The Truth-Centered Perspectives on Indian Culture and Traditions || Acharya Prashant (2023)
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00:00If your purpose is coming from your beliefs and not the truth, what good is the purpose?
00:18Just because you are following certain practices since long, do those practices become equivalent
00:28to the truth or 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
00:49since last 50-100 years.
00:56Before that the culture was very different and if you go 5 centuries back, the culture
01:03was entirely different.
01:05So what do you mean by your culture?
01:07You mean the culture of the 19th and 20th century, right?
01:14Believe 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
01:27past?
01:28Why go back only 1 century?
01:30Why not 10 centuries?
01:36The clothing for example is a part of culture.
01:40Look at the stuff you are wearing.
01:41Where did it come from?
01:42It is not in your culture.
01:43Why are you wearing this?
01:46The language we are talking in is not a part of your culture.
01:51Why 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.
02:01It is very western.
02:02Why are you sitting in that pose?
02:10Chips, where have they come from?
02:13Pizza?
02:15Ok, 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?
02:33Where is kurta-pajama coming from?
02:35It was not there 10 centuries back.
02:37It is coming from the same invaders.
02:40Oh, so bad.
02:43Aloo, potato and tomato, they were not there in the Vedic times.
02:52Invaders brought them very recently, both tomato and potato.
02:58But do you enjoy aloo like anything?
03:01So bad.
03:04Aloo was not a part of our culture.
03:06No sir, no aloo.
03:09For all those who keep talking only of Sanskriti, keep aloo away first thing.
03:13Aloo is a foreign thing.
03:15The invaders brought it actually.
03:25What 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, do you think you are having fireworks 3 centuries back?
03:45Again that is something that has a foreign imprint on that.
03:48But today you say it is an inalienable part of my culture.
03:51What do you mean by your culture?
03:53What you call as your culture is largely the culture of those who invaded you.
03:59But today you worship that as your own culture.
04:03Anything that deserves to be worshipped, satya, truth, you have totally forgotten that.
04:09When a woman wears saree and covers her head, you say look, lajja, this shyness, this modesty is Indian culture.
04:26Were Indian women covering their heads in pre-Islamic times?
04:35Figure that out. How is it your culture now?
04:37It is the culture of the invaders.
04:39The same invaders that you hate so much.
04:43And you use your culture to hate them.
04:45The fact is even your culture is coming from the invaders.
04:49Pulao, 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.
05:09And many food items that you do not like today, they were originally a part of your culture.
05:14For example, somras.
05:18Today you say, all the sanskriti vadis will say alcohol is so bad, alcohol is so bad.
05:25The thing is, if you go to the Vedas, continuously even the rishis are praising som.
05:33Indra is especially fond of som.
05:35It was Islamic morality in which alcohol was banned.
05:44It is Islam that detests alcohol a lot.
05:49Alcohol is bad, alcohol is bad.
05:52So do you know where your aversion to alcohol is coming from?
05:55It is coming from the invaders.
06:00In your culture, alcohol was great.
06:03Not that everybody was a drunkard.
06:06But nobody was taking the issue of alcohol very seriously.
06:11It is alright.
06:13Let there be some soma.
06:15And it used to be a part even of religious offerings.
06:20So rishis have gathered and there you have somras.
06:27What is your culture?
06:28What is your culture?
06:33The real man, the man of truth is devoted to mukti and satya, not to sanskriti.
06:43In some sense, entire Bhagavad Gita is a struggle of mukti against sanskriti.
06:51Arjun is quoting all the things related to sanskriti.
06:54Culture.
06:56He 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.
07:16This is sanskriti.
07:17And if those are born, then the homage that they will offer to the dead ancestors will not be accepted.
07:28And the souls of the dead ancestors will remain thirsty and restless.
07:33And Krishna says, keep all this trash aside.
07:37To hell with your culture.
07:39I will tell you that the only thing that matters is mukti, liberation.
07:44And liberation is what I stand for.
07:47So be devoted to me and do as I say.
07:52Keep all your misogyny and your superstition aside.
07:57And do you see all these things in what Arjun is saying?
08:02He is saying women, you know, they should not marry lower castes.
08:05Men were allowed to marry lower caste women.
08:08But women, they should not marry non-kshatriyas.
08:13And superstition, a lot of superstition in what Arjun is saying.
