घर में लगाइये मच्‍छरों को दूर भगाने वाले पौधे -

घर में लगाइये मच्‍छरों को दूर भगाने वाले पौधे -

मच्छरों को भगाने के लिए ऐसे पौधे आपके आसपास ही मौजूद हैं। तुलसी, गेंदा, रोजमेरी और लौंग कुछ ऐसे ही पौधों के उदाहरण हैं जिन्हें लगा कर आप मच्छरों से भी बच जाएंगे और आपके पैसे भी नहीं खर्च होंगे। साथ ही आप कैमिकल्स के प्रभाव से भी बचे रहेंगे। आइए जानते हैं इन पौधों के बारे में:

* गेंदे का फूल : यह बहुत ही आम फूल है और हर घर में पाया जाता है। इसकी गंध बहुत तीखी होती है इसलिए यह मच्छरों को दूर भगाने में सहायक होता है। इसके आसपास तक मच्छर नहीं फटकते हैं।

* सिट्रोनेला : : दरअसल, यह एक घास की प्रजाति का एक पौधा है जिसमें से नींबू की तरह सिट्रस की खुशबू आती है।

* तुलसी : : हर हिंदू घर में तुलसी का पौधा जरूर होता है। इसकी तेज खुशबू मच्छरों को परेशान कर देती है और वे भाग जाते हैं।

* हार्समिंट : : यह एक तरह का मिंट पौधा है जिसमें से कसैली गंध आती है। इसको लगा कर आप मच्छरों को दूर रख सकते हैं।

* विडालपर्णास : : इस पौधे में मच्छरों को भगाने वाले क्वॉयल और स्प्रे से कहीं ज्यादा कैमिकल होता है।

* लेमन बाल्म : यह दिखने में पुदीने के पौधे की तरह लगता है, लेकिन इसमें नींबू की महक आती है। इस पौधे को घर में रखें या बाहर लगाएं, आपको पूरा फायदा होगा।

* लैवेंडर : : इस पौधे की खुशबू बड़ी तेज होती है इसलिए यह मच्छरों को भगाने का काम कर सकती है।

* रोजमेरी : : इस पौधे के कई स्वास्थ्यवर्धक फायदे हैं। यह एंटी बैक्टीरियल होता है और गार्डन में लगाने पर मच्छर और कीट दोनों का ही सफाया होता है।

लौंग: इस मसाले में बहुत तेज खुशबू होती है, जिसको सूंघने से मच्छर ज्यादा देर तक नहीं टिकते।

मच्छरों से करें बचाव

-घर या ऑफिस के आस-पास पानी जमा न होने दें, गड्ढों को मिट्टी से भर दें और रुकी हुई नालियों को साफ करें।

- अगर पानी जमा होने से रोकना मुमकिन नहीं है तो उसमें पेट्रोल या केरोसीन ऑइल डालें।

- रूम कूलरों, फूलदानों का सारा पानी हफ्ते में एक बार और पक्षियों को दाना-पानी देने के बर्तन को रोज पूरी तरह से खाली करें, उन्हें सुखाएं और फिर भरें। घर में टूटे-फूटे डिब्बे, टायर, बर्तन, बोतलें आदि न रखें। अगर रखें तो उलटा करके रखें।

- डेंगू के मच्छर साफ पानी में पनपते हैं इसलिए पानी की टंकी को अच्छी तरह बंद करके रखें।

- अगर मुमकिन हो तो खिड़कियों और दरवाजों पर महीन जाली लगवाकर मच्छरों को घर में आने से रोकें।

- ऐसे कपड़े पहनें, जिनसे शरीर का ज्यादा-से-ज्यादा हिस्सा ढका रहे। खासकर बच्चों के लिए यह सावधानी बहुत जरूरी है। बच्चों को मलेरिया सीजन में निकर व टी-शर्ट न पहनाएं।

- रात को सोते समय मच्छरदानी लगाएं।

Why Does Ancient Art Contain Depictions Of Flying Aircraft, Helicopters And Dinosaurs?

Monday 24 February 2014

BY DAVID ICKE

• Posted in:
• History Rewritten
• UFO Activity

• Tagged:
• ancient aliens

‘The history of our planet is far more complex than most people would dare to imagine.  According to the commonly accepted version of history that is taught in high schools and colleges all over the United States, ancient man was a very simple creature with extremely limited knowledge.  Unfortunately for those that promote this flawed version of history, archaeologists keep digging up stuff that directly contradicts it.  The truth is that there is a tremendous amount of evidence of great intellectual achievement in the ancient world.  For example, just consider the Great Pyramid of Giza.

It is a true technological marvel.  It is such a massive structure built with such extraordinary precision that modern technology is only just now starting to catch up with it.  We think that we could possibly build a similar structure today if we wanted to, but modern man has never actually constructed anything like it.  And as you will see below, the Great Pyramid of Giza is far from the only example of advanced technology in the ancient world that we find in Egypt.’

Read more: http://thetruthwins.com/archives/why-does-ancient-art-contain-depictions-of-flying-aircraft-helicopters-and-dinosaurs

Source - http://www.davidicke.com/headlines/why-does-ancient-art-contain-depictions-of-flying-aircraft-helicopters-and-dinosaurs/

GET THE ANSWER OF UNANSWERABLE SUBJECTS.......Search Yourself in the TITLE.

Ganapati is the Lord of all the ganas... Gan is group. There are different types of water (all liquids), different types of Earth (all metals) and so on... Each is a Gan or a group... And Ganesha or Ganapati is the Lord of the groups. 

Knowledge, techniques etc are like the detergent we use to wash clothes. However good the soap, at a point you will need to wash it off. Similarly at one point you will need to let go of even all knowledge etc and simply surrender... Only then you will move forward.
When this needs to be done, the Guru will tell you... Meanwhile continue with Sadhana Seva and Satsang 
(There are a few superb knowledge sheets on both the topics above, do read them)

Listen to what Lord Krishna said, but definitely don't do what He did!
Use a broom to do a clean up. That is definitely required. But don't put the Broom on the throne. Keep it in a corner. Then whenever required use it!
Goddess Laxmi comes on a lotus, not on a broom... For the Goddess to grace our country, we need to prepare her throne... The Lotus!
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Q. How to deal with the crisis of addiction? 
A. This is the job of the parents - mothers and fathers. Right from a very early age, create a barrier in your children about these things.
Alternatively, bring them here... With Shakti Kriya and Sudarshan Kriya we will thoroughly wash them and get rid of any addiction. A few So-Hums and they will be fine! 
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Lord Shiva is sitting with a snake around his neck – what this implies is the state of meditation, where the eyes are closed giving the impression that the person is sleeping; but he is not asleep, he is alert within. To express this, a snake is shown around Lord Shiva’s neck. Otherwise, why would Lord Shiva wear a snake around his neck? He is the lord of the universe; could he not find anything else to wear? The Lord of the universe could wear a necklace of all different kind of things, why would he have a snake hanging from his neck? No, whatever our ancestors said, there are such profound mysteries hidden behind it.
In the same way, the Earth on Shesh Naag – naag implies Centripetal force. A snake never moves on a straight course, it makes curves as it slithers forward – this is known as Centripetal force. Centripetal force means that which will not go straight; and the Earth rotates on its axis and around the sun. So these are the 2 kinds of forces Centripetal and Centrifugal. This is what the ancient people have expressed in the form of a cobra.
And what is the cobra standing on? It is standing on a turtle, and a turtle symbolizes stability. This is very interesting! ~Gurudev
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The subtler we go, it becomes more and more powerful.Though, everything is made up of consciousness. This entire universe is made up of consciousness, when you become subtler and subtler, they become more powerful.
Today I was watching a research done with water in Japan by a gentleman. He kept a little water in a bottle and took a photograph. Later he has used the same water for prayer and then after prayer he took a photograph. You can see the impact of prayer - the subtle thought vibration has gone into the water. It’s obviously visible.He took a bottle of water and kept blaming it and then took a microscopic picture of it. With another bottle, he said some pleasing words and you can see the difference.
In India, this process is called Abhimantra. You take a pot of water, place your hand on top and then chant mantras. The mantras are supposed to be absorbed into the water. It is an old tradition in India. When you go to any holy man or saint, you take a pot of water and ask them to bless the water. 
This Abhimantra - mantra chanting on the water - has a huge impact on the water, because 70% of our body is water. In the Rudrabhisheka,water is made to fall on a crystal lingam while a particular chanting is being done and then it flows down. That water is very charged and it helps to uplifts the atmosphere.
Now it is visible in the microscopic images, the changes that happen by these practices. ~Gurudev           http://www.masaru-emoto.net/english/water-crystal.html
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Each River is known for its own special events, like Ganga is known for knowledge. All the Rishi Munis did tapasya on the banks of Ganga. All the love stories blossomed on the banks of Yamuna. Sri Krishna played Rasa Leela on the banks of Yamuna. Narmada River is known for bhakti (devotion), knowledge and logic. Saraswati River is known for brilliance or architecture. Sindu is known for its own special culture; Brahmaputra River is the only male river, All other rivers are female. Because Brahmaputra was not gentle at all, it was never gentle, it was always a rogue river. It would change its course and cause so much sorrow so Brahmaputra was called a male river, a very arrogant, adamant river. So like that rivers are considered sacred and people never used to pollute rivers. When they go to rivers they would first bow down to the rivers and put their feet there.~Gurudev
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Aarti means the highest and the greatest possible bliss. It represents the fact that the Divine is the greatest source of joy. When our hearts overflow with such intense love and devotion that every particle of our body is soaked in it, then that is what aarti really is. Aarti is that which gives you total contentment. It is made up of two parts: ‘Aa-’ and ‘rati’. ‘Rati’ means joy, bliss and ecstasy. So when we are full of such kind of devotion and bliss - that is called Aarti. So we perform aarti with the prayer that our lives should also be filled with the ecstasy of devotion, such that we see God everywhere we look. 
Camphor is burnt to perform Aarti (circular movement or display of the lamp in reverence before the deity or the idol) before the deity. Just as God rotates the sun and the moon around you, you imitate the same and thus offer and move the small camphor lamp before God to bring joy to you. This is also to express the prayer that the light of our life should never go astray from God and should always be centered and revolve around God. It is with this deep feeling that you perform aarti.This is called Pooja. Pooja is never done to flatter or please God. ~Gurudev  — 
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See, when you read any Purana, then the Adidaata (the sacred deity on whose life and heroic stories a particular Purana is based) of that Purana is the central character, and the most revered. 
For example, if you take the Shiva Purana then Lord Shiva is the greatest, while all other deities and everyone else is subordinate to him.   Similarly, if you take the Ganesha Purana, then Lord Ganesha is the greatest in that Purana.  Again, if you take the Devi Purana then all the other deities, such as Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu and Mahesh (a name of Lord Shiva) are at the Devi’s feet, signifying her central importance in the Purana. Since all stories in the Devi Purana revolve around her as the central deity, the other deities play secondary roles. 
In the Vishnu Purana you will find that there is no deity greater than Lord Vishnu, and every other deity is subordinate to him, since he is the central deity of that Purana.
That is why a deity is called as Isht, meaning the greatest deity, around whom everything else revolves. So, those deities or Gods whom we consider as our Ishtdevta or Isht are the greatest and most revered for us.
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There is a very beautiful shloka (verse) by Adi Shankaracharya where he says, 'Mananaatha Shri Jagannatha, Madguru Shri Jagadguru, Madatma Sarvabhutatma, Tasmai Shri Gurave Namaha.'
It means, my Lord (Isht) is the Lord of the entire creation; my Guru is the Guru of the entire creation; and my soul is the soul seated in all living beings.
When a devotee has this feeling, that there is no other like my Lord, then it is called Vishishta bhakti. 
When there is this feeling that there is none other like my Lord, then the mind become one-pointed. This is because the nature of the mind is to go towards that which is the most superior. 
Now, if you do not find what you have to be the highest, then the mind will start to wander toward that which it finds to be more superior. 
So to collect the mind and make it centered deep in devotion, these different stories have been written in the Puranas. That is why in the Shiva Purana, it is said that Lord Shiva is supreme and everyone prays and bows to Lord Shiva. This is the real meaning. ~Gurudev

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Daivam sarvato mukha', God is everywhere, so you can sit anywhere, in any direction for your prayers and meditation.  These scientific explanations are good primarily for tropical countries. If the sages had taken into account the arctic regions, they might have recommended that prayers and meditation to be done facing South.  Similarly, Vastu Shastra which is suitable for India may not be appropriate for Russia.
We need to make some corrections in these recommendations based on the region of the earth where it is being applied.   In India it is recommended that the main entrance to the house should not face south, because in those days the city was planned in such a way that cremation grounds were to the south of the city and breeze blowing from that direction would enter the house through the doors and windows facing south. So Vastu was formulated accordingly. 
But if you go to Russia and the Scandinavian countries, there the sun is more intense in the south, and pleasant breeze blows from the south, so it is okay to have the main entrance facing south. If you keep the door which is facing south open, you will get plenty of sun all year round. 
Therefore, applying Vastu Shastra blindly without making corrections is not right. Many people do not know this. They don't go into the depths of this knowledge. They are 'lakeer ke fakeer' - they follow without questioning what is written.
Any little imperfection according to Vastu can be corrected by one simple thing – Om Namah Shivaya. ~Gurudev
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Vainkutha Ekadashi
The Ekadasi of Vainkutha(the adobe of Sri Maha Vishnu) falls on the 11th day of Shukla paksha(the waxing phase of the moon) of Dhanur masa. Hindus consider this day to be very auspicious and holy, for it is when Sri Maha Vishnu comes out of his Sanctorum and resides near the "Vainkutha Dwaram" opening the doors to heaven. Therefore many Hindus visits Sri Maha Vishnu temples on this day to seek salvation to avoid the cycle of reincarnation of future births. This day is also marked in the Hindu calendar as the day of "Gita Upadesham" , whereby Lord Sri Krishna taught Arjuna, the holy Hindu Scripture of Bhagvad Gita. Hindu scriptures also make reference to the fact that the gods and demons churned the divine ocean for Amrita on the day of Vainkutha Ekadashi. 
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Question  - I had my Upanayanam many years ago but I never quite understood the significance of the ceremony, the thread and Sandhyavandanam. Can you please explain? Isn’t Kriya enough, why Sandhyavandanam?


