24 August 2014 - QA 4

Gurudev, how do we stay self-motivated?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Why do you have to motivate yourself? Just relax and be happy. When you are happy, you are already motivated. If others get happy because of you, do you become happy or not? You become happy right away! What more motivation do you need?

Now, if you have to be happy, it happens only if your family members are happy, right? If everyone around you is happy, you can be happy. If everyone is sad and suffering, you alone will not be happy. If someone has got fever at home, you will not say, 'I will go to a movie and be happy'. Even if you go to a movie, your mind will be at home. Why? It is because our happiness is dependent on the happiness of all around us.

Now, is it enough that our friends and family alone are happy? If your neighbours are lamenting, can you be happy? No! If there are thieves, alcoholics and such type of people in your street, can you be happy? You don’t know what will happen when you get out of the house. If the person in the neighbouring house is a thief or an alcoholic, or if this type of bad people are there around you, can you do anything? No. Is it possible for you to be happy? If anxiety, hatred, crime, all these are not there, we can be happy, isn't it? So, if all are well in our society, we can be well.
So that is why we all need to work towards a better society. If we are well, then we must work towards giving everybody a chance to be well, and so we must spread this knowledge to everyone.