Questioner: How to deal with childhood mental and sexual abuse, which makes a deep impact on one’s mind? Do these things happen due to past life karma?
Acharya Prashant: If I tell you that they indeed happen due to accumulated actions from the past, past life, what would you do?… read_more
Acharya Prashant: Immerse yourself in the right action, then where are space and the time to worry? Indeed you are stealing time away from work. So that you can indulge in worries and anxiety and fancy and all kinds. Young people fantasize, don't they?
Some fantasize about beautiful, pretty exciting… read_more
Acharya Prashant: What is the fact of life? How do you react to your own sweat? Have you seen how one reacts when one is sweating? The trickle can be quite unnerving. Have you seen the aggression with which one often wipes out his sweat? The aggression, the frustration, the… read_more
Kauravas are scattered on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, not unified. Bheeshm is there because of promise. Dronocharya is there because of loyalty to the state. Karna is there to replay an old debt. Pandavas, on the other hand are unified by Dharma.
~ Acharya Prashant, commentary on Bhagavad Gita, Chapter… read_more
Questioner: Good evening, Guru ji. My name is Shashikant Prabhakar, and I am from Dhanbad, Jharkhand. I am currently pursuing an MTech from NIT-Silchar, Assam. My question is, if I get tired of something, I get into depression. If I move away from that place, everything starts working fine. After… read_more
Acharya Prashant: Immerse yourself in the right action, then where is space and the time to worry? Indeed you are stealing time away from work. So that you can indulge in worries and anxiety and fancy and all kinds. Young people fantasize, don't they? Some fantasize about beautiful, pretty exciting… read_more
Questioner 1: Namaskar Acharya Ji! My question is, how should I control my emotions, so that they don’t become too extreme in positive as well as in negative situations. Actually, it happens to me every time that whenever I achieve my goal, I feel so happy. But if I fail,… read_more
The more your inner dissatisfaction grows, the more becomes the importance of diverse objects in your life, and vice versa, mind you. The more the prevalence and production and consumption of objects will grow, the more the dissatisfaction in your life will grow.
Now do you see why neurosis has… read_more
For us, life means reactivity. Life is not peace to us. Life is not meditativeness to us. We feel alive when we are tense, reactive, and agitated. Then you say that now you have come alive.
The fellow is sitting silently and peacefully, unnoticeable. You will say he is a… read_more
Interviewer (I): We're in Rishikesh, India and with me for today’s episode podcast is Acharya Prashant, who is a spiritual teacher and philosopher of Vedic tradition. It’s a pleasure to have you join us for the podcast.
Perhaps we could begin with, what inspired you to give up quite a… read_more
Questioner: Acharya Ji, we use anger as a weapon and it's a weakness too. How to stop anger from becoming a weakness and why do we get angry?
Acharya Prashant: When desire is not fulfilled Parul (Questioner) then one gets angry, you know that. So, it's not about anger. It's… read_more
Questioner: How should one reduce overthinking about situations or the future? There is so much unnecessary anxiety in students everywhere.
Acharya Prashant: Work! To be anxious you need to be blessed with a lot of spare time. How do you manage the time to indulge in anxiety? I have chosen… read_more
There might be people around you who make it compulsory for you to smoke, not because they urge you to smoke, but because they put you in so much of tension that you will need to smoke. But you are deriving some benefits from those people, so you will never… read_more
Acharya Prashant (AP): A small particle of snow starts falling from a hillside. As it keeps rolling down the slope what does it gather?
Listener 1 (L1): More snow
AP: More snow. And ultimately it becomes quite big. So, if you ask, “Who is it that has become big?”
Has… read_more
Question: Acharya Ji, my question is, “How to be free of botheration and still be focused on our goal”?
Acharya Prashant: What’s your name?
Questioner: Kumar Abhishek.
AP: Sit, Abhishek.
Abhishek is saying, how to be free from botheration and yet to be focused on the goal. Let’s examine.
Abhishek,… read_more
Question: Why the lingering effects of defeats or so-called perceived defeats stay in our mind for a long time? How can we shut it away?
The more you desire victory, the more will the effect of defeat linger in your mind. When you are fighting from the right place for… read_more
Questioner: How should one reduce overthinking about situations and about the future? There is so much unnecessary anxiety in students.
Acharya Prashant: Work! To be anxious, you need to be blessed with a lot of spare time. How do you manage time to indulge in anxiety?
It is an indulgence… read_more
Question: I have suffered a lot from anxiety. Have been to many psychiatrists, and they have always advised me to be secure in my environment. But I have found that all that is something very false.
I can have faith, and I believe that my life can be good. Everyone… read_more
Question: Why do I often feel anxiety?
Acharya Prashant: Anxiety is a thought. If you want you can be anxious right now, you can call thoughts of anxiety, and you will see that you have become anxious. Call forth the memories that make you stressful, and within few minutes you… read_more
Question: Two years back I got diagnosed with Bipolar disorder. After being under medication for eight months, I realised that I am very much dependent on it. So I skipped the medicines and found a very stupid alternative, which was smoking weed. And then I got dependent on that too.… read_more
When you are feeling depressed, ask yourself: “What do I really want? What is the problem?” And it will irritate you no end, because you seek pleasure in depression; because your depression, your bad mood is self-verified and sanctified and certified.
You tell yourself that you have the right to… read_more
Especially in the modern world, unfortunately, a degree of constant anxiety has become an almost normalized state for us. A large portion of our mental health problems as a collective is very much about anxiety and fear. Burn-outs, career pressures, problems with self-esteem, fear of… read_more
Real relaxation is about relaxing even in the middle of activity. You are relaxed even as you exert yourself. You are relaxed even as you are running. You are relaxed even as you are drained out. You are not waiting for a special activity like going to bed or sitting… read_more
Question: How can one be in the sense of ‘presence’? How can one get rid of anxiety?
Acharya Prashant (AP): First of all, I do not think that there is any magical formula to it. There is a part of anxiety that is related to ‘facts’, and there is a… read_more
There is a subtle pleasure in worrying. Surely you are stealing time away from work so that you can indulge in worries and anxieties and fancies of all kinds.
The opposite of this self-centered worry is immersion in action. Immerse yourself in the right action, and then where is the… read_more
Questioner (Q): Hello Sir. I am very happy with my life, I have achieved everything I wanted, even more than that. But you know, many times my anxiety levels go high for unknown reasons. I do meditations, I go on morning walks, and I do everything. But when any late… read_more
Does the person you are with encourage you to read? You have to ask, “What does he bring for me, roses or books?”
Be very cautious of those who bring roses for you, especially red roses. Books are what we all need, and books are dangerous. Books are dangerous because… read_more
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
Questioner (Q): Man is typically a social animal who seeks to coexist with the society around him. I am a vegan but many people around me are not, and that creates a difficulty for me. I want to speak out my thoughts on animal cruelty and get into animal activism,… read_more
Acharya Prashant: You have said, “What kind of change our education system needs to have so that our coming generations live together in peace and fulfillment?” Live together with each other, right? You haven’t said they live together with animals. The trees, the rivers, the rabbits, and the lions. That… read_more
THE SHORT STAFF
Shuzan held out his short staff and said,
“If you call this short staff, you oppose its reality.”
“If you do not call it a short staff, you ignore the fact.”
“Now what do you wish to call this?”
Questioner: Acharya Ji, Pranaam! Please help me understand… read_more
