u/Mukesh_Rathor

Today, I was just taking a break and opened YouTube. This was the first video I came across, and it made me smile at first.

In the middle of heavy rain, some stray dogs were taking shelter under an elephant’s huge body. The elephant just stood there, letting these little beings stay close to him.

But then I noticed the chain around his leg.

It made me sad to think that this huge animal, offering shelter to others, might not even be free himself. Perhaps he is used for carrying heavy loads or for tourist attractions like elephant rides.

We humans often think we are superior to animals. But are we really? Do we even deserve to call ourselves the most evolved species?

The elephant didn’t have to be kind to those dogs, yet there it was, sharing its space with them. And we, despite understanding freedom and suffering, often take freedom away from other beings.

Just because we have a developed prefrontal cortex and the freedom to choose, is this really what we choose to do?

As Acharya Prashant teaches us, our ego makes us see everything through me and mine. We start believing that everything exists for our comfort and use, forgetting that other beings have their own lives and deserve freedom too.

As Acharya Prashant says, Even animals do not like slavery.

Maybe it’s time we question our ego and stop confusing our power to control other beings with the right to own them.

Let’s not just feel sad when we see animals suffer. Let’s make choices that respect their freedom. Maybe true compassion begins when our need to control ends.

~Posted by Gita student.

These are some of the most beautiful mountains and glaciers I’ve ever laid eyes on. Not only that, but the diversity of landscapes and wildlife make it a uniquely beautiful region. I can’t wait to come back here and explore even more 🙏

Locations: 📍 Chilean Fjords (Straight of Magellan to Cape Horn)

📍 El Chaltén, Argentina

📍 Torres Del Paine, Chile

#argentina #patagonia #nature #cinematic #chile

Outdoors | Travel | Adventure | Hiking | Camping | Summer

Hello Everyone,

I want to share my reflection on my life and the changes it has brought.

When I made the decision to move to Europe, I was going through a very difficult phase, both financially and mentally.

The relationship I was in had broken down, and I simply could not make sense of anything at the time. I felt that moving away from home and out of India altogether would bring me some peace.

I used to do art, but under so much mental pressure, I could not create anything. My father felt that even after giving me so much education, his daughter wanted to pursue something with such low earnings. He thought I was good for nothing and that I should just get married.

That was when I made up my mind to leave home. I came across Acharya Prashant after all this, when I had already been in Europe for around a year and a half.

So many things started making sense. Even today, I get emotional thinking about how much has changed. My perspective shifted profoundly. I used to believe that one always needs someone in life, but listening to Acharya Prashant helped me understand that this is not true.

Acharya Prashant changed so much, yet I had held myself back. I never felt like doing art again. I felt pain whenever I tried creating art, and I began to believe that maybe there really was nothing to it.

Acharya Prashant revived my love for art. Listening to him made me realize that my disappointment with art was merely the result of external conditioning. Constantly seeing contempt for my art at home had made me believe that it truly had no future.

Bit by bit, I have started sketching again. I love it deeply.

Today, I am sharing a sketch that I started making again because of Acharya Prashant.

Perhaps it may not be a big deal, but I want to pursue it even more now. I live alone in Europe, I work, and after work, I spend some time on art.

Still, I feel there is so much left to do, and time is limited.

I will share more observations.

~ Posted by a Gita student.

🏫 When School Closed, Childhood Began to Slip Away

​🎒 Why does a child go to school? To learn, to understand, and to discover their world. But what happens when that very place gets caught in the grip of violence?

​🇾🇪 Recent conflict in Yemen has directly struck children’s education. Munir Fari, a 13-year-old displaced from Taiz, once dreamed of becoming a teacher. Now, instead of attending class, he sells goods in the market alongside his brother just to help his family get by.

​🏫 Musab Ibn Umayr School in Taiz also shut down after a missile struck nearby, disrupting the education of more than 600 students. The school’s principal fears that staying away from classrooms for too long will push these children straight into child labor.

​📊 This is not an isolated story. According to UNICEF, 243 schools were forced to close or suspend classes during the recent surge in violence, impacting over 137,000 students. In that same two-week span, more than 104,000 people were displaced.

