We leave a talk moved, and by evening it has faded, so we ask how to stay aware every moment. Yet one glance at a report that says cancer is never forgotten; even in our dreams we remember it, and no one has to remind us. We remember what we truly want to save. The mirror is held up once, and a teacher can do no more than that. Sunlight pours through every window, and we can still crawl under a rock. What are we choosing, each time we forget?
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[From a Bhagavad Gita session at St Giles-in-the-Fields, London, 2026]
Questioner: I wanted to ask, how do you reach the state of being aware of that consciousness in every moment? So right now you explained what ego is, its symptoms, how it affects us. Like here, we listen to the knowledge, absorb it, but it’s still not internalized, right? Anybody who steps out of this lecture is not a changed person suddenly. And also ego is what drives a lot of autopilot behaviors, right? So maybe after this lecture, I can identify those autopilot behaviors, but I have still not conquered them. So what does the journey look like to reach a state where you can be self-aware?
Acharya Prashant: Suppose this moment I hold a special mirror to you, and pardon me the example, but I must use it because it’s needed. And the mirror reveals to you that your trouser is torn from behind. I show that to you, right? Your trouser is torn from behind, right in the middle of the hips, as it sometimes happens, right? The stitching simply falls off, breaks. I show that to you, and then I remove the mirror. The session is over. The mirror is gone. But you still have to spend, let’s say, three hours on the street, in the market. How do you remain in those three hours? Now you know, you have been shown that, that you are exposed and it’s ugly. You have been shown, and you have been shown that once. And the mirror is not chasing you anymore. But you know that now. How do you remain in the next three hours? How do you remain? Please tell me, how do you remain?
