If somebody would declare himself as an enemy of God, as Ravana did, as Kamsa did, oh they were very innocent fellows, they did, then you could fight him. But today's Ravanas do not declare themselves as enemies of god, they declare themselves to be surrendered to god. Today's Ravana would probably be found in Rishikesh teaching Hatha Yoga. And saying, “This is yoga. This is yoga.” Now whom are you going to fight? They’ve all assumed the name of God. Man is god.
A society that loses its sense of sacredness begins to see every person and profession as merely transactional. When truth is replaced by the pursuit of happiness and consumption, trust erodes and cynicism becomes the norm. Doctors, teachers, and institutions are no longer respected but viewed with suspicion. The deeper crisis is not medical or social but philosophical: without self-understanding, people become consumers first and human beings second. True respect can return only when truth, integrity, and inner education become more important than personal gain.
Karma is a reflection of who you are. You are the doer. Karma means action. You are the actor. The principle of karma is: do not focus on karma; focus on karta, the doer, the actor. That is karma, that’s all. There is nothing mystical about it.
Can you go to the past and choose something or unchoose something? And life is happening right now. So your power to respond to life is right now. But the moment you say it is happening due to the past, then you have surrendered your power to choose, because you cannot do anything with the past. You cannot change the past. You can’t choose the past. You can’t unchoose the past. You can’t modify it. You can do nothing.
You were one person when, let’s say, the relationship started, and now you are another person, and this change must reflect in the nature of the relationship. You cannot say, “Because I used to behave in this way with this person five years back, I’ll continue to hold the same practice, the same mood, the same ritual, the same identity, the same mask,” even after you have graduated to being somebody else. There’s no need to do that. If you have evolved, improved, let that show in the relationship.
Relationships are everywhere – with partners, family, friends, and even ourselves. As long as we're alive, we're constantly relating to someone or something. You have a choice: continue struggling with the same relationship patterns, or gain real understanding through Acharya Prashant’s Books on Relationships that reveal the deeper truths about love and human connection.
If you begin to define betterness, you'll find that betterness depends on some other word, and that word again is a concept. So then you finally realize that it is all a doing of the ego. Hence, I need not give any great respect to all these things.
Search
Victory is not decided by the trophy you hold but by the battle you choose to fight. Real strength lies in making the right decisions, staying true to your deepest values, and refusing to be ruled by fear or circumstances. When your actions arise from clarity rather than ambition, the outcome loses its power over you. The moment you choose the right path, you have already won.
You have to get into your own life, thoughts, feelings, actions, decisions, and see what holds you back. And freedom from what holds you back is the most important. That is what is most important. And then you can accept whatever price you have to pay for that most important thing. So it all starts from you. what is really important is a subjective thing. It depends on you. Nobody else can tell it.
We keep carrying the unexamined burden of the past all our life. That’s a great problem that we have. If you want to carry something from the past, if you want to remain related to it even today, then you have to ask: how does it benefit you? Because it’s an expensive decision to make. The purpose of life is to unburden yourself. Relate to something or somebody in a way that will help you clear away a lot of useless relationships.
Excerpts from Articles
The Secret to True Victory
Victory is not decided by the trophy you hold but by the battle you choose to fight. Real strength lies in making the right decisions, staying true to your deepest values, and refusing to be ruled by fear or circumstances. When your actions arise from clarity rather than ambition, the outcome loses its power over you. The moment you choose the right path, you have already won.
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।
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?
You Don't Understand the Bhagvad Gita, But You Still Claim That You Love Krishna?
The Bhagavad Gita deserves reverence not because of inherited beliefs about its author, but because of its power to dissolve falsehood and reveal Truth. Real devotion is not ritual or blind faith—it is understanding, inquiry, and living the wisdom of the Gita. Through sincere study, one discovers the true meaning of Krishna, making the Gita the most authentic path to knowing and worshipping Him.
Animal cruelty: Who deserves mercy, and who doesn’t?
