There is no freedom without discipline

 

People who are free regret that they do not have discipline. They keep promising that they will become disciplined. People who are disciplined look for the end; discipline is not an end in itself, it is a means. Look at people who have no discipline; they are miserable. 

Freedom without discipline is absolute misery. Discipline without freedom is suffocating. Orderliness is monotonous and chaos is stressful. We must make our discipline free and our freedom disciplined. 

People who have company all the time, look for the comforts of solitude. People who are in solitude feel so lonely and want company. People in a cold place want a warm place. People in a warm place love something cool. This is the dilemma of life: everyone is looking for perfect balance. Perfect balance is like a razor’s edge. It can only be found in the self. 

Initiation is called diksha. In Sanskrit “di” means intellect, “ksha” means the horizon or the end. Diksha means transcending the intellect. Education is called shiksha, the horizon of discipline – total discipline. Discipline is needed for education. Diksha is needed for meditation. 

A teacher gives shiksha. A guru gives diksha. A guru takes you beyond the intellect to the realm of Being. It is a journey from the head to the heart. 

Blossoming beyond the intellect is diksha. If you do not go beyond the intellect, you will not smile, you will not laugh. Once diksha happens, you are happy, blissful and contented and your thirst for knowledge is quenched. Totality of discipline is shiksha. Totality of intelligence is diksha.

Balancing the different colours of life

 

Life is utterly simple and yet most complex. You have to simultaneously attend to both facets of life. When life appears most complex, turn to simplicity. Simplicity brings peace. When you are peaceful attend to the complexity. That will make you more skillful. If you are only with simplicity, it makes you lazy and dull, growth is not there.

Being only with complexity makes you angry and frustrated, then there is no life at all. The intelligent ones skillfully balance these two and rejoice in both. When you recognize both the simplicity and the complexity of life, you will be skillfully peaceful. Colours are the complexity of life. White is the simplicity. When your heart is pure, your life becomes so colorful.

Hygiene supports health but too much hygiene destroys health. In too hygienic a situation, the immune system in the body becomes like lazy, unequipped soldiers. People who live in slums often don’t get sick because their immune system becomes like a well-trained soldier. Often people who are too fussy about hygiene have poor health. Sometimes unhygienic conditions create health. It keeps your immune system active, alive and strong, while knowledge keeps your mind fresh. 

Your life is a gift and you have come to unwrap the gift. In the process of unwrapping, remember to also save the wrapper. Your whole environment, situations, circumstances, body are the wrapping paper. 

When we unwrap, we often tear the wrapping paper. We are in such a hurry that at times we even destroy the gifts. With patience and endurance, open your gifts and save the wrappers. We play many roles in our lives. If all the roles get mixed up, it becomes dark, like when you mix all the colours. The wise play each role distinctively side by side, like the colours displayed side by side form a rainbow. 

Ways to be successful and stress free in the corporate world

 

As times are getting tougher in the corporate world, many are feeling the pinch. Stress impacts the way we think, feel and behave, thus affecting all aspects of our life. The consequences of letting stress rule are nothing short of disastrous and tragic. So how to be successful without paying the heavy price of a stressful life is what everyone is asking these days? I would say it’s rather easy and simple.

It’s like riding a bicycle

What is the secret to riding a bicycle? Balance! It’s about staying at the centre: not letting it fall to the right or left. When it’s falling on one side, you bring it to balance. When you go out of balance, you feel the pinch. Listen to that. Don’t just ignore it, acknowledge it and come to the centre. Whenever you go out of balance in any aspect of life, listen to your inner voice, and come to the centre.

Balance work and rejuvenation

First, balance your time between work and rejuvenation. Take care of your food, exercises and take time out for some meditation and relaxation.

Take interest in art

Second, take interest in some art form. In the corporate world, you are loaded with left-brain activities like logical thinking, planning, analysis, etc. So you need to balance the left-brain activity with the right-brain activity. Painting, music, poetry or any other kind of creative and recreational activities activate the right brain. When the two hemispheres of the brains are balanced, you can experience higher clarity, higher creativity, higher productivity, higher efficiency and higher relaxation.

Strike a work-life balance

Third, strike a work-life balance. Listen to your inner voice. If you have ignored your family, it pinches you. If you have ignored your social commitment, it pinches you. If you are ignoring your business, it pinches you. If you are ignoring your spiritual practices, it pinches you. So wherever anything pinches you, come back to the centre.

Do acts of service

Fourth, do some seva (acts of service). Be useful to people around you. It’s the best antidote to stress. You must contribute to society. When you do some act of service and kindness, it brings immediate feeling of inner rejuvenation.

The secret of true success is in balancing all aspects of life without being attached or averse to any of them.

Balancing personal life with professional life

Do you know how to ride a bicycle? How do you balance? Exactly!

