Why Does The Ego Fear Truth? || Acharya Prashant, On Bhagavad Gita (2026)

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-24

[00:00:00]We have Krishna saying whatever the wise one does others begin to act in the same way vier which planet there are the other blockbusters so many craving for Dehim's biceps so many would have come to yudesh and knuckle sv you know they were exceptionally good-looking and Dehim was the macho man quite possible Shakuri was holding some gathering that side attended by no less than 5,000 or thing and he was holding forth flanked by Duryodhan and Dosashan 5,000 because you are potentially every character that you come across in the Mahabharat. You are Shakuni, you are Karn, you are Draadi, you are Kunti, you are Gandhari, you are everybody. This is an exception to the rule. Glorious exception. Krishna is asking you to be exceptional. Are you exceptional in anything? Arjun was so exceptional fell in love with Krishna's sister.

[00:01:08]There are certain things that are said because they belong to the paratic level.

[00:01:25]And uh then there are certain things that are said because they take you to the paric level.

[00:01:44]What we have today is an utterance, a verse that belongs to the second category seen on its own.

[00:02:03]Absolutely.

[00:02:06]What is being said?

[00:02:12]is dependent on the receiver.

[00:02:21]What is being said? Whatever the wise one does, others too uh start uh acting in the same way.

[00:02:40]Whatever standards he sets, people follow them.

[00:02:47]This is what is being said. However, this that is being said is dependent dependent on the listener.

[00:03:04]Therefore, it does not belong to the paric level.

[00:03:08]The absolute truth is not dependent on anything. That which is dependent on anything cannot be said to be the transcendental truth or marteka right that which depends on anything.

[00:03:26]What we have today with us is a verse that depends on the listener. So this is more in the form of a method.

[00:03:42]H it's a root rather than a revelation.

[00:03:52]You get this? First of all, we'll see why it is dependent. Let's evaluate. Uh what's being said is that uh the conduct and the standards displayed by the wise ones are followed by the world. Not necessarily.

[00:04:12]Not necessarily.

[00:04:16]It totally depends on the receiving ego.

[00:04:20]It totally depends on who is listening, who is watching, who is the observer.

[00:04:29]In fact, if the observer is determined in the other direction, he can use the standard set by and the path shown by the wise one to fix what exactly he's not to do.

[00:04:58]That's the wise one.

[00:05:01]And if wisdom involves dissolution of the ego, then I'm not to follow whatever he shows, teaches or displays as his own behavior, right? Because he's going to be dangerous.

[00:05:26]Wisdom is not uh candy or toffee. Wisdom isn't necessarily pleasant to the ego.

[00:05:44]In fact, it is not pleasant.

[00:05:47]The word wisdom has been appropriated by culture.

[00:05:55]It has started appearing nice.

[00:05:59]In fact, a lot of nice things now pass as wisdom. But the thing is that wisdom is not nice.

[00:06:07]Ego cannot like wisdom. And that's the reason wisdom is rare.

[00:06:13]Do you get this?

[00:06:16]So in fact what uh the author of the Gita is saying here is a rather unlikely happening.

[00:06:30]What he's saying here is as a wise man the way you behave the benchmarks you established become the shining lights the guiding posts for the entire world. Does that happen?

[00:06:52]Does that happen?

[00:06:58]H Krishna himself says that there has been a succession of Krishna's throughout the ages.

[00:07:10]Oh Arjun, this that I am narrating to you is not the first time this is being uttered.

[00:07:18]A told it to B, B told it to C, C told it to D.

[00:07:25]And it doesn't stop huh with Dvoki Nandan Krishna telling it to countand Arjun there will be the next Krishna there will be the next Arjun and so on and so forth.

[00:07:47]So so many times there have been Krishna's, Buddhas, Kabir and they have all come and gone and yet the world does not seem to be following their standards does it. But the verse today claims that the wise ones the way they behave the world follows.

[00:08:11]No, that does not really happen.

[00:08:15]only a few follow though those few matter a lot. It is because of those few that humanity survives that we can call ourselves even a little different from animals that at least a few people can claim to be civilized in some sense. It's only because of those very few people.

[00:08:46]But nevertheless, they remain few.

[00:08:54]Those few have mattered a lot. Yes.

[00:08:58]But that does not take away from the fact that in numbers they remain few.

