Knowledge sheet no 31

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Sitting close by and listening is Upanishad. Upanishad is a collection of discourses of high knowledge, how it was transmitted from a Master to students. It is very interesting.

In one of the Upanishads, it is beautifully said.

Once a boy goes to his father who is also his Guru and asked what is God. Father replied, ‘Food is God’ for everything grows from food, everything is sustained by food and in the lack of it, everything dissolves and everything again becomes food. So the boy went and thought about it for several months, understood all about food and came back to his father, and again asked ‘What is God?’

The father, also his Guru, said, ‘Prana is God’. The boy went, thought and understood all about prana, how it is going in and out of the body, how many types of prana are there and read all experiments about prana.
He again came back to his father and asked, ‘What is God?’ The father looked at child’s face, so glowing and so vibrant. Father said, 'Ok, the mind is Brahman, mind is God.'

Like that, the boy went and thought till he finds the ultimate bliss. Neither the student complaint to the teacher that he was told, ‘Food is God, but it is not the ultimate, you told me the wrong thing'. He simply came and again asked the question. So this is ancient way of teaching step by step – food, then prana, then the mind, then the inner spirit, then the universal spirit, bliss.

Bliss is Divinity, the space. You are like the space. Then he said, 'There is no difference between you, me and the infinite self. We all are one. The Self, Guru and the universal energy are not different. All are made up of one substance. Today if you talk to scientists who study string theory, who study quantum physics they will say the same thing that is said in the upanishads.

In upanishads, it was said thousands of years ago, ‘God is not a person, sitting somewhere up in heaven but God is present everywhere. He is omnipresent and omnipotent, the energy of which you are also made up of, everything is made up of’.

Jai Gurudev!

knowledge sheet 30

Nature of devotion is such that you feel longing in its absence. Once you get a glimpse of devotion, then its absence causes perturbation in mind. It is not that devotion is absent there but you feel as if it is not there, and you feel restless with this feeling. If we look in the light of knowledge, Shri Narada has said in Bhakti Sutras that the very indication of devotion is that you experience bliss in its presence and its absence makes you restless. This shows that you have devotion, and consider yourself as lucky when you experience such restlessness in mind.

{Knowledge Sheet} Subject: Truth is never afraid of doubt

Q: Are you really enlightened? I won’t go from here if you don’t give me a direct answer.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Every question is not answered on the spot. Once a couple went to a Master and expressed their wish to ask two questions. The Master said, “You will get your answers if you do service for two years”. The more precious is the question, more effort is to be done to get the answer. I will give answer to your question, but I will also put a condition if you are putting a condition.

Q: How does one know whom to trust and whom not to especially, after Swami Nityananda incident?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Trust in yourself. Have faith in your choice of actions and the path you would be following. If you don’t trust yourself, how can you trust the Master? It is enough to have faith in yourself.

A Master or a Guru does not remove the doubt, but He creates more doubt. The more you burn in the fire of doubt, the more strong you come out to be. Truth is never afraid of doubt, and truth can never hide.
There have been so many saints in ancient India like Vishavamitra, Valmiki, Gautum, and you will deprive yourself of knowledge if you start doubting all of them.
If you put your attention on the real and authentic, you would doubt the fake. But if all your attention is on the fake, you would start doubting the authentic also.

Jai Gurudev!

Knowledge sheet no 29

Enlightenment is the biggest happiness. Why to go after small happiness when the biggest is there? It is not easy to believe in God. God is there: if you experience this then the mind calms down. Then you find only God is there and I don’t exist.

{Knowledge Sheet}Subject: Sanyas is getting established in the Self

Q: Out of two options available to do Seva or to be in Satsang with you, I chose Satsang but now my consciousness is pricking me. What should one chose?
H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: If you have a responsibility to do seva, then you come to satsang so that when you are tired of doing seva, you can energize yourself.

Q: I am academically good but not successful in my career. I am not able to support my family financially. I feel I am unworthy. Please help.

H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Breath it out if you feel you are unworthy. Meditate and don’t be hard on yourself.

Q: What is dispassion? Do you have to be a sanyasi to experience dispassion?

