Climate Change

To date, mass extinction has occurred five times on Earth. Mass extinction means the complete destruction of all living beings. Five times in history, the Earth's temperature increased beyond limits, and life on the planet came to an end.

And now, the sixth mass extinction has begun! The reason for… read_more

Questioner: When we were studying at IIT, we used to think that climate change is actually a technological problem, that renewable energy sources and electric vehicles, etc. are the solution to the rising carbon dioxide levels, and we were even doing research on this. Consequently, I also had the same… read_more

Acharya Prashant: I will say something with respect to this tree plantation thing. You see, it is very well known that one tree over the course of forty years would absorb just one ton of carbon dioxide. How effective is that? Please. And that is if that tree gets to… read_more

Acharya Prashant: You look at the last few centuries. Even the declaration of the rights of man came just three hundred years back. Then came the declaration of the rights of slaves. And in the last century came the Declaration of the Rights of Women.

I am seeing that in… read_more

Acharya Prashant: The very urge for liberation, when it doesn’t find an outlet, becomes the urge to consume. Do you see this? Where does the tendency to consume so much come from? It comes from the misidentified and thwarted urge toward liberation. If you will not provide liberation to a… read_more

Questioner 1 Thank you Acharya Ji for taking the time and giving us this opportunity to sit down with you and discuss climate change, veganism, and a lot of other questions that we have for you. With me I have on the panel today, Niharika Raizada Ji, a renowned actress,… read_more

Acharya Prashant: What’s worse, there might be much more lethal and incurable viruses to come in the future.

We talk of the virus as the problem. In fact, if you go to social media to get a hang of how we are looking at the whole thing in a cultural… read_more

Acharya Prashant: You have said, “What kind of change our education system needs to have so that our coming generations live together in peace and fulfillment?” Live together with each other, right? You haven’t said they live together with animals. The trees, the rivers, the rabbits, and the lions. That… read_more

Questioner: Adam Smith, who is considered to be the father of modern economics, said that economics is a science of wealth; he places primary importance upon money and not on man. Alfred Marshall, another economist, said that economics is a study of material welfare; there he puts importance on man… read_more

Acharya Prashant: And there is another reason why kids appear so fascinating to us: it’s the hormones. It’s not only the human kid; the babies of even animals appear so cute. That’s a ploy of Prakṛti (physical nature). Babies have to appear cute; otherwise they are so defenseless that they… read_more

Acharya Prashant: Man is born in a battlefield; man will have to deal with challenges. Now it is upon you, which challenges you chose to deal with. You could either fight several miscellaneous, petty, worthless wars that cannot really be called as wars, call them skirmishes, squabbles. Or he could… read_more

Questioner: We know that currently the Earth is overpopulated. People around me very loosely say that the people who are physically, mentally, or economically not so well off, they are better off dead. So, I want to ask, what is your take on this? And what do you think is… read_more

Acharya Prashant: You might be an MBBS, or an MD, or a DM, but you could still be quite illiterate; you might still not have basic knowledge regarding the nutritional value of various food products. You could have a quack graduating even from the best medical college.

And you are… read_more

Questioner: I have something to say. There is a very famous line which is called─ the survival of the fittest. Now, I am an actor, and I’m also a medical practitioner. I studied cardiology, and as an actor, I have always advocated less makeup and simpler ways of life to… read_more

Questioner: We have always been eating meat and drinking milk; it has been there since ancient times. So, my question to you is, is animal liberation or the vegan movement consistent with the ancient times of our land?

Acharya Prashant: There are a few myths that need to be dispelled.… read_more

Acharya Prashant: People feel that because human intelligence knows no limits and human desire knows no limits, therefore the human race is going to keep expanding endlessly. They are taking inspiration from history. They keep saying that if you look at history, man has kept ceaselessly inventing; if you look… read_more

Questioner: Pranam, Acharya Ji. I’m Atul Kulkarni, I’m M.Sc. Physics student here in IIT Patna, and first of all, thank you very much for accepting our invitation. Sir, my question is a little contextual, so I’ll read it out if you allow me.

Acharya Prashant: In context of?

Questioner: Contextual… read_more

Questioner: Hello Sir, Good Evening. As we are seeing unexpected heat in the early 2023, like it’s just February, March, and it’s already this hot. Also, the scientists expect that this year would be the hottest year in the last century. And the world population is also increasing rapidly. So,… read_more

Questioner (Q): How can we encourage factories and companies in poor areas to prioritize the health of the local environment over having the greatest profit margins and the lowest costs? How can we motivate them for this kind of a change, when the natural tendency of human nature is to… read_more

Acharya Prashant (AP): Over the last fifteen years or so of your education, what have you studied? You have studied languages, Hindi and English. You have studied history, politics, and geography. Then you got into maths, physics, chemistry, and now you are students of technology. This is what you have… read_more

Questioner (Q): It is a true honor to be here today talking with you about climate change. I am an economist and the director of the graduate programs of sustainability in Bard College of New York. Along with my colleagues, we are making an effort to create a worldwide teach-in… read_more

Questioner: Earlier you were talking of our current systems being a whitewashed extension of what already exists in the jungle. My question is, if the animal nature is so innate, natural and core to the human experience, then does one need to embrace it and perhaps enhance it in one’s… read_more

Questioner: I’ve been thinking about the future in the light of the current technologies and the recent pandemic. COVID impacted the economies worldwide and also made people realize that life is precious and nature can offer us only a limited amount of resources, thus reducing consumption at least temporarily. So,… read_more

Question: Acharya Ji, what will happen to us in old age? Will we be able to manage ourselves then? My mother fell sick a few days back. Had we not been with her, she wouldn’t have been able to manage herself. Will the same happen to us in old age?… read_more

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

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

Questioner (Q): In one of your videos, you mentioned that we don’t need to awaken fifty percent or more of the population to institutionalize change, we just need a small percentage. I don’t really understand this logic. Could you elaborate?

