Individuality

That could be one necessary mark of a true feminist: she would not be dependent on anybody else for a single rupee, especially not on the male partner.

“Financial independence and then still having kids, is that something that can be counted under feminism as such?”

No, you see, these… read_more

Acharya Prashant: It has been told to us that there exist two centers. I suppose it has been very freshly told to you right? Very recently. He says, “How do I know that I am living out of the right center? How does a young man know whether he’s not… read_more

Acharya Prashant: What if you were never, never trained in womanhood? How would you live? You can’t even think because right now, every bit of you is a trained bit. How do you know that a woman must have long hair? How do you know? That’s how it is! Nine… read_more

Acharya Prashant: A mind free of stories about itself, is a humble mind. The story could say everything. The story does not always say, “I am the king of the world.” Often the story says, “I am the most wretched person on this earth.” Nevertheless, irrespective of its content, a… read_more

Acharya Prashant: What to do when you encounter a person with a lot of ego? He has used two words: High ego and bad ego. Let us understand this. When you use the term ‘bad ego’, you necessarily mean that there is something called ‘good ego’ as well. Correct? Logical?… read_more

Acharya Prashant: A king once asked his favorite painter, the royal painter to paint him the face of the most beautiful individual in the kingdom. So, the painter set out looking for the most innocent face in the kingdom. And he chanced upon a little girl, he chanced upon a… read_more

प्रश्नकर्ता: जिस समाज में मैं प्रतिदिन जी रहा हूँ, उसमें ताकत और प्रतिष्ठा ही सबकुछ है। जिसकी हैसियत और उपाधि न हो, उसे कोई सुनता भी नहीं, और जो समाज में ऊँचे स्थान पर बैठा है, वो कुछ अनर्गल ही क्यों न बके, वो परम सत्य मान लिया जाता है।… read_more

Questioner: Sir, youngsters in India and the world over, often rebel against rules and regulations in the name of freedom of choice or freedom of expression, the list of complaints is long and all have one bottom line: My life my rules. What do ancient wisdom and Vedanta say on… read_more

Acharya Prashant: Desire means that you are not alright with yourself and you want something else to happen, correct? So, we are anyway not living for ourselves. We are rather living to change ourselves. And are these not two very different things? If you are living for yourself as you… read_more

Questioner: My question is about the relationships we share with our near ones. I find so many limitations in every relationship I have. What to do in situations where my parents do not understand me? What should I do to make them understand me?

Acharya Prashant: First of all, you… read_more

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… read_more

Questioner: My question is, why is creativity, like poetry, dying these days? And poetry is a part of literature. And how much contribution of literature is there on the way to Adhyatma?

Acharya Prashant: See, the more you will lose touch with yourself, the more material your world will get.… read_more

Questioner (Q): How we get the real definition of freedom?

Acharya Prashant (AP): We have to first start with- what is slavery? Freedom is not something that comes from outside. Freedom is our basic nature. What comes from outside, is slavery. So, when slavery is understood and gotten rid of,… read_more

प्रश्नकर्ता: नमस्ते आचार्य जी। मेरा नाम गवाक्ष जोशी है। मैं आइआइटी कानपुर में पीएचडी का छात्र हूँ। और विद्युत अभियान्त्रिकी विभाग से। मेरा प्रश्न धर्म को लेकर है। मैं हितोपदेश मित्रलाभ पढ़ रहा था! तो एक श्लोक आया था मेरे सामने, जिसका अर्थ ये था — भोजन, निद्रा, भय और… read_more

Speaker: The topic of ‘Compulsion’ and ‘Free-will’ is what we are concerned with. When do you call something a compulsion?

Listener 1: When I am not interested in doing something and I am forced to do something.

Speaker: At a superficial level compulsion is when the mind does not feel… read_more

Speaker: Karan has asked that he is unable to say ‘No’ and that often lands him in trouble, gives him a lot of problems. Are there others who face this problem?

Listeners: Yes.

