Om Hari hi Om, Shri Gurubhyo namah ! shree jail Jay Lakhani an excellent communicator of hinduism in Britain and director of the hindu academy the Vivekananda Center in London over the last 15 years Shree Lakhani has given talks on Hinduism to thousands of youngsters at English schools colleges and universities if you wish to get a glimpse of the modern dynamic face of Hinduism then do not miss this series of talks okay the session this morning is going to be on scriptures what are scriptures simply simple English scriptures are holy books every religion will have certain some books they call holy or sacred and we are going to study sacred texts or sacred books of the hindus today now why are scriptures important first question arises you see if you wanted to learn about religion the Hindu region will tell you the best people who can tell you about well you know those people who say we can experience God for ourselves they are the number one the best proponent of religion people who claim first-hand experience of God and there's a generic title with you these people that is she somebody you can see your experience core and this is essential this is the first port of call if you were to study about religion study your religion the first port of call should be rishi a person who is able to talk about religion from his own experience because he can give you first and knowledge of religion but Rishi's are difficult to get by you cannot find them easily you cannot be know look up your yellow pages in Syria our Rishi oh yes here or or wherever you know that tricky they're not easy to find and if they are there they may not you want to announce themselves they may be very keep themselves very aloof may not mix with you at all so difficult to find them the second place where we can you know second port of call should be the Scriptures what are scriptures now the Scriptures are if you like what the Rishi's tell us about God what the rishi is there to say about spiritual experience surely that's the second best thing we can fall back on because then we can learn exactly what these Rishi's talked about or taught maybe 500 years ago hundred years ago thousand years ago so get a whole mass of lovely literature about what the Rishi's have told us about the world in religion and God this is the second best place to find it learn about religion now see even though this seems like a straight for exercise it is not that simple let me just explain to you why the experience of the Rishi's are very dynamic and they come out when they talk about the religious experience it is almost like poetry so it sounds very grand and great but it's very poetic and very few people can understand this kind of very abstract poetry so even though the teachings are very grand and great you prefer to fall back on second-best the second best is not to just study what they are taught but actually study their lives their lives themselves are very exciting interests because their lives in a way reflect their teachings so the second best thing is okay the teachings about the spiritual experience this is high stuff they're failing that we can look at their own lives because their lives are the best lesson for rest of humanity so look at the lives of the Rishi's so the lives and teachings are great proponents of religion the prophets or the Rishi's is one of the best ways of acquiring religious knowledge so we accept that there's a second best of scriptures are crucial this is where the Scriptures are records or written records about what the Rishi's are taught or how they lived becomes very important now see this is just still very general classification the Hindu so now devised a method whereby they say there are some scriptures or some books of authority that requires special Signet there were special significance they are primary means most important primary texts and there are other texts which I think the Hindu say a secondary or of lower importance or less importance so the subdivided scriptures into two great portions and again let me tell you scriptures are very important holy books are very important because people to find people who are experienced in God are very difficult these people are very difficult to find they occur only once in a while so the next best thing the human beings can go oh man can't get relate to is of course the books of the scriptures the holy books are important there is one religion that paid a heavy price because the books were destroyed the books were overnight a madcap King in a drunkard drunkard drunker stupor decided to demolish or destroy born all the scripts of one particular religion a letter agent paid a heavy price and you know what what their religion what that religion needs or name of the religion the Zoroastrian religion the Parsee religion their scriptures were burned overnight by med cap King you will be surprised to hear the name of that great king or that madcap king he was scholar is called Alexander the Great he is nothing there is nothing great about a man who destroys their scriptures of a religion so in one night when he was drunk he has ordered all the scriptures all the temples of Saracen should be demolished and the Russian paid a heavy price because the lost most of the scriptures so they legs their ass and don't call Alexander the Great second are we saying in India their learning is great at all but anyway so scriptures are important now the Hindus ever said have divided the scriptures into two broad categories one category the excess of great importance primary are called Shruti scriptures Shruti the word Shruti comes from Sanskrit root of AX which means that which has been hard so what are they talking about how do you hear through