It is a great pleasure for me every year
to come back
and to see
NIIT growing before my eyes
It is a Greenfield University
there was nothing here to begin with
and
I have seen it grow
over the last decade
into one of the most beautiful campuses
is getting greener every time I come
It is getting fresh
and particularly coming from Delhi
it is a great relief
to be able to breathe at least
because Delhi now
you know
the latest catchword is
who comes to Delhi so lovely here
only don’t drink the water and don’t breath the air
So you know
Delhi is becoming an impossible place
and it is so nice to drive here
and to see this and what
Raji has just told us
about the way that this university
is growing day by day
and the new dimensions that are
being added
both environmental
and
professional
So, I would like
the outset congratulate Raji you
Prof Rao your whole team
the faculties, the students
for this growth
and
for how the NU
has grown into
a
full fledge university
beginning to give honorary degrees
and the 100% placement I thought as well is
extremely impressive
because one of our problems is
we have large number of students, but we don’t have
anything from them to do
therefore
the university like this
a technical university in a way
but which has added humanities
which can
promote
young people from here
to get into
creative activity, I think that is tremendously important
because there is nothing more
depressing more
irritating then
having educated people hanging around
and not knowing what to do
this is one of our major problem
I think that when you talk about the future of India
we have to sort just our educational structure
as to be able to
prepare
young men and women
to get into some kind of creative jobs
perhaps not all at this level
even at the other levels
we need more and more, for example
it’s now clear that
Europe is aging
Japan is aging, they don’t have people there
to look after the elderly
Now, we produce
thousands and thousands of nurses for example
attendants
why cannot we organize programs
whereby 10s and 1000s of Indians go abroad
go not only to the Gulf
where they are already going
but to the countries that are aging
because
the Indians are generally welcomed
then other communities are not so much welcomed
as the Indians are
So if we somehow the other
try and workout
a proper placement
abroad also
like our nurses all go to Kerala
I’m sure just the other day I met somebody
from Japan who said that now
we just do not have enough people
to look after our elderly people
People are aging
young people do not want to look after them,
there are not enough of them
So this is just one example of how
our educational structure can be
reoriented
towards this and I’m very impressed that
you are able to
have 100% placement, I think that is really
very good
Now, the topic given to me today
'The Growing Relevance of Vedanta'
let me say.. that we
live in the age of great
turmoil, tumult and transition
with the old collapsing
and the new struggling to be born
and we find ourselves precariously poised
between the disappearing past
and an uncertain future
All over the world, it’s not only India
the whole structure of the human
race is beginning to change
of course largely
because of technology
but also because of the
very skewed
income and
power structures around the world
So, lots and lots of tensions are growing
and at a time like this
we need face impetus
And we look into our scriptures
not in order to go back, I want to
stress
because people talk of golden ages
whether they are golden or not I’m not sure
they may be in golden for a small group
of people, not for everybody
we got to see what we can gain
for us today
how did it help us today
because any scripture
that is merely archiver
then becomes interesting for
PhD scholars and so on they have no
immediate relevance or impact
I hold
that Vedanta and I will come and explain
what Vedanta is
is something which
has great relevance today
Let me say, in Hinduism you have whole
richness of scriptures, there
are so many scriptures
then it has extraordinary
size of the
scriptural corpus
But among them the Vedas
are considered to be the supreme wisdom
If you were to compare the Vedas
to the Himalayas
when you fly for example, from here to
Calcutta you fly parallel to the Himalayas
If the Vedas are the Himalayas
then those great peaks
that you see
they are the Upanishads
The Upanishads are the essence of
the wisdom of the Vedas
they are known as the Vedanta
because they come at the
end of the Vedic collection
and also because they are [samam bonam]
of the Vedic structures
So whereas the Vedas has
the beautiful ‘hims’
it is in the Upanishads
that you find the
supreme wisdom
and the Upanishads are dialogues
please remember
that the indic religions are dialogic religions
the ibrahimovic religions are
revelatory religions there is a revolution
It is there take it or don’t take it
but the indic religions are dialogues
the Upanishads are dialogues, sharp questions between teachers
