Dealing with flaws

DEALING WITH FLAWS

Even then be grateful to God.
What good is the faith that shakes? Faith is that which remains firm even
during tough times. Suppose you place your trust in someone and got
betrayed. Then just remind yourself that it is all a play of the Divine.
Think that God wanted to make you learn some important lesson, and so he
came in this person’s form to your life. So just see the situation with
this understanding.

Why am I saying this? See, in the end, it is all one consciousness which
assumes different forms and different ways to teach us something important
in life. So have this understanding and just move ahead.

Do not go looking for faults in others. If you do so, then you will find
numerous flaws even in all the avatars (incarnations of the Divine). You
will find flaws with Narasimha Avatar (a fierce incarnation of Lord Vishnu
as half-man, half-lion); the Vamana Avatar (the incarnation of Lord Vishnu
as a young Brahmin boy seeking alms). In Lord Parshurama you will see so
many flaws. You will also find faults with Lord Rama. And don’t even ask
about Lord Krishna! (Laughter) If you get stuck in this habit of finding
flaws, then you will find flaws and shortcomings everywhere and in every
person.

To improve one’s understanding, our Puranas (sacred Hindu scriptures of
mythology) have linked even flaws and shortcomings with some or the other
form of Divinity. So in the Puranas, you find stories in which even the
ever-blissful Lord Shiva gets angry; Devi Parvati (a form of the Mother
Divine) also gets angry, and the ever-smiling Lord Vishnu too becomes sad
and dejected. So our Puranas have shown all these flaws and distortions in
the deities also, to make you understand that Divinity is truly
all-encompassing, and even flaws or shortcomings are an aspect of the
Divine.

Be it perfection or shortcomings - there is nothing beyond the Divine. So
the Puranashave portrayed even the deities with a few flaws, to make you
capable of accepting such things with ease, rather than getting entangled
with it.

Divinity is all-encompassing and beyond all attributes – whether good or
bad. That is why when we worship the Mother Divine, we say, 'Prakratim
vikratim vidhyam'. It means that both good qualities and their distortions
are in the Mother Divine. This is how our scriptures have mentioned about
the Divine. This (understanding of duality) is a step towards the Advaita
Siddhanta (the philosophy of Non-duality of the Divine).

The Advaita philosophy is the highest of all, and it is also the essence of
everything that exists. It says that everything is one and everything
arises from that One Divinity only, so that you do not forget the totality
of Divinity, or misunderstand the Divine in any way.

Our wise sages have described the aspects of Divinity in a very beautiful
manner. This is why even flaws have been given a rightful place and have
been shown as an aspect of the Divine.

All the six distortions that we know – anger, greed, lust, jealousy,
attachment, false pride and delusion – are represented through various
deities, to only strengthen your faith in the Divine. The wise sages did
this to pave a path for you to move forward towards the Divine.

|| Jai Guru Dev ||

Spreading the peace and joy

Some people say, "Don’t worry about the world, find your joy and your peace that is more important". Correct, that is the first step, you find your peace. But once you have found your peace, what you do? And when your peace is connected with so many people around you, how can you be in an island of peace? Can you be? No! So, when you spread peace around you only then your peace can be permanent. So going inward is as important as reaching out outside and transforming our environment. This has to happen simultaneously.

Some people say, "Forget about the world, don’t try to bring peace in the world, don’t try to reform the world, just go within yourself, you find your peace". But in The Art of Living we have found our peace, haven’t we? (Unanimous response from the crowd saying 'Yes'). The very first sitting in the Happiness Course, you are already peaceful. You understood to some extent the principles of life. And when we have found our peace and joy, it is our duty to spread it all around.

Someone who has seen a good movie is all enthusiastic to tell everybody, "Hey, come see this movie, I will also come with you and watch it", isn’t it? So that is the spirit in which The Art of Living is working. You can only spread what you have and if we are spreading peace and joy it is because we have it. Those who do not have it, let them search for it and find it. We have found it and we want to spread it!

When it comes to joy there is no end for joy, there is no end to personal comfort. You can go on looking for it, but the nature of joy is to share and care and that’s what The Art of Living stands for. And the basis for this is the spiritual connect, spiritual elevation and spiritual attainment.

Guru punch 14 May 2016

Come what may, I will move through all negative clouds that surround me; like the planes that take off even in bad weather". You need to have that radar within you, which enables you to move through any negative cloud and create enthusiasm around you. - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

How to deal with spiritual mockery

Q: How to deal with people who mock spirituality and spiritual leaders in the name of freedom of expression? Should we be strict with them?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Let them mock, make fun, so what? It will not change anything. Truth is never afraid of mockery. When the wind blows, dust comes, but the solid rock remains unmoved.

Matchstick

Remember that you are a match stick. The purpose of a match stick is to light the lamps. You know, you strike the match stick and it burns and it lights several candles. Like that so many match sticks in a box can light so many lives. So think you are a super-sized match box. You are here to bring light, wisdom and happiness into the lives of people. - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Sadhna & our life

Q: What is the relation of Sadhana and our life?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: The whole life is Sadhana. Doing Pooja, little rituals and Kriya are important but one should also celebrate whole life as sadhana.

Satsang 11 May 2016

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in yesterday's satsang at The Art of Living International Center.

