SELF acronym – The self that is missing in the selfie

[Talk at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia]

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Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you for coming today evening.
I am grateful to be here amongst all of you. And, I will be speaking today on the topic of the missing self in the selfie. And, I will speak this in four parts.
The subtitle is What Technology Can’t Provide and What Spirituality Can Provide. So, I will use the acronym SELF S E L F to talk about what it is that we need in our life which may not be available through the advancement of science and technology. Almost several decades ago, Martin Luther King said that our technological power has outrun our spiritual power.
We have guided missiles and misguided men. We have guided missiles and misguided men. And, technology has provided us phenomenal power to control the world outside us.
And yet, there are some vital things which are missing in today’s society. So, S E L F is the four things I will talk about. S is serenity.
Peace, calmness, mental poise. The single biggest lacking in today’s world is mental stability. In fact, it’s a curious paradox that the more modernised, westernised and technocentric a society becomes, the more people’s minds seem to become unstable.
A few months ago, I was in America, in New Jersey. I was addressing mental health care professionals at the mental health care centre. And, they were telling that more and more, both the patients who need mental health care as well as the caregivers are turning towards eastern spiritual practises.
Mindfulness, meditation, yoga, mantra chanting for gaining serenity, inner calm is actually vital for us to experience any happiness. If we are eating a delicious feast, but if our mind is disturbed, then we can’t enjoy that food. We all work a lot to gain external things by which we can get happiness.
And yes, those external things are needed. But, for even experiencing happiness with the best external things that we have, we need something internal. And that is inner stability.
In the Bhagavad Gita, which is an ancient yoga text, which is both a philosophical treatise par excellence as well as a practical guidebook for living. There it is explained, नास्ति बुद्धिर युप्तस्य, नचा युप्तस्य भावना, नचा भावयतः शान्तिर, अशान्तस्य कुतः सुखम। In the second chapter, 65th verse, in the Bhagavad Gita it is said, अशान्तस्य, if one does not have peace, कुतः सुखम। What is the possibility of happiness? All of us long for happiness, but if we do not have inner stability, if we do not experience serenity, then everything that we experience will simply agitate us, will simply leave us dissatisfied. It won’t lead to any enduring satisfaction in our life.
And that is why it is vital for us to seek this inner happiness. Now, this inner serenity, what does it come about by? Normally we consider that anxiety or inner anxiety or any of the mental health problems that come, they have certain external causes. Anxiety at one level is caused by uncertainty.
If I have to catch a flight, I am not sure whether I will reach in time for the flight or not, then that causes anxiety. As society is progressing in many ways with technological advancement, we have greater certainty. We have in say, many places in India, if we turn on the power switch, there is no guarantee power will come.
We turn on a tap, there is no guarantee water supply will come. But we don’t have that kind of problems when we are in the more progressive parts of the world. And yet, it seems that anxiety is increasing.
The more people become westernised, even Indians who come to the western parts of the world, it’s found that the stress and anxiety level shoot up. So serenity is something which is vitally missing. It’s vital and it’s missing.
And without having that, whatever else we may have, that will not give us satisfaction. In fact, it will not, we will not be able to in a sustained way get pleasure from that. Our inner poise, our mental calm is the foundation by which we can do anything else.
Suppose somebody wants to dance gracefully, but if they are told to dance gracefully on a surface where earthquake is happening, when the earth is quaking, they can barely stand and leave alone dance. Even if somebody has practised enormously to dance gracefully, the foundation on which they are standing or dancing, that is shaky. They can’t dance.
So our internals are like the foundation on which all our externals play out. We may plan, oh, I will get a car, I will get a big job, I will have an attractive spouse, I will have prestige and power in society. And yes, all these are like the dancing.
But underneath is our own serenity, our own inner stability, our own inner calm. And no matter how much technology advances, technology cannot provide us calm. Technology cannot provide us serenity.
It can provide us distractions. It can provide us a lot of titillation, stimulation by which we may forget that we are agitated. We may temporarily get so much stimulation externally that the inner disturbance may be forgotten.
In fact, most people nowadays, what do they consider as entertainment? Something which makes them forget the emptiness of their lives. That’s what they call as entertainment. So S is serenity.
E is enlightenment. Enlightenment doesn’t have to refer to some extraordinary mystical state where somebody is living in some other world. Enlightenment can simply refer to understanding our purpose in life.
Understanding the meaning and purpose of life. If we play, if we are a part of a play and then we rehearse very nicely for that play and then we come on the stage and start playing and everything seems to be going wrong. People are glaring at us, even the other players, other artists in the team they are giving us dark glances and we are doing our best to do our part and everybody seems to be upset.
Wondering what is happening? Trying our best and being scorned by everyone finally we understand this is a wrong play. There are multiple plays going on and we entered the wrong play. We were meant to be in another play which is going on in another auditorium, another stage.
So before we can play our part, we need to know which play we are a part of. So enlightenment simply means understanding which play we are a part of. Understanding what our purpose in life is.
Understanding what we are meant to do. योमामेव असमूरो जानाति पुरुषोत्तमं स सर्वविद्भज़तिमां सर्वभावेन भारत So, Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita states that when we understand our place and purpose in the higher scheme of things, then that brings strength of purpose to our life. For all of us, we exist in this world and we all do various things.
