Guilt

लड़कीवाले लड़की देने को राज़ी नहीं होते अगर सरकारी नौकरी नहीं है। और कोई वजह हो-न-हो, वंश चलाने की ख़ातिर हमें यूपीएससी निकालना पड़ेगा। ‘वंश चलाने के लिए यूपीएससी निकालना पड़ेगा!’ यह सब तो तुम्हारे सारे कारण हैं सरकारी नौकरी के पीछे जाने के, नहीं तो और तुम क्यों इतने…

जिस साल मेरा चयन हुआ था, पाँच लाख बैठे थे और सीट थी मुश्किल से, मेरे ख्याल से, ढाई-सौ, तीन-सौ। वो जो पूरी प्रक्रिया है वो बनी ही ऐसी है कि उसमें से हज़ार में से नौ-सौ-निन्यानवे लोग अचयनित ही निकलेंगे और यह बात तुमको पहले से पता होती है…

जो अपनी ग़लती स्वीकारेगा नहीं, उसकी सज़ा ये होगी कि वही अपनी ग़लती दोहराएगा। ग़लती स्वीकार लो, ग़लती से मुक्त हो जाओगे। दूसरों को दोष देते रहोगे, मानोगे ही नहीं कि ग़लती तुमने करी तो उसी ग़लती को बाध्य हो जाओगे दोहराने के लिए। ग़लती मानना बड़ी बहादुरी का काम…

ग़लती मानना बहुत बड़े लोगों का काम है। छोटे आदमी की पहचान ही यही है कि वह अपनी ग़लतियों पर हमेशा पर्दा डालता नज़र आएगा। क्योंकि उसे छोटा ही रहना है, छोटा है छोटा रहना है। वह ग़लती पर बार-बार पर्दा डालेगा, स्वीकारेगा नहीं। बड़े आदमी को छोटा रहना नहीं…

“I was just fifteen years old, so I had the license to be stupid.” And when you are fifty-five, you look yourself at thirty-five and say, “You know, I was still young. I was thirty-five, so I was stupid!” And then you can laugh at yourself with abandon: “Oh, I…

हवाई जहाज का टिकट बुक कराना है और आपका नाम है ‘अमित’ तो आपको 'AMIT' ही लिखना होगा। 'अमित' लिखकर आप हवाई जहाज में यात्रा करके दिखा दीजिए।

आप कह दीजिए कि, “'अ मि त' नाम है मेरा”, तो आप हवाई जहाज में यात्रा नहीं कर पाएँगे।

ट्रेवल बुकिंग, …

यह कौन सी ज़िंदगी है कि सुबह उठे, नाश्ता किया, नहाए-धोए, चले गए। वापस आए फिर खाना खाया, टीवी देखा, इधर-उधर कहीं किसी को नोचा-खसोटा फिर सो गए। अगले दिन फिर यही।

कुल मिला कर इस पूरे महीने से निकला क्या? कुछ भी नहीं।

एक महीना बीतेगा, दूसरा शुरू हो…

सामने मंदिर हो, बगल में गंगा बह रही हो, लेकिन कुत्ता तो हड्डी ही चबाएगा, और वह भी सूखी।

अगर सुधरने की, बदलने की नियत ही ना हो तो कोई भी आपकी क्या मदद कर लेगा! गंगा के बगल में और मंदिर के सामने, आप हड्डी चबाते ही नज़र आओगे।…

Has there ever been a new mistake? How funny. That which piques you today, is it not the same thing that brought you down five years back? Oh, the names and forms change, faces change, situations change—has the tendency changed? The place where you fell, the time of the fall,…

It is when you give without having much that you realize that you have much. You must give from empty pockets. It is only then that you realize your pockets are not empty.

You have to fight without strength. It is only then that you realize you are not without…

If you are fighting a battle, if you are involved in something, and somewhere along the way that thing, the process, the result of action starts hurting you, it only means that you started from a position of inadequacy, incompleteness in the very first place.

Fight for the right cause…

We do not deserve to celebrate. What is there to celebrate in our life? Every festival is like an examination day.

