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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
~~~~~
Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/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
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
~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Good evening, sir. Since we are talking at the School of Planning and Architecture, my
00:08question is regarding the structure. The geometry and aesthetics of the man-made structures
00:15have a deep impact on them, sort of an emotional impact. Is such impact a result of only the
00:21aesthetics and physics, or is there a spiritual sense to this too? Because I have heard some
00:28spiritual gurus speak of consecrated spaces. What do you mean by a consecrated space? A
00:41space which is regarded with some sort of energy or a haunted place. You will not call
00:50a haunted place a consecrated place. You mean a place that radiates sacredness. And when
01:04you reach that place, you experience a certain divine feeling or something. That's how usually
01:13we talk of consecrated spaces. The opposite of that would be a haunted house. So when
01:23you reach that place, you start feeling jittery or something wrong is going on. You see, most
01:33of that is obviously just your own conditioning. Just your own conditioning. That's the reason
01:41why you have to be told in advance that a particular place is a consecrated place. You
01:50have to be told in advance and you have to be told very very strongly, so that your mind
01:56is fully conditioned that that particular place is a consecrated place. And when you
02:11reach there, then you find you are indeed experiencing divinity. So I have a curious
02:25incident to narrate on this. So this is from my corporate days. And my job as a consultant
02:45required that I would frequently travel. So once I was staying in a hotel in a suburban
02:57area close to a large automobile factory. And at that point I was a consultant to that
03:12factory. So it's one of the largest producers of tractors in the country at this moment.
03:28So I was there and a few others were there staying in the same hotel. It was actually
03:38a guest house. So it was a bit of a remote area, a little away from the city. So the
03:50guest house in charge comes and says, sirs, because you are staying there, you must definitely
03:56visit that particular group of temples. It's just around 20 kilometers from here and a
04:07lot of folklore is attached to it and especially the temple number 8. There are a lot of stories
04:21and even miracles attached to its name. So we said fine. He said, I mean that entire
04:34group of little temples and those are pretty old temples, not in proper shape either, dilapidated
04:43and all. And there was a mystique attached to them. So he directed us specifically towards
04:51temple number 8 and all those temples were quite close by. So you got down from the car
04:57and in front of you was this cluster of temples and we were told to go to temple number 8.
05:05So we got down and after a while, one of my fellows from the guest house, he comes and
05:24there is a peculiar glow on his face and he says, I really experienced divinity. I
05:37was standing at temple number 8 because that's the place I had been directed to. I had been
05:45told that's the place where the magic is. So you go right to that place. So I was standing
05:51there and of course because the temples were old and all, there were no markings. You could
05:55not know really which one is the temple number 8. You had to manually count. You knew that
06:02one was 1 and this is 8 and there were 12 or 14 little temples. So I was standing in
06:09front of temple number 8, trying hard to experience divinity from there and then this fellow comes
06:18to me and says, miraculous! Absolutely out of this world! Temple number 8 for sure has
06:28some sacred vibes. What I have experienced just now is definitely a paranormal phenomena.
06:36So I said, okay, you did that, fine. And this fellow was a deeply religious fellow. All
06:45kinds of rituals we knew he was partaking in and all those things and he had a great
06:54belief in the metaphysical and the paranormal and such things. So he comes and says, I just
07:03spent around 10 to 15 minutes in temple number 8 and you cannot, just cannot imagine what
07:11I have experienced. I said, wow! Please narrate me your experience. But there is one little
07:19thing I want to tell you. The temple you are coming from is temple number 6. Temple number
07:288 is where I am standing. The moment I said that, all his experience vanished. He said,
07:35but then that must be a fluke. Do you understand this? You are already conditioned to experience
07:46so-called sacredness. You have been told that if you go to this place, there is sacredness.
07:53So that fellow enters temple number 6, thinking that it is temple number 8 and starts experiencing
07:58sacredness that you are supposed to experience at temple number 8. This thing applies obviously.
08:05Not only to temple but structures from all regions. It would apply to mosques, churches,
08:12all other places. That's what, it's all within you. It's your own belief that you experience.
08:23There is nothing special in the structure as such. Nothing in the structure that, and
08:32if someone says, you know, there is this temple and now I am consecrating it and now
08:35it becomes special, that fellow is out to fool you. As simple as that. If someone says
08:43the architecture is special, even that can be admitted to an extent. Because there can
08:49be beauty in stuff that is man-made. Just as there is beauty in physical nature, there
08:54is also beauty in man-made stuff. So that can be admitted. Yes, there are man-made paintings,
09:03there are man-made machines that are absolutely exquisite. Someone can write a fabulous software.
