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00:00Some of the greatest scriptures are the Upanishads and you know their pedagogy, their methodology.
00:06How do they proceed?
00:07Through questions.
00:09Through questions.
00:09The same thing that we find in Socrates.
00:12He did not write any books.
00:14He would simply have dialogues.
00:16Never be afraid of questions.
00:18Never be.
00:18You can be cynical, you can be skeptical.
00:21All that is okay.
00:22What is central is...
00:27I have inculcated a habit of being a little more critical and more curious about what is being taught to
00:34me.
00:35While doing so, I have also become a little more cynical.
00:38What we have rather been taught is obedience.
00:42Yes, I agree.
00:43Yes, I agree.
00:44But what do you agree with?
00:46The right teacher or advisor will never see your agreement.
00:52So, I guess what you are trying to say is that the negative feeling that arises is mainly from my
00:59discomfort with being questioning and critical.
01:01You know the funny thing.
01:03Sometimes, the answer is...
01:09So, about hypnotherapy or hypnosis.
01:12From where I see we are all already hypnotized.
01:16It's like delivering anesthesia to someone in coma.
01:22It's like getting drunk.
01:24Still, drunkards would vouch for it.
01:27Some part of you does retain some consciousness.
01:30You can never get 100% drunk.
01:33Similarly, you can be in your deepest moment of some stupid ecstasy.
01:39And yet, one part of you knows.
01:43I hate it when I speak to my audiences.
01:46And all I see is...
01:53So, first of all, I'd like to thank you.
01:55So, over the past few years, I have inculcated a habit of being a little more critical and more curious
02:03about what is being taught to me.
02:04Whether that's why my parents, the society, our teachers, even the government.
02:09But what I've also noticed is, while doing so, I've also become a little more cynical.
02:15Is there room for both to coexist at the same time?
02:19Can I be curious and critical and also being more open to the world, their views and having a little
02:26bit of love in my life?
02:28No, this too is a form of conditioning.
02:38The thought that being critical does not sit well with love.
02:50The thought that inquiry, questioning, investigation, they indicate antagonism or violence.
03:03They don't.
03:04They don't.
03:06In fact, they indicate an openness towards engagement.
03:14So, genuine criticism, inquiry, go very well with openness and love.
03:25In fact, I hate it when I speak to my audiences.
03:35I know for sure that the thing I am addressing, the inner one I am talking to, will not so
03:53easily accept and acknowledge what I am saying.
03:55So, how come it is not displaying its resistance?
04:04That resistance, even if it comes in the form of a sharp counter question, is far better than a silent
04:15and dead nod of approval.
04:24What we have rather been taught is obedience, that too of a morbid kind.
04:36Just sit and say, yes, I agree, yes, I agree, yes, I agree.
04:41But what do you agree with?
04:43You haven't even, you haven't even understood.
04:49The right teacher or advisor will never seek your agreement.
04:58He or she will seek your understanding.
05:03And understanding cannot come without engagement.
05:07And engagement means exposing your position.
05:12You see, this is what you are saying.
05:13But this is where I stand.
05:15And obviously, these two do not conquer.
05:18That's why engagement needs to be there.
05:20If what you are telling me is already at the point where I stand, then you don't need to tell
05:26me anything.
05:26Then you are wasting your time.
05:28Any kind of teaching or advice should be met with a little bit of resistance.
05:36But honest resistance.
05:38Honest resistance.
05:39Resistance not with the intent to defend the position.
05:44Resistance with the intent to understand the position.
05:50Self-defense is not inquiry.
05:54An argument arising from the intent to contradict the other so that you can stay where you are and who
06:04you are is not an honest argument.
06:07So, this is not cynicism really.
06:10This is fine.
06:11And if you want to call it cynicism, then this is healthy cynicism.
06:15You can be cynical.
06:16You can be skeptical.
06:17All that is okay.
06:19What is central is honesty.
06:22Honesty.
06:24So, I guess what you are trying to say is that the negative feeling that arises is mainly from my
06:30discomfort with being questioning and critical.
06:33Yes.
06:33It's the ego's discomfort with being put in the dark or with the spotlight shining on it.
06:42Why are you trying to look at me honestly?
06:47I do not want to be looked at.
06:48Why?
06:49Because I know I am fake.
06:51Because I know I am fake.
06:52And if there is an advisor or an elder or a teacher who starts shivering or trembling when looked at,
07:05then that fellow does not deserve to be called an elder.
07:08If I am out there.
07:11If I am out there to teach, my job is to expose my position thoroughly.
07:17Not impose it, but expose it.
07:21And it can be exposed only in light of the questions of the audience.
