Who Is A Sakha?

“Sakha is your reliable self.” - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar shares:
There are three things: the Self, the senses, and the object, or the world. And there are three words: sukha, pleasure; dukha, sorrow; and sakha, companion. These have one thing in common: "kha," which means "senses."

The Self through the senses experiences the world. When the senses are with the Self that is pleasure (sukha), because the Self is the source of all joy or pleasure. When the senses are away from the Self (dukha) -- in the mud, lost in an object -- that is misery. Mud, misery, mind -- they are very close.
Self --- Senses ("Kha") --- World

--- Joy (Sukha) Sorrow (Dukha) ---

Self is the nature of joy. In any pleasant experience, you close your eyes; you smell a nice flower, or you taste or touch something. So sukha is that which takes you to the Self. Dukha is that which takes you away from the Self. Sorrow simply means that you are caught up in an object, which goes on changing, instead of focussing on the Self.

All the sense objects are just a diving board to take you back to the Self.
Sa-kha, companion, means: "He is the senses." Sakha is one who has become your senses, who is your senses. If you are my senses, it means I get Knowledge through you; you are my sixth sense. As I trust my mind, so I trust you. A friend could be just an object of the senses, but a sakha has become the very senses.

The sakha is the companion who is there in both the experiences of dukha and of sukha. It means one who leads you back to the Self. If you are stuck in an object, that wisdom which pulls you back to the Self is sakha.

Knowledge is your companion and your companion is Knowledge. And the Master is nothing but the embodiment of Knowledge. So sakha means, "He is my senses, I see the world through that wisdom, through Him."

If your sense is the Divine, then you see the whole world through the Divinity.

Your head will be in the mud in a few years;
Don't put mud in your head while you are still alive.

Present Education System in India: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s Thought

 “A true winner is one who smiles through all life’s challenges.”- Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar : “You know, management courses these days are adopting more and more informal ways of teaching. This approach is being emphasized everywhere, and I hope that soon the world over, everyone realizes the need for changing the methodology of teaching.”

“I would like to share some good news with you. The World Bank has invited The Art of Living foundation to design their courses for their employees.”

“Our courses have been welcomed and well received everywhere. The Harvard Business School too has appreciated our courses. In fact, the Stanford University has placed our course as a Credit Course. That means that when a student completes The Art of Living Course, they get marks for that.”

“Universities like Stanford, Cornell, etc., are rapidly recognizing and adopting The Art of Living Courses. But this is still a small number and we have a long way to go.”

“We have so many IITs and IIMs still struggling in our own country. In the world over, the situation is the same for so many educational institutions. In fact, if you check the list of the top 50 educational institutions of the world, you will find that many of them are in China.”

“So, we have a long way to go and promote a value-based education to the students, which develops a person in a complete manner. Education should not just be informative, but also develops a person with emotional intelligence and spiritual quotient as well. That work is still pending, but today the doors are opening.”

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Guruji has set up (421) schools all over the country (across 21 states) to provide a healthy, holistic, value-based education, with emphasis on sharing and caring.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar states that education without inspiration is useless. “No matter how educated you are it will be of no value if it doesn’t leave you inspired.”

His vision is that through value based education the young generation will feel inspired to shoulder greater responsibilities and become the spearheads for the much needed social and political change our country requires.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has always encouraged people to take the best from each culture. “So, take punctuality from the Germans, take etiquette from the Brits, take an eye for detail from the Japanese and so on. Open your horizons for learning. Each and everyone can teach you something valuable.”

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar points out that “Education teaches taking up of responsibility. When you become responsible you stop complaining and take positive action to alter the situation. Taking up responsibilities leads to increased learning and enhanced leadership skills.”

You are a Free Bird - A talk by Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

If you are not crazy, you will never find God. Become crazy! Becoming crazy means coming out of your bondages.  Become free. “Vimuktoham”. “I am free”. Feel the freedom.

You are like a free bird. You are fully open. Feel that you are flying like a bird. Fly. This is something which you have to experience within yourself. There is nothing else. If you consider yourself as bonded, you will remain bound here. There should be nothing on your head. This is the meaning of surrender.

