Ego

The ego does not need an entire purpose of life. It's so much in pain and so full of immediate distress that it's enough for it to pay attention to its immediate surroundings. And the most immediate to the ego is itself. So words like ultimate mean nothing to the ego. The ego is like a patient on a ventilator. That fellow is looking forward to the next hour. Will I see the next day? Will I survive the next hour? That's the ego so much in distress that even the next one hour is difficult to to predict or see through or navigate.

(Gita-8) The Self and the Joy of Immortality

37 min

If all that the Ego wants is liberation from itself, which means coming to see its own non-existence, then the only way to see its non-existence is by paying attention to itself. The more the Ego pays attention to itself, it sees that it does not exist. The more the Ego remains attached to this and that, all the sensory inputs, the Ego feels that is real and this is real.

तीर्थयात्रा के नाम पर मज़ाक? || आचार्य प्रशांत

8 min

आचार्य प्रशांत: उत्तरांचल को बर्बाद करके उत्तर प्रदेश, बिहार, बंगाल बच लेंगे क्या? क्यों नहीं बचेंगे? एक छोटा-सा नाम है ‘गंगा’। बाढ़-सूखा कुछ भी आपने गंगोत्री का जो हाल कर दिया है उसके बाद ये आवश्यक नहीं है कि बाढ़ ही आये। जब ग्लेशियर नहीं रहेगा तो गंगा जी कहाँ… read_more

What Does Equanimity Mean in Life?

12 min

When you know that you can not be harmed, then you let the change come to you. Then, you do not lose your inner poise in front of changing conditions. This is equanimity. For equanimity, you require a very good driver, a totally dependable driver. Our driver is the Ego. It does not allow the Absolute to drive us. The Ego is so arrogant that it goes and sits on the throne, the sacred place, that is reserved only for the Beloved, only for God. It has no right to be there. Dethrone it!

मुक्त पुरुष और अहंकारी में भेद

12 min

अहंकार है, कुछ नहीं भी करो तो भी तुम लगे ही हुए हो, रत हो, उद्यमी हो। और नहीं है अगर अहंकार तो जो करना है करो, तुमने तब भी कुछ नहीं किया।अहंकार रहित कर्तृत्व को ही कहते हैं अकर्तृत्व। अकर्ता और कोई नहीं है; अकर्ता और कर्ता में यही अंतर है कि करते दोनों हैं, एक इसलिए करता है कि कुछ मिल जाएगा और एक बस यूँही करता है।

अहंकार का भ्रम

13 min

कुछ भी के लिए तो हम प्रस्तुत ही नहीं हैं। कुछ भी के लिए तो बड़ी बेधड़क निर्भीकता चाहिए। कुछ भी तो हमसे आगे की बात हो जाती है। हमारे साथ तो वही दो-चार छोटी-मोटी चीज़ें होती है जो रोज़ होती हैं। सुख का पता चलना माने अहंकार का पता चलना, दुख का पता चलना माने अहंकार का पता चलना। मन परिचित ही सबकुछ पकड़े रहता है।

मन का दमन व्यर्थ है

वास्तव में पछतावा और प्रायश्चित दो अलग-अलग शब्द हैं, इनको एक समझ भी मत लेना। प्रायश्चित ज़रा साफ़-सुथरी और प्यारी बात है। पछतावे का मतलब होता है बस बाद में छाती पीटना और जब कोई न दिख रहा हो, दोबारा वही करने में मसगुल हो जाना। ये दिखाये भी जाओ कि हमें तो बड़ा दुख है कि हम गंदे हैं। इसे कहते हैं पछतावा — वो रहे भी आओ, और प्रकट करो जो यूँ रहने में बड़ा अफ़सोस है। प्रायश्चित का मतलब होता है अफ़सोस के ही पार चले जाना, नये हो जाना।

जब हमारा दमन होता है तब जिस ऊर्जा का दमन हो रहा होता है, वह ऊर्जा हममें सड़ने लगती है। वही ऊर्जा जो एक फूल बन सकती थी, काँटा बन जाती है। जिस ऊर्जा से विकास हो सकता था, वह थम कर बदबू देना शुरू कर देती हैl ऊर्जा को … read_more

पश्चाताप या प्रायश्चित?