Violence begins long before the knife or the slaughterhouse—it begins with the ego, the one that draws boundaries, seeks justification, and decides who deserves compassion. Laws and reforms may reduce suffering, but they cannot end violence while the ego remains intact. When the ego dissolves, exploitation ends naturally, and compassion no longer depends on regulation or moral boundaries.
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।
Women, the way they are brought up in our country, anyway do not have much to lose. If I do not have much in life, and then there arrives a person who is attractive, earns well, is strong, then why, as a woman, will I not go for him? Your body is impelling you to take a particular decision, and you don't even know that it's coming from the body. The only solution is understanding, real, deep, honest observation of life. And this you could also call spirituality.
The tiger chases the buffalo calf and brings it down. Does that disappoint you? No, because that was expected. Similarly, expect animal behavior all the time from everyone around you, including yourself. Everything we do comes from the jungle, so don’t be disappointed. Disappointment always arises from expectations. You really have to strive to be someone who is not an animal. And the first step in that striving is to address your own inner animal.
A thousand feelings: envy, fear, hatred, competition will come to you. You cannot fight them all, and there is no need to fight them. Be courageous when that feeling comes, and sit down like friends and talk. Be honest that you are the one who is nurturing that feeling all the time. Be aware that it is coming. Let it not enter like a thief. And when it comes, don’t feel small. You only need to understand, not control.
Manifestation is simply an expression of your desire. You desire something, and then you imagine your desire has been fulfilled. What does the common man desire? ‘Give me more money.’ What will the politician desire? ‘Finish off democracy and give me power for life.’ We have very stinking desires. Do we ever desire anything that is really good for everybody? The question remains: Was that thing worth it? You gave it so much time, so much respect, did it deserve that?
"As long as you are giving me pleasure and satisfying my needs, there will be peace. The day you stop, there will be war.” This is the usual social contract in which we exchange pleasures and dependencies. This is why there is a lot of violence. But there can be another way of relating to the other, where you are existentially complete within. There can now be beautiful, loving, compassionate relationships because you are not looking to be a parasite or a commander.
The other must exist in your life, and vice versa, only for the sake of internal elevation, to make you into a better person. Don't you see the impact the other one is having on your life? Seeing is the key. What does seeing mean? Seeing implies understanding. See and ask yourself: What is the impact upon me? And if you see that, you'll just push it aside. It will be spontaneous. You won't even require to think, because now you have seen.
The fellow is the worst kind of human being possible. But you will not accuse him of disloyalty, infidelity, or cheating, because he still reserved his body for you. This simply tells that the relationship is founded on the body. The woman has been trained to consider herself the body, and so has the man. Why don't we broaden our definition of loyalty? Please ask, “You couldn’t be loyal to any kind of virtue. How will you ever be loyal to me?”
You say, “Anyway, nothing is going to happen. What is written is written. So what is the point of acting? Let me just sleep and rot.” All this concept of destiny is a dirty trick to justify your laziness and cowardice. There’s nothing called destiny. However, there is something called randomness, and that randomness you cannot control. But that randomness is not destiny. You have the agency to respond rightly to that randomness. You always have a choice. Always.
We are limited beings and limitation means boundaries. Any successful marriage will have boundaries. Spend quality time with each other and then leave each other free, both physically and psychologically. Get rid of the romantic notion that the two of us have now dissolved into each other and therefore there are no boundaries. Good fences make good neighbors. You must know where to stop. You must know that.
Overview
Fighting Duryodhana is Dharma. Fight Duryodhana in the way you can, that is swadharma. Dharma is the same for everybody, but swadharma varies according to your physical, social, temporal conditions.
But remember that swadharma can never be in contradiction of Dharma; swadharma will always be something…
Share
Just because we don't hear gunshots doesn't mean that things are peaceful between partners or between parents and kids — especially daughters. Not at all. There are clear boundaries and those boundaries have been mined. As long as you remain within the boundaries, you will entertain the illusion that you are free and loved. Try to step out, and you'll be blown to pieces. So, the violence was always cooking but you didn't see it because you were blinded by your emotions, need for security, and conditioning.
Human beings are in a peculiar situation. They can choose to side with their animalistic conditioning or they can choose something higher. They can choose freedom, joy, love, liberation, compassion. Therefore, humans have a responsibility. Animals don't have that responsibility.
