Questioner: Hello, sir. I observed that Arjun has been basically called by Krishna by multiple names — Parth, Bharath, and then Kaunteya, that one clicked. So, I was just curious that it is just an ornamental value, or is there any significance to it?
Acharya Prashant: I think that's a very beautiful thing that I have admired about the culture of naming and addressing people, not just in Gita and Mahabharata, but in other books as well, other Indic books, which is that you do not address the person just by one name, it's an admission of multiple identities. And multiple identities do not necessarily mean, that the fellow in front of you is fragmented. It also may mean that the way you look at that person keeps changing. So, it's not about the fellow; it's about your relationship with that, the fellow in front of you.
Questioner: Our perception.
Acharya Prashant: Our perceptual perception of it, that's the reason you have things like Vishnu Sahasranama. So, you address your respected ones or the important ones or the loved ones, with a hundred or a thousand names. Because they are not one thing to you, not one thing to you. So, at some point, he is Madhusudan, he is Rishikesh, he is Keshav, and you can have a long list of names. Even Arjun has so many names. Coming from Pratha, he is Parth. Coming from Kunti, he is Kaunteya. At some point, he is Gudakesh.
So, that merely means that the fellow in front of you is proximate enough, intimate enough, to know your various aspects, or he realizes that his relationship with you is multifaceted. And this is something that has intrigued me, fascinated me for a long time. I used to wonder why should there be so many names of the ones, who cannot have any name. And then I got into the psychology of it, and I understood. I think I understood.
So, which is that it is just too restrictive to call someone by just one name. Restrictive and very egoistic. I have given you one name, or the world has given you one name, and I will continue to imprison you within that one name. But the thing is, the fellow is much more than the name that you have given him. So at least address him through several names. That is what is happening over here. It's a beautiful thing.
I think this is one of the things that we must preserve in our culture. And it is no longer preserved. Instead, all the trash remains immortal. We should be able to recognize the various flowering and bloomings of the Truth acknowledge them and address them all by the different names that they deserve.
On a lighter note, it must be quite boring to be addressed only by one name. So, it is quite refreshing someone comes up with a unique name, a nice one, fine, good. If you go into it, that's probably the reason why you are kind of, should I say, baptized when you move into a hostel. There is an entire ceremony, so I can say baptized. And you are given a new name that befits your personality and your relationship in that setting.
Let's say your name is Satya Narayan, and you have just moved to a boy’s hostel. This is quite a misfit. How can you be Satya Narayan in a boy’s hostel? So, they will give you a new name, a new name that is truer to your personality. Because Satya Narayan, that name was given to you when you were like three months old, and there is no Satya and no Narayan in your personality. Not at all, nothing.
So, your hostel mates will realize that they will say, “We will address you through something that more truly represents who you are.” So, they will give you a new name, let's say Guji or something. And that's quite, I suppose, quite nice and quite just. And also, the names should keep evolving over time, just as personalities keep evolving over time. You are not the person today you were five years back. So, today you deserve a new name.
And if these names can keep evolving, that will keep reminding us of the variable and impermanent nature of the self. Since the entire self is a flux, so it should not be contained in one permanent name. You are not the fellow today that you were in 2016. So, tell me, how are you carrying the same name then? When you have changed, your face has changed. Even your core can change over time. Such are people. Why should your name not change?
So, it's a beautiful thing, and it would liven and lighten up our lives a bit if we adopt this practice. The names that we are given are actually quite useful. Maybe they are well-intended, but they are also quite fake. And it doesn't matter what the intention is. If the intention is too distant from the Truth, then intention won't help. All people have great names, and those great names do not help them. It's much better to give them names that are, I say, truly representative of their reality. Even if those names do not sound too great.
You have somebody, I mean, give me a wonderful name, Brahma Singh Shastri, something related to… and he has been in jail for 20 years because he was the head pickpocket. What's the point? Does the name Brahma suit his reality, his choices? It does not. He should have been given a more realistic name — Chotta, and that would have done him some degree of good because it would have reminded him like a mirror, of how ugly his self is. You call a pickpocket Brahma Singh; how is it fair or even useful? Is it?
