Goal

So, in your day-to-day life, practically, obviously, you will have these goals—you have to go to your workplace, you have to go to this thing, that thing—fine, those goals are there. But you have to remember that, ultimately, going to your workplace yields you nothing—maybe financial or physical sustenance, that's all. So the illusion of meaning has to be destroyed. The ego will otherwise keep looking for meaning where there can be no meaning—and in that lies a lot of suffering.

How to Stay Focused Towards My Goal in Life?

A worthy motive would always have something to do with your current condition. It would either be something that gives you joy, or it would be something that gives you liberation. And even these two, after a point, you will see, are identical. It would either be something that gives you unconditional joy—purposeless joy. It is something you can do without getting any reward. If there is something that attracts you this way, then it's fit to be your goal.

Why Are You Constantly Distracted?

If you choose a goal that's not worthy, you'll try hard to concentrate on it, but you'll invariably get distracted. That's not because the distractions are powerful; it's because your goal is powerless. If your goal offers you unconditional joy or leads to your freedom and liberation, you will never be distracted.

हमारे लक्ष्य अधूरे क्यों रह जाते हैं?

10 min

हमारे लक्ष्य हमारे नहीं होते इसीलिए हमारे कोई लक्ष्य पूरे नहीं होते। किसी भी लक्ष्य की ज़िम्मेदारी तुम तभी उठा पाओगे जब वो तुम्हारे ह्रदय से आया हो। जो तुम्हारे ह्रदय से नहीं आया उसकी ज़िम्मेदारी उठाओगे तो बोझ लगेगी। सही लक्ष्य प्रेम प्रसंग की तरह होता है, वो पकड़ लेता है। आप उसे छोड़ना चाहोगे, पर वो आपको नहीं छोड़ेगा। खुद को देखो, अपनी हालत देखो और दर्पण जैसे लोगों के साथ समय गुज़ारो, फिर सही लक्ष्य निर्धारित कर पाओगे और समर्पित रह पाओगे।

तुम्हें एक ज़बरदस्त उद्देश्य चाहिए || आचार्य प्रशांत (2019)

13 min

प्रश्नकर्ता: प्रणाम आचार्य जी, आज हमने पर्पज़लेसनेस (निरुद्देश्यता) के बारे में पढ़ा। मैं इस बारे में बहुत समय से सोचता हूँ कि क्या कभी कोई काम पर्पज़लेस (निरुद्देश्य) हो सकता है? क्या मैं कोई ऐसा काम कर सकता हूँ जिसपे कोई स्वार्थ ही नहीं हो? अगर मैं यहाँ बैठा हूँ… read_more

Knowing When To Exercise Patience And When To Pursue Goals Aggressively

Choose the goal extremely wisely and then it does not matter whether you are failing or succeeding or what. Obviously, you do not want to keep failing continuously. So, you look at the process of living, the process through which you wanted to move towards whatever you chose. And then you make continuous improvements in the process. But all this talk of improvement and everything make sense only if, first of all, the goal is right.

How to Set Goals in Life?

20 min

A goal that is too far away in time is a false goal. The goal has to be extremely immediate. By having a false goal, you give yourself the luxury of not doing the right thing right now. By placing your goal five years into the future, you have given yourself the freedom— the false freedom— to do any random stuff right now.

Which direction to take in life? || Acharya Prashant (2019)

3 min

Questioner: Acharya Ji, which direction to take in life?

Acharya Prashant: What is it, that matters to you?

The direction in which you must go is determined by where you will feel the pain.

And if you feel no pain, no discomfort, why must you go in any direction?

You … read_more

Punishment of Having a Wrong Goal || Neem Candies

2 min

What is the punishment of having a wrong goal? What is the punishment? You will suffer. And if you keep having one wrong goal after the other, your suffering will keep compounding, so you will be forced to give up your false goals.

And if you are not forced to… read_more

पढ़ना क्यों ज़रूरी है?

