Vegans claim to be morally superior to the rest of the world because “they don’t kill”. Little do they know they kill single cell organisms everyday. Yeast is a single-celled fungus that vegans consume almost daily.
Other single cell organisms include micro algae, bacteria, and Protozoa. Remember this the next time a vegan criticizes you for eating a cow. They are liars and hypocrites!!
Found these lovely little guys sneaking around the pigeons 😍
These 2 lines are a simple reading, but the depth is crucial to notice. I see the analogy to studying General Relativity. The context, the concepts, and the details are vast, but the final Einstein equations that arise are written down in a simple line.
The core of veganism rests on the understanding that I, i.e. the self, and the other are not different in essence. There exist differences at the level of the bodily composition, different intellect, different sense perception, and so on… Countless differences.
But then we find the essential nature of sentience. Bentham said “can they suffer?”
The point lies in the oneness, not in the differences. To see the worthlessness of the differences is what gives rise to the philosophy of veganism. This is what I understand from Acharya Prashant when he talks about the core of veganism.
And once the ‘why’ is clear, the ‘how’ to live based on this understanding follows from it. If the why isn’t clear, and the how is being discussed in elaborate detail, then the discussion has begun from a false point in the first place.
Another interesting question from the exam conducted by Acharya Prashant:
It is based on the Avadhuta Gita - Chapter 1, Verse 6
The question is framed to invite inquiry into how we, as the human species, have considered ourselves as something fundamentally separate from the planet we inhabit (something that extends to all of nature itself). The common philosophy is based on exploiting nature to fulfill individual desires, and success is commonly measured by how much one consumes.
This is what is challenged by the verse, and that challenge applied to the current climate emergency, implies that all our efforts to solve the crisis are necessary but not sufficient. If the center from which we operate doesn't change, one crisis is bound to be replaced by another (that is if it is ever brought under control).
The tech billionaires and the power holders in the major governments are all in attempts to expand beyond the planet as one of their solutions. This comes with their misunderstanding of sciences, be it ecology, biology, physics, or chemistry. They all employ brilliant minds to try and tackle such challenges, and these scientists are clear about how intricate and not yet well understood the balance of the various processes sustaining life on the planet are. But the headlines blur the science, and the vested interests keep pushing the headlines showing a science fiction dream.
All this leaves out the most important piece of the puzzle, namely, honest self inquiry. To question "who am I?" and "what do I really need?" are the beginning points for any real change. Many philosophers and thinkers throughout history and across the globe have delved into these questions, but the masses remain oblivious to them. The questions pertain to each and every individual's life, and without these, we don't really have any solid reasons for doing what we do, just vague and familiar sounding words.
It is imperative then, that this fundamental self inquiry is brought to the masses in order to actually solve any crisis. All the practical solutions will then have their intended effects and actually be lasting.
Some whole wheat bread with a coriander spread on it with sauteed tofu and bell peppers
This was a question in yesterday's Gita Exam conducted by Acharya Prashant.
The simple example demonstrates how we term our climate related actions as solutions while the problem is left unattended completely. In this case, the facts are pretty clear, as described in option B. Studies show very small percentages of saplings actually surviving to become full grown trees (~5%). And even when they grow into trees, it's a process of decades. Meanwhile, the swathes of forests we cut down is something happening right now.
Option E goes deeper than just the example in the question. It's pointing towards the root of the problem. The ego, i.e., the sense of "I am", is always accompanied by an object that it identifies with. So in this example, "I am an environmental helper" or "I am a developer" are both different expressions of the same ego. And as long as this identification remains unexamined, no real progress can occur. The examination requires honest inquiry and ruthlessness towards biases and beliefs, as is the way of science.
Nothing special, but the light amount of tomato sauce and mustard seeds with some turmeric, salt and pepper made the beans taste really good 😋
The allegory of the cave is a work presented in Plato's Republic. The form of the presentation is a Socratic dialogue between Glaucon and Socrates. Socrates describes prisoners are chained so that their legs and necks are fixed, forcing them to gaze at the wall in front of them and not to look around at the cave, each other, or themselves. They observe the shadows projected onto the wall by objects carried behind them by people who are invisible to the chained prisoners. The carrying people pronounce the names of the objects, the sounds of which are reflected near the shadows and are understood by the prisoners as if they were coming from the shadows themselves.
Only the shadows and sounds are the prisoners' reality, which are not accurate representations of the real world. The shadows represent distorted and blurred copies of reality we can perceive through our senses and the world outside the cave represents reality a so called higher level.
