Mark: Poetry is the Rigveda? Swami: Poetry is the Rigveda because it has a specific number of characters with a form and a syntax and it has a rhythm and a rhyme. Mark: Specific number of syllables? Swami: Ah. (Telegu for “yes”) It is called “chandis”. So poetry is Rig-veda. “Rig” itself means “a verse”, “a chant”, “a mantra”. Mark: M-hm. Swami: Rik. Rig. Somebody who chants the Vedas is called a ” rik-trik” in Vedic terminology. “Rik” is the basic word. “Rig-veda”. “Rik” plus “Veda” becomes “Rigveda”. Mark: Mm-hm. Swami: In Sanskrit it is called “sandi”. “Sandi” means “joint”. When you join two words, the joining word; its tone; it changes. “Rik” plus “veda” is “rig-veda” Rig-veda as you said is poetry. And “yajus”. “Yajus” means “sentence”. It just means a sentence. It takes the form of a sentence. It doesn’t have the poetic style. But it goes sometimes long, sometimes short. Mark: So this is prose. Swami: That is Yajurveda. That you can say is prose. In prose you have sometimes beautiful descriptions, long long sentences. Sometimes you have simple words. A sentence where you have just two or three words. It has no specific syntax or length. Mark: Or rhythm. Swami: Or rhythm. So that is prose. Yaju- veda is mostly prose. Mark: M-hm. Swami: Samurveda. “Samur” in Sanskrit also means “friendship”. “Samur” also means “harmony”. Mark: M-hm. Swami: So Samurveda is music. It has tone. It has up-beat, low-beat. It has sometimes elongation.
Swami: (Sanskrit)
Swami: It has music. Mark: Mm. Beautiful. Swami: It has music. It has music. That is Samurveda. And the fourth one is Atharvaveda. Atharvaveda is the name of a rishi; a sage called Atharva. Through his form it came. Atharvavedas are very powerful mantras. Those mantras; they follow the style of Rig-veda. Mark: M-hm. Swami: Atharvaveda. You can say it is a combination of the Rig-veda and the other three. The mantras are very powerful. Whether to…They affect nature and have natural effects. Mark: M-hm. Swami: And whether to cure, whether to curse. Whether to bless. They are very powerful mantras. Atharvaveda is the fourth one. Mark: Mm. Swami: So these are the four. Vedas were one. Vedas are one. Vedas will always be one! It is in this age of Kali for human beings of limited intellect; they have written a lot; the old rishis have had such powerful (?); such supreme mental intellects. The supreme mental capability wants to hear…the entire Vedas; they used to remember. But how to use what mantras. Their essence. Which god? The entire thing they knew by heart. They were living encyclopedias. They were walking encyclopedias! They were mobile encyclopedias. The old rishis. Mark: The rishis. Swami: This was so even till just five thousand years ago. Just five thousand years ago when Lord Krishna came into being, all the rishis were like that and Vedas were one! Mark: Mm. Swami: Then came the sage Vyerda-Vyasa. Vyasa-rishi. Mark: Mahabharata. Swami: Correct! The author of Bhagavad-gita. The author of Bhagavad-Gita. Mahabharata, Bhagavad-gita and Vishnu……is part of the… Mahabharata…it comes in the war. Mark: In the middle.
Swami: In the middle somewhere. He is the author of Srimad Bhagavatam, the story of Lord Krishna. And he is the author of the eighteen Puranas. The eighteen Puranas of all the gods. Vishnupurana. Lord Vishnu. Shivapurana. Lord Shiva. Purana. All the Puranas. Eighteen Puranas. And he is the one who classified the Vedas into four. Mark: Mm. Swami: (He said) here you; your clan of sages you will practise this veda. This is the Samurveda. And you specialize in this Atharvaveda. And even in these four vedas there are sub-branches. It is called “sherkar”. “Sherkar” is like a tree. Mark: M-hm.
