Question: Acharya Ji, pranaam. We have seen movements led by great teachers like Kabir Sahib against numerous social issues like untouchability, caste system etc. Also, there have been many, like Guru Gobind Ji who fought battle against invaders in the epics. We have Pandavas against Kauravas in Mahabharat, Lord Krishna against Kans and Sri Rama against Ravana. So, what exactly, or who exactly, is the Ravana or Kans of this age, this century? Against whom we must constantly fight in the external world?
Acharya Prashant: Good question, Sandeep. Sandeep, the enemies in the outer world where easier to identify until now. But today, we are standing at a very unique point in history. Until today, the enemy used to be a person, a group, a system, an army that would oppress the commoners. So, it was a spottable, identifiable enemy. There would be a few who would be the exploiters and the masses would be at the receiving end. Today the situation is very different. Man has conquered the external world like never before. The earth has been conquered, the animals, the trees have been conquered long back. The waters have been conquered, space has been conquered, diseases have been conquered. It is surmised that before the end of the century, we may have immortal human beings. In some material way, death too has been conquered.
Man today has unrecalled and devastating power over his surroundings. Within a few decades, it would be possible for man to blow up the entire planet earth and go and settle on another colonized moon or planet. Mans space vehicles are already reaching far and, in a few centuries, or maybe in a few millennia, they would start travelling to the farthest corners to which travel is possible. What remains then to be conquered? The entire animal kingdom is shivering in trepidation. And obviously we are talking about only those animal species that still remain. The others have not only been won by us, but actually obliterated long back. Pathogens, all the little microscopic beings, they too are more or less at our mercy. Some of them are still waging their little petulant battles, but obviously they are doomed to be defeated. Even some mosquitoes are turning resistant to annihilatory chemicals, but their defiance is defeat foretold.
So, what remains to be conquered? Tell me. Nothing remains to be conquered, Sandeep. And if something does remain to be conquered, it’s a matter of a few centuries, or at max a few millennia. And even a few millennia are nothing in the history of the universe. Blink of an eye. So, you see man today is God. All that which used to trouble man on the external front, outside of himself, has been conquered. Not only it has been conquered, it has been turned into a useful servant. Fire was the first one; man used to be afraid of fire like any other animal. And man put fire to good use. Man used to be at the mercy of the jungle, man was a forager. Man became an agriculturalist, so the jungle was cleared away for agriculture. The same space that once used to be the jungle was now mans land. Mans land that was being tilled and cultivated for mans needs. Once that land used to provide to man only as per its own cycles and it all also used to be a source of potential threat to man. Jungles did have walnut and fig trees and apple trees, but they also had lions and pythons. That same land has been cleared by the farmer and turned into a servant.
The saints would tell to their listeners: “One day death will take you away.” Buddha would tell his audiences: “This body is a repository of a hundred diseases.” And that would bring sense to many a listener. The very thought of old age and disease and death was enough to make many a reluctant audience tow the line. But where is disease? Very swiftly man has conquered disease. You know the population explosion that happened in the last two hundred years? It happened because man conquered disease. Today if Buddha comes and tells you this body is home to so many diseases, you will say: “Sir, you are factually incorrect. Where are the diseases?” So, whom to fight? The average age of populations has gone on to double, even triple if you look at the developed world.
Energy used to be scarce and to do anything with material you require energy. Today the greatest source of energy, the nucleus of the atom, has been broken open by man. So, energy is not a problem. Tell me what you want to do? Energy is available. If you want to blow apart this entire planet, even for that energy is readily available. In fact, that much energy man already has today. That’s what intellect has done. Just say what you want, and it can be made available. And the last frontier in conquering the world has been the conquest of life itself. Some scientist recently produced a fluorescent blue cat. That’s happening.
