00:00Thank you, Swarabh. At the very outset, I would like to appreciate the initiative of OCLF of bringing people together from different driver's domains. And Acharya Ji, it's an honor to be having this conversation with you.
00:13Thank you. So, like I said, this is like one of the opportunities where we not only can get educated, like I said, defining, redefining, like Swarabh reiterated. These are the conversations that actually not only help us to understand the concepts we think we have an idea about, but also strengthens the kind of belief system we have. So, Acharya Ji, I have your permission. I would like to straight away.
00:38Please. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Welcome.
00:44So, you have quite an illustrious, you know, standing when it comes to demolishing all that is false as your webcam reads. And I think so, because I personally find that intriguing because in a world of distrustful agendas that people carry, what has been your driving force?
01:01Because people either have blind faith in a pain to leaders or they don't connect at all with this side of spirituality. So, how is it walking between these two extremes that you often come across?
01:14You see, both these extremes are one thing really. When people go blindly into accepting something or somebody, then they are not inquiring. They are not questioning. They are going by belief.
01:42They are going by belief. This belief. This belief is on the traditional or religious side. Nevertheless, it is a belief.
01:49Nevertheless, it is a belief. Then there are people who reject stuff and are convinced that the entire field of wisdom or spirituality is fraught with charlatans and mischief makers.
02:12Even these people are not inquiring. Even these people are inquiring or questioning, trying to seek the truth. No, that's not what they are doing. They too are just believing.
02:25And this belief is a little bit on the progressive side. So-called progressive side. Modern side. Liberal side. Whatever you want to call it. Nevertheless, it is just a belief.
02:44Real wisdom or spirituality deals with inquiry. It does not exist to reinforce beliefs on either end of the spectrum or anywhere in the middle of the spectrum.
03:06So it is not as if one has to straddle between these two ends. No, not really in between them. But beyond them, above them. One has to ask, one has to question, one has to try to understand.
03:24You see, Vedanta very emphatically elaborates and if you pay attention, it comes from our everyday experience also that our nature is to know. The nature of our consciousness is to know.
03:43And without knowing, we do not feel at rest, at peace. That is the reason we do not like it when somebody lies to us. Because he has prevented us from knowing.
03:55Knowing what? The truth. The truth at a factual level. The truth not at an absolute level. But we are always looking for something we want to find, we want to inquire. We question so much.
04:10Even a newborn. Even a newborn is touching this, holding that, groping in the dark, doing stuff. And it is very obvious that even in a one year or two year old, the nature of the consciousness is to know.
04:27So that is what spirituality is all about. Knowing, not believing. Spirituality has nothing to do with any kind of any belief system.
04:39People who think that wisdom is about believing that such things exist. God or gods or goddesses exist or heavens exist or life after death exists or reincarnations exist or so many other things.
04:57No, no, no, no. That is not spirituality. Spirituality wants to find out and question in all possible ways including all means and at both ends.
05:11It wants to find out the truth of what we see and the truth of the one who is seeing.
05:18It wants to find out the reality of the seen universe as well as that of the seeing mind. The subject and the object both have to be known. That's spirituality.
05:33So, whether it's believers or atheists, they, from where I look at them, belong to the same bracket. They are living in ideologies.
05:52They are living in imported knowledge into which they have not bothered to deeply delve and figure out the reality.
06:14If right now we are conversating this way. This is a spiritual process in progress.
06:21A scientist in his laboratory experimenting to know what is really happening or what really happens is doing something deeply spiritual.
06:34Equally, a person, just sitting calmly and introspecting, is doing something spiritual.
06:45You write your diary, you are reflecting on the day, even as you have to retire to your bed at night, that's something spiritual.
06:56Now, this is spirituality. Spirituality is not some mumbo jumbo or system of superstition or this or that. None of that.
07:08I think that makes a lot of sense and it is a very different perspective when coming from you that they don't necessarily belong to two different classes.