The Buddha dialogue with his
followers for 50 years he worked up and down
North India. Mahavira did the same
So Upanishads are dialogues
between
a Rishi
a man who has achieved a spiritual realisation
and one or more students
and they are sitting
in the Himalayas or somewhere
either on the banks of a river
or in a mountain ashram
and they are talking about the ultimate problems
who are we where we come from
what is the meaning of life
and where are we going
So that is what the Upanishads are you must remember
they are these very exquisite dialogues
they are the large numbers
 I’m not going into the details
but there are 11 major Upanishads
and I suggest that
many people shy away from the Upanishads
because they think they are very difficult
they are no in fact
the Upanishads are in fact much
clearer than the Bhagavad Gita,
Bhagavad Gita is a more complicated text
The Upanishads in fact are the direct realisation
The word Upanishad has two meanings
Upanishad can mean either sitting around
I’m sitting here and 4-5 people it becomes an
Upanishad sitting around
and Upanishad also means the secret teaching
a teaching which is to be given only
at that stage to the students
In the Upanishads
we meet a large number of very interesting teachers
and very interesting students
because the students are as important as the teachers
the questions that are asked
asked really bring forth the wisdom
for example there is a question in the Mundaka Upanishad
where Saunaka
wealthy householder goes to the rishi
and says
what is that by knowing which
everything becomes known?
kasmin nu bhagavo vijñāte sarvam
idaṁ vijñātam bhavati iti
What a remarkable question?
What is it by knowing which everything
becomes known?
So the guru answers, there
are two kinds of wisdom
there is a higher knowledge
and the lower knowledge
and the lower knowledge is what
we called the knowledge of the
hundred thousand things you know around us
it is a higher knowledge,
the knowledge of the divine
that really is. So, these are
the sorts of questions that come
Nachiketa asks yama why do we die
what happens after we die
You are the god of death
you tell me what happens
So you know these sort of questions
you don’t – you wouldn’t
find these sort of questions
I don’t think in the many other scriptures
The fundamental questions
And they are full wisdom and all but
I’ll just try and
explain very briefly
the few savinal concepts about the Vedanta
The first concept as the
young lady mentioned
who was introducing
she almost made my speech by the way
the first is the concept, the important concept
of the unity of all existence
what is known as a Brahman
this magnificent universe
and again mark
but the billions and billions of galaxies
in the unbounded universe surround us
Our rishis realised
 “anant koti brahmand” if you look at
 one galaxy as a brahmand
because it looks bit like a egg if
you look at the photo of a galaxy
“anant koti brahmand”
infinite millions of galaxies
when you talk of science
today, it is only now
in our own life times
that we began to see through
various technological measures
what universe is like
So we are ready to accept
the universe, something that shocks us
no, no what are they saying
some people gets shocked. We are not,
we are not we are quite happy with it
In fact, the more deeper
they go into the universe
so we talk of this huge universe
And another one, the universe which is anadi anant
without beginning and without end which
is the motto that I gave you here
They even talk about swayambhu, a self created universe
perhaps you do not need creator
that’s now they are coming around
the universe is created itself
so these sort of astounding concepts
which are now beginning to astound us now
are to be found in the concept
of the old pervasive Brahman
Huge number of galaxies
and time, vast aeons of time
I remember in some sociologist
there were heated discussions
as to whether god created the world in 2000 BC
or in 7000 BC
heated discussions and all
We’ve realized that
something has gone back
millions and millions of years
So the whole concept of infinite space
and infinite time
which are now beginning to grass
these are
found in the concept of the Brahman all pervasive Brahman
So that is the first basic concept
today quantum mechanics or whatever
is beginning to probe into it
Then the second concept is of the Atman
the Atman is the spark
of that divine within each one of us
that’s very important
and with each one of us
not with any particular cast or
any creed or any – with everyone
isvarah sarva-bhutanam
hrd-dese 'rjuna tisthati
The lord resides in the heart of all beings
Just look at the glory of that idea
we say this is our clan
this is our – those people are
unbelievable those people are the
the Upanishads Rishi said no
every individual, everywhere, every individual
has a spark of the divine, the Atman
So you have the all pervasive Brahman
you have the divinity
inherent in each human being
the Atman. And joining these two
is the real goal of life
