Business and spirituality

Business & Spirituality

Often business is looked down upon by spiritual people, and spirituality is put off as impractical by business people.

The ancient people conceived that spirituality is the heart and business is the legs. An individual or a society is incomplete without both these aspects.

Business brings material comfort and spirituality brings mental and emotional comfort. Spirituality brings ethics and fair practice to business. In the body/mind complex, depriving either the body or the mind of comfort means depriving both of them comfort. You cannot talk of spirituality to the poorest of the poor people without taking care of their basic needs. They need to be supported materially. There is no spirituality in the world that is devoid of service and service cannot happen if material needs are ignored. Service cannot happen only through the lips, it needs legs to work. Every system has its flaws. Capitalism exploits the poor while socialism dampens individual creativity and entrepreneurial spirit. Spirituality is the bridge between socialism and capitalism. Spirituality gives the capitalist the heart to serve and the socialist the spirit to innovate.

Positive thinking: Three Levels of Knowledge by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

There are three types of knowledge or information that we get.
One is through the five senses. You see, listen, smell, taste and touch and get information and knowledge. Most of our knowledge is gained through our five senses.

The second is through intellect, which is superior to the knowledge gained through the senses. The knowledge of science is gained through intellect. Through our eyes, we see the sun setting. But it is through through science that we know that it is the earth that is revolving around the sun.

These two levels of knowledge are inferior to the intuitive knowledge. This knowledge is from the spirit and comes from silence. It cannot be verified by the senses or the intellect.

Life begins when we tap into this third level. For this, you have to let go of the knowledge of the senses and the intellect. The moment you do, the cravings and aversions that you gained through the senses stop. All intellectual perceptions need to be dropped. Then this knowledge dawns upon one. This is called Ritambhara knowledge.

Everyone has this ability. You must have experienced a gut feeling, some knowledge you cannot really figure out what it is from. When that knowledge comes up, we don’t honor it. Instead, we stick to our intellectual or sensory perceptions. Sometimes you go beyond your intellect which tells you something but your gut feeling says something else. We ignore that and stick to our intellect. This is how your judgments fail to be right. Sometimes, you take a step beyond your judgment and be happy about it. When you go against your intellect, something beyond it takes over.

Many times, with your emotions, cravings and aversions, you think, ‘This is a gut feeling, this is my knowledge.’ But this is called Yogmaya. You honour the knowledge of the spirit when you are still and meditative. This is the area from where the entire cosmos works. Then intellect plays on it and develops it further. Every one of those great poems or music has come from that area.

So understand that your intellect is judgmental and don’t depend on it too much. Just become a witness to all. There is a gradual progression for all this and it is happens in everyone’s life. Just allow this awareness and it will happen even faster.

Take a look at your life

Wisdom can only blossom in a homely atmosphere, where we are informal and at home with each other. Do you all feel at home with each other right now?
Why not we all just take a moment to greet the person next to us, behind us and in front of us? A formal atmosphere is not very congenial for wisdom. You need to be informal with each other for a heart-to-heart talk, and that is what wisdom is. It is not head-to-head.

