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  • 2 days ago
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00:00Namaste Acharya, I am Prashant.
00:09My question is that, is there a free will or everything is predestined?
00:12Sir, can I pose this question better?
00:18Yes, and I respond.
00:20What is actually meaning of, as the Bhagavad Gita said, that karma karo, but...
00:25You remember the scientific etiquette, then why do we think all those things are negotiable when it comes to the scriptures?
00:33Science, we dare not mess with it.
00:35And when it comes to self-knowledge, anything goes, free for all, anything.
00:40When a series of experiments, they basically demonstrated that our sort of choices can be predicted by a computer algorithm which has access to your neural activity.
00:49So, then these concepts like decision, choice, intention, sort of don't seem to make sense.
00:56Vedanta has no claim to being limitless.
00:59The limits are set by you, so you can do that.
01:02Vedanta, I am talking about the limitation of Vedanta.
01:05Yes, yes, it's limited.
01:06It's limited.
01:07See, wait.
01:08Vedanta is in...
01:09Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
01:10Please understand.
01:12Vedanta is inanimate.
01:14There is a semantic problem here.
01:16So, when will this realization come like this?
01:18That comes from where you are.
01:20We don't have to go anywhere else.
01:22So, suffering will change, right?
01:23No, no.
01:24It's the concept.
01:25That's the beauty of that.
01:26It questions all your concepts.
01:28Why do you think that being born with a silver spoon is actually better than being born in an underprivileged, economically underprivileged family?
01:38So, I think it's a problem.
01:40So, if you sort of...
01:41Let's see if there is a problem.
01:42Is there a problem?
01:43I will try.
01:44It's a problem.
01:45It's a good problem.
01:46It's a good problem.
01:50Namaste Acharya.
01:51I am Prashant.
01:59My question is that, is there a free will or everything is predestined?
02:02Is there a?
02:03Free will or everything is predestined?
02:05As you said, there is suffering, but where I born will change my way of suffering.
02:10So, but where I born is not in my control.
02:11But...
02:12Just let me have some water.
02:13Human condition, you see.
02:14Fellow doesn't even have water to drink.
02:15Suffering?
02:16Yes.
02:17Thank you so much.
02:18Sir, can I pose this question better?
02:19I am a neuroscience student.
02:20Yes, and I will respond better.
02:21The question is, is there a free will or everything is predestined?
02:22And what is actually meaning of, as the Bhagavad Gita said, that karma karo, but phalki chinta mat karo.
02:23Bhagavad Gita wasn't written as a free will or everything is predestined.
02:24And what is actually meaning of that as the Bhagavad Gita said that karma karo, but phalki chinta mat karo.
02:37Bhagavad Gita wasn't written in Hindi, was it?
02:38Okay.
02:39Why do we forget the scientific method and the scientific rigor when it comes to dealing with holy books?
02:44If you quote a journal, then you just do it.
02:45You just do it.
02:46You just do it.
02:47You just do it.
02:48You just do it.
02:49And what is actually meaning of that as the Bhagavad Gita said that karma karo, but phalki chinta mat karo.
02:51Bhagavad Gita wasn't written in Hindi, was it?
02:53Okay.
02:54Why do we forget the scientific method and the scientific rigor when it comes to dealing with holy books?
03:04If you quote a journal, then you just do it.
03:09You just do it.
03:10You just do it.
03:11You just do it.
03:12You just do it.
03:13You just do it.
03:14When you remember the scientific etiquette, then why do we think all those things are negotiable
03:25when it comes to the scriptures?
03:28Bhagavad Gita says karma karo, phalki chinta nahi karo.
03:30Where exactly?
03:31Which shlok?
03:33Where exactly?
03:34That's like saying, Newton nahi kaha tha ki, seb neche girt hai papita upra jata hai.
03:42When and where exactly?
03:45That's not what Bhagavad Gita says.
03:48I don't mean to offend you.
03:50I just want to sensitize all of us that what we take as the scriptural wisdom coming to us, the folk wisdom, has become highly corrupted and diluted.
04:02Kindly do not take anything on face value.
04:05All this whatsapp wisdom and the instagram reels Krishna kahte hai.
04:09Is that the scientific way?
04:10But we take these two worlds as poles apart.
04:24Science, we dare not mess with it.
04:26And when it comes to self knowledge, anything goes.
04:31Free for all.
04:32Anything.
04:33One should be tried for doing this.
04:35No?
04:36If I miscourt you, you will sue me, you will drag me to the courts for defaming you.
04:43Krishna should be filing so many cases.
04:47Defamation.
04:48So much is being done in his name.
04:49He will say, I have a cup of coffee.
04:50So now, back to the question of free will versus destiny.
04:54Yeah, so I am a student and scholar of neuroscience and sort of life of neuroscientist I would say
05:01was made a little difficult when a series of experiments, limited at all 90 years ago,
05:04I had to say, I have a cup of coffee.
