nobody is perfect

ART OF LIVING, DUBAI NEWS LETTER
Nobody is perfect

A man and his girlfriend were married. It was large celebration. All of their friends and family came to see the lovely ceremony and to partake of the festivities and celebrations. A wonderful time was had by all. The bride was gorgeous in her white wedding gown and the groom was very dashing in his black tuxedo. Everyone could tell that the love they had for each other was true. A few months later, the wife comes to the husband with a proposal: "I read in a magazine, a while ago, about how we can strengthen our marriage." she offered. "Each of us will write a list of the things that we find a bit annoying with the other person. Then, we can talk about how we can fix them together and make our lives happier together."

The husband agreed. So each of them went to a separate room in the house and thought of the things that annoyed them about the other. They thought about this question for the rest of the day and wrote down what they came up with. The next morning, at the breakfast table, they decided that they would go over their lists. "I'll start," offered the wife. She took out her list. It had many items on it. Enough to fill 3 pages, in fact. As she started reading the list of the little annoyances, she noticed that tears were starting to appear in her husbands eyes. "What's wrong?" she asked. "Nothing" the husband replied, "keep reading your list." The wife continued to read until she had read all three pages to her husband. She neatly placed her list on the table and folded her hands over top of it.

"Now, you read your list and then we'll talk about the things on both of our lists." She said happily. Quietly the husband stated, "I don't have anything on my list. I think that you are perfect the way that you are. I don't want you to change anything for me. You are lovely and wonderful and I wouldn't want to try and change anything about you."  The wife, touched by his honesty and the depth of his love for her and his acceptance of her, turned her head and wept.

IN LIFE, there are enough times when we are disappointed, depressed and annoyed. We don't really have to go looking for them.We have a wonderful world that is full of beauty, light and promise. Why waste time in this world looking for the bad, disappointing or annoying things when we can look around us, and see the wondrous things before us?

I believe that WE ARE HAPPIEST WHEN we see and praise the good and try our best to forego the mistakes of our loved ones. Nobody is perfect but we can find perfection in them to change the way we see them. It is necessary to understand the difficulties and be a helping hand to each other... THAT BRIGHTENS THE RELATIONSHIP.

Always Keep Smiling

you make a difference

-You make a difference!!

A teacher in New York decided to honor each of her seniors in High School by
telling them the difference each of them had made.

She called each student to the front of the class, one at a time.

First, she told each of them how they had made a difference to her, and the
class.

Then she presented each of them with a blue ribbon, imprinted with gold
letters, which read, "Who I Am Makes a Difference."

Afterwards, the teacher decided to do a class project, to see what kind of
impact recognition would have on a Community.

She gave each of the students three more blue ribbons, and instructed them
to go out and spread this acknowledgment ceremony.
Then they were to follow up on the results, see who honored whom, and
report back to the class in about a week.

One of the boys in the class went to a junior executive in a nearby company,
and honored him for helping him with his career planning.

He gave him a blue ribbon, and put it on his shirt. Then he gave him two
extra ribbons and said, "We're doing a class project on recognition, and
we'd like for you to go out, find somebody to honor, give them a blue
ribbon, then give them the extra blue ribbon so they can acknowledge a third
person, to keep this acknowledgment ceremony going. Then please report back
to me and tell me what happened."

Later that day, the junior executive went in to see his boss, who had been
noted, by the way, as being kind of a grouchy fellow. He sat his boss down,
and he told him that he deeply admired him for being a creative genius.

The boss seemed very surprised. The junior executive asked him if he would
accept the gift of the blue ribbon, and would he give him permission to put
it on him.

His surprised boss said, "Well, sure." The junior executive took the blue
ribbon and placed it right on his boss's jacket, above his heart.

As he gave him the last extra ribbon, he said, "Would you take this extra
ribbon, and pass it on by honoring somebody else. The young boy who first
gave me the ribbons is doing a project in school, and we want to keep this
recognition ceremony going and find out how it affects people."

That night, the boss came home to his 14-year-old son, and sat him
down. He said, "The most incredible thing happened to me today. I was in
my office,
and one of the junior executives came in and told me he admired me, and
gave me a blue ribbon for being a creative genius.

Imagine! He thinks I'm a creative genius! Then he put this blue ribbon
that says, "Who I Am Makes a Difference," on my jacket above my heart.

