Transcript of Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's address at “Indian Priests’ Congress” -Shrine of Our Lady of Good Health, Velanganni on February 9, 2010. This conference was attended by 1000 Roman Catholic priests across India.
Om Shanthi...Shanthi... Shanthihi...
Gurudev : What a joy to speak to the lovers’of God! I am a child going to blabber in front of scholars. Let us discuss...
Lovers know the language of the heart-we are all lovers of God who want to unite with the spirit of the world. We all want to serve, ...see divinity in people around...
Three things are important for this:
- Context (of life)
- Commitment
- Compassion
We have all the three. Apart from how to unite and connect, we have to know how to face challenges in life. When faith is shaken, how to rekindle it...
To know faith, we have to know doubt. Doubt is something about positive. We never doubt the negative.. we doubt whether we really happy, but never doubt our misery!
God is the most positive thing in the universe! Doubt about God, doubt in Self...How to get over these?
The Upanishads tell about the experience of divinity in four stages for the Seekers:
Saameepya: feeling the proximity of the Divine
Sannidhya: feeling the Presence
Saaroopya: doing what the Divine is doing, imitating the Divine
Saayoojya: Merging with the Divine.
Another challenge is to arrive at the inner peace and calmness. Mind vacillates between the past and the future. How to bring the mind to the Present? Using our own breath, we can calm the mind, reunite with the Spirit...Simple breathing techniques can remove negative emotions and we can experience Freedom within. Mind can right away go into Prayer easily, effortlessly.
We all are made of a substance called Love...God has made man in His own image.. and God is love.. Then why all the negative emotions? How to meet these challenges?
Wisdom, Spiritual wisdom help overcome these hurdles.
We are all committed to Service: service to God, service to humanity. Still, if something is missing, something is broken, then breathing, meditation can connect us to our inner self. Meditation is Wordless Prayer...words are there and not there at the same time! Ability to connect to everybody.. “There is no Other”...is the Mantra of Love! All is part of One...
As lovers of God, our relationship is only one...All in One.. One in All.. This is Prayer.. We don’t lack anything. There is abundance ..For the one step we take, the Divine takes ten...!!!
Let us open the floor for questions!!
Three questions: (a) how to sustain Prayer, when the faith seems lost (dark night of the soul)? (b) Is it possible to reach God without religion, through spirituality? (c) why is it that you never speak anything about casteism?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: I will answer the last question first! Please go through my book “Heritage of Dalits”. If you see the thousand Rishis of ancient India, 90% of them were “Dalits”-Vyasa, Valmiki and so on. The Upanishads tell that “all are born Soodra and become Dwija by action”...
I unequivocally condemn casteism. There is no caste for the spirit. When we want to see a good doctor, we don’t ask his caste. When we want to see a good lawyer, we don’t ask his caste. It is of use only in Politics! I don’t know Politics. I speak from heart to heart. I love to be with people of God like you!.
For the second question, I never tell to drop religion. Do not forget the essence of religion is Spirituality. Do you feel that connectivity, calmness inside...We know that during Tsunami, the Basilica housed people of all religions, temples and mosques housed people of all religions.Only aim was rehabilitation of people.
Terrorism arises because some people feel their way is the only way to God and others do not have the right to follow their way..
For the dark night of the soul, Rishi Patanjali describes nine obstacles in the path of the seeker. These include Diseases, Doubt, Dullness (inertia, Disinterestedness, Unsustainability and so on. All these can be overcome by practice of Yoga.
The world is undergoing an identity crisis!.. A reversal of identity is needed.. First of all, our identity is that we are all Divine.. then we are human beings, then our gender, religion, country and so on..
We have to educate the society about the ONE divinity.. When that shift happens, we can relate to anybody, whatever be our ideology. Fear will be eliminated. Inside every culprit, there is a victim crying for help...what is troubling him?...He could have been a victim of ignorance or brain washing or violence...
This education is the only way to bring peace around us, to make this world a beautiful place to live in...Thank you.
