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00:00Acharya Prashant is a distinguished contemporary Vedanta Exigit and a prominent voice for social
00:10and spiritual awakening. He is the author of over 160 books including several national
00:16bestsellers published by leading international publishers such as Penguin and Harper Collins.
00:22His writings deeply connect Indian Darshan with modern contexts fostering profound self-awareness.
00:28After completing his education at IIT Delhi and IIM Ahmedabad, Acharya Prashant founded
00:35the Prashant Advait Foundation which has now evolved into a global movement. He is among
00:42the rare individuals to have cleared both the highly competitive IIT CAT and UPSC examinations
00:49in the same year. He has been honoured with several prestigious awards for his exceptional
00:55contributions to animal welfare, environmental conservation and the recent outstanding contribution
01:02to India National Development Award conferred by the IIT Delhi Alumni Association.
01:08We have two pictures here. One of a rural woman in a saree doing household work and next to
01:17it a picture of an urban, a metropolitan woman attending her office. Which of these two would
01:26you feel like calling as liberated? The second image, right? And that exactly is the problem.
01:33Freedom cannot be an image. And if freedom is an image, then freedom is bondage to that image.
01:42You have been told in advance how to look, how to operate, how to behave. This is the kind
01:48of life you must lead. Now is that freedom?
01:50Good afternoon, sir. Sir, my name is Priyanshu Sanskar from History Department. My question
02:01is, despite unprecedented strides in legal rights and social visibility, women across the world
02:08continue to face subtle form of control and expectation. How does modernity, which ensures
02:14freedom creates an invisible cage for women and how does Mahatma Gandhi's vision for true liberation
02:21can help us identify and dismantle them? Dismantle them? Thank you, sir.
02:26Do we get the question?
02:32So, there is the condition of the so-called modern and emancipated woman. And the questioner is
02:51saying that she is still in a cage, though the cage is now invisible, as you said. And he is setting
03:02it against the backdrop of the Gandhian ideal of liberation. Getting you right? Please sit.
03:13All right. So, is the modern, educated, liberated woman really free? If we have two pictures here,
03:37one of a rural woman in a saree doing household work. And next to it, a picture of an urban, a metropolitan
03:55woman attending her office. Which of these two would you feel like immediately, instinctively,
04:07feel like calling as liberated? The second image right? Wearing more modern clothes and attending
04:25office instead of looking after household chores, you will say this is the liberated one. The second
04:35image corresponds to freedom, liberty, whatever. And that exactly is the problem. Freedom cannot be an image.
04:52And if freedom is an image, then freedom is confinement. Freedom is bondage to that image.
05:05Do you get this? Where were we? Yes, the image. So, if you know in advance, that this is what it means
05:21freedom is to be modern. Then where is freedom? A man, a boy, a girl, young person sitting here, if they know well in advance that this second image, here is the first one. And this is not modern, conservative, traditional and all that. This is the liberated one.
05:49This is the liberated one. And you know in advance, this is what is called liberation. If this is what is called liberation, where is freedom? You have been told in advance what to do, how to look, how to operate, how to behave.
06:06You have been told in advance. This is the kind of life you must lead. And if this is how you would be, then you deserve to be called as modern or liberated. And you have to do this. You have to do this. You have to be like this.
06:24Now, is that freedom? Is that freedom? First of all, there is a framework just as the picture has a frame. No? It's what do we say? It's a framed photo. So, there is a framework.
06:41And the woman is not being allowed to go beyond that framework. Secondly, all that you see in the image is a particular kind of behavior.
06:53What you see is a particular kind of behavior. And what you see is only the exterior. You look at her face and it probably has a different kind of makeup compared to the rural woman.
07:08Her hair cut might be different. The choice of clothes would be different. And obviously, the environment, the surroundings, the workplace, that is different.
07:27All of that is telling you only of the exteriors, right? Is there any way any image can peep into their insides?
07:38And know what's going on? No. So, first of all, we said, there is no freedom because there is a framework.
07:46If you look like this, if you behave like this, only then you deserve to be called as modern and liberated.