Don’t neglect your profession and don’t neglect taking time for yourself. See, you say the world does not change. Have you noticed if you are changing or you are not changing? You are changing, right?


Just imagine the teachers who taught you the basic course. Suppose if they think,' In the world nobody is changing why should I teach?' If they had not taught anything to you, no pranayama, no meditation, no Sudarshan Kriya, what would have happened? Can you look back and see, before you took the basic course what was the state of your mind and where you are today? Do you notice that? How many of you find a change? See, so many of you changed because somebody did something, isn’t it? Someone took the time off for six days, two hours each day sat with you, took all your questions, taught you something, corrected you, so there is a shift.

Change is happening in the world constantly. If you become a catalyst to that, that’s your good luck because being a catalyst for change brings happiness within you.

Excelling in one's profession

To excel in your profession, balance your life. 

Meditate every day, sleep well, and in the morning do pranayama and meditation and go to work with a fresh mind. 

Don’t watch too many movies and not more than one hour of television per day. A movie a week should be enough. This is because when our mind is bombarded with so many impressions, it loses its creative abilities and becomes uncreative. 

Spend one hour with people. Spend time with somebody whom you do not know.

Art of Living teachers - exponents of love or advertising executives?

In the TRM (Teacher’s Refresher Meet) let the teachers sit and brainstorm and see what they can do. This is good; you need to balance, yes. You need to speak the language of the society at the same time the essence should not be lost, isn’t it!

You know what is very difficult? It is to put Art of Living in one category; very difficult. You know why? Because it is such a heterogeneous group, it is not a homogenous group. Not everybody is alike, not everybody is same. It is so heterogeneous that you find the most educated and the completely uneducated. You find the worst case and the best case also; you find people who have just come out of prison too. You find people of all strata here. 

People completely cuckoo will also be part of Art of Living. And if you see four or five of them who are cuckoo you can’t say, ‘Oh! Art of Living is all cuckoo.’ And you can’t say, ‘Art of Living is full of executive like people.’ No! Here we have the cuckoos as well as executives. An executive is also here.

We welcome everyone. And you know I am caught here because the first thing I said, ‘Accept people as they are’. And we have all sorts of specimens. Sometimes people ask me, where did you get this bunch of nuts? It's assorted nuts, we have all of them and we are tied up with them, and that’s it. We can’t do anything about it. Because I’m tied up with my own first course point, ‘accept people’, you know.

I’ve never preached anything that I’ve not practiced. This is a fundamental thing. One thing for sure is never say anything that is not in your experience or which you’ve not practiced, simple.

So you can never ever put Art of Living in one category. You can’t say Art of Living is all good people. No there are crooks also. And I tolerate them so that they can become better. If I also send the crooks away, where will they go and become better? I don’t see a better place. If I see a better place it would be a great relief for me. But so far I have not found any. If you find somewhere, someplace, tell me. I can pick them all and then show them the way there. So there are crooks. 

In the name of Art of Living there are people who try to be selfish and do things. But fortunately their numbers are insignificant, minimal. There are a few here and there that there is no doubt. So there are all types of people. So we must acknowledge that this is most heterogeneous group or place. So anyone holding any such concept in their mind, tell them you are mistaken. Saying, ‘Oh all are bad, you are mistaken in that’. It’s in your head. All are bad? Impossible!

Same with the society. Whatever is society is what we are. In society, it’s not that everyone is bad or everyone is good. There are all types of people out there, right? 

There is a proverb you must remember it’s a very nice proverb. When we were in school we learned it, even before we were teens we learned these things. ‘Adore the wicked first, and then thank the good man, for the wicked are teaching you at their own cost and the wise are only teaching you.’

So the wise that is teaching you is not teaching at his own cost, but the wicked is going down, falling into a pit and warning you, you better not fall. So you should first thank the wicked and then the wise. This was a couplet we used to learn in school. It is so, so good. 

It brings that acceptance inside you. It shields you from getting paranoid and angry. Do you see what I’m saying? Either you are paranoid about someone who is bad or you are angry. And then you become worse than someone who you think is no good. But when you know that they are teaching you some lesson, warning you what you should not do. It is such a shield, such a relief for your spirit to glow in its splendor. What do you think? It keeps the mind so clean.

The act of doing nothing is as important as the act of doing something

When you get too concerned, ‘oh I have to improve the world; that is not ok, this is not ok, that is not ok’, and then what is happening? Your mind gets too much caught up in that and you are losing your energy, your strength, your balance, everything. Then you are not going to make the world a better place. 

At that time you should remember, okay I will make seven million people good in the world now, but then what? After a hundred years there will be a different seven million people. You can’t correct them, you won’t be here. 

So when you are getting tired then you should know, well the Divine is taking care; I am not going to impact a change. Then you are able to be calm and strong.

