QUESTION & ANSWER WITH GURUDEV
POSTED ON: TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2023
Q: Gurudev, what actions should a person do to increase his paatrata (the ability to receive Grace or blessings)?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Just having the intention to increase one’s paatrata itself does half the job. When this desire arises, then one also understands one’s shortcomings and can make efforts to overcome them. That too happens by itself, just by having this sincere intention.
The most important thing to achieve this is to be natural and simple, and to be humble. One should have humility from within, then you will see that paatrata naturally increases.
Also, do not have this fixed thought in your mind that everything that happens in life happens according to one’s paatrata. It is not always so. Sometimes even a less deserving person also gets good things. It is just a matter of poor timing.
For example, there was a chief minister in our country who met with an accident and was in a coma for six months. Despite that he did not resign and continued to rule, though he was in a coma.
There is a chief minister of a particular province in India who has Dementia. Do you know what Dementia is? It is a brain disorder in which a person becomes forgetful. A person who has Dementia forgets people and things. So though he is the chief minister, he does not do any work. It is his secretary who does all his work, and he just sits there on the chair. He speaks whatever the secretary writes and gives to him. He does not remember anything by himself.
Then, there is another chief minister who becomes furious at the drop of a hat. He gets angry just by seeing the rustling of leaves in the wind. We have such people in the administration. Such people become the chief ministers in our country, when they should be in a mental hospitals instead and get themselves treated (laughter).
So you have only two options. One is to see that everything is a play of Karma. The less-deserving person also must have done some good deeds in the past, because of which he is reaping the merits now. Either you see it as the play of time, or you can go on thinking about it and make yourself weak. Then you will also become shaky and will stray from the path of truth. Or you will feel dejected and think, 'Oh! What good did I get by following the path of the truth? I too should adopt some crooked ways like this to get what I want in life'.
I will tell you a secret. If you think like that and adopt the same wrong ways, you will sink even deeper in misery and suffering.
Suppose you see that a man is prospering by stealing from others, and you think that you too should do the same to become rich. I tell you, he will still escape the hands of law but you will get caught and have to suffer the punishment for it. It is because such wrong actions are not in your nature. If such wickedness was in your nature, you would never come to Satsang and listen to this knowledge from me.
If you are sitting here listening to knowledge, then it means that wickedness is not in your nature. It is not there in your DNA at all. Maybe that other man must have earned some merits from his past good actions, due to which he would be managing to escape. But if you do the same thing, you will surely get stuck.
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
POSTED ON: TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2023
Q: Gurudev, what actions should a person do to increase his paatrata (the ability to receive Grace or blessings)?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Just having the intention to increase one’s paatrata itself does half the job. When this desire arises, then one also understands one’s shortcomings and can make efforts to overcome them. That too happens by itself, just by having this sincere intention.
The most important thing to achieve this is to be natural and simple, and to be humble. One should have humility from within, then you will see that paatrata naturally increases.
Also, do not have this fixed thought in your mind that everything that happens in life happens according to one’s paatrata. It is not always so. Sometimes even a less deserving person also gets good things. It is just a matter of poor timing.
For example, there was a chief minister in our country who met with an accident and was in a coma for six months. Despite that he did not resign and continued to rule, though he was in a coma.
There is a chief minister of a particular province in India who has Dementia. Do you know what Dementia is? It is a brain disorder in which a person becomes forgetful. A person who has Dementia forgets people and things. So though he is the chief minister, he does not do any work. It is his secretary who does all his work, and he just sits there on the chair. He speaks whatever the secretary writes and gives to him. He does not remember anything by himself.
Then, there is another chief minister who becomes furious at the drop of a hat. He gets angry just by seeing the rustling of leaves in the wind. We have such people in the administration. Such people become the chief ministers in our country, when they should be in a mental hospitals instead and get themselves treated (laughter).
So you have only two options. One is to see that everything is a play of Karma. The less-deserving person also must have done some good deeds in the past, because of which he is reaping the merits now. Either you see it as the play of time, or you can go on thinking about it and make yourself weak. Then you will also become shaky and will stray from the path of truth. Or you will feel dejected and think, 'Oh! What good did I get by following the path of the truth? I too should adopt some crooked ways like this to get what I want in life'.
I will tell you a secret. If you think like that and adopt the same wrong ways, you will sink even deeper in misery and suffering.
Suppose you see that a man is prospering by stealing from others, and you think that you too should do the same to become rich. I tell you, he will still escape the hands of law but you will get caught and have to suffer the punishment for it. It is because such wrong actions are not in your nature. If such wickedness was in your nature, you would never come to Satsang and listen to this knowledge from me.
If you are sitting here listening to knowledge, then it means that wickedness is not in your nature. It is not there in your DNA at all. Maybe that other man must have earned some merits from his past good actions, due to which he would be managing to escape. But if you do the same thing, you will surely get stuck.
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
No comments:
Post a Comment