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00:00Would the brick in the wall contribute to the demolition of the wall?
00:04What kind of system was it that was able to oppress 87% of the population since centuries?
00:12Women were made to support patriarchy and even the oppressed classes were made to support caste discrimination.
00:20Now how was that happening? At gunpoint?
00:25But if I go outside scenario on the ground and I meet, for example, a Dalit person,
00:30I go up to him and I tell them, look, the answer to all your problems is actually self-knowledge,
00:35self-inquiry.
00:36I can't help but think he would slap me across the face.
00:38No system can really stand without some kind of support of those it oppresses.
00:46Yes, structural change cannot happen because the structure is never conscious of its own.
00:53You make the structure, right?
00:55And you keep shouting and petitioning to these walls and to the ceilings.
00:59Will they change?
01:00Now you tell me why the revolution never came.
01:08So, after I started listening to you, I listened to more revolutionaries or so-called revolutionaries,
01:15people like Karl Marx.
01:16And I couldn't help but realize that these conversations that we have about self-knowledge,
01:23about self-inquiry, about understanding things, come from a place of privilege.
01:29I have a certain company in my head where I can sit down and think about, okay, this is religion.
01:34This is what spirituality means.
01:36This is wisdom literature and so on and so forth.
01:39But if I go outside in the real life scenario on ground and I meet, for example, a Dalit person.
01:50Statistically speaking, 92% of sanitary workers in India are of that caste.
01:54And I go up to him and he asks me this question.
01:58I go through suffering every single day.
01:59Systemic oppression.
02:00Not because it's my fault.
02:02Not because it's my friend's fault.
02:04But because this is the norm that exists.
02:06This is the society that we exist in.
02:08And anytime I ask someone what should I do, they tell me this is the society.
02:12There's nothing you can do about it.
02:14I go up to him and I tell them, look, the answer to all your problems is actually self-knowledge,
02:19self-inquiry.
02:20I can't help but think he would slap me across the face and tell me I have a million things
02:25to do, a million oppressions to suffer, a million people telling me why I am not supposed to exist in
02:32this world and I am not worthy of life.
02:36How do we reconcile that?
02:37So the question, if I were to frame it correctly, was if exploitative structures of class and economy exist beyond
02:44one person's ego, can inner transformation alone address them?
02:48Should truth also entail actively confronting these structures, as Marx would argue, or is systemic injustice best met through personal
02:58change?
02:58Who would confront these structures?
03:01Who?
03:03Who?
03:06Would the brick in the wall contribute to the demolition of the wall?
03:12Does that ever happen?
03:17Does a cog in the machine ever bring the machine down?
03:21Does that happen?
03:24Does that happen?
03:27How long has casteism and the oppression associated with it survived in India?
03:37Last five years?
03:40Last 25 years?
03:44Hmm?
03:47Or dozens of centuries?
03:50Right?
03:51How do you think it was able to survive?
03:55Right?
03:56You talked of Dalits.
04:02They are referred to as outside the Varna system.
04:09Right?
04:13They constitute around 20 to 25% of India's population.
04:19The scheduled castes and the scheduled tribes.
04:23That's a big bulk, 20 to 25% of a population.
04:30Right?
04:33Then within the Varna system, there are Shudras.
04:37Hmm?
04:38They are what you today call as the other backward castes.
04:46And they constitute around 50 or 55% of the population.
04:51When you talk of oppression, these are the people you are referring to.
04:59How much do they add up to?
05:0275%
05:03Okay?
05:04And when you talk of oppression, obviously you cannot miss the most oppressed class of all women.
05:15So, even among the remaining 25%, 12% has remained oppressed since centuries.
05:23So, how much does the oppressed class now total up to?
05:3087%.
05:34Now, what kind of system was it that was able to oppress 87% of the population since centuries?
05:43Who was making the system and who was supporting it?
05:46If 87% are the sufferers, who was keeping the system afloat and going?
05:58Who was keeping it going?
06:03Obviously, 13% might have been beneficiaries.
06:07Not all 13% maybe, 10, 12, some percentage, we don't know.
06:12But this system could not have survived without keeping the 87% in inner ignorance,
06:22so that they do not actively resist the system.
06:28Please understand.
06:31Otherwise, the system would have crashed long back.
06:37These 87% were made to somehow directly or indirectly, actively or passively support the system.
06:51Women were made to support patriarchy and even the oppressed classes were made to support caste discrimination.
