Realise that we are here to give and not to take

At a deeper level, we come to realize that while we may feel we have nothing material to give, we are here to offer ourselves – our presence, our love, our service. There’s nothing we’re meant to take from this world. 

This shift marks the turning point from a material to a spiritual life. Realizing you are here to give, and not to take, uplifts the spirit.

Recognizing your own limitations makes you humble, while knowing your purpose (to give selflessly), lifts your spirit. This eventually leads to a stillness where duality dissolves, and only oneness remains. And this oneness transcends time. 

Much of our restlessness stems from being bound by time. We want everything immediately. But why must it happen on our timeline? Let life unfold at its own pace. Shifting your vision by seeing beyond the limits of time brings peace, stillness, and fulfillment. This is the wisdom passed down through generations. But in truth, it is all one. 

The rishis, the sages from ancient times, are not just figures of the past. Their presence is timeless and always accessible. The Guru is ever-present. All the rishis have affirmed this.

On the surface, you may see different personalities and qualities. But within, it’s the same light and spirit shining through the ages. Realizing you are a part of that eternal light is a celebration in itself.

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.

Life is a combination of happiness and pain

Once a gentleman came to a doctor complaining that there was something severely wrong with him. He was hurting all over and was very sad but all the tests came out normal. The doctor said, “There is nothing wrong with you. Go to the circus and watch the clown there. He will make you laugh.” The gentleman said, “Doctor, I am that clown!”

It is one thing to entertain others and be humorous, but quite another to be happy yourself. Happiness does not come by a talent or skills that you develop. Unless you realise who you are, what the nature of consciousness is through your own introspection, happiness remains a far-fetched non-reality. The spirit of self-enquiry in the true sense which leads to meditation is absolutely essential in this quest for happiness.

The 6th century Indian philosopher and thinker Adi Shankaracharya has said that it is dispassion towards the ephemeral and connection with the eternal that brings true joy. In fact, he goes further and asks, “What joy does detachment not bring?”

The word for solitude in Sanskrit is ekant, meaning ‘the end of loneliness’. Loneliness cannot end by changing company, even if it is more sympathetic and understanding. It can only end when you discover your real nature for yourself.

A famous American comedian and actor, who committed suicide in 2014, though he made millions of people laugh, could not end the deep seated loneliness inside him. Only spiritual solace can take one out of despair and misery. Wealth, admiration and external validation and adulation are not helpful in dealing with inner discontent. While alive, he made people laugh and in his death, he gave people a message to lift their eyes above the mundane towards something higher.

You can bid goodbye to misery by connecting with an altogether different dimension, that I would say is solidified silence, a bolt of bliss and a glimpse of eternity, which is in you as you. You simply have to tap into it.

There is little use in having a machine which you cannot operate without a manual. Spiritual knowledge is like the manual for life. Just like to drive a car, we have to learn how to operate the steering wheel, the clutch, the brake and so on, to move towards stability of the mind, we must know the basic principles about our life force energy.

This is the whole science of pranayama. When our prana or life force keeps fluctuating, our mind also goes up and down through the roller coaster of emotions. One cannot handle the mind from the level of the mind. It is for this reason that although counselling or psychiatry seems to help in the beginning, it is not able to provide a complete cure in the longer term.

Just forcing positive thoughts on oneself is not enough and more often than not leads to a relapse. Medication like anti-depressants also seem to help only in the beginning and eventually make the person dependent on them rather than free him/her from the tendency.

This is where knowing the secret of breath can really transform lives. Breathing techniques like Sudarshan Kriya stabilise our life force and consequently the mind. The inner dimension unveiled by the practise of meditation deeply enriches us and its impact slowly spills over to all aspects of life.

As prana rises in the body, one starts to feel a transformation as direct experience and not as a forced mental exercise. One starts becoming happier, creative and more in command of their mind and emotions.

Another thing that can be really helpful in coming out of depression is developing an attitude of service. Thinking ‘what can I do for society’, getting involved in a bigger cause, shifts the whole focus of life and can take one out of the rut of ‘what about me’. Societies where values of service, sacrifice and community participation are ingrained do not have these issues of depression and suicides. The Sikh community is a great example of this.

