- 1 week ago
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00I can tell you the position of the universe at any point in the future.
00:06The modern physics where we talk about uncertainty, we talk about the probabilistic model.
00:11So is this ignorance itself to being fundamental or there is certain answer?
00:16You are trying to somehow make the future predictable.
00:20Have you seen how suffocated we feel without certainty?
00:23We want, we want a predictable life and that's where all the suffering comes from.
00:31We are insecure people. Where is that coming from?
00:36Yes, damn true.
00:39And that's where this question is coming from.
00:41We want certainty there because we are uncertain here.
00:46Could you be?
00:51So not knowing itself is fundamental, can we say that?
00:55You are betting your entire life on something which can never be certain.
00:59Is that wise?
01:00Or would you always be anxious if you do this?
01:03Certainity can exist only at one place.
01:10Good evening Acharya Ji.
01:12I am Answaman Misra.
01:13I am doing EmTech in Quantum and Solid State Devices in Department of Physics.
01:17So my question would be regarding physics only.
01:20So when we talk about physics, the modern physics where we talk about quantum mechanics or we talk about cosmos
01:28and everything.
01:29There are many things which is taken as postulate.
01:32There are many things which is probabilistic.
01:35We talk about uncertainty.
01:36We talk about the probabilistic model.
01:38So is this ignorance itself fundamental or there would be some time when we will get out of this ignorance
01:48and we will be knowing the complete truth of the universe as and what is the philosophical way of seeing
01:55this?
01:55As the physics itself was developed from philosophy only where the Greek philosopher were making how to read the nature
02:03which was physics.
02:04So is there anything philosophy telling about it whether the ignorance itself to being fundamental or there is certain answer?
02:14This is not ignorance.
02:15If, for example, if, for example, there is a law of physics, for example, in quantum mechanics, that says that
02:24something can be only probabilistically determined, that is not ignorance.
02:33That's not ignorance.
02:35But that reveals something about the nature of the observer of that phenomena.
02:42I'll explain.
02:45We are insecure people.
02:48So we want things to be certain.
02:53We want things to be certain, right?
02:55You want to know exactly when your flight would depart.
02:59Yes, damn true.
03:00You want to know exactly what your pay package or CGP are like.
03:04And you want to know exactly how your partner looks.
03:07Yeah.
03:08Right?
03:08Now, in this context, when somebody like Polly or Schrodinger comes and says, you cannot determine these two variables simultaneously
03:21and precisely.
03:24Then the ego feels restless.
03:27It's against your instinct.
03:28Yes, I want to know both.
03:31The position and the momentum.
03:33That's how we are evolved as humans.
03:35Yes.
03:35Because we feel insecure with uncertainty.
03:38Why?
03:38Because the one who wants to be certain is founded on insecurity.
03:45Who are we?
03:46We are the subjective ego.
03:50Right?
03:51That does not know itself.
03:53Yeah.
03:54Not knowing itself, it is always fearful.
03:57And therefore, it is always looking for something to hold on to, to lean against.
04:05And therefore, we all want security in life.
04:08And that's where this question is coming from.
04:11So when something cannot be known with precision to the nth place of decimal, we label that as ignorance.
04:20There is nothing ignorant about it.
04:21Just accept that certain things are unpredictable or not completely unpredictable, but knowable only within a range.
04:29There is no problem with that.
04:31There is no ignorance in that.
04:32But there is one deep ignorance that does show up in this, which is ignorance of the self.
04:40Not ignorance of the phenomena, the external phenomena, but ignorance of the self.
04:44Since we do not know the nature of the ego,
04:47Therefore, we think that if we cannot determine the external phenomena with absolute certainty,
04:56then that belies ignorance of the phenomenal world.
05:01No.
05:03That in fact betrays, displays an ignorance of the inner world, the self.
05:09We want certainty there, because we are uncertain here.
05:15We want certainty there, because we are uncertain here.
05:21Could you be certain here?
05:24This craving to have everything secured and predictable and advanced and ready-made here.
05:34Not only just here right now, but also in the future.
05:37Don't we want things assured for us in the future?
05:41Yes.
05:42Yes.
05:42Where is that coming from?
05:43Because we are somebody who is very, very insecure here.
05:48So we utilize even science to help us feel deterministic,
05:55as if the universe is something that you can determine sitting here right now.
06:01And somebody said that, I don't remember, who was it?
06:04Who said that, if I know all the variables of the universe at this moment,
06:10then I can tell you the position of the universe at any point in the future.
06:17That was an unfounded claim that you cannot do, as we now know better.
06:22Right?
06:23Speaker of those words thought of the universe as Newtonian.
06:26So he said, if you know something today, and you know how everything else is and the variables,
06:32then obviously you can even predict the infinity.
06:36A three-body diagram breaks that.
