Duality

Understand healing curve of consciousness.
Understand healing curve of consciousness.
5 min

Acharya Prashant: Man is both Prakriti and something else. Prakriti is y=sin(x). You are confined within duality- ups and downs, ups and downs, leading to nothing. The up will not remain up, forever; the down will not remain down, forever. Crests and troughs, crests and troughs; that is Prakriti .

The Real Meaning of "All is One"
The Real Meaning of "All is One"
7 min
The mind suffers because of the choices that it makes, thinking of one object as superior than the other object. “All is one” is not an objective statement. “All is one” refers, not to the objects, but to the subject and the relationship that the subject strikes with the various objects. As long as one thing appears more desirable than the other things, how can “All is one” be true to you? Have you, in your inner journey, come to a point where you do not see anything as excessively desirable and anything as too repugnant?
Prakriti and I
Prakriti and I
13 min
Prakriti is another name for duality. Prakriti carries two ends. At one end is the perceiver, and at the other end is the perceived environment or objects or the world or the universe. The ‘I’ that exists at one end of Prakriti says, "I am," and no more. The other end provides a name and meaning to the "I am," the ego self. The Prakriti world exists in this ‘I’ for the sake of its enjoyment and liberation. If you can understand this, you will know the purpose of life, and you will know how to live.
How to Remain Non-Violent?
How to Remain Non-Violent?
6 min
Spirituality is about belonging to existence. Not belonging to a narrow household, or caste or ideology. All these are boundaries. So, wherever there are boundaries, there is violence. Wherever there are boundaries, there is also the fear of being small, powerless, limited. The really non-violent one is at home, everywhere and in every situation. Non-violence is not about following duties. Non-violence is an action in clarity and love. That alone is non-violence.
The Fear of One's Own Existence
The Fear of One's Own Existence
6 min

Acharya Prashant: We need a mind that is not eager to react. That does not mean that it does not act. It acts beautifully, but it does not react. In fact, these two things go together: the ability to act beautifully, and the lack of tendency to react. The more

What Is the Purpose of Life, When Death Is Certain?
What Is the Purpose of Life, When Death Is Certain?
8 min
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?
Trying to 'Be Your Own Light'? || AP Neem Candies
Trying to 'Be Your Own Light'? || AP Neem Candies
5 min

Acharya Prashant: I know it's a fad currently, “the in thing” to say, be your own light, don’t depend on anyone, decide for yourself, whatever. It's a very ignorant thing to say with all due respect to the Buddha.

Such advice is meant only for very selected disciples. And even

How can I balance the real center and the false center? || Acharya Prashant, with youth (2013)
How can I balance the real center and the false center? || Acharya Prashant, with youth (2013)
4 min

Question: What are the ways in which we can maintain a balance between the real centre and the false centre?

Speaker: What is the false centre?

Listeners ( in unison): Opinions of the society about us!

Speaker: What is the real centre?

Listeners (in unison): Intelligence!

Speaker: Can anything have

To follow one's conditioning is comfort and deadness || Acharya Prashant, on Khalil Gibran (2015)
To follow one's conditioning is comfort and deadness || Acharya Prashant, on Khalil Gibran (2015)
3 min

Comfort! Comfort the treacherous, the deadly! Comfort that cheats our senses and makes us slaves to the passing hour!

~ Khalil Gibran – “Lazarus and His Beloved”

Speaker: So, what does Khalil Gibran has to say?

*Comfort! Comfort the treacherous, the deadly!Comfort that cheats our senses and makes us*

I have been living in ignorance. How do I start living in knowing? || Acharya Prashant (2016)
I have been living in ignorance. How do I start living in knowing? || Acharya Prashant (2016)
8 min

Question : Sir, for some time now, throughout the day, I see that I really don’t know anything. What is ‘knowing’?

Speaker: Yes, yes. This is it. This is it. This, this sincerity, this try.

Do you see that two paradoxical activities are happening right now, at the same time?

In victory and in defeat, you are always a winner || Acharya Prashant, with youth (2014)
In victory and in defeat, you are always a winner || Acharya Prashant, with youth (2014)
12 min

Question : Sir, is truth necessarily cruel and dangerous? Whenever I listen to you, I feel fear of losing something. Why is it so?

