- 6/12/2025
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Dear Achayaji, for the sake of not sounding hypocritical, I have to admit that I have killed more than one mosquito in my life and many other insects too, but never intended to cause pain and suffering to them.
00:17Now hearing, let alone seeing, relatively conscious animals being tortured evokes almost unbearable pain and helplessness in me.
00:26Of course, if you understand where your pain, helplessness and concern come from, then you will be more determined, more unflinching in your stand.
00:46Otherwise, you will remain a bit shaky, uncertain.
00:57When it comes to killing mosquito,
01:00you must remember the fundamentals.
01:07Man as he is, is bound to kill.
01:18Killing is necessarily associated with the human form.
01:28That's how we are and that's why the saints loathed the human form.
01:36They didn't say that it's a great joy to be born as a human body.
01:48They said, please, we do not want to come back again as a human body.
01:59We want to be liberated.
02:04Because to be human is to be violent.
02:11Now that's a fine thing that you must understand.
02:18To be lion does not mean that you are violent.
02:23To be a rat is not necessarily to be violent.
02:27In fact, the word violence do not apply to the lion or to the rat.
02:34They apply only to the human being.
02:38The lion kills all his life but he cannot be called violent.
02:44He cannot be called non-violent either.
02:47He is just doing what his physical conditioning compels him to do.
02:57He has no option.
03:01Man has the option to kill and to not to kill.
03:05Man has the option to choose what he wants to eat.
03:09And therefore, only man can be violent or non-violent.
03:12The most fearsome carnivore is not violent at all.
03:28The mosquito is not violent even if it survives only on your blood.
03:34But if you can avoid killing the mosquito and you still kill it, then you are violent.
03:38It's a strange thing.
03:39The rules are different.
03:44The rule that applies to mosquito does not apply to you.
03:47Because the mosquito, owing to its form, does not have a consciousness crying for liberation.
03:58No mosquito is crying for liberation.
04:01No rat, neither the elephant nor the lion are eager to get liberated.
04:14It's only the human form that seeks liberation.
04:19It is the human form that has a choosing consciousness.
04:30The word consciousness itself implies choice.
04:35What is non-violence?
04:37When you make the right choice, it is called non-violence.
04:39You always have to choose in favor of liberation.
04:45What is non-violence?
04:46To always choose in favor of liberation.
04:48What is violence?
04:49To choose in favor of bondages.
04:54And such a choice is not relevant to the mosquito or to the lion at all.
04:58And therefore they are absolved of all guilt.
05:05But man is guilty if man does not choose properly.
05:09To not to choose properly is called violence.
05:12Violence does not necessarily mean killing.
05:15Violence, I repeat, means choosing in favor of bondage.
05:28How will consciousness gain liberation?
05:32Consciousness gains liberation by being sympathetic towards itself.
05:39Follow it.
05:40Consciousness gains liberation by being sympathetic towards itself.
05:49It is concerned towards your pathetic condition that impels you to seek freedom.
06:00Why does man remain in bondage and why do some people strive for freedom and attain it?
06:05Why do most people tolerate, happily tolerate, remaining in bondage?
06:13Because they have no self-love.
06:16They have no empathy towards themselves.
06:25So, to gain liberation, what you require is a consciousness that empathizes with itself.
06:33A consciousness that empathizes with consciousness.
06:42A consciousness that empathizes with consciousness.
06:44To gain liberation, you require a consciousness that empathizes with consciousness.
06:49That looks at its own condition, its own form and says,
06:53I am so sorry for myself.
06:56I don't like the way I am suffering.
06:59I don't like the way I am suffering.
07:04So, consciousness that respects consciousness will gain liberation.
07:09Please understand this.
07:11Why do most people not gain liberation?
07:14Because they do not have any self-respect or any self-love.
07:17They suffer and they keep suffering because they tolerate suffering.
07:24They do not love themselves enough to rebel against suffering.
07:29They do not respect themselves enough to say no to suffering.
07:34You, therefore, I say, require a consciousness that is in love with consciousness itself.
07:49And if you have a consciousness that is in love with consciousness,
07:52how will you choose indiscriminate killing?
08:03When you kill, you do not kill a stone.
08:08Right?
08:09What does the word killing refer to?
08:13Consciousness.
08:17Consciousness.
08:20In some way, the mosquito is like you.
08:24If you love yourself, how can you kill the mosquito?
08:27It's a strange logic.
08:29But this is it.
