
Questioner(Q): What is the process of clarity? Is it just listening with immersion and no resistance? What is Truth? How we decide it?
Acharya Prashant (AP): Listening without effort, plus if there is Truth in what you hear, there is change and transformation, and that Truth becomes the master. We…

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


आचार्य प्रशांत: हमने बहुत बातें करी हैं तीन दिन में, लेकिन देखिए, कैसे कहूँ? क्योंकि इतनी बार कहा है इसीलिए, कैसे कहूँ? बार-बार कहा है, हर बार कहा है, ज़िन्दगी कैसी है? सब कुछ इस पर। जब निर्णय की घड़ी आती है तब निर्णय किधर को करते हो? सब कुछ…

Questioner (Q): Acharya Ji, please explain what Shri Ramakrishna meant by the following:
“One day a Marwari gentleman went to Sri Ramakrishna and asked him for permission to present him with some thousands of rupees. But the master had nothing but a stern refusal for this well-meant offer. He said,…

कथा: पम्पा सरोवर में नहाते समय राम और लक्ष्मण ने सरोवर के तट की मिट्टी में धनुष गाड़ दिए। स्नान करके लक्ष्मण ने धनुष निकलते हुए देखा, धनुष में ख़ून लगा हुआ था। राम ने देखकर कहा, "भाई, जान पड़ता है कि कोई जीव पर हिंसा हो गई है!" लक्ष्मण…

“Do your duties in the world and also fix your mind on the Lotus feet of the Lord”
“You are like ‘Elder, the pumpkin cutter’. You are neither a man of the world nor a devotee of God”

Questioner: Acharya Ji, please explain what Shri Ramakrishna meant by:
“Once a Marwari gentleman, approached Ramakrishna and said, “How is it, Sir, that I do not see God, although I have renounced everything?”

Question: Acharya ji, what is meant by ‘woman’ when Shri Ramakrishna says, “Souls enmeshed in worldliness cannot resist the temptation of ‘woman and gold’ and direct their minds to God, even though these things bring upon them a thousand humiliations.”
Acharya Prashant: It is not possible to go through this

From The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna:
“A learned ignorance is the end of philosophy and the beginning of religion”
~Sir William Hamilton

From The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna:
“In the World, ‘women and gold’ is the covering of Maya.”
Acharya Prashant: We are referring to a…
Acharya Prashant: What is Philosophy? Though Philosophy means the search for Truth, but it ends up becoming just more and more concepts about Truth. With Philosophy,…
Acharya Prashant: He is talking to a man. Most of the World’s spiritual literature, is addressed to men, though Truth has nothing to do with gender. But the approach to it, depends…

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…


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


A strange situation is that a beautiful woman’s life is perhaps more complex than an average-looking woman’s life, because a beautiful looking woman has a lot of men eyeing upon her, and she can get whatever she wants. And what you will get for your beauty, that is the real…

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…

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…

Something is very wrong somewhere. The first thing in liberation is: do not be dependent on somebody, at least for your bread, for your basic sustenance. What kind of empowerment is this that happily accepts dependence on somebody else’s money on a date, and also for an entire lifetime? It…

श्रद्धावान् लभते ज्ञानं तत्पर: संयतेन्द्रिय: | ज्ञानं लब्ध्वा परां शान्तिमचिरेणाधिगच्छति || ४, ३९ || जितेन्द्रिय, साधनापरायण और श्रद्धावान मनुष्य ज्ञान को प्राप्त होता है तथा ज्ञान को प्राप्त होकर वह बिना विलम्ब के तत्काल ही भगवत्प्राप्तिरूप शान्ति को प्राप्त हो जाता है। —श्रीमद्भगवद्गीता, अध्याय ४, श्लोक ३९प्रश्नकर्ता: आचार्य जी,…

प्रश्नकर्ता: नमस्कार, सर। आज का सबसे पहला प्रश्न जो है वह सनातन के ऊपर है कि सनातन माने क्या? और ऐसा क्या है जिसको वास्तविक रूप में सनातन कहा जा सकता है?
आचार्य प्रशांत: देखिए, सनातन का अर्थ होता है वो जो काल की सीमाओं से के बाहर का हो।…