We may eat food, we may have some entertainment, we may study to build a career. All these are important, undoubtedly. At the same time, just as food, clothing, shelter, these are our needs.
These are physical needs. At a more fundamental inner need, we all need a sense of purpose. Without a sense of purpose, we feel that our life is pointless.
And then, when problems come, the problems become overwhelming. Suppose you’re just driving somewhere for fun and then you find there’s a lot of traffic over here. You say, OK, I don’t want to go here.
You turn around and you find a lot of traffic there also. You turn around, there’s a lot of traffic here also. You turn around, this road is also congested.
We will just keep turning, one turn, one turn, one turn, one turn. If you’re just driving for fun, whenever we see that driving is not fun, we’ll turn away. But, if we were going somewhere important, an important interview, an important meeting, an important function, and then even if there’s traffic, we’ll find some way.
We’ll find, OK, I can go this way, I can go this way. Perseverance. So, when obstacles come in life, what gives us the strength to persevere is our strength of purpose.
So, problems are like the traffic. And, if our purpose is weak, whenever problems come, we just give up. But, when our purpose is strong, at that time that no matter what problems come, we can persevere through that purpose.
Now, this enlightenment, we’re talking about what is the purpose of life. This is different from whatever subjective purpose we may assign to each one of our lives. That’s important.
All of us, OK, you come now to Australia, you come here for studies, you want to build a career ahead. Some of you want to become engineers, some of you want to become lawyers, some of you want to become chartered accountants, some of you want to become doctors. All of you in different fields, and you have these goals in life.
A goal and a purpose are two separate things. A goal is something external that we want to achieve. A purpose is an internal driving force within us.
A goal is based on externals that are not in our control. A goal is like a destination. We may get there, we may not get there.
But a purpose is like our direction. Where do I want to go in my life? What is it that I want to contribute? How am I meant to exist? So, this enlightenment, no matter how much scientific education we get, we’re not going to understand the purpose of life through science. In fact, one of the most prominent scientists, Nobel laureate Steven Weinberg, he said that the more we study the universe, the more it seems pointless.
The more the universe we study it, the more we understand it, the more it seems pointless. And this is supremely ironical. Because the whole study of the universe is to make sense of things.
A couple of years ago, I was invited to Cambridge University where I spoke at Science and Spirituality. So along the way to the university, we went by the tree, where Newton is said to have seen the fruit falling. Some say it fell in front of him, some say it fell on him.
On his head, wherever. So now, millions of people have seen this event of a fruit falling. Suppose, instead of Newton, there was a monkey sitting there.
And the monkey saw the fruit falling. What would the monkey do? Just pick it up, eat it and go on. Newton could also have done that.
But he asked a question, what makes this fruit fall? And now when this question itself is asked, what makes this fruit fall? There is an assumption over here that fruits don’t fall by chance. There is some kind of order which makes these fruits fall. So what is that order? Science essentially is a pursuit for understanding the order that animates the universe.
So, we take two metaphors to understand why this is ironical. That the more we understand the universe, the more it seems pointless. It is like, suppose you start studying some manuscript, which is written in some ancient language, some unfamiliar script.
And then, as you start deciphering it more and more, this letter means this, this word means this, this punctuation mark means this, this sentence means this. So, as you start saying, this word means this, this word means this, the sense of excitement increases. This makes sense, this makes sense, this makes sense.
Suppose we find a manuscript in which the words are written in perfect grammar. And, the words are written with perfect spelling, perfect punctuation, perfect grammar, and each sentence makes sense. But if you look at the whole script, it doesn’t make any sense.
If each sentence in a letter makes sense, but the whole letter doesn’t make sense. If you get an email like that, what’s wrong? So, if everything was simply senseless, then even the individual letters and words and sentences should not make sense. If the letters, words, sentences are making sense, then the whole manuscript also should make sense.
Whole parchment should also make sense. Similarly, science looks at the universe, and we find order at so many unlikely places in the universe. The way the atoms function, the way the electrons move around the nucleus, the way the cosmic bodies move about, there is order.
So, we have progressed in science by discovering order from the microscopic level to the macroscopic level. Einstein is attributed to have said that the most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible. The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible.
If the universe was simply a result of unguided natural forces, then why should it have any order at all? Why should it make sense? So, in a way, science is also a search for enlightenment. It is a search for the order that pervades nature. And if we are finding order in the specific phenomena in the universe, why should the universe not have some order? Why should the universe not have some purpose? Otherwise, our predicament, our situation becomes like we are in a vast ocean of ignorance.
And in between, there are some islands of meaning. Why do objects fall like this? This makes sense. Why do electrons move like this? That makes sense.
Why do the celestial bodies move like this? That makes sense. Why do we live? There is no purpose. That doesn’t make sense.
Might we be missing something bigger which we are not aware of? So, that is where spirituality comes in. So, I will raise these questions S-E-L-F and then I will come back and see how the spiritual wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita answers these questions. Now, L is love.
Love is the fundamental need of everyone. We all long to love and be loved. And without that feeling of love, we all feel very insecure, empty, lonely.
