Wisdom from Sri Sri

26th December 2009

Q. Thank you very much for all I have received from you till today. Even I know you are available on an emergency basis, twenty four hours. I am ashamed toask you a help. When someone of your family passed and relationship between you and this person was not clear, what can you do to help the process to help that person live peacefully and also to be peaceful yourself? Thank you Guruji.

Sri Sri: Whenever you have to console a bereaved family, keep silent! Too many words does not make any sense there or have any meaning. Someone is in grief, you just be with them, with peace in your heart. They will absorb the peace, they will bask in your peace. They will absorb your peace - they will feel comfortable, happy.So when you are peaceful, you radiate it. They will absorb the peace and they would feel that inner calm, inner peace. So don't have to say, ‘Oh poor thing!This thing has happened with you. Oh, it shouldn't have happened.’ Talking all that type of pity or sympathy is not going to help either you or them. So justbe with them and say, ‘God will give you strength’. Just give that to overcome this situation. This is the only thing that you should do. ‘God will give youstrength’ or the person who departed, take their name and say, ‘That person will give you strength to go over this tough time, this difficult time.’ These one or two words are good enough. Don't talk too much but just be with them. Few minutes- you being with them will help them. OK?

Q. Dear Guruji, how can we teach the world that there is abundance of food, love for everyone? We don't need to fear lack, and therefore be greedy?

Sri Sri: We have to spread spirituality. We have to make people realize the importance of spirituality. They will have to meditate. Only through meditation would they ever feel the inner richness, inner abundance. Whatever you feel inside, that’s what you project outside. If you have fear inside, you will project it outside. You feel lack inside, and you will feel lack everywhere. So, that abundance has to arise from within. For that, one has to do meditation course like this, no?

Q. Dear Guruji, despite being on the path for almost six years now, we didn't worry about what the results would be later. You know, when we started, so manypeople ridiculed us and we didn’t mind any of those humiliations. None of those humiliations stopped us from working and reaching out to people. We keep doing it, because we know what we are doing is good and it’s not for our sake that we are doing it, we are doing it for the simple fact that it brings benefit to people. If not today, tomorrow they will understand, recognize it. Right? So you need not be a football of others’ opinion. As long as we know that we need to continue doing this and it helps people, it makes our life worth living. So we continue doing this.

Q. Dear Guruji, what can you do when you doubt the Master? How to overcome the doubt? How to prevent it from happening?

Sri Sri: You know, your doubt is always about something that is good. You only doubt the honest, you never doubt the dishonest. You doubt happiness, you never doubt depression. If you are depressed and someone asks you, ‘Are you depressed?’ Then you are very sure, you don't say, ‘Well, I am not very sure!’With happiness you say that, ‘Well, I am not sure whether I am happy or not.’ So we doubt love. Someone says, ‘I love you so much’, you say, ‘Really?’ If someone says, ‘I hate you’, you never ask, ‘Really?’ You doubt! So our doubt is always about something that is positive.And doubts - they come and they go. Doubt more. I won’t say, don't doubt. Doubt as much as you can. See I tell you, it will fall away by itself. It cannot stand. So doubt more. A Master only encourages the student to doubt more. He will not clear the doubts. In fact, the job of the master is to create more doubt so that you can bake well and become really solid. Because if not today, ten year later you may get the doubt, better get the doubt right away! Get asmuch as you can. Once they come, they don't come back again. Same doubts don't arise twice. Different doubts keep coming and when they come, don’t push themunder the carpet. Don’t shelve it under, go with it. And a time comes when you become solid. It only makes you stronger, powerful, focused and responsible.I would say, good! Doubts have come about the Master, let them come. Hmm? Cook with them. They are fuel by which the mind can really cook. Hmm! And you willsee that you are much stronger than your doubt! Your faith, your love, your beauty, your truth is a hundred times more powerful than the doubt. The faith islike the sun, the doubt is like a cloud. No amount of clouds can cover the sun for long. They just come and they disappear. Yes, there are some cloudy days and it can be there, let it be. The sun will eventually shine.

Q. Beloved Guruji, I have a new job that gives me economic and social stability, it’s good. On the other side, it is based on lies and on taking advantage of peoples' faith. The environment is polluted and colleagues poison me with depression and dishonesty. Still I work hundred percent and I give a good example. But I feel this situation is not good for me. What do you suggest me to do?

