Lo que Sri Sri dijo hoy 

Forbearance, A Quality Of Saints

January 23, 2013

(Below is the transcript of Satsang with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.You can watch the Live webcast of future satsangs)

Bangalore, India

Q: Gurudev, what is the relevance of tapasya (penance or austerities) in Kali Yuga and how should we understand it?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Tapa helps to purify all the organs of the body and rid them of impurities. The entire body gets cleansed and all the sense organs become stronger with tapa.
Tapasya is not done to please God, or to attain self realization, but it is done to make the body and mind stronger.

You must have seen that so many saints do very austere penances (tapasya), especially among the Jains. The Jain saints are able to walk bare foot for long distances. They do not feel very cold in the winters, or too hot during the summers. They develop a resistance towards extreme climatic conditions because of their tapasya. So this is one of the benefits of doing tapasya.
But you should not stretch or overdo this at all. Doing too much tapasya and troubling your own body is not advisable at all. It is wrong to do that.

There are some people who sit with four fires burning all around them, and one on top of their head and do meditation. It is called Panchagni tapasya. All this is not necessary. Torturing the body like this is wrong and should not be done. But a little bit of tapasya is necessary.
It is said, ‘Tapovai dwandva sahanam’, which means forbearing the opposites is tapasya.

Suppose you are travelling somewhere in a bus, and it is a 12 hour long journey for which you have to sit. Then that also is a sort of tapasya.

Being in a state of equanimity, and enduring whatever come, whether it is hot or cold, good or bad, praise or criticism, is tapasya.
Can you listen to an insult with the same equanimity as when you listen to compliments? That is tapasya. When someone praises you, you listen to it with a smile. When someone criticizes you, can you listen to it with the same smile and equanimity, and watch what is happening inside you? That is tapasya.
When you do not like something but are able to undergo that, then that is tapasya.
If you can like something, can you be a witness to it and not be feverish about it, then that is tapasya.

Forbearing the opposites is called tapasya, and it is essential in life.
The extent to which we follow tapasya in life, to that extent we become stronger and stable.

Q: Gurudev, you have often said that knowledge should be used like soap. But if it needs to be washed off then how can it be symbolic of our true nature. So does it mean that knowledge is not our true nature?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: There are two types of knowledge.
One is the knowledge of the Self which is our true nature. And the other kind of knowledge is that which is used like soap.
Do you know why it is said to use knowledge as a soap? So that you do not become arrogant about having knowledge. You should not think, ‘I know so much; I know everything.' You should not become egoistic about knowledge. So to get rid of such an ego, it is said that knowledge should be used like a soap.
This is the actual meaning.

Q: Dear Gurudev, what is the power of the subconscious mind and how do I utilize it?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: The conscious mind is in fact only one-tenth of your subconscious mind. So the subconscious mind has a lot of power.
Suppose you are having a pyjama party and eight of you are sleeping and someone calls out your name, only you will respond. Others will continue to remain in deep sleep. Is it not so? Have you noticed this?
This indicates that even your name is ingrained in your subconscious mind. Meditation is the way to make the subconscious mind become more and more conscious.

Q: Dear Gurudev, how to leave the intellect and go back to innocence? By doing so, does it not become acting?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: When the intellect matures, you become innocent. Also even when emotions take over, then also you will move into innocence.
Innocence is one aspect of your life and everybody has it. What comes in the way is the concepts in the intellect, such as judgements, or thinking that ‘I know it all’, or ‘I know it better’, etc. That is what blocks the intellect from maturing fully.
Meditation and pranayama help you to reverse the journey back from the intellect to your innocence.
Also, when there are people who know much more than you and you feel, ‘Oh, I know very little’, then also innocence will simply come up in you.
When you make an assessment about yourself that is wrong, then that may cause you to feel out of touch with your innocence.

Q: Gurudev, please talk about passion and the lack of passion.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Passion is essential in life but it cannot be constant.
There are always ups and downs in passion. The intensity of passion will go up sometimes and then come down, and then again go up, and that is healthy.
Usually what happens is that when your passion for something goes down, you feel so bad, as if you have lost something. You start feeling as if you lack something, and wonder what to do. I would say, just relax.
See, passion should also have a little bit of contentment. Sometimes, when contentment comes, passion does go down.
Contentment should also have a strain of passion, otherwise contentment can slip into lethargy and a sense of complacency. So to prevent contentment from slipping into inertia, you need a little passion. And for passion to not become too feverish and make you restless all the time, you need contentment. This will give you the right balance.

Q: Gurudev, there are too many changes happening in my life. Some of them are good and some are bad. How do I deal with change?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Changes are inevitable in life, and in the universe. The universe means changes. But there is something deep within you that is not changing, and you should anchor on to that. That is devotion.

Q: Gurudev, you have spoken much about food and the breath. Would you like to say something about clothes as well? Should we only wear traditional clothes?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Wear comfortable clothes, but I do not prefer wearing those torn clothes and jeans for which you pay so much money. It looks so shabby.
I have heard that if there are holes in the jeans, you have to pay more money for that! This you should not do.
Cotton is the best fabric. If it is mixed with a little bit of polyester, it is also okay, But only polyester should be avoided.
I would prefer that people avoid leather. Do you know just for leather, so many animals are slaughtered. All this should be done away with.
It is said, ‘Ahimsa paramo-dharma’, (Non-violence in all action is the supreme duty or Dharma). Everyone should walk the path of non-violence and be a vegetarian. This is very necessary. Only then will you be able to meditate well.

Q: Gurudev, in addition to the earlier question, I have two other questions. First is: should we wear silk sarees, since silk worms die in the making of the sarees? Is it a sin?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: If you see it in that sense, then when you cut a banana plant or part of it to make the fabric out of it, then also you may think it is a sin, because it is also a jeeva (living being).
What you really must strive for is to cause minimum amount of pain to other living beings. You cannot totally avoid it. So wearing silk is okay.
There are different types of silk. There is a certain type of silk that is made without causing harm to the silk worm. Ahimsa silk is also available (silk obtained without harming or killing insects or animals) in which they do not boil the silk cocoons, but rather extract the silk without disturbing the worms.

Conversations That Matter

January 15, 2013

(Below is the transcript of Satsang with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.You can watch the Live webcast of future satsangs)

Bangalore, India

(Whether it’s spirituality or secularism, issues concerning our society or our everyday lives, we seek solutions.
Combining a keen understanding of social issues with the depth of spirituality, Sri Sri offers a refreshingly practical perspective.)

Q: Gurudev today is army day, can you please talk about our army or defence forces?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Indian army has been one of the best armies of the world; very well managed.
Their discipline, their commitment, their equality and justice is an example to follow. The army men have cultivated discipline so well! I wish that the youths of this country also imbibe the discipline of the men in the army.
In their personalities, you can see there is integrity, commitment and dynamism. Fortunately the army training has instilled such qualities of endurance, dignity and commitment. They have strong commitment to work and discipline.

Many nations in the world have a compulsory military training for a year or two years for the youths and the male members of the society. India should also have some sort of such training for the youth. More numbers of youth should participate in such initiatives.
The Jawans (In India common name given to the youth in the army) and their families really deserve to be congratulated. On this occasion, we also give our condolences to the two Jawans who were recently beheaded by Pakistan. These brave soldiers have been decapitated in such a lousy and cowardly manner by the Pakistani army, and it is a shame upon them for having done such a thing.
The families of these two warriors are still on hunger strike. They want the head back. Our sympathies and our prayers are with those families.

Q: Dear Gurudev, how should we answer those who say, ‘What is the problem if people convert when they get better education and healthcare?'

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Mahatma Gandhi has said that it is a crime to convert people by giving them education and some money. This is a big crime and we should never do that.
Every individual has got the right to make his own decision, and you cannot lure someone to change their religion.
Why do you want to convert others and change their religion? It is because you want your numbers to increase. And why do you want your number to increase? This is because you want to have political power.
You are converting people for politics, and to gain power; this is a nasty thing to do. God will not pardon you.
By converting, you are destroying a culture, you are destroying the demography of society. This should not happen, and we must put an end to this.
Saying, ‘My God is better than your God’, is actually another form of terrorism. In fact, it is the seed of terrorism. So, people who are trying to convert others, I would say that they are also doing the same job as a terrorist, but in disguise.

Q: If the religions institutions and Masters give us practical knowledge which can be implemented in our day to day lives, just like how you have given us, then people would cultivate better understanding, and experience change in their lives. I think, if this could be made possible, then most of the problems that society is facing today will disappear.
I do Sudarshan Kriya and I follow you, but I have respect for all other Masters and religious traditions. I go to temples and I go to mosques as well.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Very good! That is indeed how it should be.
Misleading people by coaxing them to go to temples, or forcing them to offer Namaz is no good. What people need is to experience spirituality; to experience that there is only one God. We are all children of One God and we must spread the love that we have and not hatred.
This is what I have repeatedly been telling the people of Pakistan also. The people there are so nice. Just today I had a talk with them. We have three of our centres running there. People have experienced such happiness after doing the Sudarshan Kriya. All their sorrow and misery has been washed away. Also, there are so many people who share that they met me in their dreams!

Now Pakistan is our neighbouring country, but even if you go Iran, there also people have similar experiences.
Do you know, we have around 60 to 65 of our Art of Living teachers working there, in Iran. The environment there is very rigid and strict, they do not allow the practice of Yoga there. But when the religious police saw my pictures in the homes of our teachers there who also happen to be Muslims, then they said, ‘Oh, Gurudev looks like our grandsire, from whom we have learnt everything! He resembles our own spiritual leader who has educated and initiated us.' So they too did not object to our work there and simply allowed it to happen without any hassles.
So many youths are attending The Art of Living workshops there, and they have come back saying, ‘Oh, we have really been missing something big in life! If we had had such experiences much earlier in our lives, today we would have been far happier and prosperous. Conflicts and fights between neighbours would have come to an end, for good. All hatred would have ended.'

There are some religious leaders, pontiffs and heads, not only Muslims, but Hindus as well, who do not want to let this transformation happen. These leaders fear that they would have to shut their business if people go for such experiences. Yes, it is true!

Among the Hindus too there are some spiritual leaders who actually criticize the Sudarshan Kriya and mislead people by comparing the effects of it to drugs like Opium. They forbid others to go for Art of Living altogether.
Similarly, the Imams (religious leaders among the Muslims) among the Muslims forbid their people to learn or attend the Art of Living courses by telling them that it is practiced by members of another religion. They tell them that you will be misled and deceived in The Art of Living.
We have to tackle and fight against such people who hinder and obstruct the progress and upliftment of an individual.
Those people who obstruct or prohibit learning of such practices or knowledge that can bring such happiness and fulfilment to people are the ones who need to be tackled. They are not doing the right thing, and need to be stopped.
Do not be misled into thinking that such things are happening only among the Muslims or the Christians alone. Even some religious Hindu leaders are also doing the very same thing. This is sheer ignorance. In the Art of Living, we offer our love generously to everybody and pray to God to grant such people a pure and righteous intellect.