In fact, one of the biggest fears of people in the 21st century I am writing a book on fear. I discuss prominent fears in 19th century, 20th century, 21st century. There are two fears which have been added in the list of top 10 fears of the 21st century.
So, one of the fears is the fear of terrorists. And the second is the fear of rejection. Fear that when we try to form a relationship with someone, they may abandon us.
They may let us down. They may betray us. They may cheat us.
This fear of rejection is a deep rooted fear. And every fear points to something that we hold dear. Every fear points to something that we hold dear.
If say, we don’t care about ice hockey and Canada loses in the ice hockey finals. What difference does it make to me? If we fear rejection, that means there is something dear over there, which is threatened. And that is our need for love.
Now, with all the technological advancement that we have, we are no more closer to understanding what is love than what we were in the past. We have so many sophisticated machines which can measure so many things. Now, if there is a coin fallen on the ground on the street of New York, from a satellite high up, they can make out what denomination the coin is.
Is it a cent, a dime, what it is, a dollar? We can make that out. That much precision measurement we can have. And yet, is there any metre by which you can measure love? When two people want to develop a relationship, if they had a love-o-metre, they would have put on each other’s heart.
Do you really love me? Do you really love me? We don’t have that. Because emotions are subtle. They are real, but they are not measurable.
Science and technology specialise in answering measurable aspects of the universe, quantifiable, measurable aspects of the universe. Peter Medawar is a Nobel laureate scientist, and he wrote a book, a note to young scientists. And there he writes that, to claim that the questions that science can’t answer are not questions worth asking is a form of arrogance that good scientists stay away from.
So love is real. To say that, okay, love doesn’t exist because science can’t measure it. That is arrogance.
And it’s best for good scientists to stay away from it. F is fulfilment. Fulfilment is related with serenity, but it is an elevated state.
Fulfilment means a deep level of satisfaction that my life counts, that I matter, that I can contribute something significant. If there is one thing that is missing in today’s world is people lack fulfilment. In fact, the whole mania associated with entertainment that is there in today’s world is largely a means to forget or to deny, to cover up the lack of fulfilment in life.
Fulfilment means we feel that our life counts, that our efforts matter, that our contributions can make a difference. But unfortunately when we feel that what we are doing doesn’t matter, it doesn’t make sense, we don’t count. We try to deny reality.
And the way we deny reality, we try to escape from reality. One way is through technology. The huge mania associated with entertainment in today’s world is because we are trying to run away from ourselves.
We are trying to escape the pointlessness of life. Maybe 20, 30, 50 years ago, there’s some action movie, that action movie would be simply maybe some fighting, some punching each other. Now, if you want action, some giant buildings, and boom, it’s blown up.
Or the whole planet is in danger, continents get destroyed. And then people feel at that time, it’s fun. Some fun, some stimulation is there.
So that indicates to the extent we have become deadened internally that we need this stimulation. So technology can offer us entertainment, it can’t offer us fulfilment. It can, if our life doesn’t count, it can make us forget that.
And scientific advancement is involving a lot of brilliance, millions of brains all over the world have worked very hard to come up with scientific advancement and through that technological advancement, and where credit is due, it needs to be given. At the same time, there are some vital things that are missing. And unless those things are fulfilled, we cannot have fulfilment in our life.
No matter how many channels we have on our TV, no matter how many screens we have on our TV, no matter what is the speed of the internet on our phones, no matter how many sites we can access, we will not find fulfilment anywhere. All that we will find is some stimulation, some entertainment, followed by some dissatisfaction. So entertainment is like the painkiller, which masks the pain of an unfulfilled life, of a pointless life.
So now, the characteristic of painkillers is that they don’t kill the pain, they kill the sensation of the pain, they desensitise the person. But as the disease keeps increasing, then people need more and more dosage of the painkillers. So similarly, we see that the feverishness with which entertainment people are seeking, indicates that the pain of the emptiness within is increasing.
And that’s why we need more and more and more painkillers. More and more dosage of painkillers. You know, India traditionally has had two major painkillers.
One is Bollywood, and the other is cricket. And a few years ago, both of them got married. And they begot a child, whose name is IPL.
So, the Indian Premier League, where there are Bollywood stars who are often sponsors or owners of teams, and there are cricketers. Now, many of these IPL cricketers, in some 50-60 days, they make more money than what most people will make in 50-60 years. And not just some people who are doing some menial work.
Even people who are professionals don’t make so much money. Now, where is that money coming from? It’s coming from you and me. So, what we value reflects our values.
The fact that people are ready to shell so much money for getting entertainment indicates that they feel entertainment is such a great need. If somebody’s in great pain, they’ll be ready to pay any price to get a painkiller. That’s why, entertainment, although it costs so much, people want it because they want some relief.
But unfortunately, that relief is short-lived. Like the relief of a painkiller, the pain comes back again and again and again and more and more and more. So now, how are these four, the missing self in the selfie was the topic, so how are these four provided by spirituality? Let’s look back at S. What was S? Serenity.
Serenity is peace, it’s calmness. So now, actually speaking, serenity comes when we understand that we have an unchanging foundation to our life. That beyond whatever is changing, there is something that is unchanging.
