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00:00In Vedant, the highest truth is called the self.
00:03So how dare you not take care of the self?
00:30Not only to listen but to engage because Sambad is not just an event, it enlightens collective
00:35growth and create a path of understanding.
00:39It encourages each one of us to actively participate, share thoughts and to contribute to conversations
00:46that will unfold and here is Mr. Acharya Prashankar.
00:54After coming to Dubai, I am phrasing a bit of dilemma.
00:56When we chase our dreams for a better lifestyle, a respectable job, a better salary, are we
01:02running away from our responsibilities, the responsibilities to our summation, society,
01:07family.
01:08The division between desire and duty, between pursuing your ambitions and fulfilling your
01:15responsibility, that's a false division.
01:18The real division is between the lower kind of self and the higher kind of self.
01:23A choice has to be made between the personal and the social, between the material and the
01:31spiritual.
01:32That's a belief that we are carrying.
01:33The more you do for yourself, the more you are harming the others.
01:41Hi Acharya Ji.
01:43My name is Shivang Agarwal.
01:45I have recently joined here as a faculty in computer science.
01:50So yeah, after coming to Dubai, I am facing a bit of a dilemma.
01:55The dilemma is that while being in India, I had a lot of dreams.
02:01Dreams like starting an animal syndrome, doing some work for Angle Premier Skates, starting
02:07Italian school.
02:09Those things are not possible here, right?
02:13So the question is, when we chase our dreams for like a better lifestyle, respectable job,
02:21better salary, are we running away from our responsibilities?
02:26The responsibilities to our summation, society, family.
02:30If I am being selfish for myself, for my immediate family, am I being a bad person?
02:38Am I running away from my responsibilities?
02:41How do I overcome this dilemma?
02:44Implicit in your question is a dichotomy, a division that you are probably assuming as necessary.
03:00The division between desire and duty, between pursuing your ambitions and fulfilling your responsibility.
03:19You are seeing these as two different things, right?
03:24Because you are seeing that these two are not simultaneously possible, probably in your case,
03:31given your situations here, you are asking how do I choose between the two?
03:38And if I pick any one of them, then there is a resultant guilt or sadness or feeling of
03:47incompletion.
03:48Right?
03:49So your question pertains to making a choice, a choice that does not leave you with guilt
04:00or lack of fulfilment.
04:01That's the question, right?
04:04I have my desires, my needs, whatever you want to call them.
04:12And then there are things that I wanted to do as a matter of my responsibility towards
04:20the planet, towards the community, towards the environment, all the good things.
04:26So the Kushner used the word selfishness.
04:29He said, on one hand, we have to be selfish at least to some extent because we have our personal
04:39goals and dreams to take care of.
04:42And on the other hand, something within us impels us to be broader in our approach and take care
04:53of the society beyond our immediate circle.
04:59Right?
05:00And that's how most of us look at this thing, right?
05:04That these are two different planes, almost impossible to reconcile.
05:13If you take care of your personal desires, then you'll be missing out on the social.
05:21If you take care of the material, then you'll be missing out on the spiritual.
05:25Right?
05:26That's how we look at it commonly.
05:30And this kind of thought is reinforced when we find that those who have pursued spiritual
05:39or selfless lives have actually gone away from the society and from the material.
05:47Right?
05:48Those are the examples that we have.
05:50And when we look at those examples, then the feeling, the assumption is further reinforced.
05:59Yes.
06:00It's an either or thing.
06:03A choice has to be made between the personal and the social.
06:11Between the material and the spiritual.
06:14That's a belief that we are carrying.
06:16We have been told that you cannot have both of these together.
06:23If you maximize on one of them, then you are minimizing on the other one.
06:32The usual either or thing.
06:34A zero one relationship.
06:37As they say a zero sum game.
06:40You increase one part of it and you find the other part decreasing.
06:45That's classically called a zero sum game.
06:46Right?
06:47We know that.
06:48Yeah.
06:49Does it really have to be a zero sum game?
06:52Is the choice necessarily between being selfish and being socially responsible?
07:03Between being hugely desirous of material consumption and being spiritual and not touching the material?
07:17I mean, whatever that means in a practical sense, I don't know.
07:23Does it really have to be that way?
07:25Let's ask ourselves.
07:28Because the question is founded on a belief.
07:37Must we take the question as it is and support the belief?
07:44Must we?
07:45It's not a question.
07:48All questions are expressions of assumptions behind the questions.
07:53Can you see, sir, the assumption behind the question?
07:58Both are simultaneously not possible.
08:03That these are two necessarily different centers.