09:13The same thing that was being accomplished by a computer program that ran over 500 lines.
09:21Someone comes and finishes that off in 45 lines. It's a marvellous piece, a thing of
09:26beauty. I understand, there is beauty. There is beauty in the way you solve a problem in
09:32mathematics. There is beauty in the way you compose a poem or write an essay. And there
09:37can obviously be beauty in architecture as well. So if you say, because the thing is
09:45beautiful, I love it, I understand. When you look at the mighty Himalayas, when you look at the
09:54snow-capped peaks, when you look at the Ganga gushing down, it definitely has a soothing effect
10:04on the mind. That too I can understand. But to say that a place can be consecrated through rituals
10:12or by a special man going and performing ceremonies is absolutely hogwash. None of
10:23that. People say, no, look at the deity. The deity is stoned till a certain point and then
10:31a priest comes and performs a few rituals and narrates a few mantras and then the deity comes
10:40alive or gets charged, gets energized, becomes real. All that is nonsense. None of that can
10:51happen. All that is just conditioning, conditioning and conditioning. That's why one man's sacred
10:56place is very ordinary for the other, is it not? A Muslim passes in front of a mosque and the kind
11:09of experience that he gets is not the experience that a Jew would get passing in front of the same
11:15mosque or a Hindu would get passing in front of the same mosque. It's all very subjective. It's
11:21within you. It's not in that structure. What can be in the structure is something else. There can
11:29be beauty in the structure. There can be sophistication in the structure. Also there can
11:37be one more thing in the structure, very important. I am glad I didn't forget that.
11:40The structure can have great pointers towards higher values and then the structure really
11:54becomes a living story. The structure then becomes a teacher. The structure is now teaching you
12:04something. Let's say there is something carved on the walls or let's say there is a painting or
12:11let's say there is a specific shape to the pillars. Now that can mean something. I definitely admit
12:18that and I respect that. But for that to mean anything, you must know what the meaning is.
12:24But do you know what the meaning is? If you do not know what the meaning is, how have you just
12:31blindly started parroting sacred, sacred? Do you get this? For example, think of the swan,
12:42the Hans. Now the Hans is a very important motif in Vedanta. Why? Because it refers to the Atma.
12:59The free bird. Your fundamental inner nature of freedom. That's what the Hans refers to. Also
13:11when you write Hanso and you start chanting that, Hanso, Hanso, that turns into Soham.
13:21And Soham means that am I. So that answers the fundamental Vedantic query, who am I?
13:33Koham. Soham becomes the response to Koham. So if you look at a Hans drawn on a wall or
13:47etched or carved or something and you are immediately reminded of the Atma, the pure
13:55self, then there is sacredness. Definitely. But if you do not know what the bird stands for and
14:02you start saying, oh, great peace, wonderful vibes, then you are just fooling yourself.
14:09That bird, that shape was put there to remind you of something. If indeed you are reminded,
14:19then the shape has worked for you. But if you are not being reminded at all and you are just
14:23saying, no, no, no, I am getting vibes, then you are hell bent on remaining who you are.
14:30Then you don't want to benefit from the temple. Your ego is so strong that it has defeated the
14:37temple and you are just saying, oh, this is a consecrated space, so I am benefiting from being
14:42here. Nobody benefits from being anywhere unless the mind is active, unless the consciousness
14:49understands what is going on. Right now you might be benefiting from this conversation because your
14:58mind is attentive and is trying to understand what is going on, right? Similarly, if you go
15:05to a temple, I am saying temple because typically when you say consecrated space, you mean a temple.
15:10You can mean other places also, but typically a temple. When you go to the temple, you must
15:15know what everything stands for and if you know that, then the temple will indeed have a beneficial
15:21effect on you. But if you do not know, what is the point? Similarly, the mantras, the verses,
15:27the shlok, do you know what that means? If you do not know, then it is a thing of stupidity to
15:35just keep hearing. In fact, you will become dull if you keep hearing something you do not understand.
