20 May 2015 - QA 7

How does one know if something is coming from one’s head or heart?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

The heart is stronger than the head. Anything that comes from the heart comes with passion; anything that comes from the head comes with ambition. Sometimes, both together, can bring up your feelings, emotions and thoughts.

Do business with your head, and live life with your heart, both are needed. Don’t relate with your spouse, girlfriend, boyfriend or friends only with the head. At the same time, there is no point in being too emotional, too wiggly-wiggly.

Don’t keep on questioning the past, asking people, ‘Why did you do this in the past?’ When you love somebody, never question their love for you! ‘Do you really love me?’ Never ask this! Just imagine, if someone is asking you every day, ‘Do you really love me?’ You will say, ‘My God! How am I going to prove to this lady or this boy that I really love them?’
Don’t put the burden of proof of love on anybody’s head. This is the way you destroy love. When you demand love, you destroy love. Instead, you should be more grateful. If you find someone loves you less, you should ask him, ‘Why do you love me so much?’

You should always feel that you are not worthy of the love that you receive; think that the love you receive is much more than what you deserve. If you come from this space of humility, then you will behave with magnanimity and dignity in all your dealings. You won’t chew on the past, you will live in the present moment, you will honor other people’s opinions, you will understand other’s predicaments; that magnanimity will come from within. If you keep this in mind (that I don’t deserve this love), you will not demand love. And when you don’t demand love in your life, it keeps on increasing.

When you demand love, you destroy love. Even if someone has a lot of love for you, they feel fed up. Just imagine if someone is complaining to you every day, questioning you, policing you all the time, doubting your intention; how many of you will feel suffocated? (Many in the audience raise their hands).
It is totally suffocating. The suffocation will show up in your behavior, and your relationships will get strained and suffer.

In all relationships, whether it is your parents, children, siblings, spouse, friends, families, neighbors; what is most important is your understanding of your emotions, your mind, your ability to be stable, and your own ability to see things from a broader perspective. And that is spirituality.

Spirituality is that which gives you a broader perspective in life; it gives you strength and stability; it gives you a vision and a mission in life.

If you don’t have a vision or a mission in your life, then you feel like a person roaming around without a goal, you have nowhere to go; you simply keep on going around in circles, and then you feel depressed. This is what is happening in today’s society.

Any achievement does not bring about happiness in people’s lives. Even though you have achieved material comforts, family, friends, in spite of all that, there is an emptiness that haunts you. And this haunting emptiness is so painful. To fill that emptiness, people take all sorts of addiction. Okay, you intoxicate yourself, you forget about this world for a few moments, but when you wake up, you are back to square one, the same place or even worse. This is because the intoxication drains you of your energy, and you then have low prana. And with low prana, what comes to mind is the feeling of life being meaningless, you feel, ‘Let me end it here’.

We need to reverse this feeling by being in knowledge. Listen to Ashtavakra Gita, do some Pranayama, Shakti Kriya, Sudarshan Kriya. Millions around the world have found solace, how come you will not find it? You will definitely find it!