Answer :  Gurudev: Yes, you do Kriya, that is good enough and afterwards if you are being initiated, do the Gayatri Japa. 
Gayatri Japa means – Let my intellect be inspired by the Divine. 
It is our intellect which blocks the vast Divinity from expressing itself fully in life. 
So, the prayer is, ‘May the Divine inspire my intellect. May the Supreme Energy manifest in my life and in my intellect.’ See, for example, air is always present. When you take a deep breath in, you accept the air so totally. In the same way, the Chaitanya Shakti (the powerful Consciousness) is present around you everywhere and at all times. Through the Gayatri Mantra, you accept and become one with this wonderful Consciousness around you with a deep sense of honour and total awareness. What happens as a result of this? All your sins are burnt to ashes, and you are cleansed. The word ‘Bhargo’ in the mantra means to cleanse all sins. So through the Gayatri Mantra, we pray that “May I uphold and contain the Light of the Divine in my intellect, and May it illumine all our minds and intellects and inspire us towards noble thoughts and actions’. This is the essence of the Gayatri Mantra, and this is the Gayatri Upasana also. Do not sit with the picture of Gayatri as a goddess in mind. When you sit, remember and become aware of your Self as the Divine light of the Consciousness that glows forever within you. The Sun is usually regarded as a deity but it is not really so. In the mantra we say ‘Tat Savitur-varenyam’. The word Savitur here refers to the Savitra Devta (a solar deity mentioned in the Rig-Veda and one of the twelve Adityas) considered to responsible for the light of the Sun. But here it means: One who illumines everything, who purifies everyone and washes away all sins, the Paramatma (Supreme Soul or Consciousness), and that is what is meant by Savitra. So when we say ‘Savitur-’ we are offering this prayer to God Himself, the Para-Brahman who is here referred to as Savitra. This is the deeper meaning here.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ A mere kite soars high in the sky when attached to a thin thread held on the ground. Without this thin thread the kite does not take off. This thread is called a "sutra" - meaning secret, connection or even trick. "Sutra" is that without which two dimensions cannot be connected. Therefore, in our lives, a "sutra" is what we require to make our life rise and expand to Infinity.
Breath is the link between the body and mind. If the mind is a kite the breath is the thread. The longer the thread, the higher the kite can go.
The significance of Makar Sankranti is Uttarayana during makar, which means movement of the sun towards the north direction during makar as the winter comes to an end. One crop having been harvested, they sow the seeds for the next crop. 
There are twelve Sankrantis in a year, out of which Makar Sankraanti has been considered most important because from here begins the Uttarayana punya kaal (Uttarayana auspicious period), and Uttarayana is regarded as the period of Divinity (Devatas). Although the entire year is considered auspicious, this period is considered slightly more auspicious. All festivals begin following this.~Gurudev
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Swaminatha
Lord Shiva is the un-manifest Divinity, while Lord Kartikeya is the manifest. 
So you can think of Lord Kartikeya as symbolic of the Kundalini Shakti. 
Both Iccha-shakti (will power) and Gyan-shakti (self-knowledge) come together with the Kundalini Shakti. 
Actually, it is more of Iccha-shakti and Kriya-shakti (power of action) which are a form of Gyan-shakti. 
So Iccha-shakti and Kriya-shakti are both parts of the same Kundalini Shakti (Kartikeya) and they are manifest as Valli and Deivayanai – the two Divine consorts of Lord Kartikeya. And Lord Kartikeya is the very embodiment of knowledge. 
So Kartikeya Tattva simply means the Guru Tattva. 
Lord Shiva is one of the three Gods of the Trimurti (Holy Trinity - Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva) represented by AUM – the primordial sound of the Creation. In AUM, the syllable ‘M’ belongs to Lord Shiva. 
There is a story about Lord Kartikeya from the Puranas. 
When Kartikeya was a young child, His father, Lord Shiva asked him to go and study and receive education from Lord Brahma.   So Kartikeya went to Lord Brahma and asked him, ‘Please tell me the meaning of Om.’ Lord Brahma said, ‘First learn the alphabets! You are directly asking for the meaning of Om.’ 
Kartikeya said, ‘No, I want to know the highest knowledge first – Om.’ 
Now Lord Brahma knew all about the alphabets, but he did not know the meaning of Om (the primordial sound).  So Kartikeya said to Lord Brahma, ‘You do not know the meaning of Om, how will you teach me? I will not study under you.’ And Kartikeya went back to his father, Lord Shiva.

Lord Brahma told Lord Shiva, ‘You alone can handle your son. I can’t handle him. If I say this, he says that. Whatever I say, he says the exact opposite of that. I won’t be able to teach him. So you decide what is best and handle him.’ 
Hearing this, Lord Shiva asked Kartikeya, ‘What happened son? Lord Brahma is the Creator of the entire universe. You must learn from him.’ 
To this Kartikeya replied, ‘Then you tell me, what is the meaning of Om?’ 
Hearing this, Lord Shiva smiled and said, ‘Even I don’t know.’ 
Kartikeya then said, ‘Then I will tell you because I know the meaning of Om.’ 
‘Then tell me the meaning since you know it’, said Lord Shiva. 
‘I can’t tell you like this. You have to give me the place of the Guru. Only if you put me on the pedestal of the Guru can I tell you’, said Kartikeya.

Guru means he has to be on a higher position or platform. The teacher has to sit on a higher place and the student has to sit down and listen to him. 
How can Lord Shiva find a seat higher than Him, for He is the highest and greatest of Gods? So then Lord Shiva lifted the young Kartikeya on to His shoulders. And then in the ear of Lord Shiva, Lord Kartikeya explained the meaning of the Pranava Mantra (Om). Kartikeya explained that the entire Creation is contained in Om. 
The Trinity – Lord Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are contained in Om. 
Om means that everything is love – unbroken and unshakeable love is Om. This is the essence and also the secret of Om that Lord Kartikeya narrated to Lord Shiva.

Upon hearing this, Goddess Parvati (Mother of Lord Kartikeya, and an incarnation of the Mother Divine) was elated and overcome with joy. 
She said, ‘You have become a Guru (Swami) to my Lord (Natha)!’ 
Saying this she addressed her son as Swaminatha, and ever since Lord Kartikeya also came to be known as Swaminatha. ~Gurudev
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Annihilate conflict - When you are in a harmonious environment your mind picks up any excuse to be in conflict. So often small things are enough to create big turmoil. If you have a conflicting environment you tend to seek harmony... Have you noticed this?
Ask yourself this question: Do you seek harmony in every situation or do you seek to widen the differences and prove your righteousness?  When your survival is at stake, you don't complain that nobody loves you. When you are safe and secure you start demanding attention. Many people create conflict in order to get attention.   The seed of negativity and the tendency for conflict in you can only be annihilated by Sadhana.

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Q. I have confusion between what my heart says and what my mind says. Each wants different things. How to marry them and want just one. ??

A. There is a proverb in China, if you are confused, take a pillow and go to bed! The heart loves the old and the ancient - friendship, love takes pride in something old. 

The mind and intellect wants new - new fashion, new gadgets, new technologies. 
They are like that and this is what makes life complete. 
Wisdom is knowing when to use the heart and when to use the mind... 

"Intelligence is learning from your mistakes. Wisdom is learning from others mistakes. "

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Q: If I give my 100% and still don't get the result, what is the result?A: Everything won't happen with your own 100% effort. There are five things that are needed...

1) The intention of the doer
2) Upakaran - The resources available
3) Sankalpa - The mind should be made up to doing the action
4) Time - The correct time to do actions. if you don't do things at the right time, there is no point! Few things take time to show the result. If you plant a tree it won't give fruit in one day
5) Kripa, grace - Without God's grace it is not possible.

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Q: Guruji, my life goes like a stock market; it reaches a peak and then falls to zero. How do I bring stability? Is it possible to make this graph stable, or is death the only cure?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: No, first of all, don’t think your life is a stock market. Mind goes up and down. Just look back and notice, so many times you reached a point where you thought that this is the end of life; that heaven has fallen on your head. But there was an unseen hand that pulled you out of every crisis. You have always received help whenever you have been in crisis. Turn back and see, you will see that in your life this is a fact, that you are always helped. And know that in the future also you will get such help from an unseen, unknown hand, and that is the Divinity. When you know there is a power that is watching me, a power that is going to take me along, it’s never going to let me down, then you will never say your life is a stock market. It is a very solid foundation to life.

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Story  - सही दिशा     -  ----------- एक पहलवान जैसा, हट्टा-कट्टा, लंबा-चौड़ा व्यक्ति सामान लेकर किसी स्टेशन पर उतरा। उसनेँ एक टैक्सी वाले से कहा कि मुझे साईँ बाबा के मंदिर जाना है।   टैक्सी वाले नेँ कहा- 200 रुपये लगेँगे। उस पहलवान आदमी नेँ बुद्दिमानी दिखाते हुए कहा- इतने पास के दो सौ रुपये, आप टैक्सी वाले तो लूट रहे हो। मैँ अपना सामान खुद ही उठा कर चला जाऊँगा ।
वह व्यक्ति काफी दूर तक सामान लेकर चलता रहा। कुछ देर बाद पुन: उसे वही टैक्सी वाला दिखा, अब उस आदमी ने फिर टैक्सी वाले से पूछा – भैया अब तो मैने आधा से ज्यादा दुरी तर कर ली है तो अब आप कितना रुपये लेँगे ?   टैक्सी वाले नेँ जवाब दिया- 400 रुपये ।
उस आदमी नेँ फिर कहा- पहले दो सौ रुपये, अब चार सौ रुपये, ऐसा क्योँ ।
टैक्सी वाले नेँ जवाब दिया- महोदय, इतनी देर से आप साईँ मंदिर की विपरीत दिशा मेँ दौड़ लगा रहे हैँ जबकि साईँ मँदिर तो दुसरी तरफ है ।
उस पहलवान व्यक्ति नेँ कुछ भी नहीँ कहा और चुपचाप टैक्सी मेँ बैठ गया ।
इसी तरह जिँदगी के कई मुकाम मेँ हम किसी चीज को बिना गंभीरता से सोचे सीधे काम शुरु कर देते हैँ, और फिर अपनी मेहनत और समय को बर्बाद कर उस काम को आधा ही करके छोड़ देते हैँ। किसी भी काम को हाथ मेँ लेनेँ से पहले पुरी तरह सोच विचार लेवेँ कि क्या जो आप कर रहे हैँ वो आपके लक्ष्य का हिस्सा है कि नहीँ ।
हमेशा एक बात याद रखेँ कि दिशा सही होनेँ पर ही मेहनत पूरा रंग लाती है और यदि दिशा ही गलत हो तो आप कितनी भी मेहनत का कोई लाभ नहीं मिल पायेगा। इसीलिए दिशा तय करेँ और आगे बढ़ेँ कामयाबी आपके हाथ जरुर थामेगी।

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You cannot think, ‘I am doing good work, but why are people criticizing me?’ It is their nature. The nature of a thorn is to prick and the nature of a flower is to spread fragrance. The world has both thorns and flowers. If the flower asks the thorn ‘Why do you prick?’ the thorn will answer ‘it is my nature’
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WORLD IS A PLAY AND DISPLAY OF PRANA (Life force)

You know, this whole universe is a play of Prana, the life force. Everything here has some life force. However, the units of Prana differ.
Stone (Pathar) has 1 unit of Prana
Water (Pani) has 2 units of Prana
Fire (Agni) has 3 units of Prana
Air(Hava) has 4 units of Prana
Ether (Akash) has 5 units of Prana
Animals and trees have 6 - 7 units of Prana

Human Being has 8 units of Prana. Hence he is called as ASHTAVASU. But humans are born with a possibility to blossom into a fully blossomed state. Lord Krishna has highest units of Prana – 16. That is why He is referred to as fully blossomed being.

Water, fire, ether have 2 units prana, animals and birds have 3-4 units of prana, nikrisht human have 4.5 units and common people have 5-5.5 units of prana, some saints above normal people have 6 units and proved saints have 7-7.5 units prana. Small deity have 8 units and God's reincranatons have prana equal or above 9 units of prana. Purna God have 12-16 units of Prana.

This units are:- 

1. Anna-Maya
2. Prana-Maya
3. Mano-maya
4. Vigyan-Maya
5. Anand-maya
6. Atishayini
7. Viparinabhimani
8. Sankramini
9. Prabhavi
10. Kunthini
11. Vikasini
12. Maryadini
13. Sanhaladini
14. Ahladini
15. Paripurna
16. Swaroopawasthiti.
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Q: Guruji, how does being religious help me in my spiritual quest? How do I ensure that my daughter grows up to be a good girl devoted to God?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Honesty in character, purity in heart, clarity in the mind and spontaneity in action, this is what religiosity should bring. 
If you think that you are religious and your heart is not pure, I tell you, you are not religious. If you think you are religious and your mind is filled with worries, I tell you, you are not religious. And if you have doubts and fears, then there is something missing; the faith is missing.
So, being religious means being righteous, and preserving tradition. Doing your prayers, celebrating. All this is essential. But more essential is the spiritual upliftment.

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Q: Guruji, why does the breath slow down and even stop while meditating when we are still alive. Can you please explain?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: While meditating, the breath becomes slower as activity goes down in the body and deep rest comes to both body and mind. This leads to the fourth state of consciousness. 
There are three states of consciousness: waking, dreaming and sleeping. But other than that there is a state where you are awake and yet fully at rest, and that is meditation. In that state the breath is almost feeble, and almost not there for few seconds. After that activity comes up, and stress gets released and the mind becomes more active. When the mind becomes calmer, physical activity increases, it is a phenomenon. 

Similarly, if you see, when you breathe in, you are accumulating energy. When you breathe out, you are relaxing the whole system. So the in breath and out breath also has a specific impact.

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If your time is good even the worst enemy behaves like a friend, and if your time is bad, your best friend behaves like an enemy. So bow down to time. There’s a saying, 'Kalaya tasmai namaha', which means that it is time which plays around. -- Sri Sri

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"Mind goes for new , Heart goes for Ancient and Life is a combination of old and new. We need both"

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Understanding Mental Illness

What causes a person to suddenly have a mental illness? And is there any possibility or hope that they would come out of their illness and off medication?

If you have witnessed it, you know there is no other suffering like mental illness because the human mind has enormous capabilities. If these capabilities work in your favor, life becomes fantastic. If they work against you, there is no escape because the stimuli for suffering is not even coming from outside. If the stimuli for your suffering were coming from your neighbor, your mother-in-law or your boss, you could run away. Nobody can cause suffering to you, mentally. They do things and you react to it in a certain way. But if you come to a place where, without anyone doing anything, suffering is simply happening, it is a psychological condition.

How does one come out of it? It depends on the level of damage. There are some who can come out of it, but in some pathological cases, it would have manifested in a physical form in the brain. Such conditions have to be supported chemically from outside. Sedating it is largely what people are doing, but you cannot just put down one aspect of your mind or brain – the whole system gets affected.

The line between sanity and insanity is very thin. Many of you enjoy crossing it.  Suppose you burst out on someone in anger and they got scared and did what you wanted. You will say, “You know what? I got really mad at him and he immediately squirmed and did what I wanted.” You got mad and you came back, so you seem to enjoy it. Suppose you got mad and did not come back, then it is a different matter.    You keep crossing the line with anger, hatred, jealousy, alcohol or drugs. You are crossing the line of sanity, enjoying the little bit of madness that you go through, and coming back. I want you to know that many of the people who have lost it were perfectly “normal” people like you. Just one day, it is gone. Something fused out and suddenly they are on the streets.

It is like how the physical body can get ailments. You could be fine today, but tomorrow morning your doctor tells you something. These things happen to people every day. Similar things can happen to the mind. At least if it happens to your body, you will get sympathy from everyone around you. When it happens to your mind, you do not get sympathy; no one wants to be anywhere around you because it is verydifficult. You do not know when they are acting up or when it is for real – you cannot make a judgment. When they are acting up, you want to get tough on them, when it is real, you have to be compassionate with them. It is a tightrope walk; it is not easy. It is painful for that person and even more painful for people around them.

We need to build structures in society where the margin for mental illness is very low. Why I go back pining for the culture that existed in this land is because about 200 to 300 years ago, there were hardly any mentally ill people in this country simply because of certain structures in the society. Slowly, without awareness, we are pulling it down. Today, even in villages, there are psychologically broken people, which was never so in the past. If it happened, it was an extremely negligible percentage of people. The percentage is increasing. You can distinctly see that in so-called “affluent” societies, the percentage is becoming quite high. This is because a human being is a social animal unless he transcends certain things. Either we should work for transcendence or we should create a society which is supportive, which is not demanding. Right now, the social structures that we have created are horribly demanding.

This is happening to urban India, but it has happened even more so in the West. If you want to live in America, even if you fast for the next 30 days, your bills will still add up to 3,000 dollars. The society is structured in such a way that it is very demanding on the individual person – someone cannot take a break and just sit down.  Not everyone may be capable of continually being on. A whole lot of people need to withdraw from certain things. If there is sufficient sadhana in their life, then you can drive them 24 hours, 364 days because life is brief and we don’t want to sit back. But if there is no sadhana, it is very important that people have space and time.

We have created societies which are a constant challenge to live in, always in a mode of competition. There is something called “fight and flight” response within the human being. Irresponsibly, people are using the words, “I like the adrenaline.” You do not understand what adrenaline is. Adrenaline is an emergency device in the system. If a tiger comes at you, adrenaline pumps so that you can escape. But if you simply pump adrenaline and go walking in New York City, you will burst. You are not supposed to be in that state all the time. If you do not die, you will break.

