Video Information: 22.02.23, SPA College (Online), Greater Noida
The myth of 'Consecrated spaces'
Context:
~ The myth of 'Consecrated spaces'
~ What is a consecrated space?
~ What is the meaning of consecrated spaces?
~ How Consecrated Spaces Can Ignite Your Energies?
~ The Importance of Consecrated Spaces
~ What does consecrated space mean?
#Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
#acharyaprashant #spiritual myths
The myth of 'Consecrated spaces'
Context:
~ The myth of 'Consecrated spaces'
~ What is a consecrated space?
~ What is the meaning of consecrated spaces?
~ How Consecrated Spaces Can Ignite Your Energies?
~ The Importance of Consecrated Spaces
~ What does consecrated space mean?
#Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
#acharyaprashant #spiritual myths
Category
ЁЯУЪ
LearningTranscript
00:00 [ Music ]
00:28 >> Good evening, sir.
00:30 Since we are talking at the School of Planning
00:33 and Architecture, my question is regarding the structure.
00:36 The geometry and aesthetics
00:39 of the man-made structures have a deep impact on them,
00:42 sort of an emotional impact.
00:44 Is such impact a result of only the aesthetics and physics,
00:49 or is there a spiritual sense to this too?
00:51 Because I have heard some spiritual gurus speak
00:55 of consecrated spaces.
00:56 >> We talk of consecrated spaces.
01:01 The opposite of that would be a haunted house.
01:07 So when you reach that place, you start feeling jittery,
01:11 or something wrong is going on, all those things.
01:15 You see, most of that is obviously just your own conditioning.
01:22 Just your own conditioning.
01:26 That's the reason why you have to be told in advance
01:29 that a particular place is a consecrated place.
01:32 You have to be told in advance,
01:37 and you have to be told very, very strongly,
01:40 so that your mind is fully conditioned
01:44 that that particular place is a consecrated place.
01:49 And when you reach there,
01:58 then you find you are indeed experiencing divinity.
02:05 So I have a curious incident to narrate on this.
02:13 So this is from my corporate days.
02:23 And my job as a consultant required
02:31 that I would frequently travel.
02:33 So once I was staying in a hotel
02:37 in a suburban area,
02:43 close to a large automobile factory.
02:48 And at that point, I was a consultant to that factory.
02:58 So it's one of the largest producers of tractors
03:08 in the country at this moment.
03:10 So I was there, and a few others were there
03:21 staying in the same hotel.
03:23 It was actually a guest house.
03:24 So it was a bit of a remote area,
03:32 a little away from the city.
03:33 So the guest house in charge comes and says,
03:38 "Sir, because you are staying there,
03:40 you must definitely visit that particular group of temples.
03:47 It's just around 20 kilometers from here,
03:51 and a lot of folklore is attached to it,
03:56 and especially the temple number 8.
04:02 The temple number 8.
04:04 There are a lot of stories and even miracles
04:09 attached to its name."
04:13 So we said, "Fine."
04:16 He said, "I mean that entire group of little temples,
04:22 and those are pretty old temples,
04:26 not in proper shape either, dilapidated and all,
04:31 and there was a mystique attached to them."
04:35 So he directed us specifically towards temple number 8,
04:39 and all those temples were quite close by.
04:42 So you got down from the car,
04:43 and in front of you was this cluster of temples,
04:47 and we were told to go to temple number 8.
04:51 So we got down, and after a while,
05:06 one of my fellows from the guest house,
05:09 he comes and there is a peculiar glow on his face.
05:15 And he says, "I really experienced divinity.
05:18 I really experienced divinity.
05:22 I was standing at temple number 8,
05:27 because that's the place I had been directed to.
05:30 I had been told that's the place where the magic is,
05:33 so you go right to that place.
05:35 So I was standing there, and of course,
05:38 the temples were old and all, there were no markings.
05:41 You could not know really which one is the temple number 8.
05:45 You had to manually count.
05:47 You knew that one was 1, and this is 8,
05:49 and there were 12 or 14 little temples.