Speaker: Alright, so this question then comes from all of us. Let’s understand this question. I am… read_more

Questioner: Sir, is having an Ego positive or negative?

Shri Prashant: I write a quantity ‘A’ over here (pointing towards the white board ) and I ask you, ‘Is it positive or negative?’ Can you answer me? I just write a unknown quantity and I ask you, ‘Is it… read_more

Question: Sir, why is comparison required for growth and what is the real meaning of comparison?

Speaker: Why is comparison required for growth and what is the real meaning of comparison. As we look at the world, all we see is things, objects, materials, and everything that we see with… read_more

Question : What is personality?

Speaker : Personality is an expression of your individuality.

What core is to gloss, individuality is to personality. What core is to gloss, what center is to circumference, is individuality to personality. Personality is and must be just a natural, clear, honest expression of what… read_more

Speaker: Will I ever be able to know – Who am I? Or is that supposed to be left blank forever? It teases, it irritates and then you say,“Why can’t I find out the answers?”

“I must have an answer!” it demands!

There are two prerequisites for getting a real … read_more

Question: What are memories? We are happy, we get sad, we get flashbacks. What are they? What do they mean?

Speaker: Memories are residues.

I would like to put it this way. There are two kinds of memories. Capacitor memories and current memories. What are capacitor memories?

Listeners: The memories… read_more

Question : You said that we all have either same or similar kind of goals. But we are deciding our goals on our own. How can they be similar?

Speaker : How is it possible that two-hundred students sitting here, two hundred individuals sitting here, have the same goal in… read_more

प्रश्नकर्ता: नमस्ते सर। आपने पढ़ने के लिए एक किताब सुझाई था जिसका नाम था ‘लस्ट फ़ॉर लाइफ़’ बाय इरविन स्टोन, जो कि विन्सेंट वैन गॉग जी की बायोग्राफ़ी थी। सर, उन्होंने जो संघर्ष किया अपनी पूरी ज़िन्दगी में और वो बहुत कम आयु पर ही चले गये थे। क्या उनका… read_more

आचार्य प्रशांत: (प्रश्नकर्ता का प्रश्न पढ़ते हुए) आचार्य जी! मैं लोगों से बहुत जल्दी प्रभावित हो जाता हूँ। किसी की बात से या किसी ने कहा कि देश के लिए कुछ करना चाहिए तो बात ठीक लगती है। किसी ने कहा गरीबों की मदद करो, तो मान लेता हूँ। पर… read_more

Speaker: The question is, ‘personality, ego, individuality, freedom, all these surely have the society as the back drop. The relationship between the society and the individual is always questioned. How to secure my freedom from the society then?’

To how many of you is this question important, the relation between… read_more

Speaker: There is this water-bottle over there. Can you estimate the number of water molecules in this?

Listeners (everyone): No, Sir.

Speaker: One mole of water has how much grams of water?

Listener 1: Eighteen grams of water.

Speaker: This water-bottle has not less than four grams of water. So,… read_more

Speaker : If you are deeply enslaved, then freedom will not appeal to you. And that is what happens to most of us.

We have so little taste of freedom, that slavery has become a habit for us. A very deep habit. We have grown accustomed to it. So accustomed,… read_more

Question: Sir, going by your theory of, ‘search first, believe second’, I don’t think there is any religion left in the society. Do you think this phenomenon is an obstacle in the mental development in the society?

Speaker: I do not think that young people like you are very interested… read_more

Question: Sir, are you saying that we should not be bothered with what the others are saying? If I do not care about what others are saying, would I not be leading a self-centered life?

Speaker: We are already self-centered. Do you know what does being self-centered mean? It means… read_more

Questioner (Q): Sir, my question is about handling pressure—the pressure of expectations. Sir, when God in Bhagavad Gita says that a human being is bound to make mistakes, why society is not ready to accept mistakes? Everybody is judged in the end by only results. How would you work if… read_more

Question: Is it alright to be selfish?