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Our education systems are horribly demanding. Not everyone is geared for it. For someone, it may be a cakewalk. For somebody else, they may read one sentence 25 times and not get it, but they may be capable of doing something else. “No, we don’t allow them to do something else. They must do this first.”  There are so many horribly cruel structures – these are not structures for the well-being of the human being. We are trying to manufacture cogs for a larger machine we have built. We want the machine to live; we do not care what happens to the individual human being. We need to produce parts for that big machine we have built which is fake; it may collapse any time.  If you are not made of the material to make a proper part for that big machine, you will break in so many ways.

A human being needs a certain level of psychological, emotional, and physical space, and a certain atmosphere for him to be nurtured. Those atmospheres are missing right from day one; even an infant is not getting it anymore. There was a time when the mother held the infant to her breast and was not bothered by the time. Now she looks at her watch, “Why don’t you drink fast? I have to go!” One week after her delivery, she is back in the workspace. I am not saying women should not work. I am saying human beings should live well. If human beings have to live well, there are certain inner realities. A child should grow up without concern about what will happen to him. But from the first day of school, he is worried about getting two marks less than the neighbor’s child. This is all rubbish. This will destroy human beings and we think this is performance, well-being and efficiency – no. If you break the human being, what is the purpose of the rubbish that you have created?

There are some who have come with pathological situations within themselves which may naturally occur, but that is a small percentage. We are responsible for breaking the rest of them.  But what is the way out for the person who is already there? If they have crossed a certain line, medicine is a must. Over a period of time, if we work with some sadhana in parallel, it could work better; the dependence on the chemical medicine could be lowered.

Above all, each individual is not the same in the body, and even more so in the mind. There is no particular way; it is difficult. If you want to create a healthy atmosphere to take care of such people, it will take a whole lot of infrastructure – both material and human infrastructure.  Unfortunately, I do not think anyone is willing to invest so much material and people towards that.

It will take a lot of expertise, caring, and a certain level of involvement to bring them out of that. Even then, you may not totally bring them out. Within their limitations, you could make them comfortable so that they are not suffering. But it needs a lot of dedicated attention to that and a certain level of expertise and empathy.
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बेहतर कौन – प्रेम विवाह या अरेंज्ड विवाह?

सवाल ये नहीं है कि आप किस तरह से शादी करते हैं। सवाल यह है कि आप अपनी शादी-शुदा जिंदगी को चलाते कैसे हैं और कितनी अच्छी तरह से अपने जीवन-साथी के साथ रहते हैं। और ये बात इस पर निर्भर नहीं करता कि आप कैसे या कहां शादी करते हैं। महत्वपूर्ण यह है कि शादी के बंधन में बंधने वाले दो लोग कितनी समझदारी से रहते हैं।

आपको यह कहा गया होगा कि शादियां स्वर्ग में तय होती हैं। आपको इसलिए ऐसा कहा गया क्योंकि अधिकतर लोग अपनी शादी को नर्क बना देते थे। आपको यह समझना चाहिए कि अगर आप स्वर्ग हैं, तो आप अपनी शादी सहित जो कुछ भी करते हैं, वह स्वर्ग होगा। अगर आप नर्क हैं, तो अपनी शादी सहित जो कुछ भी करते हैं, वह नर्क होगा। इसलिए शादी के बारे में अधिक परवाह किए बिना, हमें सदा यह चिंता करनी चाहिए कि अपने आप को एक खूबसूरत इंसान में कैसे बदलें जिससे कि अपने सामने आने वाली हर स्थिति को हम खूबसूरत बना सकें।

हम जीवन के जड़ पर ध्यान न देकर हमेशा छोटी-छोटी डालियों पर ध्यान देते हैं। हम सिर्फ फल के अंदर रसायनों का इंजेक्शधन लगाकर उसे तेजी से बढ़ाने की कोशिश कर रहे हैं। वह अधिक समय तक नहीं टिकेगा। वह भले ही आज एक फल दे दे, लेकिन कल वह फलहीन होगा। लेकिन अगर आप जड़ का पोषण करें, तो उसमें पूरी जिंदगी फल लगेंगे।
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परिवार किसे कहते हैं ?

परिवार के अंदर अगर एक खास तरह का तालमेल न हो, लोग एक दूसरे के हित के बारे में न सोचें तो वह आपके विकास में बहुत बड़ी बाधा भी बन सकता है। आखिर कैसा हो परिवार, जानते हैं सद्‌गुरु से

एक बार शंकरन पिल्‍लै अपने परिवार के साथ डिनर कर रहे थे। भोजन करते-करते सबके सामने उन्होंने घोषणा कर दी कि वह शादी करने जा रहे हैं। सबका एक ही सवाल था, “किससे? तुम किससे शादी करने जा रहे हो?” शंकरन पिल्लै ने जवाब दिया, “मैं लूसी से शादी करने जा रहा हूं जो हमारे पड़ोस में रहती है।” उनके पिता ने कहा, “क्या? तुम उस भद्दी लूसी से शादी करोगे? हम उसके कुल-खानदान के बारे में कुछ नहीं जानते।” मां बोली, “क्या? तुम उस भद्दी लूसी से शादी करने जा रहे हो? उसके पास कोई धन-संपत्ति नहीं है।” चाचा ने कहा, “क्या? तुम उस भद्दी लूसी से शादी करने जा रहे हो? उसके बाल कितने गंदे हैं।” चाची भी बीच में कूद पड़ीं और बोलीं, “क्या? तुम उस भद्दी लूसी से शादी करने जा रहे हो? वह इतना बेकार मेकअप करती है कि वह कोई सड़क छाप औरत लगती है।” छोटे सा भतीजा भी पीछे नहीं रहा, वह बोला, “क्या? आप उस भद्दी लूसी से शादी करने जा रहे हैं? उसे तो क्रिकेट के बारे में कुछ नहीं पता।” शंकरन पिल्लै अपनी बात पर अड़े रहे और बोले, “हां, मैं लूसी से ही शादी करने जा रहा हूं क्योंकि इसका एक बहुत बड़ा फायदा है।” सब ने पूछा, “क्या?” वह बोले, “उसका कोई परिवार नहीं है।”

परिवार तभी खूबसूरत होता है जब वह एक खास तरीके से चलता है, वरना वह सबसे डरावनी चीज हो सकता है। परिवार का मतलब निर्भरता नहीं है, वह एक खास तरह की साझेदारी है, जो आपने बनाई है। साझेदारियां तभी सही और सार्थक होती हैं, जब दोनों लोग उसके लिए तैयार हों और वे एक साथ एक दिशा में चल रहे हों। अगर लगातार दोनों साझीदार एक-दूसरे के हित के बारे में सोचते हैं, तो वह साझेदारी मायने रखती है। अगर कोई उसमें सिर्फ अपने ही बारे में सोचे, तो बात चाहे परिवार की हो या पेशे की या फिर आध्यात्मिकता की ही क्यों न हो, फिर तो ऐसे व्यक्ति के लिए साझेदारी हर हाल  में बेकार है। अगर एक दूसरे का खयाल नहीं है और फिर भी आप साथ रहते हैं, तो आप  लोगों के लिए कई समस्‍याएं पैदा कर सकते हैं। आप परिवार में इसलिए नहीं रहते कि आप में कर्तव्य-बोध है, बल्कि इसलिए रहते हैं क्योंकि एक प्रेम का बंधन है, जो आपने बनाया है। अगर आप सचमुच उस प्रेम के बंधन से बंधे हैं तो आपको बताने की जरूरत नहीं है कि आपको क्या करना चाहिए और क्या नहीं, आप वही करेंगे जिसकी जरूरत होगी।

आपने किसी के साथ या कुछ लोगों के साथ प्रेम का एक बंधन बनाया है, इसका मतलब यह नहीं है कि आप अपने जीवन में बड़ी चीजों की कामना नहीं कर सकते। आप अपने आस-पास के लोगों के लिए जो सबसे अच्छी चीज कर सकते हैं, वह है खुद को मानवीय संभावना की सबसे अधिक उंचाई तक  ले जाना। आप उस उंचाई को पाने की कोशिश में लगे रहिए। आपका जितना अधिक विकास होगा, उतना ही अधिक आप लोगों की मदद कर सकेंगे। अगर लोग यह बात नहीं समझते, अगर वे यह सोचते हैं कि आपको उन्हीं सीमाओं और समस्याओं के साथ उसी स्तर पर अटके रहना चाहिए जहां वे अटके हुए हैं, और आपको उसके परे की आजादी नहीं मिलनी चाहिए, तो यह परिवार नहीं है, यह माफिया है। अगर आप एक-दूसरे से अधिक से अधिक निचोड़ने  की कोशिश में लगे हुए हैं, तो आप एक माफिया चला रहे हैं, यह कोई परिवार नहीं है। जहां पर लोग एक दूसरे को अपना उत्‍तम देने की कोशिश करते हैं, वही  परिवार है। अगर ऐसा नहीं है, तो यह परिवार ही नहीं है, फिर उसे तोड़ने का कोई सवाल ही नहीं उठता।

हर मनुष्य की स्वाभाविक इच्छा होनी चाहिए कि वह अपने जीवन में सर्वाधिक उंचाई और क्षमता प्राप्त करे। अपने आस-पास के लोगों के जीवन में यही उसका सबसे बड़ा योगदान होगा। खुद को सीमित रखना कोई योगदान नहीं है- ना खुद के लिए, ना ही किसी और के लिए। अगर आप अपनी खुशहाली, बुद्धि और आनंद की एक खास अवस्था में हैं, अगर आप उस अवस्था में हैं, जो आपके लिए सबसे उत्तम हो सकती थी, तो आप अपने आस-पास के लोगों के लिए इससे बेहतर कुछ और नहीं कर सकते। यह बिना संघर्ष और त्याग के नहीं होगा और त्याग कोई बलिदान नहीं है। जब आपके दिल में एक-दूसरे के प्रति प्रेम नहीं होता, तभी वह बलिदान होता है। अगर एक-दूसरे के लिए प्रेम है, तो दूसरे व्यक्ति के सुख के लिए कुछ त्यागना एक सौभाग्य है।
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क्यों टूटते हैं प्रेम संबंध ?

अक्सर यह देखने को मिलता है कि प्रेम संबंध बनाकर साथ रहने वाले दो लोग समय बीतने के साथ दूर होते जाते हैं। ऐसा क्यों होता है?

मान लीजिए आपने अपने बगीचे में एक नारियल और एक आम का पेड़ लगाया, जब वे छोटे पौधे थे, उनकी ऊंचाई बराबर थी। आपको लगा कि उनमें अच्छी निभेगी, आपस में खूब प्रेम होगा! अगर दोनों नहीं बढ़ते तो वे हमेशा एक बराबर ही रहते। लेकिन अगर दोनों अपनी पूरी क्षमता में बढ़ेंगे, तो वे अलग-अलग ऊंचाई, आकार और संभावनाओं में विकसित होंगे।

अगर आप दो लोगों में समानता ढूंढ रहे हैं, तो वह रिश्ता हमेशा टूट जाएगा। आखिरकार एक पुरुष और एक स्त्री इसीलिए साथ आते हैं क्योंकि वे अलग हैं। यह फर्क ही आपको साथ ले कर आया है और जैसे-जैसे हम आगे बढ़ेंगे, यह फर्क अधिक स्पष्टता से उभर कर सामने आ सकता है। अगर आप इस अंतर का आनंद लेते हुए आगे बढ़ना नहीं सीखेंगे, तो स्वाभाविक रूप से रिश्ते में दूरी आएगी। अगर आप यह उम्मीद करते हैं कि दोनों एक ही दिशा में और एक ही तरीके से बढ़ें तो, यह दोनों के साथ ही नाइंसाफी होगी। इससे दोनों की ज़िंदगी ना केवल सिमट जाएगी, बल्कि उनका दम घुटता रहेगा। आपका रिश्ता कितने दिनों बाद टूटता है या यूं कहें कि दोनों के बीच दूरी कितने वक्त में बढ़ती है- बरसों में, महीनों में या दिनों में, यह सिर्फ इस बात पर निर्भर है कि आप कितनी तेजी से आगे बढ़ रहे हैं।

यह उम्मीद करना कि जो व्यक्ति आपका साथी बना है, वह बिल्कुल आपकी तरह हो, किसी रिश्ते को बरबाद करने के लिए काफी है। यह बगीचे को निश्चित रूप से नष्ट कर देगा। अपने और अपने साथी के बीच की भिन्नताओं को स्वीकार करें, विकसित होने दें और उसका आनंद उठाएं। वरना ऐसी स्थिति उत्पन्‍न हो जाएगी कि एक व्यक्ति पूरी तरह दूसरे के ऊपर निर्भर होने के लिए बाध्य होगा या दोनों लोग एक-दूसरे के ऊपर निर्भर होने के लिए बाध्य होंगे।

हमें समझना चाहिए कि रिश्ते कुछ जरूरतों की वजह से बनते हैं – शारीरिक, भावनात्मक और मनोवैज्ञानिक जरूरतों की वजह से। चाहे रिश्ता कैसा भी हो, बुनियादी पहलू यह है कि आपको अपनी कोई जरूरत पूरी करनी है। हमने कोई रिश्ता क्यों बनाया, इसकी बहुत सी वजहें हमारे पास हो सकती हैं, लेकिन अगर वे जरूरतें और उम्मीदें पूरी नहीं हुईं, तो रिश्ता बिगड़ जाएगा।

जैसे-जैसे लोग आगे बढ़ते हैं और परिपक्व होते हैं, ये जरूरतें बदल जाती हैं। जब ये जरूरतें बदल जाती हैं, तो दो लोगों के बीच जो बात कभी सबसे महत्वपूर्ण लगता था, कुछ समय बाद वह ऐसा नहीं लगेगा। लेकिन हमें किसी रिश्ते को हमेशा के लिए उन्हीं जरूरतों पर आधारित मानने की आवश्यकता नहीं है और ना ही यह सोचने की आवश्यकता है कि रिश्ता अब खत्म हो गया। हम हमेशा किसी भी रिश्ते को किसी और रूप में विकसित कर सकते हैं।

जो जरूरतें लोगों को साथ लाती हैं, जरूरी नहीं है कि हमेशा वही रिश्ते की बुनियाद बनी रहे। जैसे जैसे समय बीतता है और व्यक्ति की उम्र बढ़ती है और वह अलग-अलग रूपों में परिपक्व होता है। इसलिए रिश्ते का आधार बदलने की जरूरत होती है। अगर यह बदलाव नहीं किया गया, तो दूरी बढ़ना या रिश्ता टूटना निश्चित हो जाएगा।
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क्या यह वो भारत वर्ष नहीं है?

