Veganism

Tree Plantation is False Climate Activism

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

What does it mean to Love a Jungle?

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

He Chose a Wife, Not a Guru

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

Vegan India Conference Interviews Acharya Prashant

Questioner: We have a question by Pooja. So people who try to become self-aware and you know knowledgeable of themselves. They usually became the black sheep of their families.

Question by Pooja is what can we do if our loved ones, that is spouse, parents, friends are not receptive to… read_more

15 min

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.

These two need some education || AP Neem Candies

3 min

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

The One Most Important Thing About Life

34 min

“The will to live.” “The will to just continue.” That, he said, is the basic human existential tendency. I’m asking, “Don’t animals have that tendency?” At the root of all consciousness; is the will to survive and continue. We don’t want to die; the animals, too, don’t want to die, right? We feel pain, we suffer; so do animals. The reasons might be very different. Often the reasons are, in fact, not too different. Separate a human mother from her baby and you see the suffering. It’s very apparent. Separate a cow from her calf, and the suffering is much the same. Read more...

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.

Killing to Eat Flesh, You Call Yourself Human?

34 min

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

More Important Than Health Is the Wisdom to Use Health

11 min

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?

Why Man is highly Unsettled and Restless

Role of Compassion in True Love

Acharya Prashant: The whole issue is because you have left the jungle and yet not reached where you set out to reach; you are stuck in between.

Man is in a very precarious position. Animals are well settled; the free ones, the Buddhas are also well settled. Man is unsettled.… read_more

7 min

Acharya Prashant: Love and responsibility have to be reasonless. They have to be mad. One has to be crazy enough to put in everything for a seemingly trivial creature.

I don’t know whether you have heard this story from the life of the Buddha. One man was carrying a goat… read_more

Can a Vegan Diet Reshape the Relationship Between Man and Environment?

8 min

Question: Acharya Ji, do you think that bringing the focus to our diet is going to change anything?

Acharya Prashant: In what sense?

Questioner: Do you see us heading in the direction towards this perfection, completion along with our diet?

Acharya Prashant: I am seeing that.

You see, it is… read_more

Spirituality and Veganism

39 min

You are in grief even when somebody disrespects you.

In fact, you are in grief the moment somebody is not loving towards you.

So, Veganism is, in its true sense, Love.

Questioner (Q): What is spirituality? How would you explain it to someone who knows nothing about it? How is… read_more

On the global crisis of population, consumption and climate || Bengaluru (2019)

Various religions, and their view of animals || Acharya Prashant, on veganism (2017)

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

11 min

Question: How to understand religions, the treatment of animals and the role they play in religions?

Acharya Prashant: When you say religions, just for the sake of the conversation, I would want to divide them into two streams:

The Abrahamic stream Indian.

So, the Judeo-Christian view is that God has… read_more

Non-violence, and killing mosquitoes

14 min

Questioner (Q): Dear Acharya Ji, for the sake of not sounding hypocritical, I have to admit that I have killed more than one mosquito in my life and many other insects too, but never intended to cause pain and suffering to them. Now hearing, let alone seeing the relatively conscious… read_more

Gurus as meat sellers || Neem Candies

Veganism is the strongest name for compassion || Acharya Prashant (2018)

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

Milkman Gurus || Neem Candies

Question: Acharya Ji, what is the reason which made you go vegan?

Acharya Prashant Ji: The same reason that makes you ask these questions, and makes me answer them – Wisdom, Love, Truth.

One is fettered, one is shackled, and consciousness is one’s only hope – deep, deep consciousness that … read_more

A crisis of climate within each of us || Bard College (2022)

Very, very vulgar demonstration of consumption of thousands of litres of milk… So, they will take the milk and put it in a pond and say, “This pond is all full of milk!” or they will even encourage their followers to bring lakhs of litres of milk on some holy… read_more

13 min

Questioner (Q): This discussion today is a followup to a conversation between Acharya Prashant and my colleague, Dr. Evan Goodstein, the director of Bard’s graduate programmes on sustainability and the ‘Solve climate by 2030’ program. In a conversation we held earlier, you gave my colleague an answer from a deep… read_more

Vedas and milk || Acharya Prashant, on veganism (2017)

15 min

Question: Acharya Ji, there are people who quote the Vedas and say “A Hindu is a good Hindu only if he drinks milk from the mother cow.” What is your take on that?

Acharya Prashant: See if you have named the Vedas, what is the central teaching of all the… read_more

Is it possible to be spiritual and eat animals? || Acharya Prashant, on veganism (2017)

11 min

Question: Acharya Ji, is it possible to be spiritual and eat animals?

Acharya Prashant: No, it is not at all possible.

It is just not possible.

Because to be spiritual, is to simply know, the spiritual one would know who he is and what is happening through him. He would… read_more

What happens to the cows? ||Neem Candies

The climate crisis is a spiritual crisis

There will be people who will be prepared to lay down their lives if they are asked to eat meat. They will say, “We are prepared to get killed, but we will not take meat!” I respect that sentiment. But these are the very same people who have no scruples,… read_more

3 min

The climate crisis is a spiritual crisis

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… read_more

Somebody is playing with your mind || Neem Candies

Is eating animals the same as eating plants, because plants too have life?

This is the age of mass production. The fellow who is owning and running the machine, the corporation, the empire, out of his greed wants you to consume.

“I am producing so much, but people are not buying it. Why? Because they do not need it. So, what do I… read_more

26 min

Eat that in which you are causing minimum damage to consciousness.

