Free Will

'Free will' is an Entertaining Myth
'Free will' is an Entertaining Myth
10 min
Even if there is suffering, observation is just about observing the suffering—just witnessing it without getting engaged with it, without having a stake in it, without having a stake in it . And that is possible. That can be done.
How free are your thoughts and life? Let's test
How free are your thoughts and life? Let's test
35 min
Inquiry is the only route. Otherwise, there is no way you can ever detect whether your thoughts, internal processes, feelings and importantly conclusions and decisions are your own, really original or whether they are products of an implanted process. You will never come to know what has been implanted within that which you are calling as conditioning is an implanted thing and once it has entered your insides it will always appear innate.
You've Had Enough of This Person
You've Had Enough of This Person
12 min

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

Agree With Freedom for Freedom Is Your Nature
Agree With Freedom for Freedom Is Your Nature
7 min

Questioner: What is the role of persuasion in teaching? Is it alright if teaching involves a certain degree of persuasion? If yes, why must one be persuaded?

Acharya Prashant: Freedom is available only to a free mind. A mind that has been conditioned, deeply enslaved, moves from no other factor

Our Defeats Lie in the Beginning of the War || AP Neem Candies
Our Defeats Lie in the Beginning of the War || AP Neem Candies
4 min
Defeat is not the end of war; defeat is not in the end of the war. Mostly defeat lies in the beginning of war. A needless war, the moment it begins, the point from where it begins is already a defeat. Read more.....
Breaking Free from Tradition: My Life, My Rules?
Breaking Free from Tradition: My Life, My Rules?
5 min

Questioner: Sir, youngsters in India and the world over, often rebel against rules and regulations in the name of freedom of choice or freedom of expression, the list of complaints is long and all have one bottom line: My life my rules. What do ancient wisdom and Vedanta say on

Does an Early Morning Routine Matter?
Does an Early Morning Routine Matter?
12 min
If there is work to do, how do I say that my routine necessitates going to bed at 11 pm. When you say routine that means, these are the hours I will study, these are the hours and I’ll do this, do that and these are the hours when I will have my spare time for leisure etc. So, a routine is some kind of luxury, you require a discipline beyond a routine. A successful life, in some sense, is about dancing to somebody else's tune. Who’s tunes? Something bigger than yourself. Something bigger than yourself.
To help others you must be free of others || Acharya Prashant (2015)
To help others you must be free of others || Acharya Prashant (2015)
11 min

Question: Whatever I understand, I know it will vanish.

Speaker: So your question rests on an assumption that you ‘do’ understand something. Should I take it any further?

Even in our humility lies only arrogance. “Whatever I understand, it will vanish, and before it vanishes I want to give it

Freedom is your clear inner sky || Acharya Prashant (2013)
Freedom is your clear inner sky || Acharya Prashant (2013)
8 min

Question: Sir, what is freedom of a person?

Speaker: I do not know whether to laugh or lament.

The sun is asking- “What is brightness?” The flower is asking- “What is odor, what is fragrance?” A free being is asking- “What is freedom?” Flying birds are asking- “What is flight?”

Truth is not for those who sell their freedom || Acharya Prashant (2013)
Truth is not for those who sell their freedom || Acharya Prashant (2013)
7 min

Question: Why don’t we have the courage to speak the truth, to show the truth to anybody?

Speaker: It is because we have traded away our freedom to speak the truth. There is no problem in speaking the truth to anybody, there is no limitation at all. The only limitation

उड़ सकती हूँ, पर कहाँ को? || आचार्य प्रशांत (2023)
उड़ सकती हूँ, पर कहाँ को? || आचार्य प्रशांत (2023)
34 min

प्रश्नकर्ता: नमस्कार आचार्य जी! ये मेरा पहला सत्र है आपके साथ में, और पहली बार भी। बात करने का मौक़ा भी मिल गया। तो मैं बहुत खुश हूँ इस बात को ले के। सवाल इस प्रकार जब मैं आयी थी यहाँ पर तो मैं लेकर नहीं आई थी। मेरा एकमात्र

Willpower is a useless medicine for a non-existent disease || Acharya Prashant, with youth (2013)
Willpower is a useless medicine for a non-existent disease || Acharya Prashant, with youth (2013)
10 min

Listener: Sir, I often find myself surrounded by fears like fear of failure, fear of society. I want to know that how can I get rid of these fears? How can I develop strong will power?

