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The Heritage of India: A Glimpse into Timeless Wisdom

A lecture on the heritage of India, delivered on Raksha Bandhan and Sanskrit Day.

"The tradition of Rakṣā Bandhan is very ancient in India... this festival is basically bringing humanity together to create a feeling of love and affection."

"It is only the Indian civilization which has been in a living form since eternity. Because it is based on some basic truths of life."

Following invocations and an introduction by Swamiji, His Excellency Gaurī Śaṅkarjī delivers a talk on India's timeless wisdom. He begins with Raksha Bandhan greetings before exploring profound concepts from Sanskrit scriptures, such as 'Pūrṇa' (completeness) and the vast Vedic timescale. He details the interconnection between the five elements, the five senses, and human physiology, and praises Sanskrit as a language linked to the body's chakras. The lecture highlights the depth of Indian knowledge systems, including yoga, Ayurveda, and astronomy, advocating for their revival and application in modern life.

Filming location: Vép, Hungary

Guru Dev Kī Jai! Bholē Nāth Bhagavān Kī Jai! Tripure Māt Kī Jai! Devādī Dev Dev Viśvar Mahādev Kī Jai! Prārthanā Purukambana Māmī Namaskāram Karomi. Atha Śānti Sūktam. Oṃ Bhadram Karne Bhī Śṛṇu Yamadeva. Bhadram Paśye Makṣa Bīrya Jātaraḥ. Sthirai Raṅgai Sthuṣṭuvā Gosastanum Bīrvyaśe Mahite. Vahitam Jadayuhuṣatam Inuṣāradu Antideva. Jatarā naścakarā jārā sāntaṇu nāma putarāso jatra-pītaro bhavanti māno matyārī rīkhatā yurgaṇṭoho. Aditir Dyor, Aditiranthariksham, Aditirmata, Sapita, Saputraha, Vishwedeva, Aditihi Panchajanam. Aditirjatam, Aditirjanitavam, Dhirgayutavayabalayavarchase, Suprajastvayasahasa, Atojivasaradahashatam, yahu ho. Śāntir antarikṣaṁ, śāntiḥ pṛthivī, śāntir āpaḥ, śāntir oṣadhayaḥ, śāntir vanaspatayaḥ, śāntir viśve devāḥ, śāntir brahma, śāntiḥ. Sarvaṁ koṁ śāntiḥ, śāntire vaśāntiḥ, sāmaḥ śāntire dhī, yato yathā samihase, tato no abhayaṁ kuru, śannaḥ kuru prajābhyo vayānāḥ paśupyaḥ. Oṁ śāntiḥ, he śāntiḥ, he... Sukha śāntir bhavatu, sarva āriṣṭa śāntir bhavatu, dīrgham āyuḥ śāntiḥ, puṣṭiḥ, tuṣṭiḥ, śatru śrī, yaśovidya vinaya bhaupatram, cāyuṣyam, śatru yajamāṅgre maṅgalābhidaśatāni bhavantu, yena baddho bali rājo dhanavindro mahābalaḥ. Tena tvam avibhadanāmi rakṣimacalamacala namo 'stu ananta yaśaḥsatra mūrtai sahasrapāda śiśiro rubahave sahasranāmne puruṣāya śāśvate sahasrakoṭi yugadārine namaḥ. Namo brahmaṇya devāya gau brahmaṇya hitāyaja. Jagatvitaya kṛṣṭaya govindaya namo namaḥ. Vasu nāma vasu devasya, vasu nāma bhuvanatraya. Sarva bhūta nivāsosi vasu deva namostute namaḥ. Kamal nābhaya namaste, jala śāyine namaste. Keśavānandam namaste, Keśavānandam namaste. Namaste Keśavānandam, namaste Keśavānandam, namaste Keśavānandam, namaste Keśavānandam, namaste Keśavānandam. Na pādaravindaṁ mukharavinde viniveśayantaṁ vātasyapatrāsyaputeśayanam. Bāla Mukundaṁ manasā smarāmi. Śrī Kṛṣṇa Govinda Hare Murāri He Nātha Nārāyaṇa Vāsudeva Jīvepibasva Mṛtamevadeyaṁ Govinda Dhāmo Dharmadveti Sadgurudeva Kī Jai Bole Nātha Bhagavān Kī Jai Tripure Māta kī jai, Sadgurujī, Aravindyo, anantakoṭi praṇāmāmi, namaskāram karomi. Very good. Take Panditjī. Dakṣiṇā doesn't matter, anything. Dakṣiṇā, dakṣiṇā. First of all, a new note of the Hungarian. What was good? Thank you. Now, I think we give the words to our Gaurī Śaṅkarjī, His Excellency, to give some talk today. We know, we are aware, and he is also aware. He knows that there is a full moon, the full moon, and the end of the Chetrā Māsa. And also the Rakṣā Bandhan and the day of Sanskrit, the Sanskrit language. So he has many subjects to choose. We welcome him once more, and for today's Rakṣā Bandhan, Rakṣā Bandhan, respected Swamiji, I'm here once again after four years of lapse, because of your blessings, because of your anukampā, your good wishes to me all the time. A jó kívánságaid miatt, ami mindig van irántad. Nagyon örülök, hogy vissza, itt vagyok megint vépem. Az összes tanítvány között, akik mindig nagyon lelkesek, mindig akarnak tanulni. Atlanta with us, and we have Kapīljī as our Paṇḍitjī today. So this is a great fortune for all of us to have them here. To begin with, let me convey my best wishes to all of you on Rakṣā Bandhan. As Swamiji said, it is also full moon day. It is the end of the Chaitramāsa, that is the first month of the new Indian calendar. So as per the astrological situation, this is one of the very auspicious days. I would like to wish you the very best in your life on this very auspicious day. The tradition of Rakṣā Bandhan is very ancient in India. You can find references to this in some of the old Sanskrit texts. They go back to almost the 5th century BC, but in more recent time, it was associated more with the Islamic invasion of India. It started around the 8th–9th century. The problem at that time was that the invaders who invaded the country and defeated the king wanted to misuse the ladies in those areas. In order to reduce that practice or eliminate that practice, the ladies used to tie this thread, which is called a very pious thread, on the wrist