In a head-to-head communication there can be many arguments. But from heart-to-heart there is only one language - One World Family.
Now keep everything aside and just look at your own life.
What is that you want from your life? Have you ever sat and thought about it, ‘What do I want in my life?'
We seldom get time to do that. And, ‘Who am I?’ – That too we do not think about.
Someone told us something and we learnt that. We have studied and gotten educated, but ‘Who am I? What do I want?’ These questions seldom come to our mind.
If you see your life of 60, 70 or 80 years, do you know how you spend those 80 years?
You spend 40 years of your life sleeping. You spend about eight years of your life in bathrooms and toilets, and about the same numbers of years are spent in eating.
10 to 15 years are spent in traffic, in making journeys, and in working. Hardly two to three years of our life are spent in what we call a ‘happy’ life. Is it not?
And is it not that which you want – Happiness?
All the scriptures of the world, from the ancient times to the recent times; they all talk about great happiness. Is it not? Because the scriptures know that men and women want happiness.
Happiness is not a commodity that you can buy somewhere. It is present where you are, right here and right now. And the way to find that happiness is meditation.
Meditation improves our health, our state of mind and brings more happiness.
Whatever we are seeking here and there, is right here, within us.
My purpose of coming here is to tell you that whatever you are looking for is deep within you, and that Light, that Spirit loves you so much. So do not worry.
Give me all your worries. I have come to carry them away. Drop all the worries here, be happy, and spread happiness.
Shouldn't this be our goal in Life?
What should be our goal?
Shake everyone up and tell them, ‘Hey! Wake up! Laugh and Smile.’
You should make people happy.
You know, when we have, then also we are unhappy, and when we don't have, then also we are unhappy.
I want to tell you a story.
An Indian-African immigrant from Kenya was in London; this was a long time ago when I went there. This gentleman came up to me and said, ‘Gurudev, I wish to own a BMW car. Please bless me’.
I said, ‘Okay, God willing you will get it.’
Six months later he came and met me. He was happy and he said, ‘Gurudev, I got it (the car). But the streets of Birmingham are so small that I find it so inconvenient to park it here and there without it getting a scratch on it. What to do?’
You know, in Birmingham the streets are smaller than they are here.
Few months later, he said, ‘Gurudev, it is becoming a difficult thing for me to have this car. Now I am miserable. I want to sell this car off but there is no buyer’.
You didn’t have it and you were unhappy. Now you have it and you are unhappy.
There is something seriously wrong with the way we look at life. This is where we have to have that wisdom, to turn it around and see that happiness is not related to what we have or what we don’t have. It is simply our state of mind.

Do you know, 30% of Europe is depressed.
This figure is from the census of the last decade, now it is even more. And a small country like Bhutan is known for its happiness. Even Bangladesh has got more happy people.
I don’t know where South Africa comes in this list, but I have a hope that all of you here today will take this determination to be happy and spread happiness.
Is this a good idea? (Audience nod in agreement saying, 'Yes')
A violence-free society, disease-free body, stress-free mind, inhibition-free intellect, trauma-free memory and a sorrow-free soul are the birth-right of every human being.
(Gurudev briefly looks outside and listens to the loud music coming from outside the venue)
Distractions are there to see how keen you are to catch the wisdom.
In Sanskrit there is a saying, ‘Shreyansi Bahu Vighnani’, which means, if there is something very precious then there are many obstacles or distractions that come with it (from the Uddhava Gita. This quote is part of Lord Krishna’s discourse to his devotee Uddhava).
If there are a lot of distractions that come for something, then it must be very precious.
If you want to do something wrong, there will be no obstructions for that. But if you want to do something good or pick up something precious, many distractions may come.
This world is made up of five elements. This is what the scientists today have said, and this is what the Rishis (wise enlightened seers) also said in the ancient days.
The five elements are – Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Ether. That is why it is called Prapancha in Sanskrit. Panch means five, and Prapancha means a specific combination of five elements, of which this Universe is made of.
The same also goes for our body. Our body has 60% water element. The heat in the body represents the Fire element. The physical body itself symbolizes the Earth element, and the empty space represents the Space element. So these five elements make up our whole body, and everything in this Universe.
So we will do a short meditation, and after meditation, we will have a small Yagya.
Yagya means uniting the principles of the Universe.
This universe has got millions of rays coming into it. The macrocosm and the microcosm are connected. Every little butterfly here fluttering its wings has an impact on the clouds. Have you heard about this?
A butterfly in the Amazon forest can have an effect on the entire forest, and on the clouds in China.
If one monkey does something, it has an effect on several other monkeys. Have you heard about this in Africa?
We call it the ‘Big Five’ in Africa; the land of the ‘Big Five’ (a term used in African hunting which refers to the five most difficult animals in Africa to hunt on foot – Lion, African elephant, Cape buffalo, Leopard and Rhinoceros).
Each animal brings with it a certain vibration; a cosmic electromagnetic vibration with it on Earth. They channel this from the Universe to the Earth.
Every animal brings a particular vibration to planet Earth. And that is why every animal is very important.
The ancient Rishis in the Vedic times knew about this. A particular bird, even a particular type of seed has a particular vibration associated with it. So everything is connected from one to another. Like in our body, though we are born of one cell, that cell has 33 different chromosomes. And those different chromosomes in the DNA of the cell are responsible for forming different parts of our body.
This Universe has got so many different types of vibrations that come from its different parts.