Q: Gurudev, can the feeling of nationality and spirituality move together? Do you not think that the love for our country limits our expanse?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: No, not at all. Both can go together, and there is no need for any conflict between the two.
See, you are a part of a democracy. You are a stakeholder in a particular country and its democracy, so you do have a say in that country’s affairs, and you have to stand up and express that. Doing this in no way obstructs your sense of universal brotherhood, or your universal oneness.

Let us say, for example, you are a social worker. Now if there is garbage in your own home, your first duty is to clean your own home.
Now if you ask me, 'If I clean my home, will it not conflict with my cleaning the streets, or cleaning other public places?'
I would say, 'No! If you are going to clean the world, you need to clean your home as well.'
A little bigger extension of your home is your country, and then of course peace in the entire world.
If you do not belong to a particular country, you cannot go and talk about the corruption present in that particular country. The people there would tell you, ‘It is our internal affair. Who are you to come and ask us?’
You have the right and the authority to clean up your own home, but you cannot tell your neighbour, ‘I am going to come and clean your home. I feel a sense of belongingness with you too.’ They would tell you, ‘Thank you, but you are not welcome. Please do so in your own home, that will be good enough.'

In your own home you have the authority to do what you like. But you cannot use the same authority on the neighbour.
Now if your neighbour invites you by saying, ‘Please come, I need your help. Let us clean my home too’, then you should just jump and do that.
If you are a tourist in a country and not its resident, then you cannot meddle with the affairs of that country. It is not the right thing to do by law.

So this is where the abstract and the concrete levels come into conflict.
At an abstract level, you have a sense of belongingness with everyone. At the level of feelings, you feel, ‘Oh, what is the difference between India, or Pakistan, or America or Europe? Wherever I go, I feel like it is my own place. I feel totally at home.'
At the same time, you cannot behave the same in all the places. Every place has its own code of conduct which we have to follow.

If you need to fight against some injustice, you can do so only within your own country. So in this sense, it is not contrary.

Q: What is the feeling of nationality and is it contrary to the idea of universal brotherhood? How can the feeling of nationality be expanded to include universal brotherhood?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: A sense of universal brotherhood comes first and foremost. Now, though you may not be a stakeholder in the entire universe, but you are definitely a voter in your own country. And when you are a voter in your own country, you have some responsibility towards the country. You can express your needs and opinions through the local press and you can take some action.
Globally, you can spread human awareness, You can do good and also wish good for everybody out of a spirit of friendliness and compassion.

Q: Gurudev, how do I recognize the line between spirituality and religion?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Listen, when you are on this path, spirituality is already there with you. You do not need to draw or erase any line. Just be natural. That should be the way of life.
You belong to a particular religion by birth, but spirituality is by choice.

Q: Gurudev, the youth in Himachal Pradesh are getting addicted to drugs which is a huge problem today. Please explain why does material prosperity also brings vices along with it. Is it worth having prosperity at the cost of human values?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: No, certainly not. Such prosperity is good for nothing. If human values are not there, then it is meaningless to say that you are prosperous. For example, if you have insomnia, then no matter how good a bed you may have, it is of no use.
Similarly, if you have stomach ulcers and you cannot eat, then having great food kept in front of you is also of no meaning. So in the absence of human values, life is worth nothing. That prosperity has no meaning.

Q: Gurudev, is obesity something that is given by God; or is it a fruit of one’s actions?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: God gives you some work or the other. So if he gives you obesity, then he also gives you work so as to make you reduce your weight.
You seem to ask very clever questions! When you seem to remain or maintain your obesity, you very conveniently say that it is God who gave it to you.
This is why I said that if you think that God has given you obesity, then he has also laid out ways to make you reduce your weight.

Q: Gurudev, what should one do when one experiences sorrow and suffering?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Have patience!
When you have come here to the Ashram, drop all your sorrow and miseries here, and just walk ahead. There is no misery or suffering that cannot be gotten rid of. Have you ever seen a cloud that never moves and stays in one place permanently? It is impossible. In the same way, your misery and suffering are like clouds. Some clouds disappear in an instant, while some take a little longer to go away. But they do pass away and that is inevitable.

Eight Types of Purification

January 08, 2013

(Below is the transcript of Satsang with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.You can watch the Live webcast of future satsangs)

Alappuzha, Kerala

Annadata sukhi bhava, those who are providing me with this food, let them be happy. Will you all say this one mantra every day before your meals?
When you say this, you are wishing prosperity for three people. One is to the farmer; the second is to the trader who buys from the farmers and sells the produce, and the third is to the woman who cooks the food and serves it to you.

First, we wish well for the farmers. When the farmers are happy, then the ones who eat the food will also be happy. But, if the farmers are unhappy, and they are shedding tears and giving us food, then when we eat that food, we become sick.
So, you must wish the farmers good health and happiness.
In this country we are ignoring the farmers. Farmers are committing suicide because they are sad and unhappy. When they are sad, then the food they produce brings us only misery. So, all of you should wish them happiness.

Second, we should wish well for the traders.
If the merchants do their business properly, by not being greedy and not hoarding things, then there will be no dearth of food in the country. If there is a problem in our country, it is because of wrong government policies and the hoarding attitude of businessmen. As a result of this, it is the farmers who suffer the most.
Can you imagine, two years ago, food companies were making 300 per cent profit, while the farmers were going bankrupt? This shows that there is a serious flaw in our system; we need to look into it. Hoarding is the biggest crime.

Third, we should wish well for the women at home who cook the food and serves it to us. There should be no tears in the eyes of the lady of the house who is cooking the food. It is not going to do you any good.
So, when you say Annadata Sukhi Bhava every day, you are praying for the lady of the house to be happy; you are praying for the merchant to conduct his business in a fair and just manner (not out of greed), and you are wishing the farmer a happy life. If these three people are happy, then the society is happy.

We need to create a big wave of happiness throughout Kerala. It should start from Kerala, and spread to the whole nation.
When you wish happiness for others, happiness will come to you. This is the law of nature. When you wish good for others, good things come back to you. When you wish bad for others, only bad things come to you. No one wants bad things to happen to them, right? This is the reason you should keep your heart pure and clear.

We need to create waves of happiness. In order to do that, we all have to give one hour a day to make India better. We need to get rid of corruption from this country, from all levels. How many of you here are tired of corruption in the country and want a change? (Everyone raises their hands)
We need to make a difference. It is the youth of this country, not just in age but in spirit, who will be able to do this. Collectively, we can achieve this dream of a crime-free and corruption-free India.
Today, you think about it. What is it we want to do? How can the youth of our country make a difference to our society?

When I first came to Kerala, in 1971, I was a student. At that time, the food that we were given was all red rice, and in Karnataka, we were not used to red rice at all. We used only white rice.
For six days, we never got any white rice, we only got red rice and it was a problem then! For anyone coming to Kerala, they got only boiled rice or red rice. Kerala was much healthier than any other parts of India.
Today, I hear, instead of us spreading red rice and boiled rice to other parts of the country, we have also become like the other parts of the country, where we use white rice. No, you should go back to your Kerala style of food, because red rice has Vitamin B and other minerals in it. You will not get diabetes if you eat boiled or red rice, but white rice, which is polished so much, is only starch. People are getting sick eating it. So, we must go back to our original food habit, which is eating red rice, and boiled rice; these are very healthy.

Similarly, earlier we used only jaggery, but now we use white sugar.
Do you know white sugar has sulfur in it? Due to the sulfur content in sugar, the calcium in our body is drained out, and it results in people having osteoporosis.
In Kerala, they used to have sharkara, which has a lot of minerals, zinc, iron and magnesium. These are very good for our body, and our intelligence. Instead, we are using white sugar, which also results in Attention Deficiency Syndrome and so many others illnesses.

So, we all should remember a few things.
First, anna shuddhi, purification of grains. Good food, nutritious food, and the right amount of food is important.

Second, everyday a little bit of proper exercise is important. Even though you may have a car or a motor bike, sometime during the day, you should walk as well. Every day, at least for 20 minutes start walking, or doing some physical exercise.

Third, vaakya shuddhi, purification of speech. This is very important.
All of you must see that the words that you use do not hurt other people. If you have said something that hurts somebody, and if they are crying, then it is going to affect you somewhere.

Fourth, karma shuddhi. We must do seva. With service, our actions are purified.

Fifth, dhan shuddhi, i.e., purification of wealth. We should keep aside at least three per cent of whatever we earn, and use it for the society. Then the money that we earn will become purified. If we use whatever we earn for our self only, then that is not the best utilization of money. So, we must use a little portion of our earnings for the society.

Sixth, shareer shuddhi, i.e., purification of the body. Once in a week or a fortnight, take some Triphala, or some ayurvedic products to cleanse your body.

Seventh, bhaava shudhhi, i.e., purification of feelings. Do some satsang for some time; it is necessary as it purifies the feelings.

Eighth, buddhi shuddhi is purification of the intellect. With knowledge the intellect is purified. A pure intellect comes when you look at life from a broader perspective. Who am I? What is this universe? Where am I going?

Q: Is there anything common between communism and spirituality?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yes. What is Communism? The essence of communism is all are equal and spirituality says the same thing.
Lord Krishna was the first communist. He said, ‘Yo mam pasyati sarvatra sarvam ca mayi pasyati tasyaham na pranasyami sa ca me na pranasyati’.
The one who sees me in everybody and everybody in me, he is the intelligent one.
‘Saman sarveshu bhuteshu tishthantam paramesvaram parishati’, means the one who sees everyone as equal.
Shuni chaive shavpakech pandita sam darshina. Who is a yogi? Sam darshina, one who sees everything with equanimity is a yogi.

If you open the Bhagavad-Gita, you will realize it is full of this knowledge. See everybody as equal; that is the essence of communism. Spirituality also teaches the same thing. In fact, in spirituality, it becomes practical, otherwise it simply remains intellectual.
This question arises, ‘Why should you see everybody as equal?’ A spiritual person knows the answer, because it is one divinity which is present in everybody. So, if you are hurting anybody, you are hurting God. If you love God, then you should not hurt anybody. So, you see equality in everybody.

Values find their true strength only with spiritual knowledge. Otherwise, we only talk of values, but it really does not go in. Our heart should open up.
It is spirituality which makes you sincere, makes your heart open up. It is lack of spirituality that makes people go to drugs or alcohol or other vices.