So there are two attitudes, one is pravriti action, when you find this is not ok, this is not ok and that is not okay and then you act. And then nivriti action when you say everything is okay, everything takes its time, everything has its one role. Then it is nivriti, then you retire and when you retire, when you get into your being you get energy. Then you are able to meditate, you are able to tap into your source by doing nothing. So the act of doing nothing is as important as the act of doing something.

So these two attitudes you need to balance, everything okay and nothing is okay. Is it clear?

When you are in this world you have to do something, and you are given a job to improve this world that you have to do. But don’t think you are the person who is going to bring perfection and keep it forever, that is what I am saying. You cannot maintain perfection. You cannot keep this hall clear forever, but you have a duty to clean this now, correct?

So similarly we need to improve our world, definitely. It is our sacred job, but at the same time, suppose you are not there, somebody else will improve it. So don’t feel the burden on your head, ‘Oh! I have to improve it’, but at the same time be responsible, ‘Yes I need to improve it’. Do you get the balance? Is it clear now?

You are assigned a job to improve this world, definitely. At the same time, whoever has assigned, they know if you cannot do it, they will assign it to somebody else. That supreme power will know.

See, suppose you are a head of a team, you give the job to somebody and that somebody does half job and then they are so tired that they become sick, and then what do you do? You say, ‘No, you go rest. I will send someone else to do the job’. But as long as they did the job they had been very committed to it. 

In the same way you have been assigned a job, you have to do it. At the same time don’t feel that mental pressure because the boss is taking care of it, yes! As long as you know there is a boss and you are connected with the boss you feel you can tell that I can do this much and I cannot do this much. Not like the modern day bosses who don’t care for people working under them. 

What I am saying is the Divinity, the nature itself is your boss, the Divine is the boss and knows, okay, you can do this much, then do this much, otherwise rest. There is compassion, think of a compassionate boss who says, ‘Okay if it is difficult, never mind, don’t worry. Okay? Good!'

How does one find "balance"

You are balanced, take it from now, I am telling you are balanced and move with that. If you think you don’t have the balance, then you struggle more, got it?

Look back and see how much you have grown, there is so much balance that has come in your life, yes. Very good!

Okay now, people the way they are, we simply need to accept them. Some are incorrigible, some people you cannot correct them. Some come and some go and I give them a long rope; I give them enough chances to reform. If they don’t then it is their problem and why should we get upset over it.

Are you getting what I am saying? Yes? And so, from your side feel that inner freedom but don’t shut your door to anybody, keep interacting, what do you say?

Finding the right balance through meditation

Today scientists say, if you meditate even for eight weeks at least once a day, the grey matter in the brain increases and the structure of the brain changes. That's what I have been saying for the last 35-40 years. Today scientists have said the same thing, they have authenticated it in some way – that meditation does so much good to your nervous system and it does so much good to your brain. It creates a positive energy around you, it uplifts your spirit and alters your behavior pattern.

World Health Organization says that the biggest challenge that mankind is facing today is depression, and by the year 2020 depression is going to be much more prevalent. If half the population are on anti-depressants, then that is going to be terrible. Even anti-depressants work for some time and then they stop working. So, we need to bring a lifestyle change in people by making them understand how they can handle their own mind, their energy and their vibrations.

We live in era of quantum physics and today quantum physics says this is all about vibration. The whole world is nothing but vibrations, and this is what spirituality also says – it's all vibration. So, we need to teach people how they can shake off all the stress that accumulates on a day-to-day basis.

30 years ago, when I would talk about yoga or meditation, people would say, “Wow, that's not the normal thing to do. Someone who is crazy would go for all this”. That was the paradigm, that was the assumption people had. Today it has changed. Today, big companies, like Daimler Chrysler Benz, show someone in a meditative pose to depict happiness in their advertising. Relaxation and happiness has become synonymous to meditation. I feel there's a big change in the mindset of the people.

10 Qualities Of An Effective Leader

A good leader is truthful, equanimous, transparent, farsighted and has a pleasant personality. He or she has a mission, a vision, a spirit of sacrifice, compassion and commitment.

Leadership is a manifestation of strong love and compassion for people. It represents a commitment to principles. In that sense, a certain degree of leadership is dormant in every individual. The challenge comes when one has to nurture it. Here are ten leadership qualities the make leaders effective:

1. A true leader—whether political, religious or social—has many challenges to face. The capacity to express one’s commitment varies from individual to individual. It is often clogged by one’s likes and dislikes. Yet, a leader has to view everyone with the same outlook, appraise everyone with the same yardstick. He has to find discrimination as well as the much-needed wisdom to act at the right time.

2. The society we live in and the groups we represents are not homogeneous and one cannot satisfy everybody. Yet, a leader has to carry everyone along and do justice to everybody.

