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00:00How can a student start the journey of who am I while being in the society and like maintaining the
00:06roles?
00:07My parents gave me this body. Some coincidence gave me this gender. DNA gave me the IQ that brought me
00:14here.
00:14My family and the lineage gave me my religion. So who am I?
00:19Everything is coming from somewhere else. So who are you? What is yours?
00:24That brings us to a very interesting point. And it must be especially interesting to you because you are a
00:29young person.
00:30The answer to the question, who am I? Starts tending toward...
00:37Acharya Ji, isn't our own existence and presence truly ours?
00:43In what sense? How are you different from a puppet?
00:47A puppet follows the master's art.
00:51You do do that.
01:00Namaste, sir. It's a pleasure to talk to you.
01:03Sir, my question is that education teaches us a lot of things, but we don't learn about ourselves.
01:12So how can a student start the journey of who am I while being in the society and like maintaining
01:21the roles?
01:22So as you say this, imagine they all start clapping, applauding, cheering.
01:32That would mean something to you, right?
01:37So you utter something and they start applauding you.
01:42And you puff up a little. You start feeling good about life.
01:45At least momentarily.
01:48Equally, if you utter something and they start booing, how do you feel?
01:53Bad.
01:55You curse yourself. You curse them.
01:57And you want all this to get over as soon as possible.
02:00No?
02:02So who are you in all this?
02:05Are you an individual? Are you a closed system?
02:10Are you somebody with an internal engine at her heart?
02:19Or are you being pushed from the outside?
02:27If applause can inflate you and criticism or calumny can deflate you, who are you?
02:41You asked how to know who I am. That's how.
02:45What does the world mean to you?
02:47The more you see that in ways gross and subtle, the world means almost everything to you.
03:00You will realize that the answer to the question, who am I, starts tending towards, I am not.
03:15Or, I am a puppet.
03:19Because saying, I am, necessitates, requires some kind of independence.
03:33No? I am.
03:34When you say I am, you imply an individual existence, some kind of sovereignty.
03:43But the more you see that everything about you is coming from the world, the question itself will appear absurd.
03:53I don't have an independent existence. The world is ruling me all the time.
03:57My parents gave me this body.
04:01My parents gave me this body.
04:02Some coincidence gave me this gender.
04:07DNA gave me the IQ that brought me here.
04:11To some extent at least. There are other factors as well, obviously.
04:17My parents' economic condition allowed me to have the education that brought me here.
04:31My family and the lineage gave me my religion.
04:36So who am I?
04:39Is there anything independent about me?
04:43Anything.
04:46The inner physical system gives me my thoughts and feelings to a great extent.
04:59When I was 10, I didn't used to have the same kinds of feelings as I have when I am
05:0420.
05:07Because there is a hormonal discontinuity in between.
05:18The place, the culture gave me my dressing sense, my sartorial sensibilities.
05:28As a woman, you probably didn't independently decide to have long hair.
05:34Right?
05:35He doesn't have long hair.
05:36He doesn't have long hair.
05:37I don't have much hair.
05:41He too doesn't have very long hair.
05:45Where are those long hair coming from?
05:47Are they yours?
05:50Or do they belong to the culture?
05:53So who are you?
05:56Is there anything about you that is truly yours?
06:04What is that?
06:07What exactly is that?
06:11X-ray, MRI, CAT scan?
06:14Please show that to me.
06:16And you are sitting here in an institution of science, critical thinking and enquiry.
06:27Right?
06:28We are not talking of superstitions here.
06:33In fact, even the idea that there exists something called the soul is not originally yours.
06:40Even that comes from somebody else.
06:43Had they not told you that something called the soul or Jivatma lives somewhere in the intestines,
06:50had you harbored, would you have harbored this thought?
06:55A kid is born and you do not condition the kid into all kinds of stupid superstitions.
07:02Would the kid imagine those things on his own ever?
07:07Would the kid do that?
07:08Please tell me.
07:10So even your superstitions are not your own.
07:13Even your ignorance is not your own.
07:18What is yours?
07:20All these books that you read, you wrote them?
07:25Did you?
07:26This language we are using as a bridge right now, did we create this language?
07:34Did we invent this audio system?
07:38So who are you?
07:40Who are you?
07:41Is there anything in you that does not belong to the world?
07:48Starting from your physical configuration to your mental beliefs and your religious inclinations.
07:59Everything is coming from somewhere else.
08:01So who are you?
08:04Who are you?
08:07Now that brings us to a very interesting point.
08:10And it must be especially interesting to you because you are a young person.
08:17Forget about who am I.
08:20I am only when I am free.
08:27Who I am is a question that comes at a later stage of metaphysics.
08:35First of all, am I?
08:38Don't ask who am I?
08:40Ask am I?
08:42What does am I mean?
08:44Do I even exist?
08:46Am I?
08:47Am I?
08:48Am I?
08:49Am I?
08:50And you are only when you are free.
08:53If you are not free of the world, you don't even exist.
