00:00We have been fed since childhood about the afterlife, heaven and hell concept.
00:07If you meet Buddhists, you'll be surprised by how many of them still do believe,
00:12especially in India, believe in personal rebirth.
00:16Whereas the Buddha makes it clear that there is nobody here to take rebirth.
00:21So all this is not even philosophy, this is just theology.
00:24Now, all of the people who really believe in this, they're not bad human beings.
00:29They're really doing their best through this path, through this idea.
00:34I often say intentions don't matter, awareness does.
00:38Right, I'm a father, I'm a mother, I want the best for my kids,
00:42without knowing what goodness really is.
00:45And you cannot see that you are pushing them deeper into misery
00:49and you still think that you are a virtuous person
00:52because you are acting as per a belief system.
00:54It blinds you to the immediate direct reality.
00:59Namaste Acharya ji.
01:05Welcome.
01:06So, since I'm belonging to the Abrahamic religion background,
01:11we have been fed since childhood about the afterlife, heaven and hell concept.
01:18I understand that this concept is also fear-based.
01:21And over the years, you make sense of what direction you want to go to
01:27in terms of afterlife.
01:29But it is so deeply ingrained and fed that there's nothing else that can be the truth.
01:36I mean, even thinking about something different than this is so challenging
01:41because we are deeply conditioned.
01:43Now, all of the people who really believe in this, they're not bad human beings.
01:48They're really doing their best through this path, through this idea.
01:53And they're compassionate.
01:55They are helping others.
01:57And most of the things that we read and we understand from the Gita,
02:02they're pretty much even applying that in their day-to-day life.
02:06But then, with the afterlife not being the ultimate truth,
02:12does it negate everything that they are doing in this life?
02:17Ultimately, you see, it does.
02:19If people are on their road to destruction,
02:26should I facilitate their journey and be called a good, nice human being?
02:35Should I set up relief camps along the way?
02:40Free medical aid, free food, obviously free water and such things.
02:45That's what the stupid kind of goodness means.
02:53I'm a good human being. I'm a nice human being.
02:55And what am I doing? I'm assisting people on their way to destruction.
03:00So, on his way to destruction, somebody fell and bruised his knee.
03:06So, I rushed to him with first aid.
03:09I'm a good human being. Am I not?
03:12I rushed to him with a bandage and I helped him get up.
03:17And I also offered him food.
03:19And I do all the goodies, all the niceties, all the virtues.
03:22I display.
03:23But all the virtues that I display are ultimately assisting people on their road to destruction.
03:29So, all that in total is just very harmful towards oneself.
03:37You see, when the fundamental itself is flawed,
03:42anything branching out from that just cannot be virtuous,
03:47even if it appears to be virtuous.
03:53I often say intentions don't matter. Awareness does.
04:01I want the best for my kids.
04:04I'm a father. I'm a mother. I want the best for my kids.
04:07Without knowing what goodness really is.
04:11And I want my kids to have the best.
04:14And what does that result in?
04:17We know the state of the world today.
04:19We also know that all the adults were once kids.
04:26We say the world is in such a despicable state.
04:30And people are monsters.
04:32A lot of people are monsters.
04:35But if people are monsters, they were all kids once.
04:40And they were all raised by well-meaning parents.
04:43How did they turn into monsters?
04:46It is because our intentions and our claims to beatification,
04:56they in reality mean nothing.
05:00What is really of importance is the understanding or absence of it.
05:09Mostly there is just the absence.
05:15I also understand about the internalizing of heaven and hell
05:20and the externalizing of heaven and hell.
05:22This concept also is very flawed.
05:25And some people get it.
05:26They say, yes, we are going to feel a little bit of the internal hell and internal heaven
05:32so that we are prepared for the external heaven and hell.
05:35They always give excuses and they have their reasoning.
05:40This is not even philosophy.
05:43This is not even a concept.
05:47This is simply theology.
05:50And this theology is present in every single major religion of the world.
05:54Every single.
05:57Even the message of the Buddha has not really been understood by most of the Buddhists.
06:03If you meet Buddhists, you will be surprised by how many of them still do believe,
06:12especially in India, believe in personal rebirth.
06:16Whereas the Buddha makes it clear that there is nobody here to take rebirth.
06:23So all this is not even philosophy. This is just theology.
06:26And to debunk this theology, you don't need an alternate belief system.
06:33All you need is science.
06:36For somebody to go to heaven or hell, there must be somebody inside you.
06:43There has to be somebody.
06:46The question that Vedanta would ask is, for whom?
06:49For whom is heaven or for whom is hell?
06:52And science today is in a position to answer that.
06:55There is actually nobody inside your body.
06:58There is just the body.
07:01The consciousness that you identify with is actually a product of the body.
07:08It arises with the body and it's gone with the body.
07:11There is nothing that survives the body.
07:14So for whom is heaven and for whom is hell?
07:17That's true.
07:20It's just a belief system and it's an extremely harmful belief system.
07:25I could have said it's just vapid but it's actually venomous.