Joining the Brahman and the Atman
The process of joining and the methodology
of joining is known as the yoga
yoga comes from the same root
as the English word to yoke
to join
Yoga is the methodology
and the philosophy of joining
the Atman and the Brahman
And there are four main parts of yoga
because Yoga now is reduced only
to some physical – that’s fine
I mean if you are going to stand
on our heads congratulations
I can’t
and I don’t believe that
standing on your head
is a condition precedent
for spiritual illumination
But nonetheless, so
let me come to the some aspects of yoga
the first is a Gyan yoga
the way of the mind
the discrimination between
the real and the unreal
like Plato for example in the west
contemplating
trying to purify, clarify your mind
trying to meditate
and trying to get to the core
of what there is within you
that is gyan yoga, reading the scriptures
discussing, talking with gurus and all
So the gyan yoga is a way of wisdom
the way of the mind and that is
one of the important ways of
realising the unity between
the Atman and the Brahman
The second part is
the bhakti yoga
which is the way of the heart
Bhakti yoga is the way of the heart
where unless your emotion flows
along with your intellect
you will not be able to
move on the spiritual path
You need to fall in love
with god, like Mansoor
fell in love with god
or Rumi was in love with God
or St. John on the cross
was in love with god
Mother Teresa
was in love with god
or the Nayanmars in Tamil
Nadu were in love with Shiva
or aaryavas in love with Vishnu
or Meera or Tulsi, the bhakti
the bhakti is heart
or the great Vaishnav tradition
from Odisha
all of these are the bhakti yoga
that is why you have this
variety many people are astounded
bhai itne devi devata kaise hai aapke
the reason is
different forms may appeal
to different people
I happened to be worshiping Shiva,
somebody else may be worshiping Vishnu
and you can even worship without any form
you can just look inwards, the gyan yoga
and concentrate on a flame there you are
but bhakti yoga is an important way
devotion
if you see for example
Hazrat Nizamuddin
Amir Khusrow
and the way these bhajans
and there is love for the
guru, you can fall in love
with the guru, you can fall
in love with the divine
So that the heart has to open
and that is one of the
ways in which you can
unify the inner and the outer
So you have the gyan yoga,
the way of the mind
there was a bhakti yoga,
the way of the heart
Then you have the karm yoga
the way of the arms, the way of action
Karm yoga is not just any karma, everybody
is doing some action or the other
but karm yoga is action
dedicated to the divine
there is a verse in the Gita
that divine power
that pervasive universe
if we can worship it through our Karma
So karm yoga is also an important
thing because there were some view
that Vedanta only means
going off into the Himalayas
and sitting in an ashram and meditating
that is one of the ways
there are some ashrams still left
but they are also, the whole
air in Himalayas is getting
polluted, now the way we are doing it
So the karm yoga is very important
karm yoga is the way
way of Mary was the way of contemplation
the way of Martha was a way of action
or the way we shall see
of Swami Vivekananda
or the way of Mother Teresa
serving the poor
helping the poor helping
the people who are unwell
really you know that
service
is karma yoga
and we believe
that by karm yoga also
if you are really devoted
let me tell you a story of the
greatest emperor probably in India is the
Thanjavur Brihadeeswara
temple, in Thanjavur
and it was being built by Raja Raja Chola
a 1000 years ago
when he went out to inspect the work
and he came across a man
who was cutting stone he said
what are you doing, he
said sir I’m cutting stone
He went little further there was
another man doing the same thing
he asked what are you doing
said I’m earning a living
he went to the third man
who was doing exactly the same thing
said what are you doing
he said sir I’m building a great temple
It depends on what attitude
is yours,the first was tamasik
 he was just
mechanically cutting
the second one was rajasik,
atleast he had some goals
the third one
realised
that what he was doing
was part of a great enterprise
and a karm yoga is only
if you are involved
with some great enterprise
of serving humanity
serving your fellow beings,
there is so much poverty
in this world, in our own country
millions of children go to
bed without a full meal
The millions who shiver in the winter
who sweat in the summer
who are drenched in the monsoon
who don’t have any place to live
So, it's all very fine to talk of high
and mighty philosophy but unless
you're doing something to help
what is your Karma Yoga,
you've got to do something
So, you have Gyan Yoga,
the way of the mind
you got Bhakti Yoga,
the way of the heart
you have Karma Yoga, the way of the arms
and we have Raja Yoga,
the way of the breath
I breathe, therefore I am
Not really I think therefore I am
I breathe therefore I am.
