Transcription
Hey, the principle of execution of virtues is a principle of years, that they have brought down from the sky to the earth. It is not on YouTube now, it has become practical. Why do they believe more in practical things? They don't believe in high ideals. When they brought it into practical life, they explained it well. When we start talking about virtues, how do we bring virtues into our lives, how do we bring them into society? So, Aristotle creates two types of virtues. Not that your knowledge is big, but he divides them into intellectual virtues and moral virtues. What are intellectual virtues? And what are moral virtues? So, first, he gives importance to intellectual virtues. And what is the nature of intellect? And what is the dharma of intellect? Intellect is considered a great thing. Plato has four virtues, justice is at the top, but intellect comes after that. What is its quality, its dharma, its nature? It is to seek truth. The nature of intellect is to seek truth and to attain perfection. Truth is that which is perfect. So, in seeking this perfection, our intellectual virtue goes to the extent that it considers seeking perfection as its greatest achievement, its greatest merit. So, all people of intellectual virtue tend towards the true. They do not come towards the untrue. Those who are seekers will go only where Plato's ideas are. One who is searching for perfection will not go towards imperfect things of the world. So, intellectual virtue is for those people who are engaged in seeking perfection. And the more they go in search of perfection, the more virtuous they become. The greatest merit of virtue, what is its consequence, what is its result? The result of virtue is happiness. So, when we look at intellectual virtues, we want intellectual happiness, not worldly happiness. This intellectual happiness will be such that it will not be momentary, it will be for a long time, it will be long-lasting happiness. Such happiness cannot be the dharma of the body. Such happiness that is permanent or long-lasting cannot be the happiness of the body. Bodily pleasures are temporary. The pleasure of eating, you ate food, after four hours you feel hungry again. So, such happiness that lasts only for three or four hours cannot be true happiness. True happiness is that which will last for a long time. So, that happiness is our mental happiness and spiritual happiness, from which the soul gets joy, from which the soul gets happiness, from which the mind gets happiness, mental happiness is our intellectual virtue. Our intellect goes towards that. These people of intellectual virtue, it means that they are not satisfied with worldly things. They are completely satisfied. So, Aristotle says that those who are intellectual are very rare in the world. Who is God? He is the one who reads. These are not intellectual virtues. Because a philosopher always seeks perfection. He becomes a great thing. So, he has completely separated intellectual virtue. The virtue of Socrates, he said that Socrates used to say that knowledge is virtue. He said that it will not be found with other virtues. Those who consider knowledge as a thing and see knowledge as perfection. But the problem arises here for Aristotle. That the knowledgeable person, or the person who sees knowledge, falls down by making mistakes. They fall into intellectual virtues. Aristotle has created intellectual virtue, but the problem remained unanswered. What about moral virtues? Moral virtue is what descends into a person's life. These philosophers are very few in the world, those who talk about truth, those who are in search of truth, those who are in search of perfection. So, such people will be found very few in the world. What about the general public, the common man? The remaining virtues are courage and temperance. Courage, as it was explained, can sometimes be foolhardiness. And within temperance, all things are mixed. So, in temperance, hidden emotions are mixed, educated feelings are mixed, patience is mixed, desires are mixed. And other services are also within it. So, control of intellect is also there, all of it. So, Aristotle says that in practical life, you cannot remove these things of desire, your patience, your feelings. What is the nature of man? Man also feels hunger and thirst, no matter how much he pretends to be a renunciate, he feels hunger and thirst secretly. If he is hungry, he eats two rotis. So, has he completely given up food? But he might be drinking milk. So, Aristotle says that these natural tendencies of yours, natural desires, you cannot cancel them. You cannot cancel them. What you can do is regulate them with wisdom and reason. A prosperous person is one who regulates your desires, your life's hunger, your emotions. You cannot cancel them. Many people say they have become celibate. How can you cancel sex? If you are a human, then it is known that a person has all those tendencies within him that animals have. Eating, sleeping, fear, and mating. Our pride. These four things are like animals. But the difference between animals and us is that animals do not have reason, they do not have intellect, therefore they cannot regulate. Where to eat what, where to eat, where to sleep, where to sleep, where to be angry, where not to be angry. Animals do not have any faculty to regulate this. That is why they are animals. And in humans, this faculty exists. So, all these animalistic tendencies are present in us. As I said, in India too, the sages have said that four things are like animals: eating, sleeping, fear, and mating. All these four things are like animals in humans. But one thing within us that makes us human is reason. That is why Plato called man a rational animal. Man is a rational animal. All animality is present within him, all animalistic tendencies are present, but he controls them through reason. So, these become moral virtues. Those who cannot control them remain animals and become immoral. And those who control them, all these things, all the animalistic tendencies, become moral. So, a moral person is one in whom nothing is negated, nothing is canceled. It is not hypocrisy, that we have shown from above that I have controlled this desire. It remains hidden inside. Then reason tells it whether to operate this desire or not, how to operate this desire, not how to operate it. If you have to channel sex, then get married. Take off the robe of a renunciate. If you have sex after taking off the robe of a renunciate, you will be put in jail. So, reason will guide. And if it guides, then temperance will guide. If it guides, then multiple things will guide. And these are the things that can be guided. Now, in what is guided, one thing is done. One extreme is avoided. And one extreme is avoided. The common man, as in the example given earlier when attaching Plato, forcibly inserted his hand into the share. To prove it. This is not courage, this is foolhardiness. This is a great sign of foolishness. Then what is the meaning of regulation? Regulation means finding the middle path. When a difficult situation arises, a very difficult situation, and even in a difficult situation, a person is fighting, struggling, not committing suicide. If he runs away, he is not brave. Aristotle said, when he was insulted, he spread his legs. This is not virtue. It is foolhardiness. And if he had done that, he would have killed all those who insulted him. He would have become a murderer. So, this is also foolhardiness, that I will kill all those who insulted me. So, a middle path has to be found. What is the difference between virtue and foolhardiness? Wisdom will see this. Wisdom will find its middle path. Similarly, there will be many other things in life where one extreme has to be avoided. Plato gives many examples where one extreme is completely avoided. Extremes are always biased. In our Sanskrit, it is said, "Ati sarvatra varjate," meaning excess should always be abandoned. There should be no excess in anything. And Aristotle is also talking about it. Happiness leads you towards wisdom, towards virtue. When they are brought to the middle, they become moral virtues, controlled by wisdom. All our innate motives, feelings, desires, when they are regulated and come to the middle, they become moral virtues. So, we are moral, regulated. The middle path is the path to be followed. This path makes a person both. He is not a giver, nor a receiver. He is rational. He participates in the animal kingdom and also in the human kingdom because he is a rational animal.