Gita does not exist to teach you culture || Acharya Prashant, at IIT-Delhi (2023)

Acharya Prashant

‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquir...   Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books? Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...  ~~~~~  Video Information: 02.04.23, IIT-Delhi, Delhi  Context: What is the cultural significance of Bhagavad Gita? What culture is the Bhagavad Gita? What does Gita say about other religions? What culture is Krishna from? Is Hare Krishna a culture? What is Indian Ethics Bhagavad Gita?  Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~

Transcript

00:00A very good afternoon to everyone.

00:04The Department of Management Studies, IIT Delhi is an established name not only in the

00:08academic fraternity but also in the corporate world.

00:11Today, we feel truly blessed to have with us Acharya Prashant Sir to address us as Inspire

00:182.0 speaker.

00:19He has been kind enough to accept our invitation and address the students of IIT Delhi for

00:24the fourth time.

00:25Thank you, Sir.

00:26Acharya Prashant needs no introduction.

00:34From being an acclaimed Vedanta teacher to a national best-selling author of over 100

00:39books, he is a powerful force of socio-spiritual transformation in today's world.

00:44He is a recipient of many awards including the most influential Vegan of the Year by

00:49PETA.

00:50He is also a famous TEDx speaker.

00:53You would be glad to know that his recent TEDx talk was one of the top 10 most-watched

00:58talks in March 2023.

01:00Today, tens of millions of people, especially the youth, get inspired daily by Acharya

01:06Prashant.

01:07He continues to impart wisdom to the masses through various offline and online channels.

01:12Sir, it's an honour to welcome you to address us, the students of IIT Delhi.

01:17On behalf of all of us, we thank you for accepting our invitation.

01:22Now I request Pankaj Sir to come up on stage and welcome Sir with a sapling.

01:34We now pass on the session to members of Prashant Advait Foundation to take the interaction forward.

01:41Good afternoon, Sir.

01:42Myself, Ashank.

01:43I am an M.Tech student here at IIT Delhi.

01:45Sir, most of my friends plan to go to the United States or Western countries for higher

01:50education and for jobs.

01:53When they go there, they tend to adopt the Western culture and leave behind the Indian

01:58tradition and Indian culture.

02:00Sir, my question is how Bhagavad Gita and Upanishad can help inculcate the true Indian

02:08values and help them understand the Indian tradition and culture to those youth?

02:18We are conflating a couple of things here.

02:24Thank you for the question.

02:25Please sit.

02:26See, Vedanta, that's the Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita and the Brahma Sutra or Vedanta Sutra,

02:39they do not teach you tradition, culture or values.

02:43Let's get this very clear first of all, bringing you to the essential truth of your being is

02:57in no way the same as teaching you tradition, culture or values.

03:04These are very, very different things, very different things.

03:11In fact, a lot that you let pass by the name of culture or tradition starts appearing quite

03:24childish when you delve deep into the Upanishads, are you getting it?

03:38Culture is something that you take from the past as much as you allow the past to influence you.

03:51And culture keeps changing.

03:53If you read about your culture or traditions, they are today in no way the same as they

04:04were even just 50 years back.

04:08They have been changing.

04:11Note the word change, whereas if you talk of the Upanishads, they take you to that which

04:19is unchangeable.

04:22The difference must be very clear.

04:23The difference is very stark.

04:26Culture is all the time changing, right?

04:30In fact, you get a new flick, a new release and you very well know that in its own little

04:36way, it changes culture, does it not?

04:41Language for example, is a part of culture, we know that, right?

04:45That which you wear is a part of culture, that which you eat and how you greet, all

04:54this is part of culture, your town planning, right?

04:59And of course, the values that you cherish, all that is culture and does all that not

05:06keep changing every passing day?

05:09So Vedanta exists to take you to that which will never change and hence is absolutely

05:16reliable.

05:18If something changes and changes quite whimsically, would you be able to trust it?

05:26Please tell me.

05:27Can you base your life on something that is subject to the caprice of time?

05:36Please tell me, take it very personally.

05:40If you are with someone, right, as a friend or a relative or a partner, would you feel

05:48okay if that person can fundamentally change any given day?

05:59To live, you require that which is not born out of influences, which is not a product

06:06of the human mind.

06:09Everything that is coming from the society is a product of human mind and it just keeps

06:16changing.

06:18And if it keeps changing, then it will not be able to take you too far.

06:22The purpose of spirituality is to give you the deepest inner assurance possible, the

06:30deepest rest and peace possible.