05:54 So I was standing in front of temple number 8,
05:57 trying hard to experience divinity from there,
06:03 and then this fellow comes to me and says, "Miraculous!
06:09 Absolutely out of this world.
06:12 Temple number 8 for sure has some sacred vibes.
06:15 What I have experienced just now is definitely a paranormal phenomena."
06:21 So I said, "Okay, you did that.
06:24 Fine."
06:25 And this fellow was a deeply religious fellow.
06:31 All kinds of rituals we knew he was partaking in and all those things,
06:39 and he had a great belief in the metaphysical and the paranormal and such things.
06:47 So he comes and says, "I just spent around 10 to 15 minutes in temple number 8,
06:54 and you cannot, just cannot imagine what I have experienced."
07:00 I said, "Wow!
07:01 Please, please narrate me your experience.
07:04 But there is one little thing I want to tell you.
07:08 The temple you are coming from is temple number 6.
07:13 Temple number 8 is where I am standing."
07:15 The moment I said that, all his experience vanished.
07:20 He said, "Oh, but then that must be a fluke."
07:22 Do you understand this?
07:28 You are already conditioned to experience so-called sacredness.
07:34 You have been told that if you go to this place, there is sacredness.
07:39 So that fellow enters temple number 6, thinking that it is temple number 8,
07:43 and starts experiencing sacredness that you are supposed to experience at temple number 8.
07:50 This thing applies obviously not only to temple, but structures from all religions.
07:55 It would apply to mosques, churches, all other places.
08:02 That's what. It's all within you.
08:05 It's your own belief that you experience.
08:09 There is nothing special in the structure as such.
08:15 Nothing in the structure that...
08:17 And if someone says, "Oh, you know, there is this temple, and now I am consecrating it,
08:21 and now it becomes special," that fellow is out to fool you. As simple as that.
08:28 If someone says, "The architecture is special," even that can be admitted to an extent.
08:34 Because there can be beauty in stuff that is man-made.
08:38 Just as there is beauty in physical nature, there is also beauty in man-made stuff.
08:45 So that can be admitted.
08:46 Just as there are man-made paintings, there are man-made machines that are absolutely exquisite.
08:54 Someone can write a fabulous software.
08:58 The same thing that was being accomplished by a computer program that ran over 500 lines.
09:06 Someone comes and finishes that off in 45 lines.
09:10 It's a marvelous piece, a thing of beauty.
09:13 I understand. There is beauty.
09:15 There is beauty in the way you solve a problem in mathematics.
09:18 There is beauty in the way you compose a poem or write an essay.
09:22 And there can obviously be beauty in architecture as well.
09:28 So if you say, "Because the thing is beautiful, I love it," I understand.
09:37 When you look at the mighty Himalayas, when you look at the snow-capped peaks,
09:41 when you look at the Ganga gushing down, it definitely has a soothing effect on the mind.
09:50 That too I can understand.
09:54 But to say that a place can be consecrated through rituals or by a special man going and performing ceremonies
10:04 is absolutely hogwash.
10:08 None of that.
10:10 People say, "No, look at the deity. The deity is stone till a certain point,
10:16 and then a priest comes and performs a few rituals and narrates a few mantras,
10:23 and then the deity comes alive or gets charged, gets energized, becomes real."
10:32 All that is nonsense.
10:35 None of that can happen.
10:37 All that is just conditioning, conditioning, and conditioning.
10:40 That's why one man's sacred place is very ordinary for the other. Is it not?
10:51 A Muslim passes in front of a mosque and the kind of experience that he gets
10:57 is not the experience that a Jew would get passing in front of the same mosque
11:01 or a Hindu would get passing in front of the same mosque.
11:04 It's all very subjective.
11:06 It's within you. It's not in that structure.
11:11 What can be in the structure is something else.
11:14 There can be beauty in the structure.
11:18 There can be sophistication in the structure.
11:21 Also, there can be one more thing in the structure, very important.
11:24 I'm glad I didn't forget that.
