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00:00What is friendship? I want to understand the philosophy behind friendship.
00:04That's the model you already know of. Not much remains to be said now.
00:08Yes, it's good to have fun.
00:10But your friend should also be the one who can deliver the right insight when the moment asks for it.
00:17So your friend must be good fun, yes, obviously, but should also have.
00:26And that applies not just to friends, but more importantly to boyfriends and girlfriends.
00:34So everybody wants to be happy. Anybody here who wants to be unhappy?
00:39Why can't you have such friends in IAM? Many people don't.
00:43We make the happiness conditional on our biases and our beliefs.
00:49Talking about the Vedan, the Vedan says that we are essentially blissful beings. It says that.
00:54How would the education that we have right now in college have integrated with Vedan? How would that change?
00:59So we learn how to do. We learn a little bit of what to do, but we don't learn anything
01:05about why to do something.
01:06Lovely, yes. It's a perfect answer.
01:12If I can't learn from my own past, can I learn from the lives of others?
01:16I still say that. If you have strong ambition, you want to make a lot of money, or you want
01:23to marry the most beautiful girl, or you want to become a CEO.
01:36My question is, what is friendship, and how relevant friendships are, in the competitive environment like IAM and beyond, in
01:46shaping one's inner service?
01:53I think, you know, in all these things, let's not tie ourselves up in knots.
02:01I feel that simple common sense is good, and simple common sense, well, we can say what is common, we
02:09can go on and on, is not against Vedanta.
02:12So, my simple thing is, yeah, friendships are good, but what kind of friends, etc., etc., is always important, and
02:19if you find well-meaning and well friends that you like and get along with, you should have friends.
02:27But, you know, if you take it a little, beyond that, into the spirit, Shankaracharya starts with saying, satsangatve nissangatva,
02:37means satsanghona chaiye.
02:38You should have the company of good people. Now, what is good and all, I don't want to get into
02:43all that, but I think we have our own common sense.
02:45And, why can't you have such friends in IAM? Everybody, every, there are so many alumni groups, they keep sending
02:53messages to each other, even after 20 years.
02:55Of course, you should have friends. I mean, why are you asking such a question? I don't know.
02:58So, the intention is, I want to understand the philosophy behind friendship.
03:03One way, we see the Arjun and Krishna friendship, and Krishna and Sridhama's friendship, and then we see our current
03:11friendship, which is more, more transactional.
03:14So, I just want to understand the difference, what is being changed from that time to now?
03:20Nothing. See, there were transactional people then also, and there are, there are meaningful relationships today also.
03:27So, you don't get into those kind of friendships then, what is the problem? Don't avoid it if it doesn't
03:31help you.
03:32There are good people.
03:35Okay, thank you, thank you, sir. But, I would like to hear Acharya Bashaan's thoughts on that.
03:40The thing is actually well settled here. I can only present it in more technical terms, the same essence, because
03:48not much can be said beyond that.
03:50And you have, in fact, completed your own answer by mentioning Krishna and Arjun.
03:54That's the model you already know of. Not much remains to be said now.
03:58They were having fun together, right?
03:59If we are to believe the Mahabharata as carrying at least some history.
04:05They were having fun together. In fact, we very well know that they were related in more ways than one.
04:16You know of Krishna's sister, right? How was Arjun related to her?
04:24He was her husband.
04:25And do you know how did the alliance come about?
04:28It's a very rich story.
04:30Yes, yes.
04:31The elder brother, Balram, didn't want it to happen.
04:35So, Krishna actually got into something very dramatic, fill me by today's standards, and helped Arjun escape away, lope away
04:47with Subhadra.
04:50And later on, when Abhimanyu dies, the dialogue, it's a very rich dialogue between Subhadra and Krishna.
04:57And she has some harsh things to say, that you were the one who arranged this, and now you are
05:04the charioteer, and you couldn't prevent this from happening.
05:08My son has been killed.
05:10So, yes, it's good to have fun.
05:14It's also good to, you know, arrange mates and girlfriends for your, or boyfriends, for your friends.
05:22That too we see happening there.
05:25But your friend should also be the one who can deliver the right insight when the movement asks for it.
05:34You cannot have somebody you are having night outs with, you are doing people watching, or girl watching, or boy
05:43watching with.
05:44But when it comes to that moment of crunch, that decisive moment, when a very significant decision has to be
05:53made, to be or not to be, to fight or not to fight, to kill or not to kill, and
05:59you find that your friend is clueless.
06:03So, your friend must be good fun, yes, obviously, but should also have a center you can look up to.
06:13And that applies not just to friends, but more importantly to boyfriends and girlfriends.
06:21And then to what you call as your life partners.
06:25Obviously, you don't want a boring person in your life.
06:28The fellow should bring in a degree of excitement, some freshness, good fun, nice to hang around with.
