Inspiring Personalities

Why is freedom from desire so very extolled? || On Vivekchudamani (2020)

When his mother asked him, “Why don’t you get married?” Bhagat Singh replied, “I am already married, and her name is Freedom.”

Now, it behooves a Bhagat Singh to not get married to a woman because he has committed himself to freedom, but to every Tom, Dick and Harry it… read_more

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is flawed || XLRI (2021)

Questioner: In The Fountainhead it is said, “I take the only desire one can really permit oneself. Freedom, Alvah, freedom. To ask nothing. To expect nothing. To depend on nothing.”

In the above lines, Ayn Rand has said that freedom is to not expect and depend on the desired outcome.… read_more

6 min

Questioner (Q): I try to experiment with and apply the philosophies I have heard of in class to real life situations. So, during one of our classes, I came across a philosophy called ‘Maslow’s hierarchy of needs’.

In that hierarchy, self-actualization was placed at the top of the pyramid. And… read_more

क्रान्तिकारी भगत सिंह, और आज के युवा || आचार्य प्रशांत (2019)

19 min

प्रश्न: आचार्य जी, कल तेईस मार्च भारत में शहीदी दिवस के रूप में मनाया जाता है। भगत सिंह, सुखदेव, राजगुरु, इनको फाँसी इस दिन मिली थी। तब भगत सिंह मात्र तेईस वर्ष के थे। तो युवाओं को इनसे क्या प्रेरणा लेनी चाहिए अपने जीवन में? आप कृपया मार्गदर्शन करें।

आचार्य… read_more

मार्क्स, पेरियार, भगतसिंह की नास्तिकता || आचार्य प्रशांत (2020)

10 min

प्रश्न: आपने कहा कि आज के जितने भी लिबरल चिंतक इत्यादि हैं, वे कोई भी पराभौतिक हस्ती को पूर्णतया नकार देते हैं, और कहते हैं - "जो भी है वह यहीं आँखों के सामने है।" भगत सिंह ने भी कहा, "दुनिया में ईश्वर नाम की कोई चीज़ नहीं है," पेरियार… read_more

आइन रैंड की द फाउन्टेनहेड पर || आचार्य प्रशांत (2019)

You have chosen to be bonded! || Acharya Prashant on, ‘The Fountainhead’ by Ayn Rand (2012)

प्रश्नकर्ता: बहुत से लोग हैं जो फाउंटेनहेड पढ़कर जीवन में कोई बदलाव नहीं ला पाते हैं। और दूसरी तरफ़ बहुत ऐसे भी लोग हैं जो इस पुस्तक को पढ़ने के बाद विद्युतीकृत हो जाते हैं। आचार्य जी मैं दूसरे लोगों की श्रेणी में आने के लिए क्या कर सकता हूँ?… read_more

15 min

Question: Acharya Ji, in breaking the law we think that we come out from our daily routines. Does our society allow us that?

Acharya Prashant Ji: How old are you?

Questioner: Twenty years.

(Acharya Ji is addressing a gathering of young students at one of the premiere educational institutions of… read_more

War is what is normal || On Albert Camus (2017)

4 min

“There’s always been war, But people quickly get accustomed to peace. So they think it’s normal. No, war is what’s normal.”

~ Albert Camus

Questioner: Acharya Ji, which ‘war’ is Albert Camus referring to?

Acharya Prashant: The questioner has asked that Albert Camus has said that ‘war’ is what is… read_more

वासना निर्बल और निराधार क्यों? || आचार्य प्रशांत, रवीन्द्रनाथ टैगोर पर (2018)

6 min

तुम मुझे रोज़मर्रा की निर्बल और निराधार वासना से बचते रहने की शक्ति देते रहो।

~ गीतांजलि

प्रश्नकर्ता: आचार्य जी, रवीन्द्रनाथ टैगोर, वासना को निर्बल और निराधार क्यों कह रहे हैं?

आचार्य प्रशांत: वासना को रवीन्द्रनाथ निर्बल इसीलिए कह रहे हैं, क्योंकि वासना में बल होता तो वासना उसको पा… read_more

Celebrating Jesus Christ

4 min

Jesus stands for the Truth and Truth is omnipresent.

He is present here, and right now, in the hearts of those who love him.