Life is a combination of happiness and pain. Pain is inevitable but suffering remains optional. Having a broad perspective on life gives you the strength to move forward through painful times. Know that you are very much needed in this world. With all its infinite possibilities, this life is a gift for it can become a fountain of joy and happiness not just for oneself but for many others as well.

In the past lots of people have done seva but the world has not changed. Why should I waste time doing seva?

Neva (service) is something that is needed by other people. 

Suppose you are carrying a weight, heavy luggage, and you cannot carry anymore, then you look here and there, you want someone to help you, don’t you? See, we are all interdependent. Everybody needs some help from somebody and doing that help without expecting anything in return is siva.

Without seva nothing can happen on this planet, isn’t it? By seva, don’t think you are changing the world. Seva you do, because you can’t but do it. It’s in your nature. If you are good, if you are loving, if you are happy, you can’t but do seva. And when you are unhappy, if you do seva, you become happy.

What is the best seva one can do?

Any seva (service) is the best seva if it is done with 100% attention. Seva is doing what is needed to be done at that moment. 

Right now somebody is in dire need of a glass of water. You may say giving a glass of water is not a big seva, instead let me build a house for them. Right now he is dying out of thirst; he needs a glass of water. That is the best seva you can do.

The story of Shabari and the many paths to the Lord

Shabari, an elderly tribal woman and ascetic, did not perform yagnas or read the Vedas. Yet she found her way to the Lord. How? Through love and devotion. She had one-pointed devotion for the Lord. A feeling of belongingness, intimacy and love with the Lord; all of this!

That is why in India there are so many of these stories. There is not just one path but there are many ways and many paths. Many paths means through knowledge or through service or through love (devotion). These three paths are there. You can go in all the three paths and arrive at the same place.

This is what people sometimes don’t understand. Especially in the West, this is a concept which is new, this essence is not there.

Once a top leader from Iran came here who was Ayatollah Khomeini’s right hand man. This was about fifteen to twenty years ago when I was in the old kutir. This man is a great Islamic scholar who is very well known. He was around 83 or 84 years old.

See the seeking in that gentleman; he came all the way from Tehran. Somebody had told him there is a saint here and so had come in search of knowledge. When he came he asked me, ‘Please tell me, if truth is one, there can be only one way to that truth, how can there be many ways? So if there is only one way to truth, then all other ways have to be false.’ This is what his contention was. 

He said, ‘I have studied from my childhood that this is the truth, then how can everything else be truth? There can only be one right answer to a question, one right path. So there can be only one way to God. What is the correct way?’

I just smiled at him and told him, ‘Okay, you came here from north. So someone gave you directions.’ In those days there was no bus here and the Kanakpura road was almost empty. There was nothing. 

So I asked, ‘What directions did they give you?’ and he said, ‘There is one Banashankari, and from Banashankari they told me to go straight and turn right.’ 

I said, ‘Yes, this is the correct path. Go straight and turn to the right. This is the correct direction. But suppose if you are coming from Kanakpura, the direction to this same place would be to go straight and turn left. Do you think this is wrong?’ He remained silent. 

I said, ‘to go to Tehran from India, I would say go north-west and this is correct. But from Germany I would tell you to go south-west. This is completely opposite but it is also correct. And from Pakistan I would tell you to go west and that is also correct. So, all these instructions are correct or are they wrong?’

He said, ‘They are correct. Though truth is one there are many paths and all the paths are correct.’ He said, ‘Salaam! You opened my eyes. This is what I wanted. Today I feel I am born again.’

For a seeker when the question becomes so deep, he goes around looking for an answer. So though truth is one, the paths are many. 

This is the specialty in India. Kabir went through knowledge and meditation, Shabari only through love and longing. There was so much longing in Shabari, there was a yearning in her to meet her Lord. That yearning leads you to the Lord. 

