Poems

Awaken the Poet within, else Life remains Asleep

How do you, ask the chief of police, patrol a city, where the butcher shops are guarded by vultures, where bulls get pregnant, cows are barren, and calves give milk three times a day, where mice are the boatmen, and tomcats row the boats, where frogs keep snakes as watchdogs, … read_more

Fake Depression Is Worse Than Actual Depression

Questioner: My question is, why is creativity, like poetry, dying these days? And poetry is a part of literature. And how much contribution of literature is there on the way to Adhyatma?

Acharya Prashant: See, the more you will lose touch with yourself, the more material your world will get.… read_more

18 min

Questioner: Pranam Acharya ji. I am Ritu Tiwari. I am an alumnus of this college. My question is related to defamation of mental health problems. I’ll give you three examples – first comes from a recent murder case that happened in the capital of our country where a man named… read_more

A Little Closely

1 min

Are you looking for me?

Look a little closely!

Am I in the Stupa, am I in the Shrine?

You really want me , or just images of mine?

… a little closely!

The crowds in the Ashram are all misled,

What you call as Yoga is such a dread,… read_more

Gatay, Gatay, Paragatay

2 min

Gatay, Gatay, Paragatay….

I will miss you so much, Pardon me, I will have to die. We played together for long, Now I’m going home to the Sky.

I will miss you so much, I’m going to where I belong. It breaks my heart to leave you, I tried hard… read_more

ख़ुद से ये पूछा करो || नीम लड्डू

2 min

किससे मिल रहे हो? किससे नहीं मिल रहे हो? कहाँ रोज़ पहुँच जाते हो? कहाँ से पैसे ला रहे हो? पहली बात – क्या ईमानदारी से काम रहे हो? दूसरी बात – जो कमा रहे हो, उसको खर्च कहाँ कर रहे हो? छः घण्टे से कोई खबरिया चैनल लगा कर… read_more

What Is the Main Message of Bhagavad Gita?

14 min

You have to fight. The world is the battlefield. To be born is to be born as a warrior, to be born is to be born with weapons and armour. That is the message: you cannot run away. Shunning action is not possible.

Finding God Is Easy, Tolerating Him Is Difficult

19 min

Acharya Prashant: Suffering is a fire that burns down a lot. It brings along a certain purification. One of the poets gave the example of a snowball. Snowball that is cleansing itself in its own blood; by melting down. When a snowball starts melting, it starts becoming cleaner. And the… read_more

To help the other is to help oneself || Delhi University (2022)

Decoding the East: Insights Ignored by the West

Questioner (Q): Sir, if we do something to make someone else happy by deceiving our own self, is it worth it?

Acharya Prashant (AP): No, you cannot make someone else happy by deceiving your own self. That kind of a thing cannot exist; that kind of a thing exists only… read_more

Before trying on your own, you do not even know the problem in its entirety, and you are going to somebody and the whole process demands time, energy, space and sometimes even money. So, before you engage, obviously you need to have tried your uttermost. So, that’s something obviously to be supported, but equally, we all know how limited we are beyond a point, and when we come to that point, it becomes obvious that one needs to look beyond herself, that one needs to seek help.

Clear Your Dues Before Checking Out

19 min

It’s not as if you have to indefinitely stay dithered or bonded, not really. At the same time, it does not mean that the relationship has to be so material or so transactional, that once the money has been squared off or once you are sure that I have given them the requisite care, attention and emotional support, now I can just break away and separate them from my life. We are talking of neither of these ends.

What Is Rest?

11 min

Rest is to realize that whatever you are doing is ultimately not going to benefit you in terms of result. Rest is to not to hope for a result, but to be already there and because you are already there, so the activity is happening. Now the activity is a game, a pass time, just for fun. You can indulge yourself or you can change the activity. The activity doesn’t really mean much.

Beliefs: Reconciling Perception & Reality

20 min

We all are such wicked creatures. We feign helplessness just to exhort, extort pleasure. We cannot even be honest enough to say that I am a pleasure seeker; therefore, I'm doing all those things. All your helplessness results in pleasure. All your assumptions lead to pleasure. All your dishonesty leads to pleasure. So everything is just for the sake of pleasure. If somebody comes and says, “You know, I'm helpless,” Just figure out where the pleasure is, and you will know the dishonesty.

