
A guide to handling difficult periods, adapting to unexpected changes, learning from experiences, seeking support, and continuing forward with confidence and patience.

स्वामी विवेकानंद अनूठे हैं, बहुत कम तुमने साधु-संत-सन्यासी देखे होंगे जो इतने सुघटित सुडौल शरीर के हों, जितने विवेकानंद थे।
खेल की, कसरत की उनकी दिनचर्या में बंधी हुई जगह थी। और यही नहीं कि बस व्यक्तिगत रुप से खेलते थे, अपने साथियों से कहें – व्यायाम आवश्यक है।
जिस

Questioner (Q): Recently you had a talk at IIT Delhi, and now you are here at IIM Ahmedabad, and both of these universities are your alma mater. Today, your batchmates would be at various corporate positions, but you have taken an unconventional path of becoming a spiritual teacher. So, how…

Questioner (Q): In this age of competition, we try very hard for various types of exams, and sometimes it is possible that we come very close but may still end up on the losing side. If that keeps continuing, then won’t the repeated failures hamper our self-confidence? If they do,…

प्रश्नकर्ता: प्रतियोगी परीक्षाओं में लगातार असफल होने के बाद मैं अब सांसारिक प्रयासों से अनासक्त हो गया हूँ। क्या अध्यात्म में मुझे शरण प्राप्त हो सकती है ताकि मुझे सांसारिक प्रयत्न फिर करने ही ना पड़ें?
आचार्य प्रशांत: *रॉंग नंबर*। ऐसे थोड़ी है की इधर से पिट गए, उधर से…

प्रश्नकर्ता: आचार्य जी, दैनिक जीवन में कभी-कभी थक जाता हूँ, जिस कारण अपने कार्यों को अच्छे से कर नहीं पाता। मेरी मदद करें!
आचार्य प्रशांत: क्या काम है जो करना चाहते हो?
प्रश्नकर्ता: जैसे कि बहुत पढ़ना होता है।

प्रश्नकर्ता: जैसे राबिया और हसन के वक्त में राबिया ने कहा कि सत्य बताने का एक टाइम आएगा और तभी तुम उस बात को जानोगे क्या इसकी तुलना ऐसे हो सकती है कि जब तक अपना वक्त नहीं आता, अच्छे वक्त की चाभी नहीं मिलती।
आचार्य प्रशांत: बहुत बुरा वक्त…

आचार्य प्रशांत: अहंकार कहता है कि मैं जैसा हूँ, वैसा होते हुए मुझ में ये पात्रता है कि जो मैं चाह रहा हूँ, वो मुझे मिल जाए। अहंकार में इतनी समझ और इतना लचीलापन नहीं होता कि उसे दिखाई दे कि वो बित्ता भर का नहीं है, और मांग…

वक्ता: सर, आपने जो कुछ भी बताया, जो कुछ भी हमने जाना, सीखा, उससे फायदा क्या हो गया? हासिल क्या हुआ? वाकई हासिल कुछ नहीं होगा, कुछ भी हासिल नहीं होगा। जो तुम्हारा शक है, वो बिल्कुल ठीक है, तुम्हें ठीक ही शक है कि कुछ हासिल नहीं होगा और…

प्रश्न:सर, द्वैत की जो संकल्पना है, उसमें अगर एक सिरे के प्रति तीव्रता ज़्यादा होगी तो दूसरा सिरे के होने की भी संभावना ज़्यादा होगी?
वक्ता:सवाल ये नहीं हैं कि, “संभावना क्या है? कितनी मिलेगी?”। द्वैत का जो तथ्य है, उसे समझिये।

श्रोता: सर, मैंने देखा है कि मेरी ख़ुशी दुसरे मेरे बारे में क्या सोचते हैं उस पर निर्भर करती है। ऐसा क्यों होता है?
वक्ता: और क्या हो सकता है? क्या तुम्हें और कुछ होने की भी उम्मीद है?

