Women Meet Acharya Prashant - As Conscious Humans || Acharya Prashant, IIT Indore (2026)

Added: 2026-05-19

[00:00:00]Some of the greatest scriptures are the ignitions and you know their pedagogy, their methodology. How do they proceed?

[00:00:07]>> Through questions.

[00:00:08]>> Through questions. The same thing that we find in Socrates. He did not write any books. He would simply have dialogues. Never be afraid of questions.

[00:00:18]Never be. You can be cynical. You can be skeptical. All that is okay. what is central is >> I have uh inculcated a habit of being a little more critical and more curious about what is being taught to me while doing so I've also become a little more cynical >> what we have rather been taught is obedience yes I agree yes I agree but what do you agree with the right teacher or adviser will never seek your agreement.

[00:00:53]>> So I guess what you're trying to say is that the negative feeling that arises is mainly from my discomfort with being questioning and critical.

[00:01:02]>> You know the funny thing sometimes the answer is >> so about hypnotherapy or hypnosis >> from where I see we are all already hypnotized. It's like delivering anesthesia to someone in coma.

[00:01:22]It's like getting drunk. Is still drunkards would vouch for it. Some part of you does retain some consciousness.

[00:01:30]You can never get 100% drunk. Similarly, you can be in your deepest moment of some stupid ecstasy. And yet one part of you knows.

[00:01:43]I hate it when I speak to my audiences and all I see is >> so first of all I'd like to thank you.

[00:01:55]So over the past few years I have uh inculcated a habit of being a little more critical and more curious about what is being taught to me whether that's by my parents the society our teachers even the government but what I've also noticed is while doing so I've also become a little more cynical is there room for both to coexist at the same time can I be curious and critical and also being more open to the world their views and having a little bit of love in my life.

[00:02:29]>> No, this too is a form of conditioning.

[00:02:38]The thought that being critical does not sit well with love.

[00:02:51]The thought that uh inquiry, questioning, investigation, they indicate antagonism or violence.

[00:03:03]They don't they don't in fact they indicate an openness towards engagement.

[00:03:13]So genuine criticism, inquiry go very well with openness and love.

[00:03:25]In fact, I hate it when I speak to my audiences and all I see is obedient and blank faces.

[00:03:42]I know for sure that the thing I'm addressing, the inner one I'm talking to will not so easily accept and acknowledge what I'm saying.

[00:03:57]So how come it is not displaying its resistance?

[00:04:05]That resistance, even if it comes in the form of a sharp counter question, is far better than a silent and and dead nod of approval.

[00:04:22]Inquiry is good.

[00:04:25]What we have rather been taught is obedience.

[00:04:32]That too of a morbid kind.

[00:04:36]Just sit and say, "Yes, I agree. Yes, I agree. Yes, I agree." But what do you agree with? You haven't even You haven't even understood.

[00:04:50]The right teacher or advisor will never seek your agreement.

[00:04:59]He or she will seek your understanding and understanding cannot come without engagement and engagement means exposing your position.

[00:05:12]You see this is what you are saying but this is where I stand and obviously these two do not conquer. That's why engagement needs to be there. If what you are telling me is already at the point where I stand, then you don't need to tell me anything. Then you're wasting your time. Any kind of teaching or advice should be met with a little bit of resistance, but honest resistance.

[00:05:38]Honest resistance. Resistance not with the intent to defend the position.

[00:05:44]Resistance with the intent to understand the position.

[00:05:50]Self-defense is not inquiry.

[00:05:54]An argument arising from the intent to contradict the other so that you can stay where you are and who you are is not an honest argument.

[00:06:08]So this is not cynicism really. This is fine. And if you want to call it cynicism, then this is healthy cynicism.

[00:06:15]H you can be cynical, you can be skeptical, all that is okay. What is central is honesty. Honesty.

[00:06:24]>> So I guess what you're trying to say is that the negative feeling that arises is mainly from my discomfort with being questioning and critical.

[00:06:33]>> Yes. It's the ego's discomfort with being put in the dock or with the spotlight shining on it. Why are you trying to look at me honestly? I do not want to be looked at. Why? Because I know I'm fake. Because I know I'm fake. And if if there is an advisor or an elder or a teacher who starts uh shivering or trembling uh when looked at then that fellow does not deserve to be called an elder. H if I am out there to teach my job is to expose my position thoroughly not impose it but expose it and it can be exposed only in light of the questions of the audience. Some of the greatest scriptures that uh the world has known and India has produced are thes and you know their pedagogy, their methodology. How do they proceed?