Speaker: Anubhav, will power is rubbish. You do not need willpower. Willpower is a

One is enslaved with her own consent || Acharya Prashant (2016)
One is enslaved with her own consent || Acharya Prashant (2016)
79 min

The discourse began with a spontaneous play on the theme of FREEDOM. Enacted by volunteers of PrashantAdvait Foundation.

Acharya Prashant: Can anyone tell the storyline, please…

Listener: There is this girl and she sees, there was this group of people who were saying “Azaadi , Azaadi (Freedom, Freedom)” inside

The relationship between freewill, destiny, and law of attraction || (2016)
The relationship between freewill, destiny, and law of attraction || (2016)
8 min

Questioner (Q): Can you talk about the relationship between free will, destiny, and the law of attraction?

Acharya Prashant (AP): All three do not exist.

(Laughter)

Free will belongs only to the Truth. Your destiny is to reach the Truth. And only the Truth really attracts you.

Free will —

Easiest method of self-improvement || Neem Candies
Easiest method of self-improvement || Neem Candies
1 min

Self-improvement cannot happen along with self-deception. If you don’t even admit to yourself that you are in the dumps, how would any improvement happen? You don’t really need to announce it to the world. To yourself, you must know where you really stand. And that silent realization, I assure you,

Want to change your life? ||Neem Candies
Want to change your life? ||Neem Candies
1 min

The car manufacturer wants me to be a buyer, so I look at his car and turn into a prospective buyer.

The woman wants me to be an attending man, and I turn into an attending man as per her dictate.

I become what the other wants me to become.

Clarity is needed more than courage || Neem Candies
Clarity is needed more than courage || Neem Candies
1 min

It is not so much about courage; it is about clarity. There are mental conditions in which one seems to become very fearless. Nothing great about those conditions. Some drugs, some weed, a bit of alcohol, and there are so many people who lose all fear. Tremendously intrepid they become.

If you want the immense, why not pay a little price? || Acharya Prashant (2015)
If you want the immense, why not pay a little price? || Acharya Prashant (2015)
8 min

*Questioner: Acharya Ji, Pranam.*

There is a lot happening in my life, the whole day is full of innumerable actions and reactions. What is it to be at the centre and then be doing all this?

Many times I catch myself slipping, at times, I see chaos, there are

What is escaping? || Acharya Prashant (2014)
What is escaping? || Acharya Prashant (2014)
5 min

Questioner (Q): I see myself escaping in all possible ways. I have observed that reading too has become a tool for the mind, to escape seeing itself. I have been seeing this for the past three days. What should I do?

Acharya Prashant (AP): Escaping in what way? What do

Find your place || Neem Candies
Find your place || Neem Candies
1 min

The world is your playground. So don’t be so particular about moving only within your pre-existing circle. If your cause is worth it, show some courage and move out.

If you have a tender and precious sapling in your palm, would you plant it in a desert? No. You will

Belong to the Real One || Neem Candies
Belong to the Real One || Neem Candies
1 min

The mind must be the seat of the Absolute. You must belong to the real One. And then you may be with five persons, ten persons, or no person at all.

The problem is not that the person hurts you, or dominates you, or creates problems for you. The flaw

Who makes your choices? || Acharya Prashant, at Kedarnath (2019)
Who makes your choices? || Acharya Prashant, at Kedarnath (2019)
3 min

Questioner: Acharya Ji, in the previous discourse you mentioned that one should always choose That, instead of money, or fame, or other worldly things. But who is the one who makes this choice? Is that the same ‘I’, that same Ego that makes choice? Can it ever make choice against

Live like a lion! ||Neem Candies
Live like a lion! ||Neem Candies
1 min

First and foremost, understand that others are seeing weakness in you, and that’s why they are trying to overpower you. If they don’t find you weak, they will not try to control you.

It’s not that whatever they said is right or wrong. The point is, how could they dare

Your one and only responsibility || Acharya Prashant (2016)
Your one and only responsibility || Acharya Prashant (2016)
10 min

Questioner (Q): Are we responsible for our actions? Or is it just happening to us? Because, if life happens to us then we are not responsible?