so that the person is dissuaded from misusing it. In fact, it becomes a friendship; it becomes the liability of the person getting this thread by a thread to protect the lady. In fact, the modern festival of friendship, you see this Friendship Day, is very closely associated with Rakṣā Bandhan. So this festival is basically bringing humanity together to create a feeling of love and affection and to generate goodwill within society. Let us promote this festival, and let us promote friendship amongst all the members of the society. I am so happy that Swamiji celebrated it in a very large way today, and he is with us on this auspicious day. I don't think there could be anything better than that. So, thank you, Swamijī, for blessing us on this very auspicious day. And we should declare this International Day of Brothers and Sisters. Yes, I think International Day of Brothers and Sisters and Friendship. So now I will start my short talk today on the heritage of India. Whatever time Swamiji will allow me, I'll use that to speak a little bit on this subject. 45 minutes, then the program begins. Sorry to give you the time. We'll start with the Sanskrit śloka, which I like very much. This śloka is a very fantastic way of explaining this entire universe. There is a word Pūrṇa here. Pūrṇa means complete in every respect. Pūrṇ means complete in every respect. Some people also call it infinite. But this is the śloka which is a preamble to three very important Upaniṣads in India. This is the first preamble to the Īśāvāsya Upaniṣad, which is the oldest Upaniṣad. Now let me explain what Pūrṇa means. For example, all of us put together here is not Pūrṇa. Somebody has some talent, somebody has another talent, somebody has another talent, but nobody is complete. If you take the entire humanity of 7.4 billion people, even then something else will be missing, and that is also not complete. In fact, before today, there were billions of people who lived and died, and after this, billions will come and live and die. All that put together doesn't make one or complete. Many billions of people have died before today, billions have been born, and even all that together is not complete. So it is very, almost impossible for us to understand what is Pūrṇa. Pūrṇa means everything included in that; everything which can be imagined is included in that. Számunkra szinte lehetetlen megérteni, mi az, hogy Pūrṇa, a Pūrṇa az, amiben minden benne van. And that is why this śloka says that Oṁ, the Almighty, you are complete in every respect. And this universe, which you have created, is again complete in every respect, because if you take the entire universe—past, present, and future—it is complete. So, in mathematical terms, they say that, oh Almighty, you are infinite. This universe, which you have created, is also infinite. Infinite comes out of infinite, and whatever is left is also infinite. So the almighty created this universe, which is infinite, and he still remains infinite all the time. So the ancient Indian writings have tremendous knowledge, which I call the very profound knowledge, which we cannot even imagine today. If you look at various civilizations in the world, you can see Babylonian, you can see Egyptian, you can talk about Chinese, you can talk about Greek, you can talk about Romans. None of the civilizations in this world are in the living form today. It is only the Indian civilization which has been in a living form since eternity. Because it is based on some basic truths of life. And those truths are true irrespective of time and space. They do not change with time and space. For example, if you look at Egyptian civilization, the pharaohs were there, then the Greeks came, the pharaohs disappeared, the Romans came, the Greeks disappeared, Islam came, the Romans disappeared, but it is not the case of India. All those civilizations you can see in the form of ruins or monuments, but not in living form. But we see the Indian civilization right here in the living form. Why? Because it is based on some fundamental truths of life, which I will refer to from time to time. It's something like that. The sun rises in the east, but sometimes you get lost in the direction, and you don't know where the sun rises. But ultimately, you come back and you realize that sunrise is in the east. Now, this truth will never change, irrespective of the place, time, space, or anything that happens. It will always remain true. And that is how there are fundamentals in Indian civilization which are true since times immemorial and will be true for all the times to come. I will give you a few examples to explain that. It is only the ancient Indian writings which explain what this universe is. How it came into existence, how it is governed or regulated, what is the purpose of human life, what are the various species of life in this universe, what is that which keeps us alive, how that life comes into being. There is no other writing in this world which gives these profound details about this universe. For example, the Indian writings say that there are 8.4 million species of life. Earlier, the science said it is not possible. They only talked about a few thousand species. But now science is admitting that the total number of species in this world could be 8.4 million. Now, when you talk about time, some of the ancient scriptures of other religions talk about 6,000 years, 8,000 years, 10,000 years. But you know what is the definition of time in Vedic writings? The smallest unit of time has been explained in Śrīmad Bhāgavatam. It starts from eight by fifteen-thousandths of a second. 