05:05So now, back to the question of free will versus destiny.
05:07Yeah, so I am a student and scholar of neuroscience and sort of life of neuroscientist I would say
05:19was made a little difficult when a series of experiments limited at all 1983 and 1987.
05:25They basically demonstrated that our sort of choices can be predicted by a computer algorithm
05:32which has access to your neural activity.
05:35Yes, yes.
05:36Even so, a few milliseconds ahead of you are even aware of the decision.
05:41So for example, me lifting my left hand versus right hand, the algorithm can predict it ahead of my...
05:46Love it.
05:47So, then these concepts like decision, choice, intention sort of don't seem to make sense.
05:53Then what will be your words of advice for...
05:57No, it's not just a few milliseconds, sir.
05:58Before I came here, I had a cup of coffee.
06:01Do you see me consuming glass after glass of water?
06:05This action of mine got pre-decided that very hour.
06:10It's not even a gap, a phase lag of just a few nanoseconds or milliseconds.
06:15No.
06:16What I did at 4 PM is making me ask for more and more water at 5.30 or 6, whatever is the time, 6.30.
06:247.
06:25We are entering timelessness.
06:26Are you getting it?
06:27So, right now I will say, I want water.
06:28I want water.
06:29I want water.
06:30I want water.
06:31I want water.
06:32I want water.
06:33As if at this moment, I have decided out of my free will to ask for water.
06:47But is that so?
06:48Aren't my actions this moment being determined by what happened a couple of hours back?
06:55So, obviously when it comes to mechanical systems, everything is strung together in a cause and effect relationship.
07:04And the cause of one thing is just the effect of another preceding thing.
07:11Do you see this?
07:12It's not as if the water is a result.
07:15The water is an effect of coffee and coffee is the fundamental cause.
07:18No.
07:19The coffee is an effect of something else.
07:23I don't even know.
07:24I don't even remember.
07:25And if I take it to its logical initiation, everything is a result of my birth.
07:30And if I take that further, backwards, then my parents come into the picture and then their parents and their parents and the great apes and then the monkeys and then the single cell creatures and then God knows what?
07:47Big Bang.
07:51Some people say, that who is the creator is nobody else but the Big Bang.
07:57But the Big Bang is a singularity.
08:00We'll not get into that.
08:02Fine.
08:03So, when we talk of the normal kind of actions, obviously it's a cause-effect relationship.
08:10Right?
08:11In which there is no role of any kind of realization.
08:16Things will happen on their own.
08:19Like birth.
08:20Like growing a beard.
08:25Like puberty.
08:26Like falling in love.
08:27Like getting married.
08:28Mechanical actions.
08:30You think you are falling in love.
08:32It's hormonal.
08:33You think you are fathering kids.
08:36It had to happen.
08:37Not that it's a result of your independent volition.
08:41It's not coming from there.
08:42Then death.
08:44It had to happen.
08:45Not that you can choose to be immortal.
08:47You have no choice there.
08:49What can we do then?
08:51Can we break this cause-effect, the link, this entire chain?
08:57Can we cause some kind of disruption in the stream?
09:00No.
09:01We can know.
09:03We can know.
09:05Know.
09:06You can know how it is happening.
09:09And when you know how it is happening.
09:12Hmm?
09:13Something changes.
09:15Something changes.
09:18When you know how it is happening.
09:20Then what is it that changes?
09:22Your claim over doership.
09:26You do not say, I am doing this.
09:28You realize, it is happening.
09:30Not being done.
09:33It is happening.
09:34It is not being done.
09:36And if it is happening.
09:38And I am not the doer.
09:40Then I am not.
09:43I am only when I am the doer.
09:47If it is just happening.
09:48Then I am not.
09:50Because I am not doing it.
09:51And if I am not doing it, who am I?
09:52I am nobody.
09:53Whenever I am.
09:54Have you seen?
09:55Whenever you are.
09:56You are always the one in command.
09:57One in control.
09:58I am doing this.
09:59I am reacting.
10:00I am acting.
10:01I am deciding.
10:02I am not deciding.
10:03I am retreating.
10:04If I realize.
10:06I am not doing anything.
10:07Then I am not.
10:08And if I am not.
10:09Then whose free will are we talking of?
10:11So in either case.
10:12There is no free will.
10:14But in the latter case.
10:16There is no suffering either.
10:18In the first case.
10:20There is no free will.
10:21But an assumption.
10:23That there is free will.
10:24And who is the free one?
10:25There you go.
10:27There is free will.
10:30I am the one asking for water.
10:32It is my free will.
10:34And who am I?
10:35The ego.
10:36The ignorant ego.
10:37Who does not know.
10:38That you are not asking for water.
10:39It is the coffee doing the talking.
