Maitreya Upanishad

Questioner(Q): What is the process of clarity? Is it just listening with immersion and no resistance? What is Truth? How we decide it?

Acharya Prashant (AP): Listening without effort, plus if there is Truth in what you hear, there is change and transformation, and that Truth becomes the master. We…

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

"I am fully in support of learning in all ways from everywhere and everybody but I am not at all in support of foolishness and hypocrisy. Get the difference please. I am absolutely in support of learning from wherever it is possible to learn but I am not at all in support of using the various avenues to learn to not to learn."

प्रश्नकर्ता: आचार्य जी, एक तरफ़़ तो फ़िल्में हमें मनोरंजन देती हैं, हँसाती हैं, रुलाती हैं और दूसरी ओर उसी इंडस्ट्री से दुःखद और चौका देने वाली खबरें भी आती रहती हैं। कुछ कहिए।

आचार्य प्रशांत: सबसे पहले तो हमें इस धारणा से बाहर आना होगा कि फ़िल्में हमें मात्र मनोरंजन…

अब देखिएगा, क्या हो रहा है। कोई कृतज्ञ कब अनुभव करेगा? जब पहले उसकी हालत ख़राब हो और कोई बचाए। आपके भीतर अभी यह इच्छा शेष है कि आप कृतज्ञ अनुभव करती रहें और कृतज्ञता अनुभव करने के लिए ज़रूरी है कि कुछ गड़बड़ हो और फिर उस गड़बड़ से आप उबार ली जाएँ। तो फिर आप कृतज्ञ अनुभव करेंगी कि, अरे, मेरा सौभाग्य कि मुझे किसी ने बचा लिया।

◾ एक ही जाति होती है - वह है "बल"। बल विकसित करो अपने भीतर।

◾ आत्मा का इस पूरे देह व्यापार से कोई लेना देना ही नहीं।

◾ मिथ्याचारी वह है जो आगे के लालच में अच्छा काम करता है।

◾ आत्मा का विकृत सिद्धांत ही भारत की दुर्दशा…

If you are someone who cannot take care of herself, how will you be sure that your presence, your company is not becoming an influence of sickness on the other person?

Be very, very alert about cohabitation. Just don’t start living with anybody. Be very, very conscious of your personal…

If you take yourself as primarily physical, then beauty too for you would be something just physical. You will look at the woman most capable of successfully reproducing. That’s the prakritik definition of beauty.

The first thing that comes to mind is flowers. What are flowers? Flowers are the reproductive…

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…

If the mind is a diseased organ, then why do you trust it so much? If it is a diseased organ, then whatever you see through it, why can’t you just reject it? Why do you trust this unfaithful servant so much? If I have a machine that continuously gives…

I’ll tell you what the rape of the mind is. When the mind has nonsensical purposes, that is rape of the mind. When things like stuff that happened in the childhood or teenage attracts you and dominates you, then the mind is being raped. Forgive me the clichéd expression, but…

“Enjoy the moment! Go with the flow!” What is that flow? Where is it coming from? Why should I go with it? Why don’t you just pause and ask, which flow are we talking of?

The tsunamis are coming to take you away, and the great master is teaching you:…

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…

Even if you want a deeper pleasure, you will have to go deeper into the mind, and going deeper into the mind is what the spiritual process is all about.

If the fellow is a lover of the good things of life, let’s say a complete hedonist, then encourage him…

If a bad thought is persevering in your mind, continuing in your mind, then it means that you are just calling it a bad thought. Deeply you are supporting it; deeply you think that it is a good thought. We call them bad. We actually do not consider them bad.…

The shopkeeper’s business is to sell his goods, and that’s what most gurus of today are: they have to sell their goods. When that is what you want to do, how can you afford to antagonize a big chunk of the population? And you would never, never do that if…

Man’s hunger is not so much in the stomach; it resides in his mind. And no fruit is enough when it comes to the mind.

So, man has been destroying everything he can touch, and climate change is the most recent, the most devastating, and probably the most final symptom…

The situation of Krishna reflects the situation of every real teacher. You have to pull up the one lying in dirt and make him fight the highest battle. You don’t merely have to polish and shine an already existing ornament in gold; the task of the teacher is to take…

I have nothing against marriage. I have a lot to do with the mind of man. The mind that rushes towards security, the mind that wants to possess and hold captive another living being, I want to talk of that mind.

