Life is a combination of effort and effortlessness

Opposite values are complementary. In life you need both effort and effortlessness. When you want to work, you put in all your effort and then the work is done – but, when you want to sleep, can you put in effort and get sleep? There are certain things you can do through effort and certain things that you do effortlessly, e.g. sleep – the less effort you put, the better sleep you get. Otherwise, your effort itself becomes an obstacle to sleeping!

The same, with memory – if you forget something and you struggle to remember it, you will not remember! Your very effort becomes an obstacle for memory. So you just drop it, and when you drop the effort to remember, memory comes! Memory is something that happens effortlessly.

The third thing is appreciation and love. If you want to appreciate beauty, you cannot do it through effort. Simply and suddenly, the appreciation of beauty happens in you! And love? – You cannot try to love. The more you try to love, the more difficult it is. Love is effortless. The next effortless thing is meditation. If you put effort into meditation, meditation does not happen! Meditation happens effortlessly.

All other things need effort – memorizing anything requires effort, learning new skills need effort. If you want to learn some sport, you have to give 100% effort. If you want to play the sitar, you have to put in effort. 

Life is a combination of effort and effortlessness and they are complementary!

If you work dynamically, you sleep well. If you have memorized well, you remember automatically. If you are doing service, you are able to love more, because there is satisfaction and your heart is opening up. If you can see beauty everywhere, you can appreciate beauty! When you can do this, things become effortless. Even jobs requiring effort will not be strenuous. 

Going bananas

I will share with you something very interesting. Human beings and bananas share 50% of the same DNA. How many of you didn’t know this? (Many raise their hands). A banana is 50% human. I don’t know why people use the term, ‘Gone bananas’ when someone has gone cuckoo. Maybe because the person is using only half of their DNA. (Laughter).

There is a beautiful human being inside everyone. What makes one different is the stress that covers the beauty. When the stress is gone, we become our original selves. Every child which came into this world came as a pure, beautiful, innocent and intelligent child. But then, somehow, we tend to lose that innocence. The intelligence which has no innocence does not have much value and innocence which is not intelligent has no value. What is needed? The combination of intelligence and innocence. That which gives us this innocence and intelligence, which gives us sensibility and sensitivity, that which makes our heart blossom and keeps our intellect sharp is what spirituality is!

What is happening now? Are you watching what’s happening within you? Either your mind is saying, ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. As I am speaking you are also having a dialogue. Are you noticing that dialogue?

Audience: Yes

You have to say ‘Yes’ to this question. You can’t say ‘No’, at least for this one because your mind is going ‘Yes-No, Yes-No’. It doesn’t matter what I say. What is important is for you to know that your mind is saying ‘Yes and No’. This is creating another level of awareness. It is very important to cultivate this.

See, we all have ten fingers but we don’t know how to play the harp, or the guitar or the violin. That needs a little training. Similarly, though we have all these abilities, we are not trained to use them. If we can train ourselves to use them, what happens? Our sharpness increases, our memory sharpens, our intuitive ability becomes very strong and our presence of mind increases.

What the psychologists say is, when listening to a talk that is for 10 mins or more, your mind keeps taking cappuccino breaks now and then. Today a lot of young people are losing their attention. What is called ADHD; attention-deficit-syndrome is increasing. How many of you agree with me? (Many in the audience raise their hands). So, what to do? Meditation, yoga, a little bit of breathing exercise and Sudarshan Kriya.