वक्ता: (प्रश्न पढ़ते हुए) जब हम दूसरों से अपनी तुलना करते हैं और दूसरों से प्रभावित भी हो जाते हैं, तो क्या यह हमेशा ग़लत है?
नो! जस्ट फ़िफ्टी-फ़िफ्टी। (नहीं! बस ५०-५०)
पहले तुम लोगों का रहता था कि नहीं बेकार की बातें हैं। कहते थे, कुछ बातें तो

वक्ता: पहले मैं तुमसे सवाल पूछूँगा: दूसरों के सामने अपने को सही सिद्ध करना ज़रूरी क्यों हैं?
श्रोता १: सर, अगर कोई कुछ गलत कह रहा है, तो बुरा लगता है।
वक्ता: बुरा क्यों लगता है?

Question: We generally say, “Let me do this task and then I will be in awareness.” Why do we defer awareness? Why do we keep on postponing awareness? Why are there forces, psychological and physiological, that work against awareness? If one must live in awareness, then why is maya against…

Speaker: Manoj asks, ‘Given that there is so much of competition, how do I plan my career?’
Manoj, can I solve a problem if I do not understand it ? Can I solve a problem if I do not understand it? You said that there is so much of competition,…

Listener: Life is a race and it is a competitive fast going generation. If you do not become a part of the race then you will lag behind and will have to face the consequences.
Speaker: What are the consequences?

प्रश्नकर्ता: जैसे मैं GATE की…
श्रोता १:…
वक्ता: क्या उम्मीद है?
श्रोता: सर,…
श्रोता १: सर, हम सही हैं, फिर भी गलत बन जाते हैं।
वक्ता: तुम…

True yoga is not primarily about physical postures but about examining the ego, attachments, and motivations that shape one’s life. While the body can be trained and displayed, real discipline lies in honestly questioning desires, ambitions, and borrowed goals. Techniques and routines alone cannot bring inner freedom. Yoga begins when one repeatedly investigates who is setting the direction of life and whether that direction has ever been consciously examined.


What is the root cause of unhappiness? Why strength is necessary for liberation? Why ego can not reflect on itself?

The Truth cannot be objectified as a thing, place, person, or book. So, don't be too quick to accept your own assessments, judgments, likes, dislikes, and experiences. Whatever you're seeing is seen by "you" — the Ego — and you are no absolute. Everything must be available to enquiry, investigation, and questioning — and questioning cannot happen if you declare that you’ve already come to the Truth. Never believe that the journey has ended or that the ego itself is the Truth.



पारस में अरु संत में, बड़ो अन्तरो जान। वो लोहा कंचन करे, ये कर दे आप समान।।~कबीर साहब प्रश्नकर्ता: जैसा कि आप कहते हैं, कि जितना जल्दी हो सके अपने को पूरा अर्पण कर दो, या ख़त्म कर दो, पर यदि इसे समझेंगे और करेंगे, तो अपने अपूर्ण स्थिति…


Even when you are identified with being the winner or the loser, still there is something within you which can neither be a winner nor a loser. It is your fundamental nature. It is your fundamental nature that gets hidden when you are obsessed with winning or losing.
The fact…

If you have seriously something worthwhile to do in life, then time is a friend. But if you are just loafing around and you fully well know that you are just killing time, then obviously time is an enemy. Every passing moment reminds you that you are committing a crime…

Fight for the right cause and let it consume you fully. That is the only way of living life. Fight for the right one and devote yourself totally to him. That is the only way of living and fighting. Give yourself up so totally that you cannot now be blamed…

Veganism cannot succeed if you just keep talking of animals. You keep saying, “Oh, it is bad to look at animals as a commodity. It is bad to exploit animals.” If man is exploiting man, why will man refrain from exploiting animals?
So, veganism has to be holistic, comprehensive. You…

We all need space. Man’s inner nature is freedom. When I say man, I mean both man and woman, mankind. Just as you need free mental space, you also need free physical space.
In fact, I find the idea of a shared bed quite vulgar. The double bed is an…

