Be Content : Guruji's talk on Ashtami (22 Oct 2012)

Sri Sri: We need to honor our guest and keep them comfortable!
The important thing is to be contented. The more content we are, the more we will receive.
The whole message of the message of Divine is that you are very special. You are so special to that Divine that you cannot imagine.
Just believe this and move on.
I am telling you. If you want, I can even write it on a bond paper for you.
The Divine loves you very very dearly.
Like for a mother, no matter what the child does, whether the child urinates, or gets itself dirty, the mother will clean the child and then adore the child, isn't that so!
So know that you are very very special to the Divine.
In the Bhagavat Gita, Lord Krishna tell Arjuna, that you are very precious to me.
We don't have to make any efforts. In Devotion, there is no effort.
How much ever sorrow we have, it is all related to the past.
Surrender all of that, and be peaceful. Know that you are very dear to the Divine.
All day we keep doing something or the other, and we loose our contentment.
Somewhere we are working towards anti-corruption, or wrong and right, and somewhere we loose our happiness and peace.
But we must not do that. Be peaceful! Be content.
So, what is important is do what you have to do but at the same time be contented.
Desire comes and it gets fulfilled and then another desire comes and that too get fulfilled and then another one comes. So where is the contentment.
So be content.
It is not only with Yagya can we achieve this, but with meditation only you can start to feel the contentment.
It is like a cake, and on top of the cake there is icing and that is what is sadhana and meditation.
So action is not enough, we need that devotion or connection to the Divine. That is also important. And that is already there.
So, you cannot attain God through effort, but through deep rest.
And I have already told you, that you belong to the Divine and you are very special to him and he is right here and right now!
Now don't just think Gurudev is with you when he is front of you. Gurudev is in your heart as well.
You see, today Indrani (elephant) can into the hall and she saw herself in the screen and she got so scared because she has never seen herself in the mirror.
I thought, the same thing is happening in the world. Someone comes to you and get so frightened because you don't know that they are YOU.
That is why the Guru is needed, so that he can make you see, that there is no difference between you and another. We are all the same.
So that is how it is in the world; the world seem exactly how we perceive it.
So, take the enthusiasm, the meditation and the knowledge and spread it all over.
The more you spread happiness the more it grows. The more it grows within you as well. So we need to work with this sankalpa.
SO what will we take from here. First one is CLEANLINESS.
Keep the mind clean.
This is what happens in the world, 'That person did this and that person did that', some complaint is going on in the mind all the time. When we complain, then we are stuck in the ego and we cannot transcend the ego.
I have spoke about this in Narad Bhakti Sutras. Anything that causes a ripple in your mind, take that away because the highest wealth is contentment. There can be nothing higher than contentment.
And if there is any other gain that you get, but you don't have contentment, then was is the use of that gain?
So be content! 

A lot of circumstances may come to dispel your contentment, but at that time, use knowledge. Know that everything is going to end some day. I am going to die some day. This one thought, can take you back to contentment.
If you feel, Gurudev I cannot do this. I have tried. Then whatever troubles that you have, give it to someone dear to you. Then also you will find contentment.
Or, think that this is my Karma, I am going to go through it and finish it.
Or be soaked in devotion.
You know, in this yagya the consciousness is brought though the fire element, with the help of the herbs to the water element in the Kalash. So that is what is the whole process. It is very difficult to explain. It is just like eating a pudding, how much ever you explain it does not make any sense.
So the whole process of the yagya, when done in the right way, it has an impact in the subtle.
May times you wonder, in spite of all logic and all reason sometimes things work and sometimes they don't work.
Sometimes you had everything correct to your logic but things didn't work.
And sometimes, you didn't do much and still you got a lottery. That happens because of the subtle world. In simple terms we call it luck. So some unseen impact on the subtle is being created by the Yagyas.
What do the Yagya do? It brings you health, it bring you back into your consciousness, you true nature; you Self.
It enhances your intellect, softens the emotions, opens up your heart. It has many many benefits.
Yagya create that subtle ripple int he consciousness.
This works along with spiritual knowledge and meditation.
It is like the icing on the cake.
Simple yagya won't work. Along with it you need meditation. That inner connection.
So the message from the Divine is that, you are so dear to the Divine.
Just recognize it.
You simple have to recognize it. Just like how the mother loves the baby.
No matter what the child does.
Similarly you are most dear. THis is what we must keep in our mind.
"I am so dear to the Divine"
Divine is here and now!
When the I in us dissolves and remains only as energy, that is when the happiness dwells up.
I want to get enlightenment, that I makes you miserable.
When doubt enters the I, that is the worst thing.
It is said in the Bhagavad Gita, 'When the doubt enters in the heart of an individual, he becomes so miserable.' So make sure that you are most dear and most loved one to the Divine. That is it. Seal it! No more self-doubt. No more questioning.
A discontent mind, even if it gets everything in the planet it will still be miserable. Nothing in the world can bring you contentment.
Purity, Clarity, Contentment is the formula for happiness!
There is a saying in bible, those who have will be give more and those who don't have whatever they have will be taken away from them.
That is so true.When we have a complaining mind this is what happens. We must take responsibility for this.
Do everything happily. Walk, talk, sit, even if you complain about someone, do it happily.
Day before yesterday, the head of the kitchen called me at night and said that we need to buy a few things.
He said, we need 3000 kilos of sugar and 2000 kilos of moong dal.
So the purchasing department, woke up the wholesalers and got it delivered at 2:00am.
Even though, they woke up about a dozen of wholesaler, the buyer was happy, the sellers were all happy.
The makers of the halwa were also happy and those who are the sweet were also happy.
They didn't come back saying it didn't happen. We didn't get the things.
Where there is sattva, challenges are also sweet.
This is one little thing. In people's lives many things happen which we consider impossible.
We don't recognize our self.
Mother you are present in me as peace and as disturbance, as knowledge and as disillusion. Oh Mother, you are present is all the bring in the planet, to you I bow down.
You are present as knowledge, as intellect, I bow down to you.
Look at all the beings in the planet, they are so disturbed. What is that?
That is the consciousness which is present in the form of knowledge, form of dillusion, form of peace. So take it all together, don't choose.
That is the whole essence.
So freedom from misery. Attainment if peace,exuberating love and joy, devotion and freedom in the mind, these are the things that it brings up.
The whole universe is just one consciousness. It is like one beings, one body in the entire field. We are one!
That understanding comes up as a deep experience.
No don't ask, when that will come Guruji. I want that right now.
Just relax and do nothing.
Just know that you are dear to the Divine and the Divine is now and here, in you.

