Clarity

Growth and development are different concepts. Growth is external. Development is much more internal, and it is for the sake of my own inner experience that I get into everything external. Whatever I do, morning till evening, it has to be something that gives me fulfillment.

ChatGPT, GitaGPT and GuruGPT || Acharya Prashant, at IIT-Guwahati (2023)

Small Leaders, Big Egos, Bigger Wars, Biggest Wipeout

Question: Sir, an Indian origin developer from Google recently released a version of ChatGPT called GeetaGPT, where the AI (Artificial Intelligence) basically acts like a God. And you could ask questions based on spirituality or philosophy, and it would answer as if it’s coming from Shri Kṛṣṇa himself. So, my… read_more

24 min

And those who have reason and logic on their side —they very respectfully retreat when faced with an unreasonable kind of animal. Why this respect? “No, we don’t want to hurt somebody’s feelings.” It's not about feelings. It's about facts. Facts must always prevail over feelings.

Strive for Freedom, for Purity, for Sacredness.

It's human nature to strive for freedom, for purity, for sacredness. So you would not be alone in this. Unknown to you, in some other place, somebody else is doing the same thing. And if your circles keep expanding, one day the two circles will come into contact. And then something great will result.

Vidya and Avidya

There is one kind of education that just deals with sustaining the body, including earning money, shelter, etc. It is important to have both Avidya (knowledge of the world) and Vidya (knowledge about the self). The second kind of education, which is completely missing, is the awakening of the intelligence and the finding of oneself. If you do not give attention to this education, you will find yourself rejected by life itself — you will find that you are just living a degraded life.

Why Are We in an Age of Extremism?

Man is taking extreme measures in the external world due to his extreme inner hollowness. This hollowness comes from a philosophy of endless consumption and from technology that is capable of producing endlessly. But the purpose of our life is the spiritual urge to be liberated. And when we don't find this purpose, we indulge in stupid things like religious extremism and extreme merrymaking.

The economics of spirituality || On Vedanta (2021)

Grandpa Gave You the Best He Could, Stop Blaming Him

Questioner (Q): The right action dictated by spirituality is what the world requires, but if the world economy was to be structured around it, then wouldn’t that make most of the prevalent jobs and business models obsolete? If everybody becomes spiritual, won’t the world’s economic system collapse? If the economy… read_more

We have to accept responsibility for our lives, our times. At the center of our lives lies nobody else but the liver, the individual, the person. If you are the living entity, then your life is your responsibility. Philosophies from the past, knowledge from the past, traditions from the past, myths from the past — they are at best resources available to you in the form of knowledge, ammunition. But whose responsibility is it to utilize the knowledge, to load the ammunition, and fire it? Yours.

Why Do We Prefer Morality Over Spirituality?

7 min

There is a deep fear that keeps us terrified—the fear that things can go wrong at any time. And there is an inner laziness that makes us unwilling to figure out our own direction. So, we choose morality that comes with a ready-made action plan. 99% of what goes around in the name of religion or spirituality is just stale morality.

Delayed Decisions: Balancing Productivity and Pleasure

13 min

Had there really been love, you would have completed it well ahead of time and submitted it already. This means you need the deadline. This means that it is just an imaginative fancy that you would complete it even in absence of deadline. You remove the deadline, and you find you will do nothing at all. Or maybe you will do one thing, claiming that one thing is your true love, whereas the fact is that you need to know five other things as well. Maybe without knowing those five other things, you cannot even know that one thing you claim to be in love with.

Sir, Why did You Choose Engineering?

No, I had no special inclination towards engineering. It's just that I was very clear. I didn't like the shape of the world as it looked to me. So in my limited knowledge the civil services- the IAS in particular was the place where one could bring about social change. But the only reason I went to the IITS was because we used to have a magazine called CSR, Competition Success Review. So that would contain the interviews of all the UPSC toppers mostly.

Are You Foolish, Clever, Or Innocent?

Foolishness is about maintaining the rotten ego while still expecting a great life; but it does not make profits because it can't. In cleverness, you are still rotten, but you have managed to appear otherwise to others; so you start making profits, but they do not suffice for inner fulfillment. In innocence, you can make profits but don’t care to, because you have realized that the very problem that made you relate to the world in a profit-seeking way is gone.

