World Yoga Day

 

On 5th December 2011 at a conference on ‘Yoga: A Science for World Peace’, several yoga institutes came together and signed a proclamation to have 21st June celebrated as International Yoga Day.

Today, Yoga has reached 170+ countries, and billions of people. But we must remember that 2/3rd of the world population is yet to reap the benefits of yoga!

Yoga, though born in India belongs to the whole world. Though yoga was conceived in the ancient Sanatan Dharma, it opens its avenues to the whole world. Yoga is a technology that allows you to be more compassionate, more loving, more friendly and happy! It’s a technology that can remove stress, greed and all these negative emotions!

Yoga is not just a set of stretches but an attitude - how you care for nature, how you connect with people of all races, cultures & religions. That oneness with Divinity, with nature & people is the real essence of yoga.

Teach kids the importance of non-violence

 

The troubling pattern of school violence in America has different causes at its core for the perpetrators. We must be aware that aggression is part of our nature and we all possess the potential for it. The challenge is to teach one another how to handle the aggressive tendency that comes within each of us.

We need to teach our kids how to handle their own negative emotions. We cannot avoid stress in life yet we need to teach our young how to manage the stress each of them encounter. It is our responsibility to institute in each other respect for life and adopting non-violence as our means of conduct.

Young minds must be educated in non-aggression programs and learn how to handle the negative emotions of rage, grief, guilt, and frustration. We must also recognize the hurt and wounded in our society. If someone is behaving badly and is troubled, they are pained and require a healing touch, a sense that someone is listening to them and cares.

If we do this, we can impact their lives. We can help them go from darkness to light and make headway against the scourge of violence. This is our role as fellow citizens and human beings. Beyond this, it’s important to develop skills to control our emotions. Meditation can help. This inward journey can help us go deep within to summon the ability to meet our challenges and ultimately triumph. The power is within each of us.

It is time to work together towards creating a violence-free society. This is the birthright of every child in our schools. America has always stood as an example of pluralism and harmony, serving as a guiding light in the world. Currently, the beautiful fabric of America is being damaged by school violence. We can turn this around by joining together in the spirit of America and reapplying our universal values, binding our wounds.

Let’s work on sharing healthy ways for people to manage their stress, frustration, and anger at their core and commit to building human values back into our schools and communities. Together, let’s create a violence-free, stress-free world.

How does one handle negative emotions

There are two kinds of mind. One is an open mind. Another is a closed mind. A closed mind is that which says, “This is how it is. I know it. That is it.” It gets hardened. An open mind says, “Oh, maybe, perhaps. I do not know.” Limited knowledge, and the conformity about it, makes a mind very hard.

Whenever you seem to understand a situation and you label it “I know this is how it is”, that is the beginning of your problem. And always all problems arise from knowing but not from not knowing. If you do not know, your mind is open, you say “Oh, maybe; something; perhaps; don’t know.” You wait. You cannot label something when you do not know.

Whenever you think an injustice has been made to you, or whenever you think you are suffering, whenever you think you are a victim, whenever you think something bad has happened to you— all this falls under the category of “I know it. This is how things are.”

Whenever we attach a label “not good,” it comes from a thorough knowledge.

Suffering is a product of limited knowledge. A question is a sign of limited knowledge. But when there is an amazement— patience, joy, waiting, you are in a state of “I don’t know,” maybe, something, oh what is it?, I don’t know, something you cannot pinpoint— the whole life is a shift from the limited “I know” to all possibilities, to “maybe.”

When your mind is open for all possibilities, an event happens, and there could be many possibilities for that event to be that way, not just in the gross— some other reasons in the subtle also.

Suppose you walked into your room and you find that someone has made a big mess in your room. It has irritated you. You are grinding your teeth. Now you attach that reason, that cause for your anger, to just that person who is there. But there is something more happening, something more happening in the subtle. There has been some angry time and vibrations at that moment there. At that moment something else is in the air. But you could only see that person creating a mess around you. And you attribute all anger to that person. This is what limited knowledge does. Haven’t you experienced this sometime? 

As we attach the events to individuals, the emotions to individuals, the cycle continues. You will never be free from that. So there is a step. First, detach that to the space or time. An event and emotion, detach it from the person and the event, to the space and time. This science is called astrology. Astrology is the knowledge of the oneness of the universe.

The Truth about Depression

Do you know, depression is the biggest challenge for The World Health Organization (WHO) and possibly the world, in the next 5 years?