What is surrender? Not having anything in your head. If you are traveling in a train, once you get on that train, you put all your things down. You do not carry your things on your head or hold it in your hands. The moment you board a plane, you put your things under the seat or above, you may even go off to sleep.

Experience freedom. When will you experience freedom? After you die?  Become free now, Become contented. There is something in you which says “I have to do this. I have to achieve”. Sometimes, sit at ease thinking ‘I have nothing to do now”. When you sit for meditation you should not even talk. Do not practice this on the dining table, “ I have nothing

to say. Let the food enter my mouth”. This cannot happen. We apply all our principles according to our convenience. If you are told to get up early in the morning and come for meditation, do not say, “I have nothing more to do. I am fine”. The problem with knowledge is that, everything can be interpreted wrongly.

“Naturalness, love, faith, acceptance” these are the four legs of the chair you are seated upon. Even if one among them is cut, your chair begins to shake. You begin to fall.

You say to someone close to you “If you want anything I am there for you’. You should become capable of saying this to everyone. “if you need me I am there for you”. That is called seva.

“I am there for you”, do not be afraid to utter these words because you fear that you will be used by people. Nothing of that sort will happen. You are afraid of opening your fists. We say, “open your fists. The whole sky will be in your hands”. What is there with you, that you have to hold your fists?  You have nothing with you. Be natural. Be with love. Do service. Celebrate all your life.

From Talks by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

what is boredom? - Talk by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

What is boredom?...  Just a repetition, without love, repetition of anything to the extent that it surpasses liking or interest, is boredom. It is not bad, neither is it good. Only man is capable of boredom; no other animal is capable of getting bored. That’s why cows are not bored; they look perfectly happy and seem to be enjoying. Suppose if you have to sing a song and if you don’t like it or if you have to sing it several times you get bored. Suppose you love a song, then it doesn’t bore you, you can sing it the whole day.

Boredom is lack of interest and love. If you keep doing all your practices again and again, that creates boredom. Is there any permanent solution for boredom? What are the reasons behind it? What are our feelings when we are bored? The want of new

What is the nature of the mind? The mind needs something new constantly, every minute, every second... It wants something today,something else tomorrow or an entirely different thing the day after tomorrow. You get bored if you have to eat the same vegetable everyday. You want to taste different varieties of food every day. Why? Mind wants something new all the time.

But how much newness can exist? The wanting for newness has to stop somewhere.

Become Aware of the constant Repetitive Cycle

There is no boredom in love. When lovers write letters they write love, love, love, love all over. They never get bored of it. As you keep repeating and doing your practices again and again,  boredom vanishes and love arises.

Many eat rice everyday, only the vegetables served are different, but the rice is the same. People who are used to eating rice every day never get bored with it and in fact feel unhappy if there is no rice for even one day.

If you are used to somebody shouting at you all the time, you get so used to it that you just let him or her shout, however long they want to and you continue with your work. When you are used to anger, the heat of anger does not affect you.

Whatever the mind gets used to because of practice, it never gets bored with it. So there is a close relationship between practice and love. How? There is repetition in love and there is repetition in practice.

What is the purpose of practice? Practice means doing the same thing again and again like japa or sadhana. The purpose of sadhana is to first bring up boredom and then destroy the boredom. The goal of practice is to root away the boredom within us.


Where is love

The self is all love and love is always repetitive. If the self is all love, then how can you get bored with yourself? Not possible! You are bored with your mind, not with yourself. Mind always wants change. It is bored without change and practice is doing the same thing, repeating the same thing without changing so that the mind gets thoroughly bored and bored and bored.

Sometimes you hum a line of a movie song, bhajan or traditional music which suddenly flashes to you while bathing. You later realise that you would have hummed the whole day, the same line. This is because love and practice has happened. So sit for half an hour every day and say something, Ram, Ram, Shiva, Shiva, Shiva. You keep saying ‘Om Namah Shivaya, Om Namah Shivaya, Om Namah Shivaya’ and you get bored and bored and the boredom becomes so much that nothing else can really bore you. Only when you penetrate this boredom does love arise.

Boredom and Enthusiasm

Have you noticed a child? A child never gets bored. It says the same thing again and again. If a child asks a question it keeps asking the same thing and it goes on non-stop. You get bored but the child doesn’t get bored. The child is not bored opening the same book several times. There is nothing new in the book, but it opens and closes, opens and closes. That is why mothers have time. They give some toy to the child, the beads in a string. They go on stringing the beads from this side to that side.

