Education and Career

A lot of progress, even in the material sense, happens only by inviting pain. That which we call as discipline, even in the loose sense, is nothing but an invitation to pain. Is there discipline without pain? You have to get up at some point in the morning—doesn’t that involve… read_more

A. Objective and Fear

Wherever there is an objective, there would be fear associated with it. You hope to get something, and you fear that you may not get it. Don’t you see that a man who is chasing goals has condemned himself to live in fear?

It is possible… read_more

Questioner: I want everything that I do to be perfect. Because of this, I end up procrastinating a lot of things and focus only on the minor ones that I can do almost perfectly and feel satisfied about. I am not happy about this tendency. How should I get out… read_more

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

Questioner: Acharyaji, my question is that the greed of getting more and more pleasure is increasing with time, and finally I’m finding myself getting stuck in the vicious circle of getting more and more pleasure. Sir, what are the ways that you could suggest to me to get out of… read_more

Questioner: Pranam sir, I am Ram Surendra Singh, a research scholar from the Mathematics Department. Sir, we all are dealing with physical matter here but if we see a periodic table, all the elements in there, and if someone knows how to play with those elements they can all create… read_more

Questioner: Acharya Ji, I think this question may be on behalf of many of us sitting in this auditorium. Every student sitting in this auditorium had a dream not of getting admission in Lakshminarayanan Institute of Technology (where the session is being held), but getting into IITs. Then, after IIT,… read_more

Questioner: * I am Darshan, and my question is very simple yet complicated. So why do we not work? So even after knowing that if we work, we will get something that we are looking for. So, to take an example, I had the opportunity to interact with a lot… read_more

Acharya Prashant: If I am incomplete, then sitting where I am, what would be the quality of my actions, thoughts, and imagination? They, too, would be of an incomplete nature.

So, incompleteness is projecting more incompleteness for itself and then trying with all its might to reach more incompleteness. How… read_more

Acharya Prashant: Whatever you are doing, there has to be honesty in that. What is important is that you do not say one thing and do another thing. If you look at the great scientific discoveries or inventions, the scientist or the explorer would be busy in his chosen area… read_more

Questioner: I have something to say. There is a very famous line which is called─ the survival of the fittest. Now, I am an actor, and I’m also a medical practitioner. I studied cardiology, and as an actor, I have always advocated less makeup and simpler ways of life to… read_more

Questioner: Good afternoon and Jai Hind sir. My question to you is that people define success by different terms like influence, happiness, fame, name, etc. So, sir when did you start considering yourself success?

Acharya Prashant: First of all, thanks for inviting me here. I don't consider myself a success… read_more

Questioner: Good evening, sir. I'm Gauri. Sir, I would like to ask a question regarding the global recession. Sir, as we know the global recession has risen from 4.7% in 2021 to 8.8% in 2022. Because of this, we are facing a cost-of-living crisis in many countries. Thus, as a… read_more

Questioner: Hello sir, my name is Pradeep. I am a third year student from IIT, Hyderabad. So, my question is — In spite of being told that we shouldn't compare ourselves with others, it's told, that everyone is different and they have their own journey, but still, we tend to… read_more

Acharya Prashant: People feel that because human intelligence knows no limits and human desire knows no limits, therefore the human race is going to keep expanding endlessly. They are taking inspiration from history. They keep saying that if you look at history, man has kept ceaselessly inventing; if you look… read_more

Question: We generally say, “Let me do this task and then I will be in awareness.” Why do we defer awareness? Why do we keep on postponing awareness?

Why are there forces, psychological and physiological, that work against awareness? If one must live in awareness, then why is maya against… read_more

Question: Sir, in the market place, everywhere, are they not selling just the ‘Identities’? For example, if we talk about a newspaper, one kind newspaper is read by one kind of intellectual people. They relate to it, they have an identity through which they relate to the newspaper.

Similarly if… read_more

Question: Sir, what is meant by being vulnerable?

Speaker: The word ‘vulnerability’ is not a very likable word. ‘Vulnerability’ to us is a consequence of the fact that there are forces outside of us that are hostile, aggressive and inimical, because we need to protect and defend ourselves against these… read_more

Question: Sir, what made you to leave your corporate job, and start this whole different line of work?

Speaker: There was a lot that was asking to be changed. Leaving the corporate was not really an objective. I wanted to do something, and if it could have been nicely done… read_more

Questioner: What are the practical ways by which we can move towards dropping personality?

