Do Indians respect excellence? || Acharya Prashant (2023)

Acharya Prashant

~~~~~ Video Information: 25.01.23, IIT-Ropar, Greater Noida   Context: ~ Why don't Indians go after excellence? ~ Why are Indians so eager to settle? ~ Is ambition childish?  ~ How important is philosophy or thought?  ~ Why are Indians so emotional? ~ What happens when a commoner emulates a sage?   Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~  #acharyaprashant #excellence #thoughts #philosophy #interview belief

Transcript

00:00Good evening, sir. My name is Vishal Tiwari. I'm a PhD student here in IIT Rooppur.

00:09Sir, generally I see that in Western countries, people chase excellence, whether it is in

00:17sports or science or technology, or whether it is in like social reforms or like inculcation

00:27of democratic values. On the contrary to this, it is a general mindset that I see in our

00:35country, like masses of the youth running after securing a job and after that by marrying

00:45a boy or girl to further settle. Sir, why do we Indians fear to chase excellence? Why

00:55don't we have an like appetite to create or discover something new in the field of science

01:03and technology? See, all search for excellence involves the use of thought. Science, technology,

01:30this, that, whatever it is. It involves thought. India was extremely fortunate. It discovered

01:53something beyond thought. And because it was beyond thought, it could not be verified or

02:14examined. It could only be surrendered to. So, India got something that put thought in

02:35its place, that demonstrated that thought is not the highest thing, that there is truth beyond

02:49human action, that there is something higher beyond human action, human achievement,

03:08human thought, human imagination, human creation. And this thing was discovered by a select few.

03:23India was greatly fortunate. And those who discovered it, they, in their compassion,

03:34in their empathy, displayed it, handed it over, relayed it to the masses. And the masses said,

03:50now we have something that is beyond our action, our aspiration. We have it. And since you have it,

04:04there is no need to aspire anymore. Ambition starts looking childish. Attempts to rise higher

04:18start looking futile. So, the West had questions that it wanted to settle through thought. The West

04:35went into questions of identities and existence and wanted to know what is going on and could

04:42never come to a final answer. So, it kept on moving. If you look at Western science, it emerges

04:52from philosophy. Not too many centuries ago, philosophy and science were inseparable. It's

05:07only recently that science has emerged as a separate discipline. And philosophers are fond

05:17of saying that the settled and demonstrated and verified part of material philosophy is called

05:26science. So, while philosophy is at the front of the battle against ignorance, science is the

05:46harvest that philosophy has already cultivated or the bounties that philosophy has already won in

05:56the battle. You understand? A battle is going on and in that battle, there is stuff that you have

06:04already won, that is already yours. That becomes science. And the questions that are still unexplored,

06:10the battles that still continue to be raging, to be live, those constitute philosophy. So,

06:24the West had philosophy and the West used thought to settle philosophical questions and that gave

06:33them science, that gave them progress. India, rather unfortunately, got the final solution way

06:42too early. And the final solution was that the world does not exist at all. What is the point

06:51in thinking even the thinker does not exist at all? And where there is no thought, there is no

06:57progress. Indians do not rely on thought. We have been cultured to rather rely on belief.

07:09That has become rather stupid today. But it originated from a higher place. India actually

07:34had people who had discovered that which is beyond thought. And because they had discovered that,

07:43the discovery showed in their life, in their eyes, in their face, in their actions and people grew

07:54fond of them. India has loved its sages. And they could see that the sage does not think too much

08:07now. And the sage is no more ambitious. And the sage is not asking questions anymore. And when

08:16you respect and love someone so much, when you admire him so much, without even knowing, you

08:21begin to emulate him. So even the commoners began to emulate the sages. And India has been such a

08:30spiritual place. There have been roaming medicants in almost every street. Monks and sadhus. You

08:41would find every village has a few of them. And the commoners would look at them and say,

08:50this man has certainly achieved something extraordinary. His being is the proof of that

08:55achievement. His love is the proof of that achievement. His selflessness, his fearlessness

09:01is the proof of that achievement. So India began emulating those people and that happens. That

09:09happens in admiration. But emulation can never give you the real thing. So those who had not

09:16even started thinking, they absorbed thinking. India bypassed thought. India said, what is the

09:27point in living by the mind? The mind cannot give you much. And monks will come and declare,

09:37the mind is your enemy. Thoughts are its weapons. Do not go by the mind. The mind

09:51has to be silenced. The mind has to be in fact killed. You would have read all these things

09:55in typical spiritual literature. So India just dropped the mind. And by dropping the mind,

10:04Indians became not sages but savages. Because it is savages that don't use the mind.

