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00:00So with the student of Irma is organizing an event and the idea is basic that we want
00:15to make the school going students aware of our freedom fighters, because we feel that
00:22they are going away from them.
00:25And we also see that less and less students are getting known to the freedom fighters,
00:31to the nation builders.
00:33So we want to know, especially from your perspective, how can we make our school children more inclined
00:39towards the nation building approaches?
00:42How can we make them more nationalistic if required?
00:48Because we need leaders, we need real heroes, not real heroes.
00:53How can we do this?
00:55See, first of all, the very meaning of nation and nationalism needs to be clarified.
01:14We assume as if nationalism is a virtue in itself, as if it's an honorable goal in itself, unconditionally,
01:41unexceptionally, that's not true.
01:48A lot of thinkers, philosophers have repeatedly told us that like any other ideology, nationalism
02:11can be very divisive and can therefore be very violent.
02:21Think of the so many wars that have been fought in the name of nationalism.
02:29Think of the second world war.
02:36Closer home Rabina Tagore was one very powerful opponent of nationalism, because he had seen the
02:52wars that blind ideology brings along with it.
03:03So, a nation is a group of people brought together, sharing something in common.
03:19Now, what is it that they share in common?
03:24What is it that binds them together?
03:26That has to be investigated first of all.
03:32So, if the basis of the nation is race or ethnicity or language, colour, creed, then you would
04:00see very clearly that there is a big problem.
04:05Because then nationalism is founded on the basis of man versus man.
04:19Me versus you.
04:21You.
04:22We have the same skin colour, so we are one nation.
04:27Or we share the same language, so we are one nation.
04:33And therefore, somebody has to be the other.
04:39Somebody has to be treated as the outsider or the enemy or the parya.
04:48Do you see this?
04:51If I say that we can be together as a nation only because we share a certain common language,
05:00or a certain common religion, do you see the dangers that come with it?
05:07Or we are one nation because we are Aryans.
05:18That's how much of Germany wanted it in the 30s and 40s.
05:28So, that's the reason why nationalism, like any other ideology, becomes problematic.
05:41However, there is a very distinct kind of nationalism that can be very virtuous.
05:49But only that kind of nationalism.
05:53A nationalism that is not divisive.
05:58A nationalism that is not founded on what separates the two of us.
06:04Instead, founded on what unites the two of us.
06:10Think of the various kind of nationalities you know of.
06:18Are they not all founded on divisions?
06:22A group of people, they get together and they say we are a nation.
06:31We are a nation because we have a common shared characteristic.
06:35And therefore, we are separate from somebody else.
06:39Think of why India had to be politically divided.
06:43What was Jinnah's argument?
06:46What was the two nation theory?
06:48He said Hindus and Muslims, they are not just two different religions.
06:54They are two different nations.
06:57Because everything about them is distinct, exclusive.
07:11So, when you have a nationalism that is founded on differences,
07:18then nationalism becomes toxic, violent and leads to horrible consequences.
07:26So, we are saying let there be a nationalism that is not founded on the differences between man and man.
07:35Instead, it is founded on what is common between you and me, man and man.
07:45Now, what is it that we share?
07:49Now, that takes us into philosophy rather, metaphysics.
07:55What is common between the two of us?
07:58If you look at one person and then at another, you would only perceive differences, right?
08:04Even if you say that they share a common language, the dialect or the accent would be different.
08:14Even if you say that they share a common religion, yet they might be investing themselves in different stories or different verses or different gods.
08:33So, by definition, one person is always very distinct from the other and the differences are countless.
08:45Man is different from woman, is he not?
08:48The young person is different from the old person.
08:52The rich says he is different from the poor, right?
08:59The ones living in the East say we are different from the Westerners.
09:05Pakistan got made on the basis of religion but then had to be divided on the basis of language.
09:15So, differences never end.
09:20You find one commonality and behind that commonality there would be ten differences lurking.
09:28The moment you found your nationalism on something that is not absolutely universal,
09:38You are just inviting discord, strife, hatred, limitations.
09:50And none of that is any good, obviously.
09:55Are you getting it?
09:59So, the Germans say we are one people, the French say we are another people.
10:06The Brits say, oh, we belong to Europe but we still are a distinct class.
10:12We don't even want to be a part of the Euro.
10:15Why do we do that?
10:21Because the ego thrives only in differences.
10:26The ego loves to have boundaries.
10:31Ego is another name for boundaries.
10:38The bounded self is called the ego.
10:43Right?
10:44So, most of the nationalism that you see actually arises from the ego
10:49and is therefore not auspicious at all.
10:56You need a nationalism that arises from something beyond the ego.
11:05And therefore I say let there be a nationalism based on the unifying principle.
11:17That unifying principle, as far as I have seen, is enunciated most clearly in Vedanta.
11:22I do not say it is not mentioned or pointed at anywhere else.
11:34But Vedanta spells it out quite neatly.
11:40That unifying principle is called the borderless self, Atma.
11:51That clarity which is not tinted by personality.
12:01When you say you know something, when you say you believe in something, when you say you understand something,
12:12that is never pure or absolute because that is colored by, marred by, spoiled by your particular personality.
12:22So, the Hindu has one belief, the Muslim has another belief, the Christian has another one.
12:29Right?
12:30You believe in one thing when you are 15.
12:33By the time you are 35, your beliefs change.
12:36So, our thoughts, our ideologies, opinions are not absolute.
12:41There is a long shadow of our personal self over them.
12:50And therefore all ideologies, we said, are not really worthy of being given a very high position.
13:04They cannot be seated as the absolute.
13:11Vedanta talks of that which dissolves the differences between us.
13:21That which dissolves the ego itself.
13:24Because the ego is what separates the two of us.
13:27Right?
13:28When I say I, I mean that I am distinct from you.
13:33The ego is the divisive principle.
13:38I implies separation.
13:40The moment I say I, I mean me versus the world.
13:45I am there and the world is separate or distinct.
13:50So, I say I, you two say I.
13:54And the moment we utter I, we mean that the two of us are not the same.
14:00I-ness is separation.
14:02Therefore, I-ness is suffering.
14:05Therefore, I-ness is suffering.
14:07Hence, can we have a nation that is founded with the objective to dissolve I-ness?
14:23No.
14:24No.
14:25Remain patient.
14:26No.
14:27Remain patient.
14:28Let's not declare this as too absurd or impractical or utopian.
14:42Can we have a nation founded with the very objective to create conditions in which the ego is dissolved or sublimated or purified?
14:55Only that kind of nationalism is proper.
15:01Let's create a nation that does not exist to quarrel with the others, that does not exist to stand separate from the others.
15:16Let's create a nation that does not take its identity from resistance to the others.
15:31Where does Pakistan, for example, take its identity from?
15:34It says, I am different from India and that's my identity.
15:38And that's the reason they have to be compulsively hostile against India.
15:42Do you see that?
15:44The same thing applies to all the nations of the world.
15:51The same thing applies even to India as it currently exists.
15:58There have to be borders.
16:03There has to be discord, acrimony, strife, the threat of war.
16:09And the threat of war pleases the population so much, does it not?
16:16In fact, nationalism would lose its charm and romance if there were no wars.
16:29Wars consolidate the feeling of nationalism, do they not?
16:36When an enemy attacks you, you feel so much more of a national identity.
16:52Right?
16:53No, none of that is good.
16:55Obviously not good.
16:57So the basis of nationalism has to be an inward approach that takes care of the ego.
17:12The constitution must say that the state exists to uplift its citizens internally.
17:20Obviously internal upliftment would require conducive external conditions.
17:29To that extent, the physical world has to be taken care of.
17:35You cannot say you want to address somebody's ego problem without taking care of his or her environment.
17:44You will have to take care of education, health, media.
17:50You will have to protect the genuine interests of the various groups of citizens as they exist.
17:58And then you will say ultimately everything has to boil down to the pure self.
18:11Yes, there is the legislature, there is the executive, there is the judiciary.
18:17All these would function.
18:18There is the media.
18:19There are the laws and the sub-laws.
18:23There are the various houses of the parliament.
18:29There is a federal structure.
18:30All that is there.
18:32But the purpose of all that has to be the inner freedom of the individual.
