20 February 2014 - QA 2

Gurudev, I feel free in certain areas, and in certain aspects I feel bound. The more efforts I put to be free, the more bound I feel. How can I be free?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

I think you have too much free time. Get busy and keep working for the betterment of the world and you will see that all your personal issues and emotional issues will get resolved by themselves.

Don’t waste time in thinking, what about me? What others think about me? How I feel, how I don’t feel? Who bothers about what you feel and what you don’t feel?
You feel bad one day, good another day. Who cares about it? And when nobody cares for your feeling, why do you care for your feeling so much?
At least learn from others. You are a great follower of others. Whatever they do, you follow. They don’t care for your feelings, why do you care for your own feelings? Throw your feelings out, listen to your intellect and see what you need to do. That is it. Know that whatever you have to get, you will get. Whatever is due to you, will come to you. And whatever you need to do, you must do it.

When you die, two questions will come in front of you. How much love you have given and how much knowledge have you gained? These two things are your life's lessons. What did you learn from life and what did you give out in your life?
Instead, we act as if it is the other way around. We want to give knowledge to people. Everyone is good in advising others. What they should be doing and how things should be. They don’t even spare the Guru. Every day, lots of advice comes to the Guru also on how things should be done. They will teach the Guru how to give blessing also.
'Give me proper blessing Gurudev. Put your hand on my head to bless me'.

Yesterday, a lady came to wash my feet, she took a bucket and started pouring water all over. So happy and enthusiastically, having waited for ten years and having got this chance to wash the feet of the Guru with a bucket of water. Then she took a coconut, moved it around me and banged it on the floor. The others around me got frightened and worried that the coconut may hit my feet. But you can’t say anything, or scold them when they are so happy, and filled with so much emotion, love and devotion.

People throw flowers from all sides. I really have to protect my eyes by covering it. As satsangs are at night, I can’t even wear sunglasses. Daytime, I wear sunglasses mainly to stop flowers from getting into my eyes.

One swamiji, in a village in India, would go on a chariot on a particular day. This was a tradition from 2000 years ago. The chariot used to be decorated very well but would have a mosquito net around it. I wondered why they put the net around, as you can see the swami only through the net. They said that the devotees throw coconuts and bananas (laughter). They want to give gifts personally in his hand.
Here also, people don’t see how many people are in front of them. They put their hands on top of several heads and compress people to make sure that their letter reaches me. What to do? These are problems, but we can't complain because love is blind.

But don’t think that I am encouraging this behavior. I want you to be disciplined.
Especially people who get to spend time with me should not come when there is a big rush. Some people push to come forward and sit in the front all the time. They don’t realize that other new people have come, and they should give them a chance also. Me, mine, I should go and sit. I should occupy my seat. Jumping over people’s heads, etc., to come and sit in the front. This is no good.

Those who bother and push and elbow others are not my favorite people. There are couple of people who don’t listen to me; even after my telling them one hundred times not to come, not to follow me. They are not my favorite at all. We must have some discipline. No doubt we have so much love, but we need discipline also.
I rarely give instructions, but even when I do, some are such hard nuts that they don’t listen. They just do what they want to do. I give total freedom to everyone and I never impose anything on them. That is why when someone asks, I say, the choice is yours and blessing is mine. But you should be sensitive and not create problems for others.

99.9% people are alright. There are only one or two such elements who break the rules, fight with the guards, etc. In that sense we are lucky. We have very nice and sensitive satsang devotees.
If everyone is disciplined, we don’t need any guards at all. When I go out, I don’t ask for guards but the Government gives me 100 policemen, gunmen, etc.

People who travel with me should remember that when there are such big crowds, sometimes thieves also come and they steal people’s purses, phones. They even pick-pocketed my cellphone once in a devotee’s house.
It was a small group of about 30 people. This guy came uninvited into the house and while I was talking to people, he took my phone. I have heard of people losing their phones, but this time in Punjab, I lost my phone too, that too in a devotee’s house. And the devotee cannot stop people from coming to visit Gurudev. Everyone feels a sense of belongingness and everyone walks into everyone’s houses.

Many Yes+ students lose their phones, that’s why I tell them to be more watchful of their belongings. Here too, if you see anyone stealing, catch hold of them. The thieves find it a suitable place as everyone is in bliss and they are not worried about their material belongings, so they relieve them of their material possessions, like their phones, passports, etc. So all of you be a little alert.