3. A leader has to withstand criticism and not react emotionally to situations. Often leaders are surrounded by sycophants who try to boost their egos for their own personal agenda. A leader does need hands and feet and has to depend on people around him. At the same time, he should not find himself in a position where he gets confined in a fortress of his close aides or becomes a captive of his admirers.

4. One of the most desired qualities of a true leader is the courage to stretch his hands toward his critics and have the patience to listen to them. A true leader takes failures with as much equanimity as he would successes that come to his doorstep. These days leaders are defensive all the time, explaining their shortcomings or justifying their wrong actions. A true leader will neither complain nor explain, and is open to learning all the time. Admitting a past mistake and creating space for others with completely diverse viewpoints can make a leader more acceptable, universal. A leader does not pass the buck.

5. A true leader balances ideology and practicality, long-term goals with short-term needs. Those who stick only to idealism cannot become leaders and those who think they are very practical and without any ideology also bite the dust.

6. A leader cannot be either generic or specific. He has to strike the balance between personal attention to people and the generic vision for the group, community or country he leads.

7. A leader should have the courage to accept his weak moments. He should understand that people are magnanimous. They would appreciate his straightforwardness and accept his shortcomings rather than him trying to hide them.

8. Some leaders are too diplomatic while others are too straightforward in their approach. While people do not trust those, who are very diplomatic, they do not want anything to do with those who are very blunt and justify their rudeness in the garb of straightforwardness. People who are very straightforward and blunt in their approach often don’t find followers. It is like tuning a guitar. If the strings are stretched too tight you cannot play it, and if the strings are too lose you cannot create music either. A leader has to strike the balance between diplomacy and straightforwardness.

9. While self-righteous people create distaste in others, those who take credit for every good action are equally distanced. A leader should acknowledge others’ contributions and at the same time see that these contributions don’t get to their heads.

10. A leader can create a mob but he should know that a mob is short lived. A shortsighted leader creates a mob; a leader with wisdom creates a movement. Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and Martin Luther King, Jr. are examples of inspirational leaders who created movements.

All this may sound utopian, but in reality, if you look keenly into the lives of the most successful leaders, you will find all these qualities naturally manifest at some time or the other. You don’t have to do much to inculcate these leadership qualities; just their awareness is good enough to make a good leader.

Simple or Complex?

Life is utterly simple and yet most complex. You have to simultaneously attend to both facets of life. When life appears most complex, turn to the simplicity. Simplicity brings peace. When you are peaceful, attend to the complexity within you. That will make you more skilful. If you are only with simplicity, it makes you lazy and dull. Being only with complexity makes you angry and frustrated. The intelligent ones balance them and rejoice in both. If you look only to simplicity, growth is not there. Looking only at the complexity, there is no life at all. All that you need is a skilful balance. If you recognize both simplicity and complexity of life, you will be skilfully peaceful! Colors are the complexity of life. White is the simplicity. When your heart is pure, your life becomes so colorful.

Ways to overcome bad Habits

Bangalore ashram,  10th Jan 2011


Q : ‘What you resist persists’- this knowledge point continues to puzzle me. Specifically, I wonder, should the smokers surrender to the next cigarette? Should the sick person surrender to the uncontrolled coughing and the tempted one surrender to the temptations?  How can I better understand the certainty of this? Can you please explain this unique knowledge?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: If you resist to smoke a cigarette, it persists and how to get over it, is that what you are asking? Well, you realize that the joy of smoking is not so much than the joy of not smoking- when you find that beyond smoking is a greater joy.
See what does the mind do? It just wants to go where we get some pleasure and joy. In search of pleasure it is trying to find where it is not there and so it gets addicted to certain habits. Habits don’t give you any pleasure but give only pain. As soon as the mind realizes this, it is very easy for it to get over any habit.
So there are three things to get over any habit –
Your intellect warns you that the habits are not good for you but the temptation of wanting is there in the mind. So which should win, your intellect or your mind or emotions? When you get more love and joy without habits, then the habits fall off. That’s what happens when people do sudarshan kriya and get so much more happiness. The urge of smoking or any other bad habit drops off with kriya, meditation.
Second thing that will help is,  greed. If some one tells you- if you don’t smoke for three months, you will win  a lottery, then the mind says- I don’t want to touch a cigarette for I don’t want to lose the lottery. So the greed works.
Third thing that will help you to overcome the habit is fear. If you are told that if you keep on drinking then it will give liver problem and you won’t survive, then the fear of getting some disease or getting into some trouble would shake you and will get you over the temptation of small pleasures.
Many people, who used to be promiscuous, stopped  being that when they heard about the disease AIDS. The fear of getting AIDS kept them more faithful to their spouses.
So love, greed and fear are the three things that would help you to resist those things which gives temptation and tempt you more.

