Truth

In the rule books of the courts, there are offenses of a thousand kinds, but when it comes to life, there is just one offense, ‘Did you live by the Truth or did you betray it?’ Remember that chap called Bhagat Singh and his associates. The courts declared they were guilty, and they were still joyful because they were absolutely not guilty in front of life. Live rightly, and then don’t apologize. That’s it.

Truth at the Heart of Culture and Traditions

The Bhagavad Gita, in essence, is a struggle of mukti (liberation) against sanskriti (culture). Shri Krishna urges Arjun to discard misogyny and cultural superstitions; the only thing that matters is mukti — liberation. Culture and traditions are time-bound; they hold meaning only when they point towards Truth — timeless, Sanatan. Have great traditions, and always be careful that your traditions are pointing towards the Truth. Only then do the traditions have life.

Truth Without Apology [Book Launch]

1 min

This evening in Delhi, a new book steps into the world—Truth Without Apology by Acharya Prashant. The launch takes place amidst seekers, readers, and companions of his work. In times when words are often polished to please and truths are dressed in comforting disguises, Truth Without Apology arrives like an uninvited storm—direct, raw, and uncompromising.

Truth Without Apology

25 min

Life comes to us in an unending number of ways and you never know what's going to happen next. We are starved of something that really penetrates the surface. So, it is the intensity that this book brings — arrow-like depth, striking like lightning, immediately, so you don't have a chance to escape away from it. Like a Zen koan: very brief, very effective, and does its work in a snap. You could open just any chapter from anywhere and find it as if it was written just for you.

Is The Truth A Secret?

The Truth is not a complicated puzzle. Everything is laid open, right in front of you. So, if it is not happening even now, then it is just because of your own mischief. We give preference to the trivial and miss out on the important. We drift from one thing to another, with no thing meaning anything to us. You are not missing the secret; you are missing the obvious.

So Far, Yet So Near

16 min

When words arise from an honest observation of life, then those words are called "divine."

Spirituality Is Basic Honesty

9 min

The distinction between spiritual life and worldly life is a false distinction. Spirituality is not morality or a set of commandments. It is never instructive. You do not need great formulations or special practices. Spirituality is basic honesty. Just see and acknowledge what is going on, and then the right action follows. Nothing else is needed.

Dance, and dance naked || Acharya Prashant, on Saint Lalleshwari (2016)

15 min

DANCE NAKED

Dance, Lalla, with nothing on

But air: Sing, Lalla,

wearing the sky.

Look at this glowing day! What clothes

Could be so beautiful or

more sacred?

~Lal Ded

Acharya Prashant- what does it mean to dance with nothing on?

L1- No causes.

AP- What does it mean to… read_more

Top Books on Lord Shiv By Acharya Prashant

5 min

Explore Books on Lord Shiv by Acharya Prashant, revealing deep Vedantic insights into Shiv’s true essence, symbols, and spiritual wisdom beyond misconceptions.

Truth Is Formless

All forms of gods and goddesses have emerged from man's mind — they are our own projections. Even if you show a god in the form of an animal, the animal will still be anthropomorphic, very closely related to human beings. So, this proves that we are worshipping our own form. Therefore, if any form does not remind you of a Truth beyond the form, then the form has not succeeded on you. This is why the highest spiritual philosophies have always said that the Truth is formless.

Shakti Is Movement, Shiva Is The Destination

9 min

Shakti represents everything in motion, everything that can be experienced, everything in space-time. We move in search of a final destination. That point is symbolically represented by Shiva. Those who are inclined towards having the right kind of movement worship Shakti. Those who have fallen in love with the destination itself, worship Shiva. The fact is that the two are inseparable.

Do Ghosts Exist? Bhoot-Pishaach Nikat Nahin Aave

6 min

To the one who believes in ghosts (Bhūta-Piśāca) — for him, they exist. When you are asleep and are engaged in some nightmare, you feel it actually exists. Bhūta-Piśāca Nikata Nahiṁ Āve, Mahāvīra Jab Nāma Sunāve: Mahavira Hanuman, devoted to Shri Ram, is to be taken as the representative of Truth. If you can be close to the representative of the Truth, you will get rid of all nonsensical and horrifying imaginations.

