Wisdom from Sri Sri

Wisdom blog is now Shifted to...

2010-07-15T04:01:00.000-07:00

Jai Gurudev!

Wisdom from Sri Sri

is Now shifted to

Wisdom From Sri Sri Ravishankar

And

Blog in Hindi is

Happy Reading....

‘Your spiritual practices will take you out of bad habits’

2010-02-23T21:07:00.000-08:00

Bangalore ashram, Feb. 22: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar just returned from a week-long trip to the North-east of India. Narrating experiences from the trip, Sri Sri spoke about his visit to Bodoland in Assam. “A very remote area, and a tough place, much affected by violence. Our YLTP teachers (graduates of the Youth Leadership Training Program) have done such a good work. Over 1,50,000 people gathered under the hot noon sun for a satsang in Bodoland. In such remote areas, people have started doing good work. There you can’t complain if you don’t have electricity because anyways, there is no electricity! There is no electricity, road or water there. But people were contented. When we have all the facilities, we complain but sometimes where there are no facilities available, people live with contentment.”

(Someone from the audience asks a question)

Q: How do I drop the desire of alcohol and cigarette?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: There are three things that you can do to drop such a desire for alcohol or cigarette.

Do your spiritual practices daily. It will take you out of such desires.
Think that intake of alcohol or cigarette smoking will diminish your good luck. If you take like that, then something unlucky or unfortunate may happen.
Suppose someone offers you a crore ($10 million), if you stop alcohol or cigarettes for a month. Will you still do it? Each time you get a desire to do that, you will think that you will lose the 1 crore.

So, you will control yourself because of greed or fear. To come out of a bad habit, fear and greed are divya aushadi, best or even magical remedies!

After that, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar led the audience through a meditation. “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

© The Art of Living Foundation
For Global Spirituality

‘The moment you are centered, you see Divinity everywhere’

2010-02-14T22:38:00.000-08:00

Kolkata (India), Feb. 12:

Just before conducting the Rudra Puja on Shivratri night,

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar spoke about the true essence of Shiva andShivratri. Let us understand a little about the Shiva tattva. Only a little can be known. The intellect has to be content and finer feelings awakened. Both scientific understanding and spiritual wisdom are necessary to bring this contentment that is holistic and complete.There is no need to go to on long pilgrimages to find the Divine. If you don’t find God here, where you are, then it is not possible anywhere else. Where the minddissolves, Shiva is there. Be established wherever you are. The moment you areestablished, centered, you see that there is Divinity present everywhere. This is meditation. One of the names of Lord Shiva is Virupaksha - meaning one who is formless yet sees all. We know that there is air all around us and we can feel the air as well. But what if the air also starts feeling you? Space is all around us, we identify space. But what if space also recognizes and feels your presence? This happens. Only we don’t know it. Scientists know this and they call it the theory of relativity. The one who sees and that which is seen are both affected when seen. The Divine is all around you and is seeing you. He doesn’t have a form. He is the formless core of existence and the goal. He is the seer, sight and the scene. This formless Divinity is Shiva.To simply wake-up and experience this Shiva tattva is Shivratri.

Usually when there is celebration, awareness is lost. Deep rest in celebration with awareness is Shivratri. When you face some problem, you become aware and alert. We are at rest when everything is well; on Shivratri we rest with awareness. It is said that a yogi remains awake when everybody else is sleeping. For a yogi, everyday isShivratri. Lord Shiva is beautifully explained in a verse by Adi Shankaracharya (Sri Sri recites a few lines from the verse).

Adyantahinam - One without a beginning or end. Sarvada - He is the Bholenath (innocent ruler of all) who is present everywhere all the time. We think Shiva is somewhere else sitting with a snake around his neck.Shiva is one in whom everything has taken birth, who encompasses everything right this moment, and in whom everything in creation dissolves. Every form you see in thiscreation is all his form.

He permeates the entire creation. He is never born and has no end. He is eternal.

He is the fourth state of consciousness, the turiya avasta, the meditative state, that is beyond the waking, deep sleep and dream states.

He is the non-dual consciousness that is present everywhere. That’s why to do Shiva puja, you have to dissolve in Shiva yourself. Being Shiva, you do Shiva puja.Chidananda rupa - He is the consciousness that is pure bliss.

Tapo yoga gamya - One who can be known through tapa and yoga. The Shiva tattva can be experienced in the knowledge of the Vedas. The state of Shivoham (I am Shiva), Shiva kevaloham (there is only Shiva) is attained. Shivratri is the day to experience a wave of joy and contentment. Without yoga, Shiva can’t be experienced. Yoga doesn’t mean only asanas (physical postures) but that experience of Shiva tattva which happens with meditation, pranayam: when that ‘WOW’ happens from within.

The word Shambo has come from the same source - to realize how beautiful the Divine is, the creation and the Self is! It is a miracle how the same consciousness ispresent in every being in this creation! There is no other miracle greater than this. How did this One become so many? This tradition (of Shivratri) of moving from many to one is so unique. Yoga and meditation is necessary for that. Without meditation, the mind is not calmed. On the occasion of Shivratri meditation, bhajans are all part of the celebration. Everyone participates with a full heart. Everyone should sing.Shiva is the cause of all causes. Because of which everything is there – the tree growing, the sun rising, the wind blowing... The reason for everything happening is Shiva - because of whom everything happens and without whom, nothing happens.Panchmukha, Panchtattva – There are five faces to Shiva - Water, Air, Earth, Fire and Space. Understanding these five elements is tattva gyana (knowledge of the fiveelements). And then Shiva is worshipped as Ashtamurti (eight forms)– Mind, Memory, Ego are also included. This is both the form and formless aspect of Shiva. Worshipping Shiva is dissolving in the Shiv tattva and then wishing for something good. What to wish for? Wish with a liberal heart for the universal good, nobody should be unhappy in the world. ‘Sarve janah sukhino bhavantu .’ And make one sankalpa on this occasion. It is something which comes to you again and again like your breath, like yourheartbeat. And when you surrender such a sankalpa to the Divine, it will definitely come true.

We also worship nature. Divinity permeates everything in this Earth. Puja is not complete without honoring the trees, mountains, rivers, Earth and the people living on the Earth. Honoring everyone is Dakshina. Da means to give and Dakshina means giving something that will cleanse us of all impurities. Offering with which all your sins vanish. No puja is complete without Dakshina. When we act in society with skill and free from the distortions of the mind, all negative tendencies like anger, worries, sorrow are destroyed. I will say give your tensions, worries and sorrows as Dakshina. And how does that happen? With Sadhana (spiritual practices), Seva (service) andSatsang (company of the truth).

Ride the boat of the intellect to dissolve in the ocean of finer feelings and faith.

“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

© The Art of Living Foundation
For Global Spirituality

'Trapped in Freedom'

2010-02-14T21:15:00.000-08:00

Bangalore ashram, Feb. 10:

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar led the audience from 51 countries through a meditation. When everyone opened their eyes, they were surprised to learn that they had meditated for 18 minutes.

He then released a book called ‘Trapped in freedom’, a compilation of experiences of one on the spiritual path. “It is very interesting to see how spiritual experiences are combined with the mundane in the book,” said Sri Sri.

He then honored a scholar, Mithran namboodiripad, who has been with the Art of Living for the last 25 years. Introducing him,He said that Mithran namboodiripad was a learned Sanskit scholar and had memorized five million Sanskrit shlokas .

'Everyone should be given the opportunity to contribute'

2010-02-14T21:12:00.000-08:00

Bangalore ashram, Feb. 09:

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar reached the ashram at 8:30 pm, and came straight for satsang at the Vishalakshi Mantap. He just returned from Velanganni, a hamlet in Tamil Nadu and shared his experience of addressing 1,000 Roman Catholic priests of the Indian Priests Congress. (The address is available on the wisdom blog.)Then, a little girl stood up and told Sri Sri that there was no Art of Living center at her hometown, because of which programs were not being conducted. After saying this, she started crying.He assured her that a center would come up. The girl's mother stood up and said, “With whatever, we have we want to buy a plot on which we can construct an Art of Living Center.”

He said, “You can’t be emotional and give everything you have, as I won’t accept it like that. Many people should contribute a little to have the center. Many people in the past also said this. At first, when I went to Canada when there was no center there, a man came to me and said, “Sri Sri, my whole life has been transformed. I have $15000 and I want to put all this money and make an Art of Living Center.’ I refused him and said, “I am not in a hurry to have the Art of Living Center. If you insist, you can contribute $1000 and if you still want to contribute more, you can give $2000 but not more than that. Everyone should be given the opportunity to contribute.”

He said that the Divine's job was to take care of His devotees' needs.

Mantras are those sounds which you hear from deep within during meditation & the aim is to bring one back to the source

2010-02-14T20:41:00.000-08:00

Bangalore Ashram, Feb. 8:

Q: Guruji, singing Shiva and Krishna songs in satsang make many people wonder. Although we imbibe so many good vibrations this still makes some people think that we are singing Hindu songs. Why do we sing songs of so many Gods? People from otherreligions get confused between the real meaning of satsang and the symbolic meaning behind mantras.

Sri Sri: The sound of ‘Om namah shivaya’ includes all the five elements – Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Ether. Hinduism is not a religion as such. People have beenchanting this for thousands of years. Mantras are those sounds which you hear from deep within during meditation and the aim is to bring one back to the source. During later days, people started putting faces and drawings to these mantras. Mantras have got certain vibrations/ energy. They are universal.

Even in churches in Latin America ‘Marnah nath’ is used. Its translation in Latin and Sanskrit is so close. For ‘Lord’ the word in Latin is nath and also in Sanskrit the word nath is used to mean ‘Lord’. So the word marnah nath meaning ‘My lord’ which is used in Christianity is actually a Sanskrit word.

Chanting in Sanskrit is beneficial because Sanskrit is the oldest language known to mankind. It has a deep impact on the consciousness. We welcome all songs – Japanese, Korean, Spanish. Any song you want to sing is welcome. We sing a lot of songs inSpanish and Portuguese in satsangs in South America. Of course, in India everybody easily connects with ancient mantras. Take any language you want but along with it take this also. How many of you feel singing and chanting these mantras creates some vibrations? (All raise hands in affirmation) It’s obvious. In Vedic chanting, many times you don’t know even the meaning but it has some effect.

In the morning we did Rudra Abhishek, this has been practiced for over thousands of years. We use crystal, milk, yoghurt and flowers etc. They all create a certain impact and send out positive vibrations.

Q: We are hearing so much about Shivratri. What is the importance of Shivratri?

Sri Sri: We are either in the sleeping, waking or dreaming state. Shiva is the fourth state of consciousness - the meditative state. On that particular day, just before the new moon arises people stay awake all night and celebrate. The belief is that whatever you wish for comes true. For the general public, the night of Shiva is the night of celebration.For the wise seekers who are on the spiritual path, every day and every night is a celebration.

Q: What is the rule to be reborn? Who maintains records of all human beings? Why don’t we remember anything about our non-physical form?

Sri Sri: It is not very difficult to know. You can do the eternity process and you could know.

Q: Guruji when will we witness something bigger than the Silver Jubilee Celebrations?

Sri Sri: Should we do something bigger than Silver Jubilee? (A big yes from the audience) Yes, why not? Next year in 2011, the Art of Living will complete 30 years, 3 decades . Let’s see. We will plan something. You also plan. Let us make a pool of ideas.

The more sattva/ purity rises in your life, the more easily your tasks get accomplished

2010-02-14T20:36:00.000-08:00

Bangalore Ashram, Feb. 7:

Swami Ramdev paid his respects to Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in the evening satsang at the International Art of Living Center. In his welcome to Swami Ramdev, Sri Sri said ‘The progress of India is always done by saints, sanyasis/renunciates. Swami Ramdev has contributed a lot to spread yoga and Ayurveda in different regions of India, including many villages’. Swami Ramdev shared his vision of an India free from hunger, poverty, corruption and all other social evils. He expressed gratitude towards Sri Srifor Art of Living's contribution towards social progress.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: The more sattva/purity rises in your life, the more easily your tasks get accomplished. The amount of sattva/ purity in us decides the productivity of our input. If you put in a lot of effort and the result turns out to be less or below your expectations, it means that there is a lack of sattva/ purity in life. When we meditate, then our work happens easily. How many of you have noticed this?(Audience raises their hands). People are unaware of this secret. They think why to spend 20 – 30 minutes meditating, when that time can be spent to earn them money. It is very important to meditate whenever we get time, so that you accomplish your tasks more efficiently and with ease

Q: Will you please talk about animal sacrifice?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Animal sacrifice (bali pratha) needs to be stopped. It is not written in any scripture to kill helpless animals. It means to surrender any animal tendencies that you find within yourself. You can explain this and make othersunderstand too.

Q: Guruji, in Jharkand many efforts are being made by saints to do away with the problem of Naxalism but no solution is working.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Naxalites are good people. They need to be given a little understanding and direction. This is because of the lack of religious and spiritual education. If the educational institute includes even a little bit of religiouseducation no one from that institute will turn out to be a Naxalite. In the name of secularism, religious education has been abandoned.

Q: Guruji when I meditate on you many other Guru’s also come into mind. What is the solution?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Good. Greet them all.

Q: Everyday people make requests to you that can be directly requested to God. Is it that God pays more attention to you than to us?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: I leave that question with you to wonder about. You should have something to wonder about. Besides, why do want to know all the trade secrets!(Laughter)

Q: What is your advice to youth?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: If they want advice, they can take it. Usually I don’t give advice that is not taken. If advice is not taken, it remains as orphans in the air. The youth know that they have a responsibility towards their elders. I am always for joint families where all the generations live together but it has both advantages and disadvantages.

'You move from one perfection to another higher perfection'

2010-02-12T01:41:00.000-08:00

Bangalore ashram, Feb. 6:

Q: Guruji, I often see people bow down to you. Is doing all that necessary?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: No, no, not at all. These things are really insignificant. You know, these outer gestures are insignificant. Don’t give too much importance to them. All these gestures don’t matter. We all are connected from a deeper level, level of heart. That’s how we have met and we are all here.

Q: Yesterday you talked about leela(game). One can comprehend it intellectually but how to make it an inner experience?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You don’t have to make it an experience. You simply have to wake up and see life is a game. Wake up this moment when I am speaking. Whatever happened till now, is it not like a dream? You had dinner this evening, meditated in themorning, did yoga in morning and went to bed last night, and if you go to your own memory there were good events, bad events, you had profit, you had loss but right this moment it’s all gone.

Wake up this moment and see from tomorrow to the next 10 years is also like a dream! When you realize this whole phenomenon that has happened in the past and future is all like a play, a game. You don’t have to think this is a concept and I have to experience it. My dear, memory is memory. Your thinking that you have to experience memory is a concept and your thinking that you don’t have it is again a concept. You simply have to realize right away it is a dream. This could be a dream. That very moment you feel a sense of relief. A soothing wave overtakes you. Don’t wait that someday you will experience it’s all a game.

May be after you leave the body you will experience one day. Then also you will realize I could have done that much before.

Q: What is difference between dispassion and indifference?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Well, in indifference there is a sense of apathy, rejection and disappointment. In dispassion there is joy and enthusiasm.

Q: Do we all have a purpose in life or we can all come and go when it is? If there is one purpose what is it?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You know it’s best to take out paper and pen, and list out what is not the purpose of life. By negating it will be easier for you.

Q: Is Guruji the best Guru? Is Art of Living the best spiritual path? People say it is the best. Isn’t it a seed of war, calling my belief to be the best? The symbols of other religions in Vishalakshi Mantap (meditation hall in the ashram) tell us that all other religions are also good.

It will not be the truth to say it is not the best. And it sounds very funny for whenever someone says, ‘it is the best’, you have a sort of resistance for that. So sometimes some of these questions are best not answered. I am not here to clarify your doubts. I am here to create more doubts.

Doubt is always about something which is positive. When somebody tells you ‘I love you’ and you say ‘really’. But do you say really when somebody says ‘I hate you’? You doubt your capabilities and you never doubt your weaknesses. You are so sure of your weaknesses. You doubt in the honesty of people and never in their dishonesty. Nature of doubt is such that it always clings to something which is positive. So if you have a doubt I will encourage you that this is very positive.

Q: Guruji you said to be a perfectionist is cause of stress. Yet everything about you is so perfect. You are perfect, your actions are perfect, your words are perfect, your understanding of God is so perfect, this Ashram is perfect and so many other things. What is the difference between your perfect thinking or, mine or ours?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Just that you have to look yourself in the mirror. That’s it. You move from perfection to perfection. You move from one perfection to another higher perfection. That’s how you have to look at life. Otherwise you see this is not perfect , everything is imperfect, everything is hopeless. And we tend to get into negative framework. Isn’t it?

Q: What is upanishad?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Sitting close by and listening is Upanishad. Upanishad is a collection of discourses of high knowledge, how it was transmitted from a Master to students. It is very interesting.

In one of the Upanishads, it is beautifully said. Once a boy goes to his father who is also his Guru and asked what is God. Father replied, ‘Food is God’ for everything grows from food, everything is sustained by food and in the lack of it, everything dissolves and everything again becomes food. So the boy went and thought about it for several months, understood all about food and came back to his father, and again asked ‘What is God?’

The father, also his Guru, said, ‘Prana is God’. The boy went, thought and understood all about prana, how it is going in and out of the body, how many types of prana are there and read all experiments about prana.

He again came back to his father and asked, ‘What is God?’ The father looked at child’s face, so glowing and so vibrant. Father said, 'Ok, the mind is Brahman, mind is God.' Like that, the boy went and thought till he finds the ultimate bliss. Neither the student complaint to the teacher that he was told, ‘Food is God, but it is not the ultimate, you told me the wrong thing'. He simply came and again asked the question. So this is ancient way of teaching step by step – food, then prana, then the mind, then the inner spirit, then the universal spirit, bliss.

Bliss is Divinity, the space. You are like the space. Then he said, 'There is no difference between you, me and the infinite self. We all are one. The Self, Guru and the universal energy are not different. All are made up of one substance. Today if you talk to scientists who study string theory, who study quantum physics they will say the same thing that is said in the upanishads. In upanishads, it was said thousands of years ago, ‘God is not a person, sitting somewhere up in heaven but God is present everywhere. He is omnipresent and omnipotent, the energy of which you are also made up of, everything is made up of’.

'If you follow wisdom, fun & joy follow'

2010-02-09T23:44:00.000-08:00

Bangalore ashram, Feb. 5:

Q: Guru, I often see people bow down to you. Is doing all that necessary?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: No, no, not at all. These things are really insignificant. You know, these outer gestures are insignificant. Don’t give too much importance to them. All these gestures don’t matter. We all are connected from a deeper level, the level of the heart. That’s how we have met and we are all here.

Q: Yesterday you talked about leela (game). One can comprehend it intellectually but how to make it an inner experience?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You don’t have to make it an experience. You simply have to wake up and see that life is a game. Wake up this moment as I am speaking. Whatever happened till now, is it not like a dream? You had dinner this evening, meditated in the morning, did yoga in morning and went to bed last night, and if you go over your own memory there were good / bad events, you had profit, you had loss but right this moment it’s all gone. Wake up this moment and you will see that tomorrow, the next 10 years is also like a dream! When you realize this whole phenomenon, that has happened in the past and future, it's all like a play, a game. You don’t have to think this is a concept and I have to experience it. My dear, memory is memory. Your thinking that you have to experience memory is a concept and your thinking that you don’t have it is again a concept. You simply have to realize right away that it is all a dream. This could be a dream. That very moment you feel a sense of relief. A soothing wave overtakes you. Don’t wait till someday you will experience - it’s all a game.May be after you leave the body you will experience one day. Then also you will realize I could have done that much before.

Q: What is the difference between dispassion and indifference?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Well, in indifference there is a sense of apathy, rejection and disappointment while in dispassion there is joy and enthusiasm.

Q: Do we all have a purpose in life or we all come and go whenever? If there is one purpose, what is it?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You know, it’s best to take out a paper and pen, and list out what is not the purpose of your life. By negating it will be easier for you.

Q: Is Art of Living the best spiritual path? People say it is the best. Isn’t it a seed of war, calling my belief to be the best? The symbols of other religions in Vishalakshi Mantap tell us that all other religions are also good.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: I leave it up to you. You discuss and decide. Go through all the confusion and come to your own conclusion. I never say it is the best and I also don’t say it is not the best. It is up to you. It will not be the truth to say it is not the best. And it sounds very funny for whenever someone says ‘it is the best’, you have a sort of resistance for that.

So sometimes some of these questions are best not answered. I am not here to clarify your doubts. I am here to create more doubts. Doubt is always about something, which is positive. When somebody tells you ‘I love you’ and you say ‘really’? But do you ask ‘really’ when somebody says ‘I hate you’? You doubt your capabilities but you never doubt your weaknesses. You are so sure of your weaknesses! You doubt in the honesty of people and never in their dishonesty. The nature of doubt is such that it always clings to something, which is positive. So if you have a doubt, I will encourage you that this is very positive.

Q: Guru, you said being a perfectionist is a cause of stress. Yet everything about you is so perfect. You are perfect, your actions are perfect, your words are perfect, your understanding of God is so perfect, this Ashram is perfect and so many other things. What is the difference between your perfect thinking or, mine or ours?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Just that you have to look at yourself in the mirror. That’s it. You move from perfection to perfection. You move from one perfection to another higher perfection. That’s how you have to look at life. Otherwise you see this is not perfect, everything is imperfect, everything is hopeless. And we tend to get into negative framework. Isn’t it?

Q: What is Upanishad?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Sitting close and listening is Upanishad. Upanishad is a collection of discourses of high knowledge, and the manner it was transmitted from a Master to students is very interesting.

One of the Upanishads beautifully brings this out well. Once a boy went to his father who was also his Guru and asked, 'What is God?' To which the father replied, ‘Food is God’, for everything grows from food, everything is sustained by food and when there is a lack of it, everything dissolves and everything again becomes food.

So the boy went and thought about it for several months, understood all about food and came back to his father, and again asked ‘What is God?’ The father said, ‘Parana is God’. The boy went, thought and understands all about prang, how it is going in and out of body, how many types of prang there are and read all experiments about prang. He again came back to his father and asked, ‘What is God?’ The father looked at the child’s face, so glowing and so vibrant. The father said, 'Ok, the mind is Brahman, mind is God'. The boy went and thought till he found the ultimate bliss.

Notice, that the student didn’t complain to the teacher that he was earlier told ‘Food is God’ but later something else. He simply came and again asked the question. So this is an ancient way of teaching, step by step – food, then prang, then the mind, then the inner spirit, then the universal spirit, Bliss. Bliss is Divinity, the space. You are like the space. Then he said, 'There is no difference between you, me and the infinite self. We all are one. The Self, Guru and the universal energy are not different. All are made up of one substance.'

Today if you talk to scientists who study the string theory, who study quantum physics, they will say the same thing that is said in Upanishads. In the Upanishads, it was said thousands of years ago that 'God is not a person, sitting somewhere up in heaven but God is present everywhere. He is omnipresent and omnipotent, the energy of which you are also made of, everything is made up of.' Don’t confuse God to be a person, somewhere sitting up in heaven. Godliness is your own nature.

God is Vibration. God is Love. God is Truth, Existence. God is Beauty.

People right through history have told this. Lord Krishna told Arjuna, ‘People think I am a human being but I am not. People confuse the Divine to be a human being. But God is the force, He is energy. That is Divine and not a person.’

Q: What is secret of selfless service which is devoid of personal conflict?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Just do service. Don’t think too much, whether it is selfless or selfish. Never mind. Don’t analyze too much. Let’s keep it simple. If you enjoy doing service, it’s good. If you don’t enjoy, never mind because someone who is benefitting, is enjoying. It’s better not to analyze too much. Where is the time to think? If there is an intention only, it will make you feel uncomfortable. Just think I am doing it with all my heart because it has to be done. Finished. That’s it. And if you are enjoying then don’t think, “Oh I shouldn’t be enjoying” because whatever you try to push down, fight with, it simply comes up.

In my commentary on the ‘Narad Bhakti sutras’, I have said: ‘Without any conflict, repose in the Self’. Now suppose there is some conflict, then don’t try to get rid of it. Simply embrace it and you will find it disappears.

Q: Guru which is your favorite quote from the Gita?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: I have so many. There is no point in you picking my favorite quote. You read it and find your own favorite quote and keep reviewing it every few years because it may change. You can’t find a more contradictory scripture than Bhagwat Gita. In every chapter Lord Krishna says something different. It is like climbing one step after another. And all that is said is relevant from a bigger picture. Arjuna also said, ‘Krishna, you say different things at different times. I am so confused. Please tell me one thing that I should do.’ Then Lord Krishna says intelligent people know there are many facets, many angles, all is spherical whereas dull people think everything is linear.

Q: Guruji, how do I know if I am growing on Spiritual path?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Look, there are no criteria. See from the past if you are more calm, or drop all spiritual practices for a month and see how do you feel, whether it makes a difference, or ask people around you if you are behaving better than before. Now none of these are benchmarks. And after listening to all these opinions, throw them all into the basket. If you learn to relax well, if you are able to see everything as a dream – nature of the universe, you are progressing. There is no other way. You are on a conveyor belt, you can’t be stuck, you have to move, or you will be pushed. When you are on conveyor belt, you will be moving.

Q: Guruji, I have my partner whom I love with all my heart but I still get attracted to other people even if I don’t want to. How can I get rid of it?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yes, the mind always gets attracted to something new but the heart always recognizes something which is old. You always say, ‘It is an old friendship’, Preet purani, ancient love. Whatever you are attracted to, if it becomes a little difficult to get, you develop love for that. If you get it easily, it is finished. When love gets deeper, it becomes devotion. When love matures along with wisdom, it becomes devotion.

Q: Guruji, I get bored nowadays. I am contented in my heart but nothing gives me joy except from your talks. What should I do?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: My dear, why do you have so much time sitting and thinking about yourself? If you are happy, go and do seva (service). We have lots of things to do. Care for others, do some service. There is so much to learn. Learn more. Don’t run behind joy. Let joy run behind you. If you follow joy, misery will follow. If you follow wisdom, fun and joy follow. Wherever you go, fun tags behind you.

Q: Guruji, if human being knows that if one is born then he has to die, then why does he worry so much about death?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Well, there is lack of spiritual education, broader vision and knowledge of who one is. Ok, let me ask you all a question. You know, all those who have grown old don’t feel that they have grown old. How many of you feel this? (Many raised their hands). You are 50, 60 or 70 years old and you feel that everybody else has grown but you haven’t changed. You see your little 1- 2 year-old child has grown to 16 years but you don’t realize that you have also grown equally. You know, many times father and son, mother and daughter have this conflict because neither father nor mother think that they have grown older. It is the same problem with mother – in – law and daughter – in – law in India, perennial household word because you feel that you haven’t changed, you haven’t grown. This is because there is something deep inside you which never dies, which never grows old. Time doesn’t touch that aspect deep within you.

Q: When we do mistakes, people get angry. But even when we rectify the mistake people don’t leave their anguish? What to do?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Bring them to the course. They are not living in the present. Bring them to the present. They keep on hanging on to the past. You have changed but they forget to change.

There is no caste for the spirit

2010-02-09T09:12:00.000-08:00

Transcript of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's address at “Indian Priests’ Congress” -Shrine of Our Lady of Good Health, Velanganni on February 9, 2010. This conference was attended by 1000 Roman Catholic priests across India.
Om Shanthi...Shanthi... Shanthihi...

Sri Sri : What a joy to speak to the lovers’of God! I am a child going to blabber in front of scholars. Let us discuss...

Lovers know the language of the heart-we are all lovers of God who want to unite with the spirit of the world. We all want to serve, ...see divinity in people around...

Three things are important for this:

Context (of life)
Commitment
Compassion

We have all the three. Apart from how to unite and connect, we have to know how to face challenges in life. When faith is shaken, how to rekindle it...

To know faith, we have to know doubt. Doubt is something about positive. We never doubt the negative.. we doubt whether we really happy, but never doubt our misery!

God is the most positive thing in the universe! Doubt about God, doubt in Self...How to get over these?

The Upanishads tell about the experience of divinity in four stages for the Seekers:

Saameepya: feeling the proximity of the Divine
Sannidhya: feeling the Presence
Saaroopya: doing what the Divine is doing, imitating the Divine
Saayoojya: Merging with the Divine.

Another challenge is to arrive at the inner peace and calmness. Mind vacillates between the past and the future. How to bring the mind to the Present? Using our own breath, we can calm the mind, reunite with the Spirit...Simple breathing techniques can remove negative emotions and we can experience Freedom within. Mind can right away go into Prayer easily, effortlessly.

We all are made of a substance called Love...God has made man in His own image.. and God is love.. Then why all the negative emotions? How to meet these challenges?

Wisdom, Spiritual wisdom help overcome these hurdles.

We are all committed to Service: service to God, service to humanity. Still, if something is missing, something is broken, then breathing, meditation can connect us to our inner self. Meditation is Wordless Prayer...words are there and not there at the same time! Ability to connect to everybody.. “There is no Other”...is the Mantra of Love! All is part of One...

As lovers of God, our relationship is only one...All in One.. One in All.. This is Prayer.. We don’t lack anything. There is abundance ..For the one step we take, the Divine takes ten...!!!

