Vedanta and Liberalism || Acharya Prashant, at Arth : A Culture Fest (2022)

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?...    Read 3 handpicked wisdom articles, just for you: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/articl...  ~~~~~   Video Information: 19.02.2022, Arth: A Culture Fest, Zee News Noida, U.P.   Context:  ¬ What are hell and heaven?  ¬ What is recorded in the Vedas?  ¬ How does Vedanta operate?  ¬ What makes a seeker beautiful?  ¬ What makes people reject Vedanta?   Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~

Transcript

00:00I believe every one of you should read this wonderful book.

00:06I couldn't read it fully.

00:07I'm just going through and one chapter was a revelation in itself, right?

00:11Like he rightly said, the right action is its own reward.

00:14Maybe you know that will, that is one of the revelation you have.

00:17And for the uninitiated, the common people, many people may ask because of the various

00:21concepts and religions around the world, heaven, hell, you will get that hellfire.

00:27So many concepts are there.

00:28So are they fanciful imaginations or where they're merely symbolic or are they metaphoric?

00:34How do you?

00:35They are neither imaginary nor symbolic.

00:39They are very, very real.

00:40In fact, they are more real than the life we lead, the breath we take, Vedanta.

00:47It's Niralambu Upanishad, I suppose that puts it very succinctly.

00:52Right company is heaven.

00:56Wrong company is hell.

00:58You don't have to think of heaven and hell as afterlife.

01:03You don't have to think of other dimensions or other worlds, other lokas, both heaven

01:09and hell are here right now.

01:11And this is not a recent modern or liberal point of view.

01:16This is coming from our most ancient scriptures.

01:19They are saying you don't have to look towards the future.

01:22You don't have to look towards anywhere else.

01:26Heaven and hell are both exactly where you are standing right now in this moment.

01:31If you are someone who loves to be with people who will take him towards truth, towards joy,

01:39towards simplicity, you are in heaven already.

01:42And if you surround yourself with people who pull down your consciousness, muddle up your

01:48mind, then verily you are right now in hell.

01:54Just being the devil's advocate, I'm not calling our liberal friends devils, but just asking

01:58a question from their point, being a devil's advocate, many people say what is presently

02:03described as Vedic wisdom was to a large extent initiated and reinterpreted by Swami Vivekananda

02:10in the last century.

02:11I know they say that the word karma used to mean rituals in Vedas, signifying yajnas and

02:17yagas, but Vivekananda reinterpreted through the modern sensibilities.

02:21And you know, maybe Vivekananda is a common icon, everyone accepts, but Vivekananda reinterpreted.

02:26So karma originally meant something else.

02:28Right now it is being reinterpreted as actions.

02:31Those who say this are probably factually right and yet totally wrong when it comes

02:36to the truth.

02:37You see, please understand the Vedas are literature and Vedanta is their philosophy.

02:45There's a difference between literature and philosophy and it's juvenile to talk of literature,

02:52sense its underlying philosophy.

02:54It's very right that the opening part, the first part of the Vedas is mostly karmakand,

03:03ritualistic.

03:04And it's right that the second part, the latter part is Vedanta, specifically the concluding

03:12part.

03:13They're inseparable.

03:14They're inseparable.

03:15To pit these two against each other is not wise at all.

03:23So more importance when it comes to philosophy has to be given to the Upanishads.

03:32And the Upanishads have no place for rituals or karmakand as such.

03:38They are the jnana khand or jnana khand.

03:43So it's not as if the intellectual part or the philosophical part has been recently superimposed

03:52upon or rather foisted on the Vedas.

03:56Vedanta is the very juice, the very essence of Vedas and all that Swami Vivekananda was

04:04doing was that he was bringing out the Vedantic essence as against mere ritualism.

04:12Unfortunately, it had happened in his time around 100-150 years back that people had

04:19become more interested as they actually always have been in mere mechanical repetition of

04:26traditions and this and that and rituals.

04:31And very little attention comparatively was being paid towards the juice, the fundamental

04:38philosophy which is contained in the Upanishads.

04:41So that's the reason he stressed so much on Vedanta.

04:46He stressed on Vedanta.

04:48He didn't reinterpret Vedanta as per the liberal values.

04:54Stressing on something is one thing and the thing that he's stressing on has been ever

04:59existent since the ancient times.

05:03I believe that's beautifully articulated rather than reinterpreting, Vivekananda re-emphasized,

05:08re-emphasized, stressed or highlighted the Veda part.

05:11There is another aspect, especially these things are intimately connected to our history.

05:16Many people say that India had a very vibrant pre-Vedic civilization and yoga temples were

05:22a part of it and Vedas, of course, are a great part of it.

05:26But this Vedic wisdom is not indigenous in one sense or it was not very true to us.

05:33So this Vedic wisdom was more of a pastoral nature, what they call Aruvanevan, the Aryan

05:39stuff.

05:40So how do you respond to such historical misrepresentations of it?

05:43First of all, the most fundamental thing is that seekers of truth are concerned with the

05:52truth, not really with the personalities surrounding it or the historical source it

05:59is coming from.

06:00So that's the most fundamental thing.

06:02However, if rather than the truth one is more interested in the historical facts, then let

06:10us please understand that Vedanta itself is totally independent of all histories and personalities

06:22and everything that is contained in time.