If you take children to an exhibition and they see the roller coaster or merry go round and they want to sit on it. You try to convince them, “don’t sit on it, your head will turn. Not today, we will come again tomorrow”. After listening to all that you say, at the end of it they, “daddy I want to sit on it. Mama, I want to sit on it”. Repetition is children’s nature.

When you cannot get bored with yourself, you cannot get bored with anything else in the world. Then if you have to say the same thing over and over again you will say it with the same enthusiasm. Wherever your mind goes meditate on that !

Maharshi Patanjali said, “yathābhimatadhyānādḥvā”. “Wherever your mind goes meditate on that”. If your mind drawn towards your grand child then meditate on your grand child. See God in your grand child and worship the child. Do whatever pleases you. At least let your mind get used to that half an hour of pr

actice. “yathābhimatadhyānādḥvā”. Do whatever pleases you the most. We had been to a place near kerala where we saw an idol. The idol was half Ganesha and half Hanuman. We were surprised to see this new idol. We had seen nothing like it before. We have seen Ganesha, Hanuman, Ardhanareeshwara (half man and woman) and Harihara (Shiva and Vishnu together). So we were surprised to see half Ganesha and half Hanuman, Ganesha’s trunk was cut into half and had become the face of Hanuman, Why this?

Humans have used up all that was there in the past and are bored by it, so there was this new combination of Gods. The idea was to arrest the mind in the new form. Now the mind runs towards Ganesha and also towards Hanuman. So what to do? Okay, join both of them. There is no harm in doing this. It is good if the mind stands still.

Move from Boredom to celebration

We are often bored with our own selves. To take away the boredom in us we keep doing many things and keep wandering everywhere. If the stink is arising from your mouth what is the use of applying perfume all over the house? What is the use of spraying the air-
freshener or lighting an agarbathi (incense) stick in the house? From where is the stink coming? It is coming from the stomach. Till you treat the stomach, the stink will not vanish. If you want relieve yourself from your boredom and you try to be in someone else’s company, they will be more bored than you, If you are bored with your self, they how much boring you must be for others?

Do your personal satsang everyday. Sit down everyday and assume that you have a return ticket in your hand and think that you are going to leave today. See how peaceful the mind becomes. You can see a vision. A vision which reveals that everything is a dream and
this life is only for a short time. The moment this realization dawns in you, the fault-
finding mind which keeps saying “that is not right, this is not right”, becomes calm, unless the grumbling mind is quietened, you will never get the ultimate. ‘When we are joyous with ourselves, then nothing from outside can seem boring to us’

Even if your practices are boring, then know that is doing its job. If it is giving you joy, then also know that it is doing its job. In eitherway practice, whether it is giving you joy or boredom. Don’t change your practices if you are bored with them. Be with the boredom,be with the practice and you will see a break through happening in you. If you change the practice and then you do another practice, you will just keep changing the practice and the mind remains as it is. It does not get transformed. Boredom is the boiling point of the mind, the mind bursts.

From Talks by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Alone , yet not Lonely! - A talk by Sri Sri

If you ever think nobody loves you, know for sure that you are loved. The earth loves you; that’s why it is holding you upright. The love of the earth is its gravitational force. The air loves you; that’s why it moves through your lungs even when you are sleeping. The Divine loves you very dearly, deeply. Once you realise this, you will never feel lonely.

Someone’s company cannot fill your loneliness. Even if it does, it is very short-lived. You can still feel lonely in spite of being in company. In a real sense, loneliness can only be filled by being alone. If you could be comfortable being alone for some time, then you will not feel lonely. When you don’t feel lonely, you can spread joy to people around you.

People run after parties and celebrations, but for the one who does not run after them, parties and celebrations follow him wherever he or she goes. If you run after parties, loneliness comes to you and if you are in the solitude of the self, celebrations surround you.

If you enjoy being with your self, you will not be a boring personality. If you are lonely, then you can be boring to others. And that will make you more lonely! And if your own company bores you, how much more boring must you be to someone else?