07:51Secondly, all you see is the exterior. Whereas, freedom is firstly, a thing of the inside.
08:05Freedom is not something so cheap that you can be called as free just by wearing a particular kind of trendy wear.
08:20And that's where the Gandhian context becomes relevant. Because when Gandhi talked of liberation, in the tradition, the long-standing tradition of the wise thinkers of India and the world, he was very clear.
08:48And what he said has been almost central to all wisdom, all spirituality. He said, no, no, no.
09:00Freedom is first of all about how you are on the inside.
09:07Are you carrying prejudices, biases, fears, greedy desires, self-centered ambitions? If this is what you are carrying within, you are not free at all.
09:28So, in context of the Indian freedom struggle, he would say, it is not about just driving the British away.
09:40It is about first of all being internally free. There is a reason the British could come here and capture territory and lord over us.
09:53And the reason was internal. Unless that internal reason is addressed, just trying to shoo the British away would take us nowhere.
10:07And then he said, freedom is about how you behave with the people around you. So, internal and then the second level was social.
10:22And among the people around you, he did count women. That was very important to his thought. All the marginalized sections of society, the poor, the Dalits.
10:37He referred to them as Harijans and women. He said, unless you are conscious of the kind of behavior and relationship you have with the people around you.
10:50How can you be called as free? If you are just unconsciously towing the traditional line, which might be exploitative, which is indeed quite exploitative.
11:04Then how are you free? Then how are you free? How can an unconscious person be called as free? If you are lying unconscious, what freedom do you have?
11:17And then he said, freedom must also be about not being dictated even within your own sovereign by a power of power.
11:29It is not just not being commanded by an outsider. It is not just not being commanded by an outsider. It is also about not being commanded by an insider.
11:48So, he would talk of the village self-rule. And the village as the primary self-sufficient economic entity. Obviously, there are problems with that model.
12:01But the thought, the philosophical basis he was coming from, still holds merit.
12:15So, freedom internal, freedom social and freedom not just from those you consider as outsiders or aliens or the other.
12:26But freedom also from the one you consider as the insider or your own.
12:36Right? So, that was that was what Mahatma Gandhi thought of as liberation.
12:43And that's a very central word to all Indian philosophy.
12:52Indian philosophies, Vedanta and the other ones, not only the Orthodox ones, but even Jainism and Buddhism.
13:02For them, the final aim is liberation.
13:06Liberation, not the attainment of some great pleasure while being alive or after death, attaining some great place to be at in the form of a soul.
13:23None of that. Liberation. And Vedanta in particular talks of liberation here and now.
13:32He says, we don't want to entertain ourselves with fanciful concepts like heaven and hell.
13:40We are alive right now. And we deserve a liberated life here right now.
13:46So, what Gandhi was saying was perfectly in alignment with what the Indian philosophy, philosophies rather have been asserting all along.
14:05Right? Now, we will come back with this understanding to the state of the woman.
14:13Many of you would have read the book or at least heard of it, the second sex, Simone de Beauvoir.
14:28So, very famous quote from there. Yeah. Wonderful.
14:38Expectedly, it's a girl.
14:44Woman is not born. She becomes a woman. In other words, she is made a woman.
14:52She is made a woman. This is how she is made. She is made like this. Alternatively, she is made like this.
15:03In either case, she is being made by someone else. And that's not freedom. And that's not freedom.
15:16You get this. So, modernity, if is just another name for an appearance or a code of conduct, then it's just another name for a fresh set of bondages.
15:33Right? You could say she has been told to perform in one way and this one is performing in another way.
15:45Judith Butler, gender is a performance. Gender is performance. You behave a particular way. You behave a particular way and you will be called as modern.
16:02You might say no, no, we just don't behave. We also think that way. But even the thought is an imported one.
16:14When we say imported, even that implies some agency, some consciousness. Often it is not imported. It is implanted. You don't even know how it got into you.
16:29Are you kidding? Are you kidding? So, here this one. She was objectified by way of ownership.
16:39So, Manuspriti for example, would say the woman should never be free or independent. She should be dependent on the father, the husband, the sons, but never should she be independent.