The Most Difficult Battle to Fight

Practice means incremental improvement, daily improvement, moment-to-moment improvement. That's what we started this session with. Step by step you have to move — even towards the absolute. No one step can take you to the absolute. Not even a million steps can take you to the absolute. But still, there is no way except the million steps.

God and Truth Are Different Things

9 min

What you call as God is a concept; Truth is not a concept. Therefore, you can have stories about God, various religions, and their miscellaneous beliefs. But you can have no story at all about Truth because it is that which is invariable. Time cannot change it, and it doesn't vary from person to person. Irrespective of your subjective state, it remains as it is. Truth just turns you silent.

Question Everything

The Truth cannot be objectified as a thing, place, person, or book. So, don't be too quick to accept your own assessments, judgments, likes, dislikes, and experiences. Whatever you're seeing is seen by "you" — the Ego — and you are no absolute. Everything must be available to enquiry, investigation, and questioning — and questioning cannot happen if you declare that you’ve already come to the Truth. Never believe that the journey has ended or that the ego itself is the Truth.

You Are in Prison

Never forget who you are — you are someone in prison. Talk of exits, and if doors do not exist, blast the damn walls. That's the reason why you need power. You should honestly and realistically seek freedom from your current bondages. Your responsibility is not to acquire something more. Your responsibility is to drop a lot of things. Drop what you know to be needless and harmful.

Science and Spirituality Always Go Hand in Hand

5 min

The most common thing in spirituality and science is 'an honest urge to know the Truth.' Science observes the external universe, and spirituality observes the mind. These two have to be in tandem. The one thing that enables true knowledge in any field is honesty and integrity.

How to Abide in The Shiva Truth? On Ribhu Gita

So 'know', don’t try to know about Shiva. Shiva is not furniture. Shiva is not a tree. Shiva is not a cloud, not even the sky. How will you know Shiva? Do you know of anything that has no shape, no form, and is eternal? How will you know Shiva? But know, do know. What can you know? This world and yourself. Know that. That knowing is Shiva-ness. Shivatva.

Kumbh: Truth Beyond the Myth

28 min

Amrit is at the center of the story. And where can we get Amrit from? By self introspection. The more a person knows himself, the more he will become free from himself. Free from death. What you think of yourself is known as death. And the more you look at yourself, the more you understand that what I think of myself is all futile. I'm actually not that. Negation, Neti Neti. Amrit does not mean gaining something. Amrit means being free from death.

Sir, I Feel Addicted to You

The ego seeks security from the world and even when it comes to the truth, it still wants to somehow uphold its security. It is all right if one wants to guarantee one's security against the world. But when it comes to truth and beauty, that's when one should just drop the defenses. It is all right to be immersed. It is all right even to be drowned. It is all right even to die. What is the point in conserving something that is anyway imperfect?

Why Do We Insult Our Scriptures?

27 min

In modern times, reading and respecting the Shastras is often seen in a derogatory light. An Asura disregards the scriptures, saying, “What I know is right. My own experience determines the Truth,” rejecting them because they will not allow him to do what he wants. We have come to a point where we are not merely ignoring but actually insulting the scriptures. If you're sincere about knowing life, why avoid a document with deep insights into it?

Prakriti, Attention and Truth

5 min

You rather have to be relaxed and just receptive. It comes to you. You don't have to chase it. You simply have to unlock your door, and these two are very different approaches. What does the devotee do? He just opens his doors and waits, calmly waits. He doesn't want to enforce his will. Non-resistance. Active pursual would all be within yourself. You are actively pursuing the beyond within yourself.

God's Presence Everywhere: What Does It Really Mean?

6 min

Gita and philosophy and Vedanta have nothing to do with God. They are in search of Truth, not God. These are different things — Truth and God. Secondly, all the objects that you look at, you look at them in search of something. In search of the Truth, you look at all these objects. In that sense you could say, I am looking at everything in search of the absolute. To the ego, everything carries a promise, a possibility of the absolute. That does not mean that all the objects that you look at contain the infinite or something.

Why Are You Scared of Truth?

There is nothing more scary than the Truth. The primary function of Truth is to negate all your falseness, to show you that you are living in lies. Truth supports you in the sense that, without its help, you cannot even see falseness. Truth cannot be pleasant to what we are. Truth can only be pleasant to the Truth. Before the Real can come, this false one must disappear.

