For You

You decide with whom to spend your time. You choose your boyfriend or your girlfriend, right? So, all of this, at least most of this, is happening as a result of my own decisions, my own choices. If I do not like my choices, then de-facto what is it that I dislike? The one who is making the choice.

What is Real Leadership?

Leadership is doing what you must. A leader doesn’t care about followers. The common perception of leadership is nothing but ego- that I am superior, I am enlightened, I have something to give, and you all follow me. This is not leadership. The real leader is essentially self-centred. Followers may be there, but they are incidental.

The Reality of Fake Feminism: Separating Fact from Fiction

True feminism is really when the woman, the female, stops taking being a female as her primary identity. If you want to talk of feminism in the context of women's liberation, then this alone is liberation. As long as she is fighting for her rights as a woman, she is not liberated. She, first of all, needs to be liberated from the concept that she is a woman. If she continues to be a woman, then her genetic conditioning and biological impulses and physical drives would continue to rule her. And that would obviously make the achievement of her potential as a human being very difficult.

Does Self-Help Really Help?

Self-help doesn't help. Its approach is, “I am sad as my desires are not fulfilled, so the way to help myself is to fulfill desires.” They never realize their lives are driven by biological, social, and cultural forces outside of themselves. Spirituality offers the only real solution: “Before helping the self, one must know what the self really is."

Loneliness: Gift or Curse?

Most of us have such low tolerance for loneliness that we fill it up with crap. Either the wrong kind of job, or beliefs, or person. Loneliness is a gift because it gives you the opportunity and the freedom to go for the best. “I’m lonely,” means “I have the opportunity.” And the opportunities are available throughout life. Do you want to give that up?

You May Be Wrong About Death: Bhagavad Gita’s Answer

We have to investigate the meaning of the word ‘death’. When Shri Krishna says ‘death’, what does he mean? Is Shri Krishna looking at himself as a body? No. There is no way the author of these lines takes himself as a corporal being. Is Shri Krishna referring to himself as merely the Ātmān here? Well, yes and no. He does refer to himself as the Ātmān here, but the role that he is playing is not of Ātmān but of Avatar. Had he been merely the non-doer, Supreme Truth, then he would not have been found mortally present on the battlefield instructing Arjuna. So, discount these two and see what you are left with.

Why Is The Planet Dying?

Today, if you see AQI levels beyond tolerance, glaciers melting and the coral reefs being destroyed, the reason is very simple. We do not know what is the right relationship to have with the world around us. So, all we do is consumption and destruction. There can be therefore no scientific and technological solution to this problem. The solution is self awareness.

Most Ignored Side of Women Empowerment

External freedom without caring for her internal freedom will become dangerous because it creates an illusion of freedom. They say we are empowered, but internally they are living in the jungle variety of bondage. The woman has to have self-knowledge and that's where Vedanta comes in. Vedanta tells her, ‘Learn to keep the body aside. You are not the body.’

How to Earn a Higher Salary?

If you are really immersed in what you are doing, would you have time and inclination to worry about salary? The work itself is its own reward. There are people, who work to get paid. And there are people who work and get paid. An amusing thing is, those who stop worrying about salary, often start getting unexpected salaries.

Are Women Sexually Passive?

Man keeps on fantasizing about sex as the ultimate remedy to his mental chaos. And to get this remedy, he must have the woman’s body. To ensure that the woman’s body is available, the man must keep the woman in bondage. Otherwise, she may, or she may not acquiesce.

Is Patriarchy Hurting Men Too?

Patriarchy is the belief that one’s job is determined by gender, oppressing both men and women. It’s not about men versus women; it’s wisdom versus ignorance. If a man continues to be a man, he can only be a predator who hunts women, while women hunt passively in return. Ultimately, no one can find joy while others remain in misery.

Fear and Faith: Finding Strength in Uncertain Times

35 min

Faith, is to be all right without a reason. Faith is to feel secure without being dependent. Faith is to feel healthy without checking whether you are really healthy. Faith is to have a certain inner certainty without the need to be proven or validated by anybody, including yourself. So, faith is to be just okay. You are just okay and you have nothing – ostensibly, externally.

What Is the Importance of Patience?

Patience is not about accommodation, adjustment, or tolerance. The patience we know is suffering. Real patience is timelessness—where you don't even feel time. Like when you're deeply immersed in a book in the late night, and suddenly it’s dawn with birds chirping—that is patience. Real patience is love, where time simply disappears.

What Is Sin and Repentance if Aham Brahmasmi?

There is no way to rid yourself of sins except by coming very close to God, so close that you lose your individual identity. This is why the Upanishadic Mahavakya, 'Aham Brahmasmi' (I am Brahma), is central to all spirituality. Without this realization, no redemption is possible. No matter what you say about yourself, Truth, God, or the world, nothing will bring you peace. Only the declaration ‘I am That and That am I’ can offer true rest. Everything else is sin.

How to Control the Mind?

Mind control is not about suppressing the mind; it is about supporting it to take the right route and reach the right destination. The mind does not really need control; it needs peace. But the mind is a little foolish. If the mind were not foolish, why would it leave its peaceful state, which is its natural state?

Science in Ancient India

The beauty, the glory of the Vedas lies not in the fact that they contain all the secrets of the material universe; their glory lies in Vedanta. And the Vedas are de facto immortal because what Vedanta is talking of is stuff that is applicable to all times, all people, all ages. The stuff that I have spoken to you of over the last two hours is nothing but Vedanta. So, Vedanta is very much relevant even today, and it will continue to be relevant five hundred years from today, a thousand years from today.

How to Face Cancel Culture?

Cancel culture arises when one's fundamental identity is social. If you take your identity from society, you've given them the right to cancel it. Don’t let anyone control your centre. Be your own master. Be of the world and live yet, independently of the world. Let them cancel what they can! That’s what spirituality blesses you with—your real identity, which no one can dare cancel.

Leader and Follower: A Dance of Power or a Loss of Liberty?

How can you lead others if you are still dependent on others? The leader must first and foremost be a person who has attained his inner completion. Only then he can be of genuine use to anybody. “If I need others, I will exploit others. If I do not need others then I can give something to others. If I do not need others then I am in a position to give something to them and that is a healthy relationship”.

Is Knowing the Truth a Never-Ending Quest?

41 min

“The significance of a man is not in what he attains, but rather what he longs to attain.” -Khalil Gibran, ‘Sand and Foam’

Question: Once during a discourse on the Bible, you too have said, “The more you know the Truth, the more you want to know; such is … read_more

Is Texting Replacing Real Connections?

Technology cannot substitute real-life interactions, and planned statements or responses can never carry the authenticity of something spontaneous. It can become a habit to hide behind text. Do not let that become a habit—that habit simply means fear. Do not protect fear.

How to Be Good Parents?

The child is a reflection of who the parent is. The growth of the child, is the barometer of the growth of parents. The state of the child is the litmus test on the state of the parents and the teachers.

Do Attractive Girls Get More Love?

If the girl is physically attractive, the boy will feel physical attraction. Where does love come into the equation? Love is harder towards someone attractive because physical attractiveness overpowers everything else. If someone comes for your body, it’s not love. A wise woman laughs when a suitor praises her beauty.

Career Anxiety: Follow Your Heart or the Market?

Work. Where is the time to devote to anxiety? Where is the space to be anxious? If you are anxious about something, that thing is obviously important to you. Else you wouldn’t be anxious and if that thing is important, work. Work for that thing. The thing is not only important but also stands incomplete. That’s the reason you are anxious. Correct? If it stands incomplete, work, bring it to completion. Somebody said action is the antidote to despair. Action. Don’t just sit and brood, work. And life will become intolerable if you are not a worker.

How to Balance Studies and Friendship?

Studies and friendships should not be mutually exclusive. Why can’t you have friends who have fun with books? Drop the word ‘balance’ from your mind entirely. Balance simply means fragmentation and division: this is to be done, that is not to be done, and I’m balancing both. Joy lies in absolute immersion.

How to Correct a Bad Decision?

1 min

Do not focus on the decision. Rather, look at the decision-maker. The decision is not bad, humbly accept that the decision-maker is bad. Without this acceptance, the series of bad decisions will continue. When one realizes that the decision-makers' mind has been full of beliefs, past, and fear, then there is radical transformation in one’s being. The old, frozen, conditioned decision-maker simply evaporates.

Should I Express My Emotions?

19 min

Expression is a relationship you establish with the world. It becomes a gift you give to others. What gets expressed, gets amplified. Anger expressed is anger amplified; attachment expressed is attachment multiplied. Do you want to gift chains and shackles, or something that helps and liberates?

What Is the Purpose of Life?

You see all time movement is in the brain but the mind is brain plus something else, what is that? It's Intelligence, and intelligence operates in the present and in present there is no purpose. Do not run after purpose. Just be present. Presence, not purpose. Presence is intelligence, purpose is conditioning. So, there is no purpose in life except what is happening right now. And this right now is called presence. Whatever you will call as the purpose of your life will essentially be your conditioning.

Does Law of Attraction Work?

The ‘Law of Attraction’ is based on the premise that you know what is truly worthy to attract. But do you really know? If a drunkard uses it, he would attract a truckload of beer, making things worse for him. Often, what you try to attract is just your disease. Can you use this law to bring peace to you? The real thing is not an object of attraction.

Is Suffering a Choice? Why Do We Keep Choosing It?

The mind can suffer when the body is in pain. The sufferer is always the mind. The mind is the subject, the sufferer, and it is possible that the subject mind is suffering because the object body is in pain. But that's not a compulsion upon the mind. The mind has a choice. The mind always has a choice whether it wants to suffer or it wants to realize.

