Questioner (Q): How to live my daily life regardless of my family, job, financial situation, mood or body, and reach the Truth? Ramana Maharshi says, “One’s duty is to practice continuous self-enquiry.” The mind is so used to its tendencies that this is hard for me; it hijacks my attention…
Questioner (Q): I want to know the source of thought. I remember Ramana Maharshi’s words: “‘I’ is the root of all the thoughts because in the end, every thought occurs to the ‘I’. So, first try to get hold of who this ‘I’ is, which will lead the enquirer to…
Questioner (Q): You always mention how qualifications like dispassion and abandonment of action are necessary for enquiry to take place, while Ramana Maharshi says, “Even a great sinner can do enquiry.” How can this be reconciled? Also, you speak about renunciation, but Ramana Maharshi says, “All events in our lives…
Questioner (Q): Acharya Ji, how do I live my daily life regardless of my family, job, financial situation, mood, or body to reach the Truth? Ramana Maharshi says,
“One’s duty is to practice continuous self-inquiry.”
I am not able to practice continuous self-inquiry due to mind’s tendencies. Please help and
Questioner (Q): Acharya Ji, Ramana Maharshi talks about ‘transcending and turning inwards'. Who is transcending and who is turning inwards?
Acharya Prashant (AP): The Ego, the I tendency. Whatever advice is given, is always given to the “I” tendency. Because at the center of everything lies this “I” tendency that…
Question (Q): Acharya Ji, on being asked, can Karma ever come to an end? Ramana Maharshi says, "Karmas carry the seed of their own destruction in themselves." Dear Acharya Ji, please help me understand, how Karmas carry the seed of their own destruction?
“How do the triple factors, that is – the knower, the known, and knowledge, which are absent in deep sleep, Samadhi, etc., manifest themselves in the self, in the state of waking and dreaming?”
*“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’.”*
Question: There are two things which I hold very tightly. Raman Maharishi has written only these two pieces himself. One is – ‘Who am I?’ And the other one is – ‘Self Inquiry’.
I go through only these, because these are from a young man who was not conditioned, who…
Somebody asks Raman Maharishi, “It is an established rule that so long as there is the least idea of ‘I am the doer’, self-knowledge cannot be attained. But is it possible for an aspirant who is a householder, to discharge his duties properly without this sense?”
One must be free to do as one pleases and should not be served by others.‘No want’ is the greatest bliss. It can be realized only by experience.
~ Sri Raman Maharishi
Questioner: Acharya Ji, Pranaam! Please elaborate on the above, especially with regard to what it means that…
“All the texts say that in order to gain release one should render the mind quiescent; therefore their conclusive teaching is that the mind should be rendered quiescent. Once this has been understood, there is no need for endless reading.”
“That which you take to be as your normal state is on the contrary, an abnormal state. Do you have to search for a long time before finding this ‘I’ which is none other than yourself?
“'I' is the root of all thoughts because, in the end, very thought occurs to the ‘I’.
So, first try to get hold of who this ‘I’ is, which will lead the enquirer to dissolve and merge in the source.”
~ Sri Raman Maharishi
Question: Acharya Ji, what is ‘elimination of false knowledge’ that Ramana Maharishi talks of when he says, “The individual is miserable because he confounds the mind and the body with the Self. This confusion is due to wrong knowledge. Elimination of wrong knowledge is alone needed. Such elimination results in…
Speaker: So, this morning we are here, trying to look at what is Religion. It would be easy to go into this deeply researched and heavily documented topic as just another objective topic, but I wonder, whether we ask ourselves some very subjective, very personal, very intimate questions. I…
Question: Sir, at one point Ramana Maharishi says, “When the praarabdh is exhausted, the ego is completely dissolved without leaving any trace behind.” And at another point he says, “You can experience the Self right now.” So how will this *praarab*dh change or break at a certain moment? How can…
Questioner (Q): (Referring to a text) Sir, it is written here, “Silence is ever speaking. It is the perennial flow of language.” How is ‘Silence’, a perennial flow of language?
Question: Sir, Ramana Maharshi has talked about the ‘I’. He has always asked the seekers to observe this ‘I’, and this has always been the basis of his teachings. What exactly does Ramana Maharshi mean, when he asks us to constantly observe this ‘I’? How does one witness this ‘I’?…
Anybody who believes in astrology cannot be rational. All you have is a set of beliefs—the belief that this thing will happen. There is no logic in it, only fear and insecurity. Science is based on verifiable and falsifiable experiments, whereas astrology is not subject to verification; hence, it is just a story. It's a story that is making big money for a lot of storytellers.
Truth - The Most Famous Verses of the Bhagavad Gita
You see, what does it mean to say that “righteousness is on decline”? Mind is moving away from Krishna. Mind is moving away from Krishna. Krishna is the centre of the mind. Right? Krishna is the centre of mind. As soon as the mind moves away from the Krishna, the centre applies a spring like force on the mind.
