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Q: Gurudev, what is the easiest way to overcome thoughts of obsession, lust and desire?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Keep
yourself busy.
Put your passion to a bigger cause. Be passionate about creating something or making something.
Be busy
in spreading knowledge, and spreading Dharma. Day and night think of how you can reach out to people, and do some good work
in life. Or write articles, write music; songs. When you are so busy then you will find that obsessions do not bother you.
Especially the youth must keep themselves utterly busy. From morning when you wake up till night if you keep yourself
very busy, none of this will bother you.
That is how we were; at the age of 20 to 25, I was so busy. From six in the morning
to one or two at night, I would be on the run.
So, keep yourself very busy, especially in the age when the hormones play
havoc. You will find that you can easily sail over all those obsessions, lust and everything.
Q: Gurudev, how to discourage
teenagers from social drinking?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Tell them it is the most dangerous thing, whether it is social drinking
or private drinking, it doesn't matter. Just say no to that, that’s it, finished!
In fact you should take pride in
saying, ‘No’ in a social circle.
If you attach pride to it, ‘I am a teetotaler, I never touch alcohol’,
then you gain a certain dignity even amongst your friends.
You should emphasize your own values. Even when in a group,
carry on with your individualness and your individual preferences.
We do that all the time. We go to all these big meetings,
everywhere, we keep our individual preferences.
You know the world has started recognizing this. Whichever institution
that gave me a doctorate, in several places, and wherever I went, just to honor me they kept only vegetarian food and no drinks.
Usually
in the universities they keep drinks and non-vegetarian food. But wherever it was that I went, whether Cordoba, or Netherlands,
or the Nyenrode University, when they gave me a doctorate, in the reception they served only vegetarian food and soft drinks.
Even
in very big conferences in the world, like the UN conference on HIV-AIDS, they have started keeping a section for vegetarian
food. This was never the case earlier.
Even in The World Economic Forum, if you are vegetarian, they honor it, and have
a separate section for vegetarian food.
This was not there before. About 10 to 20 years back, this was unthinkable. Even
10 years ago you would not find this in international forums. But now it has changed and this is because we have always stood
our ground that we will not touch alcohol and non-vegetarian food. And the world honors that. So your friends will also honor
that.
Even in airlines they have started doing this in the last 10 years. Before it was not so. Now, they even have
Jain food on airlines, i.e., with no potatoes, carrots, etc.
You can specify what kind of food you want.
So, you
must keep your personal habits and emphasize on them. Otherwise, first you start with social drinking and then slowly it becomes
a personal menace.
Q: Dear Gurudev, what is the difference between self-inquiry and judging yourself? You sometimes
tell us to stop judging, can you please elaborate?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You should take the middle path.
There are
some who justify their actions all the time, and some who finds fault with themselves all the time. Both will create a sort
of imbalance.
You should take a middle path, where you can look into your actions and see how you can improve and at the
same time look forward.
See what you want to do, move forward and drop the past. Don't go on doing postmortem of the past
all the time.
You should look at the past only this much (gesturing ‘a little’ with his fingers).
See,
it is just like, how in a car, you have a windshield which is big, and a rear-view mirror which is small. Just imagine if
your rear-view mirror is big and the windshield is small.
That is the situation of your car now. Your rear-mirror occupies
half the wind-shield or even more than that and so you keep looking back only. That is not right.
You need to look at the
past a little, and more forward.
This could be the best example. Think about your car, the windshield and the rear-view
mirror. You need only a little back view.
Q: Dear Gurudev, what should a seeker aim for? Or should a seeker just be,
and let nature takes it course?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yes that is it, just be! You are in the right place, just be and
see how things go on.
Q: Gurudev, I understand detachment and selflessness on an intellectual level, but I find it
difficult to practice. What do I do?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Life will teach you that lesson.
When you are too attached
to something, without wisdom, it brings you more pain.
Q: My dear Gurudev, sometimes the expectations of people around
me and my own expectations from myself don't let me be natural. What to do to become natural?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Only
sometimes, not all the time, isn’t it?
If it is all the time then I will give you a solution. Sometimes it is okay.
As
you grow more in wisdom, as you see the dream nature of the world – that everything is like a dream, everything is passing,
everything is changing, then events will bother you lesser and lesser. The only way to be untouched by events is to see the
whole phenomenon as a dream which is passing.
Q: Gurudev, the servants of Lord Narayana, Jai and Vijay were doing their
seva, but even then they got cursed. If one is only doing their seva, even then are they entitled to a curse?
