The fundamental mistake we make || Acharya Prashant, with BITS Pilani (2022)

Acharya Prashant

~~~~~~~~~~~~~   Video Information: BITS, Pilani - Goa, 28.01.2022, Greater Noida, India   Context:  ~ What work to choose in life?  ~ Should one seek social validation while choosing work?  ~ How important is money while choosing work?  ~ Why do we often underestimate the circumstances?  ~ How to be a successful person?     Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~   #acharyaprashant #BITSPilani

Transcript

00:00We recently celebrated our 75th Republic Day.

00:04So with that, I would like to ask what were our past mistakes or our past ancestors which

00:12made the mistakes that in the recent past of our thousand years, we had invasions and

00:18rules by Mughals and Britishers.

00:22So what should we learn from our mistakes that the same thing do not repeat again?

00:29Or is it a case that we are still under a rule in some other sense?

00:36You see there is only one mistake as human being, to not realize your internal stuff

00:46and remain a slave to it.

00:51That's where all weakness comes from.

00:58That's why you had to be defeated in most of the battles we fought over the last ten

01:11centuries and that's also the reason why as a people we are not progressing fast enough

01:25even today.

01:31Man is nothing without wisdom.

01:35Weapons don't win wars.

01:42Even if weapons manage to win you a few battles, it's wisdom that wins wars.

01:54And wisdom wins wars in very subtle ways, very very subtle ways.

02:09You lose wisdom and somebody might declare you a world winner but you'll still be a loser.

02:19The tragedy first takes place internally and then its effects manifest themselves externally

02:31in all ways possible.

02:38It will be a bit too complex for you probably, it might not be but let me say, I'll simplify

02:45it as much as possible.

02:47See because man is special, because man is not any other animal, when I say man I mean

02:56human beings, not excluding women, therefore man needs spirituality.

03:06I could have said religion but religion has become a very abused word today so I'd rather

03:11say spirituality or I would say wisdom.

03:17So we need that, that's the center of our existence, our religiosity, our wisdom, it

03:28has to be.

03:29If we lack that then we lack a center itself, then there is no center and if there is no

03:33center there is no power because you are scattered.

03:39What would you say about a motorcycle rim, there is no axis at all, no center at all.

03:52Would the spokes offer any strength?

03:56The center is needed to keep the thing intact and strong.

04:02So man needs a center, that center is wisdom, that center is religiosity or spirituality.

04:10When religion itself gets contaminated then there is nothing that can save you.

04:19The trouble with India has been that religion got contaminated many a times, remained contaminated

04:31and even today it is extremely contaminated and that's why you find lack of strength

04:40in various fields in the Indian population.

04:50The core of wisdom, the very name of wisdom Vedanta was there, always there.

04:57The very essence of religion was always present but along with it much else was also present.

05:09Unfortunately for us we chose to focus on all the garbage around the core and more or

05:18less totally ignored the core.

05:22In the name of religion all that we patronized was hollow practices, empty rituals, discrimination

05:36based on birth, gender, imaginative stories and many other kinds of nonsense.

05:52That's what we started calling as religion and the core Vedanta was ignored.

06:04When religion gets corrupted then the entire population, the whole set of people they are

06:13left with nothing, they lose their scientific temper, there are no discoveries, no literature

06:23worth reading is written, there is no exploration, they don't want to go around and know things,

06:34they remain a society deeply divided and fragmented and exploitative of each other and then they

06:42also lose wars, they also lose wars.

06:51Losing wars is not the central problem, the central problem is the corruption of religion

06:59and that corruption of religion leads to many problems including losses in wars and that

07:10corruption is especially tragic because India is the mother of religion.

07:20India had all the diamonds that religion needs and religion has to offer.

07:30The saints, the sages, they offered the highest wisdom but instead of that wisdom we just

07:44kept concentrating on very deplorable kind of rubbish and that's also what constitutes

07:54the bulk of Indian religiosity today, rubbish.

08:02Instead of religion being the highest thing possible, it has become the lowest kind of

08:09curse.

08:13Unless we return to pure religion, which I propagate as Vedanta, not only is the past

08:26bleak, I also see very little hope for the future.

08:40That very much answers my query.

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