Surrender and Love

 

 

Surrender and Love

Sri Sri: Only the strong can surrender, the weak can never surrender. We seem to understand it the other way. We feel that if someone is weak they will surrender. I am powerful. How can I surrender? No. To surrender it takes great courage and power, strength and confidence. Only then can you surrender. There is a difference between submission and surrender. You may submit to someone for a while and you are looking for an opportunity to raise your head back.

Surrender is always unconditional. It’s not that “I will surrender, so I can have peace of mind or bliss or whatever”. That is no surrender. If you love someone, because of what they have then you don’t love them, you love the quality.

Love is a very deep, intimate phenomenon in your consciousness. It just flowers. It cannot but flower. There is no way you can meddle with it. You go near love, you dissolve, you simply don’t exist. That is the definition of love. Either you are there or there is love. You can never meet love or you can never love. Either you remain as love or you remain as somebody.

See, in conversation we say, “See, I love that because …………….” It is the most stupid thing. You love something and say because? I love you because you are very good, I love you because you are honest? You are not loving that person, you love those qualities. And there is nothing great in your loving those qualities. And I tell you, you seem to love those qualities which you don’t have. That’s how people make ideals and they remain far away from ideals.

If at all you meet God, as a person sometime in future, what will you ask? And if at all, you have to ask you can ask only one thing – Let love be there. Let love flower from the heart is the only desire that is worth asking for because you don’t force or do anything to bring about that love in your heart. That’s a happening, a phenomenon. That phenomenon in all its totality is called surrender. In surrender there is no pinch, no pain and if one has done this once, that is enough. That experience, once, is enough. So, to be free of fear, again have confidence. Look how futile it is to have fear, any fear.

Meditation would help you a lot. Know that it is an emotion, another form of love. Accept it and go through it. If you resist it, then that becomes anger. 

Be with it.

Jai Gurudev

 

 

 

Host

 

Host

Sri Sri: "Among all the planets in the solar system, the earth is privileged to host life in so many forms, and among all the species, humans are the most privileged for they can host the knowledge.  Again and again you remember that you are peace, you are love, you are joy and that you are hosting the Creator.

 

Among all the knowledgeable ones, you are the most privileged.  Those who do not realize that they are privileged are still hosts, but what they host is negativities. 

Like birds returning to their nests again and again, come back to your source; only there can you realize that you host the Creator."

Jai Gurudev

 

 

Yogi

 

Yogi

Sri Sri:  Yogi's sign is to be stable, established. Also Yogi's sign is to be  able  to flow with life. If we do not flow, we stagnate and get stuck in the mud just like a river would do if it doesn't flow. Nature of river is to flow. Know that you can find Nishchay (stability) in Atma

and Anishchay (lack of it) in the world. But we do reverse. We are not stable within and want to search for one in the world. I am not saying

world is bad. But if we do this way, then being in the world makes our life muddy.   

 So both, stability and ability to flow is required of a Yogi. Do not  get distracted and confused by others' concepts like wakening of Kundalini shakti, Khechari mudra etc. Khechari - one who wanders in the sky - one whose consciousness has expanded like the sky. Kha is sukha(pleasure). Sense pleasures are limited and bring limited joy. One who experiences unbound joy within beyond sense pleasures, then that one becomes like the sky (explanation of Kham Kham Brahma)  So sticking a tongue to the top of the mouth, piercing mouth etc need  not make you experience the 'sat-chit-ananda' quality of Consciousness. 

 Yogi's are not to blame anyone, any person or management or  organization. Flow along with events in life. Everything changes.

Yoga brings qualification. The one who does not practice Yoga is 'Ayogya'.  Yoga has ability to transform mind which is like a stone in a

   blooming flower. Yoga se Taral, Saral aur Madhur ban jao - With Yoga be sensitive, subtle, straight forward and sweet.

 

 

Jai Gurudev

 

 

'Live in surrender, surrender leads to Samadhi'

