Latest news with #AcharyaPrashant
India Gazette
2 days ago
- Sport
- India Gazette
"What happened was wrong, shouldn't have happened": Acharya Prashant on Bengaluru stampede
New Delhi [India], June 5 (ANI): Renowned philosopher and author, Acharya Prashant, on Thursday, condoled the loss of lives in the Bengaluru stampede and said that the incident should not have happened. Speaking with ANI, Acharya Prashant also prayed for the speedy recovery of the injured in the incident. 'I express my condolences. 11 youngsters lost their lives when they came to express their happiness. I hope the injured people recover soon. What happened was wrong, this should not have happened,' he said. Speaking on the cause of the incident, Acharya Prashant said that when a person lacks meaning in his life, they are drawn towards these kinds of entertainment. 'The reason is that we do not want to face the realities of life. And in such a situation, whenever we find any kind of distraction, glamour, or excitement, we are drawn toward it. There are millions of people whose lives currently lack meaning, and it is these people who need entertainment the most,' he said. Further, he clarified that he is not against cricket itself, but rather the form of cricket that is designed primarily to provide momentary sensual excitement. 'I am a great admirer of Test cricket because it genuinely tests your patience, skill, and character. However, this version of cricket offers nothing more than seasonal entertainment, especially to the youth. During that time, young people immerse themselves in it, forgetting the harsh truths of life. A person who has something meaningful in life will be less attracted to such flashy forms of entertainment,' Acharya Prashant said. Eleven people died and more than 30 were injured in a stampede outside Bengaluru's M Chinnaswamy stadium as a huge crowd of nearly 3 lakh people had gathered to witness the victory celebration of Royal Challengers Bengaluru for winning the Indian Premier League (IPL). (ANI)
India Gazette
2 days ago
- General
- India Gazette
Acharya Prashant honoured with 'Most Impactful Environmentalist' award on World Environment Day, calls for inner revolution to tackle climate collapse
Greater Noida (Uttar Pradesh) [India], June 5 (ANI): On World Environment Day, June 5, the Green Society of India honoured world-renowned philosopher and author Acharya Prashant with the prestigious 'Most Impactful Environmentalist ' award. Acharya Prashant has been leading a nationwide movement instrumental in integrating spiritual clarity with environmental awareness. The society bestowed him with an award for guiding millions of individuals towards sustainable living. Accepting the honour, Acharya Prashant delivered a powerful address, 'The climate crisis is not just outside, it's inside. The glaciers are melting because our minds are burning with greed. Oceans are rising because our desires know no bounds. Before we can act responsibly, we must first think clearly. And that is where true environmentalism begins, not in policy, but in consciousness.' 'When we talk about the environment, we usually refer to forests, rivers, air, and wildlife. But do we ever ask what kind of people we are that we end up polluting rivers or depleting forests?' he questioned. 'Until we address the pollution within the inner chaos, violence, and apathy, how can any external action truly succeed?' Highlighting the anthropogenic roots of the climate crisis, Acharya Prashant critiqued the tendency to treat environmental issues as isolated, data-driven challenges. 'We talk about the Air Quality Index but never the 'Human Quality.' As if the fault lies in the air and not in us,' he remarked. He further underscored that much of the environmental concern expressed today stems from self-interest rather than genuine reverence for nature. 'If we were handed a new planet after destroying this one, most of us would forget about the environment instantly,' he said, drawing attention to the utilitarian mindset that dominates environmental action. In response to the growing climate emergency, Acharya Prashant has launched 'Operation 2030', a nationwide initiative to awaken and educate India's youth. The initiative is aligned with the IPCC-supported UN climate target of keeping the temperature rise to 1.5C over pre-industrial levels by 2030. It aims to create a new type of leader based on ecological awareness, inner courage, and a profound sense of collective responsibility. Acharya Prashant shines because he can bridge the timeless Vedantic message to the most pressing ecological crisis of our times. Central to his ecological outreach is his Bhagavad Gita Teaching Program, which has now engaged over 100,000 participants and recently conducted what is regarded as the world's largest online Gita-based spiritual examination. Acharya Prashant's teachings integrate orthodox Vedantic traditions with Buddhism, existentialism, and Western philosophical thought, influencing thinkers and students at top global institutions such as UC Berkeley, Bard College, IITs, IIMs, IISc, and AIIMS. Concluding his address, Acharya Prashant offered a stern but inspiring call: 'We are not running out of time, we've already run out. 2030 is no longer a policy target; it is a planetary lifeline. To win this race against time, we need a million mutinies in favour of the planet, mutinies in how we think, consume, and live. In homes, classrooms, offices, and within ourselves, change must erupt. The only hope now is an inner revolution led by aware, courageous individuals who refuse to be part of the problem. Nobody is going to come to save the planet. It starts with you.' As the world celebrates another Environment Day, Acharya Prashant's voice cuts through the rhetoric, reminding us that the path to ecological healing begins with inner awakening, and the time to walk it is now. (ANI)