Can't Say 'No'?

20 min

You’ve to remember the end. If the end is remembered, practically anything can be a means to that end. If the end is remembered, no means is important. Only that particular means is important that leads to the end at any particular moment. And, you don’t need to stick to any particular means. Because, life changes, so means have to change. The end alone is changeless, the end alone is endless. Everything else must come to an end, except the end itself.

The SECRET About Life, Art, and Beauty That Changes Everything

Have you seen an ant hill? Have you seen an ant hill? Now, an ant hill—for an ant—is Taj Mahal. And what is your Taj Mahal for an ant? Nothing. A heap of white rubbish. Think of what pigeons and crows do to the Eiffel Tower, for example. But we look at it, as I said, from the human ego point of view—an anthropomorphic view. We say, "Wow!" We don't appreciate an ant hill. Now, tell me, why don't you appreciate an ant hill? An ant would appreciate an ant hill; we don't appreciate it.

Are We Revering the Right Voices? A Look at True Wisdom

That's the wrong relationship that the world is choosing to have with an unwise man. If you are to respect, you have to respect someone who is wise and who can bring his wisdom to your use. Instead, if you choose to have a relationship of respect with someone who is himself unwise, obviously, he can be of no use to you. So again, it's a failure of relationship—something is misplaced. Respect is something that has to be placed at the right point.

Living Without Illusions: A Lesson on Expectations and Reality

25 min

It is not that the way the world is, the ignorance, the stupidity, the suffering, the perverseness of it all. It's not that that hurts or surprises you. What shocks is that adverse things come from people you think of as decent, respectable and wise. It is not events or people, therefore, who are shocking you, it is the expectations that you hold of them.

Leadership and Spiritual Insights from the Bhagavad Gita

My concern is the way we are. My concern is the face of the human being. My concern is the little sparrow. I'm not here to tell people what God has said. I'm here to take care of the sparrow. That's my concern. And the sparrow cannot be taken care of unless we go to the Gita. Hence, the Gita.

What Is Missing in Our Education?

A good education system should have two components. The first is deep, clear, and factual knowledge about the world, without which we would become superstitious. And secondly, it must include a very important component that tells us who we are and why we need to be educated at all. This second component is almost completely missing today.

Balancing Act: Juggling Multiple Roles and Responsibilities

6 min

Questioner: Sir, my question is, that since you have graced multiple responsibilities throughout your life, from being a Civil Services officer to being a teacher, graduating from IIT and IIM to being an animal rights activist, how do you zone yourself out from one responsibility to another?

Acharya Prashant: No,… read_more

Empowering Choices: Impact of Knowing What to Do and What Not to Do

We often say, ‘Oh, there is that little voice inside us; we call it conscience.’ Wisdom is to realize that your conscience is all artificial. 100% influenced. And that’s why the so-called inner conscience is totally outer and varies from person to person. People have done horrible deeds based on the advice of their conscience. Hitler, too, in his own eyes, must have been a man of conscience.

Real Meaning of Duty in the Mahabharata

6 min

Always begin from your inner condition. Your inner condition is of illusion and consequent suffering. Vedanta asks: For whom? To you, it is not phenomenal. Therefore, you have to learn that it is phenomenal, and that's what the Gita is about. What Arjun is doing is that he is embarking on a course of action that will keep proving to him that the phenomenon is not a phenomenon but a reality.

Are We Losing Ourselves to AI (Artificial Intelligence)?

All your genetic material can be taken and a clone can be raised, that is still not you again. How does that threaten you? So, go to Nirvaan Shatkam. When such doubts arise and worries, you need to know what you are not. That which you are not—let it be copied, substituted, or outsourced or whatever. Someone copies my voice, but how does that threaten me? Am I my voice? So, Nirvan Shatkam. And when you can discount everything that you are not then, Chidanand rupa Shivoham Shivoham.

Breaking Through Pride: Finding True Clarity in the Present

The question is, if one does not have the courage or the intention to bring even trivial change in life, how will one bring deeper change in life? That's the question. I'm not saying that deeper change will necessarily follow external change because there are a lot of people who keep changing their hairstyles every second month and yet there is no real inner change. We know all that.

