Living in the Present

Success never quiets the anxiety underneath it. Hustle culture runs on karma — a restless cycle of chasing the next job, package, or achievement in hopes of filling an inner void. Young professionals in Bangalore who've "succeeded" on paper remain fearful, ashamed, and unsettled within, proof that success is a liar: it promises liberation but delivers only debt. Anxiety itself traces not to the future but to a present that's been neglected, and real freedom from restlessness begins only by turning inward.

Question: Sir, people these days emphasis on the idea of the ‘Power of now’. But you say that the present is different from the now. Please elaborate.

Speaker: This whole talk about the power of now is a great sham. It is deep materialism disguised as spirituality. The present is…

Acharya Prashant: That's why the rājasika mind is better than the tāmsika mind. The rājasika says, “I’m not alright. I need to do something to become better. I feel inferior. I feel incomplete. I need to rise. I need to achieve.” That’s the rājasika mind. The rājasika mind at least…

लिविंग इन द ट्रुथ होता है। द मोमेंट इज़ जस्ट अ स्टोरी, फैंटास्टिक स्टोरी कुछ नहीं है। मोमेंट कुछ है ही नहीं, लिविंग इन द प्रेज़ेंट फिर भी बोल सकते हो क्योंकि वो प्रेज़ेंट का मतलब हो जाएगा सत्य 'वर्तमान', दैट विच इज़ प्रेज़ेंट, उपस्थित जो सचमुच है। वो तो फिर भी हो जाएगा। लिविंग इन द प्रेज़ेंट का मतलब ये नहीं होगा कि लिविंग इन दिस मोमेंट, लिविंग इन द प्रेज़ेंट का मतलब हो जाएगा लिविंग ट्रुथफुली, लिविंग ट्रुथफुली।

आप उपनिषदों को खोलेंगे, आप शास्त्रों को खोलेंगे, उनमें 'बीइंग इन द मूमेंट' जैसी कोई बात नहीं है। ये 'बीइंग इन द मूमेंट' कंज़म्प्शन (उपभोग) को बढ़ावा देता है। इसीलिए एक इंडस्ट्रियल एज (औद्योगिक युग) में ये बहुत प्रचलित मुहावरा है— ‘खा रहे हो तो खाओ न, क्यों विचार करते हो कि क्या आगे होगा, क्या पीछे होगा?’ भले ही उधार लेकर खाना पड़े।

प्रश्नकर्ता: आचार्य जी, जब हम हेयर एंड नाउ और प्रेजेंट मोमेंट(यहीं और अभी, और वर्तमान के क्षण) की बात करते हैं तो उसमें भी हमारा माइंड(दिमाग) तो एक्टिव(सक्रिय) रहता ही है हर चीज़, मेमोरी(स्मृतियाँ) तो कलेक्ट(एकत्र) हो ही रही है न। डिसीज़न मेकिंग(निर्णय लेने)…

प्रश्नकर्ता: कोई काम करते हैं या कोई बुक पढ़ते हैं, तो मन उस समय नहीं होता, वो भविष्य या भूतकाल में चला जाता है। ज़्यादातर प्रेज़ेन्ट (वर्तमान) में नहीं रहता है। तो क्या करें कि वो अधिकांशतः वर्तमान में ही रहे?

आचार्य प्रशांत: क्या करोगे तुम वर्तमान में रहकर?

प्र:…

You see all time movement is in the brain but the mind is brain plus something else, what is that? It's Intelligence, and intelligence operates in the present and in present there is no purpose. Do not run after purpose. Just be present. Presence, not purpose. Presence is intelligence, purpose is conditioning. So, there is no purpose in life except what is happening right now. And this right now is called presence. Whatever you will call as the purpose of your life will essentially be your conditioning.

सांसारिक कर्म आप कर ही नहीं रहे हैं। सांसारिक कर्म हो रहे हैं अपनेआप। मूल भ्रम यही है कि सांसारिक कर्म करने वाले आप हैं। इन्द्रियाँ हैं, मस्तिष्क है, बुद्धि है, अंतःकरण है, स्मृति है, ये सब अपना काम करना बख़ूबी जानते हैं। आप न जाने किस दंभ में हैं कि ये सब काम दुनिया के आप कर रहे हैं!

Questioner: Why does the mind wander when we sit to study? How to control the mind?

Acharya Prashant: What’s your name?

Questioner: Aman.

Acharya Prashant: Aman is asking, “How to control the mind.” What he is saying is we sit down to study, right? And the mind wanders here and…

Acharya Prashant: You see you are a human being. It is neither possible nor advisable for you to just give up on the past. The body is nothing but a flow of the past stretching over time. So, you cannot just wish away the past. It won’t happen.

If the…

Speaker: The question asked is that why can’t the brain be in the present? Because the present is not. You see, your mind makes sense of the world around. Your mind continuously makes sense of this world all around. But can your mind make sense of this moment? This moment…

Speaker: Before we chase something and want to be consistent in our chase, it’s very important to understand whether consistency is a worthy thing at all. Is that not important? Before you chase something, won’t you want to know whether the thing is worth chasing or not? Otherwise, you…

Question: Is acceptance of everything that comes in life is same as living in the present?

