Wisdom in the rain

2nd June, 7.00 PM IST: Wisdom in the Rain with Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Sri Sri: Sound stretched is music. You say aa it is sound. You say aaaaa it becomes music.
In the same way, mind stretched is music.
If you stretch your body, it becomes dance and yoga.
Stretching your ego is tapas and bliss.

It says everything is me. Everybody is me. That is bliss.
We will stretch the mind.
We have five pranas. The most important is vyana.
Prana vayu is one that goes up. Apana vayu is that which goes down.
Samana vayu is that which helps you digest the food.
The prana which helps you to digest the food.
Udana is that which helps you in move. When you get up and move your hand, your fingers, your body. It is also in the upper part of the body.
Vyana is that which is all over the body. In meditation, this gets stretched. That is when Samadhi happens.
So, let us meditate.
(After the meditation...)

Sri Sri: Was it good?
65 countries are with us today in the webcast.

Q: Today, we sang about the Buddha. What is the significance of sureendering to the uddha, Sangha?
Sri Sri: Surrendering brings lightness to our head.
We carry irrelevant plans, ignorant concepts, unfounded fears of the future. These things weigh so much on our head that we are unable to lead our life.
Surrendering is letting go.
When Buddha, an enlightened person is there, it is easier to let go.
Good qualities are your nature.
These negative qualities are not your nature, you let go these qualities to the Buddha. This happens automatically. Wherever you feel safe and free.
Where Buddha is not there, there the Sangha. A group which has a sattvic lifestyle. That Sangha also creates that type of energy, Where you feel freedom from fear, anxiety, and tension. Letting o in the Sangha is much easier. Unless you let go, meditation cannot happen. Unless meditation happens, there is no peace. If there is no peace, there is no happiness.
If there is no Buddha, no Sangha, then you acknowledge the Dhama. Dhama is the natural law.
If you see from the scientific angle, everything is nothing. If you see from the Vedantic angle, everything is Divine.
This is Dhama.

Q: Is time mightier than knowledge?
Sri Sri: Yes. You may be the law minister, but you also have to follow the law.
The maker of the law, follows the law.
There is a beautiful story of Lord Shiva. It is said that when the 7.5 years of Saturn starts in a persons life, you are ripped off everything if you are not on the spiritual path.
There is a but. The difference is that it is always beneficial when there is knowledge. Adverse situation becomes a favorable situation.
An arrow came towards my head, but it only hit my cap and not my head.
A little bit of that has to be experienced. This has come in the Puranas again and again and again.
The arrow just takes your cap away, you don't even feel it.
Karma is very deep and it is unfathomable.

Q: You decorated my life with justice.
Sri Sri: Believe in this word: Satyamev Jayate. In any war, there are setbacks. It is only in the middle, it is not in the end.
We know that we have not polluted the river Yamuna, the air, or the land.
We need to clear the pollution from the minds in Delhi.
We have left the place much better than what it was.
The Delhi Police said that this place was a place for antisocial elements, now that you have cleared it for all the debris, it has become so easy for us.
Some judgments have come, we will contest that.
I am quite calm and serene and these sort of allegations will not make us unhappy. But we cannot be complacent.
Today, I gave a tweet.
Anything we do, we do with perfection. When our intentions are right, our actions follow perfection.
A meek leader, destructive opposition, a biased judge, complacent Guru. They are all curse for the Nation.
But you are all blessing for the nation. People who are committed yet calm. I have to write about the boon also. You all think what are the boon. This could be our homework. All of you tweet the four things that you consider as a boon for the nation.
(Someone says in the curse you can add media.)
Sri Sri: In the list of boons, you can add unbiased media.