11:27 The structure can have great pointers towards higher values.
11:38 And then the structure really becomes a living story.
11:44 The structure then becomes a teacher.
11:48 The structure is now teaching you something.
11:50 Let's say there is something carved on the walls.
11:54 Or let's say there is a painting.
11:57 Or let's say there is a specific shape to the pillars.
12:00 Now that can mean something.
12:03 I definitely admit that and I respect that.
12:06 But for that to mean anything, you must know what the meaning is.
12:12 But do you know what the meaning is?
12:14 If you do not know what the meaning is,
12:16 how have you just blindly started parroting sacred, sacred?
12:24 Do you get this?
12:26 For example, think of the swan, the Hans.
12:32 Now the Hans is a very important motif in Vedanta.
12:40 Why? Because it refers to the Atma, the free bird.
12:49 Your fundamental inner nature of freedom.
12:53 That's what the Hans refers to.
12:56 Also, when you write Hanso and you start chanting that,
13:04 Hanso, Hanso, that turns into Soham.
13:08 And Soham means that am I.
13:13 So that answers the fundamental Vedantic query, who am I? Koham.
13:19 Soham becomes the response to Koham.
13:23 So if you look at a Hans drawn on a wall,
13:31 or etched or carved or something,
13:37 and you are immediately reminded of the Atma, the pure self,
13:42 then there is sacredness. Definitely.
13:45 But if you do not know what the bird stands for,
13:48 and you start saying, oh, great, peace, wonderful vibes,
13:53 then you are just fooling yourself.
13:58 That bird, that shape was put there to remind you of something.
14:03 If indeed you are reminded, then the shape has worked for you.
14:06 But if you are not being reminded at all, and you are just saying,
14:09 no, no, no, I am getting vibes, then you are hell bent on remaining who you are.
14:15 Then you don't want to benefit from the temple.
14:18 Your ego is so strong that it has defeated the temple.
14:23 And you are just saying, oh, this is a consecrated space,
14:26 so I am benefiting from being here. Nobody benefits from being anywhere.
14:29 Unless the mind is active.
14:33 Unless the consciousness understands what is going on.
14:39 Right now you might be benefiting from this conversation
14:42 because your mind is attentive and is trying to understand what is going on. Right?
14:49 Similarly, if you go to a temple,
14:52 I am saying temple because typically when you say consecrated space, you mean a temple.
14:56 You can mean other places also, but typically a temple.
14:59 When you go to the temple, you must know what everything stands for.
15:03 And if you know that, then the temple will indeed have a beneficial effect on you.
15:07 But if you do not know, what is the point?
15:09 Similarly, the mantras, the verses, the shlok.
15:15 Do you know what that means? If you do not know,
15:18 then it is a thing of stupidity to just keep hearing.
15:22 In fact, you will become dull if you keep hearing something you do not understand.
15:26 Now Sanskrit is a language most of us do not understand.
15:30 It is a beautiful language. More people should know Sanskrit.
15:34 But in actuality, we do not know.
15:37 And then you sit through hours and hours of ritual listening to Sanskrit verses.
15:43 How will that help you? But you say, no, no, no.
15:46 There is something special in the sound of the mantras.
15:49 Those vibrations are reaching my ears.
15:52 And even if I do not understand their meaning, they are still helping me.
15:55 No, they are not helping you.
15:57 Just as watching the Hans figure will not help you if you do not know what Hans stands for.
16:04 Similarly, listening to a mantra will not help you if you do not know its meaning.
16:10 Not only should you know its meaning, you should also know the deeper meaning.
16:17 You should also know what that ultimately points towards.
16:21 And ultimately, if a mantra is worth the name, it should point towards self-knowledge.
16:26 Because that is all that there is to spirituality.
16:29 Spirituality is not about spirits.
16:32 Spirituality is not Bhutpreta business.
16:35 Spirituality basically means Atma Gyan, self-knowledge.
16:38 In fact, spirituality is a word that I more and more now feel like dropping.
16:44 Because it has become very misused.
