I have heard that after years of meditation that one’s whole life becomes a constant meditation. Can you explain this?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yes! That inner calmness stays whatever you do. You may be walking, talking, eating, chitchatting, watching news, and there is that certain serenity which continues. You get so used to it. It doesn’t leave you.
But again, ‘When will I get this sort of experience’, don’t keep saying that. It can happen anytime. Who cares! That should be the attitude. That is the best thing to say, ‘Okay, let it be.’ There is a beautiful verse of Kabir; he was a saint in India in the middle ages. He said that he went in the search of God all the time, looking here and there, where is God? Where is God?
He said, ‘When I went in search of God, I couldn’t find God, but when I left everything and I relaxed, now God is after me. God is running after me saying, ‘Kabir, Kabir, Kabir!’’
So when he stopped running after God, then God started running after him. This is very true!
You just need to know how to deeply relax. No effort, because whatever we gain through effort is material and is limited. Anything you want to gain from the spiritual plane, something higher ,then effort is not the language there. All effort should be let go of, do no effort at all then you gain something which is bigger.
The material plane is just 1/10th of the entire existence and 9/10th is the spiritual plane.
See, you cannot cultivate love by effort, you cannot be compassionate by effort, can you? Can you say, ‘I try hard to be compassionate’? Your trying hard is the impediment. You just relax and you will be compassionate. You are trying hard to be happy is the deterrent factor to being happy. So effort is the language of the material world. If you don’t put effort you can’t make money, you can’t study and gain good marks. You can’t obtain a degree if you don’t put effort. So everything in the material requires you to put effort. You need to put effort to build a home. It does not happen by just sitting and thinking. But to attain something spiritual just the reverse mechanism is needed – no effort! A few moments of sitting and making no effort at all whatsoever.
I know you may tell me it is difficult not to do anything. It is difficult to be quiet. But it just appears like that. A couple of days here and you will see how it is so simple, so easy!
But again, ‘When will I get this sort of experience’, don’t keep saying that. It can happen anytime. Who cares! That should be the attitude. That is the best thing to say, ‘Okay, let it be.’ There is a beautiful verse of Kabir; he was a saint in India in the middle ages. He said that he went in the search of God all the time, looking here and there, where is God? Where is God?
He said, ‘When I went in search of God, I couldn’t find God, but when I left everything and I relaxed, now God is after me. God is running after me saying, ‘Kabir, Kabir, Kabir!’’
So when he stopped running after God, then God started running after him. This is very true!
You just need to know how to deeply relax. No effort, because whatever we gain through effort is material and is limited. Anything you want to gain from the spiritual plane, something higher ,then effort is not the language there. All effort should be let go of, do no effort at all then you gain something which is bigger.
The material plane is just 1/10th of the entire existence and 9/10th is the spiritual plane.
See, you cannot cultivate love by effort, you cannot be compassionate by effort, can you? Can you say, ‘I try hard to be compassionate’? Your trying hard is the impediment. You just relax and you will be compassionate. You are trying hard to be happy is the deterrent factor to being happy. So effort is the language of the material world. If you don’t put effort you can’t make money, you can’t study and gain good marks. You can’t obtain a degree if you don’t put effort. So everything in the material requires you to put effort. You need to put effort to build a home. It does not happen by just sitting and thinking. But to attain something spiritual just the reverse mechanism is needed – no effort! A few moments of sitting and making no effort at all whatsoever.
I know you may tell me it is difficult not to do anything. It is difficult to be quiet. But it just appears like that. A couple of days here and you will see how it is so simple, so easy!