00:00So my question is that, what are your thoughts on the developments in science and technology
00:09affecting what is right and what is wrong?
00:12Will it make it more clearer or will it make it more obscure?
00:17For example, to take the example of animal cruelty by eating non-veg and dairy industry,
00:32say technology is now developing lab-grown meat and such alternatives, where now it is
00:40making it clearer what is right.
00:42Now, even if people want to eat meat, they can eat meat without animal cruelty.
00:48But then there are also technologies which are making it more obscure.
00:54Like for example, during the pandemic, when we were having online sessions and online
01:01exams, the technology allowed everyone to cheat in a way that would not be possible
01:08in offline exams.
01:10And they had many justifications for doing so.
01:15In a sense, what I'm trying to say is that the technological development is giving us
01:21new options.
01:24So some options make it clearer that new option is right, while some options give more confusion.
01:32So I just want to hear your thoughts on how the technology and scientific developments
01:39affect what is right and what is wrong.
01:41Thank you.
01:42These two are, 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.
01:59You see, science helps you learn the facts of the universe, including the human body.
02:08And the brain.
02:11That's what science enables you to look into.
02:16And when that happens, a lot of superstitions are cleared and beliefs, needless beliefs
02:23are removed.
02:27And when those beliefs are gone, then the inner center you operate from, that improves.
02:35I'll clarify through an example.
02:38Let's say you believe in racial supremacy, as the Nazis did, right?
02:46Now you can have science that will tell you that when it comes to physicality, the races
02:57are hardly any different from each other.
03:01They were talking of the pure Aryan blood, for example.
03:05And science will tell you that when it comes to blood, there are just those four categories
03:11and then the RH plus, RH minus, whatever.
03:16There is nothing called an Aryan blood.
03:20You can be O, you can be Bhi, whatever, but you cannot be Aryan.
03:24When you fall sick, you do not have to worry about it.
03:27But 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.
03:46And science has helped human beings a great deal, not just materially, not just physically,
03:55but also internally.
03:59You think of the travails of the ancient man.
04:03The fellow did not know what all those things up in the sky are.
04:07Sometimes he was thinking that it's a large black canopy and all these things are little
04:14gems and diamonds studded on the canopy.
04:18And all that would lead to a lot of inner confusion.
04:21And that would translate into personal incapacity.
04:26When you do not know who you are and the world you are operating in,
04:32then everything that you think, feel or do simply goes haywire, does it not?
04:39I do not know why there is an eclipse.
04:43And I might feel that I need to slaughter my neighbor to avoid the curse of the eclipse.
04:49To avoid the curse of the gods.
04:51And that was indeed happening in several parts of the world.
04:57The sun appears hidden.
05:00Surely the god is demanding some sacrifice to reappear.
05:06Otherwise 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?
05:13And then some learned priest comes over and says,
05:17you know, you need to sacrifice your neighbor.
05:21Because 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.
05:41The one who we are inwardly,
05:44he needs science, not just spirituality.
05:48He needs science to be a great human being.
05:53The Upanishads put it this way.
05:56You need both Vidya and Avidya if you are to be of any avail.
06:04Vidya is knowledge of yourself, your own inner processes,
06:08how your thoughts operate, your mind, your feelings,
06:11your impulses, instincts, reactions, all those things, relationships, all those things.
06:16So that's Vidya.
06:18And the Upanishads very bravely and very forthrightly declare
06:26that if you do not have Avidya, Avidya is knowledge of the universe,
06:30which you could loosely call as scientific knowledge,
06:34that if you do not have Avidya, there is no point having Vidya.
06:38In fact, they declare that between someone who has only Vidya
06:44and someone who has only Avidya, the one having only Avidya has an edge actually.
06:54And then they say the great one, the liberated one is the one who has both Vidya and Avidya.
07:02If you want to cross over the ocean of ignorance,
07:06you need knowledge in both the directions.
07:09You need to know the world which comes to you from science
07:13and you need to know yourself which comes from self-observation.
07:18So that's science for you.
07:21Now what's technology?
07:22Technology is application of science according to your own convenience or need or greed
07:29or interest or whatever, right?
07:31So science purifies the one within,
07:36whereas technology is simply a toy in the hands of the one within.
07:42Please understand, whosoever you are, you will be pulled up if you really go deep into science.
07:50And that is the reason why we find a lot of wisdom in the personalities of a lot of eminent scientists.
08:01The same thing you cannot say for CEOs of tech companies.
08:08You cannot compare let's say a Bill Gates to an Albert Einstein.
08:13Very 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.
08:36You are operating your slave called technology like a dog on leash.
08:47Getting it?
08:49So we need a lot of science to be better and we need a lot of self-knowledge to be better.
08:55And if we do not have science and self-knowledge which is Vidya and Avidya,
08:59then unfortunately technology can be a very very dangerous thing.
09:05Technology in the hands of the wrong kind of population will prove disastrous to everybody.
09:15Disastrous towards the entire planet and self-destructive for the human species.
09:21So progress in the field of technology alone does not mean much.
09:25In fact it can be a thing of concern.
09:29You would have heard that anecdote, the monkey and the sword and the king and the king had this
09:37very pet monkey and the monkey too was fond of the king and the king went to sleep and the monkey
09:47went to sleep and the monkey was watching over and a fly came from somewhere and sat right on
09:54the nose of the king and the monkey was appalled. Such a great king and a mere fly
10:02is perched on the nose. So what does the monkey do? Picks up the sword and slash.
10:11What does technology do? Instead of the sword it gives an intercontinental
10:16missile to the monkey and that's what has happened. Inwardly we are still monkeys
10:23but technology has given us huge power. Power that we don't even deserve.
10:31Power that we cannot even responsibly wield.
10:37So science is useful. Spirituality is useful. Technology can be disastrous.
10:46For technology to be of constructive use to human beings, you would have guessed by now
10:53what is needed. It is needed that growth in wisdom keeps pace 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. Do you think now the rate of growth of
11:22wisdom is matching the rate of growth of technology? No way. I think you too know
11:27that. You just wanted it from me. We all know that. The monkey has at most graduated to an
11:36orangutan but in no way are we still capable of being called human beings.
11:43We 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
12:01at our disposal and we are using that to ruin this planet. In fact it's already gone.
12:07Already gone. We are de facto in the 6th mass extinction phase. So, that's what we have done.
12:15Thank you, sir.
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