Vairagya Shatkam

All your relationships are deeply your attempts to fill an inner void. Whether you relate sexually to one person or many — will sex give you what you truly want? The body is a shallow means to attain that which your consciousness craves. There are beautiful ways of relating to men and women; relate to them in higher ways.

Are All the Interesting People Found in Hell?

7 min

No! They are not interesting people; they are sick people. It’s just that the very definition of the word 'interesting' has become distorted to their advantage. People in hell are as interesting as a stinking pile of trash 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.

Do Love And Attachment Go Together?

10 min

Attachment is just a promise. A lack of fulfilment. It is a substitute for love because the real thing is not available. If you find yourself attached, it means there is a desire for love; it means there is a call for love. Know that a fake is presenting itself as a substitute for the real thing.

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.

Is Sadness the Door to Happiness?

12 min

If you want to be happy, you should be sad. How many of you want deep happiness? You must go and must become deeply sad. This kind of happiness is of no use, it is coming from others, it is situation-dependent, there is no intelligence in it. There is another happiness that is called as ‘joy’. Find that happiness which nobody has given you and nobody can take away, which is your own nature. Lightness, simple pure lightness!

Happiness Is a False Medicine

The bulk of the human population is always, by default, in the state of boredom, frustration, irritation and anxiety— which are all nothing but sadness. The brain can never know the real happiness, i.e., 'Joy'. So, it is looking for some kind of a cheap substitute, which it finds in various objects: position, power, performance, money, appreciation, prestige, reputation— all these things. Happiness is a false medicine. A substitute. A cheap, unworthy substitute for joy.

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 to Deal with Attachment?

12 min

Attachment is not a problem; the problem is being attached to something totally unworthy. If you are attached to someone, check out the facts of their importance. Ask yourself, “Does this person bring Truth, Fearlessness & Light into my life?” If you have been wise enough, or simply lucky enough to have the right person in your life, then continue to remain attached. But assess them well with Truth at your core.

Why Does One Desire Liberation while the Other does not?

5 min

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

Is It Passion or Peer Pressure?

15 min

It's difficult to be born in India and have a passion for ice hockey. Few kids aspire to make a career in rugby or ice hockey, while many are passionate about cricket. Passion arises from surroundings, not internally. It may present itself as something internal and heartfelt, but it is as external as peer pressure.

What Is Yoga According to the Bhagavad Gita?

28 min

Shri Krishna is saying, “As long as you are the actor, please forget Yoga. Yoga is not for you.” Yoga is freedom from the false actor. The Yogi is the one who has realized that Yoga cannot be attained through any method. A yogi is healthy and alright with himself.

Does Following Myself Lead to Freedom?

If following others is slavery, the mind quickly wants to conclude that following oneself is freedom. No, following oneself is deeper slavery because what we call the 'self' is just an aggregate of internalized, pervasive influences, like a crow mistaking a cuckoo’s eggs for its own. True freedom is to be free of others and, more importantly, yourself.

How to Make Your Parents Happy?

9 min

For you to make your parents happy, the first requirement is that you must be happy. If you are not happy, how can you give happiness to your parents? There is a basic law of existence: you can only give what you have. How can you suffer and still make others happy? Please, get rid of the notion that you can compromise your life to make others happy.

The Dilemma of the Spiritual Path

16 min

Why is it that what you call the ‘spiritual path’ must be equated with leaving something? Do you find any renunciation in existence? Do you find anything in existence that is bent upon giving up something, or dropping something? If life were meant for dropping, then that whom you call as ‘God’ should have first of all dropped the universe. When he is running the universe, not dropping it, in spite of the world being as silly, as pointless and as rotten as it is, then why must you think of leaving all the desires behind, and going to the spiritual life, leaving all material behind, and doing something else?

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.

Is Your Expensive Lifestyle a Trap?

If you want money, you'll have to trade your body, time, and effort. No one will pay you a fortune and let you enjoy liberty. Learn to survive at the minimum, and then money is not a burden. But when money sticks to the mind, when it becomes a part of the mind, and when you become money-minded, it is bad. Keep your costs low, and no one can enslave you.

Men Desperately Trying to Understand Women - and Failing!

2 min

Questioner: Thank you for meeting with me again, Acharya Ji! I have a question.

Every time I see an attractive woman, I’m gonna feel the impulse to drop everything and look at her.

Men’s headspace is occupied with conquering women. Can I train myself out of it?

