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~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Video Information: Shastra Kaumudi, 20.12.2021, Rishikesh, India
Context:
~ How did Arjun learn from Krishna?
~ What is the essence of Bhagwad Gita?
~ How does the Bhagwad Gita have such a unique role in spirituality?
~ Why is the Bhagwad Gita so unique?
~ What does the Gita actually mean?
~ How is the Bhagwad Gita to be understood?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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?...
Read 3 handpicked wisdom articles, just for you: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/articl...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Video Information: Shastra Kaumudi, 20.12.2021, Rishikesh, India
Context:
~ How did Arjun learn from Krishna?
~ What is the essence of Bhagwad Gita?
~ How does the Bhagwad Gita have such a unique role in spirituality?
~ Why is the Bhagwad Gita so unique?
~ What does the Gita actually mean?
~ How is the Bhagwad Gita to be understood?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Namaste Acharya ji, I am Nandini Bajaj, I am a second year undergraduate with Department
00:07of Geology and Geophysics at IIT Kharagpur and my question is, you mentioned about Vedanta,
00:14at my age should I start reading about it?
00:20You haven't yet started?
00:21No sir.
00:22Oh, it's too late.
00:23Okay.
00:24Sir, how?
00:25What do you mean by how?
00:26How did you?
00:27No, no, not how, my question is how I'll be, like I was not very sure whether I'll be able
00:38to digest it or not.
00:40How did you decide on that even without trying Nandini, please?
00:46Which all scriptures have you laid your hands on?
00:51Sir, almost none.
00:55And having tried on none, you concluded that it's too early for you to start or that it's
01:03too difficult for you to start?
01:06Sir, like in my family, my parents, they taught me about Bhagavad Gita and all, but then I
01:16initially, I used to find it irrelevant and in past six months, you can say, I was like,
01:21okay, I should once try it, but I was not ready, okay, this is the time I should start
01:28reading it maybe.
01:29You know, if there is a compulsory 20 credit course on the Upanishads, you will not only
01:35read the Upanishads, but even try to secure an A, right?
01:41The moment you know it carries 20 credits, you will forget all your hesitation.
01:50That's how we are, if it gives me placement and money and CGPA, I will read, poor Bhagavad
02:01Gita, it's not there in the curricula, the placements are not linked to it, no employer
02:09asks you, have you read Sankhyog?
02:16What is the difference between Nishkam Karma and Vairagya?
02:20Nobody asks you these things, why don't they ask these things?
02:25Because they themselves don't know a thing, they themselves are in deep delusion, so they
02:31do not know what to really look for in a candidate and they also know that if there is a candidate
02:37who actually knows the answers to the right questions, then that candidate will never
02:41appear for their interview, let alone join their company.
02:44So, that's the ecosystem you are in, why do you want to become another victim of that
02:50ecosystem?
02:51Your ecosystem is never going to drive you to the Gita or Upanishads or anything of any
02:57worth.
03:02Present it upon you now as a mature adult to see that life is not just about the stuff
03:12that your courses contain, I have all the respect for what is taught in our institutions,
03:22but I have greater respect for life and liberation from it.
03:29Technology and profession are a very small part of who you are.
03:34Life is a much much bigger affair, life is not about dealing with machines, life is first
03:42of all dealing with yourself and realizing that there is a deep need within waiting to
03:49be addressed.
03:50Resnick, Halliday or Irudov are not going to address that need, are you getting it?
04:02Sir, but sometimes I feel like even if I'm reading a shloka or something, sometimes like
04:09there's this feel that maybe I'll not be able to apply that at a greater extent because
04:16of lack of my vision or maturity.
04:19Where do you think you can apply Fourier series, where all have you already applied Laplace
04:24transformation, please tell me, 90% of the things I read at IIT, I could never apply
04:33anywhere, I still read them.
04:35But when it comes to the Gita, you say, oh, I do not know where to apply them, therefore,
04:39I am not reading those things.
04:41Where in your life have you already applied even complex numbers, please tell me, square
04:51root of minus 1, what have you done so far with it?
04:57But you know all about complex numbers, right?
05:00In the first year, there would have been an entire course on complex numbers and you went
05:06through it and probably secured an A or A neg and wow, well done, then you do not ask,
05:13but is it going to be of any practical use, then you do not ask, I am not insinuating
05:19that the stuff we are taught at IIT is not of practical use, obviously, it is, obviously,
05:25everything has its use, obviously, without the Fourier transformation, this laptop cannot
05:30exist.
05:34My question is not whether those things are useful, my question is, the question that
05:38you ask with respect to the Gita, why do you never ask it with respect to the other things
05:43that are taught to you?
