Monday 30 November 2015
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2015
THIS WORLD IS TRANSIT LOUNGE
You know, in airports and railway stations there are lounges, and in a lounge, what do you do?
You don’t do that in a transit lounge. You keep your things packed.
So this world is just a transit lounge. Don’t mistake it to be your home.
http://knowledgesheet.artoflivinguniverse.org/#
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Sunday 29 November 2015
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2015
Q: Do you really know what is going on in everyone’s heart and mind? If that is the case, then what do you do when someone lies to you, or makes lame excuses despite you knowing it all?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: See, I give everyone a very long rope (a good amount of margin or freedom to act). So you do what you wish to do, we will see later what to do about it. When someone lies to me, I do feel bad about it, but then such people soon improve and become better in life.
Once or twice they may lie to me, but then they soon realize their mistake and come running to me and fall at my feet saying, 'Oh Gurudev, I am so sorry that I lied to you'.
So you should realize by yourself whether what you are doing is right or wrong.
Once upon a time, there was a very old saint, he had a habit of always praising people, no matter what. People would be surprised on seeing this and would ask him, 'Why do you always praise people, even when they are no good? Why do you only speak about someone’s good qualities? Please tell them their flaws also'.
To this, the saint replied, 'Your miseries will speak out loud about your flaws and bad qualities by themselves. Why do I need to say that?'
http://qnawithsrisri.artoflivinguniverse.org/
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2015
When you keep a fast, your whole body is cleansed. When toxins are removed from the body, your mind gets sharpened. Then whatever wish, whatever goal, you have in mind gets fulfilled. This is a faith, a law and it also has a scientific base. - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
http://srisriravishankarquotes.artoflivinguniverse.org/
24 Feb 2012
Are you a Disciple or Companion?
Knowledge has an end. Knowledge completes. So also does discipleship. For the disciple is aimed at acquiring Knowledge.
Once you cross the water, however nice the boat is, you get off the boat. After twelve years, the disciple completes his studies. The master does a ceremony called Samavartha, where he tells the disciple that he is ending the discipleship and asking him to behave at par with him, and let the Brahman dynamically manifest.
Sakha is a companion in life and death; it never ends. In the path of love there is neither beginning nor end. Sakha only wants the beloved. He doesn't care about the Knowledge or liberation. Love is incomplete because of longing. And so it is infinite, for infinity can never be complete.
Arjuna was a sakha to Krishna and although Krishna was the perfect Master he was a sakha too.
What are you, a shishya (disciple) or a sakha (companion)?
|| Jai Guru Dev ||
Wisdom from Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Feel blessed
Wisdom from Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Feel blessed: Break through all the barriers and feel that you Are Blessed. This Is The One And Only Step You Have To take - the rest will all happen. ...
@SriSri explains how to solve the problem of fanaticism that has taken over the world: http://aolu.co/SolveFanaticism
Saturday 28 November 2015
23 Feb 2012
THE WISDOM OF SECRETS
A wise person makes no effort to conceal a secret. But he does not make an effort to reveal a secret either.
For example, you do not talk about menstruation, death, etc. to a five-year-old, but as they grow older these things are not hidden from them any more. They become known as a matter of course.
An unenlightened one tries to protect a secret; and he also reveals the secret at the wrong time, to the wrong person, in the wrong place and makes a big fuss about secrets.
Trying to protect a secret causes anxiety and discomfort.
An ignorant one is not comfortable with a secret, whether revealed or unrevealed, but the wise one is comfortable with a secret whether revealed or unrevealed!
|| Jai Guru Dev ||
Friday 27 November 2015
22 Feb 2012
MYSTERY
One who is not amazed by the magnificence of this Creation, his eyes are not yet opened. Once your eyes are open, they close and this is called meditation. (Laughter)
Tell me, what in this Creation is not a mystery?
Birth is a mystery; death is a mystery.
If both birth and death are mysterious, then life is certainly is a greater mystery. Isn't it?
Being completely immersed in the mystery of Life and this Creation is Samadhi.
Your knowing or believing doesn't really matter to what Is.
This Creation is an unfathomable secret, and its mysteries only deepen.
Getting steeped in mystery is Devotion.