Any company looks very good from a distance or but when you get closer to it, it pushes all your buttons and brings about many unwanted emotions in you. If you think some group is very good, then it means that you are not yet completely with the group. When you are part of that group you will find some bickering coming up.

Those who are in company all the time look for the comforts of solitude and those who are in solitude feel lonely and want to be in company. Everyone is looking for a perfect balance. That perfect balance is like a razor’s edge and can only be found in the Self. If you take out some time, say one week in a year, to be with yourself and observe our own thoughts and emotions, then you will get a sense of what quietness means.

From time to time, keep a little distance from whomsoever close to you and take some time off for your own space. From the moment you wake up in the morning, you are always with people and your mind is caught up in worldly thoughts. So sometime during the day, sit for a few minutes and get into the cave of your heart. Then you will not feel lonely even when you are alone.

Live your life well. If you are useful to people all your life, there will be hundreds and millions of people to take care of you. Mother Teresa and Acharya Vinoba Bhave, for example, were sick in bed for a long time. Do you think there was nobody to give them company? There were hundreds waiting to take care of them and all they did was to be useful to people around them.

One way to get over the feeling of loneliness is to do some service (seva) and be useful to people around you. The day you feel hopeless, horrible and worse, get out of your room and ask people, “What can I do you for you? The service you did will bring a revolution inside you. Seva always connects you with people. 

When you make service your sole purpose in life, it eliminates fear, brings focus in your mind, purposefulness in action, and long-term joy.

Every time you are unhappy or miserable or lonely, you are just coming in touch with your own boundaries. It is limitation and boundary that is the real cause of your disturbance. You are peaceful and happy until come in contact with your boundaries.  The moment you come in contact with it, then the mind goes on a trip and you move out of your centre. At that moment what can you do? You can just be grateful and pray for peace. That very moment, you will start smiling and however hopeless the situation is, you will walk through it.

You cannot force enthusiasm and confidence to come back to you. You read many books, stand on your head, wear nice clothes…, but nothing will work. When you feel useless, use that time to be prayerful and you will see no sooner, you will gain the confidence and enthusiasm beyond all your imagination. When you don’t have enthusiasm, you will share only your grievances. If you are filled with grievances, you will talk about only that. That doesn’t mean that you are miserable. Whether it is extreme joy or happiness or terrible misery, there is a part in every human being that remains untouched by that. Similarly, you can’t go on mourning all your life. Sorrow comes and goes.

How can you gain that peace which is unshakeable? Being individually happy is not enough. Our wish should be that whomever we meet be happy and radiate happiness. A frustrated man will create frustration; a jealous person will create jealousy and so on. It’s better to be lonely than being in bad company.

What is bad company? The company which solidifies your negativity is bad company. For example, you have some problem and you go and talk to someone and he or she makes your negativity stornger, then that is bad company. And you go to someone else with the same problem, same negativity, and he or she make you feel lighter and when you walk away from them you feel that the problem is not as big as you thought it was. That is the right company. Bad company brings ambition, desire, frustrations, anger and delusion. That company which gets you lost, and doesn’t let you learn from your own experience, is bad company.

Don’t think people who agree with your grievances, with your problems, are your friends. Those people who make your negative feelings, your frustrations, grow more and more, they may appear to be friends, but they are your enemies. Often, your own mind is your worst enemy. The negative tendency in your mind is your own enemy.

To come out of loneliness, you make friends with people who share something in common with you. But coming together in knowledge is rare. Be a friend in knowledge and uplift each other. Learn and unlearn from the past and move on with creative zeal and enthusiasm. The trying time brings the best out of you. The rewarding time gives the best of the world to you. Life is a combination of both.  

From Talks by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar talks on Miracles

There are three components in life :

1. Effort. Without your self-effort, nothing happens. So you have to put your effort. Will everything   happen only through your effort? No.
*You make an effort and view erectile dysfunction medications cialis sow a mango sapling today and you want the fruit of it tomorrow, it is not going to give you the fruits tomorrow. It will take its time.

2. That is the second aspect: time. Everything has a right time.
Similarly, even for acting there is a right time. Suppose in winter you sow a mango sapling and then you say, ‘Oh, nothing has sprouted’, it is not going to sprout now, unless it is in a green house. There is a right time to act and a right time to receive the fruit of action as well. So, time is the second factor.