H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Dispassion starts happening naturally. When you grow up, your mind doesn’t get stuck to small things like you were so much attached to lollypop when you were small, yet when you reached school or college that attachment naturally dropped. Similarly, with toys or even friends. When you grow up, you still have friends but you rise above that entanglement. Similar is the case with mother and child. Naturally entanglement starts leaving you. If dispassion doesn’t happen then you experience sorrow. We get into the cycle of sorrow thinking – ‘Oh, I did so much. I did so much for my kids and see what they are doing now.’ What responsibility I was supposed to do, I have fulfilled. There is no restriction on others’, your children’s feelings. We can’t ask anybody to express feelings forcefully. Feelings naturally arise in anybody’s heart whatever those feelings are. Feelings don’t ask for permission before arising. But if you live in knowledge then negative feelings are almost negligible. Also positive feelings exist not as craving but love.

People say knowledgeable is one who kills one’s feelings. No, it’s not like that. Sadbhav, saintly feelings continue to exist. Lord Krishna also said in the Bhagwad Geeta ‘One who is not tied to me - the Consciousness, Higher Self - neither has intellect nor feelings. Without feelings and intellect, there is no question of peace or happiness.

Transforming craving and aversion into love is dispassion.
Lord Shankaracharya also said there is no happiness in world which can’t be received through dispassion. Dispassion doesn’t mean going to forests. It has
been so wrongly interpreted. Bliss and happiness are there in dispassion.
Like the lotus resides in water but still remains free from getting wet, in the same way while living in society one is not to let society enter one’s mind. Birds fly above you that’s ok, but don’t let them build a nest in your head.
Sanyas (an ascetic) is getting established in the Self. One who is unshaken by anything is a sanyasi. Sanyas is 100 percent dispassion and 100 percent bliss and has no demand. It’s very good if sanyas happens after the fourth ashram, the vanaprasth ashram. So much satisfaction in the mind that
‘Nobody is my own’ and ‘Nobody is the other’, or ‘Everybody is my very own’, or even ‘this body is not mine’ is the state of sanyas. Total happiness in mind is sanyas. Leaving clothes and going to forests is not sanyas.

Q: Should we follow the character and play of Gods?

H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: There is a story in each character. One should follow the character of God like Sri Rama’s character but the play of Lord Krishna is not to be followed. Play of God is not comprehensible.
Do as what Sri Rama did but do as what Sri Krishna said and not did. If you follow Lord Krishna’s play and do all that He did, you will end up in a jail, then you reach your birth place. (Audience laughs) When you listen to Lord’s play, your heart becomes joyful. Everything is Lord’s play only.

Q: They say cats are fiercer than tiger. I am relating this to women. Women nowadays are not open to accept men’s opinion. I am concerned about the male species.

H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You mean we should start men empowering seminar. (Laughter). Perhaps!!

Q: What can be done for peace between Israel and Palestine?

H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: We all have to work for it. When all of us work together to bring people together, to forget the past and make people live in the present, we will have the bond tied very soon. The Art of Living has already started quite a few programs in Palestine. But if only the government spends one percent of the military budget on educating people, in inter-faith and inter-cultural celebrations and attend to building this gap, all these conflicts will be resolved. NGOs can do limited work.
Perhaps the narrow vision of politicians is making them thrive on conflicts. Unless our politicians become spiritual like Mahatama Gandhi, our world doesn’t have a bright future.

Q: Guruji, how to handle the shattered mind of a person after the untimely death of a closed one?

H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: A shattered mind will give them strength because the departed soul will give power. You know, we should stop pitying people as well as ourselves. No self pity or pitying others should be there. You only have to know that nature gives you power. The Divine is with you and is giving you power to withstand pain.

Q: Do you see any golden age coming up?

H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: In the world, good is going up. There is always dawn happening somewhere in the world and there is dawn 24 hours on this planet. There is always dusk happening somewhere in the world and there is dusk 24 hours on this planet.

Q: Guruji, please comment on this: act don’t react.

H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: It is very simple. When you react, what happens? You regret afterwards. Reaction happens through an emotional upsurge. When someone says something you don’t like, your emotions swell up. Anything you do in an emotionally disturbed state, you repent afterwards. When emotions are on peak, the intellect goes in background.
Your actions are from the intellect and your reactions are from emotions.

Q: I feel more connected to people here in Art of Living but I feel a disconnect from people in my office or even at home. I feel weak that way.

