Living The Mystery of Life E-Book

Sri Sri Ravishankar

• Herausgeber: Aslan eReads
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Seitenzahl: 237

Beschreibung

This knowledge is not complicated; it is simple and is complimentary to life in the world, to society. Normally people oppose it because they think doing anything for one’s inner growth means stopping the outer activities completely. It is often taught as renunciation - that you renounce the whole world, then you can do some practice for inner growth. But that is not so. We need to have a balance of both - in outer activity, the worldly life, and our inner growth.” - Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. “Living The Mystery of Life” is a collection of short talks, and question and answer sessions giving profound insights into the challenges we face in daily life. Gurudev’s guidance is delivered with simplicity and humour – an unbeatable combination that touches the hearts and lives of people all over the world.

Leseprobe

Title

LIVING THE MYSTERY OF LIFE

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Sri Sri Publications Trust, India

Copyrights Sri Sri Publications Trust

This digital edition is published by arrangement with Aslan Business Solutions

Digitally Published By:

 

Aslan Reads -An imprint of Aslan Business Solutions Borivli, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India Email: [email protected]; Website: www.aslanbiz.com & www.aslanreads.com

Physical Editions Published by:

 

Sri Sri Publications Trust The Art of Living International Centre 21st KM, Kanakapura Road, Udayapura, Bangalore – 560082 Email: [email protected]; Website: www.sattvastore.com Toll Free: 1800-258-8888

© All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system without prior permission in writing from the publisher

ISBN: 978-93-85898-06-8

Layout by: Sri Sri Publications Trust

Contents

Title

I am Space and Eternity

Forgetting One’s Own Inner Nature

Naturalness and Happiness

Presence is the Language of the Heart

Master, God and the “Big Mind”

Krishnamurti and Spiritual Techniques

Meditation and Love

Love and Happiness

Constant Change and Divine Vibrations

The Heaven of Problems and Distrust

Consciousness Changes the Environment

Ego

The Stars are Crying Every Night

Grace and Gratitude

Prayer

The Evolution from Head to Heart

Is There a Need for Meditation and for a Guru?

Enlightenment is Easy

Atmagyan

The Art of Living & The International Association for Human Values

The Founder

The Art of Living In Service Around The World

The Art of Living Stress Elimination Programmes

The International Association for Human Values

International Centres

I am Space and Eternity

In the world, communication happens at two levels. At one level you communicate through your head, and then you hear through your ears. At the other level, you communicate through your heart. And only then your heart can hear.

To communicate from your heart, you have to become hollow and empty. Any bit of dust, some change of position here or there, triggers the communication in the head.

When you go to sleep there is ‘no other’. There is no rich, there is no poor, there is no male sleep, there is no female sleep. There is no special American sleep or German sleep or Indian sleep. No winter sleep or summer sleep. It is oneness, there is nothing else. Everything merges, dissolves and disappears. When that happens, you get deep rest. Otherwise it can be a big burden.

If you go carrying the world in your head always, you can go mad! If the world is with you only for 12 to 15 hours a day, then you live a sane and healthy life. If the world enters your brain for 24 hours, you would go mad.

In sleep you lose yourself, you have no consciousness. Be aware of that void or that fullness every moment, - that is the Self.

How can we do that? Very simple. In, this whole world, whatever has happened until now does not exist. It does not exist now, you only carry its impression. Drop it, let that impression go now! Until this moment everything has been like a dream. Tomorrow, the next moment, all that would happen in another 20 years, 40 years, will also be like a dream. It will come and go, so what?

What happens inside you is, this world which you have created in your mind starts disappearing and dissolving. The mind sinks into your heart. If the mind becomes heavy, it starts bothering you. Let go of all heaviness – relax and be simple. The mind has a peculiar law, when it becomes light, it sinks and when it becomes heavy, it boils. The sinking of your mind into your heart is called surrender. Surrender is security. Otherwise there is no security. If there is no surrender, there is fear, and isolation. When surrender happens, fear disappears.

What does surrender mean? Love, pure love and trust in the state of Being – expression of love and trust in action. Without that fullness, life is impossible. If one wants to be oneself, to blossom totally and feel that completeness, then one has to become hollow and empty. What happens in surrender? You empty yourself of all craving, clinging, hankering and everything. You simply drop all that has hurt you.