Acharya Prashant (AP): See, the majority is anyway never very… read_more

Questioner (Q): I am concerned about what will happen to me when I grow old. There are retirement homes one can resort to, but that is not a viable option to everybody. My mother, for example, got very sick when she got old, and if we had not been there… read_more

Questioner (Q): The very first thing that we learn in studying economics is that more is better, and we build the entire economic theory around it. More is better, so you should get more and more contentment as you get more and more in the material dimension. What would Vedanta… read_more

Acharya Prashant: At the root of the climate catastrophe, lies man's tendency to consume. And man consumes in 3 clear and distinct ways. Man wants to consume the entire world. And the entire world consists of human beings, prākritik beings (natural beings), and man-made things. Whenever you will look around… read_more

Questioner (Q): The richest of our society are the ones responsible for the most consumption and they take all the resources to themselves. Though they might be ethically and legally justified in doing so, at the end of the day, the large heaps of wealth make no sense to me,… read_more

Questioner (Q): Spiritual wisdom has traditionally talked of sacrificing material desires and living an ascetic life. But, most people are habituated towards consumption, consumption is like a pandemic. Most people do not connect with talks of sacrifice and renunciation and hence avoid spirituality altogether. What is the solution?

Acharya Prashant … read_more

Questioner (Q): Pranam Acharya Ji, my question is regarding global warming. As you have talked in various videos that the root cause of global warming is nothing but more and more consumption. So, when we come to our final year, various companies come for placement opportunities, they offer us a… read_more

प्रश्नकर्ता: जैसे आज का इंसान जो है, वो भोग की तरफ़ बहुत तेज़ी से बढ़ रहा है। तो क्या जो ये भोगने की वृत्ति है, ये प्रकृति से निकल रही है? और अगर ये प्रकृति से निकल रही है तो प्रकृति अपना विनाश चाहती है? क्योंकि इंसान भोग-भोगकर विनाश ही… read_more

When you eat meat, when you eat chicken, you are actually not paying for the environmental damage that your plate of meat has cost. You are not paying for the climate change. You are not paying for the biodiversity depletion. You are not paying for the loss of tropical jungles,… read_more

Questioner (Q): One of the most important lessons I have learned from spirituality is Vasudhaiva Kuṭumbakam , that the whole world is one family. But the current trend is that all the countries are involved in unilateralism and self-absorption, and phenomena like power absorption, racism, terrorism, and intolerance. These things… read_more

Questioner (Q): There is enough evidence these days that the people who are unhappy with their jobs are having more carbon footprint on nature. I have been listening to you for over a year, and I have listened to your videos on climate change where you said that the only… read_more

Questioner: I have a reasonably well-paying job. It does not help me in liberation, but it is aligned with my aspiration to become financially independent and it provides me with some free time. My question is, how to identify the right action and utilize this time correctly? Recently I started… read_more

Questioner (Q): What kind of change our education system needs to have so that our coming generations live together in peace and fulfilment?

Acharya Prashant (AP): Why? Why must you think about the coming generations? Is this not the language of the old matriarch, who first of all ensures that… read_more

Acharya Prashant (AP): We all know, that the biggest threat facing this planet, mankind, today is catastrophic climate change and there are huge international conferences in which all kinds of diverse measures are discussed, and then there is a slew of recommendations. Experts, the so-called most intelligent people on the… read_more

Questioner (Q): As a researcher in public policy, I spend a lot of my time trying to understand the marginalized sections of the society. By marginalized, I mean slum dwellers, tribal populations, and the rural sectors in India. They are marginalized in many ways, because although our government’s policies have… read_more

Questioner (Q): Spiritual wisdom has traditionally talked of sacrificing material desires and living a life of an ascetic, but most people are habituated towards excessive consumption, which is almost like a pandemic these days. Most people do not connect with concepts like sacrifice and renunciation, and hence avoid spirituality altogether.… read_more

The Earth cannot afford even one more human being

Questioner: What kind of a change our education system needs to have so that our coming generations can live together in peace and fulfillment?

Acharya Prashant: Why? Why must you think about the coming generations? Is this not the language of… read_more

Questioner (Q): Having seen your videos and being in constant touch with you, one can see that the central idea of your teachings is, as you very lucidly have said, “You are not missing the secret, you are missing the obvious.” For us humans as social beings, the most obvious… read_more

Questioner (Q): My question is about global warming. As you have said in your videos, the problem of global warming is due to excessive consumption. In our final year of graduation when companies offer us placements, they offer us a lot of money and pick up the best minds using… read_more