So the Bhagavad Gita explains that our existence is three-level. Body, mind and soul. That’s similar to, in a computer system, the hardware, the software and the user.
The hardware is like the body, the software is like the mind and the soul is the user. So the mind is like the software that integrates various inputs that come from the outer world and it also takes inputs from our memory. So from external perception and from internal recollection, inputs come on the mind and we as souls, we respond to those inputs.
So to understand what is the mind, let’s do a simple thought exercise. So wherever you are seated, try to relax in your seats and close your eyes. And with your eyes closed, now you can take three deep breaths.
One, two, three. Now with your eyes closed, look ahead of you to see what is in front of you. Because your eyes are closed, you can’t see what is physically in front of you.
Yet, you see something like an inner screen on which you may see this room, your own room at home, some loud one, some book you are studying, maybe some image you saw recently. Various things may keep coming and going on that inner screen. Or you might just see a dull haze of colours over there.
Whatever it is specifically that you see, you see it on an inner screen. Now, as you are observing that inner screen, try to take a step back and look at the seer of the inner screen. Try to step back and look at who is it that is looking at all those images coming on the inner screen.
Try once again. Try to take a step back and catch sight of the inner seer. No matter how many times you step back, the seer steps back with you.
You are that seer. What you are looking for is what you are looking with. You, that seer is the soul.
And the screen is your mind. You can take one deep breath and you can open your eyes. So, when normal perception happens, at that time, there is the outer see.
For example, you are looking at me. That is the outer see. And then there is the inner screen.
And there is the inner seer. All these three need to be in a straight line. That is when perception happens.
If the inner screen is showing something else. As I said, the inner screen can get inputs from outer perception or from inner recollection. We might be talking with someone and suddenly some thought comes.
And then we get lost. And then the other person says, Hey, earth to you, earth to you, where are you? So, what happened? The eyes were looking at that person. The ears were hearing that person.
But, the inner screen was somewhere else. So, on the inner screen, whatever comes, that determines our state of mind. Because the inner screen is our mind.
Through technological advancement, we are trying to create a better and better outer scene. We are trying to have more and more attractive things to look at. Have good houses, have good looks, have good gadgets.
We create outer scenes that are more and more pleasant. But, the inner screen is very fickle. The inner screen is meant to act like a window, which shows the outer scene.
But, the inner screen can also become like a TV. And suddenly, it starts showing something else entirely. And, to the extent, our inner screen keeps showing us unpleasant images.
This person did this. Why did that happen? Why are things going wrong like this? To the extent that inner screen is showing unwanted imagery, we will be agitated. So, serenity comes when we understand that we are different from the outer screen, sorry, outer scene and we are different from the inner screen.
We are the seer of both. So, an unpleasant thought may come in the mind. But, instead of identifying with that thought, instead of getting carried away by that thought, we observe.
So, we are doing some work and suddenly we remember it. This person promised to do it but didn’t do it. Such a forgetful, irresponsible fool.
Next time I see them, I’m going to give them a piece of my mind. And now, as these thoughts are coming in, if we identify with them, we’ll get carried away. We might have been sitting in concentration and next moment we’ll be seething in agitation.
But, if you identify, okay, this is just a thought that has come. This is just some stimulus that has come on my inner screen. I don’t have to identify with it.
I can distance myself from it. So, serenity comes to the extent we understand that we are different from the world and we are different from the mind. यथा सर्वगतं सोक्ष्मयाद् आकाशं नो पलिप्पते सर्वत्रावस्तितो देहे तथाद्मा नो पलिप्पते Bhagavata says, just as in the sky storms may come, dust may come, smog may come, that comes and it goes.
But the sky above it remains unchanged. Similarly, it says that in our mind various emotions will come. Anger will come.
Irritation will come. Depression will come. Anxiety will come.
But beyond it all, we are unchanging. We are the inner seer. The practise of spirituality is meant to help us understand and experience ourselves to be the inner seers.
Just now we had kirtans before this class started. Kirtan is not simply a religious ritual which feels good. Yes, it does feel good.
But the purpose is to actually spiritualise our consciousness. To experience a non-material level of reality where there is calmness. So, S is serenity.
That comes when we understand that we are the inner seers. E, what was E? Enlightenment. Enlightenment means to understand what is our place and purpose in the broad scheme of things.
So, the Bhagavad Gita explains, mamai vamsho jiva loke jiva bhutah sanatana We are finite consciousness and there is an infinite consciousness. And, enlightenment simply means that the finite consciousness and the infinite consciousness become connected in a bond of affection. So, we are not just lonely beings living in a hostile universe.
We are actually parts of an infinite consciousness. And our purpose in life ultimately is to connect with that infinite. So, the emerson was a prominent, Ralph Waldo Emerson was a prominent American thinker.
And, he was known as an American transcendentalist. So, he said that all that I have seen points me to the one whom I have not seen. All that I have seen, we see the order in the world around us.
As I said, science is a discovery of the order latent in nature. India’s own mathematical genius, Srinivas Ramanujan said that an equation for me has no meaning unless it represents a thought of God. Why is f is equal to g? m1 m2 upon r square.
