KNOWLEDGE SHEET BY SRI SRI RAVI SHANKAR

KNOWLEDGE SHEET BY SRI SRI RAVI SHANKAR
Posted on: Thursday, May 14, 2026

Life is a Dream a Burden or a Joke,

Often when you are happy you feel life is a dream because you do not believe in the reality of it. When there is misery you feel life as a burden. And we take trivial things very seriously. But one who has really gone through the pleasure realizes that pleasure is a burden. And if you have undergone misery thoroughly you will realize that life is a dream. In every miserable condition you have been walked or carried through and you realize life is a dream. When you see life is dream a burden or a joke only then can you be centered.

And when you have really gone through misery you have really seen life as a dream. And in between the pain and pleasure life is all a joke. Life is very uncertain. Before it takes you away, realize it is a dream, a burden or a joke.

Someone asked: What about life is a joke?

Answer: A joke you do not question. If you question a joke, it is no longer a joke. Do not question a burden either. It is a waste of time to question life and its events.

The burden makes you go deep. It gets you to the core of yourself. Realization of a dream wakes you up. And seeing life as a joke makes you light. The only certainty is that life is a dream, a burden or a joke and only when you realize this can you be centered.

II JAI GURUDEV II

https://knowledgesheetsbygurudev.blogspot.com/

 

QUESTION & ANSWER WITH GURUDEV

QUESTION & ANSWER WITH GURUDEV
Posted on: Thursday, May 14, 2026

Q: If every wish gets fulfilled at a particular time as per the will of God, what is the necessity of prayer?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Well, prayer is not something that you impose on yourself or anyone else. Prayer is a natural call for help, or a natural expression of gratefulness. Prayer can happen only on two occasions:

1. When you are desperately in need of something then you pray. When you realize that you are weak and you cannot handle something, that is when you ask for help and that is a prayer.

2. When you realize that you have received more than what you really deserve, and it has all come to you as a blessing and as a gift, then the gratefulness that you express becomes a prayer. And if you extend this a little further, another occasion when prayer rises from within you is when you are in deep love with the maker of the universe or the divinity, in whatever form or formless way you perceive it to be. That is devotion.

So prayer it is something which happens spontaneously. And it's good to have a few rituals associated with prayer as it adds some colors to life. When you pray in a particular manner by lighting a candle or something that brings up to the surface those emotions that are sleeping in you.

The benefits of prayer are:

1. It invokes those emotions that are sleeping within you.
2. It takes away the worry and burden in your head.
3. It builds confidence in you and you feel the connection from your side. You are already connected to the divine, but from your side you start realizing your connection to the higher power.
4. It puts you into routine. Suppose you make it a habit of praying every day, maybe the first four days go without any experience, but on the fifth day, you experience something. It's almost like any other sadhana. So make prayer a practice in your life so that you know you have something to do that is it ethereal.

Prayer is the way to connect to the something that is not so tangible but is existing. So, prayer could be one such link to the unknown and unseen. Falling in love with the unknown is faith.

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

 

WISDOM QUOTE OF SRI SRI RAVI SHANKAR

WISDOM QUOTE OF SRI SRI RAVI SHANKAR
Posted on: Thursday, May 14, 2026

Suicide is the most foolish thing a person can ever do. It is only through the body that you can dispel agony and get rid of misery, and instead you destroy the very instrument by which this is possible. We must realize that suicide is the worst thing to do.

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

http://quotesfromsrisriravishankar.blogspot.com/

 

Happy Birthday Gurudev!!!

 

KNOWLEDGE SHEET BY SRI SRI RAVI SHANKAR

KNOWLEDGE SHEET BY SRI SRI RAVI SHANKAR
Posted on: Wednesday, May 13, 2026

Advice from hawaii

What type of time do you give the Divine? Usually you give the time that is leftover, when you have nothing else to do, when no guests are coming, there are no parties to go to, no nice movies to watch, no weddings to attend. Such time you give. This is not quality time.

Give quality time to the Divine. It will be rewarded. If your prayers are not answered it is because you have never given quality time. Give Satsang and meditation your highest priority. Give prime time to the Divine. You definitely will be rewarded.

II JAI GURUDEV II

https://knowledgesheetsbygurudev.blogspot.com/

 

QUESTION & ANSWER WITH GURUDEV

QUESTION & ANSWER WITH GURUDEV
Posted on: Wednesday, May 13, 2026

Q: Gurudev, how to keep the spine erect during meditation?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Make a start with the spine being erect, then if the head comes down, the back bends, don’t bother about it. You cannot start meditation in a sleeping posture, because then you will be snoring very soon. So sit down, and start with the spine erect when you meditate, and then let go, let it happen.
There is a song in Kannada which has a very profound meaning. When you are in a garden, in the midst of flowers, then the state of your mind is completely different. If you are in the midst of people, your state of mind is very different - sometimes the emotions of passion, anger, hatred come up. But when you are in the garden, amongst flowers, such emotions will not come up; there will be no feelings of jealousy, no emotional upheaval, nothing of the sort. But if you are in the midst of people, then definitely all this will happen. However good your friends are, when you spend time with people, something or the other comes up. You cannot always live in the midst of people, nor can you live alone in a garden.

Sometimes you have to spend time dreaming, and sometimes you have to listen to music, you cannot be in one state. There are people who work all the time, doing accounts or something or the other. The radio may be playing in the background but they do not pay attention to it; they keep thinking of something else. This is being in an imbalanced state. Who is a balanced person? A person who is sometimes in music, sometimes working; such a person thinks like a scientist, and looks at the world in a scientific manner; sometimes enjoys music, sometimes science and art. You must spend your life in both these streams.

Sometimes you must live in the world, and sometimes in silence. Go with these two and you will experience Brahman. You cannot run away from your responsibilities and go to the Himalayas, or stay in the worldly aspects all the time; you must strike a balance between both and experience the Brahman within you.

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

 

WISDOM QUOTE OF SRI SRI RAVI SHANKAR

WISDOM QUOTE OF SRI SRI RAVI SHANKAR
Posted on: Wednesday, May 13, 2026

Once you have the perfect intuition, you don't need to know anything. Even if you have not learn how to repair a refrigerator but you have the intuitive ability, when you go and sit there, you will pull the right screws, the right wires and do just the right thing.

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

http://quotesfromsrisriravishankar.blogspot.com/