Let's check your Krishna Quotient || Acharya Prashant, at SPIT Mumbai (2022)

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: 9.12.22, SPIT-College, Mumbai  Context: ~ Why are we so insecure?  ~ How to deal with peer pressure? ~ Is peer pressure just a manifestation of fear? ~ How to deal with insecurity? ~ Why do we run after validation? ~ Why do we want people to like us?  ~ How to make friends?   Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~

Transcript

00:00Namaste Sir. A question always comes in my mind when I see Bhagavad Gita. It's a book

00:09that shows a way to live life, not a dharmic book. And many foreign institutes have Bhagavad

00:15Gita as a core source in their management courses. Then why this generation in India

00:21do not have much knowledge of Bhagavad Gita? Sir, my question always remains unanswered.

00:26We are so far away from Krishna because the image of Krishna is just too close to us.

00:36Compared to us, foreigners find it easier to come to the essence of Krishna because

00:43they don't have images or stories about Krishna. No Indian wants to know anything more about

00:52Krishna. We already know Krishna. Every single person knows 5 or 10 stories about Krishna

01:01and that is all. Why do you need to read the Gita? Why do you need to understand Vedanta?

01:08We know those 5 stories. 1. How he was stealing butter. 2. How he was dancing with the Gopis.

01:163. The mountain on the little finger. 4. The great snake in the Jamuna river. Done.

01:23Then Sudama. 5 stories you know and you are fully confident you know Krishna. And beyond

01:30that nobody needs to know anything. Every person walking on the road in India is a brahmasmi.

01:43I too am brahma. I am an Indian and he spits on the road. Says I am brahmasmi and spits

01:51on the road. Why do we need to read the Upanishads then? I am already a brahmasmi. 5 stories

02:04from the Bhagavad Purana. That's all. Krishna, obviously Krishna. The one in the neighborhood.

02:13That mischievous boy. Obviously I know of him. All my life I have been inviting people

02:20to the Gita, teaching Gita, speaking for hours on every single shloka of the Gita and not

02:30too many people have been interested. Why? We know the story Makhan Chor. What else is

02:37there to know? What else is there to know? And there are so many TV serials. Are they

02:43talking of the Gita? No. They are showing how he made love with all the milkmaids, wooing

02:52them, frolicking with them. That's what the TV serials are showing. Or are they educating

03:01you in the principles of Gita, the philosophy of Vedanta. Gita is one of the pillars of

03:07Vedanta by the way. What they are showing you? The peacocks, the cows, the birds, the

03:18girls and the girls are there in the pond and Krishna does away with their clothes and

03:26for 5 hours the TV producer is just lengthening and lengthening and dragging the whole thing

03:35on which particular clothes, which girl, what is she saying. 90% of that is not there even

03:46in the Puranas. Forget about the Gita. The stuff, the image and the stories that you

03:56carry about Krishna are not there even in the Bhagwat Puran or Harvansh Puran. From

04:01nowhere are they coming. Just from imagination. And everybody knows Krishna. That's why nobody

04:07reads the Gita. A lot of research on the Gita, a lot of scholarship on the Gita has actually

04:13come from abroad. Indians know Gita. Arjun, yeah, yeah. Arjun. It is such a tragedy, so unfortunate

04:31it is, that we have all the trash and the gems we had have been rather used by the foreigners.

04:44Advaita Vedanta, it is greatly respected abroad. Bhagwat Gita, it is understood and read abroad.

04:55You have university courses on the Gita. Hardly in India. They were wise enough to take the

05:07best out of your spiritual heritage and they took only the best that was there. All the

05:16trash was left for the Indians. All the trash you just enjoy. Jhaad phook, tona totka, that's

05:26for you. Occult, flying snakes, that is for you. The great philosophical jewels, the foreigners

05:40accepted them, respected them, learned them and taught them. Today if you talk of non-duality.

05:51Non-duality is a much bigger thing, Advaita, is a much bigger thing in the US than in India.

06:00It's a matter of great joy. It's also a matter of great shame. Is it not? Attend to the valuable

06:15things in your heritage and keep the trash aside and believe me, there is a lot of trash

06:23in your spiritual heritage. Let's be honest and acknowledge that. Because if you not keep

06:29the trash aside, you will not be able to value and worship the jewels. Is it possible to worship both?

06:37Please tell me. Can you worship the dust and the gems alike? No. In fact you want to polish the

06:50gem, so that the dust can be cleared away. Indians have chosen the dust, the West has

07:03been able to identify the gems. All the nonsense in the name of religion, Indians have lapped up.

07:13All the nonsense, all the riots, all rubbish, all superstition in the name of religion,

07:19Indians are very happy with that. And all the great things in your spiritual heritage,

07:26all the wonderful philosophies, I am repeating, the West has happily, smartly accepted that.

07:36Yes sir, any way to develop this in our body that we should read Gita or we should learn something?

07:50Try to understand it. And when you read Gita, first of all exert yourself fully to understand

07:59what Krishna is trying to say. Sir, I have a question. When I read Gita sir, I read and I

08:05understand something different. But when I listen something, my seniors, my professors,

08:10they taught me something different. As the many times I read Gita, the meaning is different.

08:15Then don't settle down. Don't believe that you are right. Equally don't believe that the others

08:21are right. Keep investigating. Keep investigating what is the real spirit of Gita, how is one verse

08:28related to the other. And remember that the Gita is founded on the principles of Vedanta. If you

08:35are not clear about the right meaning of a verse, then you have to refer to Vedantic principles.

08:40Vedanta will ultimately decide what a verse in the Gita means. Because Vedanta comes first,

08:49after that comes the Bhagavad Gita. Are you getting it? You don't need to settle down.

08:57You don't need to say what you are saying is the final thing. Equally, you don't need to

09:02accept what someone else is saying is the final thing. Be on a continuous journey of inquiry.

09:06Sir, one last question. Sir, when I read Gita and in the place where I live and in the environment

09:19I am in, when I talk to my friends about movies and recent movies like Pushpa and something,

09:24they will get involved with me. But sir, when I talk to them about Gita and something which

09:30makes our life better, sir, they don't do. And they think like I am becoming a saint.

09:34And our parents also think that reading these types of Upanishads and Puranas will make you

09:40a saint. You will go on another path. Why are you with such friends?

09:47No sir, the environment is like this. Sir, not only friends,

09:57actually the environment is like this. You can choose the right elements in

10:02your environment. Nobody is helpless. And today, in the age of technology,

10:09you can have a virtual environment. Your friends can come from anywhere.

10:16Or does your physical neighbor have to be your friend? If he is not worth it, ignore him.

10:24Try to help him at first. See whether he listens. But if he is insistent that he wants to talk only

10:32about Pushpa, not about Gita, then you say you keep Pushpa, I keep Gita.

10:37Yes sir, I got the point. Got the point?

10:47Create your own environment. People who do not respect the Gita,

10:56do not deserve to be your friends. Full stop. Full stop.

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