16:46 Spirituality now stands for so many obnoxious things.
16:50 First of all, we destroyed the word religion.
16:52 Now we have destroyed the word spirituality as well.
16:55 Self-knowledge is still something we have not put our dirty hands on.
17:00 So, the real thing is self-knowledge.
17:04 Can you tell me how the shape of the temple is encouraging self-knowledge within you?
17:11 If it is encouraging, then the temple is beneficial.
17:15 Can you tell me how the sound of the mantra is removing your ignorance,
17:24 clearing away your doubts, melting your ego, bringing clarity to you?
17:31 If it is not bringing clarity to you,
17:34 just that there is a lot of music and visual extravaganza,
17:39 and that is making you feel great,
17:42 then you are being drugged in that place.
17:45 A lot of temples, a lot of hyped temples, these things are now happening.
17:52 Not only in temples, in other places also.
17:54 I must mention churches, I must mention synagogues.
17:57 It is happening everywhere.
17:59 They have become places of entertainment.
18:02 Lot of song, dance, optics, great sounds.
18:08 So, all that is just food for the ego.
18:12 The ego is becoming stronger by visiting such places.
18:15 And to top it, the ego gets a license to say,
18:20 "I just came from some sacred place, a consecrated place where I got truly holy vibes."
18:27 You didn't get any holy vibes.
18:29 You just got fattened.
18:31 You were an ordinary ego before you went to that place.
18:34 Now you are a totally ignorant, drunk and arrogant ego
18:39 that calls itself religious.
18:43 So, that's a great problem.
18:46 There are several temples that have shlokas from the Upanishads carved on them.
18:55 It's beautiful.
18:58 When you visit Varanasi, go to the temple inside BHU.
19:13 For hours, whenever I have visited BHU, I have found myself sitting there.
19:24 And I was very young.
19:28 I think my board results had just been declared, class 10th.
19:33 Because my father came from Varanasi.
19:39 So, I went there with him and it was enthralling.
19:47 All the chosen verses from the Upanishads were there in the temple.
19:53 Now that's what a temple really is.
19:57 And I made notes.
20:00 And I made lots of notes.
20:02 And for a very long time, I suppose a few decades,
20:07 those little pieces of paper, they remained in my wallet.
20:13 I just sat down and started copying from the walls.
20:16 Think, copying from the walls.
20:19 Now that's a temple.
20:21 And if I remember correctly, there were verses from Buddha's scriptures, also from Jain scriptures.
20:29 Spirituality is not mumbo-jumbo.
20:42 Spirituality is hard, unrelenting inquiry.
20:47 You want to know what is going on.
20:51 Spirituality is philosophy with the purpose of liberation from the ordeal of life.
21:00 That's what philosophy is.
21:04 Spirituality is not a belief system.
21:07 Come on, start believing in this. Come on, start just dancing or parroting something totally mindlessly.
21:14 You must ask, what do the arms of the deity stand for?
21:19 And if the figure is worth it, there would definitely be a meaning.
21:26 Figure out the meaning.
21:29 And if there is a meaning, then what is the meaning?
21:34 What is the meaning of the figure?
21:37 Figure out the meaning.
21:40 And if there is no meaning, then there is no compulsion to again and again visit that place.
21:48 Everything is symbolic.
21:54 And the right meaning has to be ascertained.
22:02 You must know what is being pointed at.
22:05 And if the temple is real, then it will definitely point only towards the sky, the truth, the absolute freedom.
22:16 And if you cannot see that, then you must say, oh, the temple right now holds no meaning for me.
22:21 Because that temple is not telling me of liberation.
22:25 Not the temple's fault really. My own fault. I cannot read the meaning.
22:30 Your emphasis should be on reading the meaning. That's what you must try for.
22:36 What is hidden here? What is the meaning? If there is a meaning, I should know.
22:41 And unfortunately, there is some probability that some temples may not have any meaning.
22:46 Because there are lakhs of temples you see.
22:50 But all the great ones, all the real ones definitely point towards the absolute.
22:59 And you must know how that pointer is working.
