Ego

Acharya Prashant: A fly comes and sits on my arm here (pointing towards the arm), I reject it, I discard it – Is the game over? Is she not ever going to return? Why? Because I discarded the fly and not my arm, so irrespective of how strong your resistance… read_more

Questioner: Sir, I want to ask, Robot doesn’t have ego. So, now what is the intersection between the urge towards freedom and your ego?

Acharya Prashant: You could say, the robot does have an ego planted into it by its designer. Therefore, the ego of the robot is totally in… read_more

Acharya Prashant: It has been told to us that there exist two centers. I suppose it has been very freshly told to you right? Very recently. He says, “How do I know that I am living out of the right center? How does a young man know whether he’s not… read_more

Questioner: Is there some scientific context to spirituality? Because, at the end of the day, as you said, ‘Religion forms a boundary, an outer shell, within which spirituality remains.’ Because this has to be something that stops you from doing something wrong or something that is fundamentally upsetting. So, how… read_more

Acharya Prashant: You can not win the mind, you can not cater to the mind, you can not control the mind. And you are not responsible for everything that this ancient mind does. A thousand squirrels are sitting here, and five hundred monkeys, and the extinct dinosaur, and all the… read_more

Acharya Prashant: What to do when you encounter a person with a lot of ego? He has used two words: High ego and bad ego. Let us understand this. When you use the term ‘bad ego’, you necessarily mean that there is something called ‘good ego’ as well. Correct? Logical?… read_more

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

Acharya Prashant: You are walking along an empty street in the middle of the night—nobody around you, nobody to really disturb you, nobody to talk to you, nobody to point to you, nobody to intercept you, nobody to remind you of anything, and still do you see how much keeps… read_more

Acharya Prashant: Man, as he is, is bound to kill. Killing is necessarily associated with the human form. That’s how we are, and that’s why the saints loathed the human form. They didn’t say that it is a great joy to be born as a human body. They said, “Please,… read_more

Acharya Prashant: So, we find two processes always and concurrently at work in the domain of the Ego. One, the Ego says, "It feels insecure." So, it is constantly seeking vistas of security, that's the first thing. And secondly, all the securities that the Ego arranges for itself are necessarily… read_more

Acharya Prashant: Leaving what is not, That is all right, but that leaving is not done with an objective to get joy. Had the thing been so transactional that you could leave one thing and as an exchange offer get another thing, then everybody would have taken the deal. Were… read_more

Questioner: I heard you say that when people say, put the ego aside, don’t pay any attention. I thought maybe I misunderstood. I thought the practice was to see the falseness of my actions — I say one thing; I do something different, and, in that way, reduce the ego,… read_more

Questioner: Why do we get so easily convinced by just anything? Few of my family members and friends follow things like energy healing and some fraudulent spiritual teachers just because they sound spiritually, scientifically, or logically convincing. I want to convince them that what they are doing is not right.… read_more

Questioner: How can we expose the subconscious mind?

Acharya Prashant: By watching your daily actions very, very closely.

Alright, somebody comes to you and says, ‘Namaste'. Quickly show me how you respond.

[Listeners: Namaste (keeping hands together and smiling)]

So, you are smiling. And the moment the fellow is gone,… read_more

Acharya Prashant: So, you are asking, ‘How to surrender’?

If I say you can surrender by jumping from that hill top, you won’t take the advice, right? It would be foolish advice if I say that. If I say, you can surrender by jumping into leaping flames, that is again… read_more

Questioner: So, do you teach any Sādhanā through which your disciples and followers can access this inner Witness through which they can constantly de-attach themselves from the world which they are experiencing.

Acharya Prashant: Know what you are doing currently, first of all, that’s what is needed. Anything begins when… read_more

Acharya Prashant: I know it's a fad currently, “the in thing” to say, be your own light, don’t depend on anyone, decide for yourself, whatever. It's a very ignorant thing to say with all due respect to the Buddha.

Such advice is meant only for very selected disciples. And even… read_more

Questioner : I have strong ego resistance and my ego resistance is health issues. Sometimes, I wake up at 4’o clock with this heavy migraine and today I woke up with this eye infection and these things, they come and go.