15:40Now Sanskrit is a language most of us do not understand. It's a beautiful language. More
15:47people should know Sanskrit, but in actuality we do not know. And then you sit through hours and
15:55hours of ritual listening to Sanskrit verses. How will that help you? But you say, no, no, no. There
16:01is something special in the sound of the mantras. Those vibrations are reaching my ears and even if
16:07I do not understand their meaning, they are still helping me. No, they are not helping you. Just as
16:12watching the Hans figure will not help you if you do not know what Hans stands for. Similarly,
16:19listening to a mantra will not help you if you do not know its meaning. Not only should you know
16:25its meaning, you should also know the deeper meaning. You should also know what that ultimately
16:34point towards. And ultimately, if a mantra is worth the name, it should point towards self-knowledge
16:40because that is all that there is to spirituality. Spirituality is not about spirits. Spirituality is
16:47not Bhutpreta business. Spirituality basically means Atma Gyan, self-knowledge. In fact,
16:53spirituality is a word that I more and more now feel like dropping because it has become
17:00very misused. Spirituality now stands for so many obnoxious things. First of all,
17:05we destroyed the word religion. Now, we have destroyed the word spirituality as well. Self
17:10knowledge is still something we have not put our dirty hands on. So, the real thing is self-knowledge.
17:18Can you tell me how the shape of the temple is encouraging self-knowledge within you? If
17:26it is encouraging, then the temple is beneficial. Can you tell me how the sound of the mantra is
17:33removing your ignorance, clearing away your doubts, melting your ego, bringing clarity to you? If it
17:47is not bringing clarity to you, just that there is a lot of music and visual extravaganza and that
17:54is making you feel great, then you are being drugged in that place. A lot of temples, a lot
18:03of hyped temples, these things are now happening. Not only in temples, in other places also. I must
18:09mention churches, I must mention synagogues. It's happening everywhere. They have become places of
18:15entertainment. Lot of song, dance, optics, great sounds. So, all that is just food for the ego. The
18:27ego is becoming stronger by visiting such places. And to top it, the ego gets a license to say,
18:35I just came from some sacred place, a consecrated place where I got truly holy vibes. You didn't get
18:42any holy vibes. You just got fattened. You were an ordinary ego before you went to that place. Now
18:50you are a totally ignorant, drunk and arrogant ego that calls itself religious. So, that's a
19:00great problem. There are several temples that have shlokas from the Upanishads carved on them.
19:10It's beautiful. When you visit Varanasi, go to the temple inside BHU. For hours, whenever I have
19:35visited BHU, I found myself sitting there. And I was very young. I think my board results had just
19:45been declared, class 10th, because my father came from Varanasi. So, I went there with him and it
20:00was enthralling. All the chosen verses from the Upanishads were there in the temple. Now that's
20:08what a temple really is. And I made notes. And I made lots of notes. And for a very long time,
20:19I suppose a few decades, those little pieces of paper, they remained in my wallet. I just sat
20:29down and started copying from the walls. Think, copying from the walls. Now that's a temple. And
20:36if I remember correctly, there were verses from Buddhist scriptures, also from Jain scriptures.
20:43Spirituality is not mumbo-jumbo. Spirituality is hard, unrelenting inquiry. You want to know
21:03what is going on. Spirituality is philosophy with the purpose of liberation from the ordeal of life.
21:14That's what philosophy is. Philosophy is, spirituality is not a belief system. Come on,
21:22start believing in this. Come on, start just dancing or parroting something totally mindlessly.
21:27You must ask, what do the arms of the Deity stand for? And if the figure is worth it,
21:49there would definitely be a meaning. Figure out the meaning. And if there is no meaning,
21:58then there is no compulsion to again and again visit that place.
22:02Everything is symbolic and the right meaning has to be ascertained. You must know what is
22:19being pointed at and if the temple is real, then it will definitely point only towards the sky,
22:28the truth, the absolute freedom. And if you cannot see that, then you must say,
22:34oh the temple right now holds no meaning for me because that temple is not telling me of liberation.
22:40Not the temple's fault really, my own fault. I cannot read the meaning. Your emphasis should
22:47be on reading the meaning. That's what you must try for. What is hidden here? What is the meaning?
22:53If there is a meaning, I should know. And unfortunately, there is some probability
22:58that some temples may not have any meaning because there are lakhs of temples you see.
23:04But all the great ones, all the real ones definitely point towards the absolute and
23:15you must know how that pointer is working. The functioning of that pointer must be known
23:20with great application of intellect and logic. Do not keep your mind, your logic,
23:26your argument, your intellect aside when you enter a place of religion.
23:31Religion requires great application of intellect and logic and it is this
23:39intellectless, thoughtless, mindless religiosity that has brought us down to a sorry state.