23:02 The functioning of that pointer must be known with great application of intellect and logic.
23:08 Do not keep your mind, your logic, your argument, your intellect aside when you enter a place of religion.
23:17 Religion requires great application of intellect and logic.
23:23 And it is this intellectless, thoughtless, mindless religiosity that has brought us down to our sorry state.
23:33 It is not without reason that India suffered so badly for so many centuries.
23:38 To me, the primary reason was misinterpretation and exploitation of religion.
23:46 And that is still continuing.
23:49 Also in the last 10-20 years, that exploitation has somehow worsened.
23:54 We thought that with the arrival of science and education and values of freedom and enquiry, superstition would reduce.
24:11 The masses would refuse to be fooled.
24:18 But very strangely that has not come to pass.
24:22 What we are seeing is a phenomena in the opposite direction.
24:27 More and more blind kinds of cults are rising.
24:35 People are not reading.
24:39 People are becoming more and more ignorant of their own central scriptures.
24:48 And you have religious leaders who repeatedly say that there is no need to read.
24:54 In fact, in some cults I have heard, reading is prohibited.
24:59 They say, no you don't read anything.
25:01 Especially don't read anything related to science.
25:03 You just read these 3-4 books that our cult prescribes and become totally brainwashed.
25:16 This is very unfortunate and very scary.
25:18 I do not know what we are making of this nation.
25:21 There can be no religiosity without sound and sharp application of the mind.
25:31 Don't keep your mind aside when you enter the scope and dimension of religion.
25:43 Ask, seek to understand.
25:46 And if you are told to believe in something blindly, just refuse.
25:51 No, that's not what religion is about.
25:53 Religion is the opposite of blind belief.
25:57 But as we said, religion, the word has been corrupted.
26:00 So let's simply say, self-knowledge is the opposite of blind belief.
26:05 Let them usurp the word religion.
26:10 They have taken it away, let's give it to them.
26:13 Let's stick to self-knowledge.
26:15 Self-knowledge is enquiry.
26:17 You want to know, you want to understand what is going on.
26:20 And create great structures with great sophistication.
26:24 As a student, as a practitioner of architecture, create buildings that do not have just utilitarian value.
26:38 But that point towards something higher, that gives life with a sense of purpose.
26:46 When you look at that building, you realize the building is saying something to you very purposefully
26:52 and saying something very important.
26:54 And if you can understand what the building is saying, then you will be a better person.
26:59 That's the kind of structure you should try to create.
27:02 In that creation lies consecration.
27:06 Consecration does not lie in standing in front of the building and narrating a few mantras
27:11 and sprinkling water and using some rice and sandalwood and doing a few things
27:16 and then you say, oh now it is consecrated, now the deity is active and energized.
27:23 No, no, no.
27:24 Create a great building that speaks really.
27:29 Let there be great pointers.
27:32 Refer to great pieces from world literature, including religious literature.
27:37 And have pointers that remind you of what happened in that particular story or that particular novel
27:44 or that particular poem or in that particular Upanishad.
27:47 That's when the building will stand as something that elevates you.
27:53 You look at the building and you say, well, life is worth living.
27:57 Life is worth living.
27:59 This building speaks.
28:02 It is not there just to house a few people.
28:05 It is not an animal's cave.
28:06 It is not an insect's rock.
28:08 It is a living structure.
28:13 So, if you can create such a thing, you would come very close to creating a temple.
28:22 And believe me, no, don't believe me.
28:25 You are not supposed to believe anything.
28:29 You would never, that that's how the first temple would have been built.
28:33 You want to have a place where your ego can just bow down.
28:41 You want to have something of beauty.
28:45 You want to have something that is higher than yourself.
28:48 And that's how man would have built his first temple.
28:51 He said, fine, life is just ordinary mediocre.
28:55 But that does not satisfy me.
28:57 Let there be something higher than this everyday living, than this usual muck.
29:03 And then you say, let there be a temple.
29:08 Let there be a temple.