16:56So, there was ownership. In this model, there was ownership. And in this model, she is again being objectified.
17:05Though nobody legally owns her now, but don't we find her objectified in TV commercials everyday?
17:11So, objectification is still there. What has changed?
17:23We are talking of freedom, right? And freedom is not about looking like that one, behaving like that one or even thinking like that one. No.
17:36If you are anything like that one, are you free? We are not saying you must necessarily not be like that one. Even that would not be freedom.
17:51But to be asked to confirm to anything from here and there is not freedom. This one, the husband would often force himself upon her sexually, right?
18:16And she had no voice, no choice. We know of the kind of fertility rates we experienced. We know the kind of maternal deaths during childbirth that we experienced.
18:36We also know the kind of gynecological diseases and the deaths related to them. We are experiencing all that.
18:46This one, no, no, no, no. There is no external entity that can now force itself upon you.
18:56But baby, you are modern. You are supposed to be sexually available on your own.
19:05And if you say, no, towards this thing, I'm a little reticent. This is not something that appeals to me.
19:17There is not something that I prioritize. Then you are not modern, are you?
19:26So, even in the sexual sense, modernity is a code of conduct. Did she have much choice here? No.
19:37No.
19:38No.
19:39No.
19:40No.
19:41No.
19:42No.
19:43No.
19:44No.
19:45No.
19:46No.
19:47No.
19:48mostly. Think of it. If she has been fed that she must look
19:57sexually attractive. She must wear particular kind of clothing.
20:03Then does she have sexual agency even here? Please. Does she
20:11have it? The form has changed. The form has become subtler.
20:17And when your bondages, your chains become subtler, invisible,
20:25then they become more vicious and harder to tackle. If you are
20:35being controlled from the outside, you'd feel like challenging
20:41your exploiter. But when you are being controlled from the inside,
20:46you said nobody is controlling me. I am my own person. I'm
20:53leading my life the way I want to. And that's a deeper form of
21:00enslavement. Are you getting it? Yes. And then I'm asking you, how far
21:12removed is she really from this one? Yes. In the outer experience and
21:18the outer appearance, she indeed does look different. But then so many
21:23working women, they complain of what you call as a second shift
21:27phenomena. She says, I do this. And when I return, I also do this.
21:35Instead of having one frame to comply with, she now has two universes to straddle. Parallelly.
21:54Is that freedom? Is that freedom really? Then, if you look at the modern forms of superstition,
22:12etc. Women, happen to be participating, with greater vigor in them, compared to men.
22:32Reports suggest, that the membership of the astrology apps, that is skewed towards women.
22:47Now, she can't really be an illiterate woman, right? She is downloading an app and using it.
22:54Is she really liberated? And the question, most frequently asked is, when would I get married?
23:04Is this liberation? No, you are just using modern means to fulfill a very primitive, very animalistic
23:20instinct. The means are modern. The instinct is primitive. Is that modernity?
23:31Is that modernity?
23:41Wearing very heavy clothes, even very revealing clothes.
23:45Neobogus. She is participating in some neobogus ritual.
23:57That's a word I just coined. Don't look for it in the dictionary.
24:04Neobogus. Sounds right, huh?
24:05So, some crystal, some nonsense, something. And she looks very modern.
24:19Is that freedom?
24:24This one was being sent away, with loads of dowry,
24:30to some person, to some person that her father or the extended community chose.
24:45So, you see the relationship with money here, money, body, family, everything.
24:52There was no love. There was no love.
24:55And this one, if she starts aspiring to be a trophy wife and she is on her own linking her body to money.
25:11Is there love?
25:13What kind of freedom this is that comes without love?
25:17She was not supposed to talk of love.
25:25She was supposed to talk only of duties.
25:31Right?
25:31You have duties towards your husband and your family.
25:37This one,
25:40she doesn't know what love is.
25:42So, she says, fine, you know, let me prepare myself well,
25:50in order to
25:55get the right kind of husband.
25:57I know I am generalizing, greatly generalizing.
26:04But that's what the question leads us into.
