ज़्यादातर लोग बाहर जी-तोड़ मेहनत करते हैं। लेकिन उनकी भीतरी दुनिया खाली, खोखली, कुछ नहीं, क्योंकि वो सारी मेहनत भीतर के केन्द्र को बदलने के लिए नहीं की गई होती है। वो जो आप बाहर खूब सारी मेहनत करके खूब सारे पैसे कमा रहे हैं, वो सिर्फ़ इसलिए कमा रहे हैं, क्योंकि आप अपनी आन्तरिक असुरक्षा को बचाए रखना चाहते हैं। आप भीतरी तौर पर एक डरे हुए आदमी हैं, इसीलिए बाहरी तौर पर आप बहुत मेहनत करते हैं। तो करते रहो बाहर कितनी भी मेहनत, आन्तरिक प्रगति कुछ नहीं होगी।
The world is a habit, but drugs are a worse habit. The one who is finding refuge in drugs is fed up of the usual stuff of consciousness, that is certain, but he is taking a very wasteful route. It’s like feeling cold in Delhi in the month of December
Acharya Prashant: The four yugas in the Vedic tradition have been Satyug, Treta, Dvapara, and Kaliyug. Now, what do they represent? Do they represent the passage of time? Do they represent something historical? We have been led to believe that way, right? We believe that time is something external that
Acharya Prashant: You must never be afraid of questioning others. More importantly, you must never be afraid of questioning yourself. The second part is tougher. It is easy to question others, relatively easy at least. Questioning oneself hurts the ego, but that’s what one must practice.
आचार्य प्रशांत: गलत-सही का निर्धारण बस एक चीज़ से होता है — आप आंतरिक तौर पर हल्का अनुभव कर रहे हैं कि नहीं कर रहे हैं। इसी से समझ लीजिए न (पानी का गिलास उठाकर)। अगर इसकी आदत है अपने में जोड़ते ही रहने की, चिपकते ही रहने की, तो
Question: If a student has to select a stream after class twelfth and he is interested in both medical and engineering, how does he select the stream without thinking about the future?
Question: What is absent mindedness?Answer: Absent mindedness is mind being anywhere. Whenever you are occupied with anything, it is absent mindedness. Any act of focus, concentration, having ‘something’ as important in mind, becoming a subject,all these are acts of absent-mindedness. Mind busy with any object is absent-mindedness.
You are fantasizing: “When I meet that man, such and such great things will happen. And now we are having coffee, and now we are watching the movie, and the movie is wonderful”—and the entire three-hour movie you are visualizing.
Strength is your nature. If you have managed to remain so weak, so fragile, so brittle for so long, it is only because you have been defending your weaknesses. You have been arguing in favor of your weaknesses; you have been reasoning out your weaknesses. You have simply not been
There are people who indeed say that, “No, everything is fine with us.” They are not lying. It’s just that their fineness is superficial.Yes, there is fineness in your life, but that fineness is just this deep: scratch the surface and the fineness will evaporate. A little tragedy hits you
Questioner (Q): We encounter these nodes in the path of our lives where we have to make decisions. The majority of us have a lot of duties associated with our life, and these duties also come with some demands associated with how we must act. For example, right now I
A certain word falls upon your ears and there is an instant reaction, is there not? Your entire body can get heated up. One word falling on your ears can raise your temperature by two degrees within two minutes. Is it not a chemical reaction?
I’ll tell you what the rape of the mind is. When the mind has nonsensical purposes, that is rape of the mind. When things like stuff that happened in the childhood or teenage attracts you and dominates you, then the mind is being raped. Forgive me the clichéd expression, but
Were our bodies to reflect accurately and honestly the state of our minds, none of us would have been able to walk firmly even for a distance of ten meters. Our legs would have shown up as cut, wounded, bruised, fractured the way, exactly the way our mind is.
Even in those situations that we call as utterly woeful, utterly hopeless, if we just do that which we are capable of doing, would there be space and opportunity and time to despair? If you do what you must, where is the time to suffer?
Gynaecology is psychology. Where else does the whole thing come from? And it’s not as if I am talking exclusively of women; with the men it’s just the same.
As long as you are living a socially adjusted and internally compromised life, as long as you are living resigned to your limitations, even your agony is limited. There won’t be much even in your sadness. You will cry for a while and then the moment somebody shows you some
Questioner: Sir, it is told to us that options create confusion in one’s life. But wherever we go, whatever we want to do, we have to search for options. Why?
Look at the stats released by the Durex company; it manufactures condoms. In the Valentine’s Day week, sales of condoms spike by twenty to thirty percent. And then there are the stats available from the medical organizations: March is the peak month for termination of pregnancy.