​🔍 A child does not go to school merely to read textbooks. They go to make sense of the world, learn to ask questions, and build independent thought.

​🪞 The question, therefore, is not just why a school closed down. The real question is what kind of conditions and systems allow spaces built for learning, understanding, and questioning to remain unprotected from violence?

​📖 Ego is deeply unsettled by challenges to its power and beliefs. Where asking questions is treated as defiance, education and independent thinking begin to look like threats. That is why behind disrupted schooling lies a mindset that refuses to leave room for the freedom to learn, understand, and question.

​Yet this issue goes far beyond Yemen. Do we allow space for the freedom to question in our own everyday lives? When someone challenges our beliefs, do we genuinely try to understand them—or do we try to silence the question itself?

​❓ Do we truly seek knowledge, or do we only want to hear what confirms what we already believe?

​🌐 Sources

​The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/28/yemen-fighting-houthis-families-flee-displacement

​UNICEF — “Renewed hostilities in Yemen push over 12 million children deeper into crisis”

https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/renewed-hostilities-yemen-push-over-12-million-children-deeper-crisis

Imagine that you see the world around you. There are people, trees, houses, sounds. But how do you know that all of these actually exist in the same way they appear to you?

Solipsism is a philosophical position concerning the limits of what we can know beyond our own experience. In its epistemological form, it asks whether anything outside one’s own mind can be known with certainty. In its stronger metaphysical form, it claims that only one’s own mind exists.

In everyday terms, we do not experience an object directly; we experience it through sensory signals processed by the brain. Signals received by the eyes reach the brain, and the brain helps construct our experience of the world. In other words, the brain plays an active role in how we experience reality.

From here arises a difficult question: if I cannot prove anything outside my own experience with complete certainty, how certain can I be about other people, the external world, or anything beyond my immediate experience?

This does not prove that the external world is unreal. It asks whether we can know it with absolute certainty.

A related doubt appears in Descartes’ philosophy, though Descartes was not a solipsist. He tried to doubt everything that could possibly be doubted. In that process, one thing seemed certain to him: in order to doubt, thinking must be occurring. From this came his famous statement, “I think, therefore I am.”

This established the certainty of one’s own thinking existence; it did not, by itself, prove that nothing else exists.

But here we can also see a subtle grip of ego. What begins as “only I am certain” can gradually become “whatever I know is what is real for me.” Even doubt can turn in such a way that the entire world once again begins to revolve around the sense of “I am.”

More than offering a conclusion, reflecting on solipsism gives us an opportunity to see how easily we treat our certainty as final. The world we consider so clear and real, through what mediums is our knowledge of it ultimately being constructed?

If everything is known to me only through my experience, do I ever observe where the limits of my certainty lie?

Sources

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Solipsism and the Problem of Other Minds

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Yogācāra, for a concise discussion of solipsism and other minds

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Descartes’ Epistemology

After listening to this session, I have come to understand 'financial freedom'.

It is not about fulfilling one's desires, but rather about letting go of them. We are not free because of our desires, we are kept in a cage by those who fulfill them. We can earn money to meet our needs, but needs and desires are two different things, needs are natural, whereas desires are rooted in the ego.

We are not free not because we are incapable of earning... No

Even someone who possesses thousands of crores of rupees is not financially free, because their desires are excessive.

Therefore, financial freedom does not mean not having money, financial freedom means being free from your desires.

Being financially independent is a wonderful thing, but we often misunderstand its true meaning.

Freedom in life is far more important, and the solution is incredibly simple, yet we fail to see it. It is simply a matter of letting go... just letting go.

If your mind is free from ego-driven desires, no one will be able to keep you in a cage.

Feel the untamed power of nature at Rewa’s spectacular Chachai Waterfall! Cascading from a height of over 130 metres into the gorge below, the waterfall comes alive during the monsoon, transforming into a breathtaking spectacle of rushing water and mist. Add Chachai Waterfall to your Madhya Pradesh monsoon bucket list and witness nature at its most magnificent! Video credits: @rewa__se__satna #ChachaiWaterfal