00:00So what should be the right way of celebrating Diwali?
00:03As we are currently and as we celebrate,
00:06Diwali is come and go and nothing changes.
00:08Does anything really change?
00:09Just think, if Ram were there in a bodily shape, in his mortal body,
00:14and were he to see you celebrating his festival, what would he say?
00:18All you do is shop, shop and shop.
00:21Shri Ram who stands for that which can neither be bought nor be sold,
00:25his festival has been turned into an orgy of sales and discounts.
00:30You want to reduce Diwali to a festival of Rasgulla, Rabadi, Sonpapadi.
00:36Did Ramchandra enjoy all these things?
00:38Why the hell are you enjoying all these things on his day?
00:41Bring some compassion into your life and then say that you want to celebrate Diwali.
00:45And then Shri Ram will smile, he will sing.
00:50A lot of our English speaking audience wants to know that tomorrow is the...
00:54festival of lights.
00:57So what should be the right way of celebrating Diwali?
00:59It's too late now.
01:01It's too late.
01:03It's almost like asking that tomorrow is the UPSC exam.
01:20What is the right way of preparing for it?
01:25It's actually worse.
01:27It's almost like asking tomorrow the UPSC results would be declared.
01:33What is the right way to prepare for the exam?
01:37A festival is not a free for all.
01:46What do we think?
01:47Shri Ram is an exception.
02:02Shri Ram is a distinction.
02:05Shri Ram is a distinction.
02:18He is a rarity.
02:21He is worshipped because he is special.
02:37If he is special, how does every ABCD,
02:51get the right to even utter his name, let alone celebrate his festival?
02:58You need to earn the rights to even utter Ram.
03:11There has to be a certain qualification.
03:18Yogyata, Patrata, Arhata.
03:19That's how the scriptures call it.
03:25Otherwise it is just hypocrisy.
03:26And cheesha.
03:27Something.
03:28One is a qualification.
03:29One is a qualification.
03:30One is a qualification.
03:31Yogyata, Patrata, Arhata.
03:37That's how the scriptures call it.
03:49Otherwise it is just hypocrisy and cheap entertainment in the name of festival.
04:01I say if for 364 days you have really lived up to Ram, only then must you honestly celebrate
04:21the festival of Ram-ness.
04:27How is it that for 364 days your life really had nothing to do with Sri Ram?
04:36And on the 365th day, you jump up and join in.
04:51The noisy bandwagon, the chorus of the hooligans.
05:11Just think, if Ram were there in a bodily shape, in his mortal body and were he to see you
05:24celebrating his festival, what would he say?
05:32What would he say?
05:34He will call you, you come here, come here.
05:41You just did something, taking my name, hello?
05:48All this Tamasha is in my name?
05:55He would be angered.
05:57He would say you do whatever you want to do.
05:59But why are you doing it in my name?
06:03Your life has no relation to mine.
06:12There is no sameness between you and me.
06:19You do not even love me at all, let alone worship me.
06:25Had you loved me, you couldn't have lived your life the way you do.
06:37Actually you stand in firm opposition to me, Ram would say.
06:45If I look at the 364 days of your life, you stand really in firm opposition to me.
06:52And now on this 365th day, what a pretence you are making.
07:03I am the one who never cared for any worldly thing.
07:14I just pushed aside the biggest worldly thing that one can have, an entire empire.
07:24It was there for me to take it.
07:31I could have as well told Raja Dasharath, Father, not done.
07:43I deserve the crown and the entire country wants me to be the king.
07:56And the Shrut would have consented, he would have said fine son.
08:03But the moment my father said, leave the throne and not merely leave the throne.
08:19He would have gone into the jungles for 14 years, I said fine, that's the kind of person I was.
08:30Did I care for the comforts of the palace?
08:37Did I care for power and pelf?
08:42Did I care for the so called worldly, material, good life?
08:50I didn't.
08:52And look at yourself, even in the name of celebrating my festival, all you do is shop, shop and shop.
09:04In fact, Ram's festival has become the festival of shopping, shoppers and shopkeepers.
09:12Ram, who never had anything to do with shops, Ram, who was never a buyer or a seller or a consumer.
09:29Shri Ram, who stands for that which can neither be bought nor be sold.
09:38His festival has been turned into an orgy of sales and discounts.
09:56How would he feel were he to reappear in a bodily form today?
10:05Just see.
10:11I have said before and I am repeating, Diwali for most people must be a festival of austerity, of repentance, price chip.
10:27So, we must, on this day, offer our prayers to Shri Ram and say, we are very sorry, O Holy One, we are extremely sorry.
10:41We couldn't live by your life, your message, your teachings.
10:52We are very sorry.
10:53We will observe this day as a day of repentance.
11:03We do not deserve to celebrate, what is there to celebrate in our life?
11:13Festival of lights befits those who have light first of all in their lives.
11:20If our lives are full of darkness, what right do we have to light the candles and the diyas and the Chinese bulbs?
11:49Every festival is like an examination day.
11:58Yes, certain people do have all the rights to celebrate on an examination day, but who will be those people?
12:08Who have prepared well for those exams, who have done justice to their preparation throughout the year.
12:17They are the ones who have the right to celebrate on that day.
12:21Others, why are they celebrating?
12:25First of all, you are dishonest enough to not to do justice to the preparations.
12:41You miserably failed the exam and now you are stupid enough to celebrate your failure.
12:47No, you are not stupid, you are wicked.
12:52By celebrating, you are trying to convince yourself that you have actually passed the exam.
12:59Look at the perverse logic.
13:03Look at the inversion.
13:06Those who clear the exam celebrate, so we will celebrate and convince ourselves that we have cleared the exam.
13:15That's awesome.
