Karma

नैव तस्य कृतेनार्थो नाकृतेनेह कश्चन। न चास्य सर्वभूतेषु कश्चिदर्थव्यपाश्रयः ।।१८।।

इस संसार के कर्मों के अनुष्ठान से निष्कामी मनुष्य को कोई प्रयोजन नहीं रहता फिर, और ऐसे मनुष्य को कर्मत्याग की कोई आवश्यकता नहीं रहती। ऐसे मनुष्य के लिए संसार में किसी प्रयोजन की सिद्धि हेतु आश्रय करने योग्य भी … read_more

Questioner: I believe a lot in execution. I keep saying sometimes when I’m in private that I’m a doer; I do things.

Acharya Prashant: Yes.

Questioner: And I believe that I am dedicated to God. I believe that I try a lot of things, but you know some things happen,… read_more

Questioner: I just wanted to request you to help us in knowing something about being Yogi and how it is different from being Karma Yogi?

Acharya Prashant: Yog is one. It's just that it is expressed in various ways; Yog is union, coming together of the many. So, when you… read_more

Acharya Prashant: The spiritual soldier, the religious warrior has to be extremely intelligent. You could go to the extent of saying that he has to be cunning in the service of Truth; I’m choosing this word with all deliberation.

He has to be cunning in the service of the Truth;… read_more

Acharya Prashant: We do not just act; we act with the intention of obtaining the fruit of the action.

So, the actor is there, and the actor acts as per his own personal intellect, desires, calculations, and projections. He speculates, calculates that his action will get him a particular result.… read_more

प्रश्नकर्ता: आचार्य जी नमस्कार, मैं अभी आपसे दो-ढाई महीने से जुड़ा हुआ हूँ। मेरी उम्र तीस चल रही है, तो आज भी मैं जी रहा हूँ और दो-ढाई महीने पहले भी जी रहा था। पर पहले वो जीवन में ठसक नहीं थी जो अभी है। पहले मैं जो भी काम… read_more

Acharya Prashant: ‘Karma’ or doing, or action is easier to understand. That, with which you associate yourself as the doer is karma. Remember you are not the doer; you are associating yourself with the action. Where is the action happening? The action is happening in the domain of the senses.… read_more

Questioner: Good Evening Sir. My name is Tarun Singh from IIM Nagpur. Sir my question is this, actually we understand this thing that in life everything is temporary. Be it my existence on this earth, or any relationship, or my friendship, or any environment around me, everything is temporary. So,… read_more

Acharya Prashant: Arjuna's hell was in his day-to-day activities, your hell too lies in your day-to-day activities. Arjuna could sense the evil in what appeared normal to the others, you must also be able to sense that there is something extremely fishy in what appears normal to others.

Do not… read_more

आचार्य प्रशांत: दुर्गा सप्तशती ले रहे हैं। उसका जो मध्यम चरित्र, दूसरा चरित्र है, तीन चरित्र हैं उसमें। तो जो दूसरा उसका चरित्र है, वो अध्याय दो-तीन-चार से आता है। इसमें प्रकृति माने देवी अपने रजोगुणी रूप में प्रकट होती हैं। ठीक है? यहाँ जो उनका नाम है, वो है… read_more

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… read_more

Questioner: Karma is such a ubiquitous word. Everyone is using it. And the word ‘Karma’ is right now popular in the west, too. Even if you see Hollywood movies, they use the word Karma, maybe with some negative words between. What is Karma?

Acharya Prashant: You see, the entire Vedantic… read_more

Question: Life is almost like a tug-of-war. At one point we are averse to change, but at the other end, we love change so much. At least speaking about myself, I can say so. You don’t like change when it happens on its own, but you like to make changes… read_more

Question: Sir, as you said right now that when I am really here, then there is no opportunity for restlessness. But when I am really here, a restlessness, an inner thirst, is there. And this thirst is unbearable.

Shri Prashant: No, you call that restlessness. It is never there on… read_more

आचार्य प्रशांत: कर्मसंन्यास और कर्मयोग क्या हैं? दोनों में अन्तर क्या है? आमतौर पर हम जिसे कर्म कहते हैं; वो कैसे होता है? वो ऐसे होता है कि जैविक रूप से और सामाजिक रूप से मन संस्कारित रहता है। फ़िज़िकल , सोशल दोनों तरह के संस्कार। तो मन में पहले… read_more

कुलक्षये प्रणश्यति कुलधर्माः सनातनाः। धर्मे नष्टे कुलं कृत्सन्धर्मोऽभिभवत्युत।।

हे अर्जुन, जिसको संन्यास कहते हैं उसी को तुम योग जानो क्योंकि संकल्पों का त्याग न करने वाला कोई भी पुरूष योगी नहीं होता।

~ श्रीमद्भगवद्गीता, छठा अध्याय, दूसरा श्लोक

प्रश्नकर्ता: संकल्पों के बिना कोई जीवन में आगे कैसे बढ़ें? निष्काम कर्म… read_more

