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“You know what, I lost money in stocks and I still didn’t get a heart attack!” Why must you get a heart attack? It is a small matter. Let it happen. It’s okay. Every day more people lose money in the stock market than what is the number of those…

What is the ultimate purpose of life? Earning money or happiness? How can this stupid thing be the purpose of life?

The common happiness that we know, I have said, has two characteristics: one, it is an acquired conditioning, and second, it depends on the presence of sadness. So, if…

You cannot love someone or something you know very little of. The nation at its root represents a community of people united through certain values. A nation does not become admirable or respectable or lovable just by the dint of being a nation.

If you are to fall in love…

Hurt is not automatic. Somewhere there is an admission from you that you are hurt, and that you would be hurt, and that you would call yourself as hurt. Don’t call yourself as hurt, and see what happens.

Hurt is not an obligation. Hurt is a choice. Insecurity, fear, temptations—none…

There is nothing in spirituality that will ever violate science. It’s just that spirituality will venture into areas where science never goes at all. Spirituality, for example, will talk about you. Science never talks about you. That’s the difference—that’s the only difference.

It is very, very sad that 99%, I…

If you have seriously something worthwhile to do in life, then time is a friend. But if you are just loafing around and you fully well know that you are just killing time, then obviously time is an enemy. Every passing moment reminds you that you are committing a crime…

Welcome pain. You have no option. That’s the way life is meant to be. Life is suffering. Because not only are you designed to have pain, you are also designed to resist pain.

Have pain, and have a lot of depth in your being. So much depth that it can…

Happiness and sadness are both wonderful, are both welcome.

But in some deep sense, sadness is a little better than happiness. It teaches us a little more than happiness does. It elevates us a little more than happiness does. It has a certain purifying effect that happiness does not quite…

The worst are those who say, “But what do I do? I am helpless.” These are in the lowest state; they are the worst self-deceivers. They harm themselves and they pollute the entire environment.

A little better than these are those who at least try exercising choice, though their choices…

Swami Vivekananda has said, “First of all, our young men must be strong; religion will come afterwards. Be strong, my young friends; that is my advice to you. You will be nearer to heaven through football than through the study of the Gita.”

Swami Vivekananda was no soccer evangelist. His…

Let your situations, your circumstances, your possessions, your particular destination in life not become important enough or significant enough to define you. Let your self-worth not be dictated by things that are external.

But since everything is external, let your self-worth not be dictated by anything at all. Which means,…

If you want to know why you kept working, slogging for the thirty days, the most effective way is to see what you are doing with the paycheck. What you are doing with the paycheck will very loudly demonstrate why you kept working the thirty days. See what you do…

Where are the pleasures? I do not see any pleasures! I do not see anybody being pleased. You are talking of renunciation of pleasures as if pleasures do exist. Where are the pleasures? Go to a weekend party and show me who is happy. And if people were indeed happy,…

When you don’t operate from a spiritual center, then you operate from an emotional center. These emotions are causing this climate change. You are so emotional about that next foreign holiday, right? That is carbon intensive. You are so emotional about having a good, nice nest of your own—that is…

What is it that Shri Rama stands for? He stands for detachment. He stands for fearlessness. He stands for compassion. He stands for Dharma.

Is there Dharma really in your life? And by Dharma I do not mean a creed or a cult, or observation of certain rituals, or the…

You must know what the place of security and money and sex is in your life. If you don’t know their right places, then for the purpose of sex you will give somebody a high position in your life, and then you will suffer. Persons are essentially harmless; harmful is…

If someone practices black magic, then you say that he is badly conditioned by centuries of rituals, right? If you find somebody practicing black magic, then you are quick to decry, “Oh! Medieval rituals!”

And how old is this ritual of procreation? I ask you. And why must this continue…

The Upanishads were not composed to give you the normal kind of comfort and happiness. The Upanishads are there to give you an exalted happiness, a transcendental happiness, an eternal happiness. A happiness so rare and exquisite that it is not called as harṣa or moda or prasannatā; a…

I cannot tell you what Bharat is by referring to the etymology of the word. If you ask me what is love, it would be foolish of me to say, “L-O means this, V means this, E means this.” If you ask me what is love, I will wait for…

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.

When you…

Pay attention to all your thoughts, emotions, actions. Something unknown is waiting there for you. Most people know nothing about themselves.

If you are angry, it tells you that there is something within you that is resisting the world now. Why is it resisting the world? Go into it. Try…

There is work that one needs to do to run the body, and such work even animals have to do. This you need not call as work; this you can call as labor of living. If you are alive then you have to feed yourself. This even animals have to…

“Why are women so emotional? If we are saying that it is okay for a man to be emotional, there is an implicit assumption that men are not emotional but women are.”

Both are. It’s just that both express their emotionality in different ways. Inner urges, latent tendencies in women…

The movies tell us that unless there is a special person in your life, you are really missing out on something big, and then you are seized by FOMO. What is FOMO? Fear of missing out.

“Oh my God, everybody has that! I am the only one left behind! I…

This is the hallmark of gutter knowledge: it will have neither science nor spirituality. This is the hallmark of the gutter person: his words, his convictions, his values will correspond to neither science nor spirituality; it is coming from an altogether different place—the gutter.

He will talk unscientific and unspiritual…

Just watched this movie, Chichore. It is based on IIT Bombay. In the campus, there is one girl in a batch of forty boys. But the girl’s only contribution in the whole story is that she is extremely beautiful, and all the guys are after her. So, in the…

We all have arguments in favor of our weaknesses, no?

“What do I do? I am just a kid.”

“What do I do? I don’t have the right background.”

“What do I do? I am just twenty years old.”

“What do I do? Nobody helps me.”

“What do I do?…

Money is nothing on its own. Money cannot bring you peace. But established in peace, money and material and the world can be perfectly dealt with. Now you neither need to renounce money nor do you get attached to money, because your real need is peace not money. Now you…

Even if you want a deeper pleasure, you will have to go deeper into the mind, and going deeper into the mind is what the spiritual process is all about.

If the fellow is a lover of the good things of life, let’s say a complete hedonist, then encourage him…

Know your duty and give yourself totally to it. Will there be pleasure? No sir, not at all. There would be some higher than pleasure, more fulfilling, more satisfying than pleasure. Pleasure is a turncoat: today one thing, tomorrow another thing.

The one who lives by his duty, his dharma…

What does true nationalism mean in India’s case? Nationalism is founded on truly Indian values. What do I mean by Indian values? I am being very specific here. By Indian values I mean the values enshrined in Vedanta.

As long as the youth remains in touch with the essence of…

What else do you earn for? Pay to the schools, pay to the hospitals. You can avoid spending anywhere else, but these two places you will not only always spend, you will always overspend.

A fully grown-up man’s apparels are only as expensive as the apparels of a two-month-old, and…