06:36Yes, fine, all that is fine.
06:38Sensual, it excites the mind.
06:41There is that dopamine thing and all the other hormones.
06:44Let that be there.
06:44But the essential condition must never be forgotten.
06:50That fellow must have some of the inner light of Krishna.
06:55Otherwise, in the moment of your darkness, you will find your friend is no good.
07:04Thank you very much.
07:10Sir, I wanted to know that integrating Vidya and Avidya together,
07:15so I just wanted to know from the both of you, how would, in the light of Vedant, how would
07:21management teaching change?
07:23Or how would the education that we have right now in college, if integrated with Vedant, how would that change?
07:31Sir, management teaching.
07:33This is like raising a straw man, like, you know, you have an objective that you think is good,
07:38and then we have to answer that, how it will happen.
07:41And I don't know why, whether it should happen or not, but the main thing is, as he said, science
07:49does not have a conscience.
07:51The same kind of thing is there in management.
07:53Management is, I don't know what is the right word.
08:01But it is how to manage and, you know, the underlying thing is that how to maximize profits and all
08:07that.
08:08But the same management principles can be used for leading a better life, leading a, you know, making a better
08:17planet if they are so interested, whatever it is.
08:20So, the question of motivation of why we are doing something, we take it for granted.
08:30Now, even in economics, many people have started questioning.
08:34So, they don't say that profit maximization is the only thing or market cap is the only thing.
08:39They will talk about triple bottom line.
08:41Now, then, they say multiple stakeholders.
08:43So, the technology of management or the principles of management may still be worth studying, but it is how you
08:53use them and for what purpose is what is important.
08:57By the way, when they say Sarvam Kalvedam Brahma, there is nothing like Vedanta and everything is Vedanta in a
09:05certain sense.
09:06Everything is.
09:06Everything is coming from the same source.
09:08It is how we use, misuse, understand, misunderstand it.
09:13So, the purpose of education also, we don't pay enough attention to that.
09:19That's what I feel.
09:21And now, it is a crying need because not only I am so many places, you know, they are now
09:26trying to figure that out.
09:28That what should we, why should we doing what we are doing?
09:31So, we learn how to do.
09:35We learn a little bit of what to do, but we don't learn anything about why to do something.
09:39Lovely.
09:40Yes.
09:40That is what it is.
09:42Yeah.
09:50It's a perfect answer.
09:53How will, how and what suffice if the why is unknown?
10:04Vedanta can technically go a step ahead and say, to whom?
10:08For whom?
10:10For whom?
10:10Who will benefit from the profit being made?
10:14And how?
10:15So, but this is self-sufficient.
10:17I wanted to say a couple of things.
10:20One is, I feel that there is no point tying the asanas up in knots.
10:27You know, keep it simple.
10:28And if you, I still say that, that if you have strong ambition, you want to make a lot of
10:36money,
10:36or you want to marry the most beautiful girl, or you want to, you know, want to become a CEO,
10:42but take responsibility.
10:43Yes, I want that.
10:45And do it.
10:47And face the consequences.
10:49Think about the consequences, face it.
10:51Don't, because if that is your svabhava, that you want to become rich and famous, go and do it.
10:56But don't, the Vedanta doesn't say that, don't do it.
11:05Because, I mean, some of you are in my class, it says, in the Isha Upanishad, enjoy this world.
11:12But, of course, give up the sense of ownership, desire to live a hundred years.
11:21Second verse, you know, desire to live a hundred years.
11:24So, be bold, don't be afraid.
11:28It is fear.
11:29The Upanishad always says, Abhay, Abhay.
11:31So, fear.
11:32Yes, what the hell?
11:34I want to enjoy life.
11:36I mean, I am not like that.
11:38But I am saying if somebody wants to do that.
11:39I want to enjoy life.
11:41I want to make money.
11:41I want to be the CEO.
11:42I want to have a beautiful wife.
11:44I want to travel around the world.
11:45I want to be rich and famous.
11:46I want to have all the sensual pleasures.
11:48Because, if you, if you, that's what you feel, do it, but be prepared to face the consequences.
11:58And also, learn from the past.
12:00Because these things that you want to do in the future, you have already experienced a micro version of the
12:06same things in the past.
12:08What did they give you?
12:10Because, if you wait to experience the consequences, the consequences might come, first thing, so late that any corrective action
12:20might not be possible and time flows only in one direction.
12:24Secondly, more importantly, the consequences might not just be upon you, but upon millions of others.
12:32You said, I want to do this.
12:34I want to do that.
12:35And you went ahead and the consequences were that millions of animals got killed.
12:39How will you return their lives now?
12:41So, when you decide to proceed in a certain direction, one thing to ask is, have I not done a
12:48prototype of this already many times before?