Is AI Going To Destroy Humanity?

25 min

If you are full of inner ignorance, desires, temptations, jealousy, and greed, even the most spectacular technology cannot help you. In a wise man's hands, AI can be put to constructive use. Unfortunately, most of us are far from being wise, and so, AI will be put to violent, destructive use. This has to be fought by having something within us that is immune to the world. If the world cannot touch it, then the world cannot damage, co-opt, or enslave it.

Life’s a Joke, But We’re the Punchline!

There is just no meaning in existence, and yet we all move around with a self-appointed sense of seriousness and purpose. Existence itself, consciousness itself, is a joke. The human being taking himself seriously is the joke. Real humor is when you can destroy your own darkness. If you are someone who cannot tolerate jokes, you need to check your insecurities. Laugh at yourself. That's the best joke.

The Key to Overcoming Difficulties in JEE and Life

It’s about the self-concept that we carry. That self-concept is not innate but gets built over several years. If your self-concept tells you that you do not deserve to crack the toughest question, then you'll not put everything into cracking the toughest question. In fact, you will needlessly make any question the toughest one. You have to tell yourself that you deserve to solve even the toughest problem, and then the tough problem is no longer all that tough. One has to love himself a bit more and say—yes, it's difficult, but for me, it's doable.

Break Free from the Need for Approval

16 min

You’re conditioned to think you can only exist with social approval. What holds you back is the fear that something devastating will happen if you don’t conform. Challenge that belief. One must have a healthy contempt for the world, which is possible only when one has deep love for what’s real. Otherwise, you'll keep bowing your head.

The Hypocrisy of Liquor Companies: Social Responsibility or Marketing Ploy?

16 min

All kinds of things you can enlist, but the thing is—the list is not complete. Similarly, alcohol can be stated to have these so-called positive effects. Yes, friends get together, and if there is alcohol, it brings about a certain felicity in the conversation. People open up, and there might be a grain of truth to the whole thing. But are you stating the full story? Are you telling the whole thing?

The Right Way To Help Others

The right kind of help is that which awakens others' potential, and the one you are helping should soon become free of the need to be helped. Also, the right kind of help works both ways—it benefits the person or cause and also helps you, the helper.

Why Mother Tongue Education Beats English for Better Development?

The first thing is quality. Quality. The first thing is that the child should be built up. The first thing is that education should be able to raise consciousness. The language comes after that. The medium of instruction comes after. It is very important, but it is not the first thing. The first thing is consciousness. The second thing is language.

Is Philosophy Truly 'Life-Changing' or Just a Degree?

12 min

It's an argument coming from insecurity and fear. First, to assure your money and then you should look at your passion. No, that's a very lifeless and loveless argument. You attend to your love and forget about money, livelihood, these things have a way of taking care of themselves. Nobody who very honestly, very sincerely pursued her love was found dying of starvation ever. The world has a great need for people who can understand, who can think, who have some intellect, who have some depth and since the world has a great need for these people so you'll be paid.

How To Watch One's Tendencies? How To Associate With The Right Objects?

12 min

So, you look at your current state. “This is what I abhor so much.” “This is what I like so much.” “This is what I just don’t want to look at.” “This is what I must daily look at.” “That’s my favorite TV show.” “That thing, that shop, that product is what I feel addicted to.” And you then ask yourself, “Is all of that or is any of that doing any good?” Because it is all about me. And then things get dropped. And then the right things happen on its own.

How Did Bhagavad Gita Help Subhash Chandra Bose?

There is no revolution possible without wisdom literature. The quest for independence of freedom fighters was actually a manifestation of their inner quest for liberation. What kind of revolution can one do if it's the body that's always at the top of your mind? You require a Gita to tell you that this body is perishable and would anyway go. Gita only teaches you, "Endure and fight."

What Does It Mean To Be Practical?

Practicality doesn’t mean being cunning, deceptive, or shrewd. Practicality is a doing that is born out of understanding; you understand something and then action happens. There is a deep, intelligent understanding which immediately translates into action. This is really what practicality is about.

Why Do We All Act so Blindly?

