Non-violence, and killing mosquitoes || Acharya Prashant (2019)

Acharya Prashant

‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? 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:  Month of Awakening, 13.10.19, Advait Bodhsthal, Greater Noida, India   Context:  Why is the little man so contemptuous of himself?  How does the little man plot to stay being little?  Why does the little man live in his make-believe world?  Where does my pain come from? How lucky is it to be born as a human being?  Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .

Transcript

00:00Dear Achayaji, for the sake of not sounding hypocritical, I have to admit that I have

00:13killed more than one mosquito in my life and many other insects too, but never intended

00:19to cause pain and suffering to them.

00:22Now hearing, let alone seeing, relatively conscious animals being tortured evokes almost

00:28unbearable pain and helplessness in me.

00:30Yes, of course.

00:32If you understand where your pain, helplessness and concern come from, then you will be more

00:44determined, more unflinching in your stand.

00:51Otherwise you will remain a bit shaky, uncertain.

01:02When it comes to killing mosquito, you must remember the fundamentals.

01:19Man as he is, is bound to kill.

01:28Killing is necessarily associated with the human form.

01:36That's how we are and that's why the saints loathed the human form.

01:42They didn't say that it's a great joy to be born as a human body.

01:53They said, please, we do not want to come back again as a human body.

02:05We want to be liberated.

02:09Because to be human is to be violent.

02:16Now that's a fine thing that you must understand.

02:24To be lion does not mean that you are violent.

02:29To be a rat is not necessarily to be violent.

02:32In fact, the word violence do not apply to the lion or to the rat.

02:39They apply only to the human being.

02:43The lion kills all his life but he cannot be called violent.

02:48He cannot be called non-violent either.

02:56He is just doing what his physical conditioning compels him to do.

03:02He has no option.

03:06Man has the option to kill and to not to kill.

03:10Man has the option to choose what he wants to eat and therefore only man can be violent

03:16or non-violent.

03:23The most fearsome carnivore is not violent at all.

03:33The mosquito is not violent even if it survives only on your blood.

03:39But if you can avoid killing the mosquito and you still kill it, then you are violent.

03:43It's a strange thing.

03:45The rules are different.

03:49The rule that applies to mosquito does not apply to you because the mosquito owing to

03:56its form does not have a consciousness crying for liberation.

04:04No mosquito is crying for liberation.

04:07No rat, neither the elephant nor the lion are eager to get liberated.

04:20It's only the human form that seeks liberation.

04:29It is the human form that has a choosing consciousness.

04:35The word consciousness itself implies choice.

04:40What is non-violence?

04:41When you make the right choice, it is called non-violence.

04:45You always have to choose in favor of liberation.

04:50What is non-violence?

04:51To always choose in favor of liberation.

04:53What is violence?

04:54To choose in favor of bondages.

04:59And such a choice is not relevant to the mosquito or to the lion at all.

05:06And therefore they are absolved of all guilt.

05:10But man is guilty if man does not choose properly.

05:14To not to choose properly is called violence.

05:18Violence does not necessarily mean killing.

05:23Violence I repeat means choosing in favor of bondage.

05:33How will consciousness gain liberation?

05:38Consciousness gains liberation by being sympathetic towards itself.

05:45Follow it.

05:49Consciousness gains liberation by being sympathetic towards itself.

05:54It is concern towards your pathetic condition that impels you to seek freedom.

06:05Why does man remain in bondage and why do some people strive for freedom and attain it?

06:13Why do most people tolerate, happily tolerate remaining in bondage?

06:19Because they have no self-love.

06:23They have no empathy towards themselves.

06:31So to gain liberation what you require is a consciousness that empathizes with itself.

06:44A consciousness that empathizes with consciousness.

06:49To gain liberation you require a consciousness that empathizes with consciousness that looks

06:54at its own condition, its own form and says I am so sorry for myself.

07:04I don't like the way I am suffering.

07:09So consciousness that respects consciousness will gain liberation.

07:14Please understand this.

07:16Why do most people not gain liberation?

07:19Because they do not have any self-respect or any self-love.

07:23They suffer and they keep suffering because they tolerate suffering.

07:29They do not love themselves enough to rebel against suffering.

07:35They do not respect themselves enough to say no to suffering.

07:42You therefore, I say, require a consciousness that is in love with consciousness itself.

07:54And if you have a consciousness that is in love with consciousness, how will you choose

08:01indiscriminate killing?