Q: Gurudev, with the growing pressure on children, so many schools are aware that their students abuse substances. Yet, they prevent the learning of yoga and meditation.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: That is foolish. They should stop the children from drugs, alcohol and other abuse. I was so shocked to read that one school became free from this. We have 14 schools, I am sure none of our schools are anywhere close to alcohol or drugs.
Today, it has become a matter of pride that our school has become free from alcohol and drugs; which means it has become so common! People should fight against alcohol and drugs, and not against yoga and meditation. Yoga and meditation make people good human beings.

A Balance of the Heart and the Mind

January 07, 2013

(Below is the transcript of Satsang with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.You can watch the Live webcast of future satsangs)

Kochi, Kerala

(Sri Sri at the International Leadership Summit)

In a home, do you know who the real leader is? Is the father the leader of the house, or the baby?
You will be surprised to know that it is the baby that leads the house. It is around the baby that the entire family circles, isn't that so?!
That is why, I consider myself as a baby; as a child.

A real leader needs to have these two qualities, one of the head and the other of the heart - Sensibility and Sensitivity.
Often what we see, people who are very sensible, are not sensitive, because they are so focused on reason; on being sensible and logical. And then there are those who are very sensitive that at the drop of a hat, tears come into their eyes, but they are not sensible enough.
Neither of these two can become a good leader, because you need to have a balance of both - Sensibility and Sensitivity; heart and mind, because we are all made up of these two very important aspects of our life.
Intellect has its unique place, and so do our emotions.

In the past century, the emphasis has been only on the intellect. A tear in a man's eyes was considered to be something weird. How can a man cry?!
And a woman taking a mike, and standing up and speaking, or fighting for her rights, was considered to be weird. And that is how the society was. Women could not lead!
Of course, not in Kerala. In Kerala, a different system has been there. But world over, women were not given that intellectual power to speak because she was brushed aside as the more fair and sensitive race. Today, the scenario has changed.
Today, we need sensibility and sensitivity. We need that softness of a female in every leader, and the strength and perseverance of a male in every woman, then one can lead any organization. What do you say?!

There is something very important that I want to tell you. Whenever we have to discuss about leadership, or anything very dear to our hearts, we need to be in a very informal atmosphere.
So, why don't we just take half a minute, to greet the person behind us, in front of us, to our sides, saying, 'I belong to you!'

Done?! Did you greet the people near you?
Some of you were so shy to even say 'Hi' to others.

Many times, we find leaders in such a position. They don't look at people, they look somewhere else and keep talking. They can't relate to people, isn't it?!
So did you really tell the people around you, 'I belong to you'; or you did it as a formality?

You must have noticed, when you get off the plane, the air hostess greets you saying, 'Have a nice day!' They say this much but they don't really mean it.
In the same way, most of the pleasantries that we exchange in our daily lives, is from that level. We say, 'Hi', or 'Welcome', but there is no warmth of welcoming someone.
But the same words, when it comes to you from someone very dear to you; your mother, or your sister, or close friend, then it carries some vibrations.

Most of what we communicate is through vibes, and words play a very small part of it. Your vibrations send more messages, even before words come out of your mouth.
A leader when he relies on his words should know for sure that his words will not be relied upon.
If you rely on words so much, people will not rely on your words. It has to come from deep within. That is what is called sincerity, when there is a connect between your vibes, your feelings and your words.
You may tell me, 'Gurudev, it is so difficult to match these three. How is it possible?! If everybody could match these three, everybody would be a saint. It is not practical!'
I tell you, okay, I agree with you. You will not be able to match it 100%, but at least can you match 25%. That much you can do, because people can feel it; sense it.
So we convey a lot through our vibrations than through words. Words are important but it needs that presence.

People are intelligent, they can make out when you really welcome someone and when you are doing it as a formality.

Okay, I have another exercise for you. Will you do it? Are you ready?
Can you turn to the person next to you and tell the person, 'I don't trust you!'
If your spouse is next to you, this is an opportunity! (Laughter)

You all did it so quickly?!
Did you notice that it was not easy to do that. This is the very first time that you must have told someone, 'I don't trust you', and you started laughing and they started laughing as well. Transformation has begun.
You were not relying on their words and they were not relying on your words, isn't it?!

Just for a minute close your eyes, and just imagine, no one trusts you. Everybody is telling you, 'I do not trust you.'
You may open your eyes.
How do you feel? Relieved?! Awful?!
(Audience: Awful; miserable; uncomfortable; desperate; sad; horrible; dejected)

You know, this is what we generate when we have this attitude, 'I don't trust anybody.'
We create such a vibration, that anybody who comes around us, they feel that we feel that way, and then there is mistrust in society, and that is how society starts going down and conflicts arise.

Do you know, most conflicts can be solved at the very beginning itself, if the pact of trust is attended to.
See, when you feel nobody trusts you, you feel so bad, and you feel such a bad vibration all around you, and that creates such an atmosphere that is not good for you or for anybody else.
I don't mean that you have to be naive, but at the same time I want you to look at this aspect of trust. A society which has no faith in human values cannot flourish, or progress, or be creative, on any count. This is my conclusion.

Now you may ask, 'What about self-doubt. I trust others but I don't trust myself.'
This is another form of the same disease. Lack of trust in yourself leads to lack of trust in others. Lack of trust in others leads to lack of trust in the values of society, which leads back to lack of trust in oneself.
This needs to be corrected. And anything that corrects this should be welcomed.
Trust between communities, trust between members of the same family is important.
I would say, it is stress that is responsible for distrust.

Don't think everyone is a fraud. There are good people on the planet and that counts for majority of them. The world is bad today, not because of a few bad people, but it is the silence of the good people that has created unfavourable situations. Now it is in our hands to change this.
Each one of you is a leader, don't look for a leader.
What is important is to lead from behind. A real leader is not one who emphasizes, 'I am the leader, you must follow me', instead he says, 'Go forward', and he pushes others in front. 'I am here with you, so you run'; just like the coach who assists his participant in a running race, or a coach who teaches you swimming.
Someone argues, how can I jump into the water when I don't know swimming. But unless you get into the water, how can you learn swimming?! You can't swim in the air. So that guidance has to come from one's own very life's example.

You have seen the big uproar that has happened in India. Finally people have woken up to the plight of women. It is not the first time that a woman has been abused, it has been happening for many years and in many places. People have woken up, and everybody is demanding that these people need to be punished, but they are leaving out one person, i.e., Mr. Alcohol.
If these people were not drunk, perhaps they would not have gone out of their senses. And if these people were in their senses, perhaps they would not have committed such a crime. But they were totally drunk. Isn't it?!
It is alcohol which is the first culprit.

I keep hearing of this everyday; every single day. Men drink at night and then they go and beat up their wives, and in the morning they ask her for forgiveness, and she forgives them and life continues.

 

Q: You just said that alcohol is the main reason behind the Delhi gang rape case. But today, there have been cases of young girls being raped by their own fathers. In those cases, it is not just alcohol. What is the bigger problem?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Correct, it is not alcohol which is the main reason behind this case.

Sex offenders have primarily three issue. One is hormone issues, where there could be some serious hormonal imbalances in them.
Second is emotional disturbances. The person must be a victim of some sort, within themselves.
Third is, total deterioration of human values.

So, these three things together can make a person do such criminal acts which they themselves would regret.
It is not that they would feel very happy that they have achieved something great. They are doing such a bad thing to a small child.
They are compelled because of their sick mind, imbalanced emotions and hormones. So these kind of people need treatment. They definitely need counselling, and society needs to provide them with this kind of counselling without any stigma.

Do you know, this is not just in rural places, in fact, it is more in all the advanced countries. In world over, this problem of child molestation is prevalent. So many such cases are there. Father molesting his own daughter, we have heard of something like this in India only recently, but this has been happening in America for so many years. And it has gone to an extent with all these television shows, that sometimes, children start doubting, 'Oh, maybe my father did like this to me.'

I want to share one such case with you.
An elderly couple came to me. Their daughter who at time was already 38 years of age, suddenly thought, after watching all these talk shows, that she is a victim. That her father did this to her when she was a child.
So suddenly, after this television show, the relationship between the parents and the daughter became so bad.
The father was crying, saying, 'How can I ever do such a crime. My daughter thinks I have done this to her.'
So, some of these television shows can make such an impact as well, that it destroys the family.
Are you understanding what I am saying? It took me quite a while to sit them all together, to counsel them, to make them meditate, and all that.
Of course, finally the family came together, they could let go of these impressions.
Many times people consider themselves as victims to draw more attention. These kind of things also happen in society.

We need to put an end to crime against women and children at any cost. This can only happen when society turns more spiritual, more humane and more sensitive.

Q: If government is corrupt, how can the nation create good governance.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: The government has no personality, it is the people in the government who become corrupt. It is the people who can become incorrupt as well.

See, corruption begins where the sense of belongingness ends. Nobody can be corrupt with people whom they think belong to them. They will not take bribe from their friends and family. They take bribe only from those whom they find are outside their sense of belongingness.
So, corruption and crime, these two things have to be removed, otherwise the government cannot be effective.

Criminal elements in the government is a horrible thing.
Do you know why every party gives tickets to these criminal elements? It is because they have a vote bank. If you, the good people start making your own vote banks, you can dictate to every party, 'If you give tickets to criminal elements, we are not going to vote for you', then no party will dare to give tickets to corrupt people or to the criminal elements in society.
That is why I said, we should all, together, stand up for human values in society, united. Individually we all stand up for values, but we need to stand up being united.
If all good people in Cochin stand up and say, 'We will not allow Cochin to be polluted. We stand for cleanliness in our city', then things start changing.
I feel this is necessary.

Q: There are many corporations that are venturing into social responsibilities, but recently the government has introduced some policies where this is being thrust onto corporations. What do you have to say about this?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: If the government says that companies have to spend 3% of their profits on social responsibility, a good corporation would spend 4% of their profits, and not limit to the 3% as per the government's guidelines.
It is a good thing that the government has given such a guideline. At least 2% to 3% must be given towards corporate social responsibility.

I don't think there is anything wrong with this decision of the government. I think this one decision is very good, that every corporation should spend at least some percentage of their profit for the welfare of others.
This has been said in our Dharma Shastras as well. Anyone who gets any profit has to share a percentage of it for the welfare of society.

Q: Can you say something about entrepreneurship.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Entrepreneur is a projection of creativity. One aspect of creativity.
An entrepreneur has to come out of his or her comfort zone. One cannot say, 'I want to be in my comfort zone and I want to be an entrepreneur', that is not going to work.
Entrepreneurship always involves risks and the ability to undergo hardship.

