**🦁 A Lion Has No Choice. You Do. That Changes Everything.**

One day, while I was out for a walk with a friend who eats meat, she asked me a thought-provoking question:

*"Why do you think not being vegan is wrong? A lion hunts a deer. Violence exists throughout the food chain. So why is it any different when a human being participates in it?"*

It was a question I had reflected upon after listening to Acharya Prashant, and his explanation completely transformed my understanding.

The difference lies in **choice**.

A lion is biologically incapable of choosing to eat grass. Its body, instincts, and survival mechanisms determine its behavior. It acts according to its biological programming. In that sense, the lion is innocent. It does only what nature has equipped it to do.

Where there is no freedom to choose, the idea of violence becomes meaningless.

Violence begins only when there is a choice.

Human beings are fundamentally different. We possess intelligence, awareness, and the capacity to consciously decide our actions. Unlike other animals, we can question our instincts, examine our desires, and choose compassion over cruelty.

That is why only a human being can truly be violent or truly be nonviolent.

When we knowingly choose an action that causes unnecessary suffering despite having a better alternative, we become responsible for that choice. And that responsibility is what distinguishes us from other animals.

**Ahimsa (nonviolence)** is not merely about avoiding physical harm. It is the conscious resolve to make the right choice whenever a choice is available. It is an expression of awareness, compassion, and responsibility.

A life guided by right choices is a life of nonviolence. And a life rooted in nonviolence is a life lived in alignment with truth.

**Here is a question for every reader:**

**If nature has given us the freedom to choose compassion over violence, what justifies choosing the violence when it is no longer necessary?**

This is a Zen Koan with deep meaning hidden underneath.

My learning from Acharya Prashant's session on Zen Koans:

The first thing that I realised was when he explained the whole concept of the Koans, which is to deliver a shock to pre-existing notions in a way that the receiver would awaken from a situation they were stuck in (due to an unexamined belief).

Something that is so subtle in meaning but can be perceived in a completely distorted manner at the gross and literal level. And the result of this is that the Koan becomes useless to one's life.

The clear point I learned in the session was about having images or ideas of the Buddha (also applicable to Atma/Shiv/Truth). As long as it is in the realm of perception, either in a physical or mental form, it is a formation of the ego, and hence, the image will fail to be of much use. A long and structured explanation so succinctly put in a simple line "If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha". The Buddha isn't an image to be constructed to adhere to. The point is for the ego to see itself as the collection of false identities that it is, and hence anything that it can concoct as its perception is by default also a falsehood.

The "kill" is not a physical act, but rather the killing of the mental image that we have created. This is also a powerful tool that we have to tackle the easy manipulation that the so-called "Babas" perform. They adopt certain behaviour patterns to appear in a way that gives them credence. And this appearance should itself be a clear sign to reject their manipulation.

So a truly religious person would never fall for an appearance, or any belief that can be used to control them.

On July 3, a special dialogue was held between Acharya Ji and Mimi Bekhechi, President of the world's largest animal rights organisation, the PETA Foundation. The discussion, held at PETA's London office, was attended in-person by a large audience and it explored the deep relationship between animal rights, climate change, and human consciousness.

The event formed an important part of Acharya Ji's historic UK tour, through which he is taking the wisdom of Indian philosophy and Vedanta to globally renowned platforms, including the Cambridge Union, the University of Oxford, the House of Lords in the UK Parliament, the London School of Economics, and London Climate Action Week.

During the dialogue, Acharya Ji said that compassion is not something that needs to be taught; it is the natural state of a human being. What is required is not the teaching of compassion, but the recognition and removal of violence. He explained that the root cause of violence against animals is the human ego, social conditioning, and humanity's own inner insecurity.

He added that unless we understand our own ego and inner violence, neither animal exploitation nor the environmental crisis will come to an end, nor will genuine compassion emerge in society. Acharya Ji further emphasised that the courage to reject violence- even when it is endorsed by history, tradition, and society- is the true essence of spirituality.

🎥 The full video of this dialogue will be shared with you soon.