 Sri Sri: In a situation like that consider yourself like an oasis in the dessert. Just imagine even the oasis disappears from the dessert, how will people survive? So, your being there has a good influence on the people and keep influencing and see if you can create even one two, three or four people like you in the same work environment. It can change. You have the power to change your situation. On request from people like you who are in the corporate business environment, we tailored our course and changed its jargon, its processes to fit to the corporate world. We call this the APEX course. Today the World Bank and many other institutions are taking it and they are benefiting greatly by this. Yes? So, do it!

Q. Dear Guruji, I feel that my coming to you now has become an ego issue. I come to you to see what you will say to me or to get attention from you and not because I feel deep love and gratitude. I would like to feel the true deep love and gratitude like I have been before. I want to serve out of love and not out of feeling that this is what I am expected to do.

Sri Sri: You know, feelings are like clouds. They are like the waves on the surface of the ocean. They arise, they come and they go. They change. We shouldn’t be bent too much by our feelings.Do you see what I am saying? Life moves with commitment, not just feelings. And love is a gift. You can't force anyone to feel love. Your wanting to feel love becomes a hindrance to feel love. Just relax. I have spoken about this in the Bhakti sutras. When you want love, that want itself is turning or delayinglove from manifesting.So all that you need to do is to let go and relax. You will see your nature is love. Love is always there. It will manifest when it should. Like the sun is always there but it comes at its own time. Yes?The sun doesn’t come up all the time though it is there twenty four hours. But it is in different places. In the same way, all the beautiful feelings in yourlife are there with you all the time. You can’t forcefully manifest them. They will manifest at different times in life. And that’s why be more relaxed and take them as they come. Yes?

Q. Sometimes I get very angry. It is like something gets inside me. How can I get rid of this inner demon?

Sri Sri: I tell you, there is no demon inside. No! If anybody tells you, don’t listen to them. Just walk away. There is no demon inside you. Got it? You arepure light. You are born of light. You are light. All that you need to do is wake up, little more silence, little more meditation and observe the sensations.Start observing the sensations in the body, in the mind. Yes? And such an outburst of anger comes and then subsides. It will take little time so that itdoesn't arise at all. The more we are in the state of dispassion or centeredness, lesser is the anger. Behind the anger is a desire for perfection. Wanting perfection makes you angry. Want brings anger in us. So when you keep observing, the want dissolves. You loosen up from inside. You start blossoming from inside. You will see, you will get very few opportunities where you have to get upset. It is ok to get upset once in a while, doesn't matter.

Q. I want to become a therapist but since I have become spiritual, I have come to realize that western psychology is not everything. How can I combine western and eastern psychology?

Sri Sri: Yes, sure! You must! Western psychology gives certain ideas about behavioral patterns, certain impressions and effects of certain chemicals in themind. Whereas eastern psychology studies the nature of consciousness, studies consciousness itself! So it will be very useful that you would like to combinethe both. You study eastern and then you study western so that you can explain to the west what the east says. Because the eastern psychology or knowledge ofconsciousness is time tested, it’s age old. Ten thousand years, this has been practiced. Hmmm? And it should be interesting. If you take one aspect, say suppose love and examine how love is viewed in both eastern and western psychology. It’s very interesting. Hmmmm?

Q. Dear Guruji, how old are the Vedas? Do we have all the Vedas now? I hear we may have lost some knowledge?

Sri Sri: You are correct! There are four main Vedas. Vedas means a collection of poems- verses heard by Rishis, sages when they went deep in meditation. When someone went deep in meditation, they heard something and whatever they heard, they started telling their students, disciples. So these were truths which were derived or heard and downloaded from the cosmic consciousness. They had a way to download it in those days. The downloading is - close your eyes, meditate and what you notice, what you see - you click and then you download it. Surfing! Surfing around and downloading. So Vedas were downloaded like that.More than one thousand sages or those who are called Rishis - Rishi means the one who saw or one who heard. They saw it, they heard it and they wrote them.They didn't write themselves, they recited and told their students and they recited and so for a long time it was just passed on from one to another - verbally, vocally. That’s why they are called Shrutis.Originally these Vedas were divided into four. Originally the Rigveda had so many- twenty one different branches but today only three are available. Similarly, Yajurveda has some two hundred and eleven branches, but today only few - five or six - are available. Similarly, Samveda – thousand different Samvedic hymns, branches were there. Today only three branches are there. Rest is all lost. During the medieval times in India, when there was so much repeated aggression, those Vedas were all lost.