Q: What is the significance of the culture of leadership in organizations?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: A leader has to walk the talk. Be sensible, sensitive and compassionate.
We need three things in life, Passion, Dispassion and Compassion.
You can't have only passion, then you feel very stressed out. You need to have dispassion, you need to know how to let go. If you keep holding onto things when they are out of your hands anyways, you will only be more stressed. And a stressful person is a burden for himself, for the society and for everybody.
A stressful person becomes harmful and toxic.

In any institution you should identify those who are stressed. The ones stressed are soon going to become toxic. So, see to it that the person changes his whole attitude and feels better about himself.
When people are relieved of stress, then you see a wave of change that arises.

It is not an easy task. If someone is not willing to let go of his or her stress, you cannot make them let go of it. So, it is an uphill task and you have to do that.

Q: You have already told that women are naturally good leaders, but there are not enough women leaders. Can you tell us, what are the barriers for becoming a good leader?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: I want to tell you that India has more women leaders than any other part of the world. Do you know that?
We have many women members of Parliament, many women in the legislative assembly, and many states ruled by women. The whole country has been ruled by women for several decades; so never think that you need to be empowered by somebody.
Here, in India, women are already empowered. America has to learn that. America has not yet come to that level as far as women empowerment is concerned.

Q: In my work environment, I meet different kinds of people, and I may not like talking to some of them. How do I be diplomatic in my approach?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: This is a very tricky question.
Sometimes if you are not direct, and if you don't tell them on their face, they think that you are giving them some other indications in a subtle way, or are confirming what they have in their own mind.
At the same time, you need not be rude when you need to express your opinions, or ideas, which you want to put forth. So, it is really about striking a balance.
There is no definite formula. You have to play by the ear.
How to be diplomatic - this cannot be taught now and applied later. It has to come out of you spontaneously at that moment.

War On Alcoholism Is Essential

January 05, 2013

(Below is the transcript of Satsang with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.You can watch the Live webcast of future satsangs)

Bangalore, India

Q: There are some people who say, 'A little bit of wine is okay, even Lord Shiva had wine'. How do we tackle such statements?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: People do whatever they want to do and they put it in the name of religion, or God to justify themselves.
Simply look at your life, forget about others. If Shiva had alcohol, he must have had problems as well.
See those five people who did that thing to Nirbhaya, in Delhi, they were all drunk, and when someone is drunk, you cannot even hold them responsible for what they do. Intoxicants are responsible for half of the crimes in the society.
So not only should you put those five people in jail, but you should also hold those people responsible who manufacture and sell intoxicants.

This happens in almost every village. Men drink at night, come home, beat their wives, and in the daytime they apologize because they know that they were not themselves at night.
The biggest reason for crime in the society is alcohol. If you stop alcohol, a lot of crime in the country will be stopped.

You have to take a definite stand, 'I will not touch alcohol.'
If you say, ‘I will only drink socially’, or, ‘I will just have one peg’, all these statements are nothing but excuses. When you open the door for alcohol, it can come in anytime and flood you. You should really just shut the door on alcohol. Not just the door, but close the main gate as well, so that it does not even reach your door.
You should put a barrier on yourself, 'I will not drink any of these intoxicants.' It gives you enormous strength you know. But the moment you become a little loose, ‘okay I will have it once’, then somehow you get caught up.
Life is such, that you get upset sometimes; restless sometimes. Restlessness can come even without any cause. How many of you here have experienced this?
Everything is going on well, but there is some restlessness without any reason. One cannot understand why the restlessness.
Restlessness starts in the body without any reason, and then one feels like having a drink, and that is how it starts. That is why I say, just keep it out of the gate.
War on alcoholism is essential for crime to be over.

Q: Whenever I am in the ashram I don't feel like going back to the materialistic world. Sometimes the responsibility of the family becomes an obstacle. How to overcome that?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You need to charge your mobile phone with the charger, but you don't leave the phone on the charger, otherwise how will you use it?!
Similarly, when your charge is down, you have to come here again and charge yourself. For me the whole world is my ashram. I keep moving from one ashram to another ashram; from one place to another.

You have to take care of your responsibilities and the work you have at home. You have to do all of that; it is necessary to do all of that. Running away from responsibility is not spirituality. In fact, it is taking on more responsibility.
First the responsibility of your family, friends and surroundings, then the responsibility of the country, and then the responsibility of the whole world. That is how our responsibility should increase.

Q: How to accept people who do bad things to me?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: If they do bad things against you, what can you do?
If you don't accept them what other option do you have?
If you don't accept them you will be upset, isn't it? Your mind will be disturbed, and when you are so upset, any decision you take, will you be happy about it? Certainly not!
So for your own sake, accept people and the situation as they are, so that your mind becomes calm. Then you do what you want to do.

Q: I heard from one teacher that in order to live life 100%, you have to have clarity in your mind. How to eliminate confusion?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Are you still confused? Every confusion is a step towards growth.
What is confusion? Some old concept just broke apart. Old ideas simply vanished and new ideas started coming up. You couldn't grasp the new and the old is gone, that is confusion, and it is a good transition; be in it! It won't last for too long I tell you.

Q: What is the truth of relationships; after being bitten once I am now twice shy. How do I overcome this fear?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You are asking this question that means you have already overcome the fear. If you had not, you wouldn't even ask this question. You would just say, ‘Relationships, I am not going to go into it’, and you would have run away.
Since you don't have that much fear and only a little bit, and the mind is tempted to go that way, you just want a confirmation seal of mine.

You know, in life, everything is a risk. Your own mind is uncertain. You cannot rely even on your own mind. Relying on somebody else is another thing.
Can you rely on your own mind?
I have seen so many people go for shopping and they say, ‘Can I come back and exchange it, or return it?’
People buy something, they come back home and they don't like it, and they go back and say that they want to exchange this. Especially ladies, the buy a saree and then they come back home and open the saree and they don’t like it and want to exchange it. A lady used to come and ask me, ‘Gurudev, please bless me so that I shop for the right things. Every time I go shopping, I come back home and then I have to go back again.’ So the mind is always wavering. When your mind is wavering, others’ minds can also be wavering, isn't it?
So there are different people, different emotions, different way of behaviors, and we have to move with them all. We have no choice. Accept and move.
Always there is compromise in life, in any interaction with anyone, young or old.

Q: Why do all the problems in the world start and end because of love?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Otherwise life would be so boring. Just imagine, if there are no problems and no issues, life would be so bland, isn't it?
You can keep wondering about it. It's a matter to wonder, not a question.

Q: Why doesn't The Art of Living family take a political stand for the better political and social future of India?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: The Art of Living will encourage anybody who wants to take that stand. Politics is too small a field for The Art of Living. Since we are across borders, I don't want The Art of Living to be stuck with national politics.
The Art of Living is in so many countries; it will remain as an inspirer for people to be on the right path.
For sure, those who want to get into politics, youngsters especially, I would encourage you. Go all out; go and do it.

Q: Gurudev, could you please talk about Mithyachar and how to come out of it?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Mithyachar is when one keeps thinking of doing something in the mind but does not act upon it.
For example, you keep thinking about food but you do not eat food.
Mithyachar is also, when you think something else and do something else.
For example, you tell somebody, 'I will be there at six in the evening', even though you have already made up your mind that you won't go, this is Mithyachar.
Lying or fooling oneself is Mithyachar.

Q: Being cynical makes me more pragmatic and helps me deal with the worst situations. Is this wrong?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Cynicism was once considered fashionable, but today, cynicism has taken over intellectuals to such an extent that it is no longer palatable and it is no longer creative. It does not do any good to oneself or to society.
Cynicism is okay if it is like the pickle in the corner of the plate. But if your whole plate is filled with pickle, and you have only a tiny piece of roti (flat bread) in some corner, then just imagine how that would be. You would remain hungry, and this is what has happened today.
Cynicism is essential, but to a very small extent. Cynicism should bring pragmatism in you, no doubt, but it should not take away your imaginative ability, your transformational zeal, and it should not eat away your enthusiasm. It should not overshadow your positive state of mind or kill your aspirations and hopes. If that is there then okay, have a little bit of cynicism.
You find that even the Vedas are a little cynical. It is said, 'Who knows the beginning of creation. God knows; or maybe he also does not know.'
This is what is said in the Vedas.
Sarcasm and cynicism is all okay, just remember the example of pickle. It cannot take the place of rice, dal (lentil soup) or roti , but a little bit can be there somewhere in the corner.

Q: Gurudev, when I know my presence in the world is insignificant it makes me lazy. How can I be excited and at the same time expanded.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Dream big. Keep your intentions intact, don't worry about any setbacks and keep moving ahead. That is it.

Q: You said that the year 2012 was the year of transformation, but nothing has transformed. The same corruption and same crimes are happening.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Wait! What do you mean? People have stood up against corruption. See what has happened in the last month of 2012, the entire country woke up. People are waking up. Earlier, violence against women was tolerated.
Although we have been doing women empowerment, we have been having women conferences where we have been discussing women issues, and female feticide, but today suddenly the entire country has woken up over one incident.
It is not an isolated incident. There are 20,000 such incidents. In Delhi alone there were 800 such incidents at that point. This is waking up.
Transformation is people are waking up, isn't it?

Moreover, Indian year starts in March; remember!
Do you know the meaning of the names of all the months?
The English months are not in English, they are in Sanskrit. How many of you here didn't know this? (Many raise their hands)
Do you know what December means; Das means ten and Ambar means sky, so December means the tenth sky.
November means the ninth sky.
October means the eighth month.
Sapt means seven, amber means sky, so Saptamber became September.
August is Shasht, which means sixth; so August is the sixth month.

January is the 11th month, February is the 12th month and March which means going ahead – that is when the new year begins. That is when the Sun arrives in the first point of Aries, at the end of March.
Even today, in Afghanistan, Iran and all these countries, they celebrate March 21st as the new year day because this was the ancient vedic concept.
March means new. Feb means fag end. Don’t we say, ‘Fag end’, that is February.

So all these months are Sanskrit months. If you ask any English professor what is the meaning of September, or November, they will have no idea.
I thought of this, and realized that there is such a close connection with Sanskrit and it matches to well.
Today you learned something very important - the meaning of the names of the months.

This is something beautiful about Sanskrit, no name is without a function. Do you know that leaves are called Parna? Do you know what Parna means? That which absorbs sunlight and moisture is called parna.

