Video Information: 25.01.23, IIT-Ropar, Greater Noida
Description:
In this insightful discussion, Acharya Ji critiques the obsession with extravagant Indian weddings, highlighting that many families spend their life savings on these events due to societal pressures and a desire for status. He argues that this fixation reflects a deeper issue of a collective consciousness that is subjugated to bodily desires, reducing marriage to a mere celebration of physical union. Acharya Ji emphasizes the need to celebrate higher achievements and personal growth instead, urging society to transcend animalistic instincts and aspire to more meaningful values.
Context:
~What are the main reasons behind the obsession with extravagant Indian weddings?
~How does societal pressure influence spending on weddings in India?
~In what ways do lavish weddings reflect deeper cultural issues?
~What are the financial implications of spending life savings on weddings for families?
~How does the fixation on weddings impact mental health and well-being in society?
~What role does culture play in shaping our views on marriage and weddings?
~What alternative celebrations does Acharya Ji suggest for personal milestones?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
#acharyaprashant #custom #myths
Description:
In this insightful discussion, Acharya Ji critiques the obsession with extravagant Indian weddings, highlighting that many families spend their life savings on these events due to societal pressures and a desire for status. He argues that this fixation reflects a deeper issue of a collective consciousness that is subjugated to bodily desires, reducing marriage to a mere celebration of physical union. Acharya Ji emphasizes the need to celebrate higher achievements and personal growth instead, urging society to transcend animalistic instincts and aspire to more meaningful values.
Context:
~What are the main reasons behind the obsession with extravagant Indian weddings?
~How does societal pressure influence spending on weddings in India?
~In what ways do lavish weddings reflect deeper cultural issues?
~What are the financial implications of spending life savings on weddings for families?
~How does the fixation on weddings impact mental health and well-being in society?
~What role does culture play in shaping our views on marriage and weddings?
~What alternative celebrations does Acharya Ji suggest for personal milestones?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
#acharyaprashant #custom #myths
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Hello. Namaskar, sir. Hello. Am I audible? Yes, you are. Yeah. Hi, sir. I am MTech alumna
00:16of IIT Ropar, WD department. And it's been a pleasure to meet you again. Last year, Guru
00:22Purnima also, I had an opportunity to discuss with you on climate change hypocrisy, where
00:29you've given us some real deep insights on the issue, and which really enriched us all.
00:38And so today, directly getting back to my question. Today, my question is related to
00:44Indian weddings. Since in the last two months, only November, December, we saw like, on every
00:50consecutive day, there were some, like what we say, wedding season, like there were some
00:56baraths and processions and a lot of noise. And even social media was flooded with the
01:02pics and videos of like royal luxurious weddings, and which has been followed not only by the
01:10film stars now, and that is being now followed by the masses as well. Like even the common
01:15middlemen, they are also making up those marriage ceremonies like that. And even because of
01:21this reason, even I stopped using Facebook. Whenever I open my account, I just see my
01:27feed flooded with like some marriage or some pre wedding shoots from some of my relatives
01:33or some of my friends. So like, while I was like looking at all these things, I read some
01:41results of some survey which were related to Indian subcontinent, related to our country.
01:49So which showed that about 60% of Indian families spent about their more than a year's
01:57annual earnings on the wedding ceremonies. Even more shocking was like about 20% of Indian
02:04families spend even like their lifelong earnings in the wedding ceremony. And among these people
02:11about like more than 60 or 70% people were those who actually borrowed money to finance
02:18these weddings. So being in a middle class family, I know like how hard it is for a common
02:25man to earn and like he spends like all this, he do all this hustle to earn this much money.
02:32And then in the next side, I see that within two days, they just spend all that money just
02:37like in fraction of seconds. So it is like very much shocking for me. And also like during
02:46this survey, I got to know that this was not the case like about 30-40 years back. Previously,
02:53the scenario was like about like, what would say 30-40 years back, people do have marriage
03:02ceremonies, but it was in small number with small budget. And even way back in 1975,
03:09even in some states, there were regulations that in a wedding ceremony, there should not be more
03:14than 25 people in that gathering, what even COVID forced us to do. So like, I just wanted to like,
03:22hear your views on this, like, how we like why we Indians are so much crazy about big fat Indian
03:29weddings. And, and you, you might have seen this trend as a like, few years ago, they started
03:35pre-wedding shoot. Now, I think they're even starting this pre-engagement shoot after this
03:42may not some pre-pre what they will do. So I just wanted to hear your views on this, like,
03:48why we are so much like crazy about this. This should not surprise you.
