Climate Crisis

When you know that all this doesn’t mean anything, then the world’s problems are taken care of. And that is the only way problems like global warming will be taken care of. When you know that, “I do not need to exploit the earth, because all this doesn’t mean anything.” When you realize that the world doesn’t mean anything, then the world’s problems are solved.

Stop Calling These as Scriptures

8 min

A scripture is a book that tells you about yourself. A scripture has to deal essentially with self-knowledge. A book that talks of dietary choices cannot be called a scripture. A person who talks of the kind of things you must eat to enhance your health and such things cannot be called a Guru. Shastra is what deals with self-knowledge; a guru is one who encourages self-knowledge in you.

Overpopulation and Greed: Is There Any Future for Mankind?

We are looking at a scenario where nations have the population of India and the per capita consumption of the U.S. Multiply these two, and what do you get? Utter tragedy. Unless there is this basic recognition, which you can call a spiritual awakening, that the good life doesn’t consist of conspicuous consumption, we are hurtling towards a great disaster. It is already upon us.

Don’t Blindly Rush into ‘Good’ Deeds

18 min

Climate change is a result of the absence of spiritual education. The problem is man’s misguided and uneducated ego. Unless you educate the ego about who it really is, it will keep proceeding in the direction of blind consumerism. Lack of spiritual education has brought this catastrophe upon us. That is the only problem, and therefore, that has to be the only solution.

The Sixth Mass Extinction has started!

Surprise! A Delicious Dish

To date, mass extinction has occurred five times on Earth. Mass extinction means the complete destruction of all living beings. Five times in history, the Earth's temperature increased beyond limits, and life on the planet came to an end.

And now, the sixth mass extinction has begun! The reason for… read_more

Bleeding Throat, Unyielding Spirit: Acharya Prashant’s Fight for the Voiceless

Acharya Prashant: In general, human beings are not cannibals. We do not eat other men and women, do we? Why don't we ask ourselves: “Why don't we eat other men and women? If flesh is what we want to eat, then why kill animals?” There are many who say, “Eating… read_more

On the evening of November 15, just hours before a scheduled Gita session, a message arrived from Gauri Maulekhi, a prominent animal rights activist. She requested Acharya Prashant to join her in Patna the following morning to meet the Chief Secretary of Bihar and address the press about the Gadhimai festival in Nepal. This was no ordinary request. It was a plea to save thousands of animals and to raise a voice against a centuries-old practice of cruelty disguised as tradition.

Why Is The Planet Dying?

13 min

Today, if you see AQI levels beyond tolerance, glaciers melting and the coral reefs being destroyed, the reason is very simple. We do not know what is the right relationship to have with the world around us. So, all we do is consumption and destruction. There can be therefore no scientific and technological solution to this problem. The solution is self awareness.

Climate Change: Who’s the Real Culprit?

Tree Plantation is False Climate Activism

Questioner: When we were studying at IIT, we used to think that climate change is actually a technological problem, that renewable energy sources and electric vehicles, etc. are the solution to the rising carbon dioxide levels, and we were even doing research on this. Consequently, I also had the same… read_more

What does it mean to Love a Jungle?

Acharya Prashant: I will say something with respect to this tree plantation thing. You see, it is very well known that one tree over the course of forty years would absorb just one ton of carbon dioxide. How effective is that? Please. And that is if that tree gets to… read_more

The Hypocrisy of Climate Warriors

Acharya Prashant: You look at the last few centuries. Even the declaration of the rights of man came just three hundred years back. Then came the declaration of the rights of slaves. And in the last century came the Declaration of the Rights of Women.

I am seeing that in… read_more

There Is an Elephant in the Room (We Smoothly Ignore It)

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

23 min

Questioner 1 Thank you Acharya Ji for taking the time and giving us this opportunity to sit down with you and discuss climate change, veganism, and a lot of other questions that we have for you. With me I have on the panel today, Niharika Raizada Ji, a renowned actress,… read_more

To Give Birth is to Take Debt

Want Satisfaction? Maximise Consumption || AP Neem Candies

Acharya Prashant: Parents have first of all committed the mistake of bringing another person into this world of agony, longing, and suffering that they compensate for by investing themselves in raising the kid. That is why it is imperative for parents to bring education to the kids, give food to… 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

We forced the virus to come to us || AP Neem candies

Still living in the jungle? || Neem Candies

Acharya Prashant: What’s worse, there might be much more lethal and incurable viruses to come in the future.