Do you know, Jesus was not born on Christmas Day? How many of you didn't know this? (Many raise their hands)
You should watch the documentary about Jesus and Christmas. Only 200 years back they connected Christmas with Jesus. Otherwise it was just Winter Solstice. The festival that was being practiced around the world to honor the Sun God from the Vedic times, that was being done.
If you hear of how Jesus was born, all the description is of spring time. He was not born in the cold winter.
Also, if he was conceived in May, December would not be the month in which he would be delivered. Immaculate conception happened in the month of May and December would be only seven months. Jesus was not a premature baby, he was born after full nine months and nine days, but people did not know what date he was born on.
So, even though the people were converted into Christians, the church could not stop them from celebrating the Xmas festival. So they added, 'Okay you can think this as the birthday of Jesus Christ and let us celebrate it that way.'
So they replaced the Sun God with Jesus.

Q: Gurudev, Goddess Parvati in her anger had given a curse to Mother Earth, Agni Deva and other gods when they tried to save her and Lord Shiva’s son Kartikeya from Tarakasura (a demon). How is it possible for a Goddess to not be in control of her anger?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You know, this is a wrong depiction of the stories from the Puranas. The TV serials always want to make it a little more dramatic. 
Even when I watch Goddess Parvati (an incarnation or form of the Mother Divine), I see that there is so much display of emotions; crying, or asking for forgiveness, etc. Just to make the viewers more engaged, they brought them to the level of common man and common emotions.
The director and producers also want to elongate the episode, that is why they make it a little more dramatic than the actual story. It is not originally so in the Puranas. In the Purana, Goddess Parvati does not go through such varied emotions. It is only in the script that these people have written for the TV serial that you find her and even Lord Ganesha asking repeatedly for forgiveness. What is the need for Him, who is Divinity Himself, to ask for any sort of forgiveness?

See, when you read any Purana, then the Adidaata (the sacred deity on whose life and heroic stories a particular Purana is based) of that Purana is the central character, and the most revered.
For example, if you take the Shiva Purana then Lord Shiva is the greatest, while all other deities and everyone else is subordinate to him.
Similarly, if you take the Ganesha Purana, then Lord Ganesha is the greatest in that Purana.
Again, if you take the Devi Purana then all the other deities, such as Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu and Mahesh (a name of Lord Shiva) are at the Devi’s feet, signifying her central importance in the Purana. Since all stories in the Devi Purana revolve around her as the central deity, the other deities play secondary roles.
In the Vishnu Purana you will find that there is no deity greater than Lord Vishnu, and every other deity is subordinate to him, since he is the central deity of that Purana.
That is why a deity is called as Isht, meaning the greatest deity, around whom everything else revolves. So, those deities or Gods whom we consider as our Ishtdevta or Isht are the greatest and most revered for us.

There is a very beautiful shloka (verse) by Adi Shankaracharya where he says, 'Mananaatha Shri Jagannatha, Madguru Shri Jagadguru, Madatma Sarvabhutatma, Tasmai Shri Gurave Namaha.'
It means, my Lord (Isht) is the Lord of the entire creation; my Guru is the Guru of the entire creation; and my soul is the soul seated in all living beings.

When a devotee has this feeling, that there is no other like my Lord, then it is called Vishishta bhakti.
When there is this feeling that there is none other like my Lord, then the mind become one-pointed. This is because the nature of the mind is to go towards that which is the most superior.
Now, if you do not find what you have to be the highest, then the mind will start to wander toward that which it finds to be more superior.
So to collect the mind and make it centered deep in devotion, these different stories have been written in the Puranas. That is why in the Shiva Purana, it is said that Lord Shiva is supreme and everyone prays and bows to Lord Shiva. This is the real meaning.

But those who make these TV serials, they have to make it a little more dramatic, otherwise it will be a little boring, and that is why they add some spice to it.
It has never happened that Goddess Durga has inflicted her anger on anyone on Earth. The anger of Goddess Durga is only towards the demon Mahishasura. Even that is not totally in anger, but it is with a certain equanimity and pleasantness. The Goddess simply destroys Mahishasura (symbolic of negativity and inertia) into ashes, by a simple exhalation of her breath, with the sound ‘hummm’.
So these are just different depictions of the mythological stories on TV. There is no need to accept them as the truth.

Q: Dear Gurudev, if one thinks that one’s Ishta(most revered deity) is the most superior, then does that not bring about fundamentalism?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: See, if you ask any mother in the world, she will say her child is the best. There may be so many other children in the world, but for her, her child is the best of all. 
Fundamentalism is considering or showing that others are wrong or lesser than you. However, having a feeling that my deity is the highest for me and your deity may be the highest for you, cannot be fundamentalism.

The Art of Raising Children

January 03, 2013

(Below is the transcript of Satsang with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.You can watch the Live webcast of future satsangs)

Berlin, Germany

Q: It would be wonderful to have our children grow up happily in this sometimes difficult world. What can we give them besides lots of love when they are still too young for meditation?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Just play with them. Don’t try to be a teacher all the time and start teaching them. In fact learn from them and respect them. And don’t get too serious with kids.
I remember as a child, when my father would come home in the evenings, he would just clap and make us laugh. My mother was very strict but my father would just clap and make everyone laugh before we all went for dinner. Everybody had to sit together and eat. So before that he would just clap and chase everybody around in the house. Everyone had to laugh before we sit for food.
So don’t go on teaching them all the time, just celebrate with them, play with them, sing with them. This is the best thing.
If you always take a stick and say, 'Don’t do this, don’t do that', that is no good.

With kids, I feel you should play with them more and tell them stories sometimes. We used to hear a lot of nice stories when we were kids. Every day one story. It is good to bring up children with values through this way. If you tell them nice interesting stories then they will not glue themselves to the television and sit there all the time.
There are many stories for children; there is Panchatantra. One of our devotees is also making cartoons of the Panchatantra. Soon it will come out.

So it is good for parents to sit with the children and tell them stories that have morals. A story with a moral is good. And that quality time of one hour or half an hour that you spend with your children is good enough.
Also, don’t stifle them sitting with them for five to six hours. Quality time of 45 minutes to one hour is good, and this time should be very interesting. They should look forward to the time to sit with you and listen to stories.

I remember, I had an uncle, who was very fat, fair and had a round face. Every Sunday he would come to our house and tell us stories. We would all sit with him and he would tell us nice stories, and he would leave some suspense towards the end so that the next time we would be very curious to know what happens next.
So we do have such personalities among us. If not, your own kid can go and tell stories to some other kids. Their parents will also be very happy. They will find someone to baby sit, and that can be your service project as well.
So that human touch is needed.

Today children, from the time they wake up in the morning, they sit like a non-participatory witness in front of the television; isn't it?
Children sit in front of the television and go on surfing channels. The mother comes and says, ‘Hey, come for breakfast’, and they just don’t move. Sometimes, mother has to bring their breakfast in front of the television. This type of culture is no good. What do you think? How many of you agree with me?
Not more than one hour of television should be shown to children. You should limit the time for television, otherwise children will have this Attention Deficiency Syndrome. The brain gets so bombarded with all these images, it fails to register anything else and the kids become so dull later on. They cannot attend to anything. Thank God when we were kids we had no television.
How many of you grew up without television? We all grew up without television.
So children growing up with more television don’t seem to be as intelligent. You should limit the television to maximum two hours in a day.

Even for adults, one or two hours is enough, not more. It is too much for adults too. You know, all these nerves in the brain get so taxed with watching too much of television.
Sometimes people compel me to see television saying, 'Gurudev, this is very good.'
I can’t watch more than half an hour to one hour. It really taxes the mind.
I wonder how people watch two to three movies a week. Really we are draining the brain cells I tell you.
Just look at the people who come out of the movie theaters, do they look exuberant, energetic and happy? The way they go into the movie theaters, when they come out, how do they look? However nice the movie has been, they look drained; completely exhausted and dull, isn't it?
If you have not noticed, just stand outside a movie theater. You should watch when the people are going into the theater and when they are coming out. You will see a visible difference.
How many of you have noticed this? Even in you. Any entertainment recreation should energize you, but with watching movies, it doesn't happen that way.
Suppose you go for a live show, it is a little better than that, you don’t feel so exhausted. You go for a live music performance, it doesn't do that much. You do feel exhaustion, but not that much. How many of you notice this?
And when you come to satsang, it is just the opposite. When you come in, you feel different, and when you go out you feel energized.

Q: Do you think that little children should be told scary fairy tales, because there are some German tales which are scary and I've heard people say they shouldn't be told them.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Scary tales should kept in moderation.
Suppose they are not told any scary tales at a young age, then when they grow up and they become aware of them, it will scare them even more. It will make them very weak.
At the same time, if you tell them too many scary things, then they can get obsessed with fear. Both extremes should be avoided. A little bit of scary things can be there but not too much; especially video games.
I feel video games should not be violent. Children shoot in the video screen and think it is just a game, and then in the real life they start shooting people because they don’t find the difference between the virtual world and the real world. This is a problem. So I would prefer that children should not have violent video games.

Q: Are all relationships based on previous karma?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yes.
Do you know, sometimes a soul who wants to come into the world, it picks up one man and one woman and then creates such an attraction between them. So these two people come closer, and the moment they have the first child, suddenly all the love disappears between them.
How many of you have seen such a thing happening?
So after the first child, because the soul's job is done, it came to the world, then it does not worry about what the parents do. So suddenly after the first child, the couple loses all the attraction.
Not always, don’t think it is for everybody always. In some cases it happens. Sometimes it happens after the third or fifth child as well. Suddenly they cannot stand each other, because their personalities were artificially brought together by the spirit who wanted to come into the world.
So this is happening, but not always; about 30% you can say, and they definitely end up in divorce because in these cases the two people do not match at all. Nothing matches between them. Suddenly one realizes, ‘Oh, we thought we were soul mates for life and what happened? I am totally different and we can never match each other.'
This thing comes up.

Life is like that, friends become enemies and enemies become friends.
You haven’t done anything good to a person and they have started doing good to you. So friends or enemies, it does not matter. Your life runs by some different laws of karma. That is why, put all your friends and enemies in one basket, because a ten year friendship can turn into enmity, and an enemy can become a great friend to you at any time. It all depends on you and your karma.

Q: What is a good way to accept the death of a beloved?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Time will take its own course. Don’t try to accept or do anything. If the pinch is there, it is there, it will go away.
Time is the biggest healer. As time moves it just takes you further and further. So don’t try to do anything, time will take care of it.
Or wake up and see everybody is going to go one day. They took an earlier flight, you will be taking a later flight. That is all.
So people who have gone already, tell them, 'A few years later I will meet you there.'
Say bye for now. You will see them later at another place.

Q: I have no family, what can I do to feel less alone?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Come on, I’ve given you such a big family, a true family and a family that really cares for you.
Never think you have no family, I am your family. That is why I come here for Christmas and New Year every year. Why should I come otherwise?!