16 min

अपनी जेल के भीतर हम बिल्कुल स्वतंत्र हैं, जैसे खूँटे से बँधा पशु आज़ाद है || आचार्य प्रशांत (2023)

19 min

आचार्य प्रशांत: आप स्वतंत्र हो ये आपको पता ही कैसे चलेगा?

श्रोतागण: ज्ञान से।

आचार्य: आपका दिल कितना स्वतंत्र है बीमारी से, उसके लिए एक चीज़ कराते हैं, उसको बोलते हैं ‘*स्ट्रेस ईसीजी*’। स्ट्रेस आता है तभी तो पता चलता है कि हाल क्या है। आप कुछ स्ट्रेस ही नहीं… read_more

‘मैं’ भाव और मन की परेशानियों के उत्तर

तुम्हारे पास सम्यक युद्ध नहीं है लड़ने को तो फिर तुम अपनी परेशानियों से लड़ोगे, क्योंकि युद्धरत तो सबको रहना है। कोई है जो असली लड़ाई लड़ रहा होता है, और जो असली लड़ाई में नही उतरेगा वो फिर नकली लड़ाई लड़ता है। नकली लड़ाई यही होती है, अरे मैं परेशान हूँ! अरे मुझे यह दुःख है!

समस्या तुम खुद बुलाते हो

हमारी समस्या ये है कि हमें समस्याएँ चाहिए। हम ऐसे अभ्यस्त हो गये हैं। कोई समस्या न हो तो हम खड़ी करेंगे। तनाव रहता है तो कम-से कम जीवन को उद्देश्य मिला रहता है। सुबह उठे हैं, उद्देश्य है, आज किसी का सिर फोड़ना है या उद्देश्य है कि आज अपनी तशरीफ़ बचानी है। प्रेम हम जानते नहीं। प्रेम भी एक बड़ा उद्देश्य होता है पर वो तो है नहीं हमारे पास। तो हमारे पास तो जीने का एक ही उद्देश्य होता है, या तो बचानी है या बजानी है। दोनों ही काम हिंसा के हैं — बचाना और बजाना।

अहम् के तादात्म्य

11 min

‘मैं’ अपने बचे रहने के लिए जो ग़लत चीज़ है उसको अपने जीवन से कभी जाने देगा नहीं क्योंकि ग़लत विकल्प भी अगर चला गया तो ‘मैं’ मिट जाएगा। ‘मैं’ अपने बचे रहने के लिए सही विकल्प को भी अपने जीवन से कभी जाने देगा नहीं क्योंकि सही भी अगर चला गया तो ‘मैं’ मिट जाएगा। एक द्वंद चाहिए होता है 'मैं' को जीवित रहने के लिए, तभी तो मज़ा आता है। कभी धूप, कभी छाँव; दोनों को बनाए रखता है।

अमर होने का क्या अर्थ है?

15 min

अमर होने का अर्थ यह है कि मैंने एक ही जीवन में हज़ार जीवन जी लिए। अमर होने का अर्थ है प्रतिपल मरना। हर पल मरता हूँ; हर पल नया जन्म होता है। एक ज़िन्दगी में कई ज़िंदगियाँ जी ली हैं क्योंकि मेरे एक नहीं, हज़ार चेहरे हैं।

Fighting your Weakness is more Important than Fighting the Enemy

3 min

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

अच्छी नौकरी की तलाश है?