Throughout his sessions, Acharyaji constantly emphasizes the significance of learning. He teaches that learning should be an ongoing pursuit for as long as we live, or at least as long as our bodies are capable of learning. Till the time our eyes, ears, hands etc. work, we should constantly be striving to read, write, travel, sing, dance, paint, explore new skills and new areas of knowledge, new facets of life. Keep learning.

Today I was listening to this song - "Madari" by Coke Studio. It reminded me of the time I had first heard the song and I went into nostalgia mode.

That was a time, I had been assigned to a new project at work. I am a software engineer and the project was based on an entirely new technology, way out of my comfort zone.

It was quite scary at first as I wasn't familiar with most of the jargon being used in team meetings, emails, project related conversations etc.

I had to put in extra work hours, which were mostly unpaid hours, to learn the new stuff. I had to search for tutorials, go through training material and keep struggling, practicing, while delivering small pieces of work. The song kept playing on repeat mode in the background, especially in the early morning, and it gave me the adrenaline boost I needed to get through my work day.

Thankfully some workaholic team members were around to help me with my questions and walk me through basic concepts. So, I wasn't entirely alone.

3 years later, I remember it as the hardest but best project of my career. I felt really sad when the project ended.

The 'constant learning', stretching of my capabilities and stamina every day gave me the best of feelings one can experience - 'a deep sense of accomplishment'.

Even with an exhausted body and mind, delayed food and water intake, less sleeping hours, losing touch with people due to lack of time, I was still completely fulfilled and satisfied with that phase of my life.

The best part was that I had no time to think or worry about the usual meaningless stuff that occupies my life - marriage conflicts, extended family drama, politics, jealousy, competition with others over trivial things. I was always 'busy' trying to learn and be better than I was the previous day.

The project was not something I had chosen myself at the time. It just happened as part of work and I was supposed to deliver results as a mandatory work duty.

But that experience makes me really understand what Acharyaji means when he says that 'learning' is the goal of life, and the best thing we can do with our limited time on this planet.

The recent incident from a corporate daycare in Bengaluru is heartbreaking.

Children as young as 2 to 5 years old were reportedly locked inside washing machines, shut inside bathrooms, and even had water sprayed into their mouths to stop them from crying.

It made me think about how I used to respond when my own child cried, and how much that changed after I started listening to Acharya Ji. Instead of reacting to my child's crying, I started observing myself.

One thing I learned is that young children don't yet understand all their feelings, and they don't have the words to explain them. Crying is often the easiest way they know to ask for help.

There are two ways to deal with children. One is to simply react. The child cries, we get irritated, and we try to stop the crying. That comes naturally and needs no self-reflection.

The other way is to ask, "What is it within me that is getting disturbed by this crying?" and "What is this child trying to tell me?" That takes honesty. It means looking at ourselves.

Acharya Ji calls this having a mirror to see ourselves. Without that mirror, we act only from our habits and instincts. With it, our response becomes more thoughtful and more humane.

To me, the Bengaluru incident is not just a failure of childcare. It is a failure to understand ourselves. Those workers had power over helpless children. The crying child stopped being a child in their eyes and became a problem that had to be silenced. That is what the ordinary ego does. It does not see another human being. It only sees its own discomfort and wants to get rid of it.

Violence does not always begin with hatred. It usually begins with our inability to understand our own irritation, frustration, or discomfort.

Acharya Ji's teachings have helped me become not just a more patient parent, but a more aware human being. The key is to hold the mirror and look at ourselves honestly.

Real childcare begins not by controlling children, but by understanding ourselves first.

During the days I spent in London, every moment in your presence gave me something so precious that I simply don't have the words to describe it. At the same time, I could clearly see the smallness within myself.
Whenever I'm with you, there's a constant longing in my heart to spend just a little more time in your company. And on the other hand, there is your selfless love a love that doesn't even care for the body's own limitations, a love that keeps showering compassion and affection on all of us without pause.
On one side is my longing. On the other is the immeasurable height of your love.