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‘Live in surrender, surrender leads to Samadhi’ Posted: 05 Feb 2010 12:35 AM PST Bangalore ashram, Jan. 21: Q: What is significance of time when everything is happening in the present moment? Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: (After a pause of a minute) It (the past minute) is past now. Present is ever present. Past and future are also present.This whole creation has no significance, nor does the time and nor does the space. Q: What is the connection between the thought and the action? Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You should never do thoughtless action or you will be in trouble. There are two dimensions of our life. Sometimes you act without thinking and sometimes you only think and don’t act. Source of both - thought and action - is you. Knowing who you are, your thoughts get streamlined and actions become perfect. Your thoughts and actions are aligned. Q: Freedom comes from knowledge of the material world yet ‘Advaita’ says there are no two, all is one. Which to follow? Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Both are correct. They all have their place. When you understand one single substance, you are liberated. The substance tells you that there are no two substances. A great scientist of our times, Dr. Hans Peter Durr is 81 at present and said ‘I have been studying matter for the past 70 years; matter which never existed.” This is higher physics. It is very interesting. Q: How to learn from experience? Often we keep doing the same thing but don’t learn. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: If you keep doing the same thing again and again, knowing that it brings you misery, you really don’t understand it brings you misery or you think it brings you some pleasure. Craving for pleasure and non-awareness that it is going to cause you misery are two things which makes you commit the same mistake again and again. That’s why they’re called habit. Habits don’t give you pleasure but they inflict pain by not following them. Q: Guruji, yesterday you talked about prana level. You said for human beings it is between 7 and 16. How do one find out? Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: All that you have to do is increase your prana level and you are doing it. Pranayama, meditation - all this increases your prana level. Q: Adi Shankara says, ‘Kasya sukham na karoti viraga’ (What pleasure can dispassion not give!) It is also said, tivra samvega nam asannah (When you have a great desire, intense longing – everything becomes easy). How to be in that state of mind and yet be dispassionate? Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Truth is contradictory. Completely opposite values together form the truth. This is also true and that is also true. Intense longing will take you to the goal and at the same time dispassion also takes you there. Dispassion gives you happiness. Q: Why are dreams there if they don’t turn to be true? Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Because those are dreams. Q: Guruji how come you have so many disciples? Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:Somebody asked me, ‘How come you have so many followers?’, I replied, ‘I keep on running ahead of everybody.’(Laughter) People continue to come behind me. Then he asked, ‘How do you do it?’ to which I replied, ‘It’s very easy. You keep running ahead.’(Huge laughter) Q: Turiya avastha (state of Samadhi) of chetna (consciousness) is shiv tattva. How to achieve shiv tattva? Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:Nirvikar (without any blemish)and prayatna rahit (without any effort). Dropping all efforts and all vikar in the mind, you relax. Q: How do we ensure that a good soul is born? Do we need to follow some rules? Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:Just be happy and keep your heart clean and soft. When you doubt, when you are angry or frustrated, your heart and feelings get hardened. With the knowledge and wisdom, your heart remains soft and supple. Otherwise you say everybody else is wrong and only you are right. You don’t see how wrong you are. You do so many mistakes you don’t look at that but when somebody else does mistakes, your heart gets hard. Isn’t it so? There is a saying in India of saint Kabir which says‘Bura dekhan main chala, bura na milya koi’ which means ‘I wanted to search a bad man but I couldn’t find one but when I looked at myself I couldn’t find anybody worse than me.’This is coming from a saint. So seeing mistakes in others hardens your feelings. I don’t agree so much with the other line. If you keep on looking at your own mistakes, that will also not make your feelings soft and brings guilt. So I only use the first line of this. Q: If we do something wrong with somebody and that person does good to us, do we have to bear fruit of that karma (action)? Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Don’t do so much of analysis. The karma that you need to go through, you will. And the karma which you don’t need to go through, you won’t. That karma which is to be finished with sadhna, pranayama will be finished. By surrendering to God, we get new life all the time. Don’t think too much.Live in surrender, surrender leads to Samadhi. Q: I can’t think of more questions. Please tell me some question to ask? Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: That’s good. My job is not to tell you or give you questions but to take away your questions. “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 For Global Spirituality

 

'Your spiritual practices will take you out of bad habits'

‘Your spiritual practices will take you out of bad habits’ Posted: 23 Feb 2010 09:07 PM PST Bangalore ashram, Feb. 22: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar just returned from a week-long trip to the North-east of India. Narrating experiences from the trip, Sri Sri spoke about his visit to Bodoland in Assam. “A very remote area, and a tough place, much affected by violence. Our YLTP teachers (graduates of the Youth Leadership Training Program) have done such a good work. Over 1,50,000 people gathered under the hot noon sun for a satsang in Bodoland. In such remote areas, people have started doing good work. There you can’t complain if you don’t have electricity because anyways, there is no electricity! There is no electricity, road or water there. But people were contented. When we have all the facilities, we complain but sometimes where there are no facilities available, people live with contentment.” (Someone from the audience asks a question) Q: How do I drop the desire of alcohol and cigarette? Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: There are three things that you can do to drop such a desire for alcohol or cigarette. 1.       Do your spiritual practices daily. It will take you out of such desires. 2.      Think that intake of alcohol or cigarette smoking will diminish your good luck. If you take like that, then something unlucky or unfortunate may happen. 3.      Suppose someone offers you a crore ($10 million), if you stop alcohol or cigarettes for a month. Will you still do it? Each time you get a desire to do that, you will think that you will lose the 1 crore. So, you will control yourself because of greed or fear. To come out of a bad habit, fear and greed are divya aushadi, best or even magical remedies! After that, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar led the audience through a meditation. “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 For Global Spirituality

 

Only thing you must remember

 

 

Only thing you must remember

Sri Sri: The only thing you must remember is how fortunate you are. When you forget this, you become sad. Sorrow indicates:

1) your attachment to negative qualities, and

2) your attachment to positive qualities.

