Video Information: 28.05.2022, All India Radio, Greater Noida
Context:
~ Which genre of music ought should we listen to?
~ What ought to be the meaning of life?
~ Which musical selection is healthy for us?
~ How may songs impart wisdom?
~ Why is music significant?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Context:
~ Which genre of music ought should we listen to?
~ What ought to be the meaning of life?
~ Which musical selection is healthy for us?
~ How may songs impart wisdom?
~ Why is music significant?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00A very good morning to all our listeners tuned in and a warm welcome to the Brunch Time Show
00:13this Saturday morning with your friend Kiran.
00:15And this morning we have a very, very enlightened guest with us who is going to be sharing his
00:21views and thoughts.
00:22It will be a pleasure listening to him.
00:25He is Acharya Prashant, who is an IIT and IIM alumnus, an ICSC topper and an NTSE scholar.
00:34An ex-civil servant, he served in prominent organizations like GE Capital, ECS and Bennett
00:40Coleman and Company before starting the Prashant Advait Foundation.
00:43Author of over 80 books on important subjects like joy, love, marriage, to commentaries
00:49on the scriptures, including his national bestseller, Karma.
00:53He shares his teachings via social media, online discourses and lectures and debates,
00:58monthly Vedanta Mahotsavs and one-on-one counseling on various platforms worldwide.
01:03With over 10,000 videos and articles available in Hindi and English, his body of work is
01:08the largest repository of spiritual wisdom available on the Internet.
01:13More than 5 million minutes are watched daily with lifetime views of more than 1 billion.
01:19He is also a regular speaker at IITs, IIMs and other prestigious institutions and we
01:24are indeed honored to have him with us over the airwaves this Saturday morning.
01:30Welcome to our show, Acharyaji.
01:34Thank you for the introduction.
01:35I'm glad to be here.
01:37It's really an honor and a pleasure to have you on air and we're going to make the best
01:41of it by asking you that in this day and age, when stress levels are building up, worldwide
01:47tension is building up, escalating on every platform, be it economic, financial, military,
01:54domestic, business, what is the importance of Vedanta and its teachings that can help
02:00us steer through such crisis?
02:03Vedanta is a very empowering philosophy.
02:09It focuses on the self as both the projector, which you could say is the creator and the
02:19experiencer of the problem.
02:22So when it comes to stresses of all kinds and all the problems in the various domains
02:27that you just listed, the first thing it talks of is responsibility, that those problems
02:35have not been sent to us just coincidentally or through some divine plan.
02:44Those problems are all self-made, man-made.
02:48That is the first thing, owning up responsibility.
02:51When you own up responsibility, then you also own up the power to come to a solution.
02:58So that is the second part.
03:00It empowers you as the experiencer of the problem to not let the problem be too much
03:08for you.
03:09Because the more a problem unsettles you, unnerves you, the more you lose your capacity
03:17to actually solve the problem.
03:19That happens to all of us, we are weak humans.
03:23Definitely.
03:24So the first thing, you own up the responsibility that the problem, if it is there, surely there
03:30is a certain contribution and consent from my side.
03:34Secondly, I am the experiencer of the problem.
03:38The problem is not just something objective.
03:42Because I am experiencing it, therefore, if I can do something with the experiencer who
03:47I am, then the experience of the problem and the stress it gives me, the suffering
03:53it gives me, that can change.
03:56So in today's times, Vedanta is indeed a philosophy that comes with no baggage of beliefs
04:03or superstitions.
04:04It is a deep and honest inquiry into whatever is going on and how it can be tackled.
04:13So more than just the happenings outside of us, Vedanta looks at what is happening
04:22inside of us.
04:24It says if outside of yourself you see a problem, it is fundamentally because within yourself
04:30there is a problem.
04:31You are the projector and the creator of the problem.
04:34So don't focus just on the global problems and what is happening in your house and in
04:39your neighborhood and everywhere else.
04:41Focus on the mind because it is from the mind that all problems and their solutions
04:46also emerge.
04:47Okay.
04:48Okay.
04:49But see, problem management, crisis management is being taught at the highest level to executives
04:56in corporates and it's even a part of the curriculum in management institutes.
05:02And you yourself have studied management from a very, very prestigious institute.
05:06Do you feel that if these teachings were not, you know, taught to you later, you would
05:13not have been such a great person at crisis management than you are now after having read
05:18the Vedantas?
05:19Vedanta definitely goes way beyond whatsoever is taught at management institutes or in leadership
05:31development courses.
