Why Indians address people as 'Ji' || Acharya Prashant, Vedanta Mahotsav (2022)
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LearningTranscript
00:00Obviously, I'm new here, so I don't know how anything works.
00:06But there's one custom I've noticed.
00:11It was actually the first thing you said in the whole session.
00:15It was chi, like chi.
00:17And you also, when you address someone formally, you put that in the end.
00:25So where does that come from?
00:27Is that just some social custom, or is there something behind it?
00:33It's a social custom.
00:34We address people as chi.
00:38But surely there is a lot behind it.
00:42Good that you raised it.
00:44Actually, it has come to me earlier as well.
00:50And see, chi is not like mister.
00:55Chi is not like mister or miss or missus.
00:58Chi is different, very different.
01:03In India, most of the customs have now been corrupted.
01:07Equally, a lot of customs have a very strong spiritual basis, and they are meant to teach
01:15you something in the daily run of life.
01:23So anywhere in the world we have a name and a surname, right?
01:30The name refers to your physical self.
01:34You exist, so you have a name.
01:35Your name is Rohan, right?
01:37You exist, so you have a name.
01:40So the name refers to your body.
01:46The surname comes from your ancestors.
01:49It is history.
01:50And history exists in the mind.
01:53So the surname refers to the mind.
01:58But if you address a person just as a body and a mind, that's injustice.
02:05Because the person is much more than that.
02:09So you add chi.
02:12Chi comes from the Sanskrit shri.
02:17Shri in Sanskrit becomes ji in vernacular.
02:22What does shri mean?
02:24Shri means all.
02:28That is beautiful.
02:30Shri means abundance.
02:34Shri means auspiciousness.
02:37So shri basically means the true self, the atma.
02:43So when you address a person, you say Rohan Kumar ji.
02:52Now you are reminding him that you are much more than the body and the mind.
02:59The shri is not merely a token of respect.
03:04Shri refers to the real thing that you are.
03:10But now it has become a very dead custom.
03:14It has become a mark of respect, hollow respect, obeisance.
03:22If you do not address someone as ji, some may get offended.
03:29But there is hardly anybody who realizes why ji is important to be added to somebody's name.
03:37It could go both ways.
03:39You could either say the fellow actually has no name.
03:46And that's a beautiful way to say.
03:47That's the Buddha's way.
03:49That the one you really are can actually have no name.
03:55You are beyond all names and forms.
03:57That's one way.
03:59That's the way of the Buddha we said.
04:01The way of Vedanta is different, rather opposite.
04:06The way of Vedanta is you anyway take yourself as the body and the mind.
04:14That cannot be taken away from you.
04:16As long as you are alive, the body is there.
04:20So saying that you don't exist at all, that you are beyond all names and customs and addresses
04:27or addressals, won't work.
04:32So Vedanta says, now that you are anyway identified with the body and the mind, I am giving you
04:37something better to be identified with, Shri.
04:44So you could either extend these two to three or you could reduce these two to zero.
04:52The intention is the same.
04:54The intention is to tell you that you are not just these two, or rather, Vedanta says
05:01you are not just these two.
05:03Buddha would say you are not these two.
05:05The Buddha would be totally silent on who you really are.
05:09About that, he would remain silent.
05:12Vedanta says, the body and mind, we acknowledge our facts, obviously, you are there, otherwise
05:20there is no conversation.
05:24But don't be unjust to yourself.
05:27Don't be so disrespectful towards yourself.
05:32Don't see yourself as just the material, you are beyond that.
05:37So Shri, Shri Julius, Shri Julius, Julius you are.
05:48But much before being Julius, you are Shri.
05:57And long after Julius ceases to exist, Shri will remain.
06:05Shri is the truth.
06:08That's the reason this custom is there.
06:10But hardly anybody knows the reason, so we just blindly follow it.
06:18But I've also noticed that it's also used as kind of an affirmative statement, right?
06:25Is there a reason for that?
06:27That's not the way it was intended.
06:31You say something, and if I want to affirm what you are saying, I want to convey my agreement,
06:38then I just say, Ji.
06:40That's not the intended usage, but that's a popular usage.
06:45That's not the way Ji should be used.
06:52Or you could say that if I agree to you, I convey my agreement by using Ji or Shri to
07:02mean that I agree to the truth, since Shri points to the truth.
07:08So what I'm saying is that if I agree to you, I'm actually agreeing to the truth.
07:14But this is just too far-fetched.
07:16When people in the normal course of conversation say Ji, this is not what they mean.
07:22But this is what they could mean if they understand things deeply.