26:07Fine.
26:12Freedom is internal, to begin with.
26:23The roots of freedom are always inside us.
26:29Freedom is not demonstrative, not performative.
26:35You cannot act a certain way and say, you know, this is freedom.
26:40No.
26:46So, let's take a hint from
26:49the Indian systems of philosophy I talked of.
26:54They talk of freedom.
26:58They say freedom is the goal.
27:01And then they also tell you
27:04that understanding
27:07is your very identity.
27:10understanding not as a task, but understanding as being.
27:16I am understanding itself.
27:21Understanding not as something that you do, but something that you are.
27:27And these two go together understanding and freedom.
27:30So, when you understand what's really, really going on here,
27:36then
27:39you have taken the first baby steps.
27:45And then that takes you far, very far.
27:47If there is freedom at all,
27:55it has to be
27:57about knowing what's going on.
28:04Knowing what's going on.
28:06And from there, the
28:07the right response to life
28:10just spontaneously emerges.
28:12That's freedom.
28:14That's freedom.
28:15Do I understand what's going on?
28:19Or was I being carried away a particular kind of stream here?
28:24And I'm still being carried away just that the stream has changed.
28:28I was being held captive there.
28:33I'm still being held captive.
28:35Just that this time the Captivator
28:41is sitting within me.
28:45Not just sitting within me,
28:46but probably also carrying my own name.
28:49I am
28:52my own slave driver.
28:58Do I understand what's really going on as a woman or as a man?
29:10If I know
29:13that is freedom
29:16or I'm so afraid
29:17or just so lazy
29:19that I want to follow, to confirm,
29:22to ask somebody else to lead,
29:24to read somebody else's thoughts
29:26and not even meditate properly on them
29:31and just say,
29:31because everybody is behaving like this.
29:34Hence, I too
29:35must
29:36because I don't want to be left out.
29:39That's fear, right?
29:40Can fear and freedom go together?
29:43I will
29:44I'll repeat that 10 times
29:46and that would still be insufficient.
29:48Freedom is not about the way you look or walk.
29:53It's not about the accent you carry.
29:57It's not about how happy your clothes are.
30:05It's about whether you know what's really going on.
30:13It's not about controlling what's going on.
30:16It's about knowing what's going on.
30:19is what you do with what is done to you.
30:32you. What is done to you is circumstantial, often very random, uncontrollable. Nobody
30:40knows why things happen the way outside as they do. But I must be the master of my interiors.
30:53There must be a point within that nobody can touch, nobody can control. As human beings,
31:01every cell of this body we find conditioned, don't we? All thoughts are in some way social,
31:13coming from here, there, a combination of something, this, that. All emotions are physical, right?
31:25So what is mine then? Finding what is really yours, can there be freedom without that peace
31:33tell me? If you don't have anything that is yours, can you be free? How can you be free?
31:39Everything about you is owned by somebody else. Where is freedom? Are you getting it? Before
32:02you say, I want to do it. This is my life. This is my choice. No, this one couldn't even
32:07say that, right? She couldn't even say that you wouldn't hear that even today, from middle
32:13aged ladies in the remote areas. You go there and this phrase, this language, this attitude,
32:24metaphor is alien to them. They will not say my life, my choice. No, they won't.
32:36This one would say that, and she says that 40 times a day. But really, are your choices free?
32:45Where is freedom in your choices? Without self knowledge, how will you ever know where your
32:51thoughts and actions and feelings are coming from? Feelings, that's very, it's a very important
33:02word when it comes to our species, and especially the more important gender. If I keep talking,
33:14of my feelings as the dictator of my life and my actions, do I ever look into where they come
33:27from? Have I even begin any kind of Self-realization? I felt this way, so I decided that way because
33:38I am free to do as I feel. No. When we talk of freedom, that includes freedom from being swept
33:50away by the flow of feelings. But feelings are internal, right? I come to you and I say, I want
34:04to take you away. And you resist. Probably dial 100101 and whatever numbers. This fellow, he's
34:16trying to force himself. But when some random hormone, some chemical being secreted by some
34:27gland, you don't even know of rules you from within and takes you away. Why don't you resist?
