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An upper limit to salary? || Acharya Prashant, with IIT Ropar (2022)
Acharya Prashant
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9/4/2024
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~~~~~
Video Information: 16.05.2022, IIT-Ropar, Greater Noida, U.P.
Context:
What Is a Salary Range and How Do Employers Use It?
What is the maximum salary of an employee?
What are your salary expectations?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Category
📚
Learning
Transcript
Display full video transcript
00:00
Good afternoon sir. Sir, I have two questions. So, the first one is that just like there
00:10
is a concept of minimum wage, do you believe that there should be a concept of maximum
00:14
wealth because the riches of our society are just like black holes sucking all the resources
00:20
from the society. Though they seem to be ethically and legally correct, at the end of the day,
00:26
the large heaps of wealth make no sense to me when I see the tremendous poverty rampant
00:30
in our society. Right. Just as it is wonderful to have a minimum wage, the corresponding
00:47
idea should not be maximum wage, but proportional resources. Now, we will go into that. Proportional
00:58
resources. When you say maximum wage, what you mean is that there ought to be an upper
01:03
limit on how much wealth a single individual can own. Right. No, there can be a better
01:13
idea. The idea is proportional resources. Resources proportional to what? Proportional
01:26
to the importance of work that you are doing. This would be the Vedantic view on that. This
01:39
would be the right, deep and informed view on wealth distribution or income distribution.
01:53
You see, who am I? Who are you? And what do we therefore want?
02:00
We are conscious beings. Right. Obviously. So we are consciousness. And what do we want?
02:13
We want this consciousness to rise, to be higher, to be better and to be more free.
02:22
If that's what we want, what do we require? We require resources because for whatever you
02:32
want to do as an embodied being, you require resources of all kinds. And that's the only
02:41
and that's the only proper use of resources.
02:48
Elevation of human consciousness. There is no other right use of resources.
02:57
Resources are not meant to just entertain you, feed you, fatten you, comfort you, keep you secure.
03:04
No. That's an improper and if not improper, then a very secondary use of resources.
03:17
Right. The right use of money or any other kind of resources, it has to be used towards
03:23
the elevation of one's consciousness. When I say one's consciousness, I mean entire mankind.
03:31
Right. So how much money should you have? It should be proportional to your intention to use
03:38
it in the right direction. If you are using your money towards the elevation of your consciousness
03:46
and social consciousness and global consciousness. If you are using it towards the right reasons,
03:54
if your objectives are correct and pure,
04:01
then there should be no upper limit to the funds that should flow to you.
04:08
Whereas if you intend to consume wealth just for personal gratiation,
04:16
then you do not deserve even a penny. Maybe all that you deserve is the minimum wage lower limit.
04:25
Hmm. Yes, there ought to be a lower limit to how much a person gets.
04:32
Because the body just for its basic sustenance requires certain resources. So that much
04:40
everybody is entitled to and that much should be assured to everybody.
04:48
So the lower limit should definitely be there.
04:51
But beyond the lower limit, the law of proportional entitlement should come into play.
05:01
How to do that? That's another question. Even if it is difficult to devise a method or a formula,
05:11
we have to try because it's a very worthy goal.
05:14
It's a very worthy goal.
05:19
Once resources, money, power, reach start coming to the right people,
05:29
the face of this earth will change in no time.
05:33
The entire problem today is that very very undeserving people
05:37
are holding billions and trillions of dollars whereas the right causes are suffering for want of resources.
05:51
This discrepancy has to be corrected.
05:56
And there is no way to correct it than by applying the law of proportional entitlement.
06:03
The question has to be, if you have money, what are you going to use it for? That has to be the question.
06:14
Private property is just not a private concern because the way one uses money
06:23
affects the society in a huge way. So it is not a personal matter at all. In fact, even the fact
06:35
of the name of the person who has money affects the society in a big way. What if you know that
06:41
a scoundrel is a greatly rich person and he has a lot of money and he has a lot of power,
06:50
is a greatly rich person.
06:55
What impact does that have on everybody who has this knowledge? A youngster knows
07:04
that a rascal has a billion dollars.
07:11
What are you now pushing that youngster to become? Another rascal, no?
07:20
So money is not just a private matter.
07:26
And remember money can move a lot. Money has a lot of power, it moves things. If money is in the wrong
07:34
hands, you know the kind of things it will move and in the direction it will move.
07:47
Therefore, the very concept of private property has to be re-examined in the light of consciousness,
07:58
in the light of the basic human requirement. When we do not know who we are, then we come up
08:11
with such shallow concepts like private property. But once you require that,
08:18
once you know that you are not just the body but actually a suffering consciousness within,
08:26
then you know that consciousness has no direct use for money. The body may have some use for money,
08:34
well you can eat food, you can buy clothes, you can buy a house, all that is mostly for the body.
08:41
But it's not money that the consciousness requires.
08:45
It requires something else. It requires understanding and it requires liberation.
08:50
Money cannot get you that, not at least directly.
08:56
Therefore, money has to be used as a right resource, not as an end but as a medium.