29:10 The temple stands for everything that is worth worshipping.
29:14 What is worth worshipping?
29:16 What is something that you value highly?
29:21 Tell me, please.
29:23 I would hear it from you.
29:31 What is worth worshipping?
29:32 Can we unmute the student?
29:39 Narshe, I have one question as well.
29:41 You can speak.
29:42 Something that provides, something that improves your consciousness to a great level.
29:53 But what is it that you would value in life?
29:57 Don't go by the prescription.
30:00 Tell me very originally, very honestly, as a person, what is it that you value in life?
30:08 Can't hear you.
30:09 Existence of my own being.
30:10 I didn't get it.
30:11 That should be limited.
30:12 Existence of my own being.
30:13 Existence of my own being.
30:14 Simplify that for somebody.
30:15 Existence of my own being.
30:16 Existence of my own being.
30:17 Existence of my own being.
30:18 Existence of my own being.
30:19 Existence of my own being.
30:20 Existence of my own being.
30:21 Existence of my own being.
30:22 Existence of my own being.
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30:24 Existence of my own being.
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30:26 Existence of my own being.
30:27 Existence of my own being.
30:28 Existence of my own being.
30:29 Existence of my own being.
30:30 Existence of my own being.
30:31 Existence of my own being.
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30:33 Existence of my own being.
30:34 Existence of my own being.
30:35 Existence of my own being.
30:36 Existence of my own being.
30:37 Existence of my own being.
30:38 Existence of my own being.
30:39 Existence of my own being.
30:40 Existence of my own being.
30:41 Existence of my own being.
30:42 Existence of my own being.
30:43 Existence of my own being.
30:44 Existence of my own being.
30:45 Existence of my own being.
30:46 Existence of my own being.
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30:48 Existence of my own being.
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30:50 Existence of my own being.
30:51 Existence of my own being.
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30:54 Existence of my own being.
30:55 Existence of my own being.
30:56 Existence of my own being.
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30:58 Existence of my own being.
30:59 Existence of my own being.
31:00 Existence of my own being.
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31:02 Existence of my own being.
31:03 Existence of my own being.
31:04 Existence of my own being.
31:05 Existence of my own being.
31:06 Existence of my own being.
31:07 Existence of my own being.
31:08 Existence of my own being.
31:09 Existence of my own being.
31:10 Existence of my own being.
31:11 Existence of my own being.
31:12 Existence of my own being.
31:13 Existence of my own being.
31:14 Think of the people you respect and please tell me what is it in them that is worth respecting?
31:28 Their freedom, their independence.
31:32 Freedom and you said knowledge and you said independence and courage maybe?
31:36 Courage.
31:37 Courage.
31:38 Can you create a structure that is a testament to courage and by knowledge you mean understanding?
31:50 Can you have a building that encourages you to understand?
32:03 Devoted to both understanding.
32:04 If you can create such a building, that's a de facto temple.
32:09 That's a real temple.
32:14 Let not religion have a monopoly over temples.
32:21 If you can create a building that encourages you to be courageous, that building is a temple.
32:31 And that's how the first temples would have been made.
32:34 Courage is the deity.
32:39 Knowledge is the deity.
32:48 So when you visit that place you say well, well, well, well.
32:53 All my life on one side.
32:56 All the places that I usually visit on one side.
32:59 And this place on one side and this place is just somehow more lovely.
33:09 I come here and I'm reminded of something very superior, very elevated, very sublime.
33:18 I come here and it's like coming to a senior, to a guide, to a well-wisher, to a beloved.
33:29 Who tells me daughter don't get lost in the humdrum affairs of life.
33:36 Remember what is truly important.
33:38 Knowledge is important. Courage is important. Freedom is important.
33:41 That's what consecration is.
33:45 So consecration is not a ritual.
33:48 Consecration is when you are reminded of that which is truly sacred and the name of that is freedom.
34:00 Great.
34:06 So my follow-up question is that you mentioned that all the objects like say in a temple or anywhere you go is they are like pointers right to the higher truth.