Yesterday's session on the Isha Upanishad was organized especially for those of us who were leaving London. Despite your ill health, you personally made sure everything was arranged and looked after us yourself.
Acharya Ji, who are we?
We aren't even able to give ourselves completely to you.
Yet you never leave even the slightest room for holding back when it comes to giving to us.
We keep talking about our little discomforts, while you despite carrying burdens and real physical suffering yourself and never miss an opportunity to shower us with love.
Acharya Ji, you are only two or three years older than my own son. But had I never met you, I would have spent my entire life trapped by my own ego, never seeing my shortcomings, my foolishness, or the chains that bound me.

I was 63 years old when I met you. Slowly, my life began to change. I found a completely new way of living. It truly felt as though I had been born again.
Acharya Ji, you have given me a new birth.
You have given my life a new purpose.
You showed me the path out of the foul garbage of my past and helped me discover a life worth living.
Everyone in my family(my husband, my son, and my daughter-in-law) went to Bangkok for a wedding in our own family. But I was able to say no with complete clarity and choose to come to London instead. It is your guidance that has given me the ability to see what truly matters.

There is another grand wedding celebration in Chennai on the 18th. My husband objected to my going to Delhi. He said, "Fine, you didn't attend the wedding, but at least be there for the party."

I gently but firmly refused because I want to attend the Weekend with Master in Delhi.
I also asked him, "Have you ever come to be part of the moments that truly matter to me?"
He was silent, no words.

Today, I am leaving London and going back to India.
So many sessions are still left, and yet I have to go.
My heart is heavy.
My endless gratitude to you, Acharya Ji.

Posted by Shashi Bhaiya, student of Gita Community.

This book by Acharya Prashant is a compilation of his honest insights on meat-consumption, its impacts, and critique of the human tendency to recklessly consume, dominate, proliferate; leading to the destruction of mankind. Acharya Prashant justly highlights and reinforces spirituality as the real solution to the global crisis in the light of ancient wisdom. The fundamental problem is the darkness of human mind. And only spiritual wisdom can heal it.

Acharya Prashant explicitly rejects the idea that eating animals is the same as eating plants. He argues that we must consume that which causes the minimum damage to consciousness.He says that this argument is often just an excuse used by meat-eaters. From an ecological standpoint, raising animals for meat requires far more plant-based agriculture (to feed the livestock) than a purely plant-based diet, making a meat-eater responsible for exponentially more plant and animal deaths.

Treating the consumption of fruits and vegetables and animals as equivalent ignores the pain and longing for freedom that animals experience.He concludes that while some may seek loopholes or excuses to continue eating meat, those who are honestly seeking truth will recognize the necessity of empathy and non-violence.

Just like a rapists takes sexual pleasure in dead women's body.

A non-vegan too takes gustatory pleasure in dead bodies of animals.

Both of them are rapists.

Acharya Prashant cuts through the usual tech optimism and tech panic to ask something far more uncomfortable. He hands us a mirror and asks us to look closely. We have built machines that can think faster than us, navigate better than us, and even decide for us. Yet inside, we are still the same creatures who, only fifty thousand years ago, were eating leaves and chasing small animals with crude tools. That raw, impulsive mind now holds intercontinental missiles and artificial intelligence. We have outsourced our memory to search engines, our direction to GPS, and now our very thinking to algorithms. We have not become wiser or more grounded. We have simply become more powerful. And that power, without inner maturity, is turning against us. We see it in the climate collapsing, in species vanishing, in oceans poisoning. We see it in our own shrinking attention spans and our inability to sit still or think deeply. We are heirs to a fortune we never earned, surrounded by comforts that emperors once envied, yet inwardly we are shrinking. The external dazzle blinds us to the internal emptiness. And that is the great deception of our age.