Breathing is the most
fundamental thing that everybody does
from even before birth
and
we believe
that in our breath
or in our own body
there are powers
there are possibilities
that can be properly organized
that within our own body
we have the power and the
glory and the wisdom
to be able to directly confront the divine
Where is I am not going into all
the various types of Pranayama
and various things in all
there are many types, there are many Guru`s
there are lots of good Guru's
but there are a lots of
fraud Guru's also, you better be careful
The frauds are all behind bars,
most of them are behind bars now
But gradually
but that doesn’t mean
all Gurus are like that
So, you see you have these four.
Look at the integrated nature
of the philosophy
It deals with the intellectual
 the emotional
the physical
and the psychic
the dimension of the human body
And you've got to participate in all four
by the way, they are not mutually exclusive
In this day and age
my view is that we have to participate
in some way or the other
in all the four yoga's. We have do some
intellectual study, meditation
we got to do some devotion in whatever
appeals to us
we got to do some creative
work dedicated to the divine
and we've got to try and see
what we can do with our
inner breath in our life
So, those are the four parts
of joining the Brahman and the Atman
That's one part of what I want to say today
Now, I'll come to three other
concepts which are in our
Shastra's mainly in the Upanishads
which again are becoming more and more.
These four as I said
are relevant parts, they are
not parts that are irrelevant
The four Yoga's
are relevant to us today we can
use them, we have to use them
Therefore the emerging relevance
of the Vedanta
Now, I'll come to three other concepts
The first remarkable concept
of the world as a family
"Ayaṃ nijaḥ paro veti gaṇana laghucetasam,
udaracaritanaṃ tuvasudhaiva kuṭumbakam."
This is mine that is yours
is a small and narrow way
of looking at the world
"Udaracaritanam," for those of the higher consciousness
"Vasudaiva kutumbakam," the
world itself is a family
Just look at these people sitting
in the Himalayas
alone it was seen
how they had the capacity
to have these sort of concepts
not only infinite time, infinite space
not only the whole potential of development
This thing, the world as a family
Now
we are very far from a family
as you know today the world
is totally
fractured and fragmented
But in the ultimate analysis
when nationalisms would
have been transcended
unless we come finally to
the conclusion that the
human race is one, we are
going to destroy ourselves
Which is why Arthur Koestler
the European philosopher
he has a theory
that man is a programmed
creature for self-destruction
See, there is not an adequate
link in the human cortex
between the thinking and
the acting principle
Therefore we are bound sooner
or later to blow ourselves up
or to destroy the environment to
such an extent that we can't live
I think that is coming through now
the way things are going
with all our technical
development and everything
I think the human race
is in greater danger today
as a race than it ever was before
Because of globalization,
globalization of technology
globalization of the weapons
of mass destruction
and globalization of
environmental destruction
So, the world is a family
may seem a very
idealistic and farfetched concept
but it is ultimately I think
a concept that we have to do
When what Tennyson calls
"The parliament of man, the
federation of the world."