08:08That assumption is there and the question is not about challenging that assumption.
08:13The question is carrying that assumption forward.
08:18Should we take the question on face value or should we question the question?
08:33Yeah?
08:34Yeah?
08:35Yeah?
08:36Right.
08:37Let's question the question.
08:40I mean, selfishness.
08:46Selfishness versus responsibility towards others.
08:52Right?
08:53When you say self, it in some way indicates your responsibility towards yourself.
09:02Right?
09:03I am being selfish, so I am taking care of myself.
09:07Loosely put, as it is commonly understood.
09:11We are proceeding from there.
09:13So, I am being selfish, I am taking care of others.
09:18And if I am being socially responsible, that I am taking care of others.
09:25And I find that there is a dissonance between these two.
09:29That's my belief.
09:30I see a necessary dissonance between these two.
09:33Between taking care of the self versus taking care of others.
09:36And that others could mean anything.
09:38That others could mean endangered species on the planet.
09:41That others could mean ecosystems, river systems.
09:46That others could mean people belonging to a different country.
09:50That others could mean brothers and sisters from my own land who have not been so privileged.
09:56The others could mean anything.
09:57Others simply includes everything.
09:59That's not me.
10:00That's not me.
10:01So, there is my responsibility towards myself.
10:05And there is my responsibility towards others.
10:09And I see that these two are not mutually compatible.
10:14So, what's the assumption here?
10:16You'll have to be with me.
10:18Even as I speak and you listen, we both are equal participants, right?
10:24So, you'll have to be with me.
10:26It's just on the surface that I'm doing something different from what you are doing currently.
10:33I happen to be actively speaking.
10:35But you also have to be actively listening.
10:38So, we stand on the same plane in that sense, right?
10:42So, I see a necessary dissonance, division between taking care of my interests versus taking care of others' interests.
10:51What is the belief behind this then?
10:54Come on.
10:57Yes.
10:58That there is a necessary separation between my interests and the interests of others.
11:03And that's called a zero-sum game.
11:05Right?
11:06If I do something that's good for me, that will always be at the cost of hurting or harming others.
11:12That's the assumption.
11:14And that's why selfishness has been morally considered bad and despicable.
11:19No?
11:20Because the more you do for yourself, the more you are harming the others.
11:25Because the assumption is that if something is coming this way, then the same thing is being taken away from somewhere.
11:35Are you getting it?
11:37Is it not so?
11:39Isn't that why we consider being selfish so bad?
11:43And selfishness is indeed bad if being selfish means taking care of your good, your welfare, your interests at the cost of others.
11:57Then selfishness is a problem.
11:58Then selfishness is a problem.
12:01But then we are born selfish.
12:04And those who have known have told us that your primary responsibility is towards yourself.
12:12All else automatically follows.
12:15If you can take care of yourself, all else will fall in place.
12:24That even the others exist only to you.
12:29Only to you.
12:32Only to you.
12:35So fundamentally the entire universe exists only to you.
12:40Even the universe comes later.
12:42You come first.
12:43So you have to take care of your own self interest.
12:47In Vedanta, the highest truth is called the Self.
12:51How will you not take care of the Self?
12:56Atma.
12:57Atma.
12:58The Self.
12:59That's the highest truth in Indian philosophy.
13:04So how dare you not take care of the Self?
13:07In fact, even if you try to, you cannot absolve yourself of your responsibility towards the Self.
13:16Right?
13:18And if you try too much, all you will get is hypocrisy.
13:22You will be trying to take care of the Self while pretending that you are being selfless.
13:27And that's a lot of hypocrisy.
13:29Right?
13:30So, Self is something you cannot get away from.
13:33Even if you display it that way.
13:36Even if you pretend.
13:37Or even if you try a lot.
13:39The Self is there.
13:41The Self is there.
13:43And if there is a necessary division between the interests of the Self,
13:47and the interests of the Society, then we are all doomed.
13:50Because we are bound to be selfish.
13:56And if we are bound to be selfish, then we are bound to be socially violent.
14:02Because the Self and the Society cannot go together as per our assumption.
14:06Now that's where the thinkers, the meditators come in.
14:13They say the division is not between the Self and the Society.
14:18Between desire and duty.
14:20That's a false division.
14:21Are we together till this point, first of all?
14:24So, the division between the Self and the Society.
14:28The individual and the Universe.
14:32Between duty and desire.
14:35That's a false division.
14:37The real division is between the lower kind of Self and the higher kind of Self.
14:43Are we together?
14:46You see, we are challenging the question itself.
14:49The question said that there is a necessary division between taking care of the Self
14:55and taking care of the Society.
