00:00My students ask me this question. What is the axiom that you build your entire
00:04vision on? So my answer is always have two axioms. The first one is that I exist.
00:10So that's an irrefutable axiom that you start with. The second axiom that you
00:14start with is that I suffer. Now these are two things that you cannot argue upon. So this is
00:21something that is so experiential and so fundamental to our existence that you don't
00:26see you can debate whether let's say this computer exists or not. You can always do that.
00:30We can we can just refine the first one a little and say I feel that I exist and the
00:38second one
00:38is is is follows from the first one I suffer. So I exist is something that needs to be examined
00:44because ultimately I may discover that my existence is self-referential. I exist only in my own eyes.
00:50When I say it is important to add I feel that I exist it is to introduce an element of
00:58falsifiability.
01:00If I say I exist then that is never going to be examined. If I say I feel that I
01:05exist then this
01:07becomes open to verification and that is what Vedanta is all about. Verifying your own existence.
01:12Verifying your own existence. So I feel that I exist.