34:34You don't because you think of that as yourself. No, nobody is taking me away. That's, that's
34:40how I feel. No, that's not how you feel. That's how this primitive body is functioning.
34:48And this body is very recently emerged from the jungle, just 10,000 years back.
34:57The body is ancient, 4 billion years old. That's when life started to begin in the oceans.
35:11Body is ancient. But consciousness is very, very recent. So the body still manages to rule.
35:23consciousness is very, very recent phenomena. A new entrant. In the life of homo sapiens.
35:35But the body, as old as the jungles and the mountains, and it carries all those old primitive
35:42animalistic tendencies. Now, emotions, feelings, they arise from here and I say, you know, this
35:49is what I want to do. Are you free? Are you free? Some God damn old animal within is ruling
35:58your life. Are you free? And if the same animal could be manifested to appear here, you know,
36:08can you, can you take a form and express yourself here? You shriek and run away. No, no, no.
36:16How can I lie? This one to control me. But this one, that old beast is sitting right here in
36:23the form of the body. And then we say, because I am modern and progressive and liberated.
36:29Hence, I will do as I want to do my way or the highway and all those things. Are you free?
36:35That does not mean that you start following somebody else's way. But that somebody else becomes
36:49all the more nefarious when he finds a subtler way to control you. No? At the point of a gun, if I
37:02control you, maybe you would be controlled, but you would also want to rebel. But if a chip
37:08is implanted here, you're sleeping, and you're secretly anesthetized, and something was implanted here.
37:16And now you are being controlled, remotely controlled. And you don't even know you are being controlled by
37:24somebody else. Isn't that a deeper and more inextricable form of freedom? Think of your physical tendencies
37:36as that chip. Let them not dictate your life. Gandhi, Vedanta, all wisdom from all over the world says the same thing.
37:50Be cautious of the external oppressor. But remember, the external oppressor succeeds only because he has
38:02an ally, an agent implanted within you. Like a Trojan horse, no? Here.
38:16Somebody succeeds in oppressing you from outside, that has to be resisted. Obviously. But also remember that
38:28that one succeeds only because he resonates, he or she or the system, whatever the name of the oppressor be,
38:36resonates with something here. Unless that one has an ally within, that one won't succeed.
38:48Hence, first of all, what do you need to take care of? The external thing that you call as internal. The mole.
39:00The mole.
39:06Freedom is not an ideal. Freedom does not mean confirming to certain notions. Freedom does not mean that you have to be a superwoman.
39:26The kind of things that they show in the movies. See, look, this is the modern liberated progressive woman.
39:34And this is what she does. She is a super boss. She is a super mom. She is a super wife.
39:44She looks fit and sexy. She is everything all at once. Freedom does not mean conforming to these things.
39:55Freedom is about knowing what is not me. And it's a ruthless inquiry that goes to the extent of asking,
40:08Is even me really me? Do I even exist as an independent sovereign entity?
40:22Is there anything within me that is not a product of the body or the society or circumstances?
40:30You don't need to come to a conclusion. But these questions must be asked.
40:38And any kind of discovery begins with ruthless questioning. No?
40:54It is easier to talk to someone. When the fellow is aware that there is a problem, then there can be a discussion.
41:15Then some advice can be rendered. No? But if you are not even aware that there is a problem.
41:23If you think that you are already fine, healthy, free, and all the good things, then it becomes extremely difficult to talk.
41:45The modern woman, she has been given two contradictory, conflicting ideals.
41:54On one hand, yes, she has been told humility is a good thing.
41:58On the other hand, she has also been told that you have to be really assertive about who you are and what you want.
42:06This is all fine. But is there listening? And without listening, can there be any understanding?
42:25And if you don't understand, are you free? And isn't it a mark of fear if you cannot even listen, if certain things cannot be even discussed?
42:42But performative modernity means exactly that. It has already been decided what can be discussed and what cannot be.
42:52It was the same thing here. Just that the list of do's and don'ts have changed.