05:33It is not just about problem management, Vedanta diagnoses problems to their very root.
05:42Where exactly is the problem coming from?
05:44Because you see, with all due respect to problem management and such things, what happens is
05:50that we just end up firefighting and transforming one problem into another or suspending a problem
06:01to the future.
06:04And that does not help.
06:05In fact, that is the reason, that approach is the reason why we have come to a point
06:09in history where we are unfortunately very, very close to many kinds of ultimate disasters.
06:18Be it the nuclear stockpiles we are carrying, be it the threat of climate change, be it
06:23the horrible specter of extension of species and biodiversity loss.
06:29These were not things that we saw at any other point in human history.
06:35Forget about human history, even long before humans came, no such thing was ever seen.
06:42For example, the carbon concentration in the atmosphere today is higher than what it has
06:50been in the last two million years.
06:54And the results of that we are all experiencing.
06:57We know of the heat waves, we know of the consequent suffering and these are things
07:02that are all coming because of incorrect diagnosis of the problem and a total ignorance about
07:10the experiencer of the problem.
07:13If we do not go into who we are, if we do not realize that all problems come fundamentally
07:19from the mind of the human being, then we will be barking up the wrong tree.
07:24We will be looking at problems as situated somewhere outside of us and we will be fighting
07:31shadows.
07:32We won't know where the real thing is and so the real thing will keep lurking in the
07:37dark and will retain its strength and will only get stronger each passing day and ultimately
07:46will completely eat us up.
07:47Brilliant.
07:48Actually, you remind me of the famous lines by Dale Carnegie that the best way to end
07:53an argument is to say that, all right, I was wrong and I'm sorry, even if you weren't
07:57wrong.
07:58You know, I mean, it calls for a lot of moral courage to take it upon yourself.
08:02Yes.
08:03And it's about actually seeing that I am responsible and I am responsible, let's please see, is
08:12not just an admission of guilt, guilt, etc. have not much place in Vedanta.
08:18It's a very bold philosophy.
08:21It's about empowerment.
08:23The moment I see, I did it.
08:26I could also say I can undo it.
08:30Yeah.
08:31Great.
08:32Great.
08:33That's really empowering.
08:34Now, at this point, I'd like to play a song of your choice, which one will you play?
08:41It's a Hindi song, one of my favorites, Raat Aur Din Diya Jale from the movie Raat Aur Din
08:48Diya Jale and sung by Mukeshji in his melodious voice.
08:53Thank you for bringing it.
08:54Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
08:55Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
08:56Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
08:57Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
08:58Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
08:59Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:00Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:01Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:03Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:04Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:05Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:06Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:07Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:08Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:09Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:10Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:11Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:12Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:13Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:14Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:15Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:16Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:17Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:18Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:19Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:20Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:21Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:22Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:23Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:24Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:25Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:26Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:27Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:28Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:29Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:31Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:32Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:33Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:34Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:35Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:36Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:37Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:38Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:39Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:40Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:41Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:42Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:43Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:44Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:45Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:46Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:47Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:48Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
09:49Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
10:00Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
10:11Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
10:21Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
10:31Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
10:41Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
10:51Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
11:01Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
11:11Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
11:21Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
11:31Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
11:41Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
11:51Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
12:01Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
12:31Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
12:41Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
12:51Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
13:01Raat Aur Din Diya Jale Mere Mann Mein Phir Bhi Andhiya Rahe
13:11So, it is Vedanta that one has to start with. And in Vedanta, obviously, the Bhagavad Gita is quite popular.
13:19And if you want to go to the Upanishads, then the Ishavasya Upanishad is there, Katha Upanishad, Kena Upanishad,
13:27Niralamb Upanishad is my favourite, Mundaka Upanishad, Manduka Upanishad.
13:35And these are not colossally voluminous documents. The Upanishads actually are very precise.
13:43So, one need not be frightened. But where can one access them? Where can they be easily accessed?
13:49Oh, they are very accessible. They are very accessible. They are on the internet and there are so many commentaries available.
13:57And since you are talking to me, our foundation has published several of my works on Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita.
14:09So, you could access them or even otherwise, starting from Acharya Shankar till current times.
14:18There is no dearth of commentaries on Upanishads. So, they are actually very accessible.
14:24It's just that they need to be publicized because they are not publicized.
14:30So, it appears as if they are inaccessible. They are not. If you just do a Google search, you will find the relevant links.
14:39Okay. Now, when we talk about relevancy and accuracy of Upanishads and Vedanta in our times,
14:44you think that these contain philosophy and teachings for people of all faith?
