The Entertainment Industry – Giving the least valuable the most value reflects ignorance

Transcript

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when the least valuable things are considered the most valued then we have lost our sense of values today if we consider the various professions we see a very tragic misdirection that people who are entertainers make the most money a doctor who saves life by hitting a leg doesn’t make anywhere near as much money as a person who uses one’s leg to kick a ball so a football player earns far more than a a life-saving surgeon or a person who is risking one’s life a soldier on a war field fighting against terrorists doesn’t make anywhere near as much money as does a person who uses a bat stick to hit a ball people who fight criminals police who fight criminals in real life don’t make anywhere near as much money as do actors who fight criminals in real life why is it that our society has come to a level where we are paying those who don’t really make any valuable contributions to the tangible sustenance of life why do we pay them so much why do we value them so much we give them the maximum space on our newspapers in our tv channels often sports stars and movie stars get as much as if not more space than even politicians at times now of course a reality tv star has also become the world’s most powerful politician so this overvaluing of entertainment points to a tragic misdirection in the world today in terms of what people are longing for we could say that in economics there is the principle of price and demand now demand is determined not just by actual need it is also determined by felt need so that means that when a particular thing is demanded by people so when entertainment people stream crowd trampede to stampede rather than to get to movie theaters they pay in black money to get tickets so that’s a need that people feel why because we all need pleasure in life you know our life tends to be boring and we want relief from that boredom and the best way to get relief from that boredom we feel is by turning towards entertainment so there are countries where people don’t have enough to eat and the government is ready to provide in welfare countries money by which people can support themselves but rather than supporting themselves people end up taking drugs because we want to experience something high rather than actually doing something go high doing something to consciously and steadily raise ourselves to higher consciousness we just want to take chemical that will take us high even if that is temporary that is the tragic misdirection of people today that rather than improving the quality of their life this they are happy to simply project their consciousness into the world of entertainment and therein experience something enjoyable which they feel will give them some relief some pleasure and they are ready to pay a lot for that so in the bhagavad-gita in the 18th chapter krishna talks about how sarvartha niparitamstha buddhi sa partha tamasi he says that that those who think knowledge to be ignorance and ignorance to be knowledge they are actually having distorted intelligence and such people so they don’t value the valuable and they give supreme excessive value to that which is not all that valuable such a tragic misdirection is seen in the way today’s society values things so rather than valuing for example life-saving or life-protecting professions we end up entertaining ourselves so this is because of life being sapped of any existential purpose and thus we feel that those who those who save our life are not as important as those who make our life worth living and when we have no understanding of any higher purpose for our life then the only thing that makes life worth living is the idea that of having something entertaining of having something enjoyable of having someone do some extraordinary performance which we feel will give us some enjoyment so thus we end up be fooled thus we end up completely having a distorted sense of values so even today lifespan may have increased as compared to the recent past my comforts may have increased what we live with is important but what we live for is even more important and today’s society may have progressed in terms of certain comforts for all about what we live with you may have faster means of locomotion transportation communication but what we live for what is the purpose of our life in that we have not progressed at all in fact because of it we end up feeling that we ourselves are lost that we have nothing to live for nothing to look forward to in our life life seems dreary life seems boring life seems burdensome and the only thing that brings some sparkle to our life is entertainment so the entertainment industry is a super valued industry because just human beings don’t just want to live they want to live for something and actually the the mania with which people crave for entertainment points to ultimately our spirituality because no matter we how much we improve life in the world ultimately in this world life is not satisfactory so we want to create some other world in which we can transport ourselves or at least transport our consciousness project our consciousness into it by identifying with someone in that world and thus experience some happiness when we don’t or can’t do that then we have nothing really enjoyable to live for that’s why the best thing we can do for ourselves during the course of our lives is to recognize that we without the purification without the elevation of our consciousness to the spiritual level where we as souls who are innately joyful and who are meant to experience joy in our spiritual relationship with the supreme source of all joy joyfulness that is God Krishna without that we cannot move forwards in our life we will not have anything worthwhile to live for and so we will create something to live for and that which we live for we will be ready to give up our life for that give up our life’s hard-earned money for that so it’s only when we understand how the spiritual is ultimately what is worth living for and thus when we pursue the spiritual and we experience the spiritual as bringing meaning and fulfillment to our life then we will be able to go beyond the indecision go beyond the confusion go beyond the frustration go beyond the pointlessness that dogs are real life and instead of seeking relief and pleasure in our daily life through going into entertainment and being ready to pay phenomenal amounts outrageous amounts in fact to entertainers we’ll actually recognize that our money and our time and our aspirations are far better utilized by connecting with those who are ready to offer our life higher meaning through providing it spiritual connection through giving it a deeper nourishment through giving it the ultimate fulfillment thank you