Bhakti

Now, mind is movement, right? Why does the mind move at all? The mind wants to reach somewhere. Where does the mind want to reach? Is that place within the mind? The mind wants to reach somewhere. Every thought, every action, every motivation, every emotion rides on a desire, is…

Such fantastic mastery is rarely seen elsewhere. Obviously, you get glimpses of it in many other places as well. I respect all of them; all of them are very, very dear to me; I worship them. But when it comes to Kabir Sahib, I said I am a fanboy. When…

Questioner (Q): How to have the faith, strength and trust to let go of my identities and dissolve into the One? How to avoid being carried away by the fragmented identities in the middle of my everyday activities?

Acharya Prashant (AP): You will have to allow something big to take…

Questioner (Q): The yogi sings with a one-pointed mind, but I worship with a hidden desire and a hidden self-interest. Is my devotion wrong? What is one-pointed devotion?

Acharya Prashant (AP): It’s not about right or wrong; it’s about settling down with a little when a lot is available. When…

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: I am very inspired by Swami Vivekananda. How can I challenge my conditioning, reject distractions, and maintain continuity with the scriptures?

Acharya Prashant: You have a giant no less than Swami Vivekananda to get your answers from. See what he did: he lived by his conviction. Merely being impressed…

सम: शत्रौ च मित्रे च तथा मानापमानयो: ।

शीतोष्णसुखदु:खेषु सम: सङ्गविवर्जित:। । 18 । ।

तुल्यनिन्दास्तुतिर्मौनी सन्तुष्टो येन केनचित् ।

अनिकेत: स्थिरमतिर्भक्तिमान्मे प्रियो नर: । ।  19 । ।

samaḥ śhatrau cha mitre cha tathā mānāpamānayoḥ

śhītoṣhṇa-sukha-duḥkheṣhu samaḥ saṅga-vivarjitaḥ

tulya-nindā-stutir maunī santuṣhṭo yena kenachit

aniketaḥ sthira-matir bhaktimān me priyo naraḥ…

श्रीभगवानुवाच

पार्थ नैवेह नामुत्र विनाशस्तस्य विद्यते ।।

न हि कल्याणकृत्कश्चिद्दुर्गतिं तात गच्छति ।। 40 ।।

śhrī bhagavān uvācha

pārtha naiveha nāmutra vināśhas tasya vidyate

na hi kalyāṇa-kṛit kaśhchid durgatiṁ tāta gachchhati

The Blessed Lord said, ‘O Partha, there is certainly no ruin for him here or hereafter. For, no one…

“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…

“What is samaadhi?”

*“It is the complete merging of the mind in God-Consciousness. The jnani experiences jada samaadhi, in which no trace of ‘I’ is left. The samaadhi attained through the path of bhakti is called ‘chaitanya samaadhi’.”*

“In this samaadhi there remains the consciousness of ‘I’…

Questioner: Acharya Ji, you say, “Watch your cup of tea, watch your ugly modesty. Watch the tree, watch the bird. Liberation is there instantly.”

(The above lines have been taken from a poem penned down by Acharya Ji during the Myth Demolition Tour).

Acharya Ji, for me, the one who…

Question: Acharya Ji, why all this understanding has not brought about radical change in the way I operate? Why do I go back to my old patterns? Why being at a place of ‘not knowing’ is scary for the mind? Why does the mind fall back to it’s usual unconscious…

Question: Acharya Ji, how to move beyond the pointlessness of existence?

Acharya Prashant Ji: If you move beyond the pointlessness or even the relevance of something, you would move into the relevance, or significance, or need of something else.

(Acharya Ji referring to an example quoted earlier in the Satsang)…

Question 1: Pranaam Acharya Ji. I was introduced to Dhyan (meditation) through Indian Classical Music. Since then I am deeply interested in spirituality. In the last session you mentioned that cessation of passion is – dispassion. I think about it a lot, and I don’t think that I am passionate…

Questioner: Pranaam Acharya Ji. The Yogi worships with a one-pointed mind, but I worship with a hidden desire and a hidden self-interest. Is my devotion wrong? What is one-pointed devotion?