Why Do Superhero Movies Work?

All of us within have a point, a corner that loves excellence. Mediocrity might be useful, but mediocrity cannot be loved. The Superman really is the highest potentiality resting within each of us. So, instead of that real Superman, we create, draw, and imagine caricatures of Superman in the form of superhero movies. Being the Superman is not entertainment, it is sacrifice, it is penance, it is austerity, it is Tapasya in the real sense.

How to Make the World a Better Place?

18 min

If you want something extraordinary like Liberation to happen in the society, then you have to take extraordinary care as a society. You need that kind of a society that chooses the right kinds of rulers and brings up the right kind of institutions. To get the society to do that, you have to teach the society.

Which is More Important: The Person or Love?

People come and go; nobody is more important than your peace. You do not want a person so that he may cause disturbance. When you want someone, you actually seek peace and contentment through them. Contentment is more valuable than any relationship. Elevate yourself. Transform yourself. And then see who comes to you, then you will know what love really is.

Are There Any Benefits to Gossiping?

So many love affairs are actually based on not much more than gossip. What do the couples mostly do? Do they discuss wisdom? Do they discuss the renaissance enlightenment? They gossip and they gossip like hell. But that gossip is so fruitful; they get sex. Kids are born and mind you, rarely would you find a man and a woman who would be able to trust each other without gossiping, without engaging in small talk, loose talk.

Feeling Jealous of Your Friend's Success?

Comparison is not the problem; the problem is when it affects your self-worth. If your marks are lower, it doesn’t mean you are lowly. Remember, 'Your performance is bad, your potential is not bad.' None of us perform to our full potential most of the time. Acknowledge that your friend has done better. You can look at them to see where your performance stands, but beyond that, others are not a benchmark.

How to Stop Thinking About the Future?

20 min

You think that since you have dropped a lot of material stuff behind, you can live at ease without any worry but that's not how it is. One central belief that does not allow man to live freely and fully – “I will be my own master. My intellect will decide the next step.” If you keep thinking about what you need to do next via the intellectual route, then you still haven’t dropped your misplaced belief, in your power to take care of yourself.

Can Money and Spirituality Go Together?

16 min

Good spirituality is good economics. We do not know what to purchase. We do not know what really is valuable, even in the material domain. The punishment of not being spiritual is that you lead a very bad, a very ruined worldly life and that includes an economic life, a ruined economic life. It is not merely the person, even nations, actually the entire world suffers when the one making the economic decision is spiritually bankrupt.

That One Great Desire

There is a desire that gives birth to the worlds and then there is a desire that gets fed up with the worlds and returns to the pure, the original, the immutable. You have already come to a long distance, cannot undo the journey, you cannot un-travel the distance, what do you do then? Complete the cycle. Have the right desire that stimulates you into the right action. The right work, the right action that will lead you into immortality, that’s what you need to do now.

Are You Choosing Your Thoughts?

Because of the stimulus, a thought arises. There is an external stimulus, and because you have an inherent tendency to think, you are conditioned to think. That is the maximum that the external stimulus can do. It can provoke a thought within you. But then you provide fuel to that thought; you provide energy to that thought. And then the thought becomes a fixation with you. Now you are thinking the entire day.

Is Willpower Really Needed?

Willpower is needed only when you feel fear and restricted. The more restricted you feel, the more willpower you need. Just open your eyes and see that there is no restriction, except those that you subscribe to, except those that you willingly self-impose. Wisdom is enough to overcome these obstacles. You do not need courage, clarity is sufficient.

Is Confidence Fear?

You require confidence when you are afraid. The one who is not afraid, does not require confidence. It is ego that gives rise to fear because I have always known myself through others. That is why I am always afraid. You remain as you are, then you would not need any confidence. Do not ask for confidence. Remain simple! Do not try to become something. Just remain as you are. Simple, ordinary!

Do God and Ghosts Really Exist?

Ghosts and gods and goddesses and all the stories we have read about this and that, obviously, they come from our own minds. Spirituality isn't about God; spirituality isn't about believing in anything. Neither ghosts nor gods. Not only does it say, ‘Do not believe in ghosts, do not believe in God,’ but it’s also so brutally honest that it says, ‘Do not believe even in yourself.’

Is Sex and Meditation Just an Escape of Ego?

The ego says that my first priority is to remain, exist, and after that comes everything else. Even the Truth must be subservient to my first priority. So, liberation is alright as long as it is a second of liberation. Peace is alright as long as it is five minutes of peace. But if silence threatens to take over the entire life, if peace starts dominating noise to the extent that the noise might be completely annihilated, then the ego rejects. The ego wants Truth, but only a modicum of Truth. The ego wants peace, but only a sliver of peace.

Met Countless Enlightened Masters, Yet Confusion Remains!

You say that you have met many enlightened masters. If Enlightenment is what it is as traditionally asserted, then even one should have been sufficient. And even meeting one is considered a rare occurrence. And here you are, having met many and still confused. Without being Enlightened yourself, how did you discover that those masters were Enlightened? The Right One comes to you as a matter of chance. He does not come to you as a matter of planning.

Is Not Wanting Sex Abnormal?

The mind is fed up of its daily, boring, routine, fettered and frustrated life. But it has no faith or courage to break away from this life. It is very necessary for it to keep looking towards the future. Some special day must always lie ahead: New Year, Valentine’s, Holi, your birthday, Diwali and so on. This cycle keeps up the illusion that something great is coming.

Prakriti and I

Prakriti is another name for duality. Prakriti carries two ends. At one end is the perceiver, and at the other end is the perceived environment or objects or the world or the universe. The ‘I’ that exists at one end of Prakriti says, "I am," and no more. The other end provides a name and meaning to the "I am," the ego self. The Prakriti world exists in this ‘I’ for the sake of its enjoyment and liberation. If you can understand this, you will know the purpose of life, and you will know how to live.

This Is Where We Went Wrong

We came from the jungle in the hope of doing better in our villages and cities, but our villages and cities have failed. Man had the potential to either rise above the animal or fall way below it. Man has continuously been making the wrong choice. If you cannot build your cities and your social systems on spiritual foundations, then it is better to stay in the jungle. If your family, your workplace, your institutions do not run on spiritual grounds, then they better not run at all.

Why Do We Crave Holidays?

The mind is fed up of its daily, boring, routine, fettered and frustrated life. But it has no faith or courage to break away from this life. It is very necessary for it to keep looking towards the future. Some special day must always lie ahead: New Year, Valentine’s, Holi, your birthday, Diwali and so on. This cycle keeps up the illusion that something great is coming.

Celebrate Diwali as a True Religion

21 min

Is ‘Diwali’ about going back home, indulging again in your set routines that you anyway follow, eating a lot of sweets and oil, then using small electric bulbs to light up your home, then bursting crackers, then unnecessarily saying ‘Happy Diwali’ to everybody, when there is, in fact, hardly anything happy about it? In the name of religion, all that we know is rituals, rituals, and rituals.

Sometimes, the Right Action Looks Like Inaction

Sometimes, the right action looks like inaction. You are acting rightly, is no guarantee of any meaningful action taking place at all. We need to be extremely sure that the things that we are doing really needs to be done and when we first of all cutout from our life, that which is needless, then parallelly, we will also get the courage and the energy to energetically do what deserves and needs to be done.

Can Renunciation Be a Celebration?

It's not the object of renunciation or attachment that matters, but the idea you hold of it. Suffering lies not in giving up the object but in letting go of its idea. The mind lives in narratives. Once the narratives are gone, the attachment is gone. Then, renunciation becomes celebration, for what you’re dropping is not precious but your misery itself.

Why Do Expectations Cause Disappointment?

You feel bad when your expectations are not fulfilled, because you are assuming that your expectations are good for you. The fact is not this. The fact is: Your expectations are bad for you. So, some wise man has said, “If I want to curse you, I will say, ‘May all your desires come true’.” That is the worst way of cursing somebody – “May all your desires come true. Now live with them, now bear the consequences.” That’s a curse. So, this is always to be kept in mind – “I do not know my own good.” Can you remember this?

The Real Meaning of "All is One"

The mind suffers because of the choices that it makes, thinking of one object as superior than the other object. “All is one” is not an objective statement. “All is one” refers, not to the objects, but to the subject and the relationship that the subject strikes with the various objects. As long as one thing appears more desirable than the other things, how can “All is one” be true to you? Have you, in your inner journey, come to a point where you do not see anything as excessively desirable and anything as too repugnant?

Is Vedanta Only for Hindus?

Vedanta is a philosophy, and unfortunately, the commonly practiced Hindu religion draws very little from it. How can a philosophy be exclusive to a religion? Religion includes a God, a prophet, holy books, and commandments, none of which apply to Vedanta. It lets one explore 'who I am', what this world is, and how to end my suffering.

How to Have No Regrets?

Life must be lived in your own light, in your own intelligence and that is ‘right’, and that is the only absolute ‘right’. And the only mistake that a young man and a young woman can make is to live life according to others. That is the only wrong that you can do. Avoid that wrong for your own sake. And then you won’t have to regret later on.

How to Live and Not Just Survive?

Life is not about eating, breathing, sleeping, walking. You cannot even be called as living if you just eat, breathe, sleep, walk, take a bath, and gossip. One cannot even be called alive. One is then, a machine, which can never be free. You live like a man only if you want to be free. Freedom from everything, freedom from your external masters, and, more importantly, freedom from your inner conditioning.