14:57It's not an and relationship.
14:59It's a versus relationship.
15:01The Self versus the Society.
15:03Either or.
15:05You take this or you take that.
15:06That's what the question had implied.
15:09Now that's not necessarily true.
15:15If you look into it.
15:16The real division might be between a lower kind of Self and a higher kind of Self.
15:25For the lower Self, what you said is definitely true.
15:30And that's why it's called the lower Self.
15:33It's not for reason that it's called the lower one.
15:37Because when you choose to be the lower Self, it's a choice.
15:42When you choose to be the lower Self, then definitely this Self is violent towards others.
15:49This one says, I am born to consume.
15:53I am born to extract.
15:56I am born to any way fulfill my desires at the cost of others.
16:02That's the lower Self.
16:05That comes from not knowing the Self.
16:09Not knowing who you are.
16:11Not knowing who you are.
16:13When you do not know who you are, what do you do?
16:16There is an inner unfulfillment.
16:19And to take care of that inner unfulfillment, inner hollow, you want to consume the world.
16:26See, we are born incomplete, right?
16:32Every kid is born desirous.
16:34We are born incomplete.
16:36We are born incomplete and if we do not understand that incompleteness, then what will we do?
16:42The eyes will say, you know, there, there, there, there, there are some lucrative objects out there.
16:48So, go and grab them.
16:52And if they are currently possessed by somebody else, go and snatch, loot, kill, fight wars.
17:04But get those things because that's what will give you fulfillment.
17:08That's the lower Self that comes from not understanding the Self.
17:12When you do not understand where your lack of fulfillment is coming from, then you think that having a longer car or more money or a larger group of friends or more prestige or more pleasurable experiences or even more knowledge.
17:37Discontent will give you fulfillment.
17:40Because that's the fundamental condition of the ego.
17:46That's what it is born with, born as.
17:49Discontentment is the name of the ego, right?
17:53The Self.
17:56So, when I do not know what that discontentment really is, then I am carried away in the direction of the senses.
18:05And all the senses relate only to the external world.
18:10And I will say, I want this, I want this.
18:13That is wonderful.
18:14Oh, that threatens me.
18:15Kill that.
18:16Let's have a world war.
18:20But I want to take care of my interests.
18:23Let's hack the jungles down.
18:27Let's burn as much oil as possible.
18:29Let's colonize the entire planet.
18:32Let's wipe out millions and billions of species.
18:36Do whatever is needed.
18:39But give me some contentment.
18:43Contentment.
18:44Because I am burning from within.
18:45That's the predicament of the self, the ego.
18:51It's a burn.
18:54It's a hurt.
18:56It's a wound.
18:58It exists here.
19:00And it does not know why it exists.
19:03So, it guesses by way of experience.
19:05It guesses that if I can obtain stuff from here and there, then, then maybe I can get some peace.
19:14This is the lower self.
19:16This is the lower self that has no self-knowledge.
19:20What is the lower self?
19:22When you have no self-knowledge, then you operate from a point that can be called as the lower self.
19:29You are the lower self.
19:31And the characteristic of lower self is a relationship of violence with the world.
19:39Relationship of violence.
19:41I need to satiate my taste buds.
19:45So, bring me more animal flesh.
19:47I'll eat more animal flesh.
19:49Let's just keep on killing.
19:51I care about my taste.
19:53Because that taste, at least for a moment, makes me feel fulfilled.
20:01After a sumptuous meal, I say, ah, wonderful.
20:06So, the inner burn has been taken care of at least for five minutes.
20:12Even if that involves killing.
20:14How many living creatures do we kill every day?
20:17Any ideas? Any guesses?
20:23Any guesses?
20:26Millions? Millions?
20:29Would we underestimate so much? Millions?
20:36It could run actually into trillions if we also take into account the ones that we are killing inadvertently.
20:48But the ones that we kill deliberately, that's one billion a day.
20:53One billion a day we kill deliberately for our consumption.
20:58And the collateral damage, that's different, additional.
21:03And that can be many times the number that we deliberately kill daily.
21:08And I have to kill all of these because, you know, I want to take care of my taste and my body.
21:14My taste.
21:15Even if for a moment, relieve me of the burn that I am.
21:21Do you get this lower self? Do you see how it operates?
21:25There is a hollow within, a problem within.
21:29And the lower self is the one that says that the problem, the hollow, the burn, the wound,
21:34it can be solved by inflicting violence on the world.
21:39What is the planet for?
21:41The planet exists to be mined, to be used, consumed, chopped off, dug up.
