Tuesday, 31 December 2013
Knowledge Sutra for the day!
- Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Wisdom Quote of the day
QnA with Sri Sri
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: The Coming year will be much better.
There is a big awareness in people today, towards the environment, towards the safety of women and children. What we have been saying for so many years, today many people are waking up and saying, 'We need more human values, we want violence to go down.’ This year, let us all resolve to act for making a better society - a society free from violence, society free from crime and corruption, a society which is safe and just, and a world which is sustainable.
Most of all, we need to work towards spiritual elevation and spiritual awakening. And it will happen. In fact, it is already happening. More and more people are interested in spiritual awakening.
Time poses challenges, it is for you to see how you can benefit from these challenges. Every time a challenge is in front of you, see how you can make this challenge, an opportunity for your own growth. How you can turn it and utilize it for your own growth. This is what you need to do.
Everyday, do meditation. Once in every three to four months take some time off and go deeper into meditation and go into silence. At least once a year, you must meditate in silence (Advanced Course), and spend some time doing some good work for the society and for everybody on the planet. Don't think only about yourself, but do some service activity. Then you will see that whatever you want for yourself, you ask and it will come to you. Let us resolve to do something good in society, and let us have the confidence that whatever we need will come to us; will be given to us. Our wish will definitely be granted. When we wish something, it will be granted.
Next, you need to be ready to learn new lessons in life. Keep the cheer, the joy and smile throughout the journey of life. Got it? See, everyone is walking. Some are yelling, crying and walking and some are smiling and walking. Everybody is on a conveyor belt and the belt is moving. Some are crying, some are laughing, but the conveyor belt is anyway moving. So, it is your choice, how do you want to move on this conveyor belt of time.
Guru One Liner of the day
+Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: A poor man celebrates new year once a year. A rich man celebrates each day. But the richest man celebrates every moment.
What Sri Sri said today.
December 24, 2013 Boone, North Carolina
Be like the Christmas tree; evergreen, shining, full of lights and full of gifts.
So everyone here is a Christmas tree. A Christmas tree only gives, it doesn’t take anything for itself. It just gives. So go with that thought, I’m a Christmas tree!
Come summer or winter or fall, it never falls, never springs. All through the year it’s green and in winter it gives presents.
I want to see everyone smiling and happy. Just create waves of happiness, everything else is irrelevant. In the world things happen, some pleasant, some unpleasant. Some things happen the way you want it, some things don’t happen the way you want. Bundle it all and put it aside. Nothing can really take away your happiness.
When you have had a good meditation, and when the prana is high, what do you feel? Nothing matters! Right? How many of you feel that way? (Many in the audience raise their hands) Nothing really matters! This is what we need to know. When you know nothing matters, you are happy.
Happiness is our very nature. What overshadows this happiness is, ‘I want this', or, 'I want that'. ‘I want something’, this is what puts away happiness.
When you say nothing what so ever matters, immediately freedom is there. Just keep this in mind, that’s all. Nothing, what so ever will matter!
In the world there is always some imperfection, some pleasant things, some unpleasant things. Some things happen the way you want it to happen, some things the way you don’t want it to happen; it’s part of creation. When nothing matters to you then things happen the way you want. 90% things would automatically happen, or whatever is happening that is what you would want.
In this whole drama, in this whole universe of multitude, of diversity, this complex game of life and society is inevitable. Things come and fleet away, and everything that comes and goes has a purpose. A thorn and a soft rose petal, they both have their purpose. It boils down to our first point, opposite values are complimentary.
Don’t worry about anything. No need to be scared or worried about anything. You’ll say, 'I don’t worry about the world but I worry about my connection to the path, to the knowledge, to God and all that'. I tell you, it can never go! That will not go. You don’t worry about it at all. Do you get it? Your connection with the Divine can never go.
Though Jesus says in his last moment, ‘God have you forsaken me?’ He immediately realized that no, he has not forsaken me. But that pain sometimes brings that question, ‘Oh God, have you forsaken me?’
So what is the essence? Nothing matters!