We certainly are moving towards that
The end of the last century
we saw that we were moving
towards globalization
because you know things were developing
But then we were hit
by two black swan events
I don’t know how many of you here know
what a black swan event is. I'm not
going to ask you to raise your hands
A black swan event
is a book called the black
swan, where black swan event
is an entirely unexpected event
with momentous consequences
That's a black swan event. It comes out as
because very interesting, everybody said no
swans are always white
and it says no, I've seen a black swan there's a black swan somewhere
And suddenly a black swan appears
and everybody is astounded
So, black swan event defined
as an entirely unexpected event
with momentous consequences
And we will hit in this decade
by two such black swan event. One is Brexit
Who would have thought that the British
Gandhiji called the Nation of Shopkeepers
who's supposed to be very sensible and all
who would have thought they
would suddenly commit suicide
by opting
for leaving Brexit without
knowing what they implies
that poor Theresa May I must say
she deserves a couple of prayers from us
everybody is resigning.
the whole thing is in a chaos
The European Union is in a chaos
and Britain is in a chaos So,
that is totally unexpected
Why did Cameron offer
referendum, we needn’t have
He's over clever, never
thinking that he'd lose
he needn’t have done that
referendum, remember that
Everybody forgets Cameron
Cameron was the asli muljim. He was
the one who started this whole thing
and got caught
So, now they don’t know what to do
Na wo nikal paye, no wo raha
par rahe, this is a terrible
so that is a black swan event
suddenly everything
And the second black
swan event of course was
the election of President Trump
Who would have thought
that the oldest democracy in the world
and the greatest nation in the
world in the land of the free
and the land of democracy and
the land of liberty would elect
a man like this? I'm not going to go into
it further details, it's self-evident
So, these two events between them
have shattered the movement
towards globalization
The Paris agreement which was
such an extraordinary event
this man has just withdrawn
from the Paris agreement
And do you know what the
implications of withdrawing
from the Paris agreement
on the human environmental
that is definitely
ensuring
environmental destruction
He's shattered the alliances
he goes around cancelling treaties
and telling people who
his treaties "You're a fool
you're a bad man" and
how could you say that
for God's sake you don’t say that
and that’s what he says
So, this is a
black swan event
These two black swan event was double
between them the whole
movement was globalization
is wobbly
But anyhow what brings me to this
is concept of the world as a family
At some point in time, I submit
that we either blow
ourselves up more likely
or we come around
to the concept of the world as a family
Then another concept
really big tremendously important
“Ekam Sat Vipra Bahudha Vadanti,"
four little words. The truth is one
the wise call it by many names
The essential unity of all religions
What a remarkable concept
We do not say no ours is the only way
Whoever is moving in their own way
towards the divine is to be welcomed
because the divine
cannot be
confined within a single
avatar or a single synergism
How can we do that if the
divine is the divine
there are billions and billions
of galaxies, God knows
where the divine had descended,
in what form what way
Who are we
creatures on a tiny speck of dust
to turn around and say no
mine is the only way
way to salvation
and if you don’t go my way
you'll boil in oil or you'll
suffer in I don’t know whatever
is something terrible will happen
We can't say that
We're not qualified to say that
I can say yes for me my path is the best
I am quite happy in that path
but I cannot say that because
you don’t follow that path
you can be blown up or you can be
decapitated or tousled, you can't say that
and that is what is happening.
The religion which is supposed
"relegere" as a word relegere
means to bring together
Religion which is supposed
to bring people together
has become
one of the main causes of disaster
in the world today; look around you
look at the fanaticism, the fundamentalism
that has grown in almost all
the religions of the world
the chaos that it has created
why because I think that my way is
the best and you must follow it
and let everybody follow
their own path for god sake
if you believe in the divine
As rivers and streams
arise in different parts
of the caliber, finally
flow in the same ocean
so do all the great
religions, all the mutts
all the paths arise differently
Hinduism was born in the
mountain of Himalaya
Islam was born in the
burning desert sands
of Arabia more differently
but ultimately all religions if they are
genuine have to go into the same stream
but you cannot have different
divinities for each religion
how many divinities are you going to have?
If there is by definition I’m going
into, some people don't believe
in divinity at all that’s
a different matter
fair enough that’s also one form of truth.