Acharya Prashant: It is not about ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, it is about settling down with a little when a lot…

Questioner: Acharya Ji, what does it mean to be spiritual?

Acharya Prashant: It merely means that you are not being stupid. Is it necessary that you must at least be sometimes stupid? Is there such great attraction in stupidity?

If water and poison are kept in front of you, ten…

Question: Acharya Ji, Pranaam! I have a six year old son. Me and my husband regularly discuss on lot of issues, after watching your videos. My son has observed that we use words like ‘God’, ‘Truth’, ‘Love’ very often.

Many times, he approaches me and asks, “What is ‘Love’?”…

Questioner: What is a ‘Temple’, and what purpose should it serve?

Acharya Prashant: A ‘Temple’ must definitely have elements that elevate your consciousness.

Being at a place, being with elements, being with people, being with structures, being with sites, scenes, sounds, that remind you of the Beyond, that take the…

Questioner (Q): Acharya Ji, how will I get the motivation to do some work if I am not attached to the result of the work?

Acharya Prashant (AP): When you come to this hall, you are probably prompted by some desire, aren’t you?

Q: Yes.

AP: There are desires, there…

Questioner: Pranaam Acharya Ji. Why does spiritual sadhana take long to complete?

Acharya Prashant: The condition you have come to, is not sudden. It has taken millions of years of evolution for you to come to this state. It’s a very, very old habit. It is like dust that has…

Questioner: Acharya Ji, please explain about honesty and simplicity.

Acharya Prashant: When do things become complex? When there is fear between you and the obvious. Neither can you deny the obvious, nor can you overcome your fear. Then one goes round and round.

It is very difficult to break away…

Question: When I read spiritual books, it feels like I am conditioning myself in a different way. Sometimes worldly desires take over me, and I am not able to stay spiritual all the time.

What can I do, to stay spiritual all the time?

Acharya Prashant Ji: See, spirituality is…

Question: What is real meaning of ‘devotion’ in spirituality? How can devotion help one to reach the Truth? What is the path of devotion? How to prepare oneself for devotion? Which one is greater, observation or devotion?

Acharya Prashant Ji:

‘Devotion’ is a million times more powerful than ‘observation’. With…

Acharya Prashant: Among the Indian saints, in the whole galaxy of the saints of the World, Kabir is delightfully special. It is said that he was born a Hindu, but because he was born of a widow, so out of social shame the mother went and kept the baby Kabir…

Question: If I have to make a decision and there are two options, my thoughts don’t bring me any further. Then I try to listen to my heart, and that also does not bring me any answer. So, how can I find a way to the solution?

Acharya Prashant: If…

Listener: Sir I have heard or maybe read somewhere that you are a Christian, is that right?

Acharya Prashant: I love Jesus, l love Krishna, I love Buddha, they are all wonderful. There is no doubt that there is a lot about me which is Christian. I won’t even say…

Questioner: Are spiritual scriptures useless?

Acharya Prashant: All these books are totally useless for the one who is not disturbed. In fact, the books themselves say, “After you have gone through us, just burn us, throw us away, treat us like excreta.”

Books are only for the one who is…

Questioner (Q): Sir, it takes a certain trust and surrender to accept. But then that is not a choice again; we cannot choose to surrender.

Acharya Prashant (AP): How do you choose to surrender to so many other things?

Don’t you choose to surrender to your boss when he is…

Questioner: It is said, “You have what you need utmost”, so why do we try to ignore some situations?

Speaker: You are sprouting forth from existence. You are the existence’s will. You are the desire of the existence to express itself. You have done nothing in your expression, right?…

Question: Is it incorrect to refer to intelligence as my intelligence?