Meera reached through singing. Shabari never used to even sing. There was only the yearning in her heart.

A knowledgeable person can also reach and so can a karma yogi. All these different paths lead to the same truth and all these paths are correct.

Now if you ask me, then I would tell you that if you choose one, the rest will come along. That is the specialty of the Art of Living, where everything is there together; feelings, devotion, knowledge, play and a little bit of mischief as well!

Alone, yet not lonely

If you think nobody loves you, know for sure that you are loved. The earth loves you; that’s why it is holding you upright. The love of the earth is its gravitational force. The air loves you; that’s why it moves through your lungs even when you are sleeping. The Divine loves you very dearly, deeply. Once you realize this, you will never feel lonely. 

Someone's company cannot fill your loneliness. Even if it does, it is very short-lived. You can still feel lonely in spite of being in company. In a real sense, loneliness can only be filled by being alone. If you could be comfortable being alone for some time, then you will not feel lonely. When you don't feel lonely, you can spread joy to people around you.

If you enjoy being with your Self, you will not be a boring personality. If you are lonely, then you can be boring to others. And that will make you more lonely! And if your own company bores you, how much more boring must you be to someone else?

Those who are in company all the time look for the comforts of solitude and those who are in solitude feel lonely and want to be in company. Everyone is looking for a perfect balance. That perfect balance is like a razor’s edge and can only be found in the Self. If you take out some time, say one week in a year, to be with yourself and observe our own thoughts and emotions, then you will get a sense of what quietness means.

From time to time, keep a little distance from whomsoever close to you and take some time off for your own space. From the moment you wake up in the morning, you are always with people and your mind is caught up in worldly thoughts. So sometime during the day, sit for a few minutes and get into the cave of your heart. Then you will not feel lonely even when you are alone.

Live your life well. If you are useful to people all your life, there will be hundreds and millions of people to take care of you. Mother Teresa and Acharya Vinoba Bhave, for example, were sick in bed for a long time. Do you think there was nobody to give them company? There were hundreds waiting to take care of them and all they did was to be useful to people around them.

When you make service your sole purpose in life, it eliminates fear, brings focus in your mind, purposefulness in action, and long-term joy. Every time you are unhappy or miserable or lonely, you are just coming in touch with your own boundaries.

It is limitation and boundary that is the real cause of your disturbance. You are peaceful and happy until you come in contact with your boundaries. The moment you come in contact with it, then the mind goes on a trip and you move out of your centre. At that moment what can you do? You can just be grateful and pray for peace. That very moment, you will start smiling and however hopeless the situation is, you will walk through it.

Learn and unlearn from the past and move on with creative zeal and enthusiasm. The trying time brings out the best out of you. The rewarding time gives the best of the world to you. Life is a combination of both.

Why are we here?

First, (we are here) to ask this question, and second, to find an answer to it! Many live their whole life without even asking the question, ‘Why am I here?’

Wake up, ask this question, and pursue to get an answer. Do not be in a hurry for the answer. The answer falls into your lap at the right time, so keep asking. 

No books will answer this question, because this is the question of ‘life’. Your life itself is an answer. 

Every day, if you ask, ‘Why am I here?’ then all the unnecessary things fall off, and the right things come up. However, before asking the question (why am I here), ask, ‘What can I do for this world, before I exit? Anyway, I am here!’ 

This may be a better question to soothe you in those moments when you feel nothing is enjoyable, or everything is meaningless. 

When you feel sad, depressed, suicidal or unhappy, at that moment you should say, ‘Let me stop thinking about myself. Let me see what I can do here. Anyway, one day I must go. Before I go, let me do something good here. Where am I needed? Who needs me? Where can I help out?’

These questions can bring some intermittent relief in between. 

So do some service (seva). When you do some seva, you make others happy, that vibration of bringing comfort to others souls will bring you merit that will help you realize who you really are.

You don’t have to be rich to feel the abundance.

What are you struggling for?

Is it Money? You are struggling for money, then don’t sit and day dream, do hard work. If one business does not work, choose another business and do it. 

