Truth

Let nobody say that he or she is making the right choices in life because she does not know. We all know. We prefer to suppress the inner knowledge. It’s an inner conspiracy against ourselves, just because we want to continue enjoying certain privileges in life—certain physical privileges, material privileges,…

Emotions, they can do whatever they want to do. It doesn’t matter how I am feeling. What matters is what I must do.

Ask yourself: Had you not been feeling this way or that way, what would have you done? And you will get a very good answer.

“Why do you want to follow their science? We will follow our science!” This kind of thing too you are hearing these days, no? This science and that science, as if there are multiple sciences all opposed to each other. Spiritual sciences! What kind of foolishness is this? Pandit-ji is

Love firstly means total dedication towards the Beloved, and secondly, total identification with the world. First of all, you need total disidentification with the world, because unless you are totally disidentified with the world, how will you identify with Him? And that is why saints have so much compassion for…

There is no search as ignorant, as useless, and as tragic as the search for happiness. And unfortunately, happiness or sukha is something that all your well-wishers want for you, that all the markets and systems in the world promise you, and all that your mind is mad for.

It…

You’re asking me, “Is it possible to act rightly with trembling hands?” I am saying, you can act rightly only with trembling hands.

One unmistakable quality of right action would be that it would require all your guts. It is only false action that you can comfortably undertake. Falseness is…

If you want Truth in your life, create a situation in which you have to face the false. Face the false and reject it—that is when you’ll be forced to call the Truth.

Now, what is it that I mean by the false? That which does not satisfy you is…

The ego does not live for the Truth; it lives for its own survival. And to live for one’s survival makes any sense only in the presence of challenges to survival. If there are no challenges to survival, whose survival are you protecting and living for?

Therefore, if you are…

Your action has to be one with the Truth. Let wisdom guide your action. That’s Yoga of Wisdom. What is the other kind of action? Prescribed action.

Each of us, in each moment, has to make this choice. Where is your action going to come from? Is it going to…

Do two things: One, start talking real stuff; secondly, start blocking the nonsense. And then you will see who stays with you and who does not. Do both of these two things, concurrently. Start talking the real things with all those you consider close to yourself, and start blocking all…

The woman is the more oppressed of the two. Once the revolution begins, obviously man too will be liberated. But just as woman gives birth to the man, woman will also need to give birth to the freedom of man. Man will not be able to give birth to his…

Loneliness does not decrease when you connect to a thousand other people using technology. Loneliness is a thing within. Irrespective of how many people you are connected to in a party or via Zoom, loneliness is not going to decrease. It’s just that when you are in a party, loneliness…

This is the way most parent-child relationships are, this is the way most families are constructed—not on the foundation of love and Truth, but merely as institutions that exist for society’s sake.

How often do a man and a woman come together for the sake of Truth? How many people…

Even when you want to worship Shiva, you only worship him with his eyes half-closed, deeply absorbed in meditation. You do not want to look at the tāṇḍava mudra (dance of destruction form) of Shiva. Yes, there are a few temples, there are some infrequent references, but largely you do…

If you are someone who is a serial relator—one relationship after the other, or several relationships at a time, whatever, one and the same thing really—you must tell yourself that you really have not a physical but a spiritual urge, and therefore you should stop your mad, nonsensical method of…

Intention, goal, purpose, desire, clinging, attachment, attraction—none of these are bad, provided they are towards the right object, right end. Please be attached, please be greatly attached, please be desirous, please feel the attraction, the pull towards liberation, towards Truth.

It is not for nothing that your mind is vested…

It is not at all sufficient to talk of the Truth. One has to live the Truth. The Truth must not sit merely on your tongue but in all parts of your body. Your hands must express it; your legs, your eyes, your ears must express it; not merely your…

“How do I and others move towards true love?”

