Video Information: 09.03.25, Curtain Call, Bengaluru
Title: Stay away from 'Spirituality' || Acharya Prashant (2025)
Context:
What happens when a spiritual teacher denounces spirituality?
In this bold, no-holds-barred session from Bangalore, Acharya Prashant dismantles everything you thought you knew about spiritual seekers, godmen, and inner peace.
🔊 “Spirituality is the mind exercising its right to insanity… with gusto.”
👁️ “False spirituality is a predator. It feasts upon your ignorance.”
💥 “When you look within… you won’t find light. You’ll find stinking trash.”
With sharp wit and fearless clarity, this 60-second opening sets the tone for a conversation that stuns, challenges, and awakens. This is not the peace of illusions — this is the fire of truth.
Title: Stay away from 'Spirituality' || Acharya Prashant (2025)
Context:
What happens when a spiritual teacher denounces spirituality?
In this bold, no-holds-barred session from Bangalore, Acharya Prashant dismantles everything you thought you knew about spiritual seekers, godmen, and inner peace.
🔊 “Spirituality is the mind exercising its right to insanity… with gusto.”
👁️ “False spirituality is a predator. It feasts upon your ignorance.”
💥 “When you look within… you won’t find light. You’ll find stinking trash.”
With sharp wit and fearless clarity, this 60-second opening sets the tone for a conversation that stuns, challenges, and awakens. This is not the peace of illusions — this is the fire of truth.
Category
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LearningTranscript
00:00We have Acharya Prashant with us
00:11Pop spirituality it can include anything
00:15Bananas tomatoes potatoes flowers of all kinds the state of the moon the mind running amok the mind
00:24Exercising its right to insanity with gusto we are all designed to choose comfort over truth the mic that I am holding
00:32right now in my hand is more emblematic of life than any godly figure we can imagine anything
00:42that does not have to do with the I does not fall in the realm of adhyatma inquiry not belief not belief
00:53drop it verify it drop it if inquiry is the strategy self-knowledge is the goal self-observation
01:01is the movement-to-moment tactic
01:09Namaste sir welcome to Banco it's good to see you uh so my name is Hidesh i work as a product manager
01:16with oracle so a lot of product decisions that we make are data trival i'm surrounded with people who
01:22are logical rational ask a lot of questions before they arrive at any decision now whenever i hear
01:28with the word spirituality i image a man who's incompetent running away from the real world
01:36challenges seeking some other worldly fancies believing in godmen superstitions vibrations
01:42stones i don't know i'm pretty much everything i find this very obvious now i researched on you the
01:49work that you've been doing this is completely opposite of the image that i had so i really
01:54want to know what is spirituality and who's a spiritual man is it that's a nice way to begin this session
02:05so so what all in the common mind defines spirituality and the spiritual man
02:13somebody who is incompetent running away from the world and uh believing in superstitions
02:21and and random mysticism and the occult and and such things okay
02:30see uh
02:34to some extent it is understandable
02:35when we start talking of things that are not related to life itself that are not related to the living entity
02:55and are rather uh about this that some other world some mystical pleasure
03:12some rare enlightenment
03:16then obviously be it philosophy or spirituality they get disconnected
03:22from this living beating breathing thing that we that we call life right please understand
03:35right now you you sitting on a chair material chair
03:43you're wearing clothes shoes holding a pen in your hand
03:47and correct
03:52this is where we live and this is where our concerns are
03:57this is life
04:00our pains our sorrows our hopes our desires our relationships
04:06that's that's what constitutes life correct our dilemmas our livelihood
04:09to be here to be there whether to be at all
04:17right to be at all that's what life is
04:22the mic that i'm that i'm holding right now in my hand
04:27is more emblematic of life
04:31than any godly figure we can imagine
04:35This is real. This means something. This has a direct and tangible connection to who I am and what is happening between you and me. Right?
04:49But if I say that this Maik is the proper subject of spiritual inquiry, it would sound very strange in the conventional sense.
05:01Spirituality is not supposed to be about things that you hold in your hand. It's not about the medium that you use to relate with the other.
05:10Spirituality rather is about something else. Something else. And now you see from where that word comes. Somebody who's run away from life. A deserter.
05:28Do you see this? Somebody who is a recluse. Somebody who is not in the mainstream of life. That's because the common definition of spirituality itself has become very indifferent to life.
05:58Hmm? Very indifferent to life. And that's the reason why it's important to bring spirituality to where it really belongs. It belongs to us.
06:13My life, my existence, my being has to be at the centre of all my pursuits. It actually is always. And spirituality too is a human pursuit, is it not?
06:28And if it is as much a human pursuit, as science or humanities or arts or anything else that we do, then why should I not be at the centre of this pursuit?
