Break Free from the Ego’s Trap || Acharya Prashant (2023)

Acharya Prashant

➖➖➖  #AcharyaPrashant #आचार्यप्रशांत #Philosophy #BhagavadGita  ➖➖➖  Video Information: 22.06.2023, GSE, Goa  Context: What is Prakriti?  From where biological tendencies arise from?  What is the real definition of observation?  What is the purpose of life? What is ego?  What is Sankhya Philosophy/ Darshan?  Is there an Almighty Creator?   Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~

Transcript

00:00Namaskar Acharya ji. So, everything is dead and everything are basically molecules that

00:12are just in a default arrangement. So, can we say that Prakriti has induced us into a

00:23falseness that there are these biological senses and these compulsions that we have

00:31of our emotions. So, observing these emotions and observing these compulsions

00:38and avoiding them, is that a first way to move towards being truly alive?

00:45Yes, observe them, but without blaming Prakriti or anybody. Nobody has brought you to this condition.

00:56You wanted to exist, therefore you gave yourself a condition.

01:02Anything that exists, exists in some condition, right?

01:07So, you want to exist, so sometimes you give yourself a good condition, sometimes a bad condition.

01:12Just observe. Yes, is that the entire purpose of life is to just observe and then

01:26not be like just swayed away by it?

01:29The ego does not need an entire purpose of life. It's so much in pain and so full of immediate distress

01:46that it's enough for it to pay attention to its immediate surroundings

01:52and the most immediate to the ego is itself.

01:58So, words like ultimate mean nothing to the ego. The ego is like a patient on ventilator.

02:08If you talk about life after 10 years to somebody who is on ventilator, assuming that he is able to

02:17talk, it's quite meaningless. That fellow is looking forward to the next one hour. Will I see

02:26the next day? Will I survive the next hour? That's the ego. So much in distress that even the next

02:34one hour is difficult to predict or see through or navigate.

02:41It's fascinating how all this relates to evolutionary biology, like so much of it.

03:00You cannot appreciate Sankhya Yoga if you do not appreciate evolution.

03:08Entire Sankhya Yoga is evolutionary. But unfortunately, so much of religion

03:19has been about creation, not evolution.

03:26Religion says man came through a process of creation and who was the creator? Some God.

03:36Now the fact is in Sankhya Yoga, there is really no place for any God. You call it one of the

03:42Astik Darshans. But in reality, in the Darshan itself, there is no God. There is no God in Sankhya.

03:54And there can be no God in Sankhya because Sankhya is continuously about evolution.

04:00Evolution. If things are evolving, how can there be a creator?

04:07If one thing evolves into another thing, show me where is the creator then?

04:11When you say creation, you mean there is somebody who just made this thing into what it is.

04:17But the fact is that the thing did not become what it is in one go, in one stroke.

04:23It has continuously been evolving. So, that's the great contribution of Sankhya Yoga.

04:33And that's also what Yoga borrows from Sankhya. That's also what Vedanta owes to Sankhya.

04:43That's also what Buddhism owes to Sankhya.

04:47The thing that entire existence is a flow. Everything is a process. Everything is ever-changing.

05:00That's Sankhya. And the very common tripartite division of Prakriti into Sat, Raj and Tam.

05:11Today we take that as commonplace. But all that comes from Sankhya.

05:18So, yes. That's the reason why I continuously say evolutionary biology is so important.

05:27When I say evolutionary biology is important, actually what I am saying is Sankhya Yoga is important.

05:32But if I just say Sankhya Yoga, this generation might not appreciate that. So, I say evolutionary biology.

05:47Thank you, Acharya ji.

05:52Sir, my question revolves around the statement that you said that we all actually don't exist.

05:59And even our consciousness is also false. And if I look at Arjun at that moment,

06:06then even Arjun is being driven by his bodily tendencies only. So, even he is dead, right?

06:13So, to whom Shri Krishna is teaching at that moment? So, what is still alive inside Arjun at that moment,

06:23even after being dead inside out?

06:26The dead man walking is the dead man suffering. He needs to be cremated.

06:32That's what the instruction is all about. You are already dead. Why do you continue to walk and suffer?

06:41Let's put you to rest. Let's cremate you. That's the Bhagavad Gita.

06:47The ego is the dead man walking.

06:53Dead, still suffering. Rather suffering exactly because it is dead.