Q: Gurudev, Adi Shankaracharv ya went around and had debates with all to bring them back into the right path. Bringing unity while preserving the main philosophies. Is a similar thing needed in today’s world also.How?
#SriSri: Yeah, Spirituality need to be uplifted.What had happened 2000 years ago is also people were so much caught in rituals and they forgot the real essence, the knowledge, the experience, meditations. They forgot spirituality. So that needs to be revived. Nature takes care and whenever whatever is needed, nature provides at that time. Today also that is what is happening now, spirituality is getting uplifted.

Q: Gurudev, what is the significance of Agnikarya for brahmacharis? Is it just a karmakand or is it important for us to do in today’s world?
#SriSri: In ancient times, they used to do prayer with fire. Agnikarya is one such prayer. It’s the wish that we make for the world to be harmonious, for your life to be alignment with the dharma. That is the tradition. But in spirituality, all the karmakandas/rituals are unimportant. They do have some impact but the main thing is meditation and knowledge. They are needed but it's not necessary that everybody has to do. If you meditate, that is good enough.

Q: Gurudev, what is Guru nadi? Could you please speak about it?
#SriSri: There are about 1,86,000 subtle channels (nadis) in the body and different impulses open up different channels. There is one for poetry, another for being interested in Knowledge, even one for being confused! So don't worry too much about them. Just do alternate nostril pranayama and meditate and relax. Everything falls in place.

Q: Gurudev, once you recognize the god in your inner-self ,after that why and how can one see god in an idol?
#SriSri: That is not required. We do it to preserve tradition for future generations. When we offer flowers and go around the idols,in temples It is to preserve the rituals. God is there everywhere, all permeating. Most importantly it is present in oneself. We can experience it during meditation. It is not that these rituals don't have an effect, energy is definitely there. If you sit and meditate in the same place everyday, and someone else comes and sits there,he can feel the difference. How many of you feel that once you step into the ashram,you start feeling good vibrations? That is because many people meditates here together. Similarly, when in a temple,an idol is established, people worship together, offer prayers, then those vibrations are created. Meditate, listen to chanting.

Q: Gurudev, during meditation you mentioned that we have come from OM and will also disappear in Om. How is that a mere sound is my source aswell as my end?
#SriSri: Sound is generated due to objects getting struck i.e aahat. Om is the quintessential sound that is produced without any impact i.e. anahat. It is not created from conflict. Sound is energy or waves and so are you.

Q: Gurudev, you have spoken about the sanskaras like Upanayan, could you please speak about some other sanskaras like Simantha?
#SriSri: Simantha is a ceremony performed when a women is in 7th - 8th month of her pregnancy. So you give Sanskaras to the unborn baby right in the womb with vedic mantras,chanting. I have not gone into the detail of it. Vedic Mantra are chanted and the water which absorbs the vibrations and the blessings is poured on the mother and given to her to drink. (How water absorbs the vibrations is shown in 'Secret of Water' movie available online.) Then she is given all gifts, preferably green colour clothes. Everyone makes her happy. Whatever she wants is provided to her. This ceremony is to keep the expecting mother happy, when mother is happy it impacts the baby in the womb. In India, there is a tradition that if any pregnant woman ask for anything,you should not say no to it. The mother in law and the mother, they make it the point to provide her whatever she needs. See in those days, the transport and communication were not so good. Suppose a pregnant woman asks for a mango out of season, the custom is somehow you find it and give it to her. People used to make all the efforts to keep her happy. And not to make her watch violent movies and serials as negative impressions can affect the child in the womb. So it is a science how to be an expecting mother and how to be a mother later on.

Q: Guruji my question how to strengthen the economically less privileged, through spirituality.
#SriSri: You talk to our SSRDP here and we have Sri Sri rural development project running for taking spirituality to the villages, the YLTP program is done through this. You can go to our website to know more.

Q: What are the various paths to liberation?
#SriSri: Where you are, this path is the only path. So you are on the right path for liberation.

Q: When we meditate you are there in our mind, Guruji when you meditate do you also have all of us in your mind?
#SriSri: All of you are always with me!

Q: Gurudev, it’s about Gayatri mantra, I heard that we shouldn’t listen it on tape.
#SriSri: No it’s alright, you can listen to it.

Q: Jgd, My wife is pregnant can you arrange a program for pregnant women?
#SriSri: We have a program ‘Yoga for Pregnant women’. We also have the CD, you can gift it to her.

Q:  JGD Guruji , I recently read a book ‘Many lives many masters’  It is a story of a patient who through hypnosis is taken to her past rebirth of 89 lives, also secrete is reveled of different stages of soul in the book. Would you like to through some light on the stages of souls?
#SriSri: Don’t get into all that. Our consciousness is infinite and eternal, you never know how many impressions we have of how many life times. If you want you do Eternity process. You don’t have to go beyond 5 to 7 lifetimes, rest all are mostly imaginations and no need of hypnosis, one can go to past life through meditation.          

Q:  Gurudev, I have read it in Bhagvat Geeta that whenever we do any Shatkarma the Devas interfere in its happening, how to deal with that?
#SriSri:  You are at the right place. Don’t worry I am here to deal with it.

Dinesh Chaudhary from Surat did a research and found that within 45 days of practicing Sudarshan kriya and applying Sakti drops Psoriasis patch was healed  upto 95%. Another, a student, 24 years of age who was diagnosed with cancer 1st stage in January, WBC count had gone up to 89000 (normal range between 4000 to 10000) came down to normal (7000) by March 30th just with the help of Sudarshan Kriya.