Newton discovered that equality, but why does that equality exist at all? So, just as there is order in the universe which points to a higher intelligence, similarly, for us, the perception of this order is meant to point our intelligence towards the source of that order. So, whatever abilities we have, whatever talents we have, all of them are meant to help us make a positive contribution in a mood of service, in a mood of affection, in a mood of devotion. What we are is God’s gift to us.
What we become is our gift to God. What we are is God’s gift to us. We all have certain talents, certain gifts, certain interests, certain resources with us.
So, they are the gift that we have been given. And using this positively, becoming a better human being, becoming a better contributor to society, becoming a better performer, what we become is our gift to God. So, enlightenment means that we understand that we are meant to function in a mood of service and contribution.
As long as we think that we are meant to function in a mood of control and domination, this is how things have to work. This is my plan, this is how things have to work. As long as we think that our role is that I am a controller, I am a dominator, to that extent, we will be frustrated.
It’s like we are acting in a play, in the wrong play. We are playing a wrong part because the play is wrong. So, our part is to be not a controller but a cooperator.
There are things in our control which we do the best we can. There are things which are not in our control, we let go of them. So, enlightenment means to understand that we have a part to play.
We simply focus on playing our part. When we board a plane, how many of us worry what if the plane doesn’t have enough fuel? How many of us worry what if the pilot is drunk? No, we don’t worry about those things. We worry whether we have got our boarding pass, we have got our passport.
We know that there is a bigger system which takes care of other things. We have to take care of our part. So, similarly for each one of us, there is a bigger plan, there is a bigger purpose.
We have to do our part. So, enlightenment means that right now, in a mood of service and contribution, what can I do? What can I do right now? To the extent we have a mood of control and domination, we get frustrated. I wanted to do this, this couldn’t work.
I wanted to do this, this is a problem. What can I do? There are so many problems, I just can’t do anything. I talked about the difference between a purpose and a goal.
A goal is something external which we want to achieve, that is in the mood of control and domination. A purpose is something internal, in a mood of contribution. So, how can I contribute? In this situation, what can I do? Even a small step we take will grow by that.
This is enlightenment, that we act in a mood of service and contribution. L is love. Now, where, as I said, science and technology, with all their advancement, can’t measure love.
They can’t quantify love. So, love actually is a characteristic of the inner seer. Love is not just something that is enacted through say, public display of affection at the physical level.
It is not just some emotion, sentiment that is felt at the level of the inner screen. It is a part of who we are. Love is meant to be expressed in two ways, horizontally and vertically.
Vertically means, as I said, we all are parts of the infinite. That infinite is known by different names in different traditions. The Bhagavad Gita knows Him by the name Krishna.
So, we are meant to have a loving relationship with Krishna. And we are meant to love everyone in relationship with Him. So, whoever offers us love, it is not just they as one person offering love.
It is Krishna who is offering us love through them. And we, when we offer our love and service, it’s not just that we are offering that love to them. Through them we are offering to Krishna.
Some of you may have heard of this traditional prayer, … And whatever love I have got from my mother, my father, from my brother, from my sibling, from my friends, from whatever strength and shelter I have got from my wealth, from my knowledge, from anywhere, whatever I have got, that I have ultimately got from You, O Lord. So, for us, we are always loved by Krishna. Krishna says, … I am the well-wisher of every single person.
Not just every single human being, every single living being. And we don’t have to do anything to earn that love. We are all eternally loved.
So, this vertical relationship we understand. The process of Bhakti Yoga is not just a religious ritual. It is meant for us to express our affection to God and it is meant for us to experience His affection for us.
To the extent we do this, we start feeling sheltered and strengthened through our vertical relationship. And that becomes the basis of our self-esteem. Now, a great fear that people have is that I am lonely.
I am unloved. To feel unloved is distressing. To feel unloveable is devastating.
But when we practise Bhakti and connect with Krishna through the vertical relationship, then we experience a love that is unconditional and uninterrupted. That love becomes the basis of our inner security. And that helps us to stably pursue other relationships.
And last F is, what was it? Fulfilment. So, fulfilment means that when we work in a mood of service and contribution with the inner security that I am eternally loved, then that brings a confidence within us by which we can strive wholeheartedly. The Bhagavad Gita begins with Arjuna having lost heart.
Arjuna puts aside his bow. विस्रुज्जिसशरं जापं शोकसं वीग्नमानस शोकसं वीग्नमानस saying, I can’t fight. That’s the last verse of the first chapter.
46th verse, first chapter. The last verse of the Bhagavad Gita, 18th chapter, 78th verse describes यत्र योगेश्वर कृष्णो यत्र पार्थो धनुर्धर तत्रश्वीर विजयो भूतिर् द्रुवानी तिर्म तिर्ममा So, it is said that Arjuna has picked up his bow in readiness to fight. So, Arjuna’s bow represents our morale, our confidence, our enthusiasm.
So, when he faces this horrible battle in front of him, a fratricidal battle, fighting against his own relatives, he says, how can I fight? Similarly, life sometimes presents us with battles which seem extremely disheartening. How can I do this? I can’t do this. Just as Arjuna puts aside his bow, sometimes we lose heart.
