Many of us interrupt, rush to make our point, or change the topic when a conversation comes too close. We call it a lack of patience or discipline. But impatience in a conversation is often fear: when what we hold within is borrowed belief, every question could shatter it. The same confusion makes us take our instincts and feelings as ourselves, though they are only the body’s chemistry. If we looked honestly at what we hold, would a question still feel like an attack?
Maturity is when you can transcend your body, and by the body, I mean the bodily compulsions. That includes your thoughts, your feelings, and everything because they are all bodily. You very well know how chemicals in the body translate into thoughts and feelings. Read more...
Listener: Sir, we have heard this thing and understood it well that with maturity comes responsibility. My question is on the next statement which I will state now that, “Responsibility also given before time and before maturity, have the tendency to spoil that person to whom it is given,
Speaker: You see we are outrageously arrogant when it comes to small things, we are so fond of claiming that which we do not have, but we are absurdly humble when it comes to claiming that which we really have. You don’t have a large house but you would not
Acharya Prashant: We can live in two kinds of worlds. How? Even as I am speaking to you, some of you are listening, and the others might be thinking and wandering and lost in imagination, Right? Do you see that? You have to be together in this. Is that alright?
Questioner (Q): We encounter these nodes in the path of our lives where we have to make decisions. The majority of us have a lot of duties associated with our life, and these duties also come with some demands associated with how we must act. For example, right now I
Acharya Prashant (AP): If you are peaceful, if you are joyful, if you are centered, if you do not always feel like running after achievement, then no change is needed. Everything is alright.
Acharya Prashant (AP): Wonderful! A nice question has come to us. Our friend is saying that greed is making people work. If you remove greed from people’s life, they will not grow. So, I'm asking him, what is growth?
If the two persons who are in this social arrangement of marriage are also spiritual friends, then they rise above the social arrangement. The social arrangement by itself is a recipe for disaster. But when the social arrangement is purified, consecrated by the spiritual touch, then the poison in it
Speaker: Amit says, ‘Assuming that I have to go to a place where there are all foolish men, how can I retain my individuality there?’ First of all the individual does not have to go anywhere. ‘Have to’ implies compulsion. ‘Have to’ implies that there is somebody else who is
Law just says that there is a legal age—eighteen, twenty-one and such things. First of all, giving birth requires that there has to be mental maturity.
Questioner: Sir, you always say to live with the thoughts. But at any second there are so many thoughts in mind so how to control it, sir? How to control the mind?
Questioner: How did sages like Ashtavakra and Adi Shankara attain wisdom at such an early age of fourteen or eight? You have said in many of your videos that unbearable pain coming from falseness is the starting point of the journey towards the Truth. How can someone have this kind…
Question: Sir, love is not attachment. Attachment means habit and if it is so, the person you love becomes an object. But if we are not attached to that person we love, then we see that person like others, and it is our habit to hurt others for our own
Questioner: Sir, let me give you an example. Right now I am asking you a question. Just before asking the question, my heart was pounding. When I am standing, this time the heart is still pounding but I am confident of what I am going to ask.
Acharya Prashant (AP): It is also an assignment, correct? You did not write it on your own accord; somebody assigned this work to you, right? Is there any difference? Is this sheet of paper any more or any less significant with all the heaps of assignments that you have created
The moment you turn thirteen or fourteen, lust arises on its own. That’s what you experience without any effort or discipline, correct? You don’t require to be disciplined or determined for your pubic hair to grow or your periods to start. Stuff just flows on its own!
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Acharya Prashant: ‘How can I get my ex-girlfriend back?’ The question comes from Shubham. Shubham you will have to die (audience bursts into laughter). There is no other way, you will have to die.
You know, it was Kabir Sahab who said: ये तो घर है प्रेम का, खाला…
Understanding expresses itself through action. And understanding knows no other expression. Words are a very poor substitute for the right action and that is what Gibran is talking of here. He says that which is understood claim for its final expression as action in life. The poet often lets his understanding become his words. To that extent, there is a flow but if the words remain mere words and do not turn into life then there is no freedom yet. The imprisonment continues. Live what you love, otherwise, the punishment is tremendous.
Questioner: Why do people commit suicide?
Acharya Prashant: They still have a lot of hope. They feel that suicide would redeem them. They have not given up everything. They are still carrying a lot of hope. If I do not know what is beyond life, how can I enter that…
So many love affairs are actually based on not much more than gossip. What do the couples mostly do? Do they discuss wisdom? Do they discuss the renaissance enlightenment? They gossip and they gossip like hell. But that gossip is so fruitful; they get sex. Kids are born and mind you, rarely would you find a man and a woman who would be able to trust each other without gossiping, without engaging in small talk, loose talk.