03:59A wedding is the utmost celebration of a subjugated consciousness.
04:12We are people of consciousness, right? Our species, the Homo sapiens,
04:20we have consciousness, we think,
04:24we formulate, we conceptualize.
04:31So there is this consciousness and this consciousness is subjugated to the body.
04:39That's our condition. Before you understand why weddings mean so much to us and why there is
04:48so much glamour and such a big flow of money, you'll have to understand who we are and therefore,
04:58what is this wedding thing in the first place. We are people with enslaved consciousness.
05:10A consciousness that is slave to the body.
05:16More politely, more classically, it is called a body-identified consciousness.
05:23But that does not really expose the real state of consciousness,
05:34if so politely put. If you really want to understand how we are within,
05:43then the word subjugation is much more appropriate and revealing.
05:51So we are people whose minds are full of bodily business
05:59or thoughts are all full of bodily business. At the same time, we aren't exactly animals.
06:11Though the moment we say that our minds, our lives in fact are full of bodily businesses,
06:19one is tempted to say that we are de facto animals then. Because it's animals that are
06:26characterized by being almost 100% body identified. An animal, its entire life is
06:35driven by its bodily imperatives. The body says get up, the animal gets up, the body says I'm
06:42hungry, get me food, the animal starts running around. The body says I'm tired, let's sleep,
06:49the animal falls to sleep. The animal does not have to think, the animal does not have to decide,
06:56the body decides for the animal. Whatsoever the body says, the animal has to do.
07:03And you cannot make the animal do something that the body is not asking it to.
07:11Getting it? We are very very close to the animals, unfortunately, in the sense that we too
07:21live lives that are very body centric.
07:27But we cannot openly declare that because we think we are not animals.
07:35If you openly declare that all you live for and live as is the body, it would be a thing of shame.
07:45Not so much internal shame, but much more social shame.
07:51We are subjugated to the body, we are also slaves to the society.
07:58So even though we have to live as bodies and live for the body,
08:06we try to pretend as if we are higher beings living for nobler causes.
08:17That's just a pretense, but nevertheless we continue with that pretense.
08:24Now the body, what does it want? What is its ultimate desire? The body's ultimate desire
08:33is to have pleasure and to avoid death. Have pleasure, avoid death.
08:44Have pleasure, avoid death. These are the two things that the body wants.
08:50And because we are body identified people, to ensure these two things,
08:56we have come up with the institution of marriage.
09:00Marriage ensures continuous supply of sexual pleasure
09:07and also the pleasure that comes from emotional and financial security.
09:17Also, marriage ensures reproduction and that's what the body wants.
09:26Its own continuity in the form of other smaller beings of its own type.
09:37Are you getting it? So because marriage represents exactly what this animal body wants
09:47and we are very very bodily people, therefore we go bonkers on weddings.
09:54Do you understand? I am living as the body. I might not be declaring that
10:01because I pretend to be a higher being. If somebody tells me I am an animal, I feel offended.
10:08So I will not openly declare that I am the body just like animals and I live just for the sake of
10:14bodily things. What are bodily things? Security, pleasure, reproduction,
10:21reproduction and that's all. What else does the body want?
10:28So if you look at the life of the ordinary man, which is pretty much everybody,
10:33we all are living just for the sake of these things. Are we not? We say happiness is the
10:39purpose of life. We say your life is incomplete if you don't have kids and by all means we want
10:46to have measures of security and armors all around us. We want to collect money so that we
10:54feel secure. We cultivate a network of relationships so that we feel secure.
10:59We try to have more and more knowledge so that we feel secure.
11:04All these are very animalistic things. These are things that even an animal wants.
11:11These are not really things that separate us from animals. In fact,
11:16the more you go after these things, pleasure, security, continuity,
11:22the more you are ascertaining that you are an animal.
11:28And now you see why the wedding has to be such a big thing.
11:34It is the biggest festival of the body and we are animal bodies.
11:40We are dogs and cats. We are dogs and cats that must pretend that they are not dogs and cats.
11:51We are dogs and cats with a social face.
11:56So dogs and cats can just go and mate anywhere.
12:01We are not allowed by the society to do that.