10:42You are not getting it.
10:44In the first case.
10:45We said two cases.
10:46And in neither of the cases.
10:47There is free will.
10:48But in the first case.
10:49There is an assumption.
10:50That there is a doer.
10:52And that doer is the sufferer.
10:54In the second case.
10:56You realize that there is no free will.
10:58And if there is really no free will.
11:00Then there is no doer.
11:01And if there is no doer.
11:02There is no suffering either.
11:04So there is no free will.
11:05Yet.
11:06There is a difference.
11:07Between realizing that.
11:09And not realizing that.
11:11But choosing to realize itself.
11:13Is an action that has to be.
11:15Sobhav.
11:16Sobhav.
11:17Sobhav is not a choice.
11:18Sobhav is not a choice.
11:20But you are very right.
11:21You can choose.
11:22Not to realize.
11:24As I said.
11:26We can impede realization.
11:29We cannot cause it.
11:31But we have nuisance value.
11:33For example.
11:35Here you are.
11:37You might find my words irritable.
11:40This man is just blabbering there.
11:43Nothing.
11:44You can keep elbowing your neighbor.
11:46So.
11:47So.
11:48There is nothing that you are understanding.
11:50But you can impede the understanding of your neighbor.
11:53That's what we are adept at.
11:55Are you getting it?
11:57You cannot choose to realize.
11:58When realization happens.
12:00It is an expression of who you really are.
12:03But you can always decide.
12:05Oh realization is frightful.
12:07The consequences will be devastating.
12:09I choose to live in ignorance.
12:11I want to live in.
12:12No don't tell me.
12:13Don't tell me.
12:14Not a situation by the way.
12:15Practically.
12:16You want to talk on something real.
12:18Authentic.
12:19Really truthful to somebody.
12:21And they say change the topic.
12:22Change the topic.
12:24Truth.
12:25Is horrible.
12:26Most people don't want to take it.
12:29Sir.
12:30I am questioning.
12:31Vedanta.
12:32I am talking about the limitation of Vedanta.
12:34Yes.
12:35Yes.
12:36It's limited.
12:37It's limited.
12:38See.
12:39Wait.
12:40Vedanta is in.
12:41Wait.
12:42Wait.
12:43Animate.
12:44There is a semantic problem here.
12:46Inanimate things don't have limitations.
12:50Vedanta is greatly limited if the one approaching Vedanta is coming to it with limited intentions.
12:56It depends on you.
12:58It depends on you.
13:00Vedanta has no claim to being limitless.
13:03It depends on you.
13:04If you want the depths of oceans, you will get it there.
13:07If you just want to skim the surface, that too you can do.
13:10The limits are set by you.
13:12So you can do that.
13:13Yes.
13:14About the free will.
13:15Let's say I have two options.
13:17One thing I can do it.
13:18Other thing I can do it.
13:20So I choose one of the options.
13:21So is it my free will or?
13:24It totally depends on whether you realize where the options are coming from.
13:29One great mark of true free will, illumined free will, free will without the chooser or
13:38the doer, is that there will never be two options or five options or twenty-five options.
13:46Even if there are twenty-five roads in front of you, you will see just one.
13:51Realization.
13:52That's realization.
13:53The other options stop mattering to the extent that you stop seeing them.
14:00So when will this realization will come like?
14:07It's great that we are being brought back again and again to the same point.
14:12That comes from where you are.
14:14We don't have to go anywhere else.
14:16Our own life.
14:17This question that you asked.
14:19The fact that you wanted the mic for yourself.
14:22The fact that you chose to be here.
14:24It is this daily life.
14:26See?
14:27It's not about some other world.
14:29It's about this life here that we are doing every day.
14:33That's the field of true spirituality.
14:37Adhyatma.
14:39My life.
14:40My pains.
14:41My sorrows.
14:42My griefs.
14:43My hookups.
14:44My breakups.
14:45That's what true spirituality deals with.
14:46It does not deal with this and that.
14:48Humbo-jumbo.
14:49Through the prayer
14:51reading somebody's mind.
14:54You take this special fruit and this will energize your house.
14:59Or, you know there are these disembodied bodies floating here and if you can please them, then they will bring you good luck.
15:07All that is nonsense.
15:08That is nonsense!
15:10This is my life! What do you do?
15:11You get up in the morning and don't know how to get up!
15:14You don't want to take a bath!
15:16You don't want to rush to the office!
15:18You care so much about grades!
15:19You care more about somebody else's grades!
15:22You care so much about money!
15:24You care more about somebody else's package!
15:27That's your life!
15:28And going into that
15:30is what realization is all about!
15:33And it's so simple and so direct that we miss it!
15:36My point is that where I born is not in my family!
15:39It is not in my family!
15:40Where is?
15:41Where I born like
15:43If I was born in my family, I would be different!
