Bangalore, 8 December 2011
Q: The meaning of ‘Aasakti’ is interest, inclination or intention, while ‘Nirasakti’ means the absence of interest or inclination. How to perform an action when there is an absence of interest or inclination to do that action?Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Now I will ask you a question. You bathe in the morning. Do you bathe with a lot of interest? Do you brush your teeth with a lot of interest? No, you don’t.
Just because you have to do it, you do it! It’s natural and effortless.
Anything that is natural does not require effort.
Like when you smiling naturally that smile in effortless, but if you are asked to smile then that become a difficult task.
Doing an action that requires effort is ‘Aasakti.’ However doing a work that comes naturally and gives you inner peace is done in ‘Nirasakti.’
Let me give you an example: If you ask the women here to prepare food, they would be able to prepare it without much effort. However if the same task is handed to a man, he will flip through the pages of a recipe book again and again to prepare the same food. He will keep tasting the food to check the balance of spices.
So wherever effort is applied, the job is done with ‘Aasakti’, and this leads to feverishness.
You being feverish about going to Mysore is ‘Aasakti’; effortlessly driving your car to Mysore is ‘Nirasakti’.
‘Nirasakti’ is not disinterestedness or depression; it is just an effortless attitude.
Q: Please tell us about Sanjay. This is because Sanjay had the opportunity to meet Lord Krishna even before Arjuna. Please also tell us about his far-sightedness.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You must have experienced having a gut feeling where something deep inside tells you, I should do this or this is going to happen.
When such an intuitive ability gets enhanced in you then suddenly at one point of time the inner eye can feel and gather information and you understand what will happen in the future.
Initially it will come as glimpses.
Everybody has this ability. At some point of time everyone has little glimpses of what has happened or what is going to happen without perceiving it through the five senses or intellect. This is when the sixth sense dawns.
Sanjay was gifted with this sixth sense.
He meditated for a long time and from this state of meditation he saw all that was happening in the war field and started narrating it to Dhritarashtra.
Today, in America you will find that there are a number of psychics, but their narrations are not completely correct. It will be partly correct because they don’t really connect to that being and their own mind comes into action. So you have to be really hollow and empty and completely free from any cravings or aversions, then the intuition is clearer.
Read more at What Sri Sri Said Today
© The Art of Living Foundation
Q: The meaning of ‘Aasakti’ is interest, inclination or intention, while ‘Nirasakti’ means the absence of interest or inclination. How to perform an action when there is an absence of interest or inclination to do that action?Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Now I will ask you a question. You bathe in the morning. Do you bathe with a lot of interest? Do you brush your teeth with a lot of interest? No, you don’t.
Just because you have to do it, you do it! It’s natural and effortless.
Anything that is natural does not require effort.
Like when you smiling naturally that smile in effortless, but if you are asked to smile then that become a difficult task.
Doing an action that requires effort is ‘Aasakti.’ However doing a work that comes naturally and gives you inner peace is done in ‘Nirasakti.’
Let me give you an example: If you ask the women here to prepare food, they would be able to prepare it without much effort. However if the same task is handed to a man, he will flip through the pages of a recipe book again and again to prepare the same food. He will keep tasting the food to check the balance of spices.
So wherever effort is applied, the job is done with ‘Aasakti’, and this leads to feverishness.
You being feverish about going to Mysore is ‘Aasakti’; effortlessly driving your car to Mysore is ‘Nirasakti’.
‘Nirasakti’ is not disinterestedness or depression; it is just an effortless attitude.
Q: Please tell us about Sanjay. This is because Sanjay had the opportunity to meet Lord Krishna even before Arjuna. Please also tell us about his far-sightedness.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You must have experienced having a gut feeling where something deep inside tells you, I should do this or this is going to happen.
When such an intuitive ability gets enhanced in you then suddenly at one point of time the inner eye can feel and gather information and you understand what will happen in the future.
Initially it will come as glimpses.
Everybody has this ability. At some point of time everyone has little glimpses of what has happened or what is going to happen without perceiving it through the five senses or intellect. This is when the sixth sense dawns.
Sanjay was gifted with this sixth sense.
He meditated for a long time and from this state of meditation he saw all that was happening in the war field and started narrating it to Dhritarashtra.
Today, in America you will find that there are a number of psychics, but their narrations are not completely correct. It will be partly correct because they don’t really connect to that being and their own mind comes into action. So you have to be really hollow and empty and completely free from any cravings or aversions, then the intuition is clearer.
Read more at What Sri Sri Said Today
© The Art of Living Foundation