08:05When you kill, you do not kill a stone, right?

08:14What does the word killing refer to?

08:22Consciousness.

08:25In some way the mosquito is like you.

08:29If you love yourself, how can you kill the mosquito?

08:32It's a strange logic, but this is it.

08:39Liberation requires that you do not kill the ones who are like you.

08:46Jesus pointed at it when he said behave with the neighbor as you would behave with yourself.

08:55Why?

08:57Because the neighbor is like you.

09:02Just as the neighbor is like you, the goat or the bird too is like you.

09:17The greater your circle of empathy is, the greater will be your empathy towards yourself.

09:29It's almost as if it is your own empathy that spreads radially outwards in concentric circles.

09:40The greater is the intensity of the source of empathy at the center, the greater is the

09:47spread of empathy, then it starts encompassing more and more conscious beings.

09:56In other words, the more deeply you want liberation for yourself, the more will be

10:07the domain of conscious beings you would seek liberation for.

10:16Understand it this way.

10:19You would have thrown a stone into a pond.

10:26You would have thrown a stone into a pond.

10:46If you just drop it with almost zero speed, how big will be the ripples?

11:01Very small, without any power.

11:08Because there is not much depth in the impact that you are creating.

11:13Take the impact as the y-axis.

11:17There is not much depth that you are attaining in the y-axis.

11:24Therefore the effect in the x-dimension will also be negligible.

11:32The ripples that you will see will be very faint, very feeble.

11:41But if you throw the stone vertically right into the surface of the pond with power and

11:51velocity, then the vertical impact of the stone will be large, right?

12:02And because vertically the impact will be large, horizontally the ripples will spread

12:07far and wide.

12:12Vertically what you want is for yourself.

12:18You are the y-axis.

12:22Horizontally what you want is for others.

12:24The bigger the circle, the more are the number of people that are included in your circle

12:32of compassion and empathy.

12:38The point where you drop the stone is the center of your personality.

12:53Closest to this center are the ones closest to you.

12:56For example, your parents, your spouse, your kids, your friends.

13:03A little further away are your neighbors.

13:08A little further away are other human beings.

13:13A little further away are people of, let's say, other countries, other continents.

13:19Even further away are non-humans, other conscious beings.

13:27Even in the category of non-humans, radially outwards, first you will encounter, let's

13:36say, mammals.

13:42Then you will encounter, let's say, birds.

13:45Then you will encounter insects and so on.

13:48Then bacteria and so on.

13:51As you keep moving further away from the center, you are encountering more and more beings

14:00that are conscious but not like you.

14:06Your circle of empathy will never reach those beings if it does not have depth.

14:14But the more you love yourself, the more you are empathetic yourself, the bigger will be

14:19your circle and then you will be empathetic towards conscious beings far and wide.

14:31Therefore, if you are someone who can eat even a human being, it only proves that your

14:41circle of empathy is very, very small.

14:45You can eat even a human being.

14:47Even human beings lie outside your circle of empathy.

14:50So your circle is very small.

14:54And if your circle is small, what does it prove about the intensity of your self-love?

15:04It has very little intensity.

15:06Therefore, the circle that it created was very small.

15:10If you can eat a human being, it means you do not love yourself at all.

15:17If you do not love yourself at all, there is no possibility of liberation.

15:24You are a very violent person.

15:28If there is no possibility of liberation at all for you, then you are a very violent person.

15:33That is violence.

15:36To make a choice that will not lead to liberation, that is violence.

15:43Are you getting it?

15:47Who is the most like you?

15:51You yourself.

15:52So first of all, be empathetic to yourself.

15:56Then who is the one most like you?

15:59Your mother, your father, your siblings.

16:01Be empathetic to them.

16:03Then who is the one most like you?

16:06Your neighbors, your extended family.

16:09Then who is the one most like you?

16:17Be empathetic to all.

16:23If you are not displaying compassion towards other conscious beings, it will only hurt you.

16:34Kill the animal and in some way the animal is liberated of its misery, at least in the

16:42physical sense.

16:45But you having eaten the animal will now live to suffer the effects of eating that animal.

16:53That is your punishment.

16:57You will survive to see tomorrow.

16:59That is your punishment.

17:01The animal is gone.

17:05But you will not be allowed to go.

17:07You have just had flesh.

17:09The flesh will keep you alive and you will stay put.

