The Truth-Centered Perspectives on Indian Culture and Traditions || Acharya Prashant7

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: 22.02.23, SPA College (Online), Greater Noida  Context: ~ What's special about Indian culture?  ~ How old is Indian culture?  ~ How much of our culture has been influenced by invaders?  ~ Do we really have a rich culture? ~ What deserves to be worshiped? ~ How sacred is Indian tradition?  Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~

Transcript

00:00If your purpose is coming from your beliefs and not the truth, what good is the purpose?

00:17Just because you are following certain practices since long, do those practices become equivalent to the truth

00:29or 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 since last 50-100 years.

00:50Before that the culture was very different.

00:59And if you go 5 centuries back, the culture was entirely different.

01:05So what do you mean by your culture?

01:08You mean the culture of the 19th and 20th century, right?

01:13Believe 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 past?

01:28Why go back only 1 century? Why not 10 centuries?

01:35Clothing for example is a part of culture.

01:40Look at the stuff you are wearing.

01:42Where did it come from? It is not in your culture. Why are you wearing this?

01:44The language we are talking in is not a part of your culture.

01:52Why 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.

02:02It is very western. Why are you sitting in that pose?

02:04Chips, where have they come from? Pizza?

02:14Okay, 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?

02:35It was not there 10 centuries back.

02:38It is coming from the same invaders.

02:41Oh, so bad.

02:45Aloo, potato and tomato, they were not there in the Vedic times.

02:53Invaders brought them very recently, both tomato and potato.

03:00But do you enjoy aloo like anything?

03:03Aloo was not a part of our culture. No sir, no aloo.

03:09For all those who keep talking only of Sanskriti, keep aloo away first thing.

03:13Aloo is a foreign thing. The invaders brought it actually.

03:24What 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.

03:39Do you think you are having fireworks 3 centuries back?

03:42Again that is something that has a foreign imprint on that.

03:48But today you say it is an inalienable part of my culture.

03:50What do you mean by your culture?

03:53What you call as your culture is largely the culture of those who invaded you.

03:58But today you worship that as your own culture.

04:02And the thing that deserves to be worshipped, satya, truth, you have totally forgotten that.

04:08When a woman wears saree and covers her head,

04:14you say look, lajja, this shyness, this modesty is Indian culture.

04:27Were Indian women covering their heads in pre-Islamic times?

04:34Figure that out. How is it your culture now?

04:38It is the culture of the invaders, the same invaders that you hate so much.

04:41And you use your culture to hate them.

04:45The fact is even your culture is coming from the invaders.

04:48Pulao, 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.

05:06And many food items that you do not like today, they were originally a part of your culture.

05:14For example, somras.

05:17Today you say all the sanskriti vadis will say alcohol is so bad, alcohol is so bad.

05:24The thing is if you go to the Vedas, continuously even the rishis are praising som.

05:31Indra is especially fond of som.

05:37It was Islamic morality in which alcohol was banned.

05:46It is Islam that detests alcohol a lot.

05:52Alcohol is bad, alcohol is bad.

05:54So do you know where your aversion to alcohol is coming from?

05:57It is coming from the invaders.

05:58In your culture alcohol was great.

06:05Not that everybody was a drunkard.

06:08But nobody was taking the issue of alcohol very seriously.

06:13It is alright, let there be some soma.

06:17And it used to be a part even of religious offerings.

06:21So rishis have gathered and there you have somras.

06:24What is your culture?

06:30The real man, the man of truth is devoted to mukti and satya.

06:40Not to sanskriti.

06:42In some sense entire Bhagavad Gita is a struggle of mukti against sanskriti.

06:51Arjun is quoting all the things related to sanskriti.

06:55Culture, he 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.

07:14This is sanskriti.

07:18And if those are born then the homage that they will offer to the dead ancestors will not be accepted.

07:29And the souls of the dead ancestors will remain thirsty and restless.

07:35And Krishna says keep all this trash aside.

07:38To hell with your culture.

07:40I will tell you that the only thing that matters is mukti, liberation.

07:45And liberation is what I stand for.

07:48You should be devoted to me and do as I say.

07:51Keep all your misogyny and your superstition aside.

07:57And you see all these things in what Arjun is saying.

08:02He is saying women you know they should not marry lower castes.

08:06Men were allowed to marry lower caste women.

08:08But women they should not marry non-kshatriyas.