बचपन में स्‍कूल की किताबों में हम पढ़ा करते, ‘जहां हर पेड़ है चंदन जहां हर बाग है नंदन, जहां देवता करते मनुज पुत्र का अभिनंदन। जिस धरती पे बहती गंगा, जहां पर्वतराज खड़ा है- वो भारतवर्ष हमारा है।’ इस धन्य भूमि में पैदा हुए अवतारी पुरुषों की तब हमें कथा सुनाई जाती ऋषि-मुनियों के त्याग और समर्पण का आदर्श हमारे सामने रखा जाता। योद्धाओं व देशभक्तों की गाथाएं सुनकर हमारे अंदर एक नई चेतना का संचार होता और हम राष्ट्र प्रेम से लबालब भर जाते। गर्व से हम कुछ यूं फूल जाते कि दिल में गुदगुदी होती और राष्ट्र निर्माण में अपनी भावी भूमिका को लेकर हमारे अरमानों के पंख निकल आते।

कॉलेज पहुंचने के बाद अपने देश के हालात व हकीकत से हम धीरे-धीरे वाकिफ  होने लगे। अपने निजी अनुभवों, समाचार पत्रों और टीवी चैनलों के जरिए हमारे अंदर एक ऐसे भारत की तस्वीर बनने लगी जो भूख, गरीबी, अशिक्षा, भ्रष्टाचार और चरमराती अर्थव्यवस्था से जूझ रहा था। वहीं दूसरी तरफ विज्ञान, तकनीक, मनोविज्ञान और अर्थव्यवस्था में पश्चिमी देशों की दिन दूनी तरक्‍की हमारी प्रेरणा का विषय बनने लगी। तब पश्चिमी संगीत सिनेमा और फिलॉसफी में हमारी रुचि बढऩे लगी- हमें अब वही भाने लगे। वक्त के साथ-साथ हमारा भारतीय होने का गर्व मिटने लगा और वो गुदगुदी भी गायब हो गई। जीवन की दशा और दिशा को लेकर हमारे अंदर एक भारी उहापोह थी।

इसी उहापोह में एक दिन हम पूर्व चुनाव आयुक्त टी एन शेषन को सुनने पहुंचे। वे शिक्षक और छात्रों की एक सभा को संबोधित कर रहे थे। अपनी ओजपूर्ण व प्रभावशाली शैली में उन्होंने सभा से पूछा, ‘हमारा भारत महान क्यों है? क्या इसलिए कि यहां गंगा बहती है? क्या इसलिए कि यहां हिमालय है?’ कोई उत्तर न मिलने पर उन्होंने बड़े गर्व से कहा, ‘नहीं, क्योंकि हमारा दर्शन महान है।’ अगले कई दिनों तक मैं लाईब्रेरी में दर्शन की पुस्तकें छानती रही, पर सरदर्द के अलावा और कुछ नहीं मिला। फिर हमने अपना सरदर्द मिटाया था मूवी देखकर, क्लासिकल रॉक संगीत पर थिरकककर और कुछ कविताएं लिखकर।

जीवन के अर्थ और मकसद की तलाश में भटकते एक दिन हम सांई इंटरनेशनल सेंटर पहुंचे, जहां सद्‌गुरु ‘इनर इंजीनियरिंग’ पर व्याख्‍यान देने वाले थे। गहन आंतरिक अनुभव से मुखरित उनकी तर्कपूर्ण, विनोदभरी और सरलता से सराबोर वाक शैली ने हमें मंत्रमुग्ध कर दिया। उनकी वाणी से मुखरित हर पंक्ति में हमें अपने कई-कई प्रश्नों के जवाब मिल गए। अपने व्याक्चयान के अंत में जब उन्होंने हमसे प्रश्न पूछने के लिए कहा तो हम नि:शब्द बैठे रहे। वहां व्याप्त उनकी भव्य मौजूदगी में हमारे शब्द डूब चुके थे। धीमे कदमों से चलकर वे हमारे बीच खड़े हो गए। उनके शांत व निश्चल चेहरे पर खिले माधुर्य से एक अलौकिक शक्ति प्रवाहित हो रही थी, जिससे मुग्ध होकर कई उनके चरणों में थे तो कई उनका आलिंगन करके धन्य हो रहे थे।

अगले दो दिन के योग कार्यक्रम में सद्‌गुरु ने हमें योग की प्राचीन विधियों में दीक्षित किया और साथ ही दिया एक अनूठा नजरिया, जिससे जीवन को एक दिशा मिली एक अर्थ और मकसद मिला। जैसे-जैसे हम इस राह पर बढ़ते गए भारतीय दर्शन व संस्कृति की हमारी समझ निखरती गई जो कभी किसी पुस्तक में नहीं मिली। जैसे-जैसे हम अपनी पसंदों, नापसंदों और पूर्वाग्रहों की हदों को पार करते गए, यह स्पष्ट होता गया कि इंसान रूपी समस्या का समाधान वैज्ञानिक खोजों और आर्थिक खुशहाली में नहीं है, इसके लिए तो मानवीय चेतना को खिलकर अपने चरम पर पहुंचना होगा और इसे संभव बनाने के सभी सूत्र भारतवर्ष रूपी माला में पिरोए हुए हैं। अब हमें फिर गर्व है अपने भारतीय होने का और अपनी भावी भूमिका को लेकर अब हमारे दिल में फिर गुदगुदी होने लगी है।
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Ques: -Gurudev, how to manage the feeling of loneliness? How to come out of the feeling that nobody needs me?

Ans - You know, everything is going to finish, this whole chapter is going to end one day. You will be all alone! Yes? That is called Vairagya (dispassion). When you get into dispassion, you see that everything here is temporary! All the people you are seeing, everything will be gone one day! This whole thing will finish, like the soap bubble one day bursts. Then only you remain. This gives you immense depth of understanding.

Now, if intellectually this doesn’t suffice your loneliness, then with that loneliness or longing, you can write poems. You can do a lot of things in that loneliness.
Many beautiful art pieces have come out of loneliness. Many songs and music have been born out of that loneliness. So instead of letting the loneliness turn into depression, you can turn the loneliness into a longing for something higher. And the longing will keep the love alive in you. So sing, dance and write poems in the deep pain, and turn this loneliness into longing, and longing into something so creative; something eternal.
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Story : एक बार खरगोश अपनी जिंदगी से परेशान हो गये, उन्हे लगा की वो दुनिया के सबसे कमजोर जानवर है। सारे खरगोशो ने अपना जीवन एक साथ समाप्त करने का सोचा।

खरगोश आत्महत्या करने के लिये झुण्ड बना के तालाब की तरफ बढ़े।
हजारो खरगोश जैसे तालाब के किनारे पहुँचे, हजारो मेढ़क डर कर तालाब मेँ कूद पड़े।
खरगोशो ने मेढ़को का डर देखा और उन्हे समझ आ गया की दुनिया मेँ उनसे भी कमजोर जीव जी रहे है और अपने जीवन को खो देना मूर्खता ही है। . .
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कभी अपने ऊपर घमंड हो तो अपने से ऊपर वाले की तरफ देखिये, सारा घमंड चूर हो जायेगा।
और कभी अपने पर हीनता महसूस हो तो अपने से नीचे वाले की तरफ देखिये, आत्मविश्वास आ जायेगा।।
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पहले हम नाचते गाते थे….अब सिर्फ देखते हैं

पहले इस देश में साल के हर दिन कोई न कोई त्योहार होता था। सब कुछ उत्सव का रूप ले लेता था। आज जुताई का दिन है, तो उसे एक उत्सव बना दिया। कल रोपाई का दिन है, तो उसके लिए अलग किस्म का उत्सव। वहां रोपाई  के  गीत और नृत्य का आनंद लिया जाता था। फसल कटाई का समय उत्सव का चरम रूप होता था, वही आज भी मकर संक्रांति, वैशाखी या पोंगल के रूप में मनाया जाता है। 

बलबीर और दलबीर दसवीं कक्षा तक स्कूल गए हैं; लेकिन अब उन्हें सबके साथ नाचने-गाने में शर्म आती है। वे न इर के रहे न उधर के। इससे उनका स्वास्थ्य भी खराब हुआ है। पर ऐसे वे अकेले नहीं हैं। पिछले बीस वर्षों में ग्रामीण व्यक्ति का जीवन बहुत मुश्किल हो गया है। पुरानी परंपराएं पूरी तरह से नष्ट हो चुकी हैं, बाज़ारी अर्थव्यवस्था से जुड़ी बुराइयां पनप  रही हैं, लेकिन इससे जुड़ी अच्छाइयां ग्रमीण व्‍यक्‍त‍ि के आस पास नहीं फटकती।

पहले वह जिन बातों पर गर्व करता था, आज वही उसके लिए शर्म का कारण बन गई हैं। गांव के लोगों के जीवन से उल्लास गायब हो गया है। पहले गांव के लोग मिल-जुल कर बुवाई-रोपाई से लेकर कटाई तक का काम हंसी-खुशी से करते और खेतों में नाचते-गाते थे। आज गांवों में नाचना-गाना गुजरे जमाने की बात हो गई है, वह सिर्फ देखने की चीजें हो गई हैं।  लोग उसे टीवी और सिनेमा में बड़े चाव से देख रहे हैं।

ये ऐसी चीजें हो गई हैं, जिसे अब आप खुद नहीं करते। यह कोई छोटीमोटी बात नहीं है जो गांव के लोगों से छिन गई है और,उसकी कोई भरपाई नहीं हो पाई है। किसान के पास अपने लोक संगीत और लोक नृत्य के रूप में ऐसी थाती थी, जिससे उसे सांस्कृतिक और मनोवैज्ञानिक आधार मिलता था। दुर्भाग्यवश कोई बेहतर चीज दिए बिना ही इस आधार को तेजी से नष्ट किया जा रहा है। आनंद और उल्लास के बिना यदि कृषि की जाएगी, तो उसका नतीजा किसानों की आत्महत्या और उन तमाम बुराईयों के रूप में ही सामने आएगा, जिन्हें हम आज देख रहे हैं।

हमें अपने देश की खूबियां मालूम होनी चाहिए। हालांकि यहां खेती से संबंधित सुविधाएं न के बराबर हैं, फिर भी हम अपने सवा अरब लोगों का पेट भरने के लिए अनाज तो पैदा कर ही रहे हैं। यह एक ऐसी उपलब्धि है, जिसे हमारे किसानों ने अपने पारंपरिक ज्ञान और कौशल से हासिल किया है। पर आज वह सब लुप्त हो रहा है। भविष्य में हमें इसकी भारी कीमत चुकानी पड़ेगी।

इसलिए यह बहुत जरूरी है कि गांवों का  सही मायने में कायाकल्‍प  किया जाए। यह काम अकेले सरकार के बस का नहीं है। सरकार नीतियों में बदलाव करके लोगों को आर्थिक अवसर उपलब्ध करा सकती है, लेकिन किसी भी सरकार के लिए यह संभव नहीं है कि वह एक-एक व्यक्ति के पास जाकर उसका जीवन बदले। जरूरत इस बात की है कि औद्योगिक इकाइयां देश में एक-एक तालुका को गोद लेकर वहां प्रशिक्षण, शिक्षा, स्वास्थ्य आदि को बेहतर बनाने का काम करें।  परोपकार की बजाए इसे लंबे समय का एक  निवेश माना जाना चाहिए।

यदि आप नारियल का पेड़ उगाना चाहते हैं तो आप कुछ पाने के लिए आठ साल इंतजार करते हैं। इसी तरह यदि आप शिक्षा, पोषण जैसे पहलुओं पर निवेश करते हैं, तो थोड़े इंतजार के बाद ही आपको उसका फल मिल सकेगा। इस प्रक्रिया में स्वयंसेवी संस्थाओं और संबंधित जनसमुदाय के साथ-साथ उद्योग जगत को भी शामिल होना पड़ेगा। हमारा ईशा फाउंडेशन इस बात पर अमल कर रहा है।

हम हमेशा भारत को 120 करोड़ लोगों के देश के रूप में सोचते हैं। लेकिन सोचने का यह तरीका ठीक नहीं है। आप एक जिले के बारे में सोचिए और उसे बदलने में लग जाइए।
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क्यों करें हम तीर्थयात्रा?

क्या आपने कभी सोचा कि तीर्थयात्रा का असली मकसद क्या है? क्यों चढ़ते हैं हम ऊंची ऊंची पहाड़ें? दर-बदर भटकते क्यों हैं हम? आईए देखते हैं सद्‌गुरु क्या कहते हैं…

तमाम ज्ञानियों और योगियों की तपोभूमि के तौर पर पूजा जाने वाला हिमालय, दुनिया भर में आध्यात्मिक जिज्ञासुओं की आस्था का केंद्र है। सदगुरु को भी इन पवित्र पर्वतों से गहरा लगाव रहा है। इन पर्वतों के गूढ़ रहस्य को दूसरों के साथ बाँटने के मकसद से ईशा फाउंडेशन हर साल हिमालय में “ध्यान यात्रा” का आयोजन करता है।

ध्यान यात्रा के दो सप्ताह के कार्यक्रम के ज़रिये इन जादुई और भव्य पर्वतों की पावन ऊर्जा को अपने अंदर समाने का एक शानदार मौका मिलता है। इस यात्रा में शामिल लोग पैदल चलने और कैंपों में रहने के अलावा दुनिया की इस सबसे अनूठे जगह का अनुभव भी करते हैं जहाँ एक तरफ बर्फ से ढ़के पहाड़ हैं तो दूसरी तरफ हरियाली से सराबोर खूबसूरत घाटियां! इस अपूर्व प्राकृतिक छटा के बीच जैसे जैसे यात्रा आगे बढ़ती है, सत्संग की मस्ती नए-नए रंग भर देती है! शक्तिशाली ध्यान क्रियाएं साधकों को चेतना की उच्च अवस्थाओं में पहुंचा देतीं हैं। इसका असर लोगों को अपने दिमाग, शरीर और ऊर्जा के बीच के कोमल संबंधों पर भी महसूस होने लगता है, जिसका अंतिम लक्ष्य इन पर्वतों की गूढ़ शक्ति का आह्वान कर गुरु कृपा पाना है।

यात्रा की शुरुआत हरिद्वार से होती है। जैसे जैसे बस पहाड़ों की संकरी सड़कों, खूबसूरत झरनों और दूर तक फैले छोटे-छोटे गांवों से होकर आगे बढ़ती है, पर्वतमालाओं का असाधारण सौंदर्य खुलकर सामने आने लगता है। इस पूरी यात्रा का बंदोबस्त ईशा फाउंडेशन के उच्च एवं समर्पित शिक्षक करते हैं और अपने साथ यात्रा कर रहे हर व्यक्ति की व्यक्तिगत जरूरतों का पूरा ख्याल रखते हैं, जिससे यह अनोखी यात्रा उनके लिए यादगार बन जाती है।

तीर्थ यात्रा का मूल प्रयोजन आपको अपने बारे में बने ग़लत खयाल से वाकिफ कराना है। इस यात्रा के दौरान जब हम ट्रेकिंग करते हैं तो हमें पर्वतों की विशालता और अपनी सूक्ष्मता का अहसास होता है। लेकिन तीर्थयात्रा का मकसद हमें अपने व्यक्तित्व के बारे में हमारी सीमित सोच को बदलना है। यात्रा के दौरान चलने, पहाड़ों पर चढ़ने और प्रकृति की बेहद मुश्किल परिस्थितियों का सामना करने की प्रक्रिया हमें अपने सीमित व्यक्तित्व से ऊपर उठाती है। यह हमारी पहचान प्राण के स्तर पर ज़्यादा बढ़ा देती है।

प्राचीन काल में तीर्थयात्राओं की अधिकतर जगहें ऐसी होती थीं, जहां तक पहुंचने के लिए इंसान को बहुत शारीरिक व मानसिक मेहनत और कठिनाइयों का सामना करना पड़ता था। ऐसा इसलिए था कि इस पूरी प्रक्रिया में इंसान खुद को जितना बड़ा समझता है, उससे कम महसूस करने लगे। लेकिन आज चीजें पहले की तुलना में बहुत आरामदायक हो गईं हैं। अब तो हम तीर्थयात्राओं के दौरान कुछ दूरी हवाई मार्ग से तो और कुछ ड्राइव करके सड़क से तय कर लेते हैं। पैदल चलकर तय करने के लिए तो बहुत थोड़ी दूरी ही रह जाती है।

इंसान शारीरिक रूप से करीब एक हजार साल पहले जितना शक्तिशाली था, उसकी तुलना में आज कुछ भी नहीं है। यह कोई विकास की प्रक्रिया नहीं है, क्योंकि आज हम यह भूल चुके हैं कि सुख सुविधा और आराम के तमाम साधनों का इस्तेमाल हमें कितना और किस तरह करना है। इन्होंने हमें बेहद कमज़ोर बना दिया है। ज़ाहिर है कि तीर्थयात्रा अब पुराने ज़माने की अपेक्षा ज्य़ादा महत्वपूर्ण हो गई है। अगर हम लक्ष्य के रूप में इस तीर्थयात्रा को देखें, तो करने के लिए यह सबसे उत्‍तम चीज़ है।
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नए आयामों की चाबी हैं मंत्र