14:49Are they, you know, pan-global and they can reach out to everyone or are they only confined to Hinduism?
14:56Oh, definitely. They are very, very open, broad, inclusive and liberal in their message.
15:07They do not preclude any ideology, any faith, any religious persuasion.
15:14They do not require that you believe in any kind of dogma to enter them.
15:21You could come from any side of the religious or ideological divide and yet the Upanishads are for you.
15:31So, it's a great thing for Hinduism that the Upanishads are very much a part of the Vedic literature.
15:42But in spite of being a part of the Vedic literature, the Upanishads are not a belief system.
15:48They do not ask you to believe in the Hindu sects or Hindu fold or the Hindu gods and goddesses.
15:58You could approach them with a spirit of just pure inquiry.
16:03You want to go into them because you want to know yourself.
16:08And that's the reason why Swami Vivekananda called Vedanta as the religion of the future, the global religion of the future.
16:17Can you cite instances where Upanishads and Vedanta have found readers abroad and they have found propagators abroad belonging to other faiths apart from Hinduism?
16:28Definitely, definitely. In fact, when it comes to the part of the Indian philosophy that is most popular abroad, it is definitely Vedanta.
16:42You take thinkers and philosophers like let's say Schopenhauer and they actually lived and died by the Upanishads.
16:58Schopenhauer went so far as to say that the Upanishads have given me peace in my life and they will also be the solace of my death.
17:11And when you go to scientists, you think of Max Planck, you think even of somebody like Albert Einstein.
17:23And they all have very gladly stated that they were inspired by the Upanishads.
17:30When you go to poets and writers, you think of somebody like B.B. Shelley, you think of the modern spiritual writing.
17:45Let's say Richard Bach. I'm sure Jonathan Livingston Segal is a cult classic that our listeners would have enjoyed and it's coming purely from Vedanta.
18:03Similarly, if you look at Herman Hesse and his works like Narcissus and Goldman or Siddhartha and a Hindi movie was indeed made on Siddhartha.
18:18So these are all inspired by Vedanta. In fact, that's the thing about Vedanta. Vedanta has benefited the entire world.
18:27Even if you look at the streams of Indic religions that emanated from the Hindu mainstream, Jainism and Buddhism before Christ and Sikhism and several others more recently.
18:50They all drew their inspiration in some way or the other from Vedanta because Vedanta is the purest part in all Hindu literature and the entire world has been glad to draw from there.
19:07And that's the reason I sometimes say it is indeed fortunate that the entire world knows the importance of Vedanta and rather it's the Indians who have ignored it and are instead vulnerable to playing host to all kinds of superstitions and empty-ended rituals.
19:34And life coaches, life gurus and hollow beliefs that are of no use in the contemporary world.
19:43Great. Now I have a very interesting question lined up for you but that will be after I bring on a song of your choice. Which one will it be now?
19:52The song is Akhiyon Ke Jharukhe Se by Hemlata ji. Actually the last song that was played and even this one, I'll just take a few seconds to elaborate on it.
20:10Because Vedanta is all about the self, therefore even these songs that I am playing are in some way a cry of the self.
20:21So in this particular song, the female voice that we have, Hemlata ji's voice, you could say is the voice of the self.
20:28The ego in love and the one being addressed is the truth.
20:33The truth you could call as the peace or the point the ego aspires to reach.
20:38So it's not a female person singing to a male person.
20:44It is female ego, you could call her prakriti, singing out to the male consciousness.
20:52You could call it the truth or the pure purush.
20:57So if you hear it in that line it becomes a little more interesting.
21:01Okay, here it is.
21:07Wow!
21:37Wow!
22:07Wow!
22:37Wow!
23:07Wow!
23:09Wow!
23:11Wow!
23:13Wow!
23:15Wow!
23:17Wow!
23:19Wow!
23:21Wow!
23:23Wow!
23:25Wow!
23:27Wow!
23:29Wow!
23:31Wow!
23:33Wow!
23:35Wow!
23:37Wow!
23:39Wow!
23:41Wow!
23:43Wow!
23:45Wow!
23:47Wow!
23:49Wow!
23:51Wow!
23:53Wow!
23:55Wow!
23:57Wow!
23:59Wow!
24:01Wow!
24:03Wow!
24:05Wow!
24:07Wow!
24:09Wow!
24:11Wow!
24:13Wow!
24:15Wow!
24:17Wow!
24:19Wow!
24:21Wow!
24:23Wow!
24:25Wow!
