00:00Namaskar Acharyaji. Namaskar Sir. You explained that everything in Prakriti is just a process.
00:13So ego being a part of Prakriti implies that ego is in itself a process and hence it is
00:20deterministic. Maybe the inputs are many or like millions of inputs that we don't know
00:25but those inputs get translated to some output. So in other sessions and also in this session,
00:35you also talked about choice, which is the choice to side with truth or falsity. So I am confused
00:41as to how choice fits into this deterministic process. Is it that it is like something outside
00:51the field of Prakriti that will affect these inputs and as such the process or is it? I am
00:59totally confused. Can you shed some light on that? Did you pay attention that we talked of human
01:07beings as seeds rather than pebbles tonight? You remember that? And we said that when you
01:17just look at it, even the seed can appear like a small grain of sand or a small pebble.
01:25But there is a difference between a human being and a pebble or boulder which is that the seed
01:33has a certain potentiality. And we talked of how the work of Hitler was different from the
01:45work of Krishna. So that's where the choice element is. But most people never see that they
01:54have a choice. There is just no choice. They just keep flowing. Or you could say that their choice
02:04leans almost absolutely towards the Prakritic side. They choose to side with Prakriti. You
02:11could put it this way or you could say that they don't decide at all. They don't choose at all.
02:16You are alive when you make that difficult choice. You could call it the unnatural choice.
02:25If Prakriti is to be talked of as nature then you come alive when you make the unnatural choice.
02:35And that's where we talked of surprising yourself.
02:39That which appears right, instinctively right, obviously right in the Prakritic sense
02:49has to be observed. And when you observe it, the observation itself is the choice that leads to
02:56detachment. It's still not clear. I cannot see that on your face.
03:09What's missing? I get it. So just to rephrase it, is it that
03:16just the seeing of, okay, I have the choice, is itself making the choice? Is that correct?
03:23Is that what I'm making? Okay. To first of all acknowledge that you are
03:29not somebody who has to go by your chemical nature is the first step and that's very close
03:38to the last step. The moment you see that you are not helpless in this regard, the power to
03:45choose awakens. Most people just pretend to be choosing and it's quite interesting.
03:57The less you choose, the more you need to pretend to choose.
04:04That's why there is so much emphasis on choice in the modern world.
04:09Everyone says, I live as per my choice. We talk of freedom so much, right?
04:14When you really don't have freedom, then you talk too much of freedom.
04:24Are you getting it? So for example, I choose between
04:29a tumbler made of glass, one made of aluminium, one made of steel, a copper or some other spiritual alloy.
04:41But ultimately, I am choiceless when it comes to the thing it contains, which is water.
04:49But I have entertained myself thoroughly. I have said I have chosen. Have I really chosen?
04:56Have I really chosen?
04:59I have been choiceless when it comes to the thing being ingested, which is just H2O.
05:08But see how much I pamper myself. I tell myself, I could have chosen any damn element
05:17but I chose a nickel-titanium alloy. It is the latest in neo-spirituality.
05:27The moment you sip water in the nickel-titanium alloy, your twelfth chakra gets activated,
05:36especially on a Poornima night.
05:37Did you get this? Don't you see that you are just utterly choiceless
05:42and all this facade is just to continue to keep yourself in the dark.
05:51It's water inside. That's all. Water. Nothing else.
05:56Real choice is when you see that this is chemical and this is chemical
06:03and in spite of all that appears to happen, nobody is doing it. It's automatic.
06:15And then there is something that rebels against that helplessness.
06:25That's the first step towards freedom.
06:30And then there is something that rebels against that helplessness.
06:35That's the first step towards freedom.
06:43Are you getting it? When you can, like an adult, keep aside all the pretensions of choice,
06:55then you acknowledge how helpless you are, how choiceless you are and that acknowledgement
07:02awakens the real choice.
07:07So, the chooser is the ego and the ego keeps on choosing all its life, but all its choices
07:15are fallacious, sham choices. It is choosing between things that anyway do not matter and
07:21are therefore all identical. For example, I am choosing between 0.0 and 00.00 and 00.00
07:30and 00.00 and 000.00 and an entire day I have spent choosing between all these and I have
07:40been soliciting, counselling from all kinds of experts and one of them comes and says,
07:47no, you should take 000.00. That's the best thing for you. That's the kind of choices the ego makes.