42:57Do's and don'ts operated there and do's and don'ts operate here as well.
43:15Are we together?
43:22Sir, I am saying comfort zone.
43:25Comfort?
43:26Sir, comfort zone does play a role in it, right?
43:29Yes, it does. Because, be it a man or a woman, we are not really physically born to struggle for our liberation.
43:47Hmm? You have seen animals in captivity? Don't they breed there? Don't they breed there? Yeah?
43:57In fact, probably they breed more prolifically in captivity than in their relative freedom of the jungle.
44:04As animals, we are not designed to ask so staunchly for freedom that we will sacrifice everything for it.
44:18If I am being held captive and being given enough food and if there is a partner, then I'll breed. Then I'll breed. Just keep me comfortable.
44:35The body says comfort is more important than freedom.
44:45That's what the body says. And that's the reason why philosophy constantly urges you to inquire to what extent do you want to obey the body?
44:56Decide for yourself. What kind of relationship do you want to have with the body? Because the body is not interested in the higher things of life.
45:05You are reading a great book. Doesn't the body want to just fall asleep? Please tell me.
45:13You are an important flight to catch. And the body refuses to wake up. The body is not interested in flying high. The body is interested in happily lying low and snoring.
45:33That's what the body is like. It is one of the most fundamental freedoms. The freedom to challenge the body. The freedom to tell the body.
45:42Yeah, you are doing what you are designed to do. And let me do what I am here to do. We will co-exist. We will be good neighbors.
45:53But let us know our respective domains and also respect the boundaries.
45:58Sir, on the level of family, market, we all see a level, right? Like if I have done something good, my father praised me or my mother praised me or my friends praised me.
46:12But if they are opposing me, then I will think, but also I will not resist on some level.
46:20So up to which level it is right or how should we be?
46:26It depends on the kind of love you have for yourself. And that love decides the level of your resistance.
46:38Little love, little resistance, great love. So there can be no template I can offer.
46:49There is something that I immensely value in life. Someone wants to take it away.
46:54How much resistance would I offer? Depends on the love I have for that thing. Depends on the love.
47:02And love is not something that can be forced. Love is something available only to those who are in touch with themselves first of all.
47:19It is not about being in touch with somebody else. The first thing is about seeing who you are and hence what is it that you really aspire for.
47:29And then you are drawn towards that. That which aligns with your real aspiration. That is love.
47:39It must be very, very intense. Very intense. I love to quote Saint Kabir.
47:49When it comes to love. When it comes to love. And when it comes to love for freedom in particular.
47:56I will quote him in the original.
47:59Love must be like that of the fish. For the vastness of the ocean. That should be the quality of your love.
48:12I am in love with immensity. I don't love small things. The moment you will pull me out of the ocean. I will simply die.
48:22That's the intensity of love that you need. You pull me out. And I won't live beyond a minute.
48:32Getting it? Yeah.
48:34Hi everyone. My name is Mansi. And I have been listening to Acharya Ji. And being the part of the sessions from past 11 months.
48:42So, the most important teaching for me from today's session was, where Acharya Ji, the most important teaching for me from today's session was,
48:49where Acharya Ji debunks the definition of the skillful inner work,
49:13the skillful inner work.
49:19So usually like others as well and as he also said that we usually do the wrong interpretation of it
49:31where we think that if we are skillful and efficient in doing some work then we are established in yoga.
49:39However, according to Krishna, Shri Krishna he says that the efficiency in some work is determined by the source or the center from which the action is coming from.
49:55So whether the actor knows that himself or herself and what leads the action.
50:06So that is the most important teaching for me.
50:09From today's session I found one more thing interesting that is when Achari ji told us that this word itself.
50:24So it means that this word exists in this moment.
50:29So this reminded me, I mean just as I am a physics student.
50:35So it reminded me about the concept of Dirac delta function.
50:40So where it only exists at some particular time.
50:44So this movement is also similar to that where means if we make a right choice in this movement then that is the, that leads, I mean that's what matters actually.
51:04So that was another thing that was interesting to me.
51:09It was interesting to me.
51:18Oh