But I have… read_more

‘I want’ versus ‘I must’

1 min

Questioner: Is it possible to live without a target in life? I set a target for myself so that I have something to strive for, so that I have a sense of direction, but the thought of not achieving this target also brings sorrow and fear. So how can a… read_more

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1 min

Fulfillment is what you want, don’t you? There won’t be any fulfillment until you break your inner bondages. And the most central, critical, and primary bondage is body-identification.

Use everything that your birth, your body, and Prakriti (physical nature) have given you. Use all of that for the sake of… read_more

Not Enlightened, Not Even a Seeker || AP Neem Candies

2 min

Acharya Prashant: “He who claims liberation as his own, as an attainment of a person is neither enlightened nor a seeker. He suffers his own misery.”

Beautiful. “He who claims liberation as his own, as an attainment of a person is neither enlightened nor a seeker. He suffers his own… read_more

How to Earn a Higher Salary?

17 min

If you are really immersed in what you are doing, would you have time and inclination to worry about salary? The work itself is its own reward. There are people, who work to get paid. And there are people who work and get paid. An amusing thing is, those who stop worrying about salary, often start getting unexpected salaries.

Are Women Sexually Passive?

Man keeps on fantasizing about sex as the ultimate remedy to his mental chaos. And to get this remedy, he must have the woman’s body. To ensure that the woman’s body is available, the man must keep the woman in bondage. Otherwise, she may, or she may not acquiesce.

Things I Wish I Knew Before Having Sex

12 min

Your partner looks into your eyes, does something to your consciousness. How long lasting is the sexual pleasure? What does it leave you with? It leaves you with the need to get a shower and it leaves you with a stained bedsheet. Whereas, if you spend a day with the right person, a day, and a night, then you are left with something that might last your lifetime.

How to Control One’s Anger? Best Ways Explained By Acharya Prashant

Don’t ask, “Why did I get angry?” Ask, “Why does guilt arise? Why this divided mind? Why can’t my anger be complete?” Does resisting anger not fuel it? In trying to control yourself, are you not giving yourself energy to act the same way? That’s duality’s principle—what you try to control, you energize. By saying, “I do not want to get angry,” you’re still thinking of anger. But anger is seductive. Anger attracts. So, now I think of anger through the other route. I think of anger by telling myself not to be angry.

Love or Knowledge: Which is More Powerful for Liberation?

The Hypocrisy of Climate Warriors

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

On Education, Corporate Life and Career Progress

Acharya Prashant: The very urge for liberation, when it doesn’t find an outlet, becomes the urge to consume. Do you see this? Where does the tendency to consume so much come from? It comes from the misidentified and thwarted urge toward liberation. If you will not provide liberation to a… read_more

32 min

Questioner: Good evening everyone, my name is Saurabh Sardana and you are watching the first episode of season 2, ‘Recast.’ I’m so glad to have you with me today, Acharya Prashant Ji. I’m pretty sure, that most of you that most of you sort of follow him on one of… read_more

Parents Insist on Horoscope and Find the Guy is 'Manglik'

15 min

Questioner: Good evening sir. I’m…. and I’m a PhD student here at IIT, Kanpur. Sir, I have a very personal question. Being a girl child, especially in India, comes with very different sets of consequences. Despite being given equal opportunities like education and skills, at the end where we’re supposed… read_more

How to Make Oneself Do the Right Thing?

7 min

Questioner 1: In my experience, what’s happening is that I really like reading scriptures, so I’ve been reading them for quite some time. But with time, what I’ve observed is that earlier there used to be a freshness and it would stay with me. There was a sense of excitement… read_more

Why Become a Woman, Why Become a Man?

For Those who Want Freedom

Acharya Prashant: What if you were never, never trained in womanhood? How would you live? You can’t even think because right now, every bit of you is a trained bit. How do you know that a woman must have long hair? How do you know? That’s how it is! Nine… read_more

11 min

Questioner: Namaskar Acharya Ji. You talked of Mukti. So, I would like to know, is it a Mukti from life and birth? I mean, more, If you can elaborate?

Acharya Prashant: Mukti from internal compulsions. The goal of life can be talked of as Mukti which is Liberation, which is… read_more

Stay Cautious with Such Energies

Questioner: My question is that I heard that there are two cosmic energies, these two Cosmic energies will take out all the sufferings of the people, which are from treta yuga of Lord Sri Ram and Lakshman get received the cosmic energies from Sage Vishwamitra, those are called some bala… read_more

What is Clarity?