Jesus is not a mere mortal. Jesus is the source of light; the root of all flowers and beauty. In one form, he disappears. In another,… read_more

What is Ego ?

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

Test notificationm

कर्म और अतीत से मुक्ति कैसे मिले ?

dfbjdsh

12 min

इन सब से मुक्ति का एक ही तरीका है, वो बचो ही नहीं जो मूर्ख जाकर के दुनिया से, जगत से, प्रकृति से कामना पूर्ति की आशा रखता था, वो बचो ही नहीं। उसके अलावा और तुम कितने भी हथकंडे लगा लो, अतीत तो लौट-लौट के बार-बार आएगा और सर पर चढ़ेगा ही चढ़ेगा।

Vidyarthi Jeevan

युवावस्था बहुत ही नाज़ुक समय होता है। यही समय निर्धारित कर देता है कि जीवन किस दिशा जाएगा।

Who controls your mood?

Description enwcoiew fkwsc J. Krishnamurti.

आपके मूड को कौन नियंत्रित करता है?

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।

Title

Love would have helped you fly. And now you have captivated love within four walls. As wise men and women, if you are married, wonderful. As wise men and women, if you are not married, wonderful. The point is not really marriage. The point is wisdom.
https://dev-main8.vedant.life/en/articles/marriage-and-love-1_0ff5cad

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… read_more

Marriage or Love?

5 min

What Would Today’s Buddha Look Like?

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

Why do I restless

9 min

This article is related to restlessness.

Does Acharya Prashant Dismiss Alternative Teachers?

"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."

Are You Ready For True Love?

8 min

Questioner: A lot of students that I talk to — it’s the fear of the society, it’s the fear of the unknown, it’s fear of the expectations that they are carrying, that pushes them to become an engineer and then they figure out that probably this is not something that they wanted to be. And that is the reality of a lot of individuals and not just engineers. Probably, here is something that is stopping me from taking a plunge of starting something of myself, right? Fear is something that is stopping somebody who is in a relationship for ten years to take that step to get married. Where does this fear come from? Acharya Prashant: Lack of love, which comes from lack of self-knowledge. You see, when I tie my sense of existence, my very identity, to something that is unreliable, I will have to be afraid. It’s like putting my heart on this table. Now, how can I live in security? The heart is out there on the table, anybody can take it away, anything can happen to it. Or the heart might grow legs and walk away on its own. My very existence has been subjected to something that is not in my control. Something that is definitely going to deceive me at some point, that is fear. My sense of self-worth comes from my monies, my bank account, I will be afraid. That bank account can be closed anytime, anything can happen. My sense of self-worth comes from my physical appearance. I very well know, time will take it away, I will be afraid. Right? Who am I? I am the one who is praised or worshipped by the society. Oh! I will be so afraid, so afraid! You talked of people working for their images, they would be living a cursed life. Because, their heart is out there in the hands of strangers. Their entire identity is tied to their image and the image is in the eyes of other people. So, the image can be distorted or can disappear any moment. Just imagine, how afraid they would be all the time. That’s with the ego. Because, the ego, as I said, is a fundamental sense of incompleteness. Therefore, to complete itself, it just associates itself to anything possible. And the things that you are associating yourself with, they are not reliable. They belong to the world and the world can take them away. They belong to time. They came with time and with time all those things will disappear. And you have tied your identity to those things. Now how can you rest in peace? That’s fear. If you do not have self-knowledge, you will always be afraid. My identity is linked to my husband’s identity. Now the husband has two legs. And the husband has a brain, a mind of his own. If