18 min

Questioner: * I am Darshan, and my question is very simple yet complicated. So why do we not work? So even after knowing that if we work, we will get something that we are looking for. So, to take an example, I had the opportunity to interact with a lot… read_more

Decoding the East: Insights Ignored by the West

Before trying on your own, you do not even know the problem in its entirety, and you are going to somebody and the whole process demands time, energy, space and sometimes even money. So, before you engage, obviously you need to have tried your uttermost. So, that’s something obviously to be supported, but equally, we all know how limited we are beyond a point, and when we come to that point, it becomes obvious that one needs to look beyond herself, that one needs to seek help.

Clear Your Dues Before Checking Out

It’s not as if you have to indefinitely stay dithered or bonded, not really. At the same time, it does not mean that the relationship has to be so material or so transactional, that once the money has been squared off or once you are sure that I have given them the requisite care, attention and emotional support, now I can just break away and separate them from my life. We are talking of neither of these ends.

What Is Rest?

Rest is to realize that whatever you are doing is ultimately not going to benefit you in terms of result. Rest is to not to hope for a result, but to be already there and because you are already there, so the activity is happening. Now the activity is a game, a pass time, just for fun. You can indulge yourself or you can change the activity. The activity doesn’t really mean much.

Beliefs: Reconciling Perception & Reality

20 min

We all are such wicked creatures. We feign helplessness just to exhort, extort pleasure. We cannot even be honest enough to say that I am a pleasure seeker; therefore, I'm doing all those things. All your helplessness results in pleasure. All your assumptions lead to pleasure. All your dishonesty leads to pleasure. So everything is just for the sake of pleasure. If somebody comes and says, “You know, I'm helpless,” Just figure out where the pleasure is, and you will know the dishonesty.

Stop Asking These Spiritual Questions

4 min

Think of yourself. Even the Supreme or the Absolute that you think of is just something within the universe, so stop caring or wondering so much about it. Look rather at your own life, your own daily actions. What do you work for? Who are the people you relate to? Where does your bread come from? These are the questions that matter much more than any of the traditional, spiritual queries or you could say that these daily mundane questions are the ‘Real Spiritual’ ones.

The Multitasking Debate: Efficiency vs. Presence

12 min

Even when you think you are not multitasking, you are actually multitasking. Multitasking is an imperative, but don’t be a multiple-divided person. Multiple selves are not welcome; multitasking is alright. We live lives of multiple selves. One self, other self, and all those selves are all fake, borrowed.

The Biggest Act of Cruelty Today

Spirituality is about realizing that all nonsense emanates from the DNA. You are born with nonsense that body identification is the fundamental problem and the root cause of all violence. It’s the body that is violent because it is the body that is coming from the jungle. We share this body with the chimpanzees, with the dinosaurs, with the lions, tigers, every single animal in the jungle is this body and therefore, all the problems of the jungle are contained in this body.

The Life Journey of Acharya Prashant

I didn’t try to sweep things under the carpet. If I have seen something, I have seen it. I didn’t try to pretend that I understand when I didn’t. I didn’t try to trivialize something just because I couldn’t wrap my head around it. If something was beyond my comprehension, I let it stay there. And the process remained continuous, in that sense, not the exact word, but, a bit laborious, and demanded patience.

How to Set Priorities in Life?

You ask about balancing priorities, but "balance" is a very violent word. It denotes competition. ‘Or’ denotes either this or that — this is conflict. Life does not proceed like this. A polymath, like Leonardo da Vinci, mastered many fields. There was no ‘or’ in his life. His life was full of ‘And’. Most of us live a life of poor man. Life can be very, very, very rich. But not when you say “Either this, or that.” Life is rich when you say, “And, And, And.”

Where Is the Kurukshetra of Your Life?

Arjuna’s hell was in his daily tasks, and so is yours. Arjuna could sense the evil in what appeared normal to others; you must also be able to sense that there is something extremely fishy in what seems normal to others. Your house, your workplace, your society—these are your Kurukshetra. That’s where you have to fight your Mahabharata. That’s where you need Shri Krishna and the Gita.

Yoga - The Biggest 'Spiritual' Myth Today

17 min

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.

How Do We Know Anything about Life? Where Do Our Thoughts Come from?