08:56You look like existing.
08:58You look like an individual.
09:01You look like a distinct entity.
09:03But that's only as distinct as the puppet in the roadshow.
09:12Kids are taken.
09:13And kids feel as if the puppet has agency of its own.
09:17But adults know that the puppet has nothing of its own.
09:21Somebody else made the puppet.
09:23Somebody dressed it up.
09:24Somebody wrote the script.
09:26And now the puppeteer is running the show.
09:30You are only when you are free.
09:34Is there anything within you that can observe the mechanics of the body, the relationships
09:44with the world?
09:47And can the observation be so pure that it dissociates you from whatever is going on?
09:59If yes, then you do exist.
10:02But existence is rare.
10:08Having a body does not make you existent.
10:13It only makes you appear as somebody.
10:17That does not mean that you have any kind of ontological validation now.
10:23You really exist only when there is something in you that is independent of the world.
10:31And you must ask this question, I repeat, as young persons.
10:34Anything in you that is independent of the world?
10:39Your choice of graduation came from the world.
10:43Somebody told you, you know, you must write the J because all the good students do that.
10:48And then you get a package or something, something, something.
10:50Based on your rank, you just picked up a branch, right?
10:54It was not because you loved that branch.
10:59What is truly yours?
11:02Then some random company will visit the campus and based on luck and chance and the trend
11:08and crowd behavior, you will land some job.
11:14Or maybe because a couple of your friends are writing the CAT or the GMAT or something.
11:19So you two write that and you get selected and fly away.
11:22What is truly yours?
11:24And then you say you have fallen in love.
11:27But before that you ensured that the right religion and the right caste were ticked.
11:34What is truly yours?
11:37What is truly yours?
11:42And then you decide to get married.
11:45Had nobody told you that something like the institution of marriage has to exist between a man and a woman,
11:53would you have ever chosen to get married?
11:58But you will say, I am getting married.
12:00Please come, you are all invited.
12:02Such a stupid thing to say.
12:03You are not getting married.
12:08The system is marrying you.
12:13And that's such an obscene thing.
12:16Some invisible face, some anonymous system is pushing you towards some person and institutionalizing the relationship.
12:33What is yours?
12:36What is yours?
12:38And then probably you will also have a kid because that's what your body will tell you and that's what
12:42your society will tell you.
12:46And you will say, you know, I feel like having a kid because that's what your hormones at 20, 25
12:52or 35 are telling you.
12:55Are you your hormones?
12:57Do you dictate your hormones or do your hormones dictate you?
13:01Then how does the compulsion of the body become your compulsion?
13:10And the society will say, you know, you are not a good woman if you don't have kids.
13:14And you will say, okay, fine.
13:16That's right.
13:17My mother had kids.
13:18Her mother too had kids.
13:20So I will have kids.
13:21Are those kids yours?
13:23Are you really the mother?
13:25No.
13:25They are the kids of an invisible, ancient social face.
13:32You are not even the mother.
13:35So that is grace.
13:39Randomly we keep claiming, you know, he is my son, she is my daughter.
13:43No, but no, no, no.
13:45You are just some kind of agent.
13:49You are just some kind of machine producing the output.
13:54The machine was controlled by somebody else.
14:01Somebody else was pushing the button and running and operating the machine.
14:06Can the machine claim ownership of its products?
14:09I am asking you.
14:11Can any machine claim ownership of its products?
14:15Does that happen?
14:21So yes, you will be producing a lot, even in your corporate life.
14:26But then that's not what you have produced.
14:30You are not the doer, the owner.
14:34It's happening from somewhere else.
14:41It's a good age, a good point to realize that.
14:50Who am I is a very fashionable question to ask.
14:54Who am I?
14:55Who am I?
14:57Once you feel like asking, who am I?
15:00Pause and ask, am I?
15:04Do I even exist?
15:08Do I even exist?
15:13What do you love to eat?
15:17Biryani.
15:20What do you enjoy ma'am?
15:24Biryani.
15:25Same.
15:26Same.
15:27Hindi waala same?
15:30Same ki sabzi?
15:32Biryani.
15:34Okay.
15:38Born in Nigeria, would either of them order biryani at a restaurant?
15:51Even the food choices are coming from the society.
15:59Born in Japan, you would not opt for dal or jackfruit curry.
16:10Would you?
16:15Which sports do you love to play?
16:19Pickleball recently.
16:21Pickleball.
16:22Why were you not even thinking of pickleball till around 10 years back?
16:32Because Indian society had not adopted pickleball at all.
16:37Because there were no courts at all.
16:44Is your choice yours?
16:52Cricket is a default love.
16:58Born in Korea, would you still love cricket?
17:02Or Peru?
17:06Or Denmark?
17:10So is your love yours?
17:17Or…
17:20So the answer to the question, who am I, is get rid of the who and focus on the remaining
17:28two words.
17:33Acharya Ji, isn't our own existence and presence truly ours?