Listen to Ashtavakra Gita again and again. Aho Niranjan! You are untouched, unblemished. The consciousness is so pure, so beautiful, unblemished. It is fantastic.
Many times we think we have heard and we know it and we keep it aside. Again and again listening to it opens new avenues. Ashtavakra is such precious knowledge. Isn’t it?
Sometimes I open the book and I say, ‘Wow, it looks so fresh and new!’ Never think you have done it or you know it. Ten years later you open the same two sentences and you read it and you’ll see, ‘Ah wow! The small mind is a wave in the ocean, but I‘m the ocean.’
When that realization strikes the mind, then what can disturb you? Nothing!
Even if you get disturbed, never mind! It’s okay. 'Okay, I got disturbed, so what?' Move on. I think it gradually happens. Sometimes you don’t even notice it that you’ve suddenly become unconditionally happy!
We have a senior teacher who used to complain all the time and was not happy. In recent years he said, ‘Gurudev, you know what, I’m happy! I discovered I’m happy come what may! Nothing seems to matter. I’m happy. Something inside of me has changed.’
I said, ‘Yes, people are noticing that.’
Just being on this path for many years you discover nothing matters anymore. Nothing can shake you, nothing can disturb you. Something pleasant or unpleasant came and went.
Natures does that. Like before making the bread you knead the dough. That kneading, that’s what nature does to our mind. Then you say, ‘Okay! I’m ready!’
Nature does that to you. From different corners it punches so that you become strong. Mother natures’ every punch is not out of anger towards you, it’s out of care, so that you become strong.
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Knowledge Sheet
Simple or Complex ?
Life
is utterly simple and yet most complex. You have to simultaneously
attend to both facets of life. When life appears most complex, turn to
the simplicity. Simplicity brings peace. When you are peaceful, attend
to the complexity within you. That will make you more skillful If you
are only with simplicity, it makes you lazy and dull. Being only with
complexity makes you angry and frustrated. The intelligent ones balance
them and rejoice in both. If you look only to simplicity, growth is not
there. Looking only at the complexity, there is no life at all. All that
you need is a skillful balance. If you recognize both simplicity and
complexity of life, you will be skilfully peaceful! Colors are the
complexity of life. White is the simplicity. When your heart is pure,
your life becomes so colorful.Vikram: Guruji, you are all white and yet so colorful.
Pramila: Like our knowledge, which is so profound and yet so simple!
|| Jai Guru Dev ||
Guru Punch of the day
Monday, 30 December 2013
QnA with Sri Sri
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: See there is will power and power behind a blessing. You can also do it. There are many people who have done blessing course and really able to bless others. When we don’t want anything for ourselves, there is a power that can allow us to fulfil others’ desires. The main thing is one should not desire anything for oneself. One should be hollow and empty. The desire for moksha is enough, it will be attained.
Guru One Liner of the day
+Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: That is a good sign which shows you are not frustrated.
Knowledge Sutra for the day!
- Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Knowledge Sheet
Sincerity and Blessings
Q: Many ask for blessings but only a few will receive it. Why?A: The giver is anyway giving but the taker is not there - the sincerity is missing. One who gives blessings gives it freely but the one who receives it has to be sincere. Sincerity is the qualification to receive blessings. And everyone is free to be sincere at any point of time or space.
Q: Why do people choose to be sincere only sometimes?
A: Because of the illusion that they are going to miss some mundane pleasure. Hankering after pleasure makes them insincere. When you are sincere you simply enjoy pleasure.
Poor people fight for food. Rich people share their food. Richer are those people who share power. Richer still are those who share fame. Richest are those who share themselves. Richness of a person is indicated by his ability to share and not by what he hoards. Godliness is enjoying sharing fame.
"Sincerity is being in touch with your Depth."
|| Jai Guru Dev ||
Guru Punch of the day
Sunday, 29 December 2013
Nature does not judge you.
Happy New Year
Peace, Love, Joy and Happiness with others
give you strength to forgive and above all,
have all the success you wish for in 2014.
Knowledge Sutra of the day.
- Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
QnA with Sri Sri
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Were you trying to shove the thoughts away during meditation? You should not suddenly come back, you should slowly come back. See from deep meditation suddenly you come back it is like when you are deep in sleep someone wakes you, suddenly you wake up, what happens? Headache comes, right? Like that, so take little longer time to come back. Take a little deeper breath, relax and drink a lot of water.
Guru One Liner of the day
+Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: First fulfil your responsibility.
Wisdom Quote of the day
Saturday, 28 December 2013
Knowledge Sheet
Sincerity and Blessings
Q: Many ask for blessings but only a few will receive it. Why?A: The giver is anyway giving but the taker is not there - the sincerity is missing. One who gives blessings gives it freely but the one who receives it has to be sincere. Sincerity is the qualification to receive blessings. And everyone is free to be sincere at any point of time or space.
Q: Why do people choose to be sincere only sometimes?
A: Because of the illusion that they are going to miss some mundane pleasure. Hankering after pleasure makes them insincere. When you are sincere you simply enjoy pleasure.
Poor people fight for food. Rich people share their food. Richer are those people who share power. Richer still are those who share fame. Richest are those who share themselves. Richness of a person is indicated by his ability to share and not by what he hoards. Godliness is enjoying sharing fame.
"Sincerity is being in touch with your Depth."
|| Jai Guru Dev ||
Guru Punch of the day
QnA with Sri Sri
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: ‘Swaastika’ symbolizes the cycle. ‘Swaastha’ means established in the Self. ‘Swaastika’ means that which is healthy for humanity; that which contains all the four aspects that puts you into yourself, ‘Dharma (righteousness), Artha (desires), Kaama(means), Moksha(liberation).’ Unfortunately, ‘Swaastika’ symbol was taken by Hitler. He put it upside down. ‘Swaastika’ represents peace actually, but when he put the whole thing upside down, it became war; the reverse. That’s how it is! Time passes very fast when we are happy and it seems to be going very slow when we are unhappy and when we have to wait for somebody, right? So mind and time are connected.
Guru One Liner of the day
+Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Very naturally, and easily.
Wisdom Quote of the day
Knowledge Sutra for the day!
- Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Knowledge Sutra for the day!
- Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Guru Punch of the day
Knowledge Sheet
A Deep Rest
You
cannot rest when you have to do something which you cannot. And you
cannot rest when you feel you have to be someone whom you are not. You
are not required to do what you cannot. You will not be asked to give
what you cannot give. Nothing is expected of you that you cannot do.
Doing service involves only doing what you can do. And no one wants you
to be someone whom you are not.This realization brings you deep rest. You cannot rest if you have either ambition or lethargy. Both are opposed to good rest. A lazy person will toss and turn at night and be "rest-less" and an ambitious person will burn inside.
This rest brings up your talents and abilities and brings you closer to your nature. Even a slight feeling that the Divine is with you brings deep rest.
And prayer, love and meditation are all flavors of deep rest.
|| Jai Guru Dev ||
Friday, 27 December 2013
QnA with Sri Sri
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You must remember that people are very different. We are not in a homogenous society, we are in a very heterogeneous society. Even within an individual, he is not the same throughout; his moods change, his feelings change. For example, when someone wants to listen to music, sometimes they listen to music that is very jarring, sometimes they listen to music that has longing or melancholy. People’s moods change; when the moods change, the type of literature they pick up at that time also changes. Personalities are different, and they enjoy different things.
In India, in the ancient days, there was a concept of navarasa, nine moods. A literature is said to be complete when it has all the nine moods; anger, valor, a sort of desperation, sadness. All these different moods attract people at different times. Some people like humour a lot. Some others would not like to read humour all the time, but they would like to read, as you said, literature that touches your heart, or makes you cry, or makes you a little more emotional. You need to cater to all sections of society, and genuinely, what you feel at that time, you must express it.
You can’t force yourself to be humorous; you can’t force yourself to write a love story, or a love song. If it is not coming from within, then your efforts, I think, may not be as fruitful, as they should be.
Guru One Liner of the day
+Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Meditation, and Meditation. Meditation, and Knowledge: only two things will help you overcome this fear.
