Climate Crisis: Existence Itself Is Wailing
Questioner: Namaste Sir, I have come to see that the root problem is not environmental or technological, but lies in our inner disorder, our unconscious ego-driven way of living. As a research scholar in condensed matter physics at IIT Madras, I live among people who deeply believe that science can solve everything, including the climate crisis. I do appreciate science, but I now see that even if we fix ‘climate change’, the deeper disease of human ignorance and exploitation will persist.
Sir, I struggle to convey this understanding to others. Most of us have no idea of what is actually going on in the world. I see the same thing in a lot of people around me and many times in myself also, that they may be educated and thoughtful, but they still believe that the current system is fine and only its symptoms need addressing. When I try to share your message, it often falls on deaf ears.
Sir, please guide me how can I help people see that the real crisis lies within? How can I make this message clearer to those who believe that science and the system alone can save us?
Acharya Prashant: You want a real answer. The real answer is that we do not have enough time to wait for everyone to see on their own that we are on the edge of the final calamity. And technological or scientific or policy measures are just eyewash. Is there enough time? What you need is power. If you say you want to go to these people — they are not idiots, they are just determined 'not to understand,' because their greed, their interests are aligned with the status quo.
Climate is an entire industry, which receives hundreds of billions of dollars in funding. The developed countries themselves have committed 100 billion annually to climate mitigation. It’s a big industry. Though they are not actually providing that much, but still a huge amount. And that’s only the amount coming directly from the developed world. Otherwise also, there is so much being raised in the name of climate, and those funds are obviously going somewhere. And there is an entire industry that receives those funds and is the beneficiary now. And they receive those funds saying that they will utilize those funds to come up with tech solutions.
Now somebody is running his livelihood on climate funds. Somebody is making an entire career on finding tech solutions to the climate crisis. And you go and tell them there can be no tech solution. Why will they listen to you? And it’s not one person, it’s a massive body of climate work that now exists. And on the other pole, a lot of money is flowing towards climate denialism, probably more money than is flowing towards climate crisis mitigation. Are you getting it?
So if you’re a climate denialist, you’ll receive a lot of money, for many things including publishing reports in the public arena that nothing called a climate crisis exists and all those things, and to back it up with some kind of shady scientific proof.
You want to go and convince such a person? Try. And keep trying till the cows come home. Keep trying for 200 years. This fellow will not understand, because his interests are tied now to 'not understanding.' Someone runs his entire family and bases his entire reputation on the dairy, milk business. His dreams are founded on dairy — “I’ll have more cattle, and I’ll export more beef, and I’ll have two more big mansions, grand villas, I’ll buy a luxurious island, I’ll marry four actresses.” And he has all these things founded on milk.
And now as a do-gooder, you are saying, “Sir, I want to tell you a few facts. The color of milk is red.” And then you say, “Acharya Ji, I tried my best but that fellow didn’t understand.” That fellow doesn’t need to understand. He already knows it better than you do. He knows everything, and he has already made a decision — “Let the planet go to hell, I will enjoy my little life.” That’s his decision. He already knows whatever you can tell him, he knows it better than you do because he’s neck deep into the blood.
What you need now is not persuasiveness but power. And that’s what you all lack. We have just too many simpletons here, who do not understand that the world in general does not run on truth, it runs on power. These are two centers, please understand. The real center works on truth. Wherever the truth is, the real center goes towards that. But 99% of the people in the world do not operate from the real center. They operate from the false center, and the false center understands only one language — 'the language of power.'
You cannot convince the ego, you can only coerce the ego. The ego lacks the capacity to be convinced but you can bulldoze it.
And it is bulldozed day in and day out. That’s how the operations of the ego are. Why does the common man work? Because if he doesn’t work, he’ll be fired. There is either the center of truth or the center of fear, which is the center of power. Both are the same. The world does not run on truth, it runs on power.
