00:00The last question Acharya ji. A lot of our English speaking audience wants to know that
00:14tomorrow is the festival of lights. So what should be the right way of celebrating Diwali?
00:20It's too late now. It's almost like asking that tomorrow is the UPSC exam. What is the
00:42right way of preparing for it? It's actually worse. It's almost like asking tomorrow the
00:51UPSC results would be declared. What is the right way to prepare for the exam? A festival
01:04is not a free for all. What do we think? Shri Ram is an exception. Shri Ram is a distinction
01:28He is a rarity. He is worshipped because he is special. If
01:57he is special, how does every ABCD get the right to even utter his name let alone celebrate his
02:17festival? You need to earn the rights to even utter Ram. There has to be a certain qualification
02:47Yogyata, Patrata, Arhata. That's how the scriptures call it. Otherwise it is just
03:12hypocrisy and cheap entertainment in the name of festival. I say if for 364 days you have really
03:27lived up to Ram, only then must you honestly celebrate the festival of Ramness. How is it
03:48that for 364 days your life really had nothing to do with Shri Ram and on the 365th day you jump up
04:04and join in the noisy bandwagon, the chorus of the hooligans. Just think,
04:32if Ram were there in a bodily shape, in his mortal body and were he to see you celebrating
04:45his festival, what would he say? He will call you, you come here. You just did something
05:03taking my name. All this tamasha is in my name. He would be angered. He would say you
05:18do whatever you want to do. But why are you doing it in my name? Your life has no relation
05:24to mine. There is no sameness between you and me. You do not even love me at all, let
05:43alone worship me. Had you loved me, you couldn't have lived your life the way you do. Actually,
05:58you stand in firm opposition to me, Ram would say. If I look at the 364 days of your life,
06:08you stand really in firm opposition to me. And now on this 365th day, what a pretense you are
06:17making. I am the one who never cared for any worldly thing. I just pushed aside the biggest
06:37worldly thing that one can have, an entire empire. It was there for me to take it. I could have as
06:52well told Raja Dashrath, father, not done. I deserve the crown and the entire country
07:13wants me to be the king. And Dashrath would have consented. He would have said fine. But
07:23the moment my father said, leave the throne and not merely leave the throne, be gone into
07:40the jungles for 14 years, I said fine. That's the kind of person I was. Did I care for the
07:53comforts of the palace? Did I care for power and wealth? Did I care for the so-called worldly
08:08material good life? I didn't. And look at yourself, even in the name of celebrating my festival,
08:17all you do is shop, shop and shop. In fact, Ram's festival has become the festival of shopping,
08:30shoppers and shopkeepers. Ram, who never had anything to do with shops. Ram, who was never
08:46a buyer or a seller or a consumer. Shri Ram who stands for that which can neither be bought nor
08:56be sold. His festival has been turned into an orgy of sales and discounts. How would he feel
09:19were he to reappear in a bodily form today? Just see. I have said before and I am repeating,
09:34Diwali for most people must be a festival of austerity, of repentance, prayaschit. We must
09:49on this day offer our prayers to Shri Ram and say, we are very sorry, oh holy one,
10:00we are extremely sorry. We couldn't live by your life, your message, your teachings,
10:13we are very sorry. We will observe this day as a day of repentance.
10:19We do not deserve to celebrate. What is there to celebrate in our life?
10:27Festival of lights befits those who have light first of all in their lives. If our lives are
10:42full of darkness, what right do we have to light the candles and the diyas and the Chinese bulbs?
10:57Every festival is like an examination day. Yes, certain people do have all the rights
11:23to celebrate on an examination day. But who will be those people who have prepared well
11:31for those exams, who have done justice to their preparation throughout the year?
11:38They are the ones who have the right to celebrate on that day. Others, why are they celebrating?
11:44First of all, you are dishonest enough to not do justice to the preparations.
11:56You miserably failed the exam and now you are stupid enough to celebrate your failure.
12:08No, you are not stupid. You are wicked. By celebrating, you are trying to convince
12:17yourself that you have actually passed the exam. Look at the perverse logic.
12:22Look at the inversion. Those who clear the exam celebrate,
12:30so we will celebrate and convince ourselves that we have cleared the exam.
