1 June 2015 - QA 8

I am an elderly person, and I feel like dying because I am so dependent.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Life is such; you should not feel that I am dependent, and I want to be independent. See, no baby has been independent. As a baby, parents took care of you, and in your old age, your children or someone else will take care of you. So, life in the beginning, and in the end, is dependency. In between, we think we are independent but there also we are dependent on many things.

If your attention is on divinity, then you will not feel the burden of dependency, or the frustration to have independence, both will disappear.

People who feel that they want to have independence, they are also frustrated. This is because wanting independence is a frustration. Come on, wake up. When you were a baby, were you not dependent? No baby thinks 'I want to go back from where I came because I am dependent on my parents', no! Whether in the form of parents, or as children, or as friends, the help you get from anywhere is coming from only one source, i.e., the divinity. It is only the divine who took care of you as your parents, and it is only the divine who will take care of you as your nurse, or neighbour, or friends, or anybody else. Someone will always come and take care of you, you don’t have to worry at all.

This whole sense of insecurity that we build in us should simply be thrown out and burned down. Don’t think your children will take care of you. Maybe during your last breath, your servant or neighbour may come and help you, who knows? Whoever is helping you, it is not that individual that is helping you, it is God helping you in that form. Leave it to the divine energy to help you when you are in need, in whatever form. So you don’t need to feel obliged or burdened by anybody’s help. Got it?

This is a big problem. We feel burdened by somebody’s help. You don’t need to feel burdened by it; that is ignorance. It is only the divine who is helping you through other people. If you have this understanding, the Advaita knowledge, then nothing can restrict your blossoming.