Along with the species homo sapiens, there was another species of human kind, the Neanderthals. They disappeared. They were either assimilated by the sapiens or it was an incidence of genocide, but those guys disappeared. Now, a multi-nation team of scientists is trying to resurrect the Neanderthal. Man is God. You can do anything that you want to. If you don’t want to die, you can never die. All you need is good money. If you want to leave this planet and settle elsewhere, you can do that. All you need is good money. And we are talking only of 2018 AD. The picture would be very different in 3018 AD. And don’t think for a second that a hundred years is too much. The big bang was 13-14 billion years back. What is hundred years? Man came into existence some 25-30 lakh years back. What is hundred years?
So, what remains to be conquered? You have named Kauravas, Kans, Ravana, you cannot have them anymore. In positions of power you will only have people who are chosen by the people. Kauravas, Kans, Ravana, they were all products of an age when autocracy and aristocracy would prevail. Today there is democracy. And democracy is a holy grail. Democracy has caught on, it’s becoming the way of life. Countries that are not democratic are moving towards democracy. So here again you don’t have dictators or despots to conquer. You cannot have a Kans in today’s age. The populations will not allow them, it’s a democratic age. So, Who are the rulers then? The ones you want to rule.
So, that brings us to the point we made when we started, man is god. Whatever happens to man today, happens by his own want and wish. Who is your ruler? The one you want to rule you. What do you want to wear? You are free. You are free not only in terms of choice, you’re also free in terms of availability and procurement. And if you can’t have it today, you can surely have it twenty years down the line. All you need is desire. Desire it and you will have it. Desire it and you will have it. Babies? Desire them, you will have them, doesn’t matter what your physical condition is. If you want customized babies, that too you may have. And you don’t need any special eligibility. All you need is desire and the means to fulfill your desire obviously, but given the way world is becoming economically prosperous, even the means would no more remain elusive for long.
So, what’s the picture that is emerging? The picture that is emerging is: you don’t have anything outside of you or anyone outside of you who won’t bow down to your commands. The climate is already warmer by one degree centigrade. If you want you can that to three degrees, if you want you can take that to five degrees and if you want you can bring that down. The entire existence seems to be bowing down to man. Show me one creature in the seas, on land or in the skies who can afford to defy man. Show me. The greatest of whales, biggest of chimpanzees and mammoths, mighty eagles and lions… who can defy man? Great distances. Can they defy you? Can they defy your desire? Today you sit here, and you can afford a girlfriend in Malesia or Tunisia. All you need is money to fly over the weekends. Space has been conquered. Right? And very soon technology might enable virtual realities more real than virtual. More real than even real. Then proximity, the word proximity, would lose whatsoever meaning it still has managed to retain.
You know, what is the next thing that is going to happen, Sandeep? Man would improve himself and turn into a superman kind of species. Because that’s what gods are supposed to do. Aren’t gods supposed to produce men, create men? So, the configuration of the brain can be changed. Brains can be connected to computers. Much more able human beings can be produced. So very capable, dexterous and able human beings, that you will feel in front of them how a chimpanzee feels in front of you.
Chimpanzees are our nearest cousins in terms of evolution, aren’t they? How do you feel in front of a chimpanzee? A new man can be scientifically produced who will be to you what you are to the chimpanzee. That will be mans next deed, that is already happening. In the name of ethics, you are trying to stop that or at least slowen that, but you will not be able to do that. What man can do, man will do. That’s the thing about desire, it is irrepressible. Once desire has taken roots in the mind, the tree is bound to appears. Fructification will happen. And if man feels like having better men, that will happen.
So, what is left to conquer, Sandeep? All that appeared inclement or difficult or hostile, has been conquered by mans desire.
Man is the God who can get what he wants.
What is then left to conquer? I said we are standing at a very special point in history. What is then left to conquer?
Man himself. And that’s the difficult thing, Sandeep. You have nobody left to conquer but man. Would have been far more easier could you put your finger on one person and lay all the blame on him. It was so very straightforward when the villain was Ravana. “Ah! There is Ravana!” Let all the good guys get together and beat him down. It was such a simple fairytale. The good guy is there. And all those who are supporting him are the good guys. And there, that one is the bad guy. And all the baddies have bunched together in one lot.
