A world champion asks why she cannot sleep when a teammate outperforms her, and why even big wins leave her restless. The restlessness is not a problem but unspent energy, a sign that we have more to give. When every bit of our time and attention goes to what we have chosen, there is no surplus left to worry with. The right fight is never only against an opponent; it is against the ego within. What would it mean to fight so fully that nothing is left to celebrate or mourn?
Many of us look for role models of our own gender and hope to succeed as a man or as a woman, yet no one great was ever great as a gender. The moment we tie our aims to being a woman or a man, we tie them to the body, and much of our attention goes into how we look and how we are seen. So much around us keeps reminding a woman of her body, from songs to the fear of a street at night. But the body has never achieved anything by itself. What might we attempt if gender stopped mattering?
Success and failure matter less when your work is driven by love rather than outcomes. Setbacks are opportunities to reflect, not reasons to quit, and true failure comes only when you stop trying. Regret and guilt become meaningful only if they transform you into a different person instead of becoming excuses for self-pity. Real growth begins by questioning your assumptions, facing reality honestly, and living with awareness rather than mechanical habit.
Ambition is a very stale thing. It’s a dead thing. Do not forget where it comes from; it comes from your past in the jungle. You are conditioned to be desirous, and social forces just encourage you to be even more desirous of the same things that you have been wanting since a million years. The same things.
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.
Acharya Prashant: Those of you who have tried to chase success in this world know very well that all that you have received is fear. Kindly do not punish your children now. Kindly do not push them to make the same foolish mistakes that you kept making all your life.
Questioner: My name is Rohit. My question is related to failures. At certain moments of life we feel that we have had enough of failures and we are tired of it. Similar goes with me, like I have been trying my best in my life to do everything that I
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
Acharya Prashant: Service will not probably fulfill this restless ‘I’, but service will enable you to forget this restless ‘I’. That is beyondness—not quite the fulfillment of the little ‘I’, but a certain forgetfulness towards the little ‘I’. You say that you are serving a cause bigger than yourself or
You wild away your childhood in just trivial matters and your youth in desires and consumption and now you are left with only regrets when you are old.* That's what the saints have always been telling you. Read more.....
Speaker: Do you really want to understand what this whole business of ‘achievement’ is? If you really want to understand, only then we can go into it. If you are into it superficially, out of an obligation, then you will not understand anything. So do you really want to understand
Success and failure are two sides of the same coin. The one who does not believe in success can never fail. The one who does not believe in failure can never succeed. You first have to believe in the concept of ‘success’ and ‘failure’ in order to succeed or fail.
If we want to know whether we are successful or not, then we have to ask ourselves: Am I really getting better off compared to my previous stage, not compared to somebody else? Am I now better off compared to what I used to be? After all, my restlessness is
When thoughts of your personal success stop mattering to you, when you say, “There is something more important than my personal success,” then you have really succeeded.
Questioner (Q): Recently you had a talk at IIT Delhi, and now you are here at IIM Ahmedabad, and both of these universities are your alma mater. Today, your batchmates would be at various corporate positions, but you have taken an unconventional path of becoming a spiritual teacher. So, how
Questioner: Recently, you had a talk at IIT-Delhi and now you are here (IIM- A), both of these universities are your Alma-mater. Your batch-mates today would be at multiple corporate senior positions and you are a spiritual leader. So, how do you look at them and whom would you see
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…
That which we usually call as worldly success is nothing but the success of the world upon us. It is not worldly success; it is the world’s success in winning us, defeating us, trampling us. The world is all over us—and that we call as our worldly success!
Questioner (Q): Whenever I want to do something new, I am always afraid that I might fail. So, I keep a backup plan for myself, that in case I fail, I will do this another thing. And I don’t know if this is the right way of thinking or approaching
Pick the right battle, and then even defeat is victory. Whereas, if you have in the beginning picked the wrong battle, then how is defeat distinct from victory? Having picked the wrong battle, how does it matter whether you win or lose?
Choose the right thing to do, and in that lies success. In that lies immediate success. Immediate success implies that you have been successful right in the moment of the choice itself; you don’t have to wait for the outcome. In fact, if you have to wait for the outcome
If no greatness were possible at all, then there was no justification in pointing fingers at littleness. But greatness is possible. Greatness is possible, and it is materially proven in the shape, form, and figure of the great man. If he could do it, why couldn’t you? He had all…
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Wrong career choices, unhealthy relationships, and endless entertainment are often symptoms of escaping oneself rather than seeking happiness. Self-deception, ego, and inner dissatisfaction drive people toward temporary relief through social media, gaming, movies, and distractions. Real transformation begins with self-inquiry, honest awareness, and the courage to face reality instead of running from it, leading to clarity, freedom, and meaningful living.
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Success achieved under pressure or conditioning is not true success because the goal was never truly one's own. Before chasing any achievement, one must ask whether the desire is authentic or borrowed from society. Real change comes not from becoming stronger but from gaining clarity and honesty about oneself. Young people are already capable; what keeps them trapped is the comfort of obeying external expectations. Life is too short to spend serving invisible masters instead of pursuing what one genuinely loves and understands.
Excerpts from Articles
कद नहीं, अपनी कहानी बदलो
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।
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।
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.
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?
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.
Saurabh Netravalakar, a software engineer and cricketer, discusses balancing multiple pursuits with Acharya Prashant. They explore how hidden wastage of time and energy prevents genuine progress. The conversation extends to team sports teaching ego-dissolution, broadening identity beyond self-interest, and addressing planetary crises through inner transformation. They examine how religion's core purpose—freedom from suffering—unites humanity despite different practices, and discuss practical solutions to environmental exploitation through proper pricing and intent.