But just as hearing the wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita illumined Arjuna, it empowered Arjuna. Similarly, for us, if we understand the spiritual wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita, if we experience the love of the Divine, then that helps, rejuvenates us, that restores our morale. Just as Arjuna picked up his bow in readiness to fight, we become ready to face whatever life sends our way.
And when we work in this mood of confidence, not just confidence in our ability, but confidence in the Divine arrangement that is there with us, then we pursue even through obstacles till we ultimately get fulfilment. So, fulfilment comes not just by achieving something external, but fulfilment comes by living true to our values. When we contribute in a mood of service and devotion, we’ll find that whatever we do will bring fulfilment.
And thus, that inner richness which is missing in our life will come to us. Technology can provide us external riches, but it is spirituality that will provide us internal riches, will provide us inner enrichment. And in the ultimate analysis, that is what will count.
I’ll conclude with a quote from Einstein. He said that it’s attributed to him that everything that is countable doesn’t count. And everything that counts is not countable.
So, you may think, how many gadgets I have, how much marks I have got, how much money am I earning, all this matters. But what matters more is our inner richness. And that inner richness we can all get through spiritual understanding and spiritual practise.
I’ll summarise. I spoke today on the topic of the missing self in the selfie. So, I spoke this in terms of what are the four things that science, the technology can’t provide.
So, what was S? Serenity. Serenity, yeah. Despite so much technological advancement, people are getting more and more agitated.
Mental health problems are shooting up. And although external anxiety and uncertainty have gone down to some extent because of scientific and technological progress, still internal insecurity is increasing. So, serenity is like the foundation for our capacity to experience anything else.
We can’t dance if the floor itself is shaky. A, if our mind is agitated, we can’t enjoy delicious food. So, V, with all our technological progress, if we don’t have serenity, then नास अशान्तस्य कुता है सुकाम। Without peace, where can be happiness? E was? Enlightenment.
I talked about how science is in a sense a pursuit for understanding, for enlightenment. And science has looked for and discovered order in various aspects of the universe from the microscopic to the macroscopic. And yet, it comes with a big picture, as Weinberg said, the more we understand the universe, the more it seems to be pointless.
So, it’s like we are studying some unfamiliar parchment on which the letters make sense, the words make sense, the sentences make sense, the whole parchment doesn’t make sense. We are missing something. If there is order in the way the letters are written, the words are written, that means somebody must have put some effort and made the big picture.
So, if science is not providing the big picture, that means something is missing. Science studies the measurable material aspects of reality, whereas the big picture is found at the spiritual level. And L was? Love.
I talked about how fear of rejection is a big fear in today’s world. And with all the technological advancement, we can’t have anything called a love-o-metre. Because love is real, but it is not quantifiable.
And F was? Fulfilment. So, we are working very hard, we may be earning more and more money, getting more and more gadgets, but through it all, actually we are feeling greatly empty in our life. And that inner emptiness, for that the painkiller is entertainment.
And because the pain of inner emptiness is so great, that’s why we are dependent more and more on entertainment and we are ready to pay phenomenal amount of money. But, painkiller doesn’t cure, it only covers. And we keep needing more and more painkillers.
That’s why entertainment is becoming more and more frenzied. And yet, there is no fulfilment. So, then I talked about how spirituality can provide this.
S was serenity. I did a thought experiment. There is an outer scene, inner screen and inner seer.
So, serenity comes when we understand that we exist beyond the things that happen in the outer world and beyond the thoughts that come on our mind. So, just as the sky exists above the ground and above whatever is there in the pollution is there in the atmosphere. Similarly, to the extent we realise our spirituality, to that extent we experience serenity.
And the process of yoga, bhakti yoga especially is meant to help us realise our spirituality and to relish serenity. E was enlightenment. I said that.
We have to know which play we are a part of before we play our part. So, we are not meant to be controllers and dominators. We are meant to be cooperators and contributors.
The soul is finite consciousness and infinite consciousness. And there is a bigger plan to life. We just have to focus on doing our part right now.
So, we enter a plane. We worry just about taking our boarding pass and the passport. So, if we just focus on what can I do right now in that mood of service we will find doors opening for us.
If we have the mood of control and domination, if we are goal driven we will be dependent on external means. If we are purpose driven, how can I contribute? We can always be on the progressive path. And love, I explained was that we have a vertical relationship with the infinite Krishna and we have horizontal relationship with others.
So, there will be instability and uncertainty in our horizontal relationships. But if we practise bhakti yoga and experience the love of the divine for us then that will be the basis of our inner security and steady self esteem by which we can with maturity cope with the uncertainties in seeking and getting love at the horizontal level. And F was fulfilment.
That when we work in a mood of service and devotion, problems whenever they come they won’t dishearten us. Instead of putting aside our bow like Arjuna did, instead of putting aside our determination by understanding spiritual wisdom and experiencing divine love we will regain our morale and we will persevere in life towards ultimate fulfilment. Thank you very much.
Are there any questions or comments? If you do biohacking where they are able to access, so you manipulate the chemicals and that’s very much it and you can overcome the limitations, so how would you? So, if we do biohacking say we manipulate the chemicals in the brain then we will be able to change our emotions. That’s an oversimplified understanding of the brain. It is true that there are certain psychedelic chemicals, psychedelic drugs which can change brain states.
