ART OF LIVING ARTICLES n VIDEOS

Having enunciated what other Rishis say, now Narada comes to his own way of looking at Divine love. He says : Naradastu tadarpitakhilacharita tadvismarne param vyakulteti But my opinion is tadarpitakhilacharita - offering all my actions, all my attitudes, all my tendencies because it is the actions, tendencies and intentions which stop you from rejoicing in the Self. And all that hinders me to rejoice in the Self, I offer them all to the Divine. And when I forget the Divine, becoming extremely uncomfortable is the real characteristic of Divine love. Narada says forgetfulness of the Divine causes intense pain, intense longing, intense restlessness - this is the characteristic of Divine love. Astyevamevam It is like that. Yatha vraj gopikanam Like it happened to the Gopis of Brindavan. The Gopis had nothing of their own. Every move they made was for the Divine, their mind, their heart, their soul was all immersed in Lord Krishna. It is like that, like the Gopis of Brindavan. ...

Tatrapi na mahatmya gyan vismrityapavadah – they did not forget the greatness, the respect, the glory which belongs to you. That which is part of you seems to lose its glory. But in divine love the glory increases. You do not forget the glory, the closer you get. That is a sign of enlightenment, of knowledge, of wisdom, of blossoming in love. Love cannot tolerate distance and respect cannot do away with distance. Divine love is a combination of love and respect and both are totally nurtured. Tadviheenam jarannamiva – without that love, without that respect, the love is worth nothing. It is like the love of prostitutes. A prostitute is not interested in giving pleasure to the person, is not happy when the other person is happy, but is only worried about her income; what she will get out of it. If love comes with a bargain, “What will I get out of it, what do I get being devoted to god, what I get by doing this...” then, it is like the love of a prostitute. Yes, he has used a very stro...

THE head worries and the heart feels. The two cannot function at the same time. When your feelings dominate, worry dissolves. If you worry a lot, your feelings are dead and you are stuck in your head. Worrying makes your mind and heart inert and dull. It steals your energy and prevents you from thinking clearly. Worries are like a rock in the head. They entangle you; they trap you in a cage. Worries are uncertain since they are about the future. When you feel, you do not worry. Feelings are like flowers, they come up, they blossom and they die. Feelings rise, they fall and then disappear. When your feelings are expressed, you feel relieved. When you are angry, you express your anger and the next moment you feel fine. Or when you are upset, you cry and you get over it. Feelings last for some short time and then they drop away, but worry eats at you for longer periods of time and eventually consumes you. Feelings make you spontaneous. Children feel so they are spontaneous, but adults ...

The second sign of love is talking about it constantly, praising it. A newborn baby in the house is such a joy for the grandparents and they won’t stop talking about it. And the same is with the parents, “Oh, look at the baby, 2, 3 months old baby, wished Jai Guru Dev, she folded her hands. She looked and you know, she said this, she said that, she recognizes this, she recognizes that. I was wearing a new outfit and the baby looked at me and said it is so nice. (Laughter) These are all the imagination of parents and grandparents. And they all say they have seen so many kids, but nothing like this baby. For them the baby is beyond anything in this world. That adoration...you should see the spark in their eyes when talking about their kids. They don’t mind if the other person is listening or not. They don’t even see that the guests to whom they are talking are thoroughly bored. But they don’t stop talking about their babies. Their baby is the best and the cutest, the most intelligent bab...

Love is multi-dimensional. It is vast and enormous. Love is magnanimous and so many sages have viewed it from many different angles. And they glorified one aspect of love. Worship is one such aspect - pooja or worship. In a society which is bound with ego, worship is looked down upon. Worship is considered a sin in an ego-bound society. Honouring is considered to be  something not very nice in a stiff and competitive society. But in a society or in an institution where love is honoured, love blossoms. Honouring, worshipping is held very high. In the East, you can find people honour the trees. They worship trees, they worship people. People worshipping people are looked down upon in the West. Honouring someone seems to take out someone’s prestige or self-esteem. But in the East the value is completely different, the one who is honouring gains more prestige. What they honour doesn’t matter. You may honour a cow, you may honour a snake, you may honour or worship a tree. But the va...

Sri Sri pulls out questions from the question basket.  Reads them one by one, smiles and puts the paper by his side.  A child comes forward to put a no.1 sticker on Sri Sri's hands. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Another year is passing by, has passed. Let us welcome 2010. The past year has made us rich by its experiences. The problems it brought us brought more talents from within us. Whenever problems come, they beckon more skills and talents within us and the ability to handle them. We are thankful for that. Just imagine a life without any challenges. It will be so dull. Challenges or crisis will bring up the talents within you and make you aware of the abilities you have to overcome them. In Chinese, there is only one word for crisis as well as opportunity - because every crisis is an opportunity to exhibit your strength, skill and abilities to endure any situation, circumstance. A crisis brings up that opportunity to exhibit your skills. The moments of pleasure...

Intentions keep the tension in. Being hollow and empty means dropping all intentions. Within tension, rest does not become deep. Devotion dissolves intentions. Intention pushes you to the future. Bliss is always present. The one who wakes up to this truth is wise. In a state of bliss, once in a while, if an intention comes up, it manifests effortlessly. The more intentions you have, the more in tension you will be. To minimize your intentions could be your last intention. - Sri Sri