00:00In India, we worship women as goddesses and we have festivals like Navaratri, Durgapuja and in the same country, we treat women as trash, we mistreat them, harass them, molest them.
00:16If I do not understand this, on what basis can I respect this? But not only do we respect, we even start worshipping. We worship what we do not understand. Rivers we call as our mothers. You know what we have done to the Ganga and to the Yamuna and to all other rivers. If you know no philosophy and you are just celebrating Holy Diwali or Eid or Christmas, that's dumb. Very dumb. Every successive generation further distorts the festivals.
00:42I am Shabnam Sheik, FYBA major. In India, we worship women as goddesses and we have festivals like Navaratri, Kanjak and Durgapuja.
01:02And in the same country, we treat women as trash, we exploit them, we mistreat them, harass them, molest them. And same happens with the cows. We worship cows.
01:17And we call them Gavmata. In many states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, it's bent to eat beef, which seems alright. But India is also the third largest beef exporter in the world.
01:34So, my question to you is, why do we Indians worship the worship one thing and also exploit the same thing?
01:44Because we do not know what the word worship means.
01:52Worship follows understanding.
01:56To worship something, to worship something is to respect it in the deepest sense possible, right?
02:03To worship something or somebody is to offer respect in the deepest sense possible, right? Right?
02:11If I do not understand this, on what basis can I respect this? If I do not understand this, will I have a basis to respect this?
02:28But not only do we respect, we even start worshipping. We worship what we do not understand.
02:34What value does such worship have?
02:40You talked of Navdurga. The foundational text there is Durga Sapshati. It's a beautiful text.
02:49I have written a very long commentary on each and every verse there.
02:56It's available in two volumes. Very nice.
03:00But go to people who celebrate festivals, be it Naudurga or any festival. Ganesh Chaturthi, Holi, Diwali, any festival.
03:13For that matter, Eid or Christmas or Easter, go to them.
03:20And ask them, do you know why you are celebrating this?
03:25Do they know why they celebrate?
03:26There would always be a philosophy behind the celebration. Have they cared to understand the philosophy?
03:38The way Durga Puja is celebrated has very little to do with Durga Sapshati.
03:45Durga Sapshati is a beautiful text containing great environmental philosophy.
03:50And not just environmental. Philosophy of the self and the ego and the physical tendencies.
04:05Beautiful symbolism.
04:08But have we cared to read?
04:11But we become very excited when it comes to festivals.
04:15Holi means crackers, Diwali means colours.
04:17And Eid means slaughtering the poor goat.
04:32Do we know the essence behind the festival? We don't.
04:35So, we offer shallow respect.
04:42We offer hollow worship.
04:45Superficial.
04:48Internally we remain violent.
04:50Even towards the objects we worship.
04:53So, you may worship the cow or the woman.
04:56But internally you remain the beast.
04:57Externally you have convinced yourself you are a good, moral, pious person.
05:06See you are saying women are goddesses.
05:11See you are saying the entire animal kingdom can be worshipped.
05:16In India we do that.
05:17Why do we do that?
05:20There are so many animals.
05:22Practically the entire animal kingdom.
05:24We are supposed to look at with reverence.
05:27Even trees, even rivers, even mountains.
05:30But look at what we Indians have done to our rivers and trees and mountains.
05:34Though we attach divine value to them.
05:37Don't we?
05:38The Himalayas are supposed to be divine.
05:42Dev Bhumi.
05:43What have we done to the Himalayas?
05:46You are seeing what is happening in the rains.
05:49To the Himalayas.
05:53Rivers we call as our mothers.
05:55You know what we have done to the Ganga and to the Yamuna and to all other rivers.
06:02Because all this respect that we are offering is shallow.
06:05Respect is real only when there is a philosophical grounding to it.
06:13But in our case there is only tradition, no philosophy.
06:20Only tradition, just tradition.
06:22Your parents did this, you also do this.
06:25And if you say no, I don't want to do this.
06:27They will say, were all your ancestors stupid?
06:30Maybe they were.
06:32I too will be an ancestor to somebody someday.
06:36And I know I am stupid.
06:38If I can be stupid, the ancestors can also be stupid.
06:40What's the big deal?
06:44What's the big deal?
06:47Something doesn't become valid just because your ancestors have done it.
06:51And yes, the ancestors were stupid.
06:52For thousands of years they were thinking of the earth as flat.
06:56Yes, they were stupid.
07:01But we also know that means of knowledge were limited.
07:06So, we would empathize with them.
07:09We also know that evolution is a progressive journey.
07:13One can't leapfrog.
07:15Therefore, we will empathize with our ancestors.
07:18But empathy is one thing and submission is another.
07:22You cannot say all these things that your ancestors have been believing in hold any merit today.
07:29Drop it.
07:31Drop it without guilt.
07:36Are you getting it?
07:37For you to be able to really worship the animals, the rivers, the mountains, the entire field of Prakrati, you must first of all have a very solid grounding in Sanghi Yoga.
07:54That's where the relationship between Purush and Prakrati is explored.
08:02That's where you discover that Purush can be liberated of Prakrati only by understanding the Prakrati, not by exploiting it, not by consuming it.
08:11Then you know the right relationship that you must have with Prakrati.
08:15But if you know no philosophy and you are just celebrating Holy Diwali or Eid or Christmas.
08:26That's dumb.
08:30Very dumb.
08:36And you call that as your great culture.
08:37No, I will have to sacrifice goats.
08:41Bloodshed is the name of religion.
08:43What kind of religion?
08:49No, crackers are needed even if that kills the air.
08:54What is this?
09:00AQI of 1400.
09:02But I don't bother.
09:05I'm a religious man.
09:09What are you celebrating?
09:10Oh, Sri Ram, return to Ayodhya.
09:13If you want to understand Sri Ram, go to the Yoga Vasishtisaram.
09:18Read that.
09:19You can't even pronounce that rightly.
09:24That's where you find the philosophy of Sri Ram.
09:27But you don't want to read philosophy.
09:30Just want to lazily, clumsily, blindly.
09:34Not just let the tradition roll on but roll on in even more distorted ways every successive generation.
09:46Believe me, the way we celebrate our festivals was not as distorted even five decades back.
09:52Every successive generation further distorts the festivals.
