Utsah - Life Is Enthusiasm | The Art Of Living Global https://www.artofliving.org/wisdom-q-a-what-spirituality via @Artofliving
Tuesday 28 February 2017
KNOWLEDGE SHEET BY SRI SRI RAVI SHANKAR
POSTED ON: 01 Mar 2012
Compare your performance
As we flip the calendar, we need to keep flipping our mind as well. Often, our diaries are full with memories. See that you don’t fill your future dates with past events. Allow the space for creativity to dawn. Celebration of the New Year allows you to be wise. Learn and unlearn from the past, and move on.
In the past year, how many days were you in sanyas? How many days were you struggling, being caught in maya? Turn back and remember the whole year. Do not run away from anything. Do not reject anything. Do not go away from anything. At the same time, let your attention be on the self. This is a delicate balance. That balance is yoga.
A poor man celebrates the New Year once a year. A rich man celebrates each day. But the richest man celebrates every moment.
How rich are you? If you celebrate every moment, you are the Lord of Creation. Review the year while you celebrate. This is your homework. Compare your performance in the year before last and smile.
The year 2011 is fortunate because you are living at this time!!! When you are living for the sake of the world, the world is fortunate. Let time celebrate your presence. You keep smiling as ever.
When you let time celebrate you, you are a witness amid celebration. The heart always longs for the old, the mind for the new. Life is a combination of both. Let the New Year bring into our life ancient wisdom and modernity, as life is incomplete without either of them. Don’t feel shy to speak about human and spiritual values. The time has come now to call the whole world!
Be ever new, happy you!!!!
Happy New year!
|| Jai Guru Dev ||
Monday 27 February 2017
KNOWLEDGE SHEET BY SRI SRI RAVI SHANKAR
POSTED ON: 27 Feb 2012
Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva or Guru Shakti
There are three forces: Brahma shakti, Vishnu shakti, and Shiva shakti. You may have one of these predominant. Brahma shakti is the force to create something new. Vishnu shakti is maintenance and Shiva shakti is bringing in transformation, filling in life, or destroying.
Some of you have Brahma shakti. You may create well, but you may not be able to maintain. For example, you may make friends very fast, but it does not last long.
There are others who cannot create but are good at maintaining. For example, people have long lasting friendships but cannot make any new friends. In such cases, Vishnu shakti is dominant.
And then there are others who have more of Shiva shakti. They bring in new life or transformation or they can destroy the whole set up.
In Guru shakti, all three shaktis have blossomed fully.
So each of you first identify which shakti you have more of and aspire for Guru shakti. Guru makes a group but a group cannot make a Guru.
|| Jai Guru Dev ||
Friday 24 February 2017
KNOWLEDGE SHEET BY SRI SRI RAVI SHANKAR
POSTED ON: 25 Feb 2012
ARGUMENTS AND WRONG ACTION
A person who argues should not be given knowledge. An argumentative mind is not receptive to knowledge. When someone is in an argumentative mood, then giving knowledge or advice is in vain. In an argumentative mood you feel you know it all. Then you are not ready for knowledge. That is why wise people do not give advice when they are in an argumentative environment.
Argument has a purpose. It can bring out the truth if there is no emotion or sense of "I" attached to it. Argument can also have a disadvantage. It can make untruth appear to be truth.
A wise man will not take arguments seriously; he will just have fun with them. Wisdom is beyond all arguments.
*****
Both a worldly person and a spiritual person will tell you not to do wrong, though the reasons they give are totally different. A worldly person will tell you not to do wrong because it hurts or causes him pain. A spiritual person will tell you not to do wrong because it would only harm you more.
