Ambition

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

Questioner: Acharyaji, my question is that the greed of getting more and more pleasure is increasing with time, and finally I’m finding myself getting stuck in the vicious circle of getting more and more pleasure. Sir, what are the ways that you could suggest to me to get out of… read_more

Questioner: Pranam sir, I am Ram Surendra Singh, a research scholar from the Mathematics Department. Sir, we all are dealing with physical matter here but if we see a periodic table, all the elements in there, and if someone knows how to play with those elements they can all create… read_more

Questioner: Acharya Ji, I think this question may be on behalf of many of us sitting in this auditorium. Every student sitting in this auditorium had a dream not of getting admission in Lakshminarayanan Institute of Technology (where the session is being held), but getting into IITs. Then, after IIT,… read_more

Acharya Prashant: If I am incomplete, then sitting where I am, what would be the quality of my actions, thoughts, and imagination? They, too, would be of an incomplete nature.

So, incompleteness is projecting more incompleteness for itself and then trying with all its might to reach more incompleteness. How… read_more

Acharya Prashant: Whatever you are doing, there has to be honesty in that. What is important is that you do not say one thing and do another thing. If you look at the great scientific discoveries or inventions, the scientist or the explorer would be busy in his chosen area… read_more

Questioner: I have something to say. There is a very famous line which is called─ the survival of the fittest. Now, I am an actor, and I’m also a medical practitioner. I studied cardiology, and as an actor, I have always advocated less makeup and simpler ways of life to… read_more

Questioner: Good afternoon and Jai Hind sir. My question to you is that people define success by different terms like influence, happiness, fame, name, etc. So, sir when did you start considering yourself success?

Acharya Prashant: First of all, thanks for inviting me here. I don't consider myself a success… read_more

Questioner: Good evening, sir. I'm Gauri. Sir, I would like to ask a question regarding the global recession. Sir, as we know the global recession has risen from 4.7% in 2021 to 8.8% in 2022. Because of this, we are facing a cost-of-living crisis in many countries. Thus, as a… read_more

Acharya Prashant: People feel that because human intelligence knows no limits and human desire knows no limits, therefore the human race is going to keep expanding endlessly. They are taking inspiration from history. They keep saying that if you look at history, man has kept ceaselessly inventing; if you look… read_more

Question: Sir, in the market place, everywhere, are they not selling just the ‘Identities’? For example, if we talk about a newspaper, one kind newspaper is read by one kind of intellectual people. They relate to it, they have an identity through which they relate to the newspaper.

Similarly if… read_more

Question: Sir, what made you to leave your corporate job, and start this whole different line of work?

Speaker: There was a lot that was asking to be changed. Leaving the corporate was not really an objective. I wanted to do something, and if it could have been nicely done… read_more

Question: Sir, I understand that the work we are doing these days will help us. But, mostly I get the feeling that everyone in Advait has become too ambitious. They say do this, get that done. The office seems so much like a corporate.

Speaker: You do not know ambition;… read_more

Questioner (Q): In this present college scenario, there is one thing, which is the academics which I focus on, and there is an equivalent pool of activities which will help me develop my personality, in the sense that if I get better in a specific activity, it might help me… read_more

Questioner (Q): Acharya Ji, you often talk about the importance of time, and that is something that bothers me in the context of my career. I don’t know if I should continue in my current job or not. I took the job for very ordinary reasons: money and position in… read_more

Questioner: Talking about the theme that we have today – The Profit beyond profits. In management, we learn about how to maximize profit. And, you talk about going beyond profits. So what does going beyond profits mean?

Acharya Prashant: See, when we talk of material profits, profits in the commercial,… read_more

Question: If one is living without purpose, how does one act?

Acharya Prashant: Let’s see, from where the question is coming. It only shows that so far we have acted only with?

Listener: Purpose.

AP : Purpose.

To act with purpose is to act in exploitation.To act in purpose is… read_more

Speaker: The question can be broadly put as, ‘why is it so that our happiness comes at the cost of others?’ Why is it always a zero-sum game: if I win, you lose, if I am happy then you are sad? Why is it always like this?

This is the… read_more

Man is the only animal that is always sexually active. Why? Because man is the only animal who is always ambitious. Because you are constantly a seeker, because you are constantly feeling that hollow, because you are constantly feeling inferior, so you are always seeking something from the world. Always.… read_more

Man wants progress, and progress means an ascension, an elevation. It is as if man wants to be elevated to some high sky. That’s what you say, right? “I am rising up, I am progressing.” What is the intention of this tendency to keep progressing? The intention is to progress… read_more

Question: Dear Sir,

All desires, all wants are motivated by the ego and hence desire too is an extension of the self. Now my question is that if we are our thoughts only, then how does one move from what one does not like, let us say his present occupation,… read_more

Acharya Prashant: We want to look at ‘ambition’. So, as I enter, I see that we have been singing Kabir; Kabir talking about achievement, about ambition, about greed and desire and he seems to be taking a clear position, it’s unmistakable. Let us not leave it ambiguous, there is a… read_more

Before we start venerating entrepreneurship on this forum today, let me present to you the life-sketch of a typical entrepreneur.

When the fellow is in class sixth, he is continuously told by his mom and dad that he ought to do well in his exams. He is bound to be… read_more

One thing I have always advised those who are on the verge of choosing a career, or even those who are deep into their careers: Let there be no dissonance between who you are and what you do.