Acharya Prashant (AP): No, you are responsible, you are responsible to let it happen through you. Your only responsibility is towards the Truth. That

Beyond passion || Neem Candies
Beyond passion || Neem Candies
1 min

Passion is as much an external thing as, let’s say, peer pressure. Somebody chooses his work or occupation going by market forces or peer pressure or family pressure, and then there is someone who says, “I am choosing my passion for my livelihood”; these two are hardly different. Even if

What do you love to do? || Neem Candies
What do you love to do? || Neem Candies
1 min

You got into the traps of wrong kinds of work because you were tempted by results. “Let me take up this work. On the 30th day of the month the result will be good. What will be the result? A nice paycheck.”

Now ask yourself, what if it is certain

Real objectivity is disappearance of the subject, hence freedom from the object || (2015)
Real objectivity is disappearance of the subject, hence freedom from the object || (2015)
5 min

Acharya Prashant: Sushmita asks, “What does it mean to look at anything, or anyone, afresh? Memories, inkling, or a very basic thought, always persists”.

Dhirendra says, “Sir, you said that look at everything and everybody as if it is for the first time. How is it possible? How can one

How to remain free from the hurt and sickness of others? || (2017)
How to remain free from the hurt and sickness of others? || (2017)
3 min

Questioner: Dear Acharya Ji, you have said that what is healthy is forgotten, what is sick is remembered. If something is bothering me and making me restless, is it always that I am sick? Can there be also a way where I am healthy, but the sickness of another person

Is there a thing as free will? || Acharya Prashant (2016)
Is there a thing as free will? || Acharya Prashant (2016)
6 min

Questioner: Is there anything as total free will or is there only free will according to conditioning?

Acharya Prashant: You know, the general concept of freedom, what does it entail? The general concept of freedom is all about being free to act as per my conditioning. "I want to buy

Freedom from choices—the highest freedom || (2020)
Freedom from choices—the highest freedom || (2020)
20 min

Questioner (Q): You said that when there are options, choices, there can be no freedom. Earlier I used to think that I am free if I have choices, but Vedanta says that freedom can be only in choicelessness.

Acharya Prashant (AP): And isn’t there great joy in being choiceless? You

Paint yourself on the canvas of life || Neem Candies
Paint yourself on the canvas of life || Neem Candies
1 min

If God has given you anything, it is just the freedom, the power, and the responsibility to create yourself. You are your own father. God is just the background. God is just the canvas on which you paint yourself. God is the brush, God is the color, God is the

Come out of your shell || Neem Candies
Come out of your shell || Neem Candies
1 min

At some point the chick has to discover that the shell of the egg is just too small to spend a life in. How do you think the shell cracks? The baby grows big enough to crack the shell. It’s just that the chick has just one shell to break.

It’s a free world—and everybody is a slave || Neem Candies
It’s a free world—and everybody is a slave || Neem Candies
1 min

“To do as I want to do”—is that not what freedom means to us? The ones who have better sense, they say this is nothing but the freedom to remain a slave. “So, I will be a slave of my choice.” Everybody is free. In the country of slaves, everybody

Great and right relationship || Neem Candies
Great and right relationship || Neem Candies
1 min

Relationships are great when they help elevate your consciousness, and that’s the only purpose of relationships in life. If relationships are not fulfilling that purpose, then relationships are just a big waste, a great drag.

There is no better way, more effective way to waste life than to make a

How to be free of all troubles? || (2017)
How to be free of all troubles? || (2017)
4 min

Questioner: The question is, how to reach the stage of ‘vulnerability’. Because if I become vulnerable, people’s behavior towards me does not bother me. There is no ego, no expectation left. Even if there is something that hits me, then also I remain normal so easily as if nothing has

Unconditional Freedom || Acharya Prashant, with youth (2013)
Unconditional Freedom || Acharya Prashant, with youth (2013)
12 min

Speaker: The reason why people get in love with their conditioning, they get totally attached to their slavery; the reasons are simple, they have developed an identification with that; family, society, nation, I have developed such a deep identification with that, that today if someone comes and shows their falseness,

Do you want courage? || Neem Candies
Do you want courage? || Neem Candies
1 min

There is no great virtue in courage. Courage is momentary, and after that it subsides. Are you always equally courageous? The jails of the world are full of very, very courageous people. At least in their moment of madness, you could say they were not short of courage.

