The myth of 'Consecrated spaces' || Acharya Prashant (2023)

Acharya Prashant

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Transcript

00:00 Good evening, sir. Since we are talking at the School of Planning and Architecture, my

00:08 question is regarding the structure. The geometry and aesthetics of the man-made structures

00:14 have a deep impact on them, sort of an emotional impact. Is such impact a result of only the

00:21 aesthetics and physics, or is there a spiritual sense to this too? Because I have heard some

00:28 spiritual gurus speak of consecrated spaces.

00:33 We talk of consecrated spaces. The opposite of that would be a haunted house. So when

00:43 you reach that place, you start feeling jittery, or something wrong is going on, all those

00:50 things. You see, most of that is obviously just your own conditioning. Just your own

00:58 conditioning. That's the reason why you have to be told in advance that a particular

01:04 place is a consecrated place. You have to be told in advance and you have to be told

01:13 very very strongly so that your mind is fully conditioned that that particular place is

01:21 a consecrated place. And when you reach there, then you find you are indeed experiencing

01:38 divinity. So I have a curious incident to narrate on this. So, this is from my corporate

01:57 days. And my job as a consultant required that I would frequently travel. So once I

02:07 was staying in a hotel in a suburban area, close to a large automobile factory. And at

02:28 that point I was a consultant to that factory. So, one of the largest producers of tractors

02:42 in the country at this moment. So I was there and a few others were there staying in the

02:57 same hotel. It was actually a guest house. So, it was a bit of a remote area, a little

03:06 away from the city. So the guest house in charge comes and says, "Sir, because you

03:13 are staying there, you must definitely visit that particular group of temples. It's just

03:23 around 20 kilometers from here and a lot of folklore is attached to it and especially

03:33 the temple number 8. There are a lot of stories and even miracles attached to its name."

03:49 So we said, "Fine." He said, "I mean that entire group of little temples and those are

03:57 pretty old temples, not in proper shape either, dilapidated and all and there was a mystique

04:06 attached to them." So he directed us specifically towards temple number 8 and all those temples

04:13 were quite close by. So you got down from the car and in front of you was this cluster

04:19 of temples and we were told to go to temple number 8. So we got down and after a while,

04:39 one of my fellows from the guest house, he comes and there is a peculiar glow on his

04:45 face and he says, "I really experienced divinity. I really experienced divinity. I was standing

04:59 at temple number 8 because that's the place I had been directed to. I had been told that's

05:05 the place where the magic is. So you go right to that place. So I was standing there and

05:11 of course because the temples were old and all, there were no markings. You could not

05:15 know really which one is the temple number 8. You had to manually count. You knew that

05:21 one was 1 and this is 8 and there were 12 or 14 little temples. So I was standing in

05:28 front of temple number 8, trying hard to experience divinity from there and then this fellow comes

05:38 to me and says, "Miraculous! Absolutely out of this world! Temple number 8 for sure

05:47 has some sacred vibes. What I have experienced just now is definitely a paranormal phenomena."

05:54 So I said, "Okay, you did that. Fine." And this fellow was a deeply religious fellow.

06:05 All kinds of rituals we knew he was partaking in and all those things and he had a great

06:14 belief in the metaphysical and the paranormal and such things. So he comes and says, "I

06:23 just spent around 10 to 15 minutes in temple number 8 and you cannot, just cannot imagine

06:31 what I have experienced." I said, "Wow! Please narrate me your experience. But there

06:38 is one little thing I want to tell you. The temple you are coming from is temple number

06:44 6. Temple number 8 is where I am standing. The moment I said that, all his experience

06:52 vanished. He said, "Oh! But then that must be a fluke." Do you understand this? You

07:02 are already conditioned to experience so-called sacredness. You have been told that if you

07:09 go to this place, there is sacredness. So that fellow enters temple number 6, thinking

07:15 that it is temple number 8 and starts experiencing sacredness that you are supposed to experience

07:20 at temple number 8. This thing applies obviously not only to temple but structures from all

07:28 religions. It would apply to mosques, churches, all other places. That's what. It's all

07:37 within you. It's your own belief that you experience. There is nothing special in the

07:44 structure as such. Nothing in the structure that… and if someone says, "Oh! You know

07:52 there is this temple and now I am consecrating it and now it becomes special." That fellow

07:56 is out to fool you. As simple as that. If someone says, "The architecture is special."