Truth is the first thing. If you don't have love for the first thing, how can you have love for all the others you are related to? You don't need to ask — are you in love? Do you love me? All these are needless questions. The only question to be asked is: do you love the Truth? If the person loves the Truth, everything is fine.
To the one who believes in ghosts (Bhūta-Piśāca) — for him, they exist. When you are asleep and are engaged in some nightmare, you feel it actually exists. Bhūta-Piśāca Nikata Nahiṁ Āve, Mahāvīra Jab Nāma Sunāve: Mahavira Hanuman, devoted to Shri Ram, is to be taken as the representative of Truth. If you can be close to the representative of the Truth, you will get rid of all nonsensical and horrifying imaginations.
You have to be dismissive of any talk of the afterlife. Only then the Gita will make sense to you. Those who have a battle at hand, those who are living in matters of the moment, those who are engaging deeply with the world as it is right now — present to them — they are the ones who will find the Gita useful, indispensable rather.
A relationship remains sustainable when there is beauty in it for you every moment. Beauty that is inexhaustible. Beauty that is not available for consumption. Beauty that time cannot erode. If there is beauty of the kind that you can happily eat away, then the beauty will be eaten away. Full stop
We want to do good to the ones we are related to and we have long stretches of memories with all kinds of identifications. I fully appreciate that. But I also know that it doesn't always work this way. Sometimes what works better is shifting of focus to more appropriate areas. Remember, nobody can be helped beyond their consent. That's the nature of life.
Our culture has turned attachment into value, very proximate to love. However, attachment is poison and has nothing to do with love. We don’t feel ashamed admitting that we are attached, as if something beautiful is happening. If you are with the wrong one, and not even prepared to see that you are with the wrong one — that’s attachment. And you can never be attached to the Right One; there is only dissolution.
It has been a tradition in India that when you donate, you bow down to the one you are donating to, because he has done you a favour by accepting your donation. Being what we are, it is hardly possible for us to do anything for others. Kindly get over this notion that we live for others. That is the privilege granted only to a Buddha. Only in a state of inner fulfilment can one really do something for others.
Do not perpetually keep waiting for human company. You can never be very sure that you will have very high-quality people in your life because the right kind of people are not too many. There are tremendous ways to add value to life. It's one of the big fortunes of life to be able to have work that one can immerse oneself in. Travel, read, challenge yourself — these are equally effective ways to have company and not feel lonely.
Expression is a relationship you establish with the world. It becomes a gift you give to others. What gets expressed, gets amplified. Anger expressed is anger amplified; attachment expressed is attachment multiplied. Do you want to gift chains and shackles, or something that helps and liberates?
Those who want to travel long distances and fight important battles, they don’t carry baggage - they travel light. You must know which responsibilities rightfully belong to you and which ones you must disown. You are not obliged to fulfill all the so-called traditional responsibilities. Therefore, you’ll need a total revolution in your inner world before you can fearlessly do something in the outer world.
We all have our moments, our episodes of failures. We all let ourselves down at some time or the other. What to do then? Rule number one – do not go down tamely. If there is an inner conflict, and you know which side should win, fight hard to ensure that the right side prevails. Rule number two – keep fighting till your victory and keep fighting in your defeat. Even in defeat, remain a winner.
Good spirituality is good economics. We do not know what to purchase. We do not know what really is valuable, even in the material domain. The punishment of not being spiritual is that you lead a very bad, a very ruined worldly life and that includes an economic life, a ruined economic life. It is not merely the person, even nations, actually the entire world suffers when the one making the economic decision is spiritually bankrupt.
Questioner: Sir, I have been reading Krishnamurti and Vivekananda for the past three years and having learned from them, I genuinely feel that the teachings of such great teachers should be at the core of our education system. I personally feel that my decisions regarding my career and life would…
Attachment is just a promise. A lack of fulfilment. It is a substitute for love because the real thing is not available. If you find yourself attached, it means there is a desire for love; it means there is a call for love. Know that a fake is presenting itself as a substitute for the real thing.