So the macrocosm and the microcosm are united in a very unique manner. That is what the ancient people said. So when we go from Ether to Air to Fire to Water and then to Earth element; this is how the Creation has happened.
Therefore they designed Yagyas (to mimic and represent this process in a reversed direction – by offerings of sacred herbs (Earth element) and offerings of ghee (Water element) into the sacrificial fire (Fire element, in presence of the Air element), from where the vibrations are transmitted into space (Space element)) .
Yagyas are designed to bring peace.
What is the purpose of a Yagya? The first is Swasti – good health; then prosperity, peace of mind, happiness, a sense of togetherness with everybody, and to remove negativity from the atmosphere.
Every time you are negative, you transmit those negative vibrations of anger, jealousy, greed, frustration, and hatred. Yagyas are meant to neutralize and nullify all of them. That is why this time I thought that I should take this to South Africa as well.
I heard of the recent unfortunate incident in Africa where so many minors passed away. So, to bring happiness, peace and prosperity to all the population we will do a small Yagya by means of Vedic chanting and by offerings specific herbs, as it was done in the ancient times thousands of years ago. So you will witness that as well.
It is like a short Pooja in which we pray to the One Almighty to give us peace, prosperity, happiness, contentment, a sense of togetherness, a sense of belongingness and care for each other.
Most of all we need that inner contentment. You know, if we have inner contentment, we gain a unique ability to bless others.
Not only will we be able to fulfill our own desires, but we will also be able to fulfill the wishes of others. The human spirit can possess that gift if it gets into a state of contentment.
So we will do a short Yagya in which they will chant the ancient mantras which are 10,000 years old. During the chanting, we just close our eyes, listen and bathe in it chants.
(Gurudev guides everyone into meditation).
Q: Jai Gurudev! Thank you for this once in a lifetime opportunity. Please tell me, how do I know if I am on the correct path in life and that I am fulfilling my purpose here?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: There is something called Gut Feeling. Something deep inside you tells you, ‘This is right', and when you choose it, you really feel good about it. I tell you, doubts usually come to you when you choose the right thing.
Doubt is always about something positive. Have you noticed this? We always doubt the honesty of a person; we never doubt the dishonesty of a person.
We ask our dear one, ‘Do you really love me?’
If someone tells you, ‘I love you’, you say, ‘Really?’
But if someone says, 'I am angry at you', you never say, ‘Really?’
Similarly, we always doubt our capabilities but we never doubt our incapability.
When someone asks you if you are happy, you say, ‘Well, I am not sure.' But you have never said the same when you are depressed. You are so sure of your depression.
You are so sure of negativeness, but you always question the positive things in life.
So doubt also indicates that there must be something good.

Q: How do we get salvation in this life time, and how do we get rid of negative people that live with us?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: I said to leave all your problems here, but do not leave your family members who are troubling you! (Laughter) Once it so happened, I said the same thing in the Ashram, ‘Leave all your problems here.'
One lady said, ‘My mother-in-law is my biggest problem, so can I leave her here?'
I said, ‘Let me ask your mother-in-law, she will say the same thing about you.'
See, challenges are there in life. Challenges come, people with different mindsets come, but when you expand your vision and see your life from a broader perspective, you will let go of all these small little issues that seem to be so significant to you right now. You have to broaden your vision.
If you find some people are negative, keep them at a distance that is number one.
The second thing is, know that they will not be like that forever. With time, they will change. And the third option is to think, ‘Okay, let them be. They are going to bring out better skills from within me.' They bring out greater skills of communication, skills of being positive in your foothold.
The last thing is to leave it to the Almighty. Leave it to Divinity to resolve.
We sing this in Mahatma Gandhiji’s favourite song, ‘Ishwar Allah Tero Naam, Sabko Sanmati De Bhagwaan’ - Let everyone’s mind and intellect be pure and be channelled in the right direction.
This is what is in the Gayatri Mantra also, ‘Dhiyo Yo Nah Prachodayat' - Let the Divine inspire my intellect. Let my intellect not come up with the small and silly little ideas, and thoughts. Let this intellect reflect the will of God, of the Almighty.
The Gayatri Mantra is one of the most beautiful mantras that human society has ever gotten which also says the same thing: Let the Divine will reflect in my will and thoughts; intellect. Let my intellect be aligned with the Divinity.