07:56There is no choice, yet it pretends as if there are a lot of options.
08:06You want to marry and picks of 40 girls are shown to you and you pretend as if you are choosing,
08:12while the decision has already been made by your hormones.
08:16Why are you pretending then? It does not matter which particular pick you put your finger on.
08:22Ultimately, you are choosing sex and lust, which is also deterministic. Why do you pretend at all
08:29then that you are choosing? There is no choice. There is no choice. Are you getting it? There is
08:39no choice, but the ego is a constant chooser in spite of having no choice. That's such a joke.
08:47Nothing to choose from really, yet I am busy choosing the entire day.
08:52Have you not seen people who are shopping the entire day?
08:56Shopping the entire day, choosing between this, this and this. There is no choice.
09:02To fill up your inner hollow, you will put in anything there. There is no choice.
09:08And it's kind of known in advance what you will pick up. Why are you fooling yourself?
09:11So, when you have these lots of choices, all of them are sham choices.
09:27There is only one real choice to make, which is to acknowledge the nature of the chooser.
09:33Once you see that, then the real choice has been made.
09:37Now, you can substitute the word choice with battle as well.
09:43The hollow ego, the empty ego is busy fighting hollow battles throughout the day.
09:50Whereas, there is nothing in those battles. Even if you win them, you get nothing.
09:53There is nothing in those battles. Even if you win them, you get nothing.
10:01And the real one says, I will push all these battles to oblivion. I don't care.
10:16I will fight the one real battle.
10:17All these shadow battles exist just to secure the cowardly fighter.
10:32I ignore all these shady battles. I will now fight the one real battle of my annihilation.
10:41You know, the ego fights so many battles. The ego is always surrounded with problems. Is it not?
10:46Every problem is a battle. The ego is always surrounded with problems. Do you know why we love problems? Because they secure us.
10:54If there are so many problems, surely it is proven that there is somebody who is problemed.
11:00Hence proven that I exist.
11:03If there are so many problems, surely I exist. Otherwise, to whom are these problems?
11:09You look at the inverted logic.
11:10There are so many problems and that proves that I exist. Otherwise, how can there be so many problems?
11:19And if the problems disappear, then the logic of my existence disappears. Therefore, I will not let the problems.
11:25At most, I will replace one problem with the other. If one problem goes, a bigger one has to come.
11:32That is the inverted logic.
11:34Those are the choices we make.
11:36Choose one problem over the other. This, that and all these are just hollow things.
11:41False. There is no choice there.
11:45Just chemicals. All chemicals do not react with each other. Right?
11:51Even chemicals have choices. Do you call them as choices?
11:56Even chemicals have choices and preferences. Do you call them as choices?
11:59Even chemicals have choices and preferences. Do you call them as choices?
12:04In an ordinary situation, for example, would nitrogen react with oxygen?
12:15Does that happen in the atmospheric air?
12:19Is that a choice? No, that's not a choice. That's physicality.
12:25You do not say, nitrogen chose not to react with oxygen because it is celibate.
12:32Brahmachari nitrogen chose not to react with seductive oxygen.
12:39Should you say that? No, there is nothing in it. No choice.
12:49So, when you choose something, you are actually not choosing anything. Nitrogen didn't choose.
12:53And when you refuse something, you are actually not refusing it.
12:57You didn't have the capacity to accept it.
13:01So, tell me, where is the choice?
13:05Choice is when you see the nature of all this.
13:13That's the only choice, to see.
13:16Can we also say that once the choices are made,
13:21they are automatic, then the ego is trying to take credit for those choices.
13:28The order is reversed. The ego is trying to take credit for those choices.
13:36Yeah, of course. So, we said the experience comes and then comes the experiencer.
13:43Something happens and then somebody just wakes up to say, oh, I did it.
13:50Don't you have people like that? They wait for things to happen and then they say,
13:57I did that. So, somebody like, you know,
14:03comes and donates on his own. Then the fellow fills up the form.
14:11That's the ego.
