Guru

How did the Buddha look then? Who is the Buddha? Let’s try to understand with the story of Gautama Buddha, The ‘Shakya Muni Buddha’ as we call him. So, who was he? Let’s look at his central characteristics. One, someone who is well versed in the knowledge of his time. Buddha had deep scriptural knowledge. He was born in a Hindu Kshatriya family, he was a prince and ever since his childhood he was quite talented. So, one thing about him is that he was quite well-read. Second thing is, he was deeply interested in knowing the depths of life. He did not want to remain merely at the superficial levels, so he would observe a lot, he would think a lot. https://acharyaprashant.org/en/articles/todays-buddha-1_4d1b6bf

“Enjoy the moment! Go with the flow!” What is that flow? Where is it coming from? Why should I go with it? Why don’t you just pause and ask, which flow are we talking of?

The tsunamis are coming to take you away, and the great master is teaching you:…

The shopkeeper’s business is to sell his goods, and that’s what most gurus of today are: they have to sell their goods. When that is what you want to do, how can you afford to antagonize a big chunk of the population? And you would never, never do that if…

All the trauma that you experience on a daily basis, that you happily call as life. All the nonsense you remain mired in, that you happily call as life. Your interactions and your relationships with all the foolish and unworthy and mediocre people, that you will gladly accept as life.…

My request to you is to never turn your back upon the saints. Never. Never let it become acceptable to you to decry, deride, or ignore the scriptures. Never. You must hold the scriptures today and always in the greatest esteem, and you must be very clear with what the…

The one who always follows you is worth following. The one who is always with you on his own accord is worth being with. The yogi is the one who knows whom to follow. And that knowledge the world never gives you. If sitting here your consciousness is full of…

The more you go to those “wise” people, the more you will see how those around us are gravely unwise. And that will tell you why those around you do not like it when you go to the really wise ones: because if you do manage to spend time with…

Very, very vulgar demonstration of consumption of thousands of litres of milk… So, they will take the milk and put it in a pond and say, “This pond is all full of milk!” or they will even encourage their followers to bring lakhs of litres of milk on some holy…

The real Guru never shows you any way. He just shows you the futility of your own ways. He shows you that your own ways have only brought you ruin, and he tells you, “You are capable of finding a different way. I need not suggest you a way; you…

The only way to continue with the scripture that you are reading, or the spiritual practice you are into, is to keep demolishing your conditioning. If you are not constantly progressing against your conditioning, you will soon lose interest in the scriptures. The very sight of the scripture or the…

**ਅਉਧ ਘਟੈ ਦਿਨਸੁ ਰੈਣਾਰੇ ॥ ਮਨ ਗੁਰ ਮਿਲਿ ਕਾਜ ਸਵਾਰੇ ॥ ਰਹਾਉ ॥

a-oDh ghatai dinas rainaaray. man gur mil kaaj savaaray. rahaa-o.

The life passes day and night. My mind, meet the Guru so that he sets things right: meet the Guru so that he attaches you…

Questioner: Pranam Acharya Ji! I somehow know that you are beyond what I, as a person, can know and experience. Not that I want to leave you or go somewhere else, however, why do I feel fear leaving Acharya Prashant as a person and his foundation? Why am I always…

Questioner: Does serving the Guru with compassion and devotion lead to liberation?

Acharya Prashant:

Liberation is not about serving the Guru. Liberation is about not serving what you serve so much.

Questioner: If I’m the first man and the only one, can I disregard all your teachings and learn firsthand from life? Can I forget all the theories I have heard from you? Those theories might be holding me back against inquiring on my own, where I am, as I am.…

नाहं वेदैर्न तपसा न दानेन न चेज्यया ।

शक्य एवंविधो द्रष्टुं दृष्टवानसि मां यथा ।। 53 ।।

nāhaṁ vedair na tapasā na dānena na chejyayā

All the people in the world can be put under four categories:

The Guru’s disciples, bhaktas, those who are indifferent to Him and those who are hostile to Him.

Questioner: Acharya Ji, Pranaam! I have received so many practices of meditation by meeting so many enlightened masters, but I am unable to get what to follow. All gave different methods.

Even if the mind intends to follow certain methods, it gets confused.

Question: Acharya Ji, I have a few friends who also follow different Gurus and their paths. We often discuss Spirituality and land up at a conclusion that a Guru who has known the Truth should always present himself in a pleasant way. That itself shows that he has known the…

Questioner: Dear Acharya Ji, Pranaam!

I have observed that the mind gets coloured with the subject that I get myself involved into. Firstly it was Osho, Krishnamurti, Adi Shankaracharya, Rumi, and Ashtavkara. And now the subject is you (referring to Acharya Ji).

Questioner (Q): Acharya Ji, if I want to understand anything like – anger, or any other emotion, first that I do is, that I search for your videos on these topics, and I listen to them to understand. But I am not sure that it is my original knowledge, or…

Questioner: Dear Acharya Ji, Pranaam! I know that the online sessions are interactive. A question needs to be asked, and the question will be addressed by you. Sometimes I desperately search for a question to ask, maybe just so that I may participate and my presence is acknowledged, but nothing…

Questioner: Acharya Ji, I would want to know a little bit about the Master’s Grace, the master as a person.