Look at what the US and Israel are doing to Iran. Where is the truth there? The one who has power calls the shots. And probably the truth is on neither side. But what is certain is that the side having power will emerge victorious. You confuse spirituality with idealism. You say, “No, we have understood because Acharya ji told us and we understood, so now we will go out and make others understand.” And when nobody understands you, then you return empty-handed to me — disillusioned, disappointed, and shocked. “But Acharya ji, we told them the same things that you told us. But they didn’t understand, sir.
Because you are not me. They are not you. And their relationship with you is not your relationship with me. They will not understand. Had they wanted to understand, first thing — they would have come to me. They very well know I exist. They chose not to come to me. They do not listen to me. Why will they listen to you? And still you think some kind of very decent means are possible if you want to convince them? No decency is going to work. Sir, you need to have power.
And one power that you can have is the power of your numbers. But you are blissfully sleeping in some kind of idealism. You don’t want to acknowledge that the world is a loveless place. You don’t want to acknowledge that those around you are mere beasts — at least most of them, if not everyone. You don’t want to acknowledge that.
Why don’t you want to acknowledge that? Because those around you are exactly the ones that you are associated with — they are your friends, your relatives, your lovers, and they are the ones who do not listen to you when you tell them about climate change. If you acknowledge that they are beasts, you’ll have to acknowledge that the ones you love are all beasts. And the ones who provide you your livelihood, they are also beasts. Everything will be risked — your attachments, your bread and butter, everything will be risked.
You don't want to run that risk, so you pretend people around you are decent folks. So you go and try to talk to them and convince them — "Sir, you know, please Sir, please understand Sir." They will not understand. They are determined to not to understand. Now, if you can do something, proceed. Yes, there will be a minuscule minority fence-sitters, who are genuinely just deluded, who don't have the problem of intention, who just had scarcity of knowledge, therefore they were on the fence. These are only the people you can convince through persuasion, dialogue, argument, but it's a very tiny number.
So, that 1% — yes, we can play on that and we say, "Yes, we can keep including more people, more people." But the massive majority of people, they will never come. Not because they are ignorant, but because they already know everything and they have made their choice. They have decided that the planet can be thrown to dogs, that their remaining life of 20 or 40 years, that's what they have to make the most of — consume, consume, consume, kill, destroy, destroy, destroy, that's their motto. They have already decided.
It has to be a war you see, we can't avoid it. But in such acceptance, your ideals and images of spirituality become a hindrance. You say, "But spirituality is all inclusive. We have to go out singing and dancing on the streets, and everybody will join us. The world is such a good place, you know. We will just go out and display a lot of virtue and love and morality. We'll send out nice vibes to the society and everybody will join us." What kind of foolish dream are you living in? Nobody is going to join you. People are not ignorant, they are vicious.
Even Shri Krishna could not convince that massive army standing in front of him to not to fight or to join him, could he? There were more people against even Shri Krishna than were with him. The ones standing in opposition to Shri Krishna, even in his lifetime, outnumbered those who stood with him. Who are you? Somebody beyond Shri Krishna that you will go out and convince these rascals?
They have their own priorities. They may not necessarily be obnoxious villains — somebody could be a Bhishma, somebody could be a Karn, but irrespective of what point of morality their priorities come from, the bottom line is they stand opposed to you. Bhishma stands opposed to Shri Krishna, and Karn stands opposed to Shri Krishna, because they have other moralistic priorities. And they have to be fought down. That's it. And if you cannot fight them down. The Gita is not for you. It's war.
You do not understand the nature of wisdom or the Gita. You just don't understand. You think it is just a coincidence that the Gita was spoken to a warrior. No, sir. The Gita is a thing of the battlefield. Where there is Gita, there has to be a battlefield. You want to have the Gita and avoid the battlefield. What kind of cowardice is this? "Let us have the Gita but avoid the battle" and that's when Shri Krishna is telling Arjun only to fight.
The Gita is a message to fight. But you think the fight can be avoided? No. The fight cannot be avoided.
The peaceful ones among you, they can quit. And I'm okay with that. Quit and take your right position. Go to the other side so that we can fire at you. Don't remain among us. We don't want those whose insistence is on pacification. "No, no, let's be nice, let's be decent, let do this, that.” I too would have opted for that — could it work? It doesn't work, sir. It didn't work even for Shri Krishna. It never worked for anybody. It can work only on a very small minority, 1%. And on them, we are already working.