34:19 So in this case, shouldn't we do a little more inquiry with our relation to everything around us like all the objects that we're surrounded by?
34:29 Because why do we just limit ourselves to scriptures or temple, something that's been given to us?
34:36 Why can't we assign our own meaning to things like maybe our own maan?
34:43 Think of the person who raised the first temple.
34:49 He had no precedent to go by.
34:53 In some sense he created his personal temple, his or her personal temple.
34:59 Because there was no tradition he was following.
35:02 He said obviously life is not worth living if there is no sacredness in it.
35:08 If there is no sacredness then life is dull, boring, monotonous, just a mass of mediocrity.
35:15 I don't want to live that way. There has to be something higher.
35:19 So that was a personal aspiration that took the shape of a temple.
35:24 And that can happen even today obviously.
35:28 You can have your personal sacred space. You must have that.
35:32 And you know those who have known they have said now we have no need of sacred spaces.
35:37 Because we are in so deep love with sacredness that we cannot live without sacredness at any point at any place.
35:45 So there is no need for especially made sacred spots.
35:51 The kind of inquiry that we live in now, the purity of mind that we live with now
35:59 renders the entire universe sacred for us.
36:03 The entire universe is now an open book of truth to us.
36:08 So there is no need for us even to visit a temple or any other place.
36:12 But that's obviously a very advanced stage, one of the higher and final stages.
36:19 So let's not talk of that.
36:21 But you are very right that sacredness is something obviously for us.
36:27 So it is something very intimate, very personal.
36:30 So you can have your little personal shrine, definitely.
36:35 And if you can have that then you are entering true religiosity.
36:39 It is okay to, you said that it's for higher levels, right?
36:47 So when you are initially maybe starting out, it is okay to go to these places
36:52 because the environment is a little more conducive for that type of work that you want to do.
36:58 You mean by these places you mean the commonly accepted temples?
37:02 Places that claim to be, you know.
37:06 Many of them, many of them are very beautifully built
37:11 and very purposefully designed.
37:16 It's just that we are such stupid people that we have destroyed those places.
37:23 Those were works of masterminds, people who could think, probe, inquire, understand.
37:31 And the ones who are visiting those places now are all just dumb blind followers
37:38 who do not understand a thing.
37:40 They come there just very religiously, very blindly,
37:46 in no knowledge of what that place stands for.
37:52 So there are a few temples I have a special relationship with
38:05 and it breaks my heart to visit them when there is a crowd.
38:15 It becomes a bit like an intimate love affair.
38:19 You don't want to share it with the crowd.
38:22 Especially if the crowd is insensitive, violent, ignorant
38:27 and disrespectful to the sacredness of that place.
38:33 So I found myself gazing at my beloved temples from a distance, especially in the night.
38:48 So yes, it's not just alright to visit great places of worship.
39:00 It is also beneficial.
39:04 But then you must understand what's going on.
39:06 Just going to the Ganga and taking a few dips is not going to help.
39:11 That's not helping.
39:14 People visit Kedarnath, they exploit the mules, the donkeys there
39:22 and they go and then they do all kinds of stupidities and they return.
39:27 That's not going to help.
39:29 So when you go to a sacred place, meet that place with your own sacredness.
39:39 Don't let it be a dead ritual.
39:44 And stick to the thing that you first talked of, creating your personal shrine.
39:56 Nobody can monopolize the truth.
40:00 And the truth never said that it is going to be based only at a particular geographical location.
40:07 Truth is your own personal reality, which when approached becomes totally impersonal.
40:16 But for you to begin with, you must say, "It is my own thing. It is the thing within".
40:22 So it is good to visit religious places, places of pilgrimage and all those things. It's alright.
40:32 But also you must constantly be in touch with your own core.
40:40 You must constantly be assessing the quality of your own mind.
40:44 Is there anger? Is there greed? Is there a lot of fear? Is there blind faith?
40:50 Is there ignorance? You must keep asking these questions.
40:54 That's true religiosity.
40:59 That's beautiful. Thank you, sir.
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