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January 30 Guruji Sri Sri Ravishankar at Chennai University, photos from IndiaJai Gurudev
I have photographs of G'Record holder Event BRAHMANAD, it was of the year 2008, i will upload those for you all, here are some photographs of Guruji , january, 2009
 September 03 GURUJI'S VIDEOTo deals with others control: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUcdHAW3FpU
Trust and doubt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVYsCmAT0FE
Strong and subtle; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7nqjcNUl2s
Thoughts before sleep: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRE_4DFQfPA
Govinda Radhe Radhe Shyam…Gopala Radhe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjqV7w0XtE4
May 13th 2006: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaEnqXiRXoc
Jai jai radharaman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENeAxrwxSc8 June 15 Promoting PEACE!!Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji says: “Religion is like the banana peel and Spirituality is like the banana. We are holding on to the peel and have thrown the Banana.” Spirituality – the basis of all religions – is what can provide the solution to the problems facing mankind today. What is needed today is a better appreciation of this unifying outlook which comes out of a thorough understanding of one’s own self, coupled with a healthy respect for all of humanity. The first step towards promoting peace is to appreciate the spiritual depth of each religion. Each religion has a unique, and sometimes complementary way of dealing with life’s situations. The variety of outlook and differences in perspective should serve as a means of emphasizing the diversity in nature. Each time and space has had its share of the spiritual knowledge which every prophet or founder of a religion has professed. However, each religion does stand testimony to the existence of the One Absolute Reality. (Oroginal material of http://www.srisriravishankar.org ) March 21 An interview with H. H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji.Born in 1956 to an eminent family in Southern India, it was soon apparent that Sri Sri Ravi Shankar was to be a rare and unusual figure. At the age of four he could recite the entire Bhagavad Gita and by 17 he had completed his traditional studies, including an advanced degree in modern science. He is the only non-westerner to serve on the advisory board of Yale University's School of Divinity. His service organization, the "5H Program" offers social and community development projects with a focus on Health, Hygiene, Homes, Harmony amidst Diversity and Human Values. Many schools have been opened that provide basic education and vocational training to rural communities, as well as free medical camps and homes. Additionally, educational programs are offered to reintroduce the ancient knowledge in light of modern science. In 1982, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar established the Art of Living foundation, as an educational organization designed to assist all levels of society in reaching their full human potential. His educational programs offer innovative tools for managing stress, resolving conflict, improving health and living life with more joy and enthusiasm. The foundation is a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) in special consultative status with the United Nations. In 1992 he launched the Prison SMART Foundation (Stress Management and Rehabilitative Training) to address the needs of individuals and professionals impacted by the criminal justice system. Programs are offered to prison inmates, at-risk youth, victims of crime and criminal justice professionals. Today, training programs in the United States and India are receiving national recognition as an effective solution for breaking the cycles of violence in society. In 1995 Sri Sri Ravi Shankar was a speaker during the 50th Anniversary celebration of the United Nations. Since that time, his organization continues to work with a variety of NGO's (Non-Governmental Organizations) and UN groups to raise awareness of the need to focus on human values as a fundamental step in realizing universal human rights. Many television and radio programs have been produced on Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's principles of effective living and peaceful co-existence. He launched a world Human Values campaign in 1999 and his Association continues to work with other organizations around the world who are dedicated to similar goals for humanity. And on this year 2006,after 25 years of his service towards mankind,he has gifted us a historic event of "3 million meditate " for world peace,and his position twoards "one world family". Jaigurudev!!
(Original matterials of www.artofliving.org)
February 09 Message from H. H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji
January 05 Guruji's message for new year!!Guruji's Message for New Year The year 2006 is fortunate because you are living at this time. When you are living for the sake of the world, the world is fortunate. You are not living for yourself, but for the world. Whatever the world needs or wants, you are there for that. So the year is fortunate that you are on the earth at this point in time. Let the time celebrate your presence. You keep smiling as ever. Usually people make a wish for the New Year. This year, make no wish. Let the New Year celebrate you. If it wants to bring you nicer things, let it. It's up to it. Usually you are lost in celebration. When you let time celebrate you, you are a witness amidst celebration. And here comes the Home work ... -------------------------------- DIVINE IS ALL CELEBRATION A poor man celebrates the new year once a year. A rich man celebrates each day. But the richest man celebrates every moment. How rich are you? Do you celebrate once a year? Once a month? Every day? If you celebrate every moment, you are the Lord of Creation. Review the year while you celebrate. This is your homework. What did you do? What did you achieve? How useful were you this past year? Sit for an hour and think about every week, one minute per week, and see the year's growth in less than an hour. With a flower, on New Year's Day, offer the whole year to the Divine. jai guru dev,  --Smile and make the world Smile-- October 16 Guruji's Words After NavratriWhen Chandi Homa finished Guruji met a few of us. He looked at
all of us with so much love in his eyes for a long time. In between drowning us in love, these are the words he said- "Maan Saman Paisa-money fame recognition take all this and...." (he mimed a small bundle tied it and put it aside) Then he smiled and said "Pyar hi pyar mein doobo" (Drown in love...) He kept looking at us. "I want all of you,each one of you to be a light of knowledge. Be strong. Be steady. Let nothing shake you. Yeh choti si zindagi mein kya?(what will you do in this short lifetime) Leave eveything it will all come chasing you. There is nothing you will not have. Kya mango kuch to hai. (What will you ask for?you have enerything!) Itna mila hain"(You have recived so much) Then again he smiled with love and said "see today the subtle came to shake hands with the gross..so beautiful" Oh Guruji you always leave us spellbound. jaigurudev!! September 14 Art Of Living Courses.The Art of Living Course June 11 peace message for kashmir from srisri-Navhind timesRavi Shankar for Kashmir with peace message IANS Udaipuram (Karnataka) June 7: Art of Living guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is all set to change the hearts of militants in Jammu and Kashmir.The inspirational leader, who believes lack of spirituality is the cause of all the violence in society, will be visiting remote areas of the troubled state next month with a message of peace and harmony. Speaking to IANS on the sidelines of an international women’s conference at the lotus shaped headquarters of the Art of Living centre here, 25 km from Bangalore, he said he was looking forward to visiting the state where he has followers like Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief, Mr Yasin Malik. Mr Malik did the Art of Living meditation course a year ago, he disclosed. “When I went there for the first time, there were guns everywhere. People there asked me when peace would return,’’ Ravi Shankar said. “I am going there again as requested by the locals. But I will be meeting people in a completely non-secured area. I am not scared at all to go there without any government security.” Born in 1956 in Papanasam, Tamil Nadu, Ravi Shankar, an advanced degree holder in modern physics, has extensive knowledge of Vedic literature. His foundation’s service has spread to over 146 countries around the world and has been active in strife-torn areas like Kosovo and Iraq. Revered as ‘guruji’ by millions of followers across the globe, Ravi Shankar, who is known for his campaign for meditation-based living, said the government should introduce spiritual education and meditation in the college curriculum to get rid of violence in society. According to him, lack of spiritual education leads people to violence and killings. Pointing out that his volunteers had successfully changed many hearts among Maoist rebels in Bihar, he said: “I feel we need to re-introduce spiritual education in colleges and help our children to get rid of stress-related problems, including suicidal tendencies and aggression.” “Unfortunately, in the name of secularism we have also dumped spirituality. This is the cause of Maoist rebellion. Spiritual education also brings back compassion and the spirit of service. It takes you away from consumerism and an ego-centric selfish agenda.” He refused to comment on political issues like the reasons behind the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) failure to widen its base in a Hindu-majority country, but said: “Hinduism is an inclusive religion. Hindus are not uptight in themselves, but they want to include everybody within them. That’s why India could never become a Hindu rashtra (nation).” “The distinction between spirituality and religion is that spirituality unites everything. Religion is about the outer (shell), but spirituality is about values. Some people talk about spirituality, but never practise it,” he said. jaigurudev! calls for compassion,harmonySri Sri Ravishankar calls for compassion, harmony Art of Living Foundation head speaks at local events By ANDREA KUNST Ravishankar AMHERST, Mass. - Each year, the coming of spring heralds annual celebrations both in nature and in the course of human events. But as Dr. Richard P. Brown, psychopharmacologist and associate professor of clinical psychiatry, Columbia University, shared with his audience at