What kept Indian culture alive despite so many invasions? || Acharya Prashant, with SPA Delhi (2023)

Acharya Prashant

Video Information: 22.02.23, SPA College (Online), Greater Noida  Context: ~ What's special about Indian culture?  ~ How old is Indian culture?  ~ How much of our culture is brought by invaders?  ~ Do we really have a rich culture? ~ What deserves to be worshipped? ~ How sacred is Indian tradition?  Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~

Transcript

00:00Good evening, sir. I am Devyansh and my question is about India's culture. We are proud of

00:13India as a country of rich cultural heritage, but in the last thousand years, there were

00:19several invasions by the Persians, the Arabs, the Mughals, the British, etc. Still, our

00:25culture is relevant and we are known worldwide for it. I wish to know what kept Indian culture

00:30alive despite so many invasions? Maybe I need to upend the question a little. Maybe we lost

00:47out to so many invaders just because of the culture? Maybe. See, what is culture? Kindly

01:03define. The way we live our lives. Which is the way your beliefs are organized in your head,

01:17right? The way you talk to each other, common beliefs, way of communication, way of celebration,

01:32way of eating, way of dressing up, even your architecture, all that comes in culture. Your

01:41language, right? Mostly beliefs is what constitutes culture. Shared beliefs. Now,

01:53what is more important? Truth or belief? Truth is important, but it's not completely black and

02:15white. If a person is not able to have something to believe in, the truth is just objective. It's

02:27not a motive. We have a purpose because we have a belief. So that's what keeps us going.

02:35So if that belief is not rooted in the truth, then you will have a purpose, but that purpose

02:42will have nothing to do with the truth. What's the point of having such a purpose? If your

02:53purpose is coming from your beliefs and not the truth, what good is the purpose? Just because

03:08you are following certain practices since long, do those practices become equivalent to the truth

03:18or a substitute for the truth? Also what you call as your culture varies from city to city. I'm not

03:27even talking of north and south. I'm saying it varies city to city. Also what you call as your

03:35current culture is simply the culture you have been following since last 1500 years. Before that,

03:46the culture was very different. And if you go 5 centuries back, the culture was entirely different.

03:54So what do you mean by your culture? You mean the culture of the 19th and 20th century, right?

04:00Believe me, you don't follow the culture of the 17th, 18th century. Why don't you follow that

04:10culture? If value lies in everything that is in the past, why don't you go further back in the

04:16past? Why go back only 1 century? Why not 10 centuries? Now clothing for example is a part

04:28of culture. Look at the stuff you are wearing. Where did it come from? It is not in your culture.

04:33Why are you wearing this? The language we are talking in is not a part of your culture. Why

04:41are you communicating to me in this alien language? In fact, even the pose you are sitting

04:49in is not coming from your culture. It is very Western. Why are you sitting in that pose?

04:54Chips, where have they come from? Pizza? Okay, chips and pizza we anyway scoff at

05:09because of their Western origins. How about the dress that you wear in your festivals?

05:16Where is kurta pajama coming from? It was not there 10 centuries back. It is coming

05:28from the same invaders. Oh, so bad. Aloo, potato and tomato, they were not there in the Vedic

05:42times. Invaders brought them very recently, both tomato and potato. But do you enjoy aloo

05:51like anything? Aloo was not a part of our culture. No sir, no aloo. For all those who

05:59keep talking only of Sanskriti, keep aloo away, first thing. Aloo is a foreign thing. The

06:04invaders brought it actually. What do you mean exactly by rich culture? What is this

06:19richness in culture? To me, only satya is rich, only truth is rich, all else is nothing.

06:26The fireworks that you celebrate so much in Diwali, do you think you are having fireworks

06:29three centuries back? Again that is something that has a foreign imprint on that. But today

06:38you say it is an inalienable part of my culture. What do you mean by your culture? What you

06:43call as your culture is largely the culture of those who invaded you. But today you worship

06:50that as your own culture and the thing that deserves to be worshipped, satya, truth, you

06:55have totally forgotten that. When a woman wears saree and covers her head, you say look

07:07lajja, this shyness, this modesty is Indian culture. Were Indian women covering their

07:19heads in pre-Islamic times? Figure that out. How is it your culture now? It is the culture

07:28of the invaders, the same invaders that you hate so much. And you use your culture to

07:34hate them. The fact is even your culture is coming from the invaders. Pulao, where is

07:42this pulao coming from? Most of the food items on your plate today, you will not like

07:54it when you hear where they are coming from. And many food items that you do not like today,

08:02they were originally a part of your culture. For example, somras. Today you say all the

08:10sanskriti vadis will say alcohol is so bad, alcohol is so bad. The thing is, if you go

08:16to the Vedas, continuously even the rishis are praising som. Indra is especially fond

08:25of som. It was Islamic morality in which alcohol was banned. It is Islam that detests alcohol

08:40a lot. Alcohol is bad, alcohol is bad. So do you know where your aversion to alcohol

08:45is coming from? It is coming from the invaders. In your culture, alcohol was great. Not that

08:55everybody was a drunkard. But nobody was taking the issue of alcohol very seriously. It is

09:03all right. Let there be some soma. And it used to be a part even of religious offerings.