08:04 Even that can be admitted to an extent because there can be beauty in stuff that is main

08:10 mad. Just as there is beauty in physical nature, there is also beauty in man-made stuff. So

08:18 that can be admitted. Yes, there are man-made paintings, there are man-made machines that

08:25 are absolutely exquisite. Someone can write a fabulous software. The same thing that was

08:35 being accomplished by a computer program that ran over 500 lines. Someone comes and

08:41 finishes that off in 45 lines. It's a marvelous piece, a thing of beauty. I understand. There

08:48 is beauty. There is beauty in the way you solve a problem in mathematics. There is beauty

08:52 in the way you compose a poem or write an essay. And there can obviously be beauty in

08:58 architecture as well. So if you say, "Because the thing is beautiful, I love it." I understand.

09:11 When you look at the mighty Himalayas, when you look at the snow-capped peaks, when you

09:15 look at the Ganga gushing down, it definitely has a soothing effect on the mind. That too

09:24 I can understand. But to say that a place can be consecrated through rituals or by a

09:34 special man going and performing ceremonies is absolutely hogwash. None of that. People

09:44 say, "No, look at the deity. The deity is stoned till a certain point and then a priest

09:51 comes and performs a few rituals and narrates a few mantras and then the deity comes alive

10:01 or gets charged, gets energized, becomes real." All that is nonsense. None of that can happen.

10:11 All that is just conditioning, conditioning, and conditioning. That's why one man's sacred

10:16 place is very ordinary for the other. Is it not? A Muslim passes in front of a mosque

10:28 and the kind of experience that he gets is not the experience that a Jew would get passing

10:34 in front of the same mosque or a Hindu would get passing in front of the same mosque. It's

10:38 all very subjective. It's within you. It's not in that structure. What can be in the

10:46 structure is something else. There can be beauty in the structure. There can be sophistication

10:53 in the structure. Also, there can be one more thing in the structure. Very important. I

10:58 am glad I didn't forget that. The structure can have great pointers towards higher values

11:13 and then the structure really becomes a living story. The structure then becomes a teacher.

11:22 The structure is now teaching you something. Let's say there is something carved on the

11:26 walls or let's say there is a painting or let's say there is a specific shape to the

11:33 pillars. Now that can mean something. I definitely admit that and I respect that. But for that

11:41 to mean anything, you must know what the meaning is. But do you know what the meaning is? If

11:49 you do not know what the meaning is, how have you just blindly started parroting sacred

11:54 sacred? Do you get this? For example, think of the swan, the Hans. Now the Hans is a very

12:09 important motif in Vedanta. Why? Because it refers to the Atma, the free bird, your fundamental

12:25 inner nature of freedom. That's what the Hans refers to. Also, when you write Hanso and

12:35 you start chanting that Hanso Hanso, that turns into Soham. And Soham means that am

12:45 I. So that answers the fundamental Vedantic query, who am I? Koham. Soham becomes the

12:54 response to Koham. So if you look at a Hans drawn on a wall or etched or carved or something

13:12 and you are immediately reminded of the Atma, the pure self, then there is sacredness. Definitely.

13:20 But if you do not know what the bird stands for and you start saying, Oh, great, peace,

13:26 wonderful vibes, then you are just fooling yourself. That bird, that shape was put there

13:35 to remind you of something. If indeed you are reminded, then the shape has worked for

13:40 you. But if you're not being reminded at all, and you're just saying no, no, no, I'm getting

13:45 vibes, then you are hell bent on remaining who you are. Then you don't want to benefit

13:51 from the temple. Your ego is so strong that it has defeated the temple. And you are just

13:59 saying, Oh, this is a consecrated space, so I'm benefiting from being here. Nobody benefits

14:02 from being anywhere unless the mind is active, unless the consciousness understands what

14:10 is going on. Right now you might be benefiting from this conversation because your mind is

14:19 attentive and is trying to understand what is going on. Similarly, if you go to a temple,

14:26 I'm saying temple because typically when you say consecrated space, you mean a temple.

14:30 You can mean other places also, but typically a temple. When you go to the temple, you must

14:35 know what everything stands for. And if you know that, then the temple will indeed have

14:40 a beneficial effect on you. But if you do not know, what is the point? Similarly, the

14:45 mantras, the verses, the shlok, do you know what that means? If you do not know, then

14:53 it is a thing of stupidity to just keep hearing. In fact, you will become dull if you keep

14:58 hearing something you do not understand. Now Sanskrit is a language most of us do not understand.