12:04Dogs and cats just mate and litter anywhere on the street and you don't identify a pup by its father,
12:14do you? Or a kitten by its father. But we say we are noble beings. We are respectable people.
12:22So we cannot just mate around like that. Hence, we organize a festival
12:31to grant us a religious, social and legal license. That's called a wedding.
12:44A wedding is the occasion where it becomes absolutely open that the biggest thing for you
12:54is pleasure and continuity and security.
12:59Otherwise, why would you be found celebrating so much?
13:04What exactly are you celebrating? You celebrate so much in a wedding, right?
13:12What exactly are you celebrating? You are celebrating pleasure. You are celebrating security.
13:17You are celebrating security. You are celebrating love.
13:22You are celebrating continuity by way of reproduction. That's what you are celebrating.
13:29Because wedding is the biggest celebration,
13:34we all know that by our everyday empirical experience and you two shared some data ascertaining that.
13:44And because marriage is the biggest celebration that we have, that just proves
13:51that bodily pleasure is the biggest thing in our lives and security and continuity.
13:57Otherwise, why would you celebrate so much? What's there to celebrate? Think of it.
14:02What's there to celebrate? Yes, we are celebrating sex.
14:07We are celebrating the body, a male body, a female body coming together
14:18and we have gone bazooka. The entire society is dancing and if you just ask them a very
14:26objective question, exactly why are you dancing? What is this celebration all about? Nothing.
14:31Male cells and female cells coming together. That's the name of that celebration.
14:41And if you call it out
14:48in an obvious and flat way, very directly, everybody would be offended and they are
14:55offended just because they have never bothered to look at the mirror.
15:03They do not know who they are and why they are indulging in stuff.
15:07You become better as a human being.
15:12Does the society bother? Do they come and garland you? Do you invite 2,000 people to
15:20your house? Do you invite 2,000 people to your house? Do you invite 2,000 people to your house?
15:26No. But now you are ready to meet a girl, have sexual union and produce kids
15:34and everybody wants to dance. Is that not obscene actually?
15:41Is that not obscene?
15:44Is that not obscene?
15:45I used to think since I was a kid, I mean, on that stage, there is that man and that woman sitting
15:53and why are they being displayed and paraded this way?
16:01I could never imagine that.
16:05I could never imagine that.
16:06Why are they being displayed and paraded this way?
16:14I could never bring myself to accept that probably such a thing, the same thing
16:22is going to happen with me one day. I was very clear. No. Because the whole thing is obviously
16:30vulgar. These two are going to have sex now and everybody is jumping and hopping and shrieking
16:40and partying. I mean,
16:44seriously, is sex such a big thing? First question. Secondly, what do you have to do with
16:55the intimate affairs of those two people?
17:04Had we been
17:08a society that valued
17:16something higher than the body,
17:20then the topic and the context of our celebrations would have been very different.
17:33It would sound weird when I say so, but you would have celebrated finishing a great book
17:43and you would have invited people to come over and dance. Why?
17:50With great sincerity, I just completed
17:57my first run of the Shreemad Bhagawad Gita and now that's really something to celebrate.
18:04Come over everyone.
18:13And not necessarily something religious. It could be something from Marx or Dostoevsky.
18:19It could be from the philosophy side, from the literature side, anywhere.
18:25I am a better human being. Now that's something to celebrate.
18:30Two people are going to have sex now. How is that something to celebrate?
18:36And if you celebrate that, you are an animal because it's only animals that have nothing
18:44better and higher than sex to indulge in. Human beings are supposed to be targeting
18:51higher things, no? How can we say that my entire life savings have been reserved
19:02for a wedding celebration? But we do that and when we do that, we do not even know
19:08what we have declared ourselves to be. Animals, animals. We have declared ourselves to be animals
19:19if we are so fascinated with weddings.
19:22The kid just cracked a difficult problem in mathematics.
19:33Now that's what would make me throw a party, not his birthday.
19:41I'll organize a great party. Why? Because my kid just cracked a great problem in mathematics and
19:49that's something of an elevated consciousness. That's something animals cannot do. So that's
19:56something to celebrate. And I'll organize a great party. Why? Because my kid just cracked a great
20:05of an elevated consciousness. That's something animals cannot do.
20:10So that's something to be joyous about.
20:16Now the kid was born this day, so I'm calling everybody, you come over
20:20and we'll cut the cake and we'll have meals and such things. What stupidity! Even animals give birth.