Q. Which Veda has medical knowledge?

Sri Sri: It is called the Ayurveda. It is the subordinate Veda of the main four Vedas. So both, the Atharvaveda and Rigveda - the first and last Vedas have aconnection to Ayurveda. So all the Ayurveda stories are so very, very beautiful. It’s said that one thousand Rishis were sitting and meditating. And a Rishi named Bharadwaja told them, ‘You keep awake. We are going into deep trance, meditation and we are going to say just what we see. But there should be somebody to note down, write everything down’. They told once person, ‘You don't meditate. You sit, watch and note down everything’.And that is how Maharshi Bharadwaja noted down, wrote down in a forest when thousands of the Rishis meditated together and they were downloading it and thenthey were saying it. Bharadwaja went from one to another, to each person and started noting them down and that is how the Ayurveda books were written. So even today, after so many thousands of years, it holds good. It is a Materia Medica - which herb is for which part of the body and what functions, what arethe combinations, what one should do and what oneshould not. Everything about health is written.When the British ruled India and the man who was in charge of India, the British gentleman, wrote to Queen Victoria of England saying, ‘You know, people should come and learn plastic surgery over here. How people can fix your nose, your skin, your legs,’ he said. It’s amazing that when knowledge was zero or nothing in England, it was so advanced in India. Lord Macaulay said in the parliament, that if you want to rule this country (India), first you must destroy the spirituality. Much has been written about Lord Macaulay's statement. He said, ‘I traveled the length and breadth of India and I did not see one beggar,one poor man. And people know science and medical things so well. 88000 medical institutions were there only in the south of India.’He said, if you want to rule this country, you must stop this. So they systematically closed down the medical institutions, Sanskrit colleges so that people could no longer read the books. You know, when all your books are in Sanskrit and they shut down all the Sanskrit schools by rule, your next generation getsno access to the knowledge and that is what exactly happened in India. There is a whole presentation about Lord Macaulay's vision that they could rule India only by doing this. Anyway, that is all history.What I am saying is that Ayurveda is still very potent knowledge- it’s a science even today. Hmmm? But many books are missing. Many were burnt down. India had a very crazy king at one point of time, he was called Aurangzeb. He came to power by putting his own father in jail who was the king then. And then he burnt big libraries in India like Nalanda. History says that the books in Nalanda library burned for six months. He called all the scholars and he told them, ‘What is in your library?’ They said, ‘A lot of knowledge.’ He was very fanatic. He took the Quran and asked, ‘Do you agree that this book has all the knowledge that is there in the library?’ They said, ‘Yes’. He said, ‘Then what is the use of having a library and so many books? Burn them down.Then one of them said, ‘No. There is other knowledge that is not in this book.’ Then Aurangzeb said, ‘Then they shouldn't exist. Anything which is not in this book shouldn't exist anywhere, it is not correct. It is not God’s! Burn them down. Thousands of years ago, philosophy of the Buddhists, Hindus, Jains,Sikh were available; medical, archeology, astronomy, metallurgy, engineering, science - all these books - were available. They were all burnt down. So whatever people could take overnight and memorize it, those things remained and it continued. So these are all past histories.

Q. In Muslim countries we have some resistance even with some new teachers. One of them read on the internet that the translation of the word Sohum is ‘I am god.’ It is not ok with Islam. Can you explain what it is meant and what is the intention by Sohum?

Sri Sri: Sohum is the natural sound of breath. When you breath out the hum is there. Sohum is the natural sound. If you read it the other way round, it is Humsa. Humsa is that which uplifts, that which floats, that which discriminates. That consciousness which discriminates right from wrong, from the permanent to impermanent, from the beautiful to ugly - discrimination.Sohum does not mean ‘I am God’, it is ‘I am that’. What is the ‘that’? ‘That’ could be love, ‘that’ is truth, ‘that’ is love, ‘that’ is the beautiful space,‘that’ is what I really am! First I think I am just the thoughts, the emotions, the mind, but the true realization, I am not the thought, I am not the body, but I am that! What is that? It is the experience that is beyond words! That truth which is beyond comprehension! That beauty which is beyond any imagination. That reality which you cannot totally catch. That love is what I am! And if love is God or God is love and I am love then I am God too!Jesus said love is God! And said, I am love! I am that, I am. This is there in the Bible also. I am that I am. Thou art that! All this is there. But it is not the meaning that is important. What is important is the vibration of the sound. The sound Sohum, has some definite vibrations in the cosmos and that helps our spirits to blossom and that is what is most important.