Don’t sit and day dream and only think about miracles to happen.

Miracles do happen, but if you crave for miracles then they will take a back seat. Nature wants you to be dynamic. There are people who have asked me, ‘Guruji, please give me some numbers for my lottery ticket. I just want to win a lottery so that I don’t have to do anything. Just do sadhana all the time and some seva(service).’ No way! First of all, decide what it is that you want from life. You know money is something that you will always find people short of. Always!

You can see for example, the richest country, the only super power on this planet is USA and it is under heavy debt; trillions of dollars of debt. You take big companies; many of them are in debt. The richer a person gets, the more expenses he has. At the same time, there are poor people who are contributing towards charity, poor people who take time to do service, which is amazing. They feel so much abundance.

Did you know that during our silver jubilee celebration, a beautiful incident happened!

I came down from the steps on the last day and a small boy came running to me with tears in his eyes and gave me an envelope. I took the envelope and it had Rs. 5000 in it. I looked at that boy and I asked, ‘What do you do?’ He said he is a laborer. The money in the envelope that he had given me had two months of his earnings, and he said, ‘Please take this.I can’t tell you how much my life has transformed. Please accept this.’ I took just Rs.100 from that envelope and returned back Rs. 4900. I told him, you know this Rs.100 is so precious for me, this is enough. I will take this. Two months of his salary; someone who is a laborer who does manual work, he comes and offers this. Such a big heart!  You don't have to be very rich to feel the abundance.

In fact many rich people don’t feel abundance at all, they feel lack. They are not generous. But poor people are very generous. Don’t imagine a situation where you will become super rich one day and then you will start doing some seva(service), no, nothing like that. You can feel abundance at any point of time. 

And the moment you start feeling abundance, you will see things will get better! 

If you only had ten days to live on this planet, what would you want to do?

We have lived today’s life. Be happy today. And tomorrow’s life will begin with the next sunrise. And the next day’s with the next sunrise……!

If you only had ten days to live on this planet, what would you want to do? Sit and think what your priorities are. Are you worried about your relationship? In ten days you are going to go away, kick the bucket! Are you worried about your property? Are you worried about your friends and foes? Are you worried about what you are going to eat, your eating preferences? What are your preferences? Ten days to live of your life, and what are you going to do? We keep living as though we will live forever.

We hang onto things as though they will be there forever. We forget the sense of time and life –the flow of life. Isn’t that our only problem?

You’re so concerned about your relationship.

A girl didn’t smile at you or a boy went with somebody else! What are you worried about? Where will they be? People are burned down with this sense of relationship. People are burned down with things about friends; wasting precious life and time. A friend of yours behaved badly with you and hurt you.

What actually hurts you is your foolishness. Let them behave the way they want! But you want everybody to be on your railway tracks. You have set railway tracks for people, and you want everybody to walk on those tracks. The moment they give you a surprise, you say you never wanted that in your life. How can you get over it? What do you want to get over? Just wake up and look! Neither of you are going to be there long! You will both be under the earth in no time.

You won’t even be able to recognize this body. And if you continue to live like that, nobody will even take your name. Nobody will even know you existed on this planet. Anyway, even if they do, it has no meaning for you, does it? Where are you to begin with? You feel that one person did this to you and another person did that. That they did not smile at you, or that they smiled at you. That they said something good; they did this…where is your freedom? We carry such stupid things with us wherever we go! A doormat can remove the mud from your feet, but if you carry mud in your head. What can remove it?

Contentment is what you need! If people have behaved well with you and been friendly to you, thank them for what they have done for you. Don’t become a burden on them. The whole world needs to understand this; the entire world is burning out for nothing! Every moment put yourself into knowledge. Everybody should be immersed in two or three hours of sevā (service).

If we look for what we do not have and there will be no contentment. I would like you to be contented in your mind, in your heart. Don’t have feverishness or craving for it!

Living in a de-centralized world

When people are educated in ethics, then a de-centralized world is a result of it. It will be a spontaneous outcome of it when people are very spiritual. This is what is said in the ancient Indian scriptures as well. 