Wisdom Quote of the day
Guru Punch of the day
Knowledge Sheet
A Wise Man is Happy Even in Bad Times
People
who are willing to serve will have good times even in the bad times.
when there are problems such as famine or war-torn countries, the Red
Cross people will be fine as they are serving. The more relief they
bring, the happier they feel. And people who are selfish and who just
want to enjoy themselves will be miserable even in good times. Often the
organizers of a party do not enjoy the party because some little thing
is missing, they forgot to invite somebody, somebody did not come or
some little thing went wrong.A wise one is happy even in bad times. And the stupid one is unhappy even in good times.
You make the time good or bad. People usually blame the bad time and wait for the good time. Even if an astrologer says that you have a hopeless time, you can make it a good time!
Like weather, time has its own impact on you. But your Satsangs and sadhana are your shield, your protection! So realize that you are more than time and that you can move the time by your connection to the Divine.
Don't feel shy to speak about human and spiritual values. Time has come now to call the whole world!
THE ALL is calling,
The ball is rolling!
Time is milling,
The Soul is willing.
|| Jai Guru Dev ||
Thursday, 26 December 2013
QnA with Sri Sri
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: It is a tough job. Different generations have different styles of working. You have to have a lot of patience, and skill in communicating with him. Sometimes the older generation, they don’t know how to delegate work. They believe so much in perfection that they want to do it all by themselves. That becomes an issue for the younger generation. So do one thing, when he becomes negative, you just quietly slip away from there. Don’t argue. Argument does not work there at all. Even if you are right in whatever you are saying, he will not take it. He is holding on to his position and he will not let go. It is tough, but skillfully you have to put your ideas forth. You need a lot of skill there. And silence is the mother of all skills. See, you will ask me, ‘Why should I come and keep silence for three days Guruji. What is the point? Let me talk.’ When you are silent, you tap the source of skills and those skills come up in you.
Guru One Liner of the day
+Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: No, no. It means ‘Inner peace, peace in the world, peace in the soul.
Knowledge Sutra for the day!
- Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Wisdom Quote of the day
Knowledge Sheet
Devotee Becomes God
When
a river meets the ocean, the river no longer remains a river. It
becomes the ocean. A drop of the ocean is part of the ocean. In the same
way, the moment a devotee meets (surrenders to) the Divine, the devotee
becomes GOD. When the river meets the ocean, it recognizes that it is
the ocean from the beginning to the end. Similarly, the individual "IU
IU" dissolves in ONE Divinity.Question: What about backwaters?
Sri Sri: Sometimes the ocean goes into the river to greet it. Sometimes it seems that the ocean is pushing back the river. Similarly, the Divine puts many questions and doubts in the mind or gives an amazing experience to bring one back home.
|| Jai Guru Dev ||
Guru Punch of the day
Wednesday, 25 December 2013
Knowledge Sutra for the day!
- Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
QnA with Sri Sri
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Body has limitation, mind has limitation, but the spirit has no limitation. When you think you are the body then you have limitation. Then you can do only that much. When you think you are the mind, mind also has some limitation. But your love has no limitation. Your consciousness has no limitation. See, how with one small cell phone, you can reach the whole world. You can reach any number of phone numbers with one call phone, isn’t it? Similarly, our mind which invented the cell phone is much more powerful than the cell phone itself. You only need to make it available.
Guru One Liner of the day
+Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Be useful to others. When you do that, they remember. If you only think about yourself, then they forget.
Wisdom Quote of the day
Guru Punch of the day
What Sri Sri said today
November 30, 2013 Bangalore, India
Q: Gurudev, after the Asaram Bapu incident (referring to a recent scandal wherein a spiritual leader was accused of inappropriate conduct with a female devotees), my friends have started questioning my faith in the Art of Living. What can I say to them to convince them that the Art of Living is different?
Sri Sri: What can one say? Just tell them not to be paranoid. Tell them that sometimes accidents do take place on the street. But just because accidents happen, you do not stop walking on the street, isn’t it? If you do that, then that is called mental imbalance or paranoia. The same is the case here also.