Speaker: In love if you do that, it’s wonderful. You are saying, “Is it incorrect to refer to intelligence as my intelligence?” If you are referring to intelligence as my intelligence in love, then it’s wonderful, but if you…

Question: Sir, we just heard one of the couplets of Kabir, saying, “Jo sukh sadhu sang mein, so baikunth mein na hoi.” (The Joy that I find in the company of Saint, that Joy is greater than the joy of heaven).

Is this verse being used in the negative…

Question: When a person has, after such a discussion, understood that this is what his situation is, what should he do after that?

Speaker: Who is to do what? Who are you referring to?

Listener: Probably me, myself.

Speaker: Where is that?

When you say, “What am I to do?”…

Speaker: Bhagyashree has enquired about Leela. What is Leela?

Yes, what is Leela? Let’s come up. What is Leela?

Listener 1: What all is going on all around.

Listener 2: The play.

Listener 3: Game of Maya with Truth.

Listener 4: When you are in the game it remains a…

Speaker: Is there any freshness possible to somebody who is beyond corruption and fatigue? If you cannot get stale, how will you get fresh?

Who gets stale? The mind.

And who gets fresh? The mind.

The very usefulness of going to one extreme of duality is that it…

Question: At some places it is said that the ego must exist, the ego must be sharpened. At other places it is said that the ego is false, the ego simply does not exist. What is this paradox?

Speaker: At several points, by several teachers, it has been…

Question: Desire is the memory of pleasure, and fear is the memory of pain. Both make the mind restless. Moments of pleasure are merely gaps in the stream of pain. If our natural state is joy, then why do we slip out of this state?

Speaker: When you have slipped…

Question: Whenever I listen to your videos, or read your articles on blog, my mind seems to be free of fear. But this stays only for a small duration of time. If I want to increase the frequency of reading, there is a lot of resistance, and I want to…

Question: Dear Sir, I need your guidance in understanding this. Kindly help me.

The last week, I was extremely happy about my mental constitution. My mind was silent, there was no constant flow of needless thoughts, and I was engaged in what I was doing: playing music, reading, working, running…

Questioner (Q): Why do we forget?

Acharya Prashant (AP): The question is, "Why do we forget? Why forgetting is a property of the mind?"

Do not ask, "Why do we forget?" Just remember that we forget. Because when you forget then you don’t ask this question that, "Why do we…

Question: Sir, many a times it happens that we ask a question to ourselves and then we are also able to answer it on our own. Moreover, this is what forms the basis of so many assumptions that we take. Is this an appropriate method or should verification also be…

Question: How can one develop faith within oneself ?

Answer: Adita,

You have asked:

“Suppose a person realizes that the whole problem is because that faith is missing. Can it be regained? Can a person who does have faith, get it?How can one develop that faith within oneself? “

How…

saknd alks cl,.Z >Z<CM ksld

THis is AP Article

Questioner (Q): Sir, as a woman, how should I perceive religion? Religion and culture are supposed to help, but I have practically seen that religion is associated with patriarchy and misogyny. Please tell me, as women how should I look at religion? Acharya Prashant (AP): See, the relationship…

Love is not a mental or physical need. Love is not for the faint-hearted. Love is not for those who fear the loss of relationships, reputation, possessions or life. Love is not for those who are afraid of family, society, or uncertainty. Love is not for those who seek sanction from tradition or culture.

Short description for the E2E smoke test article.

skldjas claksn laksskldjas claksn laksskldjas claksn laksskldjas claksn laksskldjas claksn laksskldjas claksn laksskldjas claksn laksskldjas claksn laksskldjas claksn laksskldjas claksn laksskldjas claksn laksskldjas claksn laksskldjas claksn laksskldjas claksn laksskldjas claksn laksskldjas claksn laksskldjas claksn laksskldjas claksn laksskldjas claksn laksskldjas claksn laksskldjas claksn laksskldjas claksn laks

skldjas claksn laksskldjas claksn laksskldjas…

asdkjaskdj

Sunday Guardian ColumnSunday Guardian ColumnSunday Guardian ColumnSunday Guardian ColumnSunday Guardian Column

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