प्रश्नकर्ता: ये प्रश्न आपके व्यक्तिगत जीवन से जुड़ा है। बहुत सारे लोगों को शायद ये उत्सुकता होगी, मुझे भी है कि हमने आपको हमेशा सत्र में देखा है और यहाँ पर कैंप में आते हैं, यहाँ पर देखा है, यूट्यूब पर देखा है लेकिन उसके बाद आप क्या करते हैं?… read_more

अयति: श्रद्धयोपेतो योगाच्चलितमानस:। अप्राप्य योगसंसिद्धिं कां गतिं कृष्ण गच्छति।।६.३७।।

अर्जुन बोले — हे श्रीकृष्ण! जो योग में श्रद्धा रखने वाला है, किन्तु संयमी नहीं है, इस कारण जिसका मन अन्तकाल में योग से विचलित हो गया है, ऐसा साधक योग की सिद्धि को अर्थात भगवत्साक्षात्कार को न प्राप्त होकर किस … read_more

I have often said that animals are in many ways better than human beings. Man had the potential to either rise above the animal or fall way below it. Man has continuously been making the wrong choice.

If you cannot build your cities and your social systems on spiritual foundations,… read_more

Questioner (Q): Acharya Ji, we have talked about friends and how we have the freedom to choose our friends, and elaborating on that thought we don’t have the freedom to choose our family members, our relatives. And the way we are brought up, the way we are socialized, there is… read_more

Question: Dear Sir,

There is one question on the ‘action’ that has been playing on my mind since you sent me the mail about the desireless action.

You said when there is no self, there is purity in being and hence the desireless action takes place. By this do you… read_more

Questioner (Q): What is the exact meaning of ’Gahna Karmo Gati’? There are a lot of sayings about that.

Acharya Prashant (AP): You'll have to quote the entire shloka (verse); then you'll understand. Actually, these three words, ‘Gahna Karmo Gati’, have been quoted so variously and so frequently, even by… read_more

Questioner (Q): We have often discussed that one should not go to somebody with a reason. But if we discuss this in the context of a student-teacher relationship, a student goes to his teacher thinking that going to the teacher, he will probably get rid of his diseases. So, there… read_more

Questioner: You are holding a rabbit in your hands, what else is there except sensory perception? Why must there be anything beyond sensory perception? Just look at the creature, look into his eyes. Let the perception be total, and you will realize what is beyond perception. But that comes as… read_more

Question (Q): Acharya Ji, on being asked, can Karma ever come to an end? Ramana Maharshi says, "Karmas carry the seed of their own destruction in themselves." Dear Acharya Ji, please help me understand, how Karmas carry the seed of their own destruction?

Acharya Prashant (AP): Karma is action. We… read_more

Nothing is preordained. Every moment you have the liberty to make a fresh choice. The principle of karma offers you great freedom; the principle of karma simply does not sit well with any kind of fatalistic argument. Nothing is preordained except your ultimate destiny, which is to be liberated. All… read_more

Questioner (Q) : The problem usually comes from the idea when one says that to attain a higher pleasure, you have to go through higher suffering. For a common mind, there is his suffering (common suffering), and then there is pleasure, which is a lower pleasure. Now, in Vedanta or… read_more

Questioner (Q): Acharya Ji, do you believe in past life?

Acharya Prashant (AP): That is irrelevant. Will I find you after your death? Will even you find yourself after your death?

Q: I may be in a different body.

AP: In a different body, will you have the same psyche,… read_more

Acharya Prashant (AP): Do you see why the motivation industry is so evergreen, always? Because we don't want to give up hope; because we want to keep believing, we have a stubborn stake there that we have not failed. “A particular type of attempt has failed. If I try again… read_more

Questioner (Q): It is said, “The one who is not able to incorporate the knowing in his doing is worse than the one who does not know at all.” Just wanted some clarification on this.

Acharya Prashant (AP): You see, man has an active mind. Man has a mind driven… read_more

Questioner (Q): Karma is such a ubiquitous word. Everyone is using it. And the word ‘Karma’ is right now popular in the west, too. Even if you see Hollywood movies, they use the word Karma, maybe with some negative words between. What is Karma?

Acharya Prashant (AP): You see, the… read_more

Questioner (Q): Sir, I have read that karma means action, what one thinks consciously and subconsciously, what one does. Our future action depends on the karma of the past and the present. But there is a thing in circulation these days that says that karma is actually a boomerang: if… read_more

Question: Destruction of our world, which we find comfort in, is inevitable. We can only help ourselves understand this, and minimize our suffering. To a cozily sleeping mind though, this realization is a nightmare. We can only pull it out slowly from of its deep sleep.

Travelling without luxuries and… read_more

Acharya Prashant (AP): Now, let’s revisit a few basic things regarding the deed and the doer. Action and the actor. Shri Krishna tells Arjun very early on in his epic discourse — “All that is ever happening is due to the three Gunas (attributes) of Prakriti (material nature). Yet, the… read_more

Questioner (Q): Sir, you have said that “right action is its own reward; the wrong action is its own punishment.” Basis your quote, the common man must choose right action and be naturally aversive to the wrong action but that does not happen. Kindly, throw some light on it.

Acharya … read_more