00:00They have claimed that when we were just gatherers, wanderers, we were much more happier until agriculture happened and then culture began.
00:10If we were surviving as a species, even by hunting and gathering and all those things, why did we need to move into agriculture?
00:22You cannot say we want to go back to the jungle. And that is alright, you want to save time.
00:25The modern one, the one who has externally progressed, has great power at his hands.
00:30And that is what is destroying the planet today.
00:35J. Krishnamurthy used to say, at some point in history, man took a wrong turn.
00:39Do you see that wrong turn?
00:42Forgetting what you came out of the jungle for.
00:45You came out of the jungle because you wanted to no more be an animal, but you are still an animal.
00:52And often they keep giving examples.
00:54J. Krishnamurthy, what's wrong with eating animals?
00:57In the jungle, everybody is eating animals, right?
01:01So if you want to eat animals, go back to the jungle.
01:06What do you mean by natural?
01:07You are talking about the law of the jungle?
01:09We left the jungle long back.
01:12Good evening, sir.
01:14J. Krishnamurthy, I have a question.
01:15J. Krishnamurthy, when we were just gatherers, wanderers, we were much more happier until agriculture happened and settlements happened, then culture began.
01:26But I was wondering if bandhan began from settlements, then do you think we could have made a progress in technology or everything that could happen to the human, whether it's healthcare or anything?
01:41J. Krishnamurthy, or are you suggesting maybe the older way when settlements were...
01:47J. Krishnamurthy, it wasn't so much hunter-gatherer.
01:50Where are you?
01:51J. Krishnamurthy, it was much more about being gatherers.
01:56Really?
01:56J. Krishnamurthy, we were not really hunters.
01:58We were gatherers.
01:59Gathering is much easier than hunting, obviously.
02:02J. Krishnamurthy, what happened next was inevitable.
02:09Please understand.
02:11If we were surviving as a species, even by hunting and gathering and all those things, why did we need to move into agriculture in the first place?
02:26Why?
02:26J. Krishnamurthy, that kind of a shift, no other species has shown.
02:33Right?
02:35If monkeys stay on trees, they have continued to stay on trees.
02:41They haven't become agriculturalists.
02:45Because they are doing alright on trees.
02:48Right?
02:48And the tigers are doing alright, as they are.
02:55And the proof of their alrightness, the greatest, and the only proof that is needed, the proof of their alrightness is that they are continuing to exist as a species.
03:05And that's what is needed in the biological world.
03:13The only success that is needed there is material.
03:17Material success.
03:18Just as we measure our success, often, by the kind of impression we leave on the world, and nations talk of their success by measuring the average longevity of their populations, no?
03:39How long are we surviving?
03:41What kind of impact are we leaving?
03:44Similarly, the only criteria of success for the animal kingdom is whether we are able to successfully reproduce and extend our lineage.
03:56And if that is happening, we will say we are successful.
03:59In Prakrati, that's a way of attaining immortality.
04:01We attain immortality in the inner sense, no?
04:05If you are a real human being, you will want to attain inner immortality, which does not have to do with time.
04:12In the animal kingdom, they attain immortality by reproducing.
04:15Let me have kids, let me have kids, and that way, I have become immortal in a particular way.
04:21You know, cats today look much the same as they did 10,000 years back.
04:24So, that old cat has immortalized itself in the form of the cat today.
04:30So, since all species are doing well and are successful in this sense,
04:38what was the need for our damned species to start doing different things?
04:45The need was that we were not satisfied.
04:50We did not want to devote all our time and energy just to gathering or hunting.
05:02We said we need more time for higher pursuits.
05:08And that's the reason we said we should have enough spare stored supply of food items.
05:15Our means of production should not be controlled by weather or circumstance.
05:26We do not want to live under the vagaries of randomness.
05:32We want to be our own masters.
05:33So, we will cultivate, we will clear the land, we will till, we will harvest and we will store.
05:44So, there is security on the physical front.
05:47And when there is security on the physical front, what will we do?
05:51We will pursue higher order things.
05:55That was the purpose.
05:56That was the purpose.
05:57That was the purpose.
05:58That was the purpose.
05:59So, that is inevitable.
06:00You cannot reverse it.
06:01You cannot say we want to go back to the jungle.
06:07And that is alright.
06:08You want to save time.
06:09You want to do something better.
06:10You want to do something better.
06:12You know, when the industrial revolution came, and when household gadgets started becoming popular, and when the computers came,
06:29at each of these points, there were wise men and economists who were saying that you would probably have a two-day work week now.
06:46Electricity will become too cheap to be metered.
06:49All the kinds of basic tasks will be taken care of by the great surplus energy and the intelligence that we have now created.
07:01And you will have spare time so that you can do something else.
07:08What that something else exactly was, we didn't know.
07:11We didn't know.
07:12And that was our shortcoming.
07:14We didn't know what to do with it.
07:15So, we kept doing more of what we were already doing instead of doing something else with the spare time made available.
07:29Are you getting it?
07:31The purpose of technology or developments in science or prosperity in economics that is defeated,
07:40when you do not know what to do with the knowledge or money you have accumulated.
07:45The purpose of science, technology and economics, which is knowledge and systems,
07:55the single purpose of each of these is to elevate your insights, to make you free from within.
08:05But what has happened is that we have continued with technological progress without progressing from within.
