The Truth-Centered Perspectives on Indian Culture and Traditions || Acharya Prashant (2023)

Acharya Prashant

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Transcript

00:00If your purpose is coming from your beliefs and not the truth, what good is the purpose?

00:18Just because you are following certain practices since long, do those practices become equivalent

00:28to the truth or a substitute for the truth?

00:33Also what you call as your culture varies from city to city.

00:37I am not even talking of north and south.

00:40I am saying it varies city to city.

00:44Also what you call as your current culture is simply the culture you have been following

00:49since last 50-100 years.

00:56Before that the culture was very different and if you go 5 centuries back, the culture

01:03was entirely different.

01:05So what do you mean by your culture?

01:07You mean the culture of the 19th and 20th century, right?

01:14Believe me, you don't follow the culture of the 17th, 18th century.

01:20Why don't you follow that culture?

01:22If value lies in everything that is in the past, why don't you go further back in the

01:27past?

01:28Why go back only 1 century?

01:30Why not 10 centuries?

01:36The clothing for example is a part of culture.

01:40Look at the stuff you are wearing.

01:41Where did it come from?

01:42It is not in your culture.

01:43Why are you wearing this?

01:46The language we are talking in is not a part of your culture.

01:51Why are you communicating to me in this alien language?

01:57In fact, even the pose you are sitting in is not coming from your culture.

02:01It is very western.

02:02Why are you sitting in that pose?

02:10Chips, where have they come from?

02:13Pizza?

02:15Ok, chips and pizza we anyway scoff at because of their western origins.

02:22How about the dress that you wear in your festivals?

02:26Where is kurta-pajama coming from?

02:33Where is kurta-pajama coming from?

02:35It was not there 10 centuries back.

02:37It is coming from the same invaders.

02:40Oh, so bad.

02:43Aloo, potato and tomato, they were not there in the Vedic times.

02:52Invaders brought them very recently, both tomato and potato.

02:58But do you enjoy aloo like anything?

03:01So bad.

03:04Aloo was not a part of our culture.

03:06No sir, no aloo.

03:09For all those who keep talking only of Sanskriti, keep aloo away first thing.

03:13Aloo is a foreign thing.

03:15The invaders brought it actually.

03:25What do you mean exactly by rich culture?

03:29What is this richness in culture?

03:31To me only satya is rich, only truth is rich, all else is nothing.

03:35The fireworks that you celebrate so much in Diwali, do you think you are having fireworks 3 centuries back?

03:45Again that is something that has a foreign imprint on that.

03:48But today you say it is an inalienable part of my culture.

03:51What do you mean by your culture?

03:53What you call as your culture is largely the culture of those who invaded you.

03:59But today you worship that as your own culture.

04:03Anything that deserves to be worshipped, satya, truth, you have totally forgotten that.

04:09When a woman wears saree and covers her head, you say look, lajja, this shyness, this modesty is Indian culture.

04:26Were Indian women covering their heads in pre-Islamic times?

04:35Figure that out. How is it your culture now?

04:37It is the culture of the invaders.

04:39The same invaders that you hate so much.

04:43And you use your culture to hate them.

04:45The fact is even your culture is coming from the invaders.

04:49Pulao, where is pulao coming from?

04:54Most of the food items on your plate today, you will not like it when you hear where they are coming from.

05:09And many food items that you do not like today, they were originally a part of your culture.

05:14For example, somras.

05:18Today you say, all the sanskriti vadis will say alcohol is so bad, alcohol is so bad.

05:25The thing is, if you go to the Vedas, continuously even the rishis are praising som.

05:33Indra is especially fond of som.

05:35It was Islamic morality in which alcohol was banned.

05:44It is Islam that detests alcohol a lot.

05:49Alcohol is bad, alcohol is bad.

05:52So do you know where your aversion to alcohol is coming from?

05:55It is coming from the invaders.

06:00In your culture, alcohol was great.

06:03Not that everybody was a drunkard.

06:06But nobody was taking the issue of alcohol very seriously.

06:11It is alright.

06:13Let there be some soma.

06:15And it used to be a part even of religious offerings.

06:20So rishis have gathered and there you have somras.

06:27What is your culture?

06:28What is your culture?

06:33The real man, the man of truth is devoted to mukti and satya, not to sanskriti.

06:43In some sense, entire Bhagavad Gita is a struggle of mukti against sanskriti.

06:51Arjun is quoting all the things related to sanskriti.

06:54Culture.

06:56He is saying, you know, if we fight, then all the kshatriyas will die.

07:04So all the kshatriya women will then marry people from the lower castes, lower varnas.

07:09And varnasankar, babies will be born.

07:16This is sanskriti.

07:17And if those are born, then the homage that they will offer to the dead ancestors will not be accepted.

07:28And the souls of the dead ancestors will remain thirsty and restless.