Marriage will decide the kind of work that you…

Who told you that rape is merely a sexual activity? Anything that you look at just as a body, as a material to be consumed, is rape. A mind that cannot love will only rape. And we all rape. Look at the way people spread dirt around. Is that not…

You have all the right to make a choice. But if you make a choice and don’t do justice to it, then that is very bad. In fact, correction of choices happens only when you have first of all fully tried out what you are doing. Unless you dedicate yourself…

यह सब अय्याशियाँ होती हैं, “मन कर रहा है, मन नहीं कर रहा है, आज दिल तन्हा सा है, उदास सा है।“ यह क्या है? मन गया भाड़ में! इधर काम रखा हुआ है, जो ज़रूरी चीज़ है वह करेंगे न, मन का क्या है!

मनचलों के लिए दुनिया की…

If you are occupied in something really worthwhile, would you really care for things like pain? Even an ordinary sportsperson would tell you that when you are pursuing something even as normal as victory in a match, pain ceases to be a big botheration. Unless it becomes crippling; then you…

The mind is not evil; it is just stupid. You cannot put somebody to the sword just for stupidity. And how will you kill the mind? Does the mind stand independent of you? Does it?

The mind is your shadow. If you change, the mind will change. And that is…

दूसरे आपका हाथ मरोड़ रहे हैं, समझिए क्यों। क्योंकि आप हाथ मरोड़वाने के लिए तैयार खड़े हैं।

धोखा एक बार हो सकता है न, बार-बार हो तो इसका क्या मतलब है? कोई व्यक्ति आपके साथ एक बार दुर्व्यवहार कर गया, ठीक। बार-बार कर रहा है, क्या मतलब है इस बात…

ये तुम्हारी ज़िन्दगी को समझने की उम्र है। कहाँ तुम ये रिश्तेबाज़ी में फँस रही हो? उसके लिए बहुत समय पड़ा है। पहले थोड़ा मन को जान लो, जीवन को जान लो। समझ तो लो तुम्हारे भीतर वो कौन-सी वृत्ति बैठी है जो खिंची जा रही है लड़कों की ओर।…

यही जीवन जीने की कला है, मौज करो, मस्ती करो! गंभीर मत हो जाना। बिलकुल हल्के रहो, क्योंकि रखा क्या है?

आज तुम जिस बात को गंभीरता से लेते हो, कल वो तुम्हारे लिए दो पैसे की हो जाएगी। याद है, जब चौथी-पाँचवी में रिज़ल्ट आया था तो तुम कैसे…

All the trauma that you experience on a daily basis, that you happily call as life. All the nonsense you remain mired in, that you happily call as life. Your interactions and your relationships with all the foolish and unworthy and mediocre people, that you will gladly accept as life.…

Distinctions are a burden on the mind. If A is different from B, then one has to remember both A and B.

It is wonderful when A to Z are all one; then you can just remember A and forget everything else.

And if A to Z all are nothing,…

What is it that blocks creativity? A cluttered mind, an obsessed mind, a worried mind, a mind too particular about results. Just as creativity is uncertain, similarly are the results of creativity. And if you are someone who bothers too much about results, then you cannot be creative.

You would…

Every time you walk past a meat shop or come across a menu containing a lot of flesh, let that harden your resolve. No point throwing that menu on the waiter’s face. The waiter is a puny fellow. He didn’t even write the menu; he has nothing to do with…

Whatever has come to the mind has come with a promise. What is the promise? The promise is: I will give you peace.

The mind feels inadequate. The mind feels incomplete. Whosoever promises it completion, the mind latches on to it. It could be a thought, it could be a…

१० साल पीछे जाना और देखना है कि उस समय मन पर कौन से मुद्दे हावी थे, याद करो! कहाँ गए वह मुद्दे? और पीछे जाओ, अब तुम १५ साल के हो, याद करो मन पर कौन से मुद्दे हावी थे, कहाँ गए मुद्दे?

