00:00At our culture fest, we will now explore karma.
00:09I think that's something that we all sometimes joke about, talk about, but that's what kind
00:20of seals up our fate, our destiny, karma.
00:25Well, everything that we know about karma is possibly not right.
00:31I mean, so we must know the right things and we will be with two extremely well-known panelists
00:42coming up with us.
00:45We have Acharya Prashant, who will be accompanied with Rahul Ishwar, who will carry on the conversation.
00:53I'd like to introduce Acharya Prashant to you.
00:59Acharya Prashant is a powerful voice of socio-spiritual awakening in today's world.
01:04He's a distinguished Vedant expert and has authored more than 80 books, including the
01:09national bestseller, Karma, Why Everything You Know About It Is Wrong.
01:16He's an alumnus of IIT Delhi, Ahmedabad, and has also served as a former civil services
01:23officer.
01:24He's a supporter of pure Vedantic wisdom and a vocal warrior against superstition and
01:31inner weaknesses.
01:32He's also a promulgator of pure spiritual veganism and an expounder of essential human
01:40freedom.
01:41Well, you know, to understand that we will be presenting more forums and, of course,
01:50live entertainment, I'd also like to point out that today was the second day of ARTH,
01:58a culture fest, which is a ZEE initiative.
02:01We've actually explored different political dynamics of the country.
02:06We've initiated literary conversations.
02:09We've spoken about such important issues, such as the spiritual renaissance of Bharat,
02:17the quest of which brings us to this festival.
02:20And it's fabulous that we are talking about karma at the moment.
02:28We have Acharya Prashant with us, ladies and gentlemen.
02:32Let's welcome Acharya Prashant on stage.
02:35Thank you.
02:37In conversation with Acharya Prashant will be Rahul Eswar, who's an Indian philosophy
02:43author, activist and orator from the state of Kerala.
02:48He's the winner of Malayalee House, a Malayalam version of the reality television show Big
02:52Boss.
02:53And let these two men tell us why everything we know is wrong about karma.
03:00Thank you so much.
03:02That's so beautifully introduced.
03:04Thank you for that vibrant and energetic introduction.
03:08And two words that can really define Indian culture is karma and dharma.
03:14We know both words are very profound.
03:16It's very tough to translate these words into a different language because many a times
03:21the soul is lost in translation.
03:23We have a person who understands the nuance, who has a great background of education from
03:29IIT, IIM.
03:30He was a former civil service officer, a great proponent of Vedanta, pure Vedantic wisdom,
03:36a person who understands the original text, interprets it according to the modern time
03:41and elucidates it to lakhs and millions of people who are hungry for Vedantic wisdom.
03:47It's a great privilege and honor to be with Acharya Prashant.
03:50Thank you so much.
03:51Thank you.
03:52Thank you Rahul.
03:53It's a blessing for me too.
03:54And my first question, karma is such a ubiquitous word.
03:59Everyone is using it.
04:00And the word karma is right now popular in the West too.
04:03Even if you see Hollywood movies, they use the word karma, maybe with some negative words
04:07too in between.
04:09What is karma?
04:11You see, the entire Vedantic approach is to inquire into who I am, who am I?
04:25Because unless I have self-knowledge, I know who am I?
04:30It's futile acting, believing, relating, doing whatever, even existing.
04:37But since it's very difficult to get into oneself and just know who one is, what one's
04:45real identity is, therefore we use a proxy to know oneself.
04:51That proxy is karma.
04:55The one we want to know is the karta, the doer.
05:00But because we cannot directly know the doer, so instead we use a proxy, a surrogate to
05:06know the doer, his actions, his doing, his karma.
05:10That's the reason why karma is actually very important, though that's not the reason why
05:16today most people talk so much of karma.
05:20One question, even in the West, you can see this fascination for Indian culture, the word
05:25karma, and many people are thinking about there is a possibility of reincarnation, rebirth.
05:31Such ideas are getting rooted everywhere.
05:34It's a very difficult, nuanced, multilayered topics.
05:37But generally speaking, for a common man like us, is there reincarnation and rebirth?
05:42Do we take multiple births?
05:44Definitely there is reincarnation and rebirth.
05:47And reincarnation is such a beautiful and deep Vedantic concept.
05:55But reincarnation is not what most people take it to be.
05:59At the level of the person, there is no reincarnation.
06:04It is the tendency that forms the person that takes rebirth again and again.
06:14The person obviously will not come again.
06:16I will die and I will not be reborn.
06:19You too will die and you will not be reborn.
06:22But the aham vritti, the mother tendency that speaks through both of us, that seeks fulfillment
06:31through the physical existence of both of us, that will keep taking birth again and
06:36again like the ocean keeps waving again and again and waves come and waves go.
06:41But no particular individual wave takes birth again, though waves keep coming one after
06:49the other and all waves have something great in common.
06:54So that really is reincarnation.
06:56And I'm afraid it's very badly misunderstood.
06:59And for a common man, you know, millions of youngsters might be seeing this.
07:04How do you explain what Vedic wisdom is?
07:07What the Vedantic knowledge is?
07:09And what are the applications for them in their practical life?
07:14Even Vivekananda used to say practical Vedanta.
07:17So what is the importance of learning this Vedic wisdom?
07:20To someone who is totally uninitiated, I would say Vedanta means you're not what you take
07:27yourself to be.
07:29And it's of very little use to you to take yourself as what you do.
07:37What do you think of yourself?
07:38What do you consider yourself as?
07:40Is not doing much good to you.
07:43So first of all, get rid of through the process of negation, neti neti, all the concepts,
07:51all the identities that you hold with respect to yourself.
07:55And then what emerges is something so powerful and so beautiful that will make life really
08:01worth living.
08:03And perhaps the most common question of all, many good people who are doing good things
08:09don't get back good things in life.
08:11And many seemingly bad people, no, are getting a lot of things in life.
08:14I'm absolutely sure Raja Ravishank might have heard this question in the thousands of sessions
08:18you have delivered yourself.
08:20Very interesting to hear this once again anyway.
08:23So this will be the common question, everyone saying that, you know, what will happen to
08:27me?
08:28I'm doing good, but I'm not getting anything back.
08:29If you are doing something really good, the reward is instantaneous.
08:33You need not wait for the reward.
08:35And if you are waiting for the reward, then the goodness is still very partial, incomplete.
08:41That's the beautiful thing about goodness.
08:43It is so instantaneous, so guaranteed, and so independent that it does not have to look
08:50towards the future or towards circumstances or towards any external party, giving you
08:56a reward.
08:57You do the right thing and you have been rewarded.
09:00In fact, doing the right thing is a product of internal rightness.
09:05When you are internally right, it's then that you do the right thing.
09:11And then the right thing is its own reward.
09:15Then you are not really, you know, staring at the future with your arms stretched, almost
09:24like a beggar, asking for a reward and feeling disappointed, well, I did the right thing,
09:29but life did not reward me the way it does other people equally.
09:35If you are doing something that's against your nature and your nature is beauty, your
09:41nature is joy, your nature is freedom.
09:43If you are doing something against this, then that is a wrong action.
09:48And the punishment lies in the very doing.
09:51When you are doing this, at that moment, you are not being yourself.
09:56And that's a great suffocation.
09:58That's a great humiliation to oneself.
10:01So please, all the ones who want to lead an upright life, a life of courage, of power,
10:09of freedom, never be afraid or doubtful that if you live rightly, the consequences might
10:18not be favorable.
10:21I repeat, one great characteristic of the right life is that one becomes free of the
10:29botheration, the worry related to consequences.
10:34And that's a great unburdening, is it not?
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