08:12And superstition, a lot of superstition in what Arjun is saying.

08:17All that is in chapter 1 of Bhagavad Gita.

08:19So what you call as your culture has a lot of superstition as well.

08:23Why do you want to venerate that?

08:25Culture is man-made and it should keep getting refined episodically, timely, continuously rather.

08:39Not even episodically.

08:41Culture is something that pertains to a particular place at a particular moment in time.

08:51Culture is time bound and must change with time.

08:57And it is already changing with time.

09:02100 years back you would have said caste system, untouchability.

09:06Not even untouchability, unseeability.

09:10There are certain people you are saying they cannot even be seen.

09:13These are great parts of our culture.

09:17Didn't you change that?

09:19Weren't there social reformers?

09:21Today we worship those social reformers.

09:23In their time those social reformers, you threw mud at them.

09:29And you abused them.

09:31And you even wanted to kill them.

09:33And you said these people are destroying our culture.

09:36Because they are talking of abolishing child marriage.

09:39And they are talking of widow remarriage.

09:41And no, no, no.

09:43Widow remarriage cannot be done.

09:45In our culture no widow remarriage.

09:47And in our culture kids should be married at the age of 5.

09:50And in our culture the woman should be burnt on the pyre of the husband.

09:55These things are part of your culture.

09:56No.

09:58We are proud that we reformed and refined our culture.

10:02Aren't you proud of that?

10:04We are proud that we have a better culture today.

10:07Similarly culture should always keep getting refined with a view towards the truth.

10:14Do not take culture as sacred or holy.

10:17Satya is holy, not Sanskriti.

10:21Are you getting it?

10:23Are you getting it?

10:25Satya is Sanatan.

10:27Sanskriti is not Sanatan.

10:29Sanatan means timeless.

10:31Sanskriti is time bound.

10:34Getting it?

10:38So, I am not discounting the importance of culture.

10:41What I am saying is, remember the place of culture vis-a-vis the truth.

10:47Culture should be a shadow of the truth.

10:50Culture should be a follower of the truth.

10:53Do not place culture in a position where it becomes absolute.

10:58Only the truth is absolute.

11:00Culture is not absolute.

11:02The Upanishads do not sing of Sanskriti.

11:05They sing of Satya.

11:07The saint poets didn't sing of Sanskriti.

11:09They talked of Satya.

11:10Unfortunately, in today's India, there is a very unfortunate kind of cultural aggression taking shape.

11:25Everybody is talking of culture and nobody is talking of the real thing.

11:30Truth.

11:32They have started equating culture with religion.

11:35But religion is not culture.

11:37Religion is something in service of the truth.

11:38Are you getting it?

11:47Have great traditions and always be careful that your traditions are pointing towards the truth.

12:00Only then the traditions have life.

12:02Otherwise the traditions fall dead.

12:04And there is no point carrying dead load over the centuries.

12:08I am not discounting traditions.

12:11There can be beautiful traditions.

12:13But only when you know the meaning of those traditions,

12:17only when those traditions arise from your heart,

12:20just ritualistically and blindly obeying traditions will take you nowhere.

12:25If traditions have to exist, let there be lively traditions.

12:31In fact, with an eye on the truth, with a mind devoted to the truth,

12:36you can even begin new traditions.

12:40Because all traditions began at some point in time.

12:44So why can't new traditions begin today?

12:46New, great, sacred traditions can begin today.

12:49And even the traditions that begin today must end at some other point in time.

12:53Because today's traditions will be applicable to today's man,

12:58today's environment, today's society, today's economy.

13:01200 years later those traditions might not be useful.

13:04So then those traditions can be reformed or totally disposed away.

13:10And then new traditions should come up.

13:12Traditions are not sacred.

13:15Traditions can be dropped and new traditions can be started.

13:18And even ancient traditions can be continued if there is meaning in them.

13:23And that meaning you don't need to superimpose on the tradition.

13:29Because that's also a trend these days.

13:30Take some random tradition and superimpose meaning on it.

13:34Say, no, no, no, this tradition is not random. It has this meaning.

13:37The tradition has no meaning at all.

13:39You are needlessly imposing meaning on the tradition.

13:42That kind of pseudo-scientific thing don't attempt please.

13:45Let the tradition have real meaning.

13:48And then it can continue for long.

13:50Otherwise drop it.

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