Sandeep, who is to be fought today? There is no Ravana! There is no Kans, there is no Duryodhana! The bad ones are covering in fear. Authority is out, secrecy is out. If you do deeds that man recognizes as bad deeds, you cannot hide. Science, technology and population explosion have made secrecy impossible. You cannot hide. So, if you are a bad man very soon would be caught. Gone are the days when you could do something evil and go and hide in a jungle. Today you have a social security number, an Aadhaar. How will you hide? Cash will be out of currency. Oh, that’s nice. Cash will be out of currency. You’ll have to deal through electronic networks. You cannot hide. The entire earth is divided in nations and the day is not far off when every child to be born would be born with a chip implanted in his body. You cannot hide. The chip might no be literal, but you get the drift, right?
Palace intrigues are impossible now. You cannot come together in the dead of the night, plan against the dominating king, slaughter him secretly and in the morning declare the coup. Gone! Somebody would be broadcasting the whole thing live. And there are so many people now. Eight billion you already are! Ten billion you would be, maybe eleven, by the end of the century. How can you hide? Where would you go and hide? Man is everywhere. Even if you go and hide under the oceans you would be detected. So, doing things that where traditionally considered bad is no more an option. Everybody is now bound to be good. You wave a gun at someone and before the gun is back in the pocket, the police are at your heels. Some CCTV camera has caught wind of the whole thing. The entire planet is being monitored. Where could you go?
The app that you use to order food is keeping an eye on you. Because the app won’t work unless you allow it to read your messages, watch your photos. You cannot be bad. You have to be good. And what kind of goodness is it that is mandated? It is goodness defined by man. You need not be good as defined by a Kabir or an Ashtavakra or the gurus. You have to be good as per the laws of man. Not the laws of God or…no. No divine mandate is going to work. If gods are fighting over a piece of land, they have to come to the court of man. Is that not what you are seeing? Mans mandate will decide where gods will live and what gods will do and whom they will meet. Man has conquered everybody, man is God.
A little problem remains, man is a God who does not know what he wants. So, he wants everything. One step more, man is a God who does not know whether he wants what he wants. Man is a God who hides from the question: does he want what he wants? He wants, but he does not know why he wants. And this is a very, very deadly god. Very deadly god. He has desire. And he has intellect. And nothing else! Now tremble! And tremble you must. This is no more the proverbial case of the monkey holding the sword. The monkey was not dangerous at all even though the anecdote tells you that the monkey chopped off the master’s nose or leg or whatever. The monkey was very innocuous. Today that monkey is man and the sword is an intercontinental ballistic missile with multiple nuclear warheads. A very, very intelligent man he is. He is suave, he is sophisticated, he is educated, he is cultured, he lives by the rules, he has never broken a law, his credit rating is wonderful. And he can at any time press the button to a…? That’s man for you. And he knows everything. He’s a master of knowledge.
Sandeep, your task today, if you really want to fight the evil, is more difficult than that of the heroes of your. The heroes down the centuries and history, I repeat, had clearly identifiable targets. You have to fight mankind. It’s a very helpless situation. Today's teacher or hero or prophet or messiah, whatever you want to call him, has to fight everybody. Just about everybody. He has to fight all those who are outside his social circle. More dangerously, he has to fight those who appear like his accomplices, his supporters. And even more dangerously, he has to fight off the effect that the company of the world has upon him. So, he has to fight himself as well. Krishna was never affected by Kans because there was just one Kans in the faraway city and Krishna was happily coming up in an innocent village. Today the cult of Kans is everywhere. If today a Krishna were to be born, he would find, he would find that his father, his mother, are all brethren of Kamsa. He would find that the water of Yamuna is polluted with sans hood. There is nothing but Kanseverywhere. Whom to fight?
