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

Acharya Prashant

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Transcript

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

00:08India as a country of rich cultural heritage, but in the last thousand years, there were

00:13several invasions by the Persians, the Arabs, the Mughals, the British, etc. Still our culture

00:19is relevant and we are known worldwide for it. I wish to know what kept Indian culture

00:25alive despite so many invasions? Maybe I need to upend the question a little. Maybe we lost

00:41out to so many invaders just because of the culture? Maybe. See, what is culture? Kindly

00:57define. The way we live our lives? Which is the way your beliefs are organized in your head,

01:11right? The way you talk to each other, common beliefs, way of communication, way of celebration,

01:26way of eating, way of dressing up, even your architecture, all that comes in culture. Your

01:35language, right? Mostly beliefs is what constitutes culture. Shared beliefs. Now,

01:48what is more important, truth or belief?

02:03Truth is important, but it's not completely black and white. If a person is not able to

02:11have something to believe into, the truth is just objective. It's not a motive.

02:23We have a purpose because we have a belief. So that's what keeps us going.

02:30So if that belief is not rooted in the truth, then you will have a purpose,

02:35but that purpose will have nothing to do with the truth.

02:38What's the point of having such a purpose? If your purpose is coming from your beliefs

02:49and not the truth, what good is the purpose? Just because you are following certain practices

03:05since long, do those practices become equivalent to the truth or a substitute for the truth?

03:17Also what you call as your culture varies from city to city.

03:21I am not even talking of north and south. I am saying it varies city to city.

03:28Also what you call as your current culture is simply the culture you have been following

03:33since last 1500 years. Before that the culture was very different.

03:44And if you go 5 centuries back, the culture was entirely different.

03:49So what do you mean by your culture? You mean the culture of the 19th and 20th century, right?

03:54Believe me, you don't follow the culture of the 17th and 18th century.

04:03Why don't you follow that culture? If value lies in everything that is in the past,

04:09why don't you go further back in the past? Why go back only 1 century? Why not 10 centuries?

04:15Now clothing for example is a part of culture. Look at the stuff you are wearing.

04:25Where did it come from? It is not in your culture. Why are you wearing this?

04:30The language we are talking in is not a part of your culture.

04:35Why are you communicating to me in this alien language?

04:41In fact, even the pose you are sitting in is not coming from your culture.

04:45It is very western. Why are you sitting in that pose?

04:54Chips, where have they come from? Pizza?

04:59Okay, chips and pizza we anyway scoff at because of their western origins.

05:06How about the dress that you wear in your festivals? Where is kurta pajama coming from?

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

05:26Oh, so bad.

05:29Aloo, potato and tomato. They were not there in the Vedic times.

05:38Invaders brought them very recently, both tomato and potato.

05:42But do you enjoy aloo like anything?

05:48Aloo was not a part of our culture. No sir, no aloo.

05:52For all those who keep talking only of Sanskriti, keep aloo away first thing.

05:56Aloo is a foreign thing. The invaders brought it actually.

06:00What do you mean exactly by rich culture? What is this richness in culture?

06:14To me only satya is rich, only truth is rich, all else is nothing.

06:20The fireworks that you celebrate so much in Diwali, do you think you are having fireworks 3 centuries back?

06:24Again that is something that has a foreign imprint on that.

06:30But today you say it is an inalienable part of my culture.

06:34What do you mean by your culture?

06:36What you call as your culture is largely the culture of those who invaded you.

06:40But today you worship that as your own culture.

06:44And the thing that deserves to be worshipped, satya, truth, you have totally forgotten that.

06:50When a woman wears saree and covers her head, you say look, lajja, this shyness, this modesty is Indian culture.

07:10Were Indian women covering their heads in pre-Islamic times?

07:18Figure that out. How is it your culture now?

07:22It is the culture of the invaders, the same invaders that you hate so much.

07:26And you use your culture to hate them. The fact is even your culture is coming from the invaders.

07:32Pulao, where is pulao coming from?

07:38Most of the food items on your plate today, you will not like it when you hear where they are coming from.

07:50And many food items that you do not like today, they were originally a part of your culture.

07:58For example, somras. Today you say, all the sanskritis will say alcohol is so bad, alcohol is so bad.

08:08The thing is, if you go to the Vedas, continuously even the rishis are praising som.

08:16Indra is especially fond of som.

08:20It was Islamic morality in which alcohol was banned.

08:30It is Islam that detests alcohol a lot. Alcohol is bad, alcohol is bad.

08:36So do you know where your aversion to alcohol is coming from? It is coming from the invaders.

08:42In your culture alcohol was great. Not that everybody was a drunkard.

08:50But nobody was taking the issue of alcohol very seriously.

08:56It is alright, let there be some soma. And it used to be a part even of religious offerings.

09:04So rishis have gathered and there you have somras.

09:10What is your culture?

09:16The real man, the man of truth is devoted to mukti and satya, not to sanskriti.

09:26In some sense entire Bhagavad Gita is a struggle of mukti against sanskriti.

09:34Arjun is quoting all the things related to sanskriti.

09:38Culture, he is saying you know, if we fight then all the kshatriyas will die.

09:47So all the kshatriya women will then marry people from the lower castes, lower varnas.

09:52And varnasankar, babies will be born. This is sanskriti.

10:02And if those are born then the homage that they will offer to the dead ancestors will not be accepted.

10:12And the souls of the dead ancestors will remain thirsty and restless.

10:18And Krishna says keep all this trash aside. To hell with your culture.

10:23I will tell you that the only thing that matters is mukti, liberation.