कितने लोगों को दसवीं के बोर्ड…

बताओ प्रतियोगी परीक्षा क्यों दे रहे हो? अगर तुम्हें साफ़-साफ़ पता हो कि तुम क्यों दे रहे हो परीक्षा तो ऐसा कैसे होगा कि तुम फिर उसमें मेहनत नहीं करोगे? या तो मेहनत करोगे पूरी या फिर परीक्षा छोड़ ही दोगे। पर तुम ये कभी पता ही करने की कोशिश…

पढ़ाई में मन नहीं लगता क्योंकि वो पढ़ाई शायद तुम्हारे लिए है ही नहीं। वो पढ़ाई तुम कर ही रहे हो उनके दबाव में जो तुमको एक तरह से स्पॉन्सर कर रहे हैं कि ‘तू घर बैठ, तुझे रोटी-पानी की फ़िक्र करने की अभी कोई ज़रूरत नहीं साल-दो-साल, तू बैठ…

तुम ग़लत राहों को ठुकरा कर तो देखो, सही राह खुलती है कि नहीं खुलती। और यह घटिया और झूठा तर्क बिलकुल मत दे दो कि, “मुझे सही राह मिली नहीं मैं इसलिए ग़लत राह चल पड़ा।“ बात यह नहीं है, सही राह हमेशा खुली होती है और उपलब्ध होती…

तुम मुझे एक आदमी दिखा दो जो इन दोनों कामों के अलावा कोई तीसरा काम करता हो। आम व्यक्ति का सारा जीवन इन्हीं दो कामों में जा रहा है कि नहीं? पहला, ठूसना – और मैं सिर्फ़ मुँह से ठूसने की बात नहीं कर रहा, जेब में ठूसना, आँख में…

My request to you is to never turn your back upon the saints. Never. Never let it become acceptable to you to decry, deride, or ignore the scriptures. Never. You must hold the scriptures today and always in the greatest esteem, and you must be very clear with what the…

"हम इतना प्यार करते हैं उधर से कुछ आता नहीं।" जब यह प्रश्न उठे तो अपने-आप से पूछिए कि, "मैं माँग क्या रही हूँ?"

'आई हियर बाय रिक्वेस्ट यू टू लव मी' (मैं तुमसे मुझे प्रेम करने की प्रार्थना करती हूँ)

"महोदय, सविनय निवेदन है कि कृपया थोड़ा…

Your mind keeps racing—you find that a problem? Next time your mind runs away from the office, you too run away. Don’t say, “Oh, this fickle mind, it can’t rest; it is not spiritual enough!” Great that it is not spiritual enough; great that it is not tolerating rubbish.

Why…

Were our bodies to reflect accurately and honestly the state of our minds, none of us would have been able to walk firmly even for a distance of ten meters. Our legs would have shown up as cut, wounded, bruised, fractured the way, exactly the way our mind is.

Unfortunately,…

जब भी कभी मन में यह प्रश्न आए, “क्या करूँ?” – कोई भी मुद्दा, कोई भी किस्सा हो सकता है, उस किस्से के अंत में अगर प्रश्न है कि, “क्या करूँ?” तो क्या करना है? यह सब अच्छे से समझ लीजिए, जो कर रहे हैं उस पर ग़ौर करना है;…

तुम छः-छः, आठ-आठ साल की लड़की को ‘मुन्नी बदनाम हुई’ और, ‘मैं तो तेरा बटर-चिकन हूँ’ और इस तरह के गानों पर नचा रही हो, यह कला है? आग लगे ऐसी कला को! देखो न वह किस तरीके की भाव भंगिमा दिखा रही है, देखो वह आँखों से कैसे इशारे…

The mind is a dislocated child. The mind is a wanderer looking for its home.

There are only two kinds of inputs that can come to this lost and wandering child. The first kind of input is the one that takes it back to its home. The second kind of…

The one who always follows you is worth following. The one who is always with you on his own accord is worth being with. The yogi is the one who knows whom to follow. And that knowledge the world never gives you. If sitting here your consciousness is full of…

If you are not feeling right, don’t push yourself into believing that everything is alright. Your nature is total security and total relaxation. Any iota of doubt proves that you are not centered. Entertain it. Don’t dismiss it. Your doubts are not without a purpose. The agitation of the mind…

Your parents don’t want you to speak, your teachers don’t want you to speak, and religious preachers, obviously, they are very afraid if you speak up. So you don’t ask even the most basic, logical, sensible questions, and you keep accepting even the most amusing kind of trash as if…

Man is not really starving in the stomach. Man is starving in the mind. In fact, man is the only species that is overweight and obese and still thinking about food.

You need money for mental aggrandizement. You need money to feel secure internally. You don’t need money merely to…

Unfortunately, this is the way most people look at the future: not with an intent to become better or improve, but with the intent to remain exactly as they are. That’s why future is such a big issue.

Then there is the other kind of mind. It says, “Obviously, I…