During the course today, I wanted to ask how I can learn to be without doubt when you are not here, as when you are here.

I am not the body. I am there always.

But I feel different when you are sitting there...

This difference will disappear gradually. We connect ourselves with the body so much, but not with the mind, the inner Being. If we start connecting with the inner Being, this is always available, all the time. You may see a body here, holding the beads or whatever; but to me I am not here at all! I am like air, I have gone into everything. I have entered into you, into that room, in the seat, into the floor, into the plants. I am in and out of everything, I am not solid. I am like air, like space. If you sit in meditation, you can feel me inside you. This is what happens: when you really blossom, you become nobody, you disappear.

Why does time exist?

Time exists only in the mind. When the mind disappears, time disappears. In the stillness, one doesn’t feel the time. Then you are in eternity. And you have been like this eternally and I have been like this, - eternal, in this moment.

Do you see eternity? We can sit here for 10,000 years, nothing in, nothing out, dropping everything. All that we try to cling on to makes us heavy. We want to be great, we want to have these powers, we want to have joy, we want to be like somebody else. So what? It stops you from being permanent. Instead of becoming a great healer and putting your hand on somebody to heal them, all these desires pull you down. You are already great, you have everything.

When you become conscious, then you completely let go. Let go all your hankering to be powerful, to be somebody, to be great, to be this and that. Weightless and empty, joyful and smiling. If you have desires? Then you can’t be empty. Once you are empty, that is it.

All wishes are also mine. A wish arises when you are unaware of your capability to do. It is always about what you don’t have. You don’t wish to sit when you are sitting. When you drive a car, you don’t have the wish to learn to drive a car. A thought arises and the action follows.

To be attentive, to be creative – is that a desire or not?

Spontaneous! When I say, “Be void of wishes,” I don’t say, “Be against the wishes.” People misunderstand me. In a state of completeness, wishes simply do not arise. Be aware of the fullness. Just like when you are in Marburg, you don’t have to remind yourself every day, “I am in Marburg, I am not in Hamburg or in Frankfurt.” Do you have to remind yourself? All that is there spontaneously.

Forgetting One’s Own Inner Nature

Very often I feel like I’m in a prison. What can I do about it?

That is a good sign. Many people do not even know that they are in a prison. This is the first step. The next step is to do some practices, inner practice, like pranayamas, breathing exercises, meditation, Kriya, etc. Then you feel how the mind opens up and becomes free from it.

I have followed several techniques for quite some time. Now I feel that I have got stuck and do not proceed any further.

Do the Kriya and see. Sometimes such phases come, but it is just a passing phase.

These days, many young people follow some Guru and become lenient and alienated. They just leave their worldly responsibilities and go away. What are your views on this?

One has to do both. One has to be in the world, live like a normal human being and help people. At the same time one should not just get lost in it. Just eating, drinking, sleeping, and gossiping is not the world, is not life! Life is something more. Being a spiritual person means being more responsible, not irresponsible. Spirituality is not only just loving one’s own family, not caring only for limited responsibilities but also taking more responsibilities – to be able to love more and more people. People go astray in many ways. Some people leave the world using anything as an excuse. People get into drugs, alcohol – they find all sorts of ways to hide. True spiritual awakening will not make people go astray. If people have gone astray, they themselves have used that as an excuse to go astray. It is not because of the spirituality.

What is the difference between your teachings and the teachings of other Gurus? Are they linked somewhere?

Nothing in this world is unlinked, everything is linked. See the electricity in all these different forms, in all these different houses. It is all linked, because it is the same line that runs throughout. The same electricity is in this room, in that room, in this lamp, in that lamp, in that machine and in that house, isn’t it? If you can see the linking factor in this world, then you will know that everything is linked. And it does not matter.

Every one of us is linked with each other. See, our breath! We do not have our own breathing space. Do you say, “This is my breath, this is my air?” No, the air that goes into you goes to others around you too. Subtler than the air is life energy. That is all pervading, it is everywhere.

Does beauty or good and bad exist in reality?