[00:07:43]>> Through questions.

[00:07:44]>> Through questions. The method is dialectical. The same thing that we find in Socrates.

[00:07:51]He did not write any books.

[00:07:54]He would simply have dialogues.

[00:07:57]Same thing in theads.

[00:08:01]The very word means sitting with the teacher, sitting close to the teacher.

[00:08:08]And some of the opishads, they are just so brief. All they have is a brief question and a oneline answer. And the teacher won't move without the question.

[00:08:20]The teacher responds and falls silent.

[00:08:22]And he says, "I have nothing to tell you because I'm not here to impose myself on you. If you have something to ask, I'll respond." The the student asks and the teacher responds. You know the funny thing? Sometimes the answer is shorter than the question.

[00:08:38]The teacher is not out there with an agenda.

[00:08:43]The teacher is not saying just give me a chance and I'll rattle for 30 minutes.

[00:08:55]H like this one does.

[00:08:58]The rishies respected their time much more than I do.

[00:09:04]So ask a question to them and they give a brief answer and fall silent. You ask them, they speak. You ask them, they speak and the questions are a continuum.

[00:09:17]So the question, every question, every successive question is actually a follow-up.

[00:09:23]The teacher has said something and the student proceeds from there and there and there. It's a thread. It's a thread and it's so beautiful. That's why the opishads are uh taken so highly respected till this date.

[00:09:39]Never be afraid of questions. Never be but but always be careful of questioning the questioner as well.

[00:09:51]Otherwise the ego will use questions to defend itself.

[00:09:59]The greatest teacher, the greatest philosopher, the opishadic sage might be sitting in front of you and you can keep contradicting and refuting him using some silly question.

[00:10:14]After all, the ego's agenda is to just defend itself, self-preserve. I must stay who I am.

[00:10:21]So questions can be used as ammunition or fortress.

[00:10:30]for self-defense, you know, let that not happen. So when you question the teacher or anybody, always remember to concurrently question yourself. So question the teacher and also question the questioner. Question both of them simultaneously.

[00:10:58]Namaste G. Ego is self-referential and we can also call it as self hypnosis. So I want to ask if it is a brah self-referential then uh we use it as a therapy hypnotherapy at so many places and it is also used misused by so-called babas. So how can we take it hypnosis?

[00:11:27]We can use it for the purpose or we can discard it as a brah in in the life that we lead. Ego is the central reality.

[00:11:42]Ego is the central reality in the life that we lead. It's just that the life that we lead is itself illusurary. But that's a that's a meta view.

[00:11:56]From within the life that we lead, the life is real, is it not? Or would you say this auditorium is unreal?

[00:12:04]You won't say that, right? Yes. If you can somehow stand outside this reality, you do get uh the license to declare all this as mita or brah or illusury.

[00:12:23]But for us this is real. So ego is the lived reality. Yes, it does exist. It does exist.

[00:12:32]It is for Achar Shankar to say that Jie is Mity. But you are Jie. Yes.

[00:12:38]>> In your eyes. Are you Mita?

[00:12:41]>> No.

[00:12:42]>> You're not right.

[00:12:45]H you're not.

[00:12:47]Ego does not exist at all.

[00:12:50]That is fine for a sage to say. But as we live, would you ever say I am not?

[00:13:00]I am not. So the honest thing is to not begin with I am not. The honest thing is to say I am. Now I want to investigate whether that which I claim I am holds any ground.

[00:13:18]That's the scientific method. That's how you also proceed in statistics. Don't you? First of all you very honestly declare your problem hypothesis.

[00:13:29]You declare that very openly and what is hypothesis truth? No, it is an assumption you are proceeding on.

[00:13:40]So you declare that yes uh there is an assumption but I'm sticking to the assumption just that I also want to check it and then you check the hypothesis and towards the end you declare whether or not you want to still hold it.

[00:13:55]You similarly the way of wisdom starts with the ego.

[00:14:01]It would be hypocritical to dismiss the ego right at the beginning because the one dismissing the ego would again be the ego.

[00:14:11]So don't dismiss the ego. Inquire inquire. The ego always says I am doing this. I am deciding that this is my identity. this is uh uh my goal that's my ambition this is my past you know all these things the ego is uh made of you inquire into that that's the method that's fine >> okay >> so about hypnotherapy or hypnosis >> I'm not sure what you do in that not at all sure because from where I see we are all already hypnotized So what do you mean by hypnotizing a hypnotized one all the more?