Q:  In Yoga Vashishtha, Ma Saraswati takes Ram to different planes of existence and he shows leelas by living different lives simultaneously. And in each life leela is not aware of the other leelas. 
I was just wondering , are we also existing on different levels of existence, that we are unaware of, something similar to that?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Ya, ya! Definitely, there are so many layers of our consciousness- it is so amazing! There is a dream stage and different levels in the dream stage. And there are different layers in the  reality stage, right here! But it is better that you don’t get introduced to all the levels unless and until your spirit becomes very strong. This is very important.
That’s what happens to people, who are mentally imbalanced, that they get the taste of other dimensions as well as this present dimension. They lose the interest in this dimension and think the other dimensions are more charming. There used to be an elderly lady here from Turkey and she would suddenly see things. She was under medication at that time but refused the medication because it made her feel very dull. Without medication she would hallucinate and have all these ideas like the truck  pulling with her energy. She felt she was so powerful that she could do anything. All such things, no doubt, as  the consciousness of levels are  very powerful but one loses the touch with the present reality. So that lady would say- I feel so dull here, every thing is so boring, the other world is so fantastic! But when she started living in the other world, people in this plane had difficulty to deal with her!
So. Unless and until you are so centered, your mind gets established,  knowing the realms of reality is not warranted. That’s why Sararswati, the goddess of knowledge takes him by hand. Saraswati is the wisdom consciousness, it does not lose any levels of consciousness and keeps the demarcation very clear. People who are bipolar have this trouble, they suddenly see somebody or some vision and start talking, it appears so real to them. They see someone there in front of them and keep talking to them, but  from your side you see nobody.  These are the different planes of existence. So unless and until the consciousness gets well founded in wisdom, to distinguish between one layer of reality with other layers-this knowledge does not dawn at all.


© The Art of Living Foundation

The best thing in life is to have a balance between emotions and intellect

Q: How to have celebration when I feel tired with service?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: That means you have not completed your service. And when service is done with the spirit of celebration, then it does not tire you or wear you off. See you have been so enthusiastic for two –three days, but I don’t see any of you tired. You gain so much silence with meditation, and you should take care of that. There should be moderation in activity, moderation in talk, moderation in everything. Do not over do in anything.

Q: Guruji, we get plenty in life yet a feeling of dissatisfaction remains with unfulfilled desires, which really give pain sometimes. How to deal with them?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You have done the basic course. What did you learn in the basic course - There is failure sometimes and there is success sometimes in life, and you have to accept both. You can never be satisfied with a failure, it will give pain only. Then what to do at that time? There are two methods for that-‘so what?’ and ‘so hum’! So you have these keys to handle the situation!

Q: Guruji, I was doing service today and I must admit that I did service only to draw your attention.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Never mind! You know, don’t feel guilty that you did service to get attention. At least you did service!  And as you will move on, you will improve. Many times people also ask questions just to draw attention, I know that! But don’t make the habit to have just attention, do both.

Q: We have heard you saying that plenty of blessings are being given here, but how much amount we can receive depends totally on the capacity of our container. So, is there a way to increase the capacity or size of our container to have more?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: yoga increases your capacity, your skills. Yoga, Pranayama, Dhyan- all the things which you are doing here increase your capacity and your qualities. Service does that too.

Q: How should the breath be –long deep one or restful slow ones?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You should take long as well as restful breaths sometimes. When you take long and deep ones, it gives you prana, and slow and restful ones will give you rest and meditation.

Q: In the modern world today, many suffer from diabetes which cannot be cured fully with allopathic medicines. Can it be cured by yoga?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Some types of diabetes can be cured with the combination of yoga and ayurveda , but they may not work in certain type of diabetes.  Here at the Research Center, some research has been conducted by Dr Vedamurthacharya who has published 43 papers on it. You can talk to him. He has tested on over 1000 diabetic people, who after doing sudarshan kriya and following proper diet have overcome diabetes.

Q: I have to struggle all the time for every work, and I don’t get the satisfactory results either. What should I do?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Why do you have to put these ideas in your mind- ‘I have to struggle for everything, and I don’t get satisfactory results’?  You only put this sort of affirmation on yourself –got it? It may be like that at sometime in the past, but it may not be like that in the future.

Q: What should I do to increase concentration?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Do more advance courses.

Q: What should I do so that I get enlightenment? I want enlightenment, I want to see God.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You want enlightenment? You want to see God? Do service and just relax!