[00:09:08]By importance, by significance, by heft, by weight? Yes, they matter disproportionately, definitely.

[00:09:22]But have the masses really looked up to them, emulated them? No, that has not happened. That has not happened. Then why is Krishna uttering it this way?

[00:09:33]Why is he telling Arjun, Arjun, you behave properly? Because The ideal that you'll be established shall be adhered to by all and sunundry.

[00:09:45]Why is he telling Arjun this?

[00:09:49]Because this verse we said is more in the form of a a root rather than a revelation.

[00:09:58]What is being declared here is not paric but vharic.

[00:10:08]Look at this.

[00:10:11]The wise one may come and keep uttering the greatest, the highest, the noblest truths.

[00:10:25]From the time the birds start twittering till the time the cows go home.

[00:10:37]Still you can uh respond with this.

[00:10:46]Huh?

[00:10:53]The fellow can lay his heart, chest, lungs and vocal cords out for you.

[00:11:09]And your response will be, "Huh?

[00:11:13]Huh?"

[00:11:18]So absolutely this is not true. Yes, relative to a few this does stand true.

[00:11:27]Relative to whom?

[00:11:30]The right sincere disciples.

[00:11:35]It is that kind of disciple that Krishna wants Arjun to become and that's why this instruction is being given.

[00:11:48]The way you should read it is Arjun.

[00:11:55]Yes.

[00:11:57]Not many will follow what wisdom teaches, but those who matter will.

[00:12:12]Therefore, the verse has to be read qualitatively, not quantitatively.

[00:12:24]No, the masses are not going to take up the example of a Buddha and say because the Buddha lived this way, so we'll also live this way. Does that happen? So many Buddhists in the world are they living like the Buddha or are the Vashnavas living like Krishna?

[00:12:48]Is it happening?

[00:12:51]So it's not that uh the world takes up the example of the of the realized ones and starts to line. The world does not do that.

[00:13:06]Yes, the world does keep a keen eye on a suspected Buddha.

[00:13:14]A very keen eye on a suspected Buddha so that the exact opposite of what he says can be done.

[00:13:26]It is for this reason that he is marked.

[00:13:32]Follow every move.

[00:13:37]Watch closely so that he can be defied. He can be denied.

[00:13:51]Never let him get out of sight because if he gets out of sight, he can get dangerous.

[00:14:00]When you want to shoot someone, you keep him in crosshairs, don't you? You don't want to let him get out of sight.

[00:14:08]Similarly, the world keeps a Krishna or a Kabir or a Buddha in crosshairs, always in sight.

[00:14:19]Not because it wants to worship them, but because it wants to assault them.

[00:14:28]Not like a devotey but like a hunter.

[00:14:40]Do you get this?

[00:14:44]No realized person can be allowed to get away without paying a price. He has offended the world.

[00:14:55]That's the biggest insult, the loudest slap.

[00:15:07]The world stands on the premise that you will not survive without being mediocre.

[00:15:16]A single wise one displays to the entire world that its foundation is a huge lie.

[00:15:32]No you what the Krishna displays to everybody is not that they are lying not even that they are liars he displays to them the dead they don't even exist even to lie you have to exist how will the world forgive This anything can be forgiven. Anybody can be pardoned.

[00:16:11]The Gakar cannot be pardoned.

[00:16:16]He holds up the mirror to you and what he displays is not an ugly self but a no self. Oh, were you ugly, you could have wiped away your ugliness.

[00:16:37]But when Krishna holds up the mirror to you, what you see is the absence of the seer.

[00:16:44]Remember the seer cannot survive the seeing. The moment you see, you see nothing.

[00:16:52]The seer too is gone.

[00:16:57]What was parading all the while was not just a lie but something worse than that.

[00:17:10]Do you get this?

[00:17:14]So this is for the log dharmic world a very feel-good verse.

[00:17:22]It makes us believe that the world is nice and wellintentioned enough to follow the gentle, genial, wise ones. No, the world does not follow them.

[00:17:43]The world does not even unfollow them.

[00:17:47]The world kills them by ignoring them.

[00:17:54]That's the worst treatment you can give to the wise one because wisdom comes with love and the lover does not live within himself.

[00:18:07]The concern of the lover is the welfare of the other.

[00:18:13]The other decides not to rise.

