Video Information: 17.03.2024, Vedanta Session, Greater Noida
Context:
~ Is Vedanta only for Hindus?
~ What is meant by egolessness?
~ How to get rid of ego?
~ If there is no desire for fruit, for whom does one perform that action?
~ How to get rid of the fear of making the wrong choice?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Context:
~ Is Vedanta only for Hindus?
~ What is meant by egolessness?
~ How to get rid of ego?
~ If there is no desire for fruit, for whom does one perform that action?
~ How to get rid of the fear of making the wrong choice?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Does the person you are with encourage you to read?
00:06You have to ask, what does he bring for me?
00:09Roses or books?
00:12If someone has a stake in making you better, that person will push you towards books.
00:17Books are what we all need.
00:31My name is Grant Holley.
00:35I live in Virginia, in the United States.
00:42It's an honor to speak with you today.
00:47I've watched many of your videos in the last few months.
00:53Welcome.
00:55Very good.
00:56My question is, Vedant is from the Hindu religion,
01:07and I myself grew up in a different faith, different religion.
01:14How can the teachings of Vedant help me in my life, is my question.
01:21First of all, please see that Vedant is a philosophy.
01:31And as far as the usually prevalent and practiced Hindu religion is concerned,
01:42it actually draws very little from Vedant, unfortunately.
01:46So there is the philosophy, and then there is the religion.
01:52What we usually call as religion has a God, has a messenger or a prophet,
02:00has a holy book, has a canon, has a set of commandments.
02:05Now none of that applies to Vedant.
02:08Vedant is simple darshan, philosophy.
02:12So in that sense, it is universal.
02:17How can a philosophy be exclusive to a religion?
02:23It's almost like saying that because Nietzsche was a European and a German,
02:32therefore Indians cannot take from him.
02:36Or because Chopin or Sartre, they were Christians, even if not practicing Christians,
02:47therefore a Hindu cannot learn from them.
02:50Philosophy is just exploration into the truth.
02:55Even religion must have a philosophical base.
03:00The problem is that religions assume a baseless life of their own
03:10without being rooted in philosophy.
03:13So philosophy is something that must give nourishment, rather survival,
03:23very survival to religion.
03:25But religions usually don't take anything from philosophy.
03:29If you look at the way most major religions of the world are practiced,
03:36you would be at loss to find any philosophical foundation.
03:47A person is doing such and such things, you ask him, why are you doing that thing?
03:51He will say, oh because I am a Christian or a Muslim or a Buddhist or a Hindu or something.
03:56And you say, no, that is alright.
04:00That's a part of your tradition or your religious identity.
04:04But what really is the thought or understanding or philosophy beneath your action?
04:11And he'll have usually no answer.
04:16So Vedanta is a philosophy and philosophy is for everybody.
04:22So Marx had a philosophy.
04:27One did not say that he was born a Jew.
04:33Therefore, the others will not look at that philosophy.
04:37Or that he lived a religionless life.
04:43Therefore, those who practice religion cannot admire Marx.
04:52It begins with I.
05:01And it does not matter whether I am an agnostic, an atheist, a Hindu, a Christian.
05:09How does it matter?
05:11Don't I say I if I am an atheist?
05:14I am an atheist.
05:17Even that begins with I.
05:19I hate Vedanta. Even that begins with I.
05:23I am a Hindu. I am a Christian. That begins with I.
05:27Vedanta explores that very I.
05:30So all that is okay.
05:34It does not have anything that one must believe in.
05:40Vedanta is not a belief system at all.
05:43Vedanta wants the truth.
05:46The truth.
05:48Not imaginations. Not beliefs.
05:51In fact, you would be curiously happy to know that God as such has no place in Vedanta.
06:05Even if you want to say there is God in Vedanta, you will simply have to say that which is the truth has to be called as God.
06:14So Vedanta says there is me, there is the world.
06:21And I find that I keep getting deceived and wounded so frequently.
06:27And I have a proof. My inner situation is the proof that there is something wrong with my existence and my relationship with the world.
06:35So I want to understand who I am, what this world is all about and what is the relationship between two of us and how can I get rid of my suffering.