So what is the way out? Acharya Prashant does not ask us to throw away our phones or reject progress. That would be foolish and impractical. What he asks is far harder. He asks us to grow up on the inside, to match our outer power with inner clarity. We must reclaim our capacity to choose, to discern, to pause. That ability, which he calls Vivek, cannot be downloaded or outsourced. No machine can love for us, understand for us, or live life on our behalf. If we stop exercising our own judgment, we become like stones, moved by whatever force pushes us next. Technology reflects who we are. If we are confused, biased, or restless, our machines will amplify that. If we are clear and conscious, technology becomes a loyal servant. The choice has always been ours. We can either hand over our freedom and become passive consumers of our own creations, or we can step up, do the inner work, and deserve the inheritance we have received. Without that elevation, we are no different from the stone. With it, technology becomes not our master, but our means of genuine liberation.

What do you think? Are we truly growing on the inside or just getting better at hiding our emptiness behind brighter screens? Have you ever caught yourself outsourcing a simple decision to an algorithm without even realising it? And most importantly, if inner growth cannot be automated, what are we actually doing every day to deserve the power we now hold in our hands? Drop your thoughts below. ⬇️⬇️

(Article originally published in The Sunday
Guardian on 2 Nov 2025.)

On July 2, Acharya Prashant's public session in Central London witnessed yet another extraordinary turnout. The auditorium was filled to capacity even before the session began, while over 1 lakh people joined online. In this memorable discourse on the Bhagavad Gita, Acharya Prashant explained that the purpose of spirituality is not to evaluate scriptures, history, or personalities, but to know oneself. The session was part of his UK tour, during which he has already addressed distinguished audiences including Members of Parliament, as well as students, researchers, and faculty, at prestigious institutions such as the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, and the House of Lords in the British Parliament.

During the session, Acharya Prashant also emphasised that while the mind is always eager to judge the world, it avoids looking at itself, even though genuine transformation begins with self-inquiry. He said that truth is not a matter of belief or religion but of self-knowledge, which is why the Bhagavad Gita remains profoundly relevant to human life even today. Earlier, as part of London Climate Action Week 2026, Acharya Prashant participated in several dialogues, including a landmark conversation with renowned animal consciousness expert Professor Jonathan Birch. This public gathering marked yet another significant milestone in the tour, carrying the timeless Indian message of self-knowledge to global audiences.

Videos from the session will be released soon.

In a recent video, a reporter was chasing a top official from a social media company, trying to ask one uncomfortable question:

Why is the platform allowing ads related to child sexual abuse?

The executive avoided the question.

Companies absolutely deserve to be held accountable. No one should profit from something so harmful.

But rather an important question to ask:

Why is there a market for such content in the first place?

Every market exists because there is demand. If such content is being promoted, it is because there are consumers. So the real question is not just, "Why is the company doing this?" It is also, "What is there within us that wants to consume such things?"

Acharya Ji often says that unless we understand ourselves (the ego) and the emptiness that keeps making us seek fulfillment outside ourselves, this demand will continue, and someone will always be ready to supply it.

The same applies to the executive. He may be chasing profits, promotions, or shareholder value. But underneath it all is the same ego, always seeking more success, more recognition, and more power.

Yes, these platforms must be questioned. But if we stop there, we are only treating the symptoms.

Real change begins when we question ourselves. Change the consumer, and the market changes. As Acharya Ji often reminds us, the ego has to be understood. Unless we address that, we will keep fighting the symptoms while the root cause remains untouched.

"Behind each desire you will find only one desire: the desire to be free." – Acharya Prashant

✨Verse 3
असूर्या नाम ते लोका अन्धेन तमसावृताः।
तांस्ते प्रेत्याभिगच्छन्ति ये के चात्महनो जनाः ॥3॥
——————————————————————————————
▫️Transliteration:
असूर्याः = Asūrya (sunless); नाम = by the name; ते = those; लोकाः = worlds; अन्धेन = darkness; तमसा = Tamāṣ; आवृताः = covered; ये के च = whoever; जनाः = people; आत्महनः = self-slayers; ते = they; प्रेत्य = after dying; तान् = those; अभिगच्छन्ति = attain to.
——————————————————————————————

▫️Translation:
Those worlds, by the name ‘Asūrya’ (sunless), are covered by darkness (Tamāṣ). Those who are self-slayers, attain to those worlds after death.
——————————————————————————————

📖✍️ Notes(4/07/2026):
——————————————————————————————

In today’s Vedanta Samhita session, Acharya Ji beautifully described the essence of the above verse pointing towards a rare acknowledgement of the ego ~ ‘self slaying’ which inspite of being a common inner phenomenon is very rare to acknowledge by it when the ego lacks intent.

