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~~~~~
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 has been influenced by invaders?
~ Do we really have a rich culture?
~ What deserves to be worshiped?
~ How sacred is Indian tradition?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
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?...
~~~~~
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 has been influenced by invaders?
~ Do we really have a rich culture?
~ What deserves to be worshiped?
~ How sacred is Indian tradition?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00If your purpose is coming from your beliefs and not the truth, what good is the purpose?
00:17Just because you are following certain practices since long, do those practices become equivalent to the truth
00:29or 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 since last 50-100 years.
00:50Before that the culture was very different.
00:59And if you go 5 centuries back, the culture was entirely different.
01:05So what do you mean by your culture?
01:08You mean the culture of the 19th and 20th century, right?
01:13Believe 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 past?
01:28Why go back only 1 century? Why not 10 centuries?
01:35Clothing for example is a part of culture.
01:40Look at the stuff you are wearing.
01:42Where did it come from? It is not in your culture. Why are you wearing this?
01:44The language we are talking in is not a part of your culture.
01:52Why 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.
02:02It is very western. Why are you sitting in that pose?
02:04Chips, where have they come from? Pizza?
02:14Okay, 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?
02:35It was not there 10 centuries back.
02:38It is coming from the same invaders.
02:41Oh, so bad.
02:45Aloo, potato and tomato, they were not there in the Vedic times.
02:53Invaders brought them very recently, both tomato and potato.
03:00But do you enjoy aloo like anything?
03:03Aloo was not a part of our culture. No sir, no aloo.
03:09For all those who keep talking only of Sanskriti, keep aloo away first thing.
03:13Aloo is a foreign thing. The invaders brought it actually.
03:24What 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.
03:39Do you think you are having fireworks 3 centuries back?
03:42Again that is something that has a foreign imprint on that.
03:48But today you say it is an inalienable part of my culture.
03:50What do you mean by your culture?
03:53What you call as your culture is largely the culture of those who invaded you.
03:58But today you worship that as your own culture.
04:02And the thing that deserves to be worshipped, satya, truth, you have totally forgotten that.
04:08When a woman wears saree and covers her head,
04:14you say look, lajja, this shyness, this modesty is Indian culture.
04:27Were Indian women covering their heads in pre-Islamic times?
04:34Figure that out. How is it your culture now?
04:38It is the culture of the invaders, the same invaders that you hate so much.
04:41And you use your culture to hate them.
04:45The fact is even your culture is coming from the invaders.
04:48Pulao, 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.
05:06And many food items that you do not like today, they were originally a part of your culture.
05:14For example, somras.
05:17Today you say all the sanskriti vadis will say alcohol is so bad, alcohol is so bad.
05:24The thing is if you go to the Vedas, continuously even the rishis are praising som.
05:31Indra is especially fond of som.
05:37It was Islamic morality in which alcohol was banned.
05:46It is Islam that detests alcohol a lot.
05:52Alcohol is bad, alcohol is bad.
05:54So do you know where your aversion to alcohol is coming from?
05:57It is coming from the invaders.
05:58In your culture alcohol was great.
06:05Not that everybody was a drunkard.
06:08But nobody was taking the issue of alcohol very seriously.
06:13It is alright, let there be some soma.
06:17And it used to be a part even of religious offerings.
06:21So rishis have gathered and there you have somras.
06:24What is your culture?
06:30The real man, the man of truth is devoted to mukti and satya.
06:40Not to sanskriti.
06:42In some sense entire Bhagavad Gita is a struggle of mukti against sanskriti.
06:51Arjun is quoting all the things related to sanskriti.
06:55Culture, he 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.
07:14This is sanskriti.
07:18And if those are born then the homage that they will offer to the dead ancestors will not be accepted.
07:29And the souls of the dead ancestors will remain thirsty and restless.
07:35And Krishna says keep all this trash aside.
07:38To hell with your culture.
07:40I will tell you that the only thing that matters is mukti, liberation.
07:45And liberation is what I stand for.
07:48You should be devoted to me and do as I say.
07:51Keep all your misogyny and your superstition aside.
07:57And you see all these things in what Arjun is saying.
08:02He is saying women you know they should not marry lower castes.
08:06Men were allowed to marry lower caste women.
08:08But women they should not marry non-kshatriyas.