Is Hard Work the Key to Success?

'Success’ is just a concept of the mind that requires mental movement. Constantly ‘thinking’ of success means mental work is happening. Real success is when you understand something, and from that understanding, you immediately start acting. Mental movement stops once you understand; now the mind is peaceful, and the body is acting.

Mark of False Dharma According to Bhagavad Gita

There is only one Dharma. And that is to attain liberation or peace, to gain freedom from your bondages, to gain freedom from your inner chaos and noise, to gain freedom from your inner falseness. Gaining freedom from inner falseness is more commonly known as Truth realization. It is a euphemism—a very decorated euphemism. It’s not really Truth that is really realized; it is falseness that is dropped.

Vegan India Conference Interviews Acharya Prashant

When I was in IIT, in my second year or something, there was a Hindi story I read, an autobiography of a calf, a cow's calf. So, how it is born and what it has to go through, and then how it was denied milk, how it was castrated and then how it was exploited in the field, and ultimately how it was dispatched to the slaughterhouse. So that made me quit milk at that time.

Why Do Close Ones Resist Spirituality?

The resistance close ones often show towards a family member's spiritual journey comes from fear of losing them, thinking they'll turn ascetic. True goodness is never exclusive; it can't be good for one and bad for another. You have to very subtly and tactfully, demonstrate that what you’re doing or reading is for general good, not just personal.

Does Expectations Come from Attachment?

Wherever you spend your time and whatever you spend your time with is called attachment and the brain is very eager to get attached. Once attached, it wants to remain attached. And this want that the old pattern must continue is called expectation. So, expectation arises out of attachment. Out of that dead coincidence arises the dead attachment, and out of this dead attachment arises the dead expectation. Now, when the expectation is something so mechanical, so dead, is it wise on our part to run after expectations?

How to Know When to Stop?

You can never stop. As long as you are alive, the flow of action will continue. So, there’s no stopping as far as the limbs are concerned, as far as the mind is concerned. Till the last moment your body will be functional, your mind will be functional. Stopping can occur only in an inner sense. Your inner self is continuously moving to attain a certain contentment and when that is attained, wandering across the landscape of misery will stop.

Afraid of Being Judged by Others?

Put your heart fully into your work, and your mind will no longer be in the audience. When there is no heart in your work, then your mind wanders in the world. Love your work, and you will forget the world. Your problem is not that you are too concerned with people’s opinions. Your problem is that there is no heart in your work.

Beyond Academics: Acharya Prashant's IIT Memoirs

20 min

I picked up sports, I got into dramatics, debating, writing, so much. I was a bit chubby when I entered, I just lost so much weight. I had to get all my jeans restitched. Because I was busy all the time, there was so much to do, and one didn't want to miss out on any of those things. All the sports, and I am talking of the mid-90s, India didn't really have too many sporting facilities in all the towns and places, not accessible to everybody.

Is Patience Really a Virtue?

Do not use your life as a waiting room. Do not wait even a second for things that merely promise but won’t deliver, as it's in the future which is unseen. Having seen that what you hope and expect will never materialize, do not wait another moment. Drop what is false. Don’t be kind or liberal; have no patience with falseness.

The Real Meaning of the Four Yugas

We believe that the four yugas represent time spans on the calendar as an external entity. Vedanta just does not look at time as an external entity. Time is a state of mind. So, these four *Yugas*, they surely are states of mind. Satya Yuga is when the mind is totally centred in the Self, the Truth. Treta is when the mind is identified with thoughts. Dvapara is the body, and Kali Yuga is saṃsāra.

What is Arrogance?

It is not arrogance to expect the highest for yourself. It is not at all your destiny to remain small. Arrogance lies in expecting the highest while remaining exactly as one is. The Vedas say, “If you underestimate yourself, you are doing a disfavor to yourself. If you overestimate yourself, you are still giving yourself a raw deal.”

How Can You Stop Overthinking?

When you do not have a sense of what is worthy, little things will invade your mind, like germs constantly attacking you. There’s no way to keep them away. Give all your inner space to something that is beautiful to you. Let there be no vacancy. Get a headband — No Vacancy! Or wear a t-shirt — No Vacancy! Occupied. Engaged.

Should You End a Friendship Over Differences?

If you have been with someone in periods of your unconsciousness, then don’t just drop them as you grow more conscious. If you were them in the periods of your inner darkness, try to share the light with them if and when you receive it. You have to ask yourself, “Have I tried hard enough to somehow save the relationship? Have I given the relationship its due?”

How to Respond to Life's Challenges?

Life continuously presents us with situations that appear as challenges. Challenges in the form of conditioning, continuous thoughts, and resistance. Conditioning goes in the mind without any barriers or checks only because you considered it important. Similarly, a thought comes and we do not like that thought and you resist it. The resistance that you give to any particular thought is exactly the energy that, that thought carries. You give no resistance to it and thought will fall down on its own.

Who Is a Saint?

Walking in the street, sitting in your office, driving your car, typing an e-mail, what are you waiting for? You are waiting just for those few moments when you can be Kabir. Is it not happening? Don’t we spend the entire day just in hope of those few moments of sanity? What are those few moments? Let those moments not remain so rare, support them. When they call you, respond affirmatively.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Is Flawed

The way Maslow constructed his pyramid is good, but not very exact. The ladder goes like “Food, security, self-esteem, and only then self-actualization.” No, that is not how it actually is. Self-actualization is not the top of the pyramid; it is the foundation of everything that you do; it is the foundation of your activity even when you are fulfilling your lower needs. Whatever you do, your entire universe, all your deeds, thoughts, purposes, motivations—all arises for the sake of actualization.

Why Aren't You Free?

If freedom is important to you, you will secure it, you will get it. Do you love being free? Are you really a free bird? No, you had accepted slavery long back. And then you complain, and then you put up miserable faces, that won’t do. These faces are masks. The one who wants it, gets it.

Arjuna Gets Krishna, Duryodhana Finds Shakuni

If you want the Truth, you will certainly get Krishna. Krishna says very clearly, “I come to you in the form that you value and respect.” So if you respect pompousness, if you respect power and pelf, then you will get a grand guru who shines upon a podium just the way Duryodhana gets a guru like Shakuni because his central urge is not Krishna but throne.

Beware: Culture and Tradition Are Not Your Best Friends

If you read about your culture or traditions, they are today in no way the same, as they were even just 50 years back. They have been changing. The spiritual man, the man of Vedanta, the man of wisdom will have very little regard for culture, tradition, values, etc. If he has to value, he will value just that one value that the Gita enjoins him to value.

Who Am I?

21 min

Who am I?' arises from a relatively unconscious state, simply meaning, 'I will not remain the one who asked it.' You will have to become conscious. So the one who asks this question will have to disappear to get the answer. 'Who am I?' is for the wise, who are no longer interested in remaining troubled.

My Life, My Rules

‘My life, my rules’. Whose life? Whose rules? Even this phrase, ‘my life, my rules’ is not coming from your own life. Even this rule, that if it’s my life, it has to be my rules, even this rule is not your own. So, you are being ruled by someone else when you say ‘my rules’. Even in saying ‘my rules’, it is somebody else’s rules that you are following and you still remain a slave, a slave by another name.

Signs of an Enlightened Person?

2 min

As long as someone within asks, 'Am I liberated?' chances are, you are not. You must be free from the questioner, the bugger clamouring for liberation. 'Am I liberated?' is like 'Am I not?' If you don't exist, who is left to claim liberation?

How to Overcome Loneliness?

You are lonely, so you go and tie a knot with someone because you are not alright with yourself. One does not like looking at oneself. It is rare when the ego acknowledges that it is an idiot, but it does sometime happen that one looks at oneself. And when one starts looking at oneself, it’s a new thing that is happening because what one sees is worthless, but the seeing is not worthless. And then, one reaches the state of aloneness where one doesn’t hate oneself so much anymore.

Hard Work vs Luck

Whatsoever affects you but happens without your choice, or without your will is luck. If you are master of your mind, then luck can have no effect upon you. Because battles are won or lost in the mind. When you are really-really enjoying, then you will find that you are doing so much of hard work without even realizing that you are working hard. Don’t work hard, enjoy what you are doing, and then a lot of hard work will happen on its own.

How to Cope with a Loved One's Death?

To the loved ones who have died, pay the holiest tribute possible. There are others still here; ensure you have right relationships with them. If a relationship is right, the end won't hurt much. The end might even be glorious, a true pinnacle. The relationship was an upward journey all along, and death now becomes the peak of that connection.

How Are the Upanishads Useful?

You’re anxious, you’re stressed, you’re confused, you’re agitated, or you are depressed. In either case, your mind is not healthy. Sometimes you find yourself excited; sometimes you’re dejected and desolate; sometimes you are extremely hopeful, and sometimes you’re the epitome of nihilism. And with this, and due to this diseased and centerless mind, one goes to the Upanishads. They address your fear, they address your insecurity, they address your inner conflicts, they help you in matters of the mind.

Ramana Maharishi: What is Sadhana?

The true self cannot be hurt. The ego gets hurt because the ego attaches itself to an object that is prone to attack and destruction. You are agitated right now because somebody has caused you grief. This agitation, too, would subside in a while. Once that agitation subsides, ask yourself, “What pleasure did I arrive? Did I consume from that agitation?” Because never is one in any state without his own deep inner consent. If you have been agitated, surely you relished it.

Where Should I See Myself in 5 Years?

