New Delhi, May 28, 2025 (ANI): Speaking on being conferred with the Padma Shri, Vishva Vidya Gurukulam Founder Jonas Masetti on May 28 called it a great honour. He also said that this is an honour not just for me but for our family striving for this tradition. “I was not expecting this. It's a great honour...Many people in Brazil are studying Vedanta, and this is an honour not just for me but for our family striving for this tradition... I used to work in the stock market. I'm a mechanical engineer. I used to work with the biggest companies in Brazil. But I felt empty and was looking for meaning in my life. Then I learned about the Vedic culture and ended up in Swami Dayananda's ashram in Tamil Nadu... I understood that I had to go back to the place I came from and spread the knowledge and message of the Vedas... There are so many teachers in India that a Westerner doesn't need to come here and teach their own culture. I see a lot of youngsters losing the opportunity to value their culture and being so enchanted by the Western way of thinking...,” said Jonas Masetti.
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00:00I was not expecting it's a great honor for us in being a Brazilian and being
00:05dedicated to this tradition for 20 years it's a big blessing in Brazil there are
00:11many people that are studying Vedanta and I feel that this this honor is not
00:16just for me but for our family that is like striving to make this tradition
00:20happen
00:23sure before entering Vedanta field I was in the stock market I'm a mechanical
00:34engineer and I've been working with the biggest companies in Brazil and I felt
00:39very empty looking for a meaning for my life was then that I met yoga and Vedanta
00:45and all the Vedic culture and then I started studying and ended up in the
00:48ashram in Tamil Nadu with Swami Dayananda where I studied for four years
00:56yes sure when I came to do this long-term study I was not sure even if I was going
01:05back to Brazil then suddenly I understood that I was supposed to go back to the
01:12place I came from to spread this knowledge and this message of the Vedas I've been
01:17doing that for the last 12 years and now it has grown a lot and that's why I'm here
01:23now when you go to Brazil how how do you are people also following you trying to understand your journey
01:31how is it going because India is in a way a spirituality hub
01:38all the religions in a way they all practice spirituality so what do you want to say
01:45one very interesting thing was when the Portuguese were coming to India they by
01:50mistake has ended up in Brazil and that's why in Brazil the native people are
01:56called Indus because of India you know and there is a lot of common things on the
02:03spiritual ground in Brazil and in India and because of that I think that Brazil is a very fertile ground
02:09for Vedanta studies
02:11lastly sir what would you like to say to the government of India for recognizing you
02:16to give Padma Shri on this in this field
02:20I would like to to thank and say that's a great honor and especially for us that are
02:26living this Vedic tradition abroad it's very important to be recognized and also for the
02:32newcomers you know to have an authority-based how I say reference to study and all that so we are
02:41very grateful and hope that we can serve this tradition even more
02:47yeah I was thinking firstly that there are so many teachers and Acharyas in India that it was not
03:01necessary for Western to come to teach their own culture but at the same time I see a lot of
03:06youngsters that are losing the opportunity to value their own culture and understand all these things
03:11and they are so enchanted by the Western way of thinking that I think that the Western coming and
03:16telling the message you know maybe you bring value back so I have this plan this year we have a first
03:23group of people coming in September to Brazil where they're going to spend some time studying Vedanta
03:29and visiting the Amazon forest