There was no need for a king at all at a time when everyone was living knowledge because everybody did their job. There was no need for police, soldiers or an army and no need for even businessmen because there was everything in abundance in every aspect of life. 

But when that is not the case and when there are differences in the world on all levels; on a social level, economic level, political level, religious level, and on the level of education, then these hierarchies happen.

There is a scripture in the ancient Vedic tradition that codifies, what is one’s duty and what is one’s authority.

It says, don’t exercise authority, but there is duty for every one of us to do. So if everyone does their duty, then there is no need for one to control anything.

But when people fail their duties, authority comes into power. This is a natural phenomenon.

In Costa Rica, there is no police. If you remember, a few decades ago there was no violation of traffic rules or any crime in Bengaluru or Mysore. About forty to fifty years ago, there was no need of police. You would hardly see a policeman here or there. This was not too long ago. Forty to fifty years ago, Mysore had only one hotel. Every home was a guest house. People would throw open their homes for guests. Guests would come and stay free of cost. They would serve them and treat them like Gods. They would cook for them the best of the foods and offer it to them. And whatever gifts they receive, they wouldn’t agree to take anything. People would put tents on top of their homes and put beds in them so that anybody can go and stay in anyone’s house.

Today, that has completely disappeared. It is not there because of crime. People are afraid to open their doors.

So, that type of moral and spiritual strength when it dawns, authority turns into personal duty.

When crime elevates, authority comes, and authority in turn creates more crime.

This is a vicious circle that happens.

People who control everything, they become the cause of everything that is being generated in the society. At the same time, you can't do away with authorities if there is crime in the society.

But the question is who gets to be the authority? 

Democracy is the most beautiful thing to have. But misuse of democracy is when criminals get elected to parliament and they become the law makers. The one who breaks the law becomes the law maker of a setup.

Dictatorship is even worse as there is no accountability. But parliamentary democracy has this big problem. Votes can be bought by money and other favours and with muscle power. 

So we need to look at the system. Every system has got something good in it and some serious flaws.

Anarchy can take over if authority is reduced. Authority can stifle the freedom of people and hamper progress if it is not in the right perspective, right dosage and right hands. 

When authority falls onto an anarchist or when there is lack of any authority for a socialist, then they can’t do anything.

Sometimes, lack of progress in some of the third world countries is due to too much parliamentarianism.

To make a road it has to go through the parliament and pass through many levels because nobody wants to take the authority and take the responsibility and act. Everything is postponed or there is a sort of tendency to procrastinate. Things never move.
So, a strong leader is essential.

At the same time what is really needed is wisdom. Being in service of people rather than thinking one has an authority over the people.

Whether it is a business man, politician or an officer, they all should bear this in mind, including spiritual and religious leaders. If they think they have control over people, they have authority over people then it is a disaster. They would cause more harm than good to people.

Many times the religious head of a particular group gives a whip and says you all must vote for this particular party or these particular people. This is very wrong. It is robbing people of their freedom. Many times in the North East if you want to conduct a yoga course there, the head of the religious institution has to give a permit for the yoga course to be conducted. And if they find out that the people are doing yoga, then they create so much guilt in them. ‘You are a sinner; you are going to satanic things.’ This should not be done. 

That is why in ancient days, and ancient people in this country had a very different approach. They never emphasized authority. They only spoke about ‘tyaga’, renunciation. 

Many times people ask me, why is there not one pope for Hinduism like you have for Catholics or Islam, for the whole nation. I said, the structure itself is such that it is very different. It is not like one authority; it is an inspiration.

No one had to give me a title; you are a saint from today. It all happens by one’s action. When you walk the talk, you become an inspirational model.

Nobody gave Mahatma Gandhi an authority but his life itself became an inspiration for many to walk the path.

Same with Aurobindo, nobody told Aurobindo, ‘From today you have this authority’. No! But his words had such an impact on so many.

Purifying the heart, soul and body

All actions that are evolutionary and all that supports life. Selfless dedicated service. 