At 16, if you were asked, ‘Where do you see yourself in five years?’ Were you in a great position to answer? Why then should a 26-year-old live by the vision of their 21-year-old self? You don't want to constrain yourself by saying, ‘I had thought of a future - a vision at the age of 16, and now my entire life, I live by that vision.’

That Constant Sense of Uneasiness

Talk to those who have grappled with the very same sense of uneasiness like the feeling of something is wrong, the feeling of fear, anxiety and others. There have been legions of wise people, restless people and loving people who have had to face these very same issues. You will need to go to the Upanishads, sit with Ashtavakra, listen to Krishna. The Rishis of Vedanta talk as Scientists, and it is beautiful as they expound the Science of Consciousness. Begin with the Scientist.

According to Krishna, Who Is an Asura?

27 min

An Asura is one who keeps the scriptures aside, detests them, ignores them, even derides them, and says, “What I know is right. What I feel like saying is the Truth. My own experience determines the Truth.” That is the relation of the demon with the spiritual scriptures — he disregards spiritual scriptures, even hates them. That’s what Shri Krishna is very concretely saying in chapter 16 of Shrimad Bhagavad Gita.

How to Escape a Bad Relationship?

Who has taught you to put up with daily abuse and humiliation? We are forcefully made to believe that the purpose of life is to chase a man or a woman. The only thing that you should never compromise on, is the central purpose of life, and that is liberation. All else is dispensable.

Passion or 9 to 5 Job: What Should I Do?

Somebody chooses his work or occupation going by external conditions and then there is someone who says, “I am choosing my passion for my livelihood." These two are hardly different. Passion becomes dangerous because it decorates itself as something of the heart. The only thing that makes all the difference in life is by doing not what you desire to do rather by doing that which you must do. Observe the world and observe yourself, and you will know, what is it that must be done.

What Does 'Surrender' Mean in Spirituality?

We have accumulated much that is useless and just a burden. Getting rid of your nonsense is called surrender. You come to look at your mind; you see that I am having within — thoughts, emotions, fantasies, ideologies, self-concept — this is what is keeping me dull and lifeless. So, you just drop it. At its core, surrender is nothing but inner cleaning. If you cannot go for that inner clean up, then direct your tendencies towards the highest goal possible. That’s the path of devotion. In that, you call this thing as surrender.

How to Do Career Planning?

You've heard there's competition and you must plan to survive, but without understanding 'career' or knowing that a mind that is always competing becomes diseased. This fear is also implanted by others. It isn't yours, yet you've imbibed it. Understand the mind, the world. Then you will know what is worth doing.

Feel Nice Wasting Yourself Away?

The man of knowledge will just not waste his precious moments, his energy, his words. Don’t leave the mental space vacant. When you have the highest object in the mind, you will not tolerate somebody substituting it with something inferior.

Want to Change the World?

There is no being in the world that does not try to change the world. I'll go around declaring that I’m the savior of the world. I want a world in which I am recognized, wealthier, successful by my own definitions. There are so many people who want to change the world, very few who want to change themselves. Given the state of the society, shouldn’t one try to bring some positive change in it? Now, first of all, if you have not understood yourself, how will you know what the state of the society really is?

How to Overcome Procrastination?

Procrastination is nothing but the postponement of misery. ‘If I do it right now, I will feel miserable.’ So I try to escape by sending the thing into the future. But if I loved what I did, would I still procrastinate? After all, one never delays love.

'I Want to be Free'- Your Eligibility for Spirituality

The first instinct has to be — I want to be free. I do not like my current state. The first thing is — I do not want to be like this and the seeker or the student, if he is not uttering this very basic admission; then he stands disqualified. Your first utterance of your eligibility is — I do not like myself. I do not like the way I am. There has to be a burning intent to not to remain who you are, or the way you are.

What Is Meant by 'Advait in Everyday Life'?

Our everyday life is a denial of our expectations. It is a movement that always lets us down and we suffer. However, our mind is searching for something that will not pass away. The mind is continuously eager to find something that is absolutely reliable, that will not deceive it, that will not be gone one fine morning, and that is what is called Advait (nonduality). If one has to really live and not suffer as living, then one has to find Advait in the middle of dvait.

Does an Early Morning Routine Matter?

If there is work to do, how do I say that my routine necessitates going to bed at 11 pm. When you say routine that means, these are the hours I will study, these are the hours and I’ll do this, do that and these are the hours when I will have my spare time for leisure etc. So, a routine is some kind of luxury, you require a discipline beyond a routine. A successful life, in some sense, is about dancing to somebody else's tune. Who’s tunes? Something bigger than yourself. Something bigger than yourself.

Decision-Making Made Easy

Decision-making is such a problem with most people, whereas decision-making should not be needed at all. One should not be required to make a choice at all. Clarity makes the entire process of making a choice very redundant. If you know who you are and what you want, if you have that clarity, why will you require to spend time thinking about the choice to make? If you are someone who remains confused in the hour of the choice, then you should know that the confusion is not about that choice in particular. The confusion is arising due to an inner darkness.

Seeking the Highest to Satisfy the Lowest Desires

Man has certain desires. He is seeking the company of the highest, so that his lowest desires can be fulfilled. The highest is just a means, a method and that is the case with all means and methods. Whether the highest is the means, whether the highest is even the end, the real end is always the gratification of the lowly self. Man is such that even if he wants the company or proximity of Gods, it is for the fulfilment of his own personal objectives.

What Is the Price of Freedom?

Freedom is invaluable, it is who you are, and you won’t get any kind of rest or peace without freedom. If you are not free, something within you would keep bleeding, wailing, crying for liberation. It’s just that once you agree to pay the price, you discover that the thing that you are paying for freedom actually carries very little value, even negative value. Your bondages is the price that you pay; your bondages are the things that you renounce to be free.

How to Get Peace of Mind?

It is enough to see that you are restless today, that you lack in immersion, that peace eludes you, that an inner joy is found wanting. Look at everything that disappoints you. Look at everything that adds to your restlessness. Look at everything that you are doing just to fulfill a responsibility, and know that it is not your destiny. Know that you must not remain confined. You must see it through and through!

Secrets of the Body

This body is made of finite mortal, earthly elements. What happens to this body, and where this body comes from is no secret at all. This body comes from other bodies, and all the bodies arise from the soil just as all pots arise from the soil. The soil carries no specific form. When it takes the form of a pot, then it assumes a particular name and individuality. But that name and individuality are just play things for a little while. Sooner than later, the pot again meets the same earth, and the pot and the earth become indistinguishable.

What Is the Ego Tendency?

Ego tendency is when things start dancing all over the mind. Kabir Sahab says, “Maya is that which occupies your mind.” You are attached to the brain. The “I” tendency attached to the brain is called the mind, and therefore she comes to the mind. To merely the brain, she will not be big trouble, but to the mind, she is a big attraction or distraction. One question that needs to be asked to all the unwelcome guests, “So many unwelcome guests have arrived, but Who is the host?" And then, you will hear a resounding order, ‘I am.’

What Are High Thoughts and Low Thoughts?

All thoughts come from the past. There is no new thought because every thought is fundamentally grounded in the past. New means freedom from the past. High thoughts are those in which thinking happens in such a way that thinking stops and an understanding happens. This can be done only when there is impartial observation. Poor thinking is an untamed thought which goes on expanding madly like a cancer and destroys everything.

How to Pause in Life and Take Stock?

Many people prefer very occupied and busy lives because if they pause, if they have spare time, they will necessarily do something self-destructive. Lead a life that forces you to be spontaneously reflective. That must be the kind of work you pick up, the relationships that you make. They should not allow you to stay unconscious. If you stay unconscious, you should receive a jolt. And reflection has happened! Reflection or stock-keeping has to be spontaneous, continuous.

What is Spirituality?

Being spiritual is simply about not being stupid. Spirituality is not at all organised religion. It is not about customs or rituals or beliefs. Spirituality is an awakened state of mind in which the mind really understands. So, mind has only two options: spirituality or stupidity.The mind when conditioned and away from origin (essence), is bound to be stupid. Only a spiritual man really lives, loves and enjoys. Others die without living.

Beware of Those Suggesting to Avoid Reading Scriptures

It’s far easier to sit on a greatly decorated stage and talk about the virtues of Rudrākṣa, and what kind of water to drink, and why copper is useful; and all kinds of pseudo-scientific nonsense. But to really speak upon a Kabir or an Ashtavakra requires a tremendous understanding which does not come to everybody. If you are a spiritual teacher and you are saying you have not read any scripture, that raises questions on your love for the Truth.

Want to Beat the Competition?

Every human being wants to feel special, and therefore we want to believe that our own conditions are extraordinary. Competitiveness is there in our genes. We bring competitiveness to the corporate world, to the world of trade, business, governance, education, etc. from the jungle. If you go to the jungle—the place we all come from—what do you find there? Continuous competition. And if you listen to Darwin, he says evolution itself is a result of competition.

How to Get Rid of Pain and Suffering?

If you are suffering, all that you need to be told is that freedom from disease is possible. No positive, affirmative statement needs to be given. If you are really crying out of pain, do you need to be given dreams of the pink of health? No, You only need to be assured that this pain is not your nature, and that is all.

Why Is Our Attention-Span Declining?

It is primarily not about the span of attention. The important thing is not really for how long you can hold your attention on an object. The important thing is, what is the quality of the object you are attending to, and the nature of the human consciousness is such that, only very specific type of objects can really hold your attention for long.

Discipleship: The Door to the Highest

22 min

The right disciple cannot be the one who is tempted or scared or defeated easily by the world. And that’s why it holds significance that these people—you know, Shaunak and Janaka and many others—were kings.