Stop Asking These Spiritual Questions

4 min

Think of yourself. Even the Supreme or the Absolute that you think of is just something within the universe, so stop caring or wondering so much about it. Look rather at your own life, your own daily actions. What do you work for? Who are the people you relate to? Where does your bread come from? These are the questions that matter much more than any of the traditional, spiritual queries or you could say that these daily mundane questions are the ‘Real Spiritual’ ones.

The Joy of Being Drenched in Love

13 min

Usually our love is about one special thing or person. But Kabir Sahab is saying, "Hari bhai ban rai—the entire jungle has turned green. I see greenery not merely in one tree, but in the entire jungle.” That’s the difference between common love and Kabir Sahab’s love. In your love, there is just one green tree; in Kabir Sahab’s love, the entire world has turned green: there is nothing dry anywhere anymore.

The Multitasking Debate: Efficiency vs. Presence

12 min

Even when you think you are not multitasking, you are actually multitasking. Multitasking is an imperative, but don’t be a multiple-divided person. Multiple selves are not welcome; multitasking is alright. We live lives of multiple selves. One self, other self, and all those selves are all fake, borrowed.

The Biggest Act of Cruelty Today

Spirituality is about realizing that all nonsense emanates from the DNA. You are born with nonsense that body identification is the fundamental problem and the root cause of all violence. It’s the body that is violent because it is the body that is coming from the jungle. We share this body with the chimpanzees, with the dinosaurs, with the lions, tigers, every single animal in the jungle is this body and therefore, all the problems of the jungle are contained in this body.

What Does Equanimity Mean in Life?

12 min

When you know that you can not be harmed, then you let the change come to you. Then, you do not lose your inner poise in front of changing conditions. This is equanimity. For equanimity, you require a very good driver, a totally dependable driver. Our driver is the Ego. It does not allow the Absolute to drive us. The Ego is so arrogant that it goes and sits on the throne, the sacred place, that is reserved only for the Beloved, only for God. It has no right to be there. Dethrone it!

Gita Is Not This

7 min

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.

Why Isn't the Gita for Everyone?

It depends on the pain you are willing to take. Sometimes Duryodhanas have to be turned into Arjunas. It’s just that, it’s relatively easier with an Arjuna. But what to do when even Arjunas are not present to receive the Gita? As long as somebody has anything, anything that resembles consciousness, as long as somebody has even the faintest remnant of consciousness left, Gita can be brought to that person but it will be tough, difficult.

The Life Journey of Acharya Prashant

11 min

I didn’t try to sweep things under the carpet. If I have seen something, I have seen it. I didn’t try to pretend that I understand when I didn’t. I didn’t try to trivialize something just because I couldn’t wrap my head around it. If something was beyond my comprehension, I let it stay there. And the process remained continuous, in that sense, not the exact word, but, a bit laborious, and demanded patience.

How to Utilize Time?

13 min

The real issue is not about time at all. You are spending time exactly according to your values. Don’t ask how to utilize time. Ask yourself, "Do I know what is truly valuable?" When you are clear about what is truly valuable in life, all your time will be devoted to that. Become clear. Know what is truly valuable.

Mind Work Ends When True Realization Takes Hold

18 min

Realization is extremely powerful. You cannot realize and not act. It is impossible. You cannot realize and not act. Action follows realization. So if you come and say, “I realize, I understand but I cannot act,” then you are mistaken; you actually do not realize at all! The action after realization is not time-bound; it does not even have a time lag. It is instantaneous and spontaneous.

Is Life Just Deja Vu?

Deja vu is not surprising. There is no newness here, only repetition. You are caught in a circuit, and everything is being rehashed, recycled, and repeated. Life itself is deja vu. It's just that you don't realize it. Those who realize this are the ones who, for the first time, come to something new and original. Discover your originality and write a new story of your own. Otherwise, there is nothing but deja vu!

Without this, all is worthless || Acharya Prashant, on Guru Kabir (2019)

How to Set Priorities in Life?

If you cannot win the love of the Lord, so what if you can lord over your neighbor? What is the good of dressing your hair and donning your feet with jingling jewelry? What is the value of all your makeup with kajal to your eyelids and vermilion to your … read_more

You ask about balancing priorities, but "balance" is a very violent word. It denotes competition. ‘Or’ denotes either this or that — this is conflict. Life does not proceed like this. A polymath, like Leonardo da Vinci, mastered many fields. There was no ‘or’ in his life. His life was full of ‘And’. Most of us live a life of poor man. Life can be very, very, very rich. But not when you say “Either this, or that.” Life is rich when you say, “And, And, And.”