13:17Great are the depths of depravity possible to us.
13:27You are given an entire year to prepare for Diwali.
13:46Aren't you?
13:48What does it mean to prepare for Diwali?
13:50To clean your house or to clean your life?
13:54Did we clean up our lives?
13:57And an entire year was available.
13:59Did we prepare for the festival?
14:02We didn't.
14:11And when the festival has arrived, we want to show as if we really deserve it.
14:17We don't deserve it.
14:32Excellence has always been a rarity.
14:39And Sri Ramachandra is the epitome of excellence.
14:46Without bringing that excellence into our lives.
14:49Without bringing that excellence into our lives.
15:02What is this circus that we create?
15:07So you are asking me how to celebrate Diwali?
15:21I will say, now start preparing for the next one.
15:24This one you have already lost.
15:27I don't want to console you.
15:29This Diwali is totally lost on 99% people who will be celebrating it.
15:37But there still is time.
15:39Prepare for the next Diwali.
15:41Live your life just as Ram lived his life.
15:48And then you will have the right to celebrate Diwali.
15:54What is it that Sri Ram stands for?
16:01He stands for detachment.
16:04He stands for fearlessness.
16:06He stands for compassion.
16:08He stands for dharma.
16:09He stands for dharma.
16:11Is there dharma really in your life?
16:14And by dharma, I do not mean a creed or a cult or observation of certain rituals or the name written against the religion column in your various identification cards.
16:30No, that is not dharma.
16:31No, that is not dharma.
16:34Dharma means doing that which you must do.
16:40Must do.
16:42That's what Sri Ram stands for.
16:44He does what he must do.
16:47Do you do what you must do?
16:57Is your touch compassionate enough to turn stone into life?
17:08His was.
17:13Bring some compassion into your life.
17:16And then say that you want to celebrate Diwali.
17:19You have one year.
17:21Rather, one year and one day.
17:24Tomorrow is Diwali.
17:29We are talking of the next Diwali.
17:31Have you ever just let it sink into you?
17:46What it means to spend 14 years in the wilderness?
17:53And try to wrap your head around the idea.
17:57You are the crown prince, Yuvaraj.
18:05And you have been dispatched to the dam forest.
18:09How does that even sound?
18:19It sounds unacceptable to us.
18:21He lived it.
18:22And he lived it with unequalled grace.
18:26Look at his poise.
18:30Not once did he complain.
18:32In fact, he used these 14 years to the maximum.
18:40And he fought the most powerful force of his times.
18:51And who was he?
18:53Somebody ostracized from his kingdom.
18:58Somebody serving a sentence almost.
19:04And he is fighting Dashanan.
19:07The one who is said to have incarcerated even the various gods and goddesses in his prison cells.
19:20That Dashanan was fought almost empty handed by one Shri Ram.
19:33That's my Ram.
19:35One needs to have at least 1% of him in oneself in order to worship him.
19:48No?
19:52At least 1%.
19:53What's 1% of 14 years?
20:05Quick.
20:06Hmm?
20:07Yes.
20:080.14 years.
20:09But what does that mean?
20:18Yes.
20:190.14 years.
20:20But what does that mean?
20:32How many days?
20:37Hmm?
20:39Around 50 days.
20:4051 to be precise.
20:50Would you spend 51 days just because you were randomly told to?
21:00That too on the eve of your coronation, you are about to rise to the throne.
21:09And somebody tells you, no.
21:11You are dispatched to the Amazon.
21:1451 days.
21:16No gadgets, nothing.
21:19At least be 1% of Shri Ram Chandra.
21:28I am not asking you to try it out.
21:32I just want you to see how unacceptable even the idea is.
21:39Right?
21:40Our security, our comforts rebel against the very thought.
21:48He lived it out.
21:52And he lived it out in the most humane, just and compassionate way possible.
22:01Without ever cribbing.
22:05And he ended those 14 years, bringing down the mightiest empire of his times.
22:16That's my superhero.
22:23And you want to reduce Diwali to a festival of Rasgulla.
22:35RABADHI.
22:36Sohna paapadi.
22:37Hmm?
22:38Sohna paapadi.
22:39Kalakand.
22:40Did Ramachandra consider it?
22:41How the body is good?
22:42Or did you know?
22:44What is it?
22:45It's good.
22:46Lephe?
22:47It's good.
22:48Dealing the mind.
22:49Oh.
22:50Not to be.
22:51Become your head.
22:52Good.
22:53Let me be.
22:54The mind is.
22:55Some people.
22:56The mind is ridiculous.
22:57Oh?
22:58God.
22:59What are you doing, I am hoping?
23:00What do you do?
23:01You the mind is a subject.
23:02You know?
23:03Did Ramachandra enjoy all these things?
23:07Why the hell are you enjoying all these things on his day?
23:17Because we are very very small and little and petty people
23:21who want just an excuse
23:24to further their dirty instincts of consumption.
23:32We just want to consume on some pretext, something.
23:47So Diwali becomes just another occasion to
23:50it's an explosion of consumption.
24:02So next Diwali.
24:26Let's emerge as deserving celebrants.
24:43Let's assert our right next Diwali.
24:46And then you will find that the festival
24:51has really invoked another dimension within you.
24:59Then that night will be special.
25:02As we are currently and as we celebrate currently
25:09Diwali is come and go and nothing changes.
25:12Does anything really change?
25:14Does anything really change?
25:15Diwali after Diwali we remain the same persons.
25:18Don't we?
25:18Now prepare this entire year for that one next Diwali
25:27and see how that one Diwali can do
25:32what the last 40 Diwali's have not been able to do.
25:35And then Sri Ram will smile.
25:43He will say yes, now you have celebrated.
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