10:28And liberation is what I stand for. So be devoted to me and do as I say.

10:33Keep all your misogyny and superstition aside.

10:39And do you see all these things in what Arjun is saying?

10:45He is saying women you know they should not marry lower castes.

10:49Men were allowed to marry lower caste women. But women they should not marry non-kshatriyas.

10:54And superstition, a lot of superstition in what Arjun is saying. All that is in chapter 1 of Bhagavad Gita.

11:02So what you call as your culture has a lot of superstition as well. Why do you want to venerate that?

11:09Culture is man-made and it should keep getting refined episodically, timely, continuously rather.

11:22Not even episodically. Culture is something that pertains to a particular place at a particular moment in time.

11:34Culture is time bound and must change with time.

11:40And it is already changing with time.

11:45100 years back you would have said caste system, untouchability, not even untouchability, unseeability.

11:52There are certain people you are saying they cannot even be seen.

11:56These are great parts of our culture. Didn't you change that?

12:01Weren't there social reformers? Today we worship those social reformers.

12:04In their time those social reformers, you threw mud at them and you abused them.

12:13And you even wanted to kill them. And you said these people are destroying our culture.

12:18Because they are talking of abolishing child marriage and they are talking of widow remarriage.

12:23And no no no, widow remarriage cannot be done. In our culture no widow remarriage.

12:29And in our culture kids should be married at the age of 5.

12:33And in our culture the woman should be burnt on the pyre of the husband.

12:38These things were part of your culture? No.

12:41We are proud that we reformed and refined our culture. Aren't you proud of that?

12:47We are proud that we have a better culture today.

12:50Similarly culture should always keep getting refined with a view towards the truth.

12:57Do not take culture as sacred or holy.

13:01Satya is holy not Sanskriti.

13:04Are you getting it?

13:07Satya is Sanatan. Sanskriti is not Sanatan.

13:10Sanatan means timeless.

13:14Sanskriti is time bound.

13:17Getting it?

13:20So I am not discounting the importance of culture.

13:24What I am saying is, remember the place of culture vis-a-vis the truth.

13:30Culture should be a shadow of the truth.

13:33Culture should be a follower of the truth.

13:36Do not place culture in a position where it becomes absolute.

13:41Only the truth is absolute. Culture is not absolute.

13:45The Upanishads do not sing of Sanskriti. They sing of Satya.

13:50The saint poets didn't sing of Sanskriti. They talked of Satya.

13:54Unfortunately in today's India,

13:57there is a very unfortunate kind of cultural aggression taking shape.

14:09Everybody is talking of culture and nobody is talking of the real thing.

14:13Satya, truth.

14:16They have started equating culture with religion.

14:19But religion is not culture. Religion is something in service of the truth.

14:28Are you getting it?

14:36Have great traditions and always be careful

14:40that your traditions are pointing towards the truth.

14:43Only then the traditions have life.

14:45Otherwise the traditions fall dead.

14:47And there is no point carrying dead load over the centuries.

14:51I am not discounting traditions.

14:54There can be beautiful traditions.

14:56But only when you know the meaning of those traditions,

15:00only when those traditions arise from your heart,

15:03just ritualistically and blindly obeying traditions will take you nowhere.

15:09If traditions have to exist, let there be lively traditions.

15:14In fact, with an eye on the truth,

15:18with a mind devoted to the truth,

15:20you can even begin new traditions.

15:22Because all traditions began at some point in time.

15:26So why can't new traditions begin today?

15:28New, great, sacred traditions can begin today.

15:31And even the traditions that begin today must end at some other point in time.

15:37Because today's traditions will be applicable to today's man,

15:41today's environment, today's society, today's economy.

15:44200 years later those traditions might not be useful.

15:48So then those traditions can be reformed or totally disposed away.

15:53And then new traditions should come up.

15:55Traditions are not sacred.

15:58Traditions can be dropped and new traditions can be started.

16:01And even ancient traditions can be continued

16:04if there is meaning in them.

16:09And that meaning you don't need to superimpose on the tradition

16:12because that's also a trend these days.

16:13Take some random tradition and superimpose meaning on it.

16:17Say, no, no, no, this tradition is not random.

16:19It has this meaning.

16:20The tradition has no meaning at all.

16:22You are needlessly imposing meaning on the tradition.

16:25That kind of pseudo-scientific thing, don't attempt, please.

16:28Let the tradition have real meaning.

16:31And then it can continue for long.

16:33Otherwise drop it.

16:40I wanted to ask one more, like you used the term tradition

16:44and I wanted to know if there is a fundamental difference

16:47between tradition and culture or they are the same thing or...

16:51Culture proceeds on tradition.

16:53The way our culture, it is feasting on tradition.

16:57Culture need not be very strongly tied to tradition

17:02but in our country that is not the case.

17:05In our country, mostly what you call as cultural is also traditional.

17:10Is that not so?

17:11When you say cultural,

17:15it almost immediately and completely means traditional

17:20which is not an equality that's necessary.

17:26Culture need not be definitely equal to tradition.

17:30You can have new culture arising in light of a fresh, devoted, sacred consciousness.

17:39So culture is amenable. Culture can be changed.

17:47That does not mean I am saying everything that is traditional has to be dropped.

17:51But there is a lot in our traditions that deserves to be dropped.

17:55And let's please drop it.

17:57Let's not try to needlessly defend it.

18:07Yes, understood.

18:12Thank you.

18:31No part of this recording may be reproduced

18:34without Mooji Media Ltd.'s express consent.

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