For example, in the medical profession, there are doctors who steal kidneys. There was a big scandal in which it was found that the doctors were stealing kidneys. But just because some doctors were found stealing kidneys, that does not mean you stop going to doctors, right? There are companies and businessmen who have cheated people of their money, but that does not mean you stop investing in companies.
So first of all, a gentleman has been accused of doing something wrong. And it is not even proven. Suppose he is proven innocent in this case? Like what happened in the case of the Kanchi Mutth’s head Shankaracharya (referring to the recent case of acquittal of the Head of the Kanchi school of thought and a spiritual institution in India). Nine years ago he was accused of a murder. Today, he has been acquitted of all charges. For nine long years he had to carry the burden of false accusation. What would you say about it?
I want to tell you about an incident that happened in India some 17 or 19 years ago. In 1998, a top scientist of the country was accused of spying (espionage). He went through so much torture. There were auto rickshaw drivers who would point fingers at him. He is one of the top scientists who has done research on Cryogenic technology and had prepared this spacecraft that would cost only one-third of what America had made. It was much more efficient and yet it was one-third the cost of what it usually takes to make the spacecraft. Russia wanted to partner with him in this project. Even the US wanted to partner with him. He was invited by NASA and the President of US had told him, ‘I want to offer you US citizenship. Please stay here and continue your work’.
He was in NASA for 10 months. Then he called the Head of Space Research here in ISRO, Vikram Sarabhai. Mr. Sarabhai told him to return to India to continue his work. So he came back and was working with Mr. Abdul Kalam, who became the President of India. Both of them were working together as colleagues.
Then there was one gentleman in the IB (Indian Bureau) who put a false case on this scientist, stating that he is spying. He accused him of spying and accused him of selling all our secrets to some lady in Mauritius or Maldives.
There were in fact two ladies from the Maldives, who were only eighth-standard pass. They happened to stay as guests in the house next to where he stayed. So the case went on and on for ten years. After ten years he was finally proved innocent. By this time, all the research work that he had done was finished.
He suspected that the CIA had given money to these people to put a false case against him, so that the whole technology programme would collapse. After that, things came to a standstill and the country did not discover anything new in its Space research. He was telling me this whole story. You must have seen this story. It was also aired on Times Now news channel.
What I am saying here is that many times the case could be false. And sometimes it might be true also. It is possible that the man in question may have committed some mistake. In such cases we can only have compassion towards him, for we do not know what made him do something like that, what made him commit such heinous crimes. It is unthinkable that a 75 year old man would do such a thing.
Secondly, we start hating the person who has committed the crime instead of having compassion or pity towards him. You know even for the worst criminal, or for a person who is proved to be a criminal, our attitude towards that person should not be that of hatred. Rather we should have pity. And thank God that such things did not happen through you. Feel fortunate that you did not commit such mistakes or blunders. What can one do? There are such people in every field. You know, Ravana came disguised as a sanyasi (here meaning a holy sage or ascetic) and cheated Devi Sita. This is nothing new.
Do you know how the Vijaynagar empire collapsed? It was because of five crooked people who acted as sanyasis.
The Vijaynagar empire was so strong and powerful that no one could shake it. How many of you do not know this story? (Many in the audience raise their hands).
The Vijaynagar empire spanned and ruled almost half of India, and in fact its reach was in Sri Lanka also. It was the most prosperous province on the planet at that time. The Chinese travellers have described it as something unbelievable. On its streets, the merchants would measure diamonds in ‘litres’. Pearls were measured not by weight but by volumes.
This empire had a huge armed force. It had 10,000 elephants and one lakh soldiers. But the whole empire was finished in just 10 minutes, without fighting any war. Do you know what happened? Five of the Bahmani Sultans came dressed as Sadhus or Swamis (holy sages) and they stayed on the other side of the river in a tent. They sent a message to the king saying, ‘Please come and visit the Swamis. They will not cross the river and will not come to the palace. So you must come and visit them’.
So the king came with all reverence to meet them. As the tradition goes, the king goes to the holy sages or saints and bows down to receive blessings.
They said, ‘We want you to come visit us alone and not with all your armed forces’.