Fire

*Fire*

The senses are like fire. Your life is also like fire. In the fire of senses, whatever you put in burns. If you burn tyres, it creates pollution and bad smell. But if you burn sandalwood, it creates fragrance.
Celebration happens around the bonfire. Grief happens around the fire of cremation. The same fire that supports life in winter, can also destroy. One fire, like a ghee lamp, lights your way and purifies. Another fire made of toxic material creates pollution.
You are also like fire. Are you the fire that creates smoke and pollution or the flame of camphor which creates light and fragrance? A saint is like a camphor flame that creates light and the fragrance of love. He is the friend of life.
The fire that creates light and warmth and is useful is of higher quality. The fire that creates light and a little smoke as well is of medium quality. The fire that creates darkness and only smoke is of low quality. Learn to distinguish the different fires. If your senses are engaged in goodness, then you will create light and fragrance. If engaged in impurity, you create smoke and darkness. It is samyama that transforms the quality of fire in you.
~ *Sri Sri Ravi Shankar*

You Are Privileged

Weekly Knowledge #152
Rome
06 May 1998
Italy

*You Are Privileged*

Among all planets in the solar system, the earth is privileged to host life in its many forms, and among all the species, humans are most privileged for they can host the Knowledge. Among all the knowledgeable ones, you are most privileged. .... guess why.

Again and again you remember that you are peace, you are love, you are joy and that you are hosting the Creator. If you don't realize that you are the host, you live like a ghost.

The under-privileged are those who do not realize that they are privileged, and so they also host, but they host all the negativities.

Like the birds returning to their nests, again and again come back to your source; only there can you realize that you host the Creator.

�� *Jai Guru Dev* ��

Dreams

Weekly Knowledge #146
Lake Side,Chandigarh
26 Mar 1998
India

*Dreams*

When something is unbelievably beautiful or joyful, you wonder whether it is a dream. Often, what you perceive as reality is not joyful and so when misery is there, you never wonder if it is a dream. You are sure it is real. This is knowing the real as unreal and unreal as real. In fact, all the miseries are unreal. A wise man knows that happiness is real, as it is one's very nature. Unhappiness is unreal as it is inflicted by memory. When you see everything as a dream, then you abide in your true nature.

Payal asks : "What about a nightmare?"

Sri Sri : A nightmare is a dream mistaken as reality. There is no confusion in a dream at all. Keep wondering whether all this is a dream and you'll wake up to the real.

�� *Jai Guru Dev* ��

Visalakshi mantap

Visalakshi mandap in all grandeur

Tarka, Vitarka & Kutarka

Weekly Knowledge #148
Bangalore Ashram
09 Apr 1998
India

*Tarka, Vitarka And Kutarka*

To know yourself or to judge your actions you need to know Tarka, Vitarka and Kutarka.

Kutarka is wrong logic. Most people apply this logic and get caught up in ignorance. For example : The door is half open means the door is half closed. Therefore, the door is fully open means the door is fully closed!

Or: God is Love. Love is Blind. Therefore, God is Blind!!!

Tarka is sequential logical understanding; it increases scientific knowledge. When sequential logical understanding changes, then scientific conclusions change. For example: Pesticides and antibiotics were considered to be very useful in the past, and are now proven to be more harmful. In tarka, the paradigm changes.

Vitarka is asking questions to which there are no evident answers....Who am I? Where am I? What do I really want? These philosophically appealing questions bring forth spiritual knowledge, increase your awareness and bring about the blossoming of Consciousness, i.e., Atma Gyan increases.

The wise know to distinguish between the three. They will not apply kutarka or tarka for vitarka, and vitarka fortarka.

�� *Jai Guru Dev* ��

Impression and expression

Weekly Knowledge #147
Calcutta
02 Apr 1998
India

*Impression And Expression*

Do not make an effort to impress others, or to express yourself. Your effort to express yourself becomes an impediment. Your effort to impress someone also becomes futile. If you do not try to impress, expression comes naturally. When you come from the self, your expression is perfect and your impression lasts for ages.

Often you don't seem to have a control over your impressions and expressions. Wisdom is selecting your impressions and expressions. Enlightenment is when you do not take any impressions at all, whether good or bad. Then you "master" the art of expression. Many impressions in the mind cause:

- Confusion

- Distraction

- Chaos

- Lack of focus

- and finally, derangement of the mind.

Nature has inbuilt in us a system through which it releases some of the impressions - through dreams, and through meditation.

Excessive expression loses the depth and luster, the serenity of yourself. Meditation erases the impressions and improves the expression.

�� *Jai Guru Dev* ��