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Soaring eagles in college, caged birds in life? || Acharya Prashant, with DU (2023)
10.7K views
2 years ago
Social Conditioning
Prakriti
Liberation
Ashram System
Grihastha
Guru Gobind Singh
Vedanta
Happiness
Description

Acharya Prashant addresses a law student's concern about losing one's ideals after college due to social conditioning. The speaker begins by deconstructing the premise that students are good people inside the campus but become bad people outside. He questions why one is in the campus in the first place, suggesting that this too is a result of social conditioning. This conditioning does not begin after graduation but is already operating before, during, and after college life. Every single action is a conditioned thing, and the nature of conditioning is such that one does not realize they are conditioned. The speaker explains that even the thoughts students have about conservation, the environment, and social issues are often trendy and part of this conditioning. It is considered a "cool thing" to discuss these topics on campus. He likens this to how socialism is popular among the youth, but later seen as foolishness, all part of a societal script. He refers to the traditional 'Ashram' system, where student life is for being inquisitive and socially conscious, followed by the householder stage where one is expected to focus on family. This is how society wants people to behave, and the passions of college life should not be taken too seriously as they are often just a trend. Addressing the fear of choosing the right path, Acharya Prashant states that this fear arises from the belief that one is already happy and that an alternative path, like Vedanta, would lead to unhappiness. He refutes this, asserting that people are terribly unhappy but are conditioned to mistake their unhappiness for happiness. Liberation, he clarifies, is freedom from this pre-decided script of life, offering a joy beyond imagination. He gives the example of Guru Gobind Singh's sons, who were fearless because their father was the Guru. He suggests one either needs a father of such stature or must accept the Guru as their father. To break free from the script, one must first acknowledge their conditioned state and the need for guidance.