Nitnem Sahib

You must worry about this One thing || Acharya Prashant, on Nitnem Sahib (2019)

एह वसतु तजी नह जाई नित नित रखु उरि धारो ॥

Ėh vasaṯ ṯajī nah jāī niṯ niṯ rakẖ ur ḏẖāro.

This thing can never be forsaken; keep this always and forever in your mind.

Raag Mundaavanee, Fifth Mehl

Rahras Sahib, Nitnem ( Guru Granth Sahib, Page 1429)

Question: Pranaam… read_more

11 min

ऊडे ऊडि आवै सै कोसा तिसु पाछै बचरे छरिआ ॥ Ūde ūd āvai sai kosā ṯis pācẖẖai bacẖre cẖẖariā. The crane flies hundreds of miles, leaving its young one behind.

तिन कवणु खलावै कवणु चुगावै मन महि सिमरनु करिआ ॥३॥ Ŧin kavaṇ kẖalāvai kavaṇ cẖugāvai man mėh simran kariā. ||3|| … read_more

Must the mind worry so much? || Acharya Prashant, on Nitnem Sahib (2019)

Can the Guru assure you of liberation? || Acharya Prashant, on Nitnem Sahib (2019)

sir sir rijak sambaahay thaakur kaahay man bha-o kari-aa.

~ Rehraas Sahib, Fifth Mehala (Nitnem)

The Lord and provides sustenance to everyone, t hen why should you worry my mind?

~ Rehraas Sahib, Fifth Mehala (Nitnem)

सिर सिर रिजक सम्बाहय ठाकुर कहाय मन भाओ करीआ

~ रहरास साहिब, पाँचवा महला … read_more

How to know God’s will? || Acharya Prashant, on Nitnem Sahib (2019)

अउध घटै दिनसु रैणारे ॥ मन गुर मिलि काज सवारे ॥१॥ रहाउ ॥ जा कउ आए सोई बिहाझहु हरि गुर ते मनहि बसेरा ॥

~ राग गौरी पूरबी, पाँचवा महला, सोहिला साहिब

Translation:

The life passes day and night. My mind, meet the Guru so that he sets things right. … read_more

What is liberation from the cycle of birth and death? || Acharya Prashant, on Nitnem Sahib (2019)

जो किछ कराय सो भला कर माने-ई हिकमत हुक्म हुक्म चुकाइये

~ तिलांग, पहला महला, शब्द हज़ारे (नितनेम)

Those God-Oriented people will tell that to attain God, we should accept as good whatever He does, and stop our own cleverness and will.

~ Tilang, 1st Mehla, Shabad Hazare (Nitnem)

Question: … read_more

7 min

ਕਰਮੀ ਆਵੈ ਕਪੜਾ ਨਦਰੀ ਮੋਖੁ ਦੁਆਰੁ ॥

karmee aavai kaprhaa nadree mokh du-aar

By good karma, the Saropa, which is this body, the robe of honor, is obtained, and by His kindness, the door to salvation opens.

~ Guru Granth Sahib 2-5 (Japji Sahib, Nitnem)

✥ ✥ ✥

Questioner (Q): … read_more

Watch where your time is going || Acharya Prashant, on Nitnem Sahib (2019)

What is luck? How to get lucky? || Acharya Prashant, on Nitnem Sahib (2019)

गोबिंद मिलण की इह तेरी बरीआ ॥ Gobinḏ milaṇ kī ih ṯerī barīā. This is your chance to meet the Lord of the Universe.

अवरि काज तेरै कितै न काम ॥ Avar kāj ṯerai kiṯai na kām. Other efforts are of no use to you.

मिलु साधसंगति भजु केवल नाम … read_more

Can Nature Worship in the Vedas Hold Deeper Meaning Today?

आयहू हर रस कर्मी पाइआ सतगुर मिलाई जिस आय

~तिलांग, पहला महला, शब्द हज़ारे ( नितनेम)

The Essence: Name of the Lord, His love, is obtained by good luck, good deeds,

when the True Guru: the True Master, meets and tells you to recite the Name of God.

~ Tilang,1st … read_more

14 min

The higher meaning is desirelessness. You cannot worship something with a view to obtain favors from it. That's exploitation. That's consumption. So the real kind of nature worship that we talk of, let's say, in durga saptshati, that's different. That's where the relationship is not of bhog.