15:04 It's a beautiful language. More people should know Sanskrit, but in actuality we do not

15:11 know. And then you sit through hours and hours of ritual listening to Sanskrit verses. How

15:18 will that help you? But you say no, no, no. There is something special in the sound of

15:23 the mantras. Those vibrations are reaching my ears and even if I do not understand their

15:28 meaning they are still helping me. No, they are not helping you. Just as watching the

15:33 Hans figure will not help you if you do not know what Hans stands for. Similarly, listening

15:41 to a mantra will not help you if you do not know its meaning. Not only should you know

15:45 its meaning, you should also know the deeper meaning. You should also know what that ultimately

15:53 point towards. And ultimately, if a mantra is worth the name, it should point towards

15:59 self-knowledge because that is all that there is to spirituality. Spirituality is not about

16:05 spirits. Spirituality is not Bhutpreta business. Spirituality basically means Atma Gyan, self-knowledge.

16:12 In fact, spirituality is a word that I more and more now feel like dropping because it

16:19 has become very misused. Spirituality now stands for so many obnoxious things. First

16:24 of all, we destroyed the word religion. Now we have destroyed the word spirituality as

16:29 well. Self-knowledge is still something we have not put our dirty hands on. So, the real

16:36 thing is self-knowledge. Can you tell me how the shape of the temple is encouraging self-knowledge

16:45 within you? If it is encouraging, then the temple is beneficial. Can you tell me how

16:51 the sound of the mantra is removing your ignorance, clearing away your doubts, melting your ego,

17:03 bringing clarity to you? If it is not bringing clarity to you, just that there is a lot of

17:10 music and visual extravaganza and that is making you feel great, then you are being

17:17 drugged in that place. A lot of temples, a lot of hyped temples, these things are now

17:25 happening not only in temples, in other places also. I must mention churches, I must mention

17:31 synagogues, it is happening everywhere. They have become places of entertainment. A lot

17:36 of song, dance, optics, great sounds. So, all that is just food for the ego. The ego

17:47 is becoming stronger by visiting such places. And to top it, the ego gets a license to say,

17:55 I just came from some sacred place, a consecrated place where I got truly holy vibes. You didn't

18:02 get any holy vibes. You just got fattened. You were an ordinary ego before you went to

18:07 that place. Now you are a totally ignorant, drunk and arrogant ego that calls itself religious.

18:18 So, that's a great problem. There are several temples that have shlokas from the Upanishads

18:28 carved on them. It's beautiful. When you visit Varanasi, go to the temple inside BHU.

18:52 For hours, whenever I have visited BHU, I found myself sitting there. And I was very

19:01 young. I think my board results had just been declared, class 10th. Because my father came

19:12 from Varanasi. So, I went there with him and it was enthralling. All the chosen verses

19:25 from the Upanishads were there in the temple. Now that's what a temple really is. And

19:31 I made notes. And I made lots of notes. And for a very long time, I suppose a few decades,

19:42 those little pieces of paper, they remained in my wallet. I just sat down and started

19:49 copying from the walls. Think, copying from the walls. Now that's a temple. And if I

19:56 remember correctly, there were verses from Buddha's scriptures, also from Jain scriptures.

20:13 Spirituality is not mumbo-jumbo. Spirituality is hard, unrelenting inquiry. You want to

20:22 know what is going on. Spirituality is philosophy with the purpose of liberation from the ordeal

20:33 of life. That's what philosophy is. Philosophy is... Spirituality is not a belief system.

20:42 Come on, start believing in this. Come on, start just dancing or parroting something

20:46 totally mindlessly. You must ask, what do the arms of the deity stand for? And if the

21:08 figure is worth it, there would definitely be a meaning. Figure out the meaning. And

21:17 if there is no meaning, then there is no compulsion to again and again visit that place. Everything

21:27 is symbolic and the right meaning has to be ascertained. You must know what is being pointed

21:39 at and if the temple is real, then it will definitely point only towards the sky, the

21:48 truth, the absolute freedom. And if you cannot see that, then you must say, oh the temple

21:54 right now holds no meaning for me because that temple is not telling me of liberation.

22:01 Not the temple's fault really, my own fault. I cannot read the meaning. Your emphasis should

22:07 be on reading the meaning. That's what you must try for. What is hidden here? What is

22:13 the meaning? If there is a meaning, I should know. And unfortunately, there is some probability

22:18 that some temples may not have any meaning because there are lakhs of temples you see.

22:27 But all the great ones, all the real ones definitely point towards the absolute and

22:34 you must know how that pointer is working. The functioning of that pointer must be known

22:40 with great application of intellect and logic. Do not keep your mind, your logic, your argument,

22:47 your intellect aside when you enter a place of religion. Religion requires great application

22:55 of intellect and logic and it is this intellectless, thoughtless, mindless religiosity that has

23:04 brought us down to our sorry state. It is not without reason that India suffered so

23:10 badly for so many centuries. To me, the primary reason was misinterpretation and exploitation

23:20 of religion and that is still continuing. Also in the last 10-20 years, that exploitation

23:27 has somehow worsened. We thought that with the arrival of science and education and values

23:41 of freedom and inquiry, superstition would reduce. The masses would refuse to be fooled.

