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There's no right or wrong? || AP Neem Candies
Acharya Prashant
1.4K views
5 years ago
Evil
Perception
Good and Bad
Suffering
Ignorance
Philosophy
Description

Acharya Prashant addresses the question of whether evil is real or just a product of impure perception. He strongly refutes the latter, identifying a modern "cult" that claims nothing is ever wrong and that everything is merely a game of perception. He counters this view by emphatically stating, "There is only evil... There is just evil." He argues that the idea that all evil is just impure perception is a dangerous falsehood. The speaker asserts that the "topmost evil" is to deny the existence of evil and to claim there is no such thing. He refers to proponents of this idea as "perceptionists" or "perception cultists," who he says belong to the "topmost evil grade." He describes their argument as follows: because one holds expectations, one starts labeling things as good or bad; if one drops this "impure perception," there will be no suffering. He critiques this by giving an example of an animal being butchered, which such people would dismiss by saying "everything is alright." He warns to be very cautious of those who believe that "anything that happens, happens for the good." Acharya Prashant further deconstructs this philosophy by highlighting its internal contradictions. He posits that if someone who believes this philosophy were lying crushed under a rock, according to their own logic, one should not help them because "all happens for the good." He also points out that if these individuals try to educate others that "all happens for the good," they are resisting the state of ignorance in others. This act of resistance implies that ignorance is not good, which means they are admitting that not everything is good, thereby contradicting their own core belief.