the University of Massachusetts, what should be a time for young adults to learn about the world and about each other, too often results in the creation of stress which can lead to depression, various forms of self-harming, and within the past several years, an alarming increase in the rate of suicide. The Educational Community and Art of Living Club at the University of Massachusetts recently decided to offer the best available information on healthy living to its academic community. With the title "Human Values and Harmony in Diversity in Educational Systems," the sponsors aimed high and opened the areas for discussion to a broad range of topics and speakers. The goal of the one-day seminar was to help students and teachers "foster a genuine appreciation of diversity based on human values common to all cultures and traditions." To deliver the message, the speakers selected represented a variety of educational communities including policy makers, educators, researchers, in addition to humanitarian leader, His Holiness Sri Sri Ravishankar. Moderator Prasanta C. Bhowmik, Professor in the College of Natural Resources, introduced Professor David K. Scott, former Chancellor of the University and currently chair of the American Council of Education Commission on International Education, who spoke eloquently and at some length about the condition of diversity and multiculturalism in colleges and universities nationally. The messages delivered by the speakers each came from a different area of expertise, yet each was informed by two dire, overarching themes; that as a nation, we are closed to the idea, let alone the practice of true multiculturalism; and as a nation, we are so profoundly affected by stress that we are unable to enjoy our relationships, sense of community, or complete spiritual life. Bill Herman, National Coordinator of the Youth Leadership Training Program provided a description of the intensive, month-long workshops created by The International Association for Human Values, a global, humanitarian, non-governmental organization founded by keynote speaker Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, working for the propagation of human values throughout the world. IAHV offers services in the areas of health, homes, hygiene, harmony in diversity, and human values in the inner cities of the Americas, for the primary purpose of providing young people a positive direction for their lives. The goal of the program is to strengthen the young participants into leaders who then continue to the lead the work of change in their own communities. The hands-on YLTP program outlined a multi-dimensional approach to achieve wide-reaching diversity and harmony, beginning with healing oneself, but more important, by providing an opportunity to help others heal themselves-and their communities. The comments of Sri Sri Ravishankar provided a common thread for the collected comments of the afternoon. Certainly his call for dialog as the key to communication and harmony is the most fundamental element necessary in achieving world peace. In the wake of statements from the audience criticizing his refusal to condemn the political leader responsible for perpetrating acts of violence in Mumbai recently, Ravishankar's response, that he will "condemn the sin but not the sinner" should not have been a surprise to anyone familiar with the tenets of non-violence, but the exchange did add another lesson to the teachings of the day: Is it possible that we all have our non-negotiable breaking point-even in the adoption of nonviolence as a way of life? The Art of Living Foundation also provided good resources in the areas of self-improvement through breathing, yoga, and meditation with the promise that such changes would improve ease and joy in relationships, provide an enriched spiritual life, higher energy throughout the day, clarity and peace of mind, and greater sense of purpose and team work in the workplace. Sri Sri Ravishankar also spoke at Cambridge, Mass. on May 17 and Chestnut Hill, Mass. on May 18.2005
May 31 sri sri ravishankar honoured
NT Bureau Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, founder of the Art of Living, has been presented with 'The Global Humanitarian Award' by Governor of the State of Illinois, USA, Rob Blagojevich. The award was conferred on Ravi Shankar on 14 May, 2005 for exemplifying the highest ideals of humanitarian service, for his steadfast devotion to inspiring healthy living and fostering universal harmony, a press release said. April 29 mahavir mahatma award 2005 First Mahavir Mahatma Awards presented at Oneness Forum THE FIRST national ‘Mahavir Mahatma Awards’ and the launch of The Oneness Forum were recently held at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi, with several eminent personalities attending the event. Spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, and various Indian dignitaries like Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, Home Minister Shivraj Patil, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, industrialist BK Modi, Mahamantra Das, musician A R Rahman and Soka Gakkai dignitaries from Japan were present on the occasion. Industrialist Indu Jain, in her lively speech, urged the audience to unite in the endeavour to create oneness, not only in small communities but across the globe. She said, “The forum is a helipad, a launching arena for everyone.” Stressing on the motto of oneness, she said, “You can achieve anything you want if you help enough people to get what they want.” On his part, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar said, “Nature is diverse yet it is one. There is one human race, one truth and that is why this endeavour becomes significant.” The proceedings of the programme saw some interesting moments with Sri Sri mesmerising the audience with an 18-minute meditation. The Mahavir Mahatma Awards were conferred on youthful and active members of various socio-economic, spiritual and religious groups. The awards for the national and global levels were given away to Martha Merchant of Baha`i Foundation, Hiromasa Ikeda on behalf of Dr Daisaku Ikeda from Soka Gakkai International (SGI), Tushar A Gandhi from Mahatma Gandhi Foundation, Brahmatej Ji from The Art of Living Foundation, Swami Nisarga from Isha Foundation, Shulamith Ezekiel Malekar from Judah Hyam Synagogue, Ranjit Makkuni and Dr Madhu Khanna from Sacred World Foundation, musician A R Rehman, Namman Ji from Oneness University and Shashi Kumar Nair from Mata Amritanandamayi Ashram. India’s media conglomerate, The Times Group, sponsored prizes worth Rs 10 lakh. Expressing his father`s “lasting gratitude to the Times Foundation for conferring this award,” Hiromasa read out Dr Daisaku Ikeda acceptance speech and said, “Given the greatness of the two giants whose names adorn this award, its recipient bears an enormous weight of expectation for he or she must be actively engaged in the worthiest of endeavours to establish lasting peace for humanity.” The purpose of the Oneness Forum is to unite global humanitarian organisations for collective actions to save and transform mankind by social, political and spiritual awakening. This is a part of a series of events being organised across India to acknowledge and felicitate youth leaders from various social, spiritual and economic groups. The broader vision is to support and mobilise a network of those involved in positive change, peace initiatives and cultural integrity. jaigurudev April 14 knowleges to be remember alwaysYOU ARE ALWAYS CONNECTED TO GOD Q: How can one be spiritually connected on all levels of consciousness at all times without any doubt? A: Whatever is there is all spirit. Spirit is nothing but energy. So, if you understand in that perspective, everything is made up of energy. You are always connected with God. There is not a single moment when you are separate from God or spirit. Even if you don’t want, you can’t be unconnected. Even if you want to be disconnected, you can’t. That’s God that is spirit. So, spiritual plane is not a moral plane pr a mental plane. It’s beyond those. It is ever existent and there all the time, all the time. Trying to connect to it, we accumulate pressure. We feel we are not connected. And all spiritual practices are to bring home this awareness, “Yes, I am connected”. Recognition, you are that already. Now, what is the doubt and when does the doubt arise? Your doubt strengthens your faith. You never seem to doubt your dreams. Only in waking state of consciousness your doubt arises. Have you observe this? In a dream you are on horseback and the horse is flying in the sky. You don’t ever doubt whether it is possible or not. You never doubt it. In dream there is no doubt, everything seems to be okay. Doubt is the sign of intellect. Whenever intellect pokes in, it gives rise to a doubt. Only, we have to understand this phenomenon. And your doubt cannot be answered by some one else by questioning. Impossible. Every effort to clear a doubt will give rise to so many such doubts. Doubt is a big question mark. This question mark is also so closely connected to the point where sorrow also arises in life. Have you watched or observed or asked why you are so happy? Have you asked why there are beautiful things around? Why there are so many colors and such wonderful things in creation? But when there is a pinprick and pain you ask why. Of all people, this happens to you? Why this difficulty? Why this pain or suffering? You can drop every question, you can drop every doubt. That’s a step of the enlightenment. A Master or teacher never answers all your questions. He just sees that you could drop your doubt. Every question can be transformed into a wonder. See, what is the difference between a question and a wonder? Think on this. “Oh, See! How colorful this is !?” You are questioning there but does not expect an answer. That’s a wonder. Question that arises in joy is wonder. Wonder always comes out of joy because it is your nature. You are joy. Question comes out stress, tension, sorrow, and an answer is given. See, many people go to ask different questions and then they are not really satisfied with the answers. That will produce more questions in the mind. So, it’s a multiplication of questions over a period of time. ANUTTAROBAVA, the answerless. The answerless is a state of joy. That is the spiritual plane where you wonder every moment, wonder what is there? What is this? Wonder brings joy in life. When you have nothing to wonder and you are intellectualizing everything and you have understood everything, there is no joy in life; it is as good as death. Children when they are so enthusiastic, they keep asking questions, they keep wondering. They are not particular about what answer