The "Scene" is a mystery; the "Seer" is a mystery.
Deepening the mystery of Creation is science. Deepening the mystery of the Self is spirituality.
They are the two sides of the same coin.
If neither Science nor Spirituality can create wonder and devotion in you, then you are in deep slumber.
Knowledge Titbits:
When a materialistic person tells you a secret, it will only create doubts and spread malaise.
When a wise or spiritual person tells you a secret, it will uplift your consciousness and spread benevolence.
|| Jai Guru Dev ||
Thursday 26 November 2015
Posted: 21 Feb 2012
KNOWLEDGE AS A BURDEN
Knowledge is a burden if it robs you of innocence.
Knowledge is a burden if it is not integrated into life.
Knowledge is a burden if it doesn't bring joy.
Knowledge is a burden if it gives you an idea that you are wise.
Knowledge is a burden if it doesn't set you free.
Knowledge is a burden if it makes you feel you are special.
|| Jai Guru Dev ||
Wednesday 25 November 2015
18 Feb 2012
Three types of logical reasoning
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....
For example: 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 for tarka.
|| Jai Guru Dev ||
http://knowledgesheet.artoflivinguniverse.org/
Wisdom from Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Longing Itself Is Divine
Wisdom from Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Longing Itself Is Divine: Longing itself is Divine. Longing for worldly things makes you inert. Longing for Infinity fills you with life. When longing dies, inerti...
KNOWLEDGE SHEET BY SRI SRI RAVI SHANKAR
15 Feb 2012
What creates Karma?
Action is out of a conscious decision. Reaction is out of impulsiveness.
Impulsiveness creates a chain of Karma.
Reaction, as well as non-action, both create karma, but a conscious action transcends karma. Conscious action does not create new karma whereas non-action can create karma.
For example, a soldier shooting in war does not create a karma; a policeman using tear gas does not create a Karma, and if you are a doctor and you do not give medicine to a patient in need, you are incurring a karma.
Through knowledge and devotion, transcend all karmas and be free!
|| Jai Guru Dev ||
http://knowledgesheet.artoflivinguniverse.org/
Tuesday 24 November 2015
Sunday 22 November 2015
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2015
Q: What is the trademark of the ‘Art of Living’?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Shankar: Smile! If somebody says he/she has done the course but is smiling, don’t believe them! They have not done the course truly.
http://guruoneliners.artoflivinguniverse.org/
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2015
Q: How to pray and what should I ask for in my prayers?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Prayer is something that no one needs to explain to you. Real fulfillment of prayer happens in two conditions:
1. When you are desperate and totally helpless. When all doors are shut, and when all your efforts seem to be leading you nowhere, then you pray. Whatever you pray for, the prayer is sincere and it would be heard. So when you feel like this, pray and have patience.
2.Prayer also happens when you get what you wanted. You feel so grateful and so you thank God. You say, “Dear God, you have given me everything”. When you remember all the good things you have gotten in your life, prayer happens. You thank God, and you thank the divinity.
When you pray, you should say, "I want this or anything better than this". But you need to ask. You need to say what is your wish, and then acknowledge that the Divine is much more intelligent, and that it will give you what is best for you. The space around us is much more intelligent than us.
In prayer language does not matter, you can pray in any language because prayer is not through language, it is beyond language. It is through feeling. Feeling is more important. If you are used to praying in Sanskrit, that is fine. It is the most ancient language of mankind and it has a connection to almost all languages in the world.
Language is secondary. Today we are divided in religion because of language. The content is what we need to worry about, not the language. We think that if we pray in that language then only God
will hear us but the Divinity is beyond language.
http://qnawithsrisri.artoflivinguniverse.org/
Wisdom from Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Sublimating Lust
Wisdom from Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Sublimating Lust: Lust is one of the main botherations that many face. Lust grips the mind and tires the body, and dulls the intellect. Lust, when indulged...
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2015
HOW TO GET OVER BULIMIA?
Take a long time to eat your food. When eating, feel the food, sense it, chew it 32 times and you will find satisfaction. So if you are given a bunch of grapes, keep each grape in your mouth and eat it with full awareness.
