Confidence

Spirituality just needs basic self-honesty, self-awareness. There is nothing mystical, nothing magical about it, but that is what it has been associated with. I am not talking of chanting; I am not talking of chakras; I am not talking of flying snakes; I am not talking of magical seeds. Not…

You must learn aloneness before you relate with people. You must be very, very comfortable with yourself. If you are someone who cannot be with herself comfortably, easily, gladly, then kindly spare the other person. If you are not alright with yourself, then don’t start piggybacking on the other—and usually…

As long as you keep giving importance to what you get from here and there, you will live in fear. And that is not necessary. Nobody wants to live in fear, right? Neither do you want to live in fear, nor do I want to live in fear. That is…

What is it that blocks creativity? A cluttered mind, an obsessed mind, a worried mind, a mind too particular about results. Just as creativity is uncertain, similarly are the results of creativity. And if you are someone who bothers too much about results, then you cannot be creative.

You would…

The ego will forget 999 defeats and remember that one game when it was able to win a game in spite of being 0-9 down. The memory of that one game keeps your false confidence alive.

Then you repeatedly keep slipping to 0-9 positions.

It is 0-3; you say, “Not…

Most people let their suffering de-energize them, stop them, encage them. And then there are others who work even more, get resolved even more exactly because they suffer. They let their suffering be their fuel. They don’t shy away from suffering.

A point comes they start inviting suffering. They say,…

Spirituality is a most exquisite pursuit. It is only for those who are not at all contented with what the world can maximally offer. Not only are they not contented with what they already have, they are not contented even with the best that the world can potentially offer. Those…

In our society, in this distorted culture that we have nowadays, there is just too much emphasis on public speaking; there is just too much emphasis on confident expression. A clear extrovert—that has become the ideal of this age. Speak, and speak without content; speak, and speak without knowledge. Your…

Ruthlessly question everything, and patiently and devotedly seek to understand. You must ask the most fundamental questions. What is the school? What does it mean to be an American versus an Indian? Why do we call somebody a girl and the other a boy? What is our relationship with the…

Questioner (Q): I lack confidence when it comes to decision-making. I am always doubtful of whether I am making the right decision or not, and this results in a lot of stress and having to take a lot of time to decide anything. How can I be more confident in…

Question (Q): Acharya Ji, being in Satsang, my mind is peaceful. But after some trigger happens, it gets deviated. How to deal with these external problems?

Acharya Prashant (AP): The trigger does not work really automatically. You program yourself to be triggered. You are standing and a fellow comes over…

Questioner: In the first five chapters of Śrīmadbhagavadgītā, I am seeing that Śrī Kṛṣṇa is repeatedly telling us of the state of the wise one, when I read such verses, all I see is a clear distance between the way the wise ones are and the way I live my…

Questioner: I work as a software engineer. My pocket is filling but not my heart. I quit my job two years ago and volunteer for an NGO which is a spiritual foundation. But somehow there was no transformation or peace within me even after one year of volunteering. So, I…

Question: I don’t have confidence in myself. How to gain it?

Acharya Prashant: The question comes from an extreme – “I do not have confidence in myself.” But surely, this question addresses a pain that all experience in varying degrees, on various occasions.

Question: If a person has stage-fear, how can that person enhance or extract the ‘Inner-confidence?’

Acharya Prashant: Sit. See ‘confidence’ and ‘fearfulness,’ ‘confidence’ and ‘fear’ these two are actually the two names for the same state of mind. Fearfulness says, “I’m at the risk of losing something important that something

Questioner (Q): What is meant by saying that confidence is fear? And secondly, does it practically help me to know this?

Acharya Prashant (AP): Both are related. You see if you really come to understand it, then the question of the application of your understanding becomes redundant. Because whatever you…

Question: What I notice with myself is that having thoughts prevents me from listening with attention and then I say to them, ‘leave; go away!’ What’s your opinion on this?

Acharya Prashant: Don’t say even that much to your thoughts.

Question: Can this happen that ‘I don’t know and I don’t even want to know, and that there will always be something more to know’? Can this happen that a person thinks that ‘I am so peaceful that I don’t even want to know’?

Shri Prashant: You see, these are…

Questioner (Q): (In tears, sitting next to the Speaker, by the Ganges and the Himalayas. Overwhelmed by his weeklong presence in the Speaker’s discourses) Why is it difficult to even be here?

