Niralamba Upanishad

Liberation that we want is an extension of bondage || Acharya Prashant, on Niralamba Upanishad(2020)

Questioner (Q): For the uninitiated, the common people, many people ask because of the various concepts and regions around the world — Heaven, Hell, ‘you will get that’, hell fire. So many concepts are there. Are they fanciful imaginations or were they merely symbolic or are they metaphoric?

Acharya Prashant … read_more

Sir, I Feel Addicted to You

केवलमोक्षा-पेक्षासङ्कल्पो बन्धः ।

kēvalamōkṣā-pēkṣāsaṅkalpō bandhaḥ

Bondage is to plan to devote oneself exclusively to liberation.

~ Niralamba Upanishad, Verse 27

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सङ्कल्पमात्रसंभवो बन्धः ।

saṅkalpamātrasaṁbhavō bandhaḥ

Bondage is what springs exclusively from imagination.

~ Niralamba Upanishad, Verse 28

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Acharya Prashant (AP): 'Bondage is to plan… read_more

The ego seeks security from the world and even when it comes to the truth, it still wants to somehow uphold its security. It is all right if one wants to guarantee one's security against the world. But when it comes to truth and beauty, that's when one should just drop the defenses. It is all right to be immersed. It is all right even to be drowned. It is all right even to die. What is the point in conserving something that is anyway imperfect?

Why Do We Insult Our Scriptures?

27 min

In modern times, reading and respecting the Shastras is often seen in a derogatory light. An Asura disregards the scriptures, saying, “What I know is right. My own experience determines the Truth,” rejecting them because they will not allow him to do what he wants. We have come to a point where we are not merely ignoring but actually insulting the scriptures. If you're sincere about knowing life, why avoid a document with deep insights into it?

How to Meet Others’ Expectations?

People expect because they feel that something is missing from life. They expect from the world, from others, from situations, from luck, and also from themselves. The root of all these expectations is an inner feeling of lack of fulfillment. Meeting others’ expectations is a false treatment where you allow illusions to persist. If you love your dear ones, bring the Truth closer to them.

Living Without God: Principles For A Purposeful Life

Any belief is stupid because all beliefs come from a lack of investigation, and a lack of investigation comes from deep fear and a feeling of insecurity. If you are insecure and afraid, then you will not dare to ask questions and investigate. And it is from that fear and insecurity that the concept of God has arisen. Now, God and reality are two different things. God and Truth are not the same thing. The mark of religiosity or true spirituality is an abiding faith in the truth.

Prakriti, Attention and Truth

You rather have to be relaxed and just receptive. It comes to you. You don't have to chase it. You simply have to unlock your door, and these two are very different approaches. What does the devotee do? He just opens his doors and waits, calmly waits. He doesn't want to enforce his will. Non-resistance. Active pursual would all be within yourself. You are actively pursuing the beyond within yourself.

Two Types of Hope

Most of the times, we are preoccupied with the first kind of hope, which says, “Get something, get something.” That kind of hope will keep me dependent and afraid. The second kind of hope which says, “I just want to get rid and discover my true nature, discover my aloneness and freedom." In this hope you say, “I am already a diamond. Just that a lot of dirt has gathered on the diamond, and I want to get rid of the dirt.

Gita Is Not This

To qualify an entrance exam, and work towards it, without thinking of the results, that’s not what Karma Yoga is. Karma Yoga is not about setting tangible worldly targets and going after them. It’s a moment-to-moment thing in which you are very conscious whether the objective of your action is personal ingratiation or larger welfare. You are acting all the time, you are not acting merely when you act towards a distant and a larger cause.

God's Presence Everywhere: What Does It Really Mean?

Gita and philosophy and Vedanta have nothing to do with God. They are in search of Truth, not God. These are different things — Truth and God. Secondly, all the objects that you look at, you look at them in search of something. In search of the Truth, you look at all these objects. In that sense you could say, I am looking at everything in search of the absolute. To the ego, everything carries a promise, a possibility of the absolute. That does not mean that all the objects that you look at contain the infinite or something.