Speaker : Who is losing something? If you unnecessarily identify yourself with somebody who has possessions, only then you feel that you are losing something. We

The material mind is condemned to suffer the pains of duality || Acharya Prashant (2015)
The material mind is condemned to suffer the pains of duality || Acharya Prashant (2015)
6 min

पौर्णमास्यां यथा चन्द्र एक एवातिनिर्मलः। तेन तत्सदृशं पश्येद्द्विधादृष्टिर्विपर्ययः।।

There is only one very clear moon on the full moon night. One should perceive That (the Self) like the moon. Seeing duality is perversion.

Avadhuta Gita (Chapter 2, Verse 21)

Speaker: This one is from The Avadhuta Gita.

It says, “There

When you chase something, you will get its opposite as well || Acharya Prashant (2015)
When you chase something, you will get its opposite as well || Acharya Prashant (2015)
25 min

Drunks fear the police but the police are drunk too.

~ Rumi

Speaker: We are prone to thinking that a ‘thing’ is cancelled or neutralized by its opposite and our superficial experience in the world supports this kind of thinking. When cold water is mixed with hot water what you

The Whole gives rise to parts, yet is beyond them || Acharya Prashant (2014)
The Whole gives rise to parts, yet is beyond them || Acharya Prashant (2014)
4 min

Speaker: Parts change, the whole remains unchanged.

First of all, this whole, that is being talked of, is not a sum of the parts. Usually, when we refer to a whole, what we mean is, that there are the parts and when they are taken together, we get the whole.

Pure may appear the intention, but ignorant behavior is still deception || Acharya Prashant (2015)
Pure may appear the intention, but ignorant behavior is still deception || Acharya Prashant (2015)
3 min

Speaker: The real meaning of deceptive behaviour or false behaviour is that it is arising not from a pure mind but from a conditioned mind. Now, from a conditioned mind, whatever behaviour arises, even if it is morally sound, it deserves to be called a fake behaviour.

See, spirituality makes

What stays is the Truth, what recedes is the false || Acharya Prashant on Upanishads (2015)
What stays is the Truth, what recedes is the false || Acharya Prashant on Upanishads (2015)
11 min

*सत्यमेव* जयते नानृतं सत्येन पन्था विततो देवयानः *। * *येनाऽऽक्रमन्त्यृषयो* ह्याप्तकामा यत्र तत् सत्यस्य परमं निधानम् *।। *

The True prevails, not the untrue; by the True the path is laid out, the way of the gods, on which the old sages, satisfied in their desires, proceed to

Love is not just an external action. When Truth shines within, Love is its radiation. || Acharya Prashant (2015)
Love is not just an external action. When Truth shines within, Love is its radiation. || Acharya Prashant (2015)
23 min

Speaker: ‘*If you want to love, you have to love a man with all his limitations.*‘ That’s the quote.

If you want to love, you have to love a man with all his limitations.’

The question is that, ‘This has been said, but it is so difficult to do.’

Success and failure || Acharya Prashant, with youth (2013)
Success and failure || Acharya Prashant, with youth (2013)
6 min

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’.

Beauty is to see beauty in beauty and ugly || Acharya Prashant, on Lao Tzu (2014)
Beauty is to see beauty in beauty and ugly || Acharya Prashant, on Lao Tzu (2014)
9 min

True words are not beautiful. Beautiful words are not true. (Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching)

Speaker: Lao Tzu says, “True words are not beautiful. Beautiful words are not true.”

What could he mean probably? “True words are not beautiful. Beautiful words are not true.” And I would also want to

At the Center, the Guru, Maya, and you, are all One and Nothing || Acharya Prashant on Khalil Gibran
At the Center, the Guru, Maya, and you, are all One and Nothing || Acharya Prashant on Khalil Gibran
33 min

When you reach the Heart of Life you will find yourself not higher than the felon, and not lower than the Prophet.

