Bhakti Saints

If you cannot win the love of the Lord, so what if you can lord over your neighbor? What is the good of dressing your hair and donning your feet with jingling jewelry? What is the value of all your makeup with kajal to your eyelids and vermilion to your … read_more

Acharya Prashant: Love is the fire that melts down the bondage that is you. Knowledge is merely the light in which you can see your bondages. Even if you are able to look at your chains in the light of knowledge, that does not rid you of the chains. In… read_more

Love clouds have gathered, it is raining down on me; my entire soul is soaked in it, all around there is greenery.

~ Kabir Sahab

Questioner: Could you please elaborate on the meaning of this poem?

Acharya Prashant: Just sing what Kabir Sahib is saying. Just sing! I may keep… read_more

Questioner: Acharya Ji, a good discussion happened yesterday in which many seekers participated and shared their understanding of Prakṛiti , Puruṣha and other things.

During the discussion, it was put that Prakṛiti , Puruṣha , Māyā , are mere concepts and that one is pure Ātman , never threatened and… read_more

धुरी करमु जिना कउ तुधु पाइआ ता तिनी खसमु धिआइआ ||

“Dhuri Dhuri karam jinaa ka-o tuDh paa-i-aa taa tinee khasam Dhi-aa-i-aa.”

(Only those whose karma You have pre-ordained from the very beginning, O Lord, meditate on You.

~ Asa di Vaar (Guru Granth Sahib)

Questioner: What does Karma being… read_more

Acharya Prashant: I might be a very violent man. And my goal is to blast a building off. To learn how to do it, I have to live through stern discipline. I will have to build my body, I will have to learn several skills. I may have the discipline… read_more

Acharya Prashant: Desire means that you are not alright with yourself and you want something else to happen, correct? So, we are anyway not living for ourselves. We are rather living to change ourselves. And are these not two very different things? If you are living for yourself as you… read_more

Questioner: Whenever I succeed in achieving something, I immediately start looking for something else, and when I succeed in finding that something else, again I find myself in the same situation. What am I really looking for?

Acharya Prashant: That which you commonly look for and that which you achieve… read_more

Questioner: How can we expose the subconscious mind?

Acharya Prashant: By watching your daily actions very, very closely.

Alright, somebody comes to you and says, ‘Namaste'. Quickly show me how you respond.

[Listeners: Namaste (keeping hands together and smiling)]

So, you are smiling. And the moment the fellow is gone,… 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

Acharya Prashant: Latha is saying, why does she get angry so often even over small matters? Especially with some people, she is unable to control anger and she says she tried to change her attitude but hasn’t been quite successful. She is saying, now, how to change myself. Because anger… read_more

Questioner: Sir, when you were growing up, is there any special memory, or any time you realized and had this aspiration to become, or go on the spiritual path? Is there something interesting related to your life, from your childhood, that you want us to know?

Acharya Prashant: First of… read_more

Verse: Deh Shiva bar mohe ihai

देह शिवा बर मोहे ईहे, शुभ कर्मन ते कभुं न टरूं न डरौं अरि सौं जब जाय लड़ौं, निश्चय कर अपनी जीत करौं, अरु सिख हों आपने ही मन कौ इह लालच हउ गुन तउ उचरों, जब आव की अउध निदान बनै अति ही… read_more

Acharya Prashant: Suffering is a fire that burns down a lot. It brings along a certain purification. One of the poets gave the example of a snowball. Snowball that is cleansing itself in its own blood; by melting down. When a snowball starts melting, it starts becoming cleaner. And the… read_more

Questioner: Namskar Acharya ji. Pardon me for not remembering exactly but in one of the shivirs where we had read ‘Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna’ to come to terms with this expression called ‘Adhikar Bhed.’

So therein Ramakrishna was saying that, “now in modern times there cannot be any Adhikar Bhed,… read_more

Questioner: Acharya Ji, if the decisions that one takes in one’s life is a matter of choice, then what is Grace?

Acharya Prashant: Grace is that which is available free of cost, grace is that which comes to you unconditionally, grace is not something that you receive unconditionally. There’s many… read_more

They kept coming, they kept coming, now they’ve got to go.They’ve got to keep moving, day or night,and where they came from, there they’ve got to go.From nothing to nothing to nothing and why?

Lalleshwari

There is nothing called the ‘world’. What you call as the ‘world’, what you call… read_more

Question: ‘What is bitter at first is sweet in the end, What is sweet at first is poison in the end. To everyone is given the choice. It all depends on the effort put in, and the unflagging determined will; for whoever strives must soon arrive at the city of… read_more

Questioner: I have a question about Kabir. As I know, he was also a kind of Sufi, not just Hindu or Muslim, he…

Speaker: See, the heart of Sufism and the heart of Vedanta , the heart of Hasidism , the heart of Christian mysticism, they are all one Heart.… read_more

‘In what direction am I going, how shall I find that road? I hope they will send me a map before it’s too late, or it is all over for me. My breath all gone to waste.’ ~ Lalleshwari

Questioner (Q): Lalla had surrendered all her life to That. Now… read_more

Acharya Prashant: Lal Ded is the most remarkable name not only in Kashmir, not only in India. She defies being confined to a particular area, or time, or category. Physically, she was born in thirteenth century Kashmir. An ordinary girl, as ordinary as all of us are. Medieval India, she… read_more

Question: Acharya Ji, how is music related to Spirituality? What do Bhakti Saints sing of?