You will have to very dispassionately look at the choices you are living right now, and you will have to negate those choices by making better choices. You cannot have any betterment without very honest, very sharp, very penetrative self-consciousness. You…

One’s loyalties must be reserved for the highest one can come across, right? Or is one’s loyalty a cheap thing, an article on sale that you can offer to just about any random, average, mean person?

Those who have known life have taught as fundamental wisdom that only Truth is…

Any and every verse of the Bhagavad Gita is a mantra. Any and every verse of the Upanishads is a mantra. Any śloka or sākhi by the saint poets, when in the language of the masses, is a mantra. Nanak Sahib, Kabir Sahib say something—all of that is a mantra.…

The old would either turn into the new or will have to go away. And if it is not turning into the new, then it will keep you too old. If you are moving towards the new, now there can be no carrying of the old. Either the old will…

The truth is exposing itself in every single sexual encounter of yours, and yet we close our eyes to it. In fact, if you really look into it, repeated sexual activity is probably needed because you know that you didn’t get much from it the last time. That tells so…

Do you see what is violence? To forget God, to forget the Truth. What is non-violence? To fight that which makes you forget the Truth.

So, non-violence actually means you have to fight. If you are not a fighter you cannot be non-violent. The false is to be fought, and…

He remained occupied in graveyards, while you waited for him with moon and dew. Smile, for such foolishness and disloyalty, is the preserve of a lucky few. Smile, for if the One cannot abandon even a corpse, will He ever abandon you?

~ Acharya Prashant

Questioner: You have said that the future is not controlled by God; in reality, various forces are acting simultaneously creating unpredictable future events. When I read Yoga Vasistha, I have found that there are chapters where Guru Vasistha talks about the conversation between Krishna and Arjuna to Rama. How…

Questioner: What is Shiva? What is Shakti?

Acharya Prashant: These are symbols. Shakti represents everything in motion, everything that can be experienced, everything that you can think of; Shakti represents the totality of that. If Shakti represents everything in motion, one feels like asking, “Why is everything in the motion…

Questioner: Acharya Ji Namaskar! Is there anything more futile than words? At times I feel beautiful and cry out of joy. Or feel like bursting into tears but words fail me. Other times, I do not feel much but can perfectly articulate it into words. For instance, I write poems,…

यत: सर्वाणि भूतानि प्रतिभान्ति स्थितानि च| यत्रैवोपशमं यान्ति तस्मै सत्यात्मने नम:|| ~ योगवाशिष्ठ: (वैराग्यप्रकरण श्लोक 1)

Translation: Salutations to that calm effulgence which is endless and unlimited by space, time, etc., the pure consciousness which can be known by experience only. ~ Yogvashishtha Vairagya Prakaran Verse 1

Questioner: In Katha Upanishad, young boy Nachiketa attained the highest wisdom and immortality by the virtue of dispassion and the firm resolve to know the Truth. Unless I resolve to know the Self, there is no other way it seems. Acharya Ji, kindly speak on the virtues of determination and…

Questioner (Q): Acharya Ji, you said, facts are the great enablers to reach the Truth. Is not Truth in itself a fact?

Acharya Prashant (AP): (Shakes his head in denial)

Q: Cannot we see Truth as a fact?

Questioner: Acharya Ji, regarding being absent; as you were speaking, I can only imagine it as not being there in thoughts.

Acharya Prashant: What does it mean to be absent to objective company? It means to be related to objects not via the thread of desire or fear. I said,…

Questioner (Q): Sir, my assumption about the Nirvikalpa Samādhi and Jāgrat Suṣupti that you talked of is that in that state, one enters into the ‘new’ each moment as one doesn't allow the ego to make its grip on to anything. Is the fate or state of the one in…

Questioner: If positive and negative, good and bad, beauty and ugliness are all a matter of personal perspective, then can universal positivity, universal goodness, or universal beauty exist? If it’s the majority that decides, then is the majority the judge of the deeds to be done by one, in a…

Questioner: Acharya Ji, what is the purpose of life?