Questioner (Q): I have discovered that being a little altruistic, a little selfless makes me feel that I am elevating my consciousness. That is what works for me. But one problem associated with this is the problem of the violation of boundaries. So, suppose I want to help a person
We are brilliant artists—makeup artists. We are adept in calling false happiness as happiness. We pretend to be happy when we are not even happy, and all of us know fully well what I am talking of. Go to your social media pages and you will see what we are…
You want the other person to be nice. We are such idiots. We want the other person to be nice. And if the other person is not nice, we feel there is no love. We do not understand anything. We are prepared to give up our life probably when somebody
You might be twenty-five today; where is the one who was twenty yesterday? Isn’t he gone? How can you stop the other from departing when you couldn’t prevent even your own old self from departing?
प्रश्नकर्ता: जो इतने वर्षों में सीखा, घर में रहकर, दोस्तों के साथ, शिक्षा में, उसका बल इतना है कि लगता है कि वो गलत है; ये मैं अपना एक प्रोजेक्शन (प्रक्षेपण) कर रहा हूँ; गलत लगता तो छोड़ ही देता, लेकिन बल इतना है कि उसको गिराने के लिए अक्षम…
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Question: I want to know why the world is at the moment so harsh?
Acharya Prashant: There is nothing that one group, one community or one person experiences that the other has never experienced or is not experiencing even to the slightest degree. Fundamentally we are all one. As human…
तुम्हारी समस्या यह नहीं है कि तुम्हें सही और गलत का ज्ञान नहीं है, बल्कि यह है कि सही राह सामने होने पर भी तुम उस पर दो कदम बढ़ाने का साहस नहीं करते। तुम्हें केवल अंतिम मंज़िल की उत्सुकता होती है, और आलस तुम पर हावी रहता है। जो सही और उचित प्रतीत होता है, वहां तक होशपूर्वक चलो और उसके प्रति निष्ठा रखो। जैसे-जैसे आगे बढ़ोगे, राह स्वयं खुलती जाएगी।
What is clarity? To be immediately certain. Certain of what? That which is certain, that which is unchangeable. Obviously, without knowing the airline schedule, you cannot be immediately certain of that. And why must and why cannot you be immediately certain of things like train schedules? Because they keep fluctuating anyway. Therefore, clarity is not being cocksure about things that are anyway volatile and changeable. Clarity is about being certain of that which ‘is’, that which is unchangeable. Therefore, clarity has a direct relation with faith; you cannot be clear without having faith in the heart.
Excerpts from Articles
फ़ालतू खर्च छोड़िए, अपनी ज़िंदगी पर खर्च करना सीखिए
आचार्य प्रशांत बताते हैं कि क्यों हम सही खान-पान, स्वास्थ्य और अपने ऊपर ज़रूरी खर्च से बचते हैं, लेकिन दिखावे और फ़ालतू सामाजिक परंपराओं पर पैसा बहा देते हैं। अधिकांश लोगों के लिए समस्या सिर्फ़ पैसों की कमी नहीं, बल्कि विवेक और सही प्राथमिकताओं की कमी भी है।
Climate change is more than an environmental crisis—it is a crisis of human choices. Our patterns of consumption, consumerism and endless pursuit of more are putting increasing pressure on the planet. But meaningful change does not necessarily begin with new technology or stricter policies. It begins with a deeper question: what are we willing to change within ourselves?
ज्योतिष कितना सच है? कुंडली, ग्रह-नक्षत्र: इनका क्या अर्थ है?
वेदांत को केवल इसलिए सही या श्रेष्ठ नहीं माना जा सकता कि वह किसी विशेष परंपरा से आता है। विज्ञान जहाँ भौतिक जगत की वस्तुनिष्ठ जाँच करता है, वहीं अद्वैत वेदांत सीधे मनुष्य के ‘मैं’, उसके दुख, बंधन और मुक्ति की पड़ताल करता है। इसकी कसौटी वैज्ञानिक प्रमाण नहीं, बल्कि अपने जीवन में इसकी सच्चाई को देख पाना है। किसी दर्शन को मान लेना नहीं, बल्कि उससे स्वयं को मुक्त करना ही उसका वास्तविक उद्देश्य है।
Struggling to choose between a secure job and the path you actually feel drawn to? This isn't really a question about careers. It's about why other people's opinions have so much power over you in the first place. Real clarity doesn't come from finding the 'right' choice. It comes from honestly looking at your own fear, again and again, until it stops running the decision for you.