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.”

Where Is the Kurukshetra of Your Life?

Arjuna’s hell was in his daily tasks, and so is yours. Arjuna could sense the evil in what appeared normal to others; you must also be able to sense that there is something extremely fishy in what seems normal to others. Your house, your workplace, your society—these are your Kurukshetra. That’s where you have to fight your Mahabharata. That’s where you need Shri Krishna and the Gita.

Yoga - The Biggest 'Spiritual' Myth Today

17 min

You have ample gurus who come over and say, “You know, you do this and then you can do whatever you want to do.” Now the moment you hear this kind of philosophy that Yoga will help you do better whatever you want to do, I suppose one must run away. Because that’s exactly antithetical to Yoga. Yoga is not about doing whatever you want to do; it’s the ego that says that, not the dedicated, devoted, wise mind. That does not come from there.

How Do We Know Anything about Life? Where Do Our Thoughts Come from?

The Real Meaning of Devoting One's Action to Shri Krishna

Questioner: It’s well known that simple living and high thinking are what we should aim at, but how do we know what is simple living and high thinking?

Acharya Prashant: You talked of simple living and high thinking, and you said that it's well-known that simple living and high thinking… read_more

7 min

You are too small to conceive or imagine who Shri Krishna really is. How then will you devote your actions to him? You can only devote something to an object, and the real Shri Krishna is not an object. So, limit yourself to just practising a certain casualness. A certain beparwahi. You must never accord too much value to your desires and opinions. And if possible, crack a joke or two about yourself. It’s great to be the butt of one’s own jokes!

How to Live Fully?

3 min

Living fully does not mean adding something to life. It means recognizing that life is already complete, and you must not disrespect that fullness. It is not about going out and consuming life. The volume or quantity of experiences doesn’t matter; what matters is the quality. There is nothing but fullness—just go close to it.

Why Does One Desire Liberation while the Other does not?

If you are someone who is always looking forward to the coming weekend, it means trouble. Be engaged in a kind of work that does not make it necessary for you to seek relief or relaxation over the weekend. Work is life. Work must not be something that taxes you, drains, or saps your energy. Work must be something that really rejuvenates you. You must be looking forward to Monday.

Questioner: Why is there a difference of intensity and love for mukti (liberation) between different human beings?

Acharya Prashant: The differences that you are talking of all relate to time; therefore, they all will be resolved in due course of time. Time gave rise to all those differences, and those… read_more

Why Do I Hate Mondays?

10 min

Beware such energies || Acharya Prashant, at BITS Pilani, Goa (2022)

How to Overcome Perfectionism?

Questioner (Q): My question is that I heard there are two cosmic energies that will take out all the sufferings of the people. We heard from Treta Yug of lord Shri Ram and Lakshman received the cosmic energies from Sage Vishvamitra. Those are called Sambala and Atibala . If he… read_more

Making the perfect choice is far more important than being perfect at the perfect choice. Pick up the right project even if you can’t initially excel at it. Instead, you are taught to choose as per your strengths because that is what society and the body want. They say, “Identify your strengths and make your decisions based on your strengths.” No, what you are actually saying is, “I cannot tolerate being bad at what I do, therefore I will pick up something I can be good at.” You are giving prime importance to your ego.

How Does One Stay Calm?

Do not allow anything worldly to become too important for you. I know that it is not easy. It is because we have practised the opposite since many years. It is easy, but we have lost that ease. Till the time anything is important to you, tension, nervousness, panic, anxiety are inevitable. The world itself is the reason. Live in the world, talk, eat, sleep, do whatever you want, but do not let anything become important for you. Have a certain disregard, and you'll naturally stay calm.

Superficial Differences, Deep Commonalities: 6 Human Tendencies

We are at a very peculiar point in the history of mankind. We are extremely close to devastation rather, total annihilation. We need to be shaken up. In fact, we need to be hit before we are bulldozed by the inevitable role of time and the principle of results of action— karmphal. So, that's the kind of public policy environment we need today. At every point, the individual needs to be reminded, all the stuff that pushes us deeper into a stupor needs to be checked, regulated, taxed.

What Makes You Feel Bored?