QnA with Sri Sri
Monday, August 3, 2015

 Q: If sadhana is the wealth that goes with us when we depart from the world, then why do we not invest our whole time in it alone? 


Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You cannot, because your body cannot do it all the time. You can’t eat the whole year’s food in two days, or one month. Every day, you have to eat only a certain amount. Similarly, in sadhana also, you can’t hurry up and do a lot of sadhana, then you will be what we call a blue star (here, at The Art of Living). A blue star is someone who is not grounded; someone who is out there!


 Once, in the starting years of The Art of Living, a gentleman did the Sahaj Samadhi Meditation Program. He was a brilliant person; he found the program so great, he said, "I want to be enlightened today! I will not give up until I get enlightened!"


 He would sit meditating for eight hours a day. He would go sit in the Ramakrishna Ashram in Delhi to meditate. He would sit there all day, and people had to push him out when it was time to close. Suddenly, he started thinking that he was Lord Hanuman. He went to the temple there and would say, "I am Hanuman, why are they worshipping this stone?"


 You can imagine what would have happened? Twelve policemen had to take him away, and he landed up in hospital.


 In those days, there were no cell phones. I was in Jhansi, and I was to go to Indore for a program. When I reached Jhansi railway station, I told people that we have to go to Delhi now. As I reached Delhi, the people there were so relieved as they didn’t know how to handle this boy. Of course, he became normal, but what I am saying is that sadhana also has to be done progressively, step by step. You can do a little more when it comes to advance courses, maybe four or five in a year, but sitting the whole day in sadhana is not possible. The growth has to come gradually. One day, suddenly, you realise, :Wow, I am so changed. Nothing disturbs me anymore. I am happy; nothing can take away my happiness". This sort of wow comes to you when you look back at yourself.


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