Acharya Prashant (Photo Credit: फाइल फोटो)
New Delhi:
One could call him a spiritual author rooted in Advait Vedanta. Or one could call him a most contemporary representative of all the spiritual traditions of the world. Equally, one could call him breathtakingly original and beyond any tradition. But the most appropriate way to know him would be through his work.
His work is founded on compassion and expresses itself as demolition. In classical sense he is a most orthodox spiritual author, in the contemporary sense he is a veganism promoter, an environmental activist, a science activist, a campaigner against superstition, and a champion of essential human freedom.
The sections most benefited by his work include
Animals: With Acharya Prashant’s efforts over the years it is broadly estimated that lakhs, if not millions, of people have adopted vegetarianism or veganism and have chosen an awakened lifestyle involving environmental consciousness and a low carbon footprint. Many see him as the spiritual face of the vegan movement.
Youth: Acharya Prashant has been unique in addressing the energy and conflicts of the youth. There are so many who remain indebted to him for having received lifesaving clarity at critical junctures of decision making.
Women: Acharya Prashant's work has been to awaken women to their true identity beyond the compulsions of the body and the conditioning of the mind. Countless women today - from the teenage schoolgirl to the septuagenarian homemaker - owe their sense of liberty and clarity, and the courage to rise against external oppression and internal debilitation, to the teachings of the master.
Spiritual seekers: Acharya Prashant questions and deconstructs the belief system of the spiritual seekers through rigorous inquiry and intense discussions. He is well known to vigorously shake the spiritual seekers wanting only superficial treatments to the deep underlying life problems. For the ones who are ready to pay the price for their freedom, Acharya Prashant comes as a rare and real friend to such seekers.
He had been sensing since long that there is something fundamentally amiss in the way most people perceive the world, the way our minds are conditioned to operate, and hence something distorted in the way the relationships between people are, the way the worldly institutions are designed, the way our society functions – basically the very way we live. He had started seeing that incomplete perception was at the root of human suffering. He was deeply disturbed by man’s ignorance and cultivated inferiority, the evils of poverty, the evils of consumption, violence towards man, animals, and environment, and exploitation based on narrow ideology and self-interest.
At the age of twenty-eight, he bid goodbye to corporate life and founded Advait Life-Education for ‘Creation of a new humanity through Intelligent Spirituality’. The method was to bring a deep transformation in human consciousness. The initial audience chosen was college students who were offered self-development courses. Wisdom from ancient literature was taken to students in form of simplified texts and engaging activities.
Around the age of 30, Acharya Prashant started speaking in his Samvaad, or clarity sessions. These were in the form of open discussions on critical life-issues. Around the same time, he started organizing Self-awareness camps. He would take true seekers with him to the Himalayas, in groups of around 30 each, for periods of around a week. These camps turned out to be deeply transformational events and the frequency of the camps increased. Hundreds of camps have been organized so far providing immense clarity and peace in relatively short spans of time.
Acharya Prashant’s unique spiritual literature is at par with the highest words that mankind has ever known. He remains engaged sharing himself in the form of discussion sessions, self-awareness camps, and one-to-one meetings with the many seekers who visit him, from all parts of the world. He attacks the mind so vigorously and simultaneously becalms it with such love and compassion. There is a clarity that radiates from his presence and a soothing effect from his being. His style is forthright, clear, mystical and compassionate. The ego and the falsenesses of the mind do not find a place to hide in front of his innocent and simple questions. He plays with his audiences – taking them to the very depths of meditative silence, laughing, joking, attacking, and explaining. On one hand, he appears as somebody very close and approachable, and on the other hand, it is obvious that the words coming through him are from somewhere beyond.
He is rapidly gaining pace across all social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Linkedin etc. Besides this, with over 8 Lakh subscribers, his two YouTube Channels are quite popular among the youth. The thousands of videos and articles uploaded by him on the Internet are precious spiritual resources, freely available to all those who seek them. Personally too, he is ever open to meeting sincere seekers of Truth.
Today, his movement has touched the lives of several million individuals. Through his direct contact with people, and through various internet-based channels, he continues to bring clarity, peace, and love to all.