The biggest problem is the passivity of those who have begun to understand. You have begun to understand, but you are such passive people. You think the Gita is so that everybody can just live peacefully in the world as it is. The Gita is a disruptor. It's a clarion call. It's a war call. You still have too much respect for the world. Your problem is this. Please understand, you don't have enough contempt for those around you. That's your problem.
My situation was such that even if I tried to act decently in front of my bosses, they could still feel as if I'm spitting on their face. In my brief corporate stint, a little more than 3 years — applying the maximum restraint, I would face them with a deadpan expression, with a totally blank face and eyes, I would look at them. And still they could sense that they have an enemy standing in front of them.
They could smell war, because I could see through their being, their desires, their determination, and I knew that they are the ones determined to destroy everything. And their determination is almost final. They are inexorable now. The point of no return has been crossed by most of them. Meeting of minds and shaking of hands is no longer possible. You don't see that. You don't want to see that. Right? You want to pretend your family is virtuous, your friends are virtuous, your relatives, your society, your locality, your bosses, your peers, you want to pretend that they are all almost nice people. They are not, sir.
Do you understand the state of this planet? Do you even remotely sense that? And you still want to call yourself nice? Don't you have any individual center? Just because nobody is grieving, just because nobody is crying out, you think things are all right, fine, controlled, decent? No, sir.
Existence itself is wailing. And this is the last stage of the disease. We are all as good as gone.
And these people around you, they are the ones responsible. And they have done their deal with the devil. The deal is sealed. You cannot reverse their deal with the devil. It's called the Faustian bargain, in which in lieu of certain comforts and privileges, you sell away your inner truth.
They've done the deal and they won't reverse their deal. Now it depends on you whether you want to continue exploring alliances there, or you understand that it's war. And war does not mean that you have to pounce on them and punch them in the face. War means an internal acknowledgment, that you have to give it all that you can. That pacification or isolation is no more an option. That you have to be into it with all that you have.
Just as when a nation faces war, all its resources are diverted towards the war. You do not say, “You know, so much of the budget, this has to be allocated to civic amenities and beautifying our parks." Beautification of parks is wonderful but let that wait for another day. The one who does not identify the enemy as the enemy will be the first to go. You find them attacking me every day. Don't you understand? How dumb can we all be? Do you think they understand me for no reason? No. They know I am an existential threat. I am being systematically subdued. Don't you see that? Just apply a little bit of intellect and you will see — yes, that is happening.
They know it's war. And they are hellbent on suppressing you. But you want to pretend all is hunky-dory. You want to pretend, "No, everybody is nice and these are all decent people after all, they are our own society, our friends..." That side is pulling no punches. That side is attacking you with all its might. But because you are very, very afraid, you want to pretend that there is no war. They are all co-conspirators.
Where in the media do you find climate change being accorded the space it needs? Do you find that? Think of all the reputed publications. Do you find them discussing the climate crisis? Do you find them telling you that you are on the verge of extinction? Wholesale extinction? Do they tell you? They are hand in glove; left, right, center they are all one, and the truth is all alone. Choose your side. Such innocent-looking questions you put. I go to my friends and I try to tell them, "There can be no tax solution to climate change but nobody listens.” They will not listen. They cannot listen. They already know and you are alone.
Now, if you are a man, pick up the gauntlet. They have already thrown it away. They have already thrown the gauntlet. They are saying, "We will not change. We are determined to destroy the planet." Now, if you are a man, take up the challenge. Sir, this entire society is those who see themselves as beneficiaries of destruction. You must understand that inwardly you cannot have any pact with them.
These are two different centers that cannot meet — the center of destruction and the center of compassion.
It is not that they do not know. They know, and they have made their choice. Now you see what you have to do. They have already chosen. Now you see what you need to choose. They have chosen, and they'll not budge. They are beyond the point of return. Now you see what you need to do.