07:00Now, how was that happening?
07:05At gunpoint?
07:07No.
07:08That was happening through the perpetuation of inner ignorance.
07:16The ones who had been confined to traditional caste based menial jobs were told that this is the best that
07:26they can get from life and this is what God has ordained for them.
07:29And they accepted it.
07:32Otherwise, there would have been a revolution long back.
07:35Now, you tell me why the revolution never came?
07:39Not because people were subjected to hunters or physical coercion.
07:55It was because of inner slavery.
07:57Right?
08:00And that's why inner empowerment, inner ignorance, elimination of inner ignorance has to be the first step.
08:12Otherwise, the oppressed one would himself or herself keep the cycle of oppression going.
08:26It becomes a very strange situation, very pathetic, very miserable.
08:32When you become a contributor to your own enslavement.
08:38When you say, you know, I am born a woman, that too in a so called lower caste.
08:48Because I did something wrong in my previous birth.
08:53So, God has punished me by making me a woman, that too a woman of an underprivileged caste.
09:02No, no, no, no revolution is needed.
09:06I am just paying for my own sins.
09:09Now, will she ever raise her voice?
09:13If she is suffering, that is rather atonement.
09:17If she is suffering, that is actually good news for her next birth.
09:23Through her suffering, she is washing her sins.
09:25Now, in next birth, she will be born clean.
09:30As a higher caste male may be.
09:35Why will there be any resistance?
09:38No system can really stand without some kind of support of those it oppresses.
09:56So few Englishmen were able to rule India.
10:00How was that happening?
10:02It was because the Indians were supporting the English.
10:09Otherwise, how would have they survived for so long?
10:14You imagine the size of this subcontinent and you look at the British Isles.
10:26And they came from that place.
10:30Navigating half the world.
10:32And they were ruling a country that was more than ten times as populous as theirs.
10:41How was that happening?
10:45It was a continent size country that the British were controlling.
10:51From modern Afghanistan till Burma.
11:03As populous as Europe.
11:06And that is what they were controlling from that distance.
11:09Because the Indians themselves were contributors to the system.
11:16They had stakes in the system.
11:17Or at least they were made to believe that they had stakes in the system.
11:25They were made to believe that they had stakes in the system.
11:29So, probably the Dalit would be told, you know, there is the Brahmin.
11:34And if you are respectful enough.
11:37And if you call him to conduct your ceremonies.
11:42And if you do all the nice things.
11:46As prescribed in tradition.
11:53Then some super power would be happy with you.
11:59And maybe bless you with a son.
12:07Sir, but this dominant class.
12:11Whether it was the upper castes in the ancient times.
12:14Or today the capitalist billionaires of the world.
12:17I mean a handful group of people.
12:19Are able to starve the entire Gaza Strip in today's world.
12:24Just because of their own decisions.
12:27Just a handful group of people could stop all this.
12:30In a matter of days if they wanted.
12:33But that is still happening in Palestine.
12:34And other places as well.
12:36This always exists.
12:38This dichotomy between the upper class that handles all the oppressed.
12:41How do we reconcile?
12:43What I am saying is that the oppressed ones are always more numerous.
12:48You agree?
12:49But isn't it too much to ask of them?
12:51Why is it too much to ask of them, sir?
12:54And if they...
12:57Don't empathize with their own condition.
13:00We are saying it is too much to tell them.
13:02To empathize with their own condition.
13:05Why would some other external third party come and help them?
13:09If you are suffering.
13:10The onus is on you.
13:13To understand the reasons.
13:15And rise.
13:18And break the chains.
13:20If you don't want to help yourself.
13:22Why would somebody else will?
13:26No.
13:27Maybe I am trying my level best.
13:29And then somebody else comes to help me.
13:32That's fine.
13:32But first of all.
13:34I need.
13:35To really know.
13:37What keeps me down.
13:43There is the housewife.
13:45And I go to her.
13:48Not directly.
13:49Not physically.
13:49But through my books.
13:51Through my...
13:51Through my...
13:53And...
13:54And...
13:55He says.
13:56No, no, no.
13:58You are not offering me help.
14:00You are breaking my house.
14:02And I can see.
14:03That she is a living corpse.
14:09Subjected to oppression.
14:11Humiliation daily.
14:12But she says.
14:13No, no.
14:13This is what I must do.
14:17I am a pious lady.
14:19And this is my sacred duty.
14:25Don't derail me.
14:28Her condition will continue like this for another 2000 years.