Is Marriage Your Real Problem?

29 min

Don’t unnecessarily hassle your spouse. He or she is probably as clueless as you are. He needs your support. She needs your light. Take care of yourself, and then you will be able to take care of everybody.

Yoga - The Biggest 'Spiritual' Myth Today

You have ample gurus who come over and say, “You know, you do this and then you can do whatever you want to do.” Now the moment you hear this kind of philosophy that Yoga will help you do better whatever you want to do, I suppose one must run away. Because that’s exactly antithetical to Yoga. Yoga is not about doing whatever you want to do; it’s the ego that says that, not the dedicated, devoted, wise mind. That does not come from there.

Niralamba Upanishad: What Is Heaven and What Is Hell?

Your deepest dream is to just be what you are, what you really are. And the world gives you a thousand dreams, but not this one. Heaven is the moment when you realize that this dream is possible. Hell is when you have already lost your way, and there are voices around that say, "You cannot go back, there is no home." All that forces tell you not to fly too high, the forces that tell you that compromise is the name of the game-the company of such voices is hell. A point comes where there is neither heaven nor hell. There is just an empty stillness- Beyond.

Waiting for the Right Partner?

16 min

Companionship is not the final thing. The final thing is something else. The companion has to be a medium towards that thing, otherwise the companion is toxic. When you say love is essential, then you get into love of the totally wrong kind because you have taken love as the final thing. Then attraction, sensuousness and attachment become the names of love. So, love is not essential. What is essential is being attracted to someone who elevates you. If your love is of that kind, wonderful.

Let the Words Take You to Silence – Baba Bulle Shah

23 min

There is such great fun in leaving yourself behind and turning a servant to the Truth. It’s almost like Krishna advising Arjuna, “Talk in everlasting words and dedicate them all to Me—*mām ekaṃ śaraṇaṃ vraja, sarva-dharmān parityajya*.” And at numerous places in the *Bhagavad Gita*, he says, “Arjuna, you are not fighting for yourself, you are fighting for Me. As long as you fight for yourself, if you win, you suffer, and if you lose, you suffer. And when you fight for Me, then you are a victor even before the fight begins.”

What Is My Destiny? How Do I Achieve It?

Destiny is the inviolable thing. You cannot get rid of it. You have to reach there. So, better choose in favour of your destiny. Now, destiny is something that can, at most, keep waiting till eternity. But you can never dismiss it. So, make a choice in the favour of destiny. Bow down to your destiny, surrender to your destiny. If it has to happen, why keep postponing it? Because that postponement is just suffering. Destiny is love. Destiny is what each of us craves, is crazy for.

How to Identify the Real Master?

26 min

It is not others that you have to be cautious of. You have to be cautious of that within you which gets influenced by others, which does not know others but gets influenced by others. It does not live in knowing. It lives in indoctrination. How to know the real master? See, who is treating your disease. How do you know a doctor? Not by his degrees but by his ability to treat you.

Acharya ji, You Are at the Top. How Does It Feel?

You must keep learning till your last breath, you must keep discovering till your last breath. You must keep knowing yourself, you must keep finding out where the last remains of inner bondages are. “I want to confront them.” So know, read, reflect, observe and keep moving on. And all these things will just happen along the way. Don’t settle down when you have not yet arrived. Your Dharma is that of the traveller.

Yada Yada Hi Dharmasya: Bhagavad Gita Verse 4.7

24 min

There are two kinds of evil just as we are two. We are two, we operate from two centres, and similarly there are two evils and two kinds of virtues as well. There is one evil that the ego labels as evil. It is the counterpart of virtue. There is one bad that the ego calls as bad, it is the shadow of good, it is the dual companion of good. So you can comfortably limit yourself to the definition provided by the ego that “there is the good and the evil and the both are as per my choice, my knowledge, my universe; of which I am the centre.” Or you have the option to move to a more sublime understanding of evil which is, that evil is not what ego decides to be evil but the evil is whatever the ego decides.

Superstitions are Your Worst Enemy

The question should often be asked, "How do you know this?" The typical response is, "Science is proving this." Lately, there has been much discussion around the idea that water has memory. About a month ago, this topic came up, and a video was published dismissing the claim. The molecule is a molecule. What do you mean by memory? So, people have been coming with proof. And what proofs? The proofs are YouTube videos!

Why Is the Guru-Disciple Relationship So Special?

The principle of maya is founded on free choice. That's the very condition behind her existence, which is that, “I will disappear only when I choose to.” Grace is not something that happens coincidentally, randomly. Grace is a function of your own willingness. They say, “it may rain but you have to keep your umbrella aside.” The willingness to at least receive, be a recipient has to be there. Otherwise, you will remain dry and untouched.

The Final Proof That We Are Horribly Cruel People

But, when you look at someone who comes from a meat-eating family or the traditional kind of Indian Vaishnav family where milk and ‘kheer’ and ‘dahi’ are a staple, then it comes as a shock to that person, that milk involves cruelty. It’s a totally alien and a disturbing concept. So, it has to be brought out with due expertise and that does not mean that you have to be especially trained in communicating these matters, just that one has to be sensitive that the other person might not really know.

Is Enlightenment More Difficult for Women?

A man has to give up on greed, on this and that. A woman has to give up on the feelings related to the body. On all the assumptions and other stuff related to the body. Leaving the house, for her, is like becoming naked. And then the rest of the journey is very easy for her. If you have a woman who can drop her physicality, who can get rid of the basic woman-ness, then you have a great saint in front of you.

Why Are Women So Emotional?

The usual feminism always proceeds keeping the man at the center. The woman is saying, “The man is alright and I want to be like the man.” This is such a low standard to set, whereas true feminism would proceed keeping the person that the female is, her real potential at the center. Real feminism is raising to your own individual center, called the true self or Atman.

Stop Trashing the Western Culture, Instead Learn From Them

There is a lot that we need to learn from the West. We have paid a price already in our history. When the British came here with relatively small armies, they were able to defeat the various Indian armies. They fought a lot of battles here. In most of the battles, the British were outnumbered. Their armies were relatively smaller and still they could win. There were many reasons, obviously. But one of the reasons was that their technology was more advanced. And if you lose the various battles or various kinds of freedom, what is now left to save when freedom itself is lost?

How to Overcome Rejections and Failures?

In the internal life, there has to be a single criterion, a single criterion against which you determine your choices. What is that criteria? Freedom. Betterment. Liberation. Growth. “Is this making me better? Is this widening, deepening my consciousness? Am I learning something from this? Am I becoming more fearless out of this?” That’s what should determine the choice.

Do Spiritual Scriptures Have Any Meaning?

In understanding, there are no meanings left. Understanding is the dissolution of all meanings. When you decode it, you decode it only to see that it is just coming to a certain end, a certain clarity. By itself, it means nothing. When Krishna says 'Nishkaam Karma', it means no expectations associated with actions. The right teaching can never be affirmative. It will only be a revelation of your falsenesses.

How to Remain Non-Violent?

Spirituality is about belonging to existence. Not belonging to a narrow household, or caste or ideology. All these are boundaries. So, wherever there are boundaries, there is violence. Wherever there are boundaries, there is also the fear of being small, powerless, limited. The really non-violent one is at home, everywhere and in every situation. Non-violence is not about following duties. Non-violence is an action in clarity and love. That alone is non-violence.

The Most Famous Verses of the Bhagavad Gita

16 min

Yada yada hi dharmasya glanirbhavati bharata abhyuttanam adharmasya tadaatmanaam srujamyaham

Why Freedom Requires Discipline First

Discipline is that which can potentially disrupt the cycle. Nothing else is discipline. So, discipline is a break from the normal pattern. Remember please, every pattern has a great interest in its own continuation, the pattern will not just disappear, it needs something. It lives in cause and effect and even to disappear, it requires a cause. It requires a cause. Discipline is that cause. You will require it, as long as you do not require it. Till you come to a point where the word freedom itself becomes meaningless for you, you will require discipline.

Women in Revealing Dresses: Liberation or Titillation?

To those who articulate that women should mind their clothes and dressings, the question arises: what kind of person are you, man or woman, if anything is able to disturb or provoke you so easily? The allegation is that when watching a woman dressed skimpily, it becomes a disturbance, a distraction, even a provocation. How will you insulate yourself, and how much will you insulate yourself from the world? And what are the limits to what you want to see and not see? Today, it is said that a woman’s legs or thighs provoke you. What prevents you from saying tomorrow that her ankles and fingernails provoke you? Would you then demand that she should cover up from head to toe?

Chandogya Upanishad: Learning to Dismiss the Mind

31 min

The mind of a sage is continuously sensing a reality beyond appearances, a reality beyond limits. There is a constant realization that all the diversities share commonalities and there is something beyond the diversities that contain all the diversities. This feeling is being given a poetic manifestation in this particular verse. What matters here is the sense that there is something definitely beyond; that which is perceivable, all that which can be experienced between the Earth and the sky is of little importance compared to that.

Why Indians Address People as 'Ji'?

In our daily lives, we find people using the word Ji as an affirmative statement or while addressing people. Though, it has just become as social norm, there is a profound meaning behind it that conveys of beauty and auspiciousness. It is a reminder that one is beyond the body and the mind; beyond all names and forms. And instead of being identified with the body and the mind, there is something better to be identified with—‘Sri’- a Sanskrit word standing for Ji in vernacular.

Why Do We Need the Society?