08:33Liberation requires that you do not kill the ones who are like you.
08:38Jesus pointed at it when he said behave with the neighbor as you would behave with yourself.
08:51Why?
08:52Because the neighbor is like you.
08:57Just as the neighbor is like you,
08:59the goat or the bird too is like you.
09:04The greater your circle of empathy is, the greater will be your empathy towards yourself.
09:21It's almost as if it is your own empathy that spreads radially outwards in concentric circles.
09:30The greater is the intensity of the source of empathy at the center, the greater is the spread of empathy.
09:43Then it starts encompassing more and more conscious beings.
09:48In other words, the more deeply you want liberation for yourself,
09:59the more will be the domain of conscious beings you would seek liberation for.
10:10Understand it this way.
10:11You would have thrown a stone into a pond.
10:21You would have thrown a stone into a pond.
10:24If you just drop it with almost zero speed,
10:38how big will be the ripples?
10:53Very small, without any power.
10:58Because there is not much depth in the impact that you are creating.
11:07Take the impact as the y-axis.
11:11There is not much depth that you are attaining in the y-axis.
11:16Therefore, the effect in the x-dimension will also be negligible.
11:26The ripples that you will see will be very faint, very feeble.
11:31But if you throw the stone vertically right into the surface of the pond with power and velocity,
11:48then the vertical impact of the stone will be large, right?
11:54And because vertically the impact will be large, horizontally the ripples will spread far and wide.
12:07Vertically what you want is for yourself.
12:13You are the y-axis.
12:15Horizontally what you want is for others.
12:18The bigger the circle, the more are the number of people that are included in your circle of compassion and empathy.
12:33The point where you drop the stone is the center of your personality.
12:41Closest to this center are the ones closest to you.
12:52For example, your parents, your spouse, your kids, your friends.
12:57A little further away are your neighbors.
13:01A little further away are other human beings.
13:07A little further away are people of let's say other countries, other continents.
13:14Even further away are non-humans, other conscious beings.
13:21Even in the category of non-humans, radially outwards first you will encounter let's say mammals.
13:32Then you will encounter let's say birds, then you will encounter insects and so on, then bacteria and so on.
13:45As you keep moving further away from the center, you are encountering more and more beings that are conscious but not like you.
13:57Your circle of empathy will never reach those beings if it does not have depth.
14:10But the more you love yourself, the more you are empathetic yourself, the bigger will be your circle.
14:15And then you will be empathetic towards conscious beings far and wide.
14:26Therefore, if you are someone who can eat even a human being, it only proves that your circle of empathy is very very small.
14:39You can eat even a human being. Even human beings lie outside your circle of empathy. So your circle is very small.
14:49And if your circle is small, what does it prove about the intensity of your self-love?
14:57Self-love? It has very little intensity. Therefore, the circle that it created was very small.
15:05If you can eat a human being, it means you do not love yourself at all.
15:10If you do not love yourself at all, there is no possibility of liberation.
15:15You are a very violent person. If there is no possibility of liberation at all for you, then you are a very violent person.
15:28That is violence. To make a choice that will not lead to liberation, that is violence.
15:34That is violence.
15:38Are you getting it?
15:42Who is the most like you?
15:45You, yourself.
15:47So first of all, be empathetic to yourself.
15:51Then who is the one most like you?
15:54Your mother, your father, your siblings.
15:56Be empathetic to them.
15:58Then who is the one most like you?
15:59Your neighbors, your extended family.
16:04Then who is the one most like you?
16:12Be empathetic to all.
16:18If you are not displaying compassion towards other conscious beings,
16:24it will only hurt you.
16:29Kill the animal.
16:33And in some way the animal is liberated of its misery.
16:37At least in the physical sense.
16:39But you having eaten the animal,
16:43will now live to suffer the effects of eating that animal.
16:49That is your punishment.
16:50You will survive to see tomorrow.
16:54That is your punishment.
16:56The animal is gone.
17:00But you will not be allowed to go.
17:02You have just had flesh.
17:04The flesh will keep you alive.
17:07And you will stay put.
17:10There will be a tomorrow for you.
17:12And it will be a very dark tomorrow.
17:14That will be your punishment.
17:16That will be your punishment.
17:17Now you also know what is meant by
17:46meant by
17:49oneness.
17:59The feeble ego
18:01has a very small circle of identification.
18:04It identifies only with
18:074-5 people.
18:08It says for the sake of these 4-5 people,
18:11I can set the world to fire.