15:46So suffering will change right?
15:48No! No! It's the concept!
15:50That's the beauty of that!
15:52It questions all your concepts!
15:53Why do you think
15:56that being born with a silver spoon
15:59is actually better than being born
16:02in an underprivileged, economically underprivileged family?
16:06Isn't that a concept?
16:07Isn't that a belief?
16:09How do you know?
16:12That's a very fundamental question!
16:13How do I know?
16:15How do I know?
16:16And when you investigate deeply,
16:17when you see what it means to be born
16:20in a very rich family
16:21and you look at the science of those families
16:24you actually begin to wonder
16:25Am I not better off?
16:27Not being born there?
16:29Look at what they are doing!
16:31And there surely must be a great hollow within
16:33that they have to resort
16:35to these kinds of
16:37very, very
16:39slimy means
16:40to please themselves
16:41and to project an image of happiness!
16:43Else, why would I need to
16:45spend a fortune on my wedding?
16:47Why is that needed?
16:48If I am already alright,
16:49why do I need to be so ostentatious?
16:50It's a concept!
16:54That being born rich is better!
16:56Even better is a concept!
16:58Please understand!
17:00Better is a concept!
17:01Better is not absolute!
17:03How do you know something is better than the other?
17:05These are all man-made definitions!
17:07And whatsoever is man-made
17:09can be questioned by man!
17:11Why should it not be questioned by man?
17:13Betterness is a concept!
17:15Is it not?
17:16And what is a concept?
17:17That by definition depends on another concept!
17:20If you will begin to define betterness,
17:23you will find that betterness depends on some other word!
17:27And that word again is a concept!
17:29So then you finally realize that it is all a doing of the ego!
17:34Hence, I need not give any great respect to all these things!
17:37In that sense, Vedanta turns you into something very disrespectful!
17:43Disrespectful not in the sense of lacking etiquette or something,
17:50in the sense of not according sacredness to every little thing,
17:57every Tom Dick Harry,
17:59not bowing down in front of the world,
18:01not considering something so massive
18:03that you must submit and surrender and shiver!
18:08Vedanta turns you into a real man!
18:11In terms of human being!
18:13Not man as a gender!
18:17Yeah! That's a word!
18:19You don't give a shit!
18:21If we unlearn all the concepts!
18:23You don't have to unlearn!
18:24You have to question!
18:26You have to realize concepts are concepts!
18:28See, what's happening with you?
18:29You are operating in a dualistic framework!
18:30So the moment I say question something,
18:33you think I am advising you to reject it!
18:36I am not asking you to jump from one extreme to other dualistic extreme!
18:41I am saying realize that it is a mere concept, not something God sent!
18:45It is just a concept!
18:48That realization might sort of make us unable to operate
18:53Upset the apple cart!
18:55In the life!
18:57So, I think it's a problem!
18:59So, if you sort of
19:01Let's see if there is a problem!
19:03I will try!
19:05Next!
19:07There is a problem!
19:09It is a fun problem!
19:11You have the free will to try that!
19:13If he realizes it might happen!
19:16If he realizes it might happen!
19:18You have the free will to impede realization!
19:22You have the free will to impede realization!
19:26All this discussion is so that the impedance starts looking stupid!
19:31Realization can never be something that you do!
19:34Who are you to realize?
19:36God Almighty!
19:37Are you so big that you will cause realization?
19:42No!
19:44You can only not become the obstacle in your own realization!
19:50You can withdraw!
19:52It's all about negation!
19:53Withdrawal!
19:54Neti Neti!
19:55Nakar!
19:57Don't do anything great!
19:59Probably you are already great!
20:00If you refuse to keep clutching your littlenesses, your pettinesses!
20:08Yes!
20:17So, Namaste Achareji!
20:18I am Ravisha!
20:20I am Varun!
20:21So, we have been listening to you from last 5 months and I started listening to you from YouTube
20:27Last year!
20:29After listening to the Gista community and your sessions,
20:32I could see that now I can differentiate between what is right and wrong
20:37And from your teachings, you have told us not to bow down in front of the power and the money
20:44So, what to pursue which is right in your life
20:47I have started seeing the things objectively
20:50Ending all my superstitions
20:52And to inquire into the things
20:53Many of the teachings Ravisha has mentioned that we have been benefited a lot from the teachings of Achareji
21:00And we are here in the US
21:02You know, whenever we find time, we listen to him
21:05And it has been a great journey so far
21:07And we will find time!
21:08And we will find time!
21:10And we are here in the form of Achareji
21:12And at the first step of the messages that you have come from up to the group
21:14If you want to leave a friend, I will find them
21:18In the form of the link in the comments below
21:20And I will find one of the best messages that you will find
21:23And in the description in the description of the group
21:25We will find a place you do
21:30So far
21:32And I will find a place where you are

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