Your negative qualities make you sad. And when you think you are so great, you start blaming others; this also makes you become sad.

The purpose of sorrow is to bring you back to the Self, which is all joy. But this realization is possible only through Knowledge--awareness.

Knowledge leads sorrow towards the Self. Without Knowledge, the sorrow does not get completed and instead multiplies. Knowledge completes sorrow.

Only with the power of Knowledge do you transcend sorrow. In this Path you have everything. This beautiful Knowledge is complete with all flavors in it:

wisdom, laughter, service, silence, singing, dancing, celebration, yagyas, complaints(!),problems(!),complications(!), And chaos to add spice. J

 

Jai Gurudev

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Give and Take

 

 

Give and Take

 Sri Sri: I  tell you, even if one is good, hidden somewhere there are impressions and they come out.                One has to face the consequences. Even in the so called bad man, there are deep impressions in him which bring out some     nice things too. So, there are different layers within each individual. You have given a loan somewhere and have loans elsewhere. So where you have a loan, you have to repay and where you have given loans, there you will get back with   interest which will be credited to you. In one hand you are receiving and on the other hand you are giving.  This  ‘give and take' is happening inside you. That is why it appears to be very complicated. It seems to be unjust sometimes. Though I have been so good, never done any wrong, but why are these wrong things happening to me or to my people?  No! Just take it.         Don't go into details as to why or what. It will only just simply shift further what you may call your assumptions, your guessing.

You can guess, "Maybe because of this it happened." Then you go a little deeper and you shift and shift. Instead of                digging into the past, just look at whatever is right now and march forward. Meditate, go deep into some practice.                      You can burn down all the karma. Karma is just the impressions the mind has carried deep inside you. Those impressions attract these events which are happening. But by surrender, by meditation, you can erase all those impressions to a great extent.

Jai Gurudev

 

 

 

Two ways

 

 

Two ways

 Sri Sri: Two ways to solve a problem.                           

 

1)   Just relax and let go. Things will happen   

       2) Try till you succeed and achieve your goals. Never give-up!

Generally people follow the first in serving others and follow the second path to get things for themselves.                                                        It should be the other way. We worry about what has happened, what is happening and what is going to happen.                                   We should think what we did and what we are doing and what we should be doing.                                                                                                             If we take care of "Doing", "Happening" takes care of itself. This is wisdom.

We have to accept whatever is happening!

Jai Gurudev

 

 

FW: The four aspects of life

 

 

The four aspects of life

Sri Sri: On a full moon night he sat under a Bodhi tree. Sitting under the tree in the early hours, he experienced reality, truth. He saw how the four aspects of our life make our entire life.

KAYAANU PASCHANA – observe the sensations in the body. When something happens, you simply react without observing the sensations in the body. An event causes a sensation. Sensation causes emotions and thoughts. And thoughts in turn attract the same situation.

A whole life becomes a cycle of action, reaction. He says, “ oh, come on, wait a minute. How many times I have gone through this cycle. My whole life has been such patterns.” And when he went into meditation more and more, he saw so many lifetimes, not just this life, going through the same vicious cycle. So, he said – Kayaanu paschana – observe the body. Sensations will come, they stay in the body for a while and disappear.

VEDAANU PASCHANA – observe the body, sensations in the body, feelings that arise in the body.

CHITTAANU PASCHANA – Observer the flow of mind. Mind is like a river, it’s flowing; so many thoughts flow. If you observe mind is like a flowing river, you don’t get stuck in thoughts. In the mind good thoughts come, bad thoughts come. So what? They come, they go. Observe them like a river flowing.

DHAMMAANU PASCHANA – observe your nature, something deep inside, beyond the mind, the pure energy that you are.

