Something is hiding behind the smoke, and we're missing it
Questioner: Namaste sir. Sometimes, if I see something going wrong, for example, I saw a couple of kids bursting crackers on dry grass and I was afraid that it would catch on fire, so I tried to stop it, but it did not really happen because they are kids and it’s crackers. It left me feeling very frustrated and quite helpless. I did take some action there. Thinking about why crackers are so attractive to kids, and what the thrill of it is, and all those things, gave me a little bit of clarity, but still left me feeling quite helpless. How should I look at it? How do I move past it? I know that this is not about me, none of this is about me, but still, how do I deal with that sort of frustration and helplessness?
Acharya Prashant: The biggest problem is when we succeed in these little acts of charity, goodness, kindness. Had you succeeded in somehow persuading the kids away, you wouldn’t even have raised this question, and a self-awarded sense of morality and righteousness would have held you high. That’s the whole problem. When you said the kids wouldn’t go away because it is a festival and it is crackers, then do we really understand why the kids wouldn’t go away? Do we really understand?
But if we succeed in our little acts of goodness, that helps perpetuate the delusion. There is an entire system to be fought, not these kids really, who are at the absolute periphery of the machine. Even if you succeed in shooing away the kids, so what? They’ll find some other place. They’ll do what they have to do.
And that’s why the mission is for the sake of dharma. That’s why we are not talking of any one particular aspect of Lokdharma. We are not saying that this is the particular action we are rallying against. It is not about one festival. It is not about one organized religion. It is not about one country. It is about the shared, universal, primitive darkness in man’s mind. But we don’t want to acknowledge that darkness, so we want to tell ourselves it’s about a particular night and crackers and dry grass.
Now how is it any different if it is not dry grass but a cemented road? Please tell me. You’ll say it is very different because now there is nothing to catch fire. No, ma’am, that’s where the difference comes. You think it is all right if it’s done on a cemented ground? No. And we are not against crackers per se. We are against distorting the very meaning of religion.
They are kids, it is their opportunity to learn, grow, and fall in love with something authentic, and that opportunity is being wasted away. That’s the battle to be fought. Instead of that, as responsible citizens and good Samaritans, we decide to take up acts of micro-kindness: “Let me do some nice thing in my society. We’ll clear away the garbage. All of us got together, twenty-four of us, and at the festival we cleaned up everything. You see, we are good people.”
No. It allows me to be a bit blunt, but it is because of these acts of charity and goodness that nonsense flourishes all the more. “I’m kind because I feed dogs.” No. What are you doing? First of all, you have created an ecosystem in which garbage piles up and therefore strays proliferate. And what kind of life do they have?
Look at the life of a free, wild beast in the jungle. And look at the life of the stray dog. That's the life you have given him in your cities. And then you console yourself. You flatter yourself by feeding them something once in the morning or in the evening and say, you know, I am a really noble man. No.
You have to fight against the ecosystem that, first of all, breeds strays.
The poor animal should not have existed there in the first place. Cities are designed to accommodate Homo sapiens. There is nothing in them for dogs. Think of the concrete roads. And as you urbanize, the whole thing becomes even more concretized. What will the poor animal do? Where will it live? Where will it sleep? But very irresponsibly we build cities where strays can breed so much, and then we want to act pious by feeding them.
Yes, obviously do feed them. If I find a starving animal, obviously I'll feed it. But that does not absolve me of my bigger responsibility to do something about the root of the problem. We have rabbits here. We feed dogs. You find them all lined up in front of the gate here. We have a cow as well. We do all that. But that does not mean that taking care of rabbits or dogs or that little cow will mean that we are doing something essentially noble. No.
What we don't want to acknowledge is that all external problems start from man's mind, and at the center of the man's mind is the ego.
The mistaken ego, the deluded ego, is the cause of all inner and outer problems, not just mental problems but also material problems.
They all come from the ego. And therefore, if you want to take care of those problems, if you want to honestly address the problems, you'll have to go within. But going within is hazardous. So what do we do? Some little act of this, that. I am not dissuading you from doing these little nice moral deeds. Please do that. Obviously, if you find a dog shivering in the cold, do offer it some refuge. But don't take that as the end of your responsibility.
Yes, if kids are doing something destructive, advise them; restrain them. But that in itself will not bring about a better and more responsible world. You'll save the kids once. They have a long life to live. They'll have umpteen opportunities to make much bigger mischief. You'll not be there to play mommy all the time.
Think of it, how weird it is: kids trying to set fire to dry grass. What kind of system would render human intelligence so helpless, so asleep, that our species would come to this? That's the monstrosity of the system. It makes you absolutely stupid. Look at all those reels doing the rounds now. Someone just posted yesterday or something, said, “These are leftover crackers from Diwali and now they are being sold at a lot of discount. So I bought all of them and now I'll burn them to set fire to the backsides of those who didn't want us to enjoy our festival.”
And then he goes on to add, since the AQI is still 2 points away from hitting 500, “Therefore, I have taken it up.” And he is indeed displaying a large pile of crackers, taken and picked a selfie and posted it. And he is getting massive support as the upholder of dharma.
How many kids will you convince? Those were kids. This was a forty-odd-year-old man or something, and he had such guts and gumption in the comments. If somebody tried to display some sense, this fellow was taking care to reply to each and every sensible comment. And the reply would be something like, “Send me your address; I'll fire one rocket straight to your home.” This kind of reply, and he's getting away with it. These are not kids. How many kids will you stop?
This is sacrilege. This is the total distortion of dharma. What pains me is that our guys do not have even ten percent of that courage. Nonsense has such a big mouth, and then a loudspeaker in front of it, and truth is afraid even to whisper.
And then, if somebody from our community dares to speak up, others start looking sideways, and then the fellow comes and begs on the community, “Here is something going on, and I have tried to engage this fellow. Kindly come and contribute to the discussion.” We all just…
Saving our skin is more important. With this kind of pollution, you cannot save your skin, right? Dermatologists will tell you, you’ll not be able to save your skin. Don’t shy away from the right battles. Don’t engage yourself in trivial altercations. Equally, when it comes to speaking up for the truth, don’t pretend as if it’s somebody else’s business.
Questioner: Thank you, sir. That was quite, I got some clarity on not engaging people on an ego level, as you rightly said. I think a lot of adults also behave like kids. I think it’s more difficult to engage with adults on these matters than it is with kids. You can at least, you know, scold them, you can’t do that with adults. Thank you so much.
Acharya Prashant: Push with me. We are attacking the very center all these diseases come from. Yes, we will address the symptoms as well as needed, but our primary concern is not the symptom but the root of the disease. If there is any ugly thing you find anywhere in existence, think — is not this mission working against that? Don’t all kinds of uglinesses have the same common root? And if we can strike at the root, what special kind of nonsense would still survive? Nothing.
Instead of fighting individual, localized little symptoms, come, contribute here. Push along with me. Instead of dissipating your energy, “I’m doing a little charity here, little goodness there, roaming about here, spreading the message there.” Instead of dissipating the energy of this community in twenty different directions, pull in energy so that we can act from one strong center with one focus. Otherwise, all we have is a lot of dissipation.