H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Why do you think you are weak? Wake up and see you have all the strength. You should do the DSN (Divya Samaj ka Nirman- one of the Art of Living programs which helps an individual to move beyond one’s barriers and limitations.). There is no outside, no other at all. The Art of Living teaches you that the whole world is your family.
The ashram is your home, of course people are rosy here but everywhere you can’t expect the same atmosphere. You may have to face hard criticism in the office. You have reach meditation to people. But what is the first principle of Art of Living? Accept people and situations as they are. If you don’t learn the very first principle, you can’t say you are doing the Art of Living.

Q: Once you said you exist in more than one places at a time. Please elaborate that.

H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: There is one element in each one of us. There is one Divinity in everyone.

Q: What karma gives you liberation from the cycle of birth and death?

H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You are at the right place.

Q: Guruji, if souls are immortal does that mean there are finite number of souls on the planet?

H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Have you seen that signboard for advertisements? So many lights are there on it but not all are lit at one time. At some time some patterns of lights are there on board and at some other time some other patterns. Same is with the souls. It all depends on what souls are exhibited at one time.

Q: Out of meditation and prayer which is preferable?

H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Meditation is a better form of prayer. In prayer you are asking for something. Meditation is saying, ‘I am ready to listen’. Just imagine if somebody only keeps on asking and is not ready to listen to you. Don’t you get frustrated? In the same way, God also gets frustrated but when you sit for meditation, and ready to listen to him, He bestows all the favors to you.

Q: What is Kundalini shakti?

H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: We talk about it in the advance course. There are seven chakras in the body. When energy finds its way through these seven chakras, different emotions rise. When energy fully expresses itself through these seven chakras, then such perfection is attained that your desire gets fulfilled even before it arises.

Q: I dropped alcohol after Art of Living course. If I meet my old friends who still engage in these sorts of habits will they extract my positive energy?

H.H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Don’t worry. As long as you remain firm in knowledge, and Sadhana - you can help them come out of all sorts of negative habits.

Jai Gurudev!

Knowledge sheet no 28

The contrast between the ups and downs in life is greater. On a white cloth, even a small dust particle is clearly seen. Similarly, when the mind becomes more pure, even small jealousy or anger is an irritant. It is unbearable and you have to get rid of it quickly. This is but quite natural.
At the same time, you get the inner strength to endure situations.

{Knowledge Sheet}Subject: 'When we are joyous with ourselves, then nothing from outside can seem boring to us'

Q. Why is it difficult to get focused on things that I don’t like to do?

Sri Sri: If you don’t like something, then your focus is all the more on it. If you like something, then you focus on it. When you’re neutral about something, when there is no aversion, then there is no focus.

Studying the nature of mind is itself is an amazing phenomena. You will be thrilled knowing and learning more and more about your own mind. When I say mind, I don’t mean just mind. I would rather say the consciousness because the mind is one function of the consciousness. The perception is what we call the mind. The perceptible aspect of the consciousness is called mind. The judgmental aspect, the intellect.

The study of consciousness is the most difficult. And with time and maturity, everybody gets it.

Q. Can we aspire for something higher like enlightenment at the age of twenty one?

Sri Sri: Definitely. You should aspire for enlightenment and enlightenment is unconditional happiness, unconditional love and a life in which you are in the driver’s seat. You must aspire for enlightenment. Right from when you recognize to aspire anything in life. Go to the highest first and all the good things will come along, you don’t have to make an effort for it.

When I say you don’t have to make an effort, I mean you don’t have to sit and worry about it. When you aspire for the highest, your action will be spontaneous and in the spontaneity you will see things have started falling into place.

Q. What is a self referral attitude?

Sri Sri: Being in touch with your very center. When you worry there is a tendency to lose that focus or centredness. It is the same when you are tired or too busy. Self referral means coming back to yourself, to your center again and again. The core value within you.

Q. Are there any plus points of doing a job other than earning money

Sri Sri: Money and experience. That’s all and some discipline. If you have to do a job you have to discipline your life in a certain fashion.

Q. Is there a gene for knowledge, any nadi (channel for energy flow) that has to be opened for creativity?

Sri Sri: Definitely and you all have it. And it opens whenever you listen to knowledge.