Yes, certain people do have all the rights to celebrate on an examination day; but who will be those people? Who have prepared well for those exams, who have…

Questioner (Q): When I am not able to complete a task or meet a deadline, I feel the need to punish myself. I will maybe skip a meal, or if I have planned to do something with my friends, like going out or cycling or something, I will skip that;…

प्रश्नकर्ता: आचार्य जी, बहुत पहले से देख रहा हूँ। इमैजिनेशन (कल्पनाएँ करने) की आदत है। अब यहाँ तीन महीने से हूँ तो इसे और गहराई से देखने के लिए मिला। बहुत ज़्यादा गहराई तक है यह।

मैं सही-सही बताऊँ तो कोई मुझसे बात करता है तो मुझे उसकी आधी बात…

प्रश्नकर्ता: जीवन में पहले लिए हुए कुछ निर्णयों के बारे में सोचकर अक्सर पछतावा रहता है। इन पछतावों की भावनाओं में फँसा रहता हूँ और कुछ भी नया करने में झिझक होती है। पछतावे से बाहर कैसे आएँ?

आचार्य प्रशांत: देखो पछताने में अपने-आप में कोई बुराई नहीं हो गई…

प्रश्नकर्ता: आचार्य जी, जब से आपका बोध-साहित्य पढ़ रहा हूँ, आपको सुन रहा हूँ, ऐसा आपने कहा था कि जीवन में ऐसा सार्थक कार्य चुनो जिसमें आप अपने-आप को पूरा झोंक सको और अपने स्वयं के लिए कुछ भी बचाकर मत रखना।

आचार्य जी, हम अगर शोध के क्षेत्र में…

प्रश्नकर्ता: नमस्ते आचार्य जी, आपने कहा था स्टील डिटरमिनेशन (दृण निश्चय) के बारे में। मुझे ये जानना था कि इसका स्रोत क्या है? क्योंकि नहीं होता है सब में आप ही ने कहा था। बहुत ही कुछ लोग होते है जिनमें आप देखते होंगे। लेकिन मैं ये नहीं मान सकती…

प्रश्नकर्ता: मेरे अतीत में मुझ पर हुए दुष्कर्म, मुझे चैन से जीने नहीं दे रहे हैं। मानो मैं अपने बचपन में ही जिए जा रही हूँ। वही ख्याल, वही सपने। मुझे उस भयानक अतीत से पूरी तरह बाहर आना है। कैसे होगा?

आचार्य प्रशांत: सबसे पहले तो समझना होगा कि…

प्रश्नकर्ता: हीन भावना से कैसे बचें?

आचार्य प्रशांत: क्या नाम है आपका?

प्र: उज्ज्वल

आचार्य: क्या करते हो?

प्र: अभी तो इंजीनियरिंग की है।

आचार्य: इसी साल?

प्र: २०१६ में।

आचार्य: कहाँ से?

प्र: आचार्य जी, सीतापुर से

आचार्य: लखनऊ में रहते हो?

प्र: अभी तो घर पर रहते हैं,…

Questioner (Q): I wanted to understand what exactly is guilt.

Acharya Prashant (AP): Guilt can be both a hugely liberating factor, liberates you from the little self, and guilt can equally be a great defense of the ego. What does guilt say? Let’s first of all look at it. Guilt…

प्रश्नकर्ता: आचार्य जी, ग्लानि भाव को कैसे दूर करें?

आचार्य प्रशांत: “साइकिल बहुत तेज़ दौड़ाई, बहुत तेज़ दौड़ाई, पर सौ की गति नहीं पायी। अब बड़ी ग्लानि हो रही है कि ज़रूर मैंने ठीक से श्रम नहीं किया।”

या – “ज़रूर मेरी साइकिल में कुछ कमी थी, सौ की गति…

Question: What is shame?

Acharya Prashant: What is shame? Can shame exist without ideals and comparison? Does shame cure and heal? Is there shame in love? Does shame lead to betterment? These and more are the questions we want to talk over.