Raddha comes to Krishna. And after being with her for a few months, Krishna discovers that Radha is an agent of Kamsa. What will Krishna do now? The ancient Krishna had it just too easy. Today it’s going to be far more difficult. Hanuman turning upon Rama. Lakshman conspiring with Meghnath. And Krishna goes to fight Kans and Chanur and in the thick of the battle, he discovers that Raddha is campaigning for Chanur. And Krishna is teaching Arjuna. And Arjuna is appearing like an absorbed student. And just then the back of Krishna is speared down. And with the light going out of his eyes Krishna turns back and sees Yudhishthir. In his last moment he turns to Arjuna and Arjuna has a naughty smile on his lips. That’s the final chapter of Gita were it to be written today. Whom to fight? The enemy is not outside anymore. The enemy is there right in your house. Your friend is the enemy, your wife is the enemy, your lover is the enemy, your student is the enemy, your teacher is the enemy. And when you look into the mirror, you are your worst enemy.
These are nice, cute stories Sandeep, but they are all behind us. All the monkeys will chase down Rama if he goes to them to seek help today. The monkeys have all been bought over by Ravana. All the monkeys.
Man is a God who is a slave of desire and desire worships power.
The monkeys too have been overwhelmed by the power of Ravana. Why would they support Rama? And even if it breaks your heart, you must see clearly that it would be impossible to find a Sita today. The Sita of Ramayana is extinct. Today, if you can have a poor copy of Sita, and if she’s abducted and carried away to Lanka, she would herself chase Ravana. And compel him and beget him to marry her. And today's Rama, Sandeep, would find himself subject to an overwhelming, excruciating desire, to not to wage any battle upon anybody. Bharat is not allowed to keep Ramas sandals on the throne and worship them and run the kingdom that way. It’s against the system and the constitution. The system does not allow you to run the kingdom as if it were the property of your elder brother. No, not possible.
Just as when the night is about to end, it is the darkest hour of the night. Similarly, mans history is going to end now and this is the darkest hour of history. History continues only as long as you have chance events. For history to be stored, you must have unpredictability. Can there be history if everything is predictable? If everything is predictable, then you can have at most a milo meter, a dashboard. You cannot have history. Mans utmost control, mans absolute autocracy over existence, is soon going to end a history itself. After that it would be man and mans desire. And history is about to end and this is the darkest hour of history. It would be very difficult to fight anybody. The evil lurks everywhere. All around you, within you. And everybody is evil. There are no quantum separations.
When you look at the Kurukshetra, you see a definite differentiation, don’t you? What is the definite differentiation? On one side you have Duryodhana and on the other side you have Arjuna. There is a very clear distinction. And so, Krishna knows whom to fight. Now, Krishna has the luxury to afford sides. A battle is on and Krishna looks at the battle and Krishna knows, “I can pick one of the two, I can afford that choice.” Today, you cannot afford that choice. There is only Duryodhan. He won the Mahabharat long back. There is Duryodhan one fighting Duryodhan two. What does Krishna do? Whom does Krishna support? And if Krishna appears in Kurukshetra, Duryodhan one and Duryodhan two would tie up and chase away Krishna.
Malaria is out, polio is out, caste system is on its way out, untouchability is out, racism is out, misogyny will be out. What are you going to fight next? All that could’ve been fought, will be fought and defeated. These are old and petty evils. Petty evils. Somebody said, “Why do you want to turn somebody into an enemy, why do you want to alienate someone, if you can turn him into your customer?” And desire only needs customers. I want this and I’m willing to pay the price. If in today's world untouchability is disappearing, it is not because people are discovering that at the core all are one. It is not because people are discovering that body and body are just the same. If in today's age untouchability is disappearing, it is because of desire. If you come across a woman who is hugely gorgeous, would you want to not touch her because she belongs to an untouchable caste? No, that’s too mean. And you are a liberal. Would you allow your liberal instincts to forseen act, be defeated? Please understand.