Q: I do sadhna every day, but I want to be with you all the time and if I see other people talking to you, I keep hallucinating that you speaking to me only. Sometimes I feel any gesture of yours works and I feel alright, but today while meeting our entire group, you didn’t even see or look at me. So, I don’t know if that is obsession and how do I get over it?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: See, the moment you knew it was obsession, you already got over it. OK? So, it is OK to draw attention for a while but you don’t have to draw attention all the time. You be happy, be centered, keep doing service, sadhna, satsang. Don’t sit and do analysis –“Was it devotion or was it hallucination?”- Analysis makes it even worse.  Just be natural, move on, and take it as it comes-OK? Got it? See, we always get what we need. This basic principal we must keep in mind and keep moving.

Q: For doing any work, I think Guruji is asking me to do it. It works, but it has hampered my normal living.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You should have a balance - what your inner voice says, what your gut feeling is, and then use your inner strength rest of the time. The one hampering you-that’s called ‘yoga maya’. Sometimes ‘yoga maya’ comes in mind and says things which are not correct also. That’s why we shouldn’t lose our intellectual discrimination ability while ordering and understanding to inner dimensional consciousness. This state happened to Sri Ramkrishna Paramhansa also, and to many enlightened people in the world that the inner vision comes, a voice comes. So, go with a balance. Go slow with both intellect and feelings. Got it? Your feelings are as important as your intellect. Many people survive only on intellect and some survive only on feelings. The best thing in life is to have a balance between emotions and intellect, between heart and the mind.

Q: Guruji, in Geeta what does Lord Krishna mean by the world as play of gunas?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: If we start about Geeta, it will take a long time. So, not now. You read again. Sometimes you read and immediately understand it, and sometimes you read hundred times and then understand the same thing.

Q : Sometimes I feel good and sometimes bad. How to balance?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Keep silence for a few days and then essential right things will come out.

Q: I have been doing sudarshan kriya for last 6 years and living totally a new life in terms of getting over negative emotions etc. But I have a small problem of forgetting things; my memory is not as sharp now as it used to be. How to get on with this problem or I should leave it?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You should take ayurvedic medicines- brahmi, and shankhpushpi etc. as per  your age. And the food habits that we have in our country is not good for memory power because we eat so much starch, so much of carbohydrate and so little vegetables. So, change your diet. Have more intake of proteins, vegetables and fruits, and some ayurvedic supplements like brahmi etc. This, along with your pranayama and yoga will improve memory.

Q: You say, choice is ours and blessings are yours. For two-three years, I have not been able to decide my career. I take up jobs and then leave. Can you choose one for me?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Any career you choose, after sometime you may feel oh, this is not the right one. People who have become doctors say, ‘we should have become engineers’, those who are engineers may feel they should have been lawyers and make easy money! So every profession has its dark side. That’s why I say you move on in any profession of your choice and do it. And I chose one career for you? No way! I refuse to. You chose the profession; I give the blessing. My blessings are there.

Q: Guruji, what is Time and can we modify time and its speed?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Time is distance between two events or happenings. It appears longer in sad moods and shorter in happy moods, and its speed can be modified by silence.

Q: In your discourse on Narada Bhakti Sutra, you say everything is illusion. Then if everything is illusion, does that mean there is no need to do anything?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: First you hear the full talk. Making concepts after hearing half or one tape is not advisable.

Q: Whenever I meet you, I don’t feel satisfied. I feel you give more time to others than me. Today also in darshan line, you never looked at me and moved ahead. And whenever I get a chance to talk to you, I just don’t know what to talk! Then I think, “Oh! I forgot to ask this, forgot to tell this”. The analysis starts in my mind. What to do?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: How can I not see you? I leave none unseen, I see each and every one-all who come to visit me in the darshan line. And you forget to ask or tell anything on meeting me, that’s OK. You have told it now, got your chance, yes?

Q: We heard that Abhimanyu learnt one of the difficult and tactful war act called ‘chakravyuh’ while he was in his mother’s womb. So, is it possible to learn something while in womb also?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yes, it is true.

“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

‘Those who are not even bothered about moksha attain Divine love’

What Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: said today:
Bangalore ashram, Feb. 24:

Q: What is your wish regarding Sanskrit language?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:: I see beyond languages. Language, of course has its place but I am more concerned about the consciousness and the state of mind. How can we raise the level of consciousness in the world? Of course, Sanskrit is a great and a beautiful language. It is mother of many languages. Russian, German, English and other Indian languages, all have their roots in Sanskrit.

Q: In Patanjali yogasutra you said ‘Knowledge of sleep leads to Samadhi. Please explain.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:: Yes, Samadhi can also be attained with the avlamban (need) of knowledge of sleep and dream.

Q: How can we know if our devotion has fully matured or not?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:: Don’t worry about if your devotion is matured or not. Know that devotion is there. Never think that you don’t have devotion or you lack devotion.

Q: How does one balance between our heart and the brain when both say opposite things?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:: If you are dealing in business, then follow your brain. And if it comes to home or relationship, then follow your heart.