17:41In what sense?
17:43How are you different from a puppet?
17:47The puppet follows the masters, but…
17:52You do do that.
17:56Don't you?
17:59But then…
18:01I suppose I don't, because the emotive factor plays along.
18:10Where do the emotions come from?
18:14Do you know the neuroscience of emotions?
18:17Long before you experience an emotion, the body has initiated its process.
18:25Is your emotion even yours?
18:28Only after the body has already cooked and baked the emotion, you even come to know of it.
18:39Suppose you come to know of an emotion at t is equal to 10.
18:45And you say, I know, I am feeling a bit angry.
18:49Emotion.
18:50Or feeling lonely.
18:52Whatever.
18:53Sad.
18:54Emotion.
18:55T is equal to 10 seconds.
18:57The build up of the emotion had already started at t is equal to 0.
19:04Without your choice, the humiliation is without even your knowledge.
19:10You didn't even know that the emotion has already started.
19:13How are your emotions yours?
19:19Phenomenology, psychology, neuroscience, they are getting together.
19:25To come up with fantastic insights.
19:28You know what one of them says.
19:32The intensity of these lights impacts the flavor of this discussion.
19:43If we increase the intensity, the questions are likely to change.
19:49Are your questions yours?
19:54Hmm?
19:58Music or sound or noise in a hall changes the entire experience, the whole perception.
20:12If your neighbor, for example, next to you is noisy.
20:17That will alter your perception of what I am saying.
20:26So, is even your understanding yours?
20:30That which you call as your understanding, even that is not yours.
20:38An individual can be made to take any kind of decision.
20:46If the causal factors are properly registered.
20:53Suppose, you call your decision as a variable z.
21:05Science today very well understands that z is f, x, y and s, t and u, v.
21:16That is understood that z is not independent.
21:21Z depends on x, y, u, v, s, t.
21:26The only remaining problem is identifying u, v, s, t correctly.
21:36And coming up with the right expression of the function.
21:41Just saying that z is dependent on x, y, s, t won't suffice.
21:45You also need to know the function as clearly as possible.
21:50That is the only remaining challenge.
21:54And that challenge is being accepted.
21:57You know by whom?
22:00Now comes the scary part.
22:02That challenge is being accepted most warmly by those who want to enslave you.
22:17Advertisers, corporate masters, dictatorships.
22:32Candidates canvassing for votes in flawed democracies.
22:39They want to know exactly how does the user or customer or voter come to a decision.
22:48They want to know all the x, y, u, v, s, t and they want to know the exact function.
22:54And they are speeding towards discovering the variables and the function.
23:02You know what that means for you?
23:06That you will be totally controlled.
23:09And you will just keep thinking that your decisions are yours.
23:11While somebody would be dictating your decisions in the backdrop.
23:15And now you know what a lot of this battle for data is about.
23:24Your mobile phone is actually sending out copious amounts of data.
23:32That helps someone predict your behavior.
23:36And once you are predictable, you are controllable.
23:44Anybody who can be predicted can be enslaved.
23:52Am I?
23:54Am I?
23:56Am I?
23:56And the funny thing would be, all this while you will smugly keep thinking that you are an independent individual.
24:08You will keep thinking that you are voting on your own.
24:12You will keep thinking that the purchase decision was made freely by you.
24:18You will not even realize that you were forced to purchase something.
24:23Just that the gun was not visible.
24:31You will not realize that now you are being controlled through chips, invisible chips implanted in your psyche.
24:42When you were controlled through brute force, you could resist.
24:46Because that was ugly.
24:47It was obvious an external aggressor was trying to dominate you.
24:54So you felt like rebelling.
24:55No?
24:56Somebody is trying to dominate.
24:59And I will fight it out.
25:01I will be a freedom fighter.
25:03Today the game is subtler.
25:10The aggressor is way more cunning.
25:15The aggressor in fact has some kind of spiritual inclination.
25:22Or at least psychological understanding.
25:25That much he has.
25:27So he simply gets into your mind and captures you there.
25:32Not from outside but from inside.
25:37And once you have been captured from inside, tell me, do you even exist?
25:42Do you even exist?
25:45As young people who would be populating this planet.
25:52That's a very important question you must ask yourselves.
25:55Are your opinions yours or you are simply influenced?
25:58Are your emotions yours or you are just being a physical puppet?
26:13Controlled by all kinds of inner secretions.
26:17Controlled by all kinds of inner secretions.
26:23Whenever you feel very strongly about something.
26:27It would be wiser to ask, from where did I get this opinion?
26:31Did I always have this opinion?
26:36Exactly who succeeded in putting this in my mind?
26:42That's a very important question to ask.
26:51But that's a scary question to ask.
26:53Because after that question comes responsibility.
26:56The responsibility to live freely and enjoy the consequences.
27:05Consequences do not mean security, right?
27:08Responsibility is beautiful and tough.
27:10Therefore, most people prefer to be puppets.
27:20Yeah.
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