06:39So why do you want so much certainty?
06:42Why?
06:43So not knowing itself is fundamental.
06:46Can we say that?
06:47Not knowing completely or deterministically, as you say.
06:50Please understand, looking for certainty where it cannot exist is ignorance.
06:57In a stochastic world, if you are looking for deterministic behavior, that is ignorance.
07:07That's the way human beings evolve.
07:10Yes, because we are inwardly very insecure.
07:13That's the way we…
07:14Because you are inwardly very insecure.
07:15But what we call science is something which can be reproducible, and which is deterministic, isn't it?
07:23So…
07:24By that you mean it is free of the subject, the observer.
07:28By that you mean that it remains 2 pi root L by G, irrespective of whether you measure it or
07:32I measure it.
07:34But here measurement paradox comes.
07:36If we measure something, it seems to exist.
07:39It changes its states.
07:40That's only at either very, very small levels of miniscularity or at cosmic levels.
07:49Because we rely on, like, visually observing something, we rely on photons.
07:54Photons interact with…
07:55What you are talking of is something not applicable to the pendulum, but to the photon.
08:00That the observed phenomena changes with the observer and the observation.
08:04Yes.
08:04That doesn't happen with the pendulum, really.
08:07But if we go into, deep into the pendulum, it itself is combined of…
08:11That's right, that's right.
08:12But the whole thing will be so, so, so infinitesimally small that you can ignore it.
08:18Yeah.
08:18Just like the…
08:20I have my microscopist.
08:22Every day I see.
08:23Use an electron beam to see the atoms.
08:26Yes.
08:27And the electron beam disturbs the atoms.
08:30Exactly.
08:30What I am seeing is what has happened after it got disturbed, not before what it was.
08:37Yes, right.
08:37So, what is truth?
08:38I am not seeing.
08:39What I am seeing is something which has got disturbed by what I am using to observe.
08:44To see you, for example, if this room is completely dark, I can't see you.
08:49Right.
08:49I am using light, which is getting reflected.
08:51Luckily, this light is not disturbing you.
08:54Okay.
08:55Maybe the wavelength of the light is such that it does not have enough energy to disturb you.
09:00So, I am able to see possibly a thing.
09:03But as you rightly said…
09:04So, please see, what does that tell about human nature?
09:06And in spite of knowing fully well that what you call as certain or available to determination
09:16is not certain at all, still all the courses of the institution deal with certainty, don't
09:22they?
09:23Yeah.
09:23I mean, whatever they…
09:24Don't they?
09:25So, what does that tell you about human nature?
09:28That we have a deep craving for certainty.
09:34And we have that craving because there is something within that will never, never feel secure
09:41irrespective of how much certainty you can provide on the outside.
09:44That's how humans survive till now.
09:46Yes.
09:46And therefore, even if at the highest level you know that 2 pi root L by J is only an
09:53approximation,
09:54yet you would continue to teach it.
09:56Have you changed it in the courses, sir?
09:58No, you haven't.
09:59You know very well that all the Newtonian laws are invalid in the sense that they are
10:05only approximate.
10:06But have the textbooks been revised to accommodate that knowledge?
10:09No.
10:10Because that would…
10:12And that's not only for reasons of practicality or comprehension.
10:16That's for a deeply psychological reason.
10:18If it is admitted by all of us, the entire world, that nothing is certain, nothing is really
10:29reproducible, then it would be an assault on the ego.
10:36Because the ego cannot breathe, cannot live in total uncertainty.
10:42Have you seen how suffocated we feel without certainty?
10:47Have you seen that what you call as desire or targets or goals, are all the ego's efforts
10:56towards ascertaining something that can fundamentally never be ascertained?
11:03Life insurance for example, what is it?
11:07Marriage woes, what are they?
11:10Business agreements, what else are they?
11:13You are trying to somehow make the future predictable.
11:18Are you seeing this?
11:19Are you seeing this?
11:20And when you see that, you don't want to condemn that.
11:22You just want to smile back at yourself.
11:24And you want to tell yourself,
11:26How afraid am I?
11:28How deeply fearful am I?
11:31Do I need to be so fearful?
11:33Do I?
11:34Do I need to be so fearful?
11:37I mean, yes, at the macro level, there are laws, they exist.
11:45But when it comes to the individual, it is extremely difficult to predict what is going on.
11:53Think of the Brownian motion for example, right?
11:57Or think of what we call as the RMS speed of the particles moving during the Brownian motion phenomena.
12:04So, at an aggregate level, you can say this is VRMS.
12:10And based on that, you can determine the temperature and everything.
12:14But mind you, that's a normal distribution.
12:18You can never predict the motion or the behavior or the temperature of the individual particle.
12:25When it comes to the aggregate here, this one, right?