Not that I do some service and think what do I get in return? No, that is not called service. Seva is an act done without wishing for something in return. This act is very important. Seva purifies our karma. 

There is a proverb in India, ’a spoonful of ghee (clarified butter) on the rice purifies the rice.’ You know why? This is because if you eat rice just like that it digests very fast and becomes sugar very quickly. Many people who eat rice like that, they become diabetic. 

A cardiologist told me, anytime you take cereals; you should have a little bit of fat with it. A spoon of ghee on top of it slows down the digestion. It becomes complex carbohydrates and helps to balance the sugar level in the body and that helps a healthy heart function.

That is why the ancient people had said this, ‘a spoon of ghee purifies the rice.’

Knowledge purifies the intellect. How many of you experienced that knowledge purifies the intellect? All the anger, cravings, aversions about other people, everything disappears.

Music purifies the emotions.

Charity purifies money that you earn. At least three to four percent of what you earn should be given away in charity. If all that we earn we spend on ourselves, it is not considered pure money or good money. Charity purifies the money and then you can enjoy the rest of the money. Otherwise the rest of the money just goes in hospitals and other things. 

Prayer purifies the heart. Meditation purifies the soul.

Ayurveda, triphala purifies the body and cleanses the bowels. We keep stuffing food into our system all the time, but once in a while we need to purge the system. Four or five tablets taken at night before going to bed, in the morning your stomach is all clean.

So Ayurveda, yoga, pranayama and exercise purifies the body. Pranayama purifies the whole system, the body mind complex. That is why after Sudarshan Kriya you feel so clean. It cleanses you of all the karma, it brings that clarity.

You don’t have to be very rich to feel the abundance.

What are you struggling for?

Is it Money? You are struggling for money, then don’t sit and day dream, do hard work. If one business does not work, choose another business and do it. 

Don’t sit and day dream and only think about miracles to happen. 

Miracles do happen, but if you crave for miracles then they will take a back seat. Nature wants you to be dynamic. There are people who have asked me, ‘Guruji, please give me some numbers for my lottery ticket. I just want to win a lottery so that I don’t have to do anything. Just do sadhana all the time and some seva(service).’ No way! First of all, decide what it is that you want from life. You know money is something that you will always find people short of. Always!

You can see for example, the richest country, the only super power on this planet is USA and it is under heavy debt; trillions of dollars of debt. You take big companies; many of them are in debt. The richer a person gets, the more expenses he has. At the same time, there are poor people who are contributing towards charity, poor people who take time to do service, which is amazing. They feel so much abundance.

Did you know that during our silver jubilee celebration, a beautiful incident happened. I came down from the steps on the last day and a small boy came running to me with tears in his eyes and gave me an envelope. I took the envelope and it had Rs. 5000 in it. I looked at that boy and I asked, ‘What do you do?’ He said he is a labourer. The money in the envelope that he had given me had two months of his earnings, and he said, ‘Please take this.I can’t tell you how much my life has transformed. Please accept this.’ I took just Rs.100 from that envelope and returned back Rs. 4900. I told him, you know this Rs.100 is so precious for me, this is enough. I will take this. Two months of his salary; someone who is a labourer who does manual work, he comes and offers this. Such a big heart! You don't have to be very rich to feel the abundance.

In fact many rich people don’t feel abundance at all, they feel lack. They are not generous. But poor people are very generous. Don’t imagine a situation where you will become super rich one day and then you will start doing some seva(service), no, nothing like that. You can feel abundance at any point of time. 

And the moment you start feeling abundance, you will see things will get better.

What Is Gupt Daan

In India, there is something called as Gupt Daan, which means a secret gift. It is when you donate or give someone something without telling anyone that you are giving. You don’t want your name to be put on the name plate which says that so and so donated this. When you quietly give, it is called Gupt Daan.

