Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in Satsang yesterday “When a guest comes to the house, you would want them to not be formal and to make themselves comfortable and be one of you. You do not want to have to ask them every time what they need. In the same way wherever we go we should give comfort and happiness. We should not become a burden for others.. Spread belongingness wherever you go.” Ques: Isn’t being without intentions opposite to having big dreams? #SriSri: Yes. When you want to go inward, when you want to rest, you should let go of all intentions. Even if you have a small intention like ‘I want to lock the door, I want to drink a glass of water, or I want to do something’, can disturb your sleep. Just before going to sleep, if you have a list of ‘I want to do this’, you will find that you can’t sleep. When you want to retire, when you want to go into your center core, you say I have nothing do, drop everything. Only then you can go in deep meditation Samadhi. But you can’t be there all the time, you have to come out. When you come out then you take n intention, then you dream, then you say ‘I want to do this, this, this’. This i called pravritti. In life you need both, pravritti is engaging in activity, which has to go with dream, and nivritti, retiring which is to let go all Sankalpas. A fool is one who at the time of work, thinks ‘oh, this is all maya, God will do this work, when He makes me do it, I’ll do it.’ This is wrong. And when he has to rest, he starts thinking, ‘I have to do this, i want this and that’. This is a sign of a fool. The intelligent one takes Sankalpa when work needs to be done and when he rests, he surrenders all Sankalps to God. Ques: Creativity flows from the second chakra, while awareness is from the sixth chakra. Is there a connection between these two chakras? #SriSri: Yes, definitely. There is connection between all the chakras. You are the connection! Ques: What is purity? How can I know that there is purity in my actions, thoughts and speech? #SriSri: something that makes you feel very correct, very straight and very clean, that is purity. It’s like pain. When you have pain, then you know you have pain. Similarly, you feel very pure. When you tell the truth, when you are being honest, when you are upright, you suddenly find that you are so pure. And there is a strength that comes. It is your very natural self, innocent self. When you came into this world, we came like that. We maintain that purity, that’s all. Ques: When life feels like an exam, how can one celebrate it? #SriSri: Who said life is an exam? Why do you think life is a struggle, life is an exam? Who is the examiner? Come on! Who is the student, who is the examiner? Life is a learning process, not an exam. Every moment you learn something. If you do something good, you learn something. If you do something bad, then also you learn something. You should be learning from everything that you do. Don’t take it as an exam where somebody is going to give you marks. Someone sitting up in the heaven is giving you marks, is not the correct thing to think about. There is no pass or fail here. Ques: If Sanatan Dharma, or Hindu dharma is based on eternal truth, then how come it didn’t spread all over the world? #SriSri: See the values are there. If you see American constitution today, it is Sanatan Dharma. Liberty, freedom, justice for all. This is Dharma. If you see constitution of any country for that matter, they all profess what Rig Veda has said – Equality, equanimity. Our constitution of India ends with the last verse of Rig Veda. And if you go deep within there is similarity in every country. You find the roots there. Historians will be able to tell you better. But remember one thing, keep all things aside, know that there is something in you which is eternal. You are eternal. There is something in you which doesn’t die. Which is the same. Look at your own life. Your body has undergone so many changes, your thoughts have changed, your emotions have changed. But there is something in you, which is observing all the changes... that is what you need to hold on to. So the world is a bouquet of many different religions. Everywhere there are some nice things, everywhere there are some wrong things. All that you need to do is pick up the good things and leave the not so good things out. In Nepal, last week, in many temples they stopped the Bali Pratha (tradition of animal sacrifice). For the first time in so many years, people took a stand. They took a call in the parliament that they should not do animal sacrifice. It’s nowhere in the scriptures that you should sacrifice animals. And people started sacrificing animals in Hinduism. And that’s when Buddha came, Buddha said this is nonsense, you should not sacrifice animals. Buddha never started a religion. He was a Hindu Sanyasi (saint). He brought a revolution in the religion. He remained a Sanyasi and He died as a Sanyasi. He was there to bring reform in the Hindu religion. Other than that all what He said is there in the Upanishads. But then a religion came later on. Similarly Jesus came to bring reform and 60-70 years after Jesus was gone, it became a religion. But everybody’s one goal is to uplift human race, to bring