Let us open the floor for questions!!

Q: I get some experiences of fellow suffering/happiness. But how to go beyond my individuality and identity and get a deeper experience?

Sri Sri : Do not leave that passion for God. Whatever experience we are getting is due to His Grace.. not through our efforts. If you are able to love everybody, it is a Blessing! We have to be grateful...the more grateful we are, the more we get. What do you say?

Three questions: (a) how to sustain Prayer, when the faith seems lost (dark night of the soul)? (b) Is it possible to reach God without religion, through spirituality? (c) why is it that you never speak anything about casteism?

Sri Sri : I will answer the last question first! Please go through my book “Heritage of Dalits”. If you see the thousand Rishis of ancient India, 90% of them were “Dalits”-Vyasa, Valmiki and so on. The Upanishads tell that “all are born Soodra and become Dwija by action”...

I unequivocally condemn casteism. There is no caste for the spirit. When we want to see a good doctor, we don’t ask his caste. When we want to see a good lawyer, we don’t ask his caste. It is of use only in Politics! I don’t know Politics. I speak from heart to heart. I love to be with people of God like you!.

For the second question, I never tell to drop religion. Do not forget the essence of religion is Spirituality. Do you feel that connectivity, calmness inside...We know that during Tsunami, the Basilica housed people of all religions, temples and mosques housed people of all religions.Only aim was rehabilitation of people.

Terrorism arises because some people feel their way is the only way to God and others do not have the right to follow their way..

For the dark night of the soul, Rishi Patanjali describes nine obstacles in the path of the seeker. These include Diseases, Doubt, Dullness (inertia, Disinterestedness, Unsustainability and so on. All these can be overcome by practice of Yoga.

Q: Even when we are doing good, lot of discouraging situations arise. Can you give some suggestions to get over these?

Sri Sri : When nothing is of help, Prayer helps! A genuine “help me God!”...Any challenge is a chance to reaffirm our commitment....

Q: What is the significance of pilgrimage in Hinduism? What is your experience of any Pilgrimage?

Sri Sri :Best pilgrimage is Inward Journey! A pilgrimage is an opportunity for people to come together and pray together. As you know, praying together generates more energy, you know, a synergy. But don’t think God is only in pilgrim centres! God is omnipresent and omniscient. Ancient Rishis meditated in some places and put all that energy in some idol there. The scriptures talk about God as having no name and no form. There is freedom to worship God in any form or any name. Wisdom from anywhere was acknowledged.

Q: As a religious leader, what is your opinion about the anti-Christian violence (with a pattern and agenda especially since early 90’s) for Political gains?

Sri Sri : I see violence in a bigger context. I am concerned about all violence. Violence in the red corridor (Maoist)...Even domestic violence. I am also concerned about the increasing suicidal tendency in the country. Suicide is violence against the self.. When mind is stressed, it leads to violence. Depression leads to suicide. We have to work together. We have to bring back the human values. Education about human values...

The world is undergoing an identity crisis!.. A reversal of identity is needed.. First of all, our identity is that we are all Divine.. then we are human beings, then our gender, religion, country and so on..

We have to educate the society about the ONE divinity.. When that shift happens, we can relate to anybody, whatever be our ideology. Fear will be eliminated. Inside every culprit, there is a victim crying for help...what is troubling him?...He could have been a victim of ignorance or brain washing or violence...

This education is the only way to bring peace around us, to make this world a beautiful place to live in...Thank you.

'Love is the magic which binds everything together'

2010-02-08T07:11:00.000-08:00

Orissa, Feb. 2:

Q: Guruji, the atmosphere in this satsang is so beautiful. What is the magic behind?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: I know only one magic – love. It is the magic which binds everything together.

Q: Guruji, why are people moving away from religion and culture?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: See, the enthusiastic crowd here. I am not feeling the same after looking at this crowd. If we walk on the path of religion, others will also do the same. The youth is moving away from religion because of the way religion is presented to them. The people who present religion have no smile on their faces, no joy flows out of them.

At the same time any religion should be practical which can be integrated into our lives. There is no other culture as joyful as the Indian culture.

Q: How does one know who his true Guru is?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: I suggest that you don't bother too much on who is true and who is not. You see what is it that you need. You take knowledge and then continue to move on. There are so many Gurus today and you should move ahead thinking yourself to be one of them. You are not less than any of them. But we need to adopt a balanced approach. There should neither be guilt or self blame nor arrogance or pride. On the spiritual path, both of these attitudes must not be there. There is only loss involved either way. And hence one should move on that middle path.

Q: Guruji, the youth is getting disappointed today because of chaos in society and corruption in politics. What is your message to youth?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: All the youth should stand up now and start moving ahead together. When you all work in group then there is no such task that can’t be accomplished.

Q: Guruji in Orissa, the Sri Sri University is going to be established. How can we connect to it and get benefitted?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Bhubaneshwar is not that far from this place. You should all join in and contribute. I invite all of you there. You send your children to study there and you also visit the place. It’s not my university but yours.

Q: This question is also related to education. Can you please talk about primary education?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Work for primary education is going on and it will continue. We are providing training to teachers as well students in all schools. Parents will also be involved in yoga, pranayama and meditation.

Q: I'm confused – should I take Ayurvedic medicines?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: We definitely need to adopt certain things from Ayurveda. When there is a stomach disorder, lots of thoughts disturb us. When vatta or pitta in the body gets imbalanced, too many thoughts arise in mind. There is Triphala (an Ayurvedic tablet) which balances the three imbalances in body. It is good to take Triphala for one– two months. You can take one–two tablets or one spoon of Triphala churna before going to bed. It increases energy levels in the body. Vitamin C also provides you immunity. Sometimes allopathic doctors prescribe medicines for 15 – 20 days for stomach disorders and that adversely affects the liver and body. There is Devati which you can take. It is very effective in curing fever also. Ayurveda has this specialty of correcting disorders and diseases without any side effects. And hence we should adopt Ayurveda. All these are home remedies and one should keep this with oneself. And if at some time some disease prolongs then one should definitely consult doctor.

‘I am independent means I am inner dependent’

2010-02-08T00:57:00.000-08:00

Bangalore ashram, Jan. 26:

Q: Guruji, during the course I feel very good but once I go out, I feel misery again. What to do to get rid of that?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Imbibe this knowledge. Independence means depending on the inside. Your independence is only when you are dependent on the inside. You are miserable when you want things from others for your comfort. How much can you take? And even if you take everything, it is of what use? This is what I think. I am independent means I am inner dependent. So I want nothing from anybody. Just this aphorism, reminder of this, time and again, will take your mind, which is sticking to the outside, come to its center. You will feel the relief. Misery simply means you are stuck to the outside. Joy means you are in your element which is inside. If you depend on others for your comfort, you lose your joy. First, have this faith that nature will provide whatever I need or I deserve, it will never happen that nature doesn’t provide you with what you need. Secondly, I want nothing from anybody. And third whatever I have, be it be intelligence, great voice, qualifications, skill is only for others and not for me and I serve others as much as I can. Finish! Where is the misery then?

Q: Guruji, you love each one of us so much. I feel my love for you is much less as compared to your love for me. How can I increase my love for you?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: No way, you can’t increase your love. It is already there. You simply have to relax and realize it is there. Never question or doubt your love. You think, ‘Oh, others are having tears in their eyes and I am not having any’. Never mind, never look from at things that angle. Every child from the mother’s womb is complete. It is not that the first child is more complete than second and third is further less. Every mother knows that every child is full, complete. Same way your love is total, complete, at its height. Never doubt that and never compare it with others.If you feel your expression of love is less, it is because of your selfishness. All that you can do is be generous, be less selfish and you can’t do it overnight. Day by day, slowly be more generous, be more centered, and be more dispassionate. Then the love which is inside you, will start expressing itself.Even in the expression of love it should not be too much or too less. It should be the middle path. The problem in the world is that in the West, they express love too much. Husband and wife keeps on saying ‘honey’ and then they become diabetic (laughter), can’t touch honey any more. (laughter) It is just the opposite in the East, they never express love at all. Both ways are extreme. There should be a middle path. It’s like you want a seed to sprout, it neither sprouts when buried deep down in the soil nor when it is put on the top. It needs a little bit of soil and put in it and that’s it. Take the best of the orient and the best of the occidental. That is the middle path.

Q: What is surrender? Does that mean doing nothing and letting nature do whatever it wants to?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: This word ‘surrender’ has been used, misused and confused so many times. I think we should use some other word. (laughter) Just relax, be in your element, feel the connection, have a sense of belongingness. In fact, the connection is already there, you simply have to feel it. This is a better word. What is it that you have that you can surrender? Worries, anxiety, tension, and depression! And those, too, you don’t know how to surrender.I want to be done away with this word ‘surrender’. I want none of you to use this word hereafter. It’s like a straw out of which juice has already been taken out, like sugarcane straw that you keep chewing and nothing comes out of it. Some better word is to be used now. Let go, relax, feel the connection and that’s it.

Q: How to be one pointed on the path? There are so many distractions pulling us back.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: With wisdom, you come back. This very question tells you that that you are coming back, in fact, you have already come back, you are not distracted. Through wisdom or misery, you are brought back to the center. When you go off center, you are beaten, you start crying and then come back to your center. The wise come back to the center through wisdom. The not-so-wise face problems here and there and then come back to the center. This is the law of nature. This is how things are.

Q: In my country, most people are of the opinion that you can’t raise a child without a non - vegetarian diet, as the body will lack amino acids and the brain won’t function properly. What should I do?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Ample research has been done to contradict this theory. Look into that. There are millions of people who are vegetarian in the West and they are very brilliant. In fact, all the genius people in the West, including Einstein were vegetarian. Many of the top scientists have been vegetarian. This theory that the brain doesn’t work needs to be questioned.

Q: While Ayurveda is considered to be an indigenous system of medicine then why did English (allopathic) medicine have permission by a government to take over Ayurvedic medicines? Also English (allopathic) medicine claims to have a faster recovery rate?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You know, statistics show contrary to this. Even in modern medicine, the probability factor of medicine not affecting is very high. Research says that the placebo effect with modern medicines is nearly 40 percent. 40 percent of the effect from medicines being administered can be brought about using a placebo. Modern medicines are being discovered every day and those which were used 10 – 12 years ago are being discarded. The problem is that these pharmaceutical companies have a lot of western interest. It is the economy which is ruling modern medicine rather than their effectiveness. I feel we should have a combined, holistic approach. Ayurveda has some very good qualities, allopathic medicines also have some very good aspects and also homeopathic. Holistic medicine is the best. It is wrong to completely discard modern medicine and it is equally wrong to discard natural cures, ayurveda. In case of emergency, allopathic does well and ayurveda has a unique way of attending to the root cause of disease. Not only symptoms but also healing without side effects. Today, much research has been done on this and many have experienced this. For instance: The probability of remission of piles by allopathic treatment is very high but in the case of Ayurveda it is less than one percent. These are the things one should adopt about Ayurveda. Ayurveda is, anyways, adopting modern methods of investigation. So, the best is to adopt the holistic approach. Our aim is not to benefit pharmaceutical companies but people.

Q: What is the spiritual path? How does one know if one is on the spiritual path?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Anything done to uplift your spirit, to make you walk towards the truth, that brings up human values within, that connects you to the innermost and outermost is spiritual. Meditation, pranayama, yoga, service, singing, chanting, creating happiness around you are all part of spirituality.If you create misery, then that is not spirituality. If you can create joy, it is spiritual. But not momentary joy. Such joy, in the long term, creates misery that is not spiritual. Alcohol, drugs can create momentary joy but they are not at all spiritual. That is the spirit.

Q: Krishna is ‘bhavana bhahit’. What does that mean?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You have used some phrase, you tell its meaning.God is hungry for feelings. He doesn’t need your sweets or flowers. So if you sit with feelings, that is enough. See Krishna everywhere. Lord Krishna says in the Gita, “Wherever you see in any form, I am there. I am knowledge in a knowledgeable person, wherever there is knowledge I am there, I am strength in the strong, beauty in the beautiful, all is me”. Read the Gita deeply and best is to meditate. Be a yogi, yogi is the best.

Q: Why do some people not smile at others but are happy with themselves only? What is good? To maintain happiness with oneself or to be happy with people around also?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: (Jokingly) Ok, somebody didn’t smile at you and was smiling at himself being adjacent to you, is that your problem! (laughter) The world is like that, some people don’t smile at you, you don’t smile at someone. Leave others. Are you smiling? We maintain our smile that is good enough.

Everybody has one’s own set of problems and if that much compassion has arisen in you then you go and ask, ‘What is your problem? Why are you not smiling? Do you need any help?’ But then see whom are you asking (laughter) and in case you are slapped by someone, then give them your second cheek too. (Huge laughter) If that compassion is there, then ask everyone, ‘Why are you not smiling?’

Once in Switzerland, we were waiting for some conveyance and we saw that nobody on the road was smiling. I thought, everything is here and still people are not smiling. I had so many flowers with me and so I asked the devotees who were accompanying me to give flowers to those who were not smiling on the road and ask them to smile. That was such a fantastic program. After that we raised a wave called ‘Spread your smile’ in Netherland, France, Germany, Switzerland where people give flowers and said, ‘ Please smile and make others smile by passing on this flower’. Some people were shocked initially that nobody till that day bothered about their smile and suddenly somebody coming and asking them to smile.

But if you are in India, take care before giving flower to anybody. (laughter) Be a little cautious before giving a flower here in India. In India, if a girl smiles at a boy it is taken in a different sense. It is not normal, and a boy giving a flower to a girl is not taken as a very nice gesture. (Huge laughter) But in Europe, it is not considered bad. (Somebody from audience asked, ‘Let’s start this in New York also’.) Yes, we are doing there also, something called ‘A Rose of friendship, Pass it on’.

Q: Guruji, I am from Kerela. I want to ask – what does it mean to do puja (worship)?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: There is a saying that talks about puja. Yen ten prakaren,Yatra kutrapi dehina,Santosham janaye pragyaTadaye vishva lochanCreate patience in people. When you bring a wave of happiness, wherever you go, that is puja. Whatever way when you create happiness and patience, that is puja, truly worshiping God. How beautiful it is!

Q: Guruji there are mental hospitals for mentally challenged people, what is the place for people who are in love with the Divine?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: For them, this whole world is their own. Such madness is welcomed everywhere. Everybody will invite them; everybody will welcome them and would love to talk to them. Because they know, we spread such fragrance.

Q: I feel lustful at times. What to do and how to get rid of that?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: When there is no joy in life then lust increases in you because then you get joy in that only. But when you find joy in life otherwise also, then the frequency of such desires starts reducing. When you start finding joy in sadhna (spiritual practices), joy in service, joy in satsang, joy in devotion, joy in surrender - that is the only way to come out of lust. No other way exists. When all are done together slowly, you come out of lust. Otherwise, you will have to wait for age. May be then you will be out of it. You won’t be capable physically to do it but you get rid of it from the mind or not, that is not sure.No guarantee is there. Usually very old people see all obscene stuff and try to get satisfaction from it.

Q: South Indians are deep into rituals. Are rituals very important to reach the spiritual path or the ultimate goal?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Man can’t be without ritual. Let’s be clear about it. Today is the Republic Day of India. What happens today in New Delhi and the capitals of other states is a ritual. There is a particular way you walk, a particular way you hoist flag, a particular way you behave. It is a national ritual. Even in communist Russia in Kremlin, three guards shot three gunshots in the sky everyday and perform a ritual.This is a ritual. Human beings can’t be without rituals. If your ritual is meaningful and environment friendly, then all the more better. A wise ritual is offering flowers, lighting a candle, creating love, planting a tree, distributing sweets, these are rituals with more meaning. And not killing an animal, that is not at all a good ritual. We don’t have any right to transgress other life. Violence or anything that pollutes environment can’t be a ritual. It is not a kind gesture to nature. If caring for the planet is considered a ritual or worship, that is the best ritual.In ancient Vedic times this is what they designed or considered. In one other school of thought around the world, going to temples and give bali (animal sacrifice) is a ritual. I won’t approve of those inhuman rituals. Ritual should be something that uplifts your spirit, that which elevates your spirit.In ancient times they call ritual puja. Puja – pu means out of fullness and ja means born out of it. So when you do something with full of gratitude, it is ritual. Even that has been distorted today.Human beings can’t be done away with rituals altogether. You can’t say, 'I don’t want ritual at all’. Have you noticed in homes where no ritual is performed, the energy is low? For there is no celebration, no vibrancy. Performing some sort of ritual, some sort of chanting or reading in home creates positive ions in the atmosphere and also has a good impact on children. That’s why I would say don’t be stuck too much with ritual but also don’t drop rituals altogether. Adopt a middle path. Like on Christmas you light a candle, you put up a Christmas tree.On Diwali you light lamps, decorate homes, exchange sweets, burn a couple of incense sticks. Also on Eid you clean homes, perform prayers, there is function. Whenever there is little bit of ritual, it creates a good atmosphere especially for children and develops a healthy, social, religious and spiritual kind of mind. Don’t you think so?

‘When you broaden your vision, dispassion is there’

2010-02-06T06:17:00.000-08:00

Bangalore ashram, Jan. 25:

Q: I feel so good and full here but at times when I see rich and famous people, I feel I am nothing, I feel lack. Please help.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Well, if you want to become one of those stars then go for it, it’s not so difficult. Whether you are a hero, heroine, you will find once you are in the field which you are finding very great - it is just ok. If your calling is very strong then go for it, it is not difficult.

You know, our body is constantly emitting energy, vibrations. You are emitting energy all the time. And when you know your vibrations is what makes things happen in the world, you will know that you are in control. So when you are thinking that things are going to be negative then that is what seed you are putting in the universe, and that is going to happen. So with your positive thinking, positive ideas, positive sankalpa… It is said, that let positive vibrations come out of you.

Negative thoughts arise in you, yet you tell, everything is positive. And how does that happen? Not by just thinking, but by relaxing. Cutting a thought with another thought is only superficial but cutting a thought by silence, by letting go, bydevotion, by faith, by surrendering to God, it is deeper.

Maharishi Patanjali says that poise of mind happens when you offer all that you can’t handle yourself to God, to the universal spirit.

The universal spirit is all around you, all the time. It doesn’t have a form, a name but it is around you all the time and you surrender your desires to that universal spirit. Be sure and know that your problem is going to be solved. That is siddhi,perfection. You notice in your own life, be centered, relax and let go and you will see things are happening effortlessly, it has to happen that way and if you don’t find that way, then there is some screw in the mind that is loose, that needs to be fixed. People ask for blessings and I give blessings in abundance, blank cheques of blessings but you should know how to fill it, encash it and the way to encash it is, ‘it is going to be done’, ‘my needs will be taken care of’, ‘best will be done’ without a question. Sometimes we don’t know what we desire, or we desire for something that we don’t deserve, or we desire for something much less than what we deserve. Ask and it will be given. When we deserve for more and desire for less, ask skillfully. So what is the way? Ask skillfully, and how: ‘I want this or anything better than this’.And have that positive frame of mind because it’s all neurons. One of the scientists says that our brain has different types of neurons, and there are certain neurons which create barriers. When a person in front of you touches someone else, the brain says, ‘You are being touched’ but there are certain neurons in hand which sends a signal to the brain that says, ‘it is not you being touched’. If your hand is given anesthesia and then if someone touches someone else, you will also feel the touch. And he (the scientist) says, we all are nothing but neurons, we all are connected,everybody is connected. The subtler we go we find there are only vibrations, and there are no neutrons, protons, electrons but all that exists is – vibrations. And then he says numbers are very important.

In Rudrapooja we say ‘ekachame, trisraschame…’,yesterday only we understood why do we say that. We chant odd numbers first and then even numbers in the Rudrapooja. He said if numbers won’t be there, the whole universe will collapse. Everything exists on numbers, on figures and if one number goes missing, the whole universe will collapse. It’s like on a cell phone you want to make a call and if you dial one wrong digit the call never goes to the right person. One can’t argue saying, ‘If one digit is wrongly dialed, how come I can’t make a call?’ And if everything is right, then life gets connected, so numbers are so important. And it is all just vibration.

One of the greatest physicist who was in the team of creating first nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki says. ‘I studied matter for 35 years to find out it doesn’t exist. What exists is just vibration’. Everyone of us is emitting andabsorbing vibrations. And chanting, singing creates such a positive vibrations, you become a source of energy.

What is the difference between a bulb which is lit and a bulb which is not? One is emitting energy and in the other, no energy movement is there. And all singing,chanting and meditating is like lighting the bulb. Have you noticed the difference between those who are doing all this with faith and someone who has never done this? It reflects on their face. If you haven’t started noticing you better start noticing! (laughter)

What happens when you are worrying all the time? Suddenly you find the brain, the upper part has become like a stone, the heart has become like a stone. Similarly what happens when you hear a negative comment about yourself from somebody, the whole body has become heavy. You can’t avoid people saying negative things about you. How many have this question? And how many have this experience? When someone says something negative about you or when a close friend of you is feeling very low, suddenly you also start feeling the same, your whole energy gets down. That is why satsang is that important, this knowledge is that important. When you focus on someone who isdepressed, you also feel the same and when you participate in a satsang your whole focus is shifted to knowledge. That’s why the Guru is important because when you think of Guru, when you shift your focus to the Guru in a few moments, your energy gets restored, you get back to your normal self. How many of you have experienced this? There is an old proverb ‘Guru bina gati nahin’ means there is no progress without the Guru because there are so many people around you and you are being tossed and turned by everybody’s moods, emotions and blames, and you are stuck, you can’t notice that. But when a Guru is there nothing of this will matter to you and even if it does it is only for few minutes or hours and then you are able to push through it, move through it. Like you have a rain coat and if it is raining you can always protect yourself from rain. In this context ancient people in India, Korea, Japan even in China had said that spiritual teacher, master or a person who is on the path is so important, so that you don’t have to keep feeling this negative vibrations, heaviness for daystogether.

Secondly, if you find nobody is available, no commune is available then what you do? Chant, do pranayama, nature walk, Vedanta or this science that everything is just vibrations.

Numbers are very important, so we chant ‘Om NamahShivaya’ 108 times, in Islam also they put a number 786, right? In Rudra Abhishek we chant an odd and even sequence of numbers. That changes the vibrations. Even pundits don’t have answers of chanting numbers in Rudra Abhisheka. We have to listen to the scientists to understand. They say this whole space is curved. Space is also like water, like you put a ball in water it curls. Water is a medium, like that space is also a medium and this was also said thousands of years ago in Vedas and that is why, it is the fifth element. Space is where vibration travels, it is a medium like water, air, fire and earth. And the same thing, scientists are saying today. It is amazing to see how people 10,000 years ago knew that space has a curvature, it is a medium and there are not one but 10 dimensions, which is the spirit. These facts open your mind to a higher reality.

Q: How can dispassion be practiced with close relations like family? Won’t that make me indifferent?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You know when you broaden your vision, dispassion is there, it comes naturally. It is not something that you force yourself to practice and say, ‘I am going to be dispassionate’. The mind says, ‘You want to do this’ and you say, ‘No, I need to be dispassionate’. It is not an intellectual exercise but a phenomenon. Dispassion happens when knowledge expands, awareness expands and when you are more alert. The state that comes in you is dispassion.

Q: What is the meaning of surrender? Does that mean not to do anything, let things happen and nature will take care of you?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: No no. You do your 100 percent and when you can’t do any more instead of saying, ‘I give up’ in frustration, you say, ‘I give up’ with a smile and that is surrender. When you say it with anger it is frustration and when you say it with a smile; that is surrender.

Q: Guruji, it takes effort to start sun salutation but then I start finding intoxication in it. Will you please describe the phenomenon behind?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yes, you should do sun salutation. A little effort is needed for a beginner and a little effort is essential to begin with. What is happening with effort? The ‘rajogun’ or the restlessness in body is getting channelized. Thetendencies to act get fulfilled and then what you are left with is simple harmony and that is sattva. So rajogun (restlessness) gets exhausted by your exercise and sattva brings you into meditation. So it’s good to put some effort in the beginning and in the end you let go and relax, there lies the reality.

Q: What karma should I do that I don’t have to take birth again?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Why not take birth again? We don’t want to take birth again because we find this birth miserable but when there is joy in this birth, you are doing satsang daily, then why not take birth again? When you are in joy, doing satsang and serving people around then you will say I should have hundred more births like this. When you are so tired of this birth, when hopes and desires have tired you, whendesires have burnt you then only you say, ‘I don’t want to take birth again’. Whatever desires you have, fulfill those and those which are not to be fulfilled, drop those and be happy.

Q: What is the difference between a dream and an aim?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: When you talk about an aim you think it is practical, but when you say I have a dream, you think it may be or may not be practical. When you say, ‘I have a dream’ there is a little doubt about it but you feel stronger about having an aim.

Q: Guruji, does healing work?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: From your side, definitely. If it heals from your side other’s will get healed.

Q: Guruji, you are so beautiful, so serene that I can’t move my eyes from you? Who are you?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: First ask yourself, ‘who am I?’ and when you get this answer you will also know who I am.

‘There is a non-changing, eternal element in you’

2010-02-06T06:08:00.000-08:00

Bangalore ashram, Jan. 24:

As it was Sunday and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar usually talks in Kannada, there were many people in the ashram who didn’t understand Kannada. So Sri Sri Ravi Shankarsaid, ‘If you don’t understand kannada it doesn’t matter. Just be a part of everything. Laugh when everybody laughs and clap when everybody claps’.

Q: I am little nervous in front of you and my heart beat is also rising. While doing the course I heard that our existence is eternal. I want to know what is connection of this incarnation with the eternal presence?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: To know that everything is changing you need to have a reference point. That reference point is the unchanging in you. There is a non-changing, eternal element in you because of which you can experience change.

Q: I am coming from Tamil Nadu. I took the course. After the course, I underwent lots of struggles. The more I do my sadhana, lots of challenges, problems are coming. What to do?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: There is a saying in Tamil which means that ‘God created the tail of the goat according to its capacity’. Be bold and face the problems. Don’t worry, only that kind of problem will come in life which you can handle, which is within your capacity to handle. So handle it, go through it all boldly.

Q: I do seva for the society by organizing courses and I sometimes fail to do my home duties. In that case, my parents scold me saying, I am not taking care of home. Should I take care of the society or home? What to do?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Your know, how to ride bicycle? How do you balance? Like that, you have to do both and balance the duties.

Q: I want to know the relationship between the conscious mind, sub-conscious mind and the infinite intelligence of the sub-conscious mind?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yes! The sub-conscious mind has infinite intelligence. Whatever you put in the sub-conscious mind, it will manifest. If you put the thought that you are poor, that will start happening and if you put positive thoughts that everybody is good then that will start happening.

Q: In 2003, you came and started good work from the temple. All good work is happening till now. We request you to come again and bless the people.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yes, in Tamil Nadu, you have to do lots of work. There is a lot of problem regarding caste. You all have to do something, work for it.

Q: I am coming from Polachi. I was having a spinal cord problem before taking this course. I took the course and now I can sit and do all my work without anybody's help.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: See, what doctors can’t do, pranayama does. It can do wondersQ: After solving one problem, one more comes up. What should I do?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Have the faith that you will be helped and your problem will get solved.

Q: Guruji, I am physically handicapped. I was thinking, how can I contribute tosociety? Now I am working with the Divine Karnataka Project, presently, in theSheshadripuram slum (in Bangalore). I am feeling very confident.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: We have to work a lot in slums. We have to make them literate and we have to eradicate castism from slums. For that we all have to work together. In Bangalore alone there are 400 slums and Art of Living is working in 105 of thoseslums. People in slums are addicted to alcohol and we have to stop this. Those very places and countries have lost their culture where people were too much into alcohol. People in these areas earn good money but they spent more than half of that onalcohol. How can we stop them? By giving them an alternative source of intoxication, by bringing them to satsang and making them experience intoxication and the joy of meditation. Do you feel intoxication in meditation and satsang? (‘Yes’ from theaudience) So, you feel change after doing all this. All DKP yuvacharyas (youthleaders) have to go to slums and work in these places. You may face some obstacles but walk ahead and keep working. A member of the audience shares an experience:“I did the basic course three months ago in Andhra Pradesh. The happiness I haveexperienced in the last three months, I didn’t experience in the last 26 years of my life. I am very thankful to you.”

‘Culmination of prayer is meditation’

2010-02-06T05:19:00.000-08:00

Bangalore ashram, Jan. 23:

Q: Guruji, I think life is miserable. What should I do?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You think life is miserable because you are hanging onto desires of the past, impossibles of the past, you are not accepting the present, you are not moving ahead or you are hoping for something too much. Correct? Be practical. Life is a mixture of problems and pleasure. What does your mind do? It messes up the problems and blows it out of proportion and makes oneself miserable. So who isresponsible for your misery? Yourself. So when is the program? When is the program not to be miserable? (Laughter) Now, right now have you gotten over your misery right now? (A dim ‘yes’ from the audience) The ‘Yes!’ should be louder (A strong ‘Yes’ this time). That is it.You know, if the room is dark for 20 years, it doesn’t take another 20 years to bring light in. it just needs one connection, one switch on and the whole darkness goes away. Your life may have been miserable in the past, but wake up and see, so what? Problems come and go in everybody’s life. Look at your past, problems came and they have all vanished. Right? We forcefully make the problem stay, just wake up and see, where is the problem? The problem is not there. You can have some physical problem in the body sometimes, some pain here and there but is there anyone who has never suffered physical illness?Everybody has some physical problem at some point in their lives and when you violate laws of nature, pain comes, suffering comes. Pain is inevitable, suffering isoptional.