07:33And Krishna says, keep all this trash aside.

07:37To hell with your culture.

07:39I will tell you that the only thing that matters is mukti, liberation.

07:44And liberation is what I stand for.

07:47So be devoted to me and do as I say.

07:52Keep all your misogyny and your superstition aside.

07:57And do you see all these things in what Arjun is saying?

08:02He is saying women, you know, they should not marry lower castes.

08:05Men were allowed to marry lower caste women.

08:08But women, they should not marry non-kshatriyas.

08:13And superstition, a lot of superstition in what Arjun is saying.

08:16All that is in chapter 1 of Bhagavad Gita.

08:19So what you call as your culture has a lot of superstition as well.

08:22Why do you want to venerate that?

08:28Culture is man-made and it should keep getting refined.

08:34Episodically, timely, continuously rather.

08:39Not even episodically.

08:40Culture is something that pertains to a particular place at a particular moment in time.

08:50Culture is time-bound and must change with time.

08:57And it is already changing with time.

09:00100 years back you would have said caste system, untouchability.

09:04Not even untouchability, unseeability.

09:07There are certain people you are saying they cannot even be seen.

09:12These are great parts of our culture.

09:15Didn't you change that? Weren't there social reformers?

09:18Today we worship those social reformers.

09:21In their time, those social reformers, you threw mud at them.

09:26And you abused them.

09:29And you even wanted to kill them.

09:32And you said these people are destroying our culture.

09:34Because they are talking of abolishing child marriage.

09:37And they are talking of widow remarriage.

09:40And no, no, no. Widow remarriage cannot be done.

09:43In our culture, no widow remarriage.

09:45And in our culture, kids should be married at the age of 5.

09:49And in our culture, the woman should be burnt on the pyre of the husband.

09:54These things were part of your culture? No.

09:57We are proud that we reformed and refined our culture.

10:01Aren't you proud of that?

10:03We are proud that we have a better culture today.

10:06Similarly, culture should always keep getting refined.

10:11With a view towards the truth.

10:14Do not take culture as sacred or holy.

10:17Satya is holy, not Sanskriti.

10:22Are you getting it? Satya is Sanatan. Sanskriti is not Sanatan.

10:28Sanatan means timeless.

10:30Sanskriti is time bound.

10:33Getting it?

10:36So, I am not discounting the importance of culture.

10:40What I am saying is, remember the place of culture vis-a-vis the truth.

10:46Culture should be a shadow of the truth.

10:49Culture should be a follower of the truth.

10:52Do not place culture in a position where it becomes absolute.

10:57Only the truth is absolute.

10:59Culture is not absolute.

11:00The Upanishads do not sing of Sanskriti.

11:03They sing of Satya.

11:05The saint poets didn't sing of Sanskriti.

11:08They talked of Satya.

11:10Unfortunately, in today's India,

11:12there is a very unfortunate kind of cultural aggression taking shape.

11:24Everybody is talking of culture and nobody is talking of the real thing, Satya.

11:29Truth.

11:31They have started equating culture with religion.

11:35But religion is not culture.

11:37Religion is something in service of the truth.

11:44Are you getting it?

11:52Have great traditions.

11:53And always be careful that your traditions are pointing towards the truth.

11:59Only then the traditions have life.

12:01Otherwise the traditions fall dead.

12:03And there is no point carrying dead load over the centuries.

12:07I am not discounting traditions.

12:10There can be beautiful traditions.

12:12But only when you know the meaning of those traditions.

12:16Only when those traditions arise from your heart.

12:19Just ritualistically and blindly obeying traditions will take you nowhere.

12:26If traditions have to exist, let there be lively traditions.

12:30In fact, with an eye on the truth,

12:35with a mind devoted to the truth,

12:37you can even begin new traditions.

12:39Because all traditions began at some point in time.

12:43So, why can't new traditions begin today?

12:45New, great, sacred traditions can begin today.

12:47And even the traditions that begin today must end at some other point in time.

12:52Because today's traditions will be applicable to today's man,

12:57today's environment, today's society, today's economy.

13:00200 years later those traditions might not be useful.

13:04So, then those traditions can be reformed or totally disposed away.

13:09And then new traditions should come up.

13:11Traditions are not sacred.

13:14Traditions can be dropped.

13:16And new traditions can be started.

13:18And even ancient traditions can be continued,

13:21if there is meaning in them.

13:26And that meaning you don't need to superimpose on the tradition.

13:29Because that's also a trend these days.

13:31Take some random tradition and superimpose meaning on it.

13:34Say, no, no, no, this tradition is not random.

13:36It has this meaning.

13:38The tradition has no meaning at all.

13:40You are needlessly imposing meaning on the tradition.

13:43That kind of pseudo-scientific thing, don't attempt, please.

13:46Let the tradition have real meaning.

13:48And then it can continue for long.

13:50Otherwise, drop it.

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