Q: If a loved one passes on, the common adage to those losing the loved one is, ‘He/she is always there with you.' Is that really true? Is that loved one who has passed away really there with you and is guiding you in life?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Why don’t you leave them some free time? They have had enough in this world and they have gone. Let them take some rest and do something else that they want to do. Let them have some fun. Why should they be guiding you all the time? (Laughter)
What is there to guide? It is like sitting in a train. You are going to get down when the train stops. The goal is fixed. Everybody is going to die one day. When you die you will see the other dimension as well. So don’t worry. If you are happy and peaceful, your peace transcends this world and reaches the other shore as well. If you are full of love and devotion, a portion of it, a ray of it reaches them as well and they feel happy.
When you do some good service, that service brings merit and the merit also helps those who have passed away onto the other side.

Q: Jai Gurudev! I would like you to talk on youth and spirituality.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: We are made up of both matter and spirit.
Our body is made up of carbohydrates, proteins, amino acids, vitamins, etc., and our spirit is made up of generosity, love, compassion, energy, expansion, integrity, honesty, truthfulness, intelligence, sensitivity; all these qualities.
Any acts that nurtures these inner qualities (beauty, love, etc.), they are Spirituality. Meditation, singing, chanting, serving, etc., are all part of spirituality. And it is this spirituality that keeps the youthfulness in you. It brings you energy.You know, right now I am coming straight from India on a 15 hours flight. I just arrived, changed my clothes and in half-an-hour I had to rush here. Do I look jet-lagged and tired? (Audience respond saying ‘No’)
Someone asked me, ‘Gurudev, if we take a flight to Cape Town, we feel so jet-lagged. Don’t you feel jet-lagged?’
I said, ‘When the mind is fresh and when the mind is connected to the Source, there is always freshness.’
Youthfulness is that connection to the source and youthfulness is the ability to connect with everybody. And only Spirituality can bring this in the youth.

Q: A person who is very close to me continuously lies and cheats. It is like second nature to him. And the lies are expressed with a straight face.
Why do people do this and what will become of them? Please help, I want to put my mind at rest.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You should remember that God loves fun.
If everybody would have been like you, you all would be like the Ford Company. The world is not a Ford company, producing only one type of car. Even they change the model every year. God loves fun and He puts all kinds of people around you. Just look within you, how many negative points you have, and how many positive points you have?
How you can improve, this is what you need to think and what you can do. How others should improve – for now, leave it to them.
If you can, educate them, but do so with compassion.
Or take them to one of the Art of Living teachers nearby. The teacher can help them change. And if you are too compassionate, pray that his life becomes better, and that he becomes more honest.
But as I said earlier, all specimens are needed on this planet. They make the world more colourful. Got it?
They push certain buttons in you and evoke certain emotions in you, and see how you act or react to it.

Q: You are awesome! How does one eliminate procrastination?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: I will give this answer next year (Laughter). Just imagine, you have given a tailor a garment to stitch for Diwali, or maybe your wedding. Now you go a week before your wedding to the tailor, hoping it will all be ready, and the tailor procrastinates and tells you, ‘I will give the dress six months later', how would you like it? What will be your state of mind?
Let us say, you are in need of a doctor because your tooth is aching, and your doctor tells you, ‘Come after three months and I will see if something can be done or not’, what would you do?
You do not want your doctor to procrastinate, or your tailor to procrastinate, and any of your essential services to procrastinate. You want every one of them to be spot on and deliver the service in the designated time.
Even for the questions you ask, you want the right answers right away! Correct?! But you want to procrastinate? Come on, wake up! Wake up now!

The most precious thing in the world

Now I am going to ask you a very serious question:
Do you really greet a person or treat it as a formality?
See, on a day to day basis, we greet people, we exchange pleasantries. It is all on a very formal level. Isn’t it so?