▪️ What is self slaying?
~ The act of slaying the self(ego) where the ego is involved in its own destruction.
~ ‘आत्म’ in the word ‘आत्महनः’ in the above shloka doesn’t refer to ‘आत्मा’ which means ‘that which is never born and hence never going to die.’
~ ‘आत्म’ here refers to the ‘ego’ and this same ego is available to be slayed in the the process of self slaying ie., the one who is available to death.
~ Hence, self slaying is actually the process where the ego is slaying its own opportunity to turn alive.
~ Slaying here refers to self destruction.

▪️ What is death?
~ आत्महनः - the process of self slaying here refers to the real process death.
~ Who is dying? - The Ego is the one who dies in this process. The body doesn’t die, nor does the body took any birth.
~ The ego dies and returns every moment. It’s like, there is no final ‘death’ to the ego until the body stays in a particular configuration.
~ The material body never dies.. its constituents remain as it is in the nature. It just looses a particular configuration once the physical structure is physically dismantled. Once this ‘particular configuration’ of the body is gone, only then the ego permanently dies.
~ As long as the body remains, there is no final death to the ego. Until the body stays in that particular configuration, the ego keeps coming back even after dying multiple times.

▪️There is no final Enlightenment!
~ That’s why ‘constant attention’ is needed as there is nothing called ‘Final Enlightenment’.
~ Just as dirt & dust returns to the surface of the body, the ego will also return and hence just like you need to constantly wipe your body to wipe off that dust, similarly ego also needs to be ‘dissolved’ every moment to wipe off its own self destruction. There is no final wiping off until the physical configuration of the body is not gone.
~ The dissolution/reduction of the body is never a final certificate.

▪️ The Choice..
~ If you perceive the ego as a vertical range having two ends, the lowest end is ‘Death’ and the highest end is ‘Life’.
~ The ego itself will ‘choose’ where it will place itself in the range.
~ The highest point of the range ie., ‘Life’ will comprise of choices like ‘self dissolution’, ‘love’, ‘responsibility’, ‘freedom(liberation)’, ‘infinite potential’, etc..
~ The lowest point of the range ie., ‘Death’ will comprise of choices like ‘self preservation’, ‘security’, ‘comfort’, ‘duty’, ‘bondage(identification)’, ‘scripted performance’, etc..
~ The ‘Saints’ has to work continuously to dissolve the ego towards ‘Life’.
~ The ‘Slayers’ has to work continuously to slay towards ‘Death’.

▪️Asurya - The Sunless
~ The act of slaying the self will repeatedly make you enter into a dark world - Asurya ie., the world of darkness.
~ The world of darkness is like a world where the light of the sun is covered with a haze of ignorance.
~ In this dark world, the ego will die again and again without ever dying fully.

▪️How to make the Right Choice?
~ Relieve yourself from previously made bad choices.
~ Every bad choice will sum up to a negative infinite along with it. Even though it may appear on the surface level that your are choosing ‘few positive points’ while choosing the bad choice, but the net sum will be anyways ‘negative’ because you will be ignoring the big ‘negative infinite’ already adding up to that choice.

——————————————————————————————

👉 What is a right choice according to you? Why do you think the ego keeps on choosing the dark world? How would it be possible for the ego to come out of this dark world?

