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00:00Most of them believes in rituals without really knowing the reasons behind them.
00:04They try to trap them in rituals and superstitious activities.
00:08And that's something we believe in without any proof or do you have a proof?
00:13What is the superstition?
00:14That you take as something axiomatic, something that is inviolable.
00:20You believe that if you have hit 35 and still don't own a BMW, then life is wasted.
00:25I am 28, so I must marry.
00:27Being a woman, I am crossing 30. Where are my kids?
00:30Please tell me how is that not a superstition?
00:33There are people in rural villages where they are not much educated.
00:37That's where these people thrive through their preaching skills.
00:42Believing becomes a very comfortable habit.
00:45Once you get into that, knowing appears troublesome and questions appear like insults.
00:53Supersticents also come because of holding on to things.
00:56If there is a holder, what else will the poor one do?
01:00It will hold.
01:01Now the thing is...
01:06And that's the comedy!
01:11Hello sir.
01:13It's my pleasure to meet you.
01:15So I am Deepak Arbat from B.Tech final year student.
01:19Welcome.
01:19Of material science and metallurgical engineering department.
01:23So, as we all know, there are many Indians who are still superstitious.
01:30Most of them believes in myths, beliefs and other rituals without really knowing the reasons behind them.
01:40My mother is one of those individuals.
01:42She spends most of her time in activities related to God, rituals and religious meetings.
01:52My father also believes in God but he mostly is a socially oriented guy.
02:00So he acts on the basis of society and there are many people who take advantages of ordinary people based
02:09on sacred texts.
02:11They try to trap them in rituals and superstitious activities.
02:16So, as an educated individual, what should be my approach so that my mother will stop doing this kind of
02:26stuff or reduce this kind of stuff?
02:28See, the easy approach is science obviously, if people believe that, for example, the lunar eclipse happens because some great
02:39demon comes and puts a wheel on the moon.
02:46Then, then by demonstrating how the celestial bodies move and the proofs that are available, you can do away with
02:55the superstition.
02:56So, science is a very powerful means when it comes to that, but the deepest superstition cannot be taken care
03:07of using science alone, please go into it.
03:15You think you are somebody, we want to explore superstition, you think you are somebody that is how we behave.
03:24We say, my body for example, my body, so there is this body and there is somebody who controls this
03:34body or owns this body or lives within the body, is that not the hidden belief that all of us
03:42have?
03:43Please tell me.
03:46Please tell me.
03:46Yes.
03:46Yes.
03:47There is something within the body, there is something within the body and that's who I am, my body, my
03:55body, right?
04:00My thoughts, not just thoughts, my thoughts, my thoughts, so there are not just thoughts, but there is also an
04:06owner of thoughts, who declares my thoughts, my thoughts, right?
04:12And that's something we believe in, without any proof or do you have a proof?
04:17Is there a proof?
04:19Yeah, that's why their insecurities or their vulnerability makes them believe that because that's how superstition is.
04:27Yes, we are starting from the basics.
04:29Is there a proof that there is something inside the body?
04:32There is no proof, right?
04:34Right?
04:35It's almost like saying there is a, there is this hall, let's say, and there are lot of sounds
04:43emanating from the hall.
04:46So, you imagine, you pause it, you assume that there must be somebody inside the hall, that's
04:55what is happening?
04:56This hall, let's say is the body, this hall is the material body, right?
05:01And there is some movement happening and some, some sound arising, just as we move and we
05:06speak.
05:07So, you assume that there must be somebody inside the hall, but is it necessary that there is
05:12somebody inside the hall itself might be vibrating, is it not possible?
05:17Yes.
05:17The hall itself might be vibrating.
05:19It might be.
05:20Might be.
05:21It's a nature of material to move and material can move for many physical reasons.
05:27But we imagine that just because we walk or we eat or we breathe, therefore, there is
05:34somebody inside.
05:36And this is the first superstition, the self is the first superstition, the ego is the first
05:45superstition.
05:46Now, you have believed in it without any inquiry, without, without any basis, without any proof,
05:53you have believed in it.
