u/SpeakerFamiliar2047

It’s too common that we say or hear things like, “it was God’s will.” Or “Whatever happened, God wanted it.” It sounds very comforting because it frees us from responsibility.

But imagine, God gave everyone the same canvas, the same colours and the same brush. One person paints something beautiful. Another paints something miserable. Can the second person blame the canvas? The canvas didn’t choose the painting, the painter chose.

Vedanta says the bondage didn’t lie in our circumstances; it lies in our unconscious choices. We don’t choose where we are born or who will be our parents or how our childhood will be.
But we are choosing everyday whether to continue living from conditioning or from awareness. This is where Viveka becomes important.

In Gita, Krishna didn’t fight the battle for Arjuna. He gave him knowledge and then says:

“यथेच्छस**ि त*था कुरु” (Bhagavad Gita* 18.63)

“Reflect deeply upon it and act as you wish”

This is extraordinary. Even God didn’t take away Arjuna’s freedom. He illuminated it.

Then why are we surrendering our responsibilities to destiny? Acharya Prashant often emphasises on becoming conscious enough that our choices are no longer dictated by fear, greed, social conditioning or the ego. And then in this video asking,

What are you doing with the freedom that has already been given to you? Or do you still blame God or destiny?

Earth bowl with 3/4 cup barley on the bottom, topped with sweet potato, kale, mushroom, bell pepper, onion, garlic, black beans, air-fried tofu, and a drizzle of green tobacco sauce. (Forgot the sprouts, but I’ll add them tomorrow). 2nd picture is the bowl all mixed up for eating.

I along with a few other students of Acharya Prashant gathered in Frankfurt, Germany to increase awareness about climate change. On Sunday, we gathered in the Grüneburg park with a set of questions that starts with urgency of the Climate change and gradually move towards root cause of the issue.

Then we walked around trying to ask people these objective questions and depending on their interest we would engage in deeper discussions.

The survey set 5 was on Global Crisis, Governance & Coping Mechanisms.

People acknowledged that their consumption pattern is not necessarily linked to their well-being and they wish to reduce their behavior of coping via consumption. There were mixed opinions about what can be done about climate change. There were opinions that it is too late to address the harm that has been and is being inflicted on the planet as well as opinions that wield agency in response to the present situation which involves taking action starting from changing lifestyle to drive systemic changes.

The cynical point of view is scientifically not accurate. There is still a lot that can be done to mitigate the impact of climate change and take corrective measures. Indeed, climate models demonstrate that aggressively peaking and reducing global greenhouse gas emissions can prevent temperatures from crossing the critical 1.5 deg C warming threshold, avoiding the most catastrophic tipping points. However, this requires radical changes in individual lifestyle choices which are no doubt difficult but nonetheless possible.

For me it was great learning experience on both how to approach strangers respectfully to participate in our activity as well as gaining perspectives from people from entirely different culture.

What is your opinion about using objects to cope with emotions? How can we be more aware about our consumption patterns?

Where do you think lies the solution to the climate problem as well as broader ecological threat we are facing today?

Acharya Prashant asks this uncomfortable question.

The answer isn’t that lions taste bad. It’s that they’re powerful. We mostly eat animals that are weaker than us, easier to control, breed, and exploit.

Let’s look at the numbers. Humans are only a fraction of the biomass, yet we’ve turned billions of cows, chickens, pigs, and goats into factory-produced commodities because they serve our desires. At the same time, wild animals continue to disappear because they don’t.

It’s unsettling to ask, but is compassion really our guiding principle? Or are greed and power? If tomorrow lion meat were as easy, cheap, and profitable as chicken, would our morality suddenly change?

Acharya Prashant ends with something even more important: If you don’t see better choices, create them. Every major change in history began with someone refusing to accept “this is just how the world works.”

What do you guys think about it ?

This was a question in yesterday's Gita Exam conducted by Acharya Prashant.

The simple example demonstrates how we term our climate related actions as solutions while the problem is left unattended completely. In this case, the facts are pretty clear, as described in option B. Studies show very small percentages of saplings actually surviving to become full grown trees (~5%). And even when they grow into trees, it's a process of decades. Meanwhile, the swathes of forests we cut down is something happening right now.

Option E goes deeper than just the example in the question. It's pointing towards the root of the problem. The ego, i.e., the sense of "I am", is always accompanied by an object that it identifies with. So in this example, "I am an environmental helper" or "I am a developer" are both different expressions of the same ego. And as long as this identification remains unexamined, no real progress can occur. The examination requires honest inquiry and ruthlessness towards biases and beliefs, as is the way of science.

For a long time, empowerment meant education and financial independence to me. I studied, built a career, moved countries, earned my own money. On paper, I had everything that should make a woman “empowered”.

Yet I still found myself seeking approval, struggling to say no, feeling guilty for choosing myself, and constantly needing an emotional support. Yet I couldn’t distinguish between external freedom and internal freedom.

Acharya Prashant introduced me to spirituality and Vedanta, and for the first time I started questioning not the world, but my own conditioning. Even in my late 20s while living abroad alone, I used to hide or lie to my parents and elder brother about very small small things. I never asked myself, Why did I need someone’s approval? Why did guilt feel so natural? Why did I measure my worth through other’s expectations? Why am I just a spectator of my own life?

