Sri Sri Ravi Shankar addressed the thousands who cam for #satsang today. More than 3000 lawyers have come to the Centre for a three day conference.
Sri Sri explains a popular Kannada song - You have built your house in the forest and you are scared of animals, what can you say. Similarly you have made a home on the seashore and you are scared of waves! And you have built a home in the midst of a marketplace and you say I don’t like noise, then there is no solution for it. Similarly when we are born on this planet, some people praise you, some people pass derogatory comments on you. Some will blame you and you should shy away from those things, be a little thick skinned, that’s what this song says. See such wisdom has been in this country among the common people. This is all common sense.
Ques: Could you please explain the types of yagna mentioned by Krishna in Gita?
#SriSri: Yagna word has three components – Deva puja, recognizing the Divinity, the divine qualities in things, in people, honouring them. Sangati Karana – taking everyone along with you and then Daana – means giving. Sharing, taking everyone along with you and then honouring the divine qualities. These three things become yagna. And similarly bhoot yagna is caring for the environment, pashu yagna means caring for the environment and pitra yangna, honouring the ancestors, parents, Brahma yagna means assimilating the knowledge in life and sharing it with everyone. And Japa yagna is meditation. Collectively if we sit and do something that is yagna. Alone it is japa but when all of us are sitting and meditating that Dhyaan yagna or Japa yagna.
#SriSri: Yagna word has three components – Deva puja, recognizing the Divinity, the divine qualities in things, in people, honouring them. Sangati Karana – taking everyone along with you and then Daana – means giving. Sharing, taking everyone along with you and then honouring the divine qualities. These three things become yagna. And similarly bhoot yagna is caring for the environment, pashu yagna means caring for the environment and pitra yangna, honouring the ancestors, parents, Brahma yagna means assimilating the knowledge in life and sharing it with everyone. And Japa yagna is meditation. Collectively if we sit and do something that is yagna. Alone it is japa but when all of us are sitting and meditating that Dhyaan yagna or Japa yagna.
Ques: Ramana Maharishi says everything is predestined and Swami Vivekananda says you are the creator of your own destiny. Please explain!
#SriSri: Yes, different perspectives. Life is a combination of both destiny and free will. For example, your height is your destiny, you can’t change it. After 21 yrs your height cannot be change. But your weight is your free will. You can weigh 100, 50, 60 kilos, that is your choice. And if you are weighing 200 kilos and you say I cannot change, it is my destiny, no I won’t accept that! I will put you on a tread mill and a diet. See how you will become in one month’s time. Raining, it is destiny but to get wet or not is your free will. So life is a combination of both, it is not one or the other.
#SriSri: Yes, different perspectives. Life is a combination of both destiny and free will. For example, your height is your destiny, you can’t change it. After 21 yrs your height cannot be change. But your weight is your free will. You can weigh 100, 50, 60 kilos, that is your choice. And if you are weighing 200 kilos and you say I cannot change, it is my destiny, no I won’t accept that! I will put you on a tread mill and a diet. See how you will become in one month’s time. Raining, it is destiny but to get wet or not is your free will. So life is a combination of both, it is not one or the other.
Ques: How do we know what to choose?
#SriSri: There is proverb in China which says, if you are confused take a pillow and go to bed. Don’t tell Me you have to be in bed all the time because you are confused all the time! The choice is always between bad and worse or good and better. So just relax!
#SriSri: There is proverb in China which says, if you are confused take a pillow and go to bed. Don’t tell Me you have to be in bed all the time because you are confused all the time! The choice is always between bad and worse or good and better. So just relax!
Ques: I feel surrendering is like cheating. I feel I should go through struggle rather than abandoning my problems. What are your thoughts?
#SriSri: Prayer is spontaneous and it is natural. Suppose you are compelled to sit for 10 hours you say please let me get up. That ‘please I want help’ comes from the depth of your being. When you are desperate, when you are helpless, when feel all doors are shut, a cry comes out of you and that is what is prayer. And it happens, you can’t make it happen nor can you stop it from happening. It is a happening. That’s why it is called Keerthana. Arthana means crying in rhythm. Crying is the voice that comes from the depth of your soul. It can be of gratitude, it can be of prayer, it can be both together. That’s why the songs which are sung which such deep emotions are called Keerthanas. Arthanas is crying in Sanskrit. Aarthi means one who is suffering.
#SriSri: Prayer is spontaneous and it is natural. Suppose you are compelled to sit for 10 hours you say please let me get up. That ‘please I want help’ comes from the depth of your being. When you are desperate, when you are helpless, when feel all doors are shut, a cry comes out of you and that is what is prayer. And it happens, you can’t make it happen nor can you stop it from happening. It is a happening. That’s why it is called Keerthana. Arthana means crying in rhythm. Crying is the voice that comes from the depth of your soul. It can be of gratitude, it can be of prayer, it can be both together. That’s why the songs which are sung which such deep emotions are called Keerthanas. Arthanas is crying in Sanskrit. Aarthi means one who is suffering.