3. The next factor is a higher power or grace; that of all possibilities.
You should always keep room for possibilities; give miracles a chance. Logically you may think that something is impossible, but many times it becomes possible. How many of you have had this experience? A gift from the higher power is that of all possibilities.

You can club the three components as perseverance, patience and possibility. These are the three aspects. This is knowledge.

At midnight, you cannot say, 'I made all the effort, I removed the curtain but the sun is not coming in'. No, the sun will only come at the right time. And if you have all the blinders on even when the sun is there, you will not get the light. So, all the three have to match.
Like in a cell phone, the charger, sim card and the signal, all these have to be there. If the phone is charged but the sim card isn’t there or the range isn’t there, then the phone is not going to work. So, all three aspects are needed.

If you put a lot of effort at the right time, there is achievement. But sometimes it also happens that you put very little effort but still you are very successful. This is because the unseen possibilities are coming to your help. For example: someone has not put any effort, but they won a lottery.
When time and possibilities come together, you call it luck. You say, ‘I don’t know how it all happened!’. In a devotee’s life this is more; the right time and the possibility come together.

When at the right time you put a lot of effort, it will give you benefit. When you put in a lot of self effort, but there is very little support from nature, that is bad luck. When there is little effort but a lot of support from the divine, it is good luck.

Solar eclipse is over just now. Eclipse is a very good time for mantra chanting and cialis daily prescription cost compared explanation meditation. When the Earth, Sun and Moon are in one line, at that time it affects the mind, and they say that when you chant mantras at that time, it is much more powerful. This is the ancient saying.
One or two hours before an eclipse, stop eating so that the food gets digested well and during the eclipse time you have an empty stomach, and on the empty stomach chanting and mantras are done for maximum result.

From Talks by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar talks on Liberation

What is mukti (liberation)?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: When you take the last breath joyfully that is mukti (liberation). Those who experience some lack and are sad while dying, they return. Be satisfied at the time of your death. The one who is immersed in knowledge, even while dying, will be free.

Why do we want to be liberated?

 Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Wanting freedom is a natural phenomenon. What you feel after your exams are over is a little experience of liberation (moksha). In life also you burn in your own hopes and desires. These desires have only brought you misery. When you relax taking a step outside all this, there is liberation (moksha). When you sit for meditation with the feeling, I am nothing, I want nothing, and I do nothing - this feeling is the feeling of freedom. It is fun, it is freedom.

To break the cycle of birth and death we have to attain mukti/liberation, then why do enlightened masters reincarnate?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: With one goal - to help those who are in need and on the other hand just to play.

Can charity grant liberation?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Charity purifies wealth. Ghee/clarified butter purifies food. Knowledge purifies the intellect. Bhajan purifies the mind & Service purifies the action.

It is said that if someone is enlightened, his or her generations are liberated. If it is so then can one choose not to have children and devote his/her entire life to seva?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Good, no problem if you don’t choose to have children that is fine. Yet what is necessary is that you have to feel that you are the parent of the entire world, that everybody on this planet is a child and that they belong to you. At least this you can have, no one can stop you from feeling that or thinking that.

If mukti (liberation) is our nature then why are we in bondage?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar : Who says mukti is our nature? Our nature is bliss. Love and enjoyment can put you in bondage, if it is devoid of knowledge. With knowledge, the same love, the same enjoyment leads you to the experience of liberation.

Liberation and bondage go together. If there is liberation, there will be bondage and vice-versa. Liberation is valued because of bondage. If there is no bondage, what is there to be liberated from?

Similarly we can be liberated, that is why we experience bondage. With the desire for liberation we come to know that we are in bondage. If the desire for liberation has not risen then you will not even come to know of bondage.