Who Created the World?

14 min

Brahm is not the creator. When you desperately want to invent a creator, then you come up with īśvára. But Vedanta is not very enamored of īśvára. So, Vedanta says, "Īśvara is just Maya, just Maya.” Because you experience the universe, therefore, you feel the need to justify the origin of the universe. Therefore, you must have an īśvára. But how can the creator of a false universe be real? If the universe is false, what do you say about its creator?

What is Yagya?

11 min

In the name of yagya, if you continue to burn wood, you are doing no good to anybody. Yagya must be understood in its true spirit. Shri Krishna says, “Do not act for yourself or for your personal gain. Act for a higher cause; higher than yourself, beyond yourself. Do that action that takes you to your Niyati, which is your end. Yagya is that which dissolves you; that which reduces you.”

Why Are You Scared of Truth?

There is nothing more scary than the Truth. The primary function of Truth is to negate all your falseness, to show you that you are living in lies. Truth supports you in the sense that, without its help, you cannot even see falseness. Truth cannot be pleasant to what we are. Truth can only be pleasant to the Truth. Before the Real can come, this false one must disappear.

Why Is God So Biased?

Why do you think that, first of all, a creating entity, a creator, exists in the same way this world exists? Secondly, why do you think that all values that you hold dear to your chest must be espoused by that God as well? You like somebody to be merciful to you, so you say, “Oh, God is merciful.” How do you know God is merciful? Are you bigger than God? Have you penetrated God's head—if there exists somebody called God at all?

Freedom From Expectations

Nobody can make you a slave without your consent. You withdraw your consent, and you are free. But withdrawing that consent would mean moving out of your comfort zone. Freedom does not come free. Freedom has to be earned. "The day you decide, the day you see that I am free and I deserve a free life, you will actually be free." But first, let that realization come. Unless that realization comes, nothing can happen.

What is the 'Will of God'?

God wills that you be godly in your freedom. Because godliness, by definition, cannot be imposed. ‘God’ is patiently waiting for you to be godly. He’ll just keep showing you the mirror in some way or the other. He will keep sending you help—sometimes in the form of a situation, a book, or sometimes in the form of a person. God is nothing but your ultimate potential.

How to Act Without Caring About the Result?

The Gita does not say that you must do whatever you do without caring for the result; it is also impossible to execute. That’s also the way so many popular gurus have sold the Gita. It’s very harmful. With false action, you will always have one eye on the result. The first thing is the right action; only right action can give you detachment from the result.

You Always Have a Choice: Ditch the Helplessness!

Every time you say you are helpless against something, you are just displaying Akarma. None of us is ever helpless. Never come up with an alibi, “What else could I have done?” There is always something else that you could have done. There is always the right thing that you could have done.

Acharya Prashant on Two Kinds of Hope

The first kind of hope says, "I want to get something," while the second says, "I want to get rid of something." Most of us focus on the first kind, which keeps us dependent and afraid. The second kind urges us to shed everything and discover our true nature. If you must hope, hope for the second kind—hope to free yourself from societal bondage, fear, and all that’s accumulated. You are already perfect, like a diamond. What can a diamond want? What more can be added to it? Just remove the dirt. Hope to get rid of the dirt.

Is Sex and Meditation Just an Escape of Ego?

The ego says that my first priority is to remain, exist, and after that comes everything else. Even the Truth must be subservient to my first priority. So, liberation is alright as long as it is a second of liberation. Peace is alright as long as it is five minutes of peace. But if silence threatens to take over the entire life, if peace starts dominating noise to the extent that the noise might be completely annihilated, then the ego rejects. The ego wants Truth, but only a modicum of Truth. The ego wants peace, but only a sliver of peace.

The Gap Between Understanding and Action

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.