मंत्र का आशय ध्वनि से होता है। आजकल आधुनिक विज्ञान इस पूरी सृष्टि को एक कंपन मानता है। अब जहां कही भी कंपन होगा, वहां ध्वनि तो होगी ही। इसका मतलब है कि यह संपूर्ण सृष्टि एक प्रकार की ध्वनि या कई ध्वनियों का एक जटिल मिश्रण है। यह भी कह सकते हैं कि संपूर्ण सृष्टि विभिन्न प्रकार के मंत्रों का मेल है। इन में से कुछ मंत्रों या ध्वनियों की पहचान हो चुकी है, जो अपने आप में चाभी की तरह हैं। अगर हम उनका एक खास तरह से इस्तेमाल करें तो वे जीवन के अलग आयाम को खोलने में सक्षम हैं, जिनका अनुभव हम अपने भीतर कर सकते हैं।

मंत्र कई तरह के होते है। हर मंत्र शरीर के किसी निश्चित हिस्से में एक खास तरह की उर्जा जागृत करता है। बिना जागरुकता के किसी आवाज को केवल बार-बार दुहराने से दिमाग में सुस्ती छा जाती है। किसी भी ध्वनि के लगातार उच्चारण से मन सुस्त हो जाता है। जब आप पूरी जागरुकता के साथ उसकी सही समझ के साथ मंत्रोच्चारण करते हैं तो वह एक शक्तिशाली साधन बन सकता है। एक विज्ञान के रूप में, यह एक शक्तिशाली आयाम है। लेकिन आज जिस तरह से बिना किसी आधार या बिना आवश्यक तैयारी के लोगों को मंत्र दिए जा रहे हैं इससे बहुत नुकसान हो सकता है।

हर मंत्र शरीर के अलग-अलग हिस्से में एक खास तरह की उर्जा पैदा करता है। मंत्रों का आधार हमेशा से संस्कृत भाषा रही है। संस्कृत भाषा ध्वनि की दृष्टि से बेहद संवेदनशील है। लेकिन जब अलग-अलग लोग इसे बोलते हैं तो हर व्यक्ति अपने एक अलग अंदाज में बोलता है। अगर एक बंगाली कोई मंत्र बोल रहा है तो वह अपने अंदाज में बोलेगा। इसी तरह एक तमिल भाषी उसी चीज को दूसरे ढंग से कहेगा। अगर कोई अमेरिकी इनका उच्चारण करेगा तो वह बिल्कुल ही अलग होगा। इन मंत्रों के सटीक उच्चारण की अगर सही ट्रेनिंग न दी जाए तो अलग-अलग भाषाएं बोलने वाले लोग, जब अपने अंदाज में मंत्रों को बोलेंगे तो उच्चारण के बिगडऩे का खतरा रहता है। हालांकि इस तरह की ट्रेनिंग बेहद थका देने वाली होती है। इसे सीखने के लिए जिस धैर्य, लगन और जितने समय की जरूरत होती है, वह आजकल लोगों के पास है ही नही। इसके लिए जबरदस्त लगन और काफी वक्त की जरूरत होती है।

दरअसल, अध्यात्म की दिशा में मंत्र एक बहुत अच्छी शुरुआत हो सकते है। सिर्फ एक मंत्र ही लोगों के जीवन में बहुत कुछ कर सकता है। मंत्र किसी चीज की रचना के लिए एक प्रभावशाली शक्ति बन सकते हैं, लेकिन ऐसा तभी हो सकता है कि जब वे ऐसे स्रोत से आएं, जहाँ यह समझ हो कि ध्वनि ही सबकुछ है। जब हम कहते हैं कि ‘ध्वनि ही सबकुछ है’ तो हमारा मतलब इस सृष्टि से होता है। अगर मंत्र वैसे स्रोत और समझ के उस स्तर से आएं तथा उनका संचारण अगर पूरी तरह शुद्ध हो तो मंत्र एक प्रभावशाली शञ्चित बन सकते हैं।
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हर भाषा की जननी है संस्कृत

संस्कृत एक यंत्र है। यंत्र का क्या मतलब है? देखो, यह माइक्रोफोन यंत्र है। सौभाग्य से यह बोल नहीं सकता, लेकिन जो कुछ भी मैं बोल रहा हूं, उसकी यह आवाज बढ़ा देता है। अगर यह बोलने वाला यंत्र होता और मैं जो कहना चाहता, उसकी बजाय यह कुछ और कह देता तो यह मेरे लिए एक अच्छा यंत्र नहीं होता। आप किसी चीज को यंत्र तभी कह सकते हैं, जब आप उसे उस तरीके से इस्तेमाल कर पाएं जैसे आप करना चाहते हैं।

तो हमने कहा कि संस्कृत भाषा एक यंत्र है, महज संवाद का माध्यम नहीं। दूसरी ज्यादातर भाषाओं की रचना इसलिए हुई, क्योंकि हमें हर चीज को एक नाम देना पड़ता था। इनकी शुरुआत कुछ थोड़े से शब्दों से हुई और फिर वही शब्द जटिल होकर बढ़ते गए। लेकिन संस्कृत ऐसी भाषा नहीं है, जिसकी रचना की गई हो। इस भाषा की खोज की गई है। हम जानते हैं कि अगर हम किसी दोलनदर्शी में कोई ध्वनि प्रवेश कराएं, तो हम देखेंगे कि हर ध्वनि के साथ एक आकृति जुड़ी है। इसी तरह हर आकृति के साथ एक ध्वनि जुड़ी है। इस अस्तित्व में हर ध्वनि किसी खास तरीके से कंपन कर रही है और खास आकृति पैदा कर रही है। बचपन में एक बार मेरे साथ एक घटना हुई। मैं कुछ लोगों की ओर ध्यान से देख रहा था। वे लोग बातचीत कर रहे थे। शुरू में मैंने उनके शब्दों को सुना, फिर केवल ध्वनि को। कुछ समय बाद मैंने देखा कि उनके चारों ओर कुछ विचित्र सी आकृतियां बन रही हैं। इन आकृतियों में मैं खो गया। मुझे इनसे इतनी हैरानी और खुशी हो रही थी कि मैं लोगों को गौर से देखते हुए और बिना उसके एक भी शब्द को समझे हमेशा के लिए बैठा रह सकता था। दरअसल, मैं शब्दों को सुन ही नहीं रहा था।

संस्कृत ऐसी भाषा है जिसमें आकृति और ध्वनि का आपस में संबंध होता है। उदाहरण के लिए अंग्रेजी में अगर आप ‘son’ या ‘sun’ का उच्चारण करें, तो ये दोनों एक जैसे सुनाई देंगे, बस वर्तनी में ये अलग हैं। आप जो लिखते हैं, वह मानदंड नहीं है, मानदंड तो ध्वनि है क्योंकि आधुनिक विज्ञान यह साबित कर चुका है कि पूरा अस्तित्व ऊर्जा की गूंज है। जहां कहीं भी कंपन है, वहां ध्वनि तो होनी ही है। इसलिए एक तरह से देखा जाय तो पूरा अस्तित्व ध्वनि है। जब आप को यह अनुभव होता है कि एक खास ध्वनि एक खास आकृति के साथ जुड़ी हुई है, तो यही ध्वनि उस आकृति के लिए नाम बन जाती है। अब ध्वनि और आकृति आपस में जुड़ गईं। अगर आप ध्वनि का उच्चारण करते हैं, तो दरअसल, आप आकृति की ही चर्चा कर रहे हैं, न सिर्फ अपनी समझ में, न केवल मनोवैज्ञानिक रूप से, बल्कि अस्तित्वगत रूप से भी आप आकृति को ध्वनि से जोड़ रहे हैं। अगर ध्वनि पर आपको महारत हासिल है, तो आकृति पर भी आपको महारत हासिल होगी। तो संस्कृत भाषा हमारे अस्तित्व की रूपरेखा है। जो कुछ भी आकृति में है, हमने उसे ध्वनि में परिवर्तित कर दिंया। आजकल इस मामले में बहुत ज्यादा विकृति आ गई है। यह एक चुनौती है कि मौजूदा दौर में इस भाषा को संरक्षित कैसे रखा जाए। इसकी वजह यह है कि इसके लिए जरूरी ज्ञान, समझ और जागरूकता की काफी कमी है।

यही वजह है कि जब लोगों को संस्कृत भाषा पढ़ाई जाती है, तो उसे रटाया जाता है। लोग शब्दों का बार बार उच्चारण करते हैं। इससे कोई अंतर नहीं पड़ता कि उन्हें इसका मतलब समझ आता है या नहीं, लेकिन ध्वनि महत्वपूर्ण है, अर्थ नहीं। अर्थ तो आपके दिमाग में बनते हैं। यह ध्वनि और आकृति ही हैं जो आपस में जुड़ रही हैं। आप जोड़ रहे हैं या नहीं, सवाल यही है। तो संस्कृत भाषा इस तरह से बनी, इसीलिए इसका महत्व है और इसलिए यह तमिल को छोडक़र लगभग सभी भारतीय और यूरोपीय भाषाओं की जननी है। तमिल संस्कृत से नहीं आती। यह स्वतंत्र तौर से विकसित हुई है। आमतौर पर ऐसा भी माना जाता है कि तमिल संस्कृत से भी प्राचीन भाषा है। बाकी सभी भारतीय भाषाओं और लगभग सभी यूरोपीय भाषाओं की उत्पत्ति संस्कृत से ही हुई है।

संस्कृत भाषा के संबंध में बहुत कुछ भ्रांतियाँ लोगों के मन में रहा करती हैं । जैसे संस्कृत भाषा कठिन भाषा है, संस्कृत भाषा सीखने के लिए रूप रटने पड़ते हैं, संस्कृत भाषा तो पुरानी भाषा है , संस्कृत भाषा सीखने से कोई व्यवसाय प्राप्ति , धन प्राप्ति नहीं होती है आदि..... 

परंतु जब संस्कृत भाषा के गुणों को हम जान लेंगे तब हम निश्चित ही संस्कृत से प्यार करने लग जाएंगे । जैसे – करेले का नाम सुनते ही सभी मुँह बिगाड़ लेते हैं और करेले को कडुआ कह कर दूर कर देते हैं , परंतु जैसे ही करेले के गुणों को जान लेते हैं तो सभी करेले कि सब्जी बनाकर , करेले का रस निकाल कर या फिर कच्चा करेला भी खाने तक को तैयार हो जाते हैं। 

आइए हम संस्कृत के गुणों को जानें 
अँग्रेजी भाषा में Cloud शब्द बादल के लिए प्रयुक्त होता है। cloud के समानार्थी शब्द अँग्रेजी भाषा में नहीं मिलता है। परंतु संस्कृत भाषा में यह व्यवस्था है 
जल के समानार्थी – नीर , अम्बु , वारि , तोय , सलिल आदि हैं 
जल के समानर्थी शब्दों के पीछे आप “द” लगाते चले जाइए और आप “बादल” के समानार्थी बना लेंगे जैसे – नीरद , अम्बुद , वारिद , तोयद , 
क्योंकि “द” का अर्थ है देना , देने वाला बादल हमें पानी देते हैं अतः पानी के संस्कृत शब्दों के पीछे “द” लगाईए और बादल के समानार्थी बनाइये। 
जल के समानर्थी शब्दों के पीछे आप “ज” लगाते चले जाइए और आप “कमल ” के समानार्थी बना लेंगे जैसे – नीरज , अम्बुज , वारिज , तोयज , 
क्योंकि “ज” का अर्थ है पैदा होना कमल पानी में पैदा होता है अतः पानी के संस्कृत शब्दों के पीछे “ज” लगाईए और कमल के समानार्थी बनाइये। 
जल के समानर्थी शब्दों के पीछे आप “धि” लगाते चले जाइए और आप “सागर” के समानार्थी बना लेंगे जैसे – नीरधि , अम्बुधि , वारिधि , तोयधि , जलधि आदि  क्योंकि “धि” का अर्थ है धारण करना समुद्र जल को धारण करता है अतः पानी के संस्कृत शब्दों के पीछे “धि” लगाईए और समुद्र के समानार्थी बनाइये। 

संस्कृत से प्यार करिए , संस्कारवान बनिए , संस्कृत की रक्षा करिए ।

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By sharing your misery, it doesn't reduce. By not sharing your joy, it reduces. Share your problems only with the Divine, not with Tom, Dick, or Harry - that just increases the problem. Share your joy with everybody.

Darren: How do you help people who share their misery with you?
Guruji: I have a thousand and one ways. Often it happens that when they share their problem with me, it is immediately resolved. Other times it requires some patience. Just know that all will be taken care of.

Mary: How do we help people who share their misery with us?
Guruji: Listen to others, yet don't listen. Because if your mind gets stuck there, not only are they miserable, you also get miserable.

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DEPENDENCY AND FREEDOM

When we came to this planet, we were dependent. Somebody had to change our diapers, someone had to feed us when we were hungry. We did not have the ability to grab things and eat what we wanted, we didn’t even know what to eat, what not to eat. Somebody had to take care of us. All that we knew was to cry when there was a need. From day one of your arrival, you are dependent. 

And when we become very old, we can't do many things alone. We need help; we are dependent again. Even in between these two - old age and infancy, we are dependent, only we don’t realise. We are dependent in so many ways on so many people. We are dependent on teachers and professors, on doctors. We are dependent on people who render different services. 

Life is a long story of dependency, but the inner struggle is to become free. What can bring you freedom? That is knowledge. It’s only wisdom that can uplift us from a sense of utter helplessness. Physical, intellectual, emotional dependency can be helped through wisdom or spiritual experience.

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Story : बहुत समय पहले की बात है एक विख्यात ऋषि गुरुकुल में बालकों को शिक्षा प्रदान किया करते थे . उनके गुरुकुल में बड़े-बड़े रजा महाराजाओं के पुत्रों से लेकर साधारण परिवार के लड़के भी पढ़ा करते थे। 
वर्षों से शिक्षा प्राप्त कर रहे शिष्यों की शिक्षा आज पूर्ण हो रही थी और सभी बड़े उत्साह के साथ अपने अपने घरों को लौटने की तैयारी कर रहे थे कि तभी ऋषिवर की तेज आवाज सभी के कानो में पड़ी ,
” आप सभी मैदान में एकत्रित हो जाएं। “
आदेश सुनते ही शिष्यों ने ऐसा ही किया।
ऋषिवर बोले , “ प्रिय शिष्यों , आज इस गुरुकुल में आपका अंतिम दिन है . मैं चाहता हूँ कि यहाँ से प्रस्थान करने से पहले आप सभी एक दौड़ में हिस्सा लें .
यह एक बाधा दौड़ होगी और इसमें आपको कहीं कूदना तो कहीं पानी में दौड़ना होगा और इसके आखिरी हिस्से में आपको एक अँधेरी सुरंग से भी गुजरना पड़ेगा .”
तो क्या आप सब तैयार हैं ?”  ” हाँ , हम तैयार हैं ”, शिष्य एक स्वर में बोले . 
दौड़ शुरू हुई .  सभी तेजी से भागने लगे . वे तमाम बाधाओं को पार करते हुए अंत में सुरंग के पास पहुंचे . वहाँ बहुत अँधेरा था और उसमे जगह – जगह नुकीले पत्थर भी पड़े थे जिनके चुभने पर असहनीय पीड़ा का अनुभव होता था . 
सभी असमंजस में पड़ गए , जहाँ अभी तक दौड़ में सभी एक सामान बर्ताव कर रहे थे वहीँ अब सभी अलग -अलग व्यवहार करने लगे ; खैर , सभी ने ऐसे-तैसे दौड़ ख़त्म की और ऋषिवर के समक्ष एकत्रित हुए।

“पुत्रों ! मैं देख रहा हूँ कि कुछ लोगों ने दौड़ बहुत जल्दी पूरी कर ली और कुछ ने बहुत अधिक समय लिया , भला ऐसा क्यों ?”, ऋषिवर ने प्रश्न किया।

यह सुनकर एक शिष्य बोला , “ गुरु जी , हम सभी लगभग साथ –साथ ही दौड़ रहे थे पर सुरंग में पहुचते ही स्थिति बदल गयी …कोई दुसरे को धक्का देकर आगे निकलने में लगा हुआ था तो कोई संभल -संभल कर आगे बढ़ रहा था …और कुछ तो ऐसे भी थे जो पैरों में चुभ रहे पत्थरों को उठा -उठा कर अपनी जेब में रख ले रहे थे ताकि बाद में आने वाले लोगों को पीड़ा ना सहनी पड़े…. इसलिए सब ने अलग-अलग समय में दौड़ पूरी की .” 
“ठीक है ! जिन लोगों ने पत्थर उठाये हैं वे आगे आएं और मुझे वो पत्थर दिखाएँ “, ऋषिवर ने आदेश दिया .
आदेश सुनते ही कुछ शिष्य सामने आये और पत्थर निकालने लगे . पर ये क्या जिन्हे वे पत्थर समझ रहे थे दरअसल वे बहुमूल्य हीरे थे . सभी आश्चर्य में पड़ गए और ऋषिवर की तरफ देखने लगे .  “ मैं जानता हूँ आप लोग इन हीरों के देखकर आश्चर्य में पड़ गए हैं .” ऋषिवर बोले।  “ दरअसल इन्हे मैंने ही उस सुरंग में डाला था , और यह दूसरों के विषय में सोचने वालों शिष्यों को मेरा इनाम है। 
पुत्रों यह दौड़ जीवन की भागम -भाग को दर्शाती है, जहाँ हर कोई कुछ न कुछ पाने के लिए भाग रहा है . पर अंत में वही सबसे समृद्ध होता है जो इस भागम -भाग में भी दूसरों के बारे में सोचने और उनका भला करने से नहीं चूकता है .