Bulimic people tend to gulp things. They don’t taste it, chew it. So chew and chew and chew and taste the food well and then you will feel the satisfaction. In fact, you will feel tired and then there is no bulimia.
Pranayama and meditation will definitely help you get over bulimia. Or if you fall in love with somebody then also bulimia disappears. When there is love, then food is not a big issue. It is not a compelling thing. That is why when there is longing, people eat a lot of food as a way to fill the emptiness. So if you have a lot of love or if you have a purpose in life, bulimia will disappear.
http://knowledgesheet.artoflivinguniverse.org/
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2015
In spirituality, life is taken holistically. It is not that spirituality is one corner of life, it is the skill to see the wholeness of life. Everything is part of spirituality - food, music, dance, knowledge, instruments, technology; everything. And spirituality is attending to this wholeness of life. - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
http://gurupunch.artoflivinguniverse.org/
Art of Living Announces World Culture Fest to Be Held in March 2016 http://aolu.co/1Xi92Da #ArtofLiving
Saturday 21 November 2015
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2015
Q: We were studying about the Vaisheshika Darshana (one of the six orthodox schools of Hinduism from ancient India). Could you speak on how the ancient saints knew so much scientific knowledge without any instruments like a microscope?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: I think it is mind boggling. This morning I was reading a book by a scientist who has written about the physics in the Vaisheshika Darshan. I just read a couple of sutras and thought, this is mind boggling.
The Rishis in the ancient days (which is some 10,000 years ago) have described the atom. They have described that how if one atom is destroyed, it destroys many other atoms. They have explained the connection and movement of atoms, and how the knowledge of one atom alone is so liberating. This only indicates that there is another way to know things, which is not through the senses. There is what is called the sixth sense. Using the sixth sense, you can know many things about the past and the future.
In The Art of Living, we have developed a program for the kids to open up their sixth sense. Adults can also do this course, but for them it will take a longer time. For children, it only take a few hours or weeks to develop this. They will be able to read with their eyes closed. You know, some children even told me what I am going to say at satsang the following evening. So their ability to access the sixth sense is developing very fast. I’m sure this is what the ancient Rishi’s had; very strong intuitive abilities.
If you go to the Thanjavur temple which is in Tamil Nadu which was built 1000 years ago, you can see they have carved a picture of a British man with hat and a gun. A thousand years ago there were no British people in India, and there were no guns, but they had foreseen that the British would come and rule over this place. And so they made a carving of a British soldier with a hat and a gun. So, this is possible because of their intuitive ability or the sixth sense which all of us have used at some point of time. It has to be methodically accessed through Meditation.
http://qnawithsrisri.artoflivinguniverse.org/
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2015
Q: What is the difference between free will and destiny?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Just know that life is not entirely free will or destiny alone. It is a combination of the two. For example, your height is your destiny and your weight is your free will.
http://guruoneliners.artoflivinguniverse.org/
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2015
SEE LIFE AS A GAME
Today let us do a small exercise.
Look at the person sitting next to you and tell them, 'I do not trust you at all'.
What did you all feel? Did you see that it is so difficult to even say that to someone else? You feel hesitant to say something like this. I am not saying that you tell the other person, 'I trust you so much'. Instead I am telling you to say, 'I do not trust you at all'. But we are feeling so uncomfortable in even saying that. Isn’t it so?
So today, you all did something that you have never done before. You told another person that you do not trust him or her. And what happened? The moment you said that, you started laughing and the other person started laughing as well. Has something like this ever happened in life earlier? No, it has not.
Why is this so? It is because you all took this as a game, nothing more. In the same way, you should also see all of life as a game. That is why we have the word Leela (meaning the pastimes or games of the Divine).
When you see all of life as a leela, then nothing in this world can shake you, or bring any sort of negativity. When you have this feeling, then nothing will ever be able to dim the light within you.
http://knowledgesheet.artoflivinguniverse.org/
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2015
Move on in life with the confidence that you will be given everything in abundance, and that you are being protected by the Divine. There is a divine armor around you that is protecting you; you have nothing to worry about. Know this and keep walking ahead in life with satisfaction, confidence, joy, patience, fullness and faith. - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
http://gurupunch.artoflivinguniverse.org/
#Needofthehour This talk by @SriSri 'Nurturing Peace with Yoga & Meditation': http://www.artofliving.org/in-en/wisdom/nurturing-peace-through-meditation … @aoluniverse
Friday 20 November 2015
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2015
Q: When we fail, who is the doer? When I’m successful, I say it’s God’s grace or that Gurudev did it but when I fail, then God does not seem to be around me to take the responsibility!
