Without Wisdom, Every Invention Becomes a Weapon || Acharya Prashant, IIT-Madras (2023)

Acharya Prashant

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00:00so so my question is that what are your thoughts on um the developments in science and technology

00:09affecting what is right and what is wrong will it make it more clearer or will it make it more

00:15obscure for example uh now uh to take the example of um like uh animal cruelty by eating non-vigit

00:27non-vig and dairy industry say technology is now developing uh lab-grown meat and such alternatives

00:39where now that it is making it clearer what is right now even if people want to eat meat they can

00:46eat meat without animal cruelty but then there are also um technologies which are making it more

00:53obscure like for example uh during the pandemic when we were having online uh sessions and online

01:01exams um the technology allowed everyone to cheat in a way uh that would not be possible in offline

01:09accounts and they had many justifications for doing so uh in essence what i'm trying to say is uh the

01:17technologies and the technological development is giving us new options um so some options make it

01:27clearer that that option the option is right while some options still more confusion so i just want to

01:33hear your thoughts on how the technology and scientific developments affect what is right and what is

01:40that option these two are when it when it comes to the inner domain and how these two affect the person

01:53from inside these two are not in the same dimension science and technology you see science helps you

02:01learn the facts of the universe including the human body and the and the brain right that's what science enables you

02:14to look into and when that happens a lot of superstitions are cleared and beliefs needless beliefs are removed

02:24right and when those beliefs are gone then the inner center you operate from

02:34that improves

02:37i'll clarify through an example let's say you believe in racial supremacy

02:44as the nazis did right now you can have science that will tell you

02:52that when it comes to physicality the races are hardly any different from each other

03:05they were talking of the the pure aryan blood for example and science will tell you that when it comes to

03:12blood there are just those four categories and and then the the rh plus rh minus whatever

03:20there is nothing called an aryan blood

03:24you can be o you can be behave whatever but you cannot be aryan

03:29when you fall sick you do not go out looking for aryan blood

03:34so the center that you had the egoistic center that you had

03:40that is challenged rather clarified and purified by the findings of science

03:44science and science has helped human beings a great deal not just material materially not just

03:53physically but also internally

03:59you you think of the travails of the ancient man

04:03the fellow did not know what all those things above in the sky are

04:07sometimes he was thinking that it's a it's a large black canopy

04:12and all these things are little gems and diamonds studded on the canopy

04:18and all that would lead to a lot of inner confusion

04:23and that would translate into personal incapacity

04:27when you do not know who you are and the world you are operating in

04:34then then everything that you think feel or do simply goes haywire does it not

04:42i do not know why there is an eclipse

04:46and i might feel that i need to slaughter my neighbor

04:49to avoid the curse of the gods and that was indeed happening in several parts of the world

04:56the the sun appears hidden

05:00surely the god is demanding

05:03some sacrifice to reappear otherwise the god is threatening to go away

05:08and if the sun goes away that would be a bad thing

05:11so what do i do and then some learned priest comes over and says you know you need to sacrifice

05:18your neighbor because the neighbor in some way was aspiring to be the next priest

05:25but that's the hidden story

05:28so the neighbor has to be sacrificed and all those things are happening

05:32so backwardness in science leads to a lot of inner darkness also

05:40inner darkness the one who we are inwardly

05:44he needs science not not just spirituality he needs science to be a great human being

05:53the upanishads put it this way you need both vidya and avidya if you are to be of any avail

06:04vidya is knowledge of yourself your own inner processes how your thoughts operate your mind your

06:11feelings your impulses instincts reactions all those things relationships all those things

06:16so that's vidya and the upanishads very bravely and very forthrightly declare

06:26that if you do not have avidya avidya is knowledge of the universe which you could loosely call as

06:32scientific knowledge that if you do not have avidya there is no point having with there

06:38in fact they declare that between someone who has only vidya and someone who has only avidya the one

06:47having only avidya has an edge actually

06:52and then they say the the great one the liberated one

07:00is the one who has both with their and avidya

07:03if you want to cross over the ocean of ignorance you need knowledge

07:08in both the directions you need to know the world which is which comes to you from science

07:13and you need to know yourself which comes from self-observation

07:16so that's science for you now what's technology technology is application of science according

07:25to your own convenience or need or greed or interest or whatever right

07:32so science purifies the one within whereas technology is simply a toy in the hands of the one within

07:42you need to know the world which is the one within the world which is the one within the world

07:47if you really go deep into science and that is the reason why we find

07:55a lot of wisdom in the personalities of a lot of eminent scientists

08:01the same thing you cannot say for ceos of tech companies

08:05you cannot compare let's say a bill gates to an albert einstein very different

08:17so technology is simply your slave

08:22while science can make you better in that sense science can pull you upwards

08:28whereas technology is something that is always behind you

08:35you you you you are you are operating your slave called technology like a dog on leash

08:47getting it so so we need a lot of science to be better and we need a lot of self-knowledge to be

08:54better and if we do not have science and self-knowledge which is with the end of it there

08:59then unfortunately technology can be a very very dangerous thing

09:06technology in the hands of the wrong kind of population

09:11will prove disastrous to everybody

09:15disastrous towards the entire planet and self-destructive for the human species

09:23so progress in the field of technology alone does not mean much in fact it can be a thing of concern

09:30you would have heard that anecdote the monkey and the sword and the king and the king had this very pet monkey

09:42and the monkey too was fond of the king and the king went to sleep and the monkey was watching over

09:50and a fly came from somewhere and sat right on the nose of the king and the

09:58monkey was appalled such a great king and a mere fly is purged on the nose

10:03is purged on the nose so what does the monkey do

10:07picks up the sword and slash

10:09what does technology do instead of the sword it gives an intercontinental missile to the monkey

10:19and that's what has happened inwardly we are still monkeys but technology has given us huge power

10:27power that we don't even deserve power that we cannot even responsibly wield

10:37so science is useful spirituality is useful technology can be disastrous

10:44for technology to be of constructive use to human beings you would have guessed by now what is needed

10:54it is needed that

10:58growth in wisdom keeps peace with growth in technology

11:05if the rate of growth of wisdom lags behind the rate of growth of technology

11:13then we are hurling towards disaster

11:20do you think now the rate of growth of wisdom is matching the rate of growth of

11:24no way no way i think you too know that you just wanted it from me so

11:29we all know that we all know that we all know that the monkey has at most graduated to an orangutan

11:37but in no way are we still capable of being called human beings

11:43and we have unmatched power and you see what we have done with that power

11:49where is the forest cover you know the number of species that are going extinct every day

11:55we have been able to do that only because we have a lot of economic and technical power at our disposal

12:02and we are using that to ruin this planet in fact it's already gone

12:08already gone we are de facto in the sixth mass extinction phase so that's what we have done

12:16thank you sir

12:27thank you

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