So, eating an apple and eating an animal are not the same thing.

The less you love yourself, the more likely it is that you will be a flesh eater;

The more you love yourself, the more you know … read_more

Food is not just food

8 min

Questioner (Q) : Acharya Ji, do you think that bringing the focus to our diet is going to change anything?

Acharya Prashant (AP) : In what sense?

Q: Do you see us heading in the direction of this perfection, completion, along with our diet?

AP: I am seeing that.

You… read_more

Veganism: Neither cult nor fad, but an imperative of our times || (2020)

4 min

Questioner: From the videos that I have watched, I understand you’re a strong veganism promoter. Now as institutes like IITs and IIMs, and institutes which people look up to and get influenced and follow, what do you believe institutes like these should follow and promote? Do you also believe that… read_more

The biggest disgrace in India today || Neem Candies

Finding God Is Easy, Tolerating Him Is Difficult

We worship the cow, and we torture it no end. When people talk about desi gai ka doodh (milk from the Indian cow), desi gai ka ghee (clarified butter from the Indian cow), they do not even know what they are doing to the creature they call as ‘mother’.

Is… read_more

19 min

Acharya Prashant: Suffering is a fire that burns down a lot. It brings along a certain purification. One of the poets gave the example of a snowball. Snowball that is cleansing itself in its own blood; by melting down. When a snowball starts melting, it starts becoming cleaner. And the… read_more

Suffering under peer pressure? || IIT Bombay (2022)

Questioner (Q): Man is typically a social animal who seeks to coexist with the society around him. I am a vegan but many people around me are not, and that creates a difficulty for me. I want to speak out my thoughts on animal cruelty and get into animal activism,… read_more

How to Overcome Sadness?

Why do you have so much personal time? How are you available to grief? Your consciousness is too self-centered; it needs expansion. Even as you grieve over one death, billions of goats, rabbits, lambs, fish, cows, and chickens are slaughtered. Commit your time. Dedicate it to a higher purpose. We attach great sanctity to our personal lives. Give it up!

How to Handle Insults?

20 min

Any kind of harm that comes to you can only come due to a lack of self-knowledge. If you do not know who you are, you will be forced to believe whatever others tell you about yourself. We don’t even realize how big a slavery that is! Every time you allow circumstances to rule you, you are actually acting like a dead object. You are alive only if you have something within that circumstances cannot touch.

Your Worth does not come from Bearing Babies or Breast-Feeding || AP Neem Candies

When You are Alright, then the Sound of Your Footsteps Is Compassion

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

When you are not bothered about the other, that is when you are totally compassionate. When you are not trying to change the other, that is when you become an agent of change. Compassion is not about thinking all the time of others. You cannot try to be compassionate. When you are alright, then the sound of your footsteps is compassion. That is what compassion is.

The Joy of Being Drenched in Love

13 min

Usually our love is about one special thing or person. But Kabir Sahab is saying, "Hari bhai ban rai—the entire jungle has turned green. I see greenery not merely in one tree, but in the entire jungle.” That’s the difference between common love and Kabir Sahab’s love. In your love, there is just one green tree; in Kabir Sahab’s love, the entire world has turned green: there is nothing dry anywhere anymore.

The Only Way to Help the World Is to Leave the World Alone

When you know that all this doesn’t mean anything, then the world’s problems are taken care of. And that is the only way problems like global warming will be taken care of. When you know that, “I do not need to exploit the earth, because all this doesn’t mean anything.” When you realize that the world doesn’t mean anything, then the world’s problems are solved.

How to Get Rid of Pain and Suffering?

17 min

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.

Without this, all is worthless || Acharya Prashant, on Guru Kabir (2019)

5 min

If you cannot win the love of the Lord, so what if you can lord over your neighbor? What is the good of dressing your hair and donning your feet with jingling jewelry? What is the value of all your makeup with kajal to your eyelids and vermilion to your … read_more

Overpopulation and Greed: Is There Any Future for Mankind?

4 min

We are looking at a scenario where nations have the population of India and the per capita consumption of the U.S. Multiply these two, and what do you get? Utter tragedy. Unless there is this basic recognition, which you can call a spiritual awakening, that the good life doesn’t consist of conspicuous consumption, we are hurtling towards a great disaster. It is already upon us.

Don’t Blindly Rush into ‘Good’ Deeds

18 min

Climate change is a result of the absence of spiritual education. The problem is man’s misguided and uneducated ego. Unless you educate the ego about who it really is, it will keep proceeding in the direction of blind consumerism. Lack of spiritual education has brought this catastrophe upon us. That is the only problem, and therefore, that has to be the only solution.

How Can We End War?

8 min

Wars first start in the mind. Without inner education, all the scientific knowledge and technological advancements merely provide more sophisticated tools to those who are internally ignorant. Mass awareness is the solution. It must begin with you; it must begin with me. There is no other way.

The Sixth Mass Extinction has started!

4 min

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

Surprise! A Delicious Dish

5 min

Acharya Prashant: In general, human beings are not cannibals. We do not eat other men and women, do we? Why don't we ask ourselves: “Why don't we eat other men and women? If flesh is what we want to eat, then why kill animals?” There are many who say, “Eating… read_more

Dealing with a chronic medical condition

10 min

Questioner: I am a research scholar. I am in my fourth year of PhD, and it is kind of my second inning. Earlier I was a teacher, I was teaching at a university, but I’ve left that and I have started my PhD.

I’ve been suffering from a condition for… read_more

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.

The Key to Progress || Neem Candies