Acharya Prashant addresses a distressing situation where a village in Madhya Pradesh is submerged due to extreme rainfall, yet the residents attribute the disaster to divine wrath and the failure to perform animal sacrifices rather than climate change. He observes that despite technological advancements, India is regressing into deep-seated superstitions and mental backwardness. He argues that communication technology, like mobile phones and the internet, is being misused to propagate irrational beliefs and state-of-the-art apps for exorcism or ritualistic sacrifices, rather than fostering scientific temper. He notes that while the West experienced a conceptual revolution before its scientific one, India has acquired borrowed technology without the necessary intellectual evolution, leading to the misuse of science to serve medieval feudal mindsets. Acharya Prashant highlights that India is one of the most vulnerable countries to the impacts of climate change, yet there is a lack of public discourse or awareness about it. He critiques the societal and governmental consensus that seems to accept the suffering and death of the poor and uneducated as inevitable. He warns that as climate-related disasters like extreme heat and flooding intensify, people will likely sink deeper into superstition, viewing their misery as 'karmic' debt or divine punishment rather than demanding accountability for environmental policies. He concludes that the only way to lift the nation from this abyss is through a dual approach of education: material education involving science and history, and internal education or self-knowledge to dismantle irrational traditions and mental slavery.