Acharya Prashant: What happens is that, sitting as you are, you take yourself to be a person. When I speak in Hindi, it becomes a little difficult for you because…

*Question: Acharya Ji, I am afraid of you. The reasons are:*

First reason is that of authority.

And second reason is I want something from you and there is no total trust in you.

Acharya Prashant: In some sense, it is very cruel to be a Teacher, absolute helplessness one experiences, one feels like asking, "Why does one have to inflict daily wounds, rather carnage upon himself?"

You know what is it to be a Teacher, to know everything and have power over very…

Questioner: We have such a rich heritage and history. India is the land of the Vedas, the Upanishads, and so many perfect masters. As a country, how did we get so far from the Truth, or was Truth always for just a limited few?

Acharya Prashant: The misfortune of India…

Question: In one video, you said that to listen to Krishna, you need to be Arjuna. To Listen to Ashtavakra also you need to be Janak.

To listen to you, what should the person be?

Acharya Prashant: The person should not be insistent on being the ‘person.’

Acharya Prashant: The next one is from Roosmarjin, from the Netherlands. And she has tried the devanagari script today. That’s what I say, you Love playing games. And you keep trying your games upon me as well. I too am a sportsman. Right? If you offer me a game, I…

Listener : Seeing the actions and responses that what I call a teacher gives, so the argument comes that maybe they are coming from the influential part of the mind, they are not coming from the essential just like you said that the faces are real till the time…

Question: I have been reading, listening to you, Osho, Krishnamurti, Nisargadatta, for the last one year. I have a peculiar situation. Having attained a lot of peace, now I am finding difficult to read or listen. Somehow I feel, I am going away from peace, by doing that. Everything that

Acharya Prashant: The myth of the Saint, the Saint!

And with, the myth of the Saint we would be able to touch many associated myths. Like the myth of the respect: respectability rather, the myth of godliness. And of course Love!

Acharya Prashant: The text says that the Guru is the one who gives freedom from coming and going. ‘Gu’ indicates the whole process, the whole cycle, the whole game of coming and going and ‘ru’ indicates the cessation of that game.

Let us talk about this coming and going. What…

Acharya Prashant (AP): The master and the disciple, they exist at two levels that are related, yet different.

Let us understand them.

At the most fundamental level which you could call as the real level, there is only the disciple, just as in the world, there is only the mind.

Question: Sir, I have come here for the first time and I want to know you better and that is why I want to ask, why do you teach?

Acharya Prashant: Why do you listen?

Questioner: Sir, for the past three years, I am reading your books and I have interpreted some meanings of them. But from the past three years, my meanings have changed, means it depends on my state of mind like to what extent I am grasping the explanation.

Acharya Prashant: You…

Questioner: The question is: Who is a Guru? Is a Guru different from a Teacher right? Can a Guru bring together — Knowledge and spirituality in one domain? And what is this contradiction between Osho and J. Krishnamurti?

Acharya Prashant: See, there has to be something which makes you feel

Question: Is the mind a product of duality?

Acharya Prashant: Mind is duality. Do you want to say duality is something apart from the mind? No, it is not. Mind is duality.

Acharya Prashant: *Authority is definitely dangerous when the person becomes the authority.*

Authority is not only dangerous, it is blasphemous because first of all, you are trying to do something that you are not entitled to do. You are trying to act God.

Question: What about the so-called saints? They’re not real saints but considered to be by the society.

Listener 1: I’ve got a beautiful expression about this, “Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future”.

Acharya Prashant (AP): Why do you think I would always insist that the audience comes closer to me? (referring to the physical distance between the Speaker and the listeners)

Questioner (Q): So that we can gain more, as there is no separation and distance.

Question: I see that one way of saying by Guru is, many of them are talking full of things like – “You are alive. You are beautiful. You are the Atman”, which is such, unlike anything. But people are still going after them. So, as time passes, in their going…

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…

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…

Are you looking for me?

Look a little closely!

Am I in the Stupa, am I in the Shrine?

You really want me, or just images of mine?

Question: Sir, a very famous preacher I know of, is a renowned spiritual guru, rather ‘sadhguru’ of contemporary times. I am quite influenced by him.

Does it help one more, to have two gurus instead of one?

Acharya Prashant: So, one guru has already been decided upon – it is…

“A voice cannot carry the tongue and the lips that gave it wings.

Alone must it seek the ether.

And alone and without his nest shall the eagle fly across the sun”.

*Question: Sir, what does it mean to be a Teacher?*

Answer: Going through Shankar’s works and then a few Upanishads, I am humbled by the pain these teachers have taken to bring the concept to the student.

Shankar announces, even before the beginning, that only the most deserving and

Question: What should I do if something is clear, but I do not act according to that understanding?

Speaker: We had talked about the limitation of clarity. Clarity alone is not sufficient. You can be very clear that you are diseased, but unless you are also sure that you can…

Question: Sir, what is the role of a teacher in the life of a student? Whatever syllabus we are prescribed as of now can be possibly dealt by us to a decent level. Then why a teacher? Isn’t there something more than just teaching?

Answer: There is something called knowledge-…