From Talks by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Varying Hues Of Human Perception

Human race is diverse, so too its cultures and belief systems. Though religion is born in a particular race and nation, today it has cut across boundaries of race and nationality. Although religion has maintained its own identity, it could not remain immune to the cultural influence of host countries. It is interesting to note that what is considered blasphemy in one religion is considered a matter of pride in another. For example, in Hinduism, playing the role of prophets and saints is considered a privilege. Every year Ram Lila and Krishna Lila are played across India and innumerable people dress themselves up to play the parts of Sri Rama, Sri Krishna, Hanuman and others. In the Christian tradition as well, Nativity tableaus are performed and watched as a respectful tribute to Jesus. Many actors abstain from personal bad habits for the period of these roles. People even carry big crosses and retrace the steps of Jesus through the streets of Jerusalem to relive the crucifixion themselves. The basic concept is that when you imitate somebody, you imbibe their qualities. 

By contrast, in Islam, imitating or playing such a role is considered blasphemy and an insult to the Prophet. In fact, music, sculpture, dance and painting were banned in puritanical Islam. 

“The Prophet said that Allah commanded him to destroy all the musical instruments, idols, crosses and all the trappings of ignorance.” Hadith Qudsi 19:5

“Allah Mighty and Majestic sent me as a guidance and mercy to believers and commanded me to do away with musical instruments, flutes, strings….” (Musnad Ahmad & Abu Dawud Tayalisi)

Man cannot be without these expressions of art. Slowly, the influence of Hinduism gave birth to Sufism. Although it was banned in strictly orthodox Islam, music slowly found it way back into society, though the puritans object to this even today.

Interestingly, a parallel of this can be found in the Bhagwad Gita as well.

buddhya visuddhaya yukto 
dhrtyatmanam niyamya ca 
sabdadin visayams tyaktva
raga-dvesau vyudasya ca  [Chapter 18, verse 51]

In the above verse and the few following it, Lord Krishna says that a seeker of Divinity should transcend all sensory objects like sound and sight. However, this is a practice for yogis for a period of time and not a lifestyle as such. While Hinduism, on the one hand, encourages music by calling it Naada Brahmn, on the other hand, it says that one has to transcend sound to reach Para Brahmn, the Ultimate Reality. These opposite values in Hinduism gave it a broad spectrum and they bring in a lot of tolerance.

While criticising, mimicking or accusing a politician is legal in some countries, in some others, it is an offence. The west takes pride in freedom of speech and allows people to express extreme opinions. However, in other places, such expressions can be an emotional assault on the sentiments of people. The outrage and violence that we have seen due to films like Innocence of Muslims says it all. What is appalling is that in the protests against the film, a large number of innocent muslims were killed.

In the end, it is we who attach meaning to an expression. Somewhere those who are very sensitive seem to lack sensibility and somewhere else people who are very sensible seem to lack sensitivity. What is needed is the perfect balance between sensitivity and sensibility in today’s globalised society.
From Talks by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Finding Life's Direction - Talk By Sri Sri

A river needs two bunks to flow. The difference between flood and a flowing river is that water flows regulated in a direction in a river. During floods the water is muddled and has no direction. Similarly, the energy in our life needs some direction to flow. If you don’t give direction, it is all confusion.

Today most people are in confusion because there is no direction in life. When you are happy, there is so much of life energy in you; but when this life energy doesn’t know where to go, how to go, it gets stuck. When it stagnates, it rots! Just like the water has to keep flowing, in the same way, life has to keep moving.

For life energy to move in a direction, commitment is essential. Life runs with commitment. If you observe  the small or big things in life, it moves with certain commitment. A student takes admission in a school or college with a commitment. You go to a doctor with a commitment saying that you are going to take the medication or listen to whatever the doctor says, The banks work on commitment. Government works on commitment. Needless to say, a family runs on commitment: mother is committed to the child, child is committed to the parents, husband is committed to wife, and wife is committed to husband. Whether it is in love or business or friendship or at work or any area of life you take, there is commitment.

What would really irritate you is non-commitment. If you just observe, you expect some commitment from someone and when they don’t do it, you get upset. Or when someone doesn’t keep up his or her commitment, you get upset. Commitment is essential in life. You cannot stand someone who does not commit, but see how much commitment have you taken in your life?

In life, what you always want is more joy, more power and more energy. You want more, anything you are given, you want more - more money, more fame, more beauty, more joy, more pleasure. This “wanting something more” envelopes your mind and then you do not look at your capabilities. More will be given to you only if you utilize properly what you already have! This is a law in nature. Why should the nature give you more when you are stuck with your little mind?