Q: Guruji, is there any past birth and rebirth?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: This question is futile now. You know why? Because it is proven by the scientist community, it is beyond doubt now. Parapsychological department in psychological clinics have done experiments and past life regression is used as a therapy in most of the clinics and many people have gotten well. You can also do an eternity process hereand ask the teacher to take you deep in it. Have your experience, it’s not a big thing.It is beyond question now, it is a fact.

Q: How to overcome fear, anxiety and insecurity?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Fear, anxiety and insecurity are same shades of the same color. One is slightly brown, another is dark and the third one is the darkest brown. Grey is a better color, light, medium and dark grey. Meditation, pranayama and the faith that you are not alone, faith in the Divine will definitely help. Divine faith is very abstract, at least faith in the Guru, teacher is there, Master is there, faith in yourself, faith in the universal spirit, faith in the goodness of people around. There are good people in the world. When you thinkeverybody is wrong, everybody is bad then insecurity dawns. Suppose this is not your experience and you have found wrong people, who had deceived you all the time then at least look for good, enlightened people. Ok, now if you understand all this intellectual stuff and still anxiety comes, then what to do? Sudarshan Kriya,pranayama and meditation.After the tsunami (in South-east Asia, 2004), so many people could not sleep, they couldn’t even see the ocean. A lady witnessed her three to four children being washed away, she had a child in her arms and she couldn’t do anything for she had to look for her own self. Such incidents happened in front of so many people. So many families, somebody’s children, somebody’s wife, somebody’s parents were flooded away. All people were saying, ‘Take us anywhere but not the ocean’. And all those were fishermen. What would a fisherman do on mid land? After the earthquake, people couldn’t get into their homes. For days, people slept outside their houses on roads till our workers, our volunteers went there and taught them Pranayama, bhastrika and meditation, and then they went to their homes. That is where trauma relief, meditation, pranayama, Sudarshan Kriya helps tremendously. We have hundreds and thousands of such experiences and you should go through their experiences. In a matter of two days fishermen said, ‘Give us boats and we want to go out into the ocean’. They had come out of fear, anxiety. This hashappened with thousands of people.I am telling you we have such beautiful knowledge, practices that can take us out of misery, worries, anxiety, conflicts and suicidal tendencies. Just in the recent past, 20 students in Bombay alone committed suicide. In Bombay, Maharashtra, suicidal tendency among youngsters is so high that we have announced that anybody having the slightest tendency to commit suicide, call us at the Art of Living helpline. Our volunteers and teachers are working 24x7 to help them out.

The YES+ program (Youth empowerment seminar) has helped 1000s of youth to come out of suicidal tendencies. All this happens because we don’t see life from a bigger, broader perspective; A girl got 92 percent and committed suicide for she could not get admission in the college of her choice. Because you don’t give them spiritual education, a bigger vision and ask them to only perform and perform that the pressure of performing better, pressure of marks becomes bigger than life itself. Don’t pressurize children too much, we have to give them a broader vision. Never mind you lose one year. Life is more precious than your profession, your success, your so-called success, your finance, and your prestige in society. Finance is for life and not life for finance. These all are only periphery, accessories for life and not the core of life, existence. This vision has to be brought to children.

Wake up and see everybody is caught up in their own things. Whether your financial status goes up or down, whether your relation is going good or bad, who cares insociety? I tell you, nobody cares. Don’t worry about what others may think, what will my status in society be? If you are doing well they are jealous of you, if you are not doing well they don’t even count you. In either case, you don’t have to worry about others’ opinion about you, to show yourself up. And these inter cast marriages; parents are worried what others will think of their children. Who has got time to think to whom your son or daughter got married to?Whether it is in outcast or same, let it be, let it be outcast, you be more free, happy. (laughter and applause) These are silly, insignificant things that people have put in their minds and worry. Wake up and see, there is so much love in life, there is so much wisdom in life.

Q: Do impressions in the mind have a role to play in the next birth?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yes, your impressions in the mind are responsible for your next birth. Your strongest impression is the factor.

Q: Yesterday, you said there is no significant purpose for the universe but it is also said that every individual is born for some purpose. Isn’t it contradictory?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Truth is contradictory. Every little thing has a purpose, at the same time, it has no purpose because this whole thing is a game. If you consider the world as a game, then there is no purpose. A game has no purpose, it is an expression of joy. Dance doesn’t have a goal because dance in itself is an expression of happiness.What is the purpose of you laughing? Does laughter have any purpose? You are happy, so you laugh. You don’t have to wait for a joke to laugh. You know, children don’tunderstand jokes but they laugh, babies do laugh. If you think jokes are the only reason for one to laugh then babies would never laugh till they understand your jokes. You have an illusion that you have to listen to a joke to laugh. Laughter has nopurpose because it is an expression of being, an expression of joy.

Love has nopurpose because it is your very nature. The sun has no purpose to send its rays. If you ask me, why does sun shine, what does it achieve? I’ll say, ‘Oh my God, you are such a businessman, you need a purpose for everything!’ The sun shines because it is its nature. It can’t but shine. So, in this context, I said, ‘Whenever you think, ‘what is the purpose?’ you are caught up in the cause and effect phenomenon. No doubt, the cause and effect phenomenon is there, it is a law of nature but truth is beyond the cause and effect phenomenon. Divinity is much bigger, more vaster, Divinity is beyond that. It is much bigger and vaster, so in this sense I said, there is no purpose.Sun shines because it is its nature, wind blows because it is its nature. What is the purpose of the tsunami? Was it just to kill people? If it’s purpose was to kill people only then it must have hit only those areas in which people lived. But it hit those areas also where there were no people. Nature is beyond cause and effect or conclusion, theory, understanding or misunderstanding. It is the existence which is total, beyond purpose. So you can say, virtually there is no purpose. If at all you have to pin down to a purpose then the purpose of nature is to take you to the Source, is to remind you of the Source, connect you to your Source.

Q: How can the Self be love, joy and peace? Aren’t they all different?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Can there be joy without peace? (No, said the audience). If you want to make a distinction, then peace is very mild and always connected to disturbances, love is more to the heart and could be hate or love. Then joy, you find small or big joy. But they are all your nature. Like you can see, you can hear, you can smell, you can taste, but it is all you. There is something deep inside you which unifies all. All emotions are part of you. Their functions and expressions are different but all are in you. All arise in your mind. In this sense, they all are one, in another sense they are all different. When you smile you are different, when you sleep you are different, when you eat you are different but all are you. In this sense, they all are one. When someone dies, people stand up and say, ‘Let’s have a moment of peace’. Certainly that is not a joyous occasion and nobody will say, ‘Let’s have a moment of joy,somebody has died’. In some joyful celebration, like marriage, people don’t say,‘Let’s have a moment of peace’, that will always be called a moment of joy. My dear, all are part of you, all arise in you and in that sense all are one, all are linked.

Q: What is thought, Why it comes and from where it comes?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Is this a thought? It came in you? Why did it come? Now find out. As soon as you realize this, the question is, itself, a thought and it has come in you, you have answers for the first two questions. And why does it come? Because of a lack of any other questions.Now I want you find its source. When you start finding source of thought, you have started on a journey for which you are here. Our journey is to find the source, from where this thought has arisen. I want all of you to be scientists. Scientist goes on experimenting, asking questions. It’s a very goodopportunity to find out where it comes from? What is its origin? Since it comes in you, you find its answer. If it doesn’t come in you and somebody else, then I’llanswer.

Q: There is so much conflict and violence in world in the name of religion. Is there a need of religion?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Communists opposed religion for 50 years. They didn’t get success. Communist people think religious people, especially in Russia and China are very authoritarian, they don’t give freedom. So they want to be done with religion but did they not unleash much more violence? In Stalin, Lenin and Mao Zedong, millions were massacred in the name of communism. Religion ruled with fear, fear of you being sent to hell. Religious leaders were authoritarian, trying to get hold of society by creating guilt and fear in people. Communist also did the same thing but not with guilt but with fear. They remove only guilt but they couldn’t remove fear, instead they instill more fear and violence in society. I don’t think communism did any better. It didn’t make people rich. After 50 years, people have come back. A big church in Moscow was demolished and a swimming pool was made instead of it. Today that swimming pool is demolished and a church is made again. I think it is humanism which is most important. If humanism is there in religion, it does good. And when humanism disappears from religion, it becomes like a mafia. In the same way, communism also ignored humanism. So when humanism went away, violence and fear dominated even in communism. These Maoists party! Did it do any good in the country, in all 213 districts? Itdidn’t make anybody rich. So you can’t be done away with religion.

We need to have interreligious communication, inter-religion faith. Every child should know a little bit about other religions also. Yes, we don’t need religions if all become spiritual. If we can transform this world into a higher plane of religion, which is spirituality then it will really be an intelligent thing to do. But just opposing religion ascommunists do, can’t serve any purpose. It is like throwing the baby with the bath water. Because religion has some moral values, some human values, it gives somestrength and solace, and if you also take solace without replacing it with spirituality then you are doing injustice in the society.

Q: Why are love marriages and arranged marriages increasingly leading to divorces?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yes, divorce is happening day by day while family values are eroding, the generation gap is widening and interdependence is being forgotten.Husband and wife forget that they are interdependent. They need each other and both look for independence. I haven’t done any research on this why this is happening. (laughter) but if some of you do that research and publish a paper it will be good. Atleast people will be aware of these pitfalls. Whether it is a love marriage or arranged marriage, marriage is always a chance, if it clicks it is a chance. Sometimes it may appear to have clicked for a short period of time but in the long run, it becomes a question mark. And vice versa also. Sometimes in the beginning it may appear to be completely incompatible but as time goes itbecomes very compatible. It is like a chameleon – changing colors all the time. If someone can see this, they have a hope. And if it appears to be not so, then move on without guilt because there is no point in suffering life long. If you have given 100 percent then you better move on your path and let the other move on his/her pathrather making the whole live of both, miserable. But the question is whether you have given your 100 percent, have you made all the effort to make it work? That isimportant.

Q: What is the importance of horoscope matching when it comes to marriage?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Astrology is a science but all astrologers are not scientists. (laughter) First of all, you don’t know whether the time of your birth and all other factors are right or not. Sometimes, we don’t keep records and there are variousfactors. There is probability in all those factors. So, if you find someone who is good, the astrologer says, ‘Good, it does have a value but it is always with a pinch of salt.’It is said that there was a great astrologer of this country and he made all thehoroscopes of his daughter. But his daughter’s marriage didn’t work. It was quoted as a probability factor.In all scientific experiments, there is always a probability factor – may be, may not be.So we must take it with that probability and not as definite.

Q: What is the difference between God (Parmatma) and Devta?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Parmatma is the sun, devta is its ray. Without the sun, there is no ray and without the ray, there is no sun. A ray has all seven colors, these all different devtas. God is the combination of all the seven colors. God is certainly not made of one color. When all colors combine, white is obtained and that is Parmatma. You can understand this like different organs - eyes, ears, nose, all combine to form you. Your eyes are different from ears, your nose is different from tongue but all is part of you. The totality of the whole creation, with all the energies is given a name and it is called Parmatma, Parampita (supreme father). In ancient terminology, God is called Parmatma, Parampita.

Why only Parampit , He is also Parammata (Supreme mother).Why should God be called father only? God is also the mother. God is father, mother and God is also the Self. All Gods, goddesses are like rays of the sun, one sunlight and all the rays together is God but these are all different aspects of God. All are different aspects of the one Divine like in one human being, one cell somewhere becomes the eyes, somewhere the ears, somewhere the nose, and all this has happened from one fertilized cell, embryo. So, God is the sum total of all Divine elements and in the Vedic times, ancient rishis identified all these elements and called then devtas. They designated 33 types of Divine energy and called them devta and they tell how these are connected with the cosmos, like the eyes are connected with the sun. They established connection between the micro cosmos and macro cosmos. …It is very amazing analysis, amazing science of unity of the universe. It is not too many Gods, it is aspects of God. Though you are one, you have different functions. When you sleep you are different, when you smile you are different, when you eat, you are different. Crore means category, 33 crores means 33 categories of devas. Crore is also a number, 10 million but here it is not referred to as a number. 33 crore means 330 million and so people started taking that way.

Q: What is difference between prayer and meditation?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Prayer is asking, meditation is listening. In prayer, you ask, ‘Give me this, give me that’, giving instructions, demanding. In meditation, you say, ‘I am here to listen, what is it that you want to tell? Tell me, whenever you are free, I am here. Culmination of prayer is meditation. Prayer goes to the peak and that is meditation.

‘Enlightenment is a connection with the universal spirit’

2010-02-06T03:55:00.000-08:00

Bangalore ashram, Jan. 22:

Q: Guruji, the world knows you as a spiritual leader. Would you please share your experiences of your knowing that you are endowed with such spiritual power?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: What do you want to know? I am like this from the beginning and I will continue to be like this in the future also. Usually, people come to the spiritual path when they get some disappointment. This is not the case always, but usually it is such. People take sanyas (renounce the world) when they have had failures in their love lives, or some problem or another. Nothing like that, at all for me. In fact, every child is born with spiritual knowledge but when you grow up, you start losing that. A yogi is becoming a child again, getting in touch with your pure essence.

Q: Guruji whenever I think of you I become very emotional, tears begin to roll down and my heart starts melting. What to do? Is it good or bad?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Don’t tag your emotions as good or bad. When your heart opens up tears come, it’s natural. Let it be. It is said in scriptures that tears of love are so precious that even angels run to collect them. Even on heaven, there are no tears of love. The most wonderful thing on the planet, on earth is to have tears of love, tears of gratitude. That indicates that our life is glorious. That makes our life rich and fulfilled. Fulfillment in life is when you have tears of gratitude and that comes by luck. You can’t manufacture tears of gratitude; you can’t put glycerin and have tears of gratitude coming in. When you realize what all you have received in life, your heart opens up.

Q: Guruji, sometimes I feel connected to you and sometimes I don’t. I am confused if you are my master or someone else. What should I do?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You know on these matters I don’t give any clarifications. I create even more confusion for you to work on that confusion .You are given an exercise so that you do it. The teacher gives you the problem and he wants you to find a solution to the problem. In schools and colleges you are not given solutions and asked to find problems for that. A teacher’s job is to create confusion so that you can exercise your intellect, your mind, your intuition and your inner voice to see and come up with a solution.

Q: Dear Guruji, our brain is more than a computer. Scientists say that we use very little of our brain. Einstein is said to have used 32 percent of his brain. If we want to use 40 – 50 percent of our brain what efforts do we need to put? What will be its consequences if our brain becomes overactive?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: That’s a problem. So we need to first learn how to calm our mind down. Only a calm mind can come up with collective thoughts. Disturbed and chaotic mind will give rise to chaotic thoughts only and chaotic thoughts are coming in abundance. How to streamline the thoughts is an art in itself, the art of silence. How can you do it? With meditation, the mind becomes calm and collective, thoughts become focused, meaningful, purposeful and focused.

Q: Does man need money or God?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Some think God is money. Many think money is God and very few know that God himself is money. God is love and when you have richness of love in you, you will see how abundance flows in life. There is a saying in sanskrit: ‘Udyoginam purush sindh mupayi tilaxmi’God comes to you in the form of money - wealth is a consort of God. Consort of God, spirit of God comes to you as abundance when you put effort, to one who is working and not to one who is lazy. And one who has confidence and courage. So the one who has courage and confidence, and who puts in effort will get money. Don’t keep buying lottery tickets and sit at home. This is the biggest problem - you want money but you don’t want to do anything. So we have to put in effort. Money is just a means not an end in itself. You will need that but is it everything? No. You may have a lot of money but if you can’t eat, you can’t sleep well at night then that money is of no use. It loses it’s utility. So many people come here who have a lot of wealth and are depressed. They want to quit everything, their job, everything.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says that in the next 20 years, 40–45 percent of the population will be depressed. What’s the point in having so much money and prosperity in the world when so many people are getting depressed? That’s why you need to have balance in life, balance of material and spiritual life. Isn’t it? Often people think spirituality means do nothing and sit quietly. No, it is not so. You should work. Even in the ashram there are 600 people who work -day and night. There is no Sunday and no Monday for them and they work round the clock. People come here all the time and they work. Kitchen people are working so hard. The kitchen never takes rest. You have any idea how much food they cook everyday when there is no big program? 600 – 700 Kg of rice is being cooked daily, 70 Kg of salt is put in, and 100 kg of vegetables are cut every day. So much of work they do. The housing department works tirelessly. And they are still smiling. And there are people who go and work in the fields. They are working in slums. There are teachers who are working worldwide. They work day and night. In Karnataka, itself, we have 78 slums and there are many different classes being run, educational classes, computer classes. Seva is a part of spirituality and definitely you can’t do charity with an empty bowl. You need money for service. But here nobody worries about money and charity happens, everything happens spontaneously. So these are some of the things we need to keep in our mind. You have money, you earn money, it’s good but you should keep aside some part for charity, whatever your capacity is 3 – 10%. Keep it aside.Along with it do your spiritual practices daily.

Once in a year, keep seven days completely for spirituality and then you don’t sit and calculate money. You come here and be 100 percent here, and take care of your health, do yoga, pranayama, meditation and learning. It is a very common experience when businessmen come here leaving their jobs for some time and do seva, meditation and the advance course, they start getting better contracts. Their wealth on the other side starts increasing. What they used to get putting in a lot of effort, starts to happen with very less effort. That is when sattva in you rises. Sattva is positive harmony within you and when that dwells up, your work outside also becomes smother and better.

Q: What is enlightenment? When is one said to be enlightened?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: When you say a word, you have already heard a definition for it. I would say enlightenment is a connection with the universal spirit, realizing that you are part of it, you are that. Living unconditional love without any effort, you don’t have to put any effort for that. Being like an open book, being natural and all these qualities are there in every individual. It only needs a little nurturing and then it starts blossoming. So when you walk, walk like you are enlightened, you are open, you are like a child, and you are free - emotionally, mentally and intellectually. Enjoy the freedom. When you don’t have any cravings and aversions of your own, then you can give yourself a certificate that you are enlightened. But you should be over all your cravings and aversions.Clear heart, clear mind and clarity in action are all part of enlightenment. If you look at a child of two-three years, or a baby of six months - there is unconditional love in his eyes. Every baby has all these qualities but minus wisdom. When you grow old keep all these qualities in you like innocence, and have the depth of wisdom along with it. That is what it is.

Q: What does a Guru want from a disciple and what does a disciple want from his Guru?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: A Guru only wants the disciple to progress, to blossom, not to be unstable, just be happy, unselfish and serve people. And whatever a disciple wants from Guru, Guru keeps on bestowing that. Initially, a disciple asks for little things and then asks for great things. The Guru sometimes give him the little things he wants and sometimes doesn’t. (laughter)

Q: Guruji, Kabirdas has said Nindak neare rakiya angan kuti shava,bin pani sabun bina nirmal kare suhayHow to identify a good critique?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: How can a critique can be classified as good or bad? (laughter)Nindak neare rakiya angan kuti shava,bin pani sabun bina nirmal kare suhayThe great Indian saint Kabirdas has said that keep someone who criticizes you close by, that will keep your house, your mind clean - without soap and water. Like you need soap and water to keep your body clean, like that one who blames you, you should keep close by. If everybody around keeps praising you, they may not keep all the facts in front of you. Someone who is criticizing you, will show you your pitfalls. Welcome criticism, anybody who criticizes you, welcome that. Don’t shy away from criticism. Isn’t it a part of DSN? (an Art of Living program) You all have done DSN? You should be able to give constructive criticism and also take criticism. That is the strength. And there is no good critique or bad critique.Keep them nearby means that don’t run away from critique, don’t stop talking to them. You stop talking with someone who criticizes you. Yesterday if somebody criticizes you; you talk to them normally today. Don’t shun them.

‘Live in surrender, surrender leads to Samadhi’

2010-02-05T00:35:00.000-08:00

Bangalore ashram, Jan. 21:

Q: What is significance of time when everything is happening in the present moment?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: (After a pause of a minute) It (the past minute) is past now. Present is ever present. Past and future are also present.This whole creation has no significance, nor does the time and nor does the space.

Q: What is the connection between the thought and the action?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You should never do thoughtless action or you will be in trouble. There are two dimensions of our life. Sometimes you act without thinking and sometimes you only think and don’t act. Source of both - thought and action - is you. Knowing who you are, your thoughts get streamlined and actions become perfect. Your thoughts and actions are aligned.

Q: Freedom comes from knowledge of the material world yet ‘Advaita’ says there are no two, all is one. Which to follow?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Both are correct. They all have their place. When you understand one single substance, you are liberated. The substance tells you that there are no two substances. A great scientist of our times, Dr. Hans Peter Durr is 81 at present and said ‘I have been studying matter for the past 70 years; matter which never existed.” This is higher physics. It is very interesting.

Q: How to learn from experience? Often we keep doing the same thing but don’t learn.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: If you keep doing the same thing again and again, knowing that it brings you misery, you really don’t understand it brings you misery or you think it brings you some pleasure. Craving for pleasure and non-awareness that it is going to cause you misery are two things which makes you commit the same mistake again and again. That’s why they’re called habit. Habits don’t give you pleasure but they inflict pain by not following them.

Q: Guruji, yesterday you talked about prana level. You said for human beings it is between 7 and 16. How do one find out?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: All that you have to do is increase your prana level and you are doing it. Pranayama, meditation - all this increases your prana level.

Q: Adi Shankara says, ‘Kasya sukham na karoti viraga’ (What pleasure can dispassion not give!) It is also said, tivra samvega nam asannah (When you have a great desire, intense longing – everything becomes easy). How to be in that state of mind and yet be dispassionate?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Truth is contradictory. Completely opposite values together form the truth. This is also true and that is also true. Intense longing will take you to the goal and at the same time dispassion also takes you there. Dispassion gives you happiness.

Q: Why are dreams there if they don’t turn to be true?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Because those are dreams.

Q: Guruji how come you have so many disciples?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:Somebody asked me, ‘How come you have so many followers?’, I replied, ‘I keep on running ahead of everybody.’(Laughter) People continue to come behind me. Then he asked, ‘How do you do it?’ to which I replied, ‘It’s very easy. You keep running ahead.’(Huge laughter)

Q: Turiya avastha (state of Samadhi) of chetna (consciousness) is shiv tattva. How to achieve shiv tattva?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:Nirvikar (without any blemish)and prayatna rahit (without any effort). Dropping all efforts and all vikar in the mind, you relax.

Q: How do we ensure that a good soul is born? Do we need to follow some rules?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:Just be happy and keep your heart clean and soft. When you doubt, when you are angry or frustrated, your heart and feelings get hardened. With the knowledge and wisdom, your heart remains soft and supple. Otherwise you say everybody else is wrong and only you are right. You don’t see how wrong you are. You do so many mistakes you don’t look at that but when somebody else does mistakes, your heart gets hard. Isn’t it so? There is a saying in India of saint Kabir which says‘Bura dekhan main chala, bura na milya koi’ which means ‘I wanted to search a bad man but I couldn’t find one but when I looked at myself I couldn’t find anybody worse than me.’This is coming from a saint. So seeing mistakes in others hardens your feelings. I don’t agree so much with the other line. If you keep on looking at your own mistakes, that will also not make your feelings soft and brings guilt. So I only use the first line of this.

Q: If we do something wrong with somebody and that person does good to us, do we have to bear fruit of that karma (action)?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Don’t do so much of analysis. The karma that you need to go through, you will. And the karma which you don’t need to go through, you won’t. That karma which is to be finished with sadhna, pranayama will be finished. By surrendering to God, we get new life all the time. Don’t think too much.Live in surrender, surrender leads to Samadhi.

Q: I can’t think of more questions. Please tell me some question to ask?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: That’s good. My job is not to tell you or give you questions but to take away your questions.

Meditation time!

2010-01-25T00:05:00.000-08:00

Bangalore ashram, Jan. 20:

Sri Sri asked everybody, “Are you happy”? The audience replied enthusiastically with a ‘Yes!’ After a few bhajans, Sri Sri led everybody through a meditation which highlighted the principles of the Yogasara Upanishad. Later, everybody was surprised when they realized that the meditation lasted for 40 minutes. It seemed much shorter.Then Sri Sri concluded the satsang with ‘Jai Jai Radha Raman’.

The centeredness of the mind is the most important thing in spiritual evolution

2010-01-21T07:39:00.000-08:00

Bangalore ashram, Jan. 19:

Q: How important is prana (life force energy)? One, of course, is it gives life. How does one improve one’s prana?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Prana is present in everything. In fact, we are floating in air, in prana, an ocean of prana. When the unit of expression varies, it makes a difference. Stones have got one unit of prana. Water has got two units of prana. Fire has got three units of prana. Air has got four units of prana. Plants have got five units of prana. Animals have got six units of prana. Human beings are capable of holding from seven to 16 units of prana. The expression of prana is the whole universe. When prana is lower than one, that’s when you feel depressed. When prana goes further low then you feel suicidal. When prana is normal, you feel normal. When prana is higher, you feel enthusiastic. When prana is very high, you feel energetic and blissful. That is why when people are depressed, low just giving counseling doesn’t work, what needs to be done is to raise the level of prana. When prana is high there is joy, vibrancy, understanding. When prana is low, then the mind starts complaining, depression, lethargy, suicidal tendencies arise. All is play and display of prana.

Q: Guruji, the other day you talked about effort and effortless. But it needs lot of effort to be effortless.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: It’s worth doing it.

Q: Why was Krishna’s navel called Padamnabha (solar plexus)?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: The solar plexus is called the second brain or mid brain. For a yogi, the solar plexus is larger in size. Scientists have also said this. It is small in a person who doesn’t do yoga and meditation. A yogi who does meditation and yoga has a larger solar plexus. When solar plexus is larger, one is creative and generous. When it is smaller, one is jealous.

Lord Krishna is called Padamnabha, his solar plexus was like a fully blossomed flower. Padma not only means lotus, it also means flower. Fully blossomed flower is usually referred to as padma.

Q: There are so many attractions and distractions but still youth are so bored.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Youth are bored and it’s their fortune. If they were satisfied, then growth would have stopped. When they are bored, then the quest comes in them. They are not satisfied with the things available around. And this is the stage when they can take a step to look within, a leap in their inner journey, a step towards spirituality. An interest in higher growth gets kindled, when you are bored with things around. When you find the source of joy within, then obviously everything around is also reflecting the same source of joy, then you find interest in everything. Continuous bombardment of senses by stimuli can cause inertia. Inertia is boredom, is a form of boredom. Again, when prana level goes up, you move from inertia to enthusiasm.

Q: Guruji, you give so much importance to Satsang. Is there any scientific reason behind?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Satsang means the company of reality, being in touch with the truth. Satsang is not just singing. Singing some complicated songs which you don’t understand is not Satsang. Music is a part of it. The second part is understanding the logic. The third part is sitting and reposing in yourself, in deep meditation, being with yourself.

Q: Why does the Divine answer and reward some while the prayers of others go unanswered?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Well, I don’t know why some prayers get answered and some are not. I have no idea. Perhaps it is good for you. Perhaps you may change your mind about what you want. People go for shopping - this often happens at least in India - go for shopping and ask shopkeeper, ‘Can I come later and exchange it if I don’t like it?’ They go home and don’t like it and get it exchanged the next day. The most unreliable thing you have is your own mind because you don’t know what it likes and when it doesn’t like that. That is why bringing mind to its source is so important. Its centeredness is the most important thing in spiritual evolution. Understanding what is transient and what is permanent, what brings you permanent joy and what causes temporary convenience and long term misery, what causes temporary discomfort and permanent joy and what causes long term discomfort. That is what is called viveka, discrimination, wisdom – knowing this from that.

Q: Guruji can a woman follow Brahamcharya (celibacy)?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Brahamcharya - it’s your personal choice. If you want to get married then marry. If you don’t want to get married then don’t marry. There are people who are married and miserable. There are people who are unmarried and miserable. All I want you to be is wise. Be wise in either case. Be centered. That is most important.

Q: Guruji, are there a fixed number of souls or one soul in the whole universe?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Infinite souls. It’s like asking are there fixed number of stars in the sky? There are infinite stars. Vedic shastra and Agma shastra says there are 224 earths, worlds like ours in this galaxy. There are many but mainly 224. These are the visions of saints who have gone deep in meditation and explored the universe.

Q: You have talked about hidden meanings behind symbols in Hinduism which seems to be very illogical. Could you please talk about many crores of devtas?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Crores, koti means types. 33 crores means 33 types of Divine impulses. In our body also there are 33 types of divine impulses. There are 33 types of genes in our body. A particular type makes the eye, a particular type makes the nose, like that a particular type makes eardrums, hair, nails. All these are made up from a particular type of gene which are of 33 different types.

Like this, there are 33 rays of Divinity. There is one light, one God, one Parmatma yet there are 33 aspects. Devas are the 33 different aspects of Divinity. Here crores is not referred to as a number. The Divine has no form but ancient saints have said you can adore Him in any form or name. All the thousand names belong to God only. This is very, very deep science or deep knowledge. It’s amazing. When you go deeper into this, then you feel the ‘wow’. People - who have written this, have discovered this - have simply stupendous knowledge. The Universe is not so simple. It’s very complex. Modern physics also say that the deeper and deeper you go, there are so many different type of particles. So the universe is diverse. The Divinity which manages, rules, and has made this diverse universe is devta.The English name, David, is a Sanskrit word. Dev + vid, dev means Divinity, vid means to know. David means one who knows Divinity. Divinity is not somewhere up in the heaven. It is present in the world, universe, everywhere. And it has to be realized when the mind is calm, serene and settled in our heart and when the emotion and intellect merge into a serene blend in silence then you are able to perceive the subtle reality of Universe and that is devta.

Q: When a disciple is dead what is the role of the Satguru?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Satguru knows that there is no death to the disciple. Atma never dies. Even after death he continues to get direction on the path.

Q: Guruji, is it difficult for a woman to organize something for she has to manage the home also. How does a woman do it effectively?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Don’t think of anything as difficult. Even if it is difficult, it becomes more difficult when you perceive it to be difficult in your mind. If you get a difficult task to do, however much difficult it seems to be, know that we have an even greater power within. It is available to us and according to that we get tasks to do.

Q: Is the world permanent or changing?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You can see that the world is not permanent.

Q: What is puja?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: That which is born from purnata (fullness) is puja. When gratitude is overwhelming, the throat chokes in gratitude then whatever action you perform in such a state is puja. We surrender everything – that bhavana (feeling) is puja.

Q: To whom do I surrender?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: To the Divine who resides within me as me, to that Divine I surrender.

Q: How do we remember the good things and forget the bad?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: It is better to forget bad things and it is good to remember good things. Both together are life but we forget this and remember all the negative things. It is important to remember what you hear in Satsang. Forgetting other people’s mistakes is important. Remembering not to repeat our mistakes is important.Remembering lessons from others’ mistakes is also important.

Q: What is meaning of kodagana koli nungitha (a bhajan in Kannada)?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Its meaning is so amazing. I was thinking I was a big person but when I look at the Guru’s feet, so magnanimous. My ego, that I thought was so big and Guru’s feet small, but it was the reverse. The feet of the Guru swallowed my big ego.

Q: What is the meaning of Ashwamedha?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Ashwamedha means to purify. Shwa means that which is the past or future. Ashwa means that which is present and medha means cleansing. Ashwamedha is when the cleansing of the mind and buddhi (intellect) happens in the present moment. Keep the mind/buddhi (intellect) in the present moment.

Q: How to increase atmabal?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Atmabal…do prarthna(prayer), pranayama, sadhana.

Q: What is Guru tattva and who is Guru?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Guru tattva is viveka, discrimination. Does it matter who the Guru is? It is enough to take the knowledge and move forward. Don’t worry who the Guru is.

The moment you are aware that you are judgmental, you are already out of it

2010-01-21T06:48:00.000-08:00

Bangalore ashram, Jan. 18:

Q: Why do we need to put in so much effort to physically meet you or is it that the Guru creates unavailability for some purpose?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Not at all! I am easily available. I am most easily available. You know you enjoy putting effort and whatever you get after putting effort, you enjoy more. You don’t enjoy what you get easily. This is normal human psychology.

Heart yearns for the old. Mind yearns for the new. Ego yearns for the difficult and unique.

Ego takes pride in doing difficult things. ‘Look I did such a tough job! I achieved such a tough thing! No one has achieved what I have achieved. I did something unique.’ Just be aware of these laws of nature, how the mind and heart works. I am not saying that is good, or that is bad. That is how it is.

Heart yearns for old. Heart takes pride in old friendship. Like wine is sold when it is old. New wine has no value. You don’t say, ‘This is my latest love, my fresh love.’ We go for the latest model - latest computer, latest car. We don’t say, ‘Oh this is a two decade-old car which I bought now’ - unless it’s an antique. We take pride in having the latest model or something which is unique. Like climbing the Mount Everest.

‘Oh, I climbed the Mount Everest.’ A very tough job. What do you get after climbing the Mount Everest? You don’t know! People go in hot air balloons across the world. Very tough job. Why you want to go in hot balloon when planes are available (laughter) and create so much heart ache, anxiety? Because the media is after you for you are doing something tough. Why do you want to do the impossible because the ego wants to do something. The memory clings to the negative. If ten positive things happen and one negative thing happens, the memory just goes and holds on to it. The Self is just a witness of all this phenomenon.

Untouched, unruffled, unconcerned with what happens to the mind, intellect, ego. It is just there, just enjoying. That is why if you have got just a glimpse of the Self, it doesn’t matter. The Upanishad has also declared that once you get glimpse of that unchanging aspect in you, the very central aspect of you, then everything else is futile. Knowing this, everythingbecomes glorified.When you are centered,ego becomes all encompassing,body glows,intellect becomes sharp,memory becomes sharp.All layers of existence simply glow when the Self is realized. I don’t like to use word self realized. It has been used so many times and distorted too much. I would say when you have a glimpse of Being.

Q: How does one know when to put effort and when to have patience once we are on the spiritual path?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: When you are getting onto the spiritual path, you have to put effort. You have to put effort to come here (to the ashram). You don’t get a holiday, you don’t get train or plane ticket. When you want to come here, someone will come and distract you saying, ‘Let’s go to Goa and enjoy, have fun and this and that. Let’s go to watch movie. Why to go? What’s the fun in meditation and sitting with the eyes closed? Let’s keep our mind open and take everything from a movie.

Like this 100 obstacles and 1 million temptations will come. Then you put effort, ‘I want to go, I want to meditate, I want to be centered, I want to go within’. That much effort you need to put in. But once you reach here, no effort is to be put. You simply sit. That’s it. You don’t have to do anything.

This doesn’t apply to ashramites (ashram residents) here. (laughter) You have to get up in the morning and go for sadhana. You can’t say, ‘I have come to the ashram, now let me sleep and relax.’ I give you another example. To get into a train, you put effort. You go, stand in a queue, get to the right platform and then the right coach with all the luggage. At times you have to forcibly get your seat, especially, here, in some of the trains in India. (laughter) But once you sit inside the train or plane, then that’s it! Then there is no effort. If then, also you keep the luggage on your head and run inside the compartments, it has no meaning. You are not going to get to the station any faster. Then you either end up in a police station or a mental hospital!

To begin a practice you have to put in effort. But once you are on the path, you have to relax. You won’t reach any faster if you keep running inside the train. Know that all is done for you. You don’t have to put effort. There is effort to light a candle. Once it is lit then no effort is required to pull the light out of thecandle. Light is coming to you on its own. But you have to light the candle. You have to put that much effort to switch on the lamp. If you don’t even switch on and say, ‘There is no light’, then you have to put that much effort. (Once you do that), then you find light is pouring on you. So you have come here. Just relax.

In hindi, it is said:Shamma jali hai tere liye,Tujhko kuch nahin karna hai.

(The candle is lit for you, you don’t have to do anything)

Q: Guruji, the Master and the Self are most charming. Obviously, the mind moves towards that which is most attractive. How to effortlessly establish the mind on the experience of the Self?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: I think I have already answered this.

Q: Guruji, even after being on the spiritual path, feverishness is still there. What to do to get rid of this feverishness?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: It’s good to have little bit of that feverishness. That’s ok. Maharishi Patanjali also said in the yogasutras ‘tivra savenganam asana’If there is little feverishness, there is intensity of longing. It’s easy. It’sgood. It takes away laziness in you. It takes away procrastination in you. That is why the path needs to be attractive so that it takes away lethargy in you. The Master has to be attractive. That is a professional need. (laughter) So that you are able to handle distractions, so that worldly, small things don’t hold you back. Movies and little pleasure hold you back and keep you in the same circle. I am not saying don’t watch pictures. But prioritize your life from small material gains to higher values. That is what spirituality is all about. That is what the Master is all about. Higher values have to be more attractive to keep you on the higher plane,higher path.

Q: What can we do on our level to get people of all cultures and religions together in celebration?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: We are already doing it. We continue doing the same thing. Call everybody and say, ‘Let’s sing together, let’s do service together, let’s sit together in silence.’ Silence is the best form of prayer. Often prayer is in some language – German, Hindi, English, Spanish. In fact, they all mean the same. But silence is one step further, one step beyond the barriers of language which the whole universe can understand. Nature resonates with it. Silent prayer! Prayer in words also has to lead you to silence in the heart. Purpose of words is to create silence. Purpose of action is to bring deep rest. Purpose of deep rest is to bring you fulfillment. In fulfillment you find joy, bliss. Purpose of love is to create blissful state deep within.

Q: What is the difference between prayer and meditation?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: I have already said it. Prayer is asking, meditation is listening. In prayer, you ask, ‘Give me this, give me that, giving instructions,demanding.’ In meditation you say, ‘I am here to listen, what is it that you want to tell?’ Listening to God is meditation. Asking God is Prayer.

Q: How to be non-judgmental?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: By studying your own past. Look at how many times you have been judgmental. Every time you have been judgmental, you have been on the wrong foot. So just be aware of that. The moment you are aware that you are judgmental, you are already out of it. You can’t be judgmental in the present moment. You are judgmental in the past.

Q: Guruji, you say, ‘I am you and you are me’. But I feel a difference. How to realize that I am you?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: In silence, in service.

Q: I don’t have a job and parents and relatives worry about it and keep on asking, ‘Where am I? When am I going to have a job?’ What to do?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You don’t have a job (Yes, came the reply). Keep looking for a job. Don’t be too choosy. Once you get a job that they won’t ask the same question. They will ask something else. (laughter) When are you getting married? And once you get married, the question will be, ‘When will you have kids?’ One after another,people will keep asking questions and you are not to satisfy them all. Count on those paths, status.(Then the person asks, ‘Guruji, I am contented but my parents…’ to which Sri Sri replies: There is no but - if you are contented - the ‘but’ disappears!)

Q: Why does our mind run after fame money and glamour? Is it necessary?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Well, you got this question! First, you understand that the mind is running. Then you get this question, ‘Is it necessary?’ I leave this question to you. It is very personal, very individual. I don't think it is necessary. But myanswer will not necessarily suffice for you. It is has to come from within. Otherwise, it will be just a mood making. ‘Oh, I don’t want money’, but one part of the mind will say, ‘No, I need money.’ One mind will say, ‘I don’t need fame andanother will say, ‘No, I need fame’. Like this, the conflict starts happening. But when you wake up and see, and see those people who have had all this - how shallow and hollow they are, then naturally you find there is no significance in all this. Then neither will you crave for it, nor will you make any effort to renounce it. People who say, ‘I don’t want fame’, inside, somewhere, the mind is saying, ‘Oh, I want fame, I want fame’. When the sun hasarisen, what is the use of a torchlight? You are moving with a torchlight and suddenly you realize there is no meaning in moving with the torchlight, when the sun is there.Then that is your experience, your true experience. So when you run behind things which are illusive - you will realize that it is causing more pain, more suffering and ‘it is not giving me what I really want’.

Then there is fulfillment, centeredness, a subtle solid strength comes from within. Then if fame comes, money comes, it doesn’t touch you. It comes or doesn’t come, doesn’t matter to you. ‘I want it’ or ‘I don’t want it’ are two sides of the same coin. Somewhat we need to be – let it be.

Q: How does one handle disappointment when something undesirable happens or you lose a dear one? How one can still smile and be centered?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Come on, wake up and see. It’s all a dream. Things happen or don’t happen. It is still a dream. An intelligent person won’t sit and cry, ‘Oh,yesterday this happened in the dream, I was the Prime Minister’.

Just imagine someone is very happy because yesterday, (in his dreams), he was the prime minister or became the richest man in the world. What will you say? What to tell them? It’s foolishness, stupidity. You are overjoyed about a good dream and you are miserable about a bad dream. A dream is a dream. Come on. Wake up. Have a cup of tea. (laughter) Herbal tea. (Huge Laughter and applause) By the way, I don’t drink any tea, not as a habit. Sometimes, if I go somewhere and they only have tea and nothing else, just to satisfy them I will have.

Q: When to use dispassion and when to use compassion?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: When you are bothered about an attachment, use dispassion. And at all other times, use compassion. In fact, you can’t use compassion. Either you are compassionate or you are not. It is not a screwdriver which you can use at sometimes and keep aside some other times. Compassion is like your nose. To realize it is there you have to be there and if it is not there, you are also not there. (Huge laughter) Got it? To realize you have a nose, you have to be there and to realize it is not there, you won’t be there.

Q: What is the alternative solution for white sugar and tea?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You know, don’t be too fussy about anything. You can’t go to a restaurant and say, ‘You can bring me only jaggery tea and no white sugar tea’. Your body has got enough capability to adjust itself. So, sometimes you have to have white sugar, it’s ok. Your immune system is strong. But don’t make it a habit. Every day, eating a lot of white sugar. Jaggery is the most desirable one.

Organic food is the most desirable one. But sometimes you don’t get organic food, don’t think you are immediately going to fall sick. People who are too finicky about food, their immune system keeps going down and down and down. People who are too fussy about food and all that, they don’t have thestrength to defend themselves. When do you give your immune system a chance to work? When something challenging is given to the immune system. So now and then, once in a while, the immune system should be challenged. Then the self defense will come up from within. Otherwise, you become so finicky and you become so weak and then anger comes in the mind. ‘Oh ah.. I want only organic food. I want only this. I can’t have junk food.’ Your system should be flexible, adjustable. And that can happen when you make itmentally strong. You resolve mentally that ‘this is not going effect my body so much’. I am not saying eat unhealthy food. No, not at all, but I am saying, ‘Don’t be too finicky about food, quality of food and this food.

Chose a middle path. You know, people in India live or are born in slum areas, and their immune system is so strong. They don’t get affected by diseases easily because their immune system is getting to work. They can come out of any illness. Chose that middle path.I suggest internationals who have come here not to go for hawker food unless you find it hygienic. Don’t have cut fruits on the street for knives may not be sterilized. You better not go for that. You can go for whole food.

Q: When do we know we are on the middle path?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: When you don’t fall off, you are on the middle path.

‘Happiness depends only on your mind’

2010-01-19T19:57:00.000-08:00

What Sri Sri Ravi Shankar said today:
Bangalore ashram, Jan. 17:

Q: When everybody is sleeping, Guruji is awake. Don’t you face any problem because of that?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: There is a watchman in front of the house when you sleep. For someone with big problems, small problems don’t bother them. Yogis are not bothered about what people normally worry about. For yogis, anything is possible.

Q: Where should I go to have bhakti (devotion)?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Bhakti – preeti – you don’t have to go anywhere to reach bhakti. With smarana (remembrance), you can do anything. Wherever you are, you can have bhakti. Can anyone stop you? While walking, eating, you can be devoted.

Q: The Art of Living has given me so much, I also want to contribute, serve? How can I do that?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You can come and serve in the Ashram anytime.

(The person then tells Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: I’m very happy to have food with many people, with no differences between people and so much togetherness.)

Q: Guruji, my past disturbs me a lot. What should I do?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Let bygones be bygones. Forget even forgiving. Even to forgive you have to remember. Think it as a dream. Does anybody analyze a dream? Like that you have to let go of your past. One devotee astrologer said one day, “I got my leg fractured. I slept at night and dreamt of fighting with a tiger. I kicked the wall and got a fracture. The tiger was in my dream, I should have kicked in the dream.” Don’t stop for any obstacles, keep walking on.

Q: Wherever I go, I find unhappiness. Where do I go and what to do?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Antarmukhi (going within). Outside is a bazaar, a market. In the city market, below the bridge, people will be sleeping! You can learn from them. They can sleep in the middle of the bazaar. You can also meditate and be calm. Come here otherwise. You get peace. There might be 20 bad problems yet there are 100 good things. The mind is still stuck with 20 bad problems.

Q: I could not follow the instructions on the meditation CD.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Do not try to listen to me in meditation, whatever happens, let it happen. Do it like you listen to advice. Listen in one ear and let it come out from the other! It’s enough if you simply sit.

Q: In society, everyone is living peacefully. Yet some people create disturbances. What should we do?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Sometimes you have to, sometimes no. Asprushate (caste division) doesn’t help anyone. Don’t keep hatred towards anybody. In there is a dead snake and you keep beating it, your hand will get hurt. Yet, in some places, the stick is necessary. Don’t have dvesha (aversion) for it.

Q: I follow the principle of whatever you resist will persist. Yet, I find myself resisting some things.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: The rule for the body and mind is different. What you resist persists in the mind, not so in the body.

Q: What is the definition for life? How to lead a happy life?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: That is what Art of Living is all about. Life is beyond definition. Much more than whatever you can capture or define. It is so vast, so big, it can’t be encapsulated in a few words. When defining life you are limiting the scope of life. Happiness is a factor that we have to consciously pursue. Unconsciously we all are happy, but somewhere in the pursuit of happiness we get stuck and miss the goal. That is what spirituality is all about - bringing that one smile.

Once you are able to see the light, you see the entire past as a dream, move on. Wake up and see the present, you will find happiness is there, unconditional happiness. Then you are happy and not dependant on others for your happiness. Happiness depends only on your mind. When the mind is free of past impressions and future cravings, happiness is there.

Q. God in his infinite wisdom made the world the way it is, I don’t understand why should I not eat meat? I am a born non–vegetarian and I am not able to leave non-veg.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Ok. What is it that makes you crave for non-vegetarian? (The lady answered smell and taste). What brings the smell and taste to the food is spices. Ok, forget all about taste and smell and spirituality. You know, what is the latest finding of non–vegetarian food? One kg of meat is equivalent to the meals of 400 people. If only 10 percent of the world population become vegetarians, the problem of global warming will be reduced.

On this count we have to save the planet. We will have to reduce the consumption of non-vegetarian food. For the sake of the planet, so that everybody gets food, for that we must be concerned. God has given us the sense to care for others and planet also! You have eaten enough, so consume a little less so that others who have nothing to eat can have a little at least, so that more and more people gets something to eat.

We are consuming 40 -50 percent more than we produce. Plant trees, be vegetarian, it’s part of being spiritual. Spirituality is not only meditation. India had 400 cows for every 1,000 people when we got independence. Now we have less than 100 cows per 1,000 people. In 20 years, there will be only 20 cows per 1,000 people. Children will not get the basic staple diet like milk, yogurt, ghee. We have to protect the animals, and save the planet.

Q: Guruji, man is always fighting. Will there ever be a world free of violence and which is all peace?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yes, that is what we should dream and work for. The whole world is one family. One world family is our ancient calling – Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam.

You are a child of nature & nature loves you

2010-01-18T04:39:00.000-08:00

Bangalore ashram, Jan. 16:

Q: Guruji, the way I feel so connected to you, do you feel the same?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: More than that. You know, connection means that there is a difference. I don’t feel connected for I don’t feel the difference. I feel you are a part of me.

Q: If truth is contradictory, how to find the truth?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Truth is something you can’t avoid nor confront. There is no effort. Truth simply comes out. If you tell a lie, you have to manufacture. To tell a lie, a lot of effort is required. You’re feeling cold, you’re feeling hot, that is how you feel. No effort is needed.

Q: Even after surrendering problems, I worry about them. What to do?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: This is to say, ‘I gave it away’ and even after giving you say, ‘I have it with me’. If even after giving it away again and again, it comes back to you like a ball you again and again keep giving it away. Don’t give up until you have totally given up!

Q: What are the characteristics of an ideal devotee?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: (After a little pause) You are One. You don’t doubt that. And whatever additional quality you want to have, you can always develop.

• Someone who has a calm and serene mind,

• Wants to live in knowledge, has some knowledge and a desire for knowledge,

• No grudges, no hatred towards anyone,

• Has compassion.

Q: What do you expect from us?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: A lot. You live in knowledge, you keep smiling, you keep serving, you keep connected. I don’t expect - I know you will do it. Only I am impatient. I want you to do it quickly.

Q: Guruji, telling the truth causes problems outside and telling lie creates problems inside (us)? What to do?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Solve the problem. Problems are to be seen as challenges. Someone who is brave like challenges and you are brave, I tell you.

Q: Guruji, when we say Jai Gurudev to someone, are we referring to the Guru in the person in front or we are remembering the Guru in ourselves?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: I leave it up to you, whatever you want. It has so many meanings – Hello, How are you, Good bye, Welcome, Thank you…So many words come in that Jai Gurudev. You want to say, ‘Oh my God’ you say Jai Gurudev, you want to say, ‘Oh I give up’ you say Jai Gurudev. It’s just become a habit. I don’t insist at all. You say whatever you want to say.

Q: Do I exist beyond body and soul? And if I do then in what form?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Nothing exists beyond the soul. Beyond the body? Yes. When you realize, you see you are not your body and you will realize thatyourself.

Q: Guruji, there are moments when I am enthusiastic, when I am very confident but there are two problems: 1. I forget things. 2. I fear of what happens if this state continues. This is predominantly from my wife’s side. What to do?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: I remember in one course a gentleman with his wife participated. At each knowledge point, the husband would say, ‘Look, I have been also saying the same thing.’ Like I said, ‘Forgive and forget’ and she would say, ‘I told you the same thing, now Guruji is also saying same.’ (Laughter) Itold him, these points are for you to apply and not to just pass on. Charity begins at home, Love begins at home. Start from where you are.

Q: I get physically attracted to many people. What to do? Is it ok to be physically attracted?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: If you see your mind, so many thoughts come. You can’t act on all the thoughts. If you try to act on all the thoughts, you end up in a mental hospital. Whether thoughts of attraction or repulsion come, you do not get attracted but you also feel repulsion for many people. For example, the mind says to strangle somebody, you have to act out of wisdom. You have to see what is right and what is wrong. You have to see what is evolutionary and what is not. You have to see what is giving you happiness in the long term and what is giving misery. You have to see what is permanent and what is temporary. That is discrimination, Viveka, is so important. Otherwise, it will be just senseless, thoughtless action leaving you in misery.

Q: We give so many botherations to you? To whom do you give all these botherations?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: That you don’t worry. I have a processing unit where all garbage gets processed to manure.

Q: If atma (spirit) is neither created nor destroyed then from where do these new souls come? How is the population of the world increasing?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: My dear, so many animals are also getting extinct. Very few sparrows are left, many crocodiles are missing. Like this, many other species are missing. Just imagine. I think you will get the rest of your answer.

Q: Guruji, I do all practices when I am in problem but otherwise I stay away from path. What should I do?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: This you figure out. When misery comes, everyone thinks of God. But to one who thinks of God even when happy, why will misery touch him? There is an old proverb which says this Sukh mein simran sabh karein, dukh mein kare na koi,Sukh mein simran jo kare to dukh kahe ko hoyeThis applies to us also. When you are doing pranayama, Sudarshan kriya, when you are happy, then that happiness will continue.Today, there was an article in the paper which says that the only way to cure depression is by meditation. Anti-depression medicines will make the depressioncome back. There is a rebounding of depression with anti-depression medicines but with meditation there is no rebounding. Today millions of people are suffering from depression and they don’t know something like this exists. They don’t know there is a way which can make them free from depression. When you go back tell everyone about meditation. It takes one out of depression, suicidal tendencies. Look at Rashid (pointing to a youth who has come from Kashmir), he is smiling after 12 years and is now doing wonderful service also.

Q: When I come here I find so much peace and harmony. How can I take this same peace and harmony back to Kashmir also?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You also come up with ideas, I will also think. More youth like you should come from Kashmir, experience this and go back and serve. We will start the Art of Living in Kashmir and make it big. If you all resolve, we will definitely do it. We can do organic farming there. We can train more teachers, all can heal and bless them, bring happiness in them. We already have a residential school there. We all need to do more and more.

Q: If something bad happens to a person we say that the previous birth karma is responsible. Will you please speak about that?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: ‘Paap kya punya kyat tu bhulade’Karam kar phal ki chinta tu mitade’Forget what is sinful and what is noble. Be free from the desire of the fruit of action. Don’t sit and worry too much about all this.I have spoken more on this in Celebrating silence (a book written by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Ravi Shankar).

Q: It is said in the Gita, do your duty and don’t expect for the result. How to live this knowledge in normal life?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Live naturally. All Art of Living points are from life’s experience. There is no effort in it. Do some meditation, yoga you will see how life has transformed effortlessly and automatically.

Q: Guruji, is it true you have some super power. You have stopped rain so many times just looking at sky, you can read thoughts.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You know love is the most super power in this world and that power is with everybody, not only with me. When mind is free from lust, greed, possessiveness, arrogance etc., when the mind is in the pure form with which we were all born with, then nature listens to you. You are a child of nature and nature loves you. When that manifests, when you are clear then two things happen - your wishes get fulfilled and you can fulfill others’ wishes also. When you are content, that is when blessing happens, Don’t think only Guruji can do it. This is no achievement and no effort is required. That isnatural from our state of being, that state of innocence. Most of us have lost it but I still haven’t lost it.

Q: How do you speak so sweetly always?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: It’s like asking jaggery, how can you taste so sweet? It’s the nature of the jaggery to be sweet. I don’t put any effort to speak sweetly. If I put in effort, it will turn to be salty. What I am, I speak the same. That’s why you find it sweet. And secondly, you are also sweet so you find me also sweet. If your mind is turbulent then even if I speak sweetly, you will find it salty. I also don’t know how to be otherwise. I am grateful that I never got an opportunity also to do something which is not in my nature. There was never a need to speak a lie or cheat someone. It has never happened that I pretend to be someone else which I am not. It doesn’t seem also I would be doing it in future. (laughter) But I don’t give any guarantee (more laughter). It hasn’t happened till now and God knows about future.

Q: Guruji I worked in a slum and I got so much happiness. I am feeling so blissful and life is so beautiful.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Life is beautiful but we don’t crave for happiness: ‘Oh, life is beautiful. I want joy.’ When you are happy – serve.When you are sad – give up, have the courage to give up your misery. Adveshta serva bhutanam maitra karuna evacah|Nirmamo Nirahankarah samah sukah dukkah kshami||Lord Krishna tells Arjuna that one who is dear to me, who doesn’t hate anybody, who doesn’t have any ego – I, I, me. One who is calm in success or failure. Whatever he gets - sorrow or happiness - he takes it all with a smile. The Gita also talks about the three gunas – Rajas, Tamas and Sattva. What type of food you should eat, how the cosmos affects. Ayurveda, yoga, psychology, all these subjects are there. People from Tamil Nadu had come for the satsang.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar welcomed them and introduced the Pongal festival which was celebrated on January 14. Pongal is the biggest festival in Tamil Nadu. The flavor of Pongal is a little bit salty, little sweet and is prepared with rice, dal (pulses), and turmeric in a clay pot and celebrated.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar said: The Intelligent celebrate everydayFools fight everyday

Beyond all phenomenon is Divinity

2010-01-16T23:11:00.000-08:00

What Sri Sri said today: Jan. 15, 2010

Bangalore ashram, Jan. 15:

Q: Guruji, why don’t I have same experience in doing meditation here and at home?

Sri Sri: Places do have an impact – that’s only in beginning. The stronger you become, you start influencing places instead of places affecting you.

Q: Can you please talk about restrictions during eclipse like not to eat?

Sri Sri: The mind has a deep connection with the moon and the moon is connected to water and water is connected to the body: 60 to 70 percent of the body is water. Everything is interconnected. When a celestial phenomenon happens, it impacts the body also. For example, the way you feel early in the morning is different from how you feel in the afternoon or evening. Evening goes with romantic music and melodies, morning goes with wake up calls. You can’t play romantic music in the afternoon.

The mind has an impact on the mind and body complex. Time has an impact on the mind. Planets have an impact on mind and the mind-body complex. Ancient people have written about it. When the mind says, ‘It’s wrong’, you try to prove it wrong and when you can’t prove it wrong, the mind accepts it. For example, turmeric. In the 70s and 80s, people dismissed it as only being a pigment with no food value but now scientists say it has the best anti oxidant value like amla (gooseberry) and tulsi (basil). They have started rediscovering the ancient sacred herbs as being very useful and a must for healthy living.

The reason we say, don’t eat during and before the time of eclipse is because the food increases metabolism in the body. Increased metabolism doesn’t let the mind be in a calm state. If you have food, you would simply fall asleep. We advise this to soothe the system and not excite it during the celestial phenomenon.

Q: I would like to have self realization. I have come to the advanced meditation course. At what stage and in what course will my desire get fulfilled?

Sri Sri: It’s good. This is the highest desire, the only one worth pursuing. Whether you acknowledge this or not, everyone has come to this planet with this desire. If you have recognized this it’s very good.

Q: The advance course will take me to what level and how many steps do I need to take?

Sri Sri: Very few steps for enlightenment. What is enlightenment? Being unconditionally happy. Everyone wants love that doesn’t get distorted. Love gets distorted as hatred, fear, jealousy and other imperfections. Enlightenment is having such a love.

There are two steps to enlightenment:

From being somebody to being nobody.
From being nobody to being everybody.

And how to be nobody? Just wake up and realize that this is a vast universe. What are you in this? Who are you in this? You may be a great businessman or scientist or doctor but how long will you be there on this planet? In 70 – 100 years you will go and the earth will continue to exist. It has been there from billions of years and it will continue to be there. Who are you? Where are you with respect to this magnanimous universe?

From being nobody to be a part of everybody.

Q: Knowing that my life goes by karma, is it still alright to ask for something after prayer/puja?

Sri Sri: It’s like asking should I feel thirsty? If you feel thirsty, you will ask for water. Should I ask for water has no meaning, since you have already indicated that you’re thirsty. If a prayer comes, let it come. It just comes up.

Q: I have been on path for many years but I don’t feel your grace as people talk about?

Sri Sri: Don’t focus on what others want. See what is it that you want. When you stop looking inside and look at others, that is when you miss the boat.

Q: Can you please elaborate on the power of mantra? It is said that the power of mantra is greater than that of a planet. Does a sadhak (one who is on the spiritual path) need to pay attention to horoscope?

Sri Sri: Yes, mantras are very powerful. The power of mantras is greater than the power of the horoscope. Don’t worry too much about horoscope. Om namah shivaya , Om namoh narayana are much more powerful. Shiva has five letters which refers to the five elements. All the five elements earth, water, fire, air and ether are referenced when you chant Om namah shivaya. You don’t have to imagine that Shiva has a big trishul and is sitting somewhere. Artists had made that mistake. Shiva is not a person. Shiva is tattva.

It’s said in the Upanishad:

“Shivam shantam, advaitam, chaturtam, mannyante sa aatma sa vigyeya.”

What is Shiva? Shiva is so auspicious, so benevolent, so soothing, so beautiful, so comforting. ‘Chaitanya atma’ – the consciousness is Shiva, not a person but that energy.

In Kashmiri Shaivism, there is a book called the Shiv sutras. In some books of Kashmiri Shaivism, it has been so beautifully described. Some of these books are so precious, so nice - all that knowledge, those books are lost.

The main purpose is to express the timelessness of mind, the consciousness. That fourth state of consciousness which is neither awake nor asleep is called shiv tattva.

Q: I am in a dilemma. I am a second year student of engineering. I took engineering with my choice but now I find that it is not for me. I find journalism my choice. What should I do?

Sri Sri: Choice is yours blessing is mine.

Q: What to do when responsibilities come between you and your practices?

Sri Sri: Guru Nanak or one of the ten Sikh Gurus has spoken on how a student should be. Like water. When stones are there on the path of water, what does it do? Water rises above the stones and flows. Similarly obstacles are there in life. You rise above obstacles and move through it. Have patience and flow over them.

Q: Guruji there are so many people in the world who are suffering on behalf of ancient beliefs and rituals. Can you please talk about it?

Sri Sri: People are suffering with modern beliefs also. They think drugs, cigarette, alcohol gives them joy and then they suffer. Not every ancient belief is wrong and not every modern belief is right. We need to accept combination of both old and new. People are suffering because of superstitions which have no sanction of scriptures or science. People are suffering because of some rituals which are not at all part of ancient scriptures. It’s a lack of wisdom which make people suffer. Nothing else.

Q: How can we love someone who did a terrible thing to us?

Sri Sri: Don’t love them. Just accept them. First accept and then see the culprit not as a culprit but a victim. Due to circumstances they did so. If they would have had wisdom they wouldn’t have done it.

Just a few days ago, a lady came to the ashram. She has three children and her husband was killed by Maoists. Later she became an Art of Living teacher and when she went back, she taught the Maoists Sudarshan Kriya and pranayama. Maoists were so amazed. They asked her: ‘You are not angry with us, we killed your husband?’ She said, ‘No, you didn’t have knowledge of what you were doing. I want you to be in knowledge’. They all did Sudarshan Kriya, pranayama and left the path of violence. They were crying in front of her like babies. The way she described brought tears in everybody’s eyes. All those 2000 people present had tears in eyes.

This is the power of wisdom. It unites people of all roles and attitudes.

Q: Guruji, how much influence does previous karma have on our present life. Is one sad or happy owing to previous karma?

Sri Sri: I have already talked about this in a book ‘Celebrating silence’. You can refer to that for deeper understanding.

Our mind is ancient so it has impressions. Previous karma does have an impact but so does your present karma. Don’t be too much stuck into that. Don’t have a fatalistic attitude. You have a free will to change it as well.

Q: Guruji, I am very possessive about my things. I can share my things only with my dear ones and I don’t like others using them. What can I do to come out of it?

Sri Sri: Never mind. Others have accepted you as you are. You can think you have given a chance to accept as you are. Never mind. The time will come when you will rise above all this, me and I. Right now, don’t feel guilty. Allow your boundary to expand gradually. Don’t force yourself. May be after 10 years or 100 years! Then anybody can use your things. Then you can’t say only my grand children can use my things. (Laughter)

Mind is so tricky and so funny when it comes to possessiveness. It’s ok. There is a time for everything.

Q: I want to do a lot of work in society but I don’t know where to start, how to start?

Sri Sri: The seed is there and it will grow. You want to work for society, the seed will grow. Good. Let it grow. Satsang, sadhana will nurture this seed.

Q: Guruji, the surroundings I am in have many drug addicts and people in all such other stuff. Can we do something for them?

Sri Sri: Definitely. We can conduct courses there. We have many de addiction centers running. We will think about it.

Q: Guruji you often answer my prayers and questions but sometimes I feel you completely ignore me.

Sri Sri: Because you are so special. I pay attention to only ordinary people to make them extraordinary. You are already extraordinary.

Q: Guruji, under stress and tension for small things I have spoilt much of my hard work which has affected results also.

Sri Sri: Stress and tension can spoil anything, you understand this by your experience that’s very good. People keep on doing the same and then also they don’t realize this. When stress and tension starts, become aware and do pranyama, Sudarshan kriya and get rid of it. That is why we have courses. It’s good you have acknowledged that stress is the culprit.

The second stage is to get rid of it. And the third stage is ‘Don’t let it come’. Here wisdom helps.

Practices are there to get rid of stress and wisdom doesn’t allow stress to come. We need to have both. Practices alone won’t work because more stress will come again. Wisdom alone won’t work because it will be only set of ideas. Both are required.

Q: What is the best form of prayer?

Sri Sri: Prayer happens in two conditions. One is when you are utterly grateful and second is when you are utterly helpless, nowhere to go. Both are authentic and always get fulfilled. Being both, helpless and grateful, is very rare and very powerful. It is a total form of prayer.

Q: Guruji, the more I follow you, the more attached I get to you. What to do?

Sri Sri: I don’t know what to do? (laughter) You know, what is it that you are attracted to? Good qualities. But if qualities are only superficial they will go and if qualities are your very nature they will never go. I tell you, all those qualities are present in you. Enhance those qualities more and more. Then you will find that you are me and I am you.

Longing and love are two sides of the same coin. You can’t say, ‘I love you but I don’t long for you’. And it is impossible to long for someone without having love. That is why it is said: ‘RadheShyam’. Radha is longing and Sham is love. RadheSham (longing and love) go together in life.

Q: How to see Divinity beyond the objects?

Sri Sri: Don’t try to see Divinity. Take it for granted. It is there, like the air. You know that the air is all there. You inhale air and exhale air. You can’t see air but you know it is there. Similarly Divinity is all there. Only the heart can feel. Eyes can’t see it. When you are totally relaxed you feel that the whole universe is filled with Divinity. When your mind is relaxed, your body is relaxed, you find that the chirping of the birds is Divinity,

the moving of leaves is Divinity,
the flowing of water is Divinity,
Even people fighting, & mountains - all - exuberate Divinity. You will find that beyond all this phenomenon, there is a field or phenomena that exists – that is Divinity.

Q: How to handle people who argue using kutarka (wrong logic)?

Sri Sri: Intelligent people never argue, especially bhaktas, lovers, devotees never argue. It is said in the Narada bhakti sutra that if you are a devotee, you are lover of God, you never argue. Arguments have got no loyalty. They can go this way or that.

There are eight types of kutarkas. I tell you our nation, Vedic philosophy has tremendous knowledge, insight on this aspect. Like one is ‘pitanga’ – conveniently quoting one line and forgetting the other line. The second type is ‘I am saying so it is right’. Different types of logic to confuse you and make you feel like you have won.

At the time of Adi Shankracharya, ancient time two garlands were put on people involved in arguments. It was believed that the one who is wrong, who is trying to prove something wrong, his garland will wither away and the one who is authentic and trying to put forward the truth, his garland will stay. That is how Adi Shankracharya won arguments from place to place.

Wise people don’t get into arguments. They say, ‘Ok you want to win, ok you win.’

‘Let there be sweetness in our speech’

2010-01-14T23:02:00.000-08:00

What Sri Sri said today

Bangalore ashram, Jan. 14:
Today it is Sankranti in India, the harvest festival. Farmers celebrate this day all over the country. In South India, it is called Pongal. People exchange sesame seeds and sugarcane with each other. Whatever you receive first, you have to give away to somebody. We exchange things.

In ancient times there was no money, only the barter system. Almonds were exchanged for apples, sugarcane with rice, there was always give and take all over the world.

Today is the day everyone can exchange like that. Usually, sweets are given (jaggery and sesame seeds). We have this and say, ‘Let us speak sweetly this year, let there be sweetness in our speech.’ “Have a nice day, happy birthday” are modern day wishes, but in ancient times we say, ‘let us be sweet to each other, may you speak sweetly,’ meaning, ‘The whole year, may you speak wisdom’.

We had a huge program in Maharashtra, I have just come from there. In Maharashtra, it is said,

Tilgul ghya,
Gud gud bola.

(Eat tilgul (little balls of sesame seeds and jaggery); speak sweetly.)

“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

© The Art of Living Foundation
For Global Spirituality

‘It not your doing, but your Being’

2010-01-14T11:03:00.000-08:00

Sadguru Pariwar presented the Sadguru Bhushan award to Sri Sri in Pune, (India) on January 13.

While accepting the award, Sri Sri said – ‘Maharashtra has been a land of Saints and will continue to be so. In every household there is a saint. In every child there is a saint and in every saint, there is a child. The Sadguru group is doing a wonderful job of keeping alive the traditions and cultures among children. This award is an excuse for us to sit together. There is only One doer. It not your doing, but your Being. You don't become a saint with what you have done, but with who you are. How much compassion, service, love one has in one's heart. The job gets done with the collective effort of so many people. But if we want our inner being to shine then your own intention is enough. The wave of devotion and karmyog in Maharashtra must be always kept alive. Our culture is to sing, dance and celebrate not to fight or dispute.

A girl from a village of Maharashtra - how she became a queen, she made 181 temples, created an army of women to preserve Indian heritage. Every child must know this story of Ahilyabai Holkar. Her life has been so well portrayed by a foreigner in India, Francois Gautier. This can be an inspiration for every child in India.

The Sadguru Parivar must take the light of knowledge everywhere and I hope that it never gets extinguished.

The inner light must always be kept alive.’

“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

© The Art of Living Foundation
For Global Spirituality

The source of joy is deep within

2010-01-14T04:34:00.000-08:00

Bangalore ashram, Jan. 05:

Love is present everywhere. It is the intelligent who keep the love from being distorted. Love when distorted becomes greed, jealousy, fear and hatred.

When a person is involved– it gives rise to moha – obsession. Anger comes out of love for perfection.

Behind every emotion, positive and negative, there is love. There is no existence without love. We want love, pure love without misery, which brings joy and peace. Pure love turns into bliss. The spiritual path keeps the love away from greed and puts you on the other side - bliss and joy. This is the usefulness of these practices.

Q: Guruji, can you speak on the power of words?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Thoughts are energy, have power. When you are confused, your words don’t have an impact. The clearer you are in your mind, the more power your words get. If you are in confusion, the power of words is very feeble. Pranayam, meditation makes the mind clear. So the thoughts that come out of it are straight and clear. One who is content, their words have power. In India we have a custom of going to our elders for blessings. They are supposed to have a serene state of mind. From that space, when you give a blessing, it is more effective. For wedding cards, blessings are taken from the oldest member of the family. The same tradition exists in North America, Australia and New Zealand among the native people. All over the world, native traditions have the custom of respecting the elders. Without this, people above 50 are getting depressed. That has to shift. Parents should also become more happy and vibrant.

Happier as you grow older! The older you are, the bigger your smile – satisfied, fulfilled. You have led a good life. Now you only have to bless people of the coming generations. That is maturity. That is satisfaction. This comes when you become detached from day-to-day things. Wash your hands off anything that makes you unhappy. Take on your responsibility. Act for it but don’t worry for it. People who act don’t worry and those who worry don’t act. This shift has to come. Otherwise, you keep complaining, so and so doesn’t listen, daughter-in-law doesn’t listen.

You should not go to your grave with complaints. Do only what you can. Stretch yourself little by little. Like this we need to re-orient ourselves. Either we are complacent or complaining. Either is no good. Then you remain without doing any action. On the other hand, till the last breath, if you find fault with others, that is also no good.

The more we violate the laws of nature, the body experiences pain. These things should not bother you. If at all you have to be bothered, be bothered about the world.

Q: When we say accept situations, how we can we accept something like a robber entering your house?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: When a robber enters your door, you start shaking, shivering, questioning, it’s of no use. Why did robber rob you is a useless question. It’s his job! Accept he is a robber. Somebody cheats you. When you are caught up in asking why did he cheat? You become upset, and you can’t take action.When you accept the robber, then you call the police, etc. you can take action. Parents get upset over the child not studying. Accept. Then you can act better.If you don’t accept, emotions rise, intellect is clouded and actions become regrettable.

Q: How is meditation important for disaster victims?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:Relief from trauma comes only through meditation. Counseling is only at the surface.The source of joy is deep within. Events are impermanent. You will not allow any event to stick on to the mind mirror. You are unfazed by events. Keeping the mind like a clean mirror – that is what yoga is all about.People not on the spiritual path never feel fulfilled.

Letting go of all effort is called Sadhana

2010-01-14T04:25:00.000-08:00

Bangalore ashram, Jan. 4

Meditation is effortless.

Whatever we achieve through effort will bring only ego. What we achieve through effortlessness is reality. In the Truth, there is no effort. So letting go of all effort is called Sadhana. Let go and relax. What you can’t do you need not do. Someone says you have to fast for 40 days, your system can’t take it. No need to do it. At the same time if you think you can’t do anything, you become lazy. You get nothing then also.

So now, let us close our eyes and meditate...

The one who asks, the one who hears, the one who understands, the jeeva is all atma

2010-01-14T04:09:00.000-08:00

Bangalore ashram, Jan. 3

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Objects need me but I don’t need objects. After the first two becomes strong, then three.The car needs me but I don’t need it. This world needs me but I don’t need the world. You don’t have to reject externally but know in your mind. Even your body is anobject. This is subtle. But when this knowledge dawns, there can never be poverty or lack. We keep thinking, ‘We need this and that’. But when we have the dharana that ‘the Divine cares for me and I don’t need anything’, then your needs are taken care of anyway.

Q: Why this year called virodhi?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Maybe to keep a space for conflict also in society. It finishes in March. March ahead.

Q: Who is atma?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: The one who asks, the one who hears, the one who understands, the jeeva is all atma.

Q: Guruji, I have sinned in the past…

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: See, forget all sin and merit, when you come here. Punya brought you here, and sin is all gone. Washed off.

Q: At home, how to handle the situation when people have different thoughts?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Accept that. There can be differences. And you will become settled. Can you say there should not be waves in the ocean? That is the nature.Similarly in this world, different people will say different things. You should just smile and move ahead.If I keep saying, at sometime, it will get into a person.

Q: People are talking about the end of the world in 2012. When I started thinking about the end of the world, I wonder – what is creation?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: 2012 – nothing is going to happen. We will still do satsang like this. Only there will be more people!If creation was not made, how will you ask this question? It was made so that you can ask and I can tell!

Q: What do I do when there is duality while meditating and too many thoughts come?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Don’t try to see something in meditation. Just relax. If too many thoughts arise, give them all a hug. Duality is what? Good and bad right? Right and wrong? These are the conflicts.Keep in mind three laws while meditating – I am nothing , I need nothing, I am going to do nothing - akincan, achah, aprayatna.If you have these three principles, you will be able to meditate.

Q: When will there be complete peace?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: First, in you is there complete peace? Then there will be peace in the world. Waves come and go. In the world, all are happy at all times – this is not possible. The importance of food is when there is hunger. If there is no hunger in the world, what to do with food?

Q: I am unable to fulfill my commitments.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: What you can fulfil, focus on that! Be happy you fulfilled two commitments, next time go on with three, four..., focus on that.

Q: How to know you have given 100 percent?

SriSri: 100 percent - you will feel! You know! I will ask 10 people to feed you in kitchen. Will run away! You will know.

Q: I want to contribute towards the environment…

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Do u have balcony in your flat? Take a pot, add some tomatoes, coriander, chillies. Grow it.

Q: What is Shiva?Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Shiva is called Mahakala – grand time!

Q: I am anxious about the results of my interview. What to do?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Do Ujjai breath, bastrika, meditation, sing and dance.

Q: When do you call something mature? I am confused?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: When confusion is gone, then you call mature!

Q: Sometimes, I feel a disconnect with everybody?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Good, that time close your eyes and smile. I am with you at that time!

Q: When will everyone embrace the Art of Living?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: There is nothing inside or outside the Art of Living.

Q: Why aren’t you hitting the world just like that? Why so slow?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You all need a job too!

Then Sri Sri Ravi Shankar said: The pink sky on Sunday asks you to sing a song! You know which song? Jai Jai Radha Raman Hari Bhol!

Willingness to serve when joy arises should be the wish

2010-01-13T05:53:00.000-08:00

Bad Antogast (Germany), Dec. 31

Sri Sri pulls out questions from the question basket. Reads them one by one, smiles and puts the paper by his side. A child comes forward to put a no.1 sticker onSri Sri's hands.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Another year is passing by, has passed. Let uswelcome 2010. The past year has made us rich by its experiences. The problems itbrought us brought more talents from within us. Whenever problems come, they beckon more skills and talents within us and the ability to handle them. We are thankful for that. Just imagine a life without any challenges. It will be so dull. Challenges or crisis will bring up the talents within you and make you aware of the abilities you have to overcome them.

In Chinese, there is only one word for crisis as well as opportunity - because every crisis is an opportunity to exhibit your strength, skill and abilities to endure any situation, circumstance. A crisis brings up that opportunity to exhibit your skills. The moments of pleasure or joy, of course, brings you an expansion and implies that you should serve. When you are happy you contribute to the world and you serve - not just remain in your own little enjoyment. Being happy coupled with service makes your happiness rich. Trouble and misery brings the strength to let go, to renounce. It brings dispassion and from this you learn a lot.

We often get attached to misery too. You know why? When you were a child, you made a sad face, immediately someone patted you on the back and tried to cheer you up. You were crying and parents attended to you. So there is a subtle sense of wantingattention whenever you start enjoying misery. You have to get over that and growbeyond that and that is when you gain the power to renounce.

In the New Year, wish for happiness in which you can serve and share so that it grows and if any trouble or misery comes, they come, like day and night, they are part of the world, ask for the strength to be centered. Willingness to serve when joy arises should be the wish. Not that the whole year everything should be rosy, that does not really happen that way. Most of the days will be one way or another. So with this prayer or wish, you will see the days of trouble will be very few, if at all, and they will only bring about the skills from within you, make you more skillful, strong and beautiful. That's the practical way.

So the New Year, learn from the previous year and move on to the New Year knowing you are timeless and those moments of meditation that you experience that timelessness. That is when the events don’t touch you, emotions don’t shake you, thoughts don’t disturb you, nothing whatsoever throws you off balance. In that serene space that you are, repose! Then neither pleasure nor pain touches you. You go beyond the duality. More satsang and seva is the way to reduce misery. Satsang and seva. We are sofortunate. We have this opportunity to even think, discuss knowledge and have anexperience of that inner space. Imagine those billions of people who never know how to close their eyes and be peaceful, to take a dip in that inner serenity even for a moment! For us it is so natural to be happy and peaceful. For those who do not know how to be peaceful, it like those insomnia patients who are so restless and tired, so tired and exhausted with everything around them but so restless they don't know how to rest or sleep! Can you imagine that sort of situation? That's where your intervention is so precious, so much needed. Many times you don't have to talk much. Just you being around people who are not so peaceful brings them that wave of peace, that relief that they are looking for!

Q: Is it true that I have to love myself before others love me?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: My dear, you are love when you relax. Let go of the feverishness and desire. You are love. You don’t have to sit and say to yourself, ‘I am love’. You don’t have to make an effort. It is a noun. Your name is love. During a course in Switzerland, I was talking on the yoga sutras of Patanjali. A couple of participants went to have acappuccino during the break time. Nearby they met people, who said that they used to follow some other path and they were exchanging notes. They said, ‘We wake up at 3:00 in the morning. Sit and repeat I love myself for about an hour!’ We sleep well and love ourselves!

If someone tells you, ‘you don’t love yourself’ – it is not true. Even if you are inflicting misery upon yourself, even then you love yourself because misery brought attention to you. When you understand this you will snap out of this tendency.

Q: I feel I’m too attached. How to break?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Serve, serve and serve to break from attachment. When you find something beautiful, you get attached. You want to posses it. When we try to posses, then it becomes ugly. Beauty is that which you cannot renounce/reject or capture. That’s why it is called beautiful.Serve, instead of wanting to posses. Whatever is beautiful we want to posses it, and then jealousy comes, pain comes. When you find something beautiful, just serve.

Q: What if I don’t reach my goal and experience misery instead?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: When you are doing good things in the world, you will never find yourself in a bad spot. Misery will never come to you when intentions and actions are benevolent.

Q: I feel very small and insignificant in this world. Is that ok?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: All that is small is very beautiful. You are alive. That is important and you know that you are alive is even more important. Two things: I am small, little.Another is: I am useless. You are tiny, this you know. But thinking that you areuseless, good-for-nothing is no good. Tiny like ping-pong, a star, is ok. Useless, dirt, hopeless- these sort of self realization you should not have. It is exhibition of self-ignorance not self-realization.

Q: How is it that some people are peaceful by birth even though they are not really doing any spiritual practices?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: If you heard the yoga sutras of Patanjali – there are some people who are so by birth, some are peaceful because of their past impressions. They would have done these practices in some previous lifetime if not now. That has brought them peaceful impressions in this life time. If parents are very peaceful, mother had a peaceful time during pregnancy – that also creates strong impressions. Some people have had a tough life from the very beginning – things don’t disturb them – they have endurance to disturbances. Someone has lived in a noisy area, then any sort of noise doesn’t disturb them.

How much stress you could handle, how much contrast you have experienced in situations, makes the difference. In third world countries – arguments don’t bother them. They fight and have tea together. You are not used to fighting and then sitting with them immediately. These are all how we have trained ourselves, our mind.

Q: What should I do to bring peace on this planet?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Keeping this question with you will do much more to fuel your engine to move forward. Again and again you will think and plan and that will help you to move forward. There is a lot to be done. We can all do it together.

I understand, in many countries there is continuous violence. 92 percent of thepopulation is depressed they say, in Palestine. Afghanistan has a similar situation. Pakistan now, Iraq, Yemen are in the same condition. There is a lot that needs to be done. When you see the magnitude, you think what to do really! But don’t lose heart. Keep doing!

Wisdom once learnt remains with you like a solid rock

2010-01-13T05:41:00.000-08:00

Bad Antogast (Germany), Dec. 30:

Q: Jai Gurudev Guruji. Why is it that nature has made man and woman so different? If it is so important to have equality, isn’t it just another step away from nature’s law? I am a man and I would like to treat a woman as a woman. And I would like to be treated like a man. My rules are decency and respect. Isn’t everything else obsolete? Of course, there should be equal rights and I know in some parts of the world education is needed. But in the western world, I think that debate is a bit twisted.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You know, the women rights’ activists sometimes forget that they have rights and they fight for that which they already have. When you are asking this question I think what’s bothering you is the feminist movement where they think the world is dominated by man. They are not totally wrong also. Most of the times, it is correct. But they are demanding rights. They are asking the men to be treated equally. I would say, who is to give you rights? You have it. You take it. Don’t ask a man to give you rights. When you are asking for it, you are already losing it. Assume you have it and you move on.

Q: How not to lose my mind and stop comparing myself when my partner is attracted or in love with someone else? I am losing myself completely in this kind of situation and it feels so painful. How not to lose my commitment when I, myself, am attracted or in love with someone else? Please help. With love and thanks for everything you are doing.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Just wait. Time will tell you. Remember what your age is now. When the numbers change, you’ll not change. Got it? When you become older, you’ll grow over these attractions, these repulsions. Don’t blame yourself or blame your partner. See from this angle. Okay, you are getting attracted, so what? Then that attraction is not going to destroy your commitment and your relation. This much you must make sure because the mind always goes for something new but the heart longs for something old. You always want new fashion. What is the latest fashion, you ask. But when you are in love you say, ‘Oh I know them since ages. That’s my old love, my ancient love.’ You always connect, go back to the ages because the heart longs for the old and the mind wants the new. So when you are going for new, know that it’s only the mind’s work but your heart knows, heart always longs for that old connection, old love.

Q: I would love to become an Art of Living teacher. But I am not sure if I am ready. When is one ready to do TTC and become a teacher? With Love and Gratitude.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You are ready. Don’t doubt yourself whether you are ready or not. You are ready. Even if you are not ready, you will be cooked very well and made ready. The processes are such in the teacher’s training. It is amazing, a blossoming of your personality. So don’t worry, just go for it.

Q: There are quite a few questions about how do I feel more connected with you or how do I feel the connection. Sometimes, I don’t feel the connection to knowledge or to you or to myself. These types of questions are there, couple of them in my mind.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Certain things you should take for granted. You should feel that you are connected. Are you connected to air? Do you say, again and again, is there air around me? Am I breathing or not? Is there air around me? My dear, there is! Is there a sun in the universe? There is! I don’t see the sun. If there is no sun, the earth would not exist. If it is not visible now, it is visible another six hours later. Or eight hours later - it will come to the horizon. In Norway, you’ll not see the sun for two months. That doesn’t mean it has disappeared from the surface of the planet. Similarly, your connection, your love is always there. Sometimes you feel it. When a cool wind blows on a hot summer’s day, it gives you certain elevation. It gives you a contrast. You were not connected, suddenly you feel connected. So this feeling of being connected often happens in contrast. Especially when you didn’t feel connected, suddenly you feel the connection, you feel that contrast.

For knowledge, you have to have the opposites. When you don’t feel the connection, know that you are already connected. Don’t look for it. You see what I am saying? Okay. Move away from all the principles of the Art of Living. Drop your pranayama, meditation, singing, everything for one week, 10 days. Then you will see. You will feel the thirst. All this knowledge will pop up in your life time and again. Wisdom once learnt remains with you like a solid rock. You can’t get away from wisdom. Still try to get out of it for sometime and see. Then you’ll notice the connection. Sometimes astrologically, cosmologically, the sense of lack of enthusiasm, interest or spirituality or sort of dullness creeps in life. Vedic astrology speaks about a particular time in one's life where this could happen. But it is only for a short period of time. Especially they say, when the Jupiter is at the lowest energy, the spiritual energy in the world goes down and people become more gross. You don’t feel uplifted, elevated. But it’s only a short period of 11 months or even shorter. The Christian tradition speaks about the dark night of the soul where a spiritual seeker suddenly finds that all that he has been doing is useless or has not taken them any further. This type of a feeling had dawned in Mother Teresa also.

In Patanjali Yoga Sutras, it is explained how to overcome such obstacles in the path of Yoga. These are the nine obstacles you can get – doubts will come. Self doubt, doubt about the teacher, doubt about the knowledge, the path and then some or the other ailments come. You’ll be fine. When you want to do is some practice you’ll get cold, cough, fever, this and that. Some physical discomfort, disease or mental dullness can come over you. These sorts of nine different types of obstacles to get perfection are also part of the knowledge, part of the path. But no obstacles can stay forever. They all come for a short time and they go, they disappear. So don’t keep looking whether I am connected or not connected. When you feel a sort of vacuum, lack of love, lack of enthusiasm or the initial high or joy you felt suddenly disappearing somewhere, just smile and be centered. You will see this wind just blows and then the sun rises back again. The sun is always there. It will be visible just in the matter of time. In the same way, your connection with your Self, with the teacher, with the universe is all intact. It will just blossom once again.

Q: How can I stop hurting myself physically when I feel guilty? Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: When you feel guilty, just sing and dance. Do satsang, do bhastrika. Maybe three times you do bhastrika.

Q: There is a lot of information about the transition of human consciousness, which is part of evolution. They say it will happen in 2012. Can you comment on it?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: As I said, the evolution of human consciousness is a continuous process. It is happening even now. They are right. In the next two years, 2012, that’s when Jupiter comes to Aries, the first point of Aries, people will be more spiritual. They will be inclined towards spirituality. Spirituality will be the fashion and it will become the necessity. People will start walking the path. I remember in 80s and 90s people doing Yoga were considered to be little out there. Not normal. It was not a dignified thing to sit in the lotus position or stretch your legs and hands and knees and sit on the floor. Today many companies - when they want to depict relaxation - they make someone sit in a yoga posture. Today’s advertisements show people sitting in the lotus pose.

Paradigms have changed. People’s thinking has changed. Prejudice has reduced. I won’t say it has gone totally, but has reduced to a great extent. Interfaith dialogue is the talk of the world today. I was recently in Australia, in the Parliament of the World’s Religions, and there were people from all over the world, of different faiths, 600 people, started respecting each other’s faith. This time I received a greetings letter from the Pope. He sent me Diwali greetings and I sent him Christmas greetings. He addressed me saying, “Holiness, we all have to work together in the world to do a great job to uplift the human consciousness.” Today they have recognized there are all other faiths and many ways. So the world is changing already. Isn’t it?

Q: I really want to find and go the way of truth. Please teach us to see it.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: When you are in the train, you don’t keep running inside the compartments. Just imagine you have to run to catch the train. But once you are inside the train, don’t carry your bag on your back and keep running thinking, “I want to run faster and faster”. You’ll not reach any faster running to the front compartment. Just sit and relax. Have your tea. You will reach your destination. This is a promise. Just relax.

You are in the right path. Read and study Ashtavakra and Yoga Vasishta. What’s going to happen in 2012? Silly question. The world is not going to come to an end. I am repeating the same thing what I said in 1999. In 1999, we were in Italy. We had the biggest course in Europe where 2000 people on the beaches of Italy were welcoming the New Year - 10 years ago exactly. Then people asked me the same thing. World is going to end in 2000? In Canada people had stored milk powder, ration everything in their basement. Cellar and basements were stuffed with food stuff.Because the world is going to crash and there will not be any food items for next six months till people find a way out. This was the fear. Wherever I go, everybody asked the same question. What will happen in 2000? I said everything will be business as usual. There will be no change. Just relax. Really! Many people sold their homes and property from the West because they said there was going to be a big earthquake. ‘California is going to go underneath the water. Let us be more smart. Before it goes down and we have to get into the boats to come up to Colorado. Let’s go now to Colorado. Let us be the welcoming party for the sinking people.’ This was the idea. Many people sold their homes. They went to Colorado and build their homes there!

Nothing is going to happen and we’ll continue. Yes. Some earthquake, some calamity happens all the time. It’s a continuous process on this planet. Birth and death is a simultaneous process. Today so many people are dying and today so many are being born. It’s not going to be one day that everybody is going to be born and one day everybody is going to die. No. The doom’s day or whatever day is not going to come. Don’t worry. Everyday is a dooms day. Everyday is a day of resurrection because the world is spherical. There is sun every moment on this planet somewhere shining and there is sunset happening all the time and sunrise happening the whole time. This is what the ancient Vedic science says. We read that Galileo was the one who said the Earth is spherical. No. Ancient Vedic times, they have said it.

Bhugola - Earth is spherical

. Khagola – the universe is spherical. And millions of universes are there. There are 14 earths like our earth in our Galaxy. So, this universe is huge and unfathomable. So having attained this, relax in the peace of your heart. Content. Tonight go to bed with a smile on your face. With a feeling of contentment, not with lack.

‘I have had everything I need to have. I have had enough food, I have had all the pleasure that the world can give me. Whatever is needed for the body, nature has given. I am happy with it. If more is needed, nature is going to give me. If this body needs anything more, it will be provided in the future.’

With this faith and with this understanding, just repose in your Self.

Our innermost nature is what dharma is

2010-01-11T04:58:00.000-08:00

Bad Antogast (Germany), Dec. 28:

Q: How can we become as big and as fast as this (Art of Living)?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: I wonder about that too.I think you should have brainstorming sessions, sit with them those teachers and people of that country we can try those other things too and then wait for the time.Yes, there are two things:One is that our efforts, our skills matters.Second is the right time.A combination of both will definitely work

Q: Guruji, please speak about dharma and sanga.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Dharma and sanga. Our innermost nature is what dharma is. Yes, our innermost nature is dharma and sangha is our association, our environment.So events and attitude are influenced by only two things.The first is by your own true nature and another by your environment, the people whom you are with, you know.In a group if someone says, ‘Come lets go and have a drink,’ we will say, ‘Ok, lets all go.’ We will go.In a group if someone starts talking negatively, slowly another person will join a little later, then the third and the fourth. Soon you’ll find that everybody starts talking negatively – this is the influence of the groupA child is influenced upto 25 percent by the environment, by the friends in the environment and the school they grow up in. Another 25 percent is from the parents’ genes and tendencies. The next 25 percent is their own originality, their karmas, their samskaras, the impression that they come into this world with. The remaining 25 percent is through their own self-effort and their understanding. So parents have got only one-forth influence on their children. Only one forth. Similarly, our sangha which means our association has an influence on us. Usually what we call sangha is a group of people who are on the spiritual path. People on the spiritual path can help you with that much-needed energy, biodiversity energy for you to move on that path. That is why when you sit and meditate in a group, it is better than when you are alone.How many of you feel that way? In a group you feel like doing yoga, pranayam, even service activity. When you are alone, you get tired. You don't feel like doing it. But few of you join together and you do a lot of work. If you have to wash the dishes alone, you will feel so bored. But if 7, 8 or 9 of us are washing the dishes, time just flies like that. You don’t feel tired. I have told you don’t feel exhausted isn't it? How many of you have this experience?At home if someone is asked to wash that many dishes, you would crib. And here you do it with the smile, you do it happily joyfully. So sangha can or the group sangha can help you move up in life. It puts you in touch with the dharma; and sangha only happen with the enlightened.That’s why Lord Buddha said Buddham, sangham and dharmam. Three things - the enlightened one, the company of people and your true nature - all these things important and they all are one and the same.

Q. Guruji is there any wrong time for meditation? Is it ok to meditate any time?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You can meditate any time when your tummy is not full.When you have eaten, you are full. When you sit for meditation at that time, that is not good. Either you will not have meditation, you'll fall asleep or you’ll have indigestion.There will some difficulty in metabolism

Q: Why is there is a rift between migrants and local people?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Rift between the migrants and people living there... one of the reasons is that the migrants are not mixing with the local people. They remain in their own community and campus. They don’t adopt the country they are in. This is a big issue. That is going to keep people separate.There is an old saying, ‘Be a Roman when you are in Rome.’So if you are in a country, you should adopt that culture, you should be with the country, flow with the norms of that country. This is essential for migrants to know and understand. Secondly, the fear. Migrants fear that they will lose their roots. This they need not do. They should strengthen their roots as well maintain their original customs – language, culture, religion, tradition. That is fine. They should do that. On the other hand, there is much awareness about cultural diversity. There have not been many festivals which integrate all kinds of people, of all different cultures, civilization, religions. This multi-cultural events, multi-religious events need to happen more often. That would bring people together, their hearts and minds together.

Q: Guruji our politicians ain’t any good. How can you change corrupted ones like the one in my country?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Well. I will leave that question with you. You may get some ideas. Share them with me too!We have to work on this issue. Politicians have lost the sense of belongingness with people. It has become another industry. Politics has ceased to be a place for responsibility and caring and protection of people’s welfare. Rather it has turned out to be self-aggrandizement, an industry of power and position and money.This has to change. You know, politicians will have to realize that they are servants of people. They have a responsibility. There are some very good politicians. Not that we should put them all in the same basket. But those corrupt politicians are the one we really needed to address. That can happen only through education and rising awareness of human values among them. I am very much concerned, especially about Africa, where people have very little to eat. The country is really going down and the politicians of Africa have hoarded billions - $280 billion - in a bank in England. When I was speaking to politicians at the European parliament, they told me that, ‘Guruji, we have good news. We have sent $79 million back to Africa to the people there because it’s the people’s money. But it’s not sufficient. It’s only a small portion of what presidents and prime ministers of the continent of Africa are holding there. Similarly, Indian politicians are holding huge amounts in Swiss banks. But it’s all been hushed up. There needs to be a wave of spiritual awakening, moral and spiritual awakening in the whole world, especially in this field. Only then can this be correctedSo, it’s a big task. Everybody has to work for it. We need politicians like Gandhi and Martin Luther King who are spiritual and who care for people to uphold ideals in society. Isn't it?

Q: Dearest Guruji, can you please speak about guru and tatva?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: There is only one air, one sun, one earth and one moon. and similarly one consciousness. In the inside of us, the consciousness which is wisdom, which is light is gurutatva. Tatva means principle. To begin with, the five tatvas are earth, water, air, ether and fire. These are five tatvas and then there is the mind, intellect ego. Then there is the maha tatva which is beyond the ego. The one who has gone beyond the ego is called Mahatma. Finer than the maha tatva is the guru tatva. The guru tatva is that principle of discrimination, of knowledge and when it dawns inside you, that is guru tatva. In knowledge then you have no dearth for anything. Life’s mission is complete. Guru tatva always brings joy, freedom from misery and upliftment of the consciousness.

Q: Dear Sri Sri, please guide me on how I can serve humanity. Lots and lots of love.

Guruji: Yes, come join the band wagon. Come join and think about what we can all do together. See alone when we do it, individually, it is a small effort. There is not much result. In fact, we burn out, we get tired. But as a group we can do a lot. Ok?

Q: There are many kinds of love but how to find out love of your life? To spend the rest of the life with only that person

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: I leave the choice to you and give the blessings for it. And one thing, you know, whatever you choose, you should be aware of this danger: somebody else would have been better. So, it’s better not to choose anybody. One whom you choose, you'll regret you should have chosen somebody else. That situation is also very much possible. So choice is yours, blessings mine.

Q: why does judgment exist? where does it come from?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Judgment is a set of concepts which appears to be obsolete. An opinion or a concept which becomes obsolete, you call it judgment.Not the judgment that the judge gives in the court, but the one you come up with.You have an opinion of a person or a concept or a situation, when that breaks then you look back and you say, ‘Oh, I have a judgment of it.’ If it doesn’t break that’s when you say, ‘Oh, I know it is knowledge, oh you know I know that’s how it is’. You call it judgment when it is obsolete that means it has broken or proved to be false. Right?

Judgment is opposite of intuition, intuition is the right opinion. Judgment is the wrong opinion.

‘Your faith, your love, your beauty, your truth is a 100 times more powerful than the doubt’

2010-01-05T04:00:00.000-08:00

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?

Sri Sri’s New year message for 2010

2010-01-03T22:45:00.000-08:00

‘Uplift the other, this should be your commitment’

2009-12-31T04:41:00.000-08:00

Bad Antogast, German ashram, Dec. 25:

Q. Can a relationship enhance or suppress your spiritual growth?

Sri Sri: Yes, both can happen. If your partner is also on the path and understands you, it can enhance you both. If one is in doubt, the partner will help you to get over the doubt. If one is not doing the practice, the other one will pull them to do the practice and give them encouragement. Make them move on the spiritual path, so that much help comes from that. I have seen many couples - when one is going astray from the path, the other will pull them back onto the path. Because of the sake of the wife or husband, they continue being on the path, on the knowledge, on the spiritual path. This I have seen happening in many, many families. Though, on the contrary, if both go in different directions and if one of them is not really on the path, it can be a hindrance for the other. It can be, though not necessarily.

Q. What is the secret to having a strong will power? Please tell me as I have so many bad habits that I would like to change about myself.

Sri Sri: Now, three things can help you to get over bad habits.1. Love- If you love somebody or something, then promise them for their sake that you will continue the good habits.2. Fear - When there is a fear that this bad habit is going to bring great problems to me, then you will get out of it.3. Greed - If someone tells you that by leaving this bad habit, you will get a million dollars, you would not do that (the bad habit), you want a million dollars in your pocket. If someone tells you, don’t drink or smoke for the next one week, then you will be entitled to one million dollars. Will you smoke, will you drink? No ways! If someone tells you that you will get 10 million dollars or 10 million euros if you don’t smoke for one month or 30 days, they will say, ‘Why only 30 days? I will not smoke for 35 days. I am sure of the number of days, as I want to be sure. Not 29 days. Some months are only 30, some are 31, so let me do for the maximum of 35 days’. Because you know, when you value some thing much more than the habit and you know that you are going to get that, then the habit will drop out of it. So through love, fear or greed you will stop doing it. You know, promiscuity has reduced to a great extent because of the fear of AIDS. After the dreadful disease of AIDS started appearing, then promiscuity came down to a great extent. So similarly, commitment to a higher cause can help you get over small little attractions.

Q. Whenever I come in the ashram, it feels like I am in love with everyone here, but when you go outside, it is hard to maintain this feeling. When peopleare not open, they embrace the feeling of love . It is hard to feel love for them. Why is it so, how to love everyone?

Sri Sri: You know, you feel love but don’t get attached to it ok, and don’t try to feel love for others. Love is a gift. If it is there , it is there, if it is not there, it is not there You cannot force yourself to love somebody. Can you impose? If you do it, it will be contrary to what is. You just be relaxedand go deep in the knowledge and suddenly one day, you will find that all are part of me and everybody is same. Then love is not a verb, it’s not an action.You don’t have to love somebody, you are love, you will understand that love is a noun. You are simply there as a sparkling love. And that’s it. Yes, obviously, it’s not the give-and-take love of which you are talking about. You love somebody and they gave you something. Here people radiate that peaceso it is easy. They know all the basic course points of acceptance and not to be football and all these things. Definitely, it is much easier here and our job is to make the world like this so that anywhere in the world, it becomes much easier. All over the world, people say, ‘Art of Living people have a smileon the faces’. There is a certain radiance, a certain confidence, a certain smile which is unparalleled. People comment on that all the time.

Q. Dear Guruji, why do we cry in your presence?

Sri Sri: When the heart opens, tears flow. It’s quite natural .When heart opens and these are not bitter or salty tears, they are sweet tears. These aretears of love, of gratitude. So let it be. Don’t try to stop it or don’t try to enhance it, just let it be.

Q. How do I know that I am in a right relationship or the person is right for me? Or I am right for the other? Many thanks.

Sri Sri: Listen to one thing now, you are right for the other person when you can adjust. Relationship means adjustment, it is giving. You give what you can to the other person and wait for them to give back to you. If you are demanding from the others, the relationship is not going to last long. Demand destroys the love. Demand and blame destroys relationships. So, you should only know how to praise others and uplift a situation instead of blaming, finding fault. Uplift the other, this should be your commitment . Then you are the right person for anybody, and everybody will love you when you don’t hurt them intentionally. This is the first point. Number one.Second, you are open to correction and changes, you have the patience to listen to criticism.Three things, I am counting. You have patience to take in criticism. Fourth, you know the other persons’ point of view, or where the shoe pinches, you know. You should see the other person beyond their words and their actions.You know, when someone is working for 8 to 10 hours, when they come back home, they are very tired. If he is a businessman and when the stock markets fall, he is so upset and he comes home to find solace. So you should see the circumstance, situations, how the spouse is and allow them the space to express their genuine feelings of frustrations, anger whatever.

You know, there is only one option when a person is angry or is frustrated. The whole world expects them to keep the frustration to themselves, no one wants to share their frustration, but when they come home it is with their spouse. They explode and express and show all their frustration. At that time, the spouse should be there like a midwife - allow them to deliver. When someone is in labor pain, and if you say, ‘Don’t deliver, keep it, keep it, keep the babyinside.’ What can they do? How long can they keep it inside? Somewhere they have to explode. When they come with their stress, the spouse should allow them to express. Say, ‘Ok, download it. Download. Let go of all your stresses, ok whatever you want to blame, blame. You want to beat me or beat yourself, do it’.Then, you know, keep that type of space for them to un-stress and download. What you can say is ‘Let go of all that you have carried all the day, all the stress of the stock market or whatever else.’ If a person commits a mistake in the work place or injustice is done to him or her, they come back and they want some place to offload it. Offload is the right word I think, offload all that thing and one must keep that space for them to offload. Understand why there are upset, why they are unhappy - then your relationship will work. But if you expect them not to tell anything, be nice to you all the 24 hours, seven days a week and 365 days and find fault with them all the time.

Pricking them that ‘You are useless, you are hopeless, you are this, that...’ Poor lady or man! What will they do? They find that they have no support. Nobody is helping them to grow, helping them, uplifting them and then they get depressed. Right? So first, we will see. Greater is the person who has greater capacity to absorb, accommodate, adjust with anybody. If you can adjust with anybody, that much greater you are, you know and the degree can come less, less, less. If you know your acceptability is only 10 percent, then you are thoroughly miserable if it zero percent. There is no way you can grow in your life. Wisdom is to have this patience, grow from zero to one hundred percent.

Q. I don’t understand why we are here, why are we here for such a short time? Why do we have to grow old and weak? How do I stop wanting and needing others’ approval and love?

Sri Sri: This is a good question - why am I here, what do I do? Keep asking. When you keep asking these questions, either you go crazy or you become wise. I wish you become the latter, become much wiser, ok? Don’t tell me crazy people are very wise. It’s the other way round - wise people are sometime crazy too.

Q. Dearest Guruji, I am so fortunate to be on a path like this with you. I want more people to get this experience and be more happy by living in the knowledge and practicing the technique. But some people are not willing to be approached nor understand when I would like to share. So how to speed this tothe people who are in need? Maybe their time has just not come.

Sri Sri: No, no don’t think their time has not come. You keep doing your work. You keep telling, you don’t have to push everybody but gently you have tofacilitate people to get into the knowledge. Yes, this is necessary.

‘Devotion is the zenith of Love’

2009-12-22T06:04:00.000-08:00

What Sri Sri said today

Bangalore ashram, Dec. 14,
2009:

A lady shared a beautiful
experience today in satsang. She had lost her son at the age of 14 yrs in an
accident 10 months ago. Her son had done the ‘Art Excel course’ a few months before
he passed away. The boy’s last words before he passed away were “don’t cry, nothing
is going to happen to me Amma (mother), don’t cry”.

As the lady recounted her son’s last words, she said - “Thank you so much
Guruji, for giving these children such wonderful knowledge that makes them so
strong.”

Q: Guruji, I read somewhere that after death, if you end up
in hell, then you are fried in a pan. I felt afraid after reading that. Please
explain.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Don’t worry. When you are established in
the Self while you are here(in this planet), only then no fear is left. That
was a way adopted by our ancestors for making people follow the right path and do
good karma. It was said you will suffer a lot after death if you do wrong deeds
to set people on the right path. If you follow the wrong path, then wrong karma
will follow.

To some extent, this karma can be changed. If you can’t
change karma at all, than there is no use in doing Sadhana. Do your Sadhana and
meditation.

Q: How much freedom is to be given or restrictions are to be
put on teenagers?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You have forgotten because you have
crossed that stage and you don’t remember what turmoil they are going
through. There are so many hormonal
changes taking place in their body. Shake hands with them and gently guide them
through this.

Teenage feverishness is only for few years. Not only
physical but mental and emotional turbulence is so high in them. After the age
of three, children begin to experience all these emotions like jealousy,
possessiveness and these continue till teenage. Some people don’t come out of
teenage at all. Mental turbulence is huge for them.

Teenage is a tough time. It needs great patience to deal
with teenage children. So with great
patience, like a friend and philosopher, give them some space and at the same
time put your foot down and say ‘No’. Don’t be too loose at that time.

Q: Guruji, what is the difference between devotion and love?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Devotion is the zenith of Love. ‘Saa tvasmin panama prema rupa’ - Embodiment
of supreme love for the divine is devotion. You can’t posses God. In routine
love affairs, you love someone and you expect the same in return. You can’t
claim a right on God. Love for that infinite consciousness is devotion.

Sage Narad says, ‘Yoga
chitta vritti nirodha’ meaning ‘Yoga means silencing the tendencies of your
mind.’ ‘Tadha drustu swarupe avastanam’
which means ‘Yoga is the skill of being established in the Seer from the scene’
- To go within and be established in the seer. With this notion, meditation
starts to happen. Then Samadhi follows. Your mind is totally calm. For a moment
you experience that complete nothingness, emptiness.

Q: What is the meaning of ‘Pradakshina’ (circumambulation)?

Sri Sri: ‘Pradakshina’
means going around. ‘Dakshina’ means
that which is done with skill. The English word ‘dexterous’ has come from the Sanskrit
word ‘Daksha’. ‘Dexterous’ means skillful. ‘Pradakshina’ means ‘in a very special way, being skillful’, a
very skillful movement, that which is gained with skill, merit which you have
gained skillfully. ‘Pra’ is to go
around. ‘Pradakshina’ is qualifying
by going around skillfully.

There are three layers when you go inside a temple according
to the temple architecture. The first layer is herbal gardens, full of trees
and plants. The direction in which the tree is to be planted comes under temple
architecture. All plantations are done according to the directions and wind
flow. There are medicinal herbs, flowers and trees in this outer layer and when
you pass through this layer, you breathe in those herbal fragrances that cure emotional
and physical problems, and body imbalances. It used to be around one kilometer long
and while passing through it, your whole body circulation is improved. Essential
fragrances and oils needed by the body are absorbed especially those of the Ashvat (peepal) tree. It is the only
tree which emits oxygen all the 24 hours. All other trees emit oxygen half the
time and carbon dioxide rest of the time. The tree helps a person to overcome
many problems, especially infertility.

‘Pradakshina’ is not done for the sake of the divine or some other
purpose but for health benefits.

Then there is a second circle in which statues of many men
and women are kept. One was asked, in earlier days, to sit and meditate there
for a while.

This way first circle makes you physically fit, vatta-pitta-kapha balances happens by inhaling
the air. The second circle frees your mind from all fantasies. Then finally you
move on to central part - ‘sanctum sanctorum’ - where you sit with your eyes
closed and experience the nothingness.

Q: I don’t know what is good for me and what is bad?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Drop that which gives you short term
happiness and long term suffering. Just keep this in the back of your mind.

“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

© The Art of Living Foundation

For Global Spirituality

Life is a fine balance between the emotions & the intellect

2009-12-14T23:08:00.000-08:00

Bangalore ashram, Dec. 12:
Q: Guruji, many times you have clarified that the Master is the presence and not the physical entity but when I see you I get so mesmerized with your appearance, your actions. Please tell me what to do?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Simply realize that you appreciate what you have. You are also beautiful. Inside each one of us there is beauty. We all have all these virtues inside us. Some virtues are manifested and some will soon manifest.
Q: Guruji, do you have any unfulfilled desires?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: (After a little pause) Yes, I want to see millions of people smiling and all these conflicts in the world to end. There should be no war. WAR itself means ‘Worst Act of Reason’. People who are involved in war give reasons to justify their actions but it is actually the worst act of reason. There is so much domestic violence in the world today. All this must stop. This can happen when people become more compassionate and understanding.
Q: To break the cycle of birth and death we have to attain mukti/liberation, then why do enlightened masters reincarnate?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: With one goal - to help those who are in need and on the other hand just to play.
Q: Is it ok to pray for a peaceful end to the life of a person with Parkinson’s syndrome?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Whenever someone suffers, the people around him or her are the ones who suffer more than the person. The family of a mentally retarded child suffers much more than the child himself. That child is in a different paradigm of mind. Nature gives the strength to endure the suffering and walk through with strength. An animal is given only that heavy a tail, which it can wag. Just imagine a rat having the tail of an elephant. Nature is very intelligent. It only gives you that problem which you can handle.
Q: Guruji, I read somewhere that chanting OM is not good for women. Please elaborate.
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Maybe some man has written that book! (laughter) Perhaps they are afraid that women may become more powerful, intelligent, independent and stronger than men. All this is not true. In the Middle Ages, some people spread this message with the selfish motive of keeping the knowledge only to themselves.
Q: Can charity grant liberation?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Charity purifies wealth.Ghee/clarified butter purifies food.Knowledge purifies the intellect. Bhajan purifies the mind &Service purifies the action.
Q: What is the difference between self–respect and ego? If someone says harsh words to you, it hurts. Is that ego or self-respect?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Nobody can take away your self–respect. If it pinches you then that is due to ego or your foolishness. When someone is harsh to you, it is ok to be hurt but then you should also know how to rise above that. It is because of knowledge that we can come out of that feeling of hurt.
Q: If everything is pre-decided, then what is the need for karma/ action?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: We cannot live without karma. All is pre-decided for an animal but not for a human. Some things are pre-decided and some are not. If everything was pre-decided, why would we be doing bhajans here? It would be no different than being an animal then. Humans have responsibilities to fulfill and humans take on responsibility. An animal has neither any responsibility nor any demand. Humans have freedom as well as an intellect.
Q: What is difference between accepting people as they are and labeling them as they are?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You tell me the answer. If you really want an answer then sit and think about it. If in your mind this question has arisen, the answer will also come. You have some notion of acceptance in your mind and some other notion of labeling. That’s why you are using two different words. You won’t ask the difference between ‘Kela’ (banana in Hindi) and ‘Banana’. When we ask the difference we already know what that difference is. You already know in your mind and a little introspection will give you the answer.
Q: I see some images during meditation. Is that ok?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: There is no need to pay attention to that. It is just an experience. In Kriya or meditation you may hear something, see some images or visions but all these come and go. It is a form of stress release.
Q: In one of your books you have said religion is like the banana peel and spirituality is the fruit inside. Does that mean one who is spiritual has nothing to do with religion?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Religion is inevitable. You have a religion since birth. Your name only conveys the religion to which you belong. Your name, marriage all this is part of religion. You can’t deny it. Spirituality unites all religions. That is the core value of all religions.
Q: If a relationship is not going smoothly, what to do?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Well, I am not an expert to answer this. (Laughter) One thing I can tell you is that you should leave a certain margin in a relationship. The strength of a relationship lies in the ability to accommodate rough patches. How well you handle it gives you skills. Otherwise how do you get to know how accommodating, understanding and considerate you are? These virtues come up only when you have rough patches. See the situation as an opportunity on how to adapt, how to be accommodating, understanding and considerate. You should give a shot to excel in exhibiting your character rather then changing the other person.
Q: Guruji, up to what extent should one sustain a relationship? How much can one bend?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You can’t bend too much if the other person is turning violent, taking advantage of you. Then you have to stand up and state clearly. Deal with all of this using your intellect and not your emotions. Conflict is always emotional. Resolution is intellectual. Emotional conflict can’t be dealt with emotions. Similarly an intellectual argument cannot be dealt with the intellect. The emotional side of it has to be considered. If you observe carefully there is a stream of emotions behind an intellectual argument. Life is a fine balance between the emotions and the intellect. When to use what, is the real wisdom. And how do you gain that wisdom? The answer is meditation, meditation and meditation.
Q: Tell us something about ‘nadi shodan’ (alternate nostril) pranayama.
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: There are 1,82,000 nadis/ energy channels in our body. When we breathe, these are activated and that is why we are alive. When we breathe through the left nostril, certain nadis are functioning and others function when we breathe through the right nostril. So when we alternate the breath through the nostrils, certain changes happen in the body and in our system. Our system gets purified. Fresh energy moves in the system and the stress is eliminated. The left nostril activates the functioning of the right brain and vice versa. So when we alternate our breathing, all the brain waves get synchronized. Biochemical changes happen in the body. The Endocrine glands function better and any imbalance in body is rooted out. There are many benefits of pranayama.
Q: Guruji newspapers today are filled with so much vague news here and there. Can’t we have one full page on environment?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Do you write articles? I want all those who have good writing skills to sit together and have some collection. We will implement this. The Ashram agricultural department is very successful in controlling pollution and purifying sewage water. We are using some ancient techniques, which have been forgotten. It is surprising to see the results that these techniques have brought about. Sewage water is completely purified, ready to drink and the sewage is turned into manure. Using this method we can clean all sewage plants in all villages across India without chemicals. The Agricultural Department also took a project in Nasik where vegetation was grown using seawater. So all this is possible.
“That which you cannot express is Love.
That which you cannot reject/renounce is Beauty.
That which you cannot avoid is the Truth.”
~ H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