प्रश्नकर्ता: प्रणाम आचार्य जी, मैं अभी बैंक में जॉब कर रहा हूंँ, लगभग सात-आठ साल हो गये हैं। शुरुआत तो मैंने आजीविका के लिए करी थी; जैसे परिवार जो सोचता है कि आप पढ़ो और काम करो, उस हिसाब से।

लेकिन अभी, मतलब पिछले कुछ तीन से चार सालों में… read_more

The Robot's ego

चोट खाने के बाद भी जीवन क्यों नहीं सुधरता?

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

पर ज़रा विनम्रता के साथ आदमी को सदा अपनेआप को ये चेताते रहना होता है कि ज़रूर कई गड्ढे हैं जो हैं तो, पर मुझे नहीं दिख रहे। मेरी दृष्टि सीमित है, मुझे नहीं दिख रहे। और वो गड्ढे कहीं भी हो सकते हैं।

आतंकवादी ऐसे पैदा होता है

30 min

प्रश्नकर्ता: सबसे पहले तो सर खुशी हो रही है मुझे आपके समक्ष अपना प्रश्न रखने की। और मेरा प्रश्न सर आज का आतंकवाद से जुड़ा हुआ है। अभी हाल ही में रूस की राजधानी मॉस्को के एक मॉल में आतंकवादी हमला हुआ है। तो सर आतंकवादियों ने बड़ी क्रूरता बरती… read_more

Where Is the Real Me?

Where Science and Spirituality Converge

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

Your Best Kept Secret is Out || AP Neem Candies

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

3 min

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

Freedom from Ego is Freedom from Fear

24 min

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

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

What Is the Ego? || AP 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

4 min

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

What Is the Ego Tendency?

Ego tendency is when things start dancing all over the mind. Kabir Sahab says, “Maya is that which occupies your mind.” You are attached to the brain. The “I” tendency attached to the brain is called the mind, and therefore she comes to the mind. To merely the brain, she will not be big trouble, but to the mind, she is a big attraction or distraction. One question that needs to be asked to all the unwelcome guests, “So many unwelcome guests have arrived, but Who is the host?" And then, you will hear a resounding order, ‘I am.’

The Lion Is Never Violent. Man Always Is. || AP Neem Candies

मन इतना अशांत क्यों रहता है?

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

शक्की बनो, लंबा जियो || आचार्य प्रशांत (2020)

मन इतना अशांत क्यों रहता है?

प्रश्नकर्ता: प्रणाम आचार्य जी। आचार्य जी, आज मेरा प्रश्न फिर से मुझसे ही जुड़ा हुआ है, कि मेरा मन इतना अशांत क्यों रहता है। एकसाथ मेरे दिमाग में बहुत चीज़ें चलती रहती हैं, मेरे दिमाग में कुछ-न-कुछ चलता ही रहता है, मैं ध्यान केंद्रित… read_more

3 min

आचार्य प्रशांत: आनंद फ़िल्म में राजेश खन्ना, अमिताभ बच्चन की जो आपसी नोंक-झोंक होती थी, बड़ी दिलचस्प थी — कि ज़िंदगी तुमको बड़ी चाहिए कि लंबी चाहिए। ‘बाबू मोशाय, ज़िंदगी बड़ी चाहिए या लंबी चाहिए?’

लंबी चाहिए तो खूब नकारात्मकता से भरे रहो। जितना तुम शक्की रहोगे, प्रकृति ने संयोग… read_more

This Is Where We Went Wrong

We came from the jungle in the hope of doing better in our villages and cities, but our villages and cities have failed. Man had the potential to either rise above the animal or fall way below it. Man has continuously been making the wrong choice. If you cannot build your cities and your social systems on spiritual foundations, then it is better to stay in the jungle. If your family, your workplace, your institutions do not run on spiritual grounds, then they better not run at all.

Why are People so Insecure? || AP Neem Candies

4 min

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

What is Arrogance?

It is not arrogance to expect the highest for yourself. It is not at all your destiny to remain small. Arrogance lies in expecting the highest while remaining exactly as one is. The Vedas say, “If you underestimate yourself, you are doing a disfavor to yourself. If you overestimate yourself, you are still giving yourself a raw deal.”