Speaker: No! Going by the discussion we have had so far, look at the semantics of your question – “What are the practical ways in which we can move towards dropping personality?”

The solution is here,… read_more

Questioner: Sir, it is also not incidental that man has, throughout history, connected other worldliness with Truth or God, I mean this is the way that things have been propounded, right, in all the religions, in all the images…

Speaker: Not really, are we saying that *Dattatrey*a is outside the… read_more

Question: Sir, I understand that the work we are doing these days will help us. But, mostly I get the feeling that everyone in Advait has become too ambitious. They say do this, get that done. The office seems so much like a corporate.

Speaker: You do not know ambition;… read_more

Questioner (Q): In this present college scenario, there is one thing, which is the academics which I focus on, and there is an equivalent pool of activities which will help me develop my personality, in the sense that if I get better in a specific activity, it might help me… read_more

There are cuisines around the world where animals are eaten alive. You like to have an octopus, a living octopus on your plate, and then you take the octopus and you take it in.

You have to address the entire value system. You have to ask man: Who are you?… read_more

Acharya Prashant: The question is from Simone from the Netherlands and it says, "I get easily get influenced by others. How do I learn to stand my ground?"

The mind is a crying vacancy. It is an undue emptiness. It is an unclean half-filled emptiness. The mind will always need… read_more

Questioner (Q): Acharya Ji, you often talk about the importance of time, and that is something that bothers me in the context of my career. I don’t know if I should continue in my current job or not. I took the job for very ordinary reasons: money and position in… read_more

Questioner: Talking about the theme that we have today – The Profit beyond profits. In management, we learn about how to maximize profit. And, you talk about going beyond profits. So what does going beyond profits mean?

Acharya Prashant: See, when we talk of material profits, profits in the commercial,… read_more

Question: If one is living without purpose, how does one act?

Acharya Prashant: Let’s see, from where the question is coming. It only shows that so far we have acted only with?

Listener: Purpose.

AP : Purpose.

To act with purpose is to act in exploitation.To act in purpose is… read_more

Speaker: The question can be broadly put as, ‘why is it so that our happiness comes at the cost of others?’ Why is it always a zero-sum game: if I win, you lose, if I am happy then you are sad? Why is it always like this?

This is the… read_more

Man is the only animal that is always sexually active. Why? Because man is the only animal who is always ambitious. Because you are constantly a seeker, because you are constantly feeling that hollow, because you are constantly feeling inferior, so you are always seeking something from the world. Always.… read_more

You have to be cautious towards the investment of all your resources. But among all the resources, the prime one is time.

Be careful about everything that you spend. The other things that you spend can be regained—money lost can probably be regained—but there is one resource that is not… read_more

Man wants progress, and progress means an ascension, an elevation. It is as if man wants to be elevated to some high sky. That’s what you say, right? “I am rising up, I am progressing.” What is the intention of this tendency to keep progressing? The intention is to progress… read_more

Q: How can I get a dynamic personality?

Acharya Prashant (AP): Is there anybody here who is not all, not at all concerned with the word ‘personality’? I don’t suppose there is anybody here, so just again, as I said, it is not only his question. This is not only… read_more

Question: Dear Sir,

All desires, all wants are motivated by the ego and hence desire too is an extension of the self. Now my question is that if we are our thoughts only, then how does one move from what one does not like, let us say his present occupation,… read_more

Question: What is the definition of ‘an honorable man’? Is being honorable good or bad?

Speaker: सम्मान=सम्यक्+मान

सम्यक मानने का अर्थ है समझना ।

तो जो समझ सकता है, वो सम्माननीय। जो नासमझ है उसका कोई सम्मान नहीं।

तुम भी यदि किसी का सम्मान करना चाहो, तो उसे समझो। यही… read_more

Student: Sir, what is an Ideal?

Acharya Prashant: You tell me. What is Idealism?

S: It is a prescription by the society in regard to how we should be.

AP: For an idealism to exist there must be an ideal and for an ideal, there should be an idea. Let’s… read_more

You have been entrusted with time not so that you while it away.

Somebody once asked the Satan, “How do you corrupt a being?”

He says, “It’s easy. I just whisper into his ears: your time is your time.”

And that’s the assumption we all have bought into: “I have… read_more

If you have seriously something worthwhile to do in life, then time is a friend. But if you are just loafing around and you fully well know that you are just killing time, then obviously time is an enemy. Every passing moment reminds you that you are committing a crime… read_more