They exist in the mind. Beauty and ugliness, good and bad, they all exist in the mind. What you call beauty is not there in reality, it is in your perception. It is the same with ugliness. You may say that this cactus is very ugly; however a cactus is also beautiful. It may be thorny but you keep it in the house. It is very beautiful.

If there was no human being to reflect on good and bad, then the good and bad could be removed from the world and chaos would not exist.

It does not exist in the world, it exists in the mind. And the mind is a part of our life, so it does exist at some level. If someone offers you something or someone treats you well, then you say, “Oh, this person is good, he talked to me nicely.” If someone comes and hits you, then you say, “This person has been bad to me, he behaved very badly.” We cannot rule out good or bad, as long as the mind, life and society is there, there is a relative good and relative bad.

There is nothing absolutely good or absolutely bad. For example, wood is wood and from one angle everything is wood. The door is wood, the piano is wood, the table is wood, the chair is wood, the floor is wood, everything is wood. But from the point of view of utility, they all have different uses. You cannot use the piano as a door or a door as a bed. That is a relative aspect, and it should be honoured, then life is more orderly. It is all right to have some chaos because chaos also contributes to growth. But if chaos itself becomes too much, then that becomes another order of chaos. So then there is no chaos, the chaos itself has become an order!

But due to a few people or one person there is so much chaos sometimes, like the war in Germany and in many other countries. There was so much suffering.

These situations have been there all over the world. You buy plastic garbage bags from the store, then what you do? You keep them in the shelf. But when you use a bag, you take it out; fill it with garbage and put it in the garbage dumpster, you don’t store it in the cupboard again. It is the garbage inside the plastic bag which stinks not the plastic bag. People have tendency of violence but they stuff it in bags. Violence can be done in the name of a country, in the name of communism, or social system, or in the name of religion.

Religion is not the cause of fighting. The tendency in the mind of people is the real cause of fighting. Stress is the cause of fighting, and fighting can easily be justified in the name of religion. On the surface, it definitely appears as religion. All the fights in the world are in the name of religion, all over the world, all through history.

Yes, I know, but my question is who protects the victims and what is the solution to this major problem?

Who protects? When you ask, “Who protects,” then you also have to ask, “Who destroys?” Isn’t it? You can say that intelligence can protect, and it’s the same intelligence which destroys.

When the intelligence is coupled with love, with the heart, oneness, awareness, then that intelligence protects. Intelligence combined with love becomes the protecting factor. And intelligence devoid of love becomes a destroying factor.

What happens in society is, that we teach people to be intelligent; however we do not teach them to be loving or friendly. Take for example your own life. You went to school; you were with 20, 30 or 40 children? You spent five to six years with them. Were you friendly with all those 20, 30, 40 children? No, you had only three or four close friends with whom you were talking, quarrelling, fighting and making friends. again Everything was happening among these four or five children. We have not been taught to be friendly with 30 to 40 children in the classroom. When you come out of the school, how can you live with 40 million people? Because you do not know how to be friendly!

Friendliness, service, love, all these qualities in us have not been watered or nourished. It’s not that they are not within us, they very much are, however they are hidden. Have you noticed that sometimes when two people talk, both are saying the same thing but it appears to be an argument? They are not really fighting, but the way they express themselves makes it look like that. This even happens when people agree on something. Imagine what would happen if they don’t agree? Then it is war!

How can we discover these qualities which you spoke about in us? And how can we cultivate them and then live with them?

This is the reason why the Art of Living courses have been developed for people – so that they can realise how much beauty they have inside, how wonderful they are inside. They can uncover their own original nature.

Why have we forgotten our very nature?

That’s what I am wondering about! Why did you forget? I have not forgotten, why did you forget? That is what amazes me! Or perhaps I needed a job, well I had to do something otherwise I would be just sitting idle. Now, our inner nature is not lost, it is only forgotten. That is why there is the hope to uncover it.

Why is there this conflict in us? Why do we have to go through this struggle?

It is more fun.

One is more afraid of death because one does not know where one will be born next, because life is different in different parts of the world.

It does not matter, people all over are the same. There are spiritual people everywhere in the world and unspiritual people too, aren’t they? We cannot brand any community, culture or religion as only spiritual. We cannot do that. You cannot put one above the other. All is everywhere.