18:13It has a very limited circle of identification.
18:17Your circle of identification is also your circle of empathy.
18:21It is also your circle of compassion.
18:23You care only for those people you feel identified with.
18:27And then there is the one whose ego takes a broadening.
18:40This person, this consciousness identifies with a bigger set of people.
18:44And then there is the one who has an even more accommodative, inclusive identity.
19:02His circle is really large.
19:05It includes not only human beings, but animals as well.
19:12Obviously, the wider your ego identity is, the greater is the possibility of liberation for you.
19:26Now you will ask, why did I begin my response by saying that to be born human is a curse?
19:36Because
19:43Some kind of violence becomes unavoidable when you are a human being.
19:49That is why the saints have said that final liberation will come
19:54only after you are physically gone as well.
19:58On one hand, they have talked of the Jeevan Mukta who is liberated while being physically alive.
20:10On the other hand, they have also said that something remains.
20:14The last step still remains.
20:18Because as long as you are alive, killing will be a prerequisite, a compulsion for you.
20:35Some bacteria is getting killed in your gut.
20:39Millions of them.
20:40You are walking and the grass is getting trampled.
20:51You tried to eat some fruit and you found that the plant itself got killed.
21:01You were sleeping, the mosquito was there on your back.
21:04You just scratched and the mosquito got killed.
21:13This much killing will necessarily take place.
21:19It is unavoidable.
21:21Because it is unavoidable, so on one hand, you are absolved of the guilt.
21:29On the other hand, it is a fact that killing is indeed taking place.
21:34It is taking place without your consent.
21:40It is taking place without your consciousness.
21:44Nevertheless, it is taking place through your physical form.
21:49So that much killing will happen.
21:52You cannot avoid it.
21:54What is your dharma then?
21:55What is your duty then?
21:57Your duty is to minimize it.
22:00It is not an absolute thing.
22:02You will never be able to absolutely not kill.
22:08That is the curse of the human form.
22:11You will never be able to say that you are an absolute non-killer.
22:17Because killing is happening.
22:21Every moment you are killing, you cannot avoid that.
22:25But if you want liberation, then you have to minimize it, minimize it, minimize it.
22:34As much as possible.
22:39And minimization of killing, you must understand, is the maximization of your consciousness.
22:47Can the minimization ever be zero?
22:56No.
22:58Which means your consciousness really cannot become unlimited.
23:03Unlimited.
23:04But it can at least rise so much, so much, that it becomes a strong and crying petition to be miraculously uplifted.
23:25Your job, therefore, is not to attain liberation using your own agency and effort.
23:39Your job, please appreciate this, is only to elevate your consciousness to the maximum level allowed by the human form.
23:55The human form will not allow your consciousness to reach infinity.
24:04You will be limited somewhere.
24:06The test is to at least reach the limit.
24:10And once you reach the limit, then you are helpless, but a miracle happens.
24:16Help descends.
24:21Help descends.
24:23So, do not fall for absolutist arguments.
24:28Absolutist arguments say, even if you are eating a potato, killing is happening.
24:37So, why not eat a lamb?
24:41They are talking nonsense.
24:43Eating a potato is the compulsion of basic physical survival.
24:51Eating a lamb is not.
24:54You cannot absolutely stop killing.
24:58Your job is to minimize it.
25:02Bring it as close to zero as possible.
25:04That is your job.
25:06Your job is not to turn it zero.
25:08Your job is to bring it as close to zero as possible.
25:11Absolute zero-ness, that will come to you as a miracle.
25:16That is not in your hand.
25:18That is grace.
25:20How will that happen?
25:21We don't want to talk about it.
25:23That's beyond us.
25:30Are you getting it?
25:38It's a relative thing.
25:39It's a relative thing.
25:42It's a relative thing.
25:44It has to be relative because we are beings of duality, relativity.
25:53That's the compulsion of being born human.
25:56You will have to live in relationships, in duality.
25:58Your job is to do your best within the compulsions of duality.
26:14And it is not at all a compulsion of duality that you must have beef or pork or meat or fish or something.
26:20That is not at all a compulsion.
26:27It is pure violence.
26:29Avoid it.
26:30Avoid it for your own sake.
26:31When you are slaughtering an animal, you are actually slaughtering yourself.
26:45See that.
26:46That's the most important thing in our community.
26:47tons.
26:48You must be pasar.
Recommended
26:38
|
Up next
0:50
51:02
0:43
0:40
0:49
0:54