Questioner (Q): One of the things I found really relevant post-Covid is a lot of violent crimes that have happened. I am speaking about the United States, where we had a classroom of school students that were shot. A gunman came in and killed many people, including kids.
There are a lot of crimes that are happening post-Covid, whether it is celebrities, for example, we saw a music artist being murdered in India. It becomes difficult to make sense of a human being coming to such mindsets which in Indian Sanskrit terms we refer to as asuri, or rakshasi (demonic) mindsets. How does one make sense of all this?
Acharya Prashant (Q): See, these are just tales of the times. These are tell-tale signs of the age we are in. These are beautiful weapons, no? So sophisticated, so alluring. Once you have them in your hand, you feel like using them. And there are these video games that are simulating those weapons to a fault.
You play that game, and an exact replica of an AK-47 is there. The sound when it is loaded. The sound when it is fired. These are exact simulations. And you are doing that all the time. Six hours a day you are playing that game, just firing that weapon. And you are in a society, like the United States, where weapons are so readily available over the counter. What then stops you from trying out the real experience of firing at people?
Obviously, not everyone would do that. But even if one in five hundred turns into a maniac, the damage is just too much to bear, is it not? Given the oppressive nature of circumstances, and the abundant availability of weapons, one in five hundred is very likely. In fact, it is surprising how we are not seeing more dastardly crimes of that kind.