I think but there is the difference between mind and matter.What is the difference between being materialistic and being more spiritual?

You can answer; it depends on your definition.

Is time a concept in the mind, in the same sense as good and bad?

Time and mind, yes, they are connected.

Is evolution also only a concept?

Yes, evolution comes in the span of mind. Like there is morning and night, but only when you are within the earth’s atmosphere. Once you go beyond the earth’s atmosphere, there is no morning, evening, midday or night or noon, nothing like that.

Why are we on this earth?

You should sit with this question. Do not ask for ready-made answers. If anybody answers this question, then know that they have not reached the goal. The philosopher will answer this question, but one who has reached they will never answer this question. He will see to it, that the answer comes from within you. A philosopher will always make you feel that you know, without really knowing, because he knows about it only from books, not from experience. That is of no use. Philosophers have written books from their mind, and what they have written is relative, because to write about the absolute, you have to know the absolute first.

Whatever they know cannot help you, because the reality cannot be expressed through words. When it is expressed in words, it becomes philosophy, it becomes false. It becomes just an imitation, not the reality.

But there we can be like door through which one can reach the reality?

Yes, but it can also create the illusion that you know without really knowing.

You are not a philosopher. Then who are you? Or are you the One?

No, not at all. I can say what I am not, but it is difficult to say what I am.

This answer can say that you are philosophising, that you are the One.

It is up to you, you can see me in any way. You can think so, but if you ask me, I will say no.

Then are you the holy man who carries the Light?

You can think about it that way, it is up to you. I see light everywhere, all over the place. Everything is light, nothing but light.

Your reality may be different from ours. The world you see is full of light. It is not our reality, because we do not see it. Can you also see our reality in which there is less light?

You know one who is in the gallery watching boxing can clap, yell and shout. But the one who is boxing, sweats and breathes fast, but they can very well see the sweat also. So, what to do?

Your mind creates problems for you. Your mind can turn any situation into a problem. When a situation comes, either you can take it as an adventure and laugh, or you can take it as a problem and grumble and cry and be unhappy.

If ten compliments are given to you and one insult, what do you hold on to? Similarly, in everybody’s life, there is 80% joy and 20% problems. But, you stretch that 20% like a chewing gum, make it so big! And that is where this knowledge is needed in life. What happens with this knowledge? Transformation happens in you, you are able to see things in a better light. You can then deal with them more effectively. It will help your own mind to stop creating more miseries for you.

I hear you and understand you. But most of us are so habitual to the complicated way of life and are filled, almost diseased, by the education we get at home and outside, that it is not easy just to see things differently.

Yes, one has to do something about it. Instead of going into the history of how this disease occurred or why this problem is there and over-analysing it, we can look into the solution. Instead of being part of the problem, we can be part of the solution. I am very well aware that not everybody is happy and that everybody is suffering. Most people are mentally sick, emotionally sick. That is why I have been travelling nonstop around the world, here and there, all over. What we are doing is still nothing, it is like a few drops in the ocean. Many people will have to start doing it and come to this understanding. Then more and more people can blossom in the world. It is necessary, it is a need. Like in the Third World, education was the big need. During the past 20 years, many people were illiterate, but now that is changing. In the same way emotional healing has been a need here, it has been very necessary for the past 20 years. You know, in some parts of the world, there are no emotional problems. People are happy; however they have physical problems, material problems, existence problems. In other parts of the world, material things are available, but people are sick inside. So, we are doing both. Where education is needed, that is given there, where emotional healing is needed more, and stability in the consciousness is needed, that is given there. That is what service is, and everyone needs to do this. What we do is just a drop in the ocean, but still it is something.

I am wondering, the countries where there are many psychiatrists and lot of psychic therapies obviously need somebody like you who teaches awareness and helps a lot inside. I would like to know how you see this compared to psychic therapy.

Now, somebody could have read a lot about cooking, however may not have had any experience in making those dishes. So their cooking will not be tasty at all. This is similar to what is happening with psychology or psychotherapy today. In universities they just study and read books. They have not worked on their own psyche, their own mind. This very subject is so young, it is a growing science, it is not complete yet. It is like treating the symptoms just on the outside.