There is a deep connection here to how we live our lives, seeing things through our own perceptions (which are developed by external conditioning). Hence, all meaning we attach to objects is more about what we have become, rather than the objects in themselves. What Plato goes on to explain is connected to his idea of forms as a higher reality, but this step does not seem necessary.
The point of the Upanishads, Nagarjuna, the different Gitas, Lao Tzu, and many Saint poets is that seeing the false as false, acknowledging it as false (or borrowed), and dropping it is enough. Any more steps of bringing in a new description for reality is another way for the false to creep in through the back door. Even the ideas of Brahman, Atman, etc. when asserted as positive ontological beings becomes the same – a claim that is made without a ground to stand on. These same terms, when understood in the negative, become great tools for understanding and dropping the false.
This question came up in the Gita exam that Acharya Prashant conducts for his students.
Most of the society is slowly shifting to using AI as the default search option for anything we want to know. This shift is similar to how web search became the default for us over the last 3 decades. Now, this is not focused on the numerous other challenges that come up with AI (as with any developing technology in the capitalist system).
The focus is on reliance on the large language model to always give factual and correct answers. When ease and convenience becomes an alternative to curiosity, then this problem arises. The current mechanisms behind LLMs make them give out completely made up answers with the same confident language. We need to be aware of this and actually look for a verified source backing up the claim made in the answers.
A mixture of frozen berries with mango and oats in soy milk. Additionally full of seeds and peanut butter to add the smooth texture and crunch (along with all the delicious nutrients).
This sounds like an odd question, but it isn't. Because the violence against animals and the violence against women are not two different things.
If we look closely at a forest, a river, a woman, a cow, we see different victims, the same exploiter. Even among animals, it's always the female who's targeted first. Dairy exists fundamentally on the principle of exploiting the female reproductive system, with artificial insemination and forced pregnancy. The mother cow's milk is meant for her calf, but we take it anyway.
It's never really about our diet, that is only an application of the fundamental philosophy. It's about what we've quietly taught ourselves is okay to take. When we see it clearly and not look away, we can actually address the root of exploitation!
This is my learning from Acharya Ji's session on the following poem by Kabir Saheb. The depth in his words is life changing.
समझ देख मन मीत पियरवा
आशिक हो कर सोना क्या रे ?
पाया हो तो दे ले प्यारे
पाय पाय फिर खोना क्या रे?
रूखा सूखा गम का टुकड़ा
फीका और सलोना क्या रे ?
जब अँखियन में नींद घनेरी
तकिया और बिछौना क्या रे ?
कहैं कबीर प्रेम का मारग
सिर देना तो रोना क्या रे ?
~ कबीर साहब
Preface: Pedagogically, to understand, we need to create two versions of the self, one looking towards the world to consume, the other looking to know its own being.
समझ देख मन मीत पियरवा आशिक हो कर सोना क्या रे? Understand/see my dear friend, Why sleep when you’re a born lover?
Sleep is a metaphor for deliberate ignorance. This is for us when we see something wrong and decide that it was the realisation that was the problem instead of the thing itself, and hence we try to unsee or turn away.
पाया हो तो दे ले प्यारे पाय पाय फिर खोना क्या रे? If you have gained it, give it to others, Why keep gaining it only to lose it again?
Understanding through honest inquiry is being referred to here. 'Giving' in this case will itself bring more rather than reducing, which is opposite from the case of consumption. Knowledge deepens with distribution. When knowledge is halted, dogma sets in. When we keep getting and forgetting, the cycle is futile. Why repeat this futility? And consequently, when we sing (engage) without understanding, what we're sharing is ignorance, and we get more ignorance.
रूखा सूखा गम का टुकड़ा फीका और सलोना क्या रे? Dried and wrinkled piece of suffering, What's so tasteless and (or) attractive about it?
The axis of suffering and pleasure is being denoted here. To seek freedom from suffering doesn't imply seeking pleasure. This mistake needs to be understood and the axis itself needs to be transcended. What a lover can see is freedom, that which is free of the assumed difference between pleasure and suffering.
जब अँखियन में नींद घनेरी तकिया और बिछौना क्या रे? When there is a deep need to sleep, What's the point of pillows and beds?
The seeker self and the ignorant self both want sleep, but one is stuck on fulfilling the comforts of the bed primarily while one primarily wants sleep. (Sleep is a pointer to desires) When we look at what the deepest desire is and then dive into it, we are free from settling at the surface level of desires that keep arising over and over, overlooking the deep desire.
कहैं कबीर प्रेम का मारग सिर देना तो रोना क्या रे? Saint Kabir is saying that on a lover’s path, Why cry when you give your head away?
