The True Hierarchy

Senses are ruled by Mind.
But Mind should be ruled by Chitta (Soul).
We have never allowed this to happen and Mind has been ruling our Chitta as well.

Krishna says Mind is material, it is "Apara Prakriti", not "Para".
Para Prakriti is superior energy while apara is not. Apara is composed of eight elements - earth, water, air, space, heat, mind, intelligence, perverted ego. Because of being the outcome of material energy of the Supreme, we have material mind.

Human beings have been unable to grasp reality on account of the material, limited intellect and limited understanding mind. Perhaps this is why humans are unable to know transcendental reality which is beyond comprehension.

YOU are not the body or Mind but they are Yours.
Let your Soul be superior to everything. Soul is subtle and beyond comprehension. Soul is YOU !

Soul > Mind > Body is the true hierarchy.


-KGS

What's happening in 2012?

Derivative of Desire !

Desire can lead to attachment
Attachment can lead to expectations
Expectations can lead to ego
Ego can lead to anger


Anger will look up to ego
Ego will look up to expectations.
Expectations will look up to attachment
Attachment will look up to Desire.

Let me manage my desire without being a Tamasik.
And I don't have to come back here ever again !


-KGS

You are Loved - Sri Sri Ravishankar

So, the message from the Divine is that - you are so dear to the Divine. You simply have to recognize that you are so loved.

You cannot imagine how much you are loved by God. There is so much love. Just like how a mother loves her baby, irrespective of what the kid does. The kid may create a mess, but the mother doesn’t mind. She smiles, cleans up the mess and then once again continues to love the child. Similarly, you are most dear to the Divine. This is what we must keep in our minds. I am here just to tell you this, and nothing else! If you understand this, then my work is done!

Listen to these words that
the Divine is telling you,
that he or she loves you
very dearly. He will never
allow you to sink.
Have the faith that, I will
never be allowed to sink.
I may be in water up to
the nose, but not above the
nose.

‘I am so dear to the Divine’, and ‘The Divine is here, right now’, these are the two things to remember.

When the I in us dissolves and remains only as energy, that is when happiness wells up. Otherwise you think, ‘I want to get enlightened’ or ‘I want to experience this.’ And it is that I which makes you miserable.
And when doubt enters the I then that is the worst thing.

In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna says, ‘When doubt enters into the heart of an individual, he is totally lost, and he becomes miserable’.
So, make sure that you recognize that you are most dear and the most loved by the Divine. That is it. Seal it! No more doubt about that, or no more self doubt.
No questioning whether I am loved or not. You should not be questioning.

First God tells you, ‘You are very dear to me’, and then the devotee says, ‘Yes, I love you too!’
So, first listen to these words that the Divine is telling you, that he or she loves you very dearly. He will never allow you to sink – this is the first thing.

The second is the faith that, I will never be allowed to sink. I may be in water up to the nose, but not above the nose.

And third thing is that we must keep our mind happy and contented. Come what may, we have to keep a contended mind.
A discontentment or grumbling mind, even if it gets everything on this planet, still it will remain miserable.
Nothing whatsoever in the universe can ever give you contentment. You have to bring it to yourself. And when does that happen? It happens when you let go and understand.
Purity, Clarity, and Contentment, is the formula for happiness.

There is a proverb in the Bible as well that says, ‘Those who have will be given more, those who do not have, whatever little they have, will also be taken away.’
That is very true. In the mind, if there is lack of contentment and you are complaining and grumbling, then you should become aware of it and snap out of that state. You must take responsibility for that, it is very important.

Contentment and happiness! Do everything happily. Walk, talk, sit happily; even if you complain against somebody, do it happily.
I think we do that here in the ashram quite a bit! (Sri Sri laughs)

Do you know, the day before yesterday, the person in the purchase department called me in the middle of the night and said, ‘Gurudev, there are a few little things that we need to buy for tomorrow.’
I said, ‘What?’
And he said, ‘We need 3000 kilos of sugar and 2000 kilos of moong daal to make pudding.’
And I said, ‘What? (Surprised), you said you need a few little things.’
So, the purchase department rushed to the wholesale market, woke up the people from sleep in the middle of the night, and got everything delivered at 2:00am.
They had to wake up several shop owners, take them to their shops, open the godowns, and bring the items. But they were all happy.
The seller was also happy, the buyer was also happy, the cook was happy and those who ate were also happy.