I got a boy cut haircut and posted a photo of it on my WhatsApp status. Immediately afterward, 12 members of my in-laws' family saw it and called my husband to object. They asked him if I had "become Kiran Bedi."
Then my husband called me and asked what I was doing. He told me to remove the photo immediately because he was receiving continuous calls. The real purpose of those calls was to tell him to keep his wife under control, use his authority, and not let her live life on her own terms.
But I'm glad this happened because it showed me the true nature of my family. It made it clear how much they wanted to control me and how uncomfortable they were with me living on my own terms. They are conservative people who neither understand the true meaning of freedom nor respect another person's independence.
Earlier, I believed that living within restrictions was good for me and represented my growth, and I wore nothing except saris or salwar suits. But after listening to Acharya Ji's discourses, I experienced a positive change. Today, I confidently wear T-shirts and pants and express my thoughts freely.

Posted by Rupali Kumari, student of Gita Community.

Link to article https://x.com/i/status/2073369508203712601

A very enlightening article I read today by Acharya Prashant ji on how developed nations continue to gaslight developing nations in the global south in the name of clean energy. Please do give it a read...

While an evening walk in the Richmond Park, he observed deers and rabbits running around, seemingly in harmony with nature. Later he learned of an unsettling fact, those very deers were never part of that land, they were brought for a specific purpose, their population in the park, is "maintained" today by a very specific means.

Acharya Prashant ji describes how the clean appearances in our day to day lives very conveniently hide the dirty facts behind them.

Some eye opening statistics to focus on (excerpts from the article) :

"The global average for per-capita carbon emissions stands at roughly 4.9 tonnes a year. Saudi Arabia sits near 22.8 tonnes, Australia at 22.3, Canada at 19.8, Russia at 18, the United States at 17.3.

These five occupy a band between three and a half and nearly five times the world average, and most of them built their prosperity directly on the oil and gas whose burning manufactured this crisis, which means the wealth and the dirt are, in these cases, the same substance recorded under different names.

India's figure is about two tonnes per person, among the lowest of any major economy on earth, and that figure belongs to a country carrying a fifth of humanity.

Since the industrial revolution, the United States has poured roughly 430 billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, close to a quarter of all historical emissions from fossil fuels and industry, far ahead of China in second place. Its per-capita emissions today remain around three and a half times the global average."

I'm curious to know your thoughts after reading this article, please do share them in the replies below.

In present times, we see women progressing in all aspects of life. Women are contributing towards the functioning and development of the economy and society in various ways.

But, certain parts of India, especially Northern India still have the tradition of 'ghoonghat', where married women are supposed to cover their faces. Even educated, working, independent women are sometimes asked to follow these traditions when they visit their family homes in these regions, in the name of being cultured and obedient daughters-in-law.

But it is a lesser known fact, that the ghoonghat is not originally Indian and is a tradition borrowed from the 'Purdah System' of Persians. It propagated in India through foreign invasions and became what we call 'Indian Culture'.

Regions from Southern India, which weren't influenced as much by these foreign invasions, it is found that head-covering or veils are not as common there.

When we look at Indian History from the Vedic era, we see a completely different picture of the state of women in the society, with a lot of freedom and rights. Our ancient scriptures and mythology also depict women, free to be themselves and unburdened by social pressures and biases.

It's time we re-evaluate these traditions which form the so-called 'Indian Culture' which are holding back a major part of the population of the country, preventing them from exploring their highest potential.

We must have heard the names of these two famous modern day philosophers ‘Acharya Prashant’ and ‘Jiddu Krishnamurti’, but do you know that most of their opinions and ways of describing Spirituality is not at all same.
There are so many evident differences between the philosophical opinions of these two philosophers, that tracing or following one can lead you to a complete different way of understanding and living.

One of such crucial difference arise when they describe their respective opinions on the authorisation of “Guru ~ The Spiritual Teacher”. Where one is strictly against the authorisation of a Guru, and another one is expressing gratitude towards the same.

👉 Who do you think in your opinion is a true Guru? Do you think for initiating one’s Spiritual journey, one needs the assistance of a Guru? Why do you think people look for a Guru in Spirituality?

Short Video link: https://youtube.com/shorts/WnJsvas2nmo?si=-weYEPfgSoBQVh6x

Long Video link: https://youtu.be/ayREDZFJfuI?si=wC2XDVGyHQfRwDzw