Nearly 40% of the school teachers in Europe are depressed, and if teachers are depressed, what are they passing on to the kids? It is scary, right; they can only pass on what they have! When we were children, our teachers were so enthusiastic; they pumped enthusiasm in to the kids. They gave us ideas, ideals, more values, and they showed us how to excel in our field. Today when you see teachers who are supposed to be the guiding light of society being depressed, it is very depressing. We cannot feed half the population with prosaic. After a while even that stops working. Here is where you have to teach them life skills, the skill to handle their mind and their negative emotions. And the secret is right under their nose. Using their own breath, they can calm the mind and change how they feel. 

You do not have to be a victim of your feelings; you can be the master of your feelings. It is just a matter of education. Yoga is one way; of course, many think yoga is just doing a few exercises, standing on the shoulders or standing on the head, it is not so. Yoga is the rhythm of the breath, and the sensation in the body, and how you feel about yourself. All this comes under the purview of yoga, meditation, life skills and living well programs, and this can help people.

A few centuries ago, not everyone used toothpaste. Dental hygiene was not a common thing. Today, in every corner of the world, people brush their teeth first thing in the morning and the last thing in the night. Similarly, I would say mental hygiene is essential. Learning how to be in the present, keeping your mind fresh and free of all the impressions of the past, anger, jealousy, greed, and seeing life from a broader perspective.

Turn back and see, all the events - pleasant and unpleasant are all gone; there are only traces of memories left in our brain, that’s all. If you to have an awakened mind or there is wakefulness in the mind, it will make a lot of difference.

Yoga and meditation are ways to avoid suffering

Germany, 27 December 2011

Q: Guruji, each time I am about to ask you a question, automatically the answer comes, is it true or is it just my imagination?Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: If the answer is correct then it is true and it saves me a lot of work.

Q: Dear Guruji, how can I control the drives that are from the ego when they are impulsive and often lead to regret?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: By experience!
When do you drop your ego? When it is painful. When you have had enough pain then you say enough is enough, and then you simply drop it.
Either through wisdom or through pain you get over the smallness.
If you have wisdom and a broader vision then no need to go through pain. But if there is lack of wisdom then pain and suffering will take care of it and it will take you out of it.


Q: Dear Guruji, I know that my parents love me but are not very affectionate. They do not express their affection the way I like it to be shown. How can I feel with these feelings and not be bothered by their actions?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Don’t give it too much importance. Move on!
In life these events happen, such occasions come. Such negativity comes, pleasantness comes; so what! None of them will stay forever, they come for a minute and they go.
As I said, wisdom or yoga is a way to avoid suffering, avoid fear and avoid unpleasantness.
When this is lacking then you see suffering. That is why in Christianity they say suffering is essential because through suffering you reach the goal. When you suffer then you understand and you learn a lesson.


In the East they say suffering is avoidable and not necessary. Life is bliss!
You know why? This is because wisdom, yoga and meditation are ways to avoid suffering which has not yet come.
So suffering is not inevitable if you know yoga and meditation.

Read more at What Sri Sri Said Today

© The Art of Living Foundation

There is hope for every soul, for every human being, to live unconditional love

Faith and Doubt

Faith brings totality in you. It pulls together all the loose ends of your consciousness. It integrates your whole personality. Doubt scatters you. Doubt destroys you.

Worries Washed Away

You can do this as an experiment: when you are very worried or tense, just sit by a flowing river or gushing water and just keep looking at the water. You know, within few moments you feel as though like a magnetic pull, that your mind is being pulled in the direction of the flow of water...and in a short while all that anguish, delusion, whatever you had, [with] the flowing water it all flows away. You become fresh.

Influencing All Levels

When you meditate, you are not just bringing a harmony within yourself, but you are influencing the subtle layers of creation, the subtle bodies of all the different levels of existence in the creation.

The Human Body

There is hope for every soul, for every human being, to live unconditional love. That is why human body is so precious---because in this body you have the ability to erase all the unwanted negative impressions.

“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

Love with wisdom is bliss. Love without knowledge or wisdom is pain

Continued from the last post..

Q: Please, please, please, please answer my question. Dear Sri Sri, when there is love, why suffering is also there in a relationship?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Love with wisdom is bliss. Love without knowledge or wisdom is pain. Why is there pain in love? That is what you are wondering or questioning about! It is not love which is giving you pain. If it is just purely love, that means you just care for someone, you want the best for them, and then there is no pain. But when you want something in return from them or you have demands from them, then there is pain. Small things like you love somebody and they didn’t smile at you, that is enough! You love somebody and they are interested in someone else, they flirt around or complement someone, good enough for you to burn the next 24 hours or days. Jealousy, hatred, greed, arrogance and attachment are all love’s distortions. Love by itself doesn’t bring a misery. That is why knowledge and centered-ness are so important. If you centered, you can handle all these distortions, they come for a while and they disappear.
Doesn’t matter, I will handle! I can easily manage people from falling!