20:28You and your wife in one moment of animalistic fetish had sex and gave birth and you are
20:36celebrating that day since 20 years. Are you mad? Even if you're not mad, you're just vulgar.
20:47You're telling everybody, you know, this was the day when we decided to fuck. So please come over
20:53So please come over and dance.
20:59Why should anybody dance? Why should anybody clap?
21:03What great achievement! What have you done? That which you have done is happening all
21:10over the place. The entire jungle is nothing but a huge mating ground.
21:23And God forbid, if the husband forgets the anniversary, you know, this was the day
21:33we got licensed to have sex. How can you forget this day?
21:42And I know
21:43and I know
21:48lot of romantics would say, you know, this man can only see sex wherever he looks.
21:59Marriage is actually the union of two souls.
22:04Sex and all is incidental. Alright, let's conduct a small experiment.
22:10Let's tell the two souls that sex will not be a part of their union. Let's see whether the union
22:19still happens. Both of them will run away. Tell the husband, you can have the wife without sex.
22:29Tell the wife, the husband you will get, but no sex. And then let's see whether any marriages happen.
22:36The conclusion is obvious. The two are getting together only for sex.
22:42Just that they want to pretend as if the matter is nobler, higher, more virtuous, more respectable.
22:52So, you create a whole tamasha around the thing and you call the priest and you
23:00spend five crores
23:05and you want to display that you are better than dogs and cats, which you are not.
23:17Exercise your imagination. Think of a more conscious society. Think of the occasion
23:27think of the occasions that such a society would celebrate.
23:38They would celebrate a man fighting his physical limitations.
23:46The doctors had declared somebody to be so badly impaired that he would never be able to walk again.
23:54But this person, this man or woman, just by way of willpower kept trying, trying, exercising
24:03and today he has been able to not just walk but actually run.
24:09Now that's something we should celebrate in the town hall.
24:17Let's call this man the entire city
24:24Let's have a gala feast. This is something to celebrate.
24:30The literacy rates in the city have raised 100%. Now we'll celebrate that.
24:41Somebody in the family had been wanting to write a small book of short stories
24:49but he never felt inspired enough or free enough or daring enough
24:58to attempt that or complete that. Today the book has been published. Finally he could
25:08challenge his barriers, complete the work and get it in print. Let's celebrate.
25:17Let's celebrate. Now these are things to celebrate. One boy, one girl
25:28running around the fire
25:34by the sound of verses they don't comprehend at all
25:39verses uttered by a priest who in all probability himself does not comprehend the verses.
25:50What's there to be so happy about?
25:58In a conservative city
26:03there emerges a girl
26:05who wins a medal
26:10in a state-level athletics competition. We will celebrate that.
26:21We will celebrate that.
26:26Even if she does not win a medal, she just manages to participate in the competition.
26:34We'll celebrate even that. That is something that deserves our respect.
26:43What is meant by a celebration? You do not celebrate your meanness. You do not celebrate your fall.
26:55You do not celebrate being an animal. You celebrate when you rise, don't you? That's
27:00the very definition. You celebrate your rise. You celebrate your ascension.
27:06You celebrate when you overcome a hard challenge
27:13and a worthy challenge.
27:18That's what you celebrate. Those things must be celebrated. Instead all the money is going
27:22towards weddings with the result that just this month it's almost becoming certain that
27:32India is already the most populous country in the world. Don't you see that level of
27:40population directly corresponds to our fascination with weddings?
27:43What is the purpose of life? Go wed. Go wed. That's the purpose of life.
27:52Still in small-town India and rural India, the day a daughter is born,
28:01at least the financial purpose of the father's life is decided, cast in stone.
28:09Now I have a daughter.
28:14So all I am doing is saving for her wedding.
28:22And the expenses that you quoted do not go merely towards celebration. A lot of that is actually
28:31towards dowry. So what is the poor father doing for the next 25 years since the girl is born?
28:40Just saving, saving and saving.
28:46And if he by chance happens to have three girls, think of his predicament.
28:53And now do you see that this fat wedding business is also directly
28:57related to female infanticide and foeticide?
29:02Because if a daughter is born, you'll have to arrange that kind of wedding and dowry.
29:08And you already have two daughters and your means do not permit you that kind of expenditure the
29:15third time over. So the moment you know that a third girl is about to arrive, you kill her in
29:24the fetus, in the womb. Do you see this? Do you also see how the wedding thing is actually very
29:45derogatory to both the groom and the bride, especially the bride?