Ques: When people are mean to you is it ok to think that nature will teach them a lesson?
#SriSri: Again here, because your emotions are so deep, it can come either as a prayer, ‘God you only do something’ you feel helpless. Now if you are a little more wise, you know what you will say? You will not say punish them, you will say teach them a good lesson, give them good ‘buddhi’ (intellect), it is said in a song, ‘sabko sanmati de bhagwan’, let everyone’s intellect work properly. Best form of prayer that we have been having in our country is “shatru buddhi vinashaya”, the intellect which has animosity let it go. The person is not bad but their animosity in the intellect is what is causing the whole problem. So that quality in that intellect should go. This is why we light a lamp. While lighting a lamp this is the mantra we usually chant ‘Shatru buddhi vinashaya deepam jyothi namostute deepam jyothi parabrahma deepam jyothi parayane’ Let that intellect which has negativity go away. That’s really very wise thing to do. Just look at yourself only. If you have caused some problem to somebody, suppose someone is praying that you should be punished how would you feel?
#SriSri: Again here, because your emotions are so deep, it can come either as a prayer, ‘God you only do something’ you feel helpless. Now if you are a little more wise, you know what you will say? You will not say punish them, you will say teach them a good lesson, give them good ‘buddhi’ (intellect), it is said in a song, ‘sabko sanmati de bhagwan’, let everyone’s intellect work properly. Best form of prayer that we have been having in our country is “shatru buddhi vinashaya”, the intellect which has animosity let it go. The person is not bad but their animosity in the intellect is what is causing the whole problem. So that quality in that intellect should go. This is why we light a lamp. While lighting a lamp this is the mantra we usually chant ‘Shatru buddhi vinashaya deepam jyothi namostute deepam jyothi parabrahma deepam jyothi parayane’ Let that intellect which has negativity go away. That’s really very wise thing to do. Just look at yourself only. If you have caused some problem to somebody, suppose someone is praying that you should be punished how would you feel?
Ques: Everything is fine in my life I don’t know why I have an unknown fear of the future?
#SriSri: Intellectually you have understood everything is ok but on the level of emotion, on the level of sensation still something is happening. This is exactly where you should realize that meditation is far ahead of just intellectual thinking or mental notions in the mind. So meditation can bring that shift.
#SriSri: Intellectually you have understood everything is ok but on the level of emotion, on the level of sensation still something is happening. This is exactly where you should realize that meditation is far ahead of just intellectual thinking or mental notions in the mind. So meditation can bring that shift.
Ques: I keep having lot of conversations with lot of people in my mind. Things I would want to say but have not said. How do I overcome this problem?
#SriSri: Take a paper and pen and write them all down. You know once you write them down you will there some sort of relief in that, in the mind. What are those thoughts that bother you? Those thoughts which want to find an expression. You are angry at somebody you just shout at them you feel calmer, happier. Haven’t you experienced that? How many of you experienced this? Something is bothering you, you want to take the phone and just yell at them in the middle of the night. Once you did it then you can have good night’s sleep. If you have not done it all night you are going to think tomorrow I am going to say that to that person. So what is it? The thoughts have arisen inside of you, it is wanting an expression. Now you have a choice. You either take a phone and shout at them or sit down and write them down. You write a letter to them and don’t post it immediately. Next day you read it you will feel most of it is rubbish. You would not like to send it at all. In the course sometimes I used to give this technique give 15 seconds gap before you sign a letter. So one gentlemen told me the other day “Guruji this technique you told in the advance course has helped me tremendously.” I said what happened and he said it saved my life. How? You know I was so mad at my boss I wrote him a very nasty letter and when I was going to sign and send it your words came to my mind that wait 15 seconds so I stopped for 15 seconds and then I read it once again and I couldn’t sign my own letter. It saved my job. So most of the things we do which we regret later have all happened because of unconscious mind, happened because we were not alert, we were not conscious enough. So if you are conscious, if you are alert then you will see things from a different perspective all together.
#SriSri: Take a paper and pen and write them all down. You know once you write them down you will there some sort of relief in that, in the mind. What are those thoughts that bother you? Those thoughts which want to find an expression. You are angry at somebody you just shout at them you feel calmer, happier. Haven’t you experienced that? How many of you experienced this? Something is bothering you, you want to take the phone and just yell at them in the middle of the night. Once you did it then you can have good night’s sleep. If you have not done it all night you are going to think tomorrow I am going to say that to that person. So what is it? The thoughts have arisen inside of you, it is wanting an expression. Now you have a choice. You either take a phone and shout at them or sit down and write them down. You write a letter to them and don’t post it immediately. Next day you read it you will feel most of it is rubbish. You would not like to send it at all. In the course sometimes I used to give this technique give 15 seconds gap before you sign a letter. So one gentlemen told me the other day “Guruji this technique you told in the advance course has helped me tremendously.” I said what happened and he said it saved my life. How? You know I was so mad at my boss I wrote him a very nasty letter and when I was going to sign and send it your words came to my mind that wait 15 seconds so I stopped for 15 seconds and then I read it once again and I couldn’t sign my own letter. It saved my job. So most of the things we do which we regret later have all happened because of unconscious mind, happened because we were not alert, we were not conscious enough. So if you are conscious, if you are alert then you will see things from a different perspective all together.