Come what may, we have
to keep a contended mind.
A grumbling mind, even if
it gets everything on this
planet, still it will remain
miserable.
Nothing whatsoever in the
universe can ever give you
contentment. You have to
bring it to yourself.

You know, this whole act could have become very stressful.
The person was telling me this at the last minute. Where do we go at the last minute?
There could have been a lot of grumbling and complaining, and they could have come back saying, ‘Oh no, it didn’t happen.’ But that was not the case.
See, where there is Sattva and positivity, challenges are also sweet.
That is why happiness and contentment is very important.

See, if it was a small little thing, then it is okay. You can go and open one shop. But you can’t get 3000 kilos of sugar from one shop.
So in everybody’s life, there are many such things that happen which we sometimes consider impossible. Do you know why? It is because we don’t recognize our self.

Do you know why the elephant got so scared when she came here (Yagyashala)?(Referring to Indrani (Ashram Elephant) who was brought to participate in the Chandi Homam) 
She got scared because she saw herself on the screen, and she thought there was another elephant standing. She didn’t realize that it is her own reflection. So we had to put off that screen.
At that time I thought, she has taught us a big lesson today. This is what is happening with people, they don’t recognize themselves. Everybody is only a reflection of you.
When you don’t recognize yourself, or you are so scared of looking at yourself, that is where the knowledge helps to reflect, to recognize this.

Look within yourself, what is there, what is bothering, what is pricking?
If you see that there are some negative tendencies in you, I tell you, don’t worry about them, because you cannot get rid of them. There is somebody to take care of it. This is the message!

In the Durga Saptashati ,it is said, ‘Ya Devi Sarva-bhutesu Bhranti-rupena Samsthitha Namastasyei Namastasyei Namastasyei Namo Namaha.’ 
Oh Mother, you are present in all beings as peace and as disturbance; as knowledge and as delusion. I adore and bow down to you!

So the Divine is also present as disturbances.
Look at all the beings on the planet, they are so disturbed. The elephant was disturbed for a little while.
What was that? It is the consciousness; the pure energy that is present in the form of delusion, and in the form knowledge, and in the form of ignorance.
That is why, adore everything holistically. Take them all together. Don’t try to choose or separate, take them all completely and then you will be at peace; absolute peace.
This is the whole essence. Then freedom from misery, attainment of peace, exuberating love and joy, devotion and freedom in the mind - these are the things that are brought up.

Contentment and happiness!
Do everything happily. Walk,
talk, sit happily; even if you
complain against somebody,
do it happily.

The whole universe is just one consciousness. Didn’t you all feel today? It is like there are so many bodies, but just one mind.
One body in spite of so many bodies, one being in the entire field.
We are all part of that One - this understanding comes up as a deep experience.

Now don’t ask, ‘When will that come to me Guruji? I want it now.’ Just relax! Do nothing!
Just know that you are dear to the Divine and the Divine is here, right now, in you.

And that is it for today.

-Sri Sri Ravishankar

The Fire Inside - Sri Sri Ravishankar

You don't have to be afraid of God because it is like the mother who cares for you, loves you, adores you and uplifts you. All the motherly qualities are present in God.

Usually we say, ‘Be God fearing; God is there to punish you’, no! This is a wrong idea. God will never punish you, but only educate and uplift you.

We must celebrate life.
We just heard the song, ‘La-Ilaha-Illallah’ – There is only one Divinity, and that Divinity is not somewhere up in the heaven, it is in the five elements, i.e., Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Ether.
So, honor the Earth, honor water, and make good use of Fire. Not just the external fire, but the fire inside you as well.
There is a fire inside everybody, a passion, keep that in the right direction. You know, fire can destroy, and fire can create as well, so allow the fire to do something creative. Give a direction to that fire (passion) inside of you.
Water can quench thirst and it can drown you as well.
Remember the Divine Mother; the Divinity is in the five elements, and in the Self. And real celebration is getting back to the Self with peace and ease.