अतः यहाँ से जाते -जाते इस बात को गाँठ बाँध लीजिये कि आप अपने जीवन में सफलता की जो इमारत खड़ी करें उसमे परोपकार की ईंटे लगाना कभी ना भूलें , अंततः वही आपकी सबसे अनमोल जमा-पूँजी होगी । “

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SPIRITUAL PRACTICES

All the problems that you face in life are because you attach too much importance to events. The events grow bigger while you remain smaller.  Imagine you are riding a motorcycle on a busy road and in front of you there is a vehicle emitting exhaust fumes. You have three options. You can remain behind the vehicle, complain and somehow bear with it. You can slow down or wait, allowing the vehicle to move far ahead. Or you can use your skill, overtake the vehicle and forget about it. 
As in the first option, most of you stick on the events and are miserable, inhaling fumes throughout your journey. In the second option, you do not get permanent relief, as another bigger vehicle might move infront of you. Running away from events is not a permanent solution.  Wise people use their skill to surmount the event. If your vehicle is in perfect condition, skill is effective. Conditioning the vehicle is sadhana, practice, and skill is the grace of the master. 
The mistakes you have made in the past have made you humble; you need not make mistakes in the future to become humble.

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” People always say health is the most important thing but how many people live by this belief?

Ten Tips From A Shaolin Monk On How To Stay Young

1) Don’t think too much. Thinking takes energy. Thinking can make you look old.

2) Don’t talk too much. Most people either talk or do. Better to do.

3) When you work, work for 40 minutes then stop for 10 minutes. When you look at something all the time, it can damage your eyes and also your internal organs and peace.

4) When you are happy, you need to control your happiness, if you lose control then you damage your lung energy.

5) Don’t worry too much or get angry because this damages your liver and your intestines.

6) When you eat food don’t eat too much, always make sure you are not quite full as this can damage your spleen. When you feel a bit hungry then eat a little.

7) When you do things, take your time, don’t hurry too much. Remember the saying “Hasten slowly you will soon arrive.”

8) If you only do physical exercise all the time and you never do Qigong this makes you lose your balance and you will become impatient. You lose the Yin of your body. Exercise balances the Yin and the Yang.

"Yin And Yang", (राजो गुण/ तमो गुण)  is used to describe how seemingly opposite or contrary forces are interconnected and interdependent in the natural world; and, how they give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another. Many natural dualities (such as light and dark, high and low, hot and cold, fire and water, life and death, and so on) are thought of as physical manifestations of the yin-yang concept.

9) If you never exercise, just peace, meditation, soft training, Qigong, then this doesn’t give you Yang energy so you use up your Yang energy.

10) Shaolin Gong Fu gives you everything. The purpose of our training is to balance our Yin and Yang. How many hours is not important. It’s down to knowing what your body needs.

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THE USEFULNESS OF FEAR

Nature has put an amount of inbuilt fear in all living beings. This fear makes life protect itself. Like salt in the food, a little bit of fear is essential for people to be righteous.
Fear of hurting someone makes you more conscious.
Fear of failure makes you more keen and dynamic.
Fear moves you from carelessness to taking care.
Fear moves you from insensitivity to sensitivity.
Fear moves you from dullness to alertness. 
Total lack of fear may lead to destructive tendencies - a distorted ego knows no fear. Neither does one with expanded consciousness! Whereas the ego dismisses fear and moves in a destructive manner, the wise one acknowledges fear and takes refuge in the Divine.
When you are in love, when you are surrendered, there is no fear. Ego, too, knows no fear. But there is a difference, like that of heaven and earth, between these two types of fearless states.
Fear makes you righteous; fear brings you close to surrender; fear keeps you on the path; fear keeps you from being destructive. Peace and law are maintained on the planet because of fear.
A newborn child knows no fear - it totally relies on its mother. Whether a child, a kitten or a bird, when they start becoming independent they experience fear which makes them go running back to their mothers. This is inbuilt by nature to sustain life.

So, the purpose of fear is to bring you back to the source!
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Doing Versus Happening

Only one who is 100 percent in doing can recognize the happening.
The healthiest way to apply this knowledge is to see the whole past as happening and the present as doing. If you see the past as doing, then ego and regret come along. And when you see the present as happening, then laziness and unawareness set in. If you apply the doing for the future, it brings tension and worry. If you apply the happening for the future, it might bring some confidence and also lethargy. 
Let the happening be for the past. Let the doing be for the present. And the future is a mix of both. 
The wise will see the doing in happening and the happening in doing simultaneously. Are you confused now? (Laughter) 
One who does a lot of work will never say he did a lot. When someone says he did a lot of work, that means he can do more. He has not done enough. 
Work does not tire you as much as the doer ship does. All the talents you have are for others. If you have good voice, it is for others. If you are a good cook, it is for others. If you write a good book, it is for others. What do you do? You don't? sit and read your own book! If you are a good carpenter, it is for others. So all of your talents are useful for others. If you are a good surgeon, it is for others. You cannot do your own surgery. This is interesting. If you are school teacher, it is for others. You cannot teach your own children; they don't? listen to you anyway. So all your work and talents are for others.
If you don't? make use of your talents, they will not be given to you again.

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Selfish or Useful 
Your friends are a gift, your partner is a gift to you. Honor them rather than utilizing them.
In life there are two position you take. Whatever you get, either you make use of it; that is your selfishness. Or you be useful towards it (or them) and be grateful; this shows your expanded level of awareness. This shows that your consciousness is now matured. You are matured. You are not just making use of somebody but you are trying to be useful towards them.

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कौन ज्यादा कीमती ??
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एक बहुत छोटी सी बच्ची ने अपनी मम्मी से पूछा - "क्या आप कभी अपना रुपयों से भरा पर्स नौकरानी के पास छोड सकती हैं" ??  मम्मी ने लिपस्टिक लगाते हुए बोला - पर्स और नौकरानी के पास !! बिल्कुल नही !! मतलब ही नही !! सवाल ही नही !!  फिर बच्ची ने बहुत मासूमियत से पूछा, " फिर "मुझे" नौकरानी के पास कैसे छोड सकती हो ??

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Sharing another interesting story that Sri Sri narrated once, which teaches us how we can overcome the misery that arises from attachment... Story: Once a father gave his home in the valley to his son and asked him to take care of the home. The father then left for a long pilgrimage, trekking in the mountains. After a month or so when he came back, he saw his house in the valley burned down. The house was not there, it was burned down into ashes and the father became miserable and started crying: "Oh my god everything is gone, everything!" By the time his son returned from the field he saw the father beating his chest and yelling, crying and howling. He said: "Dad what happened?" His father said: "What happened?! See my life saving, everything is gone, everything is finished, my home is burned down!" The son then said: "Dad I already sold the house and I got double the money. A very good offer came so I immediately sold it. Someone came from another town and they were willing to pay double the money and they wanted the home so I sold the home dad." Immediately the tears changed and a smile came on the father’s face. The situation was the same, it was the same house. First he felt it was 'my' house burned down, but now it was somebody else’s house and then he said: "Anyways it is an old house, maybe it was purposefully burned down, now they can build a nice new bungalow." He started talking the other way around. 'Me' is lost in 'mine', because of that there is misery. Sorrow is because of the sense of 'mine'. Instead of mine, mine, you go back to 'me'. Ask yourself: "Who am I?"

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Story :  One day Buddha was walking through a village. A very angry and rude young man came up and began insulting him. “You have no right teaching others,” he shouted. “You are as stupid as everyone else. You are nothing but a fake.”  Buddha was not upset by these insults. Instead he asked the young man “Tell me, if you buy a gift for someone, and that person does not take it, to whom does the gift belong?”  The man was surprised to be asked such a strange question and answered, “It would belong to me, because I bought the gift.”  The Buddha smiled and said, “That is correct. And it is exactly the same with your anger. If you become angry with me and I do not get insulted, then the anger falls back on you. You are then the only one who becomes unhappy, not me. All you have done is hurt yourself.” “If you want to stop hurting yourself, you must get rid of your anger and become loving instead. When you hate others, you yourself become unhappy. But when you love others, everyone is happy.”

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Q: Why do we become sick?

Ans: Sickness happens because of three reasons. One is when we violate the laws of nature, and the second is a carryover of karma. The third thing is, it is genetic. If you want to add the fourth, it could also be because of the environment. Now if we violate the laws of nature, and not just you, even if others violate the laws of nature, it affects your body. And the nature of the body is such, it has some resistance power but sometimes it gets sick. Not everything comes only because of lack of spirituality, or in spite of spirituality. Even if a person is very spiritual, if he overeats, he will get sick; tummy will ache. If he fasts for too many days he will also get sick. So we should not violate laws of nature. The candle is burning, it doesn’t say, ‘Okay, he’s a nice person I will not burn him and he’s a bad person, I’ll burn him.’ Anybody who puts their hand in the fire, will get burnt. Sometimes spiritual teachers also get it because they violate laws. They get so engrossed in doing things or caring for people, they may violate laws. Or if they eat too much or don’t eat (they may violate laws). These days we have high electromagnetic waves in the society. Everywhere there is wifi, everywhere there are towers. The body doesn’t have enough resistance power to it, so it falls prey to it. Though people are keeping their mind uplifted, they are emotionally strong, but body has less resistance power many a times. The food we eat, the environment, all this affects us. If a person burns a plastic, it produces enough dioxide to harm 1,000 people. A small plastic bag, if burnt creates so much dioxide. Environmental purity and care for environment has only started now, just a few years ago, before that nobody bothered about it. Isn’t it? People just used harmful chemicals. We use harmful chemicals in our soaps, in our detergents, room fresheners. We put so many insecticides. All these chemicals also affect our human health. It doesn’t immediately show up, it shows up after 20 years. Everyday day we put these chemical soaps on our body, and our body keeps absorbing them. Nobody told us about it. Our skin absorbs these chemicals. You know our skin is the largest organ of our body. Like you don’t put chemicals in the eye, you shouldn’t put chemicals on the skin also. In ancient India, there is a saying that only what you put inside, you should put outside. Do you drink your lotion? If you can’t drink it, you can’t put it on your skin also. That was the saying. They used to use turmeric, lemon, natural oils, all that on the skin. Nowadays they don’t use them so much but they used to put pesticides everywhere. The grains on which pesticides are put, you leave them and no even an ant will eat it, no bug will eat it. No bugs eat it and you eat it! These are some of the reasons for our health not being too good. Many times the allopathic medications we take only translate one disease to another disease. They really don’t cure. You have some liver problem; it will become a heart problem. If you have heart problem and you take medication it will affect the kidneys, and you take something for kidneys, your pancreas will be out. I think now the world is going back to Ayurveda which says, go to the root cause of the disease and attend to that. Ayurveda is the ancient form of medicine. They say only medicine will not work, along with that meditation is also needed. Both should be there. 

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How to Overcome Depression
Depression is nothing but an electrical sensation in some part of the brain. To counter that, sing, dance, and serve. Don’t sit and think about yourself all the time.
There is a mantra to get depressed. Do you know what that is? There is a great technique I can tell you on how you can get depressed. Anybody can get depressed with this mantra. Just sit and think, ‘What about me? What about me? What about me?’   If you don't want to be depressed, instead of thinking, ‘What about me?’ See what is it that you can do, how you can blossom, how can you express the rest of your life.

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Q: I love my soul mate so much, that I fear that it does not leave much room for me to love the Divine.

Ans: I have no experience of a soul mate. Why not? I don’t think there is any hindrance. If you have a soul mate, and you found some new love, you can as well see that as a gift to you. Your friends are a gift, your partner is a gift to you. Honor them rather than utilizing them. In life there are two position you take. Whatever you get, either you make use of it; that is your selfishness. Or you be useful towards it (or them) and be grateful; this shows your expanded level of awareness. This shows that your consciousness is now matured. You are matured. You are not just making use of somebody but you are trying to be useful towards them.

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Handling Cheating in a Relationship
Not everybody who loves cheats, but anyone who cheats, it is because they love their wife or husband very much. Do you know why? If there is a fight between truth and love, love will win, truth will fail. Cheating means what? Telling lies. Why does a husband lie to his wife? Because he is afraid he might lose the love of his wife. So, because of the fear of losing love, he tells lies. 
If the husband or wife assures them, ‘Come on, whatever you do, I accept you as you are. Just tell me the truth. If you have any weaknesses, I will forgive you. In spite of your weaknesses, I am going to love you the same'. If this assurance is given, they will tell the truth.

Why is it that nobody cheats on a mother? Because you know that mother’s love is not going to change. So you go and tell your mother. You don’t want to tell your wife, why? If you tell her, she may not take it easily. She may stop loving you. The same is with the husband too.  You will go and confess to your father because you know that you father will scold you, or shout at you, and then tomorrow your father will accept you. But a husband? 
Someone can even confess to their son, but with the husband there is a little fear. What is that fear? May be I will lose their love.  It is deep inside. It is a psychological fear. The fear of losing love is more than telling the truth.  Create that space for your spouse, ‘Look, whatever you have done, tell me and I will understand you, accept you and I am with you’. 
There are many couples who share all their mistakes very honestly, and they still love each other. There they don’t cheat. They simply tell their weaknesses and wrong doings. But if they hide something, it is only because they fear of losing (the love of their spouse). So, just know this. If there is a competition between love and truth, truth is going to lose.
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Give a chance for miracles to happen. It can happen when you are hollow and empty. When both, your heart and mind are pure and clear, then positive energy rises in you. But if your mind is full of negativity, and if you are stressed out; or if you are complaining about this and that, and grumbling and griping, then no miracle is possible. Even regular work which has to happen does not happen. Simple things do not happen because energy is low and negative. When energy is high, what you think is impossible starts happening.
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Q: Guruji, it is said that wisdom is to have a smile on your face even in bad times. Should I put on a fake smile? I don't feel very good when I do this.