29:53Do you see how it promotes all kinds of wasteful industries? Cosmetics, gems and jewelry,
30:02the entire wedding industry, including event management and what not.
30:08And these are all very wasteful industries that provide zero value addition to the society.
30:16Still they exist. Not only do they exist, they prosper. And banquet halls.
30:21Even the best of hotels have turned into de facto banquet halls.
30:27You go anywhere, what do you find is a wedding.
30:35You just go to some proper good hotel and you sit in their restaurant. You want to have a quiet cup
30:43of tea and you cannot have that quietness.
30:52Because just next to the cafe, there would be a huge wedding
30:58being organized in the premises of the hotel. And then you call up the
31:03manager, the senior most manager you call up and you say, Sir, Sir, I come to you because
31:10I love the silence and the solitude you provide. Why are you harassing me with this dhol tamasha?
31:21And it is happening continuously.
31:26You know what he says apologetically? He says, Sir, we can't help it.
31:31The kind of money these weddings provide us with is irresistible. We cannot deny that money.
31:42And when weddings take place, they book the entire hotel. 100% occupancy is guaranteed.
31:49If we deny these weddings, they'll go to another hotel, a competitor and he will get a competitive
31:59edge. So, we have to have these because the entire money is being spent on the weddings.
32:07How can the hotels now deny the wedding?
32:09So, the whole atmosphere is polluted.
32:14The silliest kind of vulgar songs
32:20at the highest volume
32:26and you have to tolerate all that. Why? Because two beasts
32:31are coming together physically and they are just so happy about it. They can't get over it.
32:47If there is one thing that is not right,
32:53if there is one thing that very loudly tells of the cancer we as a society are suffering from,
33:03it is these obnoxious wedding celebrations.
33:10I'll go to the extent of saying a man who is fond of attending weddings is somebody
33:18a man who is fond of attending weddings is someone you should stay away from, a man or a woman.
33:29If there is someone who actually manages to enjoy being in a wedding, it's a dangerous man.
33:39Avoid this person.
33:40Any sane person, anybody with even dimly lit consciousness
33:47would clearly see the horror, the vulgarity and the absurdity of the whole wedding tamasha.
33:56He'll feel very misplaced, very misfit.
34:00If he is there in that celebration, he'll want to run away.
34:05The horror of that cumulative action.
34:19So many people have come together and somebody is doing this, somebody is doing that and there is a
34:24photographer and a videographer, many of them actually are running after you.
34:28Every single thing is simply obscene, obscene, obscene, obscene.
34:52And then there is the groom who is there,
34:55And then there is the groom who is arriving on a poor animal, that too a poor female animal.
35:03One cannot miss the sordid symbolism there.
35:13Why does the groom have to ride a female animal?
35:15Don't you see what we are implying?
35:32Farmer suicides, we know about them, right?
35:38Did you know that a lot of the farmer suicides were not entirely due to just crop failure
35:44or high rates of borrowing from market?
35:48We talk of all those things, right?
35:50We say micro financing in India is a huge problem.
35:53We talk of those things.
35:55What we do not talk of is the fact that a lot of those farmers had to die because a
36:02lot of their debt was due to cultural reasons, not economic reasons.
36:13The man had to spend lavishly on the daughter's wedding.
36:17He has to.
36:18He is supposed to because we are beasts.
36:23Now how does he spend on the daughter's wedding?
36:26By borrowing.
36:28So he borrows from the local money lender at some arbitrary rate and that rate is usually
36:37a monthly rate.
36:39It does not sound too big.
36:43So he would say for example 1.5% but that is a 1.5% monthly rate.
36:53So when you look at the compounded annual rate, it is huge, very huge.
37:01So he borrowed that money for the daughter's wedding.
37:06Obviously couldn't repay.
37:07What does he do?
37:08He is a social animal.
37:09He has to carry his respect.
37:11He said fine.
37:15Instead of being exposed and humiliated every day in front of the money lender and the entire
37:23village and my relatives and everybody, I choose to end my life.
37:31Not necessarily the money is borrowed for the wedding.
37:33It could even be borrowed for the entire set of functions spread over two weeks that follow
37:42somebody's death.
37:49We do not want to cover that aspect of farmer suicides.