06:41We spend time at office. We spend time at office, all of us. You talked of your company or employer. We spend hours there. 8, 10, 12 hours at a stretch.
06:52For whom do we go there? For ourselves. Right? And then we return to our homes. Who's home? Our home. You purchase something. You drop something. Right?
07:11You decide on a course of action. You abandon a course of action. All of that is for our own sake. I am repeating something that is very obvious.
07:23But since it's been missed, hence it's important to re-emphasize. All that we do is for our own sake. Is it not?
07:32Not the neighbours. Right? This device exists for my own sake. Everything in life is for my own sake. If I am waist 34, I can't wear 38 or 28. Or can I? No.
07:59No. Then why does the rule simply get neglected or violated when it comes to spirituality? The problem maybe lies in the word itself, spirituality.
08:22India has had a much better name. India has had a much better name. Adhyatma. Adhyatma.
08:32And that translates into self-knowledge, not spirituality. Where there is spirituality, there would be all of that which you just mentioned. All the mumbo-jumbo. All the hanky-panky.
08:45But the moment you realize it's about self-knowledge. Not random things in the world or in the imagination. It's about self-knowledge. Adhyatma.
08:56You break it down and it literally translates into knowing yourself better. Or knowing yourself more deeply.
09:08Hence, self-knowledge, obviously through self-inquiry. Self-inquiry is the strategy. Self-knowledge is the goal.
09:22Self-knowledge and self-observation is the movement-to-movement tactic. The method.
09:29But once it is about spirits, then it moves into a zone that's the worst product of human imagination and human cunning.
09:51From self-knowledge and self-knowledge, it becomes a thing about spirits and ghosts and things that exist outside of the body. Disembodied beings, as many are fond of seeing.
10:10That's not adhyatma. Not at all. Maybe that's your own particular fancy. You may proceed with that. That's a human right we all enjoy.
10:29If you want to cultivate fancies, you can do that. But that's not adhyatma. Anything that does not have to do with the I, does not fall in the realm of adhyatma.
10:47And remember, self-knowledge is a far far better and more accurate word for adhyatma than spirituality.
10:59The moment you say spirituality, it starts getting into a very vague, hazy, nebulous kind of zone where anything goes.
11:08Because nothing is verifiable. And therefore nothing is falsifiable. If you cannot check or verify something, can you ever say it is not?
11:21If there is just no way to check something, can it ever be denied for sure? No. And this entire rotten field of spirituality has prospered using things that can never by definition be verified.
11:39And hence therefore can never be proven false. And hence therefore can never be dropped. In contrast, please consider. Adhyatma proceeds through the way of negation.
11:54Look at, look at the shrieking difference there. Spirituality is about things that can never be negated.
12:05How do you claim I am seeing a ghost here? Negate. Can you? Can you? You cannot. That's spirituality. And what is self-knowledge?
12:20The very art of ruthless negation of everything that you see as imaginary. As a product of ego.
12:31So, Adhyatma proceeds through negation. Drop it. Verify it. Drop it.
12:42Which, as a corollary, you would see easily, means that Adhyatma would have a deep respect for facts. Facts.
12:54And spirituality would have a deep disdain for facts. Now you see why most of the Babas are found mocking the various fields of science.
13:09They would say, oh no, your science says that, your science says that. Oh, science is yet to know what we already know.
13:16Do you see? It's not just incidental. There's a principle behind it.
13:23The principle lies in the dimensional difference between spirituality and self-knowledge.
13:34Spirituality is the mind running amok.
13:43The mind exercising its right to insanity with gusto.
13:48That's spirituality.
13:55That's spirituality.
13:57Sitting here, because I either lack the sharpness or the courage to go out and inquire.
14:08It requires patience.
14:11It requires intelligence.
14:12It also requires a lot of nirmanta.
14:17Because whenever you would encounter facts, you would find something within yourself getting demolished.
14:24So, you need to have a certain detachment towards the self.
14:28If you need to live in facts.
14:30Right?
14:32Now, I am somebody who has neither of these.
14:34It's a choice.
14:35It's not something you are born with.
14:36It's something that you choose to have.
14:39Even if you say it is cultivated.
14:41The very cultivation is a decision.
14:43I am somebody who has never bothered to live in facts.
14:49Huh?
14:51But, I too feel a certain angst, a disquiet, a hollowness, a discontentment, as everybody else does.
15:03So, I try to find a cheap route to address that.
15:08That cheap route is what we commonly call as spirituality.
15:14So, here, you know, I keep feeling anxious and my relationships are all going awry.
15:25My boss hates me.
15:28My wife threatens to run away.