05:55This will oblige you to similarly believe in a lot of other things.
06:04The self is the mother of all superstitions.
06:07Now, for example, this body, this body can be seen to be arising from the soil, that is
06:15fine.
06:16We know.
06:18We know where, where all the elements, all the material comes from.
06:22We know that.
06:23Right.
06:23You take an oxygen, you eat stuff arising from the soil.
06:28So, we know that the body is material.
06:30We also know the chemical composition of the body.
06:33You burn the body and you know how much carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, etc. you get.
06:37So, you know that this is soil.
06:39This is the minerals.
06:40This is carbon.
06:41This is water.
06:42This is all that.
06:43Right.
06:43You know.
06:44But the one sitting within the body that you have assumed, that you assume to be somebody
06:53beyond the material.
06:55Right.
06:55Yeah.
06:56You don't say that when somebody dies and the body is burned, then the one within also
07:00gets burnt.
07:01Do you say that?
07:02Generally, we say it has left before.
07:04So, you are imagining and that's the first superstition that there is something within that is not material,
07:10that will not return to the soil.
07:13Yes.
07:14And then if there is somebody within that is not material and not return to the soil,
07:17then surely you can also imagine that there is somebody beyond material who made that one that sits within the
07:23body.
07:24Now, superstition has taken one more step.
07:28Right.
07:28Without having any, any, any proof or any necessity of the self, you invented a self.
07:38And this invention will oblige you to make another invention called God.
07:43Yes.
07:44Because the body can be said to have come from the soil.
07:46But where has the self come from?
07:49If the self exists, then God must exist.
07:53The creator kind of God.
07:55The creator kind of God who creates.
07:58Hmm.
07:59And if it's the creator God that creates things that are invisible, like the self.
08:05Then that God can create a lot of other things also and make rules and do anything.
08:10Because none of that requires any proof.
08:15Do you see how far superstition has gone?
08:18And if you can have a God who is a creator, you can also have so called negative forces
08:23that are destroyers.
08:26And now you have ghosts and demons and all kinds of bad things roaming around in an invisible
08:34way.
08:35All this is superstition.
08:37So, superstition if you see starts from the self and the self to prove itself, to sustain
08:44itself.
08:45Imagines a lot of other things.
08:48You have heard that common saying.
08:53To protect one lie, you have to come up with.
08:57100 or different.
08:58100 or 1000.
09:001000.
09:01Right.
09:02That's what, this is the one lie we start with the self, that the self exists.
09:08And then to protect and justify this one lie, we have to invent an entire structure of superstitions,
09:17an entire network of superstitions.
09:20So, superstition then is something that not science alone can take care of, science is useful,
09:25yes.
09:26But what you require is self awareness.
09:29Only the deeply spiritual person can be free of superstition.
09:33Even scientists are superstitious.
09:36Yes.
09:37Have you not seen superstitious scientists?
09:38Now you know the reason.
09:40Because science deals with only the external.
09:44The science doesn't get into the self.
09:46The science takes self for granted.
09:48The science says self does exist.
09:52The self exists and therefore, all the phenomena do exist.
09:57Therefore, science does take care of superstition, but only in a partial way.
10:02Science is necessary, but not sufficient.
10:08What you require is knowledge of the world and knowledge of the self.
10:13Inquiry into the seen and inquiry into the seer.
10:18And only then superstition is uprooted.
10:21As long as the self, the ego remains, you will have superstitions of not one, but a thousand
10:27kind.
10:28What is the superstition?
10:30Superstition is an unfounded, unexamined belief.
10:37Now, I am 28, so I must marry.
10:39How is that not a superstition?
10:42Being a woman, I am crossing 30, where are my kids?
10:45How is that not a superstition?
10:47Please tell me, how is that not a superstition?
10:49Isn't it also because of the biological cycle?
10:52No, but I must have it.
10:54If you say the biology wants it, that's one thing.
11:00But when you say, I must have it, I want it.
11:02That's a totally different thing.
11:03The source of the belief over here determines that.
11:06You are not taking it as a belief, you are taking it as a truth.
11:10Now, that's a problem.