14:34Structural change cannot happen.
14:36Because the structure is never conscious.
14:39Of its own.
14:40You make the structure.
14:41Right?
14:43This is a structure.
14:45This building.
14:46Suppose it is not right.
14:48And you say.
14:49We need structural change.
14:52And you keep shouting and petitioning to these walls.
14:56And to the ceilings.
14:57Will they change?
14:58Because the structure is an unconscious thing.
15:02Man makes the structure.
15:04So, if the structure is to change.
15:06First of all.
15:07Man has to change.
15:09But you keep talking of structure.
15:11The structure is such that.
15:12You know.
15:12We need policy changes.
15:14Who will make the policy?
15:16The policy doesn't drop from the heavens.
15:19You make the policy.
15:22No, climate change can be taken care of.
15:24By having right policy decisions.
15:26Who will take those decisions?
15:28You are the voter.
15:32All this is somewhat.
15:36A relinquishment of one's individual responsibility.
15:42I am abdicating my responsibility.
15:44And I am putting it on the system.
15:46Now the system is such that.
15:47What can I do?
15:49You have your own one single precious life to live.
15:52The system won't live it for you.
15:55The responsibility is all yours.
15:56Because it is your life.
15:58Whose life is it?
16:00Your life.
16:01So why are you believing the system?
16:03Get out.
16:04Run away.
16:04Do whatever you can.
16:05And if you can't do anything.
16:08Then at least fight and die in the attempt.
16:11That much you can do.
16:12Right?
16:15But you won't fight.
16:17You will simply say your own system is like this.
16:21Forget about fighting.
16:22The fact of the matter is as we said in the beginning.
16:25We actually support our own oppressors.
16:30All systems that oppressors stand on our own backs.
16:37As we are made to lie on our stomachs.
16:42Picture that.
16:44The system that you are blaming.
16:46Its pillars are standing on your back.
16:49As you are lying on your stomach.
16:51The day you decide to get up, the system would come crashing down.
16:56But lying there.
16:58Prostrating there.
16:59You keep saying you know system has to change.
17:03How will the system change?
17:05What are you doing?
17:07And don't do anything to change the system.
17:10Please.
17:10Do something to change your own life.
17:13At least that much is your responsibility.
17:15Or you want to run away from that also.
17:22Good evening sir.
17:23I am Cecil Osta.
17:24I am pursuing my B.Tech degree from the same campus.
17:27And I guess my question concludes all this.
17:31For context.
17:32I am a Christian by faith.
17:34But I don't keep belief in the scriptures.
17:37In all the religious texts that I have been taught in my church.
17:41So the scriptures are all the fundamentals.
17:43All the flawed fundamentals that we have been taught.
17:46To clear the dilemma of existence.
17:50Why don't we work towards ending it completely?
17:53Like I have been following many philosophers like you and many others.
17:57They are against religions and the scriptures.
18:00But they only support it vocally.
18:03Why don't we actively step to end it like with the ministries?
18:10Because you can't throw the baby out with bath water.
18:17I have never said scriptures are evil.
18:20I teach scriptures actually.
18:25I teach the Bhagavad Gita.
18:27The Upanishads.
18:31Buddhist scriptures.
18:35Buddhist scriptures.
18:39Zen literature.
18:41Sufi stories.
18:44They are beautiful.
18:46All of them.
18:48Why do you want to ban the scriptures?
18:51Yes.
18:53Rather.
18:56Let's be very clear.
18:59In defining what to call as scripture.
19:03Not all old books deserve to be called scriptures.
19:09Just because something is old, it doesn't become sacred.
19:13Or does it?
19:15Yes.
19:17Something can be historically very significant.
19:21Or culturally very powerful.
19:25Give it its due place.
19:30Place it in the library.
19:32Sometimes in the museum maybe.
19:36But you can't place it on the high altar.
19:40Of what truly deserves to be called as religion.
19:45What is a scripture?
19:47Only that which addresses the fundamental condition of mankind.
19:54Only that deserves to be called as scripture.
19:57That's the change you need.
19:59You don't need to reject all old books.
20:02A lot of them contain deep wisdom.
20:05Very very relevant to all times.
20:08Not just these times.
20:11You don't need to reject them.
20:15But you need to have a sifting mechanism.
20:19A refining mechanism.
20:21Right?
20:23You have entire libraries full of religious material.
20:27Not all those books have any worth.
20:33Or at least equal worth.