The Total Is Neither Masculine nor Feminine, Hence the Search and Summit of Both

There is hardly any need to give special attention to the so-called masculine and feminine because neither the masculine really exists nor the feminine really exists. We talk about them because our mind is obsessed with gender, with sex; with women, with men; all dualities are the same. In fact, there is only one duality, called “duality”. The two ends of that duality can be given any name.

Is Knowing the Truth a Never-Ending Quest?

41 min

“The significance of a man is not in what he attains, but rather what he longs to attain.” -Khalil Gibran, ‘Sand and Foam’

Question: Once during a discourse on the Bible, you too have said, “The more you know the Truth, the more you want to know; such is … read_more

Why Others Can't Fulfill Your Expectations

The movies tell us that unless there is a special person in your life, you are really missing out on something big and you are seized by FOMO. What is FOMO? Fear of missing out. "Oh my god! Everybody has that. I am the only one left behind. I must also have a partner, a girlfriend, a boyfriend, a husband, a wife, something. Hey, go grab somebody." So you go out and grab some Johnny next door. He was busy washing his sandals, and you went up to him and threw your most seductive smile and then he too was infected by FOMO. He said, "Now that I have the opportunity, why shouldn't I capitalize?" And thus, came about the relationship. And you call it a holy bond made in heaven. Why do we do that?

You've Had Enough of This Person

Where Science and Spirituality Converge

Questioner: Namaskar Acharya ji! I am reading a book called “Freedom from the Known”, where the author, Jiddu Krishnamurthi, talks about removing authority to be free from the ego. What does he mean by authority? Can we take anything to be the authority and then say, “I’m not going to… read_more

Vedanta and Bhakti (Devotion)

Questioner: Is there some scientific context to spirituality? Because, at the end of the day, as you said, ‘Religion forms a boundary, an outer shell, within which spirituality remains.’ Because this has to be something that stops you from doing something wrong or something that is fundamentally upsetting. So, how… read_more

We Exist, and We Do Not

23 min

Questioner: Sir, it is pretty evident that I exist and you exist, but you have also stated that the ego does not exist. So, when someone calls you Acharya Prashant and you reply, isn’t that an identification that reflects an ego?

Acharya Prashant: It is a thing that is useful… read_more

17 min

Questioner: Namaskar Acharya ji. Acharya ji, I have been listening to you for quite some time now, and one thing that I have noticed is that whenever you speak on any topic, you always speak in the light of Advait Vedant. One thing also on which you have spoken a… read_more

Wasting Life on an Unworthy Person?

11 min

Questioner: I was in a relationship with a person from the last eight years. Last three years while being with me, he was also seeing and dating other women. I have always been honest and loyal to him. After knowing that he is so mean, so dishonest, why am I… read_more

The Difficult Call of Dear Love

Freedom from Frustration || AP Neem Candies

Questioner: Acharya ji, today I realized that without love in my heart, I cannot find joy in my life, however wonderful my external situations are. Just listening to, and singing a Kabir bhajan brings me so much joy, love, and tears, I really want to know this Love, and what… read_more

2 min

Acharya Prashant: What is the fact of life? How do you react to your own sweat? Have you seen how one reacts when one is sweating? The trickle can be quite unnerving. Have you seen the aggression with which one often wipes out his sweat? The aggression, the frustration, the… read_more

Live against yourself || AP Neem Candies

How to Face Cancel Culture?

Acharya Prashant: One hallmark, one unmistakable quality of right action would be that it would require all your guts. It is only a false action that you can comfortably undertake. Falseness is never troublesome; Truth always is. Whenever you would be doing something that would be real, you would know… read_more

3 min

Cancel culture arises when one's fundamental identity is social. If you take your identity from society, you've given them the right to cancel it. Don’t let anyone control your centre. Be your own master. Be of the world and live yet, independently of the world. Let them cancel what they can! That’s what spirituality blesses you with—your real identity, which no one can dare cancel.

The Mind Is Not Your Own

13 min

The ego likes to settle matters too soon, the ego likes to conclude too soon. Wherever there is a conclusion, wherever there is a settlement, wherever there is an ending that thought can grasp, it is a false ending, it is a false realization. I have no interest in talking about what true realization is like. True realization is anywhere not a subject matter of this course. We should rather warn of that which is false. Read more....