12:51And if I have not, I sincerely feel, I have not tasted or tried this before, then aren't there others
12:58who are trying much the same thing?
13:00And can I learn from the consequences that they face?
13:04If I can't learn from my own past, can I learn from the lives of others?
13:08Yes.
13:08So, another thing I wanted to say, because the title was misleading, it went into climate change and all, so
13:18welcome whatever people are interested in.
13:20So, why should we do all this?
13:24All this introspection and all.
13:26So, again, Vedanta is an answer for this.
13:29So, everybody wants to say, that happiness is your very nature, your inner self, it's very nature.
13:42Anandam ne.
13:45What is it?
13:46What is it?
13:46What is it?
13:46Know that Brahma as full of bliss.
13:52I am not remembering.
13:53Anandam brahmeti vijyanat.
13:55In the Taitri Upanishad.
13:57Brahma, Brahmananda, Vali.
13:59So, it is not that you are, we want to be happy, it's saying your inner nature is actually to
14:05be happy and all these questions and torturing our minds and thinking what is right, what is wrong is basically
14:13to go back to what we essentially are.
14:16That's what the Vedanta says, that we are essentially happy, blissful, please.
14:20That's what it says.
14:21The Atman is full of Brahma.
14:23It says that.
14:25So, might as well find out that inner self.
14:28That is what we are looking for.
14:29We think if we do A, B, C, D, E, F, then we will get it.
14:33Vedanta says, no, you are already that, just remove the ignorance, you will get it.
14:37That is why we should do all this.
14:39Because when you discover your inner self, then that is, it says, the Atman shines as.
14:45The Atman shines as bliss, the Brahman shines as bliss.
14:47That's what it says.
14:49And if you believe that Vedanta, then we have to go in that direction.
14:59It's literally like we are trying to catch our nose like this.
15:03We want to be happy and we are trying to catch, we can't.
15:05But it's right here, I mean.
15:11Manamharishi used to put it very nicely.
15:12The straight line.
15:14Straight line.
15:15The simple path.
15:16The simple path.
15:17He said, ultimately, even through Dukh, you are trying to reach Anand.
15:22But why not reach it directly?
15:25The direct path.
15:26So, very well.
15:27Beautiful.
15:28The main thing is that people who go to him know that we are essentially of the nature of happiness.
15:34But unfortunately, many people don't even know.
15:36So, if we believe the happiness conditional on our biases and our beliefs.
15:42He's talking about the Vedanta.
15:43The Vedanta says that we are essentially blissful beings.
15:46It says that, I mean.
15:48And if we believe that, we are also that.
15:51Namaste Acharya Ji.
15:52Namaste Acharya Ji.
15:53Namaste Trilochin Ji.
15:55Namaste Acharya Ji.
15:56Namaste Acharya Ji.
15:58Namaste Acharya Ji.
16:03Namaste Acharya Ji.
16:07Namaste Acharya Ji.
16:09Namaste Acharya Ji.
16:20Now you say, Acharya Ji, that raising the collective consciousness will stop all this.
16:27So is the solution going back to the agrarian living?
16:32Or can we, with the right centre, establish a balance within us and, you know, the humanity?
16:42No, no. Quite the contrary. The paradigm you are using, if I may say, is flawed.
16:50The agrarian living was the beginning of destruction itself.
16:56You are trying to hark back to a previous kind of karma, action.
17:03When you say, man sustains by agriculture, you are talking of a particular kind of action.
17:08Still not the centre of action. When we moved from the jungle to the field, was the centre
17:16and enlightened one, you are talking of a change in action. We were hunter-gatherers, fine.
17:21And now we became agricultural. That's change of action. Right? And what was the centre that
17:29brought about that change? Did we really want illumination, inner liberation? Did we want
17:35to have loving relationships with each other and the environment? And that's why we said
17:39that now we have to clear away the jungle and get into planting something and storing something
17:46and then barter system and then private ownership of property. Was the centre so illumined one? No. No.
17:55Actually, the centre remained primitive. The centre remained unconscious, unillumined. From that centre, the decision to move from the jungle
18:06to the field, from the forest to the field,
18:09the field was taken. If that's how we move to the fields, to the farms, please tell me how will
18:17going back to those farms, carrying the same centre, rectify the situation?
18:24You, you are imagining that it is a particular kind of economy that is at the root of the climate
18:36crisis or the whole ecological destruction. It is not a particular kind of economy that is wrecking the havoc. It
18:44is a particular centre of ignorance that is doing it. And that's missing in your question, your paradigm.
18:54If we remain who we are, whether we remain industrial, post-industrial or agricultural or even pastoral, we will still
19:09destroy ourselves on the planet. Because that's what this centre is built to do. Self-annihilate.