10:14These are three levels of consciousness. The savage, the beast. Then the simpleton,

10:25the commoner. And then the sage, the liberated one. There is something common between the final

10:37level and the initial level. In both the levels, there is no mind. The savage does not use his

10:46mind. And the sage has gone beyond the mind. Are you getting it? In your attempt to become

10:55the sage, it is very easy to become the savage. And that's what happens to Indians. We drop the

11:03mind even without using the mind to its full potential, even without reaching the limits of

11:09mind. We didn't follow the process of the sages. We just emulated their results. What was the

11:20process of the sages? They used their mind to the fullest extent. And then they reached the

11:25boundary of the mind. They went through the entire journey. It was an arduous, painstaking

11:31journey. They paid every bit of the price. The commoners thought they can have it easily and

11:39cheaply. So they said, fine. If the final thing is that the mind is to be dropped, we will drop

11:46the mind. We will stop using the mind. So India stopped thinking. India started scoffing at logic.

11:57India made the intellect a dirty word. What is better? Emotions are better. Blind belief is

12:13better. Superstitions are better. Thought is not good. Logic is not good. Rationality is not good.

12:18Because these are things of the mind. Rather I will go by my gut feeling. Now the one who goes

12:26by his gut feeling is a savage. Now you see where all these centuries of slavery came from. When you

12:39don't have technology, when you don't have knowledge, obviously you will fall prey to

12:45the marauders. How will you manage the aggressor? He has the power of thought and weapons and

12:59technology. He has been thinking. And you have been just breeding and believing. And you are

13:08smug in your belief that you are meditative and liberated people. Because you don't think. Even

13:15today, Indians relatively do not think. We do not use our minds to the fullest extent. We rely

13:27on trust. We rely on copying and emulation. We are afraid to dare and venture out. Our movies

13:38copy from Hollywood. Even our YouTubers copy from American YouTubers. Our social influencers

13:54copy from them. Our podcasters copy from Joe Rogan. Our constitution has picked up bits and

14:13pieces from several constitutions of the world. At IIM Ahmedabad, we had Harvard steps. There was

14:32a particular flight of steps called the Harvard steps. I found it very interesting. So there was

14:43a time when the movie Lagaan was released. And it started having some connection with the Oscars.

14:50And everybody got very excited. So one of our professors, he said, what's the great deal? Why

14:57are you always looking for Western appreciation? 2002, that's when Lagaan was released, the Hindi

15:03movie Lagaan. And it was probably nominated for the Oscars. Something happened in relation to the

15:09Oscars. And people were talking. The whole thing was abuzz. The professor came and scolded. He said,

15:16you slaves of the West, always looking for Western appreciation. So I said, sir, sir, one little

15:23thing, sir. More than half the cases you teach here are from Harvard and Stanford. And what is

15:34that thing called the Harvard stairs? And then you say that we should not be looking at the West.

15:41India just stopped thinking. India stopped being original. We bypass the mind. The thing is,

15:55please appreciate the cardinal mistake. Even to go beyond the mind, you have to first of all,

16:04use the mind to the fullest. There is no other way. You cannot just arbitrarily drop the mind.