05:48How many students ask this question to their professors, sir, this that you are teaching
05:53to me right now, will it ever be useful in my real life, in my professional life?
06:01Computer science graduates are taught basic science courses in chemistry, are they not?
06:09How is it there?
06:10First year, do not you have a chemistry course even for com science graduates?
06:14Now, why do not the com science graduates ask, sir, what will you do with chemistry?
06:20I am not saying they will have nothing to do with chemistry or that that knowledge would
06:24not be useful, it would be useful, but you never ask.
06:28You take it on trust that if this is being given to me to study, it surely must be having
06:37some use somewhere, but when it comes to spirituality, there is a great distrust and that great distrust
06:48has been implanted in you by your ecosystem, by the media, by the education, by everything
06:55that comes to our mind and affects it.
06:59They tell you if you read mathematics, it will give you happiness by giving you some
07:04success, money.
07:07If you read economics, it will be of some use to you.
07:11Even if you read current affairs, you will gain in knowledge.
07:17Even if you read erotica, you will at least gain some pleasure.
07:22But Bhagavad Gita and Upanishads, they give you nothing, neither success nor pleasure.
07:27So, who wants to read them?
07:29We might worship them, but we do not want to read them.
07:33At least try and when you will try, you will find that they are not giving you knowledge,
07:42they are addressing the very person you are.
07:46They are addressing everything that you relate yourself to, your name, your desires, your
07:55feelings, your choices, your livelihood, your relationships, your family, your very existence.
08:03Now, your very existence obviously is much more important than the technologies you know
08:12of.
08:13No?
08:14What is of more importance to you?
08:17The fact that you exist or the fact that you have knowledge about a certain technology?
08:25Gita, Vedanta and all texts of wisdom address who you are.
08:37We do not know who we are.
08:38Our very existence is hazy.
08:43One thing is certain, you are not what you think you are.
08:51You are not what you operate as.
08:54You are not what you are so confident about.
08:57Therefore, all of us are very dangerously placed.
09:03We do not know who we are, yet we continue to operate as if we know.
09:09It is an extremely precarious position.
09:13If you do not know where you are standing, if you do not know a thing about what is going
09:20on, do you want to choose, decide and move ahead?
09:27Makes no sense, right?
09:29Before you do anything, before you think anything, before you allow yourself to feel anything,
09:36must you not know something about yourself?
09:41But that's the vacuum we operate in.
09:43Without knowing the very facts of our existence, we continue to live, eat, walk, choose, decide
09:53that too confidently.
09:58What does all that result in?
09:59Just total wastage of this precious life.
10:05Sir, then it means like, what I feel is, our self-image is greatly influenced by what others
10:19think who we are, what this ecosystem thinks.
10:24Exactly, what others think who you are and what your body wants you to believe in.
10:32Others will tell you, you are a smart girl.
10:36I'll start believing it, more and more people will start telling it.
10:42Your body tells you, you are a girl.
10:48Both of these are not necessarily true.
10:52By that I do not mean that you are not smart or that you are a boy.
10:59Others tell you things about yourself.
11:03The body gives you, in a very deceitful way, your basic identity as a body.
11:16And we continue to trust these two cheaters and operate as per the education, the advice
11:25received from them.
11:31That's like writing an examination in somebody else's name.
11:39If you write your examination as Rekha, what will you get?
11:46So, if you live your life as your body, what will you get?
11:52You went to write the JEE, right?
11:55You wrote it in somebody else's name.
11:57What do you get?
11:58Nothing.
11:59That's how we all live, we live as the body.
12:04The body might be getting some pleasure or something.
12:06I do not know what it gets, ultimately it turns to ashes.
12:10But for sure, you do not get anything.
12:14Sir, by that, do you mean our soul do not get anything out of it?
12:23You are not your soul.
12:28You are not your body.
12:29Then who we are?
12:31Go to the Gita.
12:32It's already too late, I said.
12:41If you are talking to me, one of the options is to go to my website, put in your name.
12:50We have initiated a program to send the Upanishads to whosoever enrolls with us.
12:57Within a month or two, you will receive a copy of the Saraswara Upanishad.
13:02It might answer some of your questions.
13:06It's a free copy.
13:07So you may just go there and enter your details and you will receive it.
13:13And if you do not want to wait for a few months, then you may enroll in some of the Gita courses
13:22that we have, that might help.
13:25Or you may decide to just begin with your own copy of the Gita, whatsoever you decide.
13:33Just begin.
13:34Thank you so much, Acharyaji.