Man is the only creature that experiences shame.…

आचार्य प्रशांत: पूरा जीवन अगर सुचारु नहीं है तो वो — ग्रंथ भी यही कहते हैं, मेरा भी अनुभव यही रहा है — कि फिर बड़ा मुश्किल हो जाएगा आचरण पर नियंत्रण कर पाना। आहार-विहार तो आचरण की ही बात है न – क्या खाया? क्या पिया? पूरी दिनचर्या, सारे…

श्रोता: सर, मेरी रीडिंग में ये था कि मैं इंटेलिजेंस और प्रभावों समझती हूँ लेकिन मैं फिर भी लोगों की तरफ प्रभावित हो जाती हूँ। इसमें मुझे यही समझ नहीं आ रहा कि मुझे कब पता चलेगा कि मैं प्रभावित हो रही हूँ या मुझे कब पता चलेगा कि ये…

Question: Two years ago, I left my job, my girlfriend and my home. Since then, I am okay but now I don’t know whether it is okay to run away? I wonder at myself.

Acharya Prashant: But do you have an obligation to not to run away? What…

वक्ता: मुक्ति से बचने के लिए, सच से बचने के लिए आपके पास कोई बहाना नहीं हो सकता; क्यूँकी सच तो सच है। तो फिर एक ही तरीका रह जाता है उससे बचने का, वो होता है कि आप कोई झूठा सच आविष्क्रित कर लें। झूठा सच, नकली सत्य, नकली…

Questioner: I want to talk about sexuality. Are there ways in which a person can healthily express sexuality?

Acharya Prashant: Whatever we do is an expression.

Breath is an expression, eating is an expression, these hand gestures they are an expression, and the way you are nodding your head is…

EXCERPT: Come face to face with the fact of your being. Grand notions, or petty notions, any notions, will not work. They are not evil, they are just useless. It is just that in my dictionary, the useless is the evil. There is no other evil. That is the definition…

Question: What is guilt? Does it facilitate, or hinder spiritual growth?

Speaker: We often use the term ‘spiritual growth’. It is alright if it is used loosely, just to indicate something. But it is not alright, if you mean ‘spiritual growth’, as actually the growth of some entity. There is…

Speaker: Rohit is asking, ‘What is it about pornography and various other kinds of expressions of suppression?’ Why is there so much in our lives that we hide, that is done behind closed doors hidden from someone, and yet we all know that it is a norm that everyone engages…

वक्ता : देवेन्द्र ने कहा कि अतीत हावी होने लगता है, स्मृतियाँ आक्रमण करने लगतीं हैं। देवेन्द्र ये बताओ, अतीत कहाँ है? तुम बैठे हुए हो अतीत कहाँ हैं? कहाँ है अतीत ? जो है सो अभी है, प्रस्तुत है।अतीत कहाँ है?

अतीत आक्रमण नहीं करता तुम अतीत को आमंत्रित…

Question : Sir, I often get affected by others. I depend on others to tell me what is right and what is wrong, and when that happens I often find myself regretting later. Later, I feel disappointed that why did I allow myself to be affected by others‘ opinions,…

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…

समोऽहं सर्वभूतेषु न मे द्वेष्योऽस्ति न प्रिय:।

ये भजन्ति तु मां भक्त्या मयि ते तेषु चाप्यहम्।।29।।

samo ’haṁ sarva-bhūteṣhu na me dveṣhyo ’sti na priyaḥ

ye bhajanti tu māṁ bhaktyā mayi te teṣhu chāpyaham

The same am I to all beings: to Me, There is none hateful or dear. But…

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.

Sunday Guardian ColumnSunday Guardian ColumnSunday Guardian ColumnSunday Guardian ColumnSunday Guardian Column

हमारा मिजाज हमेशा दूसरों और परिस्थितियों पर निर्भर करता है। नतीजे आपकी उम्मीदों के मुताबिक नहीं रहे। इसलिए अब आपको मनोबल बढ़ाने वाले किसी प्रेरक वक्ता की ज़रूरत है। जैसे ही वह व्यक्ति चला जाता है, आपकी ऊर्जा भी थम जाती है। लेकिन जीने का एक और तरीका भी है। अपने भीतर गहराई में, मुझे एक ऐसा बिंदु मिलता है जिसे कोई बाहरी परिस्थिति छू नहीं सकती। जो कुछ भी होता है, वह सतह पर ही घटित होता है। वह स्थिर, उदासीन और तटस्थ बना रहता है। तब आप सचमुच स्वतंत्र होते हैं।

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…

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

This article is related to restlessness.