Society is not a curse, nothing is a curse. The only curse is to ‘not know’. The only curse is ignorance and it is individual that is ignorant, who collective form an ignorant society. Society has no power to harm if one is aware of oneself and everything around. If one becomes aware about the falseness of an object then it can never harm one. Once, the depth of dishonesty is realized , one is only protected from it.

Do We Have the Choice to Surrender?

You never go and ask real questions. You ask, “How to surrender to the Truth?” but you never ask, “How to surrender to money?” There you very conveniently and easily surrender. Anybody who has faced difficulty in surrendering to fear? Have you seen how easy that is! But in surrendering to Truth you say, “It is so impossible, how do I make that choice?”

Marriage Isn’t the Problem, the Mind's Search for Security Is

There is nothing wrong in marriage if it is based on the foundation of wisdom and an awakened state. The institution of marriage becomes a problem because it emerges out of a mind seeking security leading to permanent enslavement. Marriage, when entered out of ignorance, can become an irreversible trap that dictates one’s life. Marriage is beautiful and wonderful if it is based on wisdom because then it redeems and gives one wings to fly, breaking oneself from the clutches of patterns and security.

Your Life Circumstances Are Shaped by Your Choices

Life circumstances, whatever, they may be are one's own choice. Abusing and complaining while being dependent is nothing but dishonesty. True change requires taking responsibility for one’s choices. Break free from dependency, express gratitude to people whom you are dependent upon. "Till the day you are eating out of others' plate, keep saying ‘thank you’. There is nothing else that you can say.

How to Develop a Creative Mind?

A creative mind is an expression of freedom and fearlessness. When one doesn't bother about results, creativity flows like love. A delicate thing wherein something totally new comes from nowhere. It's pure creation, not modification. Creativity is not innovation. Creativity is when something happens without any reason, without any past, without any background.

Your Partner Cheats on You in Three Ways

Cheating a partner happens on three planes. Physical plane where the foundation of relationship has just been fulfilling one’s bodily needs, emotional plane where a partner is supposed to please other partner and on spiritual plane where a partner’s attention is withdrawn from the Higher Self to one’s own lower self. It’s quite rare that relationships are based on a higher plane where both the partners have come together to push each other to get close to ‘Something’. The thing is although we have moved out of the jungle, but within we are animals.

Self-Improvement: An Illusion That Delays True Dissolution

“How to improve ourself”, and in the name of improvement, we just keep running behind the destination that is determined by person that we at present are. Its important to ask certain questions here. “Who is the self that wants to improve? The same self that you do not like. If you do not like this self and if you want to change or improve, then how can you select or trust a destination determined by this very self that you dislike?” There is only the Self – that needs no improvement. That Self is the *Atman* that cannot improve anymore. It’s already perfect.

The Role of Books and Teachers in Shaping a Student's Journey

A teacher is a perceiving consciousness who can know the fact of the your life, who can look into your eyes and read your mind. Books do not always suffice on their own—but this problem is a small problem in the sense that you will have difficulty in comprehension and you may take a long time coming to realization. The big problem is a teacher who has nothing to do with books because then you are never going to arrive. Best is books plus teacher, but if you can't have books plus teacher, have books. The worst thing is to have a teacher sans books.

Vivekachudamani: Dissolve the Mind by Concentrating It in the Supreme Self

When Shankaracharya says “Dissolve the mind by concentrating it in the Supreme Self” , what he is saying is that your mind is anyway always concentrated and the type of concentration that you have will not help. This verse just tells you that whatsoever you are concentrating on is going to disappoint you. The mind is always concentrated in all the worldly and miscellaneous things. It is beyond the mind to concentrate on the Truth. Because the Truth is not an object. So, concentration doesn't help, it is not a matter of concentrating, it is a matter of seeing the futility of concentration.

The Gap Between Understanding and Action

Understanding expresses itself through action. And understanding knows no other expression. Words are a very poor substitute for the right action and that is what Gibran is talking of here. He says that which is understood claim for its final expression as action in life. The poet often lets his understanding become his words. To that extent, there is a flow but if the words remain mere words and do not turn into life then there is no freedom yet. The imprisonment continues. Live what you love, otherwise, the punishment is tremendous.

Kabir Sahab Asks: ‘If You Are in Love, Then Why Are You Asleep?’

Those who are in love with awakening create methods against sleep, don’t they? What does this student want? He wants awakening. So, he is creating a method whereby he would not fall asleep. It is such a simple method and an effective one: the head must stay still and then it would not hurt. But the moment your head swings, especially if it swings downwards, it would appear as if somebody has just pulled your hair. And how hard would the pull be? As hard is your downward swing. So, the more deeply you are asleep, the more unconscious you have become, the harder will be the pull, and so you will be compelled to stay awake. Do you get this?

What is Friendship and Who is a Friend?

We say, ‘A friend in need is a friend indeed', so that makes friendship a trade. ‘When I am in need, you help me and when you are in need, I help you, and then we are friends. Your views agree with mine, my views agree with yours and we are friends. I need to copy assignments and you are always there, then we are friends. In all my rubbish, the one who can partner me, he is my friend.’

Mundaka Upanishad: The Actual Journey Is in the Destination

18 min

Those who are anywhere close to the Truth know what is being said. The journeying fructifies only when one is at the destination in the beginning itself. Be at the destination right in the beginning, and then the journey will be successful. But if one is traveling to reach the destination, one will never reach because the traveler is designed to not reach. If he were to reach, why would he be a traveler?

Ribhu Gita: How Patience and Consistency Lead to Spiritual Growth

Great things are there in Ashtavakra Gita and Ribhu Gita. But, when will they happen with me?" Are you really ready? You aren’t even prepared to acknowledge, "I haven’t done one bit to deserve the great things." Do you know who Ashtavakra was and how he lived? Read about their determination, and ask, "Do I deserve to ask for the ultimate?" You read what Saints and Prophets achieved and feel tempted, but why must you get that? What have you left? What price have you paid? And yet, you demand Samadhi, like calling a helpline saying, "I made the advance payment.

How to Bring Real Change in Oneself?

31 min

It is strange. We think in linear terms. We feel that first of all comes the urge to change, the inner desire and impetus to change and then the desire is followed by the actual change. It doesn’t always happen that way. Such an argument would be given by the votaries of free will, by those who think that man knows what is best for himself. They will say you decide what is best for yourself and then you make that thing happen. This is a very childish way of thinking.

What Is Meant by Human Nature

Two monks were washing their bowls in the river when they noticed a scorpion that was drowning. One monk immediately scooped it up and set it upon the bank. In the process he was stung. He went back to washing his bowl and again the scorpion fell in. The monk saved the scorpion and was again stung. The other monk asked him, “Friend, why do you continue to save the scorpion when you know its nature is to sting?” “Because”, the monk replied, “to save it is my nature.”

Liberation Demands Everything: The Highest Price You Must Pay

Your expectations are premature and misplaced. That which you are asking for is so very sublime, bounteous, beautiful, and fulfilling that it cannot come cheap; it will extract a high price from you. Remember that any price you pay will not really be big enough to buy out Liberation for you. Liberation is priceless. So even the highest price that you offer for Liberation will be insignificant, but still, you have to pay the highest price that you can.

Why Others Can't Fulfill Your Expectations

The movies tell us that unless there is a special person in your life, you are really missing out on something big and 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 must also have a partner, a girlfriend, a boyfriend, a husband, a wife, something. Hey, go grab somebody." So you go out and grab some Johnny next door. He was busy washing his sandals, and you went up to him and threw your most seductive smile and then he too was infected by FOMO. He said, "Now that I have the opportunity, why shouldn't I capitalize?" And thus, came about the relationship. And you call it a holy bond made in heaven. Why do we do that?

How Does One Stay Calm?

It is because of the world. You can become anxious even while sleeping. In sleep, if you are anxious, it is because while sleeping there are dreams. So if the world intrudes even in your sleep, then you become restless even while sleeping. The world itself is the reason for anxiety, for losing your calmness. Do not allow anything worldly to become too important for you. I know that it is not easy. It is because we have practiced the opposite for many years. It is easy, but we have lost that ease. Till the time anything is important to you, tension, nervousness, panic, and anxiousness are inevitable. The world itself is the reason.

The Secret of Joyful Relationships

53 min

It is possible to relate without having the need to relate. It is possible to have a totally purposeless, aimless, useless relationship. Of course, we are trained in usefulness, we pride ourselves on deriving uses out of even seemingly useless things. No? That is what we call as innovation. That we also call as human creativity. “You see, this was just sand and we made a nuclear bomb out of it. Look at our creativity.”

Tao Te Ching: You Are a Lao Tzu When Lao Tzu Is Not Your Ideal

If you want to really get to somebody, get to the Truth, do not get to the expression of one particular Lao Tzu. That is just one particular expression. And that was Lao Tzu’s expression. It can never be your own expression. Connect instead to the Source from where Lao Tzu drew his words. Do not connect to Lao Tzu. Lao Tzu is not original. Lao Tzu is an expression. The original is the Centre from where a thousand Lao Tzus emerge.

How to Always Be Inspired?

23 min

To go as far as possible for a human being. Do you know how far a human being can go? Do you know what heights can be scaled? That’s what I call real ambition. We live lukewarm lives. Two kids’, two BHK flat, two cars, two air conditioners, two husbands that’s all. Is there anything more that you want? Anything more? Two jobs from the campus that will fill up your heart; two wives, maybe a mistress or a concubine, it’s alright. Anything more that you want? Two bank accounts, one for white money, one for black money; two flats, one for living, one as an asset.

How to Be Your Own Light?