peace. Ques: In the Vedic tradition in some places they place Bhakti (devotion) over perfection in chanting of mantras and in some places it’s the other way round. #SriSri: Both, both. Both have their own place. Bhakti is of course the ultimate, but that doesn’t excuse you from not being perfect in your action or in your chanting. Like when a guest comes to your home and when they leave then you ask them to forgive you if you have done anything wrong. So if you think in the beginning itself, anyway I will ask for forgiveness so what is the need of taking care of the guests, then it’s wrong. Ques: A person who is established in himself and an insensitive person, both are beyond situations they are in. What is the difference between the two? #SriSri: One is joyful, his consciousness is awakened. The other is fighting with darkness. Ques: If darkness has no existence, then why does it trouble us so much? #SriSri: That is what it seems like. Till the light comes in. When the light comes then you feel that you got troubled for no reason. And the light is there. All you have to do is open your eyes and see. Don’t wait for the light to come. Open your eyes this right now and shake yourself, see where the dust has gathered in you. You are pure, you are getting troubled for no reason. You go on chewing on the things that are past. Wake up and see there is nothing there. Ques: Yoga Vasishtha says what you see is not reality, Vedas say what you experience is truth. #SriSri: Listen, listen. Yoga Vasishtha says something, Veda says something, Upanishads say something else. Don’t get into all these complications. First tell Me what you say! What has happened in your life, what is the truth in your life? If you look at the truth in your own life, then you will understand what Yoga Vasishtha says. As your consciousness grows then you start understanding. Knowledge is structured in consciousness. As your consciousness expands, you understand scriptures better. You understand everything in a much better manner. When we awaken our consciousness first, then we understand the essence of the scriptures more easily. Ques: People are told to be God fearing in some religions. Should love God or respect or fear Him? #SriSri: No I don’t know who put the God fearing in it. No need to fear God. It’s like fearing your own mother, your own father. If children start being afraid of their own parents, where will they go? No, no, no. If there is someone you don’t have to fear, it is God. God is just love and all love. Even if you make a hundred mistakes, He will accept it and still wait for you to move on. That doesn’t give an excuse for someone to make mistakes (laughter). You should simply know that God is loving. Ques: If someone fears their parents due to some reason, then they can fear God. #SriSri: Yes, those people who are creating fear in the children are not doing their parenthood properly. A good parent will never create fear in their own kids. If they are creating fear, then they are not true to their parenthood. Similarly, if God is creating fear in you, He is not being God. If you can’t trust your parents, then definitely you cannot trust God. And if you can’t trust God you cannot trust yourself. So it is all linked, self-doubt, doubt in a higher power and doubt in people around you. You can’t trust anybody; you don’t know who is what. (Ques: I want to. I am trying.) Good. And don’t try, just relax. It will happen. We should understand doubt before we can get into trust. You know the doubt is always about something that is positive. Ques: There is so much grace in my life, but somewhere I feel that I am not getting the prosperity that I want. #SriSri: For prosperity you need two things. First is effort and the other is God’s grace. Both are needed. Don’t think that you have God’s grace so everything will just fall into your lap. And thinking that only effort will make things happen, that is also not true. So it is said that those who put in efforts and have patience, those who walk like a lion, with gravity and confidence, work hard at the same time and have patience, they get prosperity. Ques: I request you to put me in your personal Seva (service) #SriSri: You smile and make others smile, that is doing My personal Seva. You bring a smile on everyone’s face and think that you have done Seva for Me. Ques: If a person has done many sins and is not able to bear the consequence of it, what is the way to get relief? #SriSri: You are in the right place, doing the right thing. This is what one should do. Pranayama, meditation, Seva, all this will relieve you of your sins. Don’t worry about it. (Ques: Do all these really cancel all the sins?) That’s what I am telling you, you are in the right place, doing the right thing, many of them will be cancelled! Don’t’ worry at all about your sins. You have come here, that’s it. Lord Krishna in the Gita says, even though a person has done a lot of sins, the moment he starts sharing My (Krishna’s) knowledge, My qualities, My wisdom, quickly he becomes pure. He also says, don’t worry about your sins. I will take care of it. You just relax.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Dec 2014 07:14:25 +0000
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