Q: What is the best way to make you happy?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You being happy and making others happy.
You don’t have to try and make me happy, I am anyway happy. But I’ll be more happy if you can help others. Not just by giving them some gifts or throwing them a party, but by giving them knowledge and making them very strong.
If you can bring people into this knowledge, that would be the best thing.
When people listen to Ashtavakra Gita, they say that their lives have been transformed. How many of you experienced this? (Many raise their hands)
When you listen to Ashtavakra Gita, your whole outlook towards life changes.

Walk Like A King

January 03, 2013

(Below is the transcript of Satsang with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.You can watch the Live webcast of future satsangs)

Berlin, Germany

Q: Why do Angels have wings, what is the symbolism of that? Can you please talk about why we have Angels in the Christian tradition.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Man had a fascination to fly. He wanted to dominate space.
Man could walk the Earth, he could dive into the ocean and swim in the water. But what he could not do is fly. So Angels, which he considered one step above him, he gave them wings. He thought, Angels have wings because they are more powerful than man and they can fly and can go anywhere they want.
But today with the kind of airplanes we have, Angels will be much slower. We can reach much faster than them. We will leave the Angels behind somewhere.
Nobody with wings, however powerful, can fly faster than an aircraft or a helicopter.
So it is just a concept that they are more powerful than us, because it is only then that they can help us.
Angels mean those who can help us, who are more powerful, more equipped than us.
Now don’t imagine that an Angel is going to come with wings, and take you with them, and give you flowers, and all that.

Also, we see many times, Angels are depicted as children.
Do you know why are they depicted as children in the Christian tradition? This is to show innocence. The higher you go, you have to be pure and innocent inside, not cunning and crafty.
Who is cunning and crafty? One who does not have the ability to walk like a king. Someone who has less power has to manipulate and be cunning and crafty.
Someone who is very powerful, why would they be cunning and crafty? If you have the ability and the power to do things in a straightforward manner, you would not do anything surreptitiously. You will not need to.
All those people who do cunning things have no self confidence. They don’t believe that they can achieve things at their will; they think they have to do some manipulation to get there.
So Angels are depicted as children with wings because they are innocent. They are depicted to have a stout body, just like a two or three year old baby.
If you see all the Michelangelo paintings, you will see most of the angels are babies. It simply represents innocence and purity, and then ability - more ability than normal human beings.
I tell you inside you there is an angel.
In Christian tradition it is said that everyone has a guardian angel. It is not that they are only guarding you, you are part of that guardian angel; you are that! You simply have to realize that you are an angel. You have the power to do what you want to do. Know this and relax.

Q: How do I find the right balance between striving for improvement and being contented with who I am and what I am doing?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Do you know how to ride a bicycle? Exactly like that!
When you want to have balance, you will definitely have it. Just this thought, 'I want to balance my life', is good enough. You are already moving in that direction.

Now when this question arises, ‘How do I do it?’ Know you can do it. Ask yourself, your consciousness will tell you.
‘I am not balanced, I am missing out on this’, your consciousness will say it. Then you listen to your consciousness.
If you are attending to your work too much then your consciousness will prick. ‘Hey you are forgetting your family, your wife, your children, your husband’ Then you say, ‘Okay I will attend to them’
If you’re getting too immersed in the family and forget about all other things then your consciousness will prick, ‘My god what have I got into, what did I get into, day and night I’m just immersed in family affairs, I’m not being useful to the world, I have to do something I have to pursue my cause, I have to do justice to my work’. The mind will prick. Then you do that.

This wanting to keep balance in life, that very thought is good enough. It is like the fuse in the electrical system, whenever the electric current surges too much the fuse will break and save everything else. Like that a little amount of guilt must be there like the fuse in the system.
You don’t justify but that little bit is okay to have, like the fuse in an electric system. You know about the electric system and know that in the electrical board there’ll be one small box called fuse. So whenever there is an imbalance in current, the fuse will burst and save the rest of the electrical system. Like that in life, a little bit of guilt is okay but not too much.
Like salt in the food. If there is too much salt can you eat it? No. Got it? So wanting to have balance is good.

Q: I am sensitive and easily hurt. What is good about being sensitive?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Life is a combination of sensitivity and sensibility. Sensibility is of the intellect and sensitivity of the heart.
Usually people who are very sensitive they forget reason, logic. Their sensibility becomes less. And people with a lot of reason, always thinking about logic and sensibility, seem to lack sensitivity. Life needs to be a beautiful balance of both. You need to be sensitive yet strong. Usually sensitivity is equal to emotional instability. It should not lead to that.
Your sensitivity should not lead you to emotional instability. If you are strong and sensitive then you have made it in your life. Got it.
You have to be sensible and sensitive, both.

Q: Like a GPS you guide us to our goal and destiny, but what is our goal and destiny?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You should make a list of what is not your goal.
I want you to discover for yourself what is your goal, and what is it that you want to do.
One thing you should know is that you are very lucky. You are in a time where you are leading the world. You are in a time that will go down in history as a big transition from a self-centered, hardened society to a beautiful world.

Q: If we are old souls who have been here for eternity, are new experiences ever truly possible?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yes, life is ancient yet new.
The Sun is very old. It is 19 billion years old, or even more.
The Earth is 19 billion years old; Sun must be even more than that, some hundreds of billions of years old. But even today, its rays are fresh and new, isn’t it?!
So life is a combination of ancient and modern; old and new.
It is the same running river from millions of years but the water is new and fresh, isn’t it?

Q: Some people say they live without food, and there is a film about this. Is this true and what do you think?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: I know a gentleman who said that he only watches sun light for food. He has mastered not eating, but sometimes he has a cup of tea with a lot of sugar in it.
See, this is about training your body. It is like in Russia how they train you in ballet. The way they bend their whole spine and the whole body is like it is made up of rubber. It took them so many days to train themselves in Russian ballet.
In the same way, if you want to train your body to live without food you can do so. But you have to do it under the guidance of one who has done it, and not just by reading books. Don’t do that. Someone who is an expert can train you, it has to be very gradual.
But why you want to do that, what is the point in it. Eat less, don’t eat too much. Yes there are people who get their energy from just the sun gazing.
In the morning you gaze because everything is energy. Our eyes are photosensitive, it’s like the solar cells, our eyes have the same quality as solar cells they can absorb energy and supply it to the body but that needs to be properly trained for. If nature had wished that way it would not have given you a mouth at all.
The mouth and all the digestive enzymes, liver and all this need to function so let them be functional also. Don’t go to those extremes.

Q: What is embarrassment?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Do I have to tell you what is embarrassment?
I know of embracement, and not of embarrassment. If you can embrace embarrassment then nothing can shake you.
One thing that people try to run away from, is embarrassment.
Embarrassment is a mild form of criticism. A mild form of feeling uncomfortable. So sometimes we need to get out of the comfort zone and feel that little bit of discomfort. Then abilities dawn in us.

Love Can Even Make Stones Melt

January 02, 2013

(Below is the transcript of Satsang with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.You can watch the Live webcast of future satsangs)

Berlin, Germany

Q: From many stories I understand you are omnipresent and all knowing.
This sometimes makes me feel a little fearful that you know all about the mistakes I make. What is your attitude towards the mistakes? Are you angry when you see me making these mistakes over and over again?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Not at all.
Do you know that devotees are more powerful than the Guru himself? Do you know this? It is so. You must have heard of my Guru stories, but I have many devotee stories. I will share one with you. In the last week of November, I was touring in some of the remote places in the state of Maharashtra. Some villages and districts that I have never been to. There were a lot of people who came to meet me.

In one village, I told my secretary, ‘Three people have lost their mobiles and they are very poor people. So put three new cell phones in my bag.'
So I carried three new phones because I felt that three people had lost their mobile phones.
So, when I went there, in the volunteers meet after the program, I said, ‘Some of you have lost your mobile phones. I know about it. Those of you who have lost your mobile phones, please stand up’, and only three people stood up.
There was a lady who had stood up, and I told her, ‘Look, you were crying in front of my picture last Thursday. You did not know what to do, how to face your family because an expensive mobile phone was lost, which must have been worth two to three months of earnings. Here, take a new one.'

When I was doing this, one boy from the group came up to me and he shared his story. He was in an advanced course and his wife was at home, and he had to talk to her. There was no battery on his phone and he had forgotten the charger at home. So he put the phone in front of my picture and asked, ‘Gurudev, let the phone be charged.'
The next morning, when he woke up, the phone was fully charged.
This boy showed me his phone and said, ‘Look, for one and a half years I have thrown away my charger, and now I only keep my phone in front of your picture and it gets charged.’
He threw his charger away!
I said, 'This is really something. Even I need a charger for my phone, and my devotee charges his phone by keeping it in front of my picture.'
See how powerful devotees can be.

Why I am saying is because it is our feelings, our devotion and our love that makes this happen.

I will share another story with you. I was in South Africa, as a guest in somebody’s house. This was about 10 years ago. So just before leaving to Johannesburg, we were packing all our luggage, and suddenly I went into the other room where some of the devotees were staying and I started looking here and there in that room.
Usually I never go to somebody’s room like that. People were shocked and wondered why Gurudev has come into our room. Just imagine, I come to your room in the hotel, suddenly, you will be shocked.
So people were shocked, 'Why has Gurudev come here and he looks very restless. What is he looking for?'
Then I saw a packet of tea and I asked them, ‘Whose is this?'
They said, 'We don’t know. It is somebody’s.'
I never drink tea, but I took the packet of tea and put it in my suitcase and closed my suitcase. Then I could breathe.
I was so restless till I could get that packet of tea. People found it a little strange, how could Gurudev steal a packet of tea, after knowing it is not ours, it is somebody’s, he didn’t care, he just took it and went away.

So when we landed in Johannesburg from Durban, an elderly gentleman meets me at the airport and he said, ‘Gurudev, did you get the packet of tea I sent for you? It is a special tea. I myself went and picked it up and I wanted to give it to you. I couldn’t come to Durban so I sent it through somebody.'
So it was sent through somebody and they put it in another room because they know that I don't drink tea, and so they didn’t even tell me. This was a case.
Then I said, ‘Yes, I got that packet of tea.'

This means that when your feelings and your emotions are so intense, I become only a puppet then. So I had to get that packet of tea.

So, this is the story on how I had to steal a packet of tea, which is not really stealing. It belonged to me but at that moment it appeared as though I am stealing something that did not belong to me.
Like this there are many incidences.