~ Khalil Gibran

Speaker : “When you reach the Heart of Life you will find yourself not higher than the felon, and not lower than the Prophet”. At

ज़ेंन के अनुसार ध्यान कैसे करें?
ज़ेंन के अनुसार ध्यान कैसे करें?
19 min

आचार्य प्रशांत: देखते हैं दुनिया को; उसमें पहली डुएलिटी (द्वैत) तो पैदा होने के साथ ही आ जाती है। पहली डुएलिटी है कि — ये मैं हूँ और ये रहा संसार, और ये दोनों अलग-अलग हैं। पैदा होने के कुछ ही समय बाद शरीर का बोध आ जाता है, और

आप कौन हैं? || आचार्य प्रशांत, हंस गीता पर (2020)
आप कौन हैं? || आचार्य प्रशांत, हंस गीता पर (2020)
12 min

दृष्ट्वा मां त उपव्रज्य कृत्वा पादाभिवन्दनम्। ब्रह्माणमग्रत: कृत्वा पप्रच्छ: को भवानिति।।

“मुझे देखकर सनकादि ब्रह्माजी को आगे करके मेरे पास आये और उन्होंने मेरे चरणों की वन्दना करके मुझसे पूछा कि आप कौन हैं?”

~ हंस गीता, श्लोक २०

इत्यहयं मुनिभि: पुष्टस्तत्त्वजिज्ञासुभिस्तदा। यदवोचमहं तेभ्यस्तदुद्धव निबोध मे।

प्रिय उद्धव! सनकादि परमार्थतत्त्व

बहुत पास है, लेकिन दिखता नहीं || आचार्य प्रशांत, वेदान्त पर (2020)
बहुत पास है, लेकिन दिखता नहीं || आचार्य प्रशांत, वेदान्त पर (2020)
27 min

आचार्य प्रशांत: हम जैसे जीते हैं, हमारे लिए दो हैं, एक संसार और एक हम। संसार और एक हम, कुछ हम संसार की बात करते हैं, कुछ हम अपनी बात करते हैं। जब हम अपनी बात करते हैं तो भी हम अपने आप को देखते उन्हीं उपकरणों से और उसी

कौन है जीवन्मुक्त? कौन हैं क्षेत्र-क्षेत्रज्ञ? || आचार्य प्रशांत, जीवन्मुक्त गीता पर (2020)
कौन है जीवन्मुक्त? कौन हैं क्षेत्र-क्षेत्रज्ञ? || आचार्य प्रशांत, जीवन्मुक्त गीता पर (2020)
33 min

तत्व क्षेत्रं व्योमातीतमहं क्षेत्रज्ञ उच्यते। अहं कर्ता च भोक्ता च जीवनमुक्त: स उच्यते।।

पृथ्वी, जल, अग्नि, वायु, आकाश इन पंच तत्वों से बना ये शरीर ही क्षेत्र है तथा आकाश से परे अहंकार ही क्षेत्रज्ञ है। ये ‘मैं’ ही समस्त कर्मों का कर्ता और कर्म फलों का भोक्ता है, इस

Spiritual Experience vs Spiritual Realisation || Acharya Prashant (2022)
Spiritual Experience vs Spiritual Realisation || Acharya Prashant (2022)
8 min

Questioner (Q): First of all, Acharya Ji, you are very focused on scriptures, especially the authentic scriptures—Upanishads, more specifically. So, what do you consider more important, spiritual knowledge or spiritual experience?

Acharya Prashant (AP): See, there is nothing called as spiritual experience. Experience by itself is a thing in duality

The purpose of life is to come to purposelessness || (2017)
The purpose of life is to come to purposelessness || (2017)
3 min

Questioner: What is the purpose of human life?

Acharya Prashant: See, we ask this question assuming that there is a purpose.

We ask this question assuming just as everything about us is purposeful so life must also be purposeful. Is there any validity to that assumption?

Purpose means a finality;

Knowing right and wrong || Acharya Prashant, with youth (2013)
Knowing right and wrong || Acharya Prashant, with youth (2013)
6 min

Acharya Prashant: Can intelligence be wrong sometimes?

Tell me, all of you, “What is right and what is wrong?” How do you know what is right? And how do you know what is wrong? Someone told you what is right and someone told you what is wrong and not only

Positive and negative thoughts are one; live in understanding || Acharya Prashant, with youth (2013)
Positive and negative thoughts are one; live in understanding || Acharya Prashant, with youth (2013)
8 min

Acharya Prashant : Nancy has asked: “How to get rid of negative thoughts?” She wants to keep all the positive thoughts and just get rid of the negative ones: “Let me please, please, have all the positive ones and throw away all the negative ones.”

