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Video Information: 29.11.21, Shastra Kaumudi, Rishikesh, Uttar Pradesh
Context:
~ How to break our comfort zone?
~ What gives power to change life?
~ What is love?
~ Who dares to take risk in life?
~ What's the cheapest thing to do in comedy?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquir...
Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books?
Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...
~~~~~
Video Information: 29.11.21, Shastra Kaumudi, Rishikesh, Uttar Pradesh
Context:
~ How to break our comfort zone?
~ What gives power to change life?
~ What is love?
~ Who dares to take risk in life?
~ What's the cheapest thing to do in comedy?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Namaste Acharyaji, I watch stand-up sometimes to check what's going around.
00:08I see comedians using satire and sarcasm for India in their comedy.
00:14Big companies like Amazon, Netflix are hiring big content creators for promotions and making
00:18videos and they are shifting from their channels to the company's channels.
00:24And those with individual channels who have their content also say that they do comedy
00:30to explain misery of India, which is just comedy and an exaggeration, which is their
00:36profession.
00:37Recently, there was a controversy of a comedian who performed in the Kennedy Center, who compared
00:43to India's and which looked like true to me, some of the points.
00:49Do they not know about India as a nation since they read, travel and they know the impact
00:55that will create to the followers, including in the foreign soil or they have sold themselves
01:01for the content?
01:02How to understand this?
01:05So if you allow, would like to share a few lines that he spoke in the Kennedy Center.
01:15I come from two India's with children in the mask, hold hands of each other and the
01:21leaders hug each other without the mask.
01:24Our AQI is 9000 and yet we sleep in the roof and look at the stars.
01:29We scoff about sexuality and yet we scoffed a billion people.
01:34We have largest working populations under 30 and yet we listen to 75 year old leaders
01:41and follow their 150 year old idea.
01:44We kicked out the British and called the government, the ruling party.
01:49Women wear in sarees and sneakers and yet they have to take advice from the old men
01:55who never wore saree and they will never will.
02:00India that self-serves but does not self-preserves.
02:05India that does not shut up and yet does not speak up.
02:09So and more, these kind of things that he spoke with dated conservancy, how should we?
02:15I have not watched that show.
02:18But in the lines that you have quoted, I do not see much that is worthy of big condemnation.
02:38So as far as these particular lines that you read out go, people have a right to express
02:54their views and I do not see much ignorance in these lines.
03:08Maybe more was said by this person, I do not know of that, you have not quoted that.
03:16If it comes to me, maybe my opinion will change but in these five or six lines, there is hardly
03:24anything one can object to.
03:28So if I ignore these lines, so the comedians who make fun of India with respect to comedy,
03:35how should we see that?
03:41See that is the cheapest thing to do, to make fun.
03:49So that is what so many people do, putting in serious concerted effort to better the
04:03situations is not something everybody has the guts for and because we are a frivolous
04:24audience, so frivolousness and flippancy sells with us.
04:36At no point in the history of mankind was so much comic content available to us.
04:51At no point in the history of India were there so many comedians.
05:03You could take that as a proportion of the population or as a proportion of digital content
05:11creators, you will find that the share of comedian comedians is steeply rising.
05:25Why is that so?
05:29Because that's the easiest, the laziest route to take, scoff at somebody, taunt, make fun
05:46and especially when you know that there is going to be no reprisal.
05:57If you know that there are going to be consequences, then making fun is not so cheap, price has
06:10to be paid.
06:14You pick a target that's not going to retaliate and keep poking fun, keep humiliating.
06:34This is just falseness at so many levels.
06:44There is ignorance in it, there is violence in it.
06:57But I want to ask you something, would these people continue with what they are doing if
07:08their tickets do not sell and their videos do not get views?
07:13They do this for a living, they are making money either from the tickets or from Amazon
07:23or Netflix or YouTube, where is that money coming from?
07:31It's coming from us, that's the kind of content we enjoy.
07:46What the fellow in question is saying is market driven, because there exists a big
07:55market for such content, so such content will be supplied.
08:04That brings us back to Vedanta, unless you know what your reality is, you will be attracted
08:15to all kinds of nonsense and you will keep doing things that hurt others and hurt you.
08:30A certain frivolousness is the very mark of this age.
08:41A certain lack of respect towards anything and everything, a complete absence of sacredness.
08:57Nothing is to be held as sacred, therefore there is nothing to be serious about.
09:07And if you find something sacred, spit at it.
09:13In fact, hunt for everything that is blemishless, pure, holy and spotless and then spit at it.
09:34That's what generates the maximum laughs, that's what is most fun.
09:47Turn the holy into a joke, so that you can continue living your petty and ugly life.
10:03That's the intention.
10:06If you treat the sacred with respect, then you cannot continue being what you are.
10:21If you take something as high, sublime, worth your respect, then how can you honestly still
10:33continue to lead a pathetic life?
10:41You will have to improve, you will have to rise.
10:46So what do you do?
10:49You destroy all the ideals.
10:57You become a self-declared iconoclast.
11:03What do I do?
11:06I bring down the deities.
11:07Why?
11:08Because I do not want to rise up.
11:14I am such a lowly fellow, I do not even want to rise.
11:18So what do I do?
11:19I pull down the gods from the sky and bathe them in excreta and it sells.
11:37Because that's what we all want.
11:40Please understand, this is the age of mass production.
11:49You have machines, you have technology and technology is improving by the day.
11:57The fellow who is owning and running the machine, the corporation, the empire, out of his greed
12:08wants you to consume because the production of the machine is of no use if there is nobody
12:13to buy it and consume it.
