Philosopher and author Acharya Prashant has returned to India after completing the second and busiest leg of his Britain tour. His tour began with an invitation from Cambridge University, then Oxford University, and then extended in a chain reaction to nearly all of London’s leading institutions. Over the course of the tour he held dialogues with Professor Steve Fleming, a cognitive neuroscientist at University College London (UCL); Professor Lars Chittka, a biologist at Queen Mary University of London; Professor Jonathan Birch, a philosopher at the London School of Economics (LSE), under London Climate Action Week; Dr Rupert Sheldrake, the Cambridge-trained biologist; Dr Melanie Joy, the Harvard-educated psychologist; and Rupert Spira, a leading Western exponent of the traditional Advaita philosophy. In addition, there were two dialogues with PETA’s senior leadership, a session at the British Parliament, and several public sessions.
Speaking to the media at the airport, Acharya Prashant made clear that he had gone to introduce the West to the real India. “I went there to speak of my country,” he said. “I carried India there, so that they might get some acquaintance with the real Indian philosophy.” When people welcomed him home, he offered the image of a tree: when a tree grows taller, it has not abandoned its roots; its roots are reaching deeper into the ground.
At St Giles-in-the-Fields, a historic London church, he led a session on the Bhagavad Gita, where local listeners with no prior acquaintance with the text sat absorbed through the session. Reflecting on it, he said the audience had come for Christ, but found Christ in Krishna.
On why the West is turning inward, he said it has pursued the outer direction with great honesty, but now sees that material attainment, while necessary, is not sufficient. Recalling his dialogue with Professor Fleming, he described how thought deceives itself, and linked this to the dishonesty of the ego.
On animal consciousness and non-violence, he said non-violence becomes possible only as the ego thins. Compassion for all living beings, he said, is not confined to any one religion or identity; it is the essence of religiousness itself.
On his priorities in India, he said no priority is greater than love and no mission greater than truth. Preparations for a third leg of the Britain tour are underway for September-October, when he will take up the many invitations he could not accept this time for want of time.
Acharya Prashant is a philosopher and author, an alumnus of IIT Delhi and IIM Ahmedabad, founder of the PrashantAdvait Foundation, and is ranked among the Watkins Mind Body Spirit 2026 list of the world’s most influential living thinkers. With over 115 million followers across social media, he is the most widely heard philosopher in the world.