You are the recruiter in some firm. And you want someone who can be productive. Because desire is related to? Productivity. You want more and more to consume. And you get the candidate. You get a candidate who comes from an untouchable caste. Would you reject him? No, why should you? You would welcome him and embrace him. You’re not embracing him out of love. You’re not embracing him because you have suddenly discovered fraternity. You’re embracing him out of desire. Greed. Usefulness. So, these social evils that you have mentioned here, are petty little things that desire will throw out of the window. Are you getting it? The great evil would be man himself. Man, the God.
You see, look at the age in which untouchability flourished. That was also the age in which sexuality was repressed, was it not? The moment you set sexuality off, the moment you say, “sexuality is alright”, untouchability cannot survive for more than ten, twenty years. Desire has defeated all social evils. It is not social reform movements that have defeated desire. When the train and the bus came about, when the public transportation came about in India hundred, hundred and fifty years back, that was a great step towards the eradication of untouchability. The Shudra would be sitting besides the Brahmin in the railway coach. Because both desired to reach their destination and there was no option but to use the railways. And the railways didn’t have separate coaches for separate castes.
Desire defeats all the petty evils. Desire is the great evil that defeats all the petty evils. For the sake of desire, you can shake hands with your worst enemy. Don’t you see that happening everyday in politics? In national politics, in geopolitics, everywhere. You know what ended the cold war? The desire of the little Soviet republics to have a more economically prosperous life. Desire defeated the USSR. It was not the USA that defeated the USSR, it was desire. Desire will defeat all the petty evils. The cold war was defeated. Not one side was defeated, the entire war was defeated.
A Hindu and a Muslim are fighting. You don’t need to teach them the essence of religion. Just dangle some money in front of both of them. They will forget fighting. They both will run towards the money. So, you see, all the religious discord has been taken care of. And you don’t need a great reformer or guru for that. All you need is some money. You don’t have religious, communal riots in metros anymore. Do you have them? The last big one that we had, was in Bombay in 1992. Close to three decades now. In smaller cities, in suburbs, rural areas, that’s where you have communal problems. Why? Because money is the greatest anti-riot force. Why riot with someone if you can consume him? If a Hindu can use a Muslim to make more money, should he kill the Muslim? If a Muslim can use the Hindu for some personal pleasure, should he kill the Hindu? Not at all.
Today India and Pakistan are linked through thick and heavy trade. They’ll find it very difficult to fight among themselves. Because now the interests of traders on both sides will be at stake. They cannot fight anymore. You see, desire has taken out war. The curse of war has been defeated by? Desire. And that’s such a great thing. But who will defeat desire now? Who will defeat desire? I don’t know Sandeep, I’m very lonely in all this. You will too have to figure out on your own. And anyway today, one has no way of figuring out between a friend and a foe. So, don’t trust me too much.
You know what the tragic beauty of the whole things is? Without any inner goodness, even without any inner goodness, man can continue to grow better and better. That’s the most dangerous part of this story, if I can communicate it to you. The old scriptures warned us that “if you do bad, you will receive bad.” The law of Karmaphala is very, very subtle. Most people do not live in that subtle dimension. And in the gross dimension, the law of Karmaphala, the law of Karma, doesn’t operate at all. You can be utterly evil, and yet lead a very, very happy life. In fact, the more evil you are, chances are the more prosperous and more happy you would be found. So, the ancient trick that religions have used has fallen flat now. We all very well know, as Nietzsche told us, that God is dead. And if God is dead where are heaven and hell? So, you can continue doing what you do. You very well know that no hell is waiting for you. There is no heaven awaiting you and no hell awaiting you.
You can kill all the animals and use the proceeds of the kill to strengthen and beautify your body. And you’ll find that your body has indeed strengthened and indeed became more beautiful. So where is the punishment? In fact, it is a fact. Most of the Nobel winners are meat-eaters. Most of the Olympic medalists are meat-eaters. Be it the intellectual prowess or physical lightness, both are a function of meat consumption. Or so it appears. So, you can continue to be evil and yet be happy and prosperous. Kids laugh when the Quran or the Bible talk of the day of judgement and the ultimate punishment. All the ancient stories, Sandeep, have failed. They all ended with the defeat of evil. Those where lies. Evil never had a final defeat.