37:53We do not want to think of female feticide.
37:55We do not want to think of the relative lack of literacy among women especially in the
38:03northern states.
38:07Women are still a full 10% behind men when it comes to literacy in the northern states.
38:15Why is that so?
38:16Think and even if you say that men have an 82% rate and women have a 72% rate, that does
38:28not tell the whole story.
38:32The boy would be sent to a college offering professional courses in a distant city at
38:43a high fee.
38:46So the boy has been allowed to pursue an engineering degree in a good college 800 kilometers away
38:56and the cost of that degree is 8 lakh rupees that's the fees spread over four years.
39:05The girl has been told to pursue BA or BCom from a local degree college.
39:13On paper it would be said that the father was very fair and both the brother and the
39:20sister the son and the daughter are graduates B.Tech and BA.
39:26On paper there is no difference both are just graduates.
39:29Really there is a great difference.
39:32The father decided not to spend on the girl's education because he knew he would have to
39:38anyway spend on the girl's wedding.
39:43So he said I am saving money from her education and spend it on her wedding so that the entire
39:50town can have a great tamasha, one night tamasha.
40:03The boy wanted to pursue cricket as hobby.
40:10So in a local club he got himself admitted and the father happily paid the membership.
40:26The girl she was not allowed to cultivate any hobby, hobbies all cost money.
40:33A cricket bat or a tennis racket cost money.
40:38The father said why spend on her, I am anyway going to spend on her wedding.
40:45The boy was gifted a huge bike.
40:55The girl kept begging for a little scooty for very long, why?
41:03Because the father knew that anyway he'll have to give a car to her as a part of dowry
41:12package.
41:14So you are anyway going to get a car.
41:18Why ask for other vehicles beforehand?
41:26The matter is still not complete.
41:30The law since independence says that the son and the daughter will have equal right
41:40over the father's property.
41:43That's on paper, that does not actually happen.
41:47What happens de facto, when the girl is being married off, she is told you already now have
41:56your share of the property.
41:59Think of all the money we have spent on your wedding and all the dowry gifts you are being
42:04given.
42:06So you have already received your share of the property.
42:09Now please sign here to declare that you are not interested in the father's property, in
42:15the ancestral property anymore.
42:18Now the brother will keep all the property.
42:21So that's what happens on the ground.
42:26The law has kept itself clean on the paper ideally, but the ground situation is very
42:36different and a lot of that has to do with these lavish weddings.
42:51Celebrate when she's able to master her game.
43:00If she's enrolled into tennis classes, celebrate when she serves her first ace.
43:08That's when you should throw a party.
43:14Celebrate when she proceeds on her first solo tour.
43:25She's saying I want to visit the hills on my own.
43:29I'm grown up now dad and the parents tremble a bit.
43:36It's India, they don't want to let their girls lose.
43:42But the parents, by virtue of their consciousness, they decide, yes, she's growing up and if
43:50she wants to travel on her own, we must let her.
43:54And she proceeds and when she returns, that's when you should throw a party.
43:59Not when she gets wedded.
44:00That's all nonsense.
44:19And the loud music and the blare and the glitz, all the works, the zoom and the blaze.
44:40How can any person with any sensitivity come to terms with that?
44:55Weddings are the occasions that display our worst core.
45:16And you'll have, you'll continue to have weddings like these as long as we remain the beastly
45:24people that we are.
45:30It's impossible to be a beast and not celebrate sex, continuity, security.
45:39That's exactly what a beast lives for.
45:44Pleasure, reproduction, security.
45:53That's what the institution of marriage guarantees.
45:56That's what is enshrined on the holy occasion of marriage.
46:24We do not say we won't be beasts anymore.
46:27We say we'll be respectable beasts.
46:30So we'll do everything that beasts do, but with religious, social and legal sanction.
46:39Instead of saying we won't be beasts, come on, let's transcend the beast.
46:48Let's evolve.
46:50Let's rise.
46:52Let's discover the meaning of being human.
46:56We don't say that.
46:57We say, oh, we are beasts and we are okay with being beasts, but let's be cultured beasts.
47:04We are very cultured people.
47:07Weddings are occasions that demonstrate our great culture.
47:12Look at the music.
47:13Look at the clothes.
47:14Look at the food.
47:17We are showcasing our great culture.
47:22So we are beasts with culture.
47:27What good is this culture if it cannot help you transcend your beast?