07:01So, that's a delicate thing to appreciate.

07:04You are not. Yet, you insist that you must be.

07:09You forcefully insist that you must be and in that you create yourself.

07:14But your creation is needless. Therefore, you suffer.

07:20It's like a car already packed full of five passengers.

07:28And those five are sufficient. They can deliver the car.

07:33They can deliver the goods. There is a nice network, a perfect equilibrium

07:41that those five passengers or five elements very ably serve.

07:49Then a sixth one tries to barge in. He says, I must fit in. I must fit in. I am needed.

07:57Now, this sixth one is outside Prakriti.

08:02But he forcefully enters the car. What does he do? He creates suffering.

08:08He is not needed. He is coming in and he creates suffering.

08:13Everything is proceeding very nicely and then something happens.

08:27An unwanted intrusion. That's what the ego is about.

08:34A needless thing and therefore a thing that causes suffering. Obviously, only to itself.

08:41We said today that it's a belief.

08:45And I am fond of often saying the ego is the most fundamental superstition.

08:52So, it's a thing of the mind.

08:53You remember the Abrahamic story about the origin of everything?

08:59So, there is God and there is Adam.

09:04And to give Adam some company, there is Eve.

09:08And that's Prakriti. Adam, Eve and the great garden.

09:15Appreciate the symbolism. There is Adam, there is Eve and there is a great garden

09:19and they are just roaming about happily.

09:23And God has instructed them, there is that particular tree and there is that apple.

09:30Do not take that apple. And that's the apple of knowledge.

09:36And then this mischievous snake comes and says, you know, there is a special apple

09:39that God is probably reserving for himself and you must have it.

09:43So, it was needless.

09:46Needless knowledge is ego and it results in suffering.

09:49And it results in suffering.

09:51That which you need not know but in a spell of mischief, you start knowing.

10:00That's ego.

10:01What is that needless knowledge? Belief.

10:04Useless knowledge. Needless knowledge. Just superstition.

10:09Something that you should have never believed in.

10:12But now you have taken it in.

10:14Now you have taken it in and it cannot be just ejected out.

10:20So, God says, now that the two of you have done this, alright.

10:24Go to earth and breed kids and, you know, the entire humanity will proceed from there.

10:31And these two were really in a state of bliss.

10:36Sahajata.

10:38Sahajata. Ego-less sahajata.

10:40These two were in an ego-less sahajata.

10:44You know, it is said that the moment they ate the apple,

10:49they became conscious of the eye, which is called self-consciousness.

10:54Conscious of the eye. Self-conscious.

10:58So, what did they do?

10:59They covered their genitals.

11:03They became ashamed.

11:05Conscious of the eye.

11:08Because the eye sprung up.

11:10There was no eye.

11:12There was no eye.

11:13That false belief gave them the eye.

11:16So, they became self-conscious.

11:18So, they covered their body parts.

11:22They covered their body parts.

11:24And then God banished them from the garden of bliss.

11:29He said, you go now.

11:30You go out.

11:32You have defiled your own prakritic purity.

11:39You have violated my instruction.

11:40There was no need.

11:41You go.

11:45So, needless.

11:47Everything is alright.

11:49Everything is already alright.

11:51And the ego comes and says, no, something extra is needed.

11:55The ego is the fifth person in the car.

11:58Somebody extra.

11:59Who is not needed at all.

12:03The ego is a kind of overpopulation.

12:08Tonight itself, I have like got...

12:11We can publish a mini book of the number of definitions we have accorded the ego.

12:18Yes.

12:22So, sir, what we call as consciousness is also a part of my ego itself?

12:29What you call as consciousness is just material reactivity.

12:37When you say you are conscious of something,

12:40you are just reacting to that thing.

12:46It's like we said iron being conscious of the magnet.

12:53Just as iron experiences the magnet.

12:57Similarly, we experience the world in very, very predictable and pattern-based ways.

13:04There is no real wisdom or realization in that.

13:10And the test of that is iron cannot not react to the magnet.

13:20Iron cannot not react to the magnet.

13:23And that's what is called compulsive reactiveness.

13:29Man cannot not react to the abuses.

13:33Woman cannot not react to the man.

13:37That's a compulsive magnet and iron relationship.

13:41There is no real life in that.

13:45Spirituality is about bringing life by putting the dead to death.

14:00Okay. Thank you so much.

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