You know once, I was in Delhi in a big hall. There was lot of crowd in the hall and after the program, the people were all lining up in the hotel lobby.
The people who wanted to escort me, they said ‘Oh, there is too much crowd. This will take too much time and Gurudev has to catch a flight.'
So they decided to trick the people and they took me from the basement directly to the car and we left You know, there were a thousand people who were disappointed because I was not there and I became sick.
The people were angry, they were upset, and that whole day my head was throbbing and I became so sick. I asked the people who took me directly to the car and directly to the airport, '‘Why did you that? I don’t want to disappoint anybody. I never disappoint anybody.'

Why I am saying this is because when your feelings are very strong and when your love is so strong, it can make even stones melt. Got it?
So there are so many stories.

That is why, as a practitioner of meditation, you have to be very careful. You should not curse anybody anytime. Don’t say any bad words. Nothing bad should come out of your mouth.
You know, I have never said one bad thing all these 56 years. I have never ever spoken any bad words. I can’t take credit for it; it simply doesn’t come.
The worst thing I have said is, ‘You are stupid’.
You will never have heard me swearing or speaking any kind of bad words about anybody, anywhere; even to myself.
So, as a practitioner, you should keep your speech free from any kind of bad words as far as possible because there is energy in your words. As you do meditation you gain the ability to bless and curse. First the ability to curse comes, and then the ability to bless comes. That is why, the rule for any practitioner is not to think bad about anybody, not to say bad words to anyone and from your side, stay positive.
I am not saying you should never get angry. Anger is part of life. But even when you are angry, keep your lips and your tongue under your control.
You have to get angry sometimes in life, it is necessary, but don’t allow fithy words to flow out of your mouth.
Why?
Because you will be spending too much of your good energy when you say all those bad words.
Just imagine if you lose one month of your meditation with just a few words. Is it economically wise? It is like spending a thousand dollars to get a coke which is worth one dollar.

So don’t underestimate your power, your energy, and your determination.
When you meditate, you really have so much power. That is why in Ancient India, all the Rishis and Masters would not take on disciples because they knew they would become very powerful, and if they don’t follow the rules, it can be a problem.
So they would not give this knowledge to everybody. They would first put them through lot of tests and if they pass all the tests, then they gave them meditation and all that.
But I said that we will give this knowledge to everybody. It is essential. Otherwise it will be like a catch 22 situation.
Only if you are good you will get knowledge. Unless you get knowledge you can never become good. So I took the second route.

The Five Steps of Meditation

January 01, 2013

(Below is the transcript of Satsang with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.You can watch the Live webcast of future satsangs)

Berlin, Germany

Happy New Year to you all.
It is a nice way to celebrate New Year with meditation.
What is meditation? Meditation is a state from which everything has come, and to which everything goes. It is that inner silence from where you feel joy, happiness, calmness, etc.

Do you know, there are three types of knowledge.
One is the knowledge which we get through our senses. The five senses bring us knowledge. By looking we get knowledge, by hearing we get knowledge, by touching, by smelling and by tasting we get knowledge.
So, through the sensory perceptions we gain knowledge. This is one level of knowledge.

The second level of knowledge is through the intellect.
The knowledge that we gain through the intellect is superior to that of the senses.
We see the sun rising and setting, but through intellect we know that the sun is neither setting nor rising.
You place a pen in water, the pen appears to be bent. But by intellectual knowledge we know the pen is not bent, it is just an optical illusion.
So intellectual knowledge is superior.

Then, there is the third level of knowledge which is even superior, that is intuitive knowledge. Something in the pit of your stomach tells you.
Something comes from a deep silence, a creativity comes or some discoveries come. This is all from that level of consciousness, which is the third level of knowledge.

Meditation is opening the door to the third level of knowledge. And meditation is also opening the door to the third level of joy.

There are three levels of joy.
When our senses engage in sense objects, i.e., when the eyes are busy looking, the ears are busy hearing, we get joy by looking, by hearing, by tasting or by touching. We get some joy from the senses, but the capacity to enjoy through the senses is limited.
See, the first doughnut you eat tastes very good. The second one tastes okay. The third one feels like it is too much, and the fourth one feels like torture.
Why is this? All of them are made in the same bakery, but the ability to enjoy goes down. It is the same with all the sense organs. Sight, touch, smell, taste, hearing; the joy from all of these have their own limitations. Isn’t that so?

Then the second level of joy, is when you do something creative; when you discover something nice, or when you write a poem, or when you make some new dishes.
That which comes from creativity brings a certain joy with it.
When a baby is born to you, whether it is your first baby or third baby, it brings a certain excitement; a certain joy.

Now, there is a third level of joy. A joy that does not diminish, and that comes, not from the senses, or through creativity, but from something deep and mystical.
Similarly, peace, knowledge and joy, these three things come from another level.
And from where they come, the source of it, is meditation.

For meditation you have three important rules.
The three rules are, for the next ten minutes that I am going to sit for meditation, I want nothing, I have to do nothing and I am nothing.
If we follow these three important rules, then we are able to go deep in meditation.

In the beginning, meditation is just a relaxation.
In the second step, meditation is something that gives you energy; you feel more energetic.
In the third step, meditation brings creativity.
In the fourth step, mediation brings enthusiasm and joy.
The fifth step of meditation is indescribable, you simply can't describe it. It is that oneness with the whole universe. This is the fifth step of meditation, and don’t stop before that.

I usually compare this with people who go to the beach in Spain, or in Italy.
Some people just go for a walk and they are happy with that. Some others go and take a good swim and feel refreshed, and they are happy with that. There are some who go fishing, and there are some who go scuba diving and see all the nice creatures, and are happy with that. And then there are some others who go and draw wealth out of the ocean; they go deeper.
So the knowledge keeps in front of you all these options.
Don’t stop with just some relaxation, some joy, some enthusiasm, or with fulfillment of some desires.
Do you know, your ability to enjoy also increases with meditation, and your ability to fulfill your desires also increases with meditation. And when you don’t want anything for yourself, you are able to fulfill the desires of others as well.
It is simply very nice. So don’t stop before that, keep mediating.

Sri Sri's New Year Message

December 31, 2012

(Below is the transcript of Satsang with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.You can watch the Live webcast of future satsangs)

Berlin, Germany

2012 is passing rather very fast. Let us recapture!
When this year began, there was a lot of talk about 21 December 2012. There were rumors that the world is going to end. And there are many people who believe rumors; at least some people believe in rumors very strongly.
So people started hoarding food in their basements, waiting for the doomsday to fall.
I have always been saying that no such thing is going to happen.
Of course, this year we have seen many catastrophes, like almost every year. Maybe little more. US had a big catastrophe, Japan had problems, and there were problems in many other parts of the world as well; Nature’s fury.
At the same time the economic gloom, which people thought is going to really make the situation worse, was also managed. Still everything is working well. People are surviving. Of course things have to become better and it has started becoming better already.
This coming year, 2013, will be much better.

There is a big awareness in people today, towards the environment, towards the safety of women and children.
What we have been saying for so many years, today many people are waking up and saying, 'We need more human values, we want violence to go down.’
This year, let us all resolve to act for making a better society - a society free from violence, society free from crime and corruption, a society which is safe and just, and a world which is sustainable.
Most of all, we need to work towards spiritual elevation and spiritual awakening. And it will happen. In fact, it is already happening. More and more people are interested in spiritual awakening.

The Art of Living is going to make a big leap. This year we will be teaching two new Kriyas, which will make people's lives much more joyful. People will feel so much more joyful, so much more dynamic, so much more committed, compassionate and creative.

Time poses challenges, it is for you to see how you can benefit from these challenges. Every time a challenge is in front of you, see how you can make this challenge, an opportunity for your own growth. How you can turn it and utilize it for your own growth. This is what you need to do.

As you are coming to the end of this year, think of all those challenges you had, and how they have contributed to your growth. Think of how you handled these challenges, and while handling them, what mistakes you made, and from those mistakes, what lessons did you infer. This is the first step.

Second, think of gifts that the past year has given to you; has brought to your life, and how you are going to utilize these gifts for the betterment of life on the planet.

See, everyone is bestowed with some or other talents, some or other gifts. You need to see how are you utilizing these talents.
Are you utilizing them at all? This is what you need to point out.
Plan for this year; in the next 12 months, what are you going to do every day?!
Everyday, do meditation. Once in every three to four months take some time off and go deeper into meditation and go into silence. At least once a year, you must meditate in silence (Advanced Course), and spend some time doing some good work for the society and for everybody on the planet.
Don't think only about yourself, but do some service activity. Then you will see that whatever you want for yourself, you ask and it will come to you.
You have to do something first, then when you ask, you will get.
If you say, ‘I want only for myself, I don't want to do anything’, no, that will not work. You should do some good work in society, bring smiles on the faces of people and gain some merit. If you bring smiles on the faces of others then you have a right to demand something for yourself. Do you see what I’m saying? This is real currency.

See, if you have money then you can go shopping. If you have no money, no credit card and you go shopping, who will give you anything? You need to have some bank balance first, isn't it? So, when you do seva, your bank balance goes up. Then when you ask for whatever it is that you want, you will get it.
You can buy the whole supermarket if you have enough points.
So let us resolve to do something good in society, and let us have the confidence that whatever we need will come to us; will be given to us.
Our wish will definitely be granted. When we wish something, it will be granted.

Next, you need to be ready to learn new lessons in life.
Keep the cheer, the joy and smile throughout the journey of life. Got it?
See, everyone is walking. Some are yelling, crying and walking and some are smiling and walking.
Everybody is on a conveyor belt and the belt is moving. Some are crying, some are laughing, but the conveyor belt is anyway moving.
So, it is your choice, how do you want to move on this conveyor belt of time.

See, in a car, you have a rearview mirror, isn't it?!
You have a big windshield, and there is a small rearview mirror.
Just imagine if your car’s rearview mirror is as big as the windshield and windshield is as small as the rearview mirror, what will happen to you? Can you drive? No!

Your car can teach you a lesson. What is the lesson? You need to look back only a little bit, just like that little mirror.
The rearview mirror represents the past, and the present is the windshield. The future is like the side view mirrors. So, when you drive, you will have to look to the side and to the back as well, but most of the time, you have to look in the front.
If you only keep looking at the side mirrors while driving, you will meet with an accident. So you should look front, but sometimes look at the side mirrors, and sometimes at the rearview mirror. Look a little at the past and the future, but most of the time be in the present.
What do you say?

Time has come, voices of the good people will become stronger now.
All those people who are doing bad things will come to light and their minds will change. Waves of spirituality will start transforming people. This is going to happen in the coming years. This wave will become much more predominant.
Those people who are cheating others, they will all come down from their seats of power, and then they will be exposed. People who are cheating others will be exposed, this will happen.
So, good times are there in front of us.

You Have To Go Beyond!