Letting Go of Habitual Affirmations: Is It Key to Spiritual Growth?

23 min

The purpose of all instruments of religion, methods of religion is to unblock. The truth is here, there, inside, outside, everywhere. But there is a blockage. That blockage is called the ego. The ego prevents the truth from coming to itself. So, religion is a device, a tool so that Truth can flow to the ego. The ego wants to defend itself against the truth because once the truth flows in, it dissolves the ego.

Who Is a Hindu?

The one who is religion-less. A real Hindu does not have any religion. To go beyond all religions is to be a Hindu. There are religions that are on one plane, and then there is Sanatan Dharma, which is another dimension — the eternal religiousness. Liberation from religion is religiousness. Sanatan Dharma is awakened intelligence.

ख़ुद से ये पूछा करो || नीम लड्डू

2 min

किससे मिल रहे हो? किससे नहीं मिल रहे हो? कहाँ रोज़ पहुँच जाते हो? कहाँ से पैसे ला रहे हो? पहली बात – क्या ईमानदारी से काम रहे हो? दूसरी बात – जो कमा रहे हो, उसको खर्च कहाँ कर रहे हो? छः घण्टे से कोई खबरिया चैनल लगा कर… read_more

A Life Like Bhagat Singh's

How occupied Bhagat Singh was. Even on the eve of his hanging, he was still reading the Bhagavad Gita. He said, "I still have a few hours. Let me spend these hours with the beloved. I have something very important to do." Or was he doing nothing in particular? Was he doing nothing in particular even in his last hours? No. He said, "Let me spend this time reading." And he was a voracious reader. At your age, he was so well read. Never had any time to waste.

What Is the Main Message of Bhagavad Gita?

14 min

You have to fight. The world is the battlefield. To be born is to be born as a warrior, to be born is to be born with weapons and armour. That is the message: you cannot run away. Shunning action is not possible.

What Sanatan Dharma Is Not

Sanatan Dharma is not about following traditions in the name of Dharma. It is about constantly moving towards that which will take you beyond your mind: the Sanatan. All our beliefs and rituals might be religious, but they are not Sanatan because they are just mind stuff. Since both Sanatan Dharma and Vedanta discard mind stuff as trivial, one cannot be a Sanatani if one is not a Vedanti.

To help the other is to help oneself || Delhi University (2022)

Acharya Prashant Interviewed By Kip Andersen (#Christspiracy) || Religion And Animals

Questioner (Q): Sir, if we do something to make someone else happy by deceiving our own self, is it worth it?

Acharya Prashant (AP): No, you cannot make someone else happy by deceiving your own self. That kind of a thing cannot exist; that kind of a thing exists only… read_more

7 min

Now, how does man relate with the world? How does man know what to do, how to approach, how to touch, how to live, how to eat, how to talk, how to connect? That, to me, is the essence of religion. Man’s relationship with himself and the world. That is religion, and that is also the essence of all organized religions.

The Means Is as Important as the End

3 min

And then there are those who actually really practically want liberation. Those who really and practically want liberation, find out the means to be liberated. The Guru is the means. Nanak sahab says, “Now that you know so much about God, the absolute, you must also know how the absolute is to be reached.”

Living Without God: Principles For A Purposeful Life

Any belief is stupid because all beliefs come from a lack of investigation, and a lack of investigation comes from deep fear and a feeling of insecurity. If you are insecure and afraid, then you will not dare to ask questions and investigate. And it is from that fear and insecurity that the concept of God has arisen. Now, God and reality are two different things. God and Truth are not the same thing. The mark of religiosity or true spirituality is an abiding faith in the truth.

Decoding the East: Insights Ignored by the West

Before trying on your own, you do not even know the problem in its entirety, and you are going to somebody and the whole process demands time, energy, space and sometimes even money. So, before you engage, obviously you need to have tried your uttermost. So, that’s something obviously to be supported, but equally, we all know how limited we are beyond a point, and when we come to that point, it becomes obvious that one needs to look beyond herself, that one needs to seek help.

Clear Your Dues Before Checking Out

19 min

It’s not as if you have to indefinitely stay dithered or bonded, not really. At the same time, it does not mean that the relationship has to be so material or so transactional, that once the money has been squared off or once you are sure that I have given them the requisite care, attention and emotional support, now I can just break away and separate them from my life. We are talking of neither of these ends.

What Is Rest?

