Literature

Acharya Prashant says:\n“If you wouldn’t call this foeticide, then what would you call it? When an unborn child is killed in the womb, you consider it wrong—you call it a sin, a crime. But what do you call the way we are killing ourselves from within? Not allowing the self to manifest is suicide.”\n

Jesus stands for the Truth and Truth is omnipresent.

He is present here, and right now, in the hearts of those who love him.

Jesus is not a mere mortal. Jesus is the source of light; the root of all flowers and beauty. In one form, he disappears. In another,…

Prarabdha refers to the sum total of (apparent)movements in time and space that have resulted in the (apparent) formation of the jiva – the human being, or any other being.Everything that the being appears to be is

तस्माच्च देवा बहुधा संप्रसूताः साध्या मनुष्याः पशवो वयांसि । प्राणापानौ व्रीहियवौ तपश्च श्रद्ध सत्यं ब्रह्मचर्यं विधिश्च ॥

tasmācca devā bahudhā saṃprasūtāḥ sādhyā manuṣyāḥ paśavo vayāṃsi prāṇāpānau vrīhiyavau tapaśca śraddha satyaṃ brahmacaryaṃ vidhiśca

Acharya Prashant: There is a very pithy statement from the essay ‘Listen, Little Man’. It says, “You put security before Truth.” Addressing the little man it is said, “You put security before Truth.” So the questioner is saying, “Pranam Acharya Ji, this statement is very true in my life and…

“You have never enjoyed happiness in full freedom Little Man. That’s why you consume it. You take no responsibility for the preservation of your happiness. You haven’t learned (you never had a chance) to cultivate your happiness with loving care, as a gardener cultivates his flowers and a farmer his…

Questioner: Namaskar Acharya Ji, in ‘Listen Little Man’, ‘great man’ tries to expose the problems of the little man and help him understand them. But ‘little man’ continuously rejects ‘great man’, and does not even put a thought towards what is been told. I find it difficult to agree if…

Acharya Prashant: (Referring about the questioner) Studied The Fountainhead, and from there she has compared the qualities of the creator and the repeater- which she (the questioner) has called as the second-hander. And in a tabular form, she has presented a comparison of the qualities or attributes of these two…

Conversation between Roark and Hopton Stoddard at the end of which Roark agrees to raise the Stoddard Temple: “Roark rubbed the back of his hand against his eyes, helplessly. It was not possible. It simply was not possible. That could not be what the man wanted; not that man. It…

Here is a quote from the essay “Listen, Little Man!” And it’s the great man or the big man talking to all the little men:

“I have known you, shared your experiences; I’ve known you in myself. As a physician, I’ve freed you from what is small in you; as…

People often wonder about the effect of spirituality upon married life. Often it happens that one partner in a marriage starts moving deeper into spirituality, and this causes anxiety in the other partner. So how far do a normal marriage and Spirituality go together?

Spirituality is a movement into the…

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…

“Lord, if you are sandalwood, I am water;with the fragrance in all parts of my body.

Lord, if you are a cloud, I am a peacock;looking for you like the Chakor bird for the moon.

Lord, if you are a lamp, I am the wick;with the light

Basant Panchami is dedicated to Devi Saraswati, the Goddess of Vidya. Learning, according to ancient wisdom, is of two types – Vidya and Avidya.

Let’s explore these two.

Vidya and Avidya

In this huge and complex world, especially living in the era of transition where everyone is an actor in the contemporary stage of globalisation, it is very difficult to spare time for oneself. And the biggest challenge comes where you are unaware of your situation.

The lifestyle today is so…

Since childhood we have been told about effort as a duty, hard work as an obligation, and a result oriented investment. We are told, “Work hard so that you can have dividends later on.”

Happiness is the key to success, correct. But does happiness exclude hard work?

If happiness excludes…

These are the thoughts going through Dominique’s mind in the conversation with Alvah after returning to New York:

“Either course taken would be taken under compulsion.”

Ellsworth Toohey (giving an advice to a young man who is passionate about law):

“No, I wouldn’t go in for law if I were you. You’re much too tense and passionate about it. A hysterical devotion to one’s career does not make for happiness or success. It is wiser to

Question: Acharya Ji, Pranaam! While reading the first chapter of the Fountainhead, I found that the character Peter Keating shows us our reality. But in front of Howard Roark Peter can’t hide his falsities, though he tries his best to.

Even though Peter gets a glimpse of what his reality

Conversation between Roark and Dominique at a social gathering:

Miss Francon (Dominique): “You’re wrong about Austen, Mr. Roark. He’s very successful. In his profession and mine you’re successful if it leaves you untouched.”

Henry Cameron said to Roark,

“You love your work. God help you, you love it. And that’s the curse. That’s the brand on your forehead for all of them to see. The substance of them is hatred for any man who loves his work. That’s the only kind they fear.

Howard Roark: “I didn’t know it then, but it’s because I’ve never believed in God.”

Henry Cameron: “Come on, talk sense.”

Question: Pranaam Acharya Ji, while reading through ‘The Fountainhead’ I found that Howard Roark (the protagonist in Ayn Rand’s novel ‘The Fountainhead’) does not pay much attention to his past actions, and is rather attentive to what’s going on in the present with him. It is clearly evident in…

Question: Acharya Ji, Pranaam! People’s faces and vocal tonality show what they mean in actuality. But people like Toohey (one of the principal characters in Ayn Rand’s novel ‘The Fountainhead’) have control on their emotions like an actor. They dumb down our intellect using emotions.