Don't be bothered when others say you've lived a failed life or made wrong decisions. Let them talk. You will know you're right, just as clearly as you know when your thirst is quenched. You were thirsty, you drank water, and even if the world tells you you're still thirsty, you know the truth. Trust your own experience. Live life in your own light, for that is the only right way.

‘Speak to Us of Houses' by Kahlil Gibran

You are always in Home, but there are some people who open their eyes and see that they are always at Home. And there are some people, who are in the Home, and yet they keep sleeping and dreaming that they are somewhere far away. And not only are they dreaming that they are somewhere far away, they are actually planning, of course in their dreams, to go further far away. That is the ‘Home’ that Khalil Gibran is talking of – where you really are.

Do Follow Your Passion but With Utmost Care

First of all consider the reality of what you are passionate about. The questioner is saying that in moments of decision-making, do we go with our passion, or with our logic and rationality as the mind suggests it to us? So, I begin with passion. First of all, enquire into it, and that should be the first thing because one is obviously biased towards her passion. Even if the mind is suggesting other things, we all feel like following the course of our passion. Since passion appeals so much to us and we feel like leaning towards it very automatically, why not figure out the truth of the passion? What makes you passionate about something? From where did one pick up her passion? Was one always passionate about such a thing?

Relax and Let the Mind Observe Naturally

When you are relaxed, then there is no need to observe. Observation is not a need. It cannot happen because you are telling yourself to observe. It cannot happen out of some purpose. When you are internally relaxed, then a subtle observation is automatically happening.

Why Do People Commit Suicide?

How to Be Happy Everyday?

Questioner: Why do people commit suicide?

Acharya Prashant: They still have a lot of hope. They feel that suicide would redeem them. They have not given up everything. They are still carrying a lot of hope. If I do not know what is beyond life, how can I enter that… read_more

Happiness is a glimpse. Glimpse of what? Glimpse of the absence of suffering. That’s why we like happiness. That’s why everybody says, “I want to be happy”. Why do we say we want to be happy? Because our default state is of suffering. And man suffers much more than any other being in the world. No being is capable of suffering as much as man is.

Karmanye Vadhikaraste

19 min

Fulfillment of expectations does not give you fulfillment. Expectations might get fulfilled; you do not get fulfilled. Expectation is kamana, desire, and when you see that even the complete fulfillment of expectation gives you neither fulfillment nor completeness, then you say that expectation is junk, I do not want to chase it any further.

How to Deal With Loneliness?

Research has shown that loneliness is found throughout the society, including among people in marriages along with other strong relationships, and those with successful careers. As a subjective emotion, people experience loneliness even when surrounded by other people.

Acharya Prashant on Osho

19 min

Osho’s defining characteristic was courage. He was a man of deep intellect, prolifically well-read, a genius in devising new methods of meditation, yet above all his other qualities, his courage is his hallmark. Born in a middle-class family in a small city in the deprivation and resourcelessness of pre-independence India, he built himself up all on his own. Books would be his companions. Even as a teenager, he would travel across cities, to various libraries and sources, to look for books and knowledge.

How to Choose the Right Partner?

Be very, very alert about cohabitation. Just don’t start living with anybody. Be very, very conscious of your personal space. It is sacred; not everybody must be allowed to enter it. I am not merely talking of the body; the mind is much, much more sacred than the body. The purity and such things of the body probably do not matter so much, but the mind must be kept virgin. Be very cautious.

How to Stop Taking Things Personally

When you stop taking yourself seriously, the world loses its power to hurt you. If someone can hurt you, they can also control and possess you. But you don’t want to be controlled, right? You are not the person who is controllable. The real ‘you’ is beyond hurt and domination. Ask yourself, do you want to be dominated? No! You are the one who cannot be controlled, and that is your true strength.

What Is the Main Message of Bhagavad Gita?

Shri Krishna is presenting the entirety, the totality of the matter of action here. On one hand, he says that in the highest state of liberation there is no duty, no kartavya left at all. That is point one that you have to understand. At the same time, he says, ‘Look at Me, Pārtha (Arjuna)! Who can bind Me in duty? I have no duty at all, and yet I keep doing everything.’ He presents his own example. You have to look at everything together to get the complete picture.

One Way to Still the Mind Is to Still the Body

A vast majority of people are just incapable of working on the mind. To them it is advised that you work on the body because you have lived at a bodily level; that’s what all your life has been — living at the level of the body. So, work on your body. You do not know how to center the mind, fine. At least learn to concentrate on the body. You cannot watch your tendencies, alright. At least watch your breath as you inhale and as you exhale. In some way watching the inhalation and exhalation of breath is parallel to watching the rise and fall of thoughts, though in a more gross way.

Acharya Prashant on Rising Above Mediocrity

Your responsibility is to be better than yourself, not to compare with others. Ask, “How much better am I than yesterday?” You are on your own journey. Competing with others is neither wise nor possible. Focus on where you started and where you are today. The real battle is not with others but with yourself. The question is always, “How far have I come?” That’s the essence of wisdom and bravery—being your own best self. This comes from firsthand experience and constant self-improvement.

Deeper Your Empathy, Deeper Is Your Self-Love

Who is most like you? You, yourself. So, be empathetic to yourself first. Then, who is most like you? Your mother, father, siblings; show empathy to them. Then, your neighbors, extended family, and finally, be empathetic to all. Lacking compassion for other conscious beings will only harm you. Kill the animal, and in some way the animal is liberated of its misery, at least in the physical sense. But you, having eaten the animal, will suffer. The flesh keeps you alive, and tomorrow awaits—a dark tomorrow as your punishment.

Do Men Fool Women or Do Women Fool Themselves?

The man says, “Darling, why do you have to work? You stay at home, I’ll work. You take care of the bed, babies, and mother-in-law. My money is your money.” Never accept this temptation. His money is never your money. If you don't earn anything, you are a beggar. He might be earning millions, but if you don’t earn, you have nothing. Emotions, tears, biology, nest—that's the woman's world, and she is so easy to fool. Men have been fooling women forever, and women still don’t want to wake up.

How to Control One’s Anger? Best Ways Explained By Acharya Prashant

Don’t ask, “Why did I get angry?” Ask, “Why does guilt arise? Why this divided mind? Why can’t my anger be complete?” Does resisting anger not fuel it? In trying to control yourself, are you not giving yourself energy to act the same way? That’s duality’s principle—what you try to control, you energize. By saying, “I do not want to get angry,” you’re still thinking of anger. But anger is seductive. Anger attracts. So, now I think of anger through the other route. I think of anger by telling myself not to be angry.

Smart Work vs Hard Work - Which Is Better?

Smart work means being a little cunning, chalu (street smart), knowing shortcuts, and having connections in the right places. That’s what the world means by ‘smart work’. Unfortunately, choosing between hard work and smart work is like choosing between the devil and the deep blue sea. Whichever way you go, you are doomed. Hard work and smart work—what does hard work mean? Hard work means I do not know what I am doing, why I am doing it, or who is doing it, but I have been told that doing is important, so I am just doing and doing; that is hard work.

Empowered Decision Making for Student Life: Acharya Prashant

This age, when you are in your late teens or early twenties, is the time when life is constantly and rapidly changing around you, without giving you a moment to take stock of things and feel assured, even briefly, that things will stay as they are. Because they do not continue as they are now, everything is unpredictably changeable. What does one do? One needs some anchor, something unchanging, or else there’s too much insecurity. If everything can change and one’s existence depends on these things, it feels deeply unstable.

Attain Fulfillment in Life While Being in Worldly Relations: Ribhu Gita Wisdom

The one who will abide as ‘Brahm-Self’ will only take care of the genuine interests of the other. She will not act to fulfill her own little insecurities. A mother who abides as Brahm will be really a divine mother, now the daughter will truly prosper. And a father who does not abide as the ‘Brahm-Self’ will be a very dangerous father because he will ask his son to do things that the father likes, not things that are really good for the son. Brahm does not extract any flesh from anybody. Brahm does not say, “I gave you birth, so now you do what I'm asking you to do.” Brahm says, “To really give birth is to give freedom and if I cannot give you freedom, then I'm very dangerous for you.” That is why abiding as Brahm is even more necessary in a family.

Where’s the Difference Between Vedanta's Atma and Buddha’s Shunyata?

Buddha's silence on Ātmā corresponds to Śūnyatā, showing no interest in Īśvara. Vedānta similarly shows no concern for these concepts. Acharya Shankar explains that as long as the Jīva perceives itself as Truth, Īśvara becomes necessary. Īśvara holds value only while the Jīva considers itself real. Once one identifies as Ātmā, Īśvara disappears, leaving only Ātmā, also known as Brahman: "Ayam atmā brahman.

How to Overcome Challenges in Decision Making?

We are actually afraid that the decision will prove to be ‘wrong’. Is it the decision-making that terrifies us or the thought that my decision may turn out to be wrong? My real fear is that ‘I do not know what is right and wrong. Because all my life I have lived according to the criterion provided by others. I have no understanding of how to live intelligently and how to decide for myself. Another reason that we feel afraid in decision making is that we feel accountable, we feel a certain obligation, we feel that if our decision is wrong, what answers we will provide to others? We are not really afraid of the event as such. Rather, we are afraid that what kind of face will we show to others?

Are Your Hobbies and Interests Really Yours?

The world is full of people who pursued what they call their interest, or their hobby—or their love even—and kept feeling as frustrated as you probably do. See, the influences that others have upon us, we resist them. So, as you are saying, your parents have a certain influence upon you. You want to resist it, you don’t feel comfortable. There is a constant feeling that, “I am doing something under somebody’s influence or pressure.