This tendency of wanting more is there in you; you only have to give a twist to it. Instead of “what more I can have”, just turn it around and start asking yourself “what more I can do?” Then you will see that there is joy. Nature of joy is to give because you are the source of joy!

Usually we think we should have resource and then we will commit. The greater the commitment you take, the greater the resources will come to you automatically. You don’t have to sit and worry how you will get resources. When you have the intention to do something, resources simply flow when it is needed and how much it is needed.

In doing what you can do, there is no growth. Stretching a little beyond your capacity will increase your capacity. In whatever capacity you do something for the society, for the environment, for the creation, that much you progress further both materially and spiritually, value wise. The heart opens up with a feeling that you are part of everyone.

The technique to get depressed is to sit and think only about yourself! If you just sit and think, “what about me, what will happen to me?” you will surely get depressed. The way to expand from individual to universal consciousness is to share other’s sorrow and joy. As you grow, your consciousness should also grow. When you expand in knowledge with time, then depression is not possible. Your innermost source is joy.

The way to overcome personal misery is to share universal misery! The way to expand personal joy is to share universal joy. Instead of thinking “what about me?” “What can I gain from this world?” think “what can I do for the world?” When everyone comes from the point of contributing to society, you have a Divine Society. We have to educate and culture our individual consciousness in order to expand in time with the Knowledge from “what about me?” to “what can I contribute?”

A commitment can only be felt when it oversteps convenience. That which is convenient, you do

not call it commitment. If you just go on your convenience, your commitment falls apart causing more inconvenience! If you keep dropping your commitment because it is inconvenient, can you be comfortable? Often, what is convenient does not bring comfort, but gives an illusion of comfort.

Whatever you are committed to brings you strength. If you are committed to your family then your family supports you, if you are committed to your society, you enjoy the support of society. If you are committed to God, God gives you strength. If you are committed to Truth, Truth brings you strength.

Often one is not aware of this idea and that is why one is hesitant to commit to a greater cause. Also there is a fear that commitment would weaken one or take away one’s freedom. To the wise, their commitment is their comfort. Whenever their commitment is shaken, their comfort is also shaken. To the lazy, commitment is torture though it is the best remedy! Your commitment to a cause is bound to bring you comfort in the long run.

Are there any commitments that can be given up? Yes, commitments made with shortsightedness can be given up because when you are committed without a vision, you feel stifled when your vision expands. When your commitment brings misery to many in the long run, it can be given up. Just like you run out of fuel in the car and you have to refill it again and again, in the same way your dedication and commitment runs out in the course of time and it needs constant renewal! Commitment in life grows toward a higher cause. The higher the commitment, the greater is the good for all.

From Talks by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Talk by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