Q: Good and bad thoughts come and go in the mind. Do these form karma?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:: No, when you are a witness (sakshi) to the thoughts coming and going, no karma is formed. When you feel sad thinking that your thought is bad, it is then when your mind gets affected.

Q: Please talk about karma and karamfal (fruit of action).

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:: You have asked this question – this is a karma. You are listening to my answer is also Karma. Life is karamfal only.

Q: Guruji please tell us something about Vedic mathematics?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:: We have Vedic mathematics department in the Ashram with several Vedic mathematics teachers in the department. There are some 16 – 17 formulas using which many mathematical problems can be solved. All lovers of mathematics should study that.

Q: What has more importance: moksha or Divine love in spirituality?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:: Those who don’t bother about happiness achieve moksha and those who are not even bothered about moksha attain Divine love. We will have to move ahead in two steps.

Q: Why is not every human being pure?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:: Every human is pure but filled with dirt. Every human being is like a diamond. The fact that the diamond is in mud, does not make it mud. You simply have to pick it up and wash it. And it shines again. The shiny nature of diamond is always there but covered with mud and slush.

Q: How does one balance between professional life and spiritual life?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:: You know how to ride bicycle or motor bike? How do you balance? You just do it.

“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

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

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 Shankar said, ‘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 wonders Q: 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 to society? Now I am working with the Divine Karnataka Project, presently, in the Sheshadripuram 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 those slums. 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 on alcohol. 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 the audience) So, you feel change after doing all this. All DKP yuvacharyas (youth leaders) 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 have experienced in the last three months, I didn’t experience in the last 26 years of my life. I am very thankful to you.”

“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

"Wherever there is duality(Dvet), there will be a dilemma "

What H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar said today:

India (Art of Living International Center, Bangalore), July 30

Q. I am not in control of my mind. I am afraid becoming a teacher is taking me away from naturalness, humbleness. What should I do?

H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: That is a prayer more than a question. Prayers will always be answered but not in words.

Q. Despite awareness I am not being able to do whats right because I lack will power. What must I do?

H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar : If you think I have no will power, you will never have it. You have locked your own hands, put a label on your forehead that you are weak.

Invoke the valour in you, take a pledge. You have all the force available for you when you need it. You have all the strength and energy.

If someone were to tell you that if you do pranayama for thirty days you would get one million dollars. You will not miss a single day. You may forego sleep, food but not the pranayama. Greed can bring in that power within. Similarly fear- if someone says you would fall sick if you don't do pranayama, you would not miss it.

Love, fear, greed- any one is good to increase will power.

To know intellectually what is good and should be done, you may take it easily and remain in your comfort zone.

Then will power goes down. So enhance your valour or love something with all your heart. Dedication to the cause, fear or greed- these can increase your will power.

Egoistic people are much better than other people because egoistic people have a sense of valour. It is easy to make them commit, get out of lethargy.

People with no ego have lot of love, surrender, its easy for them. Someone who has neither ego, nor valour, nor love, nor devotion, nor greed has no will power. Either become greedy or fearful. But these are very low category. Other one is enhance the love, surrender, true knowledge and enhance your valour.

Q. What is it about praise that even if it is false it makes us elated and happy and criticism even if real, pulls us down? Is it vanity?

H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: This much realisation, you are already out of it!

Q When I get angry, I feel lot of energy and burnt inside. If I let it out I loose complete balance. What can I do?

H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar : Do bhastrika that time.

Q. When I am in silence or otherwise, a voice in my head keeps talking. The more I ignore it, the more it stays. Is it a normal phenomena?

H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Talk to your teacher and ayurveda doctor. If too much words going in the head, there is pitta imbalance, vata derangement. When there is too much impurity in the system then such things happen. You can go for panchkarma

Q. What is character?

H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar : Character is that which you expect from others - faithful, loyal, integrated. Do you want others to keep their word? How do you feel if they don't? Character is that, 'do not do unto others what you would not want others to do unto you'. Character is that which is solid, strong, stable and makes you and other happy.

Q. I have feelings of absolute isolation and find myself alone among friends. There is no feeling of belongingness.

H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar : Do not sit and worry about feelings. They keep changing. Who cares? Why bother? One minute you feel very good, the other moment you feel bad. Put your life energy into some useful, social work, commitment, some direction. Bring some result in the world. You may suddenly feel good, suddenly very bad. The world doesn't care for your feelings nor does God. The Nature, world will ask you what have you done?

Q. There are problems in my life, to which I know the solution. How to apply that knowledge with a smile?

H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar : Keep immersing in knowledge, you don't have to apply it, it applies itself. Remind yourself of the knowledge. Focus on the knowlede, don't get entangled in the people around you. Satsang is to be in touch with the inner being. Instead you start judging, having different types of interaction with people, this is not satsang.

