You having desires is not the problem, but the problem is when desires have you

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:  Listen, there are so many people trying to give so many techniques and if you take all of them, you will be in confusion, it will be a mess. Its better that you stick to one set of practices and go deep into that. If you don’t get any change or benefit at all from this technique, even after practicing for a good amount of time, then I would myself tell you that this doesn’t suit you and go to that. If you have got some benefit from this, I would tell you to stick to it and go deeper into it.

That is very necessary. Even if you get ten percent benefit in any one path, you should continue for some time. It’s not the technique that is important, it is your attention, your dedication and your eagerness to grow that is good enough. Collecting techniques will not help you, yeah! To drop everything and relax will help. Your growth happens not by doing too many things but learning to undo or not do anything. Many people will ask you to do this or that, I would say RELAX. And you all know the three golden rules to Meditation.

For the next few minutes I want nothing, I do nothing and I am nothing.
This is the highest technique and any technique should lead you to this level of being nothing, removing all the labels we put on ourselves of the roles we play. If it doesn’t, then it’s no good a technique and it’s only a very mediocre, some preliminary beginning technique, may be just to bring some focus. If you understand this philosophy, ‘I want nothing, I do nothing, I am nothing’ rest is all done! Yeah, so simple and yet very profound… very profound!

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:  When you feel you can never achieve the commitment or when you feel the commitment is stifling you. When you feel the commitment you have undertaken was done in great ignorance and you are getting nowhere then you move out of that commitment, okay!

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:  This you should think, how to make teenagers do the course. You think and come up with some ideas. You allure them by skillfully telling them the benefits of the course. You can tell them, ‘Come, we will take you for a holiday somewhere’.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:  When you feel guilty, just chant ‘Om Namah Shivaya’. Do some Bhastrika, some Pranayama, Kriya. Doing ‘Om Namah Shivaya’ chanting one hundred and eight times also helps a lot. You chant one hundred and eight times, and then relax and meditate. See, new energy has come in you and you have become a new person. That person who did a mistake is gone, has packed off his suitcase and gone. Now inside you is a new person. Start believing in the innocence of the present moment. In the present moment, the YOU in you, the ‘energy in you’ is innocent, okay!

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:  You want to give more love to yourself, IMPOSSIBLE. If an ocean says how can I give more water to myself, what can be said? If sugarcane says how can I give more sweetness to myself, what would you say? It is like sun saying how can it give more light to itself? It is impossible for you to give more love to yourself.

In fact you love yourself too much, and that is the problem, you’re only thinking about yourself. Start thinking about everybody else, and give love to others. You are ‘love’ my dear, just relax and reduce your wants. Your wants and your desires are eating you up; you simply relax.
You should have wants. There is no problem if you have your desires, but don’t let the desires have you. I don’t mind you having desires at the initial stages. Later you find, before the desire arises in you, it gets fulfilled.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:  What is destroying this world? It’s the greed, jealousy, hatred, narrow mindedness, selfishness, and all these negative emotions and qualities which are destroying the world, right? Because of greed of few people, anger and hatred of few people, lack of awareness, lack of understanding or misunderstanding and narrow mindedness of a few people, the world is getting destroyed. How can these negative emotions be overcome? Is there a way? Yes, SPIRITUALITY. It is only spirituality which can turn hatred into love, anger into awareness and selfishness into compassion. It is only spirituality that can save the mind of the people, isn’t it so?!

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:  What is politics? It is caring for people and what does a spiritual leader do? Care for people. Politicians rule over people, spiritual leaders serve and care for the people. Politics and spirituality are two different fields but they should go hand in hand. That’s why spiritual leaders were placed the highest in ancient India. Any king or emperor would go to the spiritual leader and take his advice. Emperors used to run the kingdom on the blessings and advice of the spiritual leaders. A spiritual leader should not get into politics but should guide the politics. That is necessary.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:  Well, I will give you some advice now. What is the guarantee you will be able to do it then also? Few weak moments have come in life in the past; don’t welcome them in the future as well. And if you cannot get across some weak moments, know that it has come in the past also and it has not helped you in any way. So we should not sit and expect weak moments to come to us first of all. Secondly, even if it comes, we will have the strength to overcome them at that moment. So be spontaneous, okay!

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:  More and more people are becoming aware of vegetarianism. Here, I heard last week that a major newspaper in Germany carried three full pages on the benefits of vegetarianism. Vegetarianism has many benefits. It helps your body’s digestion; it helps the environment as well. You know, even if ten percent of the people in the world become vegetarians, the green house gas effect problem is gone. We are done with it; we will have no more problems of global warming. That’s what the scientists say. So we need to promote more and more vegetarianism. People change a little slowly and we need to have patience, Okay!