Speaker: Clearly understand this. What do you call as ‘I’ ? What do you call as the ‘self’?

‘Selfish’. The word ‘self’ is important. What you call as the ‘self’ and what you call as the ‘I’ are two very distinct entities, very… read_more

Be engaged in a kind of work that does not make it necessary for you to seek relief or relaxation or recuperation or rehabilitation over the weekend.

Work is life. Work must not be something that taxes you and drains and saps out your energy. Work must be something that… read_more

Question: Is it true that the society is influenced more by the gloss, more by the apparent, than the substance, the real?

Speaker: You can only know or see to the extent of your own intelligence, beyond that you will not be able to see. If I am superficial then… read_more

Question: Sir, I can see that personality is a mask, but then why is the world giving personality so much of importance? Why does everybody seem to give personality so much of importance?

Speaker: The reason is simple. When you need to talk to me, you need to have some… read_more

Questioner: Sir, you say that we have to see things, we have to analyze and see that the mind is over us, we have to take decisions on our own, but in real world, it will not help us. In our college itself, teachers want to make us do something,… read_more

Speaker : Shreya is asking that we all know that the society manipulates us but how do we do without the society.

There are two ways of going with the society, one being manipulated by it, becoming a slave to the society, as she said that the society manipulates us,… read_more

Questioner (Q): (In tears, sitting next to the Speaker, by the Ganges and the Himalayas. Overwhelmed by his weeklong presence in the Speaker’s discourses) Why is it difficult to even be here?

Acharya Prashant (AP): Something is difficult if you try to fight. Something is difficult only if you try… read_more

Question: What is inner completeness of a person?

Speaker: Monica is asking, ‘What is inner completeness?’ Monica does ‘the complete one’ ask this question? Who is asking this question? We ask this question. We ask this question because we sense that we are incomplete. So this question is coming from… read_more

Question: Sir, good afternoon. While I speak before you, I will try to choose my words very gracefully. Sir, I have many things in my life that keep me happy but it is life and we are not supposed to have everything. I have lacked something in my life that… read_more

Question (Q): Sir, why do people always classify anything on the basis of good or bad, right or wrong?

Acharya Prashant (AP): Because we need some kind of a guideline to live by. You see, you are always faced with choices all the time. Right? All the time we face… read_more

Listener: If we do not have Ego, we will not have any goals in life, and such a life would be worthless.Speaker: Mark the words, ‘we’, ‘have’, ‘ego’, ‘goals’, ‘worthless’. If we understand the question properly, clarity would be there. The question itself is the answer. The clarity lies… read_more

Question: The question is, ‘Why must one be persuaded? What is the role of persuasion in teaching?’

Acharya Prashant: He is asking that is it alright if teaching involves a certain degree of persuasion. Let us try to understand this.

Freedom is only available to a free mind. A mind… read_more

Question: What role do examples, ideals, role models play in this process of conditioning?

Speaker: Role-models play a very important, an extremely important role. Since childhood these great images are given to us. These images are constantly drilled into our mind by the society, by the media, by the education… read_more

Listener: Sir, I could not understand the motive of not setting a goal in my life. If I do not have an aim or goal in my life, I do not think that there is a reason or spark in my life. If I have my goals, I will put… read_more

Question: We expect from others and we get hurt. What should we do?

Speaker: Sameeksha has raised question of dependence and hurt. Why do we depend on others and consequently why do we get hurt?

Sameeksha, who depends on somebody else, you have both your legs alright, fit legs, strong… read_more

Questioner (Q): Am I so incomplete, that I need to be constantly reminded of my ‘complete’ nature?

Acharya Prashant (AP): Yes, complete you are. But when you have started believing in incompleteness, what is the option?

What is the option? Being drunk may not be one’s nature. Is it your… read_more

Speaker: What is the relation of interest and talent with individuality?

Interest and talent as we know them are just acquired personalities. What we normally call as interest, what we normally call as talent, are nothing but acquired states of mind. Born in India there is a great chance that… read_more