07:27Some of the greatest scriptures that the world has known and India has produced are the Upanishads.
07:37And you know their pedagogy, their methodology.
07:41How do they proceed?
07:43Through questions.
07:44Through questions.
07:45The method is dialectical.
07:47The same thing that we find in Socrates.
07:51He did not write any books.
07:54He would simply have dialogues.
07:57Same thing in the Upanishads.
08:01The very word means sitting with the teacher.
08:04Sitting close to the teacher.
08:07And some of the Upanishads, they are just so brief.
08:11All they have is a brief question and a one line answer.
08:15And the teacher won't move without the question.
08:20The teacher responds and falls silent.
08:22And he says, I have nothing to tell you because I am not here to impose myself on you.
08:26If you have something to ask, I will respond.
08:29The student asks and the teacher responds.
08:32You know the funny thing.
08:34Sometimes, the answer is shorter than the question.
08:38The teacher is not out there with an agenda.
08:42The teacher is not saying, just give me a chance.
08:49And I will rattle for 30 minutes.
08:55Like this one does.
08:58The rishis respected their time much more than I do.
09:04So, ask a question to them and they give a brief answer and fall silent.
09:10You ask them, they speak.
09:11You ask them, they speak.
09:12And the questions are a continuum.
09:17So, the question, every question, every successive question is actually a follow-up.
09:23The teacher has said something and the student proceeds from there and there and there.
09:27It's a thread.
09:28It's a thread.
09:29And it's so beautiful.
09:30That's why the Upanishads are taken so highly.
09:36Respected till this date.
09:38Never be afraid of questions.
09:40Never be.
09:41But, always be careful of questioning the questioner as well.
09:51Otherwise, the ego will use questions to defend itself.
09:59The greatest teacher, the greatest philosopher, the Upanishadik sage might be sitting in front of you.
10:06And you can keep contradicting and refuting him using some silly question.
10:14After all, the ego's agenda is to just defend itself.
10:17Self-preserve.
10:18I must stay who I am.
10:20So, questions can be used as ammunition or fortress for self-defense.
10:32You know, let that not happen.
10:35So, when you question the teacher or anybody, always remember to concurrently question yourself.
10:45So, question the teacher and also question the questioner.
10:52Question both of them simultaneously.
10:57Namaste Achadiji.
10:59Ego is self-referential and we can also call it as self-hypnosis.
11:05So, I want to ask if it is a Brahm, self-referential.
11:11Then, we use it as a therapy, hypnotherapy at so many places.
11:18And it is also misused by so-called Babas.
11:23So, how can we take it, hypnosis?
11:27We can use it for the purpose or we can discard it as a Brahm?
11:35In the life that we lead, ego is the central reality.
11:42Ego is the central reality in the life that we lead.
11:46It's just that the life that we lead is itself illusory.
11:52But that's a meta view.
11:56From within the life that we lead, the life is real, is it not?
12:00Or would you say this auditorium is unreal?
12:04You won't say that, right?
12:05Yes, if you can somehow stand outside this reality,
12:13you do get the license to declare all this as Mithya or Brahm or illusory.
12:23But for us, this is real.
12:25So, ego is the lived reality.
12:27Yes, it does exist.
12:28It does exist.
12:31It is for Acharya Shankar to say that Jeev is Mithya.
12:37But you are Jeev.
12:38In your eyes, are you Mithya?
12:41No.
12:42You are not, right?
12:45You are not.
12:47Ego does not exist at all.
12:50That is fine for a sage to say.
12:55But as we live, would you ever say, I am not?
13:00I am not.
13:01So, the honest thing is to not begin with I am not.
13:05The honest thing is to say I am.
13:08Now I want to investigate whether that which I claim I am holds any ground.
13:17That is the scientific method.
13:20That is how you also proceed in statistics, don't you?
13:23First of all, you very honestly declare your problem.
13:28Hypothesis.
13:29You declare that very openly.
13:31And what is hypothesis?
13:33Truth?
13:33No.
13:34It is an assumption you are proceeding on.
13:39So, you declare that.
13:41Yes.
13:41There is an assumption but I am sticking to the assumption.
13:44Just that I also want to check it.
13:46And then you check the hypothesis and towards the end you declare whether or not you want to still hold
13:53it.
13:56Similarly, the way of wisdom starts with the ego.
14:01It would be hypocritical to dismiss the ego right at the beginning.
14:06Because the one dismissing the ego would again be the ego.
14:10So, don't dismiss the ego.
14:13Inquire.
14:14Inquire.
14:15The ego always says, I am doing this.
14:18I am deciding that.
14:20This is my identity.