Question: Acharya Ji, in breaking the law we think that we come out from our daily routines. Does our society allow us that?

Acharya Prashant Ji: How old are you?

Questioner: Why did Acharya Prashant Ji leave his Corporate and Bureaucratic career?

Acharya Prashant: We are a flux. We are changing constantly and that is life. Heraclitus, the great Greek philosopher said, “You don’t step into the same river twice.”

Question: Acharya Ji, why do we procrastinate?

Acharya Prashant Ji: When we love what we do, procrastination is out of the question.

Procrastination is a challenge we have all faced at some point in time. If you find yourself procrastinating a lot, if you find that you have fixed a

Question: What is the legend behind the festival of Kumbh?

Acharya Prashant Ji:

The legend of Kumbh revolves around the perennial struggle between the

Question: Given that all our relationships seem to be arising purely out of a sense of imagined need, is it possible to have any other kind of relationship?

Acharya Prashant Ji:

Gatay, Gatay, Paragatay….

I will miss you so much, Pardon me, I will have to die. We played together for long, Now I’m going home to the Sky.

I will miss you so much, I’m going to where I belong. It breaks my heart to leave you, I tried hard…

Acharya Prashant Ji: So, the demigods and the demons, vigorous and adventerous as they were, thought of adding to their bounties. And got together, uncharacteristically, for a joint exploration mission. Together they churned the great sea using the great mountain as the churner and the great python as the rope.…

Questioner: There is one thing that comes up when said ‘Live fully’. So, let us take an example of the bath. By 'fully' what occurs to me is you can use a hundred types of products to wash your body.

Acharya Prashant: Living fully does not mean that you have…

And man have such great systems of morality and yet man is a ‘Mass-murderer.’ Man has caused thousands of species to get extinct and they will never come back. Is that not surprising? Except the child of man, nothing is told right and wrong and yet it is the man…

THE HUMAN CONDITION

Man is born in pain and to live through pain. Man is born with the tendency to experience pain, resist pain, and create more pain. Pain is inherent in life. And man is designed to resist pain. This is the basic conflict in life, as also the…

Question: What do I do to cross the river? To me, it is such a challenge.Acharya Prashant: Crossing the river is easy. Just hold the hand of someone who knows the other side, and cross.You have already crossed the river a thousand times with me.Your failure is elsewhere: You…

First Question: In the age of artificial intelligence, where does man stand in front of machines?Second question: What kind of personality development does man need?Acharya Prashant: Computation and information technology has been, and is, evolving rapidly. Machines bring with them the benefits of efficiency, scalability and predictability. Everything…

Student: Sir, what is an Ideal?

Acharya Prashant: You tell me. What is Idealism?

S: It is a prescription by the society in regard to how we should be.

Question: Sir, can the situation change? Suppose a person realizes that the whole problem is because faith is missing! Can it be regained? Can a person who does have faith, get it? How can one develop that faith within oneself?

Acharya Prashant: Adita,

You have asked:

Question: I just want to say that many times in a day we all think the same thing that we all want to become free. I mean free from all relations, am I right? My question is, we all think that we should have the understanding of individuality, freedom of…

Audience: Well, sir, you have been talking about radical change for the last 50 years, and obviously there is not any radical change in the world. My question to you, then, is why do you talk?

Krishnamurti: The gentleman asks, you have talked about fundamental change of human consciousness and…

Question: Sir, we copy others because we do not have anything of our own. But, is it wrong to copy the good qualities of others?

Acharya Prashant: Bhaskar,

When a person ‘X’ decides to copy someone’s good qualities, two questions arise:1. Who is deciding to copy?2. Who is deciding which

Question: Sir, from the article “Why am I always thinking of the society?” there is this extract:

“Now, because of years of colonisation, in fact, decades of colonisation, you have a great emphasis on fair skin in India. There are all these companies that are selling fairness products in India…

Question:

Dear Sir,

Since we talked the last time, I have been pondering on one question: why are you the way you are and why am I the way I am or Jiddu the way he is or Osho?

Questioner: Dear Sir,

You once told me that teaching was the ability to see shit. I dare say it is more. It is not just the ability to see shit but to swim in it and come out clean on the other side and taking a few people out along…

सूरा सो पहिचानिये, जू लरै दीन के हेत।पुरजा पुरजा कटि मरै, कबहु न छाडै खेत।।

कबीर

soora so pahichaniye, ju larae deen ke het

The Teacher offers unsolicited support when you do not feel any need for that support. Then you get used to that support.

Then the Teacher takes it away. You are in tears and you declare him insensitive and undependable.”How dare he break the pot he himself so lovingly made?”, you…

अंगना तो परबत भयो, देहरी भई विदेस।जा बाबुल घर आपने, मैं चली पिया के देस।।

अमीर खुसरो

(Jan 28, 2013) Acharya Prashant: Time and Space are nothing but the mind. They do not have an existence independent of your mind.

So, whenever a question arises concerning something which is reducible to time and space, then just know that it is nothing but a process of the mind.…

Black cannot see black.A pot cannot see a pot.The eye cannot see the eye.You must be different from a taste to taste it.Hence all that you can see, touch, hear, or think of, you can be not.The presence of anything is a sure proof that you cannot be that thing.A…

Questioner:Dear Sir,I have been following Nisargadatta Maharaj. I have read all his dialogues, books, and watched most of his videos. But I feel I have been just sticking his words as knowledge in my mind. What you bring to me is something alive, I ‘see’ and I ‘feel’ whatever…