23:53 But very strangely that has not come to pass. What we are seeing is a phenomena in the opposite

24:01 direction. More and more blind kinds of cults are rising. People are not reading. People

24:14 are becoming more and more ignorant of their own central scriptures and you have religious

24:23 leaders who repeatedly say that there is no need to read. In fact, in some cults I have

24:31 heard reading is prohibited. They say no you don't read anything, especially don't read

24:36 anything related to science. You just read these 3-4 books that our cult prescribes and

24:45 become totally brainwashed. This is very unfortunate and very scary. I do not know what we are

24:54 making of this nation. There can be no religiosity without sound and sharp application of the

25:05 mind. Don't keep your mind aside when you enter the scope and dimension of religion.

25:17 Ask, seek to understand and if you are told to believe in something blindly, just refuse.

25:25 No, that's not what religion is about. Religion is the opposite of blind belief. But as we

25:32 said religion, the word has been corrupted. So let's simply say self-knowledge is the

25:38 opposite of blind belief. Let them usurp the word religion. They have taken it away. Let's

25:46 give it to them. Let's stick to self-knowledge. Self-knowledge is inquiry. You want to know,

25:52 you want to understand what is going on and create great structures with great sophistication.

26:00 As a student, as a practitioner of architecture, create buildings that do not have just utilitarian

26:11 value, but that point towards something higher, that give life with a sense of purpose. When

26:22 you look at that building, you realize the building is saying something to you very purposefully

26:26 and saying something very important. And if you can understand what the building is saying,

26:32 then you will be a better person. That's the kind of structure you should try to create.

26:37 In that creation lies consecration. Consecration does not lie in standing in front of the building

26:44 and narrating a few mantras and sprinkling water and using some rice and sandalwood and

26:50 doing a few things and then you say, oh, now it is consecrated. Now the deity is active

26:57 and energized. No, no, no. Create a great building that speaks really. Let there be

27:05 great pointers. Refer to great pieces from world literature, including religious literature

27:13 and have pointers that remind you of what happened in that particular story or that

27:17 particular novel or that particular poem or in that particular Upanishad. That's when

27:24 the building will stand as something that elevates you. You look at the building and

27:30 you say, well, life is worth living. Life is worth living. This building speaks. It

27:37 is not there just to house a few people. It is not an animal's cave. It is not an insect's

27:42 rock. It is a living structure. So if you can create such a thing, you would come very

27:54 close to creating a temple. And believe me, no, don't believe me. You are not supposed

28:00 to believe anything. So I would ever that that's how the first temple would have been

28:07 built. You want to have a place where your ego can just bow down. You want to have something

28:18 of beauty. You want to have something that is higher than yourself. And that's how man

28:23 would have built his first temple. He said, fine, life is just ordinary mediocre, but

28:30 that does not satisfy me. Let there be something higher than this everyday living, than this

28:36 usual muck. And then you say, let there be a temple. Let there be a temple. The temple

28:45 stands for everything that is worth worshipping. What is worth worshipping? What is something

28:53 that you value highly? Tell me please. I would hear it from you. What is worth worshipping?

29:11 Can we unmute the student? Something that provides, something that improves your consciousness

29:25 to a great level. Yeah, but what is it that you'd value in life? Don't go by the prescription.

29:37 Tell me very originally, very honestly, as a person, what is it that you value in life?

29:44 Can't hear you. Existence of my own being. I didn't get it. Existence of my own being.

30:08 Existence of my own being. Simplify that for somebody as ignorant as me. Yes, that is right.

30:20 So you mean life. But what is it that you value in life? What is it that you find worth

30:27 respecting in life or in a person let's say? Knowledge of that person. Knowledge and? Think

30:55 of the people you respect. And please tell me what is it in them that is worth respecting?

31:02 Their freedom, their independence. Freedom and you said knowledge and you said independence

31:08 and courage maybe? Courage. So can you create a structure that's a testament to courage

31:18 and by knowledge you mean understanding? Can you have a building that encourages you to

31:31 understand? Devoted to both understanding. If you can create such a building, that's

31:42 a de facto temple, that's a real temple. Let not religion have a monopoly over temples.