So we must have this confidence – God loves me dearly. No more questions and no more doubt!
Also, don't compare yourself with anybody, this is also important.
‘Oh, that person can sing but I cannot sing’; ‘That person is intelligent but I am not’, no! You have everything inside you. At different times different things will come out, just have patience.

Another thing is that we say that we want blessings and we want Grace, isn’t it?!
Blessings are available in plenty, but if your vessel is small, then what to do?

If you bring this cup (Sri Sri picks up a small cup), and say, ‘Give me two liters of milk in this’, how can two liters of milk fit in this little cup? The cup is small and you are asking for too much.
You need to bring a cup with a capacity of three liters and then I can give you two liter or three liter, whatever you want.
So, you must remember that whatever you get is your capacity, and if you want to get more then wait; expand your capacity.
When our capacity increases more will definitely come to us.
This is the reason why people are unhappy. They take a little cup and say, ‘Give me one liter of milk in this.’
The cup is then overflowing.
So this is what we need to know.

See, in life, irritations do come to you. ‘Oh, that person is no good’; ‘I cannot be with these people, they insult me’, these sort of the little things come in the mind, and then when you sit for meditation, all these things come and bother you. Isn't it?
Raise your hands and tell me honestly, when you sit for meditation, don't you think about these things – ‘Oh, it is better if my husband does this’; ‘Oh my child doesn’t listen’.
Things about the neighbors, friends, known people and unknown people, all these little irritations come and bring anger, frustration and irritation inside of you.
So, how do you handle this irritation?
Suppose you are doing some important work and a fly comes and sits on you, would you be bothered too much about the fly? No, you wouldn’t get bothered about a housefly, you would just shoo it away lightly.
Know that is what all these things are.

You must remember that
whatever you get is your 
capacity, and if you want to 
get more then wait; expand 
your capacity. When our
capacity increases more will
definitely come to us.
This is the reason why people
are unhappy. They take a
little cup and say, ‘Give me
one liter of milk in this.’

These little irritations help to bring the acceptance inside you. Irritation means non-acceptance. Non-acceptance means holding your fist closed tight. Acceptance is like opening your fist.
Irritation is stiffness. Don't you feel stiffness when you get irritated?
Acceptance is openness, and when your hand is open, the sky is the limit; everything is inside you (referring to his open hand). But when you are closed (referring to his closed hand) then there is nothing inside.
So, letting go is important.

Now the question comes, ‘If I let go then how will I take action?’
Somebody is doing injustice and you think, ‘Oh, Gurudev talks on acceptance, and so I will accept it.’ No!
See, the fire is there, you have to give it the right direction.
Being irritated and doing an action is not going to help. First accept and then take the right action.
This needs a lot of courage and patience.

Another concern is being humiliated.
I tell you humiliation is very good. It is humiliation which expands your capacity; it makes your vessel bigger. It is humiliation that makes the I dissolve, makes the ego go away, and you become simply like a child.
Do you know, you can never humiliate a child because it is hollow and empty!
But when we become somebody, when we hold on to some idea about ourselves then we feel that, ‘Oh it is a humiliation.’
Somebody said, ‘Don’t come’, or, ‘Don't do this’, and all these little things bother you. That is why this is called Maya, because those things which are not worthy of paying attention to, the mind is dragged into that.
And when you say, ‘Even this is not mine’, then that is Mahamaya; it is a Divine play. Because then you start fighting with it, and fighting with it makes it even more. It becomes a catch 22 situation. You get stuck in the rut.
So, don’t shy away from humiliation. If humiliation happens take it as Tapas (means Heat. In Hinduism, it is used figuratively, denoting spiritual suffering, mortification or austerity).
‘Okay, this is Tapas. I will bear this. I take it.’
Tapas makes you stronger and more beautiful.