these whether you can in deepest of meditation you acquire knowledge if you like you hear these marvellous teachings in the deepest of meditation that's why perhaps they're called shooties Oh perhaps they were called shooties because they were passed on by word of mouth for many thousands of years before they were written down but whatever the reason that called shruti's shruti's are the scriptures of authority of the hindus in this text are classified as the four Vedas from the Sanskrit root whether we the means to know so what are they talking about these are books of knowledge but what kind of knowledge are we talking about are we talking about say knowledge about biology or chemistry mathematics why they call it the books of knowledge the way there are books of knowledge of what of the nature of reality what is this all about remember when we started teaching Hinduism we said the name we give to our religion is not Hinduism at all real is called Dharma and Therma is trying to make sense of the world that we live in what is this all about I want to understand this world so we are trying to come to terms with the nature of reality what is this real thing in front of what is the nature of reality the right to English so the Vedas are not talking about say necessary labor below you can be they are talking about nature of reality knowledge about the nature of reality what is this all about that's why they call books of knowledge whether that gives us knowledge about what is this all about what is this what is this you want to understand that's why they call with us from the Sanskrit root Vida there are four with us that we are classified don't need to go into details for your GCSE but just let me give you some brief idea regarding what the Vedas are all about the most ancient way that's called the Rig Veda then Rig Veda set to musical called sama Veda then we are judge or whether which is more kind of linked with this idea of liturgy etc and finally we good atharvaveda not the four Vedas then you look at the text of the Vedas where how are they how are the way that's compiled let me give some brief just brief idea about the Vedas and how they are compiled you don't need to go into great detail the only portion the starting part of the Vedas normally the early books of the Vedas all the four Vedas are normally there's some heat apportion or hymns you say hymns what I would hymns are there you know how do these hymns of the way thus oh yes we do we never do religious ceremony suppose you're doing the rebirth ceremony marriage ceremony we're doing anyhow one etc the the hymns that the priests are singing are this hymns picked up from the same table some heat a proportion of the Vedas what are these hymns like let me ask you an idea the ancient man went Rohini was trying to make sense of the world he thought the best way to understand the world and come to grips with it is to personify it so for example today we are under the force of Varun you know this rain God so we are saying let us personify the forces of nature what are the force of nature like fire wind Sun etcetera so this is all these forces of natural force the VC around is less personify them let us then turn let us turn them into personalities so the wind God in the fire God and so on in the hymns are in a way dedication to these forces of nature in a personalized our so when you hear this in the hymns in the rig whether they would recite when you're doing pooja worship hewan etc they will be singing the glories of our own and in draw and hug me so that's why you keep hearing the word Baldwin and Indra and awed me but this is what they are doing the personified forces of nature being worship being adored why do you do that think about it the ancient man thought if I can keep these forces of nature under control and keep them in on my side then I'm safe let's try and build friendship with the forces of nature so the some hitha portion was basically just doing that and we are still using we are still you know caught up with that so we still use it in a mechanical manner without realizing what we are actually doing you are appeasing the forces of nature saying oh don't disturb us or wind and fire and be your friends other than our force that's what we are doing when you're doing the heaven and the Vives are--when and all that so these are the first part of the Vedas are the some heat apportioned the hymns dedicated to the forces of nature okay so you must know these things it's nice for you to know where it comes from and what is the significance why did we Hindus cannot get fixated on that this is the reason the ancient Hindu was trying to in a way control nature by appeasing nature praising the glories of nature of horses is understandable because modern man we have moved on now we don't need to do all that bobbing down to the force of electricity we put it in wires in light of our offices and rooms happily in Rome or workplaces this will be harnessed nature without singing the glories through science you've done the same thing so these are the first part of the Vedas are the hymn portion to some heat abortion the second part of the way those are the liturgy liturgy means very elaborate ritual you know when you do certain ceremonies they will ask you don't go around in this clockwise manner and then offer this flower and fruit and gray and gray into the fire so all the liturgy how you should do the heaven what should the altar look like what should the measurements what you should offer to the into the fire how we should offer it which end you should use this elaborate liturgy or ritual practice is the second portion of the Vedas deals with a karmic and the ritualistic portion it has got its own