Religion and Violence || Acharya Prashant (2023)

Acharya Prashant

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00:00We are talking in this classroom or auditorium, but the others are doing something very dangerous

00:10so that others are feeling insecure, how can we neglect that thing?

00:16See, those who do all this, irrespective of the site they come from, it does not matter

00:24whether it's a Ramnami procession or a Muharram procession or a Christmas gathering, those

00:34who are doing this, think of where they are coming from, think of the entire ecosystem

00:42that breeds such people and then also tolerates them.

00:48I am asking you, had we been really different as a society, would you still have those incidents?

01:00Do we want to blame an event or do we want to rather responsibly look at the entire ecosystem?

01:07Please tell me.

01:10Whatever they are doing is more or less actively or passively socially accepted.

01:17That's why they can afford to do what they do.

01:20Had they known that for displaying all kinds of perverse attitudes and behaviours in the

01:29name of religion, they would be socially ostracised.

01:33Would they have still dared to do what they are doing?

01:39Make it even more personal.

01:41Let's say there is a rioter.

01:43Let's say there is a rioter.

01:46The police may not be able to locate his identity, either due to connivance or due to incompetence,

01:56the police might fail to know who that rioter is.

01:59But for sure there are some people who definitely know who that person is.

02:04His wife knows?

02:07Does his wife not know?

02:10His kids know, his parents know, his friends know or are even these people in dark?

02:19Think of a situation where this fellow engages in an act of rioting and returns home and is

02:25disowned by his wife.

02:28Would he still manage to remain the kind of ignorant figure that he is?

02:36Please tell me.

02:39But just as family members partake in the bribe money that you bring home, they also partake

02:48in all kinds of toxic attitudes that we have.

02:53When a fellow accepts bribe, is it so that his family does not know of it?

02:58The fact is that the family willingly, happily enjoys the proceeds of the bribe.

03:05The fellow brings the bribe home, does he not?

03:10Similarly, the family very well knows the attitudes that a person is cultivating.

03:18And rioting mind you is also a bit of an economic activity.

03:23You do not just randomly riot anywhere, when you riot you also loot.

03:29When you riot, often you also loot, where do the proceeds of the loot go?

03:36They go to your house, right?

03:37The entire family is complicit, or is it not?

03:41That is why I am talking of the ecosystem, it is not a person, it is an entire ecosystem.

03:48It is just that the active rioters become visible just as the tip of the iceberg becomes visible.

03:57Beneath that tip, there is an entire system that has upheld that tip, right?

04:03Else that tip would have disappeared.

04:06So we talk of the 10, 20 or 100 fellows that indulge in active rioting.

04:13But we do not talk of the thousands and lakhs, who passively support these rioters.

04:20And if those thousands and lakhs disappear, would these handful of rioters still manage

04:27to survive?

04:28I am asking you.

04:29Please tell me.

04:30No.

04:31Okay.

04:32One of you starts making boorish sounds here.

04:37What would happen?

04:38Just one of you.

04:40Just one of you.

04:41Just one of you starts making unpleasant sounds and starts distracting everybody.

04:46What is it that we will immediately find?

04:48Let us say somebody at the back.

04:50If he does that, what would happen?

04:52Everybody would turn to the back and give him angry stares, right?

04:59So he will have to stop.

05:00Is that not so?

05:02That is the power of the ecosystem.

05:05That is the power of the ecosystem.

05:07This is a society.

05:10One person cannot go stray here.

05:17The entire feeling, the cumulative feeling of this oddy has to be corrupted for something

05:27seriously active to happen, right?

05:32So there are one or two fellows at the back who start creating noises and making faces and

05:38doing things.

05:41And what will the rest of the hall do then?

05:45As shared members in the conspiracy, they will either just gently smile or they will pretend

05:55as if nothing has happened, right?

05:58Everybody throws something at the speaker from the behind and the rest of the audience keeps

06:05sitting as if nothing has happened.

06:09What does that prove?

06:12Everybody is partaking in the conspiracy, correct?

06:15That is why I am talking of the ecosystem.

06:18You are talking of the 5, 10, 20 or 100 people who engage in active violence.

06:25I am saying behind that display of active violence, there is a lot of passive toxicity.

06:33And from where does that passive toxicity come to the society?

06:37It comes from a few nodes, TV, social media, some other places.

06:45When that toxicity is coming to you as a general member of the society, then you do not resist.

06:54But when there is arson and looting and murder and rioting, then you start saying, oh, why

07:02are these people actively fighting each other?

07:04They are fighting each other because of the content that is being beamed to you daily on national

07:11television and on social media.

07:16Now, tell me, do you want to talk about the tip of the iceberg or the entire mass?

07:27And since all of us are responsible when that act of looting or rioting happens, therefore,

07:34each of us has to turn to himself or self and ask, why does this happen, why does this happen?

07:54Terrorists sometimes hide in a particular house in a village.

08:04They cannot hide in that house if the rest of the village is not complicit.

08:12Right?

08:13Now, do you want to blame that terrorist, that house or the entire village?

08:33We will fight because we are animals.

08:40We require the enlightening effect of wisdom literature to transcend our animal disposition.

09:01We want to note that when someone stabs another one in the heart, you can capture that on

09:12the camera and you are quick to denounce that as an act of brutality.

09:17Right?

09:18You just saw that happening in front of eye.

09:22The dagger was sharp and it went right into the flesh.

09:29And blood, it just sprouted out like a fountain.

09:36And all that is so dramatic.

09:39You can see that.

09:41How about those who are killing you daily by poisoning the air?

09:50And you are getting killed daily.

09:52Right?

09:53But is that so visual, so optical and so dramatic?

09:57Is it?

09:58We never come to know of that.

10:01But the principle behind both these murderers is the same.

10:06And as intelligent people, you must recognize that.

10:11The principle behind the stabber and the polluter is the, and that is the principle of the animal,

10:20the beast.

10:22I will live in my self-centered ignorance.

10:27That's the principle of the stabber.

10:29And that's also the principle behind the polluter.

10:34Therefore, you require wisdom.

10:39You require wisdom.

10:40And that's the entire purpose of spirituality.

10:43To take us beyond the bodily instincts.

10:52See how animals fight.

10:56If in a particular space, there are n number of rabbits.

11:03And more rabbits are born.

11:05The elder, stronger, typically male rabbits, kill the younger ones.

11:12Because they want to have some kind of a monopoly over the resources.

11:17They say if we have more rabbits.

11:20That's not good for our physicality.

11:23Food will become scarce, divided.

11:27That's who we are.

11:30We all come from the jungle.

11:32Don't we?

11:33Historically, how long was it?

11:36Very recently, till very recently, we were chimpanzees and orangotans.

11:43Were we not?

11:46You can say a few million years.

11:48That's a blink of an eye.

11:51When it comes to the historical time scale.

11:54Till yesterday, we were in the jungle as beasts.

11:57So, we share our basic instincts with the beasts.

12:02And that's the reason we stab and we pollute.

12:09And that's the reason why we require the Bhagavad Gita so much.

12:12That's the reason why the Upanishads have to be the central documents.

12:22The most respected scriptures.

12:27Otherwise, we will continue to be violent.

12:30Irrespective of whether you are a man, a woman, a religious person, an irreligious person,

12:38a devotee, an atheist, it does not matter.

12:41A Hindu, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Christian, does not matter.

12:46You will continue to be violent.

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