11:14That you take as something axiomatic.
11:18Something that is inviolable.
11:22I have already crossed 30, where are my kids?
11:25I am a woman.
11:27Sir, it is.
11:28But you think of only the uneducated ones are superstitious.
11:31We say, you know this one believes that there is that Diane on the tree.
11:35So, see how superstitious.
11:37But you believe that if you have hit 35 and still don't own a BMW, then life is wasted.
11:44How are you not superstitious?
11:47And you would have heard it.
11:48Or 35 is, that's too much, right?
11:51It's a new generation.
11:52How do you believe it was my time?
11:54Yeah, okay.
11:55Before 30, you must own a Merc.
11:59Otherwise, you know, the ancestors will get unhappy.
12:04By definition of superstition, superstition, every human being will have that.
12:09Wonderful.
12:09Very well said.
12:10Except for the fact where it's affecting their own family or their own being, like socially.
12:17For example, there are superstitions which purely thrive on their insecurities or their vulnerability.
12:22For example, there are people in rural villages, where they are not much educated.
12:28They lack the sense of their own individuality and critical thinking.
12:33That's where they lack.
12:34So, that's where these people thrive through their preaching skills or their so-called deep thinking, where they instruct them.
12:43Please understand.
12:46Believing becomes a very comfortable habit.
12:51But, once you get into that, knowing appears troublesome.
12:58And questions appear like insults.
13:02Have you not seen you go and question the elders and how they take offense?
13:07Yes.
13:08I am the elder.
13:09I know them better.
13:11Experienced.
13:11Because knowing sounds like rebellion.
13:19Believing has become the very substance of life.
13:24And that, I am saying, is an insult to life because your nature is to know.
13:29If you believe, you are insulting yourself.
13:33Your nature is to know.
13:36And this is an institution of knowing.
13:38Or do you come here to believe?
13:41Do you come here to believe?
13:42When you are told something, aren't you offered supporting proof?
13:47Please tell me.
13:49Or you are said, by the decree of the highest authority, this has to be accepted.
13:58Does it operate that way?
13:59No.
14:00Not anymore.
14:01Not anymore.
14:02It used to.
14:03It used to.
14:04I mean, think of the Catholic times.
14:06That's how education happened.
14:08At that time, the IITs didn't exist.
14:10Yeah.
14:11University still existed.
14:12Didn't superstitions also come because of holding on to things?
14:17No.
14:18It comes in believing in a holder.
14:22If there is a holder, what else will the poor one do?
14:27It will hold.
14:28Now the thing is, you hold, without there being a holder.
14:37And that's the comedy.
14:41Okay.
14:43You consume, thinking that consumption will satisfy you.
14:48Right?
14:49Yes.
14:50But the problem is, there is no consumer within.
14:52So he can never be satisfied.
14:54Therefore you go on consuming.
14:57Had there been a consumer, at least at some point he would have been satisfied.
15:03But when there is no consumer, just a dark hole, a black hole, a bottomless abyss,
15:10then there is no one to be satisfied.
15:12It's a presumed need that we create.
15:14You think you take this in and somebody is receiving it.
15:19That's the presumption.
15:20Nobody is receiving it except your stomach and intestines.
15:24But you believe somebody is the consumer.
15:26There is no consumer.
15:28There is this material.
15:30Going to this material.
15:32Going to this material.
15:34Going to this material.
15:34Going to this material.
15:36And then being excreted out as material.
15:39There is no consumer.
15:42There is no consumer.
15:43Therefore, nobody can be satisfied.
15:46So you hold on to the perception of being dissatisfied.
15:53Please understand.
15:55So, you are holding on.
15:57You don't do anything without self interest.
16:01Do you?
16:02Whatever you do.
16:03Even the smallest thing.
16:04There is some selfish interest in that.
16:06Right?
16:07So you hold to something.
16:09You believe this will be of use.
16:13The thing is, there is no user inside.
16:16So this can be never of any use.
16:19It can be of use to somebody like itself.
16:25For example, food is material and therefore it can be of use to the material intestines.