"The real war is the one the ego wages against honest seeing, the war between what it is and what it insists on being taken for. It is the hunger the ego carries meeting a reality that will not satisfy it; the persistent feeling that something is missing whose name cannot be found because finding it would require looking at the one who feels it."
Fight the right battle and forget the outcome || IIT Kanpur (2020)
If you do not like the result that comes from the right action, then your like is not right. The result is still right. Challenge your likes and dislikes, not the rightness of the result.
A guide to handling difficult periods, adapting to unexpected changes, learning from experiences, seeking support, and continuing forward with confidence and patience.
If you are fond of playing the game of Love, then come over
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.
Love would have helped you fly. And now you have captivated love within four walls. As wise men and women, if you are married, wonderful. As wise men and women, if you are not married, wonderful. The point is not really marriage. The point is wisdom.
https://dev-main8.vedant.life/en/articles/marriage-and-love-1_0ff5cad
Is Acharya Prashant Building a Cult Around Himself?
"Cult means personality worship. Where the entire teaching is that personality is false and the Self is truth, where will personality worship come from? And there is nothing in my personality worthy of personality worship. If one wants to worship like that, there are many standing in line whose entire job is to polish their personality.”
“Revolutions always promise change, and they usually deliver something that merely looks like change. Regimes collapse, flags are replaced, slogans change, but something remains untouched. The question we refuse to ask is simple: when the wheel turns again, what will have changed?”
When your expectations are not fulfilled, that is the situation you call anger. Your expectation is nothing but a desire that the other person should behave according to your image of him. You create images because you are afraid. If you are not afraid, you cannot be angry. All these diseases come from a basic fountainhead — ignorance. They go away once ignorance goes away.
Does Acharya Prashant Dismiss Alternative Teachers?
"I am fully in support of learning in all ways from everywhere and everybody but I am not at all in support of foolishness and hypocrisy. Get the difference please. I am absolutely in support of learning from wherever it is possible to learn but I am not at all in support of using the various avenues to learn to not to learn."
Unless you have reached the heart, the sexual activity has gone waste. Sex that is just a few inches deep serves no purpose. Sex has to be infinitely deep. You have to touch not only the other’s body but really the heart. That is what you are looking for.
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“In this samaadhi there remains the consciousness of ‘I’
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Questioner:
Acharya Ji, what does Ramana Maharshi mean by these lines? What is silence
…
All these will be benefited by the existence of the Jnani
Each in his own way and to various degrees.
Sri…
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This is what I mean when we declare that no
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A detached man is always in solitude.”
So it doesn’t depend on the…
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. Classically,
Sushupti
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Q:
Language is a medium of communication.
AP: Communication. What is the use of…
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Questioner: In light of our topic, one thing that really comes to mind is the concept of cancel-culture.
I am just summarising what it really means. Individuals on the platforms of social media or digital platforms, in general, have a kind of justice system, where someone can be kicked out…
The one relationship that is of maximum importance is the one you have with yourself.
When you are not alright with yourself, obviously you will seek an alternative to your company: “Can there be somebody to relate to? Can there be somebody to sit with, fill myself up with, form…
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…
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…
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.”
Let nobody say that he or she is making the right choices in life because she does not know. We all know. We prefer to suppress the inner knowledge. It’s an inner conspiracy against ourselves, just because we want to continue enjoying certain privileges in life—certain physical privileges, material privileges,…
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,…
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…
Real relaxation is about relaxing even in the middle of activity. You are relaxed even as you exert yourself. You are relaxed even as you are running. You are relaxed even as you are drained out. You are not waiting for a special activity like going to bed or sitting…
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…
There is only one way to test whether you have done the maximum you can. If you have done the maximum you can, then you will find that things have started happening on their own, in unexpected, unplanned, unprecedented ways. You are now helpless; you can do no more, but…
Love is about giving yourself the highest. When you love somebody, do you want to stop short of giving them the highest possible? Similarly, when you love yourself, would you stop short of giving yourself the highest possible?
The highest possible is not contained in pleasure nor in happiness. Both…
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.
If it was possible for one man to move towards greatness, it was possible for everybody. Nothing hurts the small man more than seeing a great man in his vicinity, or a small man trying to move towards greatness. It’s an utter insult.
Several people dislike their few glimpses of joy. They hold themselves accountable, they hold themselves guilty for having tasted even a few drops of joy, because joy is not a socially sanctioned kind of happiness. Joy is deep, disruptive, rebellious. It takes you far away from everything into yourself. It…
It is a very common and a very harmful misconception to take dhyāna as something. Dhyāna is nothing. Dhyāna is not an object. Dhyāna is not a thing. Dhyāna is not a routine, not a practice, not an exercise. Dhyāna, rather, is on all these things. Dhyāna is what…
“Why do you want to follow their science? We will follow our science!” This kind of thing too you are hearing these days, no? This science and that science, as if there are multiple sciences all opposed to each other. Spiritual sciences! What kind of foolishness is this? Pandit-ji is…