[00:14:58]>> So we can discard it as a illusion.

[00:15:00]>> I don't know what you do in that. It's like it's like delivering anesthesia to someone in coma.

[00:15:14]I don't know what you'll achieve from that. You're already hypnotized.

[00:15:22]Are we not hypnotized?

[00:15:25]>> Yes.

[00:15:28]>> So what kind of super hypnosis can you deliver to a hypnotized one?

[00:15:35]What we require is dhypnosis, not more of hypnosis.

[00:15:45]You get this?

[00:15:47]>> Yes.

[00:15:47]>> We require to be shaken up and woken up.

[00:15:56]Somebody's already sleeping and you deliver a a shot uh of some uh some seditive drug.

[00:16:10]What sense does it make?

[00:16:13]He does not need to be sedated. He is already off.

[00:16:22]But that does applies not just to hypnosis but all kinds of treatments we deliver to ourselves.

[00:16:31]What else is entertainment you are already out and then you want to be further out. So you start uh watching uh a cricket match or something or something. You are already out of touch with reality and you want to drift further away.

[00:16:54]So you say no I'm going out it's the evening I'll entertain myself visit this place that place some something shopping mall some entertainment.

[00:17:05]There are there are just so many ways we keep ourselves perpetually hypnotized.

[00:17:16]>> So if we all are hypnotized then how to dehypnotize?

[00:17:22]>> You're not happy with being hypnotized.

[00:17:24]Nobody is content in being hypnotized. And that's the redeeming hope.

[00:17:34]You would have been perfectly all right had you been perfectly hypnotized.

[00:17:41]You stand hypnotized. But there is one part of you which will never be satisfied with being hypnotized. Never. And it is for the sake of that part.

[00:17:58]It is from that part. attend that point that you must act.

[00:18:06]It's like getting drunk. You can you can get drunk to whatever extent you like. N pegs, X bottles is still drunkards would vouch for it. Some part of you does retain some consciousness.

[00:18:23]You can never get 100% drunk.

[00:18:28]100% drunk or 100% drugged or whatever.

[00:18:33]There is that faint consciousness that still remains.

[00:18:38]Similarly, you can be in your deepest moment of of some stupid ecstasy.

[00:18:46]I attained this. I'm successful now. I got this job or I got so much money or or I got that man or woman. And you can be in the deepest ecstasy you can conjure and yet one part of you knows the reality. It can never be satisfied.

[00:19:05]It is for the sake of that part and it is from that part that you must act because what is the point of deceiving oneself inwardly?

[00:19:17]You're giving yourself what you think is the best possible. But but something within you who is still wailing.

[00:19:24]Some little kid within is still sitting dissolate in a corner.

[00:19:32]Not joyful at all.

[00:19:36]Do you get this?

[00:19:37]>> Yeah.

[00:19:38]>> That's the difference between being hypnotized and being dead.

[00:19:43]Once you are dead, the problem is actually over. Now there is nobody to be sad or dejected.

[00:19:51]But as long as you're alive, no amount of hypnosis can rid you perfectly of your misery.

[00:20:02]That little quivering voice within will remain and keep complaining. It's still not all right.

[00:20:12]And that voice is everything.

[00:20:17]Achari we all know that the voice that inner voice but uh still we act according to the world or >> that's a decision to that's a decision that's a decision nobody can change it for you. Nobody can act rightly on your behalf. It's your life and you have to act. Others can at most sit and talk and demonstrate and advise and hold a mirror. But ultimately it's your life and your decision.

[00:20:52]It's about whether you value uh selfreization more than self-preservation.

[00:21:04]Whether you value love over fear. Most people are too afraid to value love.

[00:21:17]It's a decision. It's a decision. And there can be nothing behind that decision. It's just a decision. It's a sovereign decision.

[00:21:25]It's a decision that you have to make. I value love more than fear. Full stop.

[00:21:31]And you're not accountable to anybody.

[00:21:33]And nobody can cause this decision. This decision is sovereign. This decision arises from you and you only. This decision is not conditional.

[00:21:45]No favorable conditions outside of you can precipitate this decision.

[00:21:52]This decision is totally yours and only yours to make.

[00:22:03]>> Okay.

[00:22:05]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.

[00:22:16]I'm seeing lives change in thousands if not millions every day in front of my own eyes. We are doing it. We have actually done it.

[00:22:25]>> Join the community of more than two lakh participants on the Achara Prashant app.

[00:22:30]Your first month is completely free.

[00:22:32]You'll get full access to Gita mission 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.