18:38That's the proper nation.
18:43In which everything functions with the purpose of liberating the individual.
18:49Now is that not a worthy goal?
18:54Should not the nation be founded on that basis?
18:59Yes, so that's the kind of nationalism you have to bring to the new generation.
19:07Are you getting it?
19:11If you bring the militant kind of nationalism to the new generation, you are not doing them any good.
19:20When you talk of freedom fighters, you must talk of those who strove for political freedom.
19:26Equally, you have to talk of those who strove for inner freedom.
19:35Otherwise, it becomes just a case of one people fighting the other people out of hatred, resistance and otherness.
19:48And that leads to a lot of falseness, artificiality.
19:52Then you have to ignore the facts.
19:54You have to rewrite history.
19:57You have to weave narratives.
20:01You have to somehow manage to cast imagination as facts.
20:11And all that is quite childish and funny, right?
20:15Except for the fact that it can lead to terrible consequences.
20:26So, bring the reality of life to the young.
20:34The reality of life as we live it, as we see it, is the reality of the ego.
20:39If they can see how the inner thing operates, they will also see its futility.
20:49Are you getting it?
20:52You don't need to then teach nationalism as something separate from life.
20:59If they can see how life is founded on division and strife and suffering, then they will want to end it, right?
21:15And when men get together in their common mission of ending suffering, a noble nation is born.
21:26Don't you want that kind of nation?
21:29People are getting together so that they can together eliminate the suffering of mankind.
21:36And since they are getting together, they constitute a nation.
21:39Will that not be a very, very noble and desirable nation?
21:45Please tell me.
21:47Yes?
21:49Or would you want people to get together to pelt stones on some other group?
21:54Is that the kind of nationalism that you want?
21:57It could be stones when it comes to small groups and it becomes missiles when it comes to large and powerful groups, right?
22:0420 people on one side pelt stones on 20 people on the other side.
22:09And when these 20 people become a nation, a nation of 20 crore people, then they pelt missiles on the other 20 crore people, right?
22:18And they also then get together and form groups and coalitions.
22:25So Russia is scared of the NATO and different kinds of groupings are happening.
22:39All with the purpose of defending the self and defeating the other.
22:46And the more that happens, the more we come closer to catastrophe as a people.
22:59Are you getting it?
23:02We do not want to repeat history.
23:05In history, nations have never been founded on the right basis.
23:11And therefore, those who could understand life, like we said Tagore, had to reject nationalism.
23:19They said nationalism is the worst kind of toxicity.
23:23Let's not reject nationalism per se.
23:31Let's just say, let there be an all-embracing nationalism.
23:36Let there be a unifying nationalism.
23:38Let there be an enlightened nationalism.
23:44Let there be a nationalism that is not founded with the object to inflict suffering on the other.
23:53You can inflict suffering on the other only if you do not see that you and the other are the one.
24:00The moment you start seeing the underlying oneness, it becomes impossible to inflict suffering on the other.
24:07Right?
24:08Can we as Indians come together on this noble basis?
24:18And that would be the real Bharat.
24:25India cannot be about geographical frontiers.
24:34Location on the world map.
24:37India is just too big to be contained on a world map.
24:48India is just too transcendental to be marked as a piece of earth.
25:03Who is an Indian?
25:08Who is an Indian?
25:09An Indian is someone who understands the very basis of life.
25:24The one who sees that you are born to be liberated.
25:30Only such a fellow deserves to be called an Indian.
25:35Because India, not the political country India.
25:39I am talking of the real India.
25:41I am talking of the very concept of Bharat.
25:47The real India is founded on understanding, realisation, both.
25:56We want to understand.
26:00India is the place where the urge to understand hit the human for the first time.
26:13India is the cradle of religion itself.
26:17And true religiosity is about understanding life and therefore getting liberated from its bondages.
26:28That's who an Indian is.
26:31Who wants to understand what this thing called the self is?
26:34What is meant by relationships?
26:35Who am I?
26:36Who is the other one?
26:37What is this thing called life?
26:39Why am I alive?
26:40What is death?
26:41What is death?
26:42Only someone who is conscious enough, keen enough, and courageous enough to go into these questions deserves to be called an Indian.