24:27Wow!
24:29Wow!
24:31Wow!
24:33Wow!
24:35Wow!
24:37are very very scientific. How much of science is incorporated in our Vedas and Upanishads
24:45and Vedants? Can you tell us about that?
24:48I'll have to correct it a bit here. Newton's third law is actually not the law of karma.
24:58What happens is that there are two things that we have as Indians. One, as you said
25:06due to several reasons, we have not gone very close to our most important scriptures.
25:13They are not a part of the standard curricula and also they are not a part of the mainstream
25:19culture. So we can't really be faulted for not having read them. So that's the first
25:25thing. Second thing is we take a certain natural pride in the fact that we have certain scriptures
25:34and those scriptures might be finding resonance even in modern scientific discoveries.
25:40Now when you take these two together, what we get is a bit of an incorrect conclusion
25:48that modern scientific principles are already enunciated in the ancient scriptures. That is not so.
25:56The subject matter of Vedanta is the self, not an inquiry into the external world. Vedanta
26:08is about the self, the ego. Its fundamental question is who am I? Who am I? Similarly
26:16the law of karma, if we are talking of Nishkama Karma Yog coming from the Bhagavad Gita,
26:22is about the fact that if you are working from a desirous center, then what you will
26:33get will never exceed your desire and that action has to be seen in context of where
26:43it is coming from and what it does to the actor. That really is the law of karma and
26:49in the popular culture there is a lot of confusion about it. The way we talk of law
26:56of karma and also the way we talk of the law of attraction. These are not laws at all.
27:01In fact they really do not have any substantial basis. Law of karma is a wonderful thing but
27:10it is not what it is usually thought to be. But we keep on alluding to it day in and day
27:16out that watch out for your steps, your karma will get back at you. Yes, yes, we keep on
27:21doing that and that is useful in some measure because that gives us a sense of certain morality
27:29and a sense of fear as well that if you will do wrong things you will have to face repercussions.
27:34But that's not what the Vedantic Karma principle is about. In fact last year Penguin
27:43Publishers released my book Karma in which I have thought to dispel exactly this fallacy.
27:51What law of karma is all about and man being a working animal, man being a creature of karma
28:01what should action be all about and can you look at action without considering who the actor is
28:10and is it not possible that we talk so much of action because we do not want to
28:16or we are rather incapable of looking into the actor. If we can look into the actor
28:22then we are inquiring in the way Vedanta wants us to. The question who am I, who is the actor
28:31the ego is the actor. Can the actor change? Because if the actor does not change
28:36then its actions and all the experiences that it gets they will not change
28:40and that is our fundamental problem. Is it not? What we experience, the experience of sorrow
28:45Vedanta sets out to relieve us of sorrow. That is the only objective
28:52and in that direction being very conscious of the acting entity, the self becomes very important.
29:01Which means that we should be paying more importance to ourselves and we should do a lot of self introspection
29:08to be able to stand up to the world and face the challenges.
29:12Definitely and we should be very careful where are for example my thoughts coming from
29:16these emotions that I call as my own where are they coming from
29:20these identities that I call as my own where are they coming from
29:24and therefore these actions that I call as my own where are they coming from
29:29the moment you start this inquiry becomes so interesting
29:33it takes a while because it is not our natural tendency to be inwardly oriented
29:38but if you can practice that it becomes so interesting to see that
29:42you know let's say the anger that we call as our own
29:46the beliefs that we call as our own. They are not really our own
29:50anger might be very biological, very hormonal
29:54Beliefs are all coming from external influences, society, media, education and culture
30:01and then you are left wondering what really is my own
30:05and when you see that then a new life begins
30:10a new and authentic life in which what really is your own
30:14that comes to the fore, it's very empowering, very beautiful, very relieving, very liberating
30:22Indeed, indeed, I'm fascinated by all this talk
30:25and now I'd like to bring on yet another song of your choice, which one will it be?
30:29Another Hindi song, Tumse Milkar Na Jaane Kyon from the movie Pyaar Jutta Nahin
30:36sung by the legendary Lata Mangeshkar ji and Shabbir Kumar ji
30:51Tumse Milkar Na Jaane Kyon
31:21Tumse Milkar Na Jaane Kyon
31:42Aur bhi kuch yaad aata hai
31:52Tumse Milkar Na Jaane Kyon
32:02Aur bhi kuch yaad aata hai
32:09Aaj ka apna pyaar nahin hai
32:19Janmon ka hi naata hai
32:26Tumse Milkar Na Jaane Kyon
32:37Welcome back to the show Acharya ji
32:40and now Acharya ji, I'd like to ask you one question
32:44We are going to be celebrating the International Yoga Devas on 21st June
32:50We are just barely three weeks away from it
32:54and I want to ask you that does yoga find mention and a place in our scriptures also?
