17 July 2014 - QA 4

Dear Gurudev, what is the most effective way to deal with obsessive thoughts?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Just embrace them. The more you try to push them away, the more they come. If obsessive thoughts come, give them a big hug and stay with them for a minute or two and you will see, they just disappear.

Another way is to put a stick in the burning fire and watch it burn. That is how your thought is burning away.

One more way is to watch a flowing river and how the water flows. As the current flows by, your thoughts also flow. Many people go on top of bridges, or where there is water flowing to commit suicide, but when they see the water, they change their mind. This has happened to many people, but not all. There are several who have jumped from the Niagara falls also. They were not looking at the water, they were caught up somewhere in the mind.

Obsessive thoughts can be overcome by these means but best is pranayama, mediation and knowledge. Read some Yoga Vashishtha. Just wake up and see this whole thing is a dream. The moment you observe this is all a dream, the mind snaps out of the past and from obsessions.