You’re caught up in life. Why is it that you cannot see the reality as it is? What holds you back? You are moving every moment towards the grave! Every moment is making you into ash! Yet, you cannot see. Why is it you cannot see the reality which is so obvious? Because you crave for pleasure (sukha) and you’re afraid of sorrow (dukha). Everything should have logic, but faith transcends reason; faith transcends all logic. You’re obsessed with feverishness of desire and you’re greedy for some achievement..
Sukha, Dukha, Logic and Feverishness — these four reins pull you backwards. You dream of pleasure; this is so amazing! Even after experiencing different pleasures a human being thinks there is pleasure somewhere else. He’s pulled by the rein of pleasure. Every pleasure has been so momentary, has left your hands empty, depleted, drained. Yet one hopes for more pleasure, some unknown, unseen pleasure.
Sukha is pleasure and Duhkha, the fear of sorrow. What is the sorrow that you are afraid of? What is going to happen to you? You have gone through many problems. As a child, you cried so many times when a toy broke. But what happened? You passed through that. You have passed through many stumbling blocks in life, which you thought were impossible. Yet you remained untouched by any of them. Nothing could ever shake you. It appeared to have shaken you at that moment, but later on you found that you are as complete as were before. It is Duhkha, the fear that holds you back.
And then there is desire for more, wanting more and more. We burn with desire; and this burning in desire does not allow you to relax into the peace of your being. Unless you let go of the desires, you can never find peace, you can never rest in the divine love. Love is the process of dissolving, of giving, of offering, of serving. Even if you do service to gain some merit, it is not service. Many people do service and they want their name to be put there to earn a name. It’s like paying to an advertisement company!
Many times people say, ‘‘Oh, I will do this service. What will I get in return?’’ Tell them, ‘‘You’ll get nothing in return!’’ Wanting to gain pulls you back; it holds you back. And, your love, devotion does not flower. Drop all the reins that hold you back. Let go of them! You are anyway the dearest son or daughter of the Divine; you belong to the Divine. You think the Divine will not take care of your pleasures and will not take care of your concerns and your desires?
Let go of these desires. When you are able to let go, then you blossom. Wait for the blossoming. Wait for the time; don’t be in a hurry. Every bud takes its own time to bloom; don’t force a bud to become a flower. Wait, wait for the time to come. Wait for the total opening in you to come, have patience. Let go of desires; sit and wait with patience. You will have to follow a certain code of conduct. This is the manure by which the rose of love will blossom.
Ahimsa, the non-violence. Be non violent, not just in your action, but also in your heart, in your speech, in your thoughts. You may be non-violent in action due to fear of the law. But in the mind when you said, ‘‘I am going to kill them! I am going to choke them!’’ you have already choked them. Follow the non-violence.
Satya, the Truth. Follow the Truth. Be with the Truth. Be with the existence. It means live in the moment, express this moment in you fully. Existence is Truth. The word, sat, is the same for Truth and existence in Sanskrit. Often we mistake ‘Be truthful’ to mean just speaking the truth. It’s not just speaking truth; but expressing Truth by your whole life. You be full of Truth; you be in the moment, express this moment. That’s why three things are said: satyam bruyat, speak truth; priyam bruyat, speak the pleasant truth; and satyam priyam hitam, do speak beneficial truth.
If you tell someone who is blind, ‘‘You are a blind man,’’ you’re telling the truth, no doubt, but it can hurt that person. So, though it is true, do not speak unpleasant truth. And then hitam, that which is good for them. A patient is really sick. If you tell them, ‘‘You are going to die tomorrow,’’ he may die right now! A doctor will have to tell him some lie for his own good. Satyam means express the existence this moment as it is but with sincerity.
Saucha, the Purity. Keep the purity of your mind, speech, and body. Purity is not mixing up things. If some rice is mixed with wheat, and mixed with soap powder, and mixed with sand, that mixture is impure. But if the same things are presented to you in different cups, you would say this is pure sand, this is pure soap powder, and this is pure rice and pure wheat. Non-mixing of things is purity. And what is impure? When a substance is mixed with another substance, which is not of the same, quality or same type then you call it impure.
So when you become witness to the body, mind, intellect, memory and all your different faculties, and don’t get mixed up with them, that is purity. Observing the observer, being very pure; this is a further, advanced meaning of saucha. It is when your own mind becomes a witness of its own actions and finds a gap between its own senses, and does not mix with any outer objects.
In a deeper sense, it’s even more beautifully experienced, when the consciousness detaches itself from its own body and does not contact other bodies. This is a little difficult, though. That is why when you go deep in your meditation, you feel very pure. If you are constantly in touch with something outside at some moment you feel some uneasiness; you don’t feel so pure. But when the consciousness is perceived, as full and total one feels pure. That’s why after the Sudarshan Kriya, many people feel so pure and so clear, so complete, because the Consciousness which was stuck in the matter, material, which is foreign to itself, got released from that and came back to its home.
Dayaa, the Compassion. The greatest joy is in compassion. Just stand in a corner and see the whole world. If you can just feel compassion for the whole world, a shift has already happened in your consciousness. Look at all the people who are indulging in all that you don’t like. What triggers anger in you is when people engage in some activity or behave in certain manner, which you don’t like. Just for a moment, have compassion for them all, for the way they are. Then a shift happens; you become big; your Self expands. It stands there and laughs at the smallness of events, of behaviours. Having compassion in your heart, you become untouched by these events; you cross the maya, the illusion.
Astikya, the faith. Faith transcends logic and reasoning. You live in a very logical world. Every step in your life is measured. You reason for everything that you do and for all your experiences. You try to capture your experiences through logic, through reasoning. When the reasoning or logic breaks down, you tremble. Sooner or later you again find some logic, some reason, and feel comfortable with it. Why? Reality is beyond logic; truth is beyond logic; you cannot capture truth by logic. If you could reason out all your life and all its experiences, then you have not lived life fully, you have not known life fully.