When you

An important lesson for girls || Neem Candies
An important lesson for girls || Neem Candies
1 min

Teach the girls that their body is not an instrument to bear kids. Teach them that their self-worth is not at all linked to their motherhood. Teach them where the real fulfillment of life lies, and teach them that it is not in birthing or breastfeeding.

Teach them creativity, teach

The act of real rebellion || Acharya Prashant, on Albert Camus (2017)
The act of real rebellion || Acharya Prashant, on Albert Camus (2017)
1 min
जो होता है वो क्यों होता है? || आचार्य प्रशांत, युवाओं के संग (2013)
जो होता है वो क्यों होता है? || आचार्य प्रशांत, युवाओं के संग (2013)
12 min

प्रश्नकर्ता: सर हम चीज़ें अट्रैक्ट (आकर्षित) करते है। अगर हमारा कोई एक्सीडेंट भी हुआ है तो वो हमने अट्रैक्ट किया है। सर, ये बात समझ नहीं आती।

आचार्य प्रशांत: नहीं, ऐसा कुछ नहीं है। ये ऐसे ही है। अट्रैक्शन (आकर्षण) वगैरह कुछ नहीं है। ये तो कॉज़ एंड इफ़ेक्ट (कार्य-कारण)

तुम वो जो बाहरी को बाहरी जाने || आचार्य प्रशांत, युवाओं के संग (2014)
तुम वो जो बाहरी को बाहरी जाने || आचार्य प्रशांत, युवाओं के संग (2014)
15 min

प्रश्नकर्ता: आचार्य जी, कोई भी अपने विचार हमपर थोप देता है, उसी विचार को हम फिर अपना बना लेते हैं और उसी के अनुसार जीने लगते हैं। दूसरों के विचारों को अपने ऊपर आने से कैसे रोकें?

आचार्य प्रशांत: क्या ये सवाल भी दूसरों ने कहा है पूछने को?

प्र

ज़िन्दगी जीने के दो तरीक़े || आचार्य प्रशांत, गुरु नानक देव पर (2014)
ज़िन्दगी जीने के दो तरीक़े || आचार्य प्रशांत, गुरु नानक देव पर (2014)
34 min

संजोगु विजोगु दुइ कार चलावहि लेखे आवहि भाग। ~ जपुजी साहिब (नितनेम)

आचार्य प्रशांत: फ़्री विल (मुक्त इच्छा) भी एब्सोल्यूट्ली फ़्री (पूर्णत: मुक्त) है। आपकी जो फ़्री विल है, वो भी इस मामले में तो बाउन्डेड (सीमित) है ही कि वो आपकी नहीं है। जो आपकी इच्छा है वो तो

बड़ा कौन: कर्म या किस्मत? श्रम या भाग्य? || आचार्य प्रशांत कार्यशाला (2023)
बड़ा कौन: कर्म या किस्मत? श्रम या भाग्य? || आचार्य प्रशांत कार्यशाला (2023)
14 min

प्रश्नकर्ता: प्रणाम आचार्य जी। आचार्य जी, फ्री विल (मुक्त इच्छा) कहीं नहीं है। सब अपने गुण व धर्म के अनुसार चल रहे हैं; मैं भी। और अहम् का यानी मेरा कोई चुनाव नहीं है। जैसे नदी की धारा एक साल तक बहकर कहाँ पहुँचेगी यह हम अभी तय कर सकते

उत्कृष्टता का स्रोत है आनंद || आचार्य प्रशांत, युवाओं के संग (2012)
उत्कृष्टता का स्रोत है आनंद || आचार्य प्रशांत, युवाओं के संग (2012)
14 min

आचार्य प्रशांत: अ फ़्री विल (मुक्तेच्छा) माने उसका कर्म उसकी समझ से निकलता है। ही अंडरस्टैंड्स एंड फ़्रॉम दैट अंडरस्टैंडिंग, हिज़ एक्शंस अराइज़। एंड देन, देअर इज़ नो क्वेश्चन ऑफ़ लैक ऑफ़ कॉन्सेंट्रेशन, देअर इज़ नो क्वेश्चन ऑफ़ टाइम मैनेजमेंट। (वो समझता है और उसका कर्म उसकी समझ से निकलता