your identity comes from your husband’s name, as happens in India at least, you would always be afraid as a wife. The husband can change his mind any day. You would always be, you know, having one eye on his secretary, and the other eye in his email and mobile phone. What’s he getting into? Who’s texting him? Why is he on the phone so late in the night? Because you are afraid if husband goes away, what happens to you? Your very existence depends on the husband. That’s fear. When you operate from the ego centre and make something very, very important for yourself and that something belongs to the world, it can go away anytime, and you are afraid. And in that fear, there can never be love, never be love. If you are afraid of losing something, you will be very violent towards it. Nobody lets his money go and have a walk down the road. What do you do? You lock up your money. That’s violence. When something starts becoming very meaningful to you, you lock it up. You don’t want it to have freedom. And that’s violence. So, love and fear just cannot go together. If you are dependent on something or somebody, you will be afraid. And that dependence cannot be called love. And that is a confusion, we often get into it. Just because you depend on somebody and somebody depends on you, you start feeling as if it is love, it is not. Questioner: Just like the way political parties think that people love them but it actually is fear. Acharya Prashant: Exactly! Love is a rare quality and rarer in politics. Questioner: So, if I am interested in a particular profession, do I not pursue it wholeheartedly? Do I pursue it wholeheartedly knowing very well that the results can either be zero or one? Acharya Prashant: One has to go into the very nature of interest. Aren’t we interested in cricket? Aren’t we interested in seeing songs in movies? Practically, everybody in India is interested in cricket, nobody in Brazil is. And nobody in India is interested in ice hockey. So, that’s how flimsy the whole thing about interest is. In India, if you don’t get a movie with songs, you say, “I am disinterested.” The movie would bomb. In Hollywood, if you have a movie with songs, that would raise eyebrows, what’s going on? Occasionally, you have an OD song but typically there is no song. So, that is the nature of interest. It is never something of the heart. Love and interest are not the same thing. Interest is something that is given to you by your body, by your environment, by random chance, your circumstances and all these. So that’s how your interests come to you. So, if you are interested in a vocation, first of all, you have to ask yourself, “Just two years back, I was interested in something else and two years before I was interested in that and when I was four years old, I was interested in becoming a fighter pilot. What happened to all those interests?” Today, I smile at those things and just shrug them off, “I don’t want to be a fighter pilot.” What you want to be today? Oh! I want to be an investment banker. What happened to the fighter pilot? You were so interested in that. And how do you know, tomorrow you will not be looking at this I-banker, just the way today you are looking at the fighter pilot. The self of a five-year old appears so naïve and immature when you are twenty-five. How do you know that at thirty-five, you will not look back at this twenty-five year old self and say, “What the hell! How was I taking this fellow so seriously?” So, interest is something that you must look at with healthy contempt. Interest, mind you, can even be induced in you. Interest can be aroused in you. That’s what the entire advertising industry is about. They can make you feel Interested in things that is intrinsically worthless to you. So, of what value is this thing called interest? But, then in today’s world, we place so much premium on this word 'interest.' Do what interests you, this, that. Whereas, it is wisdom to realize that interest is the last thing that you should ever go after. Then people come up and say, “No, should we do things that we are not interested in? No.