India Gazette
25-05-2025
- Politics
- India Gazette
"Climate crisis results from mankind's primitive tendency to consume": Acharya Prashant pushes for solutions
New Delhi [India], May 25 (ANI): Acharya Prashant, a philosopher and spiritual teacher, explores the problem of human consumption amid the ongoing global climate crisis in his new feature piece published by The Sunday Guardian, where he argues that humanity faces an unprecedented crisis, which he labels as 'the sixth mass extinction', driven by human actions and 'mankind's primitive tendency to consume.' He explains that Operation 2030 is an emergency call to raise awareness about the climate crisis and the urgent need to address it. His central argument is that true climate transformation can only begin when material excess is replaced with inner wisdom. In his column with Sunday Guardian, Acharya Prashant wrote that the PrashantAdvait Foundation has initiated a campaign by the name of 'Operation 2030', where the understanding is that the climate crisis wasn't merely a political or technological problem, but stems from a deeper psychological tendency toward excessive consumption and a flawed philosophy of happiness based on material excess. 'We at the Foundation have been of the realised view that the Climate crisis cannot have a purely political or technological solution. The Climate crisis is a situation resulting from mankind's primitive tendency to consume, which reflects in population explosion, per capita consumption, and the global pop philosophy of maximising happiness through consumption. The crisis is therefore firstly inside us,' Acharya Prashant writes in his feature published by the Sunday Guardian. He explains that Operation 2030 remains an emergency call to raise awareness about the climate crisis and the need to address it. Acharya Prashant's main argument remains that true climate transformation begins when we replace material excess with inner wisdom. In his Sunday Guardian column, the author states that Operation 2030 urges inner transformation, climate accountability, and citizen-led change to combat ecological collapse. Focusing on the motives of Operation 2030, Acharya Prashant argues that the campaign is a call to address the long-standing urgency of the climate crisis. 'It was a collective promise made during the Paris Agreement at COP21 in 2015, to protect the future. But now, in 2025, that promise lies broken. The 1.5C threshold we aimed to avoid until 2030 has already been breached -- with global temperatures now already exceeding 1.5C above normal. The alarm rang -- but we were too distracted to hear,' he writes in his feature published by the English daily, The Sunday Guardian. Calling this a 'premature breach', Acharya Prashant advocates the need to have such an operation in order to address the climate crisis. He advocates calling out elites, who he says are the 'real culprits', for leaving high carbon footprints. Operation 2030 supports public declarations of carbon emissions and collaboration with data-driven organisations for accountability, the author states in his column at The Sunday Guardian. In democratic societies, meaningful climate action requires citizen pressure, Acharya Prashant writes in his article, adding that Operation 2030 aims to make climate a political issue by empowering individuals, especially youth, since 'they are not just future victims but present agents of change.' (ANI)
India Gazette
08-05-2025
- Politics
- India Gazette
"They have never really been a democracy, Pakistan army benefits when Pakistan gets destroyed": Acharya Prashant
New Delhi [India], May 8 (ANI): With India carrying out precision strikes on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and PoJK in response to the Pahalgam terror attack, author and Advaita teacher Acharya Prashant has said that there are times when the right response can be in the form of inflicting damage on someone who is not ready to understand any other language. In an interview with ANI, he also questioned Pakistan's aggressiveness towards India, saying that 'the (Pakistan) army benefits when Pakistan gets destroyed'. 