20:36Yes?
20:38Do not call, for example, story books as religious books.
20:46They are not scripture.
20:48Any book that contains beliefs does not deserve to be called a scripture.
20:58Any book that tells you, unless you believe in something like this and this.
21:06You are not devoted.
21:08You are not religious.
21:09You are not pious.
21:11That book is not a scripture.
21:16A scripture by definition is one that takes you inside.
21:20Asks you, who are you and why do you suffer?
21:23And how to be free of this suffering?
21:26That's what a scripture is.
21:28Getting it?
21:29So, we need to be discreet in defining and selecting a scripture.
21:36Throwing away all scriptures, that's very unwise.
21:41And a lot of people, in the garb of modernity or atheism, do that.
21:48That's not wise at all.
21:49That's not wise at all.
21:49No.
21:51No.
21:54You take the Upanishads to them.
21:56They will say, no, no, no.
21:58Why are you bringing me this bullock cart stuff?
22:05And even within scriptures, there are portions that deal with timeless wisdom.
22:12And there are portions that deal with beliefs.
22:19You must be able to differentiate there as well.
22:24And in stories, sometimes there are deep symbolisms embedded.
22:31You must be able to read those stories rightly.
22:37Not literally, but symbolically, figuratively.
22:43Getting it?
22:44So, two levels of discrimination.
22:46One.
22:48Where there is deep philosophy, pertaining to the self.
22:53Existential questions.
22:54Ontology.
22:56Questioning belief.
22:57Epistemology.
23:00Yes.
23:01That deserves to be called a scripture.
23:05Then there are books of stories.
23:07This happened and that happened and that happened.
23:10No, no.
23:10All kinds of stories.
23:11Don't take them as history.
23:14Some of the stories.
23:16Are very very powerful codes.
23:20Decode them.
23:22Interpret them wisely and rightly.
23:25And they too can help.
23:27Deeply help.
23:28In your modern life.
23:30And then there are some stories.
23:33That are just stories.
23:36The so called religious book commands you to accept that story.
23:40As some historical fact.
23:42That's what can be discarded.
23:44Totally discarded.
23:47Referring to your book.
23:48I'm glad I got my hands on it.
23:50Why can't we have a social structure which sidelines religion, but it keeps it, but takes the facts and the
23:58scientific temper and practices the scientific temper as a whole.
24:02Right.
24:04Let's have that in Goa.
24:06Let's have that in Goa.
24:09Structure again, once again.
24:10Who will build it?
24:12Why do you always tend to move away from yourself?
24:16Or will the structure drop from somewhere?
24:19Why can't we have a structure?
24:21Why can't we have a structure?
24:22Why can't we have a structure?
24:22Almost like ordering something in a restaurant.
24:25Can I have strong cappuccino?
24:29Who will bring it?
24:33You.
24:35Take it upon yourself.
24:37And it starts with your own life.
24:39And then radiates outwards.
24:46Sitting as you are, remaining as you are, no greatness will just descend on the outside.
24:55Because you are the mover.
24:56You are the doer.
24:57You are the conscious entity.
24:59You are the actor.
25:02You say, I will remain as I am.
25:04But let there be something.
25:08If you remain as you are, the world will remain as it is.
25:18Hi, my name is Gaurav.
25:22I have joined Gita Swishin since a couple of months.
25:26To be precise, six months.
25:28And earlier, I just used to listen to Acharya Ji on YouTube.
25:32Been listening to him since a couple of years, four or five years.
25:37And it's difficult to initially understand the scriptures.
25:44I did start to read the scriptures.
25:47But then, it was difficult for me to understand.
25:51And slowly, I started to listen to Acharya Ji's videos.
25:56And this helped me to understand the scriptures as well as my own life.
26:00What I was doing and where I am going.
26:03You know, where am I getting stuck.
26:06So, you know, I started understanding the complete psychology of my own life.
26:13My own self.
26:15You know, the one thing which has changed in me is the fear.
26:25You know, fear in taking decisions.
26:28Right decisions.
26:29No matter, you know, what the outcome is.
26:32So, I would urge, you know, everyone to try and listen to Acharya Ji.
26:39Come attend the live sessions and also, you know, be a part of Gita community.
26:43There's something, you know, worthwhile going there.
26:47You know, much better than what is happening in social media.
26:57What's happening in social media explains why many people areepecting.
27:03Oh, it's funny.
27:08Maybe I walk through your life.
27:08See you next time.
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