16:11To go beyond life, first of all, you have to go fully through life. As they say, the way through

16:23is the way out. We don't think we believe we are one of the most superstitious people. Look at the

16:36number of gurus and babas proliferating and prospering. Think of India's share in intellectual

16:50property generation. How much original work is happening here? But we love to copy. When it

16:58comes to plagiarism, we are second to none. Think of your car models. Visit Europe or US and you

17:14will be surprised. This one looks so much like the one I see on Indian roads. But the logo is

17:21different. How did that happen? Even think of the weapons that the Indian army is using. How many

17:33of them are there? Even to manufacture weapons, you require thought. Where is thought? Where is

17:42logic? Where is rationality? Where is reason? Where is critical thinking? We just love to think

17:51of how we worship our political leaders. And if you want to critically analyze a particular leader,

17:59especially if he happens to be a darling of the masses, they won't listen. Because they

18:05don't want to think. They just believe. Our education must prepare the kid to question

18:26everything. To dare to inquire into everything. There should be no holy cows. There should be

18:35nothing so sacred that it cannot be questioned. People who hide their ignorance behind shallow

18:53questions irritate me. But there is another category of people who irritate me even more.

18:58Those who ask no questions at all. Those who just take life. It is hot? Yes. It is cold? Maybe.

19:19Who are you? Do you exist? Are you alive? Are you an alien? A zombie? Who are you? There is no

19:30individuality. You don't have a mind. You can't think. You can't question. You can't analyze.

19:37You can't reason. You can't compare. Dead. So two bits of literature from the Hindi world are

20:03occurring to me at this moment. One is Chaubey ji chale the chabbe banne. Dubey banke raha gaye.

20:12So the fellow wanted to be bigger. You see this is a progression. We talked of three levels. 2,

20:214 and 6. 2 is Dubey. 4 is Chaubey. And 6 is Chabbey. So we were at the middle level. The

20:32level of the simpleton. The level of the commoner. We wanted to be the sage Chabbey ji. And what did

20:38we instead become? The savage Dubey ji. Now I'm not offending all the Dubeys. Apologies in advance.

20:45It's just a metaphor. And the other one is a popular song from one of the movies. Zindagi

21:00ki talaash mein hum. Bahadi can never be far behind. Zindagi ki talaash mein hum maut ke kitne

21:11paas aa gaye. India's greatest fortune became its misfortune. Our philosophers, our sages,

21:25our gems and jewels, we turned them into our misfortune.

21:39That's what ails India.

21:47Similarly, the body is not real.

21:49Now go and win medals in Olympics.

22:00The body is to be dropped. I am not the body.

22:07Nice. So you're a good eight inches shorter than the average Swede.

22:15Am I right? The Scandinavian country, if the average height there I suppose is in excess of six feet.

22:25And here five six or something five five. That's how tall the average Indian is. How tall or how short.

22:33Half a foot. Because I am not the body. You see, we are spiritual people. We are not supposed to be the body.

22:42So we top the charts when it comes to malnutrition because we are not the body.

22:52Heart attacks, India, I'm not the body. Diabetes, India, I'm not the body.

22:57In Denmark, it's 5'11", India 5'5".

23:06The Chinese used to say, you are not the body.

23:10You are not the body.

23:14You are not the body.

23:18You are not the body.

23:22You are not the body.

23:24You are not the body.

23:28The Chinese used to be shorter than us at the time of independence. Even they have grown longer.

23:36But we are not the body.

23:40So why take care of the body? All the women are suffering from anemia, but they are not the body.

23:54Women are especially not the body. It's just that they keep on producing more and more bodies.

24:02142 crore bodies, but we are not the body, you see.

24:08Average Indian is 5'5", 5'6".

24:14Not the body.

24:16These are the two things that we have been taught to stay clear of, right? Tan and man.

24:25I'm not the mind and I'm not the body.

24:29I am Atma. I am the Supreme Self.

24:33Instead of becoming the Supreme Self, you became the beast.

24:37That's what we did to our sages.

24:41And they are looking at us.

24:44And beating their heads.

24:56Thank you so much Acharyaji for this thought-provoking session.

25:01Thank you for answering so many questions by the participants.

25:05It was very insightful and we are all very grateful for the session.

25:09And we all hope to have the chance to have another session with you in the near future.

25:17Thank you so much, sir.

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