16:30And to the material muscles and the material bones.
16:33Food is useful.
16:34But you don't think of yourself as intestines or bones.
16:39You say, I am the owner of the bones.
16:43No.
16:43You are just the bones.
16:45But you don't agree to that.
16:48You don't agree to that.
16:49Otherwise, it will be very, very amusing.
16:52You propose to someone and you say, you know, my hormones are proposing to you.
16:59Because that's what is really happening.
17:01You say, no, I love you.
17:03It's not that you love him or her.
17:05It's the chemicals rushing out.
17:09But we don't want to accept that.
17:11So the things like when we think about the caring and kindness or understanding related things.
17:18So how can we decide these are the chemicals or these are the comfort zone?
17:24Don't you see?
17:25Don't you see?
17:27Don't you see how we salivate?
17:29Don't you see how it's all so reactionary?
17:33Don't you see how today science can capture all your inner processes as biochemistry and display it to you on
17:40a screen?
17:42Even when you are thinking that can be coded into a graph and you can watch that.
17:50The entire activity of thinking can be displayed here on a screen.
17:56Obviously, it is all material.
18:00So, is it, if it is all material, so I'll come back to that again, that thing.
18:06Why does the guy in coma wants to wake up?
18:08If everything is material.
18:11It is, he is also a material.
18:13He will die in coma.
18:14Why does he wants to wake up then?
18:16Right.
18:16Wonderful.
18:16I will answer that because he loves his life.
18:19What he is saying is there is nobody.
18:22Nobody is in coma.
18:23That's what his assertion is.
18:24It's a beautiful thing that he has raised.
18:26If you please understand.
18:28Just as there are several categories of material, there is another material called the ego.
18:41And this material has a special property that it is the observer and experiencer of all other material.
18:52That's the property of human beings, right?
18:54That is the property of that particular element.
18:57Yeah, that's how we are born.
18:58You could place it in the periodic table.
19:00Yeah, we all are born with an ego.
19:02Yes, yes.
19:05Getting it?
19:06It is the observer and the experiencer of all material, not consumer.
19:13And therefore not the sufferer.
19:17And it is this not suffering, not consuming, not associating that is called as awakening or joy.
19:26Not suffering is called joy.
19:30Not putting yourself in a relationship of ignorance is called awakening.
19:35So it is this one.
19:37This one.
19:37But who is it really?
19:39It is not material.
19:40Who is it?
19:40It is the observer of all material.
19:43Just the observer.
19:44Just the observer.
19:45So if the guy in the coma is gonna die the same death as the guy who has awakened.
19:52Yes.
19:53So what would be the ultimate purpose then?
19:57The ultimate purpose is to live up to your nature.
20:02It is material that changes forms and that change of form you call as death.
20:08So ultimately we are satisfying our...
20:10Understand, understand, understand.
20:12The nature of material is to change form, right?
20:16But this thing, the observer, since it is just the observer, therefore it cannot change.
20:21It is the observer of all change.
20:25It itself cannot change.
20:26Therefore its nature is to not die.
20:30But the nature of material is continuous activity, continuous movement, therefore continuous death.
20:36Continuous birth, continuous death.
20:38Waves rising, waves falling.
20:39Continuity.
20:41When this one associates itself in an improper way with that which is mortal, then it does something against its
20:55nature.
20:56By associating yourself to that which is material and therefore would die, you too become mortal.
21:03But your nature is not to be mortal.
21:05Your nature is to be just the independent observer of all change.
21:10Therefore you are immortal.
21:12But you have done something that makes you mortal.
21:14What have you done?
21:15You have identified with the body by saying, this is my body.
21:20Now the body will die.
21:22And if you are saying this is your body, you too will die.
21:25And that is against your nature because you cannot die.
21:28Therefore you suffer.
21:29Therefore you suffer.
21:30And what exactly is you here?
21:34Nobody.
21:35Just nobody.
21:36Just the observer.
21:37You see.
21:38What is the state of you?
21:40No state.
21:41It is the observer of all states.
21:43But if it can observe, let's assume if it can observe.
21:47What in real sense we call observing?