07:33It took me so many years to really unlearn all of that.
07:37Being in the journey of being a student of religion from a very very young age,
07:43it takes you lots and lots of unlearning, relearning to really change this whole concept.
07:50You know what it does?
07:52It takes you away from the direct realities and facts of life as it is.
07:59Because you are all the time just dreaming of the afterlife.
08:03You say this duniya, this means nothing.
08:06You are just a traveler, you have checked in, you will check out and this is just a sarai.
08:12It means nothing.
08:15To some extent that reduces your attachment with the worldly goodies.
08:21So as you said, ostensibly there are some benefits that accrue from this line of thinking.
08:27But all in all, it's a very loss making proposition.
08:32Simply because it stops you from attending to the present reality.
08:37You just don't see things as they are.
08:40You are enclosed in your belief and that just makes everything very nebulous.
08:50You are just shuffling between these few options that you have. That's it.
08:54You are not allowed to see beyond that.
08:57You cannot see beyond that and you cannot see even that which is in front of you.
09:02Beyondness comes much later.
09:05I will not be able to see, as Krishnamurti says, ever seen a tree?
09:12I will never be able to see the real face of my spouse, my kid, my neighbor.
09:20To me, everything is about that.
09:24That which will come after death.
09:27That also makes some people get in a terrible hurry to reach death.
09:35Because they say, you know, real life begins only after death.
09:39So let me dispose of this life as soon as possible.
09:44In fact, that is another reason that is extended in favor of killings.
09:52They say, you know, if this fellow is allowed to live any longer,
09:58then he will only accumulate actions that will further ruin his afterlife.
10:04So by killing him as soon as possible, we have actually redeemed his afterlife.
10:10Fantastic argument.
10:16And then you cannot see the face of the one you have killed.
10:19You don't see his tears, his blood, his agony.
10:23Instead, you console yourself. Not just console yourself.
10:26You actually glorify yourself by saying, I am his savior.
10:36I have rescued him.
10:40Now he will get a better afterlife. Had he continued to live, he would have accumulated sins.
10:44I have prevented him from accumulating sins.
10:47And you cannot see that the fellow is withering in pain.
10:51You cannot see that he is gasping for breath.
10:54You cannot see that you have shot him and he still wanted to live.
10:58You cannot see that all his potential has gone wasted.
11:02All that cannot be seen because your eyes are covered with belief.
11:07Yeah, we see all this every time.
11:10And today's time we are seeing it mostly in the wars that are happening.
11:14It's all aimed in securing some space in the afterlife
11:19when you have not been able to secure today in the present.
11:22And when we talk of war, usually in wars we shoot at strangers.
11:29But you cannot even know the fact of how your wife is.
11:39Your very relationship with your spouse is through a belief system.
11:45And that's causing you to heap agonies after agonies on her.
11:51And you are wrapping her up in all kinds of rituals and clothing that makes no sense.
12:04You don't want her to get educated.
12:07And we are talking about your son, your daughter.
12:10We are talking about your wife.
12:12And you cannot see that you are pushing them deeper into misery.
12:16And you still think that you are a virtuous person
12:19because you are acting as per a belief system.
12:22It blinds you to the immediate direct reality.
12:27Yeah, absolutely true.
12:30The blinding part is I have experienced myself so I know that
12:35you cannot really see.
12:37Even if the truth comes to you, you will not be able to see it.
12:40And actually the Quran warns you about this.
12:44It's very interesting because my learning of Quran has become better
12:47after I joined your Vedanta sessions.
12:49Because now I can interpret the Quran in a much more internalized manner
12:55rather than putting all the metaphors outside.
12:59So in the Quran Allah says that
13:05means they will become deaf and blind to the signs of God.
13:13And these signs have been coming all the time to you.
13:16But we think about the very different signs that we have made them as our belief.
13:21Imaginary signs.
13:23Exactly.
13:24Imaginary signs.
13:25To us, these are not signs at all.
13:28Look at the face of the crying child.
13:32How is that not a very direct and potent and telling and living sign?
13:40No, that cannot be seen.
13:42Because that's the face probably of a Muslim or a Jew.
13:46So I cannot see.
13:48My belief does not allow me to see anything.
13:55Hopefully we all can rise and bring the truth forward
14:00one day at a time, one moment at a time.
14:03We are doing our best that we can.
14:07But it's really a sad situation when you see around people.
14:11How can we, like really the pace that we are going.
14:14I know we are leading somewhere, but still I feel there is so much only that we can do.
14:22One tries with intent and with the maximum application of intelligence.
14:29And beyond that, as Lao Tzu was saying yesterday,
14:34beyond that is not your province to venture.
14:39If you want too much from your actions, then the actions themselves will get compromised.
14:49Yeah, and you'll get trapped in those actions.
14:53Yes.
14:54So one's job is to do as much as possible, as vigorously, as lovingly.
15:01And then you leave it at that.
15:05Let the results come as they would.
15:10Yeah, beautiful.
15:12Thank you so much, Jai Reddy.
15:15You're welcome.
Comments