I haven’t become fearless overnight but I no longer mistake compliance for love or sacrifice for strength. To me, that’s what spirituality has done. It hasn’t taken me away from life rather it has helped me participate in life with a little more clarity and a little less fear.

As Acharya Ji says, education can give us degrees, careers, and opportunities. But only self-knowledge can give us inner freedom. As a woman, I’ve found that to be the most empowering education of all.

3 years back, when I first came across Acharya ji, AP Shakti YouTube channel was the first channel which made me pause and then I kept listening continuously for hours and hours, videos after videos. It was like, first time someone was telling something, which I didn’t even dare to tell myself. Thank you Acharya ji 🙏

The impact of exploiting animals for our needs is not limited to them; it actually impacts us too.

It transforms the person who participates in the exploitation.

To consume animal products without being disturbed, our minds first have to become insensitive to an animal's fear, pain, and suffering. And sensitivity cannot be switched on and off at will. The same mind that learns to overlook one form of suffering gradually becomes less sensitive to other forms too, including its own.

That is why veganism is not just about refusing to exploit animals. It is about protecting the quality of our own consciousness.

Every action either sharpens our perception or dulls it. Participating in violence, even when it is hidden behind packaging, advertisements, and supply chains, slowly desensitizes us from within.

When we choose veganism, we are not merely refusing to harm another living being. We are refusing to let our own sensitivity, awareness, and intelligence grow numb.

This is one of the quotes which literally forced me to reconsider my approach towards life.

“If most of your waking time is spent in pursuit of physical sustenance or physical pleasure, then you are just surviving.”

At first, I felt resistance inside me. After all, we have jobs to earn a living, food to cook, bills to pay, bodies to care for. Isn’t that life? But then I looked at my own day.

Wake up.
Think about breakfast.
Work for money.
Think about lunch.
Exercise to keep the body fit.
Scroll for entertainment.
Plan the next vacation.
Have dinner while again binge watching something.
Sleep.

Repeat.

None of these things are wrong. But if almost my entire day revolves around feeding, entertaining, protecting or decorating the body, then what distinguishes my life from any other organism trying to survive?

The uncomfortable question isn’t whether I have responsibilities. It’s whether my life has any center beyond the body.

Is there any time left for understanding myself? For questioning my conditioning? For discovering what is true instead of merely what is comfortable?

Yes, survival is necessary. But if survival becomes the whole purpose of life, have I unknowingly reduced myself to the level of instinct?

Do you think modern life leaves enough space for inner growth, or have we become too busy surviving to ask why we’re alive in the first place?

The Berlin 3 AM walk has reignited the debate on women's safety in India. But perhaps we're asking the wrong question.

The issue isn't just policing or street lighting. They only address the symptoms, not the cause.

The deeper question worth sitting with is what that entitlement is actually made of. A man who feels his identity depends on control, obedience, or possession of a woman will feel threatened the moment she has a will of her own, where she goes, who she sees, what she says. Safety, for women anywhere, tracks very precisely with how much men's sense of self depends on controlling them. India isn't an exception to human nature, it's a place where a lot of old ideas about ownership of women still sit unexamined in ordinary homes.

As Acharya Prashant Ji says " Violence begins at homes " . A husband beating his wife. A father asking dowry for his son. A father giving dowry for his daughter. The violence is coming from the same center just scaled up. The public unsafety is the same root, just without walls around it.

Maybe it's high time we start looking at the root of the disease instead of its symptoms.

Yuval Noah Harari recently said that human beings are intelligent enough to build nuclear weapons and AI, yet often too foolish to use them wisely.
That made me wonder… maybe the real problem isn’t technology. It’s the doer who has created & using it..

We’ve spent centuries trying to understand atoms, galaxies, genetics, and now artificial intelligence.

But Acharya Prashant asks how much effort have we put into understanding the one thing using all these tools: ourselves?

He often points out that self-knowledge isn’t some mystical luxury. It’s a practical necessity. If I don’t understand my own fear, greed, ambition, insecurity, or craving for power, then every new technology simply amplifies those same tendencies. An ignorant mind with advanced technology doesn’t become wiser. It becomes more dangerous.

I think the biggest risk isn’t AI becoming smarter than humans. It’s humans remaining strangers to themselves while building increasingly powerful machines.

The question isn’t, Can we control AI? but, Can we first understand our mind that’s creating it?

Here’s some memories from London.

“Khalak Sab Rain Ka Sapna” - Sant Kabir Saheb | London Sangat Session

What a beautiful reminder from Sant Kabir Saheb : this entire world is like a dream of the night. The people, possessions, victories, defeats, and identities we cling to are all fleeting. Sant Kabir Saheb calls us to awaken to that which is real and everlasting.

This video was recorded during our time in London, where friends from Canada and Germany came together after attending the enlightening sessions of Acharya Ji. Brought together by a shared love for Truth and Saint’s wisdom, we spent time singing, reflecting, and simply enjoying each other’s company.

The setting couldn’t have been more vibrant, a colourful park filled with life, while BMX riders performed incredible flips in the background.

May these songs inspire us to look beyond the passing dream and seek the Truth Kabir Saheb points towards.

Recorded in London, UK
With friends from Canada and German
In gratitude to Sant Kabir Saheb, Baba Bulleh Shah, and Acharya Prashant

Full video 👇

https://youtu.be/YHkJ1rpGclY?si=GFT31GUNofw\_P6BV

Posted by Dasmeet on Acharya Prashant App.