Subhash Chandra Bose, Swami Vivekananda, and Gita || Acharya Prashant, at DTU (2023)

Questioner (Q): Pranam, Acharya Ji. I am an alumnus of this college (DTU), currently studying at IIT-Delhi. So, today is Subhash Chandra Bose Jayanti and as we know, at the young age of fifteen, he read the biography of Swami Vivekananda, and subsequently, he read the teachings of Ramakrishna Paramhansa and the Upanishads. And this part of his life is not known mostly.

Apart from being a revolutionary, we also know that Bhagavad Gita's teachings were inspirational for him and had a special impact on his life. So, my question is, how the youth of today can be brought closer to the scriptures so that we can have more revolutionaries like him with a deeper understanding of life?

Acharya Prashant (AP): See, there is no revolution possible without the Gita. We have a lot of self-declared, self-appointed micro rebels these days.

Everybody wants to be seen as a firebrand rebel in his own right. But there is no revolution possible without the Gita. And when I say Gita, I do not mean a particular book or a particular scripture. By Gita, I mean a particular class of wisdom literature. So, to me, the Upanishads are Gita.

And anyway, even if you just say Gita, there are at least two dozen Gitas that just I would have spoken on, and most of them are truly remarkable. So, when I say Gita, that would also mean, let's say, the words of Ramana Maharshi or the discourses of Jiddu Krishnamurti. There is no revolution possible without the Gita. Now, you know what I mean by the Gita. Yes, something that uplifts your consciousness, Chetana , from its Prakritik slavery to liberation.

Please pay attention; this is very important. I'm glad this question came up. So, your default condition at birth and in life is one of slavery. We do not realize that. In fact, it took the West very long to realize that. Otherwise, the West kept saying, "Man is born free but is found in chains everywhere." Who was that who said this? — Rousseau. No, we are not born free. Birth itself is slavery. Birth itself is bondage.

Have you seen a stillborn baby? Does it have any knowledge, any realization? Is it independent of its body? Is it free of fear or of temptation? Can it control its impulses? So, when you are born, you are already a slave. In the moment of conception itself, in the mother's womb, it is slavery that is conceived. So, liberation has to be attained. And because that slavery is so fundamental to this body, therefore, a great revolution is needed and that revolution can come only from the Gita.

By implication, if there is no Gita in your education, you are condemning yourself to lifelong slavery. How exciting! How exciting! And that's the reason why even those who are not remembered particularly for their spiritual inclination, people like Subhash Chandra Bose, even they founded their core on Gita.

When you think of the armed revolutionaries — Rajguru, Sukhdev, even Bhagat Singh, you do not think of them as particularly spiritual people, do you? You think of them as young, dashing, firebrands with guns in their hand. What is not shown to you is that they also had the Gita in their hand. And some part of that propaganda has been deliberate.

For example, we are told that Bhagat Singh was a diehard atheist. And the title of one of his books is often quoted. But if you really go into his life, a very short lifespan he had of twenty-three years, you will find he was a voracious reader, and he had a great love for spiritual scriptures as well. There is no revolution possible without the Gita. And if you are someone who thinks of the Gita as something old-fashioned and this and that, I won't even wish luck to you. No point wishing luck to you. Even luck cannot save you. Finished. Game up.

It's therefore very important to read on your own about the people in the world who have contributed in remarkable ways. Those people can be counted on fingertips, but they are the ones who have made life worth living. And if you go into the details of their lives, you will invariably find very strong spiritual imprints. It is impossible to be a great person in any field without being spiritual. And being spiritual is not about conforming to the images of spirituality — wearing particular colours, following traditions or superstitions, or rituals. No, spirituality is none of that. Spirituality is simply what our friend here referred to — an opening up of the mind, an awakening of consciousness. There is nothing esoteric, nothing mystical in it.

What we are having here is a spiritual process. It's much the same as any other classroom lecture. There can be a textbook, and there can be a syllabus. And this field deserves that. It's called the education of the self — knowing what your mind is like. It's close to psychology. It incorporates elements of neuroscience as well. But it has one thing that sciences do not want to touch — the urge of the ego for liberation.

Therefore, spirituality includes Love. Love of the highest order. The love of the ego for its liberated self, for its liberated state. That's not a state, but still. If you are somebody who wants to really be big in life, then you must realize that bigness is the prerogative of what the Upanishads call as Atman — " Atman anant asīm ." Not just big but infinite, limitless and boundaryless.

Bigness means nothing if it ends somewhere. If it is circumscribed by a boundary, then what is big to you will be small to someone else. It's just a matter of having a bigger boundary. So, bigness has a meaning only when bigness means infinity. And everything about your body, your mind, your thoughts and your material universe is simply finite. Therefore, bigness lies in being untouched by that which is small, meaning finite.

Can I just see that the hunger within me is not going to be satiated by anything that is limited? So, why waste my time running after these small things? Because I have already had enough of a run. Five years or ten years of experimentation is sufficient. Even two years suffices. And I have seen, irrespective of how much I have of what these materials have to offer, there is an internal clamour for more.

The world outside is innumerable. It can be put in numbers. Is there ever a number that is final? You can always add one more zero. And you just have ten per cent of what you had. Ten per cent is not something you can ever be satisfied with. And you were reduced to ten per cent just by the addition of a zero to what you have.

Therefore, the limited world is never going to satisfy you. And you deserve to be satisfied. You are not born to suffer. You are not born to remain restless. You are not born to keep feeling like a slave. Do you see how, when you talk of SC Bose, his quest for independence was actually a manifestation of his inner quest for liberation? Externally, politically, what was independence from the British yoke was internally, spiritually, liberation from the default condition of Prakritigat slavery.

Internally, I want to be liberated, and the result of that internal fire is my external action. Do you see this? If you cannot have that internal fire within, your external action will just be lukewarm. There'll be no fire, no dynamite in it. You'll be always afraid of death. What kind of revolution can you do if it's the body that's always at the top of your mind? You require a Gita to tell you that this (body) is perishable and would anyway go. Don't be too bothered about this. This is just a resource to be used. This is not a master to be served. You remain in That (infinite) which remains, whether this (body) remains or not. You require a Gita to remind you that there is something that never gets destroyed because it never gets created, and therefore, there is no need to be afraid.

It sounds so melodious when somebody says spontaneously, "na hanyate hanyamāne śharīre" , Let the body fall if it has to; I'll do what I have to. You see, it's not just about facing bullets, it's also about facing rejection and poverty and whatnot. Let's say, you want to start something great as a business venture. What stops you? I'll tell you. What stops you is the fear of failure. And if you go into this fear of failure, you will ultimately find that it is the body that you are afraid of. “What will happen to this body? What if I am pushed to the streets? What if there is no shelter over the head?” So ultimately, the war is against the body. Therefore, it is the body that you must put in its place, come on.

When it comes to the body, the Gita says, "Titikṣhasva" , endure or tolerate — no point raising a big hue and cry. And when it comes to the right action, the Gita says, "Yudhyasva" , fight — your job is to fight. And in the process of fighting, bear what you have to. Now, do you see the metal that a Boss is made of? —"Endure and fight." And you cannot say that if you are far removed from the Gita.

I said, “I won't even wish you luck if the Gita is not the core of your life.” And when I said “Gita,” I hope I made it clear that by Gita, I mean wisdom literature that pulls you up, that opens up the knots within. It could be the 'Srimad Bhagavad Gita' or any other book.

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