Acharya Prashant: The purpose of something, is the end of that thing. And life, as we know it, anyway has a predefined end; predefined end is physical death. It's well known, it's an obvious thing, no? But, we still ask this…

Smile an everlasting smile A smile can bring you near to me Don't ever let me find you gone Cause that would bring a tear to me This world has lost its glory Let's start a brand new story Now my love, right now There'll be no other time And…

Questioner: What is psychotherapy? Can psychotherapy heal the mind?

Acharya Prashant: You see, what is psychotherapy? If I look directly at it, all it means is healing the mind. What is the mind? How do you know of it? Is it something alien to you? Do you really require to…

Acharya Prashant (AP): Now, let’s revisit a few basic things regarding the deed and the doer. Action and the actor. Shri Krishna tells Arjun very early on in his epic discourse — “All that is ever happening is due to the three Gunas (attributes) of Prakriti (material nature). Yet, the…

Acharya Prashant (AP): Whenever something is addressed to the ego, whenever a word is delivered to the ego, it is delivered with the intention to take the ego to the Truth. Remember, it is the intention to take the ego to the Truth. Whatsoever is being told to the ego,…

वाग्मिप्राज्ञामहोद्योगं जनं मूकजडालसं।

निराधारा ग्रहव्यग्रा मूढाः संसारपोषकाः ।

एतस्यानर्थमूलस्य मूलच्छेदः कृतो बुधैः ॥ 18.३८ ॥

nirādhārā grahavyagrā mūḍhāḥ saṃsārapoṣakāḥ

अवजानन्ति मां मूढा मानुषीं तनुमाश्रितम् ।

परं भावमजानन्तो मम भूतमहेश्वरम् ।। 9.11 ।।

avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣhīṁ tanum āśhritam

अथवा बहुनैतेन किं ज्ञातेन तवार्जुन ।

विष्टभ्याहमिदं कृत्स्नमेकांशेन स्थितो जगत् ।। 10.42 ।।

atha vā bahunaitena kiṁ jñātena tavārjuna

यो मामजमनादिं च वेत्ति लोकमहेश्वरम् ।

असम्मूढ: स मर्त्येषु सर्वपापै: प्रमुच्यते ।। 10. 3 ।।

yo māmajam anādiṁ cha vetti loka-maheśhvaram

ध्यायतो विषयान्पुंसः सङ्गस्तेषूपजायते।

सङ्गात् संजायते कामः कामात्क्रोधोऽभिजायते।। 62।।

dhyāyato viṣhayān puṁsaḥ saṅgas teṣhūpajāyate

स्वधर्ममपि चावेक्ष्य न विकम्पितुमर्हसि ।।

धर्म्याद्धि युद्धाच्छ्रेयोऽन्यत्क्षत्रियस्य न विद्यते ।। 2.31 ।।

swa-dharmam api chāvekṣhya na vikampitum arhasi

ये यथा मां प्रपद्यन्ते तांस्तथैव भजाम्यहम्।

मम वानी वर्तन्ते मनुष्याः पार्थ सर्वशः॥ ११ ॥

ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāns tathaiva bhajāmyaham

गाण्डीवं स्रंसते हस्तात्त्वक्चै व परिदह्यते ।

न च शक्नोम्यवस्थातुं भ्रमतीव च मे मन: ।। 1.30 ।।

gāṇḍīvaṁ sraṁsate hastāt tvak chaiva paridahyate

Questioner (Q): Acharya Ji, how to come out of stress, worries, and anxiety?

Acharya Prashant (AP): The stress, the worries that you keep, are all petty worries. They are like the worries of the man caught in a burning house and trying to save his shirt. And he has a…

In the public mind, Shiv and Shankar are one and the same: Shiv-Shankar, Bholenath, Kailashpati: hundreds of names. All names are beautiful. But if we understand the meaning of these names by going into the depths of Spirituality, their beauty increases further.

Shiv means the soul, the pure Truth. You…