'There are times when the right response can be in the form of inflicting damage on someone who is not ready to understand any other come a country on the brink of bankruptcy like Pakistan can afford to fight a war in these circumstances, such an expensive war. India is far too big to be engaged in war from the perspective of a smaller country like Pakistan. They are doing it because they are not really a democracy. They have never really been a democracy. The army benefits when Pakistan gets destroyed,' he said. He underscored that war becomes necessary when all efforts for peace have failed. 'So it is not war that is forbidden--it is bloodlust, ego, and unconsciousness that are. What is forbidden is an ego-driven response. What is forbidden is bloodlust. When you have that emotional, ego-driven frenzy riding your head, then you totally forget what you are doing--to yourself and your nation,' he said. Acharya Prashant said that war comes at an enormous financial cost, noting that a single advanced fighter jet can cost upwards of Rs 2,500 crore and a day of conventional warfare can cost Rs 30,000 to Rs 50,000 crore. 'And for a country like Pakistan, whose economy is nearly ten times smaller than India's, the cost will be even more staggering,' he said. He attributed this irrationality to Pakistan's military establishment. 'Pakistan is not really a democracy. It's the army that calls the shots. And the army benefits when Pakistan gets destroyed, because their very existence is based on enmity with India. That is the twisted logic they operate on.' Acharya Prashant said Pakistani army thrives on enmity with India to justify its dominance. He said India is not against people of Pakistan. 'We are up against an army that does not have Pakistan's own interests at heart. Their very identity is built around hostility towards India,' he said. He said Pakistan cannot afford a war with India. 'Global pressure will build, as conflict here affects international trade and supply stable peace will remain elusive until the ideological roots of the conflict--particularly distorted interpretations of religion--are whole conflict is rooted in a religious misinterpretation--the two-nation theory,' he said. He said when Pakistan realizes that a war with India is economically unbearable, it will be forced to scale down. 'A nation that truly knows why it exists will not be easily provoked. Pakistan, in its current form, seeks attention through aggression. That's what happens when a country lacks a constructive vision. We must resist being dragged into battles that ultimately serve to distract and divide. Respond when you must, but with 'vivek' (discernment). Fight when you have to, but never let the enemy enter your mind. That is where the real war is won or lost,' he said. He stressed the need for self-awareness--both in individuals and nations. 'Those who do not know who they are, are most prone to war. The Pakistani army, with nothing meaningful to do, needs violence to feel relevant. Before the Pahalgam attack, nobody was even talking about Pakistan. And now they have your attention,' he said. Acharya Prashant said India has ambitions that stretch far beyond the region. 'We aim to be a global hub of innovation, education, and human development. Engaging in costly wars only serves the interests of those who wish to slow us down--especially countries like China,' he said. Answering a query, he said when public debate is dominated by hawks and sensationalism, and when mature, balanced voices are drowned out, 'that is a sign we're losing our spiritual and rational grounding'. 'A democracy must think, must choose wisely. If in the public domain you are finding only hawks, if there are no level-headed voices, that's a red alert. The public is being instigated constantly. Then you should know that we're surrendering our thinking to the enemy,' he said. He warned that true enemies win 'when they occupy our minds'. 'They want to make you mad. They want you to stop thinking and start reacting.' India carried out precision strikes on early Wednesday on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan Occupited Jammu and Kashmir in response to Pahalgam terror attack last month. (ANI)
India.com
27-04-2025
- General
- India.com
Meet man, spiritual teacher who received special award from IIT Delhi for...., has huge number of followers, he is...
Spiritual leader and author Acharya Prashant has been honored with a special award by IIT Delhi. He has been awarded the 'Outstanding Contribution to National Development' (OCND) award. Acharya Prashant received this award on Saturday at IIT Delhi. The honor recognizes his impactful efforts in promoting national consciousness for modern society and reviving transformative spiritual wisdom. The IIT Delhi Alumni Association praised the 47-year-old awardee, saying, 'A rare fusion of timeless spiritual insight and contemporary relevance that is not only shaping individual lives but also weaving the fabric of our national consciousness.' A renowned Vedanta teacher, author, and founder of the PrashantAdvait Foundation, Acharya Prashant has authored more than 160 books and has led several initiatives that combine inner transformation with social responsibility. He is an environmental activist, a science activist, a campaigner against superstition, and a champion of essential human freedom.