Excerpts from Articles
Stuck Between Job Security and Your Real Passion?
Struggling to choose between a secure job and the path you actually feel drawn to? This isn't really a question about careers. It's about why other people's opinions have so much power over you in the first place. Real clarity doesn't come from finding the 'right' choice. It comes from honestly looking at your own fear, again and again, until it stops running the decision for you.
ज्योतिष कितना सच है? कुंडली, ग्रह-नक्षत्र: इनका क्या अर्थ है?
वेदांत को केवल इसलिए सही या श्रेष्ठ नहीं माना जा सकता कि वह किसी विशेष परंपरा से आता है। विज्ञान जहाँ भौतिक जगत की वस्तुनिष्ठ जाँच करता है, वहीं अद्वैत वेदांत सीधे मनुष्य के ‘मैं’, उसके दुख, बंधन और मुक्ति की पड़ताल करता है। इसकी कसौटी वैज्ञानिक प्रमाण नहीं, बल्कि अपने जीवन में इसकी सच्चाई को देख पाना है। किसी दर्शन को मान लेना नहीं, बल्कि उससे स्वयं को मुक्त करना ही उसका वास्तविक उद्देश्य है।
Justice Without Boundaries: Why Compassion Cannot Stop at Species
Oppression should not see caste, gender, creed or colour, and it should not see species either. The moral threshold is sentience, not intelligence. An animal feels pain as fully as a human does, whether or not it can explain its suffering.
कई तरह के डर—अकेले पड़ने, छवि खोने या छोटा समझे जाने—की जड़ अक्सर अतीत में बनी पहचान और कहानियों में होती है। शरीर की हाइट जैसी चीज़ों को समस्या मानकर उनसे जूझने के बजाय उनकी अप्रासंगिकता को समझकर आगे बढ़ना चाहिए। अतीत को दबाने से मुक्ति नहीं मिलती; उसके करीब जाकर अपनी स्मृतियों, धारणाओं और पुराने पैटर्न को निष्पक्षता से देखना ज़रूरी है।
Climate change is more than an environmental crisis—it is a crisis of human choices. Our patterns of consumption, consumerism and endless pursuit of more are putting increasing pressure on the planet. But meaningful change does not necessarily begin with new technology or stricter policies. It begins with a deeper question: what are we willing to change within ourselves?
Don't be bothered when others say you've lived a failed life or made wrong decisions. Let them talk. You will know you're right, just as clearly as you know when your thirst is quenched. You were thirsty, you drank water, and even if the world tells you you're still thirsty, you know the truth. Trust your own experience. Live life in your own light, for that is the only right way.
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This age, when you are in your late teens or early twenties, is the time when life is constantly and rapidly changing around you, without giving you a moment to take stock of things and feel assured, even briefly, that things will stay as they are. Because they do not continue as they are now, everything is unpredictably changeable.
What does one do? One needs some anchor, something unchanging, or else there’s too much insecurity. If everything can change and one’s existence depends on these things, it feels deeply unstable.
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We are actually afraid that the decision will prove to be ‘wrong’. Is it the decision-making that terrifies us or the thought that my decision may turn out to be wrong? My real fear is that ‘I do not know what is right and wrong. Because all my life I have lived according to the criterion provided by others. I have no understanding of how to live intelligently and how to decide for myself. Another reason that we feel afraid in decision making is that we feel accountable, we feel a certain obligation, we feel that if our decision is wrong, what answers we will provide to others? We are not really afraid of the event as such. Rather, we are afraid that what kind of face will we show to others?
Questioner: What we get from outside especially in the childhood, is the love, affection, care of our parents, family. How can that contribute to our ego?
Acharya Prashant: There is a saying, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” People’s intentions are good, but they end up doing…
Acharya Prashant:
Energy arises when you know what you are doing
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Life is inert and boring when you do not know what you are really doing. You have no interest in doing anything.
All of you are sitting here. There are many of you who are looking here and…
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Question: Sir, is it possible to help those who are deeply blind, even if they do not agree or acknowledge that they are blind? Is it possible to help such people?
Speaker: Alok is asking that…
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Speaker: How many of you feel this way that when the time is there, the opportunity is there, you feel blank? The mind experiences a blackout. Do you understand a blackout? There is nothing. And when the moment is gone then the thoughts arise. In the moment of action, you…
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Speaker:
The child is there, let it loose. Why do you cage it? Why do you suppress it? Why must you act so mature and grown up? Why must your face be so thoughtful? Why must you appear so serious and absorbed?