He gave me an extra ribbon and asked me to find somebody else to honor.

As I was driving home tonight, I started thinking about whom I would honor
with this ribbon, and I thought about you. I want to honor you. My days
are really hectic and when I come home, I don't pay a lot of attention to
you. Sometimes I scream at you for not getting good enough grades in
school, and for your bedroom being a mess. But somehow tonight, I just
wanted to sit here and, well, just let you know that you do make a
difference to me. Besides your mother, you are the most important person in
my life. You're a great kid, and I love you!"

The startled boy started to sob and sob, and he couldn't stop crying. His
whole body shook. He looked up at his father and said through his tears,

"Dad, earlier tonight I sat in my room and wrote a letter to you and Mom,
explaining why I had killed myself, and I asked you to forgive me. I was
going to commit suicide tonight after you were asleep.

I just didn't think that you cared at all. The letter is upstairs.
I don't think I need it after all." His father walked upstairs and found a
heartfelt letter full of anguish and pain.

The boss went back to work a changed man. He was no longer a grouch,
but made sure to let all of his employees know that they made a difference.

The junior executive helped several other young people with career planning,
and never forgot to let them know that they made a difference in his
life...one being the boss' son. And the young boy and his classmates
learned a valuable lesson, "Who you are DOES make a difference."

You are under no obligation to pass this on to anyone....... Not to
two people, or to two hundred.

As far as I am concerned, you can forget it and move on. On the other hand,
if you want, you could send it to all of the people who mean something to
you, or send it to the one, two, or three people who mean the most.

Or, just smile and know that someone thinks that you are important, or you
wouldn't have received this in the first place.

Who you are does make a difference, and I wanted you to know that.

Isn't this a wonderful story? I'm passing the blue ribbon to you. For who
YOU are does make a difference, too.

satsang of sri sri in jeddah, soudi arabia

The following is the result of the MIND BLOWING
 satsang we had in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on May
the
 13th. Take a note, its about all the 7 layers of
our
 existence. Here it goes...

 REPORTING TO THE MASTER... On the 7 Layers of
 Existence

 Does the 'body' hold me or I hold the body
 This question I went around asking everybody
 I thought I.d get the answer from somebody
 But how does it matter, I am nobody

 My 'breath' I remember, so weak & frail
 Almost like a train gone out of rail
 Now dives into me holding a pail
 To fetch the nectar of love without fail

 My dear 'mind', a useless brain
 Running around in search in vain
 Drove me crazy gave me pain
 I call it now a character insane

 Your style o Master is so superb
 You do the things so unperturbed
 As though plucking some garden herb
 And bringing my 'intellect' to a restful curb

 You had the key I had the lock
 All You did was clear the block
 Poor 'memory' ran out of stock
 Its companions in crime are still in shock

 My shameless 'ego', You churned like curd
 I find it now all so absurd
 My vision yesterday was fairly blurred
 With Your grace today, I.m a free bird

 In Thy name I lost my senses
 In Thy fame I lost the tenses
 To see You now I need no lenses
 For gone are now the good old fences

 In my ear, whispered an elf
 You are no book lying on the shelf
 Make an effort to know yourself
 I told him I know, I am the SELF!

 With the Master's blessings,
 JOY GURUDEV!

happy and bubbling with enthusiasm or dull and difficult to please?

How would you like to see yourself happy and bubbling with enthusiasm or dull and difficult to please?

Often you like to be pleased, appeased and cajoled. So you put up a tough, upset face and act difficult to please. If a person has to appease and please ten people all the time, it will be so tiring. People who keep a long face and expect others to cajole and appease them make others run away. Lovers often do this. They expend a lot of energy in cajoling and this brings down the joy and celebration of the moment.

It is okay for you to show your upset mood or tendency once in a while, but doing it over and over again is taxing for you and people you love.

If you feel down, appease and please yourself. Your need to be appeased by someone else is the sign of grossness. This is the root of ignorance. If you want attention, all you get is tension.

Become one whose enthusiasm never dies, come what may.

It is not possible to attain Divine Love with a complaining face. The complaining face is a sign of an unaware mind. If you want to complain, complain to God or your Guru because both have their ears covered. (Laughter)

False securities do not allow your faith to grow

False securities do not allow your faith to grow. When you have dropped your securities, then your faith grows. When you buffer your life with securities, you keep the faith away. It is the faith that brings perfection in you. Faith is the greatest security.

