Living Without Illusions: A Lesson on Expectations and Reality
It is not that the way the world is, the ignorance, the stupidity, the suffering, the perverseness of it all. It's not that that hurts or surprises you. What shocks is that adverse things come from people you think of as decent, respectable and wise. It is not events or people, therefore, who are shocking you, it is the expectations that you hold of them.
Please be an observer and a compassionate witness. Keep watching, watch from a distance. Meddling is not needed. Being a parent of a girl child today is a humongous opportunity. You have the chance to give rise to a new world—if you can truly raise one girl as a free girl.
It has been extremely conclusively proven, demonstrated that astrology is not a science at all. It's a conjecture. It's a belief system. Belief system with no material basis at all.
If a kid has been continuously told that the world is everything, how will an untouched point remain within? The world, as we know, is quite fickle, while our real nature is stability or permanence. It is this dichotomy that pushes us into stress and anxiety. A big portion of the mental health problem can be addressed if we provide the right value system to the kid—the right literature.
Leadership and Spiritual Insights from the Bhagavad Gita
My concern is the way we are. My concern is the face of the human being. My concern is the little sparrow. I'm not here to tell people what God has said. I'm here to take care of the sparrow. That's my concern. And the sparrow cannot be taken care of unless we go to the Gita. Hence, the Gita.
The woman is not beautiful; the man is not beautiful either. Truth and compassion are beautiful. The compassionate one stands head and shoulders above the gorgeous woman or the handsome man. And this is possible only when love and appreciation for the right, gender-independent values are fostered in both the man and the woman.
Rape is happening all over the place. A husband raping a woman is not something new. Public apathy—nobody reporting the rape—that is again not something new. What is new is the woman standing up. And not just standing up in a way that displays raw courage, but standing up in a way that displays something deeper.
She is challenging the very notion of female honor.
हमारी ज़िंदगी में तो लगातार वही सबकुछ हो रहा है जो होना नहीं चाहिए। आप लोगों को हमारी ज़िंदगी का ही आईना दिखा दो न। हम सब अपने गधों को अपनी पीठ पर बैठाकर चल रहे हैं। इतनी जोर की हँसी आएगी कि मज़ा आ जाएगा। कुछ ऐसा है जो बेमेल है, विसंगत है, और हमारी ज़िंदगियाँ मूर्खता की ही एक अंतहीन कहानी हैं। ये एब्सर्डिटी दिखाओ न लोगों को, खूब हँसेंगे।
जो आश्रित महिलाएँ हैं, इनको सबसे बड़ी सज़ा यह मिलती है कि इनका अध्यात्म की तरफ़ बढ़ने का रास्ता बिल्कुल रोक दिया जाता है। परमेश्वर की ओर कैसे बढ़ोगे अगर पति ही परमेश्वर है? जो कैद में है, उसके लिए साधना है — दीवारों को तोड़ो और बाहर आओ। बाहर निकलकर कोई नया ज्ञान, कला, या कोई कुशलता सीखो।
मीडिया कंपनी प्रॉफिट के लिए होती है, सच्चाई दिखाने के लिए नहीं! अख़बार इसलिए नहीं छपता है कि तुम तक सच पहुँचे। अख़बार इसलिए छपता है कि तुम तक विज्ञापन पहुँचे। सच उनको दिखाया जाता है, जो सच सुनने के काबिल होते हैं, जो झूठ के ख़िलाफ़ संघर्ष करने को तैयार बैठे हैं। जब तुम झूठ की खुराक लेने को राज़ी ही हो, तो तुम्हें सच कोई क्यों दिखाए?
How Can The Common Man Make Better Decisions In Life?
First of all, we have to realize what our life is like. You know, I can’t change something without firstly understanding its processes and its actuality.
I must know what this thing called my life is. We keep living without knowing a thing about life. And we’re blinded by names and identities.
Society favors extroversion more than introversion because introversion is dangerous for capitalist consumerism. Why would someone spend a lot of money in the markets if they enjoy their own company? That’s why the entire media is full of characters that glorify extroversion and try to sell you a philosophy that promotes reckless consumption. Be very mindful; it will destroy you.
The most common thing in spirituality and science is 'an honest urge to know the Truth.' Science observes the external universe, and spirituality observes the mind. These two have to be in tandem. The one thing that enables true knowledge in any field is honesty and integrity.
A good education system should have two components. The first is deep, clear, and factual knowledge about the world, without which we would become superstitious. And secondly, it must include a very important component that tells us who we are and why we need to be educated at all. This second component is almost completely missing today.
Shallow philosophies and false treatments do not work for anybody. It's another matter if we want to keep fooling ourselves. There has to be self-love. There has to be courage. One has to say it's all right to be devastated and destroyed but it's not all right to keep yielding moment by moment the way I do.
The one you love must be worthy of worship, and the one you worship you must be in love with. If there is a difference between the two, then there is a problem, a big problem. If you can’t worship your lover, then drop him or her, whatever, I don’t know. And if you can’t love your gods, those gods must be thrown away.
We have reserved critical thinking only for problems related to science and technology, but not for life itself. Why can’t the same spirit of inquiry be present in everything? Without the filter of thought and inquiry, you will be enslaved and exploited. So, pause at every sentence, analyze, and refuse to move on until you are satisfied.