Speaker: What is acceptance? What are these things that come to life? What do you mean by ‘my life’? What do you mean by ‘acceptance’?

Listener 1: ‘Acceptance’ means that the things that are…

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…

Questioner (Q): How can we, in daily life, go closer to the Truth? Is that through sitting, walking, working, meditation, by living mindfully in the present moment? Isn’t mindfulness taught by the Buddha himself?

Acharya Prashant (AP): Which Buddha are you referring to (asking the questioner)? The Buddha of the…

Question: Sir, my question is, ‘How to focus on the present?’

Acharya Prashant: Do you need to focus on the present?

Listener: Sir, that is my only problem. When I study, all the shortcomings of my past keep coming to my mind.

AP: Present is there. You don’t need to…

Acharya Prashant (AP): You may plan to go and meet somebody, will you also plan how to hug him and what all to say to him? Will you also plan that?

Now, what is essential, the time at which you meet him, or the time that you spend with him?…

Questioner: When I am busy in doing certain activities that I enjoy doing, there are expectations from the future, but no frustrations at present. What is this state? Can it remain forever?

Acharya Prashant: If this can happen, it is a very welcome thing. There are certain actions that produce…

You might be twenty-five today; where is the one who was twenty yesterday? Isn’t he gone? How can you stop the other from departing when you couldn’t prevent even your own old self from departing?

Remember your old self, the one that was there at the age of five, ten,…

“Enjoy the moment! Go with the flow!” What is that flow? Where is it coming from? Why should I go with it? Why don’t you just pause and ask, which flow are we talking of?

The tsunamis are coming to take you away, and the great master is teaching you:…

Questioner (Q): Most often we are asked to live in the present and be here and now and mindful. Can you talk to us about that?

Acharya Prashant (AP): The same thing, I mean, when we were talking about what to do with knowledge, I said it depends on the…

Acharya Prashant (AP): There is this question about direct observation and how the world when ‘directly’ observed appears muddled up, appears quite confusing. There is a question that what is all this. One of the aspects of the question is, ‘What is love? When I look at the world around,…

Worrying is nothing but an unauthorized concern for results. First of all, it is a concern for results. Secondly, it is an unauthorized concern for results. You are trying to speculate about something you are not authorized to think about. You have no authorization, no locus standi to think about…

Attentiveness can only be to that which is present. The past is a filler. Do not blame the past. If you have nothing right now with you, then as a filler, past and future would flow in. Do you want to blame them?

The present is not merely engagement in…

Speaker : What is the present? We keep on talking of the present, what is the present?

The present is the source, present is nothing but the Truth.

The present is that from which everything emanates. The present is all, there is nothing but the present and the present is…

The mark of the one living rightly is that he doesn’t have the need to think too much. Thought, in some way, is a compensatory mechanism: what you couldn’t do right you want to think right. But you cannot think right what you have done wrongly, or can you?

In…

Immerse yourself in the right action, and then where is the space and the time to worry? Surely you are stealing time away from work so that you can indulge in worries and anxieties and fancies of all kinds.

Young people fantasize, don’t they? Some fantasize about beautiful, pretty, exciting…

Questioner: What is the exact way to live life?

Acharya Prashant: Are we right now living inexactly? Is there something wrong right now? You want to correct it?

What do you mean by exact? What is missing that you want to achieve? What exactness are you running after? When you…

The past is a great resource. It is not to be wasted away or thrown away or forgotten. If you do not really decode your past, you are bound to repeat your past. Forget all the propaganda coming from the neo-spiritual circles that say that the past is something to…

When you say that you go to your workplace for a purpose, is the purpose ever the work? The purpose is the salary cheque. In fact, if work could be bypassed and you could straightaway reach the salary cheque, then who would want to work? Is work the purpose really?…

Why do the regular events of life succeed in deceiving you? Because you are not available to them; because you are not looking at them as they are; because you are not listening to what they are really saying right now. Instead, you are carrying images and echos—images of scenes…

Listener 1: Sir we talked about ‘now’. We look at the past, conditioning starts getting activated. If we look at the future, fear gets activated. But if we look at the ‘now’, because there is only this moment, this ‘now’, so can we say that this moment is timeless? It’s…

Let’s assume for a while that your worries about the future are founded in facts. Let’s say some grand evil army is invading your little fortress and you can see them all coming with your binoculars, and you are estimating that they will reach you in another four hours. They…

Question: Is it real that human beings can live forever?

Acharya Prashant: It depends on what you think of human beings. If you think that they are born, then they will die.

L1: I mean the human body.

AP: The body never dies!

L1: The body never dies?