8 by 15,000th of a second, it is called atomic time. And there has been a particular method to explain it, to define it, and how to arrive at it. And what is the biggest unit of time? Of course, even bigger than that, but what is the biggest is what we call the life of Brahmā. You know, this life of Brahmā has been explained also in Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, but also in Bhagavad Gītā. The life of Brahma, let me first explain a kalpa, because in chapter 8 of Bhagavad Gītā, kalpa has been explained. A kalpa is a day of Brahma, one day of Brahma that is equal to 4.32 billion years. Is it 4.32 billion? Billion. 4.32 billion years. 4.32 billion years. Now, all this calculation of how it has been arrived is given—of course, in my book I have given that—but you can find it elsewhere. A könyvemben is megtalálható ez a számítás, de máshol is. This is a very scientific calculation given from 8.15 hundredths of a second up to 4.32 billion years. Ez egy nagyon tudományos számítás, amely a legkisebb időegységtől, az ezred másodperctől, megy egészen a milliárd évig. In one Kalpa, there are one thousand units of four Yugas. Egy Kalpa-ban ezer egység van, és mindegyikben négy Yugas. That is, we call them Satyug, Tretā-yug, Dvāpar-yug, and Kalyug. Kalyug is the smallest. Then Dwāpar is double of that. Treta is triple of that, and Satyug is four times that. So, one thousand cycles of these four yugas ultimately become 4.32 billion years. And if you multiply this by 100, but not only the day, also the night. So Brahmā has a day and a night. Megszózott százzal, de nem csak a napot, hanem az éjszakát is, mert Brahmának nappala és éjszakája úgy szintén van. Then we reach a figure called 311 trillion and 43 billion years. Akkor 300 trillion évet kapunk. That is the life of Brahmā. Ez Brahma élethossza. And that also has been described by Lord Kṛṣṇa as śanik, that it is nothing. Because the entire universe is eternal. So this is the definition of time, starting from the atomic time till 311 trillion and 43 billion years. Even then they say it is scenic. It is just nothing. I'm giving you a few examples of the depth of the science contained in these scriptures. Now, you will not believe, but if you see, I think it's the third part of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa. I don't remember the number of the chapter. But it mentions how a child develops in the womb of a mother from day one. In fact, in the Garuḍa Purāṇa, chapter 15 explains how a conception takes place. Actually, from the 4th day of the menstrual cycle up to the 16th day, conception can happen. And then this Bhagavad Purāṇa explains what happens on the first night when the conception happens, what happens on the second night, when the eyes are formed, when the legs are formed, when the hands are formed. All this has been explained in such graphic detail that no science can compete with it. If you remember, in the 16th century, the scientists in Europe said the life of the Earth was 6,000 years, and it was the center of the system. The sun rolled around the Earth. And now they are coming around to what? They say that the life of the Earth could be 4.3 billion years, which is actually a kalpa, because at the end of the kalpa, life comes to an end when the night of Brahmā begins, and then the new life starts only on the next day of Brahmā. Mert egy kalpa végén vége van az életnek, és akkor a Brahmā éjszakája kezdődik, és a Brahmā új napján kezdődik ismét az élet. Ez egy nagyon alapvető tudás, és ezt el se tudjuk képzelni a modern tudományjal. Hadd adjak másik példát. Miért van öt ujj a kezünkön? Will you tell me why? Why not six? Why not seven? Why not two? You see, the science of creation of this universe is a great science. It's a mathematics, precise mathematics. Like you have a car engine, if it is not made with perfection and there's a slight mistake. It will break down. So, if you have such a huge universe with billions of stars, galaxies, planets, satellites, and millions of lives, if there is some mistake, then it will break down anytime. It has to be precise. It has to be totally mathematical. And that is why the number five is important in creation. But remember, the creation doesn't mean that God is sitting there and is creating. No, it's not that concept. God is everywhere in this universe. The Vedic writings say that the first śloka of Īśāvāsya Upaniṣad says, "Īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvaṁ," that I am everywhere, I am my nivās, that I am living in every particle of this universe. So God is not sitting anywhere; he is everywhere. Every