Questioner: It’s well known that simple living and high thinking are what we should aim at, but how do we know what is simple living and high thinking?
Acharya Prashant: You talked of simple living and high thinking, and you said that it's well-known that simple living and high thinking… read_more
It indeed does help to feel like a victim. It does not help you , but it helps that within you which is a product of victimization. Because if you are a victim, then you are entitled to certain rights. All victims get entitled to special rights.
Operate from a… read_more
Acharya Prashant: Spirituality is not committing suicide, or is it? Then we do not need satsang (gathering), we need mass suicide halls. It’ll all be over! It has happened, you know? There have been cults in Japan and other places where incidents of mass suicides have been reported. They thought… read_more
Questioner: There is some image of something and you are not conscious, where then there is that blocked energy, so to speak? Fear or whatever it is, you act out of reaction. So, what would be… at the moment there is no choice, you are just reacting. What would be… read_more
Acharya Prashant: Only in aloneness can you have relationships that are not exploitative. Otherwise, it doesn’t matter what name, or what color you give to your relationship; your relationship will definitely be one of exploitation. Have you ever looked at your relationships closely? Do you ever want the other? No,… read_more
Questioner: While writing the questions about our lives, we were silent and it feels very peaceful right now. But how to maintain this silence? How to make sure that this silence holds, that it is not momentary?
Acharya Prashant: It is apparent that this silence is conducive to understanding. It… read_more
Acharya Prashant: Man is the only one who has a worrying ego. Man is the only one that has an ego that looks into the future. Other living beings on the earth have a very nominal and minimal ego. All that it wants is to be alright currently, so some… read_more
Acharya Prashant: You are walking along an empty street in the middle of the night—nobody around you, nobody to really disturb you, nobody to talk to you, nobody to point to you, nobody to intercept you, nobody to remind you of anything, and still do you see how much keeps… read_more
Questioner (Q): I am troubled by nihilistic thoughts. I feel that nothing in this world has any real existence or importance. Sometimes when I study, I start questioning its importance and start thinking that I should abandon the studies. I sometimes think about abandoning the material world altogether, but I… read_more
Acharya Prashant: If you have a thought and you do not favour it, support it, energise it, you do not turn it into action, then that thought gets weakened. It loses its power because it is not gaining any sympathy from you.
So, the thought is arising, and the thought… read_more
Acharya Prashant: If you find religion bad, then just honestly consider a world totally without religion. Then probably you will not find religion so bad.
I assure you, there is nothing in man’s physical constitution that prevents him from being envious or lustful or tense or attached. In fact, man… read_more
Questioner: Hello sir, my question is that I’m fully aware of the thoughts that I’m having, most of the times. So, I feel like, ever since so for a year and a half, I have been going through something, it’s a low phase. I acknowledge the suffering and I know… read_more
How do you, ask the chief of police, patrol a city, where the butcher shops are guarded by vultures, where bulls get pregnant, cows are barren, and calves give milk three times a day, where mice are the boatmen, and tomcats row the boats, where frogs keep snakes as watchdogs, … read_more
Questioner: Sir, so one when day I was taking a bath, I was applying soap so there was a moment when I realized - the one who is applying the soap, and to whom it is getting applied to, both are somewhere different but both are one. But there is… read_more
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… read_more
Acharya Prashant: Thought serves a great purpose: it eats away your time. Otherwise, time will become such a burden. Thinking, thinking, continuously thinking, you comfortably let days, months, years, and decades slip away. And then you are so thankful that death arrives; otherwise living 80 years and that too in… read_more
Questioner: I am troubled by nihilistic thoughts. I feel that nothing in this world has any real existence or importance. Sometimes when I study, I start questioning its importance and start thinking that I should abandon the studies. I sometimes think about abandoning the material world altogether, but I am… read_more
Acharya Prashant: In these matters a little twist and turn of the words creates a huge gap in understanding. Let’s go into it. You say that you can’t understand why we must not believe in the past.
No, there is no question of believing in the past or not believing… read_more
Questioner: Sir, what is an ideal?
Speaker: You tell me. What is idealism?
Listener: It is a prescription by the society in regard to how we should be.
Speaker: For an idealism to exist, there must be an ideal, and for an ideal, there should be an idea. Let’s see… read_more
Question: Sir, you say in one of your quotes, “I see that I think, therefore I am.” Please explain.