But here we have to understand what exactly is happening. As I said, there is an inner seer, there is an inner screen and there is an outer seeing. So, everything that happens at the physical level will have a physical, that means a biochemical component to it.
So, if my hand is having a fracture and then I apply some pain medication over there, what happens is I don’t feel the pain anymore. It is not that the disease is not there still. The nervous system becomes a little bit deaded so that the sensation of pain doesn’t go from that part of the body to the brain.
Now, this we understand with respect to the body that the pain has not been cured by the chemical, the ointment that we may have applied. The pain was not caused by the absence of the ointment. The pain is caused by something deeper.
There is a structural damage, say I got a fracture. So, the chemical intervention can change our experience of reality. But that doesn’t mean that experience was produced solely by the chemicals or that experience can be changed completely by the chemicals.
So, take what applies at the level of the arm say when I got a fracture, take it to the level of the brain. The brain is also a functional unit of, very complicated functional unit which functions by some biochemical balances, biochemical motions. If the biochemicals in the brain are changed and brain states will change.
At the same time, what exactly is happening? Ultimately, if you consider when the electrochemical states of the brain cells change, it is just like electricity flowing through any circuit. There are digital circuits in the computer, there are neural circuits in the brain. But who is experiencing it? If you play a chess match with a computer and the computer defeats you, if you defeat the computer, you will be happy.
The computer defeats you for the computer. It doesn’t even know that it was playing a chess match. All that it was functionally doing was, it was just crunching numbers according to some programme.
So, this is called the hard problem of consciousness. The hard problem of consciousness is that, why do we have emotions at all? What is it that experiences emotions? On its 125th anniversary, Science magazine published a list of 125 questions that science doesn’t have answer to. The second question there was, what is consciousness? Where does consciousness come from? The first question was, where does the universe come from? So, the consciousness, when it goes through the brain, when the pathway is changed, our experience can be changed.
Just like when I apply some ointment, so I put some spray, the pathway is being changed. But the pathway doesn’t produce the pain. The pathway doesn’t produce even the experience of the pain.
The experiencer is someone else. Similarly, the same thing applies to the brain. The brain chemicals will change the pathway.
And that’s why to some extent the experience will change. But the experiencer is not produced by the chemicals. The experiencer exists somewhere else.
And many scientific studies have been done about this. There is a book called Cracked, written by a science journalist. Cracked, why psychiatry is doing more harm than good.
It’s an extensive study of many, many findings in psychiatric science. And they found that overall, say antidepressants, this graph, how much do antidepressants actually help in removing depression? So, if you do a comparative graph, the percentage, if you have bar graph, the percentage of people being cured by the psychiatric, by the antidepressants is this much. It’s barely 0.2, 0.3 percent less is the number of people who are cured by placebos.
Placebos are where people just give sugar pills. They’re told that they’re given medicines, but they’re not being given medicines. And just little less than that is the number of people who are cured by psychotherapy.
And just a little less than that are people who are cured by time. You do nothing. Just, yeah, some bad thing happens, we feel depressed, life goes on, we recover.
So, whether the chemicals are actually causing the healing or is it just our sense, our own inner robustness that is causing the healing? That is the question. So, there’s one famous psychiatrist who said that the purpose of psychiatry is to keep the patient entertained while the body heals itself. Laughter So, there is, there is this great hope.
Some people may have clinical depression and at that time, if there are some tangible structural issues or measurable chemical issues, then taking medication may be necessary. But in most cases, it is that people still have to grow up. Problems come, we feel disheartened for some time, we grow up.
We cannot find chemical solutions to human problems. And if chemicals were the secret for everything in our life, then, you know, all of us want to be happy. Why can’t we have happiness in a bottle? Want to be happy? Take a bottle, drink some, be happy.
And that will provide some sensation of pleasure. But that will be very superficial. It will be like the pleasure produced by tickling.
Sometimes if we go to some person’s house, we are relative and they have a small child, we tickle their belly. We start tickling their belly and what happens? The child will start laughing helplessly. Now when the child starts laughing, is that laughter happiness? If that laughter were happiness and the goal of all of our lives is to be happy, then all of us could have our own perpetual tickling machine.
Whenever you want to be happy, just tickle yourself and become happy. Nothing else is required. Just as tickling at the physical level may produce a reaction that resembles happiness, but that is not the real thing.
Similarly, by putting some brain altering chemicals in the brain, we may create a sensation that we are happy. But that is not really happiness. It is just a simulation, it is a simulcrum, it is an artifice of happiness.
So in principle, in practise, in principle, a person may take alcohol and feel great. And in principle, a person may take antidepressants and feel great. In practise, the antidepressants may not be as damaging as alcohol.
Of course, they may be damaging in another way, in the sense that they may become subtly addicted, people may become dependent on it. They can have many different side effects. But just as alcohol doesn’t produce happiness.
It is not real happiness. So similarly, even if we could do any kind of biohacking, all that we could find out by that is, which area of the brain correlates with which emotion, but doesn’t generate that emotion. That correlation is like, some people have got some tender spots more.
If you tickle somebody in the belly, here you tickle, nothing happens. Here you tickle, start laughing a little. Here you tickle, start laughing helplessly.