23:47It is not without reason that India suffered so badly for so many centuries. To me,
23:54the primary reason was misinterpretation and exploitation of religion and that is still
24:03continuing. Also in the last 10-20 years, that exploitation has somehow worsened.
24:09We thought that with the arrival of science and education and values of freedom and inquiry,
24:22superstition would reduce. The masses would refuse to be fooled. But very strangely,
24:34that has not come to pass. What we are seeing is a phenomena in the opposite direction.
24:42More and more blind kinds of cults are rising. People are not reading. People are becoming more
24:56and more ignorant of their own central scriptures and you have religious leaders who repeatedly say
25:07that there is no need to read. In fact, in some cults, I have heard, reading is prohibited. They
25:14say no, you don't read anything. Especially don't read anything related to science. You just read
25:19these 3-4 books that our cult prescribes and become totally brainwashed. This is very unfortunate and
25:32scary. I do not know what we are making of this nation. There can be no religiosity without sound
25:44and sharp application of the mind. Don't keep your mind aside when you enter the scope and
25:55dimension of religion. Ask, seek to understand. And if you are told to believe in something
26:04blindly, just refuse. No, that's not what religion is about. Religion is the opposite
26:10of blind belief. But as we said, religion, the word has been corrupted. So, let's simply say,
26:17self-knowledge is the opposite of blind belief. Let them usurp the word religion. They have taken
26:26it away. Let's give it to them. Let's stick to self-knowledge. Self-knowledge is enquiry. You
26:32want to know. You want to understand what is going on. And create great structures with great
26:38sophistication. As a student, as a practitioner of architecture, create buildings that do not
26:49have just utilitarian value, but that point towards something higher, that give life with
27:00a sense of purpose. When you look at that building, you realize the building is saying something to
27:05you very purposefully and saying something very important. And if you can understand what the
27:11building is saying, then you will be a better person. That's the kind of structure you should
27:15try to create. In that creation lies consecration. Consecration does not lie in standing in front of
27:24the building and narrating a few mantras and sprinkling water and using some rice and sandalwood
27:30and doing a few things. And then you say, Oh, now it is consecrated. Now the deity is active
27:37and energized. No, no, no. Create a great building that speaks really. Let there be great pointers.
27:46Refer to great pieces from world literature, including religious literature. And have
27:53pointers that remind you of what happened in that particular story or that particular novel or that
27:59particular poem or in that particular Upanishad. That's when the building will stand as something
28:07that elevates you. You look at the building and you say, well, life is worth living. Life is worth
28:13living. This building speaks. It is not there just to house a few people. It is not an animal's cave.
28:21It is not an insect's rock. It is a living structure. So, if you can create such a thing,
28:32you would come very close to creating a temple. And believe me, no, don't believe me. You are
28:40not supposed to believe anything. So, I would ever, that's how the first temple would have
28:47been built. You want to have a place where your ego can just bow down. You want to have
28:58something of beauty. You want to have something that is higher than yourself. And that's how
29:03man would have built his first temple. He said, fine, life is just ordinary mediocre, but that
29:11does not satisfy me. Let there be something higher than this everyday living, than this usual muck.
29:17And then you say, let there be a temple. Let there be a temple. The temple stands for everything that
29:28is worth worshipping. What is worth worshipping? What is something that you value highly? Tell me,
29:37please. I would hear it from you. What is worth worshipping? Can we unmute the student?
29:54Something that provides, something that improves your consciousness to a great level.
30:07Yeah, but what is it that you'd value in life? Don't go by the prescription. Tell me very
30:18originally, very honestly, as a person, what is it that you value in life?
30:22Can't hear you. I didn't get it. Existence of my own being. Existence of my own being. Simplify
30:50that for somebody as ignorant as me. I exist. Yes, that is right. So you mean life. But what
31:02is it that you value in life? What is it that you find worth respecting in life or in a person,
31:10let's say? Knowledge. And think of the people you respect and please tell me what is it in
31:40them that is worth respecting? Their freedom, their independence. Freedom and you said knowledge
31:47and you said independence and courage maybe? Courage. So can you create a structure that's
31:56a testament to courage and by knowledge you mean understanding? Can you have a building
32:05that encourages you to understand? Devoted to both understanding. If you can create such a
32:21building, that's a de facto temple. That's a real temple. Let not religion have a monopoly over
32:31temples. If you can create a building that encourages you to be courageous, that building
32:43is a temple and that's how the first temples would have been made. Courage is the deity.