When you say that you go to your workplace for a purpose, the purpose is never work, or is it? The purpose is the salary cheque. In fact, if work could be bypassed and you could straight away reach the salary cheque, then who would want to work? Now, why…

Swami Vivekananda has said, “First of all, our young men must be strong; religion will come afterwards. Be strong, my young friends; that is my advice to you. You will be nearer to heaven through football than through the study of the Gita.”
Swami Vivekananda was no soccer evangelist. His…

To love is to see that the other is in trouble. To love is to extend a helping hand. Love is not about admiring somebody’s physicality or using someone for some means. Love has to be an exercise in compassion.
Only two kinds of associations are right in this world.…

Both the genders have become even more anchored to their physical identity. The more you do that, the more you are in misery because, really, the body is not who you are.
There are places better and higher than the place of your gender specific hormones. Why do you want…

What is it that Shri Rama stands for? He stands for detachment. He stands for fearlessness. He stands for compassion. He stands for Dharma.
Is there Dharma really in your life? And by Dharma I do not mean a creed or a cult, or observation of certain rituals, or the…

If your goals are small, they are no goals. You will be frustrated if you don’t achieve them, and you will be doubly frustrated if you achieve them. Having achieved them, you will find that the next goal is waiting for you, and that is deep frustration. You will feel…

When you are serious about victory, you do not strike at the enemy without being fully prepared. Those who just plunge themselves into battles without having checked their preparedness are the ones who don’t love victory too much. Because this battle is important, and because this battle must be won,…

Every young person who is about to choose a career, decide on work in life, must keep this in mind, my humble advice: See what is it that really, really troubles you, and then work should be the medicine for your trouble. That’s the way you must choose work.
Therefore,…

Man wants progress, and progress means an ascension, an elevation. It is as if man wants to be elevated to some high sky. That’s what you say, right? “I am rising up, I am progressing.” What is the intention of this tendency to keep progressing? The intention is to progress…

As long as the goal is not tremendously big, life has no real purpose. If your goals are small they are no goals. You will be frustrated if you don’t achieve them, and you will be doubly frustrated if you achieve them. Having achieved them, you will find that the…

As long as the goal is not tremendously big, life has no real purpose. If your goals are small, they are no goals. You will be frustrated if you don’t achieve them, and you will be doubly frustrated if you achieve them. Having achieved them, you will find that the…

If the two of you could together shout and scratch and bite and tear and break—if all those things could be done together, why not meditate and be loving and compassionate together? Or is companionship only for biting into each other?
So, having been companions, now it is your responsibility…

If you have to invest your hours, your months, your years, invest them on a cause. The cause could be your own development, or general development, social welfare, whatever. But let it be a cause, not a person. Let the cause occupy you fully.
This applies to both men and…

There is something honorable about dying against a major enemy. But what honor is there in being consumed by the little?
Set a great goal. Even if you lose, it will at least be a great defeat. And if you set a timid, scared, conventional, narrow goal, then even if…

You have been entrusted with time not so that you while it away.
Somebody once asked the Satan, “How do you corrupt a being?”
He says, “It’s easy. I just whisper into his ears: your time is your time.”
And that’s the assumption we all have bought into: “I have…

Success does not lie in doing any random thing. Do you know why you are doing a certain thing? Are you sure what is worthy enough to be done? That’s the moot question.
Choose the right option. Make the right decision. Fight the right battle. And now it doesn’t matter…

We really do not know how to spend a Sunday, but we want to live two hundred years. If you are given one free day, you do not know what to do with it. You start looking here and there, wondering, “What to do? Some free time is there. How…

Before you excel, ask yourself, “What must I excel in? What is worth it?” Before you speed down a road, ask yourself, “Which road to take?” Speed comes later; choice of the right road comes first.
It is far better to be slow on the right road than to be…

All the economic theories, all the economic systems are predicated on this premise, based on this assumption that the goal of man’s action is to have more money. This they call as welfare, or even luxury. In some theories, they say that maximization of luxury is the objective of man’s…