If you do believe in some higher path
you are going to divide into
Therefore this concept
or this essential unity of all religions
is a tremendous important conscious
we just had 7th parliament of
the world religions in Toronto
earlier this month
It started if you remember 1893
the first parliament of world religions
in Chicago
which was where Swami Vivekananda made
such a dramatic impact, many of
you must have read about that
and about his great speech that
he had made in the opening
1893 was the first
then in the last century many
interfaith organization grew up
I’m heading one of them called The
Temple of Understanding India Foundation
And then in 1993, the
Chicago group said let’s
restart the parliament
so the first
parliament after that was held in
Chicago in 1993 exactly a 100 years later
then the second was held in Cape Town, South Africa
the third was held in
Barcelona then one was held in Melbourne,
one was held in Salt Lake City
and Toronto is the 7th visited state
these are the interfaith movements
striving to bring people from
different religious faiths together
not Shastra, the Shastra is meant to prove
the superiority of one
philosophy
that’s not it, simply try to understand
to understand at least
the basic, unfortunately
because we are so terrified
of talking of religion
our educational system
has totally boycotted any spiritual truths
So, you can do a whole course
from prekindergarten to post PhD in India
without once even hearing
that the Upanishads exists
while it’s reading them
So, this is the problem, we have thrown
the baby out along with the bathwater
So, that’s the problem with our religion
With the concept
I’m talking about Vedantic concept
essential unity of all religions
these are becoming increasingly relevant
because we have seen that religious
was which we thought were over
have restarted, look at what has happened
in West Asia, they have destroyed
Iraq, they have destroyed Syria
they have destroyed
country-after-country there
So, this is and the last
point which I want to make
which I think is also increasing relevant
the welfare of the many
the happiness of the many
There’s a beautiful quote
all beings be happy
all beings be free of illness
that all beings witness beautiful sites
may no one have to suffer
Is there a better definition
of socialism I ask you
Do we have Marxism socialism
they killed billions of people
that is their socialism
China 3 crore people suffered
in the big leap forward
Stalin starved 3 crore people to death
that is not socialism
this is a spiritual idea, they all
being – the welfare of all benefit
that is what we are all about
that’s what every political
party says it’s going to do
So, unless we have that concept in our mind
unto this last- that John Ruskin says
that everybody must be
this involves our health customer, because
I’m not going into the
technology bit, I’m simply
going with the ideas
So, what I have told you
today is first of all
the concept of the Brahman,
the all pervasive Brahman
infinite space, infinite time
the concept of ataman
the Brahman
reflection of the spark of
Brahman in each individual
the fourfold path of yoga to join them
the Gyan yoga, the Bakhti yoga,
the Karma yoga and the Raja yoga
the concept of the world is a family
the concept of essential
unity of all religions
and the concept of the welfare
of the many happens to many
I would submit these concepts
today are even more relevant that they
were when they were originally articulated
because at that time they were just sitting
in small ashram, they couldn’t do it
today we have become global
technology has given us
the tools
to try and achieve some of these goals
So, that to my mind
is what Vedanta teaches us and ultimately
I would urge
that above all
of us must be on some
kind of a spiritual path
whatever you prefer, whatever you
like, whatever your profession
don’t just skim move the surface of life
I know so many people, they’ve been
skimming across the world surface
without once looking deep within
and before you know life has passed
gone, you are finished
life is not a meaningful journey
from the womb to the tomb
life is an extraordinary opportunity
for a spiritual intellectual adventure
and I would like all of you
particularly the young people
to have their sense of adventure
The fact that you are
born as human beings
the fact to you have your mind, your
brain, you can think, you can act
you can try and go deeper
into consciousness
that is the cutting edge of
science today as you know
that it’s consciousness research
the mind-brain relationship
you can map the brain and what happens
in high states of consciousness
so do have a path
it’s not easy
Let me tell you, the path is difficult
but we have to go across that path
And, I will end
quotation from the cut Upanishad
it’s a very famous quotation
it exhorts us
to awake and arise
and to walk across erased path
towards our goal
and our goal is a new consciousness
a new India, a new world