place so far the heart of Hinduism is we are still seeing the superficial aspects of in tourism in the way that is the end portion of the Vedas our code the Aaronic and they are our own it means things that were discovered in the forest through deep meditation this is where the heart of Hinduism is so if anybody says you know where do I learn Hinduism should I study I said if you study the hymns of the way they ask where we can press become a good pujari and do some religious ceremonies and charge money for it or something if you say should we do the liturgy well if you want to do the formal worship it will be useful if you want to heart of Hinduism dropping exciting philosophic heart of indu ISM you need to go to the Aaronic of the Vedas this is where most of the interesting stuff lies the end portion of the Vedas in these these particular gems of philosophic knowledge are contained in short kind of skin of little snippets scattered all over the four Vedas mostly in the RNA portion and they are called open each other the word opening each other means oopah means to come here and shudder means to destroy us out here he is telling me to come here he'll destroy me this is terrible I don't go near this open Ishod but really the meaning of open ition is very interesting he says Upanishad means come near I will destroy your delusion regarding the nature of reality what you think this world is not so there's something different you got a deluded world worldview you don't know exactly what this world is like what is this universe all about you want to know about nature of reality don't you I will teach that to you come near me I will destroy your delusion Shaddaa destroy the delusion regarding the nature of reality these are called the opening shells there are 108 opening shot so even perhaps more but this is what recorded most people do not really know read any of them but 10 or 11 of these are considered to be central very important in the more than Hindus will continue to you know understand those 10 or 11 opening or the key open issues of the Hindus some of the open issues are very tiny only 12 versus some 18 versus some huge but you know for your information this is the philosophic throbbing heart of Hinduism so if somebody says I want to understand religion Hinduism necessary only are you serious go to the opening shots and most of us have not got even a single copy of a single loop initially that time it will booklets 12 verses they can believe one a four sheet contains one open issue that that's simple but they are very powerful why they are powerful they are telling us about what happens when you experience God that's what they're talking about or experience spirit spirit means I am something special Atman and the spirit not what I think I am but what I actually am I actually experience Who I am truly am and that is a thrilling experience and when you try and give expression to it or try and you put it in words you struggle words are difficult you can't because you say I know it's sometimes you something fantastic said explain tell me what did you experience is why I can't tell you no disciple don't tell me no I can't really this is like this like that just a thrilling experience that defies simple classification or simple verbal explanation so you know what the Rishi's did how they present in this idea through poetry they never sat down and debated and put tables for you to follow they just flow or with poetry and you know why poetry are a powerful tool because poetry's have the ability or put it or giving if you are giving you an understanding on the depth of understanding of very difficult things we define normal words using words so this why poetry are very powerful because they are used using words are being used to express things which normally cannot be expressed through words that's what poetry is all about that's why people love poetry because somehow just a combination of words gives you a deeper understanding about everything if you look at each and every word there is nothing powerful but when you put them in that particular group they become poetic they give you deeper understanding about nature of reality they transcend words that's why poetry a very path that's why the opening should always poetic can ever argumentative debate with you discuss with what is good they don't do that they fly off if you experience God suppose you get a thrilling experience what comes out of your mouth will be so poetic naturally you don't need to go into a school and learn how to do poetry will flow from you because you're trying to give expression to a very powerful experience in the moment you open your mouth wonderful stuff will come out so the ancient and modern Rishi's of India have you an expression to their spiritual experience through the open he shirts I told you what the meaning of the open each of these come near I destroy the illusion regarding the nature of reality I tell you what this is truly all about who you truly are that is what open issues are this is the throbbing heart of the Hindu religion is that most English have not even heard of the word open issue let alone read one and you see the thing is you might say when it gets heavy are we lost have you lost out no they will travel so what we have is this we've got one text that incorporates all this 108 upanishads and ties it all together one text contains oh they feel like the done the Jews of old open ishes the heart of all the open e shirts and that the Hindus know that scripture the Hindus are aware of and they use it in every home you should find it the one that kind of takes if you like that's the central teachings of all these different open ishod's and combines it into one textbook