When someone brings a glass of water, we say, ‘Thank you so much.'
That ‘so much’ has no meaning.
If you are in the Sahara desert, and you are really very thirsty and someone brings you a glass of water and you say, ‘Thank you so much’, it is authentic.
So, in life, when we deal only on a superficial level all the time and when we lack the depth, then life feels very dry and meaningless.
We must shift to another level, of authenticity, sincerity, and a genuine connection from heart to heart. That is what I call spirituality.
Spirituality is when you relate from the authenticity of your existence.
As children we were all doing that.
Do you remember when you were a baby, the whole planet, the whole universe was so alive. The moon was talking, the trees were talking and the animals were talking. There was a natural conversation between you and the entire universe. Do you remember?
Have you seen the children in cartoons? Even trees talk to them. It is a different world.
Now the question is, can we still maintain that innocence and at the same time reach the height of intelligence?
I say, 'Yes, we can. '
Intelligence and innocence together is the most precious thing in the world.
There are people who are intelligent and crooked, and it is easy to be innocent and ignorant. But what is really preferred is the education that can bring intelligence yet maintain the innocence.
So, now that we are at home and feeling absolutely informal, what topic do you want me to speak on tonight?
(Audience: Love; Birth; Forgiveness; Relationship; Decisions; God; Corruption and peace; Compassion; Anger; Fear; Capitalism; Hope; Patience. )
You want me to talk on patience? I will do it next year. And then…
Tell me, does it really matter on what topic we speak on tonight?
You know, we convey more through our presence than our words. Isn’t that so?
Does it really matter what we speak?
The world is all just vibrations.
If you talk to your physicist, he will say the whole universe is nothing but a wave function. Each one of us are nothing but waves.
If you are in touch with your centre, the waves are positive. If you are not in touch with your centre and have gotten caught up, then your waves become negative.
Peace, love, compassion, all these are our true waves; our real waves without distortion. They are the positive vibrations that come from us.
When you get angry, upset, negative, what do you do? You need to change that into positive. But nobody has taught us how to do this, neither at home nor at school. Isn’t it so? Grandmother must have told us, ‘Go to the corner and count ten’, that is it. Counting ten or hundred does not help these days.

If you observe your mind, your mind is angry about the past or anxious about the future. Both are of no use. Isn’t it? What is the point in being angry about the past, it is gone already. And what is the point in being anxious about the future? It is meaningless.
Now that which helps you to come to the present moment is meditation.
See, if people know how to meditate for even few minutes, ten minutes every day, then they can get rid of stress and feel happy.
My vision is to see a violence free society, disease free body, confusion free mind, inhibition free intellect, trauma free memory and sorrow free soul. This is my vision. How many of you like to join this vision? (Everyone is the audience raises their hands).
We should give a better world to our children and to the future generations. We should give them a world which has more love, which has more compassion, and a world in which there is no gun culture.
Our children do not need a culture of drugs, or a culture of violence, they deserve a more loving, humane and compassionate society. A healthier society. Don’t you think so? Then that is what we need to work towards.
Q: What is our mission on Earth?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: What is not our mission on Earth, we should make a list of that first. Your mission is not to be miserable and make others miserable, correct?!
Now if you go on eliminating what is not your mission, you will in the end come to what is your mission.
Q: If others are feeling negative, how not to get affected by that?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You be more centered and leave a little room for imperfection. Sometimes we don’t leave room for imperfection and so we get affected.
If someone is negative, they have right to be negative for some time. Let them be. Give them some space. And I tell you, I am here to collect all your worries. So give me all your troubles, problems and worries.
I want to see an unfading smile on your face.
Q: Can we control feelings?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: We can transcend feelings easily when we know that there is something which is much more basic to life than feelings, and that is the self; the life force, which is not changing at all.
Q: How to know the difference between love and desire/lust?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: In love the other is important, in lust, you are important.
Q: Dear Gurudev, how can I help people who have a lot of resistance in their minds?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: In the world, there are different types of people. We should accept them all as they are. There are people with resistance. It is okay. Let them walk at their own speed.
On this planet there are rabbits, there are deer, and there are snails. So you can’t expect a snail to run like a rabbit, isn’t it?
Let someone walk at a snail’s pace even though others are running like deer. That is how the world is. Keep smiling and keep moving.

Q: I have difficulty in forgiving people.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Don’t forgive them, and then see if it is easier?
If you don’t forgive somebody, you will keep thinking about them all the time.
Is it really easy to hold on to anger towards somebody? My goodness, so much energy of ours gets wasted in it. Do you know why you forgive others? It is for your own sake.

When you see a culprit also as a victim, you will easily be able to forgive them.
Every culprit is a victim of ignorance; small mindedness. They don’t know the magnanimity and beauty of life and so they do these silly mistakes of being self centered and not caring for others. It is because their mind is small. So we need to forgive them.
Then, you need to see that they never had an opportunity to think big and feel big like you did. So, you can only be compassionate towards them and forgive them.