|| Jai Guru Dev ||
Thursday 23 February 2017
@BangaloreAshram is all set to host the #Shivratri2017 celebrations in presence of Gurudev @SriSri | A sneak peak from Guru Paduka Vanam! pic.twitter.com/p0AsGPTxTo
KNOWLEDGE SHEET BY SRI SRI RAVI SHANKAR
POSTED ON: 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 ||
Wednesday 22 February 2017
KNOWLEDGE SHEET BY SRI SRI RAVI SHANKAR
POSTED ON: 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 ||
Tuesday 21 February 2017
REGISTER FOR SANKALPA ONLINE https://vaidicpujas.org/shivaratri/
MAHASHIVRATRI CELEBRATIONS 2017 in the presence of Gurudev @SriSri @BangaloreAshram pic.twitter.com/jzg3fcIsWC
Celebrate this Shivratri in the Vaidic way with Gurudev @SriSri on February 24th, 8 pm IST | 9:30 am EST onwards. https://t.co/uu5xCrTvMb…
KNOWLEDGE SHEET BY SRI SRI RAVI SHANKAR
POSTED ON: 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 Tidbits:
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 ||
Monday 20 February 2017
KNOWLEDGE SHEET BY SRI SRI RAVI SHANKAR
POSTED ON: 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 ||
Sunday 19 February 2017
KNOWLEDGE SHEET BY SRI SRI RAVI SHANKAR
POSTED ON: 20 Feb 2012
Special Night Of Divine Rest And Wakefulness
Shiva means your very self, the purest Self, your innermost core. Shiva means good or benevolent. The word ratri in Sanskrit means that which relieves you from three types of agony – ethereal, mental and material. At night everything becomes quiet and peaceful. The body gets tired and goes to sleep. ‘Shivaratri’ literally means that night which infuses the Shiva tatva or the transcendental principle to the three instruments: the body, mind and speech.
Shivaratri is a night of deep rest. It is the night that takes you into its lap, comforts you and gives rest. When the mind rests on the lap of the Divine, that’s real rest. Like the mind, memory and intellect, Shiva is also a tatva or principle in us. Shivaratri is when the Shiva tatva and Shakti become one.
The jagran in Shivaratri – staying awake all night – is not just forcing oneself to be awake or sing devotional songs. It is about being consciously aware of the inner rest that sleep brings everyday. When you surpass a certain layer of sleep, samadhi happens. Samadhi is often referred to as Shiva Sayujya, the presence of Shiva, a state of deep rest with alertness, which brings freedom from all identities. Kabir Das calls it koti kalpa vishram – a billion years of rest consolidated in a moment. When you come out of it, you experience certain pleasantness and reduced entropy, which brings an unusual freshness to the mind and senses.
The linga in Shiva temples symbolises identification or sign through which you identify someone as being male, female or neutral. The Divine is beyond the three genders; hence the Divine is called Ekalinga, or unigender. What is that one gender? The Self, the Atma. The Self is beyond body, mind or intellect; it is beyond likes and dislikes. Ekalinga is the Lord of the Self.
On Shivaratri, the Shiva Shakti merges into the whole universe. Shiva has been associated with destruction; but transformation, new beginning for the better, can only happen when something is destroyed. Shiva is the factor of transformation. ‘Sham’ means peace and good and ‘kara’ means one who does that. ‘Shankara’ means one who gives peace and does good.
The whole of Creation is the dance or play of Shiva, the tandav or dance of one consciousness, one seed, which manifested into a million species in the world. The whole world moving in an auspicious rhythm of innocence and intelligence is Shiva. Shiva is the permanent and eternal source of energy – the one and only eternal state of Being.
There is a story related to Shivaratri, about the union of Shiva and Shakti. The primordial and dynamic energy is wedded to the transcendental. Shiva is the silent witness and Shakti is chitti or chidvilasa, the energy that plays and displays in infinite space. Shiva is the formless Being; Shakti is manifestation in the field. This is the recognition of the dual aspect of matter and energy, prakriti and purusha, the dravya and guna – substance and its qualities. Recognising the underlying non-dual nature of Brahmn is Shivaratri.
It is only wakefulness that brings out this knowledge in our consciousness and Shivaratri is the night to celebrate the wakefulness of one universal consciousness without falling into the unconscious sleep state. Breaking the pattern of unconscious sleep gives you a glimpse that you are not a mechanical apparatus but a legend in Creation. To recognise the Shiva tatva, you have to be awake.
|| Jai Guru Dev ||
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