32:50Knowledge is the deity. So when you visit that place, you say well, well, well, all my life on
33:09one side. All the places that I usually visit on one side and this place on one side and this place
33:17is just somehow more lovely. I come here and I am reminded of something very superior,
33:28very elevated, very sublime. I come here and it's like coming to a senior, to a guide,
33:39to a well-wisher, to a beloved who tells me daughter don't get lost in the humdrum affairs
33:49of life. Remember what is truly important. Knowledge is important, courage is important,
33:54freedom is important. That's what consecration is. So consecration is not a ritual. Consecration
34:03is when you are reminded of that which is truly sacred and the name of that is freedom.
34:08Great. So my follow-up question is that you mentioned that all the objects like say in a
34:26temple or anywhere you go is they are like pointers to the higher truth. So in this case,
34:35shouldn't we do a little more inquiry with our relation to everything around us like all the
34:42objects that we are surrounded by because why do we just limit ourselves to scriptures or temples,
34:48something that's been given to us. Why can't we assign our own meaning to things like you know
34:56Lovely, lovely. Think of the person who raised the first temple. He had no precedent to go by,
35:05right? In some sense he created his personal temple, his or her personal temple because there
35:14was no tradition he was following. He said obviously life is not worth living if there
35:20is no sacredness in it. If there is no sacredness then life is dull, boring, monotonous, just a mass
35:27of mediocrity. I don't want to live that way. There has to be something higher. So that was
35:34a personal aspiration that took the shape of a temple and that can happen even today obviously.
35:42You can have your personal sacred space. You must have that and you know those who have known they
35:48have said now we have no need of sacred spaces because we are in so deep love with sacredness
35:55that we cannot live without sacredness at any point at any place. So there is no need for
36:02especially made sacred spots. The kind of inquiry that we live in now, the purity of mind that we
36:12live with now renders the entire universe sacred for us. The entire universe is now an open book
36:21of truth to us. So there is no need for us even to visit a temple or any other place. But that's
36:27obviously a very advanced stage, one of the higher and final stages. So let's not talk of that. But
36:36you're very right that sacredness is something obviously for us. So it is something very intimate,
36:44very personal. So you can have your little personal shrine definitely and if you can
36:50have that then you are entering true religiosity. It is okay to, you said that it's for higher
37:01levels, right? So when you're initially maybe starting out, it is okay to go to these places
37:07because the environment is a little more conducive for that type of work that you want to do.
37:13By these places you mean the commonly accepted temples?
37:16Places that claim to be, you know.
37:20Many of them are very beautifully built and very purposefully designed.
37:30It's just that we are such stupid people that we have destroyed those places. Those were works of
37:40masterminds, people who could think, probe, inquire, understand. And the ones who are visiting those
37:47places now are all just dumb blind followers who do not understand a thing. They come there just
37:56very religiously, very blindly, in no knowledge of what that place stands for, right? So
38:07there are a few temples I have a special relationship with and it breaks my heart
38:21to visit them when there is a crowd. It becomes a bit like an intimate love affair. You don't
38:34want to share it with a crowd, especially if the crowd is insensitive, violent, ignorant,
38:40and disrespectful to the sacredness of that place. So I found myself gazing at my beloved
38:57temples from a distance, especially in the night. So yes, it's not just all right to visit great
39:13places of worship. It is also beneficial. But then you must understand what's going on. Just going
39:22to the Ganga and taking a few dips is not going to help. That's not helping. People visit Kedarnath,
39:32they exploit the mules, the donkeys there, and they go and then they do all kinds of stupidities
39:41and they return. That's not going to help. So when you go to a sacred place, meet that place
39:50with your own sacredness. Don't let it be a dead ritual, right? And stick to the thing that you
40:04first talked of, creating your personal shrine. Nobody can monopolize the truth and the truth
40:15never said that it is going to be based only at a particular geographical location. Truth is your
40:23own personal reality, which when approached becomes totally impersonal. But for you to begin
40:32with, you must say, it is my own thing. It is the thing within. So it is good to visit religious
40:41places, places of pilgrimage and all those things. It's all right. But also you must constantly be
40:51in touch with your own core. You must constantly be assessing the quality of your own mind. Is there
40:59anger? Is there greed? Is there a lot of fear? Is there blind faith? Is there ignorance? You must
41:06keep asking these questions. That's true religiosity.
41:11That's beautiful. Thank you, sir.