06:34And that you can get only if you have something that is not manmade, that is not a product

06:41of thought, that is not influenced or conditioned.

06:48And culture, values, tradition are not that, not at all.

06:55You know that, right?

06:58This auditorium did not exist 100 years back.

07:05But let us say it did.

07:07Would you be sitting here in these same clothes?

07:12So things have changed, right?

07:15Look at the kind of food you eat today, is it the same as what your grandparents used

07:21to eat, your language, even your values?

07:26I am pretty sure a few decades back, we would not have so many female participants here.

07:37What are you doing, studying engineering or business education?

07:42What are you doing?

07:45The values of that time wanted you either to not to be educated at all or be educated

07:53only in housekeeping, right?

07:58So things have changed, are you getting it?

08:04I am still to get over this, how are people able to relate the Upanishads or Gita to culture

08:12or tradition or values, there is just no relationship.

08:17In fact, the spiritual man, the man of Vedanta, the man of wisdom will have very little regards

08:26for culture, tradition, values, etc.

08:30If he has to value, he will value just that one that the Gita enjoins him to value.

08:40Does Krishna teach you to value a thousand things, is that the philosophy, the message

08:45of the Gita?

08:46Value a thousand things, value what your father told you, value the kind of local customs

08:55that are practiced in your region, is that what the Upanishads or the Gita are telling

08:59you?

09:00They are telling you that you must value only the absolute truth and beyond that nothing

09:06is to be valued, right?

09:08And in this world, if something is to be accorded value, it would be in proportion to the capacity

09:15of that thing to take you to the truth, right?

09:19If I am, for example, to value this occasion, that value has to be proportionate to the

09:29intent and ability of this occasion to give us something higher, right?

09:35If this occasion fails to give us something higher, why must we value or respect this

09:38occasion, must you?

09:41The value that you are according to this speaker has to be commensurate with the intent and

09:47ability of this speaker to give you something that is sublime, that has a timeless value.

09:56If only is this speaker able to do that, does he deserve some value, otherwise he should

10:01be thrown out of this place, that is the message of the Gita.

10:09That is what when Krishna says that you should leave all the dharmas behind and come only

10:18to me.

10:20What does he mean when he says that all the dharmas are to be left behind?

10:25Mamey kamsharanam vraja, what does that mean?

10:30That means, you know, all these responsibilities and things of thought, thought and culture

10:35and tradition and value and what not and conditioning of a thousand kinds that you have given place

10:41to in your mind, just keep them aside.

10:44They do not merit the kind of respect that you give them, value just that one thing that

10:50I am teaching you right now.

10:53That understanding is everything, right?

10:57Blindly following this or that custom does not mean much.

11:03In fact, if you look at those who have been able to reform the society, they were the

11:09ones who were deeply rooted in Vedanta.

11:15If you will go to the Indian renaissance of the last two centuries, two and a half centuries,

11:24look at the names you come across, Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Debendranath Tagore, DK Karve,

11:36who are these people?

11:37Where were they coming from or Swami Dayanand Saraswati, where were they coming from or

11:43Swami Vivekananda for that matter or Mahatma Gandhi, he too was a social reformer or if

11:52you want to take the entire spectrum, then obviously you have to include Dr. Ambedkar,

11:58Savitri Bai Phule, Jyotiba Phule.

12:04They were coming from their commitment to the truth or were they committed to tradition

12:09and values and culture, I am asking you, please tell me.

12:14If tradition, values and culture are to be accorded a great place, then we would never

12:23improve, never.

12:25So, if people are going abroad and then refusing to read wisdom literature, that is when I

12:38will be alarmed, that is when I will be alarmed, but if they go abroad and let their language

12:50be influenced or their choice of clothing, let the jury be still out.

13:00Obviously I will not want somebody to turn a flesh eater just because he has left India

13:07and settled abroad, but if you say that you will behave in exactly the same way after

13:17settling abroad, you say you must behave and wear and speak exactly the same way as you

13:23used to do, when you were in Kanpur or Nagpur or Indore or Badaiyon or Hapur or that defies

13:36common sense.

13:39But if your commitment to the truth starts wavering when you go abroad, then that indeed

13:45is a cause for concern.

13:49If the Gita was respectable to you as long as you were in India and once you land abroad,

14:00you shun the Gita, then I will be concerned.

14:04It is the timeless truth that matters, please understand.

14:08Everything else is anyway time-dependent, is it not?

