Acharya Prashant is a philosopher, author, Advaita teacher, and social activist. He studied at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and later at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He also cleared the UPSC Civil Services Examination but resigned during his training to pursue instead a life devoted to Vedanta teaching.He talks about the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita, associating them with modern world topics like relationships, technology, and mental decluttering, through his talks and writings.He once talked about the beautiful idea of how we spend most of our lives in motion. When we get a new job, it gives way to the wish for a bigger one. A relationship that once felt complete starts to feel like it’s missing something. Even our leisure begins to feel a bit restless; even after travelling for a soothing trip or getaway, we wait for yet another better one.But why does the mind keep reaching out, again and again, even after each ‘travel’ is satisfied? And we must ponder, that what if this movement of getting away over and over again is not actually about acquiring anything new at all, but about returning by taking the long way home?
Quote of the day
Do you know why you keep moving outwards? To search for the Center. And where is the Center? From where you started
Acharya Prashant
What does the quote mean?
When we read through Prashant Acharya’s words, they seem almost like a riddle. But its meaning becomes clear once we notice a pattern in how human beings actually live. We are rarely at rest. We keep chasing the next big thing, be it promotions, relationships, degrees, followers, money, recognition, just like one destination after another.Each time we achieve something, it doesn’t feel like enough, and again we set a new benchmark for achievement. This is the meaning of “moving outwards”, explaining the mind’s habit of constantly making fulfillment feel like something that is external, something not-yet-attained.The main idea behind it is that this restless outward search underneath it all is actually a search for a “Center”, meaning a stable, quiet sense of being enough, of being completely satisfied and fulfilled, that doesn’t depend on the next achievement. We assume this Center is something we’ll discover far away, in some future success.But actually the ‘Center’ was never ahead of us. It is where we started; it is our own original nature, the sense of completeness we had before we started believing we were incomplete and needed the world to fix that.
How is the quote relevant today?
Acharya Prashant teaches that this idea is deeply based in Advaita Vedanta. The self is considered already complete (purna); the feeling of lack is seen as a kind of forgetting, not an actual absence.Today, we live in a world where our lives are surrounded by advertisements, social media, career ladders, and comparison, convincing us that the Center lies just one step further: with just the next purchase,, one more milestone. So, this feeling of dissatisfaction trickles down to more anxiety, burnout, and a feeling of being incomplete.Acharya Prashant means to say that if ambition comes from a genuine, clear-headed place, it can be healthy and even joyful. But if it comes from an anxious sense of “I am not enough as I am,” then no external achievement will ever satisfy it, because the problem was never really external in the first place.
