Is the Gita of any use? || Acharya Prashant, with IIT Kharagpur (2021)

Acharya Prashant

‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant?  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  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Transcript

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.

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