Q: Another question on love. When you were here last time, you said not to say ‘I love you’ too much for too much expression of love destroys it all. Now, my husband never says it. What to do?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Listen! I have no experience of all this and what husband and wife say to each other!
May be, you should ask your husband why does he love you so much. May be he is waiting for you to say. This is a chance when you can say and look at his face.

Q: Where do negative thoughts come from? If they come in me, does that mean I am negative or bad? I refocus on thoughts again and again, but they come back. I judge them, I don’t like them and I think about judgment, but I am not able to get rid of those? What should I do?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Now, there is a problem. You chase them and they come to you multiplied. Just give them a tight hug and you will suddenly find they have disappeared. They are scared of your hug, but they are fond of you chasing them. So, they come back again for you to chase them again, again and again.

If too many negative thoughts are coming, reason is lack of circulation in you. Do a lot of exercises. I think you have too much free time to sit and think. If you keep yourself busy, less of negative thoughts will come. If you are constipated, for sure you will have negative thoughts. So, set your bowel movements correct. That will also help you. If vatta, pitta or kapha imbalance comes, then also you will have too many negative thoughts. Ayurveda herbs will help for that. You can take 2-3 triphla tablets in night, and something to soothe your nervous system, like shatavari. These herbs calms and soothes the system.

The company you are in can also affect the mind. Company of people who are negative, can also affect the mind.

One last thing that affect is time. Certain times, certain planetary positions and certain cosmic energies can all affect your mind. But all this will pass. Don’t be paranoid about anything. Just know that time moves on.

Q: What is the relationship between seeker, guru and the Divine?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: The beginning, middle and end of a same line. It is the seed, the plant and the tree.

Q: Beloved Guruji, I see you in my thoughts and my dreams. I am free and completely surrendered in my thoughts and dreams. But why is my experience different when I meet you here. Also why don’t I get to spend time with you in person?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You are spending time with me here. You take up some project and you will definitely get to spend time with me.

Q: Guruji, is there any particularly good direction to sit in to practice our spiritual practices, and also when you are sleeping?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Any direction is OK. Usually, you face the sun if the sun is there, east and west during sunrise and sunset respectively. When sun has already set and it’s dark, usually we face the north.

But that is not so important.

Why do we face the sun in the morning or evening? This is because force of energy is from one direction. So, if you are sitting facing one side and force is from the other side that means there is no balance on the other side. Suppose, you have one light here, and no light there, then there is an imbalance between the right and the left. So, sitting accordingly balances the right and the left. You are to balance right and left for meditation. So, it is said that way.  But it is secondary, not even secondary, it is tertiary. It is not that important.

“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

That which happens with surrender is love

What Sri Sri said today..

19 June, Bangalore Ashram, India

Q: How to have devotion?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You assume that you have devotion. Don’t strive to have devotion. We should assume that we have love and devotion in us. When you believe in this, the devotion in you enhances. When you think you don’t have devotion at all, it wouldn’t manifest.

Q: Where do you go when you meditate?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: I do not go anywhere, I just be everywhere.

Q: When intellect and heart say different things, whom should we follow?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: When it comes to work, follow your intellect. And follow your heart when it comes to service.

Q: How to give 100 percent. I often feel I don’t know how to give my 100 percent?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Do you want the answer?
(Yes from the boy)
Do you really want the answer?
(Yes from the answer)
Do you 100 percent want the answer?
(Very Intense yes from the boy)
Really?
(Calm and Enthusiastic Yes from the boy)
See, you already have it.

Q: Is it true that my previous and the coming generations also get the merit when I meditate. Are my parents also benefitted when I meditate?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yes, there is something like that also.

Q: I read books on knowledge. How do I know that knowledge is only at intellectual level or is actually realized by me?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: It is very simple. You go to a restaurant and you read the menu card. By the time you have eaten it, you know you have eaten it. Experience is so irrefutable. Reading about back pain in a book and actually having back pain are different. So, it is very obvious. Your experience is what is most important.

Q: What is the relation between meditation, sleep and dream?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You have used three different words; you first tell me what definition do you have for these three?

Meditation is when you are awake as well as relaxed.

You don’t know anything in deep sleep. Only after you wake up, you get to know that you were sleeping. And a dream is a dream. The experiences that you already have had, when those reflect again in your mind, your consciousness, that is dream.

Q: There are some blind faiths like not doing certain things on Tuesday or Thursday, or not crossing the path when a cat passes by. Do these carry any truth in them?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Nothing in all this according to me.