Swami: The Vedas are but the same eternal tree .. and we have the four main branches …the four Vedas… and the sub-branches; you have “sherkars” so this line of rishis; they will practise this part of the of the rig-veda. They will practise this line of Rigveda. They will practise this line of Rig-Veda.They say even this perception; even this calculation, is perhaps erroneous; under-estimated (But!) They say we have today hardly one per cent of the original vedas. The rest have become extinct. Mark: Mm. Swami: The rest have become extinct. The Vedas were not put in computer. they were not put on papyrus. Mark: Not recorded. Swami: For a long time. Sruti. The other name for vedas is “sruti” the other name for vedas is sruti. “Sruti-mani” means “that which you have heard”. Sruti. Srutum. Sruti-mani. That which is heard. So they used to hear (listen) and the next generation; they catch on so they are chanting and (it is) not recorded anywhere (laughs)
so with the deterioration of the intellect of the human down the ages down lakhs of ages how many years we do not know. Vedas came into being at Mark: Mm. Swami: So All this Vidya; all this wisdom has got lost. Mark: Mm. Swami: So today they say approximately not more than maybe not more than one per cent; only a fraction of the original vedas are still alive (in existence). And it can be said that what you have even if you make use of that, that is good for every human being on earth to sustain the creation to carry on from now. What is left is much more than what we need today. Even that. Mark: So the creation is sustained by prayer?
London Bloke: Personally to myself, Class A drugs are drugs that…Ok I will put it this way… Australian Bloke: Speed. Co…? London Bloke: I will put it this way. To me non-Class A drugs are drugs that can be cultivated without any …modern farming techniques … or chemical interference… for example… non-Class A drugs: marijuana, even opium. Yeah? Class A drugs: heroin, cocaine, crack, ice, MDMA: ecstasy, ketamine. That to me is class A drugs. Australian Bloke: What have they all got in common? London Bloke: They all eat Mr Jack(?)
Mark: What was your name again? Hannan: My name is Hannan Benetan. Mark: One more time. Mark and Hannan: Hannan. Mark: Hannan. How do spell that? Hannan: H-a-n-n-a-n. Mark: H-a-n-a. Hannan. What part of Israel do you come from? Hanan:Rishon le Zion. The same city as Eran. Mark: Did you work in Africa as well? Hanan: No. I work in Israel in a bakery. Mark: That is a beautiful job. Hanan: I make bread and pizza and … Mark: So you have to wake up every morning very early? Hanan: Yes. Mark: And what time do you finish work? Hanan: Every day I work for like ten hours. I guess sometimes twelve. Mark: That is too long. Hannan: Yes but it is ok. It is a good one. Mark: You like it. Hanan: Yeah I like it.
The Guy from Virginia: No. Marriage is a family-oriented….family institution. If you want to have a family… The Other Guy: The family is sacred. The Guy from Virginia: …get married. That is the way I see it. If I wanted right now …wanted June to have a baby, I would want to be married. The Other Guy: You believe in God?
(Can you tell a person from Southampton by the way they talk; by their accent?)
First English Guy: Oh yeah. Englishwoman: That’s Southampton. It is about as far south as you can get. First English Guy: “Mush”. By the way they use “mush” and things like that. That is a Southampton thing. Always used to get my back up. Mush. Australian Guy: What does that mean? Second English Guy: Like “mate.” I don’t know where it comes from. First English Guy: “Are you having a drink, mush?” I always thought that was a Southampton thing but that is a Portsmith thing, as well? Second Englishman: (nods)(non-verbal signal) First Englishman: Oh, Ok.
Mark and Axel from Australia teamed up with Luis from Spain and Alex from France to hike to Malana in Himachal Pradesh. Gilles helped them negotiate the price and conditions of a guide over the mountain pass.
Gilles: You must be clear about where you go and when you go and how much you give and when you give(it). Alex: Yeah yeah. Gilles: You know what I mean? Then there is no trouble. You know? It must be very very clear. After if something is not on the way, (you will say) “It was not like this! It was not like this!” Alex: Yeah. Gilles: It is not good, no? It is (there will be) bad feeling.