21:54That's what the planet exists for.
21:56That's the lower self.
21:57When I do not know what would help me, then I simply go insane.
22:03And my only objective in life is to consume as much as I can.
22:08And because others also want to consume, so there is competition.
22:11All competition is just this.
22:13There is thing, this thing.
22:15I want to consume this.
22:16He also wants to consume the same thing.
22:18He too wants to consume the same thing.
22:19So then there is competition and then there are wars.
22:24That's the lower self.
22:27In the lower self, from this point, there is a necessary division between the interests,
22:33the perceived interests of the self and the society.
22:39Or the planet.
22:40Or the entire universe, if you may say.
22:44Then there is the higher self.
22:47If the lower self comes from not knowing the self,
22:52what would be meant by the higher self?
22:55Knowing yourself.
22:58Knowing yourself.
22:59And when you know yourself, the first thing you find is,
23:02all this has not been ever of any help to anybody.
23:08It has not been of help even to me.
23:10The Upanishads remind you,
23:17Just remember what you have done throughout the history of mankind.
23:22Just remember.
23:23Just remember.
23:24By remembrance they mean recalling.
23:25Can you recall?
23:26Can you recall?
23:27This is the same thing that you were doing millions of years back.
23:31And this is the same thing that you are doing today as well.
23:34If it has not helped you inwardly since millions of years,
23:40how will it help you today?
23:41And this morning, you are planning for exactly the same thing that you as a human being were planning for 10,000 years back.
23:53Keeping aside the external appearances and the evolution of those,
23:57Inwardly, are we much not the same as what we were 10,000 years back or even a million years back, inwardly?
24:08Yes.
24:09What are our fundamental drivers?
24:11Fear, greed.
24:12Right?
24:13So, I said, I have to earn a livelihood for myself.
24:17Survival.
24:19Ambition.
24:22Lust.
24:23Anger.
24:24Those were the things that drove us thousands of years back.
24:28And those are also the same things that drive us today.
24:31Fundamentally, we are just the same.
24:33So, the Upanishads tell us,
24:34Please see that you are much the same and you are trying the same kind of stupid tricks that you were trying.
24:42Even a million years back.
24:45And if those things have never succeeded, what makes you so hopeful that they will succeed today?
24:52They aren't going to succeed today either.
24:56Do you understand this?
24:58That's the higher self.
24:59To see the futility of your ways.
25:03To understand that the self,
25:06the crying, weeping, wailing, hurting self
25:09cannot be healed or even consoled
25:15by way of the usual kind of relationship with the world.
25:19The relationship of exploitation and consumption.
25:22That won't help the self.
25:26Vedanta calls it the method of negation.
25:30Neti Neti.
25:31See that what you have been doing till today has not succeeded.
25:37And when you see that, an entirely new possibility opens up.
25:42New and unpredictable.
25:43And unscripted.
25:45Nobody can tell you what that possibility is like.
25:48But what is certain is, in this new possibility, there would be no repetition of your old ways.
25:53That is guaranteed.
25:56What is also certain is, that this higher self does not accommodate any differences between the interests of the self and the society.
26:08Now what you do for yourself automatically becomes good for the society.
26:13Now you don't have to be a social activist.
26:16Now you don't have to decide to be a messenger of goodness.
26:23Now you don't have to say, you know the entire day, I was polluting the planet.
26:28So in the evenings, I go and do some social activism or animal welfare.
26:34You know the entire week, I was doing something that really sucks.
26:39So on the weekends, I go out and engage myself in some noble task.
26:44No.
26:46Now there is no distinction between a weekday and a weekend.
26:50Between your professional life and personal life.
26:53Between your material life and your spiritual life, they become one.
26:58You cannot say, you know, for my bread and butter, I do this.
27:03This is my livelihood.
27:05And then to take care of my spiritual self, I do that.
27:08The entire day I work in a slaughterhouse.
27:14But in the mornings, I never miss my meditation.
27:18So all meditation is confined to that one hour of the morning.
27:23And my Guruji has given me a particular Kriya.
27:25So I sit and for one sacred hour, I totally immerse myself in that Kriya or activity.
27:31And then after that, I proceed to my usual kind of vocation.
27:38Which is inherently violent, exploitative, cruel.
27:44But I don't mind any of that.
27:47Because you see, material life is different from spiritual life.
27:52That's the assumption in the question.
27:55No.
27:57Operating from the higher self.
28:00Expressing the higher self.
28:02I once said, the sound of your footsteps itself is compassion.
28:13You don't have to be additionally compassionate.
28:18You don't have to exhibit compassion.