December 30, 2012

(Below is the transcript of Satsang with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.You can watch the Live webcast of future satsangs)

Bad Antogast, Germany

It is a joy to see you all joyful, and grow in wisdom. If you all grow in wisdom, that is the greatest joy! Wisdom is that situation in which you are solid, unshakable and with a smile.

Q: Is being gay an impression of the mind?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: It could be, or it could also be biological.

You are made up of both, male and female, chromosomes. If the female chromosomes in you are active, but the body is male, then the tendencies can change. However, it is not for a lifetime. These tendencies may come for some time, and disappear. You can see many people who are straight, suddenly turn gay. And many people who are gay for a long time, they start getting married. I have seen all these different permutations, combinations, mindsets in people. So, it is best not to label yourself.

Sometimes, people force themselves to fit into particular categories. They say, ‘Okay, I am lesbian’, or, ‘I am gay’, and when these tendencies change, they get shattered later on. Sometimes, people become so homophobic that they start hating people with such tendencies, which is no good.
My advice would be to get out of labeling yourself based on some tendency of the body. Know that you are consciousness. You are love. You are scintillating energy. Your identification as energy, as love, and as a beautiful person is far, far better than identifying and labeling yourself with the physical tendencies that may arise in you.

When such tendencies come, you don't have to feel bad or guilty or anything. That is how it is! Accept it! It is a phenomenon in nature - there are different male or female tendencies, or emotions or attractions that are arising within you. There is nothing wrong about it. You have to go beyond that! Beyond that is the spirit.
The spirit has no gender, it is beyond gender. The spirit is love, and that is what you are. When you know this, you become very solid.

Q: Dear Gurudev, how to manage a woman who is irritated at me for everything! Please help, I love her very much.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: I am so inexperienced in this matter! You are asking a wrong person! What do you do with a person who is irritated at you, and you love them so much? I guess you have to just accept it, and simply move on.

There is a story of a gentleman who was so bothered by his wife. Everything she did, was the opposite of what he wanted. If he said, 'I do not want to eat pasta today', she ensured he had only pasta that day.
If he said, 'I don’t like blue jeans’, she made sure that she wore blue jeans that day.
Anything he asked of her, she did just the opposite. If he said, 'I don’t want to go out', she would say, 'No, I want to go out'. When he would want to go out, she would say, 'I don't want to step out of the house!'
He was so bothered, so worried, and had a very long face.
One morning, as he went for a walk, he bumped into a Guru. The Guru asked him, 'My dear, are you happy? You don’t look happy. What do you want?'
The man said, 'I have a big problem. Anything I say, my wife does just the opposite.’
So the wise man whispered something in his ears.

Three months later, as the man was walking happily one morning, he bumped into the Guru again. The Guru said, 'Hey, you look happier!'
He said, 'Yes, your trick worked.’
Now what was the trick?
The Guru advised him, 'Don’t speak your heart to your wife. Whatever you want, say the opposite of it! If you want to go out, tell her that you don’t want to step out of the house. If you want apple pie, tell her not to make apple pie. If you don’t want her to wear blue jeans, tell her to wear blue jeans that day.’
The man said to the Guru, 'I did what you said, and it worked. I say the opposite of everything I want, and we are happy now'.
Similarly, you find out what would make her happy, and keep her from getting irritated.

Sometimes, it becomes people’s nature to be irritated. They keep complaining, come what may. No matter what you do, they will find something to complain about. Especially after they cross the age of 70 or 80, it is even more. Since all their life they have programmed their mind and brain in such a manner - complain, complain, complain, and complain. Then it becomes the prominent behavioral pattern in their life.
You simply have to swallow it. Accept it. And don’t try to please them.

Your biggest difficulty is that you try to please people, when they are actually happy in their complaining mode. You try to change them, make them happy, and it doesn’t work! You should simply let them do what they want, but don’t let their complaints enter into your head. You don’t complain that they are complaining. Got it? At any cost, save your mind.
If others are complaining, let it be! If you cannot correct them, you simply accept them, and move on.
See there isn’t much time! Everything is moving towards the final end; we are all moving towards death. How long can you go on trying to placate somebody? That does not mean you be rude to anybody. You be nice to people, however, don't get stuck, ‘Oh, they are irritated, what do I do?’ You can’t do much! Keep walking!

I find this problem everywhere, in every part of the world. Almost in every home, there is somebody who irritates everybody, and everybody gets irritated by somebody. Then there is a war of words. That is why I said the world is such! That is why it is called maya, it appears to be something, and it is really not that.

Q: I have so much fear of my own death and of my loved ones. Please suggest something to overcome this fear.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Nothing at all! Just be with the fear, and see how it evaporates. It is like a bubble. You try to get rid of fear, and it increases even more. Just breathe. Kriya and meditation are good enough. And all this wisdom is good enough to take you out of it.

Q: How can we remove the physical desires that harm us and our relationships?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: By enhancing your prana.
When there is lust, there is a feeling of wanting to grab. When there is love, there is a feeling of wanting to give.
How can the feeling of lust be transformed to love? By raising the energy level in our system.
When energy is stuck in the lower chakra (two-three inches above the base of the spine), there is a feeling of lust. However, when the energy channels open up, the energy rises. Then there is more love, compassion, awareness. All these other beautiful, finer emotions also get opened up. Then violence disappears from the system.

What Will It Take To Change Our Lives?

December 30, 2012

(Below is the transcript of Satsang with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.You can watch the Live webcast of future satsangs)

Bad Antogast, Germany

Q: Dear Gurudev, I am shattered by the rape victim’s death in India. Why do such brutal rape crimes happen in India?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Listen, it is not just in one place, and it is not only in India. This incident just caught so much publicity. There are so many such crimes happening all over the world. Not just on women, but on children, and even on old people!

One of our volunteers just told me about what is happening in Nairobi, Kenya. It is horrible; people are not safe there. Listening to her, I said that people should not move out of their homes. To which she said, ‘People feel even more scared being inside their homes, because so many robberies happen there. They feel safer going out, in their cars’.
You are not safe inside your own home! Such incidents are increasing; even in Mumbai. People sight older people who are living alone, and then target them. Such crimes are happening almost everywhere.
So many crimes are reported, in Italy, Spain, and Turkey; even here in Germany, isn’t it? I was told it is so much more in Russia, that it isn’t even safe to walk on the streets there.

When I hear such things, I wonder where we are heading. This one incident created such a big wave. Do you know, The Art of Living was a pioneer in creating awareness about this incident? On the very first day, it was the YES+ students who took a candle light march to India Gate. See, whatever we began has taken a bigger dimension, a bigger magnitude; everywhere people are aware now. I am sure, and hope that this will help reduce such crimes everywhere. That is why we all should work for a violence free and stress free society.

I know people are demanding that the accused should be hanged. But, ten other people will rise who have no control over their lust and emotions. They become so violent in their tendencies. What do you do? How many people will you go on hanging; punishing? We need to reform.

Thousands of youngsters see so many violent movies, and play violent video games. They are also responsible for the rising crime in the world. When children start shooting in video games, they fail to see the difference between the virtual world and the real world. In their mind, there is a very thin line between the two. If they can shoot people in the virtual world, they don’t find it a big deal to shoot people with a gun in the real world. This is what happened in Connecticut, America. A very pious boy shot his mother, so many children, and then shot himself!
See what happened in Norway also last year. It is horrible! Such crimes are happening all over the world.

In Mexico, two taxi drivers had an argument at a traffic light. They got out of the car and shot each other, while their passengers were still sitting in the cars! They simply had an argument! Our tolerance level has stooped so low.
In Pakistan, today, again, so many people are hurt, so many people died in a car bomb. So many people are dying in Pakistan.
In Iraq, people have become numb to these numbers now. Forty people died in Iraq. Nobody cares, although they are dying every day! See what is happening in Syria? In Egypt? Half the population is being wiped out.
It is at times like this that we should realize that what we are doing is so important!
It is so important to create a violence free and stress free society. We need to have more teachers in more localities. We need to spread out and change the mindset of people.

I am so glad that our teachers are working in prisons. Recently, I went to a prison in Argentina. There was a lot of violence and crime there, even in the cells. Ever since The Art of Living course was conducted there, all the prisoners have started wearing a band that says, ‘We will not engage in any violent activity’. There were tears in the eyes of the 5,200 macho men in the Argentinean prison! They said, ‘Our lives have changed! Why did we not get this knowledge before?’

Similarly, in Brazil, when I was in Rio, I visited a cell. They have an Art of Living Centre inside the prison. In one room, they have put my picture and a lot of Art of Living literature. Nobody is allowed in there with shoes. They have put yoga mats. People go sit there, do yoga, meditations, paintings, and their lives are so touched!

We have so much to do in the world, to make this world a better place for the coming generation! Otherwise your children, your grandchildren will not forgive you. They will say, ‘What type of a world have you given us?’ They want you to give them a better world - a world with more love and free from violence.

Don’t get caught up in your small little needs and small little altercations with friends and other people. Think big, and see what you can do to reduce the violence, the stress and tension in the world. This is what we need to look into!

People with extreme sexual tendencies, who are blinded towards the welfare of others, need a lesson. It is hormonal imbalance and stress that makes a person do such heinous crimes. It blinds their minds, their eyes and their wisdom. Rape in the bus, so many people together! I think we need to address all these things on a more human level. We need to bring back the human values in society. Educate people in spirituality. Then their attitude will change. People who are spiritual would never-ever engage in such violent activities.
We may not be able to achieve a world totally free from violence in this generation, but we should always work towards it. I am sure we can definitely reduce the violence in the world.

Recently, in one part of Delhi, the police put together 756 criminals and made them do The Art of Living course for five days. They did pranayama, and Sudarshan Kriya. You should have heard the experiences these people shared, it was so touching. There were people who were using drugs, and they developed an aversion towards drugs in five days.
People who used to snatch chains and engage in other such activities, completely changed and started doing social work in slums. Our teachers could train these people.
I went and visited them on the last day of the course. Their experiences indicate that we still have hope to make the world a better place. We can create a better society.

Q: Gurudev, there is amazing energy during and after the course. It is like an explosion. But then I do things that bring my energy down in 2-3 days. What can I do to avoid it this time?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Energy fluctuates, but don't be concerned about it too much. You seem to have too much free time, looking at your own energy, whether it is going up or down. Keep yourself busy. When you are busy, everything falls in place.
Where is the time to be unhappy when you are so busy? When you wake up, you have something to do. When you come back, you are so tired, you fall back to sleep. If you keep yourself busy, you have no time to complain, no time to be unhappy. People who are active don’t have time to be depressed. It is only people who are free that feel depressed.