So, I believe it is ego resistance to my… read_more

Acharya Prashant: ‘Law of attraction’, all such stuff is based on the premise that you know what is worthy enough to be attracted to. Who are you to know that? Do you really know that? And if you really knew that, would you really want to attract something? Wouldn't you… 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: Acharya Ji, a few minutes back in the session you said that in today’s times we will not approach God to Love him. We will approach Him to stab Him. You also said that animal operates from the centre of prakriti (nature), and the Saint operates from the centre… read_more

Question: I have resigned from my current job. At present I have different options from different fields, to pursue as a career. I do not know what to do next. How do I know what is my calling? How do I know that this is really my calling and not… read_more

“Thus, I became a madman

And I have found both freedom and safety

in my madness;

the freedom of loneliness

and the safety from being understood

For those who understand us,

enslave something in us. ”

Khalil Gibran

Question: Why is Khalil Gibran saying that those who understand us enslave… read_more

Questioner: Sir, I have two questions. Firstly, do you agree that there is no ego-free person, and secondly, was it easier in earlier times to be less egoistic?

Acharya Prashant: Every time has its own challenges. If in those times there were less distractions, there also was less knowledge. So,… read_more

Questioner: Sir, is having an Ego positive or negative?

Shri Prashant: I write a quantity ‘A’ over here (pointing towards the white board ) and I ask you, ‘Is it positive or negative?’ Can you answer me? I just write a unknown quantity and I ask you, ‘Is it… read_more

Question: When a person has, after such a discussion, understood that this is what his situation is, what should he do after that?

Speaker: Who is to do what? Who are you referring to?

Listener: Probably me, myself.

Speaker: Where is that?

When you say, “What am I to do?”… read_more

Questioner : Sir, I know somewhere I am cheating myself but I am still doing, what I am doing. Why?

Speaker : (Jokingly) You want to get beaten up, that’s it, nothing else.

(everyone laughs)

Mind has several diseases out of which one is this one as well. There are… 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

Questioner (Q): First of all, Acharya Ji, you are very focused on scriptures, especially the authentic scriptures—Upanishads, more specifically. So, what do you consider more important, spiritual knowledge or spiritual experience?

Acharya Prashant (AP): See, there is nothing called as spiritual experience. Experience by itself is a thing in duality… read_more

Questioner (Q): Put in some difficult situations and old locations, I am surprised to see my old tendencies of hurt and dependence are back; they never did leave. I am selfish, difficult and stubborn. Help me Acharya Ji. Help me move ahead of this pettiness. Please!

Acharya Prashant (AP): You… read_more

Questioner (Q): I had been part of the last Delhi Camp, IIT Delhi Camp. During those three days, I have seen that you have spoken to the participants continuously for 6 hours, then later in the evenings, with hostel students, for another two, to three hours till 2 a.m. in… read_more

”How does a part of the world leave the world? How does wetness leave water? Don’t try to put out fire by throwing on more fire! Don't wash a wound with blood. No matter how fast you run, your shadow keeps up. Sometimes it's in front!

Only full overhead sun… read_more

आज्ञाभयसंशयात्मगुणसङ्कल्पो बन्धः ।

ājñābhayasaṁśayātmaguṇasaṅkalpō bandhaḥ

Bondage is to imagine that Ātman has qualities like doubts, fear, etc.

~ Niralamba Upanishad, Verse 25

✥ ✥ ✥

Acharya Prashant (AP): “Bondage is to imagine that Ātman has qualities like doubts or fear etc. Bondage is to imagine that Ātman has doubt or… read_more

Question: Pranaam Acharya Ji. Allow me to apologise for the abrupt question last time. This time too, I was a little afraid to write another question. However I do wish to write. Please talk about it as I am your avid listener, and whatever you say shall be good for… read_more

Speaker: Have you tried seeing whether the different activities are in agreement with each other? Have you tried seeing whether the video that you watch are in the agreement with the activities? Is everything gelling together or are things contradictory to each other? You must find contradictions because there are… read_more

Questioner (Q): Okay, so yesterday I was here. You pointed out that I am enslaved by my own intellect. I kind of thought about that overnight and I realized how you are right, and how my intellect is tied to my ego as well. And in order to feed my… read_more

Listener 1: In Avadhuta Gita, it looks like for every question, there is only one answer.

Acharya Prashant: Yes! And what is that one answer?

L1: That it is the Self.

AP: No. The answer is that ‘ the question is stupid,’ and hence there is no answer. Silence is… read_more

Questioner (Q): All reflections are coming from my limited mind. And when you shower pure nectar in every session, it seems my words would just pollute everything. I do acknowledge that I am related or connected to money, family, position, etc. and for me, Dṛṣṭā or Ātman is merely a… read_more

Questioner (Q): Acharya Ji, in my experience, only a crazy person can understand true love. So, are you crazy?

Acharya Prashant (AP): You are asking this question while assuming that what you have experienced and what you have concluded based on your experience is already true. Isn't it important that… read_more