27 December 2012 - QA 3

Gurudev, you said that 2012 was going to be the year of 'Nanda' (bliss). How come it was such a hard year?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: The year of Nanda is not yet over, it will be over end of March.There are still three months more.
You know, it is good when things churn inside you, then you wake up.
It is not that it happens only in the outside world, but even in the spiritual field, it happens. People come here for spirituality but they get caught up in so many other things.

The other day a person came to me, and I said,‘Why did you come to me? You came to me for knowledge, and you have left the knowledge and you are thinking about all other things.'
That person said, 'This person said like this to me.’
Come on! If the world is bad, it is for a good reason; so that you better straighten yourself up. When you don’t see your own flaws, you see flaws in everybody else, and you think, ‘Everybody is bad, only I am good.'
I tell you, people who think like that are seriously wrong. They are not saadhaks (spiritual seekers). To be a saadhak is to look at oneself and see, 'What should I correct in myself, let me correct that.'
You cannot complain that it is cold in Germany in winter. It will be. It is good to stay indoors.
So, catch hold of wisdom. That is the only truth and the only reality. And that is what all this knowledge, meditation and sadhana is for. It gives you such inner strength that you can walk with a smile under any circumstance. Isn’t that what everyone is aspiring for?
Such an inner strength, that come what may, nobody can snatch your smile.
This is most needed.