14:22This is my goal.
14:24That's my ambition.
14:25This is my past.
14:27You know, all these things the ego is made of.
14:32You inquire into that.
14:34That's the method.
14:35That's fine.
14:37Okay.
14:40So, about hypnotherapy or hypnosis?
14:43I am not sure what you do in that.
14:45Not at all sure.
14:47Because from where I see we are all already hypnotized.
14:51So, what do you mean by hypnotizing a hypnotized one all the more?
14:58So, we can discard it as an illusion?
15:00I don't know what you do in that.
15:03It's like delivering anesthesia to someone in coma.
15:14I don't know what you will achieve from that.
15:17You are already hypnotized.
15:22Are we not hypnotized?
15:24Yes.
15:28So, what kind of super hypnosis can you deliver to a hypnotized one?
15:35What we require is de-hypnosis.
15:40Not more of hypnosis.
15:45You get this?
15:46Yes.
15:47We require to be shaken up and woken up.
15:56Somebody is already sleeping.
15:59And you deliver a shot of some sedative drug.
16:10What sense does it make?
16:12He does not need to be sedated.
16:15He is already off.
16:21But that applies, not just to hypnosis, but all kinds of treatments we deliver to ourselves.
16:31What else is entertainment?
16:35You are already out and then you want to be further out.
16:41So, you start watching a cricket match or something or something.
16:47You are already out of touch with reality.
16:51And you want to drift further away.
16:54So, you say, no, I am going out.
16:56It's the evening.
16:57I will entertain myself.
16:59Visit this place, that place, something, shopping mall, some entertainment.
17:05There are just so many ways we keep ourselves perpetually hypnotized.
17:16So, if we all are hypnotized, then how to de-hypnotize?
17:21You are not happy with being hypnotized.
17:24Nobody is content in being hypnotized.
17:30And that's the redeeming hope.
17:34You would have been perfectly all right had you been perfectly hypnotized.
17:40You stand hypnotized, but there is one part of you which will never be satisfied with being hypnotized.
17:54Never.
17:54And it is for the sake of that part.
17:58It is from that part and that point that you must act.
18:05It's like getting drunk.
18:07You can get drunk to whatever extent you like.
18:12N-pegs, X-bottles.
18:15Still, drunkards would vouch for it.
18:19Some part of you does retain some consciousness.
18:23You can never get 100% drunk.
18:28100% drunk or 100% drugged or whatever.
18:33There is that faint consciousness that still remains.
18:38Similarly, you can be in your deepest moment of some stupid ecstasy.
18:46I attained this.
18:47I am successful now.
18:49I got this job or I got so much money.
18:52Or I got that man or woman.
18:54And you can be in the deepest ecstasy you can conjure.
18:59And yet one part of you knows the reality.
19:02It can never be satisfied.
19:04It is for the sake of that part.
19:07And it is from that part that you must act.
19:11Because what is the point of deceiving oneself inwardly?
19:16You are giving yourself what you think is the best possible.
19:20But something within you is still wailing.
19:24Some little kid within is still sitting desolate in a corner.
19:31Not joyful at all.
19:35Do you get this?
19:37Yes.
19:38That is the difference between being hypnotized and being dead.
19:42Once you are dead, the problem is actually over.
19:45Now there is nobody to be sad or dejected.
19:51But as long as you are alive,
19:54no amount of hypnosis can rid you perfectly of your misery.
20:02That little quivering voice within will remain.
20:06And keep complaining.
20:07It is still not alright.
20:11And that voice is everything.
20:16Acharya Ji, we all know that the voice, that inner voice.
20:22But still we act according to the world.
20:26That is a decision.
20:28That is a decision.
20:28That is a decision.
20:30Nobody can change it for you.
20:33Nobody can act rightly on your behalf.
20:36It is your life.
20:37And you have to act.
20:39Others can at most sit and talk.
20:43And demonstrate and advise and hold a mirror.
20:46But ultimately it is your life and your decision.
20:52It is about whether you value self-realization more than self-preservation.
21:03Whether you value love or fear.
21:08Most people are too afraid to value love.
21:16It is a decision.
21:18It is a decision.
21:19And there can be nothing behind that decision.
21:22It is just a decision.
21:23It is a sovereign decision.
21:25It is a decision that you have to make.
21:27I value love more than fear.
21:30Full stop.
21:31And you are not accountable to anybody.
21:33And nobody can cause this decision.
21:36This decision is sovereign.
21:39This decision arises from you and you only.
21:42This decision is not conditional.
21:45No favorable conditions outside of you can precipitate this decision.
21:52This decision is totally yours and only yours to make.
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