It is often said, “When the right hand gives, the left hand should also not know.” This should be the intention behind donation. People used to take pride in this. You should also take pride in the same thing. At least some time or another, do some service for which you are not expecting any return or recognition. This act brings you so much joy. Once you get the taste of such purely service, you will find it so blissful, so interesting that you will want to go for it again and again. So, every now and then, do some service without wanting any recognition for it.

For the other things that you do, it is quite natural to want recognition. You do some good work in your office and you want recognition, there is nothing wrong in that. When you find real fulfillment in life, you feel so contented, then you don’t mind whether someone recognizes you or not. You keep doing what is good for you.

We must share what we have. When you give to those who are in need, the relief they experience brings you merits. If you wipe out suffering where ever you find it, you will earn good karma – sharing brings you merit. Do not think about your sins, keep on giving.

And the receiver should take it thinking that it is God who is giving them. If one takes something with a thought of returning it back, then it becomes a burden.

To make a profession out of begging is not a good thing. Sometimes, when certain people are able to make money without any effort, they continue begging. Why would they worry about changing that profession? Begging should not be promoted. Yes, if you find some old people or handicapped people, then you should help them, but those who are strong and fit and are begging on the streets, are often quite not in need! People who have strength, who can do something, they should not be given a single cent or single rupee.

Back in the time of Buddha or Krishna, it was a different thing altogether. In those days, begging was done by students who would beg for food, or monks who were busy working for society the whole day and would go and beg for food. They needed very little food and would go to peoples’ houses and eat. In those days, people would feed the monks as they were doing good work for the society. Our scriptures also say that one should donate only to the deserving. Give onto to those who deserve what you are giving.

Happy New Year 2017!

Time teaches you lessons and makes you wise. If you are intelligent, you will learn from time and celebrate. If you are unwise, you will lament and become sad with every passing year.

2016 has been such a wonderful year. We had a great event (The World Culture Festival). What people thought was impossible, we made it possible. We built the world’s biggest stage ever, of seven acres in New Delhi at the banks of the Yamuna river to the astonishment of the world. We built this stage in a place which was considered to be unusable (due to foul smell). This place was cleaned and made a field of celebrations which was one of the world’s biggest event ever. 3.5 million people attended the program, 1.8 billion people from 188 countries around the world watched it on live stream. We had 107 different performances with 182 dignitaries from around the world participating. And most of all, the presence of 2500 religious leaders made it the largest inter-faith gathering ever to the amazement of the world! All this happened without an incident… that is something that gets jotted down in history.

So, in 2016, we all together created history. The credit of this goes to every single individual of The Art of Living. Your participation, your intention and your attention made it possible for this event to manifest. That was a very grand time for The Art of Living and for the world.

In the year 2016, The Art of Living has had so many achievements that we cannot list them all. This year, we organized The World Summit for Ethics in Sports at the FIFA headquarters in September. For the first time in history, we made people realize that it is needed to bring ethics in sports. It was a very good event.

There are people who move with the time, and there are others who move time. The Art of Living moved time. We have celebrated in the past, and we continue to celebrate year after year as our motto is to make life a celebration. True to its motto, we welcome 2017.

If you add up 2017 (2+0+1+7=1), it equals to number #1. So, I wish every one of you a bright and shining 2017. #1 is the number of the Sun. In this year let knowledge dawn in your life. 

What is most important is, for knowledge to take the front seat in your life. Everybody has knowledge, but sometimes it takes the backseat. It is not in the driving seat. When knowledge is sleeping, it is ignorance. When knowledge is in the backseat it leads to regrets later on. When knowledge is in the driving seat, there is only joy and celebration in life. Then you celebrate in every situation for life is celebration. So, wish for knowledge to be in the front seat in 2017.

There are good qualities in everyone. The courageous will accept the good qualities in everyone. Even if it is in one’s enemy, it should be appreciated. Appreciating good qualities is a very wise quality itself. So, let the Sun which is coming bring you wisdom in this new year. Happy New Year to everyone!

Life is so magnanimous! What you think about life is only the tip of the iceberg. We think of life as survival – a job, relationships, money or just making ends meet. This is what we think life is all about. Our whole life revolves around money, relationships and reputation – these three things. In trying to get these three things we lose our health, and then life starts to revolve around four things (money, relationships, reputation and health).