One life force manifests itself in various ways, both positive and negative. When you keep on observing, the negative gets transformed into positive and moves up, up and up and leaves you in bliss. Once in a way you are angry, it is fine. But, if you are angry all the time, then it is not fine. Krishna got angry twice or thrice; that is okay in the whole lifetime. If you are jealous once or twice or a few times it is fine but if you are jealous all the time, your whole nervous system is filled with toxins. You see what I am saying? In life, positive and negative flow of energy happen but we don’t have to get stuck

with it.

 

Jai Gurudev

 

 

           

Guru

 

 

Guru

 

Q: Why are people going to gurus these days? Is it a belief or a need?

 

Sri Sri: Going to a guru is like going to a doctor. Why do we go to a doctor? Why do people go to a teacher? Why do people see a movie? Why do people watch cricket - for entertainment, knowledge and health. They come to a guru for knowledge - as their minds are full of confusion and they want to know something more.

Life is not just eating and sleeping. Books cannot give a sense of belonging, truth of love and experience. Merely by studying books one can't gain experience - interaction with people is necessary. It's quite natural to have a guru.

 

 

Jai Gurudev

 

 

      

Worship

 

Worship

Sri Sri: Singing is not a form of worship. Our life is worship. Our breathing. Our walking. Everything is worship. When you are grateful. Worshipping is what? When you are grateful, when you are contented. When there is serenity in you. That is worship. And the purpose of worship is to bring these three things: Gratefulness, contentment, serenity. Isn’t it? If your worship doesn’t bring any of these three things, it’s no good. That’s no worship at all. And make your whole life worship. Your walking is like worship. You’re chopping vegetables in the kitchen—that’s worship. So every act of life can become worship.

 

 

Jai Gurudev

 

 

                

Poverty and Spirituality

 

Poverty and Spirituality

Sri Sri: There is a saying that one cannot sing bhajans on a hungry, starved stomach. But my experience is completely opposite. If you give food, clothing, shelter to a poor man, it will be over within no time. If you give him spirituality, then the self-esteem starts coming in him. He wants

to be self-sufficient then. He gets energy to do something from inside. He starts running then, starts thinking, he gets enthusiasm to do

something. In life, if anything can give you enthusiasm, its spirituality and spirituality only. So the person stands on his own feet, starts

taking responsibility and it goes on. This is my experience. And if the spirituality enters a rich person’s life, then he becomes more generous.)

The rich people do social service and the poor people become more self-confident, entrepreneurs. So in both ways its beneficiary. J

 

 

Jai Gurudev

 

 

           

Fear

 

Fear

Sri Sri: One definite thing in life is that everyone is going to die. No one can escape this reality. The only difference is that some people may die a little sooner and some a little later. The doctor dies as well as the patient. The King dies as well as the servant. This is a place where everyone dies.

No one knows how or when they are going to die. If you look at the situation in third world countries, people live in extremely unstable conditions. They are never sure how close death is. There may be a flood, or famine, or even an epidemic. Monsoons may destroy their homes and the entire family can be uprooted, but still, these people are able to smile and enjoy the life that they have.

The quality of our life is very important. The intensity with which we live from moment to moment is essential. Sickness has nothing to do with death. It is the fear associated with having a disease which
disturbs and weakens one's whole system. A clear mind free of fear can have a healing effect on the body. So, how do we get over this fear?

First, there is observation: observe the fear. When fear comes, what happens? A sensation arises in the chest region of the body. Observe this sensation and go deep into it. You see, every emotion in the mind creates a corresponding sensation in the body. When you observe sensations, emotions are transformed as sensations in the body and then they disappear. The sensations are released and the mind becomes clear.

If this is too difficult and is not possible to do without some help, then secondly you have the sense of belonging. You belong to God, to the universe, to some power. God is taking care of me, my master is taking care of me, the divine is taking care of me. This sense of belonging is an easier and simpler way to deal with fear.

If this sense of belonging is not possible, then see the impermanence of everything. Everything is changing around you. You cannot hold onto anything. Things come and things go. Emotions change, behaviors change,
everything changes. The world is changing all around you. See the impermanence in everything. You will gain a strength from this understanding and the fear will also disappear.