Q. How does it feel to be God?

Sri Sri: Absolutely natural.

Q. We are not supposed to marry in our own gotra (family tree). Scientifically, what does a gotra mean?

Sri Sri: Gotra is a family tree, like you know if you marry your own siblings, or cousins, they say the genes will not develop properly, children will not develop. The family trees go back to some rishis in the past. And they say that gotra means we belong to this (a particular) family. Today what the scientists say about blood groups was known to people thousands of years ago. Yet people from the same gotra have spread. If you marry in the same gotra the children will not be too healthy. That is the main thing. It’s better to avoid.

But those were the thoughts from some thousands of years ago but now since we have gone so far away and the population has spread so much, it has become so vast. I don’t know how relevant it is. But (marriage within) gotra is better to avoid.

Q. Many times parents out of over attachment, prejudiced opinions and being football of the relatives opinions stop us from doing seva. Can we make seva our career?

Sri Sri: Yes.

Q. What is beauty and how to enhance it within and around us?

Sri Sri: First of all you should know you have a beautiful mind. The mind is free, it is loving, beautiful, satisfied and not feverish. So when the spirit is centred or your mind is centred, that beauty shines through.

Q. Could you speak a little bit about Sanskrit and its greatness? I would like to take it as one of my Ph.d topics.

Sri Sri: Yes, do it. Sanskrit is the mother of all languages. Whether it is English, Russian, German or Italian, there is a lot of Sanskrit in it. Of course, Sanskrit is the base of all Indian languages.

Q. Every day, in different corners of the world, people ask you the same questions. Don’t you get bored? I am very inspired by your patience.

Sri Sri: My consciousness is nitnutan (new every moment). First we get bored with ourselves and then bore others or get bored from others. When we are joyous with ourself, then nothing from outside can seem boring to us.

Q. How do we gear up for enlightenment?

Sri Sri: Wanting it, itself is half done. The rest is a little discipline and you should know that you will get it. It will be given to you. That’s why you have the path, the guru. You will just get it. Shama jali hai tere liye, tujhko kuch nahi karna hai (The candle is lit for you, you don’t have to do anything). You don’t have to do anything just be hollow and empty from inside.

Q. I have a habit of recalling the pleasant memories of life again and again, as it gives a glimpse of the same pleasure as I felt in the past. Is it something to be cautious of, can it hinder my growth?

Sri Sri: It’s alright, don’t make an effort to sit and go on remembering the past. I think you have too much free time. Get busy and start working. There are so many things to do in the world. Where is the time to live in the past, recollect all the past. Right? The world is new every moment. Go with it. Don’t turn back and keep looking back. Move forward.

Q. Why does everyone not aspire to serve the society, in their youth?

Sri Sri: It must be there. There is no heart that does not get affected at the sight of misery. This we assume. At one time, everyone should desire to do seva. This we cannot say.

Q. What is the essence and secret of life?

Sri Sri: Essence and secret! It will be whispered into your ears when you go into meditation. Do (Sudarshan) Kriya and meditation.

Q. Why is that we are unable to understand the mind- which is the most powerful thing in the world?

Sri Sri Have you begun to understand it? (reply: No) then start from somewhere and then we will see whether it is fully understandable or not.

Jai Gurudev!

Knowledge sheet no 27

When your heart opens up tears come, it’s natural. Let it be. It is said in scriptures that tears of love are so precious that even angels run to collect them. Even on heaven, there are no tears of love. The most wonderful thing on the planet, on earth is to have tears of love, tears of gratitude. That indicates that our life is glorious. That makes our life rich and fulfilled. Fulfillment in life is when you have tears of gratitude and that comes by luck. You can’t manufacture tears of gratitude; you can’t put glycerin and have tears of gratitude coming in. When you realize what all you have received in life, your heart opens up.

{Knowledge Sheet} Subject: There is no caste for the spirit

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's address at “Indian Priests’ Congress” - Shrine of Our Lady of Good Health, Velanganni - 1000 Roman catholic priests attended.

Sri Sri : What a joy to speak to the lovers’of God! I am a child going to blabber in front of scholars. Let us discuss...

Lovers know the language of the heart-we are all lovers of God who want to unite with the spirit of the world. We all want to serve, ...see divinity in people around...

