Stop calling these as scriptures || Acharya Prashant, with Ahimsa Fellows (2023)

Acharya Prashant

‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? 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: 04.04.23, with Ahimsa Fellows (Online-talk), Greater Noida  Context: • Do scriptures hold any meaning for a modern age person, aren't scriptures outdated? • Is spirituality not something ancient? • Isn't a spiritual person have beard and live in hut as Rishi used to live? • Should one follow everything said in scriptures? • Revision of scriptures, would it not be disrespectful towards our forefathers? • What are the two parts of scriptures? • What is relevance of that part of scripture that is time dependent? Should we revise and follow them? • The part of scripture that is timeless, what is it? And how can we revise them? • How should one look and make plans for future? • How can we unlock powers of subconscious mind? • How to read and liberate subconscious mind?  Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~

Transcript

00:00So, we have a very interesting question from Khushboo.

00:07So, since you're very knowledgeable on ancient scriptures, ancient Hindu scriptures, so a

00:12question pertains to that.

00:14Should we let ancient scriptures influence our dietary choices, especially when they

00:19were created in a different era and the circumstances today are very different?

00:26See, where I come from, and if you say I have read scriptures, I come from the scriptures

00:33maybe.

00:35Not every book that is being today called a scripture is worth being called a scripture.

00:43We have ancient books, wonderful books, wonderful books, valuable books, but they cannot be

00:54called as scriptures.

00:55A scripture is a book that tells you about yourself.

01:00A scripture has to deal essentially with self-knowledge.

01:06A book that talks of dietary choices cannot be called a scripture.

01:14A person who talks of the kind of things you must eat to enhance your health and such things

01:19cannot be called a guru.

01:22Shastra is what deals with self-knowledge.

01:27Guru is one who encourages self-knowledge in you.

01:32This food and all is miscellaneous business.

01:38This is for those who quote so-called scriptures in favor of meat or milk.

01:47So you will have Bakri and people will say, you know, it is coming from our scripture

01:53and then Hindus will say, you know, it is coming from our Puranas and Christians will

01:59say, you know, that Turkey is a part of our tradition.

02:05All that is just nonsense.

02:06Those are not scriptures at all.

02:09Scripture is self-knowledge.

02:10Who am I and what am I supposed to do with this so-called life?

02:15That's what constitutes a scripture.

02:18Nothing else.

02:20So who am I?

02:21I am a conscious entity.

02:22What am I supposed to do in life?

02:23I am supposed to elevate consciousness, respect consciousness, love consciousness.

02:30And the moment you see that this is what scripture says, veganism just smoothly follows.

02:40Veganism is the logical result of scriptural knowledge.

02:52If someone says I am well-versed in scripture and is still not a vegan, the fellow knows

03:00no scripture.

03:03And if somebody quotes scripture against veganism, that's a dangerous fellow.

03:12So in the Hindu path, it's Vedanta and Vedanta alone that deserves to be called a scripture

03:27and that's what deals with who you are and what your relationship with the world therefore

03:33is.

03:34It's a system of enquiry.

03:37It's not a system of commandments or belief.

03:43There is no belief there.

03:45There is no morality there.

03:48You are not being enjoined to do something.

03:53You are not being allowed or disallowed from something.

03:58You are being encouraged to ask a few fundamental questions.

04:03That's Vedanta and all those questions pertain to who you are.

04:09Therefore if you have really gone into Vedanta, if self-knowledge is something you have seen

04:18as centrally important, you will naturally drop all kinds of violent behavior because

04:29your core itself will no more remain violent.

04:34Vedanta addresses who you are within and if you do not know who you are, you are violent.

04:41Violence is nothing but ignorance.

04:43Lack of self-knowledge is violence.

04:45Once you know who you are, you cannot remain violent.

04:49So that's what.

04:53In vegan circles, it is quite common, I find this attitude, they abhor religion.

05:00They feel that religion is an enemy and I understand the place they are coming from.

05:07They have often seen people quote religion against veganism.

05:13So they think religion is a problem.