09:11So rishis have gathered and there you have somras. What is your culture? The real man,

09:26the man of truth is devoted to mukti and satya, not to sanskriti. In some sense, entire

09:34Bhagavad Gita is a struggle of mukti against sanskriti. Arjun is quoting all the things

09:42related to sanskriti. Culture. He is saying, you know, if we fight, then all the kshatriyas

09:52will die. So all the kshatriya women will then marry people from the lower castes, lower

09:58varnas. And varnasankar, babies will be born. This is sanskriti. And if those are born,

10:11then the homage that they will offer to the dead ancestors will not be accepted. And the

10:19souls of the dead ancestors will remain thirsty and restless. And Krishna says keep all this

10:26trash aside. To hell with your culture. I will tell you that the only thing that matters

10:32is mukti, liberation. And liberation is what I stand for. So be devoted to me and do as

10:39I say. Keep all your misogyny and your superstition aside. And you see all these things in what

10:49Arjun is saying. He is saying women, you know, they should not marry lower castes.

10:55Men were allowed to marry lower caste women. But women, they should not marry non-kshatriyas.

11:03And superstition, a lot of superstition in what Arjun is saying, all that is in chapter

11:06one of Bhagavad Gita. So what you call as your culture has a lot of superstition as

11:12well. Why do you want to venerate that? Culture is man-made and it should keep getting refined

11:22episodically, timely, continuously rather, not even episodically. Culture is something

11:35that pertains to a particular place at a particular moment in time. Culture is time-bound

11:44and must change with time. And it is already changing with time. Hundred years back you

11:53would have said caste system, untouchability, not even untouchability, unseeability. There

11:59are certain people you are saying they cannot even be seen. These are great parts of our

12:05culture. Didn't you change that? Weren't there social reformers? Today we worship those social

12:10reformers. In their time, those social reformers, you threw mud at them. And you abused them.

12:20And you even wanted to kill them. And you said these people are destroying our culture

12:25because they are talking of abolishing child marriage and they are talking of widow remarriage.

12:31And no, no, no. Widow remarriage cannot be done. In our culture, no widow remarriage.

12:35And in our culture, kids should be married at the age of five. And in our culture, the

12:41woman should be burnt on the pyre of the husband. These things are part of your culture. No,

12:47we are proud that we reformed and refined our culture. Aren't you proud of that? We

12:54are proud that we have a better culture today. Similarly, culture should always keep getting

13:00refined with a view towards the truth. Do not take culture as sacred or holy. Satya

13:08is holy, not Sanskriti. Are you getting it? Satya is Sanatan. Sanskriti is not Sanatan.

13:18Sanatan means timeless. Sanskriti is time bound. Getting it? So, I am not discounting

13:28the importance of culture. What I am saying is, remember the place of culture vis-a-vis

13:35the truth. Culture should be a shadow of the truth. Culture should be a follower of the

13:41truth. Do not place culture in a position where it becomes the absolute. Only the truth

13:48is absolute. Culture is not absolute. The Upanishads do not sing of Sanskriti. They

13:54sing of Satya. The saint poets didn't sing of Sanskriti. They talked of Satya. Unfortunately,

14:00in today's India, there is a very unfortunate kind of cultural aggression taking shape.

14:16Everybody is talking of culture and nobody is talking of the real thing, Satya, truth.

14:22They have started equating culture with religion. But religion is not culture. Religion is something

14:27in service of the truth. Are you getting it? Have great traditions and always be careful

14:45that your traditions are pointing towards the truth. Only then the traditions have life.

14:51Otherwise the traditions fall dead. And there is no point carrying dead load over the centuries.

14:57I am not discounting traditions. There can be beautiful traditions. But only when you

15:04know the meaning of those traditions, only when those traditions arise from your heart,

15:09just ritualistically and blindly obeying traditions will take you nowhere. If traditions

15:17have to exist, let there be lively traditions. In fact, with an eye on the truth, with a mind

15:25devoted to the truth, you can even begin new traditions. Because all traditions began at

15:31some point in time. So why can't new traditions begin today? New, great, sacred traditions can

15:37begin today. And even the traditions that begin today must end at some other point in time.

15:42Because today's traditions will be applicable to today's man, today's environment, today's society,

15:49today's economy. 200 years later those traditions might not be useful. So then those traditions can

15:55be reformed or totally disposed away. And then new traditions should come up. Traditions are

16:03not sacred. Traditions can be dropped and new traditions can be started. And even ancient

16:09traditions can be continued if there is meaning in them. And that meaning you don't need to

16:17superimpose on the tradition because that's also a trend these days. Take some random tradition and

16:21superimpose meaning on it. Say no, no, no, this tradition is not random. It has this meaning.

16:26The tradition has no meaning at all. You are needlessly imposing meaning on the tradition.

16:32That kind of pseudo-scientific thing don't attempt please. Let the tradition have real

16:36meaning and then it can continue for long. Otherwise drop it. I wanted to ask one more,

16:47like you use the term tradition and I wanted to know if there is a fundamental difference

16:53between tradition and culture or they are the same thing? Culture proceeds on tradition. The

17:00way our culture is, it is feasting on tradition. Culture need not be very strongly tied to

17:08tradition but in our country that is not the case. In our country mostly what you call as cultural

17:15is also traditional. Is that not so? When you say cultural, it almost immediately and completely

17:24means traditional which is not an equality that's necessary. Culture need not be definitely

17:35equal to tradition. You can have new culture arising in light of a fresh, devoted, sacred

17:44consciousness. So culture is amenable. Culture can be changed.

17:54That does not mean I am saying everything that is traditional has to be dropped

17:58but there is a lot in our traditions that deserves to be dropped

18:02and let's please drop it. Let's not try to needlessly defend it.

18:05Yes, understood. Thank you.

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