33:03Definitely, of course we have the Patanjali Yoga Sutras
33:09there is an entire darshan
33:12but even in Vedanta, yoga has a very important place
33:20and in the Vedantic parlance, in the world of the self
33:25Yoga means the union of mind with its beloved destiny
33:34so there is the mind that is always aspiring, always hungry, always thirsty, always desirous
33:42of course it has to be desirous of something
33:46that something that the mind so desperately yearns for continuously
33:54when it is attained, that is known as yoga, union
34:00coming together of the two
34:02Ok, so when we talk about yoga
34:08in our present day cosmopolitan life
34:12when we get up early in the morning, it's a rush hour
34:15we have to get to work, we are delayed at work, we get home
34:18and there are so many other things to catch up with
34:20I think sometimes people think they associate yoga with doing yogasana or kriya
34:25and they feel that they do not have the time for that
34:28is that what yoga is all about or is it about leading a certain kind of lifestyle
34:32and can you tell us what should be that lifestyle?
34:35That which is popularly considered as yoga these days
34:40is unfortunately a very very preliminary thing
34:46in some sense even a peripheral thing
34:49if you are thinking of yoga as merely bodily postures and breathing exercises
34:56it's not going to take you very far
34:58we are talking of hatha yoga here
35:02even those who gave hatha yoga to us
35:06were very clear that hatha yoga is just
35:09the very basic preparation for something far more important
35:15if that other thing, the real thing is nowhere in our sight
35:22if we do not even want it
35:24then hatha yoga will remain just bodily exercise for us
35:29it will help us in some sense, it will reduce the bodily stiffness
35:33it will maybe take care of your excess weight
35:38and some physical benefits might be there
35:41but beyond that it won't take you
35:44so the real meaning of yoga has to be understood
35:52you see when we talk of Vedanta there is Bhagavad Gita
35:55and the Gitakar, the author of the Gita is also known as Yogi Raj
36:00and Nishkama Karma Yoga is the real thing, the most fundamental yoga
36:09yoga is something that has to lead to samadhi
36:13that's also the last step in Patanjali's darshan
36:18so if you are not focusing on the mind
36:23because it is not the body that will attain samadhi
36:26the mind will reach there
36:28body does not experience suffering
36:30it is the mind that experiences suffering
36:32so the mind has to be taken there
36:34and if the mind has to be taken there
36:36then one has to have self-inquiry
36:39one has to ask oneself who am I acting this way
36:45this life is there, I am living as a body
36:48what am I spending this life as
36:53what am I doing all the time
36:55day by day its death that I approach
36:59and what is coming out of my life
37:03even if some tangible result is not to be obtained
37:08then don't I at least deserve a certain peace
37:12a certain joy in my moment to moment experience
37:15and when those questions arise
37:18that's when you have an aspiration for yoga
37:24most people do not even want yoga
37:26because we said yoga is union
37:28union of the mind with its beloved destiny
37:32now in that union the mind loses its individuality
37:37and most of us are very insecure about losing our individuality
37:43we want to remain as we are
37:46because we are afraid therefore we shield
37:49and protect ourselves from all sides
37:53therefore yoga is not something that we don't want
37:57it actually appears threatening
37:59so even if we go to yoga
38:02all that we have is mudras and asanas
38:07you mean to say that there are more metaphysical aspects of yoga
38:11concerned beyond the mudras and asanas and kriyas
38:14it has to be metaphysical because you see the physical does not satisfy us
38:18the physical at best can be a resource towards attaining that
38:24which the mind desperately wants
38:27and the mind will never be satisfied with anything physical
38:31not that Vedanta scoffs at physicality or materialism
38:36the physical world is indeed the only thing that the body has
38:43so all that is there in the world has to be used
38:46yes absolutely we could have gone on and on
38:49but the studio clock tells me the time
38:51that it's time to wind up the show
38:53time for the news coming up
38:54so on behalf of all of us here at All India Radio
38:57and on behalf of my listeners
38:58I'd like to thank Acharyaji for sharing his brilliant thoughts with us
39:02thank you so much
39:04thank you wonderful conversation
39:23you