31:55 If you can create a building that encourages you to be courageous, that building is a temple

32:06 and that's how the first temples would have been made. Courage is the deity. Knowledge

32:14 is the deity. So when you visit that place you say well, well, well, all my life on one

32:28 side, all the places that I usually visit on one side and this place on one side and

32:36 this place is just somehow more lovely. I come here and I'm reminded of something very

32:47 superior, very elevated, very sublime. I come here and it's like coming to a senior, to

32:58 a guide, to a well-wisher, to a beloved who tells me daughter don't get lost in the humdrum

33:08 affairs of life. Remember what is truly important. Knowledge is important, courage is important,

33:14 freedom is important. That's what consecration is. So consecration is not a ritual. Consecration

33:23 is when you are reminded of that which is truly sacred and the name of that is freedom.

33:41 So my follow up question is that you mentioned that all the objects like say in a temple

33:47 or anywhere you go is they are like pointers right to the higher truth. So in this case

33:55 shouldn't we do a little more inquiry with our relation to everything around us like

34:01 all the objects that we're surrounded by because why do we just limit ourselves to scriptures

34:07 or temples, something that's been given to us. Why can't we assign our own meaning to

34:14 something like you know maybe love of God.

34:18 Think of the person who raised the first temple. He had no precedent to go by right. In some

34:28 sense he created his personal temple, his or her personal temple because there was no

34:34 tradition he was following. He said obviously life is not worth living if there is no sacredness

34:41 in it. If there is no sacredness then life is dull, boring, monotonous, just a mass of

34:47 mediocrity. I don't want to live that way. There has to be something higher. So that

34:54 was a personal aspiration that took the shape of a temple and that can happen even today

35:01 obviously. You can have your personal sacred space. You must have that and you know those

35:07 who have known they have said now we have no need of sacred spaces because we are in

35:12 so deep love with sacredness that we cannot live without sacredness at any point at any

35:18 place. So there is no need for especially made sacred spots. The kind of inquiry that

35:28 we live in now, the purity of mind that we live with now renders the entire universe

35:36 sacred for us. The entire universe is now an open book of truth to us. So there is no

35:43 need for us even to visit a temple or any other place. But that's obviously a very advanced

35:48 stage one of the higher and final stages. So let's not talk of that. But you are very

35:56 right that sacredness is something obviously for us. So it is something very intimate,

36:04 very personal. So you can have your little personal shrine definitely and if you can

36:10 have that then you are entering true religiosity. It is okay to, you said that it's for higher

36:21 levels right? So when you are initially maybe starting out like it is okay to go to these

36:26 places because the environment is a little more conducive for that type of work that

36:32 you want to do. By these places you mean the commonly accepted temples? Places that claim

36:37 to be you know. Many of them are very beautifully built and very purposefully designed. It's

36:51 just that we are such stupid people that we have destroyed those places. Those were works

36:59 of masterminds, people who could think, probe, inquire, understand. And the ones who are

37:06 visiting those places now are all just dumb blind followers who do not understand a thing.

37:14 They come there just very religiously, very blindly in no knowledge of what that place

37:23 stands for. So there are a few temples I have a special relationship with and it breaks

37:40 my heart to visit them when there is a crowd. It becomes a bit like an intimate love affair.

37:54 You don't want to share it with a crowd. Especially if the crowd is insensitive, violent,

37:59 ignorant and disrespectful to the sacredness of that place. So I found myself gazing at

38:13 my beloved temples from a distance especially in the night. So yes, it's not just all

38:29 right to visit great places of worship. It is also beneficial. But then you must understand

38:39 what's going on. Just going to the Ganga and taking a few dips is not going to help.

38:47 That's not helping. People visit Kedarnath, they exploit the mules, the donkeys there

38:58 and they go and then they do all kinds of stupidities and they return. That's not

39:02 going to help. So when you go to a sacred place, meet that place with your own sacredness.

39:13 Don't let it be a dead ritual. And stick to the thing that you first talked of, creating

39:26 your personal shrine. Nobody can monopolize the truth and the truth never said that it

39:36 is going to be based only at a particular geographical location. Truth is your own personal

39:43 reality which when approached becomes totally impersonal. But for you to begin with, you

39:52 must say it is my own thing. It is the thing within. So it is good to visit religious places,

40:03 places of pilgrimage and all those things. It's all right. But also you must constantly

40:11 be in touch with your own core. You must constantly be assessing the quality of your own mind.

40:18 Is there anger? Is there greed? Is there a lot of fear? Is there blind faith? Is there

40:25 ignorance? You must keep asking these questions. That's true religiosity.

40:31 That's beautiful. Thank you, Sir.

40:36 [Music]

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