We talk of the virus as the problem. In fact, if you go to social media to get a hang of how we are looking at the whole thing in a cultural… read_more

1 min

If you say that you must provide your daughter with a protein rich diet, why does the protein have to come from dairy? When everything in your life is anyway factory produced, why not use factory produced protein as well? People say, “Oh! But that would be unnatural.” Hello? If… read_more

External growth is passe, we now need internal growth

13 min

Questioner: Adam Smith, who is considered to be the father of modern economics, said that economics is a science of wealth; he places primary importance upon money and not on man. Alfred Marshall, another economist, said that economics is a study of material welfare; there he puts importance on man… read_more

The Violence of Giving Birth

How Will Your Lungs Adapt to This? || AP Neem Candies

Acharya Prashant: And there is another reason why kids appear so fascinating to us: it’s the hormones. It’s not only the human kid; the babies of even animals appear so cute. That’s a ploy of Prakṛti (physical nature). Babies have to appear cute; otherwise they are so defenseless that they… read_more

3 min

Acharya Prashant: Man is born in a battlefield; man will have to deal with challenges. Now it is upon you, which challenges you chose to deal with. You could either fight several miscellaneous, petty, worthless wars that cannot really be called as wars, call them skirmishes, squabbles. Or he could… read_more

Is It Better to Let the Poor and the Sick Die?

12 min

Questioner: We know that currently the Earth is overpopulated. People around me very loosely say that the people who are physically, mentally, or economically not so well off, they are better off dead. So, I want to ask, what is your take on this? And what do you think is… read_more

He Chose a Wife, Not a Guru

The One Species We Are Most Unfair To || AP Neem Candies

Questioner: We have a question by Pooja. So people who try to become self-aware and you know knowledgeable of themselves. They usually became the black sheep of their families.

Question by Pooja is what can we do if our loved ones, that is spouse, parents, friends are not receptive to… read_more

God Made a Mistake || AP Neem Candies

Acharya Prashant: If all those who oppose beef and cow slaughter would really know that the beef industry and the dairy industry are deeply interrelated, would they still be milk lovers? The majority of opposition to beef in India comes from those who love milk. That’s very, very strange.

Look… read_more

Vegan India Conference Interviews Acharya Prashant

Questioner: It is said specifically that butter, milk, and ghee is good for health, and this is what our mother cow gave to us as an offering. What would you say about that?

Acharya Prashant: You see, these are very basic things. To be a believer in the Vedas is… read_more

15 min

When I was in IIT, in my second year or something, there was a Hindi story I read, an autobiography of a calf, a cow's calf. So, how it is born and what it has to go through, and then how it was denied milk, how it was castrated and then how it was exploited in the field, and ultimately how it was dispatched to the slaughterhouse. So that made me quit milk at that time.

Worse Than a Dog, Higher Than a God || AP Neem Candies

If dogs were to write a holy text, would they say that “We are inferior to humans”? If chickens were to write a Bible of their own, would they say that “We exist so that we may be slaughtered in factories and packed”? Read more....

Should You Sacrifice Your Pleasures - When and How Much? || AP Neem Candies

These two need some education || AP Neem Candies

Acharya Prashant: You have to ask yourself what your primary identity is. If your primary identity is that of the body, then do what the body commands you to do. Good. The body has an inbuilt software of its own, and it’s a self-improving software. Its capacity to keep improving… read_more

3 min

Acharya Prashant: You might be an MBBS, or an MD, or a DM, but you could still be quite illiterate; you might still not have basic knowledge regarding the nutritional value of various food products. You could have a quack graduating even from the best medical college.

And you are… read_more

Ancient Man a Carnivore? || AP Neem Candies

3 min

Acharya Prashant: There are a few myths that need to be dispelled. Yes, man has had the inclination and the capacity to eat meat since a very, very long time. But even when man was in the jungle, he was primarily herbivore. And this is born out by scientific analysis… read_more

The Only Way to Help the World Is to Leave the World Alone

The world’s problems are solved by those who do not contribute to those problems. The world’s problems are not solved by those who take the world seriously. The world’s problems are actually solved by those who know that the world does not mean anything; hence they leave the world to itself. Read more....

The One Most Important Thing About Life

34 min

“The will to live.” “The will to just continue.” That, he said, is the basic human existential tendency. I’m asking, “Don’t animals have that tendency?” At the root of all consciousness; is the will to survive and continue. We don’t want to die; the animals, too, don’t want to die, right? We feel pain, we suffer; so do animals. The reasons might be very different. Often the reasons are, in fact, not too different. Separate a human mother from her baby and you see the suffering. It’s very apparent. Separate a cow from her calf, and the suffering is much the same. Read more...

With Kabir Saheb, I Am a Fanboy!

I sometimes say to the ones around me, “If I am very unwell and dying don’t offer me Gangajal and all that, just sing Kabir Saheb to me, not that, that would take me to heaven, that might actually make me get up. I am not interested in heavens or swarg. But, if you bring Kabir Saheb to me chances are I will just spring back to my feet. No mambo-jambo, no miracles, no other worldly stuff. Read more....