Q. Why are there so many hurdles at every stage on the spiritual path.

H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:  No, No. No its not hurdles, it is making your path more interesting. Its like flowing water, little pebbles create beautiful sound and sight, making it all the more beautiful. There are no obstacles in this path, just a fun in the path. Move over it, don't get stuck.

Q. What is the difference between knowledge and love? Should I be a Gyani( Wise) or Premi(Lover)

H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: What is the difference between head and the heart? Should a person be heady or hearty? Do you watch television or listen to it first. Mind and heart both together make a human being. Mind looks for new, fresh and latest. Heart wants old- Preet Puraani (Ancient love). Life is a combination of the two. Science and knowledge, love and devotion- all are required. And you have all of these. Now you are asking as a jigyasu(curious for knowledge). You have love that is why you are accepting the answer. If there was no love for knowledge you wouldn't ask or won't accept the answer. These are like four legs of a chair- pull one and all three come along. Similary, Yog, Karma, Gyan, Bhakti, Dhyan - all are legs of a table.

When Arjuna was confused, he asked Krishna “sometimes you praise the path of Karma, sometimes gyan, sometimes bhakti- tell me one I am confused.” Krishna says those who are unwise think of the paths as different, the wise know it is One. Just practice one, others come along. If you do seva(service) very well, you get the same merit as from dhyaan(meditation) or gyaan(knowledge)

Q. How can one balance between, household duties, business and seva(service)

H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar : How do you balance a bike? When you fall more to the left you bend right and when you are falling more to the right, you bend left.There is no theory, you just do it. It automatically balances. It pinches one if he doesn't do seva at all and is always bothered about himself. If you are in your senses it will pinch you otherwise one is not human. If you are not touched by others' misery then you are not human but stone. Similarly, if one is only into social service, then also it bothers.

Q. It is said that everyone's future is already decided. It is planned by the Divine. If this is true, then what is the need of Karma(action)

H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar : Everything is happening, your karma too is happening, what is the need of an answer. Suppose I don't give an answer. When you are hungry, what is the need of Karma, sit, let it happen. Everyday hunger comes up , so whats the point! Sit quietly. Can you? This is useless brooding. Man cannot live without work- either a good deed or misdeed. If God doesit, then God is suffering, where do you come in between?

If God made you steal, then God came as police - what is the complaint? God told you to eat twenty rasgulla(a sweet), then God will have the pain and God will come as doctor.

Where are you different from God. The understanding that everything is God's is a very big thing. Then the mind silences and such nonsense questions don't arise. Till then, they will arise.

Q. Guruji, you said tear is ego. In front of you- uncontrollable tears come up. What to do?

H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar : No, No, this is different tears. There are many types of tears- like crocodile, then salty, sweet ones are of gratitude, love. Angels long for it. It is very good- the mind is healed and purified.

Q There are dilemmas in life and I lack decision making power. What should be done?

H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar : Wherever there is duality(Dvet), there will be a dilemma . Whenever you are in daily activities(vyavahar), there will be dilemma. There is no choice, accept it.

Q. Can the liver, eyes be donated after death?

H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar : Yes, you can donate them, there is no sin in this, neither will you face any problem in heaven. Instead it will increase you prospects in heaven. You can definitely donate them.

© The Art of Living Foundation

What Sri Sri said today

Q: While doing seva, sometimes I get attached to name and fame. What should I do?

H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: When you are centered, established in the knowledge, when you meditate, this situation does not arise. When your attachment shifts from the work at hand to name and fame, it is time to go within.

Be ready to face any challenges that society throws at you. It is said that gold shines more brilliantly, the more it is beaten. When you squeeze sugarcane, it gives you sweetness. Sandalwood, when ground, gives fragrance. Stay in your nature even while under pressure. Every situation that comes to us is for our upliftment.

Q: How to develop mastery over hunger and sleep?

H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Rise above them naturally; not by force. Hunger and sleep are the dharma of the body. Don’t enforce limitations upon yourself. Integrate knowledge into your life. Study the Bhagvad Gita.

Q: What is the difference between the Spiritual Master and the Divine?

H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: There is no difference between the Master, the Self and the Divine. The Master can be seen, that is all. The Master is not the individual, He is the light, the consciousness.

Q: What is the importance of a name?

H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Well, you need something by which people can call you! One name is the name our parents gave to us at the time of birth. We are deeply connected to this name. To be completely free, the last attachment that we let go is that of our name. Connect and attach yourself to the name (the mantra that you receive from the Master). The mantra establishes you in the witness consciousness. Of the mantras, the highest is the 'ajapa jap', the mantra which resonates effortlessly and spontaneously in our consciousness. It is not a doing but a happening. That is So Ham. It resonates eternally. When we experience this with awareness, it becomes meditation.

(From the Office of His Holiness Sri Sri Ravishankar)