एक पुजारी जो रोज़ भूत-प्रेत, तंत्र-मंत्र और वशीकरण के नाम पर आए लोगों से मिलता है, आचार्य प्रशांत से पूछता है: जब वो ख़ुद जानता है कि कुछ भूत-चुड़ैल नहीं होता, तो लोग बार-बार इसी झूठ की शरण में क्यों जाते हैं? जवाब अंधविश्वास से कहीं गहरा निकलता है — यह हमारे भीतर के उस झूठ की कहानी है, जिसे हम हर कीमत पर बचाना चाहते हैं।
Justice Without Boundaries: Why Compassion Cannot Stop at Species
Oppression should not see caste, gender, creed or colour, and it should not see species either. The moral threshold is sentience, not intelligence. An animal feels pain as fully as a human does, whether or not it can explain its suffering.
रक्षाबंधन केवल भाई-बहन के रिश्ते और सुरक्षा की रस्म तक सीमित नहीं होना चाहिए। आज असली रक्षा उन चीज़ों की ज़रूरत है जो कमज़ोर और संकट में हैं—गौरैया, नदियाँ, पहाड़, पेड़, महासागर और पृथ्वी। साथ ही ईमानदारी, आत्मज्ञान और मानवीय मूल्यों की भी रक्षा जरूरी है। धर्म कर्मकांड नहीं, अपनी शक्ति और उससे जुड़ी व्यापक ज़िम्मेदारी को समझना है।
प्रश्नकर्ता: सर, मन शान्त नहीं है। सवाल तो है नितनेम से पर उन सवालों के जवाब ले पाऊँ, ऐसी मैं नहीं हूँ। सवाल लिखूँगी तो बेईमानी हो जाएगी। माफ़ करिएगा।
आचार्य प्रशांत: आदमी का कर्ता भाव बड़ा सघन होता है। ‘मैं’ सवाल लिख रही हूँ। ‘मैं’ जवाब सुनूँगी। ‘मैं’ जवाब…
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Questioner: So, the thing is, we have already decided to go on a path of whatever we want to achieve, and I am sure of it that okay, I like this, I am interested in it, and suddenly due to some of the other reasons, I feel am I on…
Question yourself: “What am…
Cancel culture arises when one's fundamental identity is social. If you take your identity from society, you've given them the right to cancel it. Don’t let anyone control your centre. Be your own master. Be of the world and live yet, independently of the world. Let them cancel what they can! That’s what spirituality blesses you with—your real identity, which no one can dare cancel.
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बुद्ध निर्विकल्प जीवन जीने को कहते थे| निर्विकल्पता में आता है कि पात्र में जो दे दिया विधि ने, वहीं खा लेना है। अगर बुद्ध ने अपवाद खड़ा कर दिया होता, तो भिक्षु निर्विकल्पता का पालन करने से मुकर जाते| तो बुद्ध ने कहा, ‘नहीं, अब आ ही गया है माँस तो खा लो। वैसे भी इसको तुमने मारा नहीं’। पर ये समय सापेक्ष बात है | भूल होती है, जब कहते हैं ‘बाज़ार में जो माँस है, हमने तो मारा नहीं,तो हम उसे खाएँगे।’ ये मत कर लेना, ये केंद्रीय, कालातीत बात नहीं|
Procrastination is nothing but the postponement of misery. ‘If I do it right now, I will feel miserable.’ So I try to escape by sending the thing into the future. But if I loved what I did, would I still procrastinate? After all, one never delays love.
Decision-making is such a problem with most people, whereas decision-making should not be needed at all. One should not be required to make a choice at all. Clarity makes the entire process of making a choice very redundant. If you know who you are and what you want, if you have that clarity, why will you require to spend time thinking about the choice to make? If you are someone who remains confused in the hour of the choice, then you should know that the confusion is not about that choice in particular. The confusion is arising due to an inner darkness.
Freedom is invaluable, it is who you are, and you won’t get any kind of rest or peace without freedom. If you are not free, something within you would keep bleeding, wailing, crying for liberation. It’s just that once you agree to pay the price, you discover that the thing that you are paying for freedom actually carries very little value, even negative value. Your bondages is the price that you pay; your bondages are the things that you renounce to be free.
Questioner: You have said that individual liberation is not possible: that either we go together, or nobody can go. So, we have to help others to cross over. But I can’t help even the people close to me; they are caught up in routine work or indulge in entertainment; no…
Speaker: See, the problem is that we make our choices by looking at the future. We make our…
Speaker : What is confusion? Confusion is conflict. Confusion is the presence of many options and your inability to know. Confused, there are so many things and they are tangled together, they are fused together. That’s what confusion is.