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Look back and reflect on the many times you have failed. Don't you now feel that those failures were good for you. How many of you feel this way? When you look back at your failures, you will see that you have learnt something from them, and they have been stepping stones for you to move ahead.
I tell you, when you are on the path, when your heart is clean and when you are meditating, there is no way that you will fail, or go down. It will appear as though you are failing but that little failure is only to get you towards higher success. This is for sure.
In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna promised the world that 'My devotee will never perish'. It is impossible for a devotee to perish!
A devotee is the one who has a pure heart. If you are cunning which is why you got failure, then you have to bear the cost. But if you are doing good things and failing, never bother about it. You are only going to go up.
http://qnawithsrisri.artoflivinguniverse.org/
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2015
Q: What is the sign of being in Brahmagyana (self-knowledge or the knowledge of the absolute)?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: When you neither ask for, nor give any explanations, and when you do not complain about anything, then that is a sign of being in knowledge.
http://guruoneliners.artoflivinguniverse.org/
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2015
GOD IS A THOROUGH BUSINESSMAN
The Divine has given you all the small pleasures in the world, but has kept the bliss to Himself. To get the highest bliss you have to go to Him and Him alone.
Don't be too smart with the Divine and try to fool Him. Most of your prayers and rituals are just attempts to trick the Divine. You try to give the least and get the maximum out of the Divine and He knows. He's an astute businessman; He will trick you even more. If you go underneath the carpet, He will go underneath the floor.
Be sincere in your attempts. Do not try to outsmart the Divine. Once you get the bliss, then everything else is joyful. Without the bliss, joy in anything in the world will not stay.
http://knowledgesheet.artoflivinguniverse.org/
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2015
There is a great power deep within us. And when we are not in touch with that we are trying to grab this little bit here, grab something from there. Each one of us is a treasure house of wealth. Deep inside, we have the Divinity, the light, the peace, the joy and the love that we are seeking. - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
http://gurupunch.artoflivinguniverse.org/
Thursday 19 November 2015
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2015
Q: You have mentioned earlier that Jesus lived in Mylapore which is in Chennai. Would you please talk more about that?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Jesus lived in Mylapore, that is where he learnt the Vedanta. When he went back Saint Thomas would always doubt him. Jesus told him, “If you don’t believe me, you go see for yourself”. And that’s when Thomas came to India. He landed in Kerala and came to Mylapore and spent his last days there. And that’s why to this day you can see St. Thomas Mount, where Thomas sat and meditated and learnt all about the Vedanta, yoga and meditation.
His grave is still there. Of course, Vatican may not recognize it publicly but they do realize that St. Thomas was here, and the lineage of St. Thomas still wear red dresses and the rudraksha like Sanyasis. There are many evidences but if you go deep in meditation you can yourself see things from the past. For that you have to meditate for a long time.
http://qnawithsrisri.artoflivinguniverse.org/
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2015
Q: Is our time of death predetermined? Can we postpone it?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yes, yes you can. Have you not heard the story of Markandeya? The time of death is predetermined and with God’s grace it can be postponed.
http://guruoneliners.artoflivinguniverse.org/
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2015
When you go and meet people with open heart and mind and understanding, when you project that you understand them from where they come from, then you are able to build a bridge between conflicting parties. - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
http://srisriravishankarquotes.artoflivinguniverse.org/
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2015
Faith is a wealth.
If you think, by having faith in God you are doing God a favor, you are mistaken. Faith gives you strength instantaneously. Faith brings you stability, centeredness, calmness and love. You’re having faith in the Guru or God does not do anything to Guru or God. You’re having faith gives you immediate strength. Faith is a great wealth; it is a blessing.
If you lack faith, you have to pray for faith. But to pray, you need faith. This is a paradox.
http://knowledgesheet.artoflivinguniverse.org/
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