We all have been trained to buy respect and barter it for life itself — through riches, status, etc. This means that you're a big man only as long as the small ones approve of you. But what is the point of being big, rich, and powerful, if it is still the small ones that call the shots for you? And this is not exclusive to the successful ones. Every single person who does not know the foundations of living will live in a secondhanded way — secondhanded love, success, and respect. And this will not allow you any kind of peace.
Your entire identity comes from the world — society, religion, family, tradition. Had your identity been independent of the world, then you wouldn't have needed to get ahead or prove anything to the world. And when there is more internal hollowness and insecurity, there is more need to ostentate. The deeper the lovelessness, the more lavish the wedding is. So, the fundamental problem is the framework in which you cannot be successful without being ahead of the world. Real success is when you drop this framework.
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Questioner (Q): The theme of today’s interaction is inner growth. Usually when we talk of growth, we talk of external growth. For example, for an individual growth usually means job promotions, better income, or more comforts, etc. For a company, growth may mean growing in profits. For an institution, it…
For those who already have a certain level of financial, social, intellectual, and familial attainment but are still not satisfied, the only thing that can fulfill them is forgetfulness towards their personal success. Serve a cause bigger than yourself, and there will be no time or opportunity to keep wondering whether your demands have been met. This is when you have really succeeded.
Be compassionate towards yourself, and have faith that freedom is possible and that life can be enjoyed really. Life need not be a melancholy song; it can be a symphony of ecstasy. That faith has to be there.
Do not surrender so easily to the forces of littleness. They will…
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Questioner: Good evening everyone, my name is Saurabh Sardana and you are watching the first episode of season 2, ‘Recast.’ I’m so glad to have you with me today, Acharya Prashant Ji. I’m pretty sure, that most of you that most of you sort of follow him on one of…
So, incompleteness is projecting more incompleteness for itself and then trying with all its might to reach more incompleteness. How…
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'Success’ is just a concept of the mind that requires mental movement. Constantly ‘thinking’ of success means mental work is happening. Real success is when you understand something, and from that understanding, you immediately start acting. Mental movement stops once you understand; now the mind is peaceful, and the body is acting.
Whatsoever affects you but happens without your choice, or without your will is luck. If you are master of your mind, then luck can have no effect upon you. Because battles are won or lost in the mind. When you are really-really enjoying, then you will find that you are doing so much of hard work without even realizing that you are working hard. Don’t work hard, enjoy what you are doing, and then a lot of hard work will happen on its own.
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At 16, if you were asked, ‘Where do you see yourself in five years?’ Were you in a great position to answer? Why then should a 26-year-old live by the vision of their 21-year-old self? You don't want to constrain yourself by saying, ‘I had thought of a future - a vision at the age of 16, and now my entire life, I live by that vision.’
Every human being wants to feel special, and therefore we want to believe that our own conditions are extraordinary. Competitiveness is there in our genes. We bring competitiveness to the corporate world, to the world of trade, business, governance, education, etc. from the jungle. If you go to the jungle—the place we all come from—what do you find there? Continuous competition. And if you listen to Darwin, he says evolution itself is a result of competition.
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You must keep learning till your last breath, you must keep discovering till your last breath. You must keep knowing yourself, you must keep finding out where the last remains of inner bondages are. “I want to confront them.” So know, read, reflect, observe and keep moving on. And all these things will just happen along the way. Don’t settle down when you have not yet arrived. Your Dharma is that of the traveller.
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…
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I am not talking of your confidence arising from skill or knowledge. I am talking of your confidence arising from the realization that no business is God. And that the Truth remains with you even if your business fails and the Truth does not get amplified even if your business prospers. Read more....
There is pleasure in being defeated by yourself, if you fall to your tendencies, for pleasure, for rest, all you get is happiness, ordinary pleasure. When you lose to yourself, there is just pleasure; when you beat yourself, there is joy. Practice joy! Become obsessed. I’ll go to the extent of saying, become addicted. Read more.....
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Question : What do you understand by ‘failure’ and ‘success’? What is the relation between them?
Speaker : When do you call something a ‘success’? You call yourself successful when you have a goal, and you reach it. It is this attainment of that goal that you name as ‘success’.…
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Question: Sir, according to me, ‘success’ has no true definition, it varies from person to person. For a kid, riding a bicycle can be a form of success and for an adult getting a good job can denote success.
So, can we ever say that success has a concrete…
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Questioner:
Sir, I have heard someone say that real success lies in failure. What does this mean?
Acharya Prashant: What does the mind always want? Success or Failure?
Q : Success.
AP : Success! Right? What are we always running after?
Q : Success!
AP : Success! Right? Running after…
Rajat is asking, “What is meant by succeeding in this moment?” Why was the statement like “If you are not successful right now, then you are not successful at all.” Why was the statement like that made? What is meant
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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
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It has to be so big that you forget about your failures, your happiness, your sadness.
Somebody comes and tells you, “But you…
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It is when you give without having much that you realize that you have much. You must give from empty pockets. It is only then that you realize your pockets are not empty.
You have to fight without strength. It is only then that you realize you are not without…
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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,…
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Questioner: You advise us to have a purposeless, aimless life. But if we will not aim for anything, then how will I crack my exams? In your younger days, you too prepared for exams like MBA, IIT JEE, Civil services, etc. But now you say having aims is no good.…
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So, what…
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…
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So, it is not about winning or losing;…
Questioner:
How to get success in whatever I do?
Acharya Prashant: Success does not lie in doing any random thing. That is the first, the most important, and probably the last thing. The game is not at all about picking up some arbitrary thing to do and then investing yourself…