you give. Whatever is said, they are happy with it, they are satisfied. In fact, they are wondering. They are wondering at everything. A child wonders looking at its own hands and fingers. A professor, who thinks he knows everything, doesn’t wonder about anything; see his face, see his life-it’s so dull. He knows everything there is to life; there is no energy, no enthusiasm. One who knows and knows not, is wise. This is a saying in India. One who knows not and knows that he knows is a philosopher. It’s like a psychologist. Psychologist has never studied his own psyche, his own mind function, never meditated and never gone into the depth of mind. Simply studying about it in books will not help. A true psychologist should go within and see every level of consciousness and experience them. Then, he has really studied psychology. Everywhere in the world they simply study but not practice psychology, experience what consciousness is. So, drop this idea that you want to be connected. Every spiritual experience cannot come with intellectual analysis. It can only come out of feeling it. You feel in the depth of your heart that you are connected. And if you feel in the depth of your heart you are not connected, do some deep meditation, do some breathing, Kriya and the experience will tell you, “Yes, I am connected.” Q: How does one truly surrender? How does one remain free of fear? A: Surrender means an unshaking confidence. Surrender simply means unconditional love. When there is love, there is no fear, know it is one energy that functions in three forms, either love, fear or hatred. When there is hatred there is no fear. When there is fear, there is no love or hate. And with all these three, the sensations in the body is at a particular place, the heart, whether you are in fear, in deep love or in hatred. And they are interchangeable. One changes into the other. You love somebody and that love slowly changes into hatred or you love something very dearly and the fear rises, thinking, Oh, I may lose it. Whatever you love most you hold onto. So, the same love has changed itself to fear. So, true surrender happens. You cannot do anything about it. Like a mother is surrendered to the child. Mother does not say, Oh, I am sacrificing going to a party because my child is ill. She never feels she is sacrificing for the sake of the child. The topmost priority for her is the child. So, if you love something, very deep, that is surrender, true surrender. Surrender is not a burden, not a fear, not something which comes out of force. It is a spontaneous happening. Only the strong can surrender, the weak can never surrender. We seem to understand it the other way. We feel that if someone is weak they will surrender. I am powerful. How can I surrender? No. To surrender it takes great courage and power, strength and confidence. Only then can you surrender. There is a difference between submission and surrender. You may submit to someone for a while and you are looking for an opportunity to raise your head back. Surrender is always unconditional. It’s not that “I will surrender, so I can have peace of mind or bliss or whatever”. That is no surrender. If you love someone, because of what they have then you don’t love them, you love the quality. Love is a very deep, intimate phenomenon in your consciousness. It just flowers. It cannot but flower. There is no way you can meddle with it. You go near love, you dissolve, you simply don’t exist. That is the definition of love. Either you are there or there is love. You can never meet love or you can never love. Either you remain as love or you remain as somebody. See, in conversation we say, “See, I love that because …………….” It is the most stupid thing. You love something and say because? I love you because you are very good, I love you because you are honest? You are not loving that person, you love those qualities. And there is nothing great in you loving those qualities. And I tell you, you seem to love those qualities which you don’t have. That’s how people make ideals and they remain far away from ideals. If at all you meet God, as a person something in future, what will you ask? And if at all, you have to ask you can ask only one thing – Let love be there. Let love flower from the heart is the only desire that is worth asking for because you don’t force or do anything to bring about that love in your heart. That’s a happening, a phenomenon. That phenomenon in all its totality is called surrender. In surrender there is no pinch, no pain and if one has done this once, that is enough. That experience, once, is enough. So, to be free of fear, again have confidence. Look how futile it is to have fear, any fear. Meditation would help you a lot. Know that it is an emotion, another form of love. Accept it and go through it. If you resist it, then that becomes anger. Be with it. Buddha said that any Vedana –any mood of the mind can be seen as a sensation. So, a mental agitation, feeling, emotion is associated with some physical sensation in the body and some specific point. All those feelings in the mind has been transformed as feelings in the body at the physical level, they dissolve through meditation. Meditation transforms all the different emotions. When we remain as a small pond, a stone will create a big ripple. If somebody says something, that can blow your peace off. So the peace is thrown off by people around you. But when you become an ocean, even a big mountain falling into it, does not affect it. Being an ocean, we behave like a pond – that is the wonder. The greatest wonder is man who is an ocean of peace and joy, behaves as though he is a little pond when he is disturbed by any little small thing. The small somebody does something that irritates you. You go crazy over little insignificant things and that worries you over and over again, day and night for several years. Once you are surrendered, there comes a depth in you and nothing what so ever can throw you off. See the Guru beyond the personality A step which takes you up can bring you down also. A ladder helps you to go up, and the ladder cab bring you down. So, once you have come on the ladder to the roof, then remove the ladder. You get inspired by hearing here and there, you walk on the path and the same hearing here and there can also dampen your spirit. So, first step is, Shravana, hearing; then, Manasa, absorbing it in the mind; the third, Nododyasa, total surrendering and experiencing beyond doubt. Until a sadhak comes to the third stage, one has to be careful. Steps may become slippery with soap and water etc., not the fault of the step but the same step can bring you down. There are two attitudes, one is making the sadhana, even Guru as a step. And the other is seeing the Guru as the ultimate blossoming or ultimate to reach. You make Guru as a step, you get into the complications of raga, dwesha craving, aversion; all these will come. But if you see the Guru as the attainable, attaining, you are saved from all this. There is an old proverb – don’t see the Guru as manush buddhi. Don’t see him, as a personality for there is no personality. See beyond the personality. Respect and love everybody but stick to one path, one goal. RAASLEELA Once, Radha has some argument with Krishna for some reason. He was spending a lot of time with Radha and she took everything for granted. Usually that’s what happens. She had an argument with him – “when I am here you say you love me. Then why are there so many gopies?” Then she put a inch of fire around him and said “If they are really devoted to you let them come and this cross this fire.” She had a feeling that she was the most devoted person among the gopies. And Krishna teaches her a lesson with that. The fire is all around him and when he plays the flute, all the gopies come one by one and they all cross the fire so easily and come to him. Then Krishna gave Radha the vision – in each one of them there is Krishna. He was in their mind, their hear. And they came, everybody came singing and dancing as though the fire didn’t do anything to them. It was such a baffling experience for Radha. That is how he gives Radha the idea not to take anything for granted. The poets have described it so beautifully. The gopies whenever they hear the flute, what ever they were doing, would leave everything and just rush. One has put lipstick to half the lip, the other the eyeliner to only one eye; one didn’t comb her hair, one has worn her chappal in reverse, one doesn’t wear her chappal at all; the way each one of them came is beautiful. They forgot everything, they just came. Then there was only one Brahman, one wholeness. Then RAS LEELA happened. In Ras Leela everyone was dancing with Krishna. Everybody felt that Krishna was only theirs and only they are for him. Each one of them danced with Krishna in the full moon light. This is the vision that was given to Radha to show – don’t take anything for granted. From many come to one. If your mind is divided into many, atleast come to two, you and I. So, in you, I dissolve and when I dissolve, you also dissolve and automatically, there is only one. MAKE EVERYDAY NEW Q: I really enjoy your teaching. Please talk about the Guru-disciple relationships. Do we have a connection from a past life? A: This question of having a relationship in the past life, why are we bothered? So what, if you have had connections? That doesn’t mean you should have connections in the future. Past need not be repeated in the future. So what if you have not had connection in the past? That doesn’t mean you need not have connection in the future. See this idea, whether it is a Guru-disciple relationship, or in a relationship between a husband and wife or anything else, we try to connect it to past life and think that only if we have past connection, we can have future connections, or some such thing, isn’t it? So what whether you were husband and wife in your past life or not. You can have good relationship in the future. So what if you have had a relationship in the past? Does it mean you have to continue the same suffering now also? You have come back again anyway, it’s a big thing. Okay, we are connected from so many past lives. So what? Finish it. All these soul mates and connections with the past – Why not we take a fresh look at the whole thing? People feel that relationship become deeper when there is a connection from the past. I tell you, not necessary. It can be deeper right now, this moment. Drop the whole past. You may be fresh and new. Start a fresh and new connection. How about that? It’s moment to moment; the whole world has newness. God is new; life is new; love is new. Every day a new sun arises though it’s the old sun but still, it is a very new sunrise. Figure out what is your