28:23In fact, jokingly, I once said, even if you sneeze, that's compassion.
28:27That's compassion.
28:30Provided you are operating from the higher self.
28:33Then you cannot mark an activity distinctly as an act of compassion.
28:40You know, this thing is a proof of my compassion.
28:44Sir, I walk that's compassion.
28:46I live that's compassion.
28:47I eat that's compassion.
28:49I operate from a point where there is no distinction now between the self and the world.
28:55What is good for me is now good for the world as well.
28:58I don't have to additionally take care of the world.
29:02Now my life itself is an exercise in social welfare.
29:07If you ask me, when exactly do you involve yourself in social welfare or animal activism or some noble uplifting activity for the soul?
29:17I will be silent, blank.
29:20I'll have no answer because I never do that in a given time slot.
29:24I never do that as an additional activity.
29:29Whatever I do is that.
29:32And unless you operate from that higher self, there would always be the same division that was the foundation of this question.
29:39Sir, how do I, you know, take care of my little circle of family and friends and my own personal interests?
29:50I need to have money.
29:52And how do I simultaneously also do not fall in my eyes and feel guilty within?
29:57So I also need to do, you know, additionally for 5% of my time.
30:01Some good to the society, that's been the usual traditional model and that model is what has brought this earth to the brink of total destruction today.
30:11People have allowed themselves to feel moral and noble by doing 5% of social work or charity.
30:19All your life, you are just an exploiter.
30:27But you certify yourself as good, moral, noble by doing 5% of charity.
30:34By saying, you know, I devote 5% of my 24 hours to something nice.
30:40On weekends, I visit this orphanage and I take some used clothes for the kids there.
30:46I am a noble woman, you see.
30:47That's what has brought us to total and absolute destruction.
30:54We are in the middle of the sixth mass extinction.
30:57It's not for no reason.
30:59This is the reason.
31:01Operating from the lower self, we still want to feel good about ourselves.
31:07We still want to feel noble.
31:09We still want to feel upright.
31:11I feed the birds, you know.
31:22And then I use the birds to feed myself.
31:26I suppose pigeons and chicken are both birds.
31:36So you feed the pigeons.
31:38And then you feed yourself with chicken.
31:41But you are morally upright because you feed the pigeons.
31:48You are morally upright.
31:49You are a good man and you get yourself photographed.
31:50That's what has brought us to a final and irreversible destruction today.
32:03We need to have integrity.
32:11And integrity is not about just being superficially honest in your dealings.
32:18Integrity is about not having a division between yourself and the world.
32:23And that requires a lot of attention and observation to see that your interests and the interests of the world are not separable.
32:34If something is good for the world, it's bound to be good for you.
32:40And what's not good for the world cannot be good for you.
32:43That it is impossible, technically impossible, impossible by law, to actually be joyful when your neighbour is weeping.
32:55It is impossible.
32:56We are not saying it is morally reprehensible.
32:59No.
33:00We are saying it is technically impossible.
33:03You can pretend to be happy at the cost of others.
33:06You will never be joyful.
33:09Never be joyful.
33:10By making someone else miserable, by chaining them, caging them, enslaving them, exploiting them and killing them, you will never have peace.
33:23And that's, I repeat, not a moral dictate.
33:26That's a law of life, an inviolable law.
33:29And that's the higher self.
33:34To see that there is no dissonance, no dichotomy between the self and the society or the world.
33:42Then you don't have to say, you know I am a good man, I was always doing good for others.
33:47But see what I got in return, nobody respects me.
33:49Sir, if you were doing good to others, then you have already done good to yourself.
33:58Now why do you want more returns?
34:01And that's true selfishness.
34:03That's true selfishness.
34:04To realize the self is being truly selfish.
34:10And we need people who are truly selfish.
34:15We need people who are truly selfish.
34:19They know who they are, so they also know what would bring them peace and they get into it.
34:26With total courage.
34:29With no apologies or excuses.
34:33They say, I am doing it, I know this is the right thing.
34:45As long as you are saying, how do I balance these two lives?
34:48And in corporate circles, there's a buzzword, work-life balance.
34:54As long as you are talking of this balance, you are operating from ignorance.
34:57There can be nothing called work-life balance.
35:00Work and life have to be one and the same thing.
35:03Just as the self and society have to be one and the same thing.
35:06If your work is such that it forces you to balance it with something else.
35:18You know my work has totally consumed me.
35:20Now I need to take a vacation.
35:22You are in the wrong kind of work.
35:25Work has to be something you can take pride in getting immersed in.
35:30Work has to be something that never stops for you.