12:29We know this has 10 to the power 23 of these particles.
12:34We are fine with that.
12:35And we can determine.
12:37We know one variable and we can come to several other variables, right?
12:43But within this, there is an entire spectrum from minus infinity to plus infinity, right?
12:50And there would be particles with zero speed at a given point, at a given moment.
12:56So, the individual particle you cannot determine.
12:59Similarly, the universe may have laws.
13:00But how those laws would play out with respect to this individual particle or this individual particle,
13:07we can never know.
13:08Which means life is unpredictable for the human being.
13:12Less predictable for the species.
13:15More predictable for all the species taken together.
13:18Just as, let's say, you have this dice.
13:21This dice.
13:22One dice.
13:23One dice.
13:24You roll it.
13:26You roll it.
13:27And you cannot say what kind of number will you get.
13:30Right?
13:31But if you have a thousand dice and you roll them,
13:35then with some certainty you can say that, how many did I say?
13:40A thousand.
13:41That 167 of them would be displaying some particular number.
13:46167 plus minus 5, some confidence range.
13:50Are you getting this?
13:51So, there is some certainty at the aggregate level.
13:54But zero certainty at the individual level.
13:58But the ego does not want to accept that uncertainty.
14:01We want, we want a predictable life.
14:05We want a predictable life.
14:06And that's where all the suffering comes from.
14:11You want something predictable for yourself.
14:13You want something determined for yourself.
14:15Whereas, even if it is slightly deterministic,
14:19it is for the aggregation, not for the individual.
14:22The individual really does not matter.
14:24In this, how much does the individual particle matter?
14:27Please tell me.
14:28Please tell me.
14:29It is being kicked around all the time.
14:31And that's what Brownian motion is.
14:32Right?
14:33Yes.
14:34Nobody cares for it.
14:36You could even say it's Bhaage Parose.
14:39Anybody can come and kick it in any angle, any direction.
14:42And the velocity changes and the temperature.
14:44All the things are continuously changing.
14:46Continuously.
14:47That's the state of the individual.
14:50That's the human condition.
14:51But we don't want to accept it.
14:53We don't want to accept it.
14:55We want certainty where it cannot exist.
14:58Certainity can exist only at one place.
15:00Not outside.
15:02But inside.
15:03And inside, you can be certain of only one thing.
15:06I am.
15:07I am.
15:08And what is this inside then?
15:12Again, the following question would be,
15:14is the consciousness which we talk about,
15:18is it something fundamental?
15:20Or is it something just created by our brain?
15:25Based on our discussion, please tell me,
15:27if I am saying there is certainty on the inside,
15:31am I talking of the material?
15:34Can anything be certainly said about material?
15:38To some scale, yes.
15:40Certainly.
15:41We said certainly.
15:42Certainly.
15:43Can anything be certainly?
15:44We don't even know whether the cat is actually alive or dead.
15:49Rod Ingram's cat, yes.
15:51Yes.
15:53We don't even know whether the twins born together have the same age or not.
15:59Yes.
16:00Right?
16:01The twins paradox.
16:02When it comes to the material,
16:04we do not even know whether it really exists.
16:08Its existence, we said,
16:09is dependent on the observer.
16:11Right?
16:12We cannot even say it really exists.
16:14It might be totally phenomenal.
16:16In the words of Kant.
16:18With something deeper beneath it.
16:21Or maybe nothing beneath it.
16:22Yeah.
16:23Maybe it's just a dream.
16:24And we don't know who the dreamer is.
16:26Yes.
16:27So when it comes to the material,
16:29obviously there can be no certainty.
16:31And I'm saying there can be certainty within.
16:33So obviously,
16:35within,
16:35there has to be an absence of material.
16:39Yeah.
16:39For certainty to be there,
16:41there has to be an absence of material.
16:43And what do I mean by that?
16:44You shouldn't have a heart beating within?
16:46No.
16:46I mean,
16:47there has to be an absence of dependence on material.
16:51Only then can you be fully,
16:53fully certain and therefore fully fearless.
16:57The more you are dependent on material on the inside,
17:00the more fearful you would be.
17:03The more you say,
17:04my worth is dependent on material grades.
17:07Or a material house or a material car or a material boyfriend.
17:11The more anxious you would be.
17:14Your definition is just one step away from deteriorating from a black swan event.
17:18So the inside which you are talking about again.
17:22So is it because everything we think is just a signal of neurons.
17:26Everything we think is just triggered by some hormonal activity.
17:30So what exactly this inside is,
17:33which you are saying is not dependent on any material.
17:36So if it is not dependent on any material,
17:39what,
17:40how exactly we can define this inside?
17:43Please see,
17:44you cannot see
17:46that which is not material.
17:49You cannot see.
17:50Right?
17:51But you can see the consequence
17:54of depending on that which is material.