08:16So, the man who emerged from the jungle is very much present today as well.
08:25Just that he has much more power available to himself.
08:31The emergence from the jungle was for the sake of internal transformation.
08:38Instead of internal transformation, the emergence from jungle has resulted in great external transformation.
08:46If you look at the man, dramatically, let's just visualize, there is this man coming out from the jungle.
08:55And moving towards a vacant, cleared space, where he can now grow crops.
09:01Let's visualize this man.
09:03Right?
09:04Can you visualize that man?
09:06He is almost totally naked.
09:08And there is a lot of ignorance writ large on his face.
09:12Right?
09:13He is also carrying a lot of scars and other things.
09:18And you visualize the man that you have today in a developed country.
09:22And you put the two of them side by side.
09:26And you will not find any external similarity.
09:29Would you?
09:31The man coming from the jungle, he will have very, very bad teeth.
09:36He will have a very small life span.
09:42He will not have a properly developed language.
09:47In his thoughts, he would be quite muddled.
09:52You look at this man here.
09:57Outwardly, he would probably be wearing a suit.
10:01He would be carrying a laptop.
10:03He probably might be knowing many languages.
10:08He would be the master of so many technologies made available to him.
10:13Externally, everything will be different between the two of these.
10:18Right?
10:20Internally, they are exactly the same.
10:23Now this external one, the modern one, the one who has externally progressed, has great power at his hands.
10:33And that is what is destroying the planet today.
10:37Inwardly, you are exactly still the same man.
10:40And externally, you have amassed so much power.
10:43Whereas, you had emerged from the jungle.
10:45Not really for the sake of external amassment.
10:50But for the sake of internal improvement.
10:55You didn't emerge from the jungle so that you could collect external riches.
10:59You were doing alright even in the jungle.
11:03There was no need to leave the jungle and do something that was extraordinary and go out of your way.
11:09To do something that no other species had done.
11:13There was no need. You were doing alright.
11:15You were doing alright.
11:17But you emerged from the jungle.
11:19So that you can have inner development.
11:23But the tragedy has been that that departure has not led to much of inner development.
11:33Instead, it has resulted in a lot of outer accumulation.
11:38And that's a double geo party.
11:43Internally, you are a chimpanzee.
11:45And externally, you are carrying cutting edge technologies and nuclear tipped missiles and what not.
11:53Imagine, a chimpanzee in command of an ICBM.
12:02And it could be a democratically elected chimpanzee.
12:05And that chimpanzee has the power to push the nuclear button.
12:11And launch not one but a thousand missiles.
12:15And destroy the earth many times over.
12:16J. Krishnamurthy used to say, at some point in history, man took a wrong turn.
12:28Do you see that wrong turn?
12:29Forgetting what you came out of the jungle for.
12:39We have forgotten that.
12:41If you were to lead a jungle-like life, then the jungle is your place.
12:47Go back to the jungle.
12:48You came out of the jungle because you wanted to no more be an animal.
12:55But you are still an animal.
12:56Then why have you come out of the jungle?
12:58Go back to the jungle.
12:59Don't you hear all these arguments?
13:03You know women should stay at home and do babies and cook stuff.
13:08Because that's how nature operates.
13:10No, that's how the jungle operates.
13:12And if you want to revert to that system, then you should go back to the jungle.
13:17That's what happens in the jungle.
13:19And often they keep giving examples.
13:20No, but what's wrong with eating animals?
13:24In the jungle, everybody is eating animals.
13:27In the jungle everybody is eating animals, right?
13:29So if you want to eat animals, go back to the jungle.
13:34You emerged from the jungle for the sake of a higher consciousness.
13:39Where is that consciousness?
13:41You are still the chimpanzee, but with a lot of brute power.
13:47Do you get this?
13:48And you look at all the arguments that come from the conservative circles these days.
13:54All of them talk of all these things.
13:59This is what happens in the animal kingdom.
14:02This is what is natural.
14:06What do you mean by natural?
14:08You are talking about the law of the jungle?
14:11We left the jungle long back.
14:13We have to behave like people of consciousness.
14:23Not dictated so much by their bodies.
14:28Not discriminating between people based on their bodily characteristics.
14:33All those discriminations happen in the jungle. Yes.
14:38But they are not supposed to happen in people who have left the jungle behind.
14:44Yes.
14:45My name is Shubhangi and I am an IT consultant and I live in Munich for past eight years.
14:59And I have been listening to Acharya Ji for more than two years on YouTube.
15:07And part of Gita sessions for roughly a year or maybe a little more.
15:13And reflecting upon today's session, we were learning the 57th verse of second chapter from Bhagavad Gita.
15:25And in the context, Acharya Ji talked about the desire.
15:29And one of the sentences which I really liked was,
15:40The true can't be discovered by any other means but false.
15:46And the last one which I really liked but I have yet to mull over,
15:52Is you can't understand a desire and find it intact.
15:59I am yet to understand it better.
16:05That's pretty much what I learnt with Respective Words today.
16:10And in the end, what I will remember a lot is,
16:15Don't just pass by, rather stop.
16:19This will stay with me.
16:20And apart from that, I have also grown particularly fond of a sentence,
16:25rather a question.
16:27How do you know?
16:30It makes assuming things very difficult.
16:33At the same time, it has saved me a lot of mental agony in many situations.
16:37So, be thankful so far for all such teachings.
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