Jai Gurudeva :)!

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Interview Peru

Social Drinking. Is it okay? Sri Sri Answers

Alcohol addiction was aptly highlighted by Amir Khan's  show "Satyamev Jayate". But how many of you thought that it can never happen to you. All the addicts thought the same. You never know when a "once in a while" thing becomes a habit and when a habit becomes an addiction. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar highlights the changing scenario around the world about drinking and non-veg food.

Q: Gurudev, how to discourage teenagers from social drinking?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Tell them it is the most dangerous thing, whether it is social drinking or private drinking, it doesn't matter. Just say no to that, that’s it, finished!
In fact you should take pride in saying, ‘No’ in a social circle.
If you attach pride to it, ‘I am a teetotaler, I never touch alcohol’, then you gain a certain dignity even amongst your friends.

You should emphasize your own values. Even when in a group, carry on with your individualness and your individual preferences.
We do that all the time. We go to all these big meetings, everywhere, we keep our individual preferences.

You know the world has started recognizing this. Whichever institution that gave me a doctorate, in several places, and wherever I go, just to honor me they keep only vegetarian food and no drinks.
Usually in the universities they keep drinks and non-vegetarian food. But wherever it was that I went, whether Cordoba, or Netherlands, or the Nyenrode University, when they gave me a doctorate, in the reception they served only vegetarian food and soft drinks.

Even in very big conferences in the world, like the UN conference on HIV-AIDS, they have started keeping a section for vegetarian food. This was never the case earlier.
Even in The World Economic Forum, if you are vegetarian, they honor it, and have a separate section for vegetarian food.
This was not there before. About 10 to 20 years back, this was unthinkable. Even 10 years ago you would not find this in international forums. But now it has changed and this is because we have always stood our ground that we will not touch alcohol and non-vegetarian food. And the world honors that. So your friends will also honor that.

Even in airlines they have started doing this in the last 10 years. Before it was not so. Now, they even have Jain food on airlines, i.e., with no potatoes, carrots, etc.
You can specify what kind of food you want.

So, you must keep your personal habits and emphasize on them. Otherwise, first you start with social drinking and then slowly it becomes a personal menace.
Share it with all . Jgd

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in Argentina ( A historic moment - A historic movement )

Sri Sri created history in Argentina with 1.5 lakh people coming together to meditate. This is a record for the entire western world for the largest number of ppl coming together to do meditation. Swami Paramtej shares his experience with Sri Sri in South America.

Healing touch in Assam - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar visits the State torn with Violence

When leaders play petty politics risking the lives of people, when vote-bank politics causes even nationalism to take a back seat then we see what we saw in Assam. Being from the North East, my heart pains even more. 

Any person who glances at a newspaper occasionally is not ignorant of the fact that illegal immigrants from Bangladesh has been slowly  crossing the border and setting up camp in West Bengal and Assam. And it has been happening not since a few years but since decades. And no political leader did anything to curb it. Still they have not done anything substantial. Govt. at the centre and at the State should take very strict steps to curb this cross border infiltration. Otherwise these immigrant population will make the tribals and ethnic people minorities in their own land. But this is the political side.

What about the minds of the people?  How to eliminate hatred and ill-feeling of one community to another? How to reach an understanding that we can all live peacefully helping each other? How to make people of different communities come to a point of dialogue with an open mind?  This is the need of the hour and if this is achieved all other problems will sort themselves.

His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has been monitoring the situation in the North East very closely since many years. To put and end to militancy and violence, the volunteers of The Art of Living has been working tirelessly in villages and towns of all the North Eastern States to teach people the worth of human values and give them tools to handle their stress and negativity. 

HE has been working tirelessly to bring together people of different religions, ethnicity and caste to an understanding that first of all we are all Human Beings.

This knowledge is the only thing that can save the North East from spiralling to a self destructing cascade of violence. For the people to imbibe this teaching, THIS IS THE ONLY WAY!