 

 

Jai Gurudev

 

 

                 

Turbulent times

 

 

Turbulent times

Sri Sri: "Taking advantage of turbulent times began long time back - from the Bhagwad Gita.It was in the turbulent times that the Bhagwad Gita came up,  and we are still taking advantage of it! Isn't it so? In the war-field, Krishna was the one to take advantage of the turbulent time - that's when he started teaching Arjuna. He didn't teach him when everything was all right and nor was Arjuna ready to listen to anything for he thought Krishna was just his friend; but when the turbulent time came, that's when that knowledge and wisdom were essential... that's when that calmness, steadiness and clarity of mind to perceive things the way they are and to act wisely were essential. This knowledge, this understanding was given in this turbulent time and was what came of it - for the entire continent (perhaps for the whole world). Twenty-eight Akshohini senas (armies) were annihilated at that time - HUGE - more than ten million people. The Bhagwad Gita came into existence at that turbulent time...and we are still taking advantage of it. Now let's see... What is it that we really need to be able to take advantage of a turbulent time? First of all, we must recognize that it is a turbulent time... and accept it. When we deny the turbulent time, we live in a utopia - a utopia that we are then unable to find a solution for. So first recognize that it is a turbulent time. The second thing is accepting it. The moment we accept that this time is turbulent or this situation is bad, then our emotions calm down. We don't question it: `Why is it turbulent? WHY is it turbulent??' This questioning the happening, which is happening, is of no use! It is like post mortem! It doesn't help the situation in the present moment. So then, accepting that this is so, will bring calmness, steadiness in the mind. When the emotions are calm, you are able to think better because the same energy, in us, either functions as an emotion or as a thought process - as creative thinking. So if we exhaust our energy in emotions, in getting upset over turbulent times, we are unable to make use of that time in creativity, in creative thinking and bringing about a solution to the problem. So, acceptance is the second point. Once you accept, it cannot be a passive acceptance, like: 'Okay....Let it happen...Let us leave it to God...'- that type of passive acceptance will not work! There you need action! Creativity! What change do you want to make and how do you want to make good use of the situation? You need clarity of mind, sharpness of mind, presence of mind. In turbulent times, the mind should not be turbulent. The time can be turbulent, but if the mind is turbulent, it cannot take advantage - rather it will be a big disadvantage for others! To quote the Gita again, `Anithyam asukham lokum ayevum prapam yogaham karamsu kaushalam'. This world is `anithya' - full of changes. Everything in this world is changing. Don't think that there is joy here, in the object, in the substance, in the situation, in the time. You ARE joy! ... And having attained this, go ahead, work, act.

Jai Gurudev

 

 

Rituals - Today's Knowledge Sheet

 

Rituals

Sri Sri: You can’t understand everything, you know? All, every ceremony, you cannot understand. And no need to understand. What you will do understanding everything? So what. Why not do something that you don’t understand. It doesn’t make any meaning, doesn’t make any sense. Why not do that? You know? Stretch your action beyond your knowledge. Creativity happens only then. What do you know, you know you are doing it, you are just a manager, you are not a crazy person. That’s how telephone got invented. That man, what did he do? He just played with two strings and two cups and he was just doing something which was meaningless. And he played with something that was meaningless. He didn’t know what he was doing. And then he created something new. Something new came out of it. Isn’t it?

So rituals and traditions are that way. Rituals and traditions need to be honored and not analyzed. Analysis does not take you much farther. It makes you remain in the field of known. It doesn’t take you to the unknown. Are you all listening? (YES) Your journey needs to be from the known to the unknown. And how do you move to the unknown? Doing something which you don’t know. There are several levels in knowing, the intellectual knowing, knowing from the feeling level, knowing from your heart, somewhere deep inside you, you feel something, you know something. Knowledge is not limited to the five senses. That knowledge which is limited to the five senses is very small. Many times erroneous too. The knowledge that transcends the five senses, goes a little beyond will bring renovation, innovation, creativity. Isn’t it? Yeah? (YES) Good, good, good.

 

Jai Gurudev

 

 

 

Happiness

 

Happiness

Sri Sri: Your desire for pleasure or happiness makes you unhappy. You examine whenever you are unhappy or miserable. Behind that is your wanting to be happy. You got it? Craving for happiness brings misery. If you do not even crave for happiness, then you are happy. You crave for happiness and you invite misery. When you do not care for happiness, you are liberated and when you do not even care for liberation, you attain love. The first step is when you do not care for happiness. The second step is param vairagya or supreme dispassion when you do not even care for liberation. Then you are free. You are liberated.

Happiness is just a mere idea in the mind. You think that if you have this you are happy. If you have whatever you wanted, then are you happy? Vairagya is putting a stop to craving for happiness. That does not mean you must be miserable. It is not that. It does not mean you should not enjoy yourself, but the craving for joy, only when you retrieve your mind from it, only then can you meditate. Then yoga happens.

Your dreams and fantasies, just shatter them. All your dreams and fantasies, offer them to the fire. Burn them. What great happiness do you want to have? How long can you have it? You are going to be finished. It is all going to end. Before this earth eats you up, become free.

Free yourself from this feverishness that is gripping your mind.

Free yourself from this craving for happiness.

 

Jai Gurudev