8 May 2012 - QA 7

I am afraid that Earth is a testing and training ground. If this is so how do I know what lessons I need to learn or what skills I need to develop? I am tired. How many more lessons to go?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Just forget about everything.
Who says you have to go through some exams? You don’t need to learn anything I tell you, become hollow and empty. Just drop everything before you drop dead. That’s the secret, and be happy!
There is no perfection in the world, I tell you. This world is full of imperfections, just accept it. You’ll be at peace. Did you get it?
And this body and mind belongs to the world. As a spirit you are perfect, as a body and mind complex, you are imperfect. So, if you keep examining yourself you will find imperfection in yourself, and if you keep examining the world you will find imperfection there too. And usually you move from this imperfection to that imperfection. Either you find the world is imperfect and you think you are perfect, or if you think you are imperfect, then you see everybody else is better than you and everyone is perfect, only you are imperfect and you start blaming yourself. So you get into this blame game of blaming either yourself or the world. This is the worst thing for a sadhak; stop doing that!
Offering your imperfections to the Divine say, ‘However I am I belong to you, and you are the Lord, you are the perfect one.’ So you give your imperfection to somebody.
‘Oh mother Divine, you are perfect, I offer myself to you.’
See if you are a soccer player, what do you do? A player offers his imperfections to the coach. You tell the coach that this is what you don’t know and these are your imperfection. Then coach takes over and says, ‘Okay, you don’t worry, I will tell you what to do.’
The same thing, you offer your imperfections to the Guru, ‘Guruji, however I am, my imperfections, I have offered to you’, and relax. It is the silence in you, the quietness in you which is the mother of all skills. It is the mother of perfection. Action is never the mother of perfection, action doesn’t bring in skills. What brings in skills is yoga. Do you know why you should do yoga? Why you should be quiet? Why you should meditate? That brings the perfects skills in you; it brings perfection and a better quality of enjoyment too – all these three benefits.
To enjoy this world also you need to go inward, you need yoga. Yoga brings skill in action, yoga brings out the perfection in you and yoga brings out the talents and skills in you, and also provides you better comforts and enjoyment.