relationship with yourself. That is the relationship with the Master. Do you hide anything from your self? You don’t. That is how you relate to master also. Eshwaro gururathmeti murthy bhedha vibhagini – the Self, God and Master arethree different names for one big principle and Master reveals the deepest in you, the truth in you, the love in you, the self in you. Vyumavat vyapta deshaya, dakshinamoorthaye – The Master’s body is like sky,penetrating, vast though it gets expressed in the physical body. His real body is so big, it permeates the whole space. That is Dakshinamoorthy. Dakshinamoorthy means the skill of expressing the inexpressible through small expressions. The skill of expressing the infinity through finite. The skill of expressing the silence a midst sounds. Daksha means skill. Dakshinamoorthy means the form which is so skillful that holds the infinity. SERVANTS OF SERVANTS God does not want too many devotees. You know why? He has to become a servant of them all. God is servant of servants. When there are too many servants, he has to serve too many masters. There is so much difficulty. So, only one Radha, only one here and there. If there are too many Radha’s, he has to run behind them. Kabir says in his beautiful couplets – all these days I was calling God, God and looking for him here, there and everywhere. Now God is running behind me saying, Kabir, Kabir, Kabir. So, wherever I go, he is coming behind me like a puppy. – Kabir, Kabir.That is Love. THREE GUNAS This entire world is made up of five elements, and these five elements have got three qualities called sattva, rajas and tamas. At any given time, one of these qualities dominates our life, our environment. Now there is a broad understanding of what sattva, rajas and tamas are. These three qualities also relate to our states of consciousness, like waking, dreaming and sleeping state. When sattva is dominating in our environment and the body, we feel light, happy, pleasant, joyful, alert, and awake and the perception is very clear. When rajoguna is dominating, lots of thoughts, restlessness and desires are occupying the mind. Either you are very happy or very sad. When tamoguna is dominating, delusion, wrong understanding, dullness etc. are occupying the mind. And these qualities are present even in our food. Our food can be sattvic, rajasic or tamasic. Our mind can also be sattvic, rajasic or tamasic. Our attitude in action can be sattvic, rajasic or tamasic as well. Do you understand what I am saying? When sattva dominates in our life, rajas and tamas stay in the background. Their effect is minimum. When rajas dominates, sattva and tamas are in the background and when tamas dominates, then sattva and rajas are in the background, their effect is small. This is the whole mechanism of life in the world. Human beings, unlike animals, are endowed with freedom and also with wisdom and discrimination. How much to do, what and when to do, should I do or not - this discriminating power is given to human beings because they possess freedom. We can overeat and get sick, we can oversleep and feel dull, and we can over-indulge in activities and get restlessness, a nervous breakdown, ulcers and all the problems. Now, how to balance these gunas in us? Pranayams, kriya, meditation, listening to knowledge.... All these increase sattva. Good company, “satsang”, increases sattva in us. Satsang has two aspects: one is singing, the other is sound. Singing, the emotional singing, dancing and all that is art. Because, see, out of the two sides of the brain, the right and left hemispheres, one is rational thinking, the other understands. Satsang has both aspects. We understand intellectually and then we get together and sing. As birds can sing, human beings can also sing. A human is made up of a sum total of all the animals. That’s why, the man sometimes howls barks and then sings also. Roars like a lion sometimes, meows like a cat sometimes. Singing makes us fly like birds, uplifts our awareness, hmm..? This will increase sattva. Then, eating proper food: eat only as much as is essential, that could be well digested. You shouldn’t feel too heavy when you go to bed, wake up in the morning or come for meditation. Right amount of food, sweet, fresh and gently spiced; this is sattvic food. When there is rajasic tendency in you, you like everything very strong like vinegar, pickles, very salty, too sweet etc. In tropical countries, it’s more rajasic food. The tamasic people like everything old and stale. The food that is not fresh should not be eaten; it is harmful to health. Actually, according to Ayurveda, anything that is overcooked or which is kept for more than six - seven hours, is considered to be old and hence tamasic food. And three types of intellect, consciousness is also there. The sattvic intellect just does the job joyfully and is unmindful of the result. Whether things happen or not, they don’t lose their enthusiasm. Their enthusiasm is not based on the result of a job. Enthusiasm of the rajasic people is based on the result and they either go up very high or go down very deep. Everything they do with excitement, a lot of excitement in both directions. They put too much effort, too much thinking for small things. This is rajasic tendency. And the tamasic people take too long a time to do a small thing, regretting all the while, disliking it all the time they are doing. This is tamasic intellect, tamasic doing. These are the three types of intellect or "dhruti” as it is called that which upholds the consciousness, that which stimulates you to do the work. So all our practices that you have taken up are all very meaningful. This brings the basic transformation in your constitution. Constitution changes, sattva becomes more and more, and when sattva becomes more there is knowledge, there is alertness, there is awareness, there is joy in life. Sorrow and misery come with rajas, delusion and dullness come with tamas. So, when you see someone regretting and sad, just know that his rajas has increased. When you look at everybody in terms of sattva, rajas and tamas, the three gunas not in balance, you will feel compassion for them. If tamoguna increases in people they are deluded, everything is understood wrongly, wrong knowledge comes to them, doubts pop up in their minds. When rajas increases, people become restless, there are too many desires coming up in them. They want to do hundred things but never get even a single thing accomplished. When sattva increases they are so bright, full of love, service and compassion. They do not judge others and brand them as good or bad. They simply see the qualities, which are acting. Do you understand what I am saying? In everybody’s life these three cycles come. More sattva, rajas or tamas come periodically and they change. And all these practice, sadhana, keep the sattva at its height. So it is very important and essential for everyone to take at least a week or two off every year and just be in this presence, in this knowledge, get immersed in doing these exercises, pranayama and all that. Many might have noticed, the moment you decided to go on a residential programme, that moment itself you felt some change. Already everything starts changing, everything becomes harmonious, and mind feels elevated. To understand the human behavior and human phenomenon, the ancient seers also connected astrology with it. Astrology means: because that planet is there, that thing is there, this person is behaving like this! So then, you cannot get angry with somebody because you simply understand that it is that planetary position that makes them do like that. To understand that every human being is like a puppet, to go into the depth of the understanding, they brought out the science of cosmic rays and how it can influence everyone. To overcome the influence of that, they have called it “upaya” or the “means” to get over the bad effects of the vibrations. How? They said, go deep in, chant, and sing and meditate. Because Shiva-tattva, the principle of it, the transcendental principle, the fourth state of our consciousness, rules over all other influences of all the planets of cosmic rays. So, if you meditate you nullify all the undesirable effects of the cosmic rays. So singing, chanting, meditating can eliminate all those undesirable effects. So it comes to the point, there is only one big mind that is responsible. All others seem to be there but only one big mind is functioning. That Divine mind is all that is there in all embodied beings. This understanding, not just intellectually, but as it is in the actual sense is the sattvic knowledge. In knowledge also there are three types. When you see only one sense, one being, and one consciousness in all beings, it is sattvic knowledge. Rajasic knowledge is attributing different things to different people, seeing them all as different good or bad people. Tamasic knowledge understands them all in a wrong manner, completely wrong manner. People do not even see one as life, that is tamasic. You know, people who commit crimes or who are violent, don’t see life in people whom they destroy, otherwise they cannot shoot somebody, cannot kill. This is tamasic knowledge. Tamasic knowledge is unable to perceive things as they are. Everything is taken in the wrong way. Anything you say, a person of tamasic nature will misinterpret it and take it wrongly, seeing all the time with paranoia. Everybody is going to attack me, everybody is angry with me, everyone dislikes me, nobody likes me ever in the world, my mother didn’t like me, my father didn’t like me, my teacher didn’t like me, they stared at me as though I am a beast; all sorts of delusions. This is when tamoguna is dominating in them. So the way to get rid of all the two imbalances, rajoguna and tamoguna - that is what these things are meant for, hmm.... Sattva is never an imbalance; the more sattva rises, the more harmony comes...more and more harmony comes. Human Rights and Human Values in the 21st century To discuss human values we need to be in a cordial environment and we’ll suppose we are all in a cordial atmosphere now. Agree? The more formal we get, further we get from humanness. Human nature is cordiality, is informal and friendly. And today in the world, this is what we have been forgetting to live.... We need a shift from being in a mechanical world to a cordial and informal world. This...is the basis of human values. Human values is what? Actually compassion, friendliness, cooperation, peace of mind, joy and a smile that lasts throughout our life. The sign of success is freedom. The sign of success is joy. The sign of success is a tendency to help and cooperate. And do we see these values coming up in our society now? Often in society, we find