Karma

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

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

Questioner: गीता में लिखा हुआ है कि तुम कर्म करते जाओ, कर्म के फल की चिंता मत करो। So, that’s what was my life’s motto, that Jack of all trades and until you find do what gives you the mental pleasure and do that freely. Like, you want to do… 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

यज्ञार्थात्कर्मणोऽन्यत्र लोकोऽयं कर्मबन्धनः ।

तदर्थं कर्म कौन्तेय मुक्तसंगः समाचर ।। 3.9 ।।

yajñārthāt karmaṇo ’nyatra loko ’yaṁ karma-bandhanaḥ

tad-arthaṁ karma kaunteya mukta-saṅgaḥ samāchara

This man becomes bound by actions other than that action meant for God.

Without being attached, O son of Kunti, you perform actions for Him.

~ Shrimad … read_more

Question: How do I make the mind work for what I know to be important at that moment?

Acharya Prashant: Once you know what is important there will be no need to make the mind work for it. Realization is such a potent force! It cannot be surmounted. If you… 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

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

Questioner (Q): How to distinguish between kartavya and Dharma ? Can you give a quick distinction between the two?

Acharya Prashant (AP): You see, when you do not really know what to do, when you are not in direct touch with Krishna, Brahman , Ātman , Satya , then you… read_more

Questioner (Q): For the uninitiated, the common people, many people ask because of the various concepts and regions around the world — Heaven, Hell, ‘you will get that’, hell fire. So many concepts are there. Are they fanciful imaginations or were they merely symbolic or are they metaphoric?

Acharya Prashant … read_more

Questioner (Q): When I want to do something, I plan a lot. But in the spiritual domain, it is said that planning is bad. What should I do, because when I don’t execute my plans, I don’t get the desired outcome?

Acharya Prashant (AP): No, plan fully and execute fully… read_more

Question: Sir, is understanding of non-doership incumbent to love ones adversaries or are there people who feel no hate right from the onset?

For instance, Buddha would regard someone hitting him, like a twig falling on his head- each karma- each cause and effect dependently originated in wholeness. I, on… read_more

Questioner: When something good or bad happens to someone unexpectedly, is it karma or mere coincidence?

Acharya Prashant: The happening is just a random coincidence. How you experience the happening is your own decision, your own doing, in other words, karma.

Get the difference right, please. The material world is… read_more

Questioner (Q): The Bhagavad Gita says, keep doing the work, don’t worry about the rewards. That has been my ideal in life—be a jack of all trades, do whatever gives you mental pleasure, and do it freely. If I want to do this, I just do this—that has been my… read_more

What you are is what you get. If you are continuously getting rubbish from the world, you know who you are. If you are constantly being mistreated in this life, then you know who you are.

The Saints have lived like kings, even though the world has often prosecuted them.… read_more

Questioner (Q): In Gita it’s written that “Keep doing your action and don’t bother about the result”. So that’s what was my life’s motto: to be the jack of all trades until you find the one. Do whatever gives you mental pleasure and do that freely. You want to do… read_more

Questioner (Q): Sir, my question to you is regarding the fertility clinics. In India, it is a huge business and around the globe it is booming, and many rich people tend to go for it. We have seen that women are often forced to go through multiple IVF cycles, leading… read_more