
Something is very wrong somewhere. The first thing in liberation is: do not be dependent on somebody, at least for your bread, for your basic sustenance. What kind of empowerment is this that happily accepts dependence on somebody else’s money on a date, and also for an entire lifetime? It…

“You know what, I lost money in stocks and I still didn’t get a heart attack!” Why must you get a heart attack? It is a small matter. Let it happen. It’s okay. Every day more people lose money in the stock market than what is the number of those…

What is the ultimate purpose of life? Earning money or happiness? How can this stupid thing be the purpose of life?
The common happiness that we know, I have said, has two characteristics: one, it is an acquired conditioning, and second, it depends on the presence of sadness. So, if…

Let your situations, your circumstances, your possessions, your particular destination in life not become important enough or significant enough to define you. Let your self-worth not be dictated by things that are external.
But since everything is external, let your self-worth not be dictated by anything at all. Which means,…

If you want to know why you kept working, slogging for the thirty days, the most effective way is to see what you are doing with the paycheck. What you are doing with the paycheck will very loudly demonstrate why you kept working the thirty days. See what you do…

You must know what the place of security and money and sex is in your life. If you don’t know their right places, then for the purpose of sex you will give somebody a high position in your life, and then you will suffer. Persons are essentially harmless; harmful is

Money is nothing on its own. Money cannot bring you peace. But established in peace, money and material and the world can be perfectly dealt with. Now you neither need to renounce money nor do you get attached to money, because your real need is peace not money. Now you…

What else do you earn for? Pay to the schools, pay to the hospitals. You can avoid spending anywhere else, but these two places you will not only always spend, you will always overspend.
A fully grown-up man’s apparels are only as expensive as the apparels of a two-month-old, and…

Money is a very important indicator. See where you spend your money, and see where you do not spend your money. See where you want to cut corners, and see where you want to be lavish. Have you not heard that little phrase, “Put your money where your mind is”?…

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…

One spends eight, ten, twelve hours of the day working; add to that the time that you invest in commuting and thinking about work. What does all that do to you? Consider that.
If money helps you get a suitable environment for yourself, only then money has some practical value;…

That could be one necessary mark of a true feminist: she would be not dependent even for a single rupee on anybody else, especially not on the male partner.
“Financial independence and then still having kids, is that something that can be counted under feminism as such?”

See where you spend your time; that will tell you of your intention.
See where you spend your money; that will tell you of your intention. Money is a very important indicator.
See what is going on in your mind, see what circulates in your mind; that will tell you…

You want some money? It is a little desire, and it is a harmless desire. The problem starts when you start wanting peace through money. Money is harmless. But when money becomes a proxy for peace, then money is very harmful.
People do not chase money; they chase peace through…

One thing I have always advised those who are on the verge of choosing a career, or even those who are deep into their careers: Let there be no dissonance between who you are and what you do.
Your work is who you are. Do not say that you work…

If money is the gift that a father leaves behind for the son, then it’s a very petty gift—in fact, a dangerous gift. In fact, only a loveless father would think of primarily money to bequeath to the son. The more would be the money that you leave for him,…

Acharya Prashant (AP): The question reads, “I fear a lot when I feel financially weak. How do I work on this problem?” What is financial weakness? What do you mean by financial weakness? What do you mean by that? When do you flag such a weakness? When do you say,…

Questioner (Q): Dear Acharya Ji, Pranaam!
For three months we have been studying Guru Granth sahib, and my mind is filled with love for God, his name, and devotion for Guru. Today is the last class, so I wished to conclude all that I have learned and listened to so…

Question: Acharya Ji, which are the industries I should invest my money in?
Acharya Prashant Ji: There are two industries that are not going to fail. First, that thrives on kids. Second, that thrives on sickness. And the two are one.

If you can understand the answer to this question, then you already have the best free thing. The best free thing is ‘understanding’ itself. Well, just that understanding is not a thing, and the best things in life are, as they say, not things.
Think of it. Many machines, many…

Acharya Prashant: (Reading a question) One may have good knowledge, but he might not be having a satisfactory job or salary. What to do in such a situation?
You see, as long as knowledge to you is a means of earning a higher salary, you will have to realize the…

Questioner (Q): When I see any children in a slum or working in a construction site, I feel like giving them all the knowledge, or at least help them to study the basic things but then a thought came that you are still not in a condition to help anyone,…

Question: Sir, What is more, important for a fresher, big fat salary, or a stable job?
Acharya Prashant: Neither. What’s your name?
Listener1: Acharya Ji, Taranjay.