Spirit or spiritual energy is the core, the centre. It is beyond the psyche. It is the very central point of one’s life. It is long lasting and permanent, it blossoms. It is not just treating some symptoms of the psyche; however it eliminates the root cause of the disease.

I have been meditating for a few years, sometimes I feel nervousness or I get upset during and after it. How should I understand this?

Meditation cannot make you nervous. You might have been nervous before but wouldn’t have noticed it so much. However with meditation it became very obvious. But it is just a passing phase. You add to your meditation some breathing techniques, pranayamas and Kriya. This will help you very much to open up and to clear all the blocks.

What is the substance that links everything together?

That you find out.

Is it important for me to find out?

That is what I ask you.

Naturalness and Happiness

Usually conversations happen from head to head. But in these lectures we communicate from heart to heart. To sink from head to heart, we observe a few minutes of silence in the beginning. For some of you it might appear a little strange, everybody sitting quietly, but when you quieten down, you sink into your heart, into deeper levels of your consciousness.

There have been so many talks about this thing, about “knowing oneself”. You have heard this from your childhood, “Know thyself.” What is it? It is blossoming in deep, inner value of your heart. No animal in nature is greedy about tomorrow or the day after. They don’t worry. They have deep faith in nature. They don’t keep thinking, “Oh, tomorrow, what will happen? What will I do? Will it be sunny?” They have total trust in nature. Suppose you leave a child with nature, it will not have any great ambition. It will be very contented, fulfilled and live a very simple, happy life. However today, in spite of having everything in their lives, they are still not happy.

Observe a child, what a child does at a very small age! Maintaining all that quality and yet growing in wisdom – that is enlightenment. Great ambitions, high ambitions, stirs your brain, makes you restless. You run around for this and that. It remains on the material plane, and even goes to the spiritual plane. Even on the spiritual path, people go on shopping all the time, trying to get a good feeling. However, these things don’t work. The very mind with which you are running is not settled. Dropping all ambitions and remaining simple, happy, contented and progressive – is very important.

There can be two types of fulfilments. One is a dull fulfilment, which is not called as fulfilment at all –its lethargy. Another is progressive fulfilment-you are happy and become happier and happier and happier.

You see children doing all these asanas, pranayamas and meditations. If you observe, they first lay down on the back and do cycling; they move their legs and hands. They throw out their hands. Then they try to catch their legs. Have you noticed children? They do each asana and all the yoga. Yoga has been developed by looking into a child’s different activities, even the way they breathe. Children breathe in a particular pattern. They breathe through the stomach, then they breathe through the chest, and then they make certain sounds.

Yoga and meditation are about doing all that we did whilst growing up. But when we stopped doing them, our inner growth also stopped. Yoga and meditation is not specific to any culture. It is a way of coming back to nature and it is for the whole world, every culture, everybody. Like breathing is for everyone, it is possible for everybody.

There is lot of talk about using natural things. Not only should we use natural things around us for the body but we also need to make the mind very natural. It might have taken years of intense research for people to find all those chemicals to grow size of food and make the crops better. 15-20 years later, now people have found that they are not very healthy, infact it is rather harmful to our system. So now the circle is complete, and people have gone back to growing food in the most natural way. Be with nature. The same is the case with our mind also; what does our mind do? It is never empty, it is never clear. We always carry the world in our mind. We don’t let the world be where it is and have a clear mind even for a few minutes. There is constant activity, constant hankering, constant longing, all sorts of things happening in the mind. All these are thoughts. I recently read in a paper that astronauts who go far away to some planets in rockets and satellites still have the same thoughts about the world. It may be about their neighbours, wife or brother-in-law, or their children or the colleagues. They have the same thoughts and same dreams in spite of going millions of miles away from this world in space.

When you are flying very high in a plane, just look down from the window – earth is somewhere down there. Even streets are not visible. There are millions of houses, millions of people. The whole world is down, below somewhere. You are so high up in the sky, however your mind is never high up. Your mind is stuck in a little house or in some little papers down below, thousands of miles below. We don’t fly with our mind there. Only the body gets transported from place to place, the mind is stuck.