Acharya Prashant: The Story of a Rebel Choosing Wisdom Over Wealth

February 17, 2024

5 Minutes

Introduction

In a world where success is often measured by wealth and status, there are rare individuals who dare to follow a different path. One such person is Acharya Prashant, a brilliant student who turned away from a promising corporate career to seek deeper meaning in life. This blog tells his story, from his early achievements to his journey of self-discovery and how he's now sharing his wisdom with others.

Early Life

Acharya Prashant did very well in school and studied at the best colleges in India, with an engineering degree from IIT Delhi and later an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad. By the time he was 25, he had achieved a lot. He did not enjoy working in the big companies or for the government. It just did not feel right to him. Even though these jobs paid well and helped him clear his debts, like student loans, they did not make him happy. Acharya knew he had learned a lot, and he did not want to ignore his true feelings about these jobs. He saw that most people from top schools were pushed toward these careers, but he decided they weren’t for him. So, he chose a different path, one that might seem harder and less traveled, but it felt right to him. 

Education and Beyond

He studied engineering at one of the prestigious institutions IIT Delhi and then completed his MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, setting him up for a bright future in the corporate world. Acharya even spent two long years preparing for the UPSC exams, a path that promised a respected and secure government job. But as the years passed, he began to see things differently. He realized that the end goal of all this education and effort seemed to be about earning more money or gaining more power. This discovery did not sit well with him. He questioned the very essence of working in large corporations or chasing after high-paying jobs. It wasn’t about the work itself; it was about what the work represented. To him, it felt like a never-ending cycle of earning and spending, a trap that he didn’t want to fall into. 

He worked in some of the world’s top companies and MNCs. He described it as not just a job or a lifestyle, but a “mental state” and a “forced destiny”. He didn't want to become a “corporate slave’. He was determined to carve out a different path, one that would allow him to stay true to himself and explore what genuinely made him happy. This decision wasn’t easy. It meant walking away from security, prestige, and the expectations of society. But for Acharya, the choice was clear.

Finding What’s Next

After college, Acharya’s resume was so impressive that he got a lot of job interviews. There was this one time he showed up to an interview dressed as a character from a play he was directing. He didn’t have time to change. The people interviewing him found it interesting, but they all agreed the job wasn’t the right fit for him. They ended up chatting for two hours, way longer than any normal interview. During the talk, Acharya asked why people spend their whole lives working at jobs just for money, like selling washing powder and diapers, even if it doesn’t make them happy. He understood why someone might take a job if they needed the money, but he couldn’t understand making a whole career out of something that didn’t light a fire inside them. Sure, he had taken jobs himself to pay off some debts, but he believed people shouldn’t throw away their lives for work they don’t care about.

He also didn’t see himself in a typical job or having a traditional marriage. He thought marriage was something very personal and shouldn’t just be about following laws or social rules. After deciding he didn’t want the usual kind of life most people aim for, he felt a bit lost, wondering what to do next. When you don’t want the life or job that everyone else is chasing, what’s the next step?

Discovery: Choosing His Way

Acharya spent working with computers and software, and he noticed something big. For a lot of people, their job wasn’t just a job. It was everything to them. It’s who they were. But Acharya didn’t want that for himself. He loved to read ever since he was little. Books about famous people from the past spoke to him. He felt like he understood what they were all about, whether they were scientists, athletes, or writers. These were people who faced tough times but kept going strong. He thought life was about more than just earning money, getting married, and living the same day over and over. He was finding the deeper meaning in life, which he discovered in philosophy and spirituality. It was like these big thoughts weren’t new to him; they were just putting words to what he already felt deep down. 

Acharya started to see a pattern. It didn’t matter if someone was a philosopher in ancient Greece, a mathematician in medieval India, or a scientist in modern Europe. They all seemed to be saying the same thing with their words and their lives. They came from all sorts of places and believed in different things, but at the heart of it all was ‘Advaita’- a message about coming together and about love. This idea hit Acharya so hard that he decided to make it the center of his first big project. He called it “Prashant Advait Life Education”. It was his way of passing on the wisdom he found. 

Teaching and Growing

After finishing his studies, he created a course about leadership using stories from books because he loves reading. He got to teach this class in a few good MBA schools, meeting students who were the same age as him or even older. Acharya didn’t just stick to the book. He talked about real stuff, and things he lived through and learned from stories, to show that life is more than just what you find in textbooks. He believes you only truly understand something when you’ve lived it, not just when you’ve read about it. He used to work in big companies and he misses how skilled and passionate people were there. But he left because he felt like everyone was too focused on making money just for the sake of having more. He saw so much talent and energy in the corporate world but felt it was being used for the wrong reasons—like just getting ahead for oneself instead of doing something meaningful.