We end up going round and round trying to get hold of these four things and finally become so miserable. And when you become miserable, you lose all these four things. This is what people consider to be life! Now what we are saying is completely revolutionary – Life is celebration, commitment, wisdom and service.

When you have such a short time on this planet, why make people so miserable around you and become miserable yourself? Who said what, when, and where is not important at all. One’s life does not depend on what someone said, or what your reputation is. Life is much bigger and much beyond that.

Life should revolve around commitment, service, celebration and acquiring wisdom. Make life a celebration, uplift the spirit of others, be committed to doing good, and be caring. When life revolves around these four, then money comes, reputation comes, relationships improve and health remains robust. You get everything that you want when you don’t focus the wants.

When you don’t focus on money, relationships, reputation and health, and focus on celebration, commitment, service and wisdom, you get everything. If you focus on the former four and leave the latter four, then you become miserable.

If you don’t have care and commitment, then relationships will not work. If you don’t have commitment and wisdom, then money and reputation will not come. If you don’t look at life as a celebration, then health will not be okay. So, put this message on your refrigerator - “In 2017 let my life revolve around wisdom, celebration, service and commitment. And through this I will get money, health, good relationships and a good reputation.”

There is an abundance of blessings!

Time poses in front of us challenges, charm and change. With wisdom, you can sail over these three very comfortably. You can take on the challenges, appreciate the charm and embrace change.

Lets plan what big thing we want to do in 2017. Think about it, and we can accomplish it!

Inner peace and strength

When there is inner peace then strength comes, and you are not scared of anything. When your intentions are right and your heart is in the right place, then you know (from within) that you can go and do what you want to do. This is the real selfless service.

In the last few days, there are thousands of children and women trapped in Iraq and there is no food and there are no medicines. Our volunteers and teachers are constantly thinking how they can get relief material over there. They are also in negotiation with the army - to give them some passage through which they can get the supplies to these people. This shows how committed our volunteers and teachers are. They understand the pain of the people and that is why they have gone to serve in such a dangerous atmosphere.

They have collected around 80 tonnes of food and are waiting for the permit to go into Fallujah. This is bravery and service, and they are doing this service without any sense of doership. You know, service for us is natural, we are not making an effort to do it, or even thinking, 'Oh, I am doing a big service!' No. We do it because we can't but do it, that's all!

Love for the country and love for God are not separate

Bangalore, February 17, 2012

Happiness should also be controlled. When we are happy, we should channelize our happiness. Sukh mein seva dukh mein tyaag – memorize this formula.
When you are happy, do some sevice, and when you are sad or miserable then surrender your sorrow. If you do not have the attitude of surrender, sorrow will never leave you. If one does not surrender even in sorrow, then there is no way out for that person. Surrender and service, both should go together in life.
The happiness that we are experiencing must be given a direction.
See how joyful we are – we have been meditating since morning and we all feel so good. We must think, what do we have to do so that everyone may experience this joy?
Do seva, we have to build a corruption-free, violence-free, and oppression-free society. For that we have to fight against ignorance. There are a variety of superstitions in our country and we have to eliminate those. There is illiteracy which we have to remove. We have to fight against ignorance.

To all those people who are watching (the webcast), I would tell them too that they should meditate for a little while every day. Meditation increases joy, keeps the body healthy, intellect sharp and makes one intuitive - whatever is about to happen gets reflected in the mind beforehand.
Embrace all bad thoughts. Why? Because if you try to chase them away, they will persist. So if you shake hands with them, they will immediately go away.
Kshane Kshane Uparameti – slowly, gradually, as the mind is released from the stream of thoughts, within two to four minutes, or ten to fifteen minutes, the mind settles. As we continue to practice this, such a joy and peace will arise and honesty will become the nature of our life. We will not have to make any effort to be honest; honesty will become our nature. We must keep ourselves open.

Read more at What Sri Sri Said Today

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