Questioner: A lot of students that I talk to — it’s the fear of the society, it’s the fear of the unknown, it’s fear of the expectations that they are carrying, that pushes them to become an engineer and then they figure out that probably this is not something that they wanted to be. And that is the reality of a lot of individuals and not just engineers. Probably, here is something that is stopping me from taking a plunge of starting something of myself, right? Fear is something that is stopping somebody who is in a relationship for ten years to take that step to get married. Where does this fear come from? Acharya Prashant: Lack of love, which comes from lack of self-knowledge. You see, when I tie my sense of existence, my very identity, to something that is unreliable, I will have to be afraid. It’s like putting my heart on this table. Now, how can I live in security? The heart is out there on the table, anybody can take it away, anything can happen to it. Or the heart might grow legs and walk away on its own. My very existence has been subjected to something that is not in my control. Something that is definitely going to deceive me at some point, that is fear. My sense of self-worth comes from my monies, my bank account, I will be afraid. That bank account can be closed anytime, anything can happen. My sense of self-worth comes from my physical appearance. I very well know, time will take it away, I will be afraid. Right? Who am I? I am the one who is praised or worshipped by the society. Oh! I will be so afraid, so afraid! You talked of people working for their images, they would be living a cursed life. Because, their heart is out there in the hands of strangers. Their entire identity is tied to their image and the image is in the eyes of other people. So, the image can be distorted or can disappear any moment. Just imagine, how afraid they would be all the time. That’s with the ego. Because, the ego, as I said, is a fundamental sense of incompleteness. Therefore, to complete itself, it just associates itself to anything possible. And the things that you are associating yourself with, they are not reliable. They belong to the world and the world can take them away. They belong to time. They came with time and with time all those things will disappear. And you have tied your identity to those things. Now how can you rest in peace? That’s fear. If you do not have self-knowledge, you will always be afraid. My identity is linked to my husband’s identity. Now the husband has two legs. And the husband has a brain, a mind of his own. If your identity comes from your husband’s name, as happens in India at least, you would always be afraid as a wife. The husband can change his mind any day. You would always be, you know, having one eye on his secretary, and the other eye in his email and mobile phone. What’s he getting into? Who’s texting him? Why is he on the phone so late in the night? Because you are afraid if husband goes away, what happens to you? Your very existence depends on the husband. That’s fear. When you operate from the ego centre and make something very, very important for yourself and that something belongs to the world, it can go away anytime, and you are afraid. And in that fear, there can never be love, never be love. If you are afraid of losing something, you will be very violent towards it. Nobody lets his money go and have a walk down the road. What do you do? You lock up your money. That’s violence. When something starts becoming very meaningful to you, you lock it up. You don’t want it to have freedom. And that’s violence. So, love and fear just cannot go together. If you are dependent on something or somebody, you will be afraid. And that dependence cannot be called love. And that is a confusion, we often get into it. Just because you depend on somebody and somebody depends on you, you start feeling as if it is love, it is not. Questioner: Just like the way political parties think that people love them but it actually is fear. Acharya Prashant: Exactly! Love is a rare quality and rarer in politics. Questioner: So, if I am interested in a particular profession, do I not pursue it wholeheartedly? Do I pursue it wholeheartedly knowing very well that the results can either be zero or one? Acharya Prashant: One has to go into the very nature of interest. Aren’t we interested in cricket? Aren’t we interested in seeing songs in movies? Practically, everybody in India is interested in cricket, nobody in Brazil is. And nobody in India is interested in ice hockey. So, that’s how flimsy the whole thing about interest is. In India, if you don’t get a movie with songs, you say, “I am disinterested.” The movie would bomb. In Hollywood, if you have a movie with songs, that would raise eyebrows, what’s going on? Occasionally, you have an OD song but typically there is no song. So, that is the nature of interest. It is never something of the heart. Love and interest are not the same thing. Interest is something that is given to you by your body, by your environment, by random chance, your circumstances and all these. So that’s how your interests come to you. So, if you are interested in a vocation, first of all, you have to ask yourself, “Just two years back, I was interested in something else and two years before I was interested in that and when I was four years old, I was interested in becoming a fighter pilot. What happened to all those interests?” Today, I smile at those things and just shrug them off, “I don’t want to be a fighter pilot.” What you want to be today? Oh! I want to be an investment banker. What happened to the fighter pilot? You were so interested in that. And how do you know, tomorrow you will not be looking at this I-banker, just the way today you are looking at the fighter pilot. The self of a five-year old appears so naïve and immature when you are twenty-five. How do you know that at thirty-five, you will not look back at this twenty-five year old self and say, “What the hell! How was I taking this fellow so seriously?” So, interest is something that you must look at with healthy contempt. Interest, mind you, can even be induced in you. Interest can be aroused in you. That’s what the entire advertising industry is about. They can make you feel Interested in things that is intrinsically worthless to you. So, of what value is this thing called interest? But, then in today’s world, we place so much premium on this word 'interest.' Do what interests you, this, that. Whereas, it is wisdom to realize that interest is the last thing that you should ever go after. Then people come up and say, “No, should we do things that we are not interested in? No.