35:38Just as life never stops for you.
35:40Work and life have to be one.
35:42Selfishness and charity have to be one.
35:46My selfishness is of a nature that my selfishness itself is charity.
35:51And we need such people with such selfishness.
35:56Are you getting it?
36:02As long as you are externally and additionally charitable or responsible.
36:11No, it won't work out.
36:14You know, but we also have responsibilities towards our kids and all.
36:17How can I be just selfish?
36:19So you take care of yourself.
36:21And it's only through yourself you take care of your kids, right?
36:23If you are a person who cannot take care even of his own life as a father.
36:30What emboldens you to think that you will be able to take care of your kids?
36:37We have a man in front of us who cannot take care of his own life.
36:42How will he take care of the kids?
36:43But he says, you know, my life, my life is in doldrums.
36:46My life is so shabby.
36:49Because I have to take care of my wife and kids and aging parents.
36:54What nonsense.
36:58You will take care of them, right?
37:00And if you are full of ignorance, how will you take care of them?
37:03You will only radiate your ignorance to your kids.
37:05Your first responsibility, therefore, is towards yourself.
37:11And that's true selfishness.
37:13If I am alright, everything that will happen through me will be alright.
37:18On the other hand, if I say, because of my responsibilities, I am not caring to be alright.
37:25Because I first want to take care of responsibilities, then you will be messing up all these responsibilities.
37:32The fact is, fundamentally, you won't even know what your responsibility is and what is not.
37:36How do you know what your responsibility is?
37:38That knowing is what characterizes the higher self.
37:42We all feel we are responsible, right?
37:45Oh, I have such duties, I have responsibilities, I have this to take care of and that.
37:50How do you know that you must take care of that?
37:52Please tell me.
37:54You don't know.
37:55Most of us don't know.
37:57We have just been told.
37:59This is your responsibility.
38:01And had we been told something totally different and totally otherwise,
38:05we would have believed in that also.
38:07Because our life is a series of beliefs.
38:10Not a flash of realization.
38:17Who told you that this and this and this and this thing is your responsibility?
38:20Who told you?
38:21Did it emerge from within?
38:23No.
38:24Instead of responsibility, instead of this externally obtained set of responsibilities that characterizes the lower self, the higher self operates from something called love.
38:42I have no responsibilities but I have love.
38:48And all responsibilities are limited.
38:52And love is not.
38:54If you tell me I am responsible, you will also tell me I am responsible to a particular extent, right?
39:00To a particular extent.
39:02So, you have been taught in your moral science class, if you find an accident victim on the road, then this much happens to be your responsibility.
39:11And if you can do that much, beyond that you don't bother.
39:16You will say I am morally clean.
39:18I found him and I did this.
39:20You see a beggar on the road, then you know, give him this much.
39:24And that is your responsibility.
39:26Now you can be clear of conscience.
39:27I found a beggar and I gave him this much and I am done with my responsibility.
39:32Love does not operate that way.
39:33Love has no limits.
39:36From the higher self, your relationship with the world is not of responsibility but of love.
39:41And love and responsibility are just not the same thing.
39:46Just not the same thing.
39:47Most of us, unfortunately, do not know love.
39:53Not at all.
39:55All we know is coded, scripted responsibilities.
40:02The wife comes to the husband, newly married and she already knows what her responsibilities are like.
40:09And if it's an arranged marriage or even a love marriage, chances are there is no love.
40:14But there is a lot of responsibility.
40:18She comes to the new house and she already knows very well what her responsibilities are.
40:23And her responsibilities are exactly the same as that of the new bride in the house adjacent.
40:31Right?
40:33How are their responsibilities exactly the same?
40:36Because those responsibilities come from neither of them.
40:40It's a script photocopied and handed over and therefore it's the same for both of them.
40:47Both of them know what our responsibilities are.
40:51Isn't it a waste of life to relate to the other via scripted, predetermined responsibility rather than love?
41:01And love is not something, sir, that you can get from the lower self.
41:05Not possible.
41:06From the lower self, all you get is violence.
41:07Love is possible only when you are alright with yourself and you have something to give.
41:16The lower self is always hungry.
41:19It's always eager to grab and snatch and exploit.
41:22How will it have love?
41:25The lower self is always eager to,
41:28I'm hungry.
41:30How will it have love?
41:31Yes, it can have moral responsibility, which is just fear.
41:34If you do not do these things, if you do not fulfill your given responsibilities, then we will call you a bad man.
41:42Then we will not respect you.
41:45Then we can even hurt your material interests because you are not a good man.
