Full Video: Is chanting just a religious ritual? || Acharya Prashant, on Guru Granth Sahib (2019)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJCzT0IcULw
Video Information: Advait Learning Camp, 26.04.2019, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India
Context:
~ Is chanting just a religious ritual?
~ How one can remember formless God?
~ Why one should remember God?
~ How does Lord rescue us from obstacles?
~ Are rituals meaningful?
जह मुसकल होवै अति भारी ॥
Where the obstacles are so very heavy,
हरि को नामु खिन माहि उधारी ॥
The Name of the Lord shall rescue you in an instant.
अनिक पुनहचरन करत नही तरै ॥
By performing countless religious rituals, you shall not be saved.
हरि को नामु कोटि पाप परहरै ॥
The Name of the Lord washes off millions of sins.
~Sukhmani Sahib (Guru Granth Sahib) .
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJCzT0IcULw
Video Information: Advait Learning Camp, 26.04.2019, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India
Context:
~ Is chanting just a religious ritual?
~ How one can remember formless God?
~ Why one should remember God?
~ How does Lord rescue us from obstacles?
~ Are rituals meaningful?
जह मुसकल होवै अति भारी ॥
Where the obstacles are so very heavy,
हरि को नामु खिन माहि उधारी ॥
The Name of the Lord shall rescue you in an instant.
अनिक पुनहचरन करत नही तरै ॥
By performing countless religious rituals, you shall not be saved.
हरि को नामु कोटि पाप परहरै ॥
The Name of the Lord washes off millions of sins.
~Sukhmani Sahib (Guru Granth Sahib) .
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Category
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LearningTranscript
00:00If the Lord's name is taken to be in the same dimension as the various worldly names
00:09that we know of, then the Lord's name just gets added to the repository of the million
00:17names we already have.
00:21It turns into something very ordinary, something very useless, rather something rather harmful.
00:33Now you're asking, how to ensure that the chanting of the Lord's name doesn't turn into
00:39another ritual?
00:42I've already answered that.
00:45A ritual is something that you add to your daily routine, don't you?
00:53A ritual is something affirmative.
00:55It is something additional.
00:57It is something incremental.
00:59It is something over and above what you're already doing.
01:03Whereas chanting the Lord's name is an act in negation.
01:13It is an act in subtraction.
01:17It is an exercise in realization, negation, deletion.
01:23So you are having a coffee table discussion with a client and a thousand names he is dropping
01:35to impress you and there are names of various things.
01:41There are names of currencies, there are names of figures, there are names of progress,
01:47there are names of various kinds of temptations and fears.
01:52And in this instant, you say, it's the Lord's name that's important.
02:03You are out of the spell.
02:09You have just managed to beat the trap.
02:14Are you getting it?
02:21How can it be a ritual?
02:24A ritual is something definite, positive, well-defined.
02:32Building something can be a ritual.
02:39Chanting the Lord's name is an exercise in destruction.
02:41How can that be a ritual?
02:43Because when you build something, you already have a blueprint.
02:46When you build something, it comes from an idea.
02:51When you build something, you already know in advance what you are going to build and
02:55therefore it can turn into a ritual.
02:59The Lord's name is when you cut down, bring down and demolish what you have built.
03:13How can it be ritualistic?
03:16To perform a ritual, you must know what the ritual is, right?
03:20And the ritual says, do this, do this, do this, do this.
03:25That's not how the method of remembrance of the name works.
03:31It works differently.
03:33It says in your daily routine, whenever any name starts to dominate you, put it away,
03:44cut it down.
03:45That's how this method works.
03:47This is a non-method.
03:50This is something that just keeps your tendency to be impressed and dominated in check.
04:02It cannot turn into a ritual.
04:04Try turning it into a ritual.
04:05What will you do?
04:08The Lord's name is like a sword.
04:11You cannot just exercise it.
04:19You cannot just dance with the sword.
04:23You cannot just rip through the air.
04:30There has to be something that appears definitive and on that definitive thing, the sword has
04:40to be applied.
04:42You get this?
04:44The sword by itself means nothing.
04:46The sword by itself is just an instrument of negation.
04:49No is what the sword stands for, no.
04:54This is not real.
04:55It must be cut down.
04:56That's what the sword stands for.
05:02That's how this method works.
05:05Anything becomes too much on you, wield the sword, hack that thing down.
05:13In this world, everything has a name.
05:19The method works on everything in the world.
05:23Because if anything is to dominate you, it would dominate you through a name.
05:28You would be able to say, this is dominating me, X is dominating me, Y is dominating me.
05:33There's nothing in the world that is not a name.
05:38There is nothing in the world that is not a name and there is nothing in the world that
05:41is not hollow.
05:42Therefore, no name with all its hollowness should be allowed to overpower you.
05:55Had chanting of the Lord's name been another affirmative activity, another definite activity,
06:03there was a danger, some probability that it could have turned into a ritual.
06:08But it is not an exercise in affirmation at all.
06:12It is an exercise in negation of Maya.
06:15Therefore, it cannot be a ritual.
06:17It is to be exercised only when Maya strikes.
06:21Okay, tell me, can using a fire extinguisher be a ritual?
06:33It cannot be a ritual because the fire extinguisher is used only when there is fire.
06:41Otherwise the fire extinguisher just happily sits and hangs on the wall.
06:50Does it not?
06:53For years it is possible that the fire extinguisher is not needed to be used.
06:58It is used only when there is a need.
07:00Therefore, it cannot be a ritual.
07:03Are you getting this?
07:13Having fire in your kitchen can be a ritual.
07:18There is the stove in the kitchen and routinely there is fire.
07:26The flame is needed to cook food.
07:30That can be a ritual.
07:33But can the fire alarm be a ritual?
07:36No, the fire alarm works only when the fire has gone out of hand, it has become problematic,
07:43it has started going beyond its limits.
07:49The name of the Lord is like the fire extinguisher or the fire alarm.
07:53It works only when there is a problem.
07:56If there is no problem, it is not needed.
07:59But as far as we are concerned, there is always a problem.
08:01So the name of the Lord is always needed.
08:04Therefore, those who gave this method, they also told you that once you are one with the
08:12truth, then the name is no more needed.
08:18You are the name.
08:20You are one with the one who is being named, therefore what will you do with the name now?
08:29Go to the Upanishads and they tell you, once you are liberated, please drop us, please
08:36do not read us anymore.
08:39Because we are useful only when there is a need, otherwise there is no need to take recourse
08:46to us.
08:51The name of the Lord just hacks down the unnecessary.
08:56It does not build or create anything by itself, therefore it cannot be a ritual.
09:03Eating food can be a ritual, taking a medicine cannot be a ritual.
09:07The name of the Lord is like a medicine.
09:09It is needed only as long as there is a disease.
09:12If there is a disease, the medicine will work, otherwise the medicine is quite unnecessary.