26:56And that's the kind of nationalism we need.
26:59A nationalism founded on understanding.
27:02From where I am looking, you know, 140 crore people do not deserve to be called as Bharatiyeh.
27:16They may continue to hold the Indian passport.
27:19That's a separate matter.
27:21But when it comes to being Indian nationals, well, that's a very elite thing.
27:34That's a thing that requires a lot of qualification.
27:38Being a citizen is another matter.
27:42Desha and Rashtra are not the same.
27:48So when you say that you want to invoke nationalism in young people, you must know what is it that you want to educate them in.
28:03Kindly do not indoctrinate them in some sectarian or divisive ideology.
28:11That's not nationalism.
28:15Real nationalism takes you within.
28:19And only that kind of nationalism is deserving enough to survive.
28:26Otherwise, the world has seen the perils of blind and violent nationalism for good.
28:40So I'm getting it.
28:43I have a follow up question on this.
28:46Am I audible?
28:48Yes, yes, you are.
28:49In one of the session, one of the seekers asked ki, we are the proponent of Vaasujya Putambutam.
28:57And on that, you mentioned ki, first to talk about such a big idea, we need to know we have to take him care of.
29:05Now, when we're talking about such ideas that need to be spread all across the globe, but we see that students or in general, the educated class are not interested in reading or not paying the amount of energy towards it.
29:24We are seeing that they are moving towards the ideologies that are not ours.
29:29So how do we deal with this?
29:31We want to spread this idea, but if the other side is not that much interested or if that side is not that much given awareness to that side, how should we tackle it?
29:45I don't think it's very difficult to bring this simple thing out to the other person, provided if first of all, you as the spreader understand it.
29:59Why am I saying that?
30:03Because internally, we are all one in terms of our disquiet, misery, suffering.
30:11It does not matter who the other person is.
30:16He suffers just as you do.
30:20And all human activity is some kind of an effort, conscious or unconscious, to get rid of one's suffering.
30:30Why will the other not listen if you can show him a way out of his suffering?
30:36He is trying to somehow gain peace and fulfilment in his own way.
30:42Can you display to him a plausible way to attain peace?
30:53Can you diagnose him correctly?
31:00But that will not be possible if you approach the other with a fixed set of thoughts of your own.
31:11To be able to look at the other, you have to be impartial.
31:18You cannot say the other is the other and is therefore despicable.
31:24He does not listen, he does not pay attention, he is violent, he is fallen.
31:30If you approach the other with such thoughts, then it will be very difficult to see the other's reality.
31:38And if you will not be able to see his reality, how will you be able to help him?
31:43And if you fail in providing help, why will he agree that your path is suitable for him as well?
31:57We all are in need of help, are we not?
32:02And because we do not see where to get help from, we keep trying crazily in our own distorted ways.
32:17We do not understand why we are not restful.
32:21We do not understand what is wrong with life.
32:24Why do we get angry? Why do we get anxious?
32:27And this is the story of entire mankind, right?
32:32We do not understand that and therefore we try out all kinds of shallow and rather counterproductive solutions.
32:49That is what everybody is doing.
32:51So if you can display to a human being who he is and why he suffers, he is bound to listen to you.
33:06So, irrespective of where he comes from, what his religion is, what his age or gender is, what his economic status is,
33:17his ultimate objective is fulfillment, joy, peace. Is it not?
33:26So if you can bring him closer to his objective, he will listen to you.
33:35If the youngsters of today are not listening to your advice, it is probably because we do not understand the youngsters.
33:47We do not see where they are coming from and what they are trying and where they want to reach.
33:55Their ways appear to us different from ours.
34:01So we treat them as the other.
34:03Sometimes we want to treat them even as aliens.
34:10But they are human beings, right?
34:12And they want the same thing as each of us does.
34:22Is there anybody in the world who does not feel thirsty?
34:29Could be an African, could be an American, a Christian, a Buddhist, a man, a woman.
34:40We all need water, right?
34:43That's what. We all need water.
34:46Irrespective of what the color of our skin is and what the color of our ideology is.
34:52We all need water.
34:56And that is the reason why I am trying to bring Vedanta to the masses.