17:57Yeah.
17:58Yeah.
17:59Therefore,
18:00we are talking of an absence.
18:03And an absence does not need a definition.
18:07An absence is nothing positive.
18:10When you say something is,
18:12then you define it.
18:14And by defining it,
18:15you limit it.
18:17But an absence,
18:19how do you define it?
18:21Which basically means that,
18:23that as we perceive ourselves,
18:26consciousness,
18:27we are always dependent on something.
18:29Always dependent.
18:31And that which you are dependent on
18:33is not reliable at all.
18:35Yeah.
18:36In your words,
18:37as you opened the discussion tonight,
18:38it's probabilistic.
18:39Yes.
18:40You are depending on something
18:41which is probabilistic
18:42in all ways possible.
18:44Is that wise?
18:46Is that wise?
18:47You are betting your entire life
18:50on something
18:50which can never be certain.
18:52Is that wise?
18:53Or would you always be anxious
18:54if you do this?
18:56We can keep that idea
18:57that it can be betrayed.
18:59But when you depend on something,
19:01you depend on something certain.
19:03You never leave the scope
19:06for variation.
19:08If it is variable,
19:09then you want something else
19:11that can be certain.
19:12Yeah, but then we as humans
19:15need to rely on things
19:16to get things done.
19:18Don't rush into that.
19:19Maybe.
19:19Maybe not.
19:20We don't know.
19:21We don't know.
19:22We don't know.
19:23So,
19:24we know the consequences
19:25of this positive dependence
19:28on something.
19:29We are talking of an absence now.
19:31Can we examine this and say,
19:33do I really need to be so dependent?
19:35Do I?
19:36Do I?
19:37That's the absence
19:38we are talking of.
19:39This absence is not something
19:41that I can talk of or define.
19:43This absence is just a rejection.
19:47This absence is just a rejection.
19:49Now,
19:49what is being rejected?
19:50That we fully well know of.
19:52We are rejecting something
19:53that's not worth depending on.
19:57Do you get this?
19:58So,
19:59it's not that I'm talking of
20:01this that is not material
20:02and this that is not material
20:04is something.
20:05No, no, no.
20:05It's nothing.
20:06It's nothing at all.
20:07This
20:08that is not material
20:09is nothing at all.
20:11It is not something
20:12that can be explained
20:13or described
20:14or defined
20:15or laid out in words.
20:17No.
20:18How can we
20:19depend on a void?
20:21That's what.
20:22You don't need to depend on anything.
20:23This lack of dependence.
20:26This lack of dependence
20:28is what serves you best.
20:31You don't need to
20:33create the
20:34or project the void
20:35as another something
20:37and start depending on it.
20:39And that's what man
20:40has done in the name of religion.
20:41No.
20:42I'll not depend on anything material
20:44but I'm now depending
20:45on something of the skies.
20:47So,
20:47you have given the void
20:48a name,
20:49a form,
20:50a figure,
20:51a story
20:51and then you start
20:52depending on that.
20:53No, no.
20:53Nothing in the world
20:54is going to save me
20:56but my God
20:56is going to come
20:57and save me.
20:58Don't do the same thing
20:58with signs.
21:00The void is simply
21:01an absence
21:02and you're not
21:03depending on it.
21:04You're just refusing
21:05to depend on that
21:06which is
21:09inherently
21:11uncertain.
21:12That simple as that.
21:14The withdrawing dependence
21:16on this,
21:17this or this
21:18does not mean
21:20attaching dependence
21:22to this.
21:23It's just a withdrawal
21:24and that's all.
21:26Full stop.
21:26Full stop.
21:29Just download
21:30the Acharya Prasanthi app
21:31and there you go
21:33to the community section
21:34and you have
21:37live testimonials
21:38streaming in
21:39at the rate
21:40of one
21:40every five minutes.
21:42I'm seeing lives
21:42change
21:43in thousands
21:44if not millions
21:45every day
21:46in front of my own eyes.
21:47We're doing it.
21:48We have actually done it.
21:50Join the community
21:51of more than
21:51two lakh participants
21:53on the Acharya Prasanthi app.
21:55Your first month
21:56is completely free.
21:57You'll get full access
21:58to Gita mission.
22:00On the app,
22:01you will get
22:01regular life sessions,
22:03daily exclusive conversations
22:05with Acharya Prasanthi,
22:07access to the vibrant
22:08Gita community,
22:09wisdom exams,
22:11curated news,
22:12audio books,
22:13quotes,
22:14and much more.
22:15Search Acharya Prasanthi
22:17on Google Play Store
22:18or Apple App Store
22:19and download now.
22:28Ooh,
22:30ooh,
22:30ooh,
22:31ooh,
22:31ooh,
22:31ooh,
Comments