[00:18:20]The lover has been killed.

[00:18:26]That's the treatment we do out to our teachers, our scriptures. Indifference.

[00:18:35]How many upishads have you read?

[00:18:38]How many verses of the Gita do you go back to?

[00:18:45]session recordings are available. How many?

[00:18:53]How many people write the exam? How many are watching the session right now?

[00:19:01]The log dharmic world does not have the guts to pick up the knife or pull the trigger.

[00:19:11]Even that requires some degree of honesty.

[00:19:18]You know, you have to come out in the open with the butcher's knife or the murderer's gun.

[00:19:28]The L dharmic world is silently sly.

[00:19:36]It slays without noise through sheer indifference.

[00:19:45]indifference and when it can no longer be indifferent then it distorts. Either I will not read the Gita or I will distort it.

[00:19:57]First preference is avoidance.

[00:20:00]I I I have other things to take care of.

[00:20:02]I will not read the Gita. I have other things to take care of. Why should I read the Gita? So much more is important. I have other things to take care of. Ignore.

[00:20:13]Just ignore.

[00:20:17]Give your energy or attention to something else.

[00:20:22]February and March have been rather bad for your foundation because the students are busy attending weddings and there were festivals and there was the Valentine's Day and people have to deposit fees and taxes and obviously holy you travel so much and you have to spend a lot in many things.

[00:20:55]You don't have the guts to deny those things. The result, oh no, you know, keep calling, we'll not pick up your call.

[00:21:14]And then comes Krishna and says the path shown by the wise ones is the path the world walks on.

[00:21:24]Obviously, obviously he's not talking of the paratic truth.

[00:21:33]And this is a verse specific to Arjun and that to Arjun's present condition.

[00:21:41]It is meant to cause a displacement within Arjun. It has functional value.

[00:21:49]It is a method. It is a root.

[00:21:54]It is meant to move Arjun.

[00:22:04]Do you get this?

[00:22:09]What?

[00:22:20]So Arjun 99.9% people anyway do not care for wisdom or anything.

[00:22:34]What they have is their jobs and their routine lives.

[00:22:41]They do not know what they are working for but they slog really hard and when they are back at 8 or 9 or whatever they are just too tired for any kind of wisdom.

[00:22:58]Oh they are working so hard so they must be experiencing windfall material gains.

[00:23:05]Not that either.

[00:23:08]They just physically survive.

[00:23:13]The salary is received on the last day of February or on the 1st or 2nd of March and by the end of the first week they do not even know where it is gone.

[00:23:32]But they work really hard.

[00:23:36]But working really hard. I mean what for?

[00:23:42]What for?

[00:23:45]Wisdom. You have discarded.

[00:23:47]Gita is not for you.

[00:23:50]And your hard work is giving you nothing beyond the minimal animal kind of sustenance.

[00:24:01]What for? Are you working so much?

[00:24:08]What do you do with your money?

[00:24:09]Obviously, you have no money.

[00:24:14]Even if you have it, you are left with nothing. After 5 10 days, after 5 10 days, you are again looking towards the month end.

[00:24:28]So what then is life for?

[00:24:32]That's the question the common man runs away from. In fact entire life all its movements are just an eerie plot to avoid this question. What is life for?

[00:24:56]And avoiding this question is self- betrayal betrayal because it's about your life, nobody else's life. What are you living for?

[00:25:13]If your life has no space, no respect, no value for wisdom, love, liberation, what are you living for?

[00:25:24]What is all this logging for?

[00:25:31]I mean, how do you afford to be alive?

[00:25:38]Because we can't afford to die.

[00:25:47]That's the only reason. No other reason.

[00:25:54]Why are you alive?

[00:25:58]Papa met mommy. That's all. No other reason.

[00:26:03]No other reason at all. Nothing internal. Nothing of the heart.

[00:26:09]Just one moment between papa and mommy.

[00:26:12]That's all.

[00:26:18]That's all.

[00:26:26]Why will such people this entire population have any respect for wisdom?

[00:26:37]Krishna knows that you remember in the Hindi session what was he saying out of thousands one walks this path and out of a thousand who walk this path huh some rare one very exceptionally ally finds me by me he means the truth or liberation.

[00:27:15]So he knows that and we have evidence from the Gita itself.