09:05
The end is liberation. If liberation is the end and if we all need to be liberated,
09:12
then money has to go to places that are aiding, facilitating liberation.
09:23
Are you getting it? Now, in the light of this discussion, look at the world,
09:31
look at the points that command money,
09:34
that command money, look at the ideologies that govern money,
09:43
the corporations that are the richest,
09:48
the individuals with the highest net worths.
09:53
Think of them and ask yourself, if these are the people
09:58
and the powers and the governments and the organizations that are ruling money,
10:07
what are they doing to mankind with the money that they are ruling?
10:15
Because money is a great power in the material sense. Who should have that power?
10:28
A dimwit who does not know whether
10:40
he is speaking from his brain or his hormones, his intellect, his consciousness
10:49
or just his instincts, animal instincts.
10:53
Should this kind of a person be allowed to have tremendous money? Remember, it's not his personal
11:00
matter. We need to reiterate that. It's not his personal matter, it affects all of us.
11:09
With that money, he will definitely do things that push all of us deeper into darkness and
11:17
ignorance. So why should he be allowed to have that much money?
11:26
Are you getting it?
11:33
Only truth should have power.
11:36
Sir, like this you are saying that money possesses a lot of power and the way the rich
11:49
people use money basically makes a blueprint in common in the youth of this generation,
11:58
what they will do if they were so rich and eventually in the progress of life,
12:04
they intend to go towards that direction to some extent.
12:34
Wipe it clean from existence. That's what money can do and that's what money is doing.
12:50
So should money be allowed to stay with those
12:55
whose levels of consciousness are pretty dim?
12:57
Sir, I just have one small question. Like the westerners are showing an increasing interest
13:08
in Indian culture, owning to its roots with spirituality, but the young, even the older
13:13
Indian generation is showing an increasing drift towards the western world. Talking about Indian
13:19
culture, it has been restricted to rituals and ceremonies. The holy places have become
13:25
a destination of mere travel and enjoyment. Nobody talks about the lost spirituality.
13:31
What are your views on it?
13:34
That's what, unless you bring out the real spirit of religion,
13:44
that is spirituality enshrined in Vedanta, why will people listen to you?
13:49
The west over the last few decades has leaned towards spirituality because it is picking up
14:02
only the pure spiritual part of religion. When westerners come to India, do they come to
14:11
participate in our hollow rituals? No, they don't. When you talk of the Indic impact on the west,
14:24
what is it that the west values and is influenced by? It is advait, non-duality, nothing else.
14:34
The west, the intellectuals, don't give a damn about all the superstitions and beliefs and
14:43
nonsense that we carry in the name of Hindu religion. They are not bothered.
14:49
To the extent the west respects Hindu religion, it is because of Vedanta.
15:00
All else they are not interested in. All else they know as hogwash. They'll not come
15:08
here to enjoy crackers with you.
15:17
They'll not come here to participate in our superstitions.
15:26
They'll not come here to participate in our superstitions and senseless beliefs.
15:39
And that's exactly what the young generation is also saying. It is saying we will not participate
15:47
in the old nonsense.
15:56
But if you can bring Vedanta to them, they will be interested just as the westerners are interested.
16:04
And that's the only way
16:09
the Hindu religion is going to move ahead.
16:17
If the Sanatan stream has to have a future, that future lies in Vedanta. All else will very soon
16:23
become the debris of time.
16:33
Science and critical thinking will not allow our useless beliefs and traditions to carry on.
16:47
The new generation has effectively already jettisoned religion.
16:56
Because the form of religion that has been displayed to them is actually worthy of being jettisoned.
17:08
Most young people today do not want to have anything to do with religion.
17:17
8 out of 10 I would say or 9 out of 10. And the remaining ones who still talk of religion
17:28
are the ones who believe in archaic values and are with religion for the sake of personal
17:40
aggrandizement. The ones who chant slogans on the streets
17:48
and raise a big hue and cry and troll people in the name of religion.
17:59
So you are seeing these two parallel trends. One, the big majority of the young population
18:06
is clearly
18:12
weaning away.
18:17
And the ones who are remaining with religion are remaining as bigots,
18:23
as bigots.
18:30
Deluded zealots who know nothing of religion and yet keep shouting religious slogans
18:44
in a belligerent way. For them religion is something that you feed to your ego.
18:54
So that it becomes bigger.
19:00
The only way therefore to keep youngsters in the religious fold is by introducing Vedanta to them.
19:10
And that is not about keeping Vedanta alive, that's about keeping those youngsters alive.
19:16
Every single conscious being needs Vedanta. You are not even a proper human being.
19:35
If nobody has brought to you even the idea
19:40
that the mind is a conditioned thing and there is freedom beyond the mind,
19:47
then you are an animal. If you do not know of your own conditioning, then you are an animal
19:55
driven by just the biological instincts and desires.
20:04
So all youngsters, not only Indian, not only Hindu, all youngsters need Vedanta.
20:11
And a great mission is needed.
20:22
A great demonstration of collective energy is needed.
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