Sri Sri Ravi
Shankar: Hidden behind those curses was the highest good of mankind. There has never been any damage or loss because of a
curse from a saint. It is because of these curses of the saints that this world was benefited so much – Lord Rama and
Lord Krishna came, and all that followed happened.
That is why it is said – even the love of a fool can give rise
to problems, and even the anger of saints can bring with it blessings.
Wisdom from Guruji !!
When the Rishis read mantras then they the Rishis can experience the effect of the mantras.
The
body will not remain. So what is it that is going to remain always. That we will not come to know on our own, but we have
to go to the master.
So go to the master!
A Guru, who is knowledgeable and who is established in the Brahman, go
to him with a Samhit. Samhit are those sticks which are symbolic of a state of mind in which you are ready to absorb
the
knowledge from the master. When the Guru find the disciple worthy, let he gives him the knowledge, which is indestructible.The
happiness and the joy that you get out of the Divine is always
permanent, the rest is temporary. So the master gives
this knowledge to the apt disciple.
So, to that student who is yearning for knowledge, the master gives the knowledge
of the Divinity. The Divinity that is within you. All this what you see in the world, is the illumination of
the same
Divinity.This Divinity is outside and inside as well. And the Divinity is above the prana. The prana comes from this. And
the mind comes and dissolves from the same.
All the senses and the body is born out of it; all the five elements, fire,
water, air, earth, space are born of it. Sun and moon are it's eye. Air is it's prana.The vedas are it's speech.This Divinity
stays in each and every being. So don't go out to search for this Divinity because it is within you.
All the human
beings, animals, angels, things, everything is born out of the same Divnity.The river, the ocean, the mountains are the manifestation
of the same Divinity.Those who realize this in their heart, they become free of their ignorance.
All our desires
do not have an end. One desire comes, it gets fulfilled and then another desire comes. It is never ending. But when you get
a glimpse of the Divinity that is within you, you
become contented and then no desires come up. Even Lord Krishna
says, such a person does not have any desire. Such a person who is happy within himself. One Who is contented, is the great
one!
So know this Divinity. Know this and just be immersed in this.
Like a warrior keeps his focus on his goal,
that is how, you should make Upanishad as your bow and make the Divinity as the goal and with your arrow, focus on the goal.You
can't know everything here, but if you know this atman (Divinity), you have the knowledge of everything. If you know this
you will get a taste of nectar and all your desires get fulfilled. Among all the mantras, the most important is OM. So, with
the knowledge of OM you will transcend the Tamas, the lethargy and inertia. And don't look outside, it is within you.It is
there inside you all the time, but we do not know it. That is why when you take refuge in the master, and one who does the
spiritual practices, he gets the experience of joy, peace and love and all our desires dissolve.
When you get the glimpse
of the Divinity, it is the most illuminating. It is not the one who is seeing but the one who sees. The whole world is illuminated
by this. When you a glimpse of the Divinity, then one know that everything is Divinity. The Divine is to my right, to my left,
at the top of me, below me. One who gets a glimpse of the Divinity, he does not worry about the past or the future. He does
not think, what will happen to me.Then he starts to realize that I am not this body, I am the consciousness. Then he starts
to love himself.Then even when he does any action, he does not do any action.Then our behavior and our words comes the truth.
Sit with the master and know this Divinity.
Now how will this happen? With the disciple.You need to bring your attention
to the seer, not the one who is seeing.Then, when you feel anger or emotions, you will not be affected by that.
This world
of the Divinity can only be known by a person who is truthful and sincere.The Divinity is the abundant and subtle.So this
seer can only be known when you are calm and peaceful.
A person who has achieved such a state, whatever intentions he or
she has, it will manifest. So if you want to be one of those who is contented and happy, then serve the one (master) who has
attained such a state.
The one who follows the truth, they get freed from the cycle of birth and death. Such a being
will be freed from the cycle of desires.TO attain such a state you need a goal. You need to focus and do austerity and spiritual
practices. Without that you cannot achieve such a state. When one follows the path Diligently, the a devotee eventually merges
with the Divinity.
And a benefit of this is also enjoyed by the family as well. The Rishis got this knowledge, and
then they give it to their disciples and then the disciples then gave it to their disciples
and that is how the knowledge
has been passed on because this tradition is still going on. So let us bow down to this tradition!Not through words, but it
is by grace that knowledge is attained.
All that we have talked about, is attained by the grace !!
|| Jai
Guru Dev ||
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