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

Acharya Prashant

‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquir...   Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books? Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...  ➖➖➖➖➖➖  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

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

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

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

00:36and women.

00:37Nobody wants to talk about this elephant in the room, consuming other men and women.

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

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

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

01:09Do I call it ignorance, do I call it deliberate mischief?

01:13People talk about cutting down on consumption of air conditioners and cars, people also

01:21talk about planting trees and not cutting down trees.

01:26But nobody wants to talk about the gorilla in the room, well there are many, but the

01:37biggest one.

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

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

02:08And all animals do that, man is not the only animal who does that, it is just that man

02:14is intellectually much more capable, his intellectual ammunition is devastating.

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

02:35the bodies of fellow animals, animals too consume trees and mountains and rivers, they

02:41do that, don't they?

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

02:51have done what they have done.

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

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

03:10I want to interrupt in between, with the entire discussion up till now, you used two words

03:20initially that man is bound to do this, that he has that kind of outlook towards the world,

03:25looking at the material world and also that it is in this very constitution.

03:32The moment I hear these two words, it feels like that as if the man who is just looking

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

03:42of consumptions.

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

03:51increase is decreasing up till now and it has also been seen that if, especially women

03:59are educated even in the worldly stuff, in the basic economics and everything, it has

04:04been seen that the fertility rate increases as their education increases.

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

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

04:23So somehow it gives a promising fact.

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

04:31rate is the lowest?

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

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

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

04:51very-very green countries, that is the thing with consumption.

04:56If you do not consume one thing, you will feast on something else.

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

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

05:17So what do you find there?

05:18You have population there and then you have countries where the population growth has

05:24been limited, yet there is unlimited carbon release.

05:31So it is not about population, it is not about gadgets and it is not about vegetarianism

05:38or veganism.

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

05:47that incompletion through consumption, till you do not address that, man will consume.

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

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

06:15So you do not find much population growth there.

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

06:26Not at all.

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

06:32gadgets.

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

06:38have kids.

06:40You say, oh, kids are such a hassle, you know, I want to live life and enjoy life and

06:46have the big life.

06:48So you do not have kids, but what are you doing?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

07:44at 11 billion, will that make you happy?

07:50There is not going to be a fall, we are talking of still moving from 8.5, 8 to 11, we are

08:00not in 8.8, we are at 8 and we are talking of moving to 11 and we were 2.5 in the 1950s

08:08or 1960s, from there we have come to 8 and we are traveling to 11.

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

08:28has a greatly positive effect when it comes to climate change.

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

08:51not seen it?

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

09:05So those who talk of population alone are mistaken, those who talk of material consumption

09:14alone are mistaken and those who talk of food habits and food choices alone are also mistaken

09:21because none of them is seeing the bigger and total picture, none of them is seeing

09:27that eating animal flesh and feasting yourself on your wife's flesh repeatedly are somewhere

09:37the same thing.

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

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

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

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

10:08can have everything nice to eat and we very well know that food choices are responsible

10:14for probably a third of all carbon emissions, are they not?

10:20Where are food choices coming from?

10:23Food choices are coming from exactly the same place, this uncontrolled population is coming

10:28from, food choices are coming from exactly the same place our obsession with GDP growth

10:32is coming from.

10:33They are all coming from the center that says happiness can be had through more and more

10:39stuff.

10:41The stuff could be a kid in the family, the stuff could be the latest recipe on the internet

10:49or the stuff could be the latest laptop in the market, but it's all about stuff.

10:59Nobody wants to talk about man's tendency to have stuff and even if you don't want to

11:07go that deep because it becomes uncomfortable, at least talk about the most important leg

11:18among these three legs, the one that we are deliberately ignoring, talk about the taboo

11:33that living single is in most of the world still, talk about the concept of the fullness

11:44that pervades the developing and the developed world much the same, I am there, I have a

11:56woman in my life and I must have a couple of kids, that's what makes for a happy life

12:03and obviously a house full of goodies to keep the three or four of us happy, that's global

12:11warming for you, the happiness, the concept of the happy family.

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

12:21we will be dealing…

12:22No, we need to talk about that and we need to substantiate what we have just said with

12:27facts and figures, otherwise it remains a mere man's opinion.

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

12:42will convince…

12:43At least we should know what is the result of going out, about that you can have facts

12:48and figures.

12:49I see that is already ready with so much, surely these are not stuff or data pieces

12:56related to meditation, it's about what results when man proceeds on this wild adventure called

13:06the pursuit of happiness.

13:11Global warming is the result of our various pleasures and happinesses, till the time we

13:18keep thinking that the objective of man's life is to be happy and happy in an external

13:24way, you will have climate change and you will have this sixth or seventh mass extension

13:33that is very much upon us.

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