05:15No, religion is not a problem.

05:18Religion, true religion, true religiosity is in fact the very root of veganism.

05:23You cannot have veganism without compassion and who will teach you compassion if not the

05:28real scripture.

05:32So Vedanta and veganism go hand in hand.

05:37Thank you so much for answering that delicate question.

05:43One last question we received from Shalini that how do we communicate the message of

05:48veganism with neutrality that is caste and religion-based neutrality that gets very dirty

05:57in when people are not sensitive.

06:00So how do we do that?

06:04Everybody loves a little pup, right, irrespective of your caste or creed or gender or age.

06:10Who does not love a kitten?

06:12Who does not enjoy playing with a calf?

06:18So that's where we want to work on.

06:21The fact that we are humans irrespective of whatever else we are and to be human is to

06:28be conscious and that consciousness wants to play with the pup rather than butcher and

06:36eat it.

06:40You take a Muslim kid, a Christian kid, a Hindu kid, a Buddhist kid, an upper caste

06:47kid, a so-called lower caste kid, you take these kids, a baby boy, a baby girl, you take

06:54all of them and you give them ten rabbits.

07:01There is a large lawn where rabbits play and you send these kids there.

07:07These kids are not going to pick up the rabbits and eat them alive, irrespective of where

07:12the kids come from, they'll be delighted looking at the rabbits, they'll run after the rabbits,

07:18they'll play with the rabbits, that's what.

07:22So it doesn't matter who I am, don't I love the rabbit?

07:26And the discussion begins from there.

07:28And if the discussion starts diverting from the real thing, if religion or other persuasions

07:35start creeping in, then you again revert to the kid, you point back again to the fact

07:43of one's essential humanness, don't you love the rabbit?

07:47And if you do, why do you want to rob the rabbit of its hair, why do you want to brutally

07:54pluck its fur away?

07:57How can you do that?

07:58Don't you love the rabbit?

07:59You might be a Brahmin or a Christian, a protestant, I don't care, there is a rabbit in front of

08:06you and you are looking at the rabbit and what's your relationship with the rabbit,

08:09come on.

08:10So that's how we talk of it.

08:12Right, that's very well said and I would like to thank you for answering all our questions.

08:22The answers provided us a new direction and thank you so much for sharing your knowledge

08:26with us.

08:28With that, I'd like to hand it over to Gauri ma'am.

08:31Thank you, I thoroughly enjoyed all this.

08:34Thank you Acharya ji, I think you enriched our consciousness with a lot of wisdom today.

08:42I completely agreed with so many of your answers about the system of inquiry also, that is,

08:51you can call it scripture, the literal English translation could be anything, but there's

08:57a system of inquiry that was a bedrock of our civilization and I think rather than being

09:03told stories, we should inquire and introspect and each one can have their own little religions

09:10but we will know ourselves so much better and we'll be so much better connected with

09:14each other and with all other forms of consciousness that are around us and that I think is more

09:21important than any, you know, group of people who call themselves anything but ourselves

09:29connected with the whole world, that's probably so important and that's the spirit of, that's

09:34the ethics of veganism that I see.

09:37Wonderful, very well, very well put.

09:40So thank you so much, we are totally enriched today and we will look forward to many more

09:46sessions with you like this and I'm sure I speak on behalf of you.

09:51I'll be glad and in fact, I thank the entire team to make it an enriching evening for me

09:58as well and I just hope I was not too boring or too heavy or something.

10:07I enjoyed it and I hope all of us did.

10:10Totally, in fact, there was so many things that are kind of conflicting within us and

10:16we don't find the courage to, you know, articulate them so well but I think a battle of compassion

10:26requires courage and to actually speak our minds and it's great that we have somebody

10:33like you doing that as a mission.

10:38We are partners in this.

10:39Thank you, Gauri ji, you are an inspirational figure, believe me and I really wish you all

10:46the best and all the courage and all the success, really from my heart and may your

10:54team do well and prosper.

10:57Thank you.

10:58Thank you.

10:59Thank you.

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