Making Correct Decisions - by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

How many of you feel that without you doing any bad, you have gained enemies?
People become your enemies. You have not done any harm to them, any wrong to them and still they become enemies.
Similarly, you have not done any big favors to some people but they became your very good friends. Isn’t it?
How many of you have this experience?
See, this is it, people become friends and enemies by some strange karma, some strange law. There is some strange law due to which suddenly friends become enemies and enemies become good friends.
So, put all the friends and enemies in one basket and become free.

See, what bothers your mind is either your friends, or your enemies. Isn’t that so?
When you sit for meditation, you should keep them all aside, your friends, enemies and everybody, put them one side, sit, relax, and become free.
What do you say? Isn't that correct?!
When your mind is satisfied, when it is quiet and happy, it gains a very peculiar power, i.e., the power to bless.
When you are happy and contented, you are able to give blessing to others.
If your mind is agitated and you have a lot of desires then you cannot give blessings. Even if you give blessings, it does not work that well. So, time and again, we must see to it that we have contentment.
When you are contented, not only your desires, but you can fulfill the desires of others as well.
Q: How do I know if I am making the correct decision?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: When you make a decision, somewhere you get the gut feeling that says, ‘Yes, this is correct.'
One thing you should know is that even if you take a wrong decision, it always leads you to growth. You become stronger, you learn a lesson somewhere deep inside. So that is why, don’t worry.
Q: Please speak about compassion.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: In life there are three things which are essential:
1. Passion
2. Dispassion, and
3. Compassion
Passion is like breathing in, and Dispassion is like breathing out. No one can say, ‘I want to only breathe in, I don’t want to breathe out.' Impossible! So breathing in is essential, and that is Passion, for things in life. Then, there is also a need for Dispassion. Dispassion means the ability to just let go of everything. Dispassion brings you relief and then Compassion becomes your nature. So you must have Passion when you do work, Dispassion when you want to rest, and Compassion as your very nature. That is it!

Q: Please talk about Reciprocity.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Reciprocity is very natural.
At a higher state of mind, reciprocity is instantaneous. Only when someone is not sensitive there is no reciprocity.
Often people reciprocate the bad things. If you blame somebody, they are ready to blame you immediately. If you insult somebody, they insult you immediately, but it is not the same for the good.
If you do something good, not everybody think they should reciprocate the goodness. That happens only when the mind is at a higher state.

Q: I am going through a separation. My wife and I have chosen different paths and live different lives. We both want our child to be with each of us. In this situation, what is the wisest thing to do?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: The child should be exposed to both paths, and allowed to choose.
If there is no understanding between the couple, it is definitely a strain on the child.
What both parents should keep in mind is that they should not go on blaming each other in front of the child. Putting the child against one of the parents is no good. That is a very narrow minded approach.
Q: Gurudev, sometimes what make me happy conflicts with the expectations of my family and friends. In that case what do I do?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yes, you need to balance both.
Balance between your search for happiness and the expectation of others from you.
It is a little delicate but you should definitely make an effort.
Q: Dear Gurudev, I sometimes feel I am very arrogant. How do I get rid of this arrogance. I have done The Art of Living Course and I am doing my practices.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: One thing you must notice, before also you used to be arrogant, but you were not aware of it. But now at least you have become aware that you are being arrogant. That awareness is there, 'Oh, this is happening.'
It is good to have this awareness. This is the first step to get out of it.
Second step is to have a broader vision of your own life.
The more and more you steep into knowledge, you will see that all these little games that the mind plays is like a child playing. Once you see this, you will not mind it, and so you accept it and move beyond it.
When you see that the mind is like a small child playing, you will see it from a bigger background, a bigger perspective.
Q: What is the need for meditation and relaxation?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: When you relax, the mind expands.
Have you noticed when you are happy what happens? Something inside you starts expanding.
And when you are unhappy what happens? Something inside you starts shrinking.
So when you relax the body, then the mind starts blossoming.
Q: Please tell us what is death?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: There is no need to define death. It is an obvious phenomenon. We are born and we are going to die one day.
When we came to this world, the first thing we did was we took a deep breath in, and then we started crying. And the last thing we will do in this life is breathe out, and then others will cry.
If we don’t make others cry, then we have not lived a good life.

When the soul leaves the body with full contentment, with a lot of love and wisdom, then it is not compelled to come back. It can come back on its own will.