You may say that you are in love; but do you love that man, or do you love what you get through that man? When you are needy and lonely, then your relationships are like band-aids: they are there to take care of your wounds. But if you live your life from a point of aloneness — which is totally different from loneliness — your relationships will take on a different colour. Then you will really be free and not a slave.
When feelings surge in your mind and body, be careful and pay attention! This is the moment when you lose the plot. The initial surge of energy that a feeling has is beyond your consciousness and control; it is determined mostly by your conditioning and partly by your genes. So, don't add conscious energy to the unconscious uprising. The most important mark of a wise man is that he does not live by feelings.
Traditionally, women have been trained to be at home, while men have been conditioned to be breadwinners. The forces of conditioning cut both ways. Both are merely playing pre-scripted roles, shaped by their bodies and society. You are not you; you are manufactured by your body and trained by society. And so is she. So just as you resist from asking her to pay, she resists offering to pay — and it’s a bad game.
Acharya Prashant: ‘How can I get my ex-girlfriend back?’ The question comes from Shubham. Shubham you will have to die (audience bursts into laughter). There is no other way, you will have to die.
You know, it was Kabir Sahab who said: ये तो घर है प्रेम का, खाला…
Shri Ram is the source of all excellence—Kabir Sahab’s excellence, the excellence of an astronaut, the excellence of a deep-sea diver, the excellence of a professional, etc. If you don’t have excellence in what you do, it is because you have been disloyal to Ram. Without Ram, you can’t do anything nicely.
So the opposite of cruelty is not compassion. The opposite of cruelty is often either attachment or possessiveness or taking care of those who are related to you by way of self-interest. So that's the domain of duality. So yes, it is true that the mind wanders about in duality and then there is hope and there is hopelessness and then there is friendship and then there is enmity. So all these are aspects of duality but compassion does not sit anywhere in the dualistic framework.
Once you know where you are chained, you already have the right desire. The right desire is to break the chain. It begins with an observation, and admission of your own state. The right desire is a desire to be free, to be at ease, to be able to flow. To be without fear, that is the right desire. But when we say the right desire is about being fearless, first of all you have to figure out where your fears are.
The relationship can be very strong, but the strength of the relationship may not necessarily be an auspicious thing. You can have a very, very strong relationship with the external, and yet it could be from a very wrong center. And what do we mean by wrong? The center of inner ignorance.
First of all, we have to realize what our life is like. You know, I can’t change something without firstly understanding its processes and its actuality.
I must know what this thing called my life is. We keep living without knowing a thing about life. And we’re blinded by names and identities.
No wise man will ever take your problem seriously, believe me. For the wise one, all your problems are bad jokes—not even worthy of a sound laughter. But then he says, "You know, I can see through. You cannot. So, I'll give up my right to laugh at you. I'll instead pretend to be serious." "Yes, yes, yes, of course! We have a problem!" He says, "You know, there was a time I was so much like you. These same things were big issues even to me. But I know they can be outgrown.
Don’t wear masks. Have that self-respect. That’s what is dignity. This is who I am, and I’ll not exchange my truth for your sake. If you are all right with who I really am, let’s be together. But don’t ask me to drop my authenticity. Most of your existing relationships will fail this test because they are relationships between masks. You wear a mask, and you expect the other to wear a mask. And you know, there is no fun. You do not even know the other’s face. There is actually no relationship at all.
The lust inside us seems to be never-ending. So the reason should be something else. And the fact is that humans are the only animals who are actually spiritually thirsty. But then, there is a lack of knowledge as well. Now, the thirst is spiritual, but we do not know what this thirst is for. Because of the lack of knowledge, they don’t know. Then what do we do? We try to quench that thirst by finding anything to bring from anywhere.
How is it surprising then that nothing really appeals to you, that you don't find anything worthy of—let's come to that word—love? And except for love, what is it that can hold you for long? Greed, attractions, good foods, good clothes, nice odor, prestige, excitement—these are small things that will not be able to keep you for long. However, to compensate for their lack of quality, they proliferate in quantity.