© The Art of Living Foundation

Sanyas is getting established in the Self

2009-12-14T21:55:00.000-08:00

Bangalore ashram, Dec. 11:
Q: Out of two options available to do Seva or to be in Satsang with you, I chose Satsang but now my consciousness is pricking me. What should one chose?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: If you have a responsibility to do seva, then you come to satsang so that when you are tired of doing seva, you can energize yourself.
Q: I am academically good but not successful in my career. I am not able to support my family financially. I feel I am unworthy. Please help.
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Breath it out if you feel you are unworthy. Meditate and don’t be hard on yourself.
Q: What is dispassion? Do you have to be a sanyasi to experience dispassion?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Dispassion starts happening naturally. When you grow up, your mind doesn’t get stuck to small things like you were so much attached to lollypop when you were small, yet when you reached school or college that attachment naturally dropped. Similarly, with toys or even friends. When you grow up, you still have friends but you rise above that entanglement. Similar is the case with mother and child. Naturally entanglement starts leaving you. If dispassion doesn’t happen then you experience sorrow. We get into the cycle of sorrow thinking – ‘Oh, I did so much. I did so much for my kids and see what they are doing now.’ What responsibility I was supposed to do, I have fulfilled. There is no restriction on others’, your children’s feelings. We can’t ask anybody to express feelings forcefully. Feelings naturally arise in anybody’s heart whatever those feelings are. Feelings don’t ask for permission before arising. But if you live in knowledge then negative feelings are almost negligible. Also positive feelings exist not as craving but love.
People say knowledgeable is one who kills one’s feelings. No, it’s not like that. Sadbhav, saintly feelings continue to exist. Lord Krishna also said in the Bhagwad Geeta ‘One who is not tied to me - the Consciousness, Higher Self - neither has intellect nor feelings. Without feelings and intellect, there is no question of peace or happiness.
Transforming craving and aversion into love is dispassion.
Lord Shankaracharya also said there is no happiness in world which can’t be received through dispassion. Dispassion doesn’t mean going to forests. It has
been so wrongly interpreted. Bliss and happiness are there in dispassion.
Like the lotus resides in water but still remains free from getting wet, in the same way while living in society one is not to let society enter one’s mind. Birds fly above you that’s ok, but don’t let them build a nest in your head.
Sanyas (an ascetic) is getting established in the Self. One who is unshaken by anything is a sanyasi. Sanyas is 100 percent dispassion and 100 percent bliss and has no demand. It’s very good if sanyas happens after the fourth ashram, the vanaprasth ashram. So much satisfaction in the mind that ‘Nobody is my own’ and ‘Nobody is the other’, or ‘Everybody is my very own’, or even ‘this body is not mine’ is the state of sanyas. Total happiness in mind is sanyas. Leaving clothes and going to forests is not sanyas.
Q: Should we follow the character and play of Gods?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: There is a story in each character. One should follow the character of God like Sri Rama’s character but the play of Lord Krishna is not
to be followed. Play of God is not comprehensible.
Do as what Sri Rama did but do as what Sri Krishna said and not did. If you follow Lord Krishna’s play and do all that He did, you will end up in a jail, then you reach your birth place. (Audience laughs) When you listen to Lord’s play, your heart becomes joyful. Everything is Lord’s play only.
Q: They say cats are fiercer than tiger. I am relating this to women. Women nowadays are not open to accept men’s opinion. I am concerned about the male species.
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You mean we should start men empowering seminar. (Laughter). Perhaps!!
Q: What can be done for peace between Israel and Palestine?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: We all have to work for it. When all of us work together to bring people together, to forget the past and make people live in the present, we will have the bond tied very soon. The Art of Living has already started quite a few programs in Palestine. But if only the government spends one percent of the military budget on educating people, in inter-faith and inter-cultural celebrations and attend to building this gap, all these conflicts will be resolved. NGOs can do limited work.
Perhaps the narrow vision of politicians is making them thrive on conflicts. Unless our politicians become spiritual like Mahatama Gandhi, our world doesn’t have a bright future.
Q: Guruji, how to handle the shattered mind of a person after the untimely death of a closed one?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: A shattered mind will give them strength because the departed soul will give power. You know, we should stop pitying people as well as ourselves. No self pity or pitying others should be there. You only have to know that nature gives you power. The Divine is with you and is giving you power to withstand pain.
Q: Do you see any golden age coming up?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: In the world, good is going up. There is always dawn happening somewhere in the world and there is dawn 24 hours on this planet. There is always dusk happening somewhere in the world and there is dusk 24 hours on this planet.
Q: Guruji, please comment on this: act don’t react.
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: It is very simple. When you react, what happens? You regret afterwards. Reaction happens through an emotional upsurge. When someone says something you don’t like, your emotions swell up. Anything you do in an emotionally disturbed state, you repent afterwards. When emotions are on peak, the intellect goes in background.
Your actions are from the intellect and your reactions are from emotions.
Q: I feel more connected to people here in Art of Living but I feel a disconnect from people in my office or even at home. I feel weak that way.
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Why do you think you are weak? Wake up and see you have all the strength. You should do the DSN (Divya Samaj ka Nirman- one of the Art of Living programs which helps an individual to move beyond one’s barriers and limitations.). There is no outside, no other at all. The Art of Living teaches you that the whole world is your family.
The ashram is your home, of course people are rosy here but everywhere you can’t expect the same atmosphere. You may have to face hard criticism in the office. You have reach meditation to people. But what is the first principle of Art of Living? Accept people and situations as they are. If you don’t learn the very first principle, you can’t say you are doing the Art of Living.
Q: Once you said you exist in more than one places at a time. Please elaborate that.
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: There is one element in each one of us. There is one Divinity in everyone.
Q: What karma gives you liberation from the cycle of birth and death?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You are at the right place.
Q: Guruji, if souls are immortal does that mean there are finite number of souls on the planet?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Have you seen that signboard for advertisements? So many lights are there on it but not all are lit at one time. At some time some patterns of lights are there on board and at some other time some other patterns. Same is with the souls. It all depends on what souls are exhibited at one time.
Q: Out of meditation and prayer which is preferable?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Meditation is a better form of prayer. In prayer you are asking for something. Meditation is saying, ‘I am ready to listen’. Just imagine if somebody only keeps on asking and is not ready to listen to you. Don’t you get frustrated? In the same way, God also gets frustrated but when you sit for meditation, and ready to listen to him, He bestows all the favors to you.
Q: What is Kundalini shakti?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: We talk about it in the advance course. There are seven chakras in the body. When energy finds its way through these seven chakras, different emotions rise. When energy fully expresses itself through these seven chakras, then such perfection is attained that your desire gets fulfilled even before it arises.
Q: I dropped alcohol after Art of Living course. If I meet my old friends who still engage in these sorts of habits will they extract my positive energy?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Don’t worry. As long as you remain firm in knowledge, and Sadhana - you can help them come out of all sorts of negative habits.
“That which you cannot express is Love.
That which you cannot reject/renounce is Beauty.
That which you cannot avoid is the Truth.”
~ H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

© The Art of Living Foundation

Blame is what you call that criticism which you cannot accept.

2009-12-12T01:28:00.000-08:00

Q: When will India be fully progressed and how?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: When youth like you start thinking about what you can do.
Q: Guruji, if someone criticizes me and it is right, it is ok. But if it is not true, I am not able to handle that criticism and I lose my balance. Please guide.
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Blame is what you call that criticism which you cannot accept. How do you deal with blame? With patience, it needs enormous patience and faith that truth will triumph always, things will get better.
Q: I find lot of changes in me at subtle level but people around me don’t.
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You see changes in yourself that is good enough. Others’ can’t because they are caught in their own mind. With patience express yourself better. Many times our actions are not aligned with our feelings. Outward action may be rough but you may not feel rough inside. Your feelings have changed but your actions and expressions have not changed. In most cases that is what happens. Then you need to change your expression a little.
Q: How can one be both friendly and centered?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: When you don’t expect anything from your friends then you will be centered. You know, when you are friendly some sort of expectation is there, you enjoy being friendly. Stop enjoying being friendly. But be friendly because it’s your very nature. Then you will be centered.
Q: Women leadership in villages
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Women leadership in villages is a skill. The transformation won’t happen overnight. Gradually transformation will happen and it is important that you continue to work for that.
Q: How to educate those people who have developed a dislike towards Spirituality?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Are you single or married? (Laughter). If you are single then you don’t have that problem (More laughter).
If your spouse is against your being on the spiritual path, then you have to apply an indirect solution. Through the close friend of your spouse you can reach out to your spouse and when it comes from them, your spouse will listen.
For others, you keep educating them. Share the knowledge with them. In English there is a saying ‘Familiarity breeds contempt’ but in our case it is lack of familiarity which breeds contempt because they don’t know. So educate them.
Also Maoist and leftist indoctrination has turned many people against spirituality. Within Nepal also so many people are against spirituality. Out of 600 districts in India 212 are not touched by the Art of Living. Once we reach out, a total turn around happens. There was an incident when a Maoist guerilla came to attack one of our teachers in a Satsang (song & celebration) in a village in Jharkhand. They came and saw people singing so happily that they also joined in. later on they insisted that the teacher have a Satsang for them as well.
The story of Angulimaala from Buddha’s life is not just history or a mythology. It is happening now, here, today. Where all legislations and money doesn’t work, what works is Love.
Q: Is there death to Atman?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: When you turn off Television do you see waves or not? You don’t see it but waves are still there. The same way life is always there. Jeeva atman is eternal. Whether seen or unseen, manifest or un-manifest is a different question.
Q: How do we decide whom to praise?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: It is good to praise fools but for the intelligent there is no need to praise. He will work either way.
Q: Maharashtra assembly fight, Bangladesh, Pakistan…My heart weeps looking at all this. I feel afraid at times.
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: When you look at all this you feel pain in your heart. The pain should be there. When the pain is there you take a step. Otherwise you keep sitting until your own home is on fire.
Observe how Mahatma Gandhi gave a direction in those days. This way you will also get ideas in your mind on how to move ahead. All should sacrifice a little. Whatever we can we will all do. You feel afraid at times, that’s ok. It happens at times only isn’t it? Do meditation, Pranayama and you will be out of it.
Q: How does one get rid of guilt and repentance?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: When you come here you have entered a new life. That old person has died – it is a new life, new human being. You want to carry the burden of that old stone with you still? In ancient days there was a tradition. When someone came to the Guru, their name was changed reminding them that they now have a fresh new life.
Q: What should a child do to become an ideal citizen?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Keep your eyes and ears open. Know your roots. Deepen your roots and broaden your vision.
Q: Environment issue
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Environment is a really serious issue. You should all plant trees, use less refrigeration, and turn to vegetarianism. You know, scientists today say if the whole world stops butchering the entire green house effect issue will be resolved. One slaughter is equivalent to the cutting of 500 trees for it releases that much methane. The amount of feed used for one animal can be used to feed 400 people. GO VEG: Stay healthy and save the planet. It is as simple as that.
Q: How do I enter politics? Is it only for the rich or those with a political background?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: It is not the case. It’s all about people. People come first. Become a good social worker, people will automatically vote for you. First you must work among the people. I know somebody who worked a lot for the betterment of villages and people of villages not only voted for him but also gave him Rs10 per person for the elections.
Q: Is feeling helpless is sign of weakness or strength?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Feeling helpless is obviously a sign of weakness but if with that helplessness prayer arises in you then an unknown, unseen, irrefutable strength comes to you. But you can’t force yourself to feel helpless or to pray. It comes automatically.
“That which you cannot express is Love.
That which you cannot reject/renounce is Beauty.
That which you cannot avoid is the Truth.”
~ H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

© The Art of Living Foundation For Globalizing for Spirituality

‘Your body belongs to this world & the world will take care of it, You belong to the Divine & the Divine will take care of you’

2009-12-11T03:00:00.000-08:00

Bangalore Ashram, Dec. 9, 2009: One who is inert has no needs and no responsibilities. Also one who is completely enlightened has no needs and responsibilities. In between these two, everyone has some needs and some responsibilities.
How do you fulfill your needs and how do you fulfill your responsibilities is the question.
If you focus on what your responsibility is, your needs will be taken care of.
But when your needs are many and you focus only on your needs and not on responsibility then that is the path to inertness, sadness. When you don’t take responsibility, you remain unhappy, keep grumbling and complaining.
If you take responsibility and your needs are less everything comes to you - enthusiasm, happiness, creativity. A time comes in our lives when we let go of all our needs and responsibilities. But to get to that state we have to go step by step.
Now the question arises: what about if one is hungry? Then, one has to eat. If one is thirsty, one has to drink. These are all physical needs.
Your body belongs to this society/ this world and the world/society will take care of it.
You belong to the Divine and the Divine will take care of you.
In fact the Divine is taking care of you. Make this distinction that you are separate from your body. As soon as you do this you will see that you are separate from your body, you belong to the Divine. Your smile becomes a permanent feature.
Then, Sri Sri invited questions from audience.
Q: How to enhance receptivity?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: If you are listening but the mind is still somewhere else then there is no receptivity.
When your mind is clogged with too many ambitions, it does not listen properly if the subject is not linked with your ambition. Even if it is related, it goes on a day dreaming trip. It listens to one sentence and it goes on a trip. For e.g. if someone has an ambition to become a Chief Minister and he is told that you have all possibility of becoming a chief minister the mind immediately goes on a day dreaming trip. So simply listen, just listen.
Also if your mind is stuck with so many thoughts then also the perception is low.
Another reason for alertness of the mind to reduce is vata de-arrangement or kapha imbalance.
When the mind is bombarded with sensory stimuli then also it is not receptive. Have you observed after watching a three-hour movie if someone tells you something you say, ‘Tell me later on.’
To enhance receptivity what to do?
Silence, Pranayama, proper food, less ambitions in the mind will all help. If you like a topic/ subjects then you tend to be receptive towards it. Teenagers often face a difficult phase in life when they have to choose a subject - Math, Computer Engineering etc and if someone is good in all of these subjects then it creates even more trouble.
Q: Who surrenders to whom in total surrender?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: It is you, yourself surrendering to yourself. Then you realize there is no other.
Q: If we have to choose between happiness or enlightenment, what should we choose?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Enlightenment is the biggest happiness. Why to go after small happiness when the biggest is there?
It is not easy to believe in God. God is there: if you experience this then the mind calms down. Then you find only God is there and I don’t exist.
Inn ankhon mein ankh mila ke dekho to sahi, pyar dikhta hai ki nahi,
Ek kadam bada ke dekho to sahi, rasta milta hai ki nahi,
Hath batake dekho to sahi, kaam hota hai ki nahi,
Ek baar muskarake dekho to sahi, duniya apnati hai ke nahin,
Ek baar naam le ke dekho to sahi, jeevan safal hota hai ke nahi.
When these eyes meet yours, will you not catch a glimpse of love?
Take just one step forward, will you not find the entire way?
Extend your hand, will you not find the work is done?
Smile just once; will the world not make you its own?
Take the name even once; will your life not be fulfilled?
Q: How to come out of a judgmental mind?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: If you know you are judgmental you are already out of it.
Q: How is self-dependence different from dispassion?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: How are these two terms related? (laughter). Total self-dependence is not possible. There is mutual dependence. You depend on a tailor for your clothes. A farmer is responsible for growing crops so you depend on him. If you fall ill you are taken to a doctor so you depend on a doctor also. You depend on your teachers for education. There is some extent of dependency in everything. Life is like this. But we also have to take a step ahead. Until we become useful to others, restlessness and sorrow continue to be there.
What is dependency? One day your maid doesn’t turn up and you don’t clean up your house - then that is dependency. Whatever you can do, continue to do.
It is important that your self-dependency doesn’t turn out to be self-pride. “I won’t take anybody’s help ever and be all by myself”.
You are a responsible citizen, you have the responsibility of your family but your responsibility is only what you can do. What you cannot do is not your responsibility. If you are not a doctor then your responsibility is to call a doctor if needed and not to treat.
Whatever we can do and whatever we can do easily, that is our responsibility.
When the mind and intellect are expanded, you take on bigger responsibilities and when you take on more responsibility, more power comes to you. Nature grants you that.
Have you heard the story of ‘Prabhupaad’? At the age of 75, his Guru asked him to spread the name of Lord Krishna. At that age, he went to the US. He stayed on a ship for over a month. He lived in such difficult situations, in very cold surroundings, in somebody’s basement but that conviction was so strong in him that 1,000 people started to do Kirtan/Satsang (devotional singing) and chanting the Lord’s name. When one’s sankalpa/ intention is so strong, age doesn’t matter. Otherwise 25-30 year old youth say, ‘The system is not good, nothing happens.’ Ok, then keep sitting at home. Have that conviction I can rise above any situation and I will rise above any circumstances.
Q: Guruji, I dreamt about you and it felt as if you were really there. Were you really there in my dream?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: This could also be a dream. Are you sure this is not a dream? (laughter). Whenever something nice happens, it appears to be a dream.
“That which you cannot express is Love.
That which you cannot reject/renounce is Beauty.
That which you cannot avoid is the Truth.”
~ H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

© The Art of Living Foundation for Globalizing Spirituality

‘Unless you know the principle of the universe, you cannot know the Self’

2009-12-10T01:12:00.000-08:00

Bangalore ashram, Dec. 8, 2009:
Today’s satsang was a beautiful glimpse into the secrets of the universe which is beginning-less and endless.
It began by celebrating Acharya Ratnanda’s (Guruji’s father) 86th birthday. He spoke a few words filled with love and enthusiasm to the several hundred currently training to become Art of Living teachers.
Pitaji: Today I am very proud and humble: proud to be seated next to a mahatma (an elevated soul) and humble because I am one of his millions of followers. All my life, I have said, “Life is for Living.” Today I know, “Life is for living ONLY.”
L.I.F.E – L is love, I is integrity, F is fellowship – a sense of belongingness with the whole world and E is enlightenment. For me, My Master is the cause, the reason and the result of enlightenment.
To progress in life, be young. Be receptive. Even a child can teach you.
You say, “I know everything!” We can be and should be young because we are following a young Master!
As the audience applauded, Pitaji’s birthday cake was cut. Then Sri Sri spoke:
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: “There are four levels of speech – para, pashyanti, madhyama, vaikari.
The language we speak is vaikari. It is the most manifest form of speech. Chatvari vak parimita padani – there are four levels of speech and the intelligence knows all forms. Human beings speak only the fourth level. Subtler than vaikari, is madhyama. Even before you say it, the thought form is cognized. When you catch it at that level, it is madhyama. Pashyanti is cognitive. There is no need for spoken words. Para is the untold, un-manifest knowledge that is beyond.
The whole universe is spherical. It was never born nor will it ever die. It is anadi, beginningless, and anantha – endless. Then what is the job of Brahma, the creator? They say there are many, many Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva in every yuga (age). In time and space this keeps happening. So what is the source of this creation? Parame vyoman – beyond the akasha (space). Knowledge lies beyond the akasha. Knowledge lies beyond the five elements.
Richo akashare parame vyoman
Vedas which were cognized are not vaikari. This cognition is beyond the space. All the Divine impulses are established in that field which is all permeating.
What is akasha? Akasha is described as vyoma, vyapti – it means all-permeating, all-pervading. What is it that is beyond akasha? It is unimaginable to think of something that is beyond space. Only a scientist can understand this. Everything is contained in akasha, all the four elements are in akasha. The most gross is earth, then water, fire, air and space. Air is finer, subtler than fire. Space is the subtlest. Then it is air-fire-water and earth. What is it that is beyond even akasha? That is the mind, intellect, ego and the Mahatattva. This is tattva gyan – knowing the principle of the universe. Unless you know the principle of the universe, you cannot know the Self. When you go beyond the akasha, it is an experiential field. The whole realm begins beyond the akasha.
The ancient seers have spoken about the Dravya guna sambandha or relationship between the substance and its quality. There is a very interesting debate if we can separate the quality from the substance. The whole philosophy is very interesting and the conclusion was that you cannot separate the quality from the substance. Can the sweetness in sugar be separated from sugar? Will it remain sugar still? Can heat and light be separated from fire? Will it still be fire after that?
What brings the quality into the substance? What comes first – the quality or the substance? There are many questions like this. The subtler you go is the paramevyoman. yasmin devaadhi vishwe nishedu. -All the devis and devtas reside there, in that space. Yattanaveda yati vaanaveda - What is the use of knowing the vedic hymns and mantras without knowing the parame vyoman, without understanding the principles of the universe?
Swarupa is the quality of that space. It cannot be fully translated in English. Swarupa is that consciousness. From the Swarupa happens the Sputa or explosion from which Svarita, creation flows and Sakaara – manifests with name and form. All the millions of beings in the creation were formed from the Swarupa.”
After this most astonishing revelation about the creation of the universe, was a presentation by Archana Sharma a Particle Physicist from CERN, Geneva, Switzerland who shared a few glimpses of their efforts to identify the god particle with the help of the LHC (large Hydron Collidor). Sri Sri has often said, “Spirituality begins where Science ends.” In today’s satsang we had the opportunity to hear about that which is beyond space, beyond expression and the attempt of science to know the unknowable.
“That which you cannot express is Love.
That which you cannot reject/renounce is Beauty.
That which you cannot avoid is the Truth.”
~ H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

© The Art of Living Foundation for Globalizing Spirituality

Wise ones celebrate diversity, fools fight over it

2009-12-06T08:19:00.000-08:00

Melbourne, December 4, 2009:
Below are excerpts of an interaction between Sri Sri and youth from Australia
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: There is an ancient saying: the first sign of intelligence is not to open your mouth! Having lost that opportunity, then you should not say anything unless you are asked a question.
I would like to open the floor, and ask you to ask anything - then we will take the thread from there.
Q. Why are there differences between religions?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Religion has three components: symbols, customs and traditions, and values. As far as values are concerned, there is no difference, because all talk about oneness. Customs and symbols are all very different; they have to be, this is what makes the world beautiful, because God doesn’t like uniforms! Nature has been created with such diversity- so many flowers, animals, people. Diversity is the language of God. In India, God can have any number of names and forms, and they all point to one Divinity.
So in one sense, there is difference, and in another sense there is unity.
Wise ones celebrate diversity, fools fight over it.
Q: What are the three most important values?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You want to limit it to three?!
A sense of belongingness with the whole world. You have to take this stand, feel that you are part of the whole world and all are part of you.
Commitment to whatever you take up, and an integrity inside of you which says you are going to see your commitments through.
The third value is living in the present moment, not holding onto the past and getting into trouble in your own mind. Do you know how many problems we can create for others when we hold onto the past?
Q: How does a youth handle the ups and downs of life?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: I am a youth myself! Life is a mixture of everything: failure & success - they complement each other. If you fail, then you know the value of success, it is a stepping stone.
You need to move forward: ask yourself, what did I learn from the past, and then what is my vision for the future? This will keep you going. For this, you need presence of mind, and for this, you need to get rid of stress.
You are the player, not the pawn. If you are a pawn, someone else is moving you, and you have no control. You have to be the player, empower yourself, and that’s how these Art of Living programs can help you.
Q: How do you detach yourself from the past, after learning whatever lessons it has to offer?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Lessons are an automatic phenomena, what you have experienced is the past. Living in the past means cribbing about the past. Life has much more to offer you.
Q: What’s the role of pain and suffering in life?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Pain is unavoidable, but suffering is optional
Q: I find the past very painful.
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: The past should be viewed as destiny. If you think you had a choice in the past, the present will be spoiled because you regret the past. Continued regret about the past creates a lot of toxins in the body, the future is not bright.
Past is destiny, done. And future is your freedom. In our teachings, we have karma and purushata - what you need to do. See the past as destiny, the future as free will, and live in the present moment.
Or make the past as free will, the future as destiny, and crib in the present moment! (Audience laughs)
Q: How to practice compassion and impartiality?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: When you are unbiased in your mind, compassion simply flows. When you have belongingness with everyone, irrespective of their class, economic background, intellect, if you can connect, then compassion flows.
You could be anybody - Chinese, African - put yourself in different shoes, playing different roles, then suddenly you find that you are stuck as being somebody, and then you will see it is much more universal.
Q. How to be selfless?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: What is the purpose of selfishness? Wanting to be happy.
How can you be happy when your own family is not happy?
For you to be happy, you need the people around you to be happy. If your happiness includes everyone else, then you can be selfish! Be selfish, but expand your selfishness as much as you can! Don’t go to extremes - just see your capacity to expand your family.
Imagine if your neighbor behaves very selfishly. Would you like to be around him, does it solve anything? He plays loud music, then you play loud music. It will not bring calm. You expect consideration, cooperation, but how can you expect someone to deliver to you what you do not want to deliver to them.
Q: How do I do charity?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Three quarters can be given to your children, and one quarter to the child next door. Your first duty is to feed your children. As they say, there is enough for the need of the world today, but not enough for one’s greed.
Our centre in Bangalore is surrounded by villages. Unless the villages are kept clean, we cannot keep the centre clean and pure. So I said we need to build individual toilets for each family, and help to clean up the villages. Our center administration said we are always short of rooms in our center, we should build rooms in our centre rather than spend resources on cleaning the surrounding villages. And I said, the number of rooms will never be enough, the number of people visiting our center is always growing. We cannot wait for our needs to be fulfilled, and then one day start working in the village.
You cannot wait until all the needs of your family are met, and then do service. It has to be simultaneous.
Q: Can the common man attain spirituality?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Only the common man can attain spirituality! If someone thinks they are very special, they cannot!
Q: What are the three main things which have led to the success of the Art of Living?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Sincerity of purpose, inclusive attitude (all inclusiveness, no one is outside of us, sense of belongingness), and God’s grace!
Q: What was your purpose in beginning this organization?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: To see a smile on every face. I couldn’t stand tears running down anyone’s face.
Q: The decisions which world leaders make have a great impact on us while the work that we do on an individual basis impacts only other individuals...
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: First, you should not think that politicians are a special species, they are one among us. Many times, they feel helpless. They want to change the society, turn around the economy, but find themselves helpless. Any sane politician wants to have violence out of society, but they feel their hands are tied. It has to come from society. You may think the other is powerful, in fact it’s a collective effort of everyone that make the society move - and NGOs, religious leaders, faith-based organizations, play an important part in bringing inspiration, inner strength.
The four pillars of society - politics, business, civil society and faith-based organizations - have to work in unison. The World Economic Forum has recognized the need for everyone to come together, so has the UN, and that is why they have made a caucus for religious leaders. A role has to be played by everyone, and we have to play in rhythm.
We need to spiritualize politics, to lessen corruption. We need to secularize religion, to lessen extremism and terrorism. Many think only they are going to heaven - I tell, you they make life for everyone a hell!
This is what spirituality is about - when you see the whole world as part of you, and you as part of everybody. There is that sense of sacrifice. Gandhi is a perfect example of being spiritual in politics. He was deeply spiritual, believed in truth and non-violence.
Finally, we need to socialize business, take up CSR (corporate social responsibility).
With these things, society will find a new level of understanding.
Q: Bomb dropped in Hiroshima, etc... All the major atrocities result from decisions made by politicians...
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Politicians need to be spiritual. When you have compassion and caring you would not do that. Gandhi would never have done such things. Sometimes people are blind to any reason, but they would not turn to extreme measures unless it is absolutely unavoidable.
There is a saying in Sanskrit - first with peace, then with forgiveness, then with compassion. If nothing works, finally, take the stick.
“That which you cannot express is Love.
That which you cannot reject/renounce is Beauty.
That which you cannot avoid is the Truth.”
~ H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

© The Art of Living Foundation for Globalizing Spirituality

“The world has witnessed so much chaos, now let’s focus on one conductor – GOD. Focus on one aspect, but play your instrument”

2009-12-03T21:56:00.000-08:00

Excerpts from Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s opening address at the Parliament of World Religions 2009 at Melbourne, Australia on December 3, 2009

The purpose of religion is to bring enlightenment to the individual, and happiness in society, and to move from limited individual identity, to universality and communion with the Divine. When at a time these ideals are far from reality, congregations such as these where people of all faiths gather together, have great responsibility to ponder on the pressing issues. It is a necessity for survival of our planet. Faith and Faith-Based Organizations (FBOs) are a powerful tool of transformation in society. Though we have moved away from the blemish of medieval conflicts to a more tolerant and co-operative society, FBOs have the responsibility to make a happy society.

Even if part of the planet thinks they are going to heaven, and the others are going to go to hell, they will create a hell for everyone.

We need multicultural and multi-religious education to reach every nook and corner of the planet.

Violence is appalling today, whether it is domestic violence or societal violence – we see it in every newspaper column, and a sort of pride is being attached to violence. In school classrooms, violent children are considered heroes.

When we were growing up, we grew up with stories about Mahatma Gandhi, about ahimsa, non-violence. If someone lost their temper, people thought they needed to see a psychologist, that there was something wrong. Today, even with our heroes in movies, there is a culture of glorifying violence, which we need to turn around - and that responsibility is on us, the faith-based community.

There are two types of violence in the world today – religious violence, which we are all aware of, but also leftist violence. In India, Naxals control 212 of the country’s 604 districts.

Spirituality needs to reach these areas, but we all have to do this work. Even in Columbia, South America, they are also affected by violence. FBOs have to play a role.

As I listened to the symphony this evening, I looked at these beautiful singers and artists, all playing their own tune, but all looking at the conductor.

All religious leaders have to take on this role. We cannot lose sight of that one Divinity, which has created this beautiful diversity. Otherwise we won’t have a symphony, we will have a chaos.

The world has witnessed so much chaos, now let’s focus on one conductor – GOD – Generator, Operator and Destroyer. Focus on one aspect, but play your instrument. There is no threat to any tradition, to any culture, if we are all uplifted in human values, in communion of One, which is in the heart of each and every one of us.

I am reminded of the Kumbh Mela, which has been going on for thousands of years. When I was at the last Kumbh Mela, I saw something amazing. 30 million people congregate there, and yet there is no crime, no violence, no stealing. Imagine that people can have this faith.

Once at the Kumbh Mela, it was very cold in the night, it was January. We went out to distribute some blankets. We saw a young boy, who had just crossed his 20s – he was wearing some shorts, underclothes, and we offered him a blanket. He said, “I don’t need it, I can manage, but under the bridge there are many elderly women, they need it more than me. Please give it to them.”

That sense of belongingness with each other, helping each other - only FBOs can bring this feeling on this planet.

Once again, I congratulate all of you for venturing on this noble work of reforming society and uniting with the ever-present being within all of us.

We need to ponder on issues relating to the environment, children, agriculture. The word “Parliament” is really scary! Rather, I would call this a family reunion, because there is more conflict in parliament. A reunion of all faith-based organizations to deal with the problem of depression.

WHO has said that depression will soon be the second biggest killer in the world. Popping Prozac is not enough. It was so painful to hear from our sister from Afghanistan that a whole generation is suffering from depression. 92 percent of Palestine is depressed. 160 billion Euros is being spent on mental health care in the EU alone.

We need to get out of this vicious circle. Many have good cars, good jobs, but if depressed, it’s like dressing a corpse, putting make-up on a corpse.

We need to attend to the human values, and how we can elevate the spirit to move out of this deep depression and anxiety, and violence.

Let’s all brainstorm something concrete, to bring back to every nook and corner of this planet.

