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What happened to the morality taught in childhood? || Acharya Prashant, with youth (2013)
Acharya Prashant
458 views
12 years ago
Intelligence
Conditioning
Evolution
Ethics
Brain Development
DNA
Animal Instincts
Understanding
Description

Acharya Prashant explains that the human brain is a product of evolution and serves as the seat of intelligence. He notes that the brain is not fully ripe until the age of ten to fourteen, making it necessary for children to be dependent on external information and guidance from elders. While this dependency is a natural stage of development, he emphasizes that once the mind ripens, it becomes an individual's obligation to act through their own intelligence rather than remaining dependent on external rules like a child. He suggests that being born into such dependency is a form of limitation because it forces one to take things from the outside. Addressing the topic of ethics, Acharya Prashant points out that although children are universally taught good values like honesty and non-violence, the world remains full of violence and deceit. This occurs because these values are merely told to children rather than discovered through their own understanding. When moral codes are handed down as empty preachings without personal realization, they fail to translate into one's life and instead cause internal conflict. He asserts that what comes from the outside can never truly show the way; only personal understanding is transformative. Regarding the origin of violent impulses in children, Acharya Prashant attributes this to physical conditioning and DNA. He explains that animal instincts are embedded in the human physical structure as a result of evolution. While all humans share an evolutionary past, individual differences in behavior and physical features arise because the stream of the past and specific conditionings differ for everyone. He concludes that violence in a child is a manifestation of these deep-seated animal instincts and social conditioning.