…
Achievements will happen, great achievements will happen, greater than what you have ever dreamed of, greater than your greatest goal but you will not be an achiever, and it is a beautiful thing. Achievements are just happening and I am…
Speaker:
The unwanted thought? What is your name?
Student: Avnish
Speaker: Avnish is asking how to get rid of the unwanted noise of thought in the mind. How many of you have experienced this, that there is so…
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Question: I often find my life revolving around petty issues, issues around ‘me’, mine’. And there is a deep frustration because of this. I feel that I want something more. Is that just an ideology, or there is something more to it?
Speaker: Life is not something, cast in stone.…
Look at this. When you are running after achievement, what is this that you are saying? "I…
Questioner (Q): Growth is evolution. Like we have evolved into a…
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Shri Prashant : The question covers the wider issue of relationships. What are relationships? What is the place of attachment in relationships?
Relationships could come from three different, distinct sources. There could be three different basis of relationships.
The lowest…
Look at the flow that is coming to…
Speaker: Kushagra is asking how can we get rid of our past and future worries that distract our present and dis-illuminate our path. Path goes to where?
Listener: Future.
Speaker: So,…
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Unfortunately, 99% of the world’s population is not at all mentally mature enough to be parents. The funny thing is that the 1% who…
Acharya Prashant: Yes! They are related. When the quality of the mind changes, the world also changes. Haven’t you heard this? *‘Jaisi drishti waisi shrishti’*? Change ‘this’ (the mind) and ‘that’…
Acharya Prashant: Who will control them? If one is in a dream and the dream is a very…
Speaker-
We talked about the child and we said that the child’s brain is like a sponge. Right?
We tried to look at the child in terms of some kind of physical properties of the brain. Let’s extend it further and see what…
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Shri Prashant: This is a camera (holding a smartphone in hand, pointing towards the camera) and let’s say that there is something written over here (pointing at the wall). I want to let it come to me through this camera and I record it using this camera and the…
Speaker:
For quite a while I have been inviting questions. Did you think just now of asking this question, or was this question written on your page since the beginning?
Listener 1: Since the beginning.
Speaker: Since the beginning. You did not raise…
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Questioner: Dear Sir, I am writing this mail with a very heavy heart. It is on account of my affection for my father, that I had to get into the filth of society and family. But now that I am into it, I find myself unable to be a part…
So, what is the ego? What have you understood? Forget the rules.
Listener 1: Something which lets us develop ourselves. If we do not have ego, we cannot develop.
SP: Put it in very simple language,…
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Acharya Prashant: Who will decide the importance given to anybody’s views? Parents views or anybody’s views? Who will decide that? You will decide that. Even if I give you some answer right now, who will decide…
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In a class if I’m sitting and I’ve to ask question to our teacher, then why do we always think that what people will think of us if I ask this question?
Acharya Prashant: What’s your name?
L: I’m Kiran.
AP: Kiran. Sit…
Speaker:
Whenever we mention the word ‘maturity’, we mention it in the sense of growing up. We mention it in the sense of ‘becoming’ mature. What we mean is- maturity is something to be achieved. You ‘become’ mature. Notice the word ‘become.’ ‘I am not mature,
…
Question: Sir, there is a fear in my mind regarding future, and it constantly hampers my present. What to do?
Answer: Ashish,
You are not worried about the future.
You are worried that whether you are capable enough to meet the future.
Understand the difference between these two: You have…
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Speaker: The question is that why good people have to suffer the most? How many of you think that it is so or how many of you have seen this happening in your surroundings that good people suffer?
(Few in the audience raise their hands)
Alright, so there are few…
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Question: Can the human tendency of getting confused and making decisions can be gotten rid off?
Acharya Prashant: You cannot get rid of something if you don’t know what it is? There were a thousand of kinds of diseases once upon a time that are no more there. Smallpox is…
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Speaker: How does anybody know whether he is right or wrong? After all, you are of a particular age, you are grown…
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Questioner (Q): Sir, how to attain maturity?
Acharya Prashant (AP): We will have to understand first what this thing called maturity is. To go into the question of maturity, we first have to understand immaturity because that is what surrounds us, day in and day out. The fact of the…
Question:
Sir, I have seen one of your videos on YouTube about ‘What is God?’. I understand that God, for me, is whenever I have a desire and I want something from the future, then God comes for me, so should I stop worshiping God?
