ART OF LIVING ARTICLES n VIDEOS

Weekly Knowledge #175 Montreal Ashram 14 Oct 1998 Canada THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF UNDERSTANDING There are three kinds of understanding: intellectual understanding, experiential understanding and existential realization. Intellectual understanding says yes, agrees. Experiential understanding feels, is obvious. Existential realization is irrefutable. It becomes your very nature. All you hear will simply remain a jumble of words if there is no experiential understanding, which is more on the feeling level. You can know intellectually you are hollow and empty but sitting and feeling you are hollow and empty is totally different. When one gets an experience, one wants to understand more about it and becomes a seeker. If you have only intellectual understanding, you will think you know it all. Most theologians are in this category. Existential realization contains within it both experiential and intellectual understanding. But it is beyond both of these. Question:- How do we get the...

Q. Gurudev are my actions in the present the fruit of past actions or the source of future karma? #SriSri: We will see this in future. Its is part of a chain, it has a past and a future. Past karma give rise to present and present makes the future karma. Lets see.

Q: How come some of the divine forms in Hinduism are depicted in such fearsome manner? For example, Kali wears a garland of skulls. Does it mean there is divinity is such forms too? #SriSri: If you can love the fearful, the fear disappears. Fear and love are not two different emotions. It is the same emotion standing upside down. Since the last 10 years, if you see the toys, the figures and characters that children are using or are fond of, it is very different. It is fearsome. The fearsome characters either bring in valour in you or take away the fear from you. That is the reason that those days, such fearsome pictures were depicted and worshipped. When you worship that, there is no fear left inside you. And I have described the symbolism of the skull and the head. All that is to remove the fear. Skull is used either to create fear or remove fear. In modern days, whenever you see in electrical installations, there is a skull and two bones put in front of that. That is to warn you. B...

Q. Gurudev I work in an organisation where there is lack of leadership and total chaos, I agree with you that chaos brings out the talent in us but what if the chaos is never-ending, where to draw the line? #SriSri: You can end it. If you think its too much and its getting on your nerves you can say goodbye, move on. World is very big. First you believe in your talents. i think chaotic situation is an opportunity for you to bring out your skills. So meditate with a calm mind and think how you should come up . Got it?

Q. Gurudev how to reduce unnecessary compassion? #SriSri: Seems Compassion is your nature. Channel it with measurement to others, give how much ever they need to get.

Q. What can I do to be more close to you and to spend more time with you? #SriSri: Well, you take up some good project, do some work, then you will more chance to interact with me, talk to me. To be close to me you can’t get anymore closer to me because you are already close to me. From your side you should always think that you are close to me, that’s it. Don’t expect me to look at you and smile at you and say ‘hi, how are you doing?’ and all that. And if I say ‘hi’ to someone next to you, then you don’t get upset, saying that ‘Guruji looked at him and smiled but he didn’t even look at me..’, leave all this, this is nothing, okay. Don’t look for these sort of gestures that I may be doing to someone else. That doesn’t in anyway indicate any closeness, okay.

Q. Lord Rama got ‘one-on-one guidance’ from Sage Vashishta , can you also guide me ‘one-on-one’? #SriSri: What do you think I am doing? Forget about all others around you, I am just talking to you only. Even when there are millions, I only talk ‘One-on-One’! Have you ever seen me giving a formal speech, never. ‘My dear Ladies and Gentlemen...’ I never start my talk like that, never ever. I have never done that, I only say ‘my dear ones’.

Q. What are the milestones which can tell me that I am progressing on the path of sadhana and meditation? #SriSri: Do you feel at home everywhere? You find a sense of unshakeable peace, a sense of unknown inner-strength. Do you feel comfortable and natural, at home, with people or without people, then you progressing. If you feel uncomfortable with people or without people, in both cases you need to work on yourself a lot. Do you see that? You should feel at home whether there are people around you or when nobody is around you then also you should feel at home. That is the strength that meditation brings within you and a smile that is undying. If you think it’s little too much then never mind, it will keep happening. It will take it’s time maybe.

Q. All the Art of Living teacher’s say don't do anything while doing meditation. Why it is so difficult to ‘not do anything’? #SriSri: Where is it difficult? It is not difficult here. Somewhere else it might appear to be difficult. You sit here and see how I guide you all through meditation. Meditation is happening here, right.

Q. After putting our botherations in the ‘ botheration basket’ how do they get over? #SriSri: It gets over, right? How does it happen that you leave it to me. How many have experienced this that your botherations got solved? Everyone raised their hands.) Just by putting your botherations it is taken care, you continue doing that. I will tell you this secret later. When you feel like everyone is your own and when you do not want anything for yourself then you become capable of doing everybody’s work. (Gurudev whispering: This is the secret!)

Q. Out of the three doshas : Vata , Pitta and Kapha , which prakriti is good for doing meditation? #SriSri: By doing meditation you can go beyond all the three doshas (imbalances): Vata, Pitta and Kapha. Meditation is destroyer of all the three doshas. If you first do meditation and then check your naadi (pulse), you will see that it has changed. If there is equilibrium (sama-dosha) between these prakriti then that is suitable for doing meditation. If you are healthy then your meditation will be deeper. And by doing meditation your health improves. Both these things are there.

WorldEnvironmentDay‬ was celebrated across the world. Only the ones who are un-polluted from within can take care of the environment. If someone’s mind is polluted with anger, aversion, hatred or greed how can that person clean the environment? A greedy person wont be concerned about the welfare of the environment. He will be busy doing his work. Today, pollution in the environment is caused due to greed. See, If a person is angry all the time, he never finds anything right outside. His vision becomes clouded. And when the vision is distorted, the outcome of whatever work he undertakes will be similar. The person who is full of anger, his actions are followed by regret. This is for sure. You see within your lives, whatever you have done in the state of anger, haven’t you regretted it later on? It has to happen. This is because anger is not the right state of mind. I am not saying that you should not get angry. But whenever anger comes, it should not stay for more t...

|| JGD || Q: When you say in the past our ancestors gave various names and forms to God. Then   are Devis and Devatas created in the minds of the Rishis or did they really exist from the very beginning of the creation? Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Nobody created the rainbow colors, they exist, they are there but when the white light passes through a prism you can say you created them. If someone asks you, are the colours created by you or no, what do you say? Yes and no together because the colors are already there but it was not visible, you made it visible when you made the light pass through a prism. In the same way, the Devis and Devatas have always been there but giving them a name and honoring them was the brilliance of the Rishis.

Weekly Knowledge #145 Rishikesh 19 Mar 1998 India *Inside Out* Often people say, "Be the same inside as out". I ask you, how is this possible? Inside you are a vast ocean, infinite sky; what you can show outside is only a tiny bit of it. Outside you are finite, just a small limited form, a normal stupid person! All that you are, the love, the beauty, the compassion, the Divinity, doesn't show up fully. What shows up is the crust of behaviors. Ask yourself, "Are you really your behaviors? Are you just your behavioral patterns"? No....... Don't mistake this crust for your inside. Neither take the limited body/mind complex as your inside nor show your Infinite Lordship outside, for Divinity is not easily understood. Let there be some mystery. *DON'T BE THE SAME INSIDE AND OUT!!* 🌸 *Jai Guru Dev* 🌸

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 s...

*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 engag...