Q: Please let us know what is the biggest limitation for human beings?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Body has limitation, mind has limitation, but the spirit has no limitation.
When you think you are the body then you have limitation. Then you can do only that much.
When you think you are the mind, mind also has some limitation. But your love has no limitation. Your consciousness has no limitation.
See, how with one small cell phone, you can reach the whole world. You can reach any number of phone numbers with one call phone, isn’t it?
Similarly, our mind which invented the cell phone is much more powerful than the cell phone itself. You only need to make it available.

The Symbolism of Ganesha

Ganesha is the formless Divinity - encapsulated in a magnificent form, for the benefit of the devotee.
Gan means group. The universe is a group of atoms and different energies. This universe would be in chaos if there was no supreme law governing these diverse groups of entities.

The Lord of all these groups of atoms and energies is Ganesha. He is the supreme consciousness that pervades all and brings order in this universe.

The essence of Ganesha is brought out beautifully by Adi Shankara.

 Though Ganesha is worshiped as the elephant-headed God, the form (swaroop) is just to bring out the formless (parabrahma roopa). He is, ‘Ajam Nirvikalpam Niraakaaramekam.' This means Ganesha is Ajam (unborn), he is Nirvikalpa (attributeless), he is Niraakaar (formless) and he symbolizes the consciousness which is omnipresent.
Ganesha is the same energy which is the reason for this universe. It is the energy from which everything manifests and into which everything will dissolve.
We are all familiar with the story of how Ganesha became the elephant-headed God.
Parvati became dirty when she was celebrating with Shiva. When she realized this, she removed the dirt from her body and created a boy out of it. She then asked him to keep guard while she bathed.
When Shiva returned, the boy did not recognize him and obstructed his passage. So Shiva chopped off the boy’s head and entered.
Parvati was shocked when she saw this. She explained to Shiva that the boy was their son and pleaded with Shiva to save him at all costs.
Shiva then instructed his helpers to go and get the head of someone who was sleeping with their head pointing to the north. The helpers then got the head of an elephant, which Shiva affixed to the boy’s torso and Ganesha was born!
Does this story sound strange?
Why should Parvati have dirt on her body?
Didn’t the all-knowing Shiva recognize His own son?
Was Shiva, the epitome of peace, so short-tempered that he cut off the head of his own son? And why an elephant head on Ganesha?
There is a deeper meaning to all this.
Parvati is symbolic of festive energy. Her becoming dirty signifies that celebration can easily become Rajasik, or feverish and can take you away from your center.
Dirt is symbolic of ignorance, and Shiva is symbolic of the Supreme Innocence, Peace and Knowledge.
So when Ganesha obstructs the path of Shiva, this means that ignorance, which is an attribute of the head, does not recognize knowledge. Then knowledge has to overcome ignorance. This is the symbolism behind Shiva chopping off the boy’s head.
And why the elephant head?
Elephant represents both gyan shakti and karma shakti.
The principle qualities of the elephant are wisdom and effortlessness. The enormous head of the elephant signifies Wisdom and Knowledge.
Elephants don't walk around obstacles, neither are they stopped by them. They just remove them and walk ahead – signifying effortlessness.
So, when we worship Lord Ganesha these elephant qualities within us are kindled and we take on these qualities.
Ganesha's big belly represents generosity and total acceptance. Ganesha's upraised hand, depicting protection, means, 'Fear not, I am with you', and his lowered hand, palm facing outwards means endless giving as well as an invitation to bow down, this is symbolic of the fact that we will all dissolve into earth one day.
Ganesha also has a single tusk which signifies one-pointedness. Even the implements Ganesha wields are symbolic. He carries in his hands, the ‘Ankusa’ (signifying awakening) and the ‘Paasa’ (signifying control). With awakening, a lot of energy is released, which without proper control, can go haywire.
And why does Ganesha, the elephant-headed God travel on something as small as a mouse? Isn’t that so incongruous? Again there is symbolism that runs deep.
The mouse snips and nibbles away at ropes that bind. The mouse is like the mantra which can cut through sheaths and sheaths of ignorance, leading to the ultimate knowledge represented by Ganesha!
Our ancient Rishis were so deeply intelligent that they chose to express Divinity in terms of symbols rather than words, since words change over time, but symbols remain unchanged.
Let us keep the deep symbolism in mind as we experience the omnipresent in the form of the elephant God, yet be fully aware that Ganesha is very much within us. This is the wisdom we should carry as we celebrate Ganesh Chaturti.