Attachment

7 min

Questioner: Acharya Ji, Pranaam. Once we are attached to anything, there is so much of suffering. Please help me understand this. Acharya Prashant: End of suffering is just an idea for us. Let’s rather talk about suffering — that is a fact, that is our daily experience. The questioner is quoting me from somewhere. The quote runs this way, “Once you are attached to nothing, that is the end of suffering.” I am saying that the end of suffering is a mere concept. Do you know the end of suffering? Do you have any closeness or any familiarity with it? So don’t talk about the ‘end of suffering’, talk only about ‘suffering’. You know suffering. Where does it come from? Where does it come from? It comes from pursuing paths that lead to nowhere, rather they just turn around at some point and bring you back where you started from. That is what is called in India as – a cycle of birth and death. You thought that the path you are taking is leading you somewhere, but it’s kind of circular. It took you this way, this way, this way, this way and it brought you back. And at no point was there a clear U-turn. There was no way for you to clearly be warned at some time that you are just going to return to the beginning point. The roundabout was huge, you never got a clear indication that you are being made a fool of. You continued on the wrong path not seeing it’s futility and the suffering contained in it. Continuing on the wrong path for a stretch of time is called ‘attachment’. If you are with the Right One, it is called ‘Immersion’. If you are with the wrong one, and not even prepared to see that you are with the wrong one, it is called ‘attachment’. It is called ‘attachment’ because the two of you would anyway never be able to fully unite. You can atmost be attached to each other. You will never mix properly, you never merge into each other, you will never disappear into each other. You will never lose your respective personalities, that you will retain. But in some way you will find a cord to connect you two – like two persons walking hand-in-hand. Have they renounced their respective individualities? Have they? Both of them have retained what they are. He has his personality, she has her personality. He has his likes, she has her likes. He has his own thoughts, she has her own thoughts. But the two are nevertheless holding hands. This is the kind of union that we know of. This is called ‘attachment’. ‘Attachment’ is superficial union. ‘Immersion’ is when there is Yoga, when there is dissolution, when the two are lost. When the two are lost into the One that is neither of the two. We atmost get attached, and attachment is always-always with the wrong one. You can never be attached to the Right One. You are losing out in so many ways. First of all, it was not your desire to be attached. Your desire was to be lost, your desire was to be dissolved, instead you got a bad deal. All you got is ‘attachment’. You know it is called a ‘Faustian bargain’ – when you give up something very precious, for something very small. Attachment is a ‘Faustian bargain’. The possibility of dissolution was available to you and you forsake that possibility just to get some attachment. Do you know what ‘dissolution’ is? Dissolution is — A meets B, and what remains is neither A nor B. Gone both of them. Into what? Into nothing. ‘Attachment’ is – A meets B, A remains and B remains, and both remain chained to each other. A meets B, A remains and B remains, and both remain chained to each other. That is ‘attachment’. Neither A sees that he is going down the wrong track, nor does B, and both are travelling the huge roundabout of life. None of them is realising that it is not taking them anywhere, it is only consuming away their precious life. Not only are they being deceived by the track, they are also hell to each other. First of all they are not getting what they ought to get, what is their birthright in the real-sense. Additionally, both of them are eating away at each other’s brains. Consider a car that is first of all going down the wrong road, secondly it has a husband and wife that are bickering, and shouting, and hitting at each other. First of all the track that the car has taken is wrong, secondly the occupants of the car are busy eating each other out. That is ‘attachment’. That is ‘suffering’. How exciting! The cultural problem is that we have turned attachment into a virtue. Do you easily confess before someone that you are assaulting somebody, or that you are stealing from somebody? Do you easily confess it? And if you confess it, do you expect sympathy in return? Do you? Do you just go and confess to someone that you are a murderer? You don’t easily, right? But I get so many cases. A girl would come and say, “Acharya Ji, there is somebody. I met him in my college days, and you know I have become so attached to him.” The lady really expects me to empathise with her condition. She is looking me in the eye and saying, “Acharya Ji, I have really become attached to him. Please do something. You know him.” What I hear is a 1000W fire alarm. Ping, Pong! Ping, pong! “Acharya Ji, I met him a few years back. I have become really attached to him.” How dare you say this? No, I am not in favour of concealment, but I am just wondering. Would you be equally forthcoming and tell me, “Acharya Ji, I have murdered my neighbour, please sympathise with me.” Would you do that? Would you do that? You won’t do that, right? “Acharya Ji, you know I am a Kleptomaniac. Just when I was coming to meet you, I stole from the taxi driver.” Would you tell that to me? You would be ashamed. Right? Why aren’t you equally ashamed when you talk of attachment? Why do you come over and talk of attachment as if it is something precious and delicate, something worth mentioning? “Acharya Ji, I am so attached to him.” You say, “Acharya Ji, I am so attached to him,” what I hear is, “Acharya Ji, I want to drink his blood.” (laughter) Our culture has turned attachment into value. We don’t feel ashamed admitting that we are attached, and because we don’t feel ashamed we keep encouraging our attachments, we keep empowering them. No alarm goes on in our minds when we feel attachment. We feel there is something beautiful happening in us. “You know, attachment. It is very proximate to love. They are very much synonymous, you know – attachment and Love.” That’s what we feel, that’s what our culture has fed into us. Attachment is poison, what does it have to do with Love? And often these things are uttered in whispers, and this too I don’t understand. How is evil so closely related to whispering? (Speaking in a whispering voice) “You know Acharya Ji, I am attached.” The lady is almost moaning – “I am attached.” I feel like looking for cover. Security.