Ans : There is a proverb in America which says, ‘Fake it till you make it’. When in difficult times, you experience pain. I am not saying you should never express the pain that you are experiencing, and fake it with a smile, no! If you feel there is a problem and if you feel like crying, cry, but snap out of it. What makes you snap out of it is knowledge. What does knowledge do? It brings back the smile. I want to tell you an incident. A lady had lost her teenage daughter and she was in a lot of pain. But with the help of knowledge, she could get over the pain. Then she started going to parties, but it was pinching her. She was feeling guilty, ’I am smiling. How can I simply smile when my daughter has died just a month ago?’ With the help of knowledge, she realized that anyway she had to go, so she went; she was sick and she died. But now when she smiled she felt guilty. She didn’t feel any pain anymore for the death of her daughter, and for that she felt guilty. I have seen many people like this. This is where I say, drop all these hesitations and listen to your heart. With knowledge you will be able to smile, and it comes to you naturally. This is the wisdom, i.e., everybody one day is going to die. I am going to die and you are going to die. Everybody will die. That inner strength and conviction (that comes to you when you realize this) will bring back the smile. When smile comes, don’t say, ‘Oh I shouldn’t be smiling!’ Wisdom is something that brings the natural smile within you even in tough times. When everything appears to be falling apart, why should you lose your smile? In everybody's life this happens. Some things that you like happen, some things you don’t like also happen. This is part of life. When such things happen, why do you have to blame yourself and get bogged down? Wisdom gives you the strength to smile even in tough times, and that is a real smile. Everybody anyway smiles when everything is fine. What is the great thing about it? A baby smiles when there is no pain, but an adult can smile even when there is little pain. Wisdom is important in everybody’s life. It is wisdom that uplifts you. It is wisdom that makes you smile even in very tough times.
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Achieving Perfection
If your intention is right, then the right action follows. Now in any action, there can never be 100% perfection. But your intention can always be perfect. If you see anywhere in the world, there is always some imperfection in the best of action. So there is always a little room for improvement in any action. Whatever I used do, my mother would always tell me, ‘This could have been done in a better way’. So in that sense, growth is a part of our evolution. Growth is another word for improvement, so there is always some scope for improvement in action. But if you ask about the Being (referring to the Self), or the state of being, it is complete. Like the Sun is complete, but its light would appear to be less or more if the clouds are there in the sky. But you can never foolishly mistake day for night.
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Just believe in God, know that  He is there and He will take care of everything for you. He will protect you at all times.
If God brings you to it, He will bring you through it. Happy moments, praise God; difficult moments, seek God; quiet moments, worship God, painful moments, trust God; every moment thank God
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Q: Guruji, How to deal with wishes? I wish to have a child, which after many tries is still unfulfilled.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Whether a desire is fulfilled or not, just be happy. Don’t cling onto a desire. Because whenever a desire is fulfilled, it leaves you in the same place that you were before the desire arose. Not all desires can be fulfilled. Some get fulfilled, some don’t. But you should take one stance. You know what that stance is? Come what may, I’m going to be happy. Whether single or married, I’m going to be happy. There are more chances for you to be married, if you want to. And when you’re already married, then that’s fine. Still be happy. Whether you have a child or not, just be happy. The one decision that you need to make in life is 'I will not allow any situation to bog down my happiness'. Got it? You have to take that decision, nobody else can take it for you.
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Life a Destiny or Free Will?

Life is a combination of both (destiny and chance). There is a little role played by our destiny, and a greater part played by our free will also. So it is never either this or that alone. Like for any moment, there is both a past and a future also. There is not a single moment that does not have a past or that does not have a future.
So, the past is destiny, the future is free will, and the present moment is so beautiful. If you see things this way, then you are very wise. But if you think the other way around – that the past was free will, the future is destiny and the present is miserable, it is not a wise thing to do. It shows a lack of wisdom. Then life becomes miserable.
Can you see a moment without a past? It is impossible. Can there be a moment without a future? Again it is impossible. So if you ask me, 'Is life the past or the future', I would say that it is a combination of both.
Life is a combination of both (destiny and chance). There is a little role played by our destiny, and a greater part played by our free will also. So it is never either this or that alone. Like for any moment, there is both a past and a future also. There is not a single moment that does not have a past or that does not have a future.  So, the past is destiny, the future is free will, and the present moment is so beautiful. If you see things this way, then you are very wise. But if you think the other way around – that the past was free will, the future is destiny and the present is miserable, it is not a wise thing to do. It shows a lack of wisdom. Then life becomes miserable. 
Can you see a moment without a past? It is impossible. Can there be a moment without a future? Again it is impossible. So if you ask me, 'Is life the past or the future', I would say that it is a combination of both.
Destiny and free will are not two different things. They are two sides of the same coin. What do you call as destiny? When your thoughts are not in alignment with what is happening, then you call it as destiny. When your thoughts are in alignment with what is happening, then you call it as free will. It all depends on the direction of your thoughts.
How can you choose the direction of your thoughts? You can do that only when your mind is clear and settled. All that we need to do and achieve in our life is: purity in our heart, clarity in our mind and skill or dexterity in our actions.
We need to bring spontaneity in our action. That is what is necessary. Got it? 
As a child we had all three, did we not? Children are very clear in their minds. Have you ever seen the way they look at you? They look directly at you. Their mind is very clear. If you look into their eyes, you will see that the mind is very clear. But as adults we seem to have lost the purity of the heart and the clarity of our mind.
A child’s mind is very clear and its heart is very pure. It is so spontaneous. We can do the same thing when we grow up also. So you need to have dexterity both in your action and expression.
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When you have come to this world, do something good that benefits everybody. Do not stay entangled in thinking only what you will get. There is nothing for you to take away from this world. There is nothing to take away from here. You have come to give. You have come here to do something beneficial for everybody. And you should all get together in doing service
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Q: Guruji, My boss is very adamant. We have had many conflicts. How do I handle him?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Very easy. Say whatever you want to say the other way around. I want to tell you a small story.

This person’s wife was very adamant. She would always do the opposite of what the husband said. The husband was desperate and went to a Swami for advice. The Swami whispered something in his ear. Three months later, the Swami was in the same city and saw that this person looked very happy. The husband thanked the Swamiji and said, “Your trick worked!”Swamiji had advised him to say the opposite of what he wanted! For example, if he wanted fried potatoes, he should tell his wife that he did not want fried potatoes. It’s all about how to handle the mind. Do not talk when communication breaks down. Tough people increase your own skills.

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How to Handle Mistakes

Never mind all the mistakes you did in the past. Whatever mistakes you have done, you have learnt some lessons from them. There is no point in regretting this moment for the last moment which is already gone. Resolve right now, 'This moment I am innocent, I am pure, I am part of the light, I am love', and think what you can do in the next moment. So, you have to pull yourself up again and again, to see (keep your attention on) the future. Depression is always thinking about the past and then fearing the future. Spiritual knowledge is that which gives you the strength for the future, 'Nothing to worry, only the best can happen to me because my heart is clean, and my mind is clear'.
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Smiling Through Tough Times
Wisdom is something that brings the natural smile within you even in tough times. 
When everything appears to be falling apart, why should you lose your smile? 
In everybody's life this happens. Some things that you like happens, some things you don’t like happens. This is part of life. When such things happen, why do you have to blame yourself and get bogged down? 
Wisdom gives you the strength to smile even in tough times, and that is a real smile.
Everybody anyway smiles when everything is fine. What is the great thing about it? A baby smiles when there is no pain, but an adult can smile even when there is little pain.
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Overcoming Unhappiness
You know, you cannot be unhappy without a reason, but you can be happy without any reason. This is the wisdom that we must bear in mind, 'I can be happy without any reason!'
If I am unhappy I will search for the reason, why am I unhappy. You have to do it, nobody else can do it for you.
This is when you find that your unhappiness is due to physical dependency, or emotional dependency; or physical want or emotional want. It is your physical and emotional wants that make you unhappy.
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question - First we need to know how to handle the emotional wants. What are emotional wants?
Answer-    Appreciation from people. Let others appreciate me, let others praise me; adoration, and appreciation. Then the inability to handle the altercations of others. These are the emotional needs.
Also, thinking, 'Oh I am so good, I always think good about everybody, but everyone thinks bad about me'. This is the sort of emotional mess that we create for ourselves. We only create this, nobody else creates it for us. Knowledge and meditation is the way to get out of this. Knowledge and meditation helps you to overcome the emotional dependency.
When you have overcome that, then physical dependency has its own parameters.
Work hard, have confidence in your talents and abilities, and then reduce your wants and desires.
If your wants and desires are high up there, and your physical ability is low, then you will be unhappy. See that your wants and desires match your physical ability.
Suppose you don't have hard teeth and you want to crack the shell of a walnut using your teeth, I tell you, the shell will not crack but your teeth will definitely crack. So you must first see how strong your teeth are, accordingly you should choose.
If my physical ability is only to lift 15 kilos, I should not venture to lift 50 kilos. I should limit myself to 15 kilos, and then slowly rise up to lift more by working towards it.

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If you want to know your past life, look at your present condition.
If you want to know your future life, look at your present actions.

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 A clever person watches others, but he watches with wisdom, not with ignorance. If one watches with wisdom, once can learn much. But if one watches with ignorance, one can only find faults.

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 When another person makes you suffer, it is because he suffers deeply within himself, and his suffering is spilling over. He does not need punishment; he needs help. That’s the message he is sending. 

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"If you focus on results, you will never change. If you focus on change, you will get results." -Jack Dixon

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 "An incense stick burns itself and spread's fragrance.
A wick burns itself and spreads light.A tree absorbs all the heat and gives shade.A cow eats all the garbage and gives the most nutritious milk.

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Q: Guruji, When you say I am different from the body I understand that, but when you say I am different from the mind I do not understand that. How am I different from my mind?

Sri Sri  : Okay, now are you your thoughts or the thoughts are yours? Mind means thoughts. Thoughts come and they go. So many thoughts come and so many thoughts go. Many you agree and many you disagree and those you agree, later on, you disagree with those same thoughts, isn’t it? You sit and write down all your thoughts. Later on, you will find, 'oh, am I the same person who is thinking all this?' You would wonder, correct? So, in that sense, you are different from your thoughts. Thoughts come and go but they come in you and go in you. Its like clouds in the sky. The sky cannot be clouds. But when there are so many thoughts, and it is so cloudy, you feel, 'oh sky means clouds'. But if you have had a taste of clear sky, a few moments of open sky, then you see, 'oh the sky is beyond the clouds, not just the clouds' and that is the beauty in the sadhana. In the very first Sudarshan Kriya, what happens? The very first time you experience few moments without anything. Just a few moments; that opened up your awareness through the clouds. You think the clouds are what the sky is, but you got a little hole, and you could see the blue sky beyond the grey clouds right? isn’t this your experience? Now you turn back and see what were you before you did your first course, first meditation or Sudarshan Kriya? Who were you before that? Who are you now? You will to be able to relate yourself to the person you were ten years ago. See, that very clearly shows you are not the thoughts. What you think as a person ten years ago is just a bundle of thoughts, the mind. But you got a little space, glimpses outside the mind into the no mind or the space that we are; and meditation is being that no mind. But sometimes thoughts come and they go and skillfully between them you just stay centered.

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 Q: I am not able to take a proper decision with respect to my career. I want to become an IAS officer but I really am not enjoying what I am doing presently. How to deal with it?

A.There is no profession that you will really like. A career is that which puts money in the bank and a hobby is that which takes money from the bank. Say that you want to become an IAS officer, I guarantee that two years down the line you will start thinking why did I take this up. There are certain things that you will have to do, so stick by the choices you have taken. You do a job so that you will have money to do the things which you like. 

Whenever there is a choice in career, just go to whoever is paying you the maximum, but when it comes to hobby you be choosy. Don't look for job satisfaction... it doesn't exist.

On the other hand, there are certain careers which could make people happy but I've got one question for them "if you have a billion dollars in your bank, would you still be continuing with whatever you are doing?". If your answer is no, then you are not doing the right thing.

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Q:  How do I stay enthusiastic while doing things when many people or the people you care about criticize you often?

A: Firstly, know that when you are criticized, it means you are doing something. If you are just sitting around doing nothing, no one will criticize you. They might ignore you or scold you, but they can’t criticize you. 

Secondly, because you are doing something, it means there are flaws. As Guruji says, there is no action that doesn't have flaws. Some flaws are apparent and some are not.

Thirdly, if there are flaws, feel good that you are coming to know about them, otherwise they may not go away.

And fourthly, yes, it's tough to be able to take criticism and still not lose your enthusiasm. The best way is to invite criticism and then play with it.

Life's a game, not to be taken too seriously... Relax, Smile and Breathe!
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Question: "I have been told that a human soul can often take one to two million years to find liberation. Is it true that by doing Kriya and meditation every day, this liberation can be obtained even in one lifetime?

 " Sri Sri: "Everything works with some strange karma. You must lift your eyes and look into this realm. There is a beautiful couplet that says, ‘This world has all the wealth, all that is needed, but one who has no karma, cannot get it.’ So, whether you get something or you don’t, it all works with some strange karma. Recognition, money, power, relationship, health; everything depends on some law in creation. When good times come, your worst enemy starts helping you, and when bad times come, even your best friend behaves like an enemy. All these things happen due to some very strange karma. An intelligent person doesn’t get caught up in all this. He still keeps putting in his effort, and keeps moving on. You do whatever is needed to put in an effort, and then you leave it. Do you know Lord Krishna went three times to stop the Mahabharata (narrative of the Kurukshetra War) war? When someone asked Lord Krishna, ‘If you knew that the war was going to happen anyway, why did you go three times for peace negotiations? All three times your peace negotiations failed, then why did you go?’ That is a very valid question. Lord Krishna said, ‘If I had not gone, then the question would have come that you could have done peace negotiation, why didn’t you do it?’ You have your duty towards your karma, whatever you need to do, you do it! Suppose the peace negotiation would have succeeded, then the whole Mahabharata would have finished, and the Gita would never have come! The immortal song of the Divine (Bhagavad Gita) would never have come into existence! So, very well knowing that the Gita had to come, and the war had to happen, still Lord Krishna went for peace negotiations. This is because it is in our dharma, our nature. We should keep putting in our efforts and not get attached to the consequences or the results. This is very subtle because the mind gets sucked into maya ‘illusion’ in some form or the other. The mind needs to be hammered into knowledge. It can easily slip out of these four pillars of knowledge, Viveka(discrimination), Vairagya (detachment), self-control, and honoring what you have (not grieving about what is not). And then, wanting liberation! So keep on hammering the knowledge back, again and again! Suddenly, you will find it is all there, anyway. Now, when you slip, then also remember that is another level. Knowing all this, suppose you still get caught up (in maya), then don’t feel bad that you got caught up; even that is part of nature. Don’t say, ‘Oh, I did not apply knowledge!’ or ‘Either someone else is wrong, or I am wrong!’ Whether unpleasant things are happening or pleasant things are happening, I am a witness to it. And my mind is getting caught up in it, even that is a part of the happening; I am witness to that also. This is how you rise above the situation! You have to practice pranayama, meditation and knowledge for a long time. The whole life itself is a practice, and when you practice with honor, then this knowledge becomes well-founded in you."

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यदि शब्दों का हेर फेर करो तो वह असत्य है। यदि शब्दों से खेलो तो वह मज़ाक है। यदि शब्दों पर निर्भर रहो तो वह अज्ञान है पर यदि शब्दों के परे चले जाओ तो वह ज्ञान है।

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Q: How to keep on loving without expecting. How is it possible? In love expectations arise and if not fulfilled, it hurts.