14 min

मूलभूत शिक्षा लेनी ज़रूरी होती है। कुछ बातें हैं दुनिया की, जो नहीं पता होंगी तो पूरे इंसान भी नहीं बन पाओगे। विद्या-अविद्या दोनों चाहिए। अविद्या माने सांसारिक भौतिक शिक्षा और विद्या माने आध्यात्मिक शिक्षा। उपनिषद् कहते हैं, जिनके पास विद्या नहीं होती, वो गहरे कुएँ में गिरते हैं। लेकिन जिनके पास सांसारिक ज्ञान नहीं होता वो और ज़्यादा गहरे कुएँ में गिरते हैं। और जिनके पास दोनों हैं, वो मृत्यु को पार करके अमर हो जाते हैं।

How to Overcome Laziness?

14 min

'Laziness' is an unnecessary pejorative. You’re imposing morality on Prakriti (physical nature) and calling it laziness. There’s nothing called laziness. In nature, there’s a tendency towards work minimization, which is logical—get maximum output with minimum effort. You view it through a moral lens and call it laziness. If something gives more output with less work, you’ll choose it. You call it laziness, but it’s simply efficiency. You calculate the pleasure-to-effort ratio, and if lying in bed offers more pleasure than working out, you’ll naturally choose the bed.

Want More Pleasure?

9 min

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

Why most People Fail in their Goals || AP Neem candies

3 min

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

Be Committed, even to your Wrong Choices || AP Neem Candies

Career Anxiety: Follow Your Heart or the Market?

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

Work. Where is the time to devote to anxiety? Where is the space to be anxious? If you are anxious about something, that thing is obviously important to you. Else you wouldn’t be anxious and if that thing is important, work. Work for that thing. The thing is not only important but also stands incomplete. That’s the reason you are anxious. Correct? If it stands incomplete, work, bring it to completion. Somebody said action is the antidote to despair. Action. Don’t just sit and brood, work. And life will become intolerable if you are not a worker.

Not Acting Is Not an Option

आइ.आइ.टी की डिग्री, पर्वतारोहण का खिंचाव, मन मे द्वंद || आचार्य प्रशांत (2020)

Questioner: Sir, I am pursuing MSc in physics. After watching your videos and reading the Bhagavat Gita, I understand that whatever in this world we achieve to please ourselves does not really give us peace. I also find that doing science might be just pleasing myself or my ego. It… read_more

How to Overcome Procrastination?

प्रश्नकर्ता: मैं एक मध्यम वर्गीय परिवार से हूँ और बचपन से ही बहुत कम महत्वाकांक्षी रहा हूँ। खेल-खेल में ही मैंने जेईई का एग्ज़ाम क्रैक किया (परीक्षा उत्तीर्ण की) और आइआइटी खड़गपुर में इलेक्ट्रॉनिक्स इंजीनियरिंग (अभियान्त्रिकी) करने का मौका मिला।

इंजीनियरिंग के दूसरे वर्ष में ट्रैकिंग (पर्वतारोहण) करने का मौका… read_more

अच्छा काम नहीं मिल रहा?

11 min

प्रश्नकर्ता: आचार्य जी नमस्कार, मैं अभी आपसे दो-ढाई महीने से जुड़ा हुआ हूँ। मेरी उम्र तीस चल रही है, तो आज भी मैं जी रहा हूँ और दो-ढाई महीने पहले भी जी रहा था। पर पहले वो जीवन में ठसक नहीं थी जो अभी है। पहले मैं जो भी काम… read_more

Procrastination is nothing but the postponement of misery. ‘If I do it right now, I will feel miserable.’ So I try to escape by sending the thing into the future. But if I loved what I did, would I still procrastinate? After all, one never delays love.

क्या संकल्प में कमी है ?

ये खेल ऐसा है जिसमें ये नहीं देखा जाता कि किसने अंक ज़्यादा बनाये, इसमें ये देखा जाता है कि अन्त तक डटा कौन रहा, आख़िरी घड़ी तक खड़ा कौन रहा। इसमें बात ये नहीं है कि कौन कितना तेज़ दौड़ा, कहाँ तक पहुँच गया, इसमें बस बात ये है कि कौन मैदान छोड़कर भाग नहीं गया। जो मैदान छोड़कर नहीं भागा, वो जीत गया। ये नियम है इस खेल का। इसमें हार सिर्फ़ एक तरीक़े से होती है कि तुम मैदान छोड़ दो, *नॉक आउट* (पराजित) अपनेआप को घोषित कर दो कि भैया मेरा हो गया!