15:32All that can go wrong.
15:34Hmm?
15:35Everything.
15:36So, what do I do?
15:38I am experiencing a lot is wrong with my life, but I don't have the guts to go into the real reasons.
15:45Because if I go into the real reasons, I will find that if I want to correct the disease,
15:50I'll have to eliminate the diseased one.
15:56I have sensed that.
15:58That my disease is of my own making.
16:00Rather, I am the disease.
16:02So, if I want to take care of my ailments, I'll have to be very harsh on myself.
16:08And I don't want to do that.
16:09Nobody wants to do that.
16:11We are all designed to self preserve.
16:13We are all designed to choose comfort over truth.
16:18No?
16:20As we are born.
16:22So, what do I do?
16:23Everything about me is going wrong.
16:25So, I'll go to Babaji and Babaji will give me some fruit.
16:29Some Kriya.
16:31Some random something.
16:32And say, you apply this and things will go right.
16:35Sir, is there a causal relationship?
16:37Can you please explain?
16:39How do I know?
16:40How do you know?
16:41Maybe I'll fail to appreciate, but at least explain?
16:48Maybe a fifth grader would not understand quantum mechanics,
16:52but at least an explanation exists.
16:57So, maybe I'm the fifth grader.
16:58Maybe I won't get it, but kindly offer me the explanation.
17:02There is no explanation.
17:04It is totally subjective.
17:06If there is an explanation, only Babaji knows.
17:07And Babaji says, you too will understand if you surrender completely to me.
17:14Now, what kind of condition is this?
17:18Hmm?
17:19You are asserting something on me that comes with zero proof whatsoever.
17:32And I'm supposed to take that.
17:34The miracle is, I do take that.
17:36I take that because millions of others have been taking that.
17:42That's how humanity has been lumbering all throughout its history.
17:47And we say, you know, all these things have been happening and yet we have managed to reach this level of education, prosperity, progress.
17:54So, obviously we have been doing things right all along the way.
17:59No sir, that's not true.
18:05Anything that does not include who you are, is not fit to be included in the field of real spirituality.
18:19Pop spirituality.
18:20Pop spirituality, it can include anything.
18:23Bananas, tomatoes, potatoes, flowers of all kinds.
18:29The state of the moon.
18:36Name it.
18:38Snakes.
18:40Obviously.
18:41All spirituality is a predator.
18:49It feasts upon our ignorance.
18:52And therefore, the more ignorant you are, the more spiritual you are likely to be in the conventional sense.
18:59In the conventional sense, we are talking of pop spirituality here.
19:02Lok dharma.
19:04It's a known stat.
19:10Countries, places or communities that profess to be the most religious, also happen to be the most backward.
19:25Backward not just as a subjective allegation.
19:27But backward in terms of very tangible metrics, education, fertility rate, life expectancy, child mortality at birth, status of women.
19:47The more religious a place is, the more superstitious it is likely to be.
19:55In fact, if you are not superstitious, people will call you an Astic.
20:01He is not a spiritual or religious person.
20:02Is he?
20:05Is he?
20:06He is not.
20:07If you say you are spiritual, but don't believe in astrology, they will say, what kind of spirituality is this?
20:19If you are spiritual, then you say spirituality, real spirituality is the field of self-inquiry.
20:28Inquiry, not belief.
20:30Not belief.
20:31An inquiry involves dispassionate logic.
20:44And this dispassion that lies at the beginning is also the end.
20:51Just that, it's a basic principle that if you begin as X, it will be very difficult to end as Y in the internal journey.
21:06If you begin from a point of fear, if you begin investigating or asking or conversing or reading or relating from a point of fear,
21:17the end of that relationship or conversation or inquiry will not be fearlessness.
21:24If you start from fear, what you do from fear will only beget you more fear.
21:34Get in it?
21:35Similarly, if you do not start with a bit of dispassion, you will never reach the end of suffering that is the target, the right end of all Adhyatma.
21:58Adhyatma or spirituality is not about the things that you see or read.
22:07It's a very pure, very neat discipline.
22:11And it's the most fundamental discipline.
22:13It starts with the fact, the fact, not the assumption or imagination.
22:23This is not a field in which we posit.
22:28It's not about shooting in the dark or surmising blindly.
22:36Suffering is a fact.
22:38How is it a fact?
22:39We can conduct a survey here.
22:43Do you experience suffering?
22:44And people will say yes.
22:46We are not saying suffering is real.
22:48We are saying, as living human beings, we experience suffering.
22:54Right? To that extent, it is a verifiable fact.
22:58I can conduct that survey. You too can conduct that survey.
23:01You can verify the results I obtained. No?
23:04Hmm?