Questioner: Sir, can it also be indicative of the fact that you keep saying as well that there is repetition in Prakriti? So, can it be indicative of that as well, giving multiple names?
Acharya Prashant: It is definitely indicative of impermanence. Impermanence and the constant change that is there in Prakriti and naming can be an exercise in wisdom. Naming can be almost a spiritual method. You see, people are not renamed just when they go to a hostel, they are also renamed when they take sanyaas, and that's for a reason. So that naming thing should keep happening.
People should be wise enough and open enough and fun-loving enough to give realistic names and also tolerate them. Because you cannot slap somebody with a nice name and get away unscathed. You give him a name, and you will get a name. I think we must have the appetite for that. Today I keep talking of Ram to all of you. Do you know what my name was in the hostel? — Ravan. So, it's okay. They must have seen something in me, and I better acknowledge that they saw something very Ravan-esque in me. It's okay. They still call me that.
Questioner: Thank you, sir.
The Bhagavad Gita is often accused of supporting caste and misogyny through selective quotations that ignore context, grammar, and the text's central teachings. A closer reading shows that its emphasis is on inner qualities, conscious action, and spiritual equality rather than birth-based hierarchy or gender discrimination. Misinterpretations arise when isolated verses are detached from their broader meaning, while the Gita consistently points toward self-knowledge, freedom from ego, and the universal possibility of liberation for every human being.
The climate crisis is not merely an external environmental problem but a reflection of inner human greed, desire, and psychological disorder. Drawing from the Gita’s idea of yagya as desireless action, it says real ecological healing requires inner transformation. Outer pollution, exploitation, and destruction mirror the ego’s inner confusion, making personal consciousness and planetary health deeply inseparable.
Superficiality offers pleasures. Superficiality offers cheap salvation. Therefore, it is easy to be attracted to superficiality. On the other hand, true spirituality challenges you to pay a heavy price. So, you see, all this knowledge has existed since antiquity. Yet there are people who do not want to read the Gita.
The balance between order and disorder should not be decided by personal likes or dislikes, but by what the task at hand requires. Sometimes a project demands discipline and order; at other times, more important work requires leaving things messy. The right action comes from responding to the actual need, not personal preference. Even sacrifice can be meaningful when it serves something important, but “staying backstage” should never become an excuse to avoid what one cannot tolerate.
Shri Krishna is saying: the mind is conditioned to move towards objects and perceive only their surface, periphery, or form. Develop the practice of penetrating further. Let Truth be your practice. The moment you would look at something, and you are in no position not to look at things being embodied, you would look at things. Nobody said that you have to practice lust. Lust just comes. You might be a total fool, an utter retard, and still you will find yourself getting sexually excited once you reach a particular age. Did you need some practice? No, you didn’t. It just happened. But if you are to understand lust, if you are to cross over, if you are to be a master of your body, then it will require a lot of practice, and that will necessarily and obviously tell you about your predicament.
Drop the center of confusion, come to the center of clarity. Drop what the masses practice, come to the direct route of self-realization. That’s what it means.
For you to benefit from the darshan of Shri Krishna's statue, you should already have a relationship with Shri Krishna and the Gita. If you have had no prior connection with the Gita, then darshan makes no sense. Darshan is a great way to immediately bring back all that has been hidden under the dust of time. You could either re-read the entire Gita or simply look at Shri Krishna’s statue. It’s a fantastic method — but only for Gita lovers.
True learning is not built on memorizing answers but on understanding reality. Memory may help in examinations, but life constantly presents new questions that demand clarity, presence, and intelligence. Education becomes meaningful only when knowledge is deeply understood and lived, not merely remembered. Real understanding frees us from dependence on rote learning and enables us to respond wisely to every new situation.
Freedom begins when a person stops handing over the authority of life to others. Society, family, and tradition can offer opinions, rewards, or disapproval, but they cannot truly stop someone unless there is inner dependence on their approval. Many conflicts that appear external are rooted in psychological dependence, fear, greed, obligation, or the desire for validation. Clarity does not come from controlling every outcome; it comes from ensuring that decisions are not driven by inner confusion, and then allowing life to unfold naturally.