11 min

Rest is to realize that whatever you are doing is ultimately not going to benefit you in terms of result. Rest is to not to hope for a result, but to be already there and because you are already there, so the activity is happening. Now the activity is a game, a pass time, just for fun. You can indulge yourself or you can change the activity. The activity doesn’t really mean much.

Beliefs: Reconciling Perception & Reality

20 min

We all are such wicked creatures. We feign helplessness just to exhort, extort pleasure. We cannot even be honest enough to say that I am a pleasure seeker; therefore, I'm doing all those things. All your helplessness results in pleasure. All your assumptions lead to pleasure. All your dishonesty leads to pleasure. So everything is just for the sake of pleasure. If somebody comes and says, “You know, I'm helpless,” Just figure out where the pleasure is, and you will know the dishonesty.

Stop Asking These Spiritual Questions

4 min

Think of yourself. Even the Supreme or the Absolute that you think of is just something within the universe, so stop caring or wondering so much about it. Look rather at your own life, your own daily actions. What do you work for? Who are the people you relate to? Where does your bread come from? These are the questions that matter much more than any of the traditional, spiritual queries or you could say that these daily mundane questions are the ‘Real Spiritual’ ones.

When You are Alright, then the Sound of Your Footsteps Is Compassion

9 min

When you are not bothered about the other, that is when you are totally compassionate. When you are not trying to change the other, that is when you become an agent of change. Compassion is not about thinking all the time of others. You cannot try to be compassionate. When you are alright, then the sound of your footsteps is compassion. That is what compassion is.

Is Self-Love About Being Happy?

Making yourself happy isn't self-love. Self-love is gifting yourself the highest possible. If you do not know what to give yourself, at least abstain from giving yourself toxic and harmful things. Real love is always tough. Self-love is an exercise in reduction, not accumulation. When you work to make your life beautiful, you are truly loving yourself.

The Joy of Being Drenched in Love

13 min

Usually our love is about one special thing or person. But Kabir Sahab is saying, "Hari bhai ban rai—the entire jungle has turned green. I see greenery not merely in one tree, but in the entire jungle.” That’s the difference between common love and Kabir Sahab’s love. In your love, there is just one green tree; in Kabir Sahab’s love, the entire world has turned green: there is nothing dry anywhere anymore.

The Multitasking Debate: Efficiency vs. Presence

Even when you think you are not multitasking, you are actually multitasking. Multitasking is an imperative, but don’t be a multiple-divided person. Multiple selves are not welcome; multitasking is alright. We live lives of multiple selves. One self, other self, and all those selves are all fake, borrowed.

The Biggest Act of Cruelty Today

Spirituality is about realizing that all nonsense emanates from the DNA. You are born with nonsense that body identification is the fundamental problem and the root cause of all violence. It’s the body that is violent because it is the body that is coming from the jungle. We share this body with the chimpanzees, with the dinosaurs, with the lions, tigers, every single animal in the jungle is this body and therefore, all the problems of the jungle are contained in this body.

Why Isn't the Gita for Everyone?

It depends on the pain you are willing to take. Sometimes Duryodhanas have to be turned into Arjunas. It’s just that, it’s relatively easier with an Arjuna. But what to do when even Arjunas are not present to receive the Gita? As long as somebody has anything, anything that resembles consciousness, as long as somebody has even the faintest remnant of consciousness left, Gita can be brought to that person but it will be tough, difficult.

The Life Journey of Acharya Prashant

11 min

I didn’t try to sweep things under the carpet. If I have seen something, I have seen it. I didn’t try to pretend that I understand when I didn’t. I didn’t try to trivialize something just because I couldn’t wrap my head around it. If something was beyond my comprehension, I let it stay there. And the process remained continuous, in that sense, not the exact word, but, a bit laborious, and demanded patience.

Are You Spiritual or Religious? (The Difference Is Big)

If you are really a spiritual person, then you will find that the community that opposes you the most is not of atheists, it is of religious people. They will be the ones who would be opposing the really spiritual person the most, which is an unfortunate thing because the way religion was designed, it was designed to gradually make a person spiritual. Today, the situation is that these are not in sync or harmony with each other. Rather, these two have become greatly separated.

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

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.

Mind Work Ends When True Realization Takes Hold

18 min

Realization is extremely powerful. You cannot realize and not act. It is impossible. You cannot realize and not act. Action follows realization. So if you come and say, “I realize, I understand but I cannot act,” then you are mistaken; you actually do not realize at all! The action after realization is not time-bound; it does not even have a time lag. It is instantaneous and spontaneous.