41:49So responsibility is basically fear.
41:50Something deeply related to the lower self.
41:56From the higher self, there is a clear recognition of who you are and what you do not need.
42:03What you do not need.
42:05Then there is a beautiful relationship with the material world and with the people and the species around you.
42:11Is it too heavy?
42:22Is it?
42:25Wait, wait, wait, wait.
42:28All these things that are said in the name of goodness, you know, let's all do our little bit.
42:33These are very problematic, please see.
42:37Because you are being told that 80 units you can exploit and then do your little bit by contributing 10 units.
42:47On the net, what do you have?
42:50Minus 70.
42:52And that's what we have done to this planet, minus 70.
42:54This doctrine of being almost okay, doing some nice things over the weekend or sometimes, you know, 1% or 2% of my income, I donate.
43:14This is a huge problem.
43:15You must come to a point where you do not need to donate at all.
43:24Where your life itself becomes a huge donation to the universe.
43:31That you could call as selflessness or true selfishness.
43:35You can donate a little bit only when you keep, first of all, the largest chunk for yourself.
43:48How do I donate anything?
43:50I am already fully yours.
43:54I have kept not even 1% from myself.
43:56How do I donate anything?
43:57That's the kind of life we must come to.
44:00And this is not utopian.
44:02This is not some empty dreamy ideal.
44:07This is the right kind of life that's needed to save the planet if it still can be saved.
44:12We cannot lead lives of misery and exploitation and still have the guts to call ourselves moral and nice people.
44:29That's what we have done so far.
44:31We cannot say I emit so much carbon but I offset 10% of it by having a little solar thing on my terrace.
44:49See I am green.
44:58What kind of greenery is this?
45:03100 units of emission and 10 units of greenery.
45:09To justify that 100 units of emission, right?
45:13Empty, hollow and dishonest justification.
45:19Like some company that fleeces its customers.
45:31Absolutely fleeces them.
45:34By brainwashing them and subjecting them to all kinds of misleading ads and it's doing all those things.
45:44And then it says, as a token of good will towards you.
45:47We are offering you a 5% discount.
45:53Sir, 100% you have looted.
45:56And 5% you are offering at discount.
45:59And then displaying it to the entire world.
46:02And clamouring for the Nobel Prize.
46:04You know, give me the Nobel Prize for peace.
46:07I gave them 5% discount.
46:08See how noble I am.
46:10There has to be a oneness.
46:16And that comes from self-knowledge.
46:21One has to look at himself.
46:23One has to ask, are my ways succeeding?
46:25If we talk of responsibility, this is the first responsibility.
46:32I have done the same thing, what my parents were doing.
46:36I am replicating the same model as millions of others around me.
46:42If they are not succeeding.
46:43If nobody in the history has succeeded, how will I succeed doing this?
46:48And I have only one life.
46:50What do I do with this one life?
46:53One precious life?
46:56Should I keep spending it this way?
46:59Or is there an alternative possible?
47:01See, no alternative will magically emerge.
47:06It slowly shows up.
47:08But first of all, we need to have the courage to discard what is just not right.
47:15And not right in the sense that it is never going to fulfill your deepest need.
47:21Thank you Achaya.
47:23My name is Baldeep.
47:24So good to see you beyond the digital avatar that we were used to Sony Hayes.
47:27My question is largely one negative emotions.
47:32Let's say, if I describe my anger, hatred, etc. as the dark side of me.
47:38One of the ways that I see, if I see my dark side averaging, is a way to embrace it.
47:45One of the ways because it completes me as a person.
47:48The other ways that I do something about this.
47:51But anytime that I do something about this, it invokes the limited step.
47:56You know, and so I'm always in a dichotomy on whether I should embrace my negative emotions or do something about it.
48:07So the moment I do something rather than see, I'm mildly in that sense.
48:13There were a lot of metaphors in this.
48:16It completes me as a human being.
48:20Where is that coming from?
48:22That to me sounds a lot like self-help language.
48:29Found in very dubious kind of books.
48:33If I embrace my, what did you say?
48:38Anger and negative emotions and I embrace them.
48:42What is meant by embracing negative emotions?
48:45Embracing means that I don't, I don't polarize myself to be saying that, okay, I don't need it.
48:51Something like that.
48:52It's like, you know, if it is within me, suppose I'm getting angry.
48:57Anger, my anger is something that completes me as a person.
49:02What do you mean by completes me as a person?
49:04Completes me means that I'm full.
49:09What do you mean by that? That's the translation of completeness, fullness.
49:12Yeah.
49:13What do you mean by that?