14:14Except the truth, everything is time-dependent and that which is time-dependent must obviously

14:18change with time, kalchak, only the truth is kalatit, akal, samayatit, as you put it.

14:31What is the problem in letting the other things change?

14:37And if you do not want to let things change, then let us behave as we used to do in the

14:42last century or in the 16th century or in the 6th century.

14:48Even the advocates of culture do not want us to go back to the 6th century.

14:54And if you think of it, the 6th and the 7th centuries were probably the last periods in

15:01history when India had a totally indigenous culture, 8th and 9th century onwards, India

15:12started getting influenced from the western contacts.

15:18In fact, I should not even say 8th and 9th century, before the Arabs came, there were

15:23the Greeks and the Greeks came 500, 700 years, 1000 years rather, not 1000, 700 years before

15:32the Arabs and then later on the Turks came.

15:38So if you want to have a pure culture, you will have to go to not to year 1800 but to

15:46800 and even 800 will not be very pure.

15:54And all those who keep talking of culture and Indian values, the maximum that they want

16:03to revert to is 1800.

16:08My question to them is why 1800, why not 1600, 1200, why not the year 800 Christ era

16:22and why not go back to the culture before Christ.

16:27How are you arbitrarily drawing a line and saying that we must behave as we used to do

16:35in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries and even there you want to behave as per your local

16:45custom and tradition.

16:51Typically those who talk too much of the culture, talk of the North Indian culture and they

16:57believe that the North Indian culture is the culture of the entire country.

17:04So look at what they are saying, they are talking of something very narrow in terms

17:10of regionality and also temporality.

17:15In terms of time, they are saying let us go back just 100 years, not less than 100 years,

17:21not more than 100 years and in terms of regionality, let us limit ourselves to the Hindi belt.

17:28What about the culture elsewhere?

17:30If you want to retain culture, then you must retain the culture that was found all across

17:36the subcontinent and also if you really want to retain the culture that existed in India

17:48in the 18th, 19th or 20th centuries, then a lot that you do today will have to be stopped.

17:59From where has the trouser arrived?

18:06From where have the potato chips arrived?

18:14This was not happening even 200 years back and I keep asking, chips come later, first

18:23of all comes the potato.

18:25From where has the potato arrived?

18:27Potato is not indigenous, neither is the tomato.

18:34If you want to limit yourself only to the things that belong exclusively to the subcontinent,

18:41then forget about chips and burgers and pizzas and Manchurian balls, you will have to give

18:49up on tomato and potato as well.

18:54You use the kurta, for example, on all your religious occasions, don't you?

19:01From where has the kurta come?

19:04Is the kurta really indigenous?

19:09If you talk of things that are exclusively to India, India, mind you, had very little

19:16tradition of any upper wear, neither for men nor for women, because we are a hot country.

19:25So men used to wear next to nothing, when it comes to the upper body and women too used

19:32to wear very little.

19:34That's the Indian culture.

19:35Now tell me from where has the ghoonghat come?

19:38But you talk of the ghoonghat as Indian culture, it is not.

19:44And you know from where the ghoonghat is coming?

19:48You know the tribes belonging to Arabia that used to practice purdah?

19:55That was a cultural thing there and when the cultural mixture took place, then that thing

20:01came to India as well and you started using the ghoonghat.

20:06But today if you locate a woman wearing a saree and practicing the ghoonghat, you will

20:11immediately say, oh she is a cultural woman, but she is not.

20:23The problem is that we don't read, so we do not know.

20:28In the name of culture, all that we know of is the stuff that we saw in our houses till

20:34a few decades back and we think that is Indian culture.

20:37But that's a very illiterate kind of view of Indian culture.

20:44Just because your grandfather was doing something, how does it become Indian culture?

20:54You know what is culture?

20:55That which people practice is culture.

20:58That which people practice is culture.

21:01If a foreigner came to India, just around let's say 30 years back, he would say, chewing

21:11the betel nut with supari and katha and chunna and spitting it out selectively on white walls

21:20is Indian culture.

21:22Because that's what everybody was doing in India, especially on the hospital walls.

21:28That's how hygienic we were.

21:30Now you are not doing that, why are you not doing that, why are you defying your culture?

21:37Note the definition of culture, culture is an ever-changing entity.

21:42That which most people start practicing becomes the culture.

21:52You guys are little young, those who have a few grey hair would remember the menace

21:57of pan.

21:58You remember?

21:59Common buildings, government buildings, hospitals, everywhere just pan, pan and pan.