So, it is said, ‘Gyaninampee Chetansi Devi Bhagwati Hi Saa, Baladakrishya Mohay Mahamaya Prayachhati.’
This is what is written in the Durga Saptshati which we sang yesterday.
The power of Maya, the power of ignorance is so strong that even the most wise people and great intellectuals are just taken into her sway.
She can sway everybody, and so it is said, ‘Oh my dear Mother Goddess, you have swayed us into this play of illusions of the mind.’
We give importance to things which are not worthy of importance. We give too much importance to things which are temporary and fleeting which are not going to stay. They all come and they go. That is why it is called Mahamaya.

You know yesterday I said, ‘Ya Devi Sarva-bhutesu Bhranti-rupena Samsthitha Namastasyei Namastasyei Namastasyei Namo Namaha.’
The consciousness is also present as delusion, not only as Shanti (Peace) or Shakti (Strength) . It is also present as hunger, as confusion, as delusion, and all these manifestations.
When you notice this then you smile at the play of the mind.
Then when the little mind plays around, you don't identify with it; you go beyond and that is where you get that permanent peace – Chira Shanti. The mind is absolutely at peace; unshakable.
This is worth having in life, and for that only, all these blessings are needed.

Today we did the Rishi Homa. From ages, many saints in the past have preserved this knowledge.
In the tradition, it is Parashara (a Rigvedic Maharishi and author of many ancient Indian texts) whose specialty was Poojas.
In Guru Pooja we sing, Narayanam Padma Bhavam Vashishtham Shaktim cha tat putra Parasharam Cha.
The fifth saint in the tradition is Parashara. He emphasized on expression of love and devotion through Poojas –Poojadishu Anuraga iti Parasharyah.

Another concern is being
humiliated. I tell you
humiliation is very good.
It is humiliation which
expands your capacity; it
makes your vessel bigger.
It is humiliation that makes
the I dissolve, makes the ego
go away, and you become
simply like a child.

Today also, Ayudha Pooja is done. This is done to honor all the instruments that we use.
When you go to the city tomorrow, you will find all the buses will have sandal-paste,Kumkum and flowers on them.
People will decorate their vehicles.
It means that, from a needle or a pin to a pillar; everything is permeated by the Divine, so honoring all the instruments.
Even small things like pins, knives, scissors, screwdrivers, spanners, all these things are honored, and it is said that Divine mother is present in all the instruments, and so we honor them.
You will see that once a year, in factories they clean all the instruments.
Today the people will honor and show gratitude to instruments, vehicles, buses, cars, everything, because the Divinity is present everywhere.
Ayudha Pooja is done on the ninth day of Navratri. Tomorrow is Vijaya Dasami, the day of victory.
So when Maya takes over the mind just become aware that it is the Maya of the mind.
It is the mind which is going around and doing all these things. Just let go of that.
That is the main message for the Navratri.

- Sri Sri Ravishankar

Where is Life Going ? - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

You know, to discuss something which is very dear to our hearts, we need to be in an informal atmosphere. A formal atmosphere is not congenial for wisdom; for authenticity. I have a habit of doing everything in an informal way. So let us begin by turning around and greeting the person in-front of you, next to you and behind you. Become familiar with everyone around you.

I want to ask you a question. Did you really greet the person or did you do it as a formality?
You don't have to tell that to the person next to you. You don't have to tell them, 'Hey, I just greeted you as a formality.'

I want you to ask yourself, did you really greet the person? You know when you get off the plane, the air hostesses greet you saying, 'Have a nice day', but they don't mean it. It is just coming from the lips. But if the same words comes to you from your mother, or sister, or a close friend, it carries some vibration with it. So we convey more through our vibrations. Someone can stand and give you a talk about love for two hours, but that does not convey what a baby or dog conveys to you through vibrations.You go into a place where people are depressed, you will see that for no reason you are also depressed. Similarly, you go to a place where people are happy and you feel the joy coming up within you.