Ans- : Yes, you will have to go through these gymnastics. If you have wisdom, you don’t have to go through the pain to learn. When there is lack of wisdom, you go through pain, but you will come out of it in sometime, don’t worry. This is why it is important for one to have a larger context to life. When you have a larger context, all these trivial things don’t really bother you. They are all like waves on the surface of the ocean, they rise and fall; like ripples in the lake, they rise when the wind blows, and when there is no wind, there are no ripples. 
So, have a bigger context. That is atma gyaan (knowledge of the self); nothing can shake me, I am much bigger than the emotions, I am much bigger than the world around me, people around me. Their praise and their blame doesn’t matter. I am much bigger than all this! This awareness uplifts us, then one does not drown in the ocean of emotions, and hurt. There are four ways to look at hurt. 
1. Someone who has hurt you is pained. They have scars, they are unhappy and miserable. They can only share what they have. They are hurt and they are sharing the hurt with you. 
So with those people who are inflicting pain on you or hurting you, which you think they are doing purposefully, in fact it is because they do not have happiness inside them. They don’t have joy, they don’t have peace. They have pain and they are wounded so they are causing you hurt. 
So, for a wounded person what is required? Compassion. So you have to be compassionate on those who hurt you, because they are hurt and wounded themselves. This is number one.
2. Those who are causing hurt to you are ignorant. They don’t have a broad vision of life. They don’t know themselves and they don’t know what they are doing. They are ignorant and arrogant. You can only feel sorry for them and hope that someday they will become intelligent. They don’t know that their actions are hurting others, and you wish for them to be more sensitive.
3. It is just karma. You had to get this hurt and if not this person then someone else would have given it to you. We must have caused some hurt to someone in the past so nature is bringing it back to us now. When you know that it's just the karma being repaid, you feel very settled. Isn’t it?
4. It is being done to make you strong. Nature is bringing this to you so that you become strong; so that you discover the strength and power within you. 
Usually in the pandals (temporary shelters/structures made of fabric and bamboo poles). After putting a pole in its place they shake the pole to see whether it is strong enough or not. Hurt is just that, to see whether you are well established in yourself, whether you are in wisdom or not.
Every hurt is trying to shake you, to see whether you are strong or not. It tests your strength. It is to make you stronger. There are two major things that you feel when you are hurt - lack of communication and lack of understanding. Another reason for hurt, if you want to count is being over sensitive to irrelevant or ephemeral things. Events are all ephemeral, they are all moving. Everything is changing. You don’t need to become over sensitive, ‘Oh he said this thing to me, she said this thing to me!’ In Kannada, there is a proverb that says, ‘God has not put a bone in the tongue; the tongue rolls, moves in all directions.’ Never mind what words come out of people’s mouths. This is a big issue in the world today. The root cause of so many diseases and conflicts is that we don’t know what we should put in the mouth, and we don’t know what should come out of the mouth! People keep stuffing all sorts of things in their mouths. In this little hole, tons and tons of food goes in, and volumes and volumes of garbage come out; this is the misery of the world. Again, a poet in Kannada said, ‘All the fun people have in the world, is only by words!’ Jokes and comedy happens because of words, all the conflicts and hatred is also through speech. It is speech that entertains, makes you laugh, and again, it is speech that creates divisions in the society, and hatred amongst people.

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"How to tolerate pain" An aging master grew tired of his apprentice’s complaints. One morning, he sent him to get some salt. When the apprentice returned, the master told him to mix a handful of salt in a glass of water and then drink it. “How does it taste?” the master asked. “Bitter,” said the apprentice. The master chuckled and then asked the young man to take the same handful of salt and put it in the lake. The two walked in silence to the nearby lake and once the apprentice swirled his handful of salt in the water, the old man said, “Now drink from the lake.” As the water dripped down the young man’s chin, the master asked, “How does it taste?” “Fresh,” remarked the apprentice. “Do you taste the salt?” asked the master. “No,” said the young man. At this the master sat beside this serious young man, and explained softly, “The pain of life is pure salt; no more, no less. The amount of pain in life remains exactly the same. However, the amount of bitterness we taste depends on the container we put the pain in. So when you are in pain, the only thing you can do is to enlarge your sense of things. Stop being a glass. Become a lake.” —

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There are two things, Pravritti and Nivritti (action and relaxation). 
When you are in action, effort is needed and when you are in relaxation effortlessness is needed. They go hand in hand. But we do it the other way around. When we are relaxed, we keep thinking, wanting to act, and when we are in action we say, 'It’ll happen if God is willing'. 
This is not what one should do.

When you are acting then give it your 100%, put self-effort. Once you have done that, then sit and let go. You make an effort to go to a clinic and lie down at the massage table. But once you’re on the table, then the masseur does the rest. In the same way, make an effort to come and sit for meditation, but once you sit for meditation, then no effort is required. Know that you’re being taken care of.

If you have a train to catch you need to make an effort, you cannot sit at home and keep saying that you have to catch the train. But once you are in the train, there is no point in running up and down the aisle, it is not going to take you any faster. Once you are in the train, you have to sit down and relax. So, both effort and effortlessness are required.

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Q: when somebody blames me, they take away my negative energy. If this is true, why is it that I feel low or I feel very bad at the moment?

Answer: You know, somebody is talking negative about you, they are dumping garbage. You should not hold your gunny bag and catch it. When somebody is dumping garbage, you simply move away from there. Don't take it in. If they say something negative about you, there are two reasons: one is, either they are doing it out of jealousy, or they are doing it because they love you very much. They are good friends with you and want the best for you, so they show your negative points or your weak points. So if they say something negative, either you thank them because they took the guts and said it, which others normally don't want to say to you. If someone criticizes you, they gathered the courage to do so, and they put their friendship at risk to criticize you. So thank them. And if they are just saying it out of jealousy, just forget about them and move on with a smile.

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Forgive and Forget

Something happened in the past, it was to happen and so it happened. Accept the past and don’t brood over it, move on. Suppose you have committed some mistake, you have insulted somebody and that person holds on to it for so long, even after you have asked for forgiveness from them a million times, what do you do if that person still doesn’t forgive you? Somebody has been wrong to you and you also have been wrong to someone. Don’t you seek forgiveness and move on? You don’t want someone to hold on to your mistakes for your whole life, isn't it? If the person forgives you, moves on, understands your position, how do you feel? See the other person in the same way.

You being in victim consciousness and having rage and anger, does it help you any way to carry on your life? Absolutely not! Waste of time, waste of your potential and life. So we must forgive, forget and move on. You hurt someone in the past and somebody hurt you, that account is closed now. Finished! There was some problem that has to come, and that has come and our own foolishness made it happen. Now it is finished and move on. This is the line of thinking that you must adopt and that makes us feel better.

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4 WAYS TO LOOK AT HURT:

1. Someone who has hurt you is pained. They have scars and are unhappy. They can only share what they have. They are hurt and they are sharing the hurt with you. You think they are doing it purposely, but, in fact it is because they do not have happiness inside them. They are wounded. What is required for a wounded person? Compassion. You have to be compassionate to those who hurt you, because they are hurt and wounded themselves. 

2. Those who are causing hurt to you are ignorant. They don’t know that their actions are hurting others. They are ignorant and arrogant. You can only feel sorry for them and hope that someday they will become intelligent. Wish for them to be more sensitive.

3. It is just karma. You had to get this hurt and if not this person then someone else would have given it to you. We must have caused some hurt to someone in the past and Nature is bringing it back to us now. When you know that it's just karma being repaid, you feel settled. 

4. It is being done to make you strong. Nature is bringing this to you so that you become strong, so that you discover strength and power within you.

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Why do people come to spirituality or to a Master?!
Krishna says 4 types of people come… or are welcome.

1. Aarti – The troubled one 
2. Arthaarthi – The Material Seeker
3. Jigyaasu – The Curious One
4. Gyaani – The wise one. 

Through the spiritual knowledge (of the mind or the Self) or through spiritual techniques (yoga, pranayama or meditation) or through the unconditional grace of the Guru…

1. The troubled ones find relief from their physical or mental afflictions, from his sorrows. 

2. The material seekers can get what they want either because they become more innovative, creative, productive, and efficient or they become plain lucky by the blessings and grace.

3. The curious ones get their curiosity satisfied or kindled more to find out further about life, the universe and everything. 

4. The wise ones are the mature responsible smart achievers who are already doing a lot to explore their own Self and contributing to the society. They repose in their contentment and freedom and continue doing what needs to be done to make our world a better place. 
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Which spiritual path or Guru to choose?!
The Spiritual path – Anything that works! Explore till you feel at home somewhere. Once there, go deep into it, be a sincere seeker, give it time and your honest attention. Don’t continue spiritual shopping (If you want to strike water, dig 100 ft at the one right place, not 5 ft in 20 places). Follow one and respect the others. 
The Spiritual Guru - Our scriptures give 5 signs of an enlightened master. By whose presence, physical or at a feeling level, the following happen:
1. Dukh Skhay – Sorrow diminishes
2. Sukh Aavirbhaav – Joy wells up in life for no reason.
3. Gyaan Rakshaa – Knowledge is nurtured and nourished
4. Sarva Guna Sampanna – All latent talents come up
5. Samriddhi – Abundance of everything, material and spiritual.
The 5 signs also connect well with why someone comes to a spiritual path or to a Master.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Q: Which aspects of education should I concentrate on as an educator?
Ans: Education is not just stuffing information into brain. It is all about communication, learning to manage one's own emotions, and putting forth the creativity that people understand and make use of.

Big Mind: You know there is a Big Mind and a small mind. Sometimes the Big Mind wins over the small mind and sometimes it is the other way around. When the small mind wins over, it is misery and when the Big Mind wins, it is joy. Small mind promises joy and leaves your hand empty. Big Mind may bring resistance in the beginning but fills you with joy. The word Guru means great. Jaya means victory. Deva means one who is fun-loving, playful, light. One who is playful is often not dignified and when one is dignified, he is often not playful. Jai Guru Dev is victory to the Big Mind in you that is both dignified and playful. That is what Jai Guru Dev means: "Victory to the Greatness in you." You do not say victory or hail to the Master as he has won over already. You say victory to your own Self, your own Mind, which is being veiled by the small mind.

Own mind:  The most unreliable thing in your life is your own mind. One minute, it likes s omething, another minute it likes something else. So, your mind goes all over the place. So, you cannot rely on your own mind. Once you know this, you will laugh, you will smile. Never mind: why should I control someone else’s mind when my mind itself is not under my control? Isn’t it? 

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Q: What is the significance of vibhoooti (holy ash)?
ANS-: Don't give too much importance to it. In India, ashes are a reminder to you that this body will turn into this state one day in the future. That reminder at once helps someone to get out of worry and miseries, so you become free. And faith. Your faith and honoring it gives power to the ashes. It is done with some mantras and chanting, it is done in the agama tradition, it has more vibration. This has to be substantiated.

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Freedom and discipline are opposites and complementary. The purpose of defense is to protect freedom. But is there freedom in defense? Do soldiers have freedom? No, they are totally bound, not even allowed to put the right foot down when told the left foot. Their steps are measured and they are unable even to walk with a natural rhythm. There is total lack of freedom in defense. That which has absolutely no freedom is protecting the freedom of the country! So it is with the police; they protect the freedom of the individual. But are they free?

Discipline protects freedom. They both go hand in hand. Understand this and go ahead in life. You have some restrictions and it is this that allows you freedom. You can choose to focus either on freedom or discipline, and this makes you happy or unhappy. Freedom without discipline is like a country without a defense.

Fences should be fences; a fence cannot be built all over the property. If your fence is all over, how can you build on the property? That state of high absolute freedom is too difficult; we need to be very practical. Yes, there is a state of unlimited bliss, the freedom Advaita talks about. The Advaita Knowledge has been totally misused or used according to one's own fancies and conveniences.

There must be awareness in the mind, love in the heart, and righteousness in action.

Love and fear are two possibilities that put you on track. The Jewish religion put fear as the main thing so that life could improve. Nature induces fear at a certain age in a child. When a child is very young, it gets 100 percent time and love of the mother. The child has no fear. As the child grows more independent it becomes cautious. Nature brings in an iota of fear. With freedom, the child starts walking carefully. Fear of losing freedom also brings defense. The purpose of defense is to eliminate fear.

On this path Knowledge is your Freedom and also your Defense.
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Q: Guruji, do children pay for their parents karma?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Say your parents make a lot of property and you enjoy that. So when you enjoy their good actions, you also enjoy their bad actions. There is also a way to get over it. Meditation. Chant Om Namah Shivaya. Do some charity for the poor people. Then all pitru dosha will go. Have good feelings for them. They are ancestors - thank them. We do disha paranam in course. It is so powerful. A portion of your meditation reaches to that side. That is why sometimes when people sit for meditation, they do not feel anything at all. It is like paying back a debt.

The literal meaning of Karma is action. Strange are the ways of Karma. The more you understand it, the more amazed you become. It brings people together and also separates them. It causes some to be weak and some to be strong. It makes some rich and some poor. All the struggles in the world, whatever it may be, are the bondage of Karma. Karma cuts across all logic and reasoning. This understanding will lift you from getting stuck to events and personalities and help you in your journey to the Self. Learn how ‪#‎meditation erase Karma 

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Q: Gurudev, is there any limit to forgiving or asking for forgiveness? Is there any governing principle for this?

Sri Sri: Forgiving someone shows one’s compassion. Asking for forgiveness shows that you recognize your mistakes, and that you resolve not to repeat them in the future. Now to say, 'Only if he/she asks me for forgiveness will I forgive them', this is of a lower form of forgiveness. The highest form of forgiveness is to realize that the other committed a mistake out to ignorance, and having a sense of compassion for them. Forgiving others with a sense of compassion is the best for of forgiveness. 
Cultivating this sense of forgiveness in oneself is a mark of being noble in character.

When you have an argument or a fight with someone at home, don’t take too long for the smile to come back. Your fight should be like one of the modes on the cell phone, i.e., audio, video, camera. Your cell phone cannot afford to be stuck in the camera mode for long, it should be able to switch faster, right?
In the same way, the mind can be in the fight mode, but the next minute, change the mode!

" DAILY SUTRA "--->>>Thousands of events may come and create doubt within you, despite that if you move on with courage and strength, then one can say that you have true faith. A person with strong faith will never face failure or have any downfall in life.

To think fresh you need to be free of impressions. Let go if all impressions right this moment and be hollow and empty.

Remove all anger and attachment from your mind so that the mind is unburdened; because whoever you think of, you imbibe their qualities. So empty your mind through meditation Be in knowledge
of the Self and you will begin to feel light and happy. Just relax, and watch how miracles will begin to unfold inyour life 

The test of your peace is only when there are obstacles. Be thankful for obstacles.

Like water flows down and fire goes up. This is a physical law, the more contented you are the more you will get. And the more lack you feel, that lack will grow. Just wake up to this reality. ~

Yad Bhaavam Tad Bhavati: When I feel life is full of problems, I seem to attract them. When I felt lack, I invited it in every aspect of my life. Your mind does not understand difference between anxiety fear or desire. Any anxiety materializes as if u desired it! 'The Secret' is a rehash of ancient Indian expression 'Yad Bhaavam Tad Bhavati'. What you feel is how you create your world! Identify this truth in your life!

Confusion is thinking that more joy would come from the other way, when you have already chosen one way. Whichever you choose, you think the other will give you more joy. Joy is not going to be better from anything. YOU are the source of Joy!
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 Dealing with Egoistic Behaviour

If someone is egoistic, then he is so because of his ignorance and lack of understanding. If you get angry at his ignorance and foolish behavior, then you too will become ignorant and foolish like him. That is why we should have compassion towards them. You should realize that such a person is behaving this way because he does not have knowledge or the awareness, and is sinking due to his own ego. Knowing this will at least save our mind from anger. Otherwise you also start burning with anger from within and lose all your peace of mind due to someone else’s foolishness. What is the benefit of that? 

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Handling Harrasment

You have to see the situation and respond accordingly. If someone is constantly bothering you, then either you move away from there, or you confront that person. I will not advise you to bear someone’s harassment forever. Try to change the situation with intelligence, with tact, with strength and with love. You cannot do this only with power. If someone says that ‘I will change the situation only using physical power, it is not possible. There is a need for tact and intelligent action also. Love can melt even the hardest stones. With love you can bring the change. 

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Spirituality And Celebration

Celebration is the nature of the spirit. Any celebration has to be spiritual. A celebration without spirituality does not have any depth. And silence gives the depth to celebration. Some people think being silent is spirituality. E.g. Many meditators feel that laughing, singing and dancing are not spiritual. Some people think only celebration is spirituality. E.g. In some parts of the world, such as in rural India or Africa, celebration means loud music; there is no silence at all. Spirituality is a harmonious blend of outer silence and inner celebration ; and also inner silence and other celebration! 
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Yatha Drishti Tatha Srishti

One’s thoughts and feelings both determine one’s karma. The way one perceives people and things around himself, they will appear in that very same way to him. People will appear to you the way you perceive them to be. If you see a person as a friend, he will come across as a friend to you. If you consider someone as your enemy he will behave like an enemy to you. Then