Head is a metaphor for everything we care for in ignorance. When understanding leads action, all else is peripheral. These things aren't shunned away, but we become indifferent towards them – no longer are they existentially connected to our being.
This is a Zen Koan with deep meaning hidden underneath.
My learning from Acharya Prashant's session on Zen Koans:
The first thing that I realised was when he explained the whole concept of the Koans, which is to deliver a shock to pre-existing notions in a way that the receiver would awaken from a situation they were stuck in (due to an unexamined belief).
Something that is so subtle in meaning but can be perceived in a completely distorted manner at the gross and literal level. And the result of this is that the Koan becomes useless to one's life.
The clear point I learned in the session was about having images or ideas of the Buddha (also applicable to Atma/Shiv/Truth). As long as it is in the realm of perception, either in a physical or mental form, it is a formation of the ego, and hence, the image will fail to be of much use. A long and structured explanation so succinctly put in a simple line "If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha". The Buddha isn't an image to be constructed to adhere to. The point is for the ego to see itself as the collection of false identities that it is, and hence anything that it can concoct as its perception is by default also a falsehood.
The "kill" is not a physical act, but rather the killing of the mental image that we have created. This is also a powerful tool that we have to tackle the easy manipulation that the so-called "Babas" perform. They adopt certain behaviour patterns to appear in a way that gives them credence. And this appearance should itself be a clear sign to reject their manipulation.
So a truly religious person would never fall for an appearance, or any belief that can be used to control them.
A late morning collection of oat milk, fruits, nuts, and seeds!
The impact AP is having on real lives often goes unnoticed, here's what Kavita (AP Gita student) went through and shared on the community:
"Pranam Acharya Ji, I don’t know where to begin, but after listening to you, my life has taken a 180-degree turn, and I want to tell you about it.
I come from such a small village that it can barely even be called a village. People of one particular caste live there. The whole village is more or less their extended family, with just 12 to 13 houses belonging to others. Eating non-veg and drinking alcohol is completely normal there. The state of education is terrible, and girls’ education is considered something that will ruin them. Hardly any girls study, and even the boys study very little. The atmosphere is so bad that superstition, orthodoxy, and lokhdharma are deeply ingrained in the village.
I grew up in the middle of all that.
I have three elder brothers and I am the youngest. I have always studied in government schools. I was good at studies, so teachers would often tell my family, “Let her study further.”
The environment affected my parents too. Along with fixing my eldest brother’s marriage, they fixed mine as well, when I wasn’t even 14 years old and was in 9th standard. I didn’t understand much at that time, but I was scared that my studies would end. The man was 12 years older than me, had barely studied up to 5th standard, and was a rowdy, goon type fellow. Four days before the wedding, I got my first period. When I went there, he wanted a child from me. Two days later I came back, because the next day I had my annual exam.
I finished my 12th, and when I was in the first year of my B.Sc., everything shut down because of COVID. My family again wanted to send me there, because my sister-in-law is his real sister, so that she could come to my village with me. I cried a lot and refused everyone, saying I didn’t want to go, but in the name of society, honour, and all kinds of other reasons, they forced me to go. I was 18 then.
The same situation repeated there. He again wanted a child, or to speak honestly, he only wanted sex. I cut my hand slightly with a knife, and he ran away in fear. I cried the whole night and at four in the morning I called my brother and said, “Come and take me back; otherwise by evening I will be dead.” He came in the morning and brought me home.
There was only one thought in my mind: if they send me back there again, I will definitely die.
Then I started searching a lot on YouTube about women’s lives and a pattern-bound life. That’s when I came across your video for the first time, Acharya Ji. From that very day I started listening. Time passed. Slowly I learned to speak openly, and I clearly refused to go back there.
Then I did my M.Sc. Your teachings were with me, so life became a bit lighter. To cover my expenses, I also started teaching. That man would often call and abuse my father, saying all kinds of filthy things. Over the years my family also understood that he was not at all a good person. Because it was a child marriage, nothing was properly documented, but even then, I got a divorce through the court.
I am alive today only because of you. Otherwise, troubled by all this, I would have died long ago. These things used to keep revolving in my mind all the time. Only after listening to you and understanding your teachings did I gather the courage to talk about divorce openly at home and then stand in court and speak for myself.
Today I am 24 years old. I am still studying. For the last six months I was working from home for the Foundation. And now for the past month I have been working from the office. I am trying that what I have received, I don’t merely sing of it, I roar it."
The look in his eyes = instantaneous melting!
Tried out a new pasta recipe today. Perfect quick dish with low effort!
Charred broccoli and shredded baked tofu as toppings on pasta with arabiata sauce.