Vedanta is for freedom lovers || Acharya Prashant, with 'Virat Hindustan Sangam' (2021)

Acharya Prashant

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00:00We have someone from the audience named Jigishu Singh and he is asking a question as in non-dualism

00:16is not accepted by people generally in the West or even in India. So what can be done

00:24to push people towards the Vedantic thought? You see, we need to revisit the fundamentals.

00:32Why is Vedanta or dharma needed at all? Why can't man do without dharma? Man needs dharma

00:42because man suffers. When I say man, I mean human being. I am just being old-fashioned

00:48in my usage. So we suffer and therefore we need dharma. Otherwise, we are alright as

00:56we are, as animals are. No animal has any concept of dharma, not even a need. So now

01:05why is Vedanta useful and why would man move towards Vedanta? Because Vedanta actually

01:14practically liberates us from suffering. So it is not a question of pushing someone

01:22to Vedanta or converting him. It is not a question of evangelizing something into a

01:28particular belief. It is a question of seeing what works. I mean, if we are sick, what do

01:36we need? We need a medicine that works. And I dare say Vedanta is the most fundamental

01:44medicine that works. We can have derivatives from that fundamental medicine but we cannot

01:52change the fundamental nature of the medicine itself. So you may have a group of chemicals,

01:59you have a mother medicine and you can work on that as need be to come up with a newer

02:11version, a more updated form, a more contemporary form of medicine. But the fundamental formula

02:22cannot change. Vedanta is the medicine to the human condition and the human condition

02:31is of misery. We are misery, Vedanta is medicine and therefore we'll have to go to Vedanta. It's

02:40not as if Vedanta needs to come to preach and convert. We need to go to Vedanta if we want

02:47our welfare. It's just that somebody needs to demonstrate that authentically and credibly. What

02:56we need is not a justification on how effective Vedanta is. We do not need to investigate whether

03:09Vedanta works. What we need is people who know how it works. There's a difference here. Vedanta

03:22need not be put under the scanner. We need to put ourselves under the scanner. Do we understand

03:30Vedanta? And if we do not understand Vedanta and try to dismiss it or as you said that people do

03:37not want to accept non-dualism. Though non-dualism is one interpretation of Vedanta. The most logical,

03:50the most accurate, the most complete and the purest interpretation of Vedanta is Advaita.

03:57But there are dualistic interpretations as well. There is Vishishtadvaita, there is Dvaita. Ramanuj

04:08and Madhavacharya are given as high a status as Shankaracharya in many parts of the country. So

04:19one need not go to Vedanta through the non-dualistic route only. One could take the

04:28dualistic route, approach Vedanta and when you are intimate with the Upanishads, then you realize

04:34that their central message is of non-duality. So there's another question that is if a person

04:48many people are asking this question so I'm just putting all into one. If somebody wants to develop

04:54a Vedantic thought process, then what would be your suggestion about the books that you have

05:05written? In what order they should read those books? So they would like step 1 and step 2 and

05:13step 3. So the first book that you should read is this and then once you have absorbed that,

05:19then go to the next. So can you suggest something, a good reading for people for after this lecture?

05:27Vedantic thought process is not quite the right thing. There is the Vedantic attitude.

05:40There is a Vedantic attitude and that attitude is of constant meditativeness. You know just as

05:50there is nothing like enlightenment in Vedanta, similarly there is nothing like meditation in

05:55Vedanta. It could be surprising to some people maybe and these two are the hot words in spirituality.

06:05Everybody wants to meditate so that everybody can be enlightened. But in Vedanta there is neither

06:12meditation nor enlightenment. Meditation is taken for granted. A certain meditativeness as your

06:21basic attitude is taken for granted. The Upanishads just do not teach any meditation. They say

06:30obviously if you are suffering, if you are curious, you would have a certain attention

06:37towards truth and that is meditativeness and that you need to continuously have. And that

06:44is the Vedantic thought process in your words. Though that's not a thought process, that's a

06:50certain attitude. That's a way of being. What kind of way of being? Not ritual based, not belief

06:58based, not based in anything but floating really, floating. Floating to be free to inquire. I want

07:06to know, I want to know, I want to know and I accept that I do not know but I am knowing,

07:11I am knowing, I am knowing. Vedanta does not get fixated even to I do not know. Obviously saying

07:20I know is a thing of great arrogance. Even saying I do not know is a thing of somewhat of a

07:28problem because if you say I do not know, then you have settled down somewhere. So the Vedanta

07:34is always saying I want to know, I want to know, I want to know, I want to know and I have faith

07:40that knowing is possible. I have faith that, not belief, I have faith that knowing is possible. A

07:48very unreasonable faith. Knowing is possible. So I keep inquiring, I keep inquiring. Beyond

07:55meditation, enlightenment, there is also nothing called love in Vedanta because Vedanta takes love

08:03for granted. If you do not have love, what have you come to the Rishi for? If you do not have

08:10meditativeness, how can you listen to the Rishi? So even love is taken for granted. You obviously

08:18have love for the truth. You want nothing more than the truth. So you have come to the Rishi

08:25and you are sitting in front of the Rishi and there is this entire discussion. Like the thing

08:31between Krishna and Arjuna as well. The Gita too is considered an Upanishad. There is that love.

08:38Though in those 18 chapters, neither Arjuna nor Krishna ever say I love you, but that is the

08:46underlying unsaid theme. Because they love each other, that's why they are conversating. So that

08:55is how one has to be. I want to know. I want to know. I want to know. It's beautiful to know. It's

09:01energizing to know. It's life-giving to know. How can I be dull like a stone? Am I not conscious?

09:08Don't I feel that urge within to take my consciousness higher and how can I move

09:16higher if I do not ask? So I want to know. If a preceptor is there, I inquire from the preceptor.

09:26If a book is there, I read from the book. Else, I use my own mental faculties to try to know. But

09:36at no point am I going to feel settled.

09:46Satsang with Mooji

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