00:00So Achyasi, please talk about this regarding India.
00:09Especially one time we make temple like Khajuraho.
00:16So what is the myth of Khajuraho?
00:21And how we lost it and where we are?
00:33No, it's not that we lost it or something.
00:38Not that once upon a time the entire philosophy or culture here was about the stuff depicted on the Khajuraho walls.
00:58It says that India has had space for all streams to flow freely.
01:11One of those streams has been Tantra as well.
01:23And that too has been conceived to take man to his utter highest potential.
01:38What is a temple?
01:40Temple is a place that represents an ascension, a rise, an upliftment.
01:54Upliftment can happen through various means.
02:05The various deities in the temples represent the various means that the mind can utilize for its ascension,
02:19depending on the mind's constitution, the mind's tendencies.
02:26So yes, you do have a few temples like Khajuraho where the body itself has been shown as the means.
02:39In particular, the sexual activity.
02:46However, the existence of Khajuraho is not to prove that once upon a time in glorious antiquity,
03:05India was all about sex and that religion was all about sexual activity.
03:22Not at all.
03:26There are temples dedicated to snakes.
03:28There are temples dedicated to rivers.
03:31There are temples dedicated to this deity, that deity.
03:36There are gods that ride on dogs.
03:39So you even have images or carvings of dogs inside temples.
03:51So that has been the scope of religious thought and religious activity in India.
04:00Man has tried everything here.
04:03One of those experiments related to the body as well.
04:10But even when the Khajuraho temple was being raised,
04:19parallely there was the strong and probably the dominating stream of Vedanta,
04:33as well as Buddhism, Jainism, that would look at the body very, very differently.
04:45In the way they looked at life, they looked at the organism, they looked at man's relationship with the world.
05:00They would often discover that the body is more of a mischief maker than a facilitator that would lead you to liberation.
05:17So there were all kinds of currents.
05:23Let's not use the Khajuraho temple to make it mean much more than what it actually was or what it actually represented.
05:44What often happens is that votaries of unrestrained physical activity or untamed bodily consumption,
06:07they often refer back to Khajuraho to validate their own self-centred motives and claims.
06:22They say, no, no, we are not the only ones who are obsessed with sex.
06:35Look at our great-great-grandfathers.
06:38Look at the temple of Khajuraho.
06:40See what they are doing there.
06:44They too are making out all the time.
06:47So if they could do that and that was considered pious enough to be placed in a temple,
06:56then why should we adopt the path of restraint or renunciation?
07:06So that approach one has to be cautious of.
07:29You know, when that kind of a thing happens, I often ask,
07:34there are many million temples in India.
07:39Why do you pick and choose that particular one only?
07:44Does that tell about the temple or does that tell about you?
07:50India has been a land of temples.
07:57There are temples every 200 meters.
08:01But then that particular temple has received greatly disproportionate attention.
08:09The temple is wonderful.
08:13I do not mean to disparage the temple.
08:16The temple is great.
08:21But why not talk of the humongous number of other temples and other streams as well?
08:34I am not saying do not talk of Khajuraho.
08:37But put things in perspective.
08:41Be mindful of the bigger picture.
08:45That's what often happens.
08:47We get so focused on one little thing that we tend to discount everything else.
09:06It's almost like being with someone for an entire day and then clicking his pic when he is in the lavatory.
09:27It's not that he was never in the lavatory.
09:29He was in the lavatory as well for a few minutes.
09:34Not that you are lying if you present that image or talk of that image.
09:43It's sure.
09:44He had his pants down and he was on the commode.
09:48But why do you talk of only that?
09:51There is so much else in those 24 hours.
09:56Why does that not appeal to you?
10:01And if you are prepared to talk of the entire expanse of 24 hours, then that lavatory thing will start making better sense.
10:13Then there would be a context in which to understand everything.
10:20Since the holistic context, things get distorted in their meanings and their implications.
10:34And if you are to talk of love, why not talk of the Kashyushanath temple?
10:44How does Khajurahu specifically represent love?
10:49I am asking, why does the Khajurahu temple, or for that matter the golden temple, Harmandir Sahib, why do they not represent love?