Acharya Prashant (AP): Wonderful! A nice question has come to us. Our friend is saying that greed is making people work. If you remove greed from people’s life, they will not grow. So, I'm asking him, what is growth?
Questioner (Q): Growth is evolution. Like we have evolved into a…

Questioner (Q): Sir, everyone is expecting something. Parents are expecting something, friends also expect something but sometimes I prefer to be alone. What to do in that situation?
Acharya Prashant (AP): Do you really have a friend? What kind of friend is this who does not like you to do…





Sunday Guardian ColumnSunday Guardian ColumnSunday Guardian ColumnSunday Guardian ColumnSunday Guardian Column

हमारा मिजाज हमेशा दूसरों और परिस्थितियों पर निर्भर करता है। नतीजे आपकी उम्मीदों के मुताबिक नहीं रहे। इसलिए अब आपको मनोबल बढ़ाने वाले किसी प्रेरक वक्ता की ज़रूरत है। जैसे ही वह व्यक्ति चला जाता है, आपकी ऊर्जा भी थम जाती है। लेकिन जीने का एक और तरीका भी है। अपने भीतर गहराई में, मुझे एक ऐसा बिंदु मिलता है जिसे कोई बाहरी परिस्थिति छू नहीं सकती। जो कुछ भी होता है, वह सतह पर ही घटित होता है। वह स्थिर, उदासीन और तटस्थ बना रहता है। तब आप सचमुच स्वतंत्र होते हैं।

How did the Buddha look then? Who is the Buddha? Let’s try to understand with the story of Gautama Buddha, The ‘Shakya Muni Buddha’ as we call him. So, who was he? Let’s look at his central characteristics. One, someone who is well versed in the knowledge of his time. Buddha had deep scriptural knowledge. He was born in a Hindu Kshatriya family, he was a prince and ever since his childhood he was quite talented. So, one thing about him is that he was quite well-read. Second thing is, he was deeply interested in knowing the depths of life. He did not want to remain merely at the superficial levels, so he would observe a lot, he would think a lot. https://acharyaprashant.org/en/articles/todays-buddha-1_4d1b6bf

How do you, asks the chief of police, patrol a city, where the butcher shops are guarded by vultures, where bulls get pregnant, cows are barren,



Whenever you will give a lot of importance to what others give you, you will be afraid, and then you will want to play safe. Make a list of all that others give you—company, attachment, reputation, and these are the things that are at the core of your fear.

“I will beat him!”
“I will destroy her!”
“Did you just insult me? Did you?”
Four hours forty-eight minutes of deep intellectual perspiration!

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…

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…

Just as the ego loves to take credit, it also loves to play the victim.
If something good has happened, “I did it!”
If something bad happened, “It happened to me.”

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…

There was this king of the demons; his name was Hiranyakashyupa. The king worked really hard. He kept austerities, he forced even God to come down and bless him. So, it would have required a very special effort. But then, what did he want from God? Nothing but the extension…

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…

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,…

Man has the capacity to choose, and man must take responsibility of how he is living his life, what he has turned the Earth into.

You are so powerful actually that you are scared of yourself.
There are three ‘you’s in that statement. The first two refer to the small self or the ego. The third one refers to the best that you can be, the Great Self, the Truth—classically, the Ātman. And classically…

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,…

There was a Buddhist scholar Nagarjuna. He talked of a painter who fills his entire room with terrifying paintings painted by himself. So, on this wall he paints a demon, there he makes another horrible scene, something there, something there. And he is painting it himself, and then he becomes…

The movies tell us that unless there is a special person in your life, you are really missing out on something big, and then you are seized by FOMO. What is FOMO? Fear of missing out.
“Oh my God, everybody has that! I am the only one left behind! I…
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skldjas claksn laksskldjas claksn laksskldjas…
When does one finish being a student? When the resistance to being a student is finished.
Who is the teacher? The teacher is the most obedient and voluntary of all students. The teacher is not a non-student; the teacher is the first student, the best student, the most voluntary student.…
Whenever…
“Did she? Did she not?”
Have some mercy upon yourself. Learn to ignore, please. Bypass the small issues. Learn to ignore the small for the big, would…
Playing the victim is a favorite pastime of…
In fact, I feel impelled to say this: When I was in the process of quitting my corporate career and moving to teaching, I was…