(Hindi) (code-switching)
Gilles: Because for example you know he just told me now. You have to…He will go the second day, drop you in Malana. He will not stay in Malana. So you must be very clear. He wants to come back on the same day. Mark: Mm. Gilles: Otherwise he will spend three days. Alex: Yeah. Gilles: You know. If he has to stay in Malana… to sleep in Malana… He will not stay in Malana. So you must be very clear. He wants to come back on the same day. The second day he will not stay in Malana. So he must come back on the same day. Mark: Yeah. Gilles: He will arrive here at nine o’clock in the evening. You know? But it means the second day you have to start very early. Mark: Yeah. Gilles: Otherwise if you start at nine or ten o’clock, then he will reach Malana at two or three o’clock. Then he can’t come. He has to sleep and eat in Malana and to come back on the third day. Mark: Yeah. Gilles: Then it makes one day more. Mark: Mm. Gilles: You know what I mean? Otherwise he spends three days. You know? With food..If he has one thousand rupees, he pays the bus. He pays everything. OK. He pays the food. He pays to sleep. He has to pay something, you know? Mark: Yeah. Gilles: And out of one thousand rupees he has just four hundred rupees left, you know? Mark: Yeah. Gilles: He cannot be satisfied with this. Mark: Yeah. Gilles: Otherwise he will stay here and he will work here, you know? He will do something. You know what I mean? And if you want to walk in Malana also, it is better you walk with him.
(Hindi) (code switching to talk to others)
Gilles: So maybe it is better you keep him for two and a half days. Mark: Mm. Gilles: Because I know you will wake up at five o’clock. You will not rush. You don’t want this. You want to go slow. Mark: Yeah.
Australian Guy: How is the Argentinian economy now, like there was a crash a few years ago wasn’t there? Argentine Guy: The crash was in 2001 and after that I don’t know if you remember we had five presidents in three weeks. Australian Guy: Wow! Argentine Guy: And since then they all retired on full presidential salary. Australian Guy: Wow! Argentine Guy: (laughs) And since then it hasn’t really recovered. Although it depends. The private economy has actually really boomed because as a result of the currency devaluing by three times, all our costs… if you are exporting, labor costs are a lot cheaper and if you are exporting to the dollar… Australian Guy: Right. Argentine Guy: For instance if you are in the farming economy we were doing very well until last year and now they are beginning to have inflation and so they are really hitting down on the private sector for instance I am a cattle farmer and we can no longer export beef … Australian Guy: Right. Argentine Guy: The theory being if we don’t export beef then there is going to be more meat on the national market and so it is going to push the price of beef down Australian Guy: Right. Argentine Guy: And it is going to help control inflation… Australian Guy: Right. Argentine Guy: And that is just one example of how they try and doctor the numbers and not try and go to the root cause. Australian Guy: Right! Argentine Guy: And at the moment our president is in a huge corruption scandal so it looks like his wife is going to take over. Australian guy: Wow! Right. Argentina was the richest country in South America ten years ago. Argentine Guy: Argentina was the richest country in the world after the Second World War. Australian Guy: After the second World War. Argentine Guy: We are still the richest country in South America. Australian Guy:Chile is pretty strong too. Argentine Guy: (laughs) Australian Guy: Not so much? Argentine Guy: Chile; I think the statistic is Chile has a tenth of the resources of Argentina and it is half as wealthy. I can’t remember the exact figures. Basically the Chileans are a hundred per cent Spanish and Indian in origin and they work hard. The Chileans are what they call “the Swiss of South America” because they work really hard. They are really really boring people. Australian Guy: (laughs) I know you have to catch a flight Where are you flying to? Argentine Guy: I am flying…I have got a twenty-seven hour flight and twelve hours time difference. I am going to Malaysia to South Africa to Brazil. Australian Guy: Wow! Back home. Right. Have a safe trip. Argentine Guy: Yeah. Thank you.
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