21:49We see, we hear, we listen.
21:51When we see, we hear, it is always motivated.
21:55It is always from a point.
21:56It is always by being somebody.
21:59We observe as somebody.
22:02The nature of the ego is to observe as nobody.
22:06Almost like that point somewhere that's looking at everything purposelessly, desirelessly.
22:13And it is so minuscule a point that you cannot look at it.
22:17Somebody there is observing this entire phenomena without being observed himself.
22:26And that you call as the witness.
22:29Seeing but not being seen.
22:31So, don't we again come to that conclusion that there is a self which is observing.
22:36We see very clearly that when you are not the observer but the participant, you suffer.
22:44You see very clearly that when instead of being the observer or the witness, you choose to be a participant
22:53or a consumer, then you suffer.
22:56So, once we understand ourselves to be an observer, is that called Mukti or this?
23:03Yes, you start from your own suffering.
23:04Because Mukti means nothing if there is no bondage.
23:07So, you start from your own suffering.
23:09And you then go into it because you love yourself.
23:12And you say, why, why, why?
23:14If this is life, why must it be like this?
23:16And then you come to the roots of it.
23:19And then you say, it's easy.
23:20You just have to drop the whole thing.
23:22And then something else continues to happen.
23:26So, isn't dropping everything also a selfish interest?
23:29No, not really.
23:30It is your nature.
23:32Nature.
23:33And that means our basic nature would be ego.
23:36Your basic nature is to be nothing.
23:39Nothing.
23:39Not to hold on to it.
23:41Not to give it up.
23:42Your basic nature is to be unobtrusive.
23:47Your basic nature is to just know.
23:49Know.
23:50And that's why this kind of a discussion is very topical in an institution of learning.
23:56Because you are here to know.
23:58Know.
23:59It's also based on the philosophy of Vedanta.
24:02We are in Vedanta where your Brahman Supreme Being and your Atman is the same.
24:09Brahman.
24:09Not Brahman.
24:10Sorry, Brahman.
24:11I'm sorry.
24:13It's one being.
24:14But there is also another school where…
24:15Yes, you see.
24:18Yes, this is there in Vedanta.
24:22But if you go to the Chinese, if you go to Lao Tzu or Li Tzu or Chuang Tzu, you
24:27find the same thing.
24:28You go to the Greeks, you go to Socrates and then you go to the Stoics and the Cynics.
24:34You find the same thing.
24:36It is one thing anybody who loves life would come to.
24:41So, it is not as if…
24:42Even if you go to the Sufis, for example, and you study them deeply, you will find the same thing.
24:48Right?
24:48So, this is not one particular philosophy.
24:51This is life itself.
24:54Sufism.
24:54They call it an alhaq.
24:55Yeah.
24:58It is the foundation of seeing itself.
25:02I was going to say that word.
25:04Foundation.
25:09Hi, my name is Ankit and I am a tech professional here in Bangalore.
25:14I work at LinkedIn.
25:15I've been listening to Acharya Ji for two plus years.
25:18But the initial journey was around YouTube.
25:22I was listening a lot on YouTube.
25:24On YouTube, when we listen to Acharya Ji, a mistake that I did and a lot of us do is
25:29that
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25:55So, my life was full of stress, unorganized behavior.
26:00A lot of it is still there.
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26:06As and when I observe my life, there is massive changes happening.
26:11I somehow feel a lot of spurts of happiness for no reason.
26:16And a lot of, what do you call, like pressure as well.
26:22Like to do better and better and better.
26:24Which I had forgotten.
26:25Which I had left after my school days and college days.
26:29That okay, now the learning part stops.
26:30Now is the time to kind of live life and have that Bangalore kind of vibe.
26:35Like partying and outing and malls and shopping and all of that.
26:39That's there.
26:40But now you see that where it's coming from.
26:44What is the root of it?
26:46What is the source of it?
26:47And how that is something which does not fulfill us.
26:51And what fulfills us is something totally different.
26:53That understanding has started to come.
26:56Because of which a lot of things have started dropping off.
26:58A lot of things are dropping off.
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