single particle of this universe is God. It has its own signs. But why is five important? Let me explain this. You see, there are, we call them pañca tattva, that is, five big elements in the creation. From the nature, we call it prakṛti. From prakṛti, the five major elements were created. The first element is called ākāśa. That is, you can call it ether or space. Second is called air or vāyu in Sanskrit, vāyu or air. The third is called fire, or you can call it energy or agni. The fourth is called water, that is, you know, the liquids. And fifth is the earth, which is the solid. Everything physical in this universe, everything physical, is made with the combination of these five. Whether you take this sofa set, whether you take my body, whether you take this building, whether you take that bedsheet, whether you take that flag or a plant, everything is made with the combination of these five. And the science is that from subtle, they gradually become gross and gross. Everything originates from subtle and then becomes gross. So this ākāśa, which is the space from here to say, moon or sun or any other star, this is the most subtle of all creations. I won't go into this because this is a very powerful element of creation, but we don't have time to go into that. Now, from these five elements... The physical world is created, and then the life force comes from another element of the Almighty. There are two divisions of powers of the Almighty, of the Lord: one is called Parāśakti, another one is called Aparāśakti. Aparāśakti is the external energy which is reflected in these five elements and Parāśakti is the internal energy which provides life. Like my body is made of five elements, but the life which keeps it alive is Parāśakti, which comes from the internal energy. As soon as the internal energy goes away, the five elements cannot stay together; they deteriorate and they finish. So these two energies keep this entire physical universe alive and functioning. But you know, as I was telling you, the science of creation is much vaster than that and much deeper than that. Now, why do we have five senses? Five senses of perception, five senses of action. Then why do we have only five? Do you know the five senses of perception? They start with sound. That is the hearing, the sense of hearing, the sense of touch. Then the sense of sight, then the sense of taste. And sense of smell. You see, these five senses of a human being, or of animals as well, are directly connected to the five great elements of this universe. The five great elements: the first element is Ākāśa. Ākāśa is directly connected to the sense of hearing, sound. There is a direct connection between the two, all the sounds come from the Ākāśa and they come to our ears. The second sense of touch is connected to air. That is the second element of creation. When the air blows, you feel that sense of touch. The third sense of ours, that is sight, is connected to fire, the light, the sun. The sun is the visible symbol of fire. For example, when the sunlight goes away, we cannot see. Our sight goes away automatically. So this is directly connected to the sense of fire, to the element of fire. Then the fourth sense is the sense of taste. That is directly connected to water. All taste originates from water. All the taste. Water is tasteless, but every taste originates from water. If there is no element of water in something, there can be no taste. And then the fifth sense is the sense of smell. That is directly connected to the element of earth, the solids. All the smells originate from earth. You see all these trees, flowers, they come from the earth, they get a smell. The taste comes from water, the smell comes from the earth. So all the five elements of us are directly connected to the five elements of nature. So we are closely connected. There is an interconnection between us and physical nature. There is much more to that. There are also five types of prāṇic energy in our body which are again connected to the nature. But what I wanted to explain is that the number five is important in the overall running of this universe. It explains the mathematics of the universe. So let me give you a few more examples about the profoundness of Indian writings, ancient Indian writings. Let me talk about language. Anupurnā was with me when she brought me here today. We were talking a little bit about the language. You know, we take language for granted. But how does language originate? When you want to speak something, why do those particular words come to your mouth? There's a very profound science behind it. In the Sanskrit language, there are a total of 52, two alphabets and vowels put together. Out of them, 50 are more important. That is, there are 36 consonants and 14 vowels. There are two more vowels, actually sixteen vowels, but we can leave them for a while.

This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.

The text contains hyperlinks in bold to three authoritative books on yoga, written by humans, to clarify the context of the lecture:

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