12:17And the rate of production is exponentially rising.
12:20Is it not?
12:23The output of the factory is rising very steeply, therefore a market has to be created equally
12:36swiftly.
12:39And how do you create a market?
12:41By turning people into consumers.
12:46I am producing so much but people are not buying it.
12:49Why?
12:50Because they do not need it.
12:51So what do I do?
12:53I change their entire value system.
12:57I bring them to a lowly level of consciousness which tells them that the purpose of life
13:02is consumption.
13:07And when they are brought down to that low level of consciousness, all they will do is
13:11consume and then my things will sell and then I can make profits.
13:19How do you bring down their consciousness?
13:22By dissociating it from the sacred.
13:25That's what comedy is doing.
13:29It's destroying the sacred so that there is nothing holy, nothing worth worshipping left
13:42in your life, nothing worth looking up to is left in your life.
13:52All that you have is profanity.
13:56You can laugh at anything, Upanishads you can laugh at, Ram and Shiv you can laugh at.
14:05Everything is the butt of a joke.
14:17And especially if you treat something as important, it has to be turned into a joke.
14:31The new chap enters the hostel and he is reciting some verses.
14:51Make fun of him.
14:55Equally, a new boy enters the hostel and he is parroting some lowly rapper.
15:10Nobody will make fun of him.
15:18Some illiterate rapper is acceptable.
15:28But if you are chanting religious verses, he will be mocked.
15:43In fact, I don't have the stats, but I suppose more than half so-called YouTubers
15:51are just comedians.
15:55Let's call them jokers.
16:04An even more blatant version of this comedy is roast, humiliate.
16:14If there are people who are sensitive to their values, hit them where it hurts the most.
16:22Mock their values.
16:28Nobody respects his mother, mock him.
16:43A rapist is acceptable, a devotee is not.
16:47When it will come to a rapist, you will say, let's look at everybody as a human being.
16:58Why are we ostracizing this person?
17:00All are equal.
17:10But a devotee cannot be forgiven.
17:15We will poke jokes into his heart till he succumbs.
17:42There is a particular value system that is being sought to be imposed on everybody.
17:59If you subscribe to that value system, you will not be made fun of.
18:05And if you deviate from that system, even by an inch, by a millimeter, life will be
18:18tough on you.
18:33You will be killed and the weapon will be laughter.
18:43He was laughed to death.
18:48He was joked and mocked to death.
18:53What kind of death?
18:54Not physical obviously.
18:55The death of the value system.
18:58What kind of value system is being preferred?
19:01The one that suits consumption.
19:07You don't eat animals, you will be made fun of.
19:27You live an austere life, you will be made fun of.
19:34You do not belong to the mainstream, you will be made fun of.
19:43You love the nation, you will be made fun of.
19:59The hegemony of the evil, why?
20:06Because you are prepared to tolerate it.
20:13Amazon or Netflix or YouTube do not pay these people from their own pocket.
20:21Amazon is not a charity.
20:24Where does Amazon get its bucks from?
20:27From you and me.
20:30Amazon gets it from us and then pays a part of that to them.
20:39Why do we subscribe?
20:40Why do we watch?
20:42Why don't we boycott?
20:48These people are not operating from any deep value system.
20:56They are not idealists.
20:57They do not even have an ideology.
21:00All that they want is money.
21:02For the sake of money they can sell anything, their nation, their God, their mother.
21:18Cut off their financial supply lines and there will be no more.
21:24They are not ideology driven.
21:29And of course, they are not driven by the truth, let alone truth, I am saying they don't
21:35even have idealism.
21:51Maybe you are sitting here talking of these things, your own younger brother or sister
21:56might be a subscriber, where do these people get their millions and millions of subscribers
22:03from?
22:04Please tell me.
22:08That's what runs their business.
22:14Those subscribers aren't dropping from Mars, they are coming from our families.
22:17Why do you allow that to happen?
22:34The foundation is made to spend 80% of the donations it receives on just promotion and
22:50publicity.
22:52We are left with hardly anything.
23:01Everything is devoted to making these words reach people, why?
23:17Because you will not help reach these people, reach these words to others.
23:40Some nonsensical content and everybody is watching it and if we want this to be watched,
23:59then we have to pay through our nose because you will happily watch that content and share
24:19it and propagate it, this you would not watch and if by chance you happen to watch it, you
24:28will feel ashamed of sharing it, you will say, you know, my friends circle, what will
24:35they think?
24:36I have ideals or something, they'll say, oh my God, you know, this chap, he talks of the
24:44truth, he's infected, he's by reality, don't go close, maintain social distancing, he's
25:11infected.
25:21So all that you send to the foundation goes back in just ensuring that more and more of
25:28you are watching the content that you watched to come to the foundation.
25:39That content didn't reach you by chance, that content didn't reach you organically, that
25:52content reached because we cut down on all our other expenses to ensure that the content
26:01is reaching you.
26:09See the thing is competitive, a fellow can watch only one video at a time, right?
26:14So either he watches that trash or he watches this.
26:27You have made your choice and that will decide your fate and the fate of this nation.
26:40The day you decided to turn absolutely worthless, junk people into superstars on Amazon and
26:55YouTube, that's the day you sealed the fate of this nation.
27:02Just go and check who are top 10 or 20 Indian YouTubers and you'll know what is happening.
27:19It's not only happening, it's being promoted.
27:23Remember the man who runs the factory, he wants this to happen, he's ensuring this happens.