the crisis is based on identity... And when a group is formed to specify a certain identity, they forget somewhere a sense of belonging with the whole human race.... So, in order to maintain this limited identity, a human being or a man is ready to lose his own life. Isn’t this what is happening? I can die in order to hold on to this identity "I am somebody”. Same with culture, tribes, religion, nationality. First and foremost if their emphasis comes to being a human, then there would be a lot of peace in society. There will be a lot of understanding among people. For this, we need to educate people in the broad minded sense; in the sense that you can be Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Christian, but before being a Jew you are first and foremost a human being and as a human being the entire mankind is part of you and belongs to you. This understanding we need to create. Today, when communism has failed, people are looking for some identity. They often move into religious dimensions where they get caught up into fanaticism or fundamentalism. When there is a lack of proper spiritual education or knowledge about the oneness of human race, the world will take a direction, which will not be very palatable... We need to create a sense of security deep inside. A human value is to bring a sense of security that comes from within. And this is another sign of success; compassion and a sense of security that dawns from deep within oneself. We all know this problem, but what is the solution? Here something very basic to our life comes into play; Our breath. Breath is the link between body, mind and emotions. For every emotion there is a certain type of breathing pattern that is happening within us. If you are agitated, you breathe differently, if you are upset you breathe differently, if you are happy, your breath is different. So if you attend to the breath then you can see your mind can be calmed down. We have done some work on this field, with more than 8000 prisoners around the world... Many prisoners say, "You are responsible for us being in jail”. I ask."Why?”, and they say, "If we had learnt to handle our emotions before, we wouldn’t have been in prison”. In some factories...we did this experiment. In many business establishments, factories we gave programmes. And the feedback we got was simply marvelous because these people, they could go home and enjoy their family life because, instead of being tired and exhausted, they feel so energetic and alive again - a few minutes of breathing and relaxation (meditation) brought them right back...Once they came in touch with themselves, they became more clear about their values, the humanness in them, their responsibility increases. They take responsibility for the society.... It is the responsibility of the governments to make people responsible, bring that quality of responsibility in them and have a sense of belonging and be more friendly. Many things can be solved by a friendly relationship, friendly attitude among people. These values we need to bring into the society. Q: How to put all these points you made in the context of human values? Human rights is protecting others’ freedom, seeing the other person is also like oneself... giving them security, letting them live.... Who violates human rights? Those who do not have human values.... Instead of emphasizing - you should give human rights to others - we tell them, come on, wake up and see how much human you are. Then it shakes them, wakes them up because see, even a terrorist has human values, as far as his family is concerned. You only have to make him realize this is the same thing, the others also belong to you. That sense of awakening is essential to people. If you see the people in the jail...Nothing is taught there for their mind to let go of the past and forgive the past and starts a new life. They stay in the prison wanting to take revenge and when they come out they violate more human rights. That’s where we cannot separate human values and human rights. I think it’s a different approach, from another angle to strengthen human rights. What do you say? (Extract from the address given by Sri Sri Ravishankar at the conference on Human Values in Geneva, 1998) WHAT IS TRUTH?See the truth is in the totality. You know if someone says something coming from the heart. You are not shaken as it comes right from the heart, from naturalness. If you give a lecture, it will be to a crowd and will be coming from an ego. Do you see politicians when they talk? Have you seen the difference? See a politician giving a lecture, giving a sermon for you, it is not coming from the reality. So when it comes from reality that is truth, do you see that? What's happening to you, tired? Putting on a face makes you tired and you have been doing that all your life, putting on a false face. You know when you meet people you are somebody else and inside you are somebody else. So you put on a smile which is so artificial and false and you get so tired and sick all the time justifying your style, saying how good you are, how wonderful you are, justifying all the time who you are. Then you become nauseated. You just try this just tell lies one whole day from morning till night. By evening you'll feel the nausea. The whole system becomes uncomfortable. See if you listen to your body, you even know what is truth and what is not truth. Do you see what I am saying? I'll tell you a story: The King Akbar passed a rule: Anyone who tells a lie will be hanged. The entire country went through a big shock. They didn't know what to do. So in Delhi, all the lawyers got together, they said, "What is this rule? We cannot survive in our profession, it's finished because law is to make black into white and vice versa." The lawyers were all upset. Then the doctors got upset because they give some medicine and they tell the patient "Don't worry, I am here to look after you. You'll get well" even if they are sick and dying, they never reveal to them that they are going to die in a few days. They simply tell, you'll get well. So all the doctors got so worried and confused. And then all the merchants, they buy things for two rupees and they sell for ten rupees and they say "Oh, I am giving you without any profit. I'm giving you at cost price" and all that. You know the business tactics. So all the businessmen were also disturbed. They didn't know what to do. And so were the astrologers and the priests; everybody was disturbed. They caught hold of Birbal the vice minister of Akbar and said to him "You are the saviour, you have to do something. What is this, such a foolish law has come that everybody who tells a lie will be hanged. It cannot survive." So Birbal agreed to do something. Birbal then walked into the court of the King when the king had asked the gateman, not to allow anybody inside. The gateman asked, "where are you going Mr.Minister?" Birbal said, "I'm going to get hanged". They took Birbal to the court and said, "This man told a lie. He said he is going to get hanged. Now he has to be hanged because he said a lie. So now the whole thing was in a fix, because if you hang him what he said was true. Then you have punished an innocent person. And if you don't hang him the law becomes null and void. So the King got into a bigger confusion. He did not know, so he called all the intelligentia, "What is the truth now? What is to be done? And they said to remove this law. So it's not in what you speak that is truth but the state of your mind is the truth. You understand? The state of your mind which is non shaky. There is integrity in you, there is calmness, steadiness, clarity, that state of consciousness itself is truth. That's the moment, this moment. See what is in the moment, this existence. Adi Shankara gave a beautiful definition for truth, he said that which does not change, that is truth. In that sense the whole science is untruth because science kept on changing and it is changing. See there was such big news about cholestrol, palm oil having highest cholestrol and being very bad. Now the papers after recent research says palm oil reduces cholestrol and is so good. Complete round about; twenty points about oil reversing the whole knowledge of the past two years has come now. In Malaysia they handedover a big book about palm oil. That is very surprising. So what is truth? So all this, it is not that those people lied or now people are lying or in future they are going to lie, See, in the phenomenal world it is all changing. What does not change is the underlying reality. The state of consciousness which does not tire you, which enlivens you which uplifts you, that is truth. Secrets of life Have you seen rain dropping from the sky? Each drop is so clear, as clear as crystal. Isn't it? As they reach the earth, some of them make their way to move towards the ultimate ocean. Each one of these is clear about their goal. They don't mind falling from the top of the mountains. They are not worried even to dash against rocks, they happily flow through the tough valleys, still they remain as clear as they were And Yes, finally they become one with the ocean. Whereas, there are another set of these rain drops. As they reach the earth, they form a group and become a pond. They have no hassles of either falling from the mountains or to pass through tough valleys. They feel they are so comfortable. But, unfortunately, no one wants them, as they have become dirty by being just there. They will have their final say only when the sun takes them back. Here Master is the ocean, we all are rain drops. Let us not become one with the pond. Let us flow towards the ocean. However tough the path, each moment is great experience. A TIME FOR EVERYTHING Today we celebrated Uttana Dwadashi or a small Diwali; it is also called Dev Diwali. The legend is that the Devas sleeps for six months from June till now and then they wake up. So, to wake them up, we burst firecrackers. Do you know why firecrackers are used in Diwali? You know there is an exploding tendency in everybody. In the society you cannot go on expressing all that you feel. Some things you feel you cannot express, and you keep them stored inside you. When you have to follow some norms and values, somewhere someone gets irritated. That irritation stays inside you and piles up as days go on and one day you feel like bursting out. When you burst out, that anger or whatever piles up, becomes like an explosive and explodes. During Diwali, a new day, a new year, when an explosion happens inside, your inner explosion has automatically associated itself with it, gets over and a sort of freedom comes from within. Like, have you seen when children cry, they shout and you shout louder than them and they become quiet. Same with dogs. When the dog is making so much noise you make a bigger noise, the dog becomes quiet. Same in the mind. When your mind is chattering so much, you sing bhajans louder than the chattering and the mind becomes quiet. This is a law, you know. Have you observed this? If someone is angry, you get angrier than them and they cool down. You make an explosive sound outside, a shock happens and the explosive tendency inside, like a catharsis, just vanishes. That’s why in Diwali – the darkest night of the year, we burst firecrackers and distribute sweets. Then you become very sweet. A face is given for all feeling, emotions because it’s very natural. It’s like you have a nice home, beautiful inside and you don’t want it to have dust inside. So, you keep all the windows and doors shut, have air conditioning; still you feel, there is dust. This you should take it as nature inherent in the creation. We should never think this should not happen, that should not happen. Whatever has happened, as happened. Until and unless the exploding tendency does not clear, newness does not come in to you. And Diwali is to be now, So, you have to get yourself clear of all the past. Drop the whole past and come to the moment. It is not necessary for everyone to explode. While some light the firecrackers, others light the flowerpot and out of the flowerpot a new flower – joy. Energy springs from within. So now, all the feeling to shout has exploded and observing the explosion the mind becomes calm, it brings relief. Uttana Dwadashi - in this rainy season all the good qualities in you, also fall asleep. As you say sometimes my mood is off. So what if mood is off? It can be off for sometime; allow some space, So, all the good qualities sleep for a few months and then they wake up again. And in the darkest hour of the year, all the good qualities wake up; that is when they are needed very much. So, there is time for everything. In the world also, there is time for everything. Isn’t it? Sometimes you sleep, sometimes you eat. You cannot eat all the time, you cannot sleep all the time, you see? You undergo all these different phases in life. If you are centered, though you undergo all the changing phases, you are not shaken you move through them all. That is the power of knowledge. jaigurudev!! April 05 Nobel Peace Prize nomination 2005OSLO (Reuters) - Pope John Paul (news - web sites), rock star Bono and jaigurudev! April 02 quote of the week (30th march-----5th april)Quote of the week from Sri Sri March 24 peace initativesBreathing New Life Into Afghanistan The Art of Living Foundation (AOL) and the International Association for Human Values (IAHV) have been working here for over a year now on its 5H program. Breath, Water, Sound Workshops are being conducted in the country on a regular basis. The participants are taught some simple, yet powerful breathing techniques and sound meditations, which have a profound impact on reducing trauma levels and stress caused by incessant war scenes. The course teaches people how they can find rest by themselves and use the techniques to deal with daily stresses. Due to the intense experiences that the Afghans have had, they respond to these techniques immediately and extremely effectively.     KOSOVO Cooperation with the Ministry of Health  IRAQ All the way from Iraq    ISRAEL Transcending Walls:  Sri Sri with Moshe Katsav, President of Israel  PAKISTAN Pakistan visit from July 19th to July 23rd His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar had been invited to Pakistan by the Art of Living Foundation, Helpline Trust, Gharib Nawaz Foundation and the Daily Times newspaper on a historic four-day peace mission. He was the first spiritual master from India to visit Pakistan on such a mission. During his visit, His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar held informal meetings with political and business leaders, religious heads and social activists in Karachi and Islamabad. He said that his interaction with people of Pakistan had been heart-to-heart and not intellectual. The subject of his discussions were more in keeping with his goodwill mission - Unity in Diversity and Globalising Wisdom.  His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar met with Islamic clerics during which He emphasized the need to "build mutual trust for lasting peace". Sri Sri has extended an invitation for them to visit India in near future. In addition he made a goodwill visit to a Hindu temple in Karachi where he met a delegation of the Sindhi Hindu Panchyat and then visited Panja Sahib the holy site of Guru Nanak in Hasan Abdel. In Karachi over two thousand leaders from the business, entertainment and cultural community attended His talk followed by a meditation session at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture. "I feel as if I have a fresh experience of India", said Jaffar, a member of the audience after the talk while Imtiaz Ahmed remarked that for the first time he felt in Sri Sri the true embrace from India, love and oneness, without any barriers. In Islamabad, His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar addressed a public gathering in which he said that Asia needs to be a stress-free region. He said that friendly ties between India and Pakistan would not only bring peace in the region but rapid economic changes too. Top establishment of Islamabad society were among the 1500 Pakistanis present at the talk. His message reached millions of Pakistani through his TV interviews shown on prime time by Indus Television, ARY, GEO and City Channel, and a well attended press conference. His message helped bridge the spiritual and cultural divide and conveyed his vision of a united and prosperous south-east Asia. Press Release Bangalore "Spirituality can unite people from all religion, beyond religion," said His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, founder of the Art of Living at New Delhi after his return from Pakistan today morning. He was in Pakistan from July 19 to July 23. He said that his interaction with people of Pakistan had been heart-to-heart and not intellectual. The subject of his discussions were more in keeping with his goodwill mission - Unity in Diversity and Globalising Wisdom.  When asked about monotheism in Pakistan, Gurudev, as He is popularly referred to said that Hinduism too believes in one God but in many forms. "For eg, one sun ray gives seven colours." February 27 telecast scedule on JGARAN TV(guruji's punjab tour)jai gurudev all there is a regular telecaste on jagaran (zee networks ) channel on each sunday, time : 12.20 pm about the perparations for the grant event at GGS stadium on 2nd march which is again live covered Pass this message to all the friends around to see jagaran on this sunday . 12.20 pm and zee news shall also show the promotional clipings JGD February 16 Pearls Of Wisdom-10Thank Superficially Guruji: Which is better, to thank deeply or superficially? Guruji: No, superficially. (Everyone is baffled.) Thanking needs a separation. Thanking means there are two. If you are deeply thankful, it means you deeply feel the separation. Deep within there there is no need to thank, because there is oneness. But superficially you can thank. Thanks are like ripples on the surface of the water. When you say "Thank you", you complete something. You are finishing a transaction, a relationship, a process. "Thank you" is like "Good bye". You can complete all transactions at a surface level, but deeper inside is only oneness. Thankfulness always exists in relation to something else. You don't thank for nothing at all, you thank for something. But, in this case something is less than nothing! At the deepest level, thanking has no meaning. Does one hand thank the other hand? The deeper you go, you see that there is no "other" to be thanked. Question: So we should thank superficially and feel deeply? So thank superficially, not from the depth. Deep thanks indicate deep separation! Someone in the crowd: Maybe we should say, "I thank you from the tip of my tongue!" (laughter) Religion and Politics The role of religion is to make one righteous and loving, and politics means caring for people and their welfare. When religion and politics don't coexist, then you have corrupt politicians and pseudo-religious leaders. A religious man who is righteous and loving will definitely care for the welfare of the whole population and hence becomes a true politician. And a true politician can only be righteous and loving. he cannot be anything but religious. All the Avatars and Prophets have been caring for people and so were in politics. You can find many examples to this effect. When religions People think politics and religion have to be kept separate because many religions did not give freedom to worship and did not care for all people equally. History has shown that religion has created conflict. But irreligious societies (e.g. communism) have created chaos and corruption. Today both religion and politics need reform. Religion has to become broader and more spiritual to allow freedom of worship and broader to encompass all the wisdom in the world. And politicians have to become more righteous and spiritual. JJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ
JAIGURUDEV!!!!! BDEGHIJMPQBDEGHIJM Pearls Of Wisdom-9Fear of Mistakes Q: Where did we learn to be afraid of making mistakes? Sri Sri: There are many people who have no fear of making mistakes. Many students who have no fear, drop out of school and are involved in violence. Recent statistics reveal that as many as 30% of the children in North America are resorting to some sort of violence. This is a very big number. They resort to violence because they are not afraid of making mistakes. There must also be another 30% who are afraid to make mistakes, who are not interested in taking the risk and who shy away. Ideally we need to keep a balance. We are afraid of making mistakes because of the consequences, because we think we will be punished or the consequences will be very bad. Often those who have been punished several times are no longer afraid about the consequences. You cannot totally eliminate fear, nor should we. Fear is like salt in the food, it keeps one on his toes. Fear keeps one's feet on the ground, but fear is essential to some degree only. Like salt in the food, if there is too much salt, the food is not consumable, but you cannot eat the food without any salt. A little bit of fear is essential in the process of growth. Nature has built you like that. You drive on the right side of the road (in US) because of the fear you would get in to an accident. You walk on the sidewalk, you drive only when there is a green light. These actions happen out of fear. If you are totally without fear, you could do anything and violate all the laws. Laws are always followed with a pinch of fear, Feelings Change There are three aspects in relationship. One is the attraction; that is on the physical level. The second aspect is love on the mental level. The third aspect is a deeper connection, or devotion, on the spiritual level. Our feelings and emotions change all the time. We feel good about something, and then a little later we feel bad about the same thing. What's the big deal about your feelings? People often say, "Oh, follow your feelings." I tell you, "Never follow your feelings!' You will be ruined if you follow your feelings, because feelings change all the time. Follow your commitments and your wisdom. You will be much better off. Any student in a medical college, during the first year or the second year, feels very frustrated and wants to quit medicine and do something else. Often such feelings come up during a long and difficult career. If one simply followed his feelings, he would not get into any profession because nothing can maintain charm for a long time. Often for those who are very sharp, nothing stays charming. That is one of the signs of intelligence. A person who is dull can go on with anything, but for those who are more alert, everything seems to lose its charm very fast - except when the charm is coming from one's very depth, the very core of one's being. Then the mind is totally in the present moment and one has deep roots and broad vision of life. Then every moment is full of charm, everything is beautiful in the world. That's the time when one never gets bored with oneself. The ultimate relationship is when you can relate to yourself one hundred percent. Then any face you look at, there is love, there is charm, there is beauty. Then you come from the space of contributing. "What can I do for you? How can I make your life better?" If each partner comes from this space "What can I do for you?", that becomes the ultimate relationship between two people. We don't have to sit and wait for some soul mate to come to us. Often people ask me, "When will I meet my soul mate?" You can dial up pyschics who will say, "Oh, your soul mate is coming." Soul mate? I tell you, you can never meet your soul mate unless you first meet your soul. If you haven't met your own soul, how will you know your soul mate? When we question as to who we are, we find that we are not our emotions, we are not our feelings, we are not our thoughts and we are not our concepts. Then who are we? This very inquiry creates an awakening within us and takes away the shackles of our conditioning. There is a great expectation in every relationship that the other person should change. We never think about how we should change instead of the other person. If we change first and develop such an awakened awareness, we create an atmosphere that brings change in the other person too more often. Repetition Often we think, "Oh, I am single, I am so bored being by myself, I need a companion, I need a relationship." If you are so bored by your own company how boring will you be for someone else? Two people bored with themselves get together and bore each other. Love and boredom have something in common. Repetition. If you go on repeating something again and again, you will get bored. When you are in love, you go on repeating the same thing. Lovers insist a thousand times, "Oh, I love you so much, I love you so much, you are so beautiful." Say it once, that's enough! Lovers seem to have "lost it." When you are in love, what you speak does not mean much at all. Many do not even know what they are speaking. Often you will see in high schools or in colleges, where someone is in love, they write their names all over the place, on walls, in their books, and everywhere, a kind of graffiti. Often their homes and colleges are not sufficient to display their love and they even go and write on trains, metros, and bus stops. This is repetition. Spiritual practice is also a repetition. Having a rosary, chanting the name of God, doing something like this is a repetition. At first the repetition brings boredom in you. When you sustain that boredom, instead of just dropping it and running away, the spring of love gets opened. When you go on and rea;lise that you are the source of the love, you are at the giving end and not at the receiving end, only then can your relationship blossom. Relationships Change The nature of relationships always change. Here, I am using the word relationship in a broader sense, in its true sense, and in a relative sense. When you were a child, you had so much love for your parents, friends and toys, and as you grew older the love from the toys and candy shifted onto other friends and from friends it shifted once again. When you became a parent, see how much love you had for your children, as compared to your love for your parents. Parents care several times more for their own children than for their parents, because their attention and love are shifted from the elders to the younger ones. A similar shift often happens in the relationship between husband and wife when a child is born. When you are looking for security, love and comfort from your partner, you become weak, you are at the receiving end. When you are weak, then all the negative emotions and demands come up in you. Demands destroy love. If we just understand this, we could save our love from getting rotten. The common expression is "I fell in love". I say, `Don't fall in love; rise in love'. Having a limited awareness of ourselves and a limited experience of love encapsulates us in a tiny, tight compartment where we start suffocating. We want freedom in life. Love can be suffocating if there is no depth to it, and that is what we see today. Many people fall in love and then they fall apart. We can't even handle what we are asking for, what we desire, what we want, because we have never probed into the depth of our own psyche, our own mind, and our own consciousness. In love we want to merge with the other, we cannot bear the separateness. That is why lovers often want to know everything about the one whom they love. They cannot tolerate any secrets because a secret means distance. Love cannot tolerate the distance. Overcoming Events
Say, for example, you are riding a motorbike on a busy street and in front of you another vehicle is emitting exhaust fumes. You have 3 options:
As in the first case, most of you stick on the events and are miserable, like inhaling fumes throughout your journey. In the second case, you don't get permanent relief because another bigger vehicle might come in front of you. Running away from events is not the permanent solution. Wise people use their skill to surmount the event. If the vehicle is in perfect condition, the skill is effective. Conditioning the vehicle is sadhana - practice. And skill is the grace of the Guru. The mistakes you have made in the past have made you humble; you need not make mistakes in the future to become humble The Ball and The Bat By Acharya Ratnananda (Guruji's Father) Many people face a dilemma; whether absolute surrender to Guru will rid them of their past Karmas. If it does, why do they continue to suffer, if it does not, what is the purpose or use of surrendering to the Master? It is a law of Nature that you should receive the results of your action whether good or bad. The real Master does not normally desire to interfere with the laws of Nature though he has the power to modify them. The whole thing may be compared to a cricket match. The bowler is your past deeds or misdeeds and the ball, is the resulting action. The bat is the corrective protection which you wield as a batsman. If you fend off the past deeds or misdeeds then you save yourself from unpleasantness; if you fail to hit, the ball hits the three wickets of disease; physical, emotional and mental. The Master is like an umpire. He watches the entire play and does not interfere, if the rules of the game are followed. But when violations take place, he steps in to correct them. But sometimes, you also have to appeal and then he gives his decision. The appeal is also two-fold, the past, in the form of the bowler, and the present, in the form of the batsman. He supports whoever is right Pearls Of Wisdom-8Listen and Celebrate I tell you, even if one is good, hidden somewhere there are impressions and they come out. One has to face the consequences. Even in the so called bad man, there are deep impressions in him which bring out some nice things too. So, there are different layers within each individual. You have given a loan somewhere and have loans elsewhere. So where you have a loan, you have to repay and where you have given loans, there you will get back with interest which will be credited to you. In one hand you are recieving and on the other hand you are giving. This `give and take' is happening inside you. That is why it appears to be very complicated. It seems to be unjust sometimes. Though I have been so good, never done any wrong, but why are these wrong things happening to me or to my people? No! Just take it. Don't go into details as to why or what. It will only just simply shift further what you may call your assumptions, your guessing. You can guess, "Maybe because of this it happened." Then you go a little deeper and you shift and shift. Instead of digging into the past, just look at whatever is right now and march forward. Meditate, go deep into some practice. You can burn down all the karma. Karma is just the impressions the mind has carried deep inside you. Those impressions attract these events which are happening. But by surrender, by meditation, you can erase all those impressions to a great extent. See, our mind is oscillating all the time. Either it is angry about the past or anxious about the future. It is like a pendulum. If you have observed every minute, your mind says this should not have happened. It could have been better that way. Just regretting, regretting, regretting. And then when youu are regretting you get angry. You know how anger comes? It piles up. Drop by drop it collects. Morning you get up, "Oh! I should have got up half an hour early." And then you get into your car and go into the road and then, "Oh! I should not have taken this road. I should have come by the other road." You sit in your office, and one little thing happens and you burst out. Apparently, that is cause. But then, that is not the total cause. At the back of your mind, it was building up, all the time. Then you dump your whole thing on your colleague. That poor chap, or that poor lady, or whoever it is. They take the brunt of your anger. The mind is regretting about the past, or anxious about the future as to what will happen, what will happen next hour, what