Three things are important for this:
Context (of life)
Commitment
Compassion

We have all the three. Apart from how to unite and connect, we have to know how to face challenges in life. When faith is shaken, how to rekindle it...
To know faith, we have to know doubt. Doubt is something about positive. We never doubt the negative.. we doubt whether we are really happy, but never doubt our misery!

God is the most positive thing in the universe! Doubt about God, doubt in Self...How to get over these?

The Upanishads tell about the experience of divinity in four stages for the Seekers:

Saameepya: feeling the proximity of the Divine
Sannidhya: feeling the Presence
Saaroopya: doing what the Divine is doing, imitating the Divine
Saayoojya: Merging with the Divine.

Another challenge is to arrive at the inner peace and calmness. Mind vacillates between the past and the future. How to bring the mind to the Present? Using our own breath, we can calm the mind, reunite with the Spirit...Simple breathing techniques can remove negative emotions and we can experience Freedom within. Mind can right away go into Prayer easily, effortlessly.

We all are made of a substance called Love...God has made man in His own image.. and God is love.. Then why all the negative emotions? How to meet these challenges?

Wisdom, Spiritual wisdom help overcome these hurdles.
We are all committed to Service: service to God, service to humanity. Still, if something is missing, something is broken, then breathing, meditation can connect us to our inner self. Meditation is Wordless Prayer...words are there and not there at the same time! Ability to connect to everybody.. “There is no Other”...is the Mantra of Love! All is part of One...

As lovers of God, our relationship is only one...All in One.. One in All.. This is Prayer.. We don’t lack anything. There is abundance ..For the one step we take, the Divine takes ten...!!!

Let us open the floor for questions!!

Q: I get some experiences of fellow suffering/happiness. But how to go beyond my individuality and identity and get a deeper experience?
Sri Sri : Do not leave that passion for God. Whatever experience we are getting is due to His Grace.. not through our efforts. If you are able to love everybody, it is a Blessing! We have to be grateful...the more grateful we are, the more we get. What do you say?

Three questions:
(a) how to sustain Prayer, when the faith seems lost (dark night of the soul)? (b) Is it possible to reach God without religion, through spirituality?
(c) why is it that you never speak anything about casteism?

Sri Sri : I will answer the last question first! Please go through my book “Heritage of Dalits”. If you see the thousand Rishis of ancient India, 90% of them were “Dalits”-Vyasa, Valmiki and so on. The Upanishads tell that “all are born Soodra and become Dwija by action”...

I unequivocally condemn casteism. There is no caste for the spirit. When we want to see a good doctor, we don’t ask his caste. When we want to see a good lawyer, we don’t ask his caste. It is of use only in Politics! I don’t know Politics. I speak from heart to heart. I love to be with people of God like you!.

For the second question, I never tell to drop religion. Do not forget the essence of religion is Spirituality. Do you feel that connectivity, calmness inside...We know that during Tsunami, the Basilica housed people of all religions, temples and mosques housed people of all religions.Only aim was rehabilitation of people.

Terrorism arises because some people feel their way is the only way to God and others do not have the right to follow their way..

For the dark night of the soul, Rishi Patanjali describes nine obstacles in the path of the seeker. These include Diseases, Doubt, Dullness (inertia, Disinterestedness, Unsustainability and so on. All these can be overcome by practice of Yoga.

Q: Even when we are doing good, lot of discouraging situations arise. Can you give some suggestions to get over these?
Sri Sri : When nothing is of help, Prayer helps! A genuine “help me God!”...Any challenge is a chance to reaffirm our commitment....

Q: What is the significance of pilgrimage in Hinduism? What is your experience of any Pilgrimage?
Sri Sri :Best pilgrimage is Inward Journey! A pilgrimage is an opportunity for people to come together and pray together. As you know, praying together generates more energy, you know, a synergy. But don’t think God is only in pilgrim centres! God is omnipresent and omniscient. Ancient Rishis meditated in some places and put all that energy in some idol there. The scriptures talk about God as having no name and no form. There is freedom to worship God in any form or any name. Wisdom from anywhere was acknowledged.