22:05How is that not culture, please tell me.

22:07And do you want to retain that or do you rather want to improve, please tell me.

22:15So the great good elements of culture must be retained.

22:24But how do you know what is good in your culture?

22:28That which leads to the truth of the Upanishads and Gita is good.

22:35That which you are just blindly practicing is bad, it's simple, is it not?

22:39It's so straightforward.

22:43Love these poems, they come from Hindi, obviously most of you will understand.

22:49How many of you do not know Hindi at all?

22:53Good, then we can have questions in Hindi as well at some stage.

22:58So lo ateet se utna hi, lo ateet se utna hi, jitna sundar hai, jeen sheen ka moh mrityu

23:14ka dhyutak hai.

23:18Do not just blindly take everything from the past.

23:23That which is life-giving, that which is full of goodness must be retained.

23:29And also new customs can be started.

23:35You have to examine your values very carefully.

23:38It's not a small thing, what is it that you value?

23:42That is the thing that determines your entire life, value means respect, value means honour.

23:47If you value something, you will accord that thing, your time, your energy, your mental

23:53space, right?

23:54Once you start valuing something, you start giving it your money, your time, your energy,

23:59your mental space, which is your entire life.

24:01So how can you just blindly value something and say, oh, it is a cultural value?

24:08No, no, no, no, no, no, no, value determines life, so be very careful.

24:13There is a lot in our past that is immensely great and there is a lot in our past that

24:22we need not touch today.

24:25So apply discretion, are you getting it?

24:33I do not like those who think of the past of India as just junk.

24:41They want to jettison everything, they say, no, no, no, if it is Indian and it is old,

24:47we do not want to touch it.

24:49They are fools at one extreme and at another extreme are fools who say, oh, if it is Indian

24:57and it is old, then it is venerable.

25:00No, truth does not lie at either of these two extremes.

25:05There is stuff in the past that you must immensely respect.

25:10We are talking of the Gita, we are talking of the Upanishads, we are talking of our great

25:15philosophers and mathematicians and scientists, why must we not be proud of them?

25:26I am proud of a Karnava, an Ashtavakra, a Kapila, a Kanada, obviously all the Rishis

25:34of the Upanishads, they are the ones I am proud of.

25:38I am proud of Sushruta, I am proud of Aryabhat, they are the ones I am really proud of.

25:47There is a lot in our past we can justifiably be proud of and I have just thrown a few names

25:54at you.

25:58There are dozens of such great names, but they are not valued, instead we value a lot

26:05of rubbish from the past.

26:08Is that okay?

26:09Tell me.

26:10Do you like that?

26:13We can't.

26:18Say if I start asking you about, let's say Sankhya Yoga, you would not know probably.

26:31The fact is that the distinction between the material world and the conscious self is at

26:39the basis of a lot of great literature that arose from the West in the last two centuries,

26:48but we will not know that.

26:51As young people I am sure you admire Jonathan Livingston Segal or Siddharth from Hermann

26:59Hess, right?

27:04You also talk of Animal Farm in 1984, don't you?

27:13Pink Floyd, if you go into their works you will see a distinction between the world and

27:23the self, all that is coming from Sankhya Yoga, but today if I ask you kindly tell me

27:32the originator, you will not know.

27:36If I ask you kindly tell me the important works of Sankhya Yoga, you will not know.

27:43And we keep talking of Indian culture, tradition, values, that is not justified.

27:51So many people, for example, are practicing yoga today, correct?

27:56Even here.

27:57How many of you practice yoga in some form or the other, at some time or the other, but

28:04if I ask you, have you really gone through Patanjali's works, you will not know.

28:11And if you do know, then I am so thankful and happy.

28:21Now Patanjali is someone you can be proud of, he has given a system of practice that

28:29is relevant even today, will continue to be relevant, the entire world is benefiting from it.

28:41Instead they get quite angry, when they see me in this kind of an outfit, they say, why

28:47are you wearing this, what's your problem, I will.

28:57And sometimes I make it a point to wear this just to annoy them, it's not that I feel greatly

29:06comfortable in this, but the uniform of a soldier is not meant to make the soldier feel

29:17comfortable, it has a different purpose, it is war gear, it is meant to do something to

29:29the adversary and I have been so comfortable in a kurta like this, for very very long years.

29:43It's okay, I'll talk of the Gita, in that or in this, how does it matter, please tell me, what does it?