“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

© The Art of Living Foundation

'Whatever good traits you desire will automatically get kindled in you’

2009-12-03T21:47:00.000-08:00

Bangalore ashram, Nov. 30:
Q: What is inspiration?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Inspiration is that which comes from within.
Q: I have started schools across the world. Please bless me.
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Very good. Make Sanskrit compulsory in your schools.A few days ago it was in the newspaper that three schools in the UK have made Sanskrit compulsory as a subject. After so much research it has been found that studying Sanskrit brings brilliance and once learnt, it is very easy to learn any other language. Studying the Devnagri script is very good for the brain.
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Does anyone want to share his/her experience?
Experience1: Earlier I used to be afraid, I always wanted to do something for people but because of my fear I could not. The basic course has given me courage and confidence. I feel as if the world is conspiring to make me do that. Everybody is helping me. Thanks to the Art of Living for helping me.
Experience 2: I came here two days ago with a severe personal problem. I had a lot of anxiety. Suddenly since last night I feel calm and collected and feel the problem will be solved. Thank you Guruji.
Experience3: I did the Yes+ Course in August. Since then my whole life has changed. I was a drug addict and dropped the addiction. I am now smiling more and more everyday.
Experience 4: Guruji two years ago I used to wonder why people volunteer and do seva/service. It was a real wonder for me. But now when I am doing it, it is an even bigger wonder for me and I now know why people do that.
Q: How to overcome fear?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Do seva/service.
Q: I like ‘Ramayana’ scripture a lot. I believe if one aspires to learn the Art of Living then Rama’s character is the best epitome, but even after reading and hearing so much about Sri Rama I am not able to inculcate these characteristics in me.
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You read, listen to scriptures and you also have a wish that you are able to walk on his footprints. Why doesn’t this happen? This is the question that arises in you, right? Now that you are here, learning and living the Art of Living, all these traits will naturally start sprouting in you. Whatever good traits you desire will automatically get kindled in you.
Q: In an interview you mentioned that you are connected to Higher Consciousness? Guruji please tell us what actually is that Higher Consciousness?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: It is right here, right now. Inside us and outside us. it is everywhere. Don’t look for it somewhere in the sky, it is right here.
“That which you cannot express is Love.
That which you cannot reject/renounce is Beauty.
That which you cannot avoid is the Truth.”
~ H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

© The Art of Living Foundation for Globalizing Spirituality

‘Be at ease, in your nature’

2009-12-02T06:20:00.000-08:00

Bangalore ashram, Nov. 29:

Q: Guruji, what should one do if one is going through an unfavorable time in their life?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Time creates events. Surrender to that time - that Shiva tattva (principle of Shiva) and Mahakaal (grand Time).

Q: I have love for people but I don’t laugh when others laugh and I don’t cry when somebody dies.
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Don’t get into a dilemma. Be at ease, in your nature. Be the way you are.

Q: What do you do when you have free time?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Whatever I do, I do in my free time only (laughs). I read all your letters that you have written to me. (zeal in the audience). Although I do all this, I do nothing.

Q: The Art of Living Silver Jubilee celebrations were a huge function. When will we have another huge function again?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yes we will have one, in another five years.

Q: What is the secret of life?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Life is a secret. If I tell you the secret it will no longer remain a secret (laughter). In this country we honor the secret. So we should do that. In the West, a secret is not revered.
Three schools in England have made Sanskrit a compulsory subject. After 20 years of research, they found out that when you speak Sanskrit your tongue rotates properly. Sanskrit is the best language for the development of the brain. It leads to overall development of the brain. We have been speaking Sanskrit in India since ages. Now when it is being uprooted from our own country, somebody else is embracing it.

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

© The Art of Living Foundation for Globalizing Spirituality

‘Meditation will help you to go ahead in spite of failures’

2009-11-30T04:53:00.000-08:00

H.H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar inaugurated the MILK (Meditation and Inspiration Center for Living and Kindness) at the Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai, India on November 26, 2009.
Later, students had an interactive session with Sri Sri.
Following are some of the excerpts:

While taking a look at the proposed plan of the meditation centre at the Great Lakes Institute of Management, Sri Sri said, “Management is all about just going along with what exists. Not making something new but going along with what is there already.”
On Vishnu shakti
“Vishnu just rests on a snake, doesn’t have to do much. Brahma takes care of the rest. Brahma does the creation. Vishnu does the maintenance whereas managers do both creation and maintenance.”
Youth and a paradigm shift
“Youth have a great opportunity and can create a new world as the world is now looking for a paradigm shift. The world is currently facing some kind of stagnation. A new paradigm shift is needed and will emerge only from India.
Monetary prosperity is not actual prosperity. Inducing life, the spirit, spirit of enthusiasm – this is what India gave to the world.
Life is enthusiasm, life is love, life is compassion, life is creation and if these things die out in you then a corpse would just come out of you.”
Sri Sri laid emphasis on the need for innovation and creativity. He stressed on inculcating creative ideas rather than confining ourselves to managing what already exits.
One world family
“The whole world is a big family - Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam. We never thought in those terms of being different. We believe in Viswamanav. We learnt teamwork from Japan, etiquette from the British, marketing from the Americans, technical skills from Germany and India gave human values to the world.
I’ll tell you an anecdote: “I asked all my devotees to do something creative as creativity is a reflection of the consciousness. Three months later, all came up with some great projects. One team came up with egg-less ice cream and started proving that their ice cream is the best in the world. Similarly, some other teams also started proving the same thing. One lady, who was very fragile, came with one project i.e. making handkerchiefs. She spoke about 17 points about how it is the best in the world. All points were logical. ”
“You see, marketing skills in the US are better than their products. We, in India, have great products but we lack marketing skills. “
India
There are 7 points that India can be proud of and that have not been explored yet.
Food: There are so many varieties of food in India. Tripura, a small place in India, has more than 200 varieties of food. North Indians don’t know the different kinds of South Indian dishes. Even South Indians don’t know the dishes from North India. We don’t market ourselves properly. We have the greatest varieties possible in the world, yet we don’t project ourselves.
Tourism: We have a great part of history which we don’t capitalize.
Music & Dance: There are so many types of dance and music which we haven’t even projected so far.
Dress & Jewelry: The Indian dress is appreciated the world over. We have no pride of what we wear. Places like Thailand and Indonesia are very proud of their dress and jewelry. We are not. We don’t feel good about ourselves. Low self-esteem is eating our attitude and culture.
Information Technology: This will take India to new heights.
Ayurveda: There are 280 kinds of flora and fauna available in India which is not available anywhere in the world. We don’t pay any attention to that. These are going to be the future medicine of 21st century.
Triphala: Foreigners have taken this formula and patented it. Similarly, things are happening all over the world.
Indian Spiritual Values: The yoga market is valued at $27 billion in the United States itself. 99% of local US people dominate this market. They started preparing materials for yoga which is a product of India and our gift to the world. People are invited to do mantra and chanting in some building in New York. All across India, in temples if someone is chanting, we don’t even bother to look at them.
Question & Answers:
Q. Do we have to be interdependent and do we need to look for interdependency?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You don’t have to be interdependent. It is just that you need to realize it. The word ‘independent’ is obsolete. It is nature that we are interdependent on. We have one nature, one ocean, one air, one earth and everyone is dependent upon it. People are one! We are interdependent!
Q. Why do we meditate with our eyes closed though we have to live our life with our eyes open? Is it possible to do meditation with eyes open?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: That is the second step. The first step is to go where the mind is involved – once the eyes are closed, once the mind is centered – then you can go ahead with the other ways as well. There are different kinds of meditation like walking meditation. Your every action comes from a meditative state.
Q. Guruji, you said life is simple, yet why does it turn so complex? It is very difficult to make decisions. Why can’t we avoid things which are complicated?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Life is simple while people are complicated. Why can’t we avoid things which are complicated? We have too much time in life so we make things complicated.
Life is very simple and life is very complicated! Both exist depending on the circumstances and our perception at that point of time. Life is a combination of both.
Q. According to Raj Yoga, it is said that practicing meditation is meant for people who are reclusive and follow a strict and definite approach to reach salvation. Meditation is difficult for a person with much responsibilities. You said everyone should meditate. What are the implications of this on a normal person?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: There are different forms of Yoga. Raja Yoga is Royal Yoga. In some forms, they spend a lot of time in practice. Some forms are for people like the prince who has so many responsibilities such that they can do the practice in a short span of time. Meditation is useful for people in all walks of life.
Q. You have highlighted the importance of innovation and creativity, but with that comes a lot of risk and uncertainty. It’s only after numerous failures that a successful new technology or product is evolved. So how should one manage the failures that come as a by-product of striving for innovation? How to rise up after each failure and restart the journey to discover something new?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Failure is a part of the process. Meditation will help you to go ahead in spite of failures. Innovation without failure is possible if you are able to use your intuition perfectly. Both should act perfectly to achieve zero failure in innovation. If intuition is not in proportion then failure occurs more often.
Q. In the Bhagwad Gita, Lord Krishna says that one must not care about the result of his work. But if we do not think about the fruits that follow our hard work, then what will motivate us to do that hard work?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: There is no control over the fruit of action. If the attention is only on the end result, then you can’t perform.
Let us take a runner - if he starts looking behind at who is running, and not looking at the path he needs to run on, then ultimately he will lose, no matter how good the runner may be. You have to follow your own track, to complete the run whether you lose or win. Lord Krishna is utterly practical in his advises. Lord Krishna tells Arjuna: This is complex, but these are the ways to do it.
Q. There are so many practices, so many paths. Which one should I choose?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yoga is everything together. Everything comes along with it.
Sudarshan Kriya will help. This suits today’s young minds that are very busy with schedules all around, and can’t work with too many conditions. In a short time, with deep experiences and no side effects.
Q. Is it good to practice religious practices? As of now, I am on the path of meditation and sometimes don’t feel like practicing them.
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: It’s a matter of culture. It creates an atmosphere with a sense of joy. There is nothing wrong in celebration, fire crackers etc. Traditional practices help and bring a sense of belongingness to family and children.
In the houses of Maoists, there are no pictures or lamps. When children grow up (in such an environment), they grow up with a lot of emptiness.
In Russia, there was no religion for 40 years. There was a destruction of cathedrals and they built a swimming pool on that. Now, after that catastrophe, they re-built the church. If people don’t practice religion, they start feeling the vacuum. And finally religion helps them understand this.
For spirituality – there is no need of religious practices.
Q. Guruji why is it that Sanskrit language that originated in India finds its second reference in Chicago? This is still the case.
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You are asking my question! We are giving away our ownership over Sanskrit..
You know Dr. B.R. Ambedkar asked that Sanskrit be made our national language.It was seconded by Nasiruddhin Ahmed.
Malayalam contains 80 % of Sanskrit, Telugu 70%, Kannada 70%, Tamil 30% and Hindi 80%. Even many words in foreign languages are similar to Sanskrit: Swasa – Sister, Duhita – Daughter. However, we have lost the link somewhere and failed to establish the reputation of Sanskrit. You know what rain is called in Italian? Piyorja! The Sanskrit word is parjanya. They are so similar in many aspects.
Q. There are some schools of thoughts that say that you must always be aware of what your competitors are doing. Because if you don’t see your competitors, you will be like a bridled horse. You will end up making the best calculator of the world when the world has moved to computers. So how do you reconcile the two schools of thoughts?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: The challenge is to manage the two contradictions - that is the job of the youth.
One should be aware of the competitors. At the same time, one should have an eye of Arjuna. Be aware of what’s happening around you and one-pointedness towards the goal.
Over ambitiousness will not lead to anything.
Improve your intuitive ability, enthusiasm, relaxation.
It will give you everything that you need to.
“That which you cannot express is Love.
That which you cannot reject/renounce is Beauty.
That which you cannot avoid is the Truth.”
~ H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

© The Art of Living Foundation for Globalizing Spiritualiyt

See your whole past as a dream & move on to the future

2009-11-28T05:10:00.000-08:00

Bangalore ashram, Nov. 27:
Q. This is my 10th Advance course. But I am not able to get rid of my fear. I don’t know what to do?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yogasana, do more yogasanas (practice of yoga postures). Yogasanas stretch your nervous system. The endocrine system gets strengthened.
Q. You tell us to accept people as they are. I accept people as they are but I get frustrated and irritated. Please tell some recipe for acceptance without getting irritated.
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: When you feel anger inside, do you notice the sensation? Forget about the other person. It is the sensation which is giving you trouble. When you focus on the sensation, it gets dissolved. Why should you spoil your own nervous system? Why should you spoil your own beautiful body because someone said something. You know, 72 muscles are strained when you frown. Your body becomes a wreck.
Q. I get caught up in my problems. How do I come out of this?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: When you think your problem is big you are not looking at others’ problems. When you compare your problems with others, your problem starts looking small.
Q. What is the difference between being detached or in denial?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Whenever you get so confused analyzing your own feelings, I tell you, just drop it. Many times you go to get counseling and you get even more confused. The counselor tells you, “Oh, in your childhood your mother didn’t take you to the fair so you are feeling that anger.” I would tell you, see your whole past as a dream and move on to the future.
Something pleasant happened. Something unpleasant happened. By picking your memory, you spoil your present moment as well. All the past is nothing but a memory. Some of its impact may continue but the event is not there. Wake up. Shake up.
You see these dogs, puppies and cats - how they shake themselves when they get dirty? They shake and move on. We should save our mind.
Q. Is it right if one’s parents do not appreciate the virtues of a child but compares demerits of the child with the good qualities of other children?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Once in a while it is ok. When the intention is that their child should learn, then it’s ok. But if it happens every time, then it is not ok.
Q. Can grace change destiny?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yes, only then is it grace.
Q. Guruji, I have anger and arrogance in me. In anger, I lose awareness. Please tell me some remedy.

H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: When you are angry at yourself, you get angry with others also.
When you are angry at others you get angry at yourself for getting angry.
This is like a pendulum. We have to stop this.
It’s ok if you get angry. Don’t get angry because you got angry. Sometimes you feel good, sometimes you feel bad. Life is like a jungle. Thorns are also there, flowers are also there, fruits, peacocks, deer, lions, tigers everything is there. Have a holistic approach.
Just be natural, easy and relax. Take things as they come and move forward. Don’t get stuck in a place. The mind plays so many tricks to keep you miserable. Sing, meditate, serve. Be part of service. We have to save our mind.
Q. Why does a simple situation look complicated later on?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: So what? Later, a complicated situation will start looking simplified. Every complication is a test of your skill. When you simplify the situation and get caught in doer-ship, you find it gets complicated again so that your arrogance is checked. When you feel that whatever happens is the will of the Divine, you are free from arrogance.
Q. Craving and ego are troubling me. What to do?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Be natural. Take things as they come.
Q. Why do I fight with my wife though I love her?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: When someone asked Mullah Naseeruddin why he fought with his wife so much, he replied, “Because I love her so much. I fight with someone and love someone else? That is not done! I do everything with one person.” Fights are also a part of life.
When you focus on each other too much, then fights happen. If you both have a common goal, to serve, to uplift the society, then fights don’t happen and love blossoms and there is plenty of work for every couple.
In the Indian marriage tradition, there is a ceremony called the saptapadi, the seven steps, which the couple has to take together. One of these steps (signifying vows) is that the couple work together for the upliftment of society.
Q. Guruji, I don’t write letters to you for I have full faith you would solve my problems anyway. Many people asked me to write a letter to you. But I still didn’t write letter to you. When I came here for the advance course many people were writing down their botherations in letters. Please tell me, should I write or not?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You move according to your way and let others move in their own way. It is not necessary that all paths should be the same.
Q. How to overcome low self-esteem?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Go and work in villages and slums, you will get your self-esteem back. Go and work for a week, ten days or even on a weekend. Teach some lessons to the children there and see how your self-esteem will come up.
“That which you cannot express is Love.
That which you cannot reject/renounce is Beauty.
That which you cannot avoid is the Truth.”
~ H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

© The Art of Living Foundation for Globalizing Spirituality

‘Do something useful to everybody & if you do that, then everything else is taken care of’

2009-11-27T04:39:00.000-08:00

Chennai, Nov. 26: The Mahasatsang had the characteristic elements of an Art of Living celebration: Gaan (music), Gyaan (knowledge) and Dhyaan (meditation). A team of highly talented musicians played a series of fusion pieces integrating Western rock and Indian classical music, after which Sri Sri spoke and guided everyone into meditation.
“The 3Ms are very important for any occasion - Music, Meditation & Meals
“Truth is that which you cannot avoid nor confront
Love is that which you cannot hide nor express totally
Beauty is that which you cannot possess nor reject.”
Sri Sri then led the thousands, who had gathered for the Mahasatsang, into a meditation.
Later, there was a series of questions from the audience:
Q. Where is the mind and where is it in the body?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Who or what is asking this question and what is going to listen to the answer. Intellect is that which registers the answer yet it is the mind which is looking for the answer.
Q. How to conquer the five senses? Can you explain in one sentence?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: When you have sunlight and a candle, then the candle becomes insignificant. Likewise, other things become insignificant.
Q. When do we know that we are made up of love?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Love cannot be known or understood. It can be felt only. The child doesn’t ask his mother – ‘What is your qualification, what do you do? Who are your friends? Tell me, then I'll love you’. Just like our body is made up of carbohydrates and amino acids, we are made up of this substance called love. Anger, greed, jealousy are all just distortions of love.
Q. How to control terrorism?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: The whole world and all religions are debating on terrorism and how to control it. I tell you - Indian spirituality and spiritual knowledge have the power to reduce terrorism and fanaticism.
Q. Is astrology a science?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yes, definitely astrology is a science yet that doesn’t mean all astrologers are scientists. (Laughs)
Q. Allopathy has no cure for cancer or tuberculosis. Can Ayurveda or Siddha cure them?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Most definitely. You know, the Siddha system is only available in Tamil Nadu. Ayurveda is available all over India.
Q. Will the world be destroyed in 2012? Is that true?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: People used to say this in 1999 - that world will be destroyed before the Millennium. In fact, in Canada people stocked up six months worth of groceries (laughs).
There will be a positive spiritual shift that will happen. You know, people are meditating in Terra Del Fiago (near South Pole) and in Norway (near North Pole) and chanting Om Nama Shivaya, becoming vegetarians and taking up Indian traditions.
Q. Guruji, we have two requests for you. Why don’t you come more often to Chennai and start an ashram here?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Tomorrow we are going to get a meditation hall started here. You all should come here and meditate.
Q. Why don’t we start an exclusive Art of living TV channel to spread the knowledge of the Art of living?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Why should it be restricted only to one channel? It should be on all channels (laughs). However if you want to start one, you have my encouragement. The channel should not just be meditation or music alone. It should be spiritual knowledge with knowledge on what’s happening in world.
One final thing – Whenever you have any worries, you can just post or courier them to me. Do something useful to everybody and if you do that, then everything else is taken care of.
“That which you cannot express is Love.
That which you cannot reject/renounce is Beauty.
That which you cannot avoid is the Truth.”
~H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

© The Art of Living Foundation for Globalizing Spirituality

‘Love is that which cannot be expressed or hidden fully’

2009-11-25T05:07:00.000-08:00

Bangalore ashram, Nov. 22:

“If you keep trying to express it, then it will become just a sound and the feelings are lost. Saying “I love you” everyday and every time, it eventually turns into, “I can’t stand you!” Too much expression spoils things. If you don’t express at all, that is also not good. There needs to be moderation. Just like a seed – it does not germinate if you scatter it on the surface nor if you bury it too deep. It needs to be sown at just the right depth. In the same way, moderation is necessary.

Q. What is the importance of lemon in aura cleansing?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Have you see lemon juice under the microscope? It looks like the rays of the sun. When you see vitamin C under the microscope, it looks like a sunflower. Some substances like salt, lemon, chilies etc, have the potential to remove negativity. In the west, bathing in the ocean for rejuvenation and improving health is popular. The burdens, the worries in the mind, harmful influences are reduced in this way. Faith also works here. Even when you take regular medicines, if you don’t have faith in the doctor or the medication, it may not help you at all.

Q. How does one achieve strength (Shakti) and devotion (Bhakti)?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: With rest - you achieve devotion. When you put in effort along with rest you get power or strength. Effort and prayer, both, go together. Either is incomplete without the other. For completion of any task both are required.
Normally women only pray and men only put in effort but both should do both.

Q. I don’t know whether I should give importance to family or to my career.
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You have to look out for your career. Your parents will be happy when you have a career. If you have no job and you sit at home, will they be happy? No! Then they (family and career) have both come together.

Q.I have never been successful in life. I consider myself to be a load on my parents’ shoulders.
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Drop your laziness and don’t be too choosy. Whatever work you get, take it up and do it. Do not think it is beneath your dignity. Do not think you are not successful. Every work is attached with honor and dignity.

Q. Guruji, there is lot of confusion in family because one member follows Art of living and another member follows some other spiritual path, pranic healing.
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Both just stick to your own path.

Q. During meditation, the mind wanders to so many places. Once you said, “Let the mind go wherever it wants to”. Does that mean me and my mind are two different entities? If yes, then what is the mind and who am I?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: When you try to keep hold of your mind, it runs here and there. When you become aware of the wandering mind, then you realize you are bigger than the mind. When you find you are not this mind, not this body, not anything else, whatever remains is the Self. Knowing your Self, recognize the Supreme Self. Then you find you are everything. You are the mind, the thoughts, you are the whole world. But that happens at the second level. When you know your Self, you know the Divine. Sarvam Kalvidam Brahma – Everything is One Divinity. Knowing this, become established in this knowledge.

Q. Guruji, you once said desires come and go. Those which need to be fulfilled stay and others simply vanish. But what about those desires which stay and are not fulfilled?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Have patience & perseverance.

Q. Why am I so crazy to be here!!
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Because I am also like that. Only a rich can make others also rich. Only a liberated one can bring freedom to others. Only a devotee can evoke devotion in others. A person in love with the Divine makes others also like that. Whatever is there within you that is what others receive and that is what you perceive in others.

Q. What is a soul mate?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: First you meet your soul, then you can find out about soul mate.

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

© The Art of Living Foundation for Globalizing Spirituality

‘Music and harmony cleanses the emotions, enriches the heart’

2009-11-24T01:36:00.000-08:00

Bangalore ashram, Nov. 17, 2009:

Everyday you should meditate. You brush your teeth, you have a bath to keep your body clean. Similarly, you should listen to a little bit of knowledge and meditate. Cleansing of the intellect happens through knowledge - that knowledge which tells you that everything is impermanent. Music and harmony cleanses the emotions and enriches the heart. By giving, the heart becomes pure. With knowledge and meditation, everything becomes pure.

Q. Guruji, when someone dies why do we say Ram naam satya hai {Ram (the divinity within) is the truth}?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: When someone dies you realize that this is the truth. One day everyone is going to die. When you are alive you don’t realize the truth. You are caught up in unwanted things.

Truth is something which you cannot avoid.
Beauty is something which cannot be renounced.
Love is something which cannot be expressed.

These three things are more than enough to remember. It enough to digest.

Q. What does a yagya consist of?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: In any yagya, there is dhyan (meditation), daan (giving), gyan (knowledge) and gaan(music)
Gaan nourishes the right brain. Gyan nourishes the left brain and dhyan nourishes both.
One grows due to yagya.

Q. Guruji what qualities should we look for when we choose our life partner?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Well, (smiling) I don’t have the experience! Ask those who have the experience. And you can take more help from the matrimony department!
You know why they say that marriages are made in heaven? It is because the choice is already made for you. You just have to take it and move on. You are free from choices. Move on with what you have on your plate.

You know the best thing is that you don’t focus on the drawbacks. Focus on the positive. In a relationship if both the people have their focus on spirituality then they will move ahead together like parallel lines move, without clashing, to infinity. The moment they will shift their focus and focus on each other, there will be clashes. So it is very important that both are on the spiritual path.

Q. Guruji, how was the Vishalakshi Mantap (the five-tiered, lotus-shaped meditation hall in the Bangalore ashram) made?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Manuji (a devotee) said, "Guruji, we must have a hall where people can meditate. So I made a drawing and it was made. Earlier, there was no hall. The Ashtavakra talk (Sri Sri’s commentary on the Ashtavakra Geeta) happened under a thatched roof, where rain water would be leaking.
Yet when we inaugurated the Vishalakshi Mantap, the hall was already too small! So many people had come. You know when people meditate together then the energy radiates in the world.

Q. Guruji, what is the secret of this place?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar(smiling): The secret is here (pointing to his heart).

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

© The Art of Living Foundation for Globalizing Spirituality

‘For harmonious sustainable growth of a society, all different sections of society will have to work in rhythm, in harmony’

2009-11-19T22:58:00.000-08:00

(H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s addressed an august gathering on November 18, 2009 on the occasion of the Minister-President of the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, (Germany) Mr. Gunther H Oettinger visiting the Art of Living International Center, Bangalore. He was accompanied by a government delegation comprising the Ministers of the State for Finance, Economics and other parliament members. The Honorable Minister for Large and Medium Industries, Karnataka, Mr. Murugesh Rudrappa Nirani and President of the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce & Industry, Mr. Crasta were also present.)

Welcome to you all. It is wonderful to have you all from Germany - from the German home to the Indian home. You have a home here. You are most welcome to this country. Feel at home.

Our ancient philosophy in this country has been that of a one world family. We are part of one family, one big family where human values have to reign the most. Human Values are needed in business, in politics, in social life. In any field that you take, if there are human values, if there is a uniting force, if there is harmony, only then can society survive. It took 10 years for communism to crumble. It took less than 10 months for capitalism to crumble down. No “ism” will sustain if humanism is lacking. Greed of a few people caused the financial disaster that the world is facing today.

It was an old paradigm that we were working in different compartments. The social sector was separate, politics was separate, business was separate, religious and spiritual sectors were separate. For harmonious sustainable growth of a society, all different sections of society will have to work in rhythm, in harmony, in cooperation. The ethical and moral values are the backbone of business. And business is the way to sustain the planet, free it from poverty and build confidence in society. I’m happy that the Indian and German business delegations are here. I would like you to talk and develop this ancient tradition we have been having between Germany, Europe and India.

We all are part of one family. A disease-free body, a violence- free society and a happy mind is a birth right of every individual, every human being and every society. Let us all work together to achieve a happy society. Thank you very much.

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

© The Art of Living Foundation for Globalizing Spirituality

‘The form and name are not the truth, the Tattva is the truth’

2009-11-18T02:27:00.000-08:00

Bangalore ashram, Nov. 15, 2009:

Q. Guruji, why is it that sometimes you answer certain questions and sometimes you don’t?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: There is a right time and place for every answer. If questions are asked at the wrong time, then silence is the answer.

Q. What kind of siddhis (powers) are required to be able to know what is happening in other places?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: An ordinary person through spirituality can know what is happening all over. Mansik shakti (strength of mind) is enough. When you put your attention somewhere, you can know what is happening there. Practice and you will see it is easy.

Q. When we sit for meditation sometimes we are disturbed by other people. If we are humble, then they take advantage of it. How do deal with this situation?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Just leave it; you will see it will settle on its own. If it goes beyond a limit, then you can also roar. A lion simply sits, doesn’t roar all the time. Inside you must be pleasant, outside you can roar. To roar you need inner strength.

Q. How do you recognize that somebody is your real guru and for you? How do you know if someone is a true disciple?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: I don’t test anybody nor do I let anyone test me. If anyone will ask me, I will say, “No!” and move on! Divine really doesn’t test anybody. We think we are very good people and when difficulties arise we assume that the Divine is testing us. We don’t get into trouble because of our goodness: it is because of our foolishness. Some things are your karma. Some difficulties teach you lessons. Look back and see all those problems you have come out of. You will see that you have become stronger. This is what you should recognize.

Q. What is a sign of the dawning of wisdom?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Prasanna chitta (pleasant state of mind) is a sign. Friendliness, foresight, intuition, a mind in the present moment – these are signs of wisdom.

Q. What is the truth behind this Universe? Is everything an illusion?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: This universe has come from one unchanging principle. Vedanta also says the same. Everything you see in creation is Maya- like dolls in a laser show, what you see is not the truth. The wave is not the truth, the water is the truth. The form and name are not the truth, the Tattva (the principle) is the truth. The pot is not true but the mud is the truth.

The same brahma tattva (Infinite, Supreme, eternal principle) is the tree, grass, stone and everything else in creation. Brahmatatvamasi bhavayatmane - All has come from that Brahman. This is the ultimate truth. Knowledge of the truth, that this creation has come from Brahman, comes through meditation - Sarvam kalvidam Brahma.

Q. How can one attain Siddhis (power)? How does it affect a person to strive for Siddhis?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: A Sadhak or seeker will get many Siddhis on the path. However if you misuse them or start running behind them, you will be lost. Only when you are established, you can receive the true knowledge. One who knows never loses his equanimity.

The tradition of the Masters (parampara) is very important. If anyone moves away from the parampara, it may seem good for some time, but then it brings lot of misery. A sadhak should toe the line of the parampara. The sign of a devotee and seeker is to pick up the best and not try to find all the negative things about others. But if someone cheats, misuses the powers, they undergo the consequences. This should not deter from the path. You move on the path of knowledge.

Q. What is the ultimate goal of meditation?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: A pleasant equanimous state of mind. A blissful life without sorrow.

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

© The Art of Living Foundation for Globalizing Spirituality