тАЬThe will to live.тАЭ тАЬThe will to just continue.тАЭ That, he said, is the basic human existential tendency. IтАЩm asking, тАЬDonтАЩt animals have that tendency?тАЭ At the root of all consciousness; is the will to survive and continue. We donтАЩt want to die; the animals, too, donтАЩt 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. ItтАЩs very apparent. Separate a cow from her calf, and the suffering is much the same. 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.
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.
The shopkeeperтАЩs business is to sell his goods, and thatтАЩs 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
Very, very vulgar demonstration of consumption of thousands of litres of milkтАж So, they will take the milk and put it in a pond and say, тАЬThis pond is all full of milk!тАЭ or they will even encourage their followers to bring lakhs of litres of milk on some holyтАж
Questioner (Q): This discussion today is a followup to a conversation between Acharya Prashant and my colleague, Dr. Evan Goodstein, the director of BardтАЩs graduate programmes on sustainability and the тАШSolve climate by 2030тАЩ program. In a conversation we held earlier, you gave my colleague an answer from a deep
There will be people who will be prepared to lay down their lives if they are asked to eat meat. They will say, тАЬWe are prepared to get killed, but we will not take meat!тАЭ I respect that sentiment. But these are the very same people who have no scruples,тАж
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.
Your only obligation is your liberation. These are just loveless social customs and economic structures where a woman is seen as a factor of production that produces babies. ThereтАЩs no need to go to the husbandтАЩs place or even stay at your fatherтАЩs if you are unloved and unwanted. The world is a vast opportunity. Live anywhere, stay anywhere, do whatever is the right work, and fly freeтАФsimple.
J. Krishnamurti's┬а'The Observer Is the Observed'┬аExplained by Acharya Prashant
'The observer is the observed; an honest observation dissolves them both.' Or, 'The observer is the observed, and both are false.' We lay a lot of emphasis on the world, assuming it to be the Truth. If the world is an entity independent of everything, then it has to be the Truth, right? Truth is that which is independent of everything.
How Can The Common Man Make Better Decisions In Life?
First of all, we have to realize what our life is like. You know, I canтАЩt change something without firstly understanding its processes and its actuality.
I must know what this thing called my life is. We keep living without knowing a thing about life. And weтАЩre blinded by names and identities.
We were always algorithmic. We were always driven by instruction manuals. There was always some preset logic тАФ inauthentic logic, borrowed logic тАФ behind our conduct. And thatтАЩs why all that could be taken, consolidated, and put in the form of a code. Otherwise, where would the code come from?
Those who are lazy, lack not in energy but in understanding. In physical nature, there is a tendency toward work minimization. If something gives you more output with less work, you will do it. You do not know that the right work brings benefits, dividends, and joy. Had you known it, you would have chosen the right action over laziness every moment.
Self-help doesn't help. Its approach is, тАЬI am sad as my desires are not fulfilled, so the way to help myself is to fulfill desires.тАЭ They never realize their lives are driven by biological, social, and cultural forces outside of themselves. Spirituality offers the only real solution: тАЬBefore helping the self, one must know what the self really is."
Yoga is action without attachment. Yoga is to refuse everything that keeps you little and limited. To live without a reason, to love without a cause, to act without greed and desire, that is Yoga. Total purposelessness is Yoga. Yoga is freedom from all whys.
Dr. Ambedkar, one of the greatest minds of modern India, had problems with Hindu culture, but not with Vedanta. Our culture is based on the very periphery of religion and does not resonate with Vedanta. ThatтАЩs the reason it is in conflict with the Constitution. The Constitution and true religiosityтАФwhich you can call self-knowledge or VedantaтАФgo together.
Shruti Philosophy: The Hinduism That Stands Forgotten
The test is straightforward. Whatever aligns with Shruti is dharma. Whatever defies Shruti, however old or beloved, is not. Shruti demands only one thing: self-knowledge. Everything else is ornamental. Without Vedanta, Hindu identity risks becoming ritual without philosophy, sound without meaning. Offering flowers may express devotion, but it is not Sanatan Dharma. Seeing the Self is.
Spirituality is neither a tradition nor a culture. Spirituality is not at all about following something or somebody. When it is said that you must follow the Guru, the Guru is the Truth, not a person not a man. Spirituality would never say, тАЬFollow the words of a man.тАЭ Spirituality says, тАЬLet the mind follow the Center, the Truth or you may call it the Heart or God.тАЭ
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.
Abortion Rights: Who Decides тАФ Country, Religion or Society?
The building is raised on a weak foundation, and now you want to penalize everybody who comes and shakes it up even a little? You don't do this. Why did you allow this building to stand on such a weak foundation, and now you are trying to protect it through legislation? What kind of stupidity is this?
YouтАЩre conditioned to think you can only exist with social approval. What holds you back is the fear that something devastating will happen if you donтАЩt conform. Challenge that belief. One must have a healthy contempt for the world, which is possible only when one has deep love for whatтАЩs real. Otherwise, you'll keep bowing your head.
A scripture is a book that tells you about yourself. A scripture has to deal essentially with self-knowledge. A book that talks of dietary choices cannot be called a scripture. A person who talks of the kind of things you must eat to enhance your health and such things cannot be called a Guru. Shastra is what deals with self-knowledge; a guru is one who encourages self-knowledge in you.
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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 inтАж
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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 toтАж
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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.
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But, when you look at someone who comes from a meat-eating family or the traditional kind of Indian Vaishnav family where milk and тАШkheerтАЩ and тАШdahiтАЩ are a staple, then it comes as a shock to that person, that milk involves cruelty. ItтАЩs 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.
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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.тАж
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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 idealsтАФthe 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?
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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.тАж
I donтАЩt know whether you have heard this story from the life of the Buddha. One man was carrying a goatтАж
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 isтАж
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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 isтАж
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
тАж
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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 consciousтАж
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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 тАУ Wisdom, Love, Truth.
One is fettered, one is shackled, and consciousness is oneтАЩs only hope тАУ deep, deep consciousness thatтАж
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Question: Acharya Ji, there are people who quote the Vedas and say тАЬA Hindu is a good Hindu only if he drinks milk from the mother cow.тАЭ What is your take on that?
Acharya Prashant: See if you have named the Vedas, what is the central teaching of all theтАж
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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, тАЬYou are not missing the secret, you are missing the obvious.тАЭ For us
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тАЬI am producing so much, but people are not buying it. Why? Because they do not need it. So, what do IтАж
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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 knowтАж
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Questioner: From the videos that I have watched, I understand youтАЩre 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 thatтАж
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 тАШmotherтАЩ.