Spontaneous, or Carried Away?

Questioner: Sir, what is clarity?

Acharya Prashant: Clarity is two things together: One, it is the absence of readymade concepts based on which one lives, one reacts, one sees the world, and parallelly, simultaneously, on the other hand, it is the ability to respond greatly. So, on the one hand,… read_more

11 min

Questioner: Why think so much about decisions? Shouldn’t our decisions be spontaneous? I like to decide in a free flow.

Acharya Prashant: So the questioner is stressing on the spontaneity of decisions. He says that he likes to decide in a flow. It's a good thing, your intention is good.… read_more

Wasting Life on an Unworthy Person?

11 min

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

Women in Revealing Dresses: Liberation or Titillation?

9 min

To those who articulate that women should mind their clothes and dressings, the question arises: what kind of person are you, man or woman, if anything is able to disturb or provoke you so easily? The allegation is that when watching a woman dressed skimpily, it becomes a disturbance, a distraction, even a provocation. How will you insulate yourself, and how much will you insulate yourself from the world? And what are the limits to what you want to see and not see? Today, it is said that a woman’s legs or thighs provoke you. What prevents you from saying tomorrow that her ankles and fingernails provoke you? Would you then demand that she should cover up from head to toe?

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Want Satisfaction? Maximise Consumption || AP Neem Candies

Acharya Prashant: Ask yourself, would you be equally anxious to buy a flat, if you didn’t have that flesh in your life? Consumption promotes further consumption. So, if you are already addicted to one form of consumption, know that many other forms of consumption are just waiting to leap into… read_more

7 min

Acharya Prashant: You might just say, “Well, no I am not looking for flesh, I am looking for money. I am looking for material success. I am looking to have another factory. I am looking to have a bigger house with better furniture.” You might talk of material things other… read_more

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Please Remain without Love || AP Neem Candies

Acharya Prashant: We anyway live in attitudes, try to have a carefree attitude. Try to have an attitude of reasonless security, try to have an attitude in which you don't get daunted easily, you don't start shivering easily.

The world might be stamping its feet in front of you, angrily,… read_more

Do Attractive Girls Get More Love?

Acharya Prashant: Do not think that all the care that one takes to appease his body, all the lust, and all the bodily vanity is for nothing. It is a very, very calculated thing. Lust is needed so that you never get liberated. One requires one episode after the other… read_more

If the girl is physically attractive, the boy will feel physical attraction. Where does love come into the equation? Love is harder towards someone attractive because physical attractiveness overpowers everything else. If someone comes for your body, it’s not love. A wise woman laughs when a suitor praises her beauty.

Choose the Right Career Using Bhagavad Gita's Teachings on Work

14 min

There can be two sets of actions to choose from. One action could be the one that will load one with more bondages. Action that will lead to a thickening or deepening of your bondages. Another is kartavya i.e. action that leads to Freedom from your bondages. You can see the chains, so your action is for the sake of your Freedom, Liberation.

Does Law of Attraction Work?

The ‘Law of Attraction’ is based on the premise that you know what is truly worthy to attract. But do you really know? If a drunkard uses it, he would attract a truckload of beer, making things worse for him. Often, what you try to attract is just your disease. Can you use this law to bring peace to you? The real thing is not an object of attraction.

What Is the Price of Freedom?

5 min

Questioner: What is the price of freedom? What is it that convinces someone to pay that price? What is the reason for someone wanting freedom in the first place?

Acharya Prashant: Certain things do not even require a reason to validate them, because they are . What is need not… read_more

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How to Make the World a Better Place?

Acharya Prashant: Women like burly guys. Why do they like burly and big and muscular guys? Because they are likely to have a higher level of testosterone. Unless you have testosterone, you cannot build muscles, right? And that is why you cannot build muscles, let's say after 50 or 60.… read_more

18 min

If you want something extraordinary like Liberation to happen in the society, then you have to take extraordinary care as a society. You need that kind of a society that chooses the right kinds of rulers and brings up the right kind of institutions. To get the society to do that, you have to teach the society.

External growth is Passe, We now Need Internal Growth

13 min

Questioner: Acharya Ji, if we talk about the subject matter of economics, it was said by the father of economics, Adam Smith, that economics is a science of wealth where he puts money over men. So over the years as time passed and the scope was broadened, the economist Alfred… read_more

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