The whole world is just vibrations; waves and waves. Our mind is vibrations, our body is all vibrations, thoughts are vibrations and our emotions are all vibrations. But we don't do anything to improve the vibrations, the positivity in us, isn't it?!

That something, doing which, your vibrations become very joyful, positive and peaceful, is Meditation.

This happens very fast through the breathing techniques and meditation. Usually when one says Meditation, you think, one has to leave everything and go to Machu Picchu, or somewhere in the Himalayas; no, it is not like that. You can experience it in your own home.

And what are the benefits of meditation? Why should we do it? As I said, our vibrations become positive. Sometimes, when you meet someone, you feel some repulsion and you don't want to talk to that person. Have you experience this? And then, there are some people that you meet, and you feel like talking to them and engaging with them. Again, this is vibrations.
Similarly, you get some thoughts, and they are absolutely right. And at other times, you get thoughts that are completely wrong. Isn't that so? So, we are like walking in the darkness without understanding our own consciousness. If you understand consciousness, a lot of things happen and your life becomes much happier. Our health becomes better, our relationships with people improves.
You must have heard from people, how the violent tendencies in life go down. And most important, our desires get fulfilled.

There are four kinds of people.

Some people have desires, and they desire and desire but nothing gets manifested. There are others who desire and work so hard for it, and then after a long time, it gets manifested. And the third one are those who desire, and immediately it gets done, without much hard work. And the fourth one are those who don't even have to desire, even before the desire arises, things are already there. So which category do you want to be in? Fourth one? Yes, that is the luckiest. It is just like, you have not even felt thirst and already there is water. There is a proverb in India which says, 'When you had teeth, you didn't get peanuts, and when you got peanuts, you didn't have teeth.' Many people are in this situation. They work so hard all their life, make all the money, put it all in the bank and they die. And then the children fight over the money of the parents. In the world, about 70% of the court cases are about inheritance. Now, see nobody fights over the money they have earned. So what you have done is, you have made money, put it in the bank and then made your children fight with each other for the money. Is this an intelligent thing to do? We spend half of our health in earning money, and then we spend half of our wealth to get the health back. Not so smart! Not so economical.

We need to find where life is going?

There is a story of a wise fool!

A wise fool was sitting on a donkey, and the donkey was running. It went round and round the same streets many times. So someone asked this gentleman, 'I see you going up and down several times, where are you going?'
He says, 'I don't know, ask the donkey!'

Most of the time, our lives are that way. We keep working and we keep on doing things without knowing - What is the Purpose! Without even enjoying all that this nature has provided us.
See, when the mind is bitter you can't find happiness anywhere in the world. When the mind is sweet, then you find sweetness everywhere. So meditation is all about finding sweetness deep inside us. And when you find it, do you know what you want to do? You want to give it to everybody.
People ask me, 'What is your motivation? What do you get? Why are you running around to all these places around the world all the time?'

I asked them one question, 'Suppose you see a very nice movie, what do you do? Do you just sit quiet in your room? Or do you pick up the phone, call your friends and tell them, 'Oh, it is a great movie, you must go and see this movie.' Now what do you get by doing that? Do the movie producers give you some commission? Or the actors give your some money? What do you get for making all those phone calls? You do it because the nature of joy is to share.'

The nature of joy is sharing.

There are two types of joy, one is the joy of grabbing. As kids we were born with this tendency. If you leave a child here, it will go and grab this flower, grab this sheet, pull that chair, turn everything around upside down, and hold on to things. It will hold on to anything, even a knife. Without knowing it is going to hurt its hand, the child with grab a knife. But mothers are very clever, they will give the child something else to loosen the child's grip from the knife. Isn't that so?
When children catch on to something that is not good, you give them something else.
So this is one type of joy, the joy of getting, having. This is a childish joy; childish happiness. There is another type of happiness, joy, that comes from giving. Many ladies here, when guests are coming home, or children are coming home, what do you do? You make many different types of food and decorate it and put it on the table. Your joy as a mother is in giving, isn't it!
Look at grandparents, they love to give gifts to the children, isn't it?! There is a joy in giving, and this is a mature joy. We cannot live life by just having the joy of getting without understanding the joy in giving. Once you have a little taste of the joy that comes from giving, you will find that life is worth living, life is fulfilling.