Acharya Prashant (AP): Something is difficult if you try to fight. Something is difficult only if you try…

Speaker: So, it is a nice question to start with. Confidence is something that we want, right? We do not like to be unsure or hesitant. We do not like to be in a situation where we are not certain that we know. That brings us to the word,…

Questioner (Q): Sir, how to get confidence that is not based on knowledge?

Acharya Prashant (AP): (Laughingly) Just say that even if knowledge is not there, no harm will be done. Simple!

Question: What is the difference between confidence and over-confidence?

Speaker: It seems that this question is important to many of us here. Right?

Listeners(everyone): Yes, Sir.

Speaker: The question is, “How do I know whether I am confident or overconfident? One is considered positive, the other is considered negative.” I ask you again. How can I declare a quantity ‘x’ to be positive or negative if I do not know that quantity. I must know something…

Speaker: ‘Good’ and ‘bad’ are value judgments. I will not very quickly get into them because you are adults, mature adults. You can find out on your own. I can only be with you, and together we can discover what all this ‘confidence’ business is all about.

As you are…

Question: How do we have confidence in us?

Speaker: We are born confident. Do you know that when you were a small child, you were so confident? Ever seen a kid; six months, one year, two-year old? Look at the level of confidence he has. That kid hardly ever has…

Questioner: Sir, sometimes I lose my confidence. How can I boost up my confidence?

Speaker: Dilpreet, how many students are sitting here?

Listener: Around 100 students.

What is the root cause of unhappiness? Why strength is necessary for liberation? Why ego can not reflect on itself?

युवावस्था बहुत ही नाज़ुक समय होता है। यही समय निर्धारित कर देता है कि जीवन किस दिशा जाएगा।

हमारा मिजाज हमेशा दूसरों और परिस्थितियों पर निर्भर करता है। नतीजे आपकी उम्मीदों के मुताबिक नहीं रहे। इसलिए अब आपको मनोबल बढ़ाने वाले किसी प्रेरक वक्ता की ज़रूरत है। जैसे ही वह व्यक्ति चला जाता है, आपकी ऊर्जा भी थम जाती है। लेकिन जीने का एक और तरीका भी है। अपने भीतर गहराई में, मुझे एक ऐसा बिंदु मिलता है जिसे कोई बाहरी परिस्थिति छू नहीं सकती। जो कुछ भी होता है, वह सतह पर ही घटित होता है। वह स्थिर, उदासीन और तटस्थ बना रहता है। तब आप सचमुच स्वतंत्र होते हैं।

How do you, asks the chief of police, patrol a city, where the butcher shops are guarded by vultures, where bulls get pregnant, cows are barren,

Does the person you are with encourage you to read? You have to ask, “What does he bring for me, roses or books?”

Be very cautious of those who bring roses for you, especially red roses. Books are what we all need, and books are dangerous. Books are dangerous because…

If you are someone who cannot take care of herself, how will you be sure that your presence, your company is not becoming an influence of sickness on the other person?

Be very, very alert about cohabitation. Just don’t start living with anybody. Be very, very conscious of your personal…

If you take yourself as primarily physical, then beauty too for you would be something just physical. You will look at the woman most capable of successfully reproducing. That’s the prakritik definition of beauty.

The first thing that comes to mind is flowers. What are flowers? Flowers are the reproductive…

Whenever you will give a lot of importance to what others give you, you will be afraid, and then you will want to play safe. Make a list of all that others give you—company, attachment, reputation, and these are the things that are at the core of your fear.

Even when you are identified with being the winner or the loser, still there is something within you which can neither be a winner nor a loser. It is your fundamental nature. It is your fundamental nature that gets hidden when you are obsessed with winning or losing.

The fact…

“I will beat him!”

“I will destroy her!”

“Did you just insult me? Did you?”

Four hours forty-eight minutes of deep intellectual perspiration!

The politician, we very well know, is a criminal and yet we belong to his fan club. So, who is it who is promoting crime, then? Look at the parliament of the country. I suppose half the parliamentarians have criminal cases against them, close to half. And they didn’t muscle…

There might be people around you who make it compulsory for you to smoke, not because they urge you to smoke, but because they put you in so much of tension that you will need to smoke. But you are deriving some benefits from those people, so you will never…

Just as the ego loves to take credit, it also loves to play the victim.

If something good has happened, “I did it!”