Bring This into Our Schools and Colleges || AP Neem Candies

We have to realize that the root of all these external problems is man's mind. So, first of all, we have to get rid of the notion that by having the right kind of legislation, or structures, or systems, or international treaties or agreements, or social processes, we can just sail out of these troubled waters. Read more....

The Final Proof That We Are Horribly Cruel People

But, when you look at someone who comes from a meat-eating family or the traditional kind of Indian Vaishnav family where milk and ‘kheer’ and ‘dahi’ are a staple, then it comes as a shock to that person, that milk involves cruelty. It’s a totally alien and a disturbing concept. So, it has to be brought out with due expertise and that does not mean that you have to be especially trained in communicating these matters, just that one has to be sensitive that the other person might not really know.

Things You DON'T Need to Have a Great Life

21 min

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

Killing to Eat Flesh, You Call Yourself Human?

34 min

Questioner: We have always been eating meat and drinking milk; it has been there since ancient times. So, my question to you is, is animal liberation or the vegan movement consistent with the ancient times of our land?

Acharya Prashant: There are a few myths that need to be dispelled.… read_more

What Makes You Do This?

61 min

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

Deeper Your Empathy, Deeper Is Your Self-Love

Who is most like you? You, yourself. So, be empathetic to yourself first. Then, who is most like you? Your mother, father, siblings; show empathy to them. Then, your neighbors, extended family, and finally, be empathetic to all. Lacking compassion for other conscious beings will only harm you. Kill the animal, and in some way the animal is liberated of its misery, at least in the physical sense. But you, having eaten the animal, will suffer. The flesh keeps you alive, and tomorrow awaits—a dark tomorrow as your punishment.

More Important Than Health Is the Wisdom to Use Health

11 min

Yes, you need health. But for what? When you say a fellow, a young fellow, must have vibrant health, I agree. But I'll ask: What for? What for are the biceps? Yeah, girls like them, obviously. Yes, a young fellow must be able to run a lot. Towards? Chimpanzees run a lot. But it's again one of those romantic ideals—the youthful, strong, vibrant young man. Why must one be strong? Strength is a resource. If you do not know what the resource is for, why do you need the resource at all? Before you gain health, must you not gain the wisdom to use health?

Bhagavad Gita for Global Warming

7 min

"Scriptures like the Bhagavad Gita want to disrupt that design; they want to do something that is actually against our prakṛtik constitution." We are not born inclined towards Truth or liberation; instead, we are designed to remain in bondage and continue suffering. The Gita, along with the Upanishads and Vedanta Sutras, acts as a circuit breaker to prevent us from moving endlessly in this cycle without realizing how trapped we are. Once the human mind is addressed, not only climate change but all problems are resolved. Every problematic situation, whether internal or external, stems from the same root cause. You cannot view one problem as distinct from another because the problem creator is one.

Sustainability Needs a Convergence of Economics and Spirituality

Mass extinction, Ocean depletion and Blind consumerism

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

15 min

Questioner: Pranam, Acharya Ji. I’m Atul Kulkarni, I’m M.Sc. Physics student here in IIT Patna, and first of all, thank you very much for accepting our invitation. Sir, my question is a little contextual, so I’ll read it out if you allow me.

Acharya Prashant: In context of?

Questioner: Contextual… read_more

Why Man is highly Unsettled and Restless

Role of Compassion in True Love

Acharya Prashant: The whole issue is because you have left the jungle and yet not reached where you set out to reach; you are stuck in between.

Man is in a very precarious position. Animals are well settled; the free ones, the Buddhas are also well settled. Man is unsettled.… read_more

7 min

Acharya Prashant: Love and responsibility have to be reasonless. They have to be mad. One has to be crazy enough to put in everything for a seemingly trivial creature.

I don’t know whether you have heard this story from the life of the Buddha. One man was carrying a goat… read_more

Our Desires Fuel the Climate Crisis

Can a Vegan Diet Reshape the Relationship Between Man and Environment?

Questioner: Hello Sir, Good Evening. As we are seeing unexpected heat in the early 2023, like it’s just February, March, and it’s already this hot. Also, the scientists expect that this year would be the hottest year in the last century. And the world population is also increasing rapidly. So,… read_more

8 min

Question: Acharya Ji, do you think that bringing the focus to our diet is going to change anything?

Acharya Prashant: In what sense?

Questioner: Do you see us heading in the direction towards this perfection, completion along with our diet?

Acharya Prashant: I am seeing that.

You see, it is… read_more

How to change the Inner Climate? || with Bard College (2022)

16 min

Questioner (Q): How can we encourage factories and companies in poor areas to prioritize the health of the local environment over having the greatest profit margins and the lowest costs? How can we motivate them for this kind of a change, when the natural tendency of human nature is to… read_more

How important is education of the self? || Acharya Prashant, with students (2014)