If you have all the material securities and not have faith, you will still reel in fear. You have to let go of all possessions in the mind. False security is keeping things where they don't belong. It is an illusion of security because of having a job, a house, friends. Keep the house where it belongs, not in the mind. Keep the money in the bank or in the pocket, not in the mind. Keep friends and family where they belong, not in the mind.

The Divine is your only security.

Faith is realizing that you always get what you need.

Faith is giving the Divine a chance to act.

Your body belongs to the world. Your spirit belongs to the Divine.

different levels of layers of energy in our body

Q: Guruji, I experience some intense vibrations especially when I am in bliss. Can you please talk about different levels of layers of energy in our body?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: This entire universe is nothing but vibrations. It is all made up of waves, vibrations, and energy. When your vibrations do not match with the vibrations of others you call it negative, and when your vibrations match with other vibrations, it is harmonious and you call it bliss. When your energy becomes such that it becomes universal, then whatever the outer circumstances may be, you remain oblivious to it. We went to Machu Picchu in South America; in Peru, and the people asked me, 'How do you feel the vibrations here? 'I said, 'I do not feel anything', this is because wherever we go we create our own vibrations. So I do not say, ‘Oh, this is negative and that is not.’ Of course, when people are agitating, upset or sad, it definitely creates negative vibrations around you; no doubt. But remember that they are not as powerful as your positive vibrations. It may appear to you that they are over powering, but in reality it is not so.

human soul can often take one to two million years to find liberation

Question: "I have been told that a human soul can often take one to two million years to find liberation. Is it true that by doing Kriya and meditation every day, this liberation can be obtained even in one lifetime?"

Sri Sri: "Everything works with some strange karma. You must lift your eyes and look into this realm. There is a beautiful couplet that says, ‘This world has all the wealth, all that is needed, but one who has no karma, cannot get it.’

So, whether you get something or you don’t, it all works with some strange karma. Recognition, money, power, relationship, health; everything depends on some law in creation. When good times come, your worst enemy starts helping you, and when bad times come, even your best friend behaves like an enemy. All these things happen due to some very strange karma. An intelligent person doesn’t get caught up in all this. He still keeps putting in his effort, and keeps moving on. You do whatever is needed to put in an effort, and then you leave it.

Do you know Lord Krishna went three times to stop the Mahabharata (narrative of the Kurukshetra War) war? When someone asked Lord Krishna, ‘If you knew that the war was going to happen anyway, why did you go three times for peace negotiations? All three times your peace negotiations failed, then why did you go?’ That is a very valid question. Lord Krishna said, ‘If I had not gone, then the question would have come that you could have done peace negotiation, why didn’t you do it?’ You have your duty towards your karma, whatever you need to do, you do it! Suppose the peace negotiation would have succeeded, then the whole Mahabharata would have finished, and the Gita would never have come! The immortal song of the Divine (Bhagavad Gita) would never have come into existence! So, very well knowing that the Gita had to come, and the war had to happen, still Lord Krishna went for peace negotiations.

This is because it is in our dharma, our nature. We should keep putting in our efforts and not get attached to the consequences or the results. This is very subtle because the mind gets sucked into maya ‘illusion’ in some form or the other. The mind needs to be hammered into knowledge. It can easily slip out of these four pillars of knowledge, Viveka(discrimination), Vairagya (detachment), self-control, and honoring what you have (not grieving about what is not). And then, wanting liberation! So keep on hammering the knowledge back, again and again! Suddenly, you will find it is all there, anyway.

Now, when you slip, then also remember that is another level. Knowing all this, suppose you still get caught up (in maya), then don’t feel bad that you got caught up; even that is part of nature. Don’t say, ‘Oh, I did not apply knowledge!’ or ‘Either someone else is wrong, or I am wrong!’ Whether unpleasant things are happening or pleasant things are happening, I am a witness to it. And my mind is getting caught up in it, even that is a part of the happening; I am witness to that also. This is how you rise above the situation!

You have to practice pranayama, meditation and knowledge for a long time. The whole life itself is a practice, and when you practice with honor, then this knowledge becomes well-founded in you."