or one text can you guess what the text is here you are shop key here the bhagavata gita public EDA is nothing but the synthesis of all dopes initials you see because open shows that difficult so what happens with Krishna is that he is if you like synthesized brought together all the different strands or thinking of the open e should experience the Rishi's and put it in one text that has become the text of authority of Hindus the Bhagavad Gita the word public means is holy in Gita means a song so again the word song song of the load or song of song of the divine so bubbly is also poetic in style but it in a way incorporates all this lovely stuff with opening shots into one text book the bug with Geeta would be considered a scripture of authority like it is containing the heart of the heart all the open it should be teachings combine synthesize reconciled in one text is head you must know a little bit about the bug with either too little bit only so this is the heart the philosophic heart of Hindus Hinduism it has got about 700 verses for your knowledge you just need to know basics if you do a level with us we will teach you the Bhagavad Gita as well as one of the opening shots imagine you learnt that if you do a level you study the catawba Nisha is one of the most powerful open Isha's of this maintain open Isha's one of the center one is cut open assured if you study a level we will we will we will go through the whole cut open it with you and see how powerful it is how dynamic it is how exciting it is but for GCSE just the basic knowledge so we talk about open assured we talk about the bhagavad-gita the scripture of authority it's got seven hundred verses in a way the reason why the bug with you has Paris even better than the opening shot is because it doesn't give you just free-flowing poetry it in a way allows you to translate these marvelous teachings into practice otherwise religion is just pure theory so the Bhagavad Gita's try tells us not only about the theory of Hinduism it also tells us how to put them into practice it is teaching us how to use religion your daily lives for work ethic and openness a poetry they don't so do this wrong the open the bhagavad-gita translates these teachings Morrow's teachings into practicing this is how you turn them into practice not just preaching turning them into practice so this is the importance of the bhagavad-gita now so far I have touched on some of the scriptures which are on this side the scriptures of authority say the key things you must remember remember is Shruti from the term shrew taught the way does from the word with the books of knowledge about the nature of reality and in the Vedas you must know the some heat apportion the hymns the ritualistic portion the karmic on in the aronia which contain the open Ishod mostly the philosophic heart of the Hindus telling us how we can understand this reality greater the greater depth and then we say we synthesize the pressure then we go this moral stacks for the bhagavad-gita which contains if somebody said in a few sentences tell us what is or other punishes about would either shruti about what the vedas are all about or what the Bhagwad Gita is all about you can tell them in these few sentences this is what they are all about they are talking about the nature of reality what is this all about they are talking about our essential nature remember we study that portion when we do section one we just learn about the idea that our essential nature is quite different from what it appears it's not the body or even the in mind that I possess in the intelligence that I have something great and grand about our essential nature which is much more than just our body or our intelligence have a mind about all these things that you possess it is a spirit Atman you are the spirit so the Vedas the open he shows the bugger this is what they talk about and teach about our essential nature the spirit Atman what else do they talk about they talk about essential nature of this whole of this creation you see despite appearances underpinning this world physical world with galaxies and stars and moons underpinning this is also something very dynamic hiding underneath it and that too is spirit and we define that as Brahma they the Sanskrit processes Brahma but in English we'll make it Brahman and Atma become Atman so carry you know flow with it so the word Brahman the principle underpins this reality spirit that too comes from the Vedas the shruti's the open issue in the bhagavad-gita is it all of them contain the same thing the strands of this kind of teaching nature of reality our essential nature to the spirit Ackman essential nature of the universe as Brahman the relationship between acronym from one this is what they talk about the opening shots in the bhagavad-gita in the Vedas now see again one thing you notice so far we hardly use the word God this is the flowing deep ideas of Hindu religion most Hindus are lost all that and all these gods and goddesses come in all these personalities come in I don't think they're bad and so you see this is the central teaching you are special you are that this is the teaching of the than the Vedas so we must recognize this our essential anchor the spirit so so far I've touched on this aspect the scriptures of authority based on the experience of human beings ancient and modern or became the prophets the Rishi's of ancient and modern India they are the foundation of Hinduism but even though look you are you are already beginning to feel that I lost you you know you feel that the leap uncle is going on and on what is the atman and brahman vegetable sort is is tiresome chip see most people cannot relate to these things is too abstract they