Is Vedanta Only for Hindus?
Questioner: My name is Grant Holly. I live in Virginia in the United States. It’s an honor to speak with you today. I have watched many of your videos in the last few months.
Acharya Prashant: Welcome.
Questioner: Very good, it’s very good. My question is, Vedanta is from the Hindu religion and I myself grew up in a different faith, different religion. How can the teachings of Vedanta help me in my life?This is my question.
Acharya Prashant: No. First of all, please see that Vedanta is a philosophy and as far as the usually prevalent and practised Hindu religion is concerned, it actually draws very little from Vedanta, unfortunately. So, there’s the philosophy and then there is the religion. What we usually call as religion, has a God, has a messenger or a prophet, has a holy book, has a canon, has a set of commandments. Now, none of that applies to Vedanta. Vedanta is simple darshan , philosophy. So, in that sense it is universal.
How can a philosophy be exclusive to a religion? It’s almost like saying that because Nietzsche was a European and a German, therefore Indians cannot take from him. Or because Schopenhauer or Sartre, they were Christians, even if not practising Christians, therefore a Hindu cannot learn from them. Philosophy is just exploration into the Truth. Even religion must have a philosophical base. The problem is that religions assume a baseless life of their own without being rooted in philosophy. So, philosophy is something that must give nourishment, rather survival, very survival to religion. But religions usually don’t take anything from philosophy.
If you look at the way most major religions of the world are practised, you would be at loss to find any philosophical foundation. A person is doing such and such things, you ask him, “Why are you doing that thing?” He will say, “Oh, because I am a Christian, or a Muslim, or a Buddhist, or a Hindu, or something.” And you say, “No, all that is all right. That’s a part of your tradition or your religious identity, but what really is the thought, or understanding, or philosophy beneath your action?” And he will have usually no answer. So, Vedanta is a philosophy, and philosophy is for everybody, right?
So, Marx had a philosophy, one did not say that he was born a Jew therefore the others will not look at that philosophy, or that he lived a religion less life, therefore those who practise religion cannot admire Marx. It begins with ‘I’ and it does not matter whether I am an agnostic, an atheist, a Hindu, a Christian. How does it matter? Don’t I say ‘I’ if I’m an atheist? “I am an atheist,” even that begins with ‘I’. “I hate Vedanta,” even that begins with ‘I’. “I am a Hindu,” “I am a Christian,” that begins with ‘I’. Vedanta explores that very ‘I’.
So, all that is okay. It does not have anything that one must believe in. Vedanta is not a belief system at all. Vedanta wants the Truth, not imaginations, not beliefs. In fact, you would be curiously happy to know that God as such has no place in Vedanta. Even 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.”
So, Vedanta says, “There is me, there is the world and I find that I keep getting deceived and wounded so frequently. And I have a proof, my inner situation is the proof that there is something wrong with my existence and my relationship with the world. So, 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.” That’s Vedanta.
What does that have to do with any kind of theology? It is not a belief system, it does not say you have to follow these rules or commandments, it does not say that you have to celebrate these festivals, it does not say you have to marry like that or you have to be cremated like that; there’s nothing of that kind here.
People often come and say, “You know, does Vedanta allow this?” Well, Vedanta does not allow anything, it does not disallow anything, all it says is, “Look into yourself.” Now, 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, because we all exist as human beings, right?
Vedanta is saying, “You are a human being and you are not well. Can you please inquire into why you are not well?” Vedanta does not say, “You have to keep a beard, or you have to shave your head, or you have to treat women this way.” No, none of that. You decide these things on your own, Vedanta has absolutely nothing at all to say on these matters. “Do I go to a church?” “Do I go to a temple?” “Do I not go to any place at all?” “Should I have kids?” “Should I marry?” Vedanta has no advice to offer on these things.
It addresses only the core question of existence: Who am I? And why am I the way I am? And how do I get rid of my miserable state? Simple. “What do I wear?” “When do I fast?” “How do I celebrate my festivals?” Not interested.
Questioner: I do have one more question. I am a referee of sports, an umpire. How not focusing on winning the game, the making of the goals will help a player to play his best? Because 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, get to that result.
Acharya Prashant: What the Gita is saying is, “Do not focus on what the result has for ‘you’.” You can focus on the result, but the Gita advises you to not focus on what the result has for ‘you’. These are two very different things. The Gita is usually misinterpreted.
The Gita says, “Desireless action,” and all desires are for oneself, right? I desire for myself. So, 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, be it tennis, or soccer, or whatever. But you need not think about what the result would do to you.”
Obviously, in tennis if I am two sets behind, I have to calibrate my strategy accordingly, right? If I have already faulted on the first serve, I cannot forget that. The second serve has to be different from the first serve. So, I can think of the result, but I need not think of what would happen to me in case of a particular result.
So, what the Gita is saying is, “You should be so strong within that the result should have no impact on you.” That’s very different from saying do not think of the result. You can think of the result and then you say, “Whatever the result is, I don’t mind, I am able to take everything. But yes, I am striving for a win definitely. But irrespective of whether I win or lose, something within me will remain untouched and unmoved.” That’s the message of the Gita.
Go fight. Fight as hard as you must. If you are playing, play to win. But the core of your existence must not be touched by the win. And if the core of your existence remains untouched by the win, it will also remain untouched by the defeat. Give everything that you have to the game, obviously, you must want to win. But just the center, just the center, that one little untouchable point must be there. And if that is there, you will never be afraid. Are you getting it?
It’s not that you must not focus on the result, do not focus on what the result will do to you. Yes, I want to win. Yes, the game must be won but that will not make me a winner. I will remain who I am, I am already a winner. In some sense, irrespective of the result of the game, I am already a winner yet I am fighting to win ‘the game’. I am fighting to win the game. I am not fighting to be a winner. The winner I already am. That’s the Gita.
Questioner: Thank you Sir!
Acharya Prashant: Welcome, most welcome.