29:55If Krishna were to come today, would he wear the same kind of clothes you find him wearing

30:03on the grounds of Kurukshetra?

30:07Would you find him walking around in the same kind of clothes?

30:10Please tell me, is the Gita timeless or are clothes timeless?

30:19But people who do not know the Gita are very concerned with clothes, especially women's

30:24clothes, that only tells about their own untamed sexuality.

30:33Why are women wearing this, wearing that, it is against Indian culture.

30:37Come on, grow up, grow up, grow up and tame your inner animal, how is it that all the

30:46time you are concerned with women's clothes?

30:49No, no, no, not the animal culture, culture, culture.

30:58Tell me a few verses from the Bhagavad Gita, they will not know.

31:07Tell me how does chapter 2 compare and contrast with chapter 4, they will not know.

31:27That which is time bound, you know, even if you try extremely hard, you will not be able

31:34to save it.

31:37It's not the nature of time to spare anything, nothing, buildings, time dependent, food,

31:49men and women, kingdoms, time dependent, all that is within time is reduced to zero by time.

32:00Time gives birth and time annihilates, culture, it rises at a point and then it disappears

32:09at a point, come on, don't you understand the basics of spirituality?

32:17That which takes birth in time, will one day obviously die in time or change in time, correct?

32:31Wisdom, spirituality, Vedanta, Gita, Upanishads, they exist to take you to the timeless, because

32:40it is the timeless that your heart beats for.

32:45Spirituality is not about following culture, it is also not about opposing culture.

32:52Spirituality is about taking the mind to that which transcends the mind and whatever the

33:00mind has is time stuff, mind stuff is time stuff and the mind will never feel at peace

33:09till it continues to rotate within itself, that is within time.

33:15The purpose of spirituality is to liberate you from all kinds of sorrow and time is sorrow,

33:21but this you will understand only if first of all you go to an Ashtavakra or to a Ribhu

33:26or to a Dattatreya.

33:31Mind is time, time is sorrow and you do not want to live in sorrow, do you?

33:37If you do not want to live in sorrow, you will want to know the limitations of mind

33:41and time and when you know those limitations, you transcend them.

33:48That's Atma Gyan or self-knowledge, the right word for spirituality.

33:52Spirituality is a very loose word.

33:54I came across something quite hilarious today, they said, you know, this Acharya who is not

34:00even qualified or something, he keeps talking against rituals, but look at spirituality,

34:10it is spirit plus rituality.

34:16Forget about epistemology, you have not even studied etymology, you do not know where the

34:22word is coming from, this kind of thing.

34:28Spirituality is spirit plus rituality.

34:32So spirituality is all about following rituals, I say, and you have a lot of these people

34:37these days, they call themselves spiritual leaders and they play with words, they just

34:44play with words and this kind of, for example, give me any word, I'll tell you what they'll

34:50make out of it.

34:51Let's play a small game, give me some word, the word has to be long enough so that one

34:59can play with it, desire, so they will say, you know, when you stop accepting anybody

35:11as your boss, that's when you move out of desire.

35:16Desire says de-sire, you know, what does sire mean, s-i-r-e, bossiness, when you have someone

35:26over your head, you say he is siring me.

35:30So de-sire means breaking free, so desire is great.

35:37This kind of spirituality is what we have today.

35:44Anything goes.

35:45You said Shiva, I didn't take that, but it can be taken and it can be brought down to

35:53an unimaginable level, the kind of things they can say, they'll say, you know, you say

36:01that the Indian culture has been misogynist, it has not been misogynist, see, Shiva.

36:14This is the level to which they have descended.

36:20Just take some word and start playing with it and prove a point and people buy that.

36:24You'll say, wow, this is great, wonderful.

36:31Velocity, no, cities must be speedy, only then you will have wellness and city, well-o-city.

36:44Citibank used to say, when they came for campus hiring at IIM, the city never sleeps, probably

36:50they still say that.

36:57Is that wisdom?

36:59Is that Gita?

37:00Is that Upanishads?

37:01Is that something you can be proud of, please tell me?

37:05How can you take that seriously?

37:07How can you patronize that or that's what is going on.

37:15We can play this game a little more.

37:19Any word you take and they'll come up with a clever quip.

37:27Spirituality is rituals, beat that.

37:41A correction.

37:42Lo ateet se utna hi jitna poshak hai, I had said sunder hai, that's actually lo ateet

37:48se utna hi jitna poshak hai, jeen, sheen ka moh, mrityu ka deotak hai.

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