need something that they can give their teeth into so how can you get your teeth into religion stories narratives so we come to the second branch of the Hindu scriptures these are the shooties now I'm going to talk about the second branch of the Hindu scriptures called the smithee's Smithy's means I just told you this abstract principle of atman and brahman is difficult to get your mind round is to abstract its principle oriented in the English the Sanskrit word is a Purusha it's very principle oriented it because are difficult to digest if you could understand if you could relate to and you will go blank on me straightaway when I talk of this with these scriptures you suddenly see why yeah this is good stuff here because now we use the most important tool human beings have created narrative storytelling I can present the same idea that I find open assured in a story like man or you look for you I like that stuff you will immediately relate with your smile you go away fingers understood religion if I just give you a phone in Rome and you go away feeling constipated or difficult I just if I present the same ideas through this colorful narrative you say I love Indu ISM I understand everything now so this abstract principle becomes digestible accessible through the narrative the Smoothie scripture do not underestimate the power of the narrative the storytelling look are not done any story so far and you are beginning to feel tired already aren't you I will give you a story in a minute and soon you get lighter say yeah now this is beginning to make sense the moment you tell anybody there is a story the us pick up straight have you noticed young or old you can relate to ideas difficult ideas in a story much more than you can through abstraction just principle principle you may be true but is tiring that is why it created a whole mass of narrative without filling without apologizing Sita oh the work you do I'm goes under the name of people care does it mean you're looking after people is it because I know you care for people that's why quality people care well the name people care actually comes from the name of the Indian people tree which is known for its sheltering and nurturing properties and that's the philosophy that we would like to incorporate as part of our care work look at people don't know chart but that is your much I love it and we had Thai go up zoo food what kind of give what I mean what kind of care service do you provide something a corrosion and well we provide a mixture of hourly care where for example as somebody needs a bath in the morning and we also provide live-in care where for example the care worker lives with the client for 24 hours a day now you say that looking after the elderly people in their own homes is better then sending that sending them to a care home to get a career model but indian recorders are you rather than it when a care home Omo khludova what is the reason behind it well everyone prefers the comfort of their own home and not only that but they also are surrounded by their family and friends and their loved ones so staying in your own home allows greater interaction with your loved ones surely in some cases is almost impossible to look after the elderly in your own homes because seconds may be so difficult hoax and joke mockery that the Annunaki shock I assure you to talk we know there must be some situation like that yes there may be medical conditions which make it almost impossible to live in your own home and in those cases yes you would need to use a care home but perhaps there should be more of an exception rather than a rule okay sounds like a good idea looking after the elderly in your own home but surely it must be a very expensive exercise if you compare the costing and it can actually work out cheaper to have a carer in your own home rather than being moved to a care home and we at people care can help you in terms of providing this sort of service showing this country Social Services provide this service so do you work with social services or how does it work um yes so you can get in touch with your local social services and if you like we can help you in that process and social services can then give you a personal budget and and we as people care agency try to work as much as possible within that budget so you can actually get care at home free of charge good one luck one of the question what kind of get workers do you kind of you know employ get the Morrow's when it the Rockets coming well we make sure that the carers are genuinely caring people because you can't be in this industry without being genuinely caring and we also try and match clients with certain languages for example a lot of our clients and carers are the jothee speaking and we try and match them with each other so you are saying that you are you continue to recruit a possible Gujarati or Hindi speaking care workers yes we are always recruiting so please do get in touch with us if you're looking to do care work one final question what prompted you then a pre- a younger one what prompted you to do set work well sometimes when you go and visit a client's home and they hold your hand don't want to let go or the smile that they have when they realize that we are providing a genuinely caring service makes it all really worthwhile and it's not just for the client themselves it's for the carers as well who not only are getting a salary but they're doing some very satisfying work and sometimes when you even look at the faces of the family members of the elderly people who are now receiving care you can see a great deal of relief because they are having to handle so many responsibilities but now they can have their burden East Thank You Sita