We said…
Question:
Can this happen that ‘I don’t know and I don’t even want to know, and that there will always be something more to know’? Can this happen that a person thinks that ‘I am so peaceful that I don’t even want to know’?
Shri Prashant: You see, these are…
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Question: Sir, as you said right now that when I am really here, then there is no opportunity for restlessness. But when I am really here, a restlessness, an inner thirst, is there. And this thirst is unbearable.
Shri Prashant: No, you call that restlessness. It is never there on…
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प्रश्नकर्ता: नमस्कार आचार्य जी! ये मेरा पहला सत्र है आपके साथ में, और पहली बार भी। बात करने का मौक़ा भी मिल गया। तो मैं बहुत खुश हूँ इस बात को ले के। सवाल इस प्रकार जब मैं आयी थी यहाँ पर तो मैं लेकर नहीं आई थी। मेरा एकमात्र…
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प्रश्नकर्ता नमस्ते सर, आज की बातचीत थोड़ी कॉन्ट्रोवर्शियल (विवादित) होने वाली है
आचार्य प्रशांत: कोई बात नहीं होती रहती है कॉन्ट्रोवर्शी।
प्र: मैं आपसे गुरुओं के ऊपर बात करना चाहता हूँ और इस पूरी बात की शुरुआत आज से दस या बारह साल पहले से होती है।
आचार्य: क्या हुआ…
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प्रश्नकर्ता: प्रणाम, आचार्य जी। पहले मैं आपको बहुत-बहुत धन्यवाद देता हूँ कि मैं आपको लगभग छह महीने से मैं सुन रहा हूँ और मुझे बहुत फ़ायदा हुआ है।
मैं आगे बढ़ते हुए पूछना चाहता हूँ कि हमें हमेशा कुछ-न-कुछ चुनाव करना होता है कि ये करें या तो ये करें।…
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आचार्य प्रशांत: पूछते हैं कि युवा हूँ और अपने जीवन में कई अलग-अलग पहलुओं को पाता हूँ। फिर इनके जीवन में वो अलग अलग पहलू क्या है, उसकी छोटी सी सूची दी है। तो एक पहलू है पढ़ाई और कैरियर का। अगला है गर्लफ्रेंड और प्रेम प्रसंगों का। फिर अगला…
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आचार्य प्रशांत: जब भी कभी मन में ये प्रश्न आये कि आचार्य जी क्या करूँ, किसी भी सन्दर्भ में जब ये प्रश्न आये, ठीक है? वो किस्सा कुछ भी हो सकता है। वो ये भी हो सकता है कि पुरानी गाड़ी अब हटाकर नयी गाड़ी लेनी है। वो ये भी…
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सर्वभावं न सन्देह : सर्वं नास्ति न संशय:।
सर्वं तुच्छं न सन्देह : सर्वं माया न संशय:।।
All is thought. There is no doubt of this.
All is not. And there is no doubt of this.
All is trifling. And there is no doubt of this.All is illusion. And…
Mind busy…
What is at the basis of this entire fantasy? That…
Each of us, in each moment, has to make this choice. Where is your action going to come from? Is it going to…
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Acharya Prashant Ji: Check! Check!
All your stories are about objects in the universe. Your stories have no fresh elements at all. All the actors, all the players, all the…
This body is a bunch…
…
Unfortunately,…
In fact, the more impossibly…
This entire body is just genitals expressing themselves in various forms. One part of genitals you call as genitals; the other…
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Acharya Prashant: The question, rather this statement has to be clearly understood.
‘Options create confusion.’
What it means is that…
So, love is not…
…
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Question: Acharya Ji, if Liberation is the ultimate destiny, why don’t we get it naturally?
Acharya Prashant Ji: Liberation is Freedom, right? Liberation is Freedom. So you are free to not to be free. You are already Liberated.
It is because you are Liberated, that you can choose to remain…
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Questioner (Q): In spite of being fully aware of the consequences, why do people engage in self-harming behavior? Why do people stay in toxic marriages, relationships, friendships, get into addictions, do substance abuse, or get into other miscellaneous self-harming activities?
Acharya Prashant (AP): See, nobody engages in self-harm knowing fully…
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What is suffering? Suffering comes only when you start espousing the flawed concept that life must be pain-free. When you start feeding that concept, when you start nourishing and identifying with that concept that
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Remember your old self, the one that was there at the age of five, ten,…
All powerlessness is just a pretense. Even in your feeblest moment, you are still powerful enough to exercise choice, and you must always hold this very close to your heart.
The world can take anything, everything away from you, but nothing and nobody ever can take away from you your…