Today there is not only evil everywhere, evil has accorded itself the name of God. You’ll find it extremely difficult to be truly religious or mystical. Because that comes with an inordinate price. And evil will not say that spirituality is bad. Evil will simply take over spirituality. So, you will have people who call themselves spiritual. But what they would be doing in the name of spirituality would not be spiritual at all. For example, this cult of yoga. For example, the egoistic cult of neo-Advaita and self-enquiry. Now, if somebody would declare himself as an enemy of God, as Ravana did, as Kamsa did, oh they where very innocent fellows, they did, then you could fight him. But todays Ravanas do not declare themselves as enemies of god, they declare themselves to be surrendered to god. Todays Ravana would probably be found in Rishikesh teaching Hatha Yoga. And saying, “this is yoga. This is yoga.”
Now whom are you going to fight? They’ve all assumed the name of God. Man is god. Nobody’s coming out on the streets and declaring himself as anti-god. That is not possible anymore. You have to be good now, right? So, you cannot say that I’m anti-goodness. If you’re anti-goodness, you’d be immediately found in the jails. If not today, then after a while. Everything has been consumed by desire. Everything. A point comes you know, when it doesn’t hurt to pay any price to fulfill your desire. It just doesn’t hurt. A fellow with lung cancer, in the last stages, may still steal away to have a cigarette or two. It just doesn’t hurt. One wants to fulfill the desire even if the cost is tremendous. When dogs are chewing dry bones, it often happens that the bones being dry and hard, scratch and hit their gums. So, the gums bleed and the dogs think that the blood is coming from the bone. So, the dogs tear at the bones even harder and the blood flows even harder and the dog is happy and happier. There at least there is some tangible damage happening to the dog.
We are living in an age, Sandeep, when there will be no tangible damage. Children with no inner understanding at all, even today if you look at them, they are all being educated in the so-called international schools, they are ferried around in air-conditioned busses, there is an informal moratorium on the use of the native tongue, obviously in the school you cannot speak to them in Hindi or Marathi. Even at home the parents ensure that nothing native touches them at all. Those kids look indeed more smart, more articulate, don’t they? They’re also probably more knowledgeable. In sports, the records are tumbling every year. A regional level athlete today, a district or state level athlete today, is doing better than the Olympic champion of a century back. You compare the stats, you just compare the hundred-meter stats. I don’t know the numbers, but I dare speculate, that the Delhi champion of 2018 in a hundred meters race, would be comparable to the world record holder of 1918.
So, the bodies are indeed improving. Bodies are improving, happiness is improving, prosperity is improving. And all this is happening without God. So, man does not need God, man is God. Yes, man won’t have love. Desire and love do not go together. But then love is such a delicate thing, it is not a thing. It is nothing. Why the hell one should bother about it? If desire can be fulfilled, who cares for love? Man is a god, man would be a god, but a very loveless god. This one little thing would be missing in life. Useless thing, obviously, but it would be missing.
And Sandeep, I’m not going to advice you in favor of love. It’s a very useless thing. There is one song, Hindi song, it’s a disappearing language and it had a line that said,
Dil par marne wale marenge bhikhari, sab kuch seekh hamne, na seekhi hoshiyari.
I learnt everything except being smart, I learnt everything except being smart
So why should I advise you in favor of love? There is so much else to be had. You can have power, you can have adventure, you can have various kinds of foods, you can have domination, you can have whatever you want. Why do you want love? Or why do you want silence? You can have the best of noises; then why do you want silence? You can have very musical noises. Why do you want silence?
It’s already happening in this generation. I find it very difficult to relate to the youth. And some of them say it very bluntly to me in my face, “We do not know what love is.” And they are cute. Dolls. That do not know love. Loveless barbies. Throwing around barbs. And its good that they do not love because love is great suffering. With desire, born and brought up in desire, you lose all acceptance to suffering.
