Is there any karma-free action?

You know you cannot be but do some action, some karma. It’s part of our nature. We have to keep acting. And if you consciously take a decision and act it is different than unconsciously doing something. 

So you consciously take a decision to go on the treadmill, this is an action. Otherwise you sit and you feel so restless, you keep shaking your hands and your legs the whole day sitting in your office at your table. This only shows restlessness. You are moving you leg so many times. You are compelled to do so because your body wants that circulation. You never gave that circulation time for the body so you feel restless. This is not happening as an exercise, it is not benefitting you but it is an action which you cannot stop. 

So some actions you consciously choose to do, that also cuts karma.

Life is much more than what you think it is

You know sometimes it is very difficult to talk to someone who is very sad or upset. You tell them anything it just doesn’t get into their head; it just goes above their head. They just cannot digest. They’ll hear from this side and then it will just fly away. It is useless talking to people who are sad and upset. And it is equally useless to talk to people who are ecstatic, so full of joy. You know if someone comes into the satsang for the first time they’ll wonder, Guruji simply said, ‘Hmmm’, and then everybody started laughing. He hasn’t cracked a joke, he hasn’t said anything still everyone is laughing, everybody is happy. What is this? Looks very crazy!

People who are in deep ecstasy and knowledge or deep love and fulfilled, for them also, it is difficult to talk to them because they are not in a listening mode; they are in an enjoying mode. So what I am saying is there is no dearth of grace, we have plenty of grace. Blessings are there in abundance. We simply have to keep doing our work, keep doing what we have to be doing. You should continue doing your karma, your work, that’s important, yes! There is no dearth; there is no lack of anything at all, isn’t it? Yes! There is abundance.

So like how everyone has some difficulty, my difficulty is how to really convey to everyone that there is something so beautiful, something so inexpressible that can manifest in peoples’ lives and transform our planet into heaven. It is very difficult to convey this, isn’t it! So difficult to convey this truth, this knowledge when people are just in their head, they don’t understand; don’t understand that there is something more than what they have just thought or understood in their little mind.

See our consciousness is so magnificent and so inexpressible. Its beauty, meditation and the joy of it, only one who experiences knows; so it is difficult to convey. Someone asked me to please make their family member also come into it. I know that is the wish of many other people that others also join. Let others also enjoy these blessings, this grace that I am enjoying, isn’t it! And I said that is my difficulty also, how to convey the inexpressible glory of the Divinity to the mundane world where people are just bothered about mundane things. Just eating, sleeping, gossiping; just the routine thing you know, isn’t it. So immersed in the routine, and that world is so dull and so boring. For me it appears to be so dull and so boring, I don’t know how it is interesting for someone else.

Without this knowledge, without this experience, life does not gain that depth and that’s what is needed now, that depth you know. Conveying that depth to the world, that life is much more than what you think it is. There are so many things that are unseen; honor it, accept it, adore it and that is what is called shraddha.

Why was Vibhishana discredited in spite of having supported Lord Rama?

Vibhishana is a unique example of someone who was caught in a dilemma whether to support righteousness (dharma) or his people. He chose to renounce his brother in favour of dharma.

See, from all these stories, take only that which you need. What is the point of arguing for or against? If there is something in the lives of Vibhishana, Rama or Ravana that inspires you, take it, and if it does not fit in, or appeal to you, then you have learnt something from that as well.

Some people have asked me, why did Sri Rama send Sita to the forest based on a washer man’s opinion? Isn’t that injustice? I say, ‘Absolutely, he did not do the Art of Living course, otherwise I would have told him not to be a football of other people’s opinions!’ 

‘Kuchh to log kahenge, logon ka kaam hai kehna’ (People are bound to say something, that is what they do). Some might support Rama’s decision that he did it to uphold honour.
You can find some flaw or the other in every incarnation (avatar). At least I see faults in them, particularly in Parashuram. If one considers Parashuram God, then there is no one left you cannot call God. I find every human being better than him.

‘Don’t try to find fault with anyone,’ even Lord Krishna has said. If you start looking for flaws in Krishna, you will find so many that you might think you are better than him.
Lord Krishna told Arjun, ‘you are anasuya, (meaning one who does not look for faults in others) and that is why I am giving you knowledge.’ Although knowledge is given to everyone, the deepest mysteries are revealed only to those who are deserving and worthy. 

When discussing Vibhishana look at what qualities he has. People have the tendency to denounce others. Jains have condemned Lord Krishna to hell. According to them, Krishna will have to come back in the next period as the first Tirthankara. These are just concepts, don’t get into them. What you need to observe, understand and learn, and what is useful to your life, is what you need to extract.

There is a beautiful story in Bhagavatam. From the dirt in Lord Vishnu’s ear appeared two demons Madhu and Kaitabha. Lord Vishnu kept battling with them for a thousand years and he could not defeat them. He became exhausted and finally took refuge in Devi (Mother Divine). The Devi took the demons into the water and conquered them.

Now you see, this story is so pregnant with meaning. Madhu means craving and Kaitabha means aversion; now where do these arise? In our ears when we do not listen attentively. Just as there is flaw in our sight, there is a fault in our listening. Someone may be paying you compliments but you will think that they are irritating you, playing with your emotions. Someone incurred losses in the share market, and an acquaintance remarks, ‘Oh you look good!’, and this person thinks, ‘What a hypocrite, he is telling me I look good when I am miserable.’ And anger and enmity begins because we did not hear properly.