Your work is who you are. Do not say that you work… read_more

Acharya Prashant: What is this thing called Ambition?

Its simple, really simple. The brain only has past, correct? And the future that the brain projects is nothing but a reflection of the past. You can dream of no future except that which is already present in your past in some… read_more

Questioner: Acharya Ji, I am not able to continue any resolution in my life and not able to give my best efforts in any area of life. What to do?

Acharya Prashant:

You will be able to put yourself fully only into the full.

If the resolution, the will itself … read_more

There is a kind of entrepreneurship that says, start the company, see which sectors are hot and booming, and when you reach a certain stage after n rounds of funding, sell it off and add a few more zeroes to your personal bank balance. That’s one kind of entrepreneurship. It… read_more

*Questioner: Why are we running when we don’t have anything to achieve in life?*

Acharya Prashant: Ofcourse, when you don’t have to achieve anything in life then you don’t run; but are you that person who doesn’t have to achieve anything? The one who doesn’t have to achieve anything,… read_more

Questioner: Sir, I worked as a software developer for three and a half years, and later moved to soft-skills training due to job dissatisfaction. Left that as well, and worked in sales for three-four years. At every point, the career transition happened because of my interest in those fields. But… read_more

Question: Acharya Ji, the results of class 10th and 12th are out. And the parents of children who have scored high marks are shouting over the roof top. Entire social media is filled with such declarations.

My first question is: What does it do to their children and other parents … read_more

Speaker: The question can be broadly put as, ‘What is place of new ideas when the external is never really going to accept them?’

What do you mean by a new idea? Can an idea ever be really new? An idea is a thought and thought will necessary come from… read_more

Acharya Prashant (AP): Ashish wants to understand failure and success, and the relation between them. When do you call something a ‘success’? You call yourself to be successful when you have a goal, and you reach it. And the attainment of that goal, you name as ‘success’. Right?

Now, we… read_more

Questioner (Q): My question was regarding ambition. What is ambition and how do you be ambitious, how do you create the force within you that will help you tackle every failure in life? Because you hear about a lot of so-called success stories and you see that they had a… read_more

Is poverty something that existence gave you, or is poverty something that the society has given you? If existence were to be blamed, then ask yourself, why is nothing else poor?

The rose is shining so majestically without earning anything. The animals are leaping and playing so beautifully without going… read_more

Walking down the same lane, how will you come to a new destination?

Look at the lifecycle of the normal human being: Be born, get educated, get a job, get married, get a house, get a few luxuries, get a car, deal with your kids, deal with your wife or… read_more

Questioner (Q): I have heard you say that life should be purposeless and aimless. But if we do not aim for anything, then how will we crack our exams? When you were our age, you too prepared for exams like MBA, IIT-JEE, civil services, etc. But now you say having… read_more

Remember, it is not situations that defeat you. Situations are just situations. A situation by definition is something outside of you, whereas defeat is something inside of you.

Situations can at worst be adverse, correct? And a situation is always external. The sense of defeat is an internal thing; that… read_more

Acharya Prashant: What is your name?

Listener: Kshitij Aggarwal.

AP: The question asked by Kshitij is why do needs often dominate ambition?

And he surely thinks that it is quite unfortunate that needs to start dominating ambitions. The reason is simple, he probably gives a lower priority to needs and… read_more

Questioner (Q): Sir, I wanted to know how do you find direction in your life? How do you find the mission that you want to pursue and how do you find excellence in every second? That's my question.

Acharya Prashant (AP): You have to know what you are doing. You… read_more

Questioner (Q): Sir, how to stay motivated and ambitious even after repeated failures in life?

Acharya Prashant (AP): Our friend is asking that how to stay motivated and ambitious even after repeated failures.

Do you understand what is ambition? Do you understand what is motivation? Do you understand what is… read_more

When does one finish being a student? When the resistance to being a student is finished.

Who is the teacher? The teacher is the most obedient and voluntary of all students. The teacher is not a non-student; the teacher is the first student, the best student, the most voluntary student.… read_more

Questioner: Sir, you always emphasize on total involvement in any task one takes up. But in our lives, we experience a constant state of flux. So, my question is, how to remain centered amidst all ups and downs, and remain involved in my task?

Acharya Prashant: The task has to… read_more

Man is the only animal that is always sexually active. Why? Because man is the only animal who is always ambitious. Because you are constantly a seeker, because you are constantly feeling that hollow, because you are constantly feeling inferior, so you are always seeking something from the world. Always.… read_more

Questioner: Why did Acharya Prashant Ji leave his Corporate and Bureaucratic career?

Acharya Prashant: We are a flux. We are changing constantly and that is life. Heraclitus, the great Greek philosopher said, “You don’t step into the same river twice.”

Man is like a river – flowing constantly, changing constantly;… read_more

Question: Sir, in the beginning you said that when we have plans for future, we get stressed. Don’t you think that in life one should have at least one ambition to follow so that at any time in future if one is going on the wrong path or out of… read_more

Man has the capacity to choose, and man must take responsibility of how he is living his life, what he has turned the Earth into.

In fact, I feel impelled to say this: When I was in the process of quitting my corporate career and moving to teaching, I was… read_more