If you want to become one of those people who are rich and famous then go for it, it’s not so difficult. Whether you are a hero, heroine, you will find once you are in the field which you are finding very great - it is just ok. If your calling is very strong then go for it, it is not difficult.
You know, our body is constantly emitting energy, vibrations. You are emitting energy all the time. And when you know your vibrations is what makes things happen in the world, you will know that you are in control. So when you are thinking that things are going to be negative then that is what seed you are putting in the universe, and that is going to happen. So with your positive thinking, positive ideas, positive sankalpa… It is said, that let positive vibrations come out of you.
Negative thoughts arise in you, yet you tell, everything is positive. And how does that happen? Not by just thinking, but by relaxing. Cutting a thought with another thought is only superficial but cutting a thought by silence, by letting go, bydevotion, by faith, by surrendering to God, it is deeper.
Maharishi Patanjali says that poise of mind happens when you offer all that you can’t handle yourself to God, to the universal spirit.
The universal spirit is all around you, all the time. It doesn’t have a form, a name but it is around you all the time and you surrender your desires to that universal spirit. Be sure and know that your problem is going to be solved. That is siddhi,perfection. You notice in your own life, be centered, relax and let go and you will see things are happening effortlessly, it has to happen that way and if you don’t find that way, then there is some screw in the mind that is loose, that needs to be fixed. People ask for blessings and I give blessings in abundance, blank cheques of blessings but you should know how to fill it, encash it and the way to encash it is, ‘it is going to be done’, ‘my needs will be taken care of’, ‘best will be done’ without a question. Sometimes we don’t know what we desire, or we desire for something that we don’t deserve, or we desire for something much less than what we deserve. Ask and it will be given. When we deserve for more and desire for less, ask skillfully. So what is the way? Ask skillfully, and how: ‘I want this or anything better than this’.And have that positive frame of mind because it’s all neurons. One of the scientists says that our brain has different types of neurons, and there are certain neurons which create barriers. When a person in front of you touches someone else, the brain says, ‘You are being touched’ but there are certain neurons in hand which sends a signal to the brain that says, ‘it is not you being touched’. If your hand is given anesthesia and then if someone touches someone else, you will also feel the touch. And he (the scientist) says, we all are nothing but neurons, we all are connected,everybody is connected. The subtler we go we find there are only vibrations, and there are no neutrons, protons, electrons but all that exists is – vibrations. And then he says numbers are very important.
In Rudrapooja we say ‘ekachame, trisraschame…’,yesterday only we understood why do we say that. We chant odd numbers first and then even numbers in the Rudrapooja. He said if numbers won’t be there, the whole universe will collapse. Everything exists on numbers, on figures and if one number goes missing, the whole universe will collapse. It’s like on a cell phone you want to make a call and if you dial one wrong digit the call never goes to the right person. One can’t argue saying, ‘If one digit is wrongly dialed, how come I can’t make a call?’ And if everything is right, then life gets connected, so numbers are so important. And it is all just vibration.
One of the greatest physicist who was in the team of creating first nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki says. ‘I studied matter for 35 years to find out it doesn’t exist. What exists is just vibration’. Everyone of us is emitting andabsorbing vibrations. And chanting, singing creates such a positive vibrations, you become a source of energy.
What is the difference between a bulb which is lit and a bulb which is not? One is emitting energy and in the other, no energy movement is there. And all singing,chanting and meditating is like lighting the bulb. Have you noticed the difference between those who are doing all this with faith and someone who has never done this? It reflects on their face. If you haven’t started noticing you better start noticing! (laughter)
What happens when you are worrying all the time? Suddenly you find the brain, the upper part has become like a stone, the heart has become like a stone. Similarly what happens when you hear a negative comment about yourself from somebody, the whole body has become heavy. You can’t avoid people saying negative things about you. How many have this question? And how many have this experience? When someone says something negative about you or when a close friend of you is feeling very low, suddenly you also start feeling the same, your whole energy gets down. That is why satsang is that important, this knowledge is that important. When you focus on someone who isdepressed, you also feel the same and when you participate in a satsang your whole focus is shifted to knowledge. That’s why the Guru is important because when you think of Guru, when you shift your focus to the Guru in a few moments, your energy gets restored, you get back to your normal self. How many of you have experienced this? There is an old proverb ‘Guru bina gati nahin’ means there is no progress without the Guru because there are so many people around you and you are being tossed and turned by everybody’s moods, emotions and blames, and you are stuck, you can’t notice that. But when a Guru is there nothing of this will matter to you and even if it does it is only for few minutes or hours and then you are able to push through it, move through it. Like you have a rain coat and if it is raining you can always protect yourself from rain. In this context ancient people in India, Korea, Japan even in China had said that spiritual teacher, master or a person who is on the path is so important, so that you don’t have to keep feeling this negative vibrations, heaviness for daystogether.
Secondly, if you find nobody is available, no commune is available then what you do? Chant, do pranayama, nature walk, Vedanta or this science that everything is just vibrations.
Numbers are very important, so we chant ‘Om NamahShivaya’ 108 times, in Islam also they put a number 786, right? In Rudra Abhishek we chant an odd and even sequence of numbers. That changes the vibrations. Even pundits don’t have answers of chanting numbers in Rudra Abhisheka. We have to listen to the scientists to understand. They say this whole space is curved. Space is also like water, like you put a ball in water it curls. Water is a medium, like that space is also a medium and this was also said thousands of years ago in Vedas and that is why, it is the fifth element. Space is where vibration travels, it is a medium like water, air, fire and earth. And the same thing, scientists are saying today. It is amazing to see how people 10,000 years ago knew that space has a curvature, it is a medium and there are not one but 10 dimensions, which is the spirit. These facts open your mind to a higher reality.
From Talks by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar