00:00 So my question is that, what are your thoughts on the developments in science and technology
00:10 affecting what is right and what is wrong?
00:12 Will it make it more clearer or will it make it more obscure?
00:17 For example, now to take the example of animal cruelty by eating non-veg and dairy industry,
00:33 say technology is now developing lab-grown meat and such alternatives where now it is
00:41 making it clearer what is right.
00:43 Now even if people want to eat meat, they can eat meat without animal cruelty.
00:49 But then there are also technologies which are making it more obscure.
00:55 Like for example, during the pandemic when we were having online sessions and online
01:01 exams, the technology allowed everyone to cheat in a way that would not be possible
01:09 in offline exams.
01:11 And they had many justifications for doing so.
01:15 In a sense what I'm trying to say is that the technological development is giving us
01:22 new options.
01:24 So some options make it clearer that the new option is right, while some options give more
01:32 confusion.
01:33 So I just want to hear your thoughts on how the technology and scientific developments
01:38 affect what is right and what is wrong.
01:43 Thank you.
01:44 These two are, when it comes to the inner domain and how these two affect the person
01:54 from inside, these two are not in the same dimension, science and technology.
01:59 You see, science helps you learn the facts of the universe, including the human body
02:09 and the brain.
02:10 That's what science enables you to look into.
02:17 And when that happens, a lot of superstitions are cleared and beliefs, needless beliefs
02:24 are removed.
02:28 And when those beliefs are gone, then the inner center you operate from, that improves.
02:38 I'll clarify through an example.
02:41 Let's say you believe in racial supremacy as the Nazis did.
02:49 Now you can have science that will tell you that when it comes to physicality, the races
03:00 are hardly any different from each other.
03:04 They were talking of the pure Aryan blood, for example.
03:11 And science will tell you that when it comes to blood, there are just those four categories
03:17 and then the RH plus, RH minus, whatever.
03:21 There is nothing called an Aryan blood.
03:25 You can be O, you can be Bhi, whatever, but you cannot be Aryan.
03:30 When you fall sick, you do not go out looking for Aryan blood.
03:35 So the center that you had, the egoistic center that you had, that is challenged, rather clarified
03:43 and purified by the findings of science.
03:47 And science has helped human beings a great deal, not just materially, not just physically,
03:55 but also internally.
03:59 You think of the travails of the ancient man.
04:03 The fellow did not know what all those things up above in the sky are.
04:09 Sometimes he was thinking that it's a large black canopy and all these things are little
04:14 gems and diamonds studded on the canopy.
04:19 And all that would lead to a lot of inner confusion.
04:24 And that would translate into personal incapacity.
04:29 When you do not know who you are and the world you are operating in, then everything that
04:37 you think, feel or do simply goes haywire.
04:41 Does it not?
04:42 I do not know why there is an eclipse.
04:47 And I might feel that I need to slaughter my neighbor to avoid the curse of the gods.
04:52 And that was indeed happening in several parts of the world.
04:57 The sun appears hidden.
05:01 Suddenly the god is demanding some sacrifice to reappear.
05:07 Otherwise the god is threatening to go away.
05:09 And if the sun goes away, that would be a bad thing.
05:12 So what do I do?
05:14 And then some learned priest comes over and says, you know, you need to sacrifice your
05:19 neighbor because the neighbor in some way was aspiring to be the next priest.
05:26 But that's the hidden story.
05:29 So the neighbor has to be sacrificed and all those things are happening.
05:33 So backwardness in science leads to a lot of inner darkness also.
05:41 Inner darkness.
05:42 The one who we are inwardly, he needs science, not just spirituality.
05:49 He needs science to be a great human being.
05:54 The Upanishads put it this way, you need both Vidya and Avidya if you are to be of any avail.
06:04 Vidya is knowledge of yourself, your own inner processes, how your thoughts operate, your
06:11 mind, your feelings, your impulses, instincts, reactions, all those things, relationships,
06:15 all those things.
06:17 So that's Vidya.
06:19 And the Upanishads very bravely and very forthrightly declare that if you do not have Avidya, Avidya
06:29 is knowledge of the universe, which you could loosely call as scientific knowledge, that
06:35 if you do not have Avidya, there is no point having Vidya.
06:40 In fact, they declare that between someone who has only Vidya and someone who has only
06:47 Avidya, the one having only Avidya has an edge actually.
06:56 And then they say the great one, the liberated one is the one who has both Vidya and Avidya.
07:04 If you want to cross over the ocean of ignorance, you need knowledge in both the directions.
07:10 You need to know the world which comes to you from science and you need to know yourself
07:15 which comes from self-observation.
07:19 So that's science for you.
07:21 Now what's technology?
07:23 Technology is application of science according to your own convenience or need or greed or
07:29 interest or whatever.
07:33 So science purifies the one within.
07:37 Whereas technology is simply a toy in the hands of the one within.
07:43 Please understand, whosoever you are, you will be pulled up if you really go deep into
07:50 science and that is the reason why we find a lot of wisdom in the personalities of a
07:59 lot of eminent scientists.
08:02 The same thing you cannot say for CEOs of tech companies.
08:09 You cannot compare let's say a Bill Gates to an Albert Einstein.
08:14 Very different.
08:18 So technology is simply your slave.
08:22 While science can make you better, in that sense science can pull you upwards.
08:29 Whereas technology is something that is always behind you.
08:37 You are operating your slave called technology like a dog on leash.
08:50 So we need a lot of science to be better and we need a lot of self-knowledge to be better.
08:56 And if we do not have science and self-knowledge, which is Vidya and Avidya, then unfortunately
09:02 technology can be a very, very dangerous thing.
09:07 Technology in the hands of the wrong kind of population will prove disastrous to everybody.
09:16 Disastrous towards the entire planet and self-destructive for the human species.
09:24 So progress in the field of technology alone does not mean much.
09:29 In fact it can be a thing of concern.
09:33 You would have heard that anecdote.
09:36 The monkey and the sword and the king and the king had this very pet monkey and the
09:43 monkey too was fond of the king and the king went to sleep and the monkey was watching
09:51 over and a fly came from somewhere and sat right on the nose of the king and the monkey
09:59 was appalled.
10:00 Such a great king and a mere fly is perched on the nose.
10:05 So what does the monkey do?
10:08 Picks up the sword and slashes.
10:12 What does technology do?
10:13 Instead of the sword it gives an intercontinental missile to the monkey.
10:20 And that's what has happened.
10:22 Inwardly we are still monkeys but technology has given us huge power, power that we don't
10:29 even deserve.
10:31 Power that we cannot even responsibly wield.
10:38 So science is useful.
10:41 Spirituality is useful.
10:44 Technology can be disastrous.
10:47 For technology to be of constructive use to human beings, you would have guessed by
10:54 now what is needed.
10:55 It is needed that growth in wisdom keeps pace with growth in technology.
11:06 If the rate of growth of wisdom lags behind the rate of growth of technology then we are
11:15 hurling towards disaster.
11:18 Do you think now the rate of growth of wisdom is matching the rate of growth of technology?
11:25 No way, no way.
11:26 I think you too know that.
11:28 You just wanted it from me.
11:29 So we all know that.
11:31 We all know that.
11:35 The monkey has at most graduated to an orangutan.
11:39 But in no way are we still capable of being called human beings.
11:44 And we have unmatched power and you see what we have done with that power.
11:49 Where is the forest cover?
11:51 You know the number of species that are going extinct every day.
11:56 We have been able to do that only because we have a lot of economic and technical power
12:02 at our disposal.
12:04 And we are using that to ruin this planet.
12:06 In fact it's already gone.
12:09 Already gone.
12:10 We are de facto in the 6th mass extinction phase.
12:14 So that's what we have done.
12:16 Thank you sir.
Comments