Bring This into Our Schools and Colleges || AP Neem Candies
Acharya Prashant: There is widespread extinction of species, the climate catastrophe is upon us, we are already 8 billion. And then, you know, hundreds of species are disappearing every week. Let that sink in. Hundreds of species are disappearing every week. Even as we have been speaking, maybe a dozen species have gone extinct. So, that is the kind of time we are living in. You know of biodiversity loss; you know of how close mankind is to a nuclear war that can be precipitated at any time. Nations keep blatantly threatening each other with their nuclear arsenal. All those things are happening. And the number of nations with access to nuclear weaponry has been continuously increasing. It used to be 2, then 4, and now it’s practically going to reach a dozen. So, anything can happen anytime. It's obviously a very, very bad situation and anybody can see that.
We have to realize that the root of all these external problems is man's mind. So, first of all, we have to get rid of the notion that by having the right kind of legislation, or structures, or systems, or international treaties or agreements, or social processes, we can just sail out of these troubled waters. That is not going to happen. You have to address the problem where it really is. And the problem really is here (pointing towards the mind). In man's mind. Man needs spiritual education. Man's animal ego needs to be educated. It needs to be, rather, edified. Otherwise, there is no hope at all.
Questioner: So, one method, macro-method if I take it, is spiritual knowledge, or spiritual education for as many people as possible.
Acharya Prashant: Yes, yes! It has to be a part of the school and college curriculum.
Questioner: This is something very interesting.
Acharya Prashant: Yes. You see, what else will the ego do? The ego is born hungry and dissatisfied and chaotic. That's how it is born. Look at the newborn baby. Do you find it meditative? It is shouting. Throwing about its limbs. And it has no realization of who it is, and it's always trying to get hold of something; grope this, grope that, shout for this. It's continuously crying. It's attached to the body. So, that's who we are. That's how we are born.
Now, if you do not educate the ego, what will it do throughout its lifetime of, let's say, 80 years? It will go outwards to seek satisfaction. And how will it seek satisfaction? Through consumption. And that sense of consumption is what is destroying the world today. It has already, very nearly, totally destroyed it. If you do not get contentment at the right place, you will obviously seek satisfaction at all the wrong places. How will you seek satisfaction? By amassing wealth, by consuming material, by consuming another human being, by trying to dominate another human being. No? Through all these means, what are you trying to do? What is so much of all this human activity about? It is just to please the ego, right? “I am not okay. I want to be okay, so I am doing something.” What am I doing? I am chasing a woman, I am chasing wealth, I am attacking another nation, I am becoming sectarian, I am proving my superiority, I am amassing more knowledge. Why am I doing all this? “Because I feel hollow within. Something is not alright. So, I am trying to set it right by doing all these things.” Now the thing is, you do all these things all your life and yet, the fundamental dissatisfaction does not go away. The result: you do more of those things, with more misery for yourself and the world.
Far better than that is to take the student within and point to the real source of dissatisfaction. Once he knows the real source of dissatisfaction, then at least, he will not foolishly run behind the world. So spiritual education, to me, is the unavoidable solution.
Read full article here: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/articles/what-makes-you-do-this-an-interview-1_782c753