[00:27:19]He very well knows that when it comes to the teeming millions there is no respect for wisdom.

[00:27:34]because they have weddings to attend, right?

[00:27:46]And stale sweets to consume.

[00:27:52]Somebody was selling perfumed Guja.

[00:27:56]The reason was obvious.

[00:28:06]Some are aast because they just happened to consume it at their relatives place.

[00:28:14]It was selling at an even higher rate.

[00:28:17]You know the real reason why it was perfumed?

[00:28:21]>> Why was it perfumed?

[00:28:23]>> Yes, it was stinking.

[00:28:26]So it was not just perfumed, it was colored.

[00:28:36]and then visits to the doctor and you know this month I'll drop out from Gita and I will not receive calls from the foundation right the entire length of the intestine is screaming Hey.

[00:29:09]And then those seductive weddings, what can one do about them?

[00:29:18]That kangra, that joli, god, I can't stand it.

[00:29:28]Then fall you fallen one.

[00:29:34]You can't anyway fall any lower roll.

[00:29:48]And here we have Krishna saying whatever the wise one does others begin to act in the same way. Where? Which planet?

[00:30:00]Andromeda, not on this galaxy at least. Does it happen?

[00:30:09]People stick to the path shown by the wise ones. Does that happen?

[00:30:22]But that's what must happen.

[00:30:26]And that's the possibility Sri Krishna wants to take Arjun to.

[00:30:34]Yes Arjun that is not happening but we want that to happen.

[00:30:40]Yes Arjun, the entire population is living at a below par level, subhuman level, but we don't want them to live there.

[00:31:01]And can you lead the way?

[00:31:04]That's what this verse is for.

[00:31:08]It is opening up a root.

[00:31:13]It is an invitation and a challenge.

[00:31:19]Arjun, do you want to behave like the vast majority of humanity or can you be different?

[00:31:35]The world will not listen to the wise ones. Yes, but Arjun, can you listen to me?

[00:31:42]It's not a verse. It's a question.

[00:31:46]The world will not listen to the wise ones.

[00:31:51]The very picture at Krooketra is testimony enough. How many are listening to Krishna there?

[00:32:00]How many are listening to Krishna there?

[00:32:03]one.

[00:32:05]That's the kind of audience the wise one gets.

[00:32:12]If right there he made an Instagram account, one follower H part following zero follower >> one and then there are the other blockbusters.

[00:32:41]So many craving for behind what were all those fellows doing the long duration the Gita was being recited obviously giving selfies so many would have come to Yiddish and knuckle sv you know they were exceptionally good-looking they actually were they were the best looking among the five brothers and Dehim was the macho man.

[00:33:19]So they were obviously not all sitting quiet.

[00:33:23]They had a greater fan following than was Krishna.

[00:33:31]Only one was listening to Krishna.

[00:33:36]Yes, we find that comical now but also appreciate the tragedy.

[00:33:44]Just nobody nobody just nobody wanted to listen.

[00:33:55]Quite possible Shakuni was holding some gathering that side attended by no less than 5,000 or something and he was holding forth flanked by Duryodhan and Dashan 5,000.

[00:34:19]And here how many does Krishna have?

[00:34:22]one kurug instead of Instagram. Kurug imagine that account just one follower and Krishna is not disappointed.

[00:34:48]One is enough.

[00:34:53]Krishna is rather asking Arjun, can you be that one?

[00:34:59]Can you be that one?

[00:35:02]The masses will not come.

[00:35:05]Can you?

[00:35:10]And given that the ego is arranged, given that the ego has the possibility of being shakuni, one moment, duryodhan, one moment, don one moment, bhish, one moment, bhim, one moment, one moment, arjun, one moment, and even Krishna one moment. This is a question that's been alive in the air since the day of Kurukhetra.

[00:35:48]Can you be that one?

[00:35:57]This question is knocking at each one of us. Can you be that one?

[00:36:05]Because you are potentially every character that you come across in the Mahabharat.

[00:36:17]You are Shakuni, you are Karn, you are Draadi, you are Kunti, you are Gandhari, you are everybody.

[00:36:26]You are everybody. But Krishna is asking can you be the one who listens to wisdom? Nobody listened to wisdom. So many characters. Did somebody listen?

[00:36:41]Ditraj was enjoying it live but even he did not listen.