35:00Water is possible.
35:05And a nation that does not divide is possible.
35:11A nation that is good for all is possible.
35:17And remember, you cannot have goodness in isolation.
35:27You cannot have the welfare of one people at the cost of the other people.
35:37It is the law of existence.
35:39When we will rise, we will rise together.
35:41If you find a people rising by subjugating somebody else, then you are not seeing clearly.
35:53If you really have to do well for yourself, that cannot happen at the cost of others.
36:02It is not a zero-sum game.
36:06You cannot colonize a country as the colonizers of the last few centuries did.
36:16And hope that the result will be great for you.
36:23Don't we know that the Second World War was fought because the great colonial powers were competing among themselves?
36:34Don't we know that?
36:36In fact, it was an urge to have more and more colonies that brought these European powers face to face.
36:50Britain had the early mover advantage and had colonized much of Asia.
37:00And France too had colonies.
37:05And Germany just didn't like that.
37:09So when you look at the bigger picture, you realize that if you exploit someone, it's not just the so-called other that suffers.
37:22The exploiter will soon discover that he too is the exploited one.
37:30We believe in duality.
37:33We lead dualistic lives.
37:36We behave as if by hurting the other, we can benefit and prosper.
37:42That does not happen.
37:43We need a non-dualistic nationalism.
37:47Non-dualistic, adduaitic.
37:51Therefore, the greatest philosophy that looks inwards is Advaita Vedanta.
37:58Namaste Acharya ji and good evening to all of you.
38:10So my name is Praveen Sarma.
38:13I am currently in final year of PGDRM program.
38:17And so basically my question is that if we look the current scenario, how the AI tools like chat,
38:26GPT app will build someone helping the student basically who are in UG or in PG also, or even in B school.
38:34So they are taking help from the AI tools and making their work easier.
38:40So is it becoming a barrier or hinder our creativity basically?
38:51And the question is that is it someone who's trying to intentionally making the AI tools to limit the creativity of the people?
39:05Is it some entrepreneurs who's doing this intentionally?
39:10And if yes, then how can we prevent from this?
39:13And how can we maintain our creativity in our daily routine life?
39:17Nobody is hatching a conspiracy to turn you uncreative.
39:29It's a piece of technology and it depends on you how you want to use it.
39:36It's a very far-fetched thought.
39:42Somebody or a group of people or a consortium of companies, they got together to turn the entire population of the world uncreative.
39:54And to rob you of your creativity, they gave you AI and its products like chat, GPT, none of that.
40:09AI is anyway not creative.
40:13Then how can it rob you of your creativity?
40:18AI at best.
40:25But it stops our thinking.
40:27It stops your?
40:28No, that simply means that your thinking was already mechanical in the first place.
40:44Therefore another machine could supplant it.
40:51A machine can be better than another machine.
40:57A machine cannot be better than consciousness itself.
41:02So if you feel that AI is making your task easier, it simply means that the task that you were doing was anyway not creative.
41:20AI cannot create something original.
41:27Originality is an exclusive virtue of consciousness.
41:35So I am asking you.
41:36So I am asking you, if you ask chat GPT something, can it choose not to answer?
41:52So that's what.
41:53But consciousness can choose to remain silent.
41:57And consciousness can know that silence is probably the best response in certain situations.
42:03AI will never know that.
42:05Sir, indeed.
42:06But AI also is created by us only.
42:15Some group of people.
42:16So I am asking that, is there any intention from them?
42:21They have just brought a technology to you and they will probably commercialize it.
42:31And that's normal human activity that's been happening.
42:36When somebody made a car, he was not conspiring to rob you of your legs.
42:43And you could have said, you know, the car has come or the automobile or the bike has come so that we stop using our legs and very soon we all will become lame.
42:54So there is no conspiracy.
42:57And even if there is a conspiracy, let's hypothetically accept that.
43:05Why do you have to fall to that conspiracy?
43:08I mean, you have to write a song, let's say for your girlfriend.
43:12Why do you want to depend on chat GPT for that?
43:17And that software can write you a song.
43:22But you would be a very poor lover if you depend on machines to write you a song for your girlfriend.
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