 They do that, don't they?

02:43 But man does that on a much much greater scale and animals feel satisfied once they have

02:51 done what they have done.

02:53 Man's problem is in spite of consuming fellow human beings, gadgets and trees and rivers

03:02 and animals on a scale that is a million times bigger, he still does not feel satisfied.

03:10 I want to interrupt in between.

03:14 With the entire discussion up till now, you used two words initially that man is bound

03:22 to do this, that he has that kind of outlook towards the world, looking at the material

03:27 world and also that it is in this very constitution.

03:31 The moment I hear these two words, it feels like that as if the man who is just looking

03:37 at the outside world has no capacity to stop at these three consumptions, these three levels

03:42 of consumptions.

03:44 But as I move forward with the data and everything, I see that since 1960s, the rate of population

03:51 increase is decreasing up till now.

03:55 And it has also been seen that if especially women are educated even in the worldly stuff,

04:01 in the basic economics and everything, it has been seen that fertility rate increases

04:09 as their education increases.

04:12 For example, if a woman is just maybe studied till graduate level, the fertility level is

04:18 high, if the woman is post graduate level, the fertility level is low.

04:23 So somehow it gives up promising fact.

04:26 What do you say about the carbon footprints of those nations Udit, where the fertility

04:31 rate is the lowest?

04:33 Let us talk about the US, let us talk about Europe, obviously, right?

04:38 The fertility factor there has come down to 2.1, 2.2, sometimes even below 2.0.

04:46 So their carbon emissions must have surely now decreased and they must be surely now

04:51 very very green countries.

04:55 That is the thing with consumption, if you do not consume one thing, you will feast

05:03 on something else.

05:06 So there are the poor countries, they do not have goodies to feast on, they do not have

05:11 gadgets and the buildings and the cars and all the goodies.

05:17 So what do you find there?

05:20 The population there and then you have countries where the population growth has been limited.

05:25 Yet there is unlimited carbon release.

05:31 So it's not about population, it's not about gadgets and it's not about vegetarianism or

05:38 veganism.

05:39 It is about man's fundamental tendency to see himself as incomplete and take care of

05:47 that incompletion through consumption.

05:50 Till you do not address that, man will consume.

05:56 So you may have a man or a woman in Japan who is now empowered, literate, has all the

06:05 means to take care of his or her fertility.

06:15 So you don't find much population growth there.

06:17 But has that, I am asking you, resulted in an overall shrinking of the carbon footprint?

06:25 Not at all.

06:27 Because if you do not want to have happiness through kids, you will have happiness through

06:32 gadgets.

06:33 In fact, it is because you want to have more happiness through gadgets, so you refuse to

06:38 have kids.

06:39 You say, "Oh, kids are such a hassle.

06:44 You know, I want to live life and enjoy life and have the big life."

06:48 So you don't have kids, but what are you doing?

06:51 You are going ahead and exploiting the entire world and releasing carbon.

06:55 You will release carbon in some way or the other.

07:00 If not through begetting kids, then through doing something else.

07:06 Don't you see that people are not refusing to have kids because they have become wiser,

07:13 they are refusing to have kids because they want to have a more happy life, not a more

07:24 wise life, not a wiser life, but a happier life.

07:32 Further, if you rely on these things, yes, obviously, the world population is going to

07:39 stabilize by the end of this century, today we are 8 billion, the population will stabilize

07:44 at 11 billion.

07:45 Will that make you happy?

07:50 There is not going to be a fall.

07:56 We are talking of still moving from 8.5, 8 to 11.

07:59 We are not even 8.5, we are 8.

08:01 We are at 8 and we are talking of moving to 11.

08:06 And we were 2.5 in the 1950s or 1960s.

08:10 From there we have come to 8 and we are travelling to 11.

08:15 So it is not that literacy and material welfare and accessibility to birth control measures

08:33 has a greatly positive effect when it comes to climate change.

08:41 A country develops, the fertility rate falls, but the carbon footprint expands.

08:49 Have you not seen it?

08:53 The country develops, the fertility rate falls, but nevertheless the carbon footprint expands.

09:01 So, those who talk of population alone are mistaken.

09:12 Those who talk of material consumption alone are mistaken.

09:16 And those who talk of food habits and food choices alone are also mistaken.

09:21 Because none of them is seeing the bigger and total picture.

09:25 None of them is seeing that eating animal flesh and feasting yourself on your wife's

09:34 flesh repeatedly are somewhere the same thing.

09:39 None of them are seeing that your tendency to go to the mall and buy the latest gadget

09:46 and then go to the food court in the mall and have the most delectable meals is the same.

09:57 Is it any coincidence that a shopping mall offers both?

10:03 You can have everything nice to wear, you can have everything nice to watch and you

10:08 can have everything nice to eat.

10:12 And we very well know that food choices are responsible for probably a third of all carbon

10:18 emissions.

10:19 Are they not?

10:20 Where are food choices coming from?

10:22 Food choices are coming from exactly the same place.

10:26 This uncontrolled population is coming from.

10:29 Food choices are coming from exactly the same place our obsession with GDP growth is coming

10:33 from.

10:34 They are all coming from the center that says happiness can be had through more and more

10:39 stuff.

10:40 The stuff could be a kid in the family, the stuff could be the latest recipe on the internet

10:48 or the stuff could be the latest laptop in the market.

10:52 But it's all about stuff.

10:59 Nobody wants to talk about man's tendency to have stuff.

11:06 And even if you don't want to go that deep because it becomes uncomfortable, at least

11:13 talk about the most important leg among these three legs, the one that we are deliberately

11:22 ignoring.

11:27 Talk about the taboo that living single is in most of the world still.

11:41 Talk about the concept of the full nest that pervades the developing and the developed

11:49 world much the same.

11:54 I am there, I have a woman in my life and I must have a couple of kids, you know.

12:01 That's what makes for a happy life and obviously a house full of goodies to keep the three

12:08 or four of us happy.

12:10 That's global warming for you, the happiness, the concept of the happy family.

12:15 It seems that in the upcoming episodes we won't be talking about global warming as such,

12:21 we will be dealing.

12:22 We need to talk about that and we need to substantiate what we have just said with facts

12:27 and figures.

12:28 Otherwise, it remains a mere man's opinion.

12:33 But Acharyaji, if the tendency to go out instead of looking in, is there what facts, what figures

12:42 will convince?

12:43 At least we should know what is the result of going out.

12:47 About that you can have facts and figures.

12:48 I see that is already ready with so much.

12:52 Obviously these are not stuff or data pieces related to meditation.

12:58 It's about what results when man proceeds on this wild adventure called the pursuit of happiness.

13:11 Global warming is the result of our various pleasures and happiness.

13:17 Till the time we keep thinking that the objective of man's life is to be happy and happy in

13:23 an external way, you will have climate change and you will have this sixth or seventh mass

13:32 extension that is very much upon us.

13:34 Thank you.

13:47 Thank you.

13:49 [MUSIC PLAYING]

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