Who Am I?

21 min

Who am I?' arises from a relatively unconscious state, simply meaning, 'I will not remain the one who asked it.' You will have to become conscious. So the one who asks this question will have to disappear to get the answer. 'Who am I?' is for the wise, who are no longer interested in remaining troubled.

दूसरों के तानों का क्या करें?

8 min

स्वयंसेवक: (एक अज्ञात प्रश्न को पढ़ते हुए) आचार्य जी तानों को कैसे हैंडल करें? जैसे कि कोई परिवार में कहे कि तुम इतना तो हमारे लिए कर ही सकते हो न। अगर ताने क्लेश का कारण बन जाऍं तो क्या एक साधक को उन क्लेशों में पड़ना चाहिए या तानों… read_more

Want to Change the World?

There is no being in the world that does not try to change the world. I'll go around declaring that I’m the savior of the world. I want a world in which I am recognized, wealthier, successful by my own definitions. There are so many people who want to change the world, very few who want to change themselves. Given the state of the society, shouldn’t one try to bring some positive change in it? Now, first of all, if you have not understood yourself, how will you know what the state of the society really is?

Let the Words Take You to Silence – Baba Bulle Shah

23 min

There is such great fun in leaving yourself behind and turning a servant to the Truth. It’s almost like Krishna advising Arjuna, “Talk in everlasting words and dedicate them all to Me—*mām ekaṃ śaraṇaṃ vraja, sarva-dharmān parityajya*.” And at numerous places in the *Bhagavad Gita*, he says, “Arjuna, you are not fighting for yourself, you are fighting for Me. As long as you fight for yourself, if you win, you suffer, and if you lose, you suffer. And when you fight for Me, then you are a victor even before the fight begins.”

What Is Meant by ‘Leaving the World’?

Free Thinking and Free Thinkers?

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

26 min

Free thought as a tool to negate frozen thought, stale thought, is good, is useful, but it needs to know its place. It needs to have some humility. Thought is just thought, movement of the brain. It won’t get you too far.

Take This Test: Check Whether You Are Stone or Gold || AP Neem Candies

4 min

n some sense, spirituality is all about unleashing yourself, which is freedom from bondage. The leash is the bondage. Read more....

Three Grades of Ego

13 min

“Before I can drop the ego, before I can disassociate myself from the incompleteness, I, the one attached to incompleteness, have to first get attached one last time.” And this last attachment is the attachment to the Guru. It is the end of all attachments. That’s the Guru. Read more....

You Can't Put the Ego Aside

Why Do People Believe Nonsense and Get Fooled?

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

14 min

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

How to Stop Taking Things Personally

When you stop taking yourself seriously, the world loses its power to hurt you. If someone can hurt you, they can also control and possess you. But you don’t want to be controlled, right? You are not the person who is controllable. The real ‘you’ is beyond hurt and domination. Ask yourself, do you want to be dominated? No! You are the one who cannot be controlled, and that is your true strength.

How to Uncover the Unconscious? Do Tendencies of the Mind come from Past Lives?

15 min

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

How to Surrender?

A Spiritual Method for the Courageous Ones!

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

चाहते ही गए हमेशा, और चाहतों से बर्बाद हुए || आचार्य प्रशांत, दुर्गासप्तशती द्वितीय चरित्र (2023)

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

71 min

आचार्य प्रशांत: दुर्गा सप्तशती ले रहे हैं। उसका जो मध्यम चरित्र, दूसरा चरित्र है, तीन चरित्र हैं उसमें। तो जो दूसरा उसका चरित्र है, वो अध्याय दो-तीन-चार से आता है। इसमें प्रकृति माने देवी अपने रजोगुणी रूप में प्रकट होती हैं। ठीक है? यहाँ जो उनका नाम है, वो है… read_more

Trying to 'Be Your Own Light'? || AP Neem Candies