Positive and negative are two

The infinity that the mind thinks of is bound to be finite || (2016)
The infinity that the mind thinks of is bound to be finite || (2016)
3 min

Questioner: What if the ocean, we are thinking of as so immense, is not so immense?

Acharya Prashant: Good question!

The moment the ocean is a thought, it cannot be immense at all.

But you see, how you take things—I mentioned the ocean as a metaphor, as a dualistic image

Existence as Duality || (2016)
Existence as Duality || (2016)
2 min

Questioner: I am seeing Shiva’s statue here, how it is dual? How duality is there?

Acharya Prashant: You close your eyes, this statue would no more be there.

And if there is nothing then even your eyes will not be there.

Do you know if the universe disappears then your

Pure Self reveals itself to the fragments only as fragments
Pure Self reveals itself to the fragments only as fragments
4 min

Questioner: Dear Sir,I have been following Nisargadatta Maharaj. I have read all his dialogues, books, and watched most of his videos. But I feel I have been just sticking his words as knowledge in my mind. What you bring to me is something alive, I ‘see’ and I ‘feel’ whatever

What is right and what is wrong? || Acharya Prashant, with youth (2013)
What is right and what is wrong? || Acharya Prashant, with youth (2013)
3 min

Speaker: Breaking the question into two simpler parts, one is- all of us have positives and negatives, strengths and weaknesses. How to enhance the strengths and diminish the weaknesses. We will look into this.And second is- I know what is right but when it comes to the moment of happening,

Is there anything called universal truth or universal beauty? || IIT Kanpur (2020)
Is there anything called universal truth or universal beauty? || IIT Kanpur (2020)
10 min

Questioner: If positive and negative, good and bad, beauty and ugliness are all a matter of personal perspective, then can universal positivity, universal goodness, or universal beauty exist? If it is the majority that decides, then is the majority the judge of the deeds to be done by one in

It will surely be dark when the eyes are closed || Acharya Prashant, with youth (2013)
It will surely be dark when the eyes are closed || Acharya Prashant, with youth (2013)
3 min

Question: Is Ego the opposite of true self?

Speaker: Whenever something has an opposite, it means the thing is in itself dependent on its opposite. Black has its opposite as?

Listeners(everyone): White

Speaker: This means that there can be no ‘Black’ without ‘White’. You will not be able to identify

Real is directly Real, unreal is indirectly Real || Acharya Prashant (2013)
Real is directly Real, unreal is indirectly Real || Acharya Prashant (2013)
2 min

Listener: What is Reality?

Speaker: What is reality? That which includes- that which appears real and that which appears unreal. Real is directly real; unreal is indirectly real. Everything is real. The real is directly real, the unreal is indirectly real but everything is real. Even when we say it

The real meaning of inferior and superior || Acharya Prashant (2016)
The real meaning of inferior and superior || Acharya Prashant (2016)
3 min

Question: Why has man labelled things as superior and inferior. Why does this division exist?

Acharya Prashant (AP): This division too can be false, useless or a very relevant division. Usually tasks, activities are divided into superior and inferior based on convention, morality, things that have nothing to do with

How to be spiritual and still manage one's job and bills? || (2016)
How to be spiritual and still manage one's job and bills? || (2016)
4 min

Questioner (Q): I like being in your Satsangs but what I want to say is, I just find it a big challenge to fly back to everyday life. You know, you’ve got a job, you’ve got to make plans and it’s tough.

Acharya Prashant (AP): If you really like this,

The real being stands behind the duality
The real being stands behind the duality
2 min

Question: How does one deal with orthodoxy, stupidity and foolishness? How does one deal with orthodox parents and spouses?

The foolish will always hunt the wise. If the wise recede to the forest, the foolish will condemn them for that. If the wise stay and fight, they shall be condemned

The origin of Maya
The origin of Maya
5 min

Acharya Prashant: Māyā and Brahm are beginningless for you. ‘For you’ because the question is coming ‘from you’. So, to you, these two are beginningless. Why are these two beginningless? Why can’t their origin be known? Because Māyā does not comprise of an entity called ‘Māyā * ’. *

The experiencer is a product of experience  hence cannot freely judge experience || Acharya Prashant (2016)
The experiencer is a product of experience hence cannot freely judge experience || Acharya Prashant (2016)
10 min

Acharya Prashant: Not only do we give value to experience, we also give value to learning. And because the valuer is the same, so we put these two at the same level – ‘experience’ and ‘learning’.