06:45That's Vedanta.
06:47What does that have to do with any kind of theology?
06:50It is not a belief system.
06:52It does not say you have to follow these rules or commandments.
06:55It does not say that you have to celebrate these festivals.
06:57It does not say you have to marry like that or you have to be cremated like that.
07:02There is nothing of that kind here.
07:03People often come and say, you know, does Vedanta allow this?
07:08Well, Vedanta does not allow anything.
07:10It does not disallow anything.
07:12All it says is look into yourself.
07:14Now look into yourself is valid for the man, for the woman, for the white, for the black, for the young, for the elderly, for the Indian, for the American, for the Chinese, for the African.
07:26Because we all exist as human beings.
07:29Vedanta is saying you are a human being and you are not well.
07:31Can you please inquire into why you are not well?
07:35Vedanta does not say you have to keep a beard or you have to shave your head or you have to treat women this way.
07:43No, none of that.
07:45You decide these things on your own.
07:47Vedanta has absolutely nothing at all to say on these matters.
07:50Do I go to a church?
07:53Do I go to a temple?
07:55Do I not go to any place at all?
07:57Should I have kids?
07:59Should I marry?
08:01Vedanta has no advice to offer on these things.
08:06It addresses only the core question of existence.
08:12Who am I?
08:14Why am I the way I am?
08:16How do I get rid of my miserable state?
08:19Simple.
08:21What do I wear?
08:23When do I fast?
08:25How do I celebrate my festivals?
08:31Not interested.
08:41I do have one more question.
08:46I am a referee of sports, an umpire.
08:51How not focusing on winning the game, the making of the goals, will help a player to play his best?
09:06Because according to the Gita, don't you focus your attention on the results and not focus your attention on the actions to get to that goal?
09:21Get to that result?
09:25What the Gita is saying is, do not focus on what the result has for you.
09:36You can focus on the result.
09:39But the Gita advises you to not focus on what the result has for you.
09:45These are two very different things.
09:47The Gita is usually misinterpreted.
09:52The Gita says desireless action and all desires are for oneself, right?
09:57I desire for myself.
09:59So what the Gita is saying is, yes, you can look at the score line and looking at the score line, you can decide your next move.
10:07Be it tennis or soccer or whatever.
10:10But you need not think about what the result would do to you.
10:15Obviously, in tennis, if I am two sets behind, I have to calibrate my strategy accordingly.
10:24If I have already faulted on the first serve, I cannot forget that.
10:34The second serve has to be different from the first serve.
10:38So I can think of the result.
10:43But I need not think of what would happen to me in case of a particular result.
10:50So what the Gita is saying is, you should be so strong within that the result should have no impact on you.
10:57That's very different from saying do not think of the result.
11:00Do not think of the result.
11:02You can think of the result and then you say whatever the result is, I don't mind.
11:10I am able to take everything.
11:13But yes, I am striving for a win definitely.
11:18But irrespective of whether I win or lose, something within me will remain untouched and unmoved.
11:25That's the message of the Gita.
11:27Go fight. Fight as hard as you must.
11:31If you are playing, play to win.
11:34If you are playing, play to win.
11:37But the core of your existence must not be touched by the win.
11:43And if the core of your existence remains untouched by the win, it will also remain untouched by the defeat.
11:49Give everything that you have to the game.
11:53Obviously, you must want to win.
11:56But just the center, just the center, that one little untouchable point must be there.
12:03And if that is there, you will never be afraid.
12:08Are you getting it?
12:10It's not that you must not focus on the result.
12:12Do not focus on what the result will do to you.
12:15Yes, I want to win.
12:18Yes, yes. The game must be won.
12:20But that will not make me a winner.
12:23I will remain who I am. I am already a winner in some sense.
12:27Irrespective of the result of the game, I am already a winner.
12:30Yet I am fighting to win the game. I am fighting to win the game.
12:33I am not fighting to be a winner.
12:35The winner I already am.
12:37That's the Gita.
12:43Thank you, Sir.
12:45Welcome. Most welcome.
12:50Thank you, Sir.