Path to Success?

Trying to Remove the Flies while Retaining the Dirt? Smart! || AP Neem Candies

Acharya Prashant: How to get success in whatever I do? The questioner says, “How do I get success in whatever I do?” Success does not lie in doing any random thing. That’s the first, the most important and, probably, the last thing. The game is not at all about picking… 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

Sir, Are You Successful?

What Is the Purpose of Life, When Death Is Certain?

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

Death is a point in time, right. That’s what you call the incidence of death. And life you call a stretch in time. Isn’t time an opportunity then, for change, real change? Time is anyway defined as change in space. Isn’t time also an opportunity for genuine change? Before time ends for the physical organism and the moment of death arrives. Isn’t time an opportunity to move into the timeless? And if one hasn’t done that before his physical death. Hasn’t he just wasted his life?

What is appropriate action? || Acharya Prashant (2013)

18 min

Question : There is a state the other is in, there is a state that I think the other is in, there is a state the other thinks that I am in. What is then an appropriate action?

Speaker : When one is in a mental state, it is never… read_more

Running the same circle again and again will not take you beyond the circle || Acharya Prashant (2015)

Your goals come from your borrowed self-concept || Acharya Prashant, with youth (2013)

Question: Sir, there is a common notion that if I go about consuming things, then there would be a time when I will see the uselessness of these things. And ultimately this would help me to go to the other center, the immensity. I have a strong belief in that,… read_more

आचार्य जी, आपके भीतर इतना जज़्बा आता कहाँ से है? || आचार्य प्रशांत (2020)

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

Stop failing. Succeed now || Acharya Prashant, with NIT-Silchar (2022)

प्रश्नकर्ता: सर, प्रणाम! आपका पुराना छात्र हूँ। दो-हज़ार-दस से आपको सुन रहा हूँ, देख रहा हूँ। आप नहीं बदले, सब बदल गया। ज़माना बदल गया! आपके भीतर इतना जज़्बा आता कहाँ से है?

आचार्य प्रशांत: मुझे तो नहीं पता चलता कि मुझमें कोई जज़्बा है। तुमने कहा, ‘इतना जज़्बा! विशेष… read_more

10 min

Questioner (Q): My question is related to failures. I’ve been a very positive-minded person, and I’ve been trying my best to do everything that I can, give my best in everything; but I’m disappointed with myself - not disappointed with others - but with myself. Now, I feel that there’ve… read_more

Ask yourself: which road to take? || Neem Candies

Don’t challenge Maya without being prepared || IIT Bombay (2022)

Before you excel, ask yourself, “What must I excel in? What is worth it?” Before you speed down a road, ask yourself, “Which road to take?” Speed comes later; choice of the right road comes first.

It is far better to be slow on the right road than to be… read_more

What is a worthy goal? || (2018)

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

11 min

Questioner: Acharya Ji, it is a question about selfless goals. I have not understood ‘goals’ yet. The freedom fighters, social workers, humanitarians are all working tirelessly to achieve something. What’s my responsibility towards country, people, and religion? For example, our culture and tradition need to be preserved. Is it not… read_more

Right goal, Right desire, Right attachment || Neem Candies

Distracted easily || Neem Candies

Intention, goal, purpose, desire, clinging, attachment, attraction—none of these are bad, provided they are towards the right object, right end. Please be attached, please be greatly attached, please be desirous, please feel the attraction, the pull towards liberation, towards Truth.

It is not for nothing that your mind is vested… read_more

On Idols, Goals, Hardwork and Fulfillment || Acharya Prashant, with youth (2013)

All the expanse of discipline is built upon the foundation of the goal. The goal comes first.

I might be a very violent man, and my goal is to blast a building off. To learn how to do it, I will have to live through stern discipline. I will have… read_more

Life advice from others? || Neem Candies

Question: Sir, I want to know what does the word ‘Hard Work’ mean? Does it mean studying 16-18 hours a day?