49:17It means that my attention on me is not polarized.
49:22What do you mean by polarized?
49:23Polarized means that I'm not only looking at the positive aspect of me.
49:28How do you know what is positive about you?
49:31Which are the positive?
49:33How do you know what is positive about you?
49:35Which are not negative.
49:37What is this answer? What is positive? What is not negative?
49:39Anger by definition is something that will eat you up from within.
49:45What do you mean by embracing your anger?
49:51Embracing that thing doesn't alter the very nature of it.
50:00You see, the distinction is not between rejecting or accepting your so-called negative emotions.
50:08That's not the distinction.
50:12The distinction is between knowing yourself where the anger is coming from versus just being blindly angry and not even knowing the entire process of anger.
50:26You do not know where anger is coming from.
50:31You do not know the desires that have led to that anger.
50:34You know neither of these.
50:36And then you say, I want to embrace my anger.
50:39That's a hollow metaphor.
50:40Means nothing.
50:42What do you want to embrace?
50:43You don't even know what you are embracing.
50:45So how can you embrace it?
50:46By embracing, you mean accepting.
50:50If I say, you know, I am accepting whatever is there in that laptop.
50:56That's such an empty thing to say because I don't even know what's there.
51:01Do you know your anger?
51:02So the difference lies between just experiencing anger versus understanding anger.
51:12Anger is neither good nor bad.
51:15Negatives, positives, these are very vague words.
51:18Negative for whom? Positive for whom?
51:27On a simple sheet of graph.
51:31Right?
51:32You call one side as positive, the other side as negative.
51:34Shift the origin.
51:35What was positive will become negative.
51:39And what's positive for one person is negative for the other person.
51:43You won a bet against somebody.
51:45This is positive for you, negative for that person.
51:48Right?
51:50So, it's about seeing where your anger etc. are coming from.
51:54That seeing is of utmost importance.
51:58Can I see where it's coming from?
52:01And then, whatever is to happen, let that happen.
52:04That's fine.
52:06That's fine.
52:08Not intelligible?
52:09Offline, you very well know I'm not going to be available.
52:20Please understand, even this thing is coming from.
52:24Even this thing is coming from.
52:26Seeing that maybe it is coming from my defensiveness towards a point.
52:31That I hold very close to myself.
52:38Look at this movement itself.
52:39Am I available online?
52:41Offline?
52:42No, I'm not.
52:44But we kind of want to get away.
52:47I'm just conducting an experiment, right?
52:50Don't take it otherwise.
52:51This is a live demonstration.
52:58Can we…
53:00You have nothing but your self and your body and your life.
53:04Nothing else do we carry, right?
53:06If we do not know how we operate within,
53:09then definitely there is a problem.
53:11And it's not difficult to know.
53:13It's just that we have been trained to look in the external direction.
53:18It's not difficult to know what lies behind your anger or jealousy or greed or whatever we call it as negative.
53:25Don't just brand them as negative.
53:28And don't brand other things as positive either.
53:30Just as you look at things in a laboratory.
53:35Just as you watch traffic standing on a balcony.
53:39Can you watch the inner traffic of what it's doing to you?
53:44We experience these things.
53:47But it would be great if we can also understand these things.
53:52When you understand these things, something very funny also starts happening.
53:56You can almost predict that you are now going to be angry.
53:58And it's very amusing then.
54:02You can even tell others.
54:04Five minutes later, I will be very angry.
54:07So please get up.
54:11Yes.
54:13I stay in London, UK.
54:15And right now I am visiting India.
54:17This was my first session today.
54:19And yeah, it was really, really nice to see it first hand.
54:26Like not a recording because I have been following Acharya Ji for about two years now.
54:32And I have read his books.
54:34And it was really lovely to see it first hand live.
54:38Reflections.
54:39The most beautiful thing I find about Acharya Ji is how he gets into every single word about informing the definition of understanding.
54:52And the thing we said is when you have the definition of understanding is it ends desire.
54:58Once you break it, it automatically ends desire because you see the whole and soul part of it.
55:03Again, I'm a professional in terms of, I'm a diabetic coach in working in NHS.
55:10So I keep telling this to everyone where I say you graduate step by step, graduate step by step.
55:17You know, you don't go from zero goal to ten goal directly.
55:20And he put it so simply in terms of facing fear.
55:26And I was like, so amazing.
55:31I mean, these are a few reflections that I got from him.
55:34And yeah, I mean, his reflections always stick with me.
55:38That's why I implement them.
55:40I don't kind of write them.
55:41I make voice notes for this.
55:42But yeah, I'm very thankful for this session.
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