11:04Why is one reminded only of Khajurahu when one talks of love, especially on Valentine's Day?
11:12Does that not tell that our concept of love is purely physical?
11:17And therefore no other temple comes to our mind.
11:20Whereas the fact is, every temple is a temple only of love.
11:25What else is a temple?
11:27The mind's loving aspiration to unite with the ultimate.
11:32What else is love?
11:35Is not every temple a temple of love?
11:39Why specifically then do we refer to Khajurahu?
11:46I am not here to dismantle Khajurahu or something.
11:50It is just that things must have importance, but only as much importance as they deserve.
12:02Because Khajurahu is so unique.
12:05I think in the whole world, there is no temple like this.
12:09Even Konark in India, we have the second.
12:12But it is nothing like this.
12:15So there must be some signs.
12:17I want to understand the myth and science of the Khajurahu.
12:20That was my whole point.
12:22Any temple not unique, please tell me.
12:25How is any temple not unique?
12:32There is a temple dedicated to Kali.
12:35Explain how is it not unique.
12:38You have a ferocious woman carrying weapons of all kinds.
12:49Standing on top of what looks like a deadly monster.
13:01One of her hands is carrying a severed head with blood dripping from it.
13:11Around her neck is a necklace of skulls.
13:17I want to understand how is this imagery run-of-the-mill or ordinary or commonplace.
13:25How is this not unique?
13:31So, every mind is unique just as every person has his own life story.
13:40Right?
13:41Whatsoever takes you to the ultimate is your unique path towards the ultimate.
13:49And that's the reason.
13:50In spite of being strongly monistic, yet India is pantheistic.
14:01Monistic in the sense that the destination is not even one.
14:08The destination is Shunya.
14:11So, monism.
14:15The underlying reality is not even common.
14:19The underlying reality cannot even be talked of, thought of or defined.
14:25Therefore, monism.
14:27At the same time, as we perceive the world,
14:31we all are very very different people.
14:33Are we not?
14:34At least superficially, there are a lot of differences among people.
14:37Therefore, each one of us requires a separate path for his or her own dissolution.
14:48Therefore, each one of us deserves to have a separate, unique temple for himself, herself.
15:00Therefore, not only are there these millions of deities, actually every family has a Kuldeota.
15:12Not even two adjacent houses can be so similar that the same kind of temple or the same kind of worship or the same route can take them to their liberation.
15:27So, you need a different deity.
15:28So, you need a different deity and I need a different deity.
15:30Is that not uniqueness?
15:34Is that not uniqueness?
15:37Hmm?
15:38So, everybody requires a separate and unique path of his own.
15:47That path is represented by way of a temple.
15:53Therefore, there are so many temples and therefore there are so many deities.
15:57Does that not intrigue you?
16:00On the one hand, Vedanta keeps saying,
16:04Brahma, Brahma and Brahma.
16:07Just one, just one, just one.
16:10Not even one.
16:12Acharya Shankar had displayed his wit when he said,
16:23How can there be two when there is not even one?
16:29So, the way of looking transcends even monism.
16:37There is not even one.
16:39Forget about two.
16:42And yet, there are millions.
16:45And those millions are to be celebrated in their diversity.
16:48Knowing fully well that the underlying reality of the millions is a shared and non-existent reality.
17:00Both the foundation and the destination.
17:04They are one and the same.
17:07And Shunya.
17:09That does not exist at all.
17:11That non-existent final reality is itself described as Brahma or Atma or Satya.
17:25But, each of us would have to travel our individual personal journeys.
17:38Each single one of us.
17:40Therefore, each one of us need to have our own unique paths.
17:48At some stage in one's life, one does go through the physical sexual phase.
18:08Does one not?
18:11So, the Khajraho Temple indicates that even when you are going through that phase, remain centered.
18:20See what the body is doing.
18:23And if you can observe and understand the body, even in that phase, then even sexual behavior that normally pulls a person down into all kinds of rubbish and rut, can still prove to be a period in which your body is
18:52So, your onward activity, your onward journey keeps continuing.