06:24Does Vedanta tell you that you have to listen to a particular person, that you have to listen

06:29to a particular Rishi or sage?

06:32Even the names of the sages that blessed us with the riches, the verses are not all known

06:37to us.

06:38We do not have to follow the name of one towering personality, be it a Buddha or a prophet.

06:44That's not how Vedanta works.

06:46So it might be so that the sages were looking in all possible directions to seek knowledge,

06:55to seek inspiration, to observe everything that is available to them.

07:00And I would say that this is their greatness.

07:04If you are really a sage, why would you confine yourself to your narrow coterie or something?

07:10And that's the reason why we have so many Upanishads and that is the reason Upanishads

07:14were compiled over a period of so many centuries and that is also the reason why at the superficial

07:20level you sometimes also see contradictions there.

07:23This is the greatness.

07:24This is the beauty of a real seeker that he doesn't care for boundaries.

07:31And also when he teaches, he says this teaching is not limited to the boundary of my persona.

07:38Sometimes I'm not even willing to tell you my name.

07:40I'm not saying that the word of some heavenly power has come down through this particular

07:45person or that this particular stream has to be named after a particular person or a

07:51series of persons or one group or something.

07:56It's an open source thing.

07:59And that makes it all the more venerable.

08:02Just imagine the greatness of those timeless saints who gave us eternal wisdom and didn't

08:06even bother to write their name.

08:07Didn't even bother.

08:09It is eternal wisdom.

08:10It doesn't belong to you or me.

08:12Equally Rahul, they were not very particular to not to write their names.

08:20It didn't mean to them enough even to make it a rule that they have to remain anonymous.

08:27So sometimes we do get to hear their names as if names don't matter at all.

08:33Are they not the real egoless or that selfless wisdom?

08:38We can hear that.

08:39And especially in the past century, we can see that back to Vedas was a great movement

08:43initiated by all the great reformers.

08:45And we could, like you said, Acharya Prashant is one of those rare people who still can

08:50take on blind superstitions, can fight against it.

08:53You know, it's a very politically inconvenient topic and incorrect topic.

08:56So when you deal with such things, what is the social reaction you get?

09:00Because a person of your stature, addressing real social issues and tackling it.

09:05At the superficial level, we get battered from all sides.

09:09But at a deep level, I very well know that what I'm saying is something each of us is

09:16thirsty for.

09:18So even if people resist and they resist for various reasons, there are some who resist

09:26because I am talking of Vedanta, which is quite old.

09:33And then there are some who say that the Sanghita part of the Vedas is older than Vedanta.

09:37Why are you talking of that?

09:39So people on the left, people on the right, all find their own reasons to offer resistance

09:48irrespective of that.

09:49The fact is the ones we are, we all want the light.

09:58We all want to be liberated.

10:00We all have a certain hidden love for truth.

10:04It's that love I'm banking on.

10:07I know that my best friend lives even within my most rabid opponent.

10:17And it's that best friend I rely so much on.

10:21Your depths, the core of your mind is seeking exactly what Vedanta is bringing to you.

10:28You will have to go to Vedanta, even if in some other name, you may not call it Vedanta.

10:33You may go to Vedanta via some, let's say, author who is relying on Vedanta and yet not

10:42acknowledging it.

10:43But it's ultimately Vedanta that would redeem you.

10:47So call Rose by any other name, and how can Vedanta, now connecting to nation building,

10:54how can this Upanishadic wisdom, Vedanta, bring forth a national rejuvenation, a nation

10:59building process?

11:00You see, we just talked of what heaven is and what hell is, right?

11:05We do require the right company.

11:08Right company is very important.

11:09What really is a nation?

11:11A nation is people brought together by shared values, by something that they share.

11:18That something that they share could be ethnicity, could be language, could be their formal religion,

11:23could even be their dress or their food habits.

11:28We will have to live together.

11:32Since we are born as bodies, we will seek company.

11:36The question is, what is the foundation of that company?

11:40On what basis are we having that company?

11:43So it translates into what really is the basis of the nationhood.

11:48Now nations will exist.

11:50I'm not talking of countries.

11:51I'm talking of nations.

11:53Nations will exist.

11:54It's just that they must exist on the right foundations.

11:59And I take Vedanta as just the right foundation for any nation, specifically the Indian nation.

12:06In fact, I clearly see that the true foundation of the Indian nation is anyway Vedanta.

12:17Today we don't really have much time.

12:19But another day, another opportunity, I would love to elaborate on how anyway Bharat has

12:27nothing but Vedanta as its glue, as the point where everything emanates from.

12:36So that has to be recognized and that has to be acknowledged.

12:39And that is not something sectarian or region specific.

12:45That's not something divisive.

12:47If you acknowledge that, then you really get people on one platform based on extremely

12:55sublime values.

12:57And that would do good to all of us, irrespective of our faith, irrespective of our gender,

13:04irrespective of our persuasions and ideologies.

13:08So that's what I want to say.

13:09The foundation of the Indian nation is Vedanta and has to be Vedanta.

13:14And Vivekananda used to brilliantly articulate that every nation has a character and that

13:19character of India is spirituality, Vedanta.

13:21Wonderful.

13:22Yes.

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