AP: Never…

Speaker: Be present to life and that is sufficient, improvement will come. It will happen on its own. You know, there are people who when they want to reduce weight make great plans. When it comes to the moment of exercising and jogging, then I am absent. After that, what…

Worrying is the other name of hope. When you think negatively about the future, you call it worry. When you think positively about the future, you call it hope. So, worrying is just as equally bad as hoping.

Conserve your energy. Train your thoughts. Discipline your little self. Time is…

You don’t have to think of the final victory. The final victory will always be a gift immense beyond your imagination or desire. You have to think of your current daily battles. You have to think of your little daily victories. If you think of the final victory, all you…

The old would either turn into the new or will have to go away. And if it is not turning into the new, then it will keep you too old. If you are moving towards the new, now there can be no carrying of the old. Either the old will…

There is a subtle pleasure in worrying. Surely you are stealing time away from work so that you can indulge in worries and anxieties and fancies of all kinds.

The opposite of this self-centered worry is immersion in action. Immerse yourself in the right action, and then where is the…

A. Living in the Present

The Present is not an object of thought. To live in the Present, first of all you must know what is really ‘Present’. You know what is meant by Present? What really is ‘Presence’? Living in the Present means living in the Truth, because only…

प्रश्नकर्ता: आचार्य जी नमस्कार। आपकी शिक्षाओं की वजह से मेरी निजी ज़िन्दगी में काफ़ी परिवर्तन आया है और एक चीज़ जो मैंने सीखी है वह है वर्तमान क्षण में जीना, जो आपने बहुत दिन पहले शुरुआती दिमाग वाली बात बतायी थी, वह निजी ज़िन्दगी में बहुत अच्छी तरह से काम…

प्रश्नकर्ता: आचार्य जी, ये जो कुछ भी आप कर रहे हैं इसमें भी, क्या इसमें आपका कोई स्वार्थ है? और अगर है, तो क्या स्वार्थ है?

आचार्य प्रशांत: देखो, स्वार्थ तो पूरा-पूरा है, मैं क्यों कहूँ कि इसमें मेरे लिए कुछ नहीं है? तुम्हारे लिए किताबें पब्लिश (प्रकाशित) होती हैं, …

प्रश्नकर्ता: आचार्य जी, मेरी परेशानी यह है कि मैं वर्तमान में केन्द्रित नहीं रह पाता। जैसे कभी अतीत की चिंता, कभी भविष्य की चिंता। और जो वर्तमान में चल रहा होता है वह भी ख़राब हो जाता है। दिमाग में ही कुछ-न-कुछ चलता रहता है, लेकिन उसे लागू नहीं कर…

कल की सुबह अलग हो सकती है अगर आप आज की रात बदल डालें। आज की रात तो बदलने में कोई रुचि दिखा नहीं रहे, कल की सुबह यूँही अलग कैसे हो जाएगी भाई? कैसे?

बिलकुल एक नया भविष्य आ सकता है अगर तुम वो ना रह गए हो जो…

मैं इंदिरापुरम की ओर से निकल रहा था, तीन-चार साल पहले की बात है। अचानक मेरी गाड़ी के सामने दौड़ता हुआ एक मुर्गा आ गया। वो छूट कर भागा, वो सड़क की तरफ़ आ गया कि, ‘गाड़ी से कुचल कर मर जाऊँगा तो मर जाऊँगा, पर इसके साथ रहना मंज़ूर…

सिकंदर दुनिया में सिर्फ़ एक ही है असली; कौन? जो घड़ी को हरा दे। वरना बहुत बड़े-बड़े बादशाह हो गए, सब से जीत लेते हैं, किससे हार जाते हैं? घड़ी से; घड़ी से जीत कर दिखाओ तो बात है! समझ में आ रही बात?

वो टिक-टिक लगातार याद रहे। कलाई…

प्रश्नकर्ता: सर जी, कृपया बताएँ कि अतीत के कड़वे अनुभवों के साथ वर्तमान को मिठास से कैसे जिया जाए?

आचार्य प्रशांत: बाबा, अतीत के कड़वे अनुभव होते ही इसीलिए हैं ताकि तुम वर्तमान को मिठास से जी सको। देखो तुम्हारे प्रश्न में एक मान्यता, एक अज़म्पशन है। वो अज़म्पशन ये…

आचार्य प्रशांत:

एक डायरी बनाओ, उसमें नियम से रोज़ रात को लिखा करो कि दिन के कितने मिनट मुक्ति के लिए बिताये। बिल्कुल साफ़ हिसाब। और उसमें लिखा करो कि कितने काम थे कि जो तुम्हें नहीं करने चाहिए थे पर प्रकृति करवा गई, ईमानदारी से। इन सारे कामों का…

प्रश्न: ‘एकमेव अद्वितीय्म’ में कहा गया है कि सृष्टी बन जाने के बाद अब भी वह सद्वस्तु वैसी की वैसी ही है, इसे कैसे समझे?

आचार्य प्रशांत: सृष्टी बन जाने के बाद, सृष्टी बन जाने के पहले इन सब संद्धर्भो में नहीं बात कि जा सकती है सद्वस्तु की। तुम…