So, smile more!

You know a baby smiles 400 times a day, a adolescent smiles only 17 times and an adult rarely smiles. And if you become an officer or a politician, then forget about it. Your smile disappears, flies away.

A smile is not something artificial, it should come from within. That can only happen when the stress is gone, when we go deep in meditation. If someone says, 'I am meditating', that means that they smile more; there is serenity, sensitivity and sensibility, and this is spirituality.

Spirituality means sensibility, sensitivity, sweetness, smile; all these put together.

- Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

The Pass !

It was a nice sunny Sunday afternoon. Indira Aunty, Amma-ma and I were taking a walk along the streets of an unknown place.Walking down the streets towards south, we noticed that there were lots of tress on either side of the road and at a distance of around hundred meters from us, stood a Castle. The castle seemed very old with high raised walls surrounding it from all sides. From far we could figure out the top structure, however, as we approached it, only the high compound walls were visible to us.

I stepped ahead a little to find out if there was any door in between the walls to enter into the compound. As I walked along the walls, I saw a small iron gate allowing the entry inside the compound. I was quite excited to find the entrance and called up Indira Aunty and Amma-ma showing them the entrance. I could see a lot of excitement on Auntie's face. She seemed really interested and curious to see the structure which from far appeared to be a castle. Amma-ma however seemed very tired, she sat outside the compound under a tree. So Aunty and I decided to get inside the compound to see the castle.

It was a small iron gate so I let aunty enter first. As I followed her I noticed a beautiful piece of wooden snake lying on the ground. I picked it up. It was niche in itself, a Cobra beautifully carved out on a wooden piece. I kept it in my pocket.

As we entered the compound we saw a huge Castle standing in the midst of pruned field. It was an art in itself. The Castle stood at around 50 meters from the entrance. We decided to walk towards it to take a closer look.We noticed that there was a small water stream flowing across the field and a small bridge was constructed for the visitors to cross over to reach the castle. I looked at Aunt and with a shake of head we decided to cross the bridge. This time it was me who stepped on the bridge first. Aunty followed me.

We had no idea about the surprise waiting in store for us.

It was hardly 2 steps that I walked onto the bridge when suddenly I heard a strong and loud hiss. Before I could understand anything, Aunty yelled, "Kunaaaaaaaaaaaal, there is a Naag there!". And I saw a huge Snake, shiny black in color, perhaps a Cobra, standing on the other side of the bridge with it's fang, fully spread and was as tall as me. Both of us were shell shocked and didn't know what to do. The Cobra stood right up as if trying to check for our purpose of being there. Both of us looked at it. It stared back and shook it's hood.

We were in a dilemma, whether to move or not. Surprisingly, more than being scared, both of us seemed to be mesmerized with such a divine avatar of the Cobra. "Let's wait for some time to see if it moves into the bushes or not", aunt said.
So we decided to wait there on the bridge without moving an extra inch forward. Cobra stood in it's position unmoved looking at us continuously.

As I looked at the Cobra, I realized that it looked exactly like the wooden carved snake that I had found at the entrance of the compound. I took it out from the pocked and said, "aunty, look, doesn't it look exactly like our Cobra?". Aunty was quite surprised and said, "oh, yes, they look the same, where did you get it?" "At the gate", I said.

"This is the Pass", aunty said. "What Pass?", I inquired.
"Looks like we have got the pass to cross the bridge and are allowed to see the castle, the Cobra if sees the wooden one in your hand might allow us to cross the bridge", aunty said with a confident smile at her face.

As we were discussing, I flashed the wooden carved snake towards the Cobra. And surprisingly, our bigger Cobra shook his fang once again, lowered down, slipped into one of the bushes and finally disappeared from our vision.

-KGS