08:16All that is in chapter 1 of Bhagavad Gita.
08:19So what you call as your culture has a lot of superstition as well.
08:22Why do you want to venerate that?
08:28Culture is man-made and it should keep getting refined.
08:34Episodically, timely, continuously rather.
08:39Not even episodically.
08:40Culture is something that pertains to a particular place at a particular moment in time.
08:50Culture is time-bound and must change with time.
08:57And it is already changing with time.
09:00100 years back you would have said caste system, untouchability.
09:04Not even untouchability, unseeability.
09:07There are certain people you are saying they cannot even be seen.
09:12These are great parts of our culture.
09:15Didn't you change that? Weren't there social reformers?
09:18Today we worship those social reformers.
09:21In their time, those social reformers, you threw mud at them.
09:26And you abused them.
09:29And you even wanted to kill them.
09:32And you said these people are destroying our culture.
09:34Because they are talking of abolishing child marriage.
09:37And they are talking of widow remarriage.
09:40And no, no, no. Widow remarriage cannot be done.
09:43In our culture, no widow remarriage.
09:45And in our culture, kids should be married at the age of 5.
09:49And in our culture, the woman should be burnt on the pyre of the husband.
09:54These things were part of your culture? No.
09:57We are proud that we reformed and refined our culture.
10:01Aren't you proud of that?
10:03We are proud that we have a better culture today.
10:06Similarly, culture should always keep getting refined.
10:11With a view towards the truth.
10:14Do not take culture as sacred or holy.
10:17Satya is holy, not Sanskriti.
10:22Are you getting it? Satya is Sanatan. Sanskriti is not Sanatan.
10:28Sanatan means timeless.
10:30Sanskriti is time bound.
10:33Getting it?
10:36So, I am not discounting the importance of culture.
10:40What I am saying is, remember the place of culture vis-a-vis the truth.
10:46Culture should be a shadow of the truth.
10:49Culture should be a follower of the truth.
10:52Do not place culture in a position where it becomes absolute.
10:57Only the truth is absolute.
10:59Culture is not absolute.
11:00The Upanishads do not sing of Sanskriti.
11:03They sing of Satya.
11:05The saint poets didn't sing of Sanskriti.
11:08They talked of Satya.
11:10Unfortunately, in today's India,
11:12there is a very unfortunate kind of cultural aggression taking shape.
11:24Everybody is talking of culture and nobody is talking of the real thing, Satya.
11:29Truth.
11:31They have started equating culture with religion.
11:35But religion is not culture.
11:37Religion is something in service of the truth.
11:44Are you getting it?
11:52Have great traditions.
11:53And always be careful that your traditions are pointing towards the truth.
11:59Only then the traditions have life.
12:01Otherwise the traditions fall dead.
12:03And there is no point carrying dead load over the centuries.
12:07I am not discounting traditions.
12:10There can be beautiful traditions.
12:12But only when you know the meaning of those traditions.
12:16Only when those traditions arise from your heart.
12:19Just ritualistically and blindly obeying traditions will take you nowhere.
12:26If traditions have to exist, let there be lively traditions.
12:30In fact, with an eye on the truth,
12:35with a mind devoted to the truth,
12:37you can even begin new traditions.
12:39Because all traditions began at some point in time.
12:43So, why can't new traditions begin today?
12:45New, great, sacred traditions can begin today.
12:47And even the traditions that begin today must end at some other point in time.
12:52Because today's traditions will be applicable to today's man,
12:57today's environment, today's society, today's economy.
13:00200 years later those traditions might not be useful.
13:04So, then those traditions can be reformed or totally disposed away.
13:09And then new traditions should come up.
13:11Traditions are not sacred.
13:14Traditions can be dropped.
13:16And new traditions can be started.
13:18And even ancient traditions can be continued,
13:21if there is meaning in them.
13:26And that meaning you don't need to superimpose on the tradition.
13:29Because that's also a trend these days.
13:31Take some random tradition and superimpose meaning on it.
13:34Say, no, no, no, this tradition is not random.
13:36It has this meaning.
13:38The tradition has no meaning at all.
13:40You are needlessly imposing meaning on the tradition.
13:43That kind of pseudo-scientific thing, don't attempt, please.
13:46Let the tradition have real meaning.
13:48And then it can continue for long.
13:50Otherwise, drop it.