07:15It's just one way from where you see it and gives me a little insight as to how you look at people and I think that also supports why you're easily becoming people's, maybe if I can say, favorite person to go to these things because you, whenever you're telling somebody something which they don't necessarily believe in, you don't come out as a hostile person, which is otherwise the case.
07:38Because if I go to some person who has the knowledge and if I tell them that I don't know this and may not really believe into this, they either would belittle me, number one, or either they would be trying to put forth their opinions quite harsh way.
07:53So, if you are coming from a perspective like that, that maybe, you know, we are both into the same, like the same part of the spectrum.
08:00So, it becomes very easy to speak to you and then the conversation might be more meaningful and more accommodating, like if I can say as a viewer, as a receiver or a listener.
08:10So, that's great Acharya, I think the conversation, the purpose of it is coming into the closet and getting to know what goes behind of what looks in front, like it is very easy to say that, you know, you are people favorite or it is very easy to say that you enjoy a kind of audience which relates to you.
08:29So, behind this is this, where you understand that it's not different at all, it's just about knowing at the end of the day, it is not relative to belief system, it's just that the day you know is the day you would realize that we are just all the same.
08:43Yes, you see, if you read the central texts of Vedanta, Upanishad, they are all in the form of conversations.
08:58The entire process is very dialectic.
09:03Two people are conversating, the seeker and the seer.
09:09One is asking a question, the other is saying something in response and then comes another question and then another response.
09:17And it's not as if the seeker is sitting there already converted, already prepared or predisposed to just accept anything.
09:29There are series of arguments.
09:32If you read how Gargi and Yagivalka are talking to each other, you would often even sense anger in the respondent because the questions are so sharp.
09:46Similarly, even in the Bhagavad Gita, Arjun is not an easy one to convince.
09:53At some point, he even almost goes to the extent of accusing Krishna that Krishna is misleading him.
10:04So, it is not preaching at all in any sense. It's a conversation.
10:12That's where real spirituality comes from.
10:16Now contrast that to what we see even in some of the elite ideological circles today.
10:25People are believing in stuff without knowing the facts, the reality.
10:30I am not here referring to the transcendental truth.
10:34I am referring here to the worldly facts.
10:37For example, somebody has a position on climate change.
10:40Somebody has a position on flesh consumption.
10:44Somebody has a position on the farm laws.
10:49People are sticking to their guns and very stubbornly defending their opinions.
10:58And you just scratch things a little and you discover that those opinions are without any factual base.
11:06We do not even know what is really going on and yet we are so insistent on what we want to say.
11:13Now this is superstition.
11:16So a lot that is very very modern is actually very very superstitious.
11:23And a lot that is very ancient is actually very scientific, very pure and very egalitarian.
11:34In the sense that there is a conversation in which there is no real authority.
11:41Even if there is an authority, the authority does not want you to accept his words merely because they carry the weight of the authority.
11:52The words have to be weighed assessed on their own merit.
11:56So that's the way of the ancients.
12:00A way of equals, a way of liberty, a way carrying the most liberal and progressive values.
12:08And contrast that to what you see as we said even in the most modern, even post modern circles today.
12:18We call ourselves modern but we are actually operating from very primordial centers.
12:25The center that we have inherited from the jungle.
12:31The center of the animal, no?
12:34The way of the animal is not to inquire.
12:36The way of the animal is to just rush after its animal instincts.
12:41And later on then we use arguments to defend our instincts.
12:46No, that's not good at all.
12:49That's not the way of consciousness.
12:51To operate as per your instincts and then use logic or reason or argument to just defend your instinct.
12:59That's hardly good.
13:01You are quite an insightful person when it comes to understanding what is your method of approaching the content that you share with your audience.
13:10I think to me this conversation not only tells me a lot about, you know, how you approach, like I said, but also why you're so conveniently convincing, if I can say that, when you speak to someone.
13:25Probably like this.
13:26If somebody is getting to know this for the first time, they might have their inhibitions, but if they're working with you through this idea that you carry with you, I think it's very easy to really understand.
13:37It's very easy to imbibe and it's very easy to relate.
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