नौकरी के निर्णय - कुछ लोगों को लालच से ज़्यादा आज़ादी प्यारी होती है || आचार्य प्रशांत (2020)
नौकरी के निर्णय - कुछ लोगों को लालच से ज़्यादा आज़ादी प्यारी होती है || आचार्य प्रशांत (2020)
21 min

प्रश्नकर्ता: प्रणाम आचार्य जी। हमें अपने कैरियर का चुनाव किस आधार पर करना चाहिए? क्या हमें अपना कैरियर अपने व्यक्तित्व के आधार पर चुनना चाहिए, या जिसमें रुचि हो और सफ़लता मिले उस आधार पर?

आचार्य प्रशांत: नहीं, आमतौर पर हम जिसे कैरियर कह रहे हो, वो चुनते ही ऐसे

जो असली है, वो अनायास और अनपेक्षित ही सामने आएगा || आचार्य प्रशांत (2018)
जो असली है, वो अनायास और अनपेक्षित ही सामने आएगा || आचार्य प्रशांत (2018)
11 min

प्रश्नकर्ता: आचार्य जी, जिस प्रकार का जीवन मैंने अब तक जिया है, उसमें आपका आना बिलकुल अनपेक्षित था। कुछ चीज़ों का तो पता था कि ग़लत हैं और इसका परिणाम क्या होगा, पर आपका जीवन में आना क्या था?

आचार्य प्रशांत: यह दुर्घटना हुई।

प्र: क्योंकि मैं इस तरह का

ग़लती कर बैठे? तो ये सुनो! || नीम लड्डू
ग़लती कर बैठे? तो ये सुनो! || नीम लड्डू
1 min

कोई तुम्हें तुम्हारी ग़लती दिखाए और बुरा अगर तुम्हें लगता है, तो तुम जवान कभी-भी होने से रहे। जिसे जवान होना होता है वो अपनी ग़लतियों का सामना करता है। बहुत होते हैं मोटी खाल के बेशर्म टट्टू, उन्हें कोई फ़र्क ही नहीं पड़ता। उन्हें दिख रहा होगा कि ज़िंदगी

अकेले रह जाना ही बेहतर है || नीम लड्डू
अकेले रह जाना ही बेहतर है || नीम लड्डू
2 min

अकेले रह जाना कहीं अच्छा है साँप-बिच्छुओं के साथ रह जाने से, है न? भूखे रह जाना कहीं अच्छा है ज़हर पी जाने से। प्रतीक्षा कर लो, इंतज़ार कर लो, प्रतीक्षा में भी परमात्मा होता है। जब तुम कहते हो, ‘कोई मिला नहीं ऐसा जो तेरी तरफ़ ला सके इसलिए

अगर कठपुतली हैं हम सभी, तो डोर किसके हाथ है? || (2020)
अगर कठपुतली हैं हम सभी, तो डोर किसके हाथ है? || (2020)
13 min

प्रश्नकर्ता: आचार्य जी, यदि जब सत्य पूर्ण है तो उसी स्रोत से जब चेतना आती है तो वो अपूर्ण क्यों है?

आचार्य प्रशांत: चेतना अपूर्ण होती नहीं है। चेतना के पास चुनाव होता है पूर्ण या अपूर्ण होने का। वास्तव में सत्य और चेतना अलग-अलग नहीं है। सत्य ही जब

तुम होते कौन हो जज करने वाले? || (2021)
तुम होते कौन हो जज करने वाले? || (2021)
19 min

प्रश्नकर्ता: मेरा एटिट्यूड रहता है कि अगर कोई बंदा है उसमें कुछ अच्छाईयाँ हैं कुछ बुराइयाँ भी हैं; एवरीथिंग इज देअर (सब कुछ है)। तो उसके अंदर जो अच्छाइयाँ हैं उसके उस अच्छाई को बढ़ावा दिया जाए और तारीफ की जाए, जिससे उसमें सकारात्मक बदलाव हो। और 'किसी को जज