will happen this evening, or what will happen tomorrow. You are too anxious about the future, so fearful. So you go from one astrologer to another card reader. Everyone says something. Read the crystal ball and say something. Are you fulfilled or satisfied with it? No! The moment you find another astrologer, you run to him. Haven't you had this experience? You are just not satisfied hearing from one astrologer. You go from one to the other and they say something and you feel happy momentarily. Then you go to another and you feel great. It is like an addiction. I call it astrology addiction. It stays for a little while, maybe one day or even a few hours and then the next day you are in the same boat, [with the] same anxiety. Meditation and kriya will bring the mind to the moment and go deep into it. The moment is so deep, it is like an ocean. The present moment is as vast and deep as the Universe. Making the mind be there, now, now, now, now - now, now - makes you like a child. Innocent, but still with a lot of wisdom and depth. That is fulfillment. Many of you have experienced this here. You have experienced how wonderful and deep you feel after the practices. Before becoming free, you have no freedom. You have to become free from the past and the anxieties of the future. In the moment, you become free. When you are free you have free will. The WILL. There is no other will. Nothing can oppose your will then. Or, whatever His will is your will. It is no different. Time is the greatest mystery Time is so obvious, yet so incomprehensible. All that exists in nature manifests in the dimension of time. In time exists every tangible experience, yet we have never really experienced time. Things perish in time but time does not perish. It is time that reveals all that is concrete yet it has remained abstract (like the mind or the life force). One of the deepest mysteries of the universe is time. What is time? And, what is beyond time? Was there a time when there was no time? Will there be an end to time? The fascinating nature of time has been the quest of brilliant minds for centuries and there are many deep insights regarding time in ancient literature. It is unfortunate that those who know Sanskrit, the language of the Vedas, often know very little of modern science. Similarly, few of today's scientists have any knowledge about Sanskrit. True wisdom is timeless. Only from time to time it gets recast into different words and languages, suitable for the time. The Vedic knowledge, which arose in the East tens of thousands of years ago, provides an extraordinary rich insight into the nature of the universe. Over the centuries, many Rishis (wise men) had recognised this knowledge in the form of certain hymns whilst in a state of deep meditation. These intuitive revelations were collated by Maharishi Veda Vyasa thousands of years ago to form the Vedas. These sages and rishis, living in the forests, were engaged in intensive discussions and elaborations of the Vedas. This resulted in commentaries, called Aranyakas and Brahmanas. All this knowledge was passed on orally from the Master to the disciple. The philosophy and techniques of the Vedas were summed up in the Upanishads. This knowledge was often cast into symbolic stories, which formed the Puranas, a mixture of history and symbolic parables. For the rishis, spirituality and science were not two different subjects; they had intertwined spirituality with art, architecture and science. It is interesting to note that many of these observations, though not exact, come quite close to modern discoveries. For example, long before Galileo, the Vedic rishis had stated that the planets revolve around the sun and that the earth was round. In fact, the science of astronomy itself was called "khagola shastra" - the knowledge of spheres of space (in Sanskrit, kha means space, gola means spheres, shastra means an organised body of Knowledge), and the science of geography was called "bhugola shastra" the knowledge of earth sphere (bhu means earth). Vedic mathematics is one of civilisation's most profound system of calculation. The concepts of zero and decimal mathematics were first conceived by Vedic rishis. Jyotish calculations predict with extraordinary accuracy, up to the precision of seconds the time of eclipses, the cycles of the Moon, Jupiter, Saturn and other planets. Ancient man had a greater understanding of time and space than was formerly believed. The amazing Vedic vision about how vast and yet how infinitesimal time is, causes us to rethink our view of ancient man. Significance of Celibacy Question: Punditji, talk to us about the significance of celibacy in our life. Sri Sri: Celibacy is a happening. When your awareness is so deeply rooted in the Being and Being is permeating everywhere, and when the thrilling joy and love is coming from every pore and cell of your body, a natural phenomenon that you call "celibacy" happens. The bliss in you is like the peak of the sex experience. When that stays with you as an electric current all the time in your body, you don't feel the body as a physical heavy body. It is light like a flower. It is like space, like air. When you get very spacey, you don't do anything. You don't feel the body because you are so immersed in joy. Then celibacy happens. It is not a practice that one does. It is a spontaneous happening, when love has flowered so much in our life. It is one energy which, in the lowest centre of our body, manifests as sex energy as well as creative energy. See, when you are very creative, if you are going for an examination or are involved in a large business, those days, thoughts of sex don't cross your mind. You work, you go to sleep and you work, because that particular activity occupies your mind so much. When you are very creative, the sex energy is transformed. People who are obsessed with sex are less creative. The one energy comes as either procreative or creative energy. When the energy moves further up, to the second centre of your body, beauty and the arts are enlivened. The same energy turns into arrogance and jealousy. One energy has these two aspects, either as beauty, arts and appreciation or as jealousy and arrogance. They are not two different energies. Have you observed a tendency with beauty? We see beauty and we want to possess it. You may see a nice crystal chandelier and say "Oh, I want it." You bring it home. Do you enjoy looking at it everyday? No. Again when you go out, you see other types of chandeliers which attract your attention. Most of you have beautiful paintings at home. Do you look at them everyday and enjoy them? You seldom do that. You may say you enjoy them showing them to guests. Do you really enjoy them? No. Your tendency is - when you see beauty, you want to possess it. In the process of possessing it, you make it ugly. When you see a beautiful boy or a beautiful girl, you want to possess, you want to love them so much that you make it hard for them to breathe. This is happening! People are suffocated by love! And people are hurt by love! You can't get hurt if there is no love. If you love somebody and they don't smile at you or are busy, you get deeply hurt. You don't get hurt by somebody whom you don't love. Hurt is a part of love. And you don't want to accept that. You just want people to love and say goody-goody things and smile. All these modulations of the mind open up and change with observation. To me, celibacy is a gift that comes to you. It is a happening. The word celibate means `married to God'. That means God has possessed you so much, has so fully entered into each cell, that there is no space left for anything else. Celibate means to be married to the spirit. Having seen over and over again, for lifetimes, what sex is, you move a step further and become immersed into That, divinity, that love which Is. Truth related to Reality Kashi, a holy city on the banks of the river Ganges in India, was once the capital of a state ruled by an eminent king. His court consisted of a galaxy of great scholars, whose deliberations evolved the motto: "In search of truth" - a motto that was prominently displayed in the court, in letters of gold. One fine morning, a young monk entered the court, and much to the surprise and amusement of the assembled cholars, suggested that the motto be changed to: "In search of Reality"."Truth need not be the same as reality. Truth is what you believe in, but reality is what is," declared the young monk to a shocked audience. To demonstrate his statement, on a full moon night, he had several barrels of oil placed in an open area so that the moon was clearly reflected on their The entire assembly found sense in his statements and power in his advocacy, and so the motto was modified to: "In search of reality". A few years later, however, the galaxy of scholars was in for another shock, when a different young monk, once again, demanded a change in the motto, saying that it should be: "In search of truth and reality". "My dears", he declared to his confused audience, "while truth may not be reality, it still has a place in the scheme of things. When you see the numerous reflections of the moon in the oil barrels, you cannot ignore their existence, though you concede the reality of one moon. Similarly you cannot ignore the varieties of furniture, with their different names, as long as they exist. All of you are in reality, men and women, but no one can ignore the fact that each one of you has an individual name. The sum total of truth may be called reality, but even reality can be broken down into individual truths." " Hence I suggest," he advised the now convinced assembly, "that the motto be redrafted to read: 'In search of truth and reality'." Everyone agreed, accepted the change and applauded... but this too was not to last for long.After a few more years, yet another young monk appeared on the horizon, to contest the current wording of the motto. "How can you say that a truth is truthful unless it is in some way related to reality?" he challenged the astonished scholars. "All the reflections, of the moon in the oil barrels, receive their source from one reality and they are connected to this. Without the moon there can be no reflections. Similarly, all wooden furniture is related to one source - the wood. All the scholars realized the truth in his statements and so it came to pass that the motto was changed once again as per this young monk's wishes. This story reveals the innate link between Indian tradition's three schools of thought - i.e. 'Advaitha' (non-duality), 'dvaitha' (duality) and 'Vishisthadvaitha' (duality reflecting non-duality). |
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Towards oneness… 
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