Speaker: I had said this in response to that famous quote of Descartes that the West so admiringly seems to follow. Descartes has said, “I think, therefore I am.” So I… read_more
Acharya Prashant (AP): (Reading question) “Acharya Ji, please show me the light, so that I could be at my center. Sometimes, I feel, when I listen to you or when I read the verses, a certain centeredness within me. What is that? And, how can I remain centered? Please explain… read_more
Thinking, thinking, continuously thinking, you comfortably let days, months, years, decades slip away, and then you are so thankful that death arrives.
Thought serves a great purpose: it eats away your time. Otherwise, time will become such a burden.
Someone comes to you and demands, “Now is the time to… read_more
Question: Acharya Ji, Pranaam! I came to know you through your videos on YouTube. I am very grateful that I came to know about the Ribhu Gita from your session organised on Mahashivratri day.
Since then I have read the full document more than five times, and it is difficult… read_more
*Questioner : Most of the thoughts are coming from society and family. So, how can I judge that which thought is mine or not?*
Acharya Prashant: No thought is yours; no thought is ever your own. You have very rightly said that all thoughts come from this place or… read_more
Is lust a thought, or is lust more or less instantaneous? Does lust even give you space to think? In fact, if you could think in the moment of great lust or anger, then you would act better.
Thought has its uses. The emotional ones need to be the thoughtful… read_more
When thoughts of your personal success stop mattering to you, when you say, “There is something more important than my personal success,” then you have really succeeded.
It has to be so big that you forget about your failures, your happiness, your sadness.
Somebody comes and tells you, “But you… read_more
Swami Vivekananda has said, “First of all, our young men must be strong; religion will come afterwards. Be strong, my young friends; that is my advice to you. You will be nearer to heaven through football than through the study of the Gita.”
Swami Vivekananda was no soccer evangelist. His… read_more
Acharya Prashant: We rarely understand. We only keep thinking. And we think that we are understanding.Naresh, there is a humongous difference between ‘thinking’ and ‘understanding’.
We ‘think’, but we rarely ‘understand’.When you look at that mobile phone, you are ‘thinking’, you are not ‘understanding’. ‘Understanding’ is a totally different thing.… read_more
Acharya Prashant: Azaz is saying, “I think a lot in relationship, no matter whom I am related to. Even when I am sitting here, I am thinking a lot about how to frame a question. How to know the right response while being related? How do I know my right… read_more
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… read_more
Questioner: Acharya Ji, all my thoughts are unable to come to expression because of fear of judgement or social restraints. Should I free them only by deeds? Kindly throw light on this.
Acharya Prashant: Yes, Parmeshwari (Questioner), of course. There is no more a final arbiter than action, deeds, life.… read_more
If money is the gift that a father leaves behind for the son, then it’s a very petty gift—in fact, a dangerous gift. In fact, only a loveless father would think of primarily money to bequeath to the son. The more would be the money that you leave for him,… read_more
Questioner: Sir, you always say to live with the thoughts. But at any second there are so many thoughts in mind so how to control it, sir? How to control the mind?
Acharya Prashant: Who will control them? If one is in a dream and the dream is a very… read_more
When the woman is not in front of you, do you keep fantasizing about her all the time? This is mental illness. Only if you are indulging in all kinds of sexual fantasies and inner perversion will you jump upon her at the first sight. Otherwise, there is hardly anything… read_more
Questioner: Recently, you had a talk at IIT-Delhi and now you are here (IIM- A), both of these universities are your Alma-mater. Your batch-mates today would be at multiple corporate senior positions and you are a spiritual leader. So, how do you look at them and whom would you see… read_more
Pay attention to all your thoughts, emotions, actions. Something unknown is waiting there for you. Most people know nothing about themselves.
If you are angry, it tells you that there is something within you that is resisting the world now. Why is it resisting the world? Go into it. Try… read_more
Acharya Prashant: You may think of yourself whatever you want to, whatever pleases you, but no thought will bring fulfillment to you. So you can think of yourself as the non-dual Truth! Keep thinking. Continue!
It is not the object of thought but thought itself which is the disturbance. It… read_more
Acharya Prashant: Being in the right environment itself is Satsang. Satsang does not necessarily mean a gathering. Satsang means realizing what affects the mind and acting accordingly. Give the mind the right food, give the mind the right companions. The right companions of all kinds: right books, right food in… read_more
If you can smilingly tolerate an animal being slaughtered for your diet, then you will equally well tolerate you being psychologically slaughtered for the profit of your profit-minded organization. If you are slaughtering a chicken so that you may eat it and fatten yourself, then you will equally well tolerate… read_more