Know the Real Spiritual Meaning of Karma: As Explained in Bhagavad Gita

karma and the subconscious exist, and they play their own game. Karma is the cause and effect chain: the ball goes up, it comes down. But whether the ball goes up or down, you remain free. The material world follows this cause-effect chain, but you are not material. For example, if you exercised hard yesterday, your body might ache today, which is karma in action. But let the body ache; you must not become mentally or spiritually sick. The physical consequences don’t affect your inner freedom. Let the fruits of karma be for the one who was the doer of the karma.

No Success, Money, or Pious Deeds Will Save You: Rishi Ashtavakra

You go to a Dattatreya, or a Ribhu, or an Rishi Ashtavakra—they all will be quick to denounce virtues as much as they denounce vices because they focus on the actor and not the action. They focus on the doer and not on the deeds. Because they do not focus on the deeds, so for them, pious deeds are only as good or bad as profane deeds. For them, pious deeds or profanity both belong to the same dimension. They are talking of something beyond that dimension.

What Is the Real Cause of Poverty?

Look at the flowers in your campus and then at your own face. Whose face looks happier? Why is yours sad? It will remain sad till death. Rarely do you find a joyful man, but rarely do you see a sad flower. A small flower laughs, but a man, even in a big car, cries that his neighbor’s car is bigger. So, who gives you poverty? Does existence give poverty? No, it is society. Even if absolute poverty ends, relative poverty will remain due to our culture, education, and conditioning.

What Is the Purpose of Life, When Death Is Certain?

Death is a point in time, right. That’s what you call the incidence of death. And life you call a stretch in time. Isn’t time an opportunity then, for change, real change? Time is anyway defined as change in space. Isn’t time also an opportunity for genuine change? Before time ends for the physical organism and the moment of death arrives. Isn’t time an opportunity to move into the timeless? And if one hasn’t done that before his physical death. Hasn’t he just wasted his life?

To What Extent Is Education Important?

Formal education is important to the extent the body is important. The less the body-identification, the less is the importance of object-centric education. A person's attachment to material possessions, driven by societal values, leads to poverty and duality. Poverty, unlike the natural world, is man-made and rooted in the desire to accumulate. While education enables material progress, it doesn’t address deeper issues of self-identity and existence.

Addicted to Something? The Final Solution Is This

You see, you must first respect the facts of your addictions; they are doing you some good. These things exist because there is nothing better in your life. Addictions fill a deep inner void. The TV shows, videos, drugs, or other things didn’t force themselves into your life; you sought them out. The videos don’t suddenly pounce at you after midnight—you are the one clicking the app, scrolling, choosing, and binge-watching.

Why Do the Wise Call the Aatman 'The Enjoyer'? – Kathopanishad

The atman is called 'the enjoyer' in the sense of the watcher, just as in a cinema hall you enjoy the show. How do you enjoy the show? By leaping into the screen? In the cinema hall, you enjoy the show by relaxing in your seat. That's what the atma does—it keeps relaxing in its seat. Even suffering is enjoyed in this detached manner, much like how we can enjoy tragic scenes in a movie. For the atma, there is no tragedy, as all suffering is false.

Stop Time Management, Start Value Management

Time management is actually value management. If you know the value of something, you will give time to it. If you’re not giving time to something, it means you’re placing higher value on something else. Your time profile is a clear reflection of your mental and value profile. If you want to know who you are, write down where your typical day goes. The time distribution will reveal who you truly are. You are where you are spending your time—that's your identity, your name, your personality.

Does Jealousy Arise from Ego?

Jealousy comes from dependency. The person who is not dependent cannot feel jealousy. The one who is his own master has no reason to be jealous. To be jealous implies that someone has been accepted as a master, and there is a desire for that master to stay with them. If the master goes elsewhere, a certain pain arises, and this pain is what is called jealousy.

Overpopulation and Greed: Is There Any Future for Mankind?

We are looking at a scenario where nations have the population of an India and the per capita consumption of an U.S. Multiply these two, and what do you get? Utter tragedy. Neither are we ceasing to have kids, nor are we realizing that the good life does not consist of multiplied consumption. That is how the world is living; that is how even the development of countries is being indexed: how much people consume. We take those figures, put them in descending order, and then say this country is the most advanced because it produces this much stuff.

Acharya Prashant on Two Kinds of Hope

The first kind of hope says, "I want to get something," while the second says, "I want to get rid of something." Most of us focus on the first kind, which keeps us dependent and afraid. The second kind urges us to shed everything and discover our true nature. If you must hope, hope for the second kind—hope to free yourself from societal bondage, fear, and all that’s accumulated. You are already perfect, like a diamond. What can a diamond want? What more can be added to it? Just remove the dirt. Hope to get rid of the dirt.

What Are the Four Paths to Liberation in the Bhagavad Gita?

You would have surely gone through the formal education system. How would you like to make it through? Going from class six to class seven in three attempts? Having been kicked out of four schools, and then machinating some kind of a fraudulent certificate from one of those shady institutions that say that, “Even if you are class seven fail, we’ll still give you a high school certificate”? You can do all those things as well, as the fourth category of students often do, or you could keep flying through the grades with distinction.

Listen Parents: Save Your Child From Your Fights and Aggression

Not only is the kid in bad company, he is deeply identified with these two quarreling people. One is his or her mother, the other is his or her father. And what does identification mean? “I am that.” This is what identification says, right? “That am I.” In the heated moment of the quarrel, what is the mother? The mother is pure aggression. What is the father? The father is pure hatred. And the kid is saying, “That am I” because the kid is identified with the father and the mother. So, what does the kid become? Aggression and hatred. And the mother and the father will not even realize it. They will say, “We were fighting; we didn’t do anything to the kid as such.” You did do, and you did a lot. You destroyed the kid

Happiness Is a False Medicine

The brain can never know the real happiness. The brain does not know the real thing. What is the real thing? It is Joy. The joy of intelligence. The brain cannot know that, hence it is always insecure. And so it is looking for some kind of a medicine. What is that medicine? Happiness is that medicine. But that is a false kind of medicine. Happiness is a false medicine. Are you getting it? A substitute. A cheap, unworthy substitute for joy. What is Joy? That the brain cannot reach.

How to Set Priorities in Life?

You ask about balancing priorities, but "balance" is violent, implying competition. "Or" means either this or that—conflict, where someone must lose. Life isn't like that. A polymath, like Leonardo da Vinci, mastered many fields without "or." His life was full of "and." When you say "and," things support each other, like studies and sports, both helping the other rather than fighting

Let Life Be a Celebration of Intelligence

Eating, walking, sleeping, working, dying – these alone surely cannot mean being alive. Life is much more than the physical and mental processes. Machines can walk, eat, work. The programmed analysis that computers do is no different from what we call thinking. Machines have no role in their formation, just as we have no role in our birth. And machines can be programmed to self-terminate after a certain time, just as we die.

More Important Than Health Is the Wisdom to Use Health

Yes, you need health. But for what? When you say a fellow, a young fellow, must have vibrant health, I agree. But I'll ask: What for? What for are the biceps? Yeah, girls like them, obviously. Yes, a young fellow must be able to run a lot. Towards? Chimpanzees run a lot. But it's again one of those romantic ideals—the youthful, strong, vibrant young man. Why must one be strong? Strength is a resource. If you do not know what the resource is for, why do you need the resource at all? Before you gain health, must you not gain the wisdom to use health?

Best Ways to Spend Your Weekends

So, given that most people are engaged in jobs that are boring, taxing, and life-sapping, what does one do? Use the weekends to uplift yourself. There is a difference between uplifting yourself, recreating yourself, and entertaining yourself. There is a difference between the two approaches. Let’s get that straight. ‘Monday to Friday, I was harassed and troubled, and I fully knew that I was not enjoying the things I was doing. So, on Saturday and Sunday, I drown myself in liquor and try all kinds of entertainment, just to forget the impact the previous five days have had on me.’ That is one approach.

Do You Know Who You Worship?

How to know what it is that you are worshipping? Just see what it is that you are prepared to sacrifice the most for. Look at your value system and daily decisions. What would you give up your food or money for? Keep listing what you find so valuable that you would give up a lot for its sake. In the end, you’ll find the one thing you value the most.

Bhagavad Gita for Global Warming

"Scriptures like the Bhagavad Gita want to disrupt that design; they want to do something that is actually against our prakṛtik constitution." We are not born inclined towards Truth or liberation; instead, we are designed to remain in bondage and continue suffering. The Gita, along with the Upanishads and Vedanta Sutras, acts as a circuit breaker to prevent us from moving endlessly in this cycle without realizing how trapped we are. Once the human mind is addressed, not only climate change but all problems are resolved. Every problematic situation, whether internal or external, stems from the same root cause. You cannot view one problem as distinct from another because the problem creator is one.

Acharya Prashant: The Only Male Spiritual Teacher for Women’s Empowerment

26 min

Real women empowerment isn't about simply making choices, but about making wise ones. If you do not know how to make decisions, autonomy in decision-making becomes a curse, doesn’t it? Today, many teens and college-going girls embrace a radical mindset: 'I’ll live life my own way, I decide for myself.' 'You only live once, my way or the highway,' and similar attitudes stem from the same center of ignorance as previous generations. Now, the exploiter is within, and this false sense of freedom leads to disastrous choices. True women empowerment demands wisdom, not just autonomy. Spiritual education is crucial, especially for girls.

Why Can’t I Change My Behaviour?