 Q. Dearest Guruji, I sit here with you and after all that happened in my life in the past, today I know it was worth going through it to live and experience what I feel today. Fullness, love, gratitude, excitement and inspiration. All because of what you have given to this world. Eternally yours!

Q. Does the strength of the Guru lie in the fact that he represents a symbolic father who helps to heal the wounds from the real father?

Sri Sri: The wounds need to be healed, that is more important. Whatever relation you put, whatever attachment you put, it is secondary. See the world from a fresh eye, from a fresh look. Anybody who has inflicted pain to you, know that they have done it because they have no knowledge. They were deprived of this spiritual knowledge. That is why they were behaving that way. They were handcuffed, they were blindfolded, they were dumbfounded and they acted the way they acted. They are victims themselves. See them from this angle, you will feel compassion for them and you will feel grateful for what you have got in your life, ya?

 Q. Please explain to me how we are responsible for how we feel? For example when we see a beautiful girl, a thought appears and then pleasure comes to me. But yesterday in the video, I understood it is the opposite. Why the desire appears only with beautiful girls? How do we choose that?

Sri Sri: I think you forgot how you felt when you were five year old. When you were five, six, seven or eight- year-old, it was not a beautiful girl who attracted you it was beautiful food that attracted you!I will tell you a story. There were people of three generation- father, son and grandfather. They all went out for a holiday- vacation. So the youngest of the family, the grand child was so excited, he got good food.And the adult, the father, was so attracted with the beautiful girls at the camp. He said, ‘What a beautiful day! I saw so many beautiful girls here. I hadgreat time!’ Now the grandfather's turn had come. The grandfather said, ‘It was such a relief here. So nice. We came out to this holiday camp. I had such good bowel movement! I never had like that before! What a relief!’ He said, ‘You both talk childishly. He talks about food, you talk about girls but in my age you will understand what the really happiness is’. So when someone is so old if they have a good bowel movement, that is great relief for them. They get good sleep, that is heaven for them. So, wait for some more time and you will see what is more beautiful in life!

Q. Dearest Guruji, I had a question in my mind when we were speaking about energy centers today, in the knowledge tape. I feel constant energy in my secondchakra but I don’t have any desires to do sex because I know it leaves me tired and dull. On the other hand my creative energy has not manifested itself. I would like to use my creativity and write, sing, dance, etc. How will it come to this point? Please show me a way. Give me ability to make my creative energy alive.

Sri Sri: Ya! Continue your meditation. If a particular chakra has been used a lot then automatically energy goes there quite a bit. But it will keep moving,definitely moving. You focus more on navel center and then dance, sing. Singing and dancing, that is all part of our practices. You know, it uplifts you in more than one way.

Q. Dear Guruji, I can’t forget this guy. He is not good for me but still I am in love with him. Even though I haven't seen him in ten months and I hardly know him. Can you explain?

Sri Sri: Wait till you find somebody else. Then you will forget all about that guy. Our mind is very strange. You know, the greatest, real stranger to us isnot somebody else but our own mind.

Q. Dear Guruji, only today I have fallen in love with nine people. One cute Serbian, one beautiful Croatian, one irresistible Bulgarian, one very nice German, two gorgeous Italians, and two delightful Russians and one really hot Indian. Clearly I can't make up my mind. Can you please help me?

 Sri Sri: I tell you the choice is too little for you. Go for more! Only nine? We have one ninety four countries in the planet! Don't be in a hurry to choose right away. Go slow. You know? Good!We have come to rise in love and on the way, it doesn't surprise me if you keep falling in love here and there. But don't be in a hurry to choose. Hundred and ninety two countries in the United Nations, Right? 

“That which you cannot express is Love.
That which you cannot reject/renounce is Beauty.
That which you cannot avoid is the Truth.”
~ Sri Sri Ravishankar



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