08:12And superstition, a lot of superstition in what Arjun is saying.
08:17All that is in chapter 1 of Bhagavad Gita.
08:19So what you call as your culture has a lot of superstition as well.
08:23Why do you want to venerate that?
08:25Culture is man-made and it should keep getting refined episodically, timely, continuously rather.
08:39Not even episodically.
08:41Culture is something that pertains to a particular place at a particular moment in time.
08:51Culture is time bound and must change with time.
08:57And it is already changing with time.
09:02100 years back you would have said caste system, untouchability.
09:06Not even untouchability, unseeability.
09:10There are certain people you are saying they cannot even be seen.
09:13These are great parts of our culture.
09:17Didn't you change that?
09:19Weren't there social reformers?
09:21Today we worship those social reformers.
09:23In their time those social reformers, you threw mud at them.
09:29And you abused them.
09:31And you even wanted to kill them.
09:33And you said these people are destroying our culture.
09:36Because they are talking of abolishing child marriage.
09:39And they are talking of widow remarriage.
09:41And no, no, no.
09:43Widow remarriage cannot be done.
09:45In our culture no widow remarriage.
09:47And in our culture kids should be married at the age of 5.
09:50And in our culture the woman should be burnt on the pyre of the husband.
09:55These things are part of your culture.
09:56No.
09:58We are proud that we reformed and refined our culture.
10:02Aren't you proud of that?
10:04We are proud that we have a better culture today.
10:07Similarly culture should always keep getting refined with a view towards the truth.
10:14Do not take culture as sacred or holy.
10:17Satya is holy, not Sanskriti.
10:21Are you getting it?
10:23Are you getting it?
10:25Satya is Sanatan.
10:27Sanskriti is not Sanatan.
10:29Sanatan means timeless.
10:31Sanskriti is time bound.
10:34Getting it?
10:38So, I am not discounting the importance of culture.
10:41What I am saying is, remember the place of culture vis-a-vis the truth.
10:47Culture should be a shadow of the truth.
10:50Culture should be a follower of the truth.
10:53Do not place culture in a position where it becomes absolute.
10:58Only the truth is absolute.
11:00Culture is not absolute.
11:02The Upanishads do not sing of Sanskriti.
11:05They sing of Satya.
11:07The saint poets didn't sing of Sanskriti.
11:09They talked of Satya.
11:10Unfortunately, in today's India, there is a very unfortunate kind of cultural aggression taking shape.
11:25Everybody is talking of culture and nobody is talking of the real thing.
11:30Truth.
11:32They have started equating culture with religion.
11:35But religion is not culture.
11:37Religion is something in service of the truth.
11:38Are you getting it?
11:47Have great traditions and always be careful that your traditions are pointing towards the truth.
12:00Only then the traditions have life.
12:02Otherwise the traditions fall dead.
12:04And there is no point carrying dead load over the centuries.
12:08I am not discounting traditions.
12:11There can be beautiful traditions.
12:13But only when you know the meaning of those traditions,
12:17only when those traditions arise from your heart,
12:20just ritualistically and blindly obeying traditions will take you nowhere.
12:25If traditions have to exist, let there be lively traditions.
12:31In fact, with an eye on the truth, with a mind devoted to the truth,
12:36you can even begin new traditions.
12:40Because all traditions began at some point in time.
12:44So why can't new traditions begin today?
12:46New, great, sacred traditions can begin today.
12:49And even the traditions that begin today must end at some other point in time.
12:53Because today's traditions will be applicable to today's man,
12:58today's environment, today's society, today's economy.
13:01200 years later those traditions might not be useful.
13:04So then those traditions can be reformed or totally disposed away.
13:10And then new traditions should come up.
13:12Traditions are not sacred.
13:15Traditions can be dropped and new traditions can be started.
13:18And even ancient traditions can be continued if there is meaning in them.
13:23And that meaning you don't need to superimpose on the tradition.
13:29Because that's also a trend these days.
13:30Take some random tradition and superimpose meaning on it.
13:34Say, no, no, no, this tradition is not random. It has this meaning.
13:37The tradition has no meaning at all.
13:39You are needlessly imposing meaning on the tradition.
13:42That kind of pseudo-scientific thing don't attempt please.
13:45Let the tradition have real meaning.
13:48And then it can continue for long.
13:50Otherwise drop it.