23:07So yes, living beings suffer.
23:10Living beings suffer.
23:12And it is to get rid of this suffering that the field of Adhyatma, real spirituality, self-knowledge exists.
23:26There is no other objective.
23:29No other objective.
23:31Now please tell me, is it about running away from the world?
23:35Even if you run away from the world, you would be carrying your own being with you. Right?
23:40The suffering would still be with you wherever you go.
23:48Then how can spirituality be for those who decide to abandon anything?
23:57I also said that it is the, it is the, the foundation of all disciplines.
24:06Because irrespective of whatever, of what you are, the role you choose, the identity you profess, the area you work in, suffering remains.
24:16Right?
24:18You could be young, you could be old, you could be man, woman, you could be working in this field, that field or not working at all.
24:24We all still suffer.
24:28Hence, it is the most fundamental discipline, irrespective of what else you are doing.
24:34We are talking, for example, spirituality here.
24:38And this gathering that we have, is not from the field of spirituality.
24:45How many of you are from the field of spirituality?
24:48Well, nobody.
24:50You are from diverse fields.
24:51How many of you are from the field of information technology?
24:56Okay.
24:59How many of you enjoy tennis?
25:06How many under 30 years of age?
25:12How many love to watch movies?
25:16Men and women, obviously we can see that.
25:18Do we see what we are trying to...
25:23You come from all kinds of fields.
25:28All kinds of diversities.
25:31Spirituality is no field at all.
25:35It is the foundation of all fields.
25:38Because, irrespective of who we are, where we are, stage of life, economic status, religious beliefs, political beliefs, we all still do.
25:50Come on, please.
25:52Suffer.
25:53So, it is this suffering that is at the root of all spiritual pursuit.
25:59And who suffers?
26:01The I.
26:03Therefore, please, please, please be careful.
26:07Whenever you are dealing with words like religion or spirituality or self-knowledge or inquiry, dharma, you know the rest of it.
26:20Always ask yourself, where is I in it?
26:24Where is I in it?
26:26Is this addressing who I am?
26:32Is this taking me within myself or is it taking me further into fabled lands of tradition and imagination?
26:41Let's say you are in the middle of a so-called spiritual process, whatever, some kriya.
26:51Ask yourself, has this taken me closer to my fact, not my imagination of myself, my fact, who am I from within?
26:59Has it taken me there or has it taken me further away from myself?
27:03And you know, if you are suffering and if you could be transported to a point away from yourself, you experience a temporary relief from suffering.
27:15It feels good.
27:17And that's one of the important reasons why the false kind of spirituality has prospered so much.
27:25It's the feel-good kind of spirituality.
27:28It takes you away from yourself.
27:29It's like getting drunk.
27:32You don't even remain conscious of your reality.
27:38Whereas, Atma Gyan happens to be a painful process.
27:44Like most medical processes.
27:48When you are taken within, it's not divine energies or cosmic lights or mystical sounds that you encounter.
27:59When you will honestly look within, what you will find is stinking trash accumulated over centuries of human existence.
28:12And carried to you via DNA and tradition.
28:19Through birth, through upbringing, through education and through social influences.
28:24All that is present within us.
28:26That's what you see when you look within.
28:28If you find somebody, for example, meditating with his or her eyes closed and that fellow has the beautiful mystical smile on his face.
28:39Rest assured, he is not seeing, he is imagining.
28:44When you will see, really yourself for what you really are, it will be very difficult to smile.
28:55Very, very difficult to smile.
28:56Who smiles looking at his own trash?
29:02Or do we? We don't.
29:06Unless there is some special kind of perversion taken hold of us.
29:12When you flush it away, right?
29:14That's what you will see when you actually look at yourself.
29:20Virtue and vice will become one.
29:25Love and hate will become inseparable from each other.
29:29It will be very difficult to figure out whether your loved ones are loved ones or whether there is something else you have for them.
29:36Employment and enslavement might become indistinguishable.
29:54These two are there but they are slowly merging into each other and I don't know what is what.
29:59How do I separate them?
30:00It will become very difficult to quote your employer with that pride.
30:15Are you getting it?
30:17And since it is painful, therefore most people just avoid it and rather they choose to wander into the market of Maya.
30:31Market of Maya.
30:35It's an easy way to detect, isn't it?
30:37Something comes to you, ask.
30:40Is it addressing who I am?
30:43My identifications, my fears, my ambitions.
30:46Is it addressing that?
30:50If not, it's not worth it.
31:00Do you think so.
31:01If not, your own.
31:03If not, you'll be mistaken.
31:04Go, go, go, go.
31:05Go, go, go, go.
31:07Go, go.
31:08Go, go, go!
31:10Have fun.