[00:36:50]Look at his misfortune.

[00:36:55]He was getting it on that ancient zoom.

[00:37:05]like one participant connected to our Sanjay.

[00:37:14]So even though he was receiving it technically still he was not receiving it.

[00:37:25]Arjun can you be the one who receives H.

[00:37:35]That question has been alive since then.

[00:37:40]Not answered, never settled.

[00:37:46]This question will chase you, will not let you rest in peace.

[00:37:52]Can you be that one? Can you be that one? You be that one.

[00:38:02]Those who will not listen are numerous and they are all within you.

[00:38:06]But the tiny possibility that will listen that too is inside you.

[00:38:12]Can you support your own possibility?

[00:38:18]All those who will not listen are not just on the outside. They are all within you. They will not listen. They have never listened.

[00:38:29]But the one who can listen that too is present within you.

[00:38:35]Can you be that one? The ego is a range and a choice.

[00:38:42]The ego is fluid.

[00:38:45]That's the only redemptive thing it has.

[00:38:48]Choice.

[00:38:50]You can choose to be the one.

[00:38:54]Will you make that choice part?

[00:39:01]Nobody makes that choice. And you too will have enough reasons to not make that choice. But still, can you or are there weddings to attend?

[00:39:17]Remember the odds are stacked against the truth.

[00:39:22]The reason is simple. The ego cannot survive truth.

[00:39:29]Therefore, the ego will not like truth.

[00:39:40]However, there is a caveat.

[00:39:44]The ego is a born lover.

[00:39:47]It does not like the truth. But it also cannot live without the truth.

[00:39:54]What to do?

[00:39:59]Its first priority is self-preservation.

[00:40:02]But that gives it a lot of restlessness.

[00:40:07]It aches for the truth.

[00:40:10]It's not happy with itself. It says, "I'm lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely.

[00:40:17]What does it want?

[00:40:19]What's the entire craving for? The truth.

[00:40:29]So yes, the odds are against the truth.

[00:40:32]But then you cannot defeat the truth.

[00:40:40]It will survive within the ego. Even in the moment of victory of the ego, the ego will say I have defeated the truth.

[00:40:52]The truth will still survive within ego as restlessness.

[00:41:02]What's the proof of truth? The restlessness of ego.

[00:41:07]Even when the ego discards the truth completely as the common man does, even when the ego discards the truth completely, what does its face look like?

[00:41:22]Let me show your face.

[00:41:25]Looks like this.

[00:41:29]I a winner.

[00:41:31]I defeated the truth.

[00:41:43]Look at the faces of your so-called winners.

[00:41:47]Look at your champions. Look at your role models.

[00:41:52]H show their face.

[00:42:07]You are a damn loser. Even in your victory, even in your victory, you stand discontented.

[00:42:19]And that's the victory of truth.

[00:42:23]Beat the truth and you're beating yourself.

[00:42:34]You get this.

[00:42:38]So, they'll not follow me. Look at them.

[00:42:48]They are already busy deciding their share of the spoils.

[00:42:54]100 brothers they have started bickering.

[00:43:01]Who will get the bigger piece of the pie?

[00:43:05]Look at them.

[00:43:07]They'll not listen to me. Can you? And if you do, they don't matter.

[00:43:16]The only one who matters, the only one who has ever mattered is the one who has listened to the truth. Others come and go like those insects in the monsoons.

[00:43:38]Hm.

[00:43:41]Seen the numbers when they come suddenly they appear and in massive numbers and then suddenly they are gone and in the interim they are lying dead everywhere.

[00:44:07]That's how the common man lives.

[00:44:11]Insignificant birth.

[00:44:17]Insignificant life.

[00:44:21]Unwept, unsung, unmissed departure.

[00:44:33]Nobody misses you.

[00:44:36]And you know that but we still sing pian to Krishna without even knowing whether conclusively historically factually Krishna existed and we do not know really how he looked still he will always stand more real to us than our own face.

[00:45:11]We will come and go and Krishnas and Buddhas will survive.

[00:45:18]Now tell me who matters the millions or the one.

[00:45:33]Can you be the one?

[00:45:37]Okay. After the next wedding, Gigi says, "You must come."

[00:45:51]Giu has started liking you.

[00:45:55]Gi, that's not good news.