We want to value everything; we want to attach some kind of a quantifiable

Non-duality and duality are One || (2016)
Non-duality and duality are One || (2016)
3 min

Questioner: Sir, where does the mind get power from?

Acharya Prashant: Power is always in the context of doing something, achieving something, acting upon something.

What does the mind want?

Peace.

So, all the power that the mind has is directed towards getting peace. What can reach peace? Can disturbance

Sit at the centre, rule the circle
Sit at the centre, rule the circle
2 min

Question: Sir, what does the name of the group ‘You belong here’ signify?

Speaker: The name ‘You Belong Here’ signifies that our real home cannot be at a disturbed point. ‘xyz’ means others and ‘t’ means past and future.

When the mind is free of the conditioning of others and

It is a deep bondage to live in differences
It is a deep bondage to live in differences
5 min

Question: Sir, I have observed that if I have someone to blame, then my anger gets energy. Otherwise, it subsides with time. Why does this happen?

Answer: Isn’t it true that even our anger expresses itself only at the relatively weak? Can we dare to be angry at everybody? Calculated

Are we same or different?
Are we same or different?
2 min

Question: Sir, everybody has been programmed in the same way which we call as ‘conditioning’. And if everything is happening because of this conditioning, if every action is programmed then all our happinesses and difficulties should be same. But it is not the case. Everyone has his/her own problems and

How can consciousness arise from a material body?||AcharyaPrashant,with Virat Hindustan Sangam(2021)
How can consciousness arise from a material body?||AcharyaPrashant,with Virat Hindustan Sangam(2021)
5 min

Questioner (Q): I want to know, essentially, the relationship between the material world and consciousness. Is the body, you know, just like putting together a few chemicals? And, how does consciousness come from an unconscious body? Or.. is it the other way around?

Acharya Prashant (AP): Obviously. Yeah, yeah! Obviously,

To see diversity is to see choice, and the ego relishes that || Acharya Prashant (2014)
To see diversity is to see choice, and the ego relishes that || Acharya Prashant (2014)
8 min

Acharya Prashant (AP): Aloneness is to see that alone, to see that alone is love. As we are configured, as the mind is conditioned, it only works in differences. It works only in differences. It looks at nothing but the differences. Its very world exists because of differences. It perceives

Celebrate duality, that's all that there is || Acharya Prashant (2013)
Celebrate duality, that's all that there is || Acharya Prashant (2013)
5 min

Questioner: I have fear and greed, thus a life of duality. How long to live like this? Should I try to force a change?

Speaker: There is no other life and duality is wonderful. Duality is sacred. There is nothing reprehensible about duality. Can there be duality without the non-dual?

Brahm-realisation, and the fear of distancing from one's family || Acharya Prashant (2018)
Brahm-realisation, and the fear of distancing from one's family || Acharya Prashant (2018)
13 min

Questioner: If I do deeply understand that the bliss of consciousness or Brahm is truly greater by manifolds, then what motivation would I have to perform the mundane duties, chasing worldly desires like wealth etc.? I cannot just sit doing nothing, thinking that my kids will have an education and

The right action always looks strange, the wrong always looks known || Acharya Prashant (2016)
The right action always looks strange, the wrong always looks known || Acharya Prashant (2016)
7 min

Questioner: Is there any action that is bad?

Acharya Prashant (AP): No, there is no action at all that is inherently bad.

I repeat this with emphasis: there is no action that is inherently bad.

The only bad action is a misplaced action.

At the right time and right place,

And a great laughter arises in the skies || Acharya Prashant, on Vedanta (2021)
And a great laughter arises in the skies || Acharya Prashant, on Vedanta (2021)
9 min

Acharya Prashant (AP): Duality is about thinking that you who is just a chemical — a prakritik product of your past, is a sentient entity looking at a largely insentient world of things. That's the dualistic illusion we usually live in. It’s false, obviously. As we are, there is nothing