Cravings and aversions happen through listening and this cannot be eliminated by us. So inner-strength (the Devi shakti) is awakened, and these negative emotions are destroyed through love; water signifies love. This is the secret of this story.

In all these stories there is a spiritual aspect that we need to recognize. It is not written anywhere but meditate on it, ponder over it, and you will realize, ‘Oh, so this is it!’

How can science and beauty co-exist?

This world is of opposites, like night exists and day exists, dawn and dusk too exist and they exist in different places at different times. Why do they have to be at the same place?

So there is science when your left brain is active then you enjoy that, and then when your right brain becomes active then you enjoy the music, you enjoy art. You don’t need to choose and you don’t need to have the same things together. You don’t need to have soup and pudding together; you don't mix them together and drink. You have soup and little later have pudding too.

So they have different flavours and they both are essential in life, otherwise life is incomplete.

Good people get spoilt after ascending to the seat of power. Is this the fault of the position or the individual?

Blame neither the position nor the individual. If you identify the fault, try to remove it. And removing those faults is what we are doing here through meditation and practices.

If people do these practices before getting into power, it is good. And if they do them after assuming power that also is good, so that they remain balanced. 

Balance the mind, since all negativity arises in the mind and spreads from there. There is no sense in blaming the seat. Through awareness every position of authority can be managed properly.

What is the science of yagna?

See, while the yagna was happening I did not say a word, I kept silence. So you don’t need to understand everything. If something is happening, they are putting something in fire and people are going round and doing something, you may wonder, ‘Oh what’s happening?’ But you know somewhere, deep inside you could feel those vibrations.

See, all of you have felt the vibrations and that was important. You just feel the vibrations; that’s why I did not go to explain why they do what they do. It was not necessary at that moment. Yes, later some other time like now we can sit and see why they put so many things in fire and what was the impact of it?’ All this we can sit and discuss. We can go on doing research into that. Right? So sometimes we need to just enjoy and be with what is, and sometimes we need to analyze and understand. They both have different flavours and life is complete with both of them.

Another thing I would say is you know when yagya was happening, to have what is called shraddha or faith. Shraddha is to love something which we do not know. Something, some activity is happening, it is for good. This much we believe and we simply love it and that is what is called shraddha. Love something which you have not fully comprehended but you know there is something good coming out of it. And what happened? With that you get a lot of benefit and gradually you start understanding what it is all about as well.

"How can I experience life with the joy of an innocent child if a basic necessity like food, shelter, safety, relationship is missing from my life?"

Oh! You are talking too many things, saying so many things. Everything is lacking, food, shelter, job, husband, my God! Just look at your own mind.

When you were a baby you were fed, somebody took care of you. Or you provided everything for yourself? When did you start providing for yourself? When you were a teenager or when you passed the teenage? Till then somebody took care of you when you were a baby, an infant, somebody nurtured you. And when you become very old somebody will take care of you. 

Nature has designed it such a way that you are taken care of all the time. Even now, even now to ask this question you are alive. Nature is taking care of you; you should have that trust. I’m not taking care of myself, but the nature is taking care of me. There is something which is providing me. 

If you have that feeling I will get what I need and I have been loved and I have been taken care of, you will see everything will fall in place. If you go on this trip of lack, I lack this and I lack this and I lack that, it is growing because you are putting that seed in the consciousness, in the mind, ‘Oh I lack, I lack, I lack’. 

Get out of this circle and take responsibility. Everything ends, everything has to end. Things come your way and then the other way. Food comes and then you have to finish the food. At some point you cannot say I want to keep eating, no.

All the five sense pleasures have limitations, your senses have limitations. So you must understand. Craving for a relationship can also be like bulimia. Do you see bulimia? Your stomach is full still you want to eat. In the same way it’s just in the head about relationships. Relationships can also be painful. Many people who are in relationships say, ‘I want this to end.’ Many people are no longer interested in a relationship even when it is there. They are not interested in physical intimacy even after having achieved all that because you cannot go on craving for it forever. They all have limitations. 

You have confidence that if I need I’ll get it and go for it when you want it, that’s it! Then don’t go on thinking about it 24 hours, craving for it. You must be aware, you’re craving is that which stops it from coming to you.


You know a beggar is never invited for dinner. Food is thrown at a beggar. He will never be invited. Have you seen anywhere a beggar being invited with some card? Tonight there is dinner at my house, come for it, five star hotel? No! Those who are full, who don’t want to eat will be invited for dinner. 

The same way when you are satisfied in yourself, when you are stable, when you are centered all the things will come your way. This is what is in Gita, the second chapter last words are ‘vihaya kaman yah sarvan’. Like how all the rivers flow towards the ocean which is already full. So like all the rivers flow, all the desires find fulfillment in a person who is like an ocean, big.


‘Vihaya kaman yah sarvan pumams carati nihsprhah’. One who drops all desires, a man, a human who walks without worry, ‘nirmamo nirahankarah sa santim adhigacchati’. One who does not say, ‘me, me, me,’ that ego-less, hollow and empty person! The one who is light in their life, gains eternal peace and to him comes everything.