So, it is like that, biohacking will be like that, where which area of the brain when we tickle with chemicals, there is greater stimulation. But that is not producing the experience, and that is not producing the experiencer. Okay? Thank you.
Any other questions? Yes, please. Do we have time? Okay, yeah. In the selfie, if a reductionist would look at the title, they would agree with it.
There is a famous evangelical atheist, Sam Harris, he has this talk, where he establishes that the selfie is actually an illusion. And you kind of put some light on it today by saying what we are looking for is what we are looking with. So, as an individual, how can we come to an experience that we are someone, we are an individual, it is not just chemical reactions that we are going through.
Yeah, good question. So, some scientists, some philosophers, they say that the self is an illusion. So, actually, there is no self in the selfie.
That is an illusion. What I meant by missing self in the selfie is that we may, through technology, get a lot of advancement, and we can produce more and more selfies. But the selfie will never show the real person.
The selfie and technology that it represents will not provide us the things that really matter for us. Having said that, now, this is a common idea that the self is an illusion. It is especially reductionistic worldview.
But even if we say the self is an illusion, the question comes, whose illusion? If somebody says, oh, that water in a mirage is an illusion. Fine. The water in the mirage can be an illusion.
But the experiencer of that mirage is not an illusion. What is experienced can be an illusion, but to categorise that experience, this is a reality or this is an illusion. Whatever is the evaluation of that experience, to have an authentic evaluation of that experience, the evaluator has to be real.
So, what is perceived through consciousness can be an illusion, but consciousness itself cannot be an illusion. So, specific object that I perceive may not be existing. But unless the perceiver is existing, there cannot be any perception itself.
And so, there cannot be any evaluation that this perception is true or it is false. So, in that sense, to say that the self is an illusion is a self-contradictory statement. Because who is the self who is experiencing the illusion? Who is the self who is an illusion? Who is the self who is saying that the self is an illusion? To say that the self is an illusion is a statement like saying, I don’t know a single word of English.
You have already spoken 8 words. Isn’t it? These are self-contradictory statements. So, the sense of self is the foundation of all our experience.
And science itself would not be possible if there were not a sense of self. So, unfortunately what has happened is that there has been, science is a very powerful tool of knowledge, for acquiring knowledge, but there is a possibility in any field of knowledge to go beyond its scope. There is, there can be valid observations and there can be invalid extrapolations from the observations.
You see, if some extraterrestrial being came to the earth to observe the earth and suppose that being came to Latrobe University and came to this particular room in TLC and was hovering behind over here observing then that being would stay here for one hour and go back and say that all the people of Australia are Indians. And now, the observation is true. For one hour, in this room, everybody who is there is Indian.
But the extrapolation in terms of space and in terms of time, that is invalid. So, what has happened with respect to science is that science started by looking at the observed world and not just the complete observed world. Science focused on looking at the measurable aspects of the observed world.
So, at the start of science it divided nature into two characteristics. It’s called the primary characteristics and secondary characteristics. Science considers primary characteristics to be length, breadth, mass all the measurable characteristics.
And everything else is secondary. So, suppose you go back from here and you tell somebody, I had a delicious feast. Wonderful feast I had.
What did you eat? He says, I ate 30 grammes of food. Now, who is interested in how many grammes you ate? That is one aspect. But that is not the aspect of food that we experience primarily.
What we experience is its taste. So, reducing everything to the measurable aspect of reality, it disconnects us from majority of reality. Now, by looking at the measurable aspects science has got a lot of correlations between measurable aspects.
But that is not the totality of reality. The totality of reality is much bigger. So, what has happened from the measurable aspects we are extrapolating.
This makes sense. This is like this. And when the measurable aspects are tried to explain and when something is non-measurable we say it doesn’t exist.
Because it doesn’t fit in this world view so it doesn’t exist. I’ll conclude with an example. Suppose, say you decide to drive from here to Brisbane.
And then you got a map. Map says, okay, cross this bridge. Go across this mountain ridge.
Turn left here. Turn right there. You’ll come across this landmark.
Go through this. As you keep using this map you find that whatever it says is right. And you’re going to Brisbane to meet a friend.
And finally, as you take steps according to the map and it shows you the right direction, your faith in the map increases. And you keep looking at the map. Oh, this is here.
This is here. This is here. Now, suppose whoever is driving like this reaches their destination.
They knock on the door of the friend. And the friend opens and says, welcome! And we look at the map. Map doesn’t show you.
Therefore, you don’t exist. If somebody said like that, then you would tell them, your brain doesn’t exist. The map is not meant to show living people, isn’t it? The map is a very powerful tool but the map does not describe the totality of reality.
So, to extrapolate from the map and to evaluate the existence of living beings based on the map is invalid extrapolation. So, when science starts by looking at the measurable aspects of the universe and it is the self who is doing the investigation. Without the self, no science would be possible.
But now, some people develop so much overconfidence in the map that is provided by science. What science provides is a map of reality. A very useful and very powerful map.
But still it is a map. It is not the territory. It is not the complete reality.
So, if somebody says this based on scientific analysis that the self doesn’t exist, it’s like saying that telling a friend, you don’t exist because you are not on the map.