Who Created the World?

14 min

Brahm is not the creator. When you desperately want to invent a creator, then you come up with īśvára. But Vedanta is not very enamored of īśvára. So, Vedanta says, "Īśvara is just Maya, just Maya.” Because you experience the universe, therefore, you feel the need to justify the origin of the universe. Therefore, you must have an īśvára. But how can the creator of a false universe be real? If the universe is false, what do you say about its creator?

How to Set Priorities in Life?

9 min

You ask about balancing priorities, but "balance" is a very violent word. It denotes competition. ‘Or’ denotes either this or that — this is conflict. Life does not proceed like this. A polymath, like Leonardo da Vinci, mastered many fields. There was no ‘or’ in his life. His life was full of ‘And’. Most of us live a life of poor man. Life can be very, very, very rich. But not when you say “Either this, or that.” Life is rich when you say, “And, And, And.”

Where Is the Kurukshetra of Your Life?

Arjuna’s hell was in his daily tasks, and so is yours. Arjuna could sense the evil in what appeared normal to others; you must also be able to sense that there is something extremely fishy in what seems normal to others. Your house, your workplace, your society—these are your Kurukshetra. That’s where you have to fight your Mahabharata. That’s where you need Shri Krishna and the Gita.

Why Is God So Biased?

Why do you think that, first of all, a creating entity, a creator, exists in the same way this world exists? Secondly, why do you think that all values that you hold dear to your chest must be espoused by that God as well? You like somebody to be merciful to you, so you say, “Oh, God is merciful.” How do you know God is merciful? Are you bigger than God? Have you penetrated God's head—if there exists somebody called God at all?

Yoga - The Biggest 'Spiritual' Myth Today

17 min

You have ample gurus who come over and say, “You know, you do this and then you can do whatever you want to do.” Now the moment you hear this kind of philosophy that Yoga will help you do better whatever you want to do, I suppose one must run away. Because that’s exactly antithetical to Yoga. Yoga is not about doing whatever you want to do; it’s the ego that says that, not the dedicated, devoted, wise mind. That does not come from there.

How Do We Know Anything about Life? Where Do Our Thoughts Come from?

The Real Meaning of Devoting One's Action to Shri Krishna

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

7 min

You are too small to conceive or imagine who Shri Krishna really is. How then will you devote your actions to him? You can only devote something to an object, and the real Shri Krishna is not an object. So, limit yourself to just practising a certain casualness. A certain beparwahi. You must never accord too much value to your desires and opinions. And if possible, crack a joke or two about yourself. It’s great to be the butt of one’s own jokes!

How to Live Fully?

3 min

Living fully does not mean adding something to life. It means recognizing that life is already complete, and you must not disrespect that fullness. It is not about going out and consuming life. The volume or quantity of experiences doesn’t matter; what matters is the quality. There is nothing but fullness—just go close to it.

What is the 'Will of God'?

God wills that you be godly in your freedom. Because godliness, by definition, cannot be imposed. ‘God’ is patiently waiting for you to be godly. He’ll just keep showing you the mirror in some way or the other. He will keep sending you help—sometimes in the form of a situation, a book, or sometimes in the form of a person. God is nothing but your ultimate potential.

Why Does One Desire Liberation while the Other does not?

Questioner: Why is there a difference of intensity and love for mukti (liberation) between different human beings?

Acharya Prashant: The differences that you are talking of all relate to time; therefore, they all will be resolved in due course of time. Time gave rise to all those differences, and those… read_more

Why Do I Hate Mondays?

If you are someone who is always looking forward to the coming weekend, it means trouble. Be engaged in a kind of work that does not make it necessary for you to seek relief or relaxation over the weekend. Work is life. Work must not be something that taxes you, drains, or saps your energy. Work must be something that really rejuvenates you. You must be looking forward to Monday.

How To Be Confident?

We are born confident. Do you see how a kid is so immensely full of confidence? None of us are born afraid. When we are afraid, we ask for confidence. Do not ask for confidence; instead, ask for freedom from fear. Fear is a thought given to you by society. It is not what you are. Just as you picked it up, you can drop it back. Exercise that power.

Beware such energies || Acharya Prashant, at BITS Pilani, Goa (2022)