Q: As a religious leader, what is your opinion about the anti-Christian violence (with a pattern and agenda especially since early 90’s) for Political gains?
Sri Sri : I see violence in a bigger context. I am concerned about all violence. Violence in the red corridor (Maoist)...Even domestic violence. I am also concerned about the increasing suicidal tendency in the country. Suicide is violence against the self.. When mind is stressed, it leads to violence. Depression leads to suicide. We have to work together. We have to bring back the human values. Education about human values...
The world is undergoing an identity crisis!.. A reversal of identity is needed.. First of all, our identity is that we are all Divine.. then we are human beings, then our gender, religion, country and so on..
We have to educate the society about the ONE divinity.. When that shift happens, we can relate to anybody, whatever be our ideology. Fear will be eliminated. Inside every culprit, there is a victim crying for help...what is troubling him?...He could have been a victim of ignorance or brain washing or violence...

This education is the only way to bring peace around us, to make this world a beautiful place to live in...Thank you.

Jai Gurudev!

Knowledge sheet no 26

The solar plexus is called the second brain or mid brain. For a yogi, the solar plexus is larger in size. Scientists have also said this. It is small in a person who doesn’t do yoga and meditation. A yogi who does meditation and yoga has a larger solar plexus. When solar plexus is larger, creativity dominates and generosity rises. When it is smaller, jealousy arises!

{Knowledge Sheet} Subject: Our body is constantly emitting energy, vibrations!

You know, our body is constantly emitting energy, vibrations. You are emitting energy all the time. And when you know your vibrations is what makes things happen in the world, you will know that you are in control. So when you are thinking that things are going to be negative then that is what seed you are putting in the universe, and that is going to happen. So with your positive thinking, positive ideas, positive sankalpa… It is said, that let positive vibrations come out of you.

Negative thoughts arise in you, yet you tell, everything is positive. And how does that happen? Not by just thinking, but by relaxing. Cutting a thought with another thought is only superficial but cutting a thought by silence, by letting go, by devotion, by faith, by surrendering to God, it is deeper.
Maharishi Patanjali says that poise of mind happens when you offer all that you can’t handle yourself to God, to the universal spirit.

The universal spirit is all around you, all the time. It doesn’t have a form, a name but it is around you all the time and you surrender your desires to that universal spirit. Be sure and know that your problem is going to be solved. That is siddhi, perfection. You notice in your own life, be centered, relax and let go and you will see things are happening effortlessly, it has to happen that way and if you don’t find that way, then there is some screw in the mind that is loose, that needs to be fixed.

People ask for blessings and I give blessings in abundance, blank cheques of blessings but you should know how to fill it, encash it and the way to encash it is, ‘it is going to be done’, ‘my needs will be taken care of’, ‘best will be done’ without a question. Sometimes we don’t know what we desire, or we desire for something that we don’t deserve, or we desire for something much less than what we deserve. Ask and it will be given. When we deserve for more and desire for less, ask skillfully. So what is the way? Ask skillfully, and how: ‘I want this or anything better than this’. And have that positive frame of mind because it’s all neurons. One of the scientists says that our brain has different types of neurons, and there are certain neurons which create barriers.

When a person in front of you touches someone else, the brain says, ‘You are being touched’ but there are certain neurons in hand which sends a signal to the brain that says, ‘it is not you being touched’. If your hand is given anesthesia and then if someone touches someone else, you will also feel the touch. And he (the scientist) says, we all are nothing but neurons, we all are connected, everybody is connected. The subtler we go we find there are only vibrations, and there are no neutrons, protons, electrons but all that exists is – vibrations. And then he says numbers are very important.

In Rudrapooja we say ‘ekachame, trisraschame…’,yesterday only we understood why do we say that. We chant odd numbers first and then even numbers in the Rudrapooja. He said if numbers won’t be there, the whole universe will collapse. Everything exists on numbers, on figures and if one number goes missing, the whole universe will collapse. It’s like on a cell phone you want to make a call and if you dial one wrong digit the call never goes to the right person. One can’t argue saying, ‘If one digit is wrongly dialed, how come I can’t make a call?’ And if everything is right, then life gets connected, so numbers are so important. And it is all just vibration.

One of the greatest physicist who was in the team of creating first nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki says. ‘I studied matter for 35 years to find out it doesn’t exist. What exists is just vibration’. Everyone of us is emitting and absorbing vibrations. And chanting, singing creates such a positive vibrations, you become a source of energy.