19:15The particular mode of economic activity won't matter. The particular karma, the particular action won't matter when the actor himself
19:25is unconscious. So, so this, this thought, this, this kind of, you know, nostalgia.
19:32Let's go back to the villages. Let's return to the good old simple lifestyles and then everything will be restored
19:41to its health. This is, this is, this is just, just, you know, wishful thinking. It won't help.
19:49What is wrong today is not the industry is not this, not that. They are symptoms. What is missing is
19:59self-knowledge. But that sounds so boring. I mean, let's do something dramatic, no?
20:06Let's flatten all the cities and turn them into farms. And then we'll have a utopian new mankind and a
20:15new economy. And that sounds nice. That gives some excitement and a spike.
20:22The answer is boring actually. As long as we remain who we are, irrespective of the direction we choose, we
20:32will be rushing towards total annihilation. Doesn't matter the road we choose.
20:37As they say, all roads lead to destruction. Doesn't matter the road we choose. And it's been too much. COP30
20:48is just, we are too busy just switching roads. What we need to change is not the road, but the
20:59traveler.
21:01And that, that's, we don't want to discuss that. You don't have to give up on scientific progress. You don't
21:08want to, you don't have to give up on all the technological advancement. No, you don't need to. These are
21:15not the culprits. Technology is not what is destroying us. Scientific knowledge is not evil.
21:23The problem is the problem is the one who is using science and technology to further his inner nonsense. That's
21:33the one we need to take care of. Regressing. And you can simply say, let's bomb the entire human civilization
21:42flack and we'll be all right.
21:45Or you could say, let's just burn all the libraries. Let's delete all the collective data that we have, not
21:53just in the, in the, in the data centers, but also in our inner chips. Let's delete all this. And
22:00then everything will be healthy and the ecology will be saved. No, no, no.
22:04Even, even, even if you do that, just 5,000 years later, you will find yourself in the same problematic
22:11spot. What you need is not a flattening of the cities, not holding science and technology as culpable, but an
22:22honest mirror to look into.
22:27That's what we need. That's what we need. And then you can have endless progress in science. You can have
22:34great technology. No problem with that. Don't hold these things as responsible. Going back to the farms won't help.
22:42In fact, a lot of people, a lot of people who are still stuck with farming are inwardly very violent.
22:53A lot of people who have very little science or technology, you go to them and it's not as if
22:58remaining in the jungle or remaining on the hills or remaining with the soil has kept them simple and innocent.
23:05No, that's not that way.
23:06Where do you find the maximum superstition? The villages and the places where agriculture is. Obviously, obviously. So does that
23:15mean that agricultural places are inwardly cleaner? Not at all. Not at all.
23:22Where do you find maximum? In India, caste exploitation and discrimination and many other kinds of nonsense. It is in
23:30places where the economy too is still in one of the primitive modes.
23:36So your thesis is unfounded. If you are thinking that villages or places in the old kinds of, still in
23:46the old kinds of economy are better off in terms of the inner quality of individuals. No, that's not the
23:54way.
23:57So Acharya Ji towards the end, you know, the, so I had actually put my question in a way that
24:03is, is it going back to the agrarian life or is it choosing to live with the right center and
24:12then see where it takes us?
24:14So where it takes us is something which, because you cannot choose the right center. The wrong center cannot choose
24:23the right center. But that's a tempting myth to have. The wrong center can only unchoose itself.
24:36The wrong center cannot choose the wrong center because the wrong center because the wrong center by definition is the
24:42one that cannot look at anything rightly. That cannot know the reality of anything. That's how the wrong center is
24:49defined.
24:50So remaining at the wrong center, remaining inwardly, who we always have been, we want to choose something right. No,
24:58no. The way is neti neti. Unchoose.
25:02Remaining yourself, remaining yourself, don't try to make a positive choice. Your choice must always be negative. The only option
25:10that you have is of rejection. Choosing will happen on its own. The right action will happen on its own.
25:18The mode of economy, let life take care of it. Life will take care of it. Your job is to
25:24not remain inwardly the stinking thing we are.
25:34And when we negate all of these stinking thing that you are talking about. And then finally the right thing
25:44will happen on its own as what you are saying.
25:49When it happens, when it happens, if humanity chooses that scientific progress is actually destroying the planet, then will it
25:59stop doing the…
26:00Scientific progress has no conscience. It does not have any agency that can choose. This is a product of science
26:11or is it not? Yes.
26:13This is a product of science. A gun too is science put into technology. How can a mug, a mic
26:24or a gun choose to destroy the planet?
26:27It's the one pulling the trigger. It's the one filling this up with venom. Not the mug itself. Not the
26:37gun. But the one spewing nonsense into the mic.
26:42The mic cannot spit nonsense on its own. Or can it? So science is not the culprit.
26:51Yeah, it has to be the karta. Thank you so much Acharya Ji.
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