Is Sex and Meditation Just an Escape of Ego?

The ego says that my first priority is to remain, exist, and after that comes everything else. Even the Truth must be subservient to my first priority. So, liberation is alright as long as it is a second of liberation. Peace is alright as long as it is five minutes of peace. But if silence threatens to take over the entire life, if peace starts dominating noise to the extent that the noise might be completely annihilated, then the ego rejects. The ego wants Truth, but only a modicum of Truth. The ego wants peace, but only a sliver of peace.

The Total Is Neither Masculine nor Feminine, Hence the Search and Summit of Both

There is hardly any need to give special attention to the so-called masculine and feminine because neither the masculine really exists nor the feminine really exists. We talk about them because our mind is obsessed with gender, with sex; with women, with men; all dualities are the same. In fact, there is only one duality, called “duality”. The two ends of that duality can be given any name.

Is Knowing the Truth a Never-Ending Quest?

41 min

“The significance of a man is not in what he attains, but rather what he longs to attain.” -Khalil Gibran, ‘Sand and Foam’

Question: Once during a discourse on the Bible, you too have said, “The more you know the Truth, the more you want to know; such is… read_more

We Exist, and We Do Not

23 min

Questioner: Sir, it is pretty evident that I exist and you exist, but you have also stated that the ego does not exist. So, when someone calls you Acharya Prashant and you reply, isn’t that an identification that reflects an ego?

Acharya Prashant: It is a thing that is useful… read_more

Wasting Life on an Unworthy Person?

The Difficult Call of Dear Love

Questioner: I was in a relationship with a person from the last eight years. Last three years while being with me, he was also seeing and dating other women. I have always been honest and loyal to him. After knowing that he is so mean, so dishonest, why am I… read_more

Live against yourself || AP Neem Candies

Questioner: Acharya ji, today I realized that without love in my heart, I cannot find joy in my life, however wonderful my external situations are. Just listening to, and singing a Kabir bhajan brings me so much joy, love, and tears, I really want to know this Love, and what… read_more

The ego likes to settle matters too soon, the ego likes to conclude too soon. Wherever there is a conclusion, wherever there is a settlement, wherever there is an ending that thought can grasp, it is a false ending, it is a false realization. I have no interest in talking about what true realization is like. True realization is anywhere not a subject matter of this course. We should rather warn of that which is false. Read more....

Acharya Prashant: One hallmark, one unmistakable quality of right action would be that it would require all your guts. It is only a false action that you can comfortably undertake. Falseness is never troublesome; Truth always is. Whenever you would be doing something that would be real, you would know… read_more

The Mind Is Not Your Own

13 min

For the Right Reason, Be Tactful and Clever || AP Neem Candies

Nothing Within Us Is the Truth

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

Great love; Greater Love || AP Neem Candies

Acharya Prashant: The truth is not a side of you; the truth is not a part of you. The truth is the absence of this fictitious thing called ‘you.’ That's how the false survives by calling a part of itself ‘the truth.’ You know, yes, of course, I'm false, but… read_more

New-Age Truths || AP Neem Candies

Acharya Prashant: We want something, right? We want the Ultimate. There’s nobody who wants to stop at something small. We want something as big as possible, right? That’s the nature of desire, correct? It doesn’t want to stop anywhere. Probably it can stop only when it gets something immeasurable, infinite.… read_more

2 min

Acharya Prashant: Real spirituality is about rejecting the false. Real spirituality, therefore, is uncompromising, harsh, ruthless. Just reject the false—that's what real spirituality is about. But if you are living in an age, in an era, in a society, in an economic system that is dominated by forces of falseness,… read_more

Prakriti and Purusha

Finally, What Takes the Seeker to the Truth?

Acharya Prashant: For a woman, the lips of a woman are something very commonplace and ordinary. It is only the eye of the Purusha (consciousness) that worships the Prakriti (physical nature). That is why these two must be found together. If the masculine is not there, who will praise and… read_more

The Storm Kept Raging, the Sky Didn't Utter a Word

Acharya Prashant: A quiver full of the best of arrows but no bow, how do you fight the battle of life? Can you imagine the amusing as well as tragic situation of the person who has a great arrow without a bow? He will be sharpening and sharpening his weapon,… read_more