What is the difference between a bulb which is lit and a bulb which is not? One is emitting energy and in the other, no energy movement is there. And all singing, chanting and meditating is like lighting the bulb. Have you noticed the difference between those who are doing all this with faith and someone who has never done this? It reflects on their face. If you haven’t started noticing you better start noticing! (laughter)

What happens when you are worrying all the time? Suddenly you find the brain, the upper part has become like a stone, the heart has become like a stone. Similarly what happens when you hear a negative comment about yourself from somebody, the whole body has become heavy. You can’t avoid people saying negative things about you. How many have this question? And how many have this experience? When someone says something negative about you or when a close friend of you is feeling very low, suddenly you also start feeling the same, your whole energy gets down. That is why satsang is that important, this knowledge is that important.

When you focus on someone who is depressed, you also feel the same and when you participate in a satsang your whole focus is shifted to knowledge. That’s why the Guru is important because when you think of Guru, when you shift your focus to the Guru in a few moments, your energy gets restored, you get back to your normal self. How many of you have experienced this?

There is an old proverb ‘Guru bina gati nahin’ means there is no progress without the Guru because there are so many people around you and you are being tossed and turned by everybody’s moods, emotions and blames, and you are stuck, you can’t notice that. But when a Guru is there nothing of this will matter to you and even if it does it is only for few minutes or hours and then you are able to push through it, move through it. Like you have a rain coat and if it is raining you can always protect yourself from rain. In this context ancient people in India, Korea, Japan even in China had said that spiritual teacher, master or a person who is on the path is so important, so that you don’t have to keep feeling this negative vibrations, heaviness for days together.

Secondly, if you find nobody is available, no commune is available then what you do? Chant, do pranayama, nature walk, Vedanta or this science that everything is just vibrations.

Numbers are very important, so we chant ‘Om NamahShivaya’ 108 times, in Islam also they put a number 786, right? In Rudra Abhishek we chant an odd and even sequence of numbers. That changes the vibrations. Even pundits don’t have answers of chanting numbers in Rudra Abhisheka. We have to listen to the scientists to understand. They say this whole space is curved. Space is also like water, like you put a ball in water it curls. Water is a medium, like that space is also a medium and this was also said thousands of years ago in Vedas and that is why, it is the fifth element. Space is where vibration travels, it is a medium like water, air, fire and earth. And the same thing, scientists are saying today. It is amazing to see how people 10,000 years ago knew that space has a curvature, it is a medium and there are not one but 10 dimensions, which is the spirit. These facts open your mind to a higher reality.

Jai Gurudev!

Knowledge sheet no 25

Against such knowledge, you will not be able to give me anything. If you really want to give me anything, give me your worries, your pain, leave it for me here as your Dakshina. And the other thing that you can do is seva. Spread smile to everyone you come across. But even that wont make 1/10 of what I have given you. And surrender every good thing that you do, know that you are offering a guru dakshina.

{Knowledge Sheet} Subject: ‘It’s not your doing, but your Being’

Sadguru Pariwar presented the Sadguru Bhushan award to Sri Sri in Pune, (India) on January 13.

While accepting the award, Sri Sri said – ‘Maharashtra has been a land of Saints and will continue to be so. In every household there is a saint. In every child there is a saint and in every saint, there is a child. The Sadguru group is doing a wonderful job of keeping alive the traditions and cultures among children.

This award is an excuse for us to sit together. There is only One doer. It not your doing, but your Being. You don't become a saint with what you have done, but with who you are. How much compassion, service, love one has in one's heart. The job gets done with the collective effort of so many people. But if we want our inner being to shine then your own intention is enough. The wave of devotion and karmyog in Maharashtra must be always kept alive. Our culture is to sing, dance and celebrate not to fight or dispute.

A girl from a village of Maharashtra - how she became a queen, she made 181 temples, created an army of women to preserve Indian heritage. Every child must know this story of Ahilyabai Holkar. Her life has been so well portrayed by a foreigner in India, Francois Gautier. This can be an inspiration for every child in India.

The Sadguru Parivar must take the light of knowledge everywhere and I hope that it never gets extinguished.

The inner light must always be kept alive.’

Jai Gurudev!