How to celebrate the next Diwali? || Acharya Prashant (2019)

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...  ~~~~~  #acharyaprashant  #Diwali   Context: What would have Shri Ram said if he was alive today? How are we deeply in a strong opposition to Shri Ram? How to celebrate the next Diwali?  Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~

Transcript

00:00Just think, if Ram were there in a bodily shape, in his mortal body and were he to see

00:20you celebrating his festival, what would he say? He will call you, you come here, you

00:37just did something, taking my name? Hello? All this tamasha is in my name? He would

00:51be angered. He would say, you do whatever you want to do, but why are you doing it in

00:57my name? Your life has no relation to mine. There is no sameness between you and me. You

01:15do not even love me at all, let alone worship me. Had you loved me, you couldn't have lived

01:24your life the way you do. Actually, you stand in firm opposition to me, Ram would say. If I

01:42look at the 364 days of your life, you stand really in firm opposition to me. And now on

01:49this 365th day, what a pretense you are making. I am the one who never cared for any worldly thing.

02:04I just pushed aside the biggest worldly thing that one can have, an entire empire. It was

02:21there for me to take it. I could have as well told Raja Dashrath, father, not done. I deserve

02:40the crown and the entire country wants me to be the king. And Dashrath would have consented. He

02:56would have said fine. But the moment my father said, leave the throne and not merely leave the

03:12throne, be gone into the jungles for 14 years, I said fine. That's the kind of person I was.

03:22Did I care for the comforts of the palace? Did I care for power and wealth? Did I care for the

03:42so-called worldly material good life? I didn't. And look at yourself, even in the name of celebrating

03:52my festival, all you do is shop, shop and shop. In fact, Ram's festival has become the festival of

04:04shopping, shoppers and shopkeepers. Ram, who never had anything to do with shops. Ram, who was

04:21never a buyer or a seller or a consumer. Sri Ram, who stands for that which can neither be bought

04:32nor be sold. His festival has been turned into an orgy of sales and discounts.

04:52How would he feel were he to reappear in a bodily form today? Just see. I have said before and I am

05:09repeating. Diwali for most people must be a festival of austerity, of repentance, prayaschik.

05:23We must on this day offer our prayers to Sri Ram and say we are very sorry, O holy one,

05:36we are extremely sorry. We couldn't live by your life, your message, your teachings. We are very

05:49sorry. We will observe this day as a day of repentance. We do not deserve to celebrate.

06:01What is there to celebrate in our life? Festival of lights befits those who have light first of

06:15all in their lives. If our lives are full of darkness, what right do we have to light the

06:25candles and the diyas and the Chinese bulbs?

06:33Every festival is like an examination day. Yes, certain people do have all the rights to

06:59celebrate on an examination day. But who will be those people who have prepared well for those

07:07exams, who have done justice to their preparation throughout the year. They are the ones who have

07:16the right to celebrate on that day. Others, why are they celebrating? First of all, you are dishonest

07:25enough to not do justice to the preparations. You miserably failed the exam and now you are

07:41stupid enough to celebrate your failure. No, you are not stupid, you are wicked. By celebrating,

07:50you are trying to convince yourself that you have actually passed the exam. Look at the perverse

07:57logic. Look at the inversion. Those who clear the exam celebrate, so we will celebrate and

08:08convince ourselves that we have cleared the exam. That's awesome. Great are the depths of depravity

08:23possible to us. You are given an entire year to prepare for Diwali, aren't you? What does

08:46it mean to prepare for Diwali? To clean your house or to clean your life? Did we clean up

08:52our lives and an entire year was available? Did we prepare for the festival? We didn't.

09:00And when the festival has arrived, we want to show as if we really deserve it. We don't deserve it.

09:15Excellence has always been a rarity and Shri Ramchandra is the epitome of excellence.

09:39Without bringing that excellence into our lives, what is this circus that we create?

10:09So you are asking me how to celebrate Diwali. I'll say now start preparing for the next one.

10:21This one you have already lost. I don't want to console you. This Diwali is totally lost on 99%

10:32people who will be celebrating it. But there still is time. Prepare for the next Diwali. Live

10:42your life just as Ram lived his life and then you will have the right to celebrate Diwali.

10:50What is it that Shri Ram stands for? He stands for detachment. He stands for fearlessness. He

11:03stands for compassion. He stands for dharm. Is there dharm really in your life? And by dharm I

11:12do not mean a creed or a cult or observation of certain rituals or the name written against the

11:21religion column in your various identification cards. No, that is not dharm. Dharm means doing

11:32which you must do. That's what Shri Ram stands for. He does what he must do. Do you do what you must do?

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