Speaker: I go jogging in the morning and I don’t really enjoy it. It is lot of hard work for me. There is a colleague who goes along with… read_more

Don’t take life advice from uncles and aunts and models and celebrities. Don’t let cricketers tell you what kind of house to live in.

Your mom is beautiful, great, good, lovely. Is she the right person to tell you of so many other things in life? Please avoid. Does your… read_more

The gym || Neem Candies

Becoming an entrepreneur || Acharya Prashant, DTU session (2020)

What is the nature of a gymnasium? The gymnasium only gives you obstacles. Have you ever noticed? You want to raise something—what is the gymnasium giving you? Weights, and weights are obstacles against the rise. The gymnasium really does not support you, it actually obstructs you.

The world is anyway… read_more

Why become a soldier, when there are other comfortable jobs? ||Acharya Prashant, B.H.U session(2020)

Acharya Prashant (AP): The questioner is asking how to be a good entrepreneur?

Entrepreneurship is about initiating something, right? Doing something, beginning something. Before you become a good entrepreneur, must you not ask what is worth doing? Or is entrepreneurship merely about collecting profits rather than salaries? To many people,… read_more

9 min

Questioner: I would like to join the army, but my family and friends are not very supportive. They say that when I could easily get a good job in Delhi or Bangalore, what is the point in risking my life as a soldier? What should I reply to them?

Acharya … read_more

Where do right decisions come from? || (2016)

How to choose the right career? || Neem Candies

Acharya Prashant (AP): Please see, there appears a very difficult task in front of us.

One approach is, the task is so difficult that I leave it to be handled by time. The task is so difficult that being with what I am today, with my energy, my resources, my… read_more

How to make career choices? || Acharya Prashant, with youth (2013)

Every young person who is about to choose a career, decide on work in life, must keep this in mind, my humble advice: See what is it that really, really troubles you, and then work should be the medicine for your trouble. That’s the way you must choose work.

Therefore,… read_more

19 min

Question: Sir, after completing B.Tech, should I go for higher studies or a high paying job? How can I decide that?

Speaker: What’s your name?

Listener 1: Sonu Singh, 3rd year B.Tech.

Speaker: After completing B.Tech I do not know that I should go for the job, or for higher… read_more

All addictions vanish when this happens || Acharya Prashant, at Mithibai College Mumbai (2022)

Choose the royal way || Neem Candies

Questioner (Q): Namaste, sir. My question is, in these teenage years, how do we avoid social evils like bad addiction and bad activities which exist in society and just focus on our goal?

Acharya Prashant (AP): For that, the goal has to be alluring enough. The goal has to be… read_more

Right goal for life || Neem Candies

Going from class six to class seven in three attempts, having been kicked out of four schools, you manage to find some kind of a fraudulent certificate from one of those shady institutions that say, “Even if you are class seven fail, we will still give you a high school… read_more

How to try hard without fear of failure? || Acharya Prashant, International Psychology Summit (2023)

As long as the goal is not tremendously big, life has no real purpose. If your goals are small, they are no goals. You will be frustrated if you don’t achieve them, and you will be doubly frustrated if you achieve them. Having achieved them, you will find that the… read_more

When you love victory || Neem Candies

Questioner (Q): Good evening, Sir! My question is, how do I face the fear of physical or psychological pain when I am trying to level-up my efforts? So, it’s in the context of putting-out a great effort and maintaining consistency in putting great efforts.

Acharya Prashant (AP): Great efforts towards… read_more

Why do we set goals and targets for ourselves?

When you are serious about victory, you do not strike at the enemy without being fully prepared. Those who just plunge themselves into battles without having checked their preparedness are the ones who don’t love victory too much. Because this battle is important, and because this battle must be won,… read_more

17 min

Questioner (Q): We are too considered or concerned about our society or the people around ourselves. So, whatever they say, like, a particular thing is the best, so, we start thinking in that direction. We get so-called motivated by them to achieve that thing. So, I guess ‘A,’ make targets… read_more

How to stay focused on your goal? || Neem Candies