ऑपरेशन 2030

11 min

पृथ्वी को बचाने के लिए यूनाइटेड नेशंस की सीओपी ने यह शर्त रखी थी कि 2030 तक वैश्विक तापमान 1.5 डिग्री से अधिक नहीं बढ़ना चाहिए। हमने वह सीमा 2025 में ही लांघ दी है। यह आने वाले बहुत-बहुत बड़े विनाश का संकेत है। आदमी के इतिहास में इससे ख़तरनाक पल कभी नहीं आया। उस ख़तरे को चुनौती देने के लिए ही यह "ऑपरेशन 2030" है, जिसका उद्देश्य है कि आम आदमी में चेतना जगाई जाए — “देखो, तुम्हारा ग्रह विनाश की ओर कितनी तेज़ी से बढ़ रहा है। तुम अपने बच्चों के लिए एक ऐसा ग्रह छोड़कर जा रहे हो, जहाँ आफ़तें ही आफ़तें होंगी।”

फ़िल्में: मनोरंजन या मनोविकार? || आचार्य प्रशांत (2020)

38 min

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… read_more

Doc Type test

The madness called man || Acharya Prashant, on Guru Kabir Saheb (2018)

test doc type

8 min

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, and calves give milk three times a day, where mice are the boatmen, and tomcats row the boats, where frogs keep snakes as watchdogs,… read_more

ख़ुद से ये पूछा करो || नीम लड्डू

Red roses or books? || Neem Candies

किससे मिल रहे हो? किससे नहीं मिल रहे हो? कहाँ रोज़ पहुँच जाते हो? कहाँ से पैसे ला रहे हो? पहली बात – क्या ईमानदारी से काम रहे हो? दूसरी बात – जो कमा रहे हो, उसको खर्च कहाँ कर रहे हो? छः घण्टे से कोई खबरिया चैनल लगा कर… read_more

Does the person you are with encourage you to read? You have to ask, “What does he bring for me, roses or books?”

Be very cautious of those who bring roses for you, especially red roses. Books are what we all need, and books are dangerous. Books are dangerous because… read_more

Popular reasons to marry || Neem Candies

जल्दी से शादी करा के विदा कर दो || नीम लड्डू

In our country, most people marry because that is sometimes the only way of getting some good sex—good and assured sex. Otherwise, the fellow would either have to spend a lot of money or a lot of time, or both, and then still return empty-handed. Isn’t that so?

Now, if… read_more

Dangers on Sanatan Dharma

लड़की को पढ़ाई के लिए दो-सौ किलोमीटर दूर भेजना हो तो यही माँ-बाप और भाई कन्नी काट जाते हैं, और ब्याह कर वो दो-हज़ार किलोमीटर दूर जा रही हो इन्हें कोई फ़र्क नहीं पड़ेगा। और पढ़ाई के लिए जाएगी तो किसी यूनिवर्सिटी के हॉस्टल में रहेगी, सुरक्षा में रहेगी, हॉस्टल… read_more

Astrology: Science or Superstition?

A strange situation is that a beautiful woman’s life is perhaps more complex than an average-looking woman’s life, because a beautiful looking woman has a lot of men eyeing upon her, and she can get whatever she wants. And what you will get for your beauty, that is the real… read_more

Anybody who believes in astrology cannot be rational. All you have is a set of beliefs—the belief that this thing will happen. There is no logic in it, only fear and insecurity. Science is based on verifiable and falsifiable experiments, whereas astrology is not subject to verification; hence, it is just a story. It's a story that is making big money for a lot of storytellers.

Is your sex infinitely deep? || Neem Candies

Unless you have reached the heart, the sexual activity has gone waste. Sex that is just a few inches deep serves no purpose. Sex has to be infinitely deep. You have to touch not only the other’s body but really the heart. That is what you are looking for.

Who Is Women's Enemy?

The woman is simpler, more innocent. I would dare to say the woman is simple and innocent just as animals are, because woman, just like animals, is biology-driven. She is emotional, and her emotions do not really arise from understanding, not even from intellect. Her emotions arise from her body, from her biological conditioning, from her hormones.

गुरु के प्रति धन्यवाद कम क्यों हो जाता है? आचार्य प्रशांत (2017)

7 min

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।

Test Articles (MD)

Now, mind is movement, right? Why does the mind move at all? The mind wants to reach somewhere. Where does the mind want to reach? Is that place within the mind? The mind wants to reach somewhere. Every thought, every action, every motivation, every emotion rides on a desire, is… read_more

Test KC 4

How should one interpret the coming forth of Krishna when righteousness is on decline? Does this statement have any significance at an individual level, or is it said in the social context?

Also, in Christianity it is believed that Jesus will come again on the judgement day. Please help me… read_more

advait