Q: Which has a higher place – Devotion for the country or for the religion?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Why to prioritize out of these two? You tell me which has higher value out of seeing and listening. Both have their own place and both go simultaneously.

Q: Is it love or surrender when I feel your presence in meditation?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Surrender with love. And that which happens with surrender is love.

Q: When something great is accomplished, normally some sort of celebration is conducted. We were also expecting a huge ceremony after the completion of Ashtavakra Geeta, but nothing special of that sort happens?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: There is celebration here every day, it never ends. There is a lot left yet.

Q: What to do when love, devotion and faith gets shaken?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: That is very good. It goes deeper when it is challenged, true love and devotion gets deeper. Testing times comes in everybody’s life. You pray and sometimes your prayers don’t get answered. 10 times you get what you wanted, and when 11th time you don’t get, you start complaining. Is it the case? (The boy said, “Yes, one of my friends ditched me and I am feeling intense pain”). That is when you pull on yourself. Keep on your practices. God is in every heart, everywhere, all around you, and inside you. He knows what is best for you and he will give you the best.

That is why when you ask for something, ask this or something better.

Q: Why do negative feelings like regret and frustration exist? Has anything productive ever come out of them? And if not, what is the way to turn these emotions into productive one?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You should read ‘Celebrating Silence’. I have answered all these questions there.

Q: If we are not getting something even after putting in continuous effort, should we accept the reality as it is, or should we keep on praying to get it?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: If that is very much needed by you, you would not be able to go without praying. And have this faith that God will give you what you need.

Q: Does numerology have an effect? There is a number which I consider lucky for me, and there are certain numbers which are not so lucky. Is this just a notion in mind or the effect actually exists?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: That has some effect but the power of chanting ‘Om Namah Shivaye’ mantra is much more. The power of mantras can nullify the effect of any unlucky numbers, and then all the numbers will be lucky for you.

More from the same conversation in the next post.
© The Art of Living Foundation

'Don't fight with the negative emotions and don't befriend them either'

What H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar said today

'Don't fight with the negative emotions and don't befriend them either'

India (Art of Living International Center, Bangalore), September 2:

Q. I hold a high position of authority in my state and am well respected and known. When I go to another place, I sometimes find myself less important. I tend to question my identity. How to get over this?

H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You should know how to wear a suit – and take it off too! Everyone is a king in their place. Know how to remain in a state of Akinchan - I am nobody. The whole life journey is from ‘I am somebody’ to ‘I am nobody’ and then to ‘I am everybody’. Usually the journey is from ‘I am something’ to ‘I am nothing’ to ‘I am something’ again! Sit in satsang and let your identity dissolve. Dissolving and losing the identity is Samadhi, is fun. You will realize that you are immortal.

Q. What is your vision for the Art of Living as an organization?

H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar : Spirituality is the language of the New Age. You make your own vision. I would ask you to be a drishta (the one with the vision), you may make your own drishya (view). The Divine will give you sleep, you create your own dream.

Q. On a count of one to 100, if the stone is rated as zero and human beings as hundred, what is the level of the remaining beings?

H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: What is the need to give a rating? Everything belongs to One, is part of One. One has taken these infinite forms. Even in the zero and the hundred, there is everything. Even a stone will have jadta (low prana) and chaitanya (consciousness). Jad and chaitanya, both, are merged in Brahma (creation). They are one part of the Brahma. Lord Krishna says in the Bhagwad Geeta, “This maya is also from Me, the whole world is in Me, yet I am in none.” The philosophy in the Bhagwad Geeta may seem confusing. Without a true experience, the philosophy will seem like just principles. Go deep within yourself for the true experience of the Self.

Q. How can I remove negative emotions through knowledge? If I try to persist them, they will resist and if I don't, then they still remain.

H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Don’t fight with the negative emotions and don’t befriend them either. With yukti (skill), breath and the correct perspective, all negativity can be removed. It is said in the Ashtavakra Geeta, through the right solution, overcome the mind with the right solution.

Q. In the family of Shiva, each vahaan (vehicle – usually an animal associated with a form of God) is the enemy of the other in the animal kingdom. There is a bull, a mouse, a peacock etc yet they live together in peace. How is it so?

H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar : The peaceful, non dual self element that is Shiva brings together everyone and harmonize everything.

Q. What is the spirit of enquiry?

H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: This question that you have asked is the example of the spirit of enquiry. What you are asking, itself is the answer. It is similar to someone asking what is sound.

(From the Office of His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar )

© The Art of Living Foundation