[00:46:00]Watch out.

[00:46:13]The truth were it to be personified must be having a good laugh.

[00:46:26]For it is not fighting monsters.

[00:46:34]It is fighting gigs and jujus and little chus.

[00:46:43]And truth must be laughing and wondering.

[00:46:48]This is what it has come to.

[00:46:52]This is what is defeating me.

[00:46:57]This this this this is what is taking mankind away from me.

[00:47:16]You mean Chola?

[00:47:20]Truth beaten by Chola.

[00:47:26]Chola and Chola much much bigger than truth. What else takes you away?

[00:47:38]What else takes you away?

[00:47:41]Huh?

[00:47:42]Nothing. Chola and chola.

[00:47:46]What else?

[00:47:53]It's good that truth is eternal. Else it would have died laughing.

[00:48:06]Thank God it's not allowed to.

[00:48:10]You are timeless, sir. No, I I don't want to be anymore. Let me go.

[00:48:18]I'll kill myself of laughter.

[00:48:25]Chola and Chola are not just fighting truth but actually defeating it at least on the vharic level. The truth is being defeated every day.

[00:48:39]Why didn't you attend the session?

[00:48:44]I was out fetching some chola, some mlly.

[00:48:49]I had to drop Poopy.

[00:48:52]You drop her from the second floor. That would be freedom.

[00:49:14]Imagine Arjun suddenly says but Fufi is waiting and her knees pain and she has a huge belly.

[00:49:36]So can we take a break?

[00:49:39]And two chapters in the Gita are vacant.

[00:49:45]Why? Because Arjun was busy with poofy.

[00:49:50]What else is happening with you on holy night? the minimum number of people attended the session and the number is so small I am ashamed to disclose and that was a religious festival that's what religion means to you right shame and so many were afraid of watching the session just because they were with their relatives that They were just afraid.

[00:50:33]What kind of cowards have assembled here and that is when the session was late in the night.

[00:50:57]That's not the time you play colors.

[00:51:04]Still you were so afraid.

[00:51:11]No, no, no. Don't do this.

[00:51:16]Lo starts trembling.

[00:51:21]What if Pufi comes to know heinous crime Gita that too on a religious day you can't be forgiven that's the day forana the problem is that you don't even have the proper hung even that requires you to be somebody like Arjun.

[00:52:08]He's referred to as Mahabahu. You understand that?

[00:52:14]Look at the common man. What kind of ang he has?

[00:52:21]You see what angle?

[00:52:31]But randomly just hopping unreasonable excitement about nothing at all.

[00:52:49]What do we do with this verse? Now this is for those who listen those who follow.

[00:53:01]This is not a declaration. This is we said an invitation. This is not the rule. This is an exception to the rule.

[00:53:09]Glorious exception.

[00:53:13]Question is asking you to be exceptional. Are you exceptional in anything?

[00:53:20]Arjun was so exceptional.

[00:53:24]Fell in love with Krishna's sister. Krishna arranged him to elope.

[00:53:36]Are you exceptional?

[00:53:44]If you are common, mediocre in all your ways, in your instincts, in your thoughts, then you belong to the masses, not to Krishna. And Krishna is asking for a glorious exception.

[00:54:01]And the exception remember is qualitative which means everybody can be an exception because everybody has an arjun a possibility within him or her. So you can be exception, you too can be an exception, you two and you all can be exceptions simultaneously all together, all at once.

[00:54:26]But we won't have even a single exception because of chula and chulah.

[00:54:40]You're so cute.

[00:54:43]You know everything but still I will not change.

[00:54:50]By the way I'm on leave from tomorrow.

[00:54:54]VU just download the aar pushant tab and there you go to the community section and you have live testimonials streaming in at the rate of one every 5 minutes.

[00:55:15]I'm seeing lives change in thousands if not millions every day in front of my own eyes. We doing it. They have actually done it.

[00:55:24]>> Join the community of more than two lakh participants on the Achara Prashant app.

[00:55:29]Your first month is completely free.

[00:55:31]You'll get full access to Gita mission.

[00:55:34]On the app, you will get regular live sessions, daily exclusive conversations with Achara Prashant, access to the vibrant Gita community, wisdom exams, curated news, audio books, quotes and much more. Search Achara Prashant on Google Play Store or Apple App Store and download now.