Acharya Prashant Ji: Sing with a Kabir, or sing Kabir with yourself. That’s the best thing.

The best thing is to sing.

The best thing is to – sing.

But you know, we have become … read_more

Life is given. Nothing is earned. So, learn to serve others, not your own desire, greed, and ego. They steal your energies. Whereas devotion builds your strength and protects the intelligent flame that leads to the Truth within.

~ Saint Lalleshwari

Acharya Prashant: So, the Questioner is asking, ‘Is the… read_more

Oh Friend, I love you. Think this over, carefully. If you are in Love, then why are you asleep? If you have found him, give yourself to him, take him. Why do you lose track of him again and again? If you are about to fall, into heavy sleep anyway, … read_more

Questioner (Q): Acharya Ji, Pranam, “Love is an egocentric manifestation: The Essential Oneness of all life has no room for love.” ~Wei Wu Wei

Acharya Ji, kindly shed light on this quote. In my first camp, I asked ‘How to be loving’, without knowing what that word meant. Now, I… read_more

Questioner (Q): I read some couplets by Saint Kabir and they touched me deeply. He wants to become one with God or Truth so much, but he is pained that he is unable to do that. At times I feel like meeting Him is the only thing left for me… read_more

Questioner (Q): Namaste, sir. My question is, in these teenage years, how do we avoid social evils like bad addiction and bad activities which exist in society and just focus on our goal?

Acharya Prashant (AP): For that, the goal has to be alluring enough. The goal has to be… read_more

“You failed to know your Love in your youth Wake up and see your Love is gone.”

~ Saint Kabir

Acharya Prashant (AP): Youth refers to a time when you are physically neither dependent nor incapable. After a particular time, you become physically incapable. And what happens to the rest… read_more

Tohi more lagan lagaye re fakirwa

Sovat hi main apne mandir mein Shabd baan mari jagaye re fakirwa

Tohi more lagan lagaye re fakirwa

Doobat hi bhav ke saagar mein Bahinyan pakari samajhaye re fakirwa

Tohi more lagan lagaye re fakirwa

Ek vachan vachan nahi duja, bandhan mohe chhudaye re … read_more

पानी बीच बतासा संतों,

तन का यही तमासा है।।

क्या ले आया, क्या ले जाएगा,

क्या बैठा पछताता है।।

मूठी बाँधे आये जगत में,

हाथ पसारे जाता है।।

किसकी नारी, कौन पुरुष है,

कहाँ से लगता नाता है।।

बड़े निहाल, खबर ना तन की,

बिरही लहर बुझाता है।।

इक दिन … read_more

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… read_more

Such fantastic mastery is rarely seen elsewhere. Obviously, you get glimpses of it in many other places as well. I respect all of them; all of them are very, very dear to me; I worship them. But when it comes to Kabir Sahib, I said I am a fanboy. When… read_more

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

Jo main piyake man nahin bhaaye To kaa padosin kaie dulraye Kahaa chudaa paayal jhamkaaye kahaa bhaye bichuaa thankaaye Kahaa kaajar sindoor kaie diyyaie solaah singaar kahaa bhaye kiyaie Anjan manjan karaie thagauree ka pachi maraie thagauree bauree Jo patibrataa hai naree kaisehi raho so pihayee piyaree Tan man jeevan … read_more

प्रश्नकर्ता: सर, जो पुनर्जन्म की बात की जाती है, क्या हम उसको समझ सकते हैं?

आचार्या प्रशांत: देखो, पुनर्जन्म तो ठीक है, लेकिन ज़रूरी है यह पूछना – पुनर्जन्म किसका? आवश्यक है कि आप समझें कि पुनर्जन्म है, लेकिन कोई पर्सनल सेल्फ (व्यक्तिगत स्व) नहीं होता है जिसका पुनर्जन्म हो… read_more

THE GOLDEN RULE

“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” “Enter by a narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it … read_more

Questioner (Q): I want to know, essentially, the relationship between the material world and consciousness. Is the body, you know, just like putting together a few chemicals? And, how does consciousness come from an unconscious body? Or.. is it the other way around?

Acharya Prashant (AP): Obviously. Yeah, yeah! Obviously,… read_more

Questioner:

Pranaam Acharya Ji,

I have lived life in images. In past I have kept myself away from experiences with the excuse of not being sufficiently prepared. I realize now that all this is a myth. How can I be prepared without practice?

But I’m still afraid, afraid of losing, … read_more

*farida jaaganaa ee taan jaag, hoiaa ee parbhat*is jaagan noo pachhtaayengaa ghanaa savenga raat

This is the only time when awakening is possible. The dawn is right Now. Avail the great opportunity or remain a loser.

Farid says that you have anyway been sleeping since a really long time.… read_more

Impart not esoteric Truth to fools, Nor on molasses feed an ass. Do not sow seeds in sandy beds, Nor waste your oil on cakes of bran. -Lal Ded

Speaker: The question is, ‘Why is a compassionate saint speaking such words? They look more like coming from a result oriented… read_more