So the king went simply dressed, carrying flowers and fruits to meet the saints. But they were not really saints. They were the Sultan’s generals and soldiers in disguise. They beheaded the king right there and his head was hung from a pole in the centre of the city of Hampi. In ten minutes, the entire kingdom was conquered without war.
When the king was taken (killed), what could the people of the kingdom do? So they had to surrender to the invaders. The Bahmanis vandalized the kingdom after that. Their armies too were waiting in disguise to plunder the kingdom. It is said that it took them six months to loot that city.
After independence, Jawaharlal Nehru had this great idea of hiding Indian history, because he did not want the bad incidents to be highlighted or known. He did not understand that this would have taught a lesson for people to not repeat such acts in the future. Instead he covered them all up and pretended that everything had been nice. So he pushed the true stories under the carpet and very conveniently forgot all the glorious days also.
Thus our country’s history became bland, having no taste, neither sweet (referring to the glories of Indian history) nor salty (referring to the dark and troublesome periods or incidents in the Indian history).
The people who aided these efforts were the communist historians who wanted to portray that the past was all rubbish and was not so glorious. If you read their philosophy, you will find that they project communism as the only way ahead. So they conveniently brushed aside all the historical figures of Indian history as mythological figures – like Lord Krishna, Lord Rama, etc. They even said that the great Mahabharata war never really happened and was simply a figment of someone’s imagination, as fiction.
Just imagine, just because Jesus walked on water or multiplied bread and wine, they say that these are all stories and it never really happened. This is very similar to picking on some miracle and saying that it never really happened because it does not appear ‘logical’, it does not seem to make sense.
So the communist historians started introducing such kinds of distortions of Indian history. Their philosophy was that India was a land of uncivilized and uneducated lot of people who were divided, who believed in lots of superstitions and had no culture at all. This was their contention and they want to prove this. This has been most unfortunate.
They do not know the A-B-C-D of Sanskrit. The basis of this country is the Sanskrit language and it was what united the whole country as one, at one point in time. Every other language in this country has sprung out of Sanskrit. If you do not know Sanskrit, or if you do not know the Pali script, you cannot know the history of this country at all.
The same goes for the south Indian languages also. Tamil is a very important language. None of these (communist) people knew Tamil, or Malayalam, or Telugu, or Kannada, or even Sanskrit. They only know little English and a little bit of Hindi, that’s all. Yet they have written volumes of books on Indian history which have been proven today to be totally obsolete. It is a complete waste of time studying those books. Yet they are still occupying the shelves of many libraries.
The entire Vijaynagar empire was conquered in ten minutes without war, by a few men who were in the disguise of Sadhus and Swamis. Such things have happened in the past. But because of this, you cannot say that there are no good people in this country anymore; or that there are no saints in this country.
Saint Kabir Das was blamed by people who had vested interests. Even Jesus was tortured and blamed. Lord Buddha was tortured by his own cousin, who turned against him. How many of you did not know this fact? (Many raise hands in the audience)
Lord Buddha was teaching meditation and his own cousin who was also his close disciple, grew very jealous of Buddha. I do not know what happened in his brain. May be some damage in his (brain) circuits!
So he went to the top of the hill behind where Lord Buddha was sitting and teaching meditation. There was a huge boulder at the top of the hill (And you know in incidents like this, there are always some people who follow and support such things), and with a few of his followers he pushed the big boulder in Buddha’s direction. The boulder just missed Buddha’s head where He sat. Despite this, Lord Buddha sat, unshaken by all this. All the other devotees and disciples who sat there were shaken and shocked to see this. Lord Buddha just smiled in deep compassion. He said, ‘The poor fellow (who did this) has so much pain and anguish inside him’.
Q: Dear Gurudev, is this the only path that leads to supreme peace and happiness?
Sri Sri: : If you ask me that water is the only answer to quench your thirst, what can I say? What can I say if you ask me if breathing is the only way to fill the lungs? Any path which leads you to inner peace, tranquillity, joy and love is the path. All paths are essentially just one. The methods may be many.