World transcends reason; world is much more than logic. If your experiences could all be put into the slots of logic, then you have missed something very beautiful, something basic in life. Devotion is outside the purview of reasoning or logic. Faith transcends logic and reasoning.
From Talks by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Sukha, Dukha, Logic and Feverishness — these four reins pull you backwards. You dream of pleasure; this is so amazing! Even after experiencing different pleasures a human being thinks there is pleasure somewhere else. He’s pulled by the rein of pleasure. Every pleasure has been so momentary, has left your hands empty, depleted, drained. Yet one hopes for more pleasure, some unknown, unseen pleasure.
Sukha is pleasure and Duhkha, the fear of sorrow. What is the sorrow that you are afraid of? What is going to happen to you? You have gone through many problems. As a child, you cried so many times when a toy broke. But what happened? You passed through that. You have passed through many stumbling blocks in life, which you thought were impossible. Yet you remained untouched by any of them. Nothing could ever shake you. It appeared to have shaken you at that moment, but later on you found that you are as complete as were before. It is Duhkha, the fear that holds you back.
And then there is desire for more, wanting more and more. We burn with desire; and this burning in desire does not allow you to relax into the peace of your being. Unless you let go of the desires, you can never find peace, you can never rest in the divine love. Love is the process of dissolving, of giving, of offering, of serving. Even if you do service to gain some merit, it is not service. Many people do service and they want their name to be put there to earn a name. It’s like paying to an advertisement company!
Many times people say, ‘‘Oh, I will do this service. What will I get in return?’’ Tell them, ‘‘You’ll get nothing in return!’’ Wanting to gain pulls you back; it holds you back. And, your love, devotion does not flower. Drop all the reins that hold you back. Let go of them! You are anyway the dearest son or daughter of the Divine; you belong to the Divine. You think the Divine will not take care of your pleasures and will not take care of your concerns and your desires?
 |
| Logic |
Let go of these desires. When you are able to let go, then you blossom. Wait for the blossoming. Wait for the time; don’t be in a hurry. Every bud takes its own time to bloom; don’t force a bud to become a flower. Wait, wait for the time to come. Wait for the total opening in you to come, have patience. Let go of desires; sit and wait with patience. You will have to follow a certain code of conduct. This is the manure by which the rose of love will blossom.
Ahimsa, the non-violence. Be non violent, not just in your action, but also in your heart, in your speech, in your thoughts. You may be non-violent in action due to fear of the law. But in the mind when you said, ‘‘I am going to kill them! I am going to choke them!’’ you have already choked them. Follow the non-violence.
Satya, the Truth. Follow the Truth. Be with the Truth. Be with the existence. It means live in the moment, express this moment in you fully. Existence is Truth. The word, sat, is the same for Truth and existence in Sanskrit. Often we mistake ‘Be truthful’ to mean just speaking the truth. It’s not just speaking truth; but expressing Truth by your whole life. You be full of Truth; you be in the moment, express this moment. That’s why three things are said: satyam bruyat, speak truth; priyam bruyat, speak the pleasant truth; and satyam priyam hitam, do speak beneficial truth.
If you tell someone who is blind, ‘‘You are a blind man,’’ you’re telling the truth, no doubt, but it can hurt that person. So, though it is true, do not speak unpleasant truth. And then hitam, that which is good for them. A patient is really sick. If you tell them, ‘‘You are going to die tomorrow,’’ he may die right now! A doctor will have to tell him some lie for his own good. Satyam means express the existence this moment as it is but with sincerity.
 |
| Truth |
Saucha, the Purity. Keep the purity of your mind, speech, and body. Purity is not mixing up things. If some rice is mixed with wheat, and mixed with soap powder, and mixed with sand, that mixture is impure. But if the same things are presented to you in different cups, you would say this is pure sand, this is pure soap powder, and this is pure rice and pure wheat. Non-mixing of things is purity. And what is impure? When a substance is mixed with another substance, which is not of the same, quality or same type then you call it impure.
So when you become witness to the body, mind, intellect, memory and all your different faculties, and don’t get mixed up with them, that is purity. Observing the observer, being very pure; this is a further, advanced meaning of saucha. It is when your own mind becomes a witness of its own actions and finds a gap between its own senses, and does not mix with any outer objects.
In a deeper sense, it’s even more beautifully experienced, when the consciousness detaches itself from its own body and does not contact other bodies. This is a little difficult, though. That is why when you go deep in your meditation, you feel very pure. If you are constantly in touch with something outside at some moment you feel some uneasiness; you don’t feel so pure. But when the consciousness is perceived, as full and total one feels pure. That’s why after the Sudarshan Kriya, many people feel so pure and so clear, so complete, because the Consciousness which was stuck in the matter, material, which is foreign to itself, got released from that and came back to its home.
 |
| Purity |
 |
| compassion |
Astikya, the faith. Faith transcends logic and reasoning. You live in a very logical world. Every step in your life is measured. You reason for everything that you do and for all your experiences. You try to capture your experiences through logic, through reasoning. When the reasoning or logic breaks down, you tremble. Sooner or later you again find some logic, some reason, and feel comfortable with it. Why? Reality is beyond logic; truth is beyond logic; you cannot capture truth by logic. If you could reason out all your life and all its experiences, then you have not lived life fully, you have not known life fully.
 |
| Faith |
World transcends reason; world is much more than logic. If your experiences could all be put into the slots of logic, then you have missed something very beautiful, something basic in life. Devotion is outside the purview of reasoning or logic. Faith transcends logic and reasoning.
From Talks by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
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