पृथ्वी को बचाने के लिए यूनाइटेड नेशंस की सीओपी ने यह शर्त रखी थी कि 2030 तक वैश्विक तापमान 1.5 डिग्री से अधिक नहीं बढ़ना चाहिए। हमने वह सीमा 2025 में ही लांघ दी है। यह आने वाले बहुत-बहुत बड़े विनाश का संकेत है। आदमी के इतिहास में इससे ख़तरनाक पल कभी नहीं आया। उस ख़तरे को चुनौती देने के लिए ही यह "ऑपरेशन 2030" है, जिसका उद्देश्य है कि आम आदमी में चेतना जगाई जाए — “देखो, तुम्हारा ग्रह विनाश की ओर कितनी तेज़ी से बढ़ रहा है। तुम अपने बच्चों के लिए एक ऐसा ग्रह छोड़कर जा रहे हो, जहाँ आफ़तें ही आफ़तें होंगी।”

test doc type

How do you, asks the chief of police, patrol a city, where the butcher shops are guarded by vultures, where bulls get pregnant, cows are barren, and calves give milk three times a day, where mice are the boatmen, and tomcats row the boats, where frogs keep snakes as watchdogs,…

In our country, most people marry because that is sometimes the only way of getting some good sex—good and assured sex. Otherwise, the fellow would either have to spend a lot of money or a lot of time, or both, and then still return empty-handed. Isn’t that so?

Now, if…

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…

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.

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.

कृष्ण का खुद ऊँचा होना, कृष्ण के पूरे जीवनवृत्त में, उनकी ज़िंदगी की जो पूरी कहानी है उसमें और श्री कृष्ण की प्रेमकथा में एक सूत्र है जो साझा पिरोया हुआ है। गीता की ऊँचाई, कृष्ण के जीवन की ऊँचाई, और कृष्ण के प्रेम की ऊँचाई तीनों एक हैं। ऐसा नहीं हो सकता कि कृष्ण बहुत ऊँचे हों और उनका प्रेम निचले तल का हो जाए। ये संभव नहीं है।

“माँसाहार गरीबों के लिए वरदान है क्योंकि माँसाहार के माध्यम से गरीबों को सस्ता प्रोटीन मिल जाता है।“ १ ग्राम प्रोटीन अगर आप मटन से लेते हैं तो लगते हैं ३ रुपये। उतना ही प्रोटीन, १ ग्राम, अगर आप अंडे से लेते हैं तो लगते हैं १ रुपय ३० पैसे, उतना ही प्रोटीन, १ ग्राम, अगर आप चिकन से लेते हैं तो लगता हैं १ रुपया।