Ques: Chanting mantras in the mind is right or chanting it aloud is right?
#SriSri: First you chant aloud and then in the mind and eventually we should drop it from the mind also. This is the method.
#SriSri: First you chant aloud and then in the mind and eventually we should drop it from the mind also. This is the method.
Ques: If every good thing you do has obstacles, what to do?
#SriSri: ‘Shreyansi Bahuvignyani’. There is saying that the work is good that’s why there are so many obstacles. You have recognized it is good work then don’t drop it. Keep doing it. It will keep happening.
#SriSri: ‘Shreyansi Bahuvignyani’. There is saying that the work is good that’s why there are so many obstacles. You have recognized it is good work then don’t drop it. Keep doing it. It will keep happening.
Ques: People say if we meditate 7 generations attain freedom. How is that?
#SriSri: Don’t worry about the moksh of the ones who have already left. Who will come how they want to spend their life is their problem. You are here now, empty your mind. The universe is infinite and there are infinite secrets and their explanations are also infinite. It’s a wonder! Every atom is filled with knowledge.
It is said there are 4 levels of speech. What we speak is called ‘vaikiri’ the fourth level of speech. It is always linked with breath. Now subtler than this is the thought process in the mind, it is on the thinking level and on the feeling level. This is called ‘madhyama’. Finer than that is another level that it is on the vibration level you feel it. All these animals they are all connected on that level. You are connected with the animals, birds, trees everything. There is a subtle level. There is a fourth level called ‘para’ level it is a cognition level. The sages went in deep meditation they cognized thousands of years ago they said Jupiter has 12 moons, all the planets are going around the sun. All this, what we could today gaze with very powerful telescopes, people have said it millions of years ago. How come it was possible? This universe has so much fauna and flora and some 5000-8000 years ago they said which herb is for what part of your body. The materia-medica was made as poems. The only materia-medica which is in the form of poetry in the world is Ayurveda. It is all in poems. The whole of Ayurveda is in couplets, poems. It is not prose form. These were all downloaded. Knowledge download that is ‘para’ level. So the level of speech that we speak is ‘vaikari’.
#SriSri: Don’t worry about the moksh of the ones who have already left. Who will come how they want to spend their life is their problem. You are here now, empty your mind. The universe is infinite and there are infinite secrets and their explanations are also infinite. It’s a wonder! Every atom is filled with knowledge.
It is said there are 4 levels of speech. What we speak is called ‘vaikiri’ the fourth level of speech. It is always linked with breath. Now subtler than this is the thought process in the mind, it is on the thinking level and on the feeling level. This is called ‘madhyama’. Finer than that is another level that it is on the vibration level you feel it. All these animals they are all connected on that level. You are connected with the animals, birds, trees everything. There is a subtle level. There is a fourth level called ‘para’ level it is a cognition level. The sages went in deep meditation they cognized thousands of years ago they said Jupiter has 12 moons, all the planets are going around the sun. All this, what we could today gaze with very powerful telescopes, people have said it millions of years ago. How come it was possible? This universe has so much fauna and flora and some 5000-8000 years ago they said which herb is for what part of your body. The materia-medica was made as poems. The only materia-medica which is in the form of poetry in the world is Ayurveda. It is all in poems. The whole of Ayurveda is in couplets, poems. It is not prose form. These were all downloaded. Knowledge download that is ‘para’ level. So the level of speech that we speak is ‘vaikari’.
"When we say ‘aaa..’ how long can we say? Until the breath flows. But if you say ‘aaa..’ in the mind you could say it till infinite time. Like that I’ll give you another challenge. Say ‘ka’ without saying ‘a’. Impossible. Can you say ‘cha’ without ‘a’? No. When you try to say it, meditation will happen. Something happens inside in our consciousness, in our brain and everything stops, everything stands still for a few moments. That is very important. That is when our brain is rejuvenating itself. Our consciousness is rejuvenating itself. This is meditation, when everything stops. In sleep what is happening? All the activities are coming to a standstill, metabolism goes up but mind quietens down. Meditation is when you are conscious and yet quiet. Now try to say ‘ka’ without ‘aa’. Notice what is happening. You will suddenly find certain calmness dawning in you. Mind is becoming more still. There is so much deep knowledge in this. We have to go on contemplating on this and more and more gets revealed to us.. When you are surprised, when shock happens, that is called ‘Chakit Mudra’. This means you are in surprise. The surprise is the preface for Yoga.. so when you wonder about all the beautiful things in the creation, some things happens to you. What is that? The chattering mind stops and the union with the cosmos happens. And that is what is real yoga."
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