सङ्करो नरकायैव कुलघ्नानां कुलस्य च ।। पतन्ति पितरो ह्येषां लुप्तपिण्डोदकक्रिया: ।।1.42।।
saṅkaro narakāyaiva kula-ghnānāṁ kulasya cha patanti pitaro hy eṣhāṁ lupta-piṇḍodaka-kriyāḥ
When the castes mix, that spells hell for the family. It destroys the family, in the way that the ancestors all fall because they are deprived of the Pindokdakriya.…


यदा नाहं तदा मोक्षो
यदाहं बन्धनं तदा।
मत्वेति हेलया किंचिन्-
मा गृहाण विमुंच मा॥८- ४॥
अनुवाद: जब तक 'मैं' या 'मेरा' का भाव है तब तक बंधन है, जब 'मैं' या 'मेरा' का भाव नहीं है तब मुक्ति है। यह जानकर न कुछ त्याग करो और न कुछ ग्रहण ही…

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…

Fight for the right cause and let it consume you fully. That is the only way of living life. Fight for the right one and devote yourself totally to him. That is the only way of living and fighting. Give yourself up so totally that you cannot now be blamed…

We all need space. Man’s inner nature is freedom. When I say man, I mean both man and woman, mankind. Just as you need free mental space, you also need free physical space.
In fact, I find the idea of a shared bed quite vulgar. The double bed is an…

When you say that you go to your workplace for a purpose, the purpose is never work, or is it? The purpose is the salary cheque. In fact, if work could be bypassed and you could straight away reach the salary cheque, then who would want to work? Now, why…

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 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,…

If you are in a railway coach, and that too an enclosed cabin with two fellow passengers, and it’s just a journey, let’s say, ten hours long, and those two guys are constantly squabbling, what would it do to you? If you are very patient, you will try to sleep.…

Both the genders have become even more anchored to their physical identity. The more you do that, the more you are in misery because, really, the body is not who you are.
There are places better and higher than the place of your gender specific hormones. Why do you want…

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…

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…

If your goals are small, they are no goals. You will be frustrated if you don’t achieve them, and you will be doubly frustrated if you achieve them. Having achieved them, you will find that the next goal is waiting for you, and that is deep frustration. You will feel…

When you are serious about victory, you do not strike at the enemy without being fully prepared. Those who just plunge themselves into battles without having checked their preparedness are the ones who don’t love victory too much. Because this battle is important, and because this battle must be won,…

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…

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…

Every young person who is about to choose a career, decide on work in life, must keep this in mind, my humble advice: See what is it that really, really troubles you, and then work should be the medicine for your trouble. That’s the way you must choose work.
Therefore,…

As long as the goal is not tremendously big, life has no real purpose. If your goals are small they are no goals. You will be frustrated if you don’t achieve them, and you will be doubly frustrated if you achieve them. Having achieved them, you will find that the…

If Facebook is satisfying you, it is not called as time wasted. Full stop. If the purpose of time is your satisfaction, and if doing all kinds of nonsense on Facebook satisfies you, then you cannot call it as wasted of time.
The only thing that determines whether time or…

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…

As long as the goal is not tremendously big, life has no real purpose. If your goals are small, they are no goals. You will be frustrated if you don’t achieve them, and you will be doubly frustrated if you achieve them. Having achieved them, you will find that the…

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…

If you have to invest your hours, your months, your years, invest them on a cause. The cause could be your own development, or general development, social welfare, whatever. But let it be a cause, not a person. Let the cause occupy you fully.
This applies to both men and…

There is something honorable about dying against a major enemy. But what honor is there in being consumed by the little?
Set a great goal. Even if you lose, it will at least be a great defeat. And if you set a timid, scared, conventional, narrow goal, then even if…

You are a bird; your nature is to fly. You don’t need to be taught your nature; you need to be freed from the cage.
But we are pretty special characters. Instead of opening the door of the cage, we try to teach the bird to fly within the cage,…

Success does not lie in doing any random thing. Do you know why you are doing a certain thing? Are you sure what is worthy enough to be done? That’s the moot question.
Choose the right option. Make the right decision. Fight the right battle. And now it doesn’t matter…

We really do not know how to spend a Sunday, but we want to live two hundred years. If you are given one free day, you do not know what to do with it. You start looking here and there, wondering, “What to do? Some free time is there. How…