That’s one characteristic of the desirous person. He will be very intolerant towards suffering. It is only the lover who can embrace suffering.
Now, if you belong to the cult of desire, if you belong to the desire generation, you belong to this, you know, 'Gen Now'.
Suffering is a teacher that brings love to you.
And suffering is already an anathema to you. For you’re supposed to be always? Happy. You can’t be seen teary-eyed.
You know Sandeep, already kids born in the current century are taller than the ones born in the previous century. They’re also probably fairer and bulkier. And they probably also weigh more. They do. Their hair are more lustrous, more silky, more fine. the boys are handsome, the girls are… I won’t say beautiful. Gorgeous. Hot. Chicks. So, you have bulls and chicks. They’re doing well, aren’t they? Bullchicks. They are doing well, they are doing very well. How do I advise them? If someone doesn’t resonate with the Bulleshah , can you force him to? You just can’t. If someone doesn’t feel that pang here, can you induce it? Especially when the other person is already? Happy. And they have all the reasons to be happy. There is this air conditioner, there are good clothes, money…
As a country gets more developed, the hours in the work week also reduce. So, you at least statistically can have more leisure. So, how do you bring Bulleshah to bull chicks? Very difficult. And this is going to continue. You know there is Golu (rabbit) here and that reminded me of something. Australia is one of the last continents that man colonized. We know that, don’t we? Obviously excluding the two ice-capped continents. Just guess the proportion of species that man obliterated there. Within a short span of time. What percentage of species where led extinct by man? I’m not talking of a reduction in numbers, I’m talking of complete and irreversible extinction. Tell me. Tell me, tell me, tell me.
Of all the animals that weighed more than 50 kg, and where therefore very useful in terms of meat, 90 percent are extinct. How many? 90 percent! Such is the devastating and deadly touch of this new god. Golu you are probably one of the last surviving generations of your species. The happy ones will not let you live. The happy ones will not let anybody live who is not helping them fulfill their desires. All they know is one word, “I want.” I want. My will. This is what I want. Those animal species where living there since millions of years. And mans touch evaporated them in a second. In a second. That’s what the pursuit of happiness does. There has been no other motivating force for man, but happiness. And man has done whatever he did for the sake of his happiness, pleasure, desire. And he will continue to do that. This planet is done with.
Very soon, man would be colonizing and foraging another planet. And they would be better human beings than you and me Sandeep, better in terms of looks, better in terms of IQ, better in terms of economic prosperity, better in terms of all kinds of skills and abilities. Just one little thing they won’t have; love. And that doesn’t matter. That doesn’t matter at all. I was listening, there is one popular singer these days, a female singer. And she was rendering one of Bulleshah's songs on YouTube. And the song was
Hun kyu apna aap chhupaya
It’s a beautiful song. And she had changed entire lines after lines. At first, I was shocked, how can you do this to a Bulleshah? But then I realized it is because her audience will not be able to get the meanings of the original lines. So, she very practically changed those lines to something of her own desire. It is quite possible that she herself did not know the meanings of the original lines, so it was dangerous to keep them. That’s a glimpse of tomorrow. We will not be able to know what a Krishna or a Kabir is saying. Just as a computer is not able to know what a Krishna or a Kabir is saying. We will be fantastic computers tomorrow. We will not be able to know. Even if we intellectually do comprehend, we will feel no love. We will feel no inner compulsion of the kind a Raddha feels for Krishna. You will know desire, you will not know that that yearning called love, that irresistible and unreasonable yearning called love.
You will have desire. And you will have civilization. So, you’ll have civilized ways, business-like ways, to fulfill your desire. You won’t be raping anymore, I assure you. Rape would very soon be antiquated. You will say, “rape was an evil of the middle ages”, like sati , like untouchability. Why rape when you can buy sex? And sex will be available. So, Sandeep, that’s the forecast for you and it’s quite sunny. Have a happy time.