The Truth about Sri Sri

The Truth about Sri Sri

I’m with you.

Something doesn’t quite add up about the man.

Ok, so he’s a spiritual leader. He teaches yoga and meditation. His organization is spread over over 150 countries; they do service activities and have pulled off some big projects etc. etc.

This much is easy to get.

What is not easy to get is the madness around him. Because all of the above does not explain the wild hysteria and attention that surrounds him.

For instance, he was all over Argentina on his current tour of South America. There was a massive crowd to receive him at the airport. He was trending on twitter as soon as he landed. He addressed students and educators who stood in rain in some places, listening to him. Universities and Governors honored him. He went to visit a prison, spoke at conferences and even took a walk through the rural area of Buenos Aires.

Some people kicked up a controversy too about alleged tax evasion and the government having paid him but only until 150,000 people showed up for a massive meditation. That event silenced everything. No matter whether you play fair or dirty, everybody knows when they’ve been outplayed with a bigger hand. And of all places, Argentina is well familiar with the hand of God.

Coming back, what makes all this tick? The obvious answer is - it’s packaged really well. For instance, after the meditation, the huge crowd at El Planeta Medita was seen moving to thumping beats with the band So What Project, chanting “Ganesha Om” and “Namo Narayana”. But even if the presentation is attractive, the dish still has to taste good. An ornate frame will not make the painting itself beautiful.

At the heart of this whirlpool of frenzy around Art of Living and Sri Sri is the truth : there is something about you that you have still not known. He does not explain it. He makes you experience it.

And that experience goes beyond everything you know about yourself, beyond where you are from, what job you do and all other facts that seem to shape your life. Very quietly, without warning, he unveils something life-altering which was right under your nose all this while.

There have been spiritual masters before Sri Sri who have taught the reality of life. They have all been matchless in their own regard and at that scale of greatness, comparisons are pointless. However, spirituality has always remained a personal quest - if you want the truth, seek it and find it. This is where Sri Sri has been a game changer.

While ‘why do I need spirituality?’ is something everybody needs to answer for themselves, he has shown clearly why society needs it. Apart from making your personal life fulfilling, it

• is invaluable in trauma relief and disaster management,
• saves your children from violence and suicides at schools,
• offers a very effective mechanism for rehabilitating prisoners and convicts who have nothing but bitterness and feelings of revenge towards society,
• sets the platform to resolve conflicts among communities,
• cultivates sensitivity for the environment,
• removes the narrow and selfish mindset that gives rise to corruption

He has turned what was thus far an entirely individual pursuit, thought whimsical by some, into a collective need. He has brought the abstract and esoteric into the realm of mainstream comprehension in a way that it has applications and uses for everybody in society.

Sri Sri’s brand of spirituality has no metaphysical jargon. It might break long held notions about life but it does not ignore common sense. His organization and its members are firmly rooted in the world and respond to real world crises with concrete steps. His practices and teachings are simple and give you direct experience. You don’t need any special spiritual abilities, for instance, to feel the difference in your state of mind while singing as a group or to realize that when you help somebody, you yourself feel uplifted.

As a spiritual master, Sri Sri shatters all cliches of the stereotype. He did not wait for people to come to him; he went to them. (All his passport books put together will easily take up a large bookshelf.) He does not reject commerce because its 'worldly'. He is not afraid to comment or participate in political developments. His programs have reached places that have nothing to do with spirituality, from prisons to pubs.

It is also not that his system works only under certain conditions, with certain kinds of people. It works in Russia, in Iraq, places that are cold, that are dry, with youth, with adults, housewives, prisoners, with the educated and the illiterate. What greater proof of its universality than the fact that in a place with no tradition of yoga or meditation, a six digit number sized crowd came together to sit with their eyes closed next to a guru from the other end of the earth who does not even speak their language. How? Did all these people suddenly turn spiritual? No. By sheer hard work, sublime patience and irresistible simplicity, he has made spirituality relevant to their lives.

However, if you really want to find out the truth about Sri Sri, don't take anybody's word. Go by the your own experience. Because even the people who come to him may or may not know everything about him. What pulls them is when, in his simple manner, he says, “You are peace, you are love”, it rings of truth.