When Things Don't Go Your Way Despite Effort

Karma Yog, and the matter of being good

Questioner: I believe a lot in execution. I keep saying sometimes when I’m in private that I’m a doer; I do things.

Acharya Prashant: Yes.

Questioner: And I believe that I am dedicated to God. I believe that I try a lot of things, but you know some things happen,… read_more

For the Right Reason, Be Tactful and Clever || AP Neem Candies

Questioner: I just wanted to request you to help us in knowing something about being Yogi and how it is different from being Karma Yogi?

Acharya Prashant: Yog is one. It's just that it is expressed in various ways; Yog is union, coming together of the many. So, when you… read_more

Nothing Within Us Is the Truth

Acharya Prashant: The spiritual soldier, the religious warrior has to be extremely intelligent. You could go to the extent of saying that he has to be cunning in the service of Truth; I’m choosing this word with all deliberation.

He has to be cunning in the service of the Truth;… read_more

Acharya Prashant: The truth is not a side of you; the truth is not a part of you. The truth is the absence of this fictitious thing called ‘you.’ That's how the false survives by calling a part of itself ‘the truth.’ You know, yes, of course, I'm false, but… read_more

Love is Enough. Hari Om!

Great love; Greater Love || AP Neem Candies

Acharya Prashant: The disappearance of sound into silence, as it happens in Om , is analogous to the disappearance of the arrow mind into the Brahman target. What is Om ? Sounds finely dissolving into, tapering off into silence. That's how it happens.

And then figuratively, we say that Om … read_more

New-Age Truths || AP Neem Candies

Acharya Prashant: We want something, right? We want the Ultimate. There’s nobody who wants to stop at something small. We want something as big as possible, right? That’s the nature of desire, correct? It doesn’t want to stop anywhere. Probably it can stop only when it gets something immeasurable, infinite.… read_more

2 min

Acharya Prashant: Real spirituality is about rejecting the false. Real spirituality, therefore, is uncompromising, harsh, ruthless. Just reject the false—that's what real spirituality is about. But if you are living in an age, in an era, in a society, in an economic system that is dominated by forces of falseness,… read_more

Prakriti and Purusha

11 min

Acharya Prashant: For a woman, the lips of a woman are something very commonplace and ordinary. It is only the eye of the Purusha (consciousness) that worships the Prakriti (physical nature). That is why these two must be found together. If the masculine is not there, who will praise and… read_more

Finally, What Takes the Seeker to the Truth?

How to Correct a Bad Decision?

Acharya Prashant: A quiver full of the best of arrows but no bow, how do you fight the battle of life? Can you imagine the amusing as well as tragic situation of the person who has a great arrow without a bow? He will be sharpening and sharpening his weapon,… read_more

1 min

Do not focus on the decision. Rather, look at the decision-maker. The decision is not bad, humbly accept that the decision-maker is bad. Without this acceptance, the series of bad decisions will continue. When one realizes that the decision-makers' mind has been full of beliefs, past, and fear, then there is radical transformation in one’s being. The old, frozen, conditioned decision-maker simply evaporates.

After This Point, Knowledge Does Not Help || AP Neem Candies

The Storm Kept Raging, the Sky Didn't Utter a Word

Acharya Prashant: If you look at knowledge that man has gathered in various fields, you will easily see that all of man’s knowledge is related to man’s desire. Man does not try to gain knowledge in fields that have absolutely no connection with man’s fundamental desires.

Man desires, man gets… read_more

Remaining Yourself, How Will You Change Your Actions? (The Actor Is the Action) || AP Neem Candies

Acharya Prashant: What's the relationship between immortality, deathlessness, and knowing the Ātmā as the container of the material and the mental world? Not that they are really distinct, still. So, what's the relation between knowing Ātmā as the container of the world and keeping all other thoughts aside, and immortality?… read_more