12:34That's awesome. Great are the depths of depravity possible to us.
12:48You are given an entire year to prepare for Diwali, aren't you? What does it mean to prepare
13:10for Diwali? To clean your house or to clean your life? Did we clean up our lives? And an
13:19entire year was available. Did we prepare for the festival? We didn't. And when the festival
13:33has arrived, we want to show as if we really deserve it. We don't deserve it. Excellence
13:53has always been a rarity and Sri Ramchandra is the epitome of excellence. Without bringing
14:12that excellence into our lives, what is this circus that we create? So you are asking me
14:40how to celebrate Diwali? I'll say now start preparing for the next one. This one you have
14:47already lost. I don't want to console you. This Diwali is totally lost on 99% people who will be
14:57celebrating it. But there still is time. Prepare for the next Diwali. Live your life just as Ram
15:08lived his life and then you will have the right to celebrate Diwali. What is it that Sri Ram
15:21stands for? He stands for detachment. He stands for fearlessness. He stands for compassion. He
15:31stands for dharma. Is there dharma really in your life? And by dharma I do not mean a creed or a
15:38cult or observation of certain rituals or the name written against the religion column in your
15:50various identification cards. No, that is not dharma. Dharma means doing that which you must
15:58do. That's what Sri Ram stands for. He does what he must do. Do you do what you must do?
16:09Is your touch compassionate enough to turn stone into life? His was. Bring some compassion into
16:35your life and then say that you want to celebrate Diwali. You have one year, rather one year and
16:44one day. Tomorrow is Diwali. We are talking of the next Diwali. Have you ever just let it sink
17:06into you what it means to spend 14 years in the wilderness? And try to wrap your head around the
17:17idea. You are the crown prince, Yuvraj and you have been dispatched to the damn forest. How does
17:34that even sound? It sounds unacceptable to us. He lived it and he lived it with unequaled grace.
17:47Look at his poise. Not once did he complain. In fact, he used these 14 years to the maximum and
18:01he fought the most powerful force of his times. And who was he? Somebody ostracized from his kingdom.
18:16Somebody serving a sentence almost. And he is fighting Dushanan, the one who is said to have
18:30incarcerated even the various gods and goddesses in his prison cells. That Dushanan was fought
18:46almost empty-handed by one Shri Ram. That's my Ram. One needs to have at least 1% of him in
19:06oneself in order to worship him. No? At least 1%? What's 1% of 14 years?
19:21Quick. Yes, 0.14 years. But what does that mean?
19:52How many days? Around 50 days. 51 to be precise. Would you spend 51 days just because you are
20:18randomly told to? That too on the eve of your coronation? You are about to rise to the throne
20:27and somebody tells you no. You are dispatched to the Amazon. 51 days. No gadgets, nothing.
20:38At least be 1% of Shri Ramchandra. I am not asking you to try it out. I just want you to
20:55see how unacceptable even the idea is. Right? Our securities, our comforts rebel against the
21:06very thought. He lived it out. And he lived it out in the most humane, just and compassionate
21:18way possible. Without ever cribbing. And he ended those 14 years bringing down the mightiest
21:31empire of his times. That's my superhero. And you want to reduce Diwali to a festival of
21:50Rasgulla, Rabdi, Son Papdi.
22:20Kalakand. Did Ramchandra enjoy all these things? Why the hell are you enjoying all these things
22:30on his day? Because we are very very small and little and petty people who want just an excuse
22:44to further their dirty instincts of consumption. We just want to consume on some pretext. Something.
22:59So Diwali becomes just another occasion to, it's an explosion of consumption.
23:29So next Diwali, let's emerge as
23:54deserving celebrants. Let's assert our right next Diwali. And then you will find that the festival
24:11has really invoked another dimension within you. Then that night will be special. As we are
24:25currently and as we celebrate currently, Diwali's come and go and nothing changes. Does anything
24:32really change? Does anything really change? Diwali after Diwali, we remain the same persons. Don't we?
24:39Now prepare this entire year for that one next Diwali and see how that one Diwali can do what
24:53the last 40 Diwali's have not been able to do. And then Shri Ram will smile. He will say yes,
25:04now you have celebrated.
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