Someone may instruct you, ‘Do Pranayama like this’. Someone else may instruct you in a different way saying, ‘Do Pranayama like this’. Someone may ask you to not do it at all. So there are many different ways.
What we have seen over the years is that these techniques (taught by The Art of Living) are suitable for this age, for our generation and the people. It is a time tested thing and everyone is comfortable with this.
You see, in the past, people did not have much to do. They would throw the seeds in the field and would simply sit to watch them grow. They would keep watch to ensure that the birds do not destroy their crop. So they had time, and they could meditate for eight hours or so. But it is not necessary for you to meditate for eight hours every day. Just do the Sudarshan Kriya for ten minutes every day, that is good.
Some people attend the Vipassana Meditation course for ten days, where they watch the breath for ten days, and then finally at the end of the ten days, they feel some sensations in the body. You can feel the same sensations in those ten minutes of doing the Sudarshan Kriya also. It is you choice whether you want to sit for eight to ten days to discover that there is sensation in your body; or that your body is hollow and empty. I am not saying that it is bad or anything of that sort. Everything has its own value.
When you observe silence in the four or five days of the Advanced Course and do different meditations, and then when you stand up to do Yoga and Pranayama, it increases the circulation and energizes the body. It also brings experiences along with it.
Luckily in The Art of Living, we have all the avenues open (for one to go deep within). We have the knowledge, we have the devotional aspect in the Narada Bhakti Sutras (A commentary on the Aphorisms of Love by Sage Narada); then we have the intellectual inquiry and stimulant in the Ashtavakra Gita. We have the knowledge of Yoga through the Patanjali Yoga Sutras. So it is complete from all aspects: for our awareness, our well-being, and it is also very scientific.
I believe we should go ahead in a scientific manner and not by blind faith. That is the speciality of The Art of the Living. People usually fast without any scientific understanding about fasting. They usually fast all day and then eat heavy at night. Or they fast all day, and break it by eating fried food.
During Navratri, many Hindus usually fast and eat only fried potato (chips or wafers), sweets, etc. Eating sweets is still okay, but having fried potatoes during fast is no good. In South India, people say it is okay to have idlis (fermented and steamed rice cakes), but not rice itself. It is okay to eat puffed rice like in Avalaki, but they would also eat other things with it. It is the wrong method of fasting.
The Muslims too fast the entire day and then in the evening at the time of breaking the fast, they eat a lot. It is so jarring to the system (body) and it is a very unscientific way of fasting. We should always follow science here. Fasting is good, but you should follow a scientific way of doing it. Have juices, and fruits during fast. When you have to come out of your fast, you must come out of it very gently (meaning, without taxing the body that is cleansed through the fast). Then it is good for both the body and the mind.
Q: Gurudev, yesterday you spoke about Indira Gandhi who was trying to bring together the Buddhist nations in India because India is the birthplace of Lord Buddha. Is it still possible today and who can do that?
Sri Sri: I think all the countries in the world should come together. That is what we are doing in the Art of Living. We are bringing everyone together as a One World Family, which is why it is said, ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ (everyone belongs to one Family and one God).
The air knows no boundaries, the sun knows no boundaries. In reality there is no boundary on Earth. They are all man-made divisions between different people. We should all dream of the whole world coming together in the spirit of spirituality as one Human-kind.
The United Nations organization was founded with this idea, but unfortunately due to the lack of the spiritual quotient there, it did not find success there.
Q: Gurudev, it is said that the actual matter in our body can be contained in a match box, and the rest is just empty space. Can you please explain the phenomena of levitation in this context?
Sri Sri: When you want to stand up, what do you do? Your whole body is on the ground. It is when your mind says to the body, ‘Okay, now get up’, this whole mass of 65 to 70 kilos gets up and starts walking. You take the support of your toes and you walk by taking support of your toes. That is how your body is lifted up. So how is it happening? It all begins with a single thought in the mind, in the consciousness.
So when the mind becomes very coherent, it can lift the body with a single thought. But I tell you, I have not seen anybody who has levitated and suspended their body in air. Yes, the body is lifted off the ground. Many people have experienced this bit. But I have not seen anyone who has started floating in the air.
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