00:00Since the AQI is still two points away from hitting 500, therefore I have taken it up.
00:07I saw a couple of kids bursting crackers on dry grass and I was afraid that it will catch on fire
00:14and so I tried to stop it but it left me feeling very frustrated and quite helpless how to deal
00:21with that. How many kids will you convince? Saving our skin is more important. It is not about one
00:28festival. It is not about one organized religion. It is not about one country. It is about the shared
00:34universal primitive darkness in man's mind but we don't want to acknowledge that darkness. So we want
00:41to tell ourselves it's about a particular night and crackers and dry grass. Don't all kinds of
00:49uglinesses have the same common root and if we can strike at the root what special kind of nonsense
00:57would still survive. Nothing. Don't pretend as if it's somebody else's business.
01:04Sometimes if I see something going wrong, for example, I saw a couple of kids bursting crackers
01:27on dry grass and I was afraid that it will catch on fire and so I tried to stop it but
01:34it did not really happen because they're kids and it's crackers. It left me feeling very frustrated
01:43and quite helpless. I did some action there. Thinking about why crackers are so attracted to kids and
01:53what is the thrill of it and all those things gave me a little bit of clarity but still left me feeling
02:00quite helpless. How should I look at it? How do I move past it? I know that this is not about me. None of this is
02:11about me. But still, how to deal with that sort of frustration and helplessness.
02:17You know, a bigger problem is when we succeed in these little acts of charity, goodness, kindness.
02:29Had you succeeded in somehow persuading away the kids, you wouldn't even have raised this question.
02:35And a self-awareness of morality and righteousness would have held you high.
02:49That's the whole problem. When you said
02:51kids won't go away because
02:57it is festival and it is crackers.
03:01And do we really understand why the kids won't go away?
03:08Do we really understand?
03:11But if we succeed in our little acts of goodness
03:16that helps perpetuate the delusion,
03:22there is an entire system to be fought.
03:25not these kids really who are at the absolute periphery of the machine.
03:39Even if you succeed in
03:45shooing away the kids, so what?
03:47They will find some other place.
03:53They will do what they will have to do.
04:02And that's why the mission is for the sake of Dharma.
04:09That's why we are not talking of any one particular aspect of Lok Dharma.
04:15We are not saying that this is
04:20the particular action we are rallying against.
04:26It is not about one festival.
04:28It is not about one organized religion.
04:31It is not about one country.
04:32It is about the shared universal primitive darkness in man's mind.
04:46But we don't want to acknowledge that darkness.
04:50So we want to tell ourselves it's about a particular night and crackers and dry grass.
04:56Now how is it any different if it is not dry grass but a cemented road?
05:04Please tell me.
05:06You will say it is very different because now there is nothing to catch fire.
05:10No ma'am.
05:12That's where the difference comes.
05:15You think it is alright?
05:16If it is done on a cemented ground?
05:24No.
05:28And we are not against crackers per se.
05:31We are against distorting the very meaning of religion.
05:34They are kids.
05:38It is their opportunity to learn, grow and fall in love with something authentic.
05:49And that opportunity is being wasted away.
05:52That's the battle to be fought.
05:58Instead of that, as responsible citizens and good Samaritans,
06:04we decide to take up acts of micro-kindness.
06:11Let me do some nice thing in my society.
06:18We'll clear away the garbage.
06:21All of us got together.
06:2324 of us.
06:27And on the festival we cleaned up everything.
06:30You see.
06:32We are good people.
06:32No.
06:33No.
06:34No.
06:35It is.
06:37Allow me to be a bit blunt, but it is because of these acts of charity and goodness.
06:45That nonsense flourishes all the more.
06:48I am kind because I feed dogs.
06:59No.
07:00What are you doing?
07:01First of all, you have created an ecosystem in which garbage piles up and therefore strays proliferate.
07:18And what kind of life do they have?
07:20Look at the life of a free wild beast in the jungle and look at the life of the stray dog.
07:27That's the life you have given him in your cities.
07:30And then you console yourself and then you console yourself, you flatter yourself with feeding them something once in the morning or in the evening and say, you know, I am a really noble man.
07:44No.
07:51You have to fight against the ecosystem that first of all breeds strays.
07:55The poor animal should not have existed there in the first place.
08:07The cities are designed to accommodate homo sapiens.
08:15There is nothing in them for dogs.
08:19Think of the concrete roads.
08:21And as you urbanize, the whole thing becomes even more concretized.
08:32What will the poor animal do?
08:34Where will it live?
08:35Where will it sleep?
08:39But very irresponsibly, we build cities where strays can breed so much and then we want to act pious by feeding them.
08:51Yes, obviously do feed them.
08:56If I find a starving animal, obviously I will feed it.
09:01But that does not absolve me of my bigger responsibility to do something about the root of the problem.
09:12We have rabbits here.
09:14We feed dogs.
09:16You find them all lined up in front of the gate here.
09:19We have a cow as well.
09:20We do all that.
09:21But that does not mean that taking care of rabbits or dogs or that little cow
09:29cow will mean that we are doing something essentially noble.
09:37No.
09:37No.
09:49What we do not want to acknowledge is that all external problems start from man s mind.
10:00And at the centre of the man s mind is the ego.
10:08The mistaken ego, the deluded ego is the cause of all inner and outer problems.
10:15Not just mental problems but also material problems.
10:20They all come from the ego.
10:26And therefore if you want to take care of those problems, if you want to honestly address the problems,
10:34you will have to go within.
10:35But going within is hazardous.
10:43So what do we do?
10:48Some little act of this that.
10:50I am not dissuading you from doing these little nice moral deeds.
11:04Please do that.
11:05Obviously, if you find a dog shivering in the cold,
11:12do offer it some refuge.
11:17But don't take that as the end of your responsibility.
11:36Yes, if kids are doing something destructive, advise them.
11:42Restrain them.
11:44Yes.
11:47But that in itself will not bring about a better and more responsible world.
11:54You will save the kids once.
12:02They have a long life to live.
12:04They will have umpteen opportunities
12:08to make much bigger mischief.
12:12You will not be there to play mommy all the time.
12:16If you want to play mommy all the time.
12:24You will not be there to play mommy all the time.
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