17:15There will be a tomorrow for you and it will be a very dark tomorrow.

17:21That will be your punishment.

17:48Now you also know what is meant by oneness.

18:05The feeble ego has a very small circle of identification.

18:09It identifies only with 4-5 people.

18:13It says for the sake of these 4-5 people, I can set the world to fire.

18:19It has a very limited circle of identification.

18:22Your circle of identification is also your circle of empathy.

18:25It is also your circle of compassion.

18:29You care only for those people you feel identified with.

18:33And then there is the one whose ego takes a broadening.

18:45This person, this consciousness identifies with a bigger set of people.

18:54And then there is the one who has an even more accommodative, inclusive identity.

19:08His circle is really large.

19:11It includes not only human beings but animals as well.

19:22The wider your ego identity is, the greater is the possibility of liberation for you.

19:35Now you will ask why did I begin my response by saying that to be born human is a curse?

19:43Because some kind of violence becomes unavoidable when you are a human being.

19:54That is why the saints have said that final liberation will come only after you are physically

20:02gone as well.

20:07On one hand they have talked of the Jeevan Mukt who is liberated while being physically

20:14alive.

20:15On the other hand they have also said that something remains.

20:22The last step still remains because as long as you are alive, killing will be a prerequisite,

20:34a compulsion for you.

20:40Some bacteria is getting killed in your gut, millions of them.

20:48You are walking and the grass is getting trampled.

20:56You tried to eat some fruit and you found that the plant itself got killed.

21:06You are sleeping, the mosquito was there on your back.

21:12You just scratched and the mosquito got killed.

21:19This much killing will necessarily take place.

21:24It is unavoidable.

21:27Because it is unavoidable, so on one hand you are absolved of the guilt.

21:35On the other hand it is a fact that killing is indeed taking place.

21:42It is taking place without your consent.

21:44It is taking place without your consciousness.

21:49Nevertheless it is taking place through your physical form.

21:55So that much killing will happen.

21:57You cannot avoid it.

21:59What is your dharma then?

22:01What is your duty then?

22:02Your duty is to minimize it.

22:06It is not an absolute thing.

22:07You will never be able to absolutely not kill.

22:13That is the curse of the human form.

22:17You will never be able to say that you are an absolute non-killer.

22:22Because killing is happening.

22:26Every moment you are killing, you cannot avoid that.

22:32But if you want liberation then you have to minimize it, minimize it, minimize it as much

22:42as possible.

22:47And minimization of killing, you must understand, is the maximization of your consciousness.

22:58Can the minimization ever be zero?

23:01No.

23:03Which means your consciousness really cannot become unlimited.

23:11But it can at least rise so much, so much that it becomes a strong and crying petition

23:29to be miraculously uplifted.

23:35Your job therefore is not to attain liberation using your own agency and effort.

23:46Your job, please appreciate this, is only to elevate your consciousness to the maximum

23:57level allowed by the human form.

24:02The human form will not allow your consciousness to reach infinity.

24:09You will be limited somewhere.

24:11The test is to at least reach the limit.

24:16And once you reach the limit, then you are helpless but a miracle happens, help descends.

24:26So do not fall for absolutist arguments.

24:33Absolutist arguments say even if you are eating a potato, killing is happening.

24:42So when you eat a lamb, they are talking nonsense.

24:50Eating a potato is the compulsion of basic physical survival.

24:56Eating a lamb is not.

24:59You cannot absolutely stop killing.

25:04Your job is to minimize it, bring it as close to zero as possible.

25:10That is your job.

25:11Your job is not to turn it zero.

25:13Your job is to bring it as close to zero as possible.

25:18Without zeroness, that will come to you as a miracle.

25:21That is not in your hand, that is grace.

25:25How will that happen?

25:26We don't want to talk about it.

25:28That's beyond us.

25:30Are you getting it?

25:43It's a relative thing.

25:47It's a relative thing.

25:50It has to be relative because we are beings of duality, relativity.

25:58That's a compulsion of being born human.

26:00You will have to live in relationships, in duality.

26:07Your job is to do your best within the compulsions of duality.

26:19And it is not at all a compulsion of duality that you must have beef or pork or meat or

26:24fish or something.

26:26That is not at all a compulsion.

26:32It is pure violence.

26:34Avoid it.

26:35Avoid it for your own sake.

26:44When you are slaughtering an animal, you are actually slaughtering yourself.

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