Questioner (Q): This world, the material world, obviously works according to the scientific laws which are discovered.
Acharya Prashant (AP): Yes, science is the language of laws of physical nature.
Q: But that, it's not in conflict with the fact that there is no such thing as matter but that it’s all thoughts?
AP: Then you can say that the laws of physics are the laws of thought.
Q: So, are you agreeing with my statement?
AP: Obviously, it's just a restatement of the established statement. There is nothing new in it. You are just emphasizing on the mind-matter equation. So, you may as well then call laws of matter as laws of mind and that is alright.
Q: And the thought?
AP: That is mind.
Q: It is my mind?
AP: Not your mind, you are in the mind. You don't own the mind. You are in the mind.
Q: As what?
AP: As yourself. Whatever you take yourself to be.
Q2: So, we can assume we are conscience, that now we have a body, now we have a mind, right? If he says, “He's the mind.” You say, “You're in the mind.” So, we know we have a mind, we know we have a body but we are not, nothing of that, right?
AP: If you have to just assume then any assumption is alright.
Spirituality is not about proceeding with assumptions. It is about seeing what these assumptions are doing to life. Spirituality is relief from suffering. A life based on assumptions is an invitation to suffering. And therefore, it is fundamental to test and challenge assumptions.
One may keep tom-tomming, “I am not the body. I am not the body”, the virus still attacks the body. You still pay the doctor. If your assumption and stubborn assertion is helping you honestly get rid of your suffering, then alright. Anything that actually relieves your suffering is wonderful. But if your assumption is just feeding the Ego then what's the point?
You may keep saying, “I am pure consciousness.” How does that help? The moment the bull starts chasing you, you forget all about pure consciousness.
Q3: I had another question about energy. Sometimes when I'm walking in the streets, I can feel the eyes of others like burning and feel they have enough negative energy but how is it possible when I don't know them and don't have a history with them? And like it's not my assumption of them because I don't know them.
AP: You may not individually, particularly, personally know people but the way the subconscious mind operates is through pattern matching. How do you immediately call somebody as beautiful or attractive? Tell me.
Q3: It’s your taste may be.
AP: Where does that taste come from?
Q3: Mind.
AP: And the mind already has factory-fed patterns. Those are factory settings, primordial conditioning since the jungle times. So, you very well know that this kind of body, this kind of facial structure, this kind of height or skin or complexion is what would be necessarily called as beautiful. It's so predictable. It's so predictable that all the fashion agencies very well know which models are going to be acceptable to the public. They know that in advance. They don't have to conduct a dipstick. They don't have to conduct a market survey. They already know what kind of face and figure would be considered attractive and beautiful by the general public. It's the default setting in the mind.
So, you may not particularly know a person but if his clothes or his eyes or his context or his gait or his voice or his face match somehow with one of the pre-existing patterns then a particular reaction would be activated in your mind. And that's how you instinctively dislike some people without knowing anything about them, don't you? You know nothing about someone, first claims and you say, “Ah! I don't like this one.”
Similarly, you instinctively like some people. And all of that is quite harmful. All of that is what we call as prejudice. But we are born prejudist. This body itself is the fundamental prejudice. It's got nothing to do with 'right energy' or 'wrong energy' or positive or negative energy. It is the old animalistic conditioning, plus social conditioning. The kind of education and training and influences we pick up in our school, college, society and through media, and through other channels, it's all that,
Even smell. Smell is such a powerful determinant of like and dislike. And we don't even come to know of that. But all the deodorant manufacturing companies know of that. They know how to make their sales zoom. Fragrances don't just arbitrarily sell. There is an entire science and deep psychology behind them. There are researchers and scientists determining what particular molecule in the fragrance would really activate the audience. And you know, there are now respect molecules, fear molecules, sexual arousal molecules, attachment molecules.
So, depending on the kind of influence you want to have on the other, you can wear those molecules. The moment they hit the nose of the olfactory nerves here (Indicating towards the nose), you get what you want. Nothing spiritual about it, purely material business. Don't relate it to energy or aura or something profound or divine, nothing.
Spirituality is the simple business of looking at life honestly.
It's got nothing to do with energies and auras and this and that.
Q4: Acharya Ji, these primordial habits and memories that we have, are being accumulated over centuries or whatever. So, where is it stored and how is it being passed on? Is it genetic..?
AP: In every cell of the body. How has it passed? DNA.
Q4: No, but these memory cells, the brain or every cell of the body?
AP: Every cell of the body.
Q4: So, if let's say, hypothetically, entire humanity is not taught anything from the past, no history, nothing, would that ….?
AP: One strand of hair from your head is enough to recreate everything. One bit of piece from your nail is sufficient to recreate everything. Provided the technology is smart and developed enough.
Q4: So, you said, “Spirituality is to transcend the science.” This piece of information, that you are saying, I think is not in science yet.
AP: No, it is totally in the province of science.
Q4: Every strand of hair has all the primordial information?
AP: Yes. Anything that's got to do with the material is in the domain of science, simple.
Q4: No, but science would say that the memory is in the mind, in neurons.
AP: Does science say that? Go ahead and study first. Does science say that memory lies only in the neurons and synapses? When cloning of animals happens, do they take cells from the brain, do they? Read up, the entire DNA is available everywhere in the body. So, a little bit of rubbish even from the back of your hand is sufficient to give birth to your child.
Q4: Just to continue on that; so you said, “We are conditioned and so our responses are mechanical because of the conditioning and spirituality is to see the reality, the actuality and conditioning is in DNA or every cell of the body. So, when we see the reality, does that change the DNA?
AP: We don't see the reality. We see the ‘we’.
Q4: Oh! So that's right. That because of conditioning we see the ‘we’.
AP: No, the ‘we’ does not see the reality. The ‘we’ is seen. You cannot remain who you are and from your own center see the reality. The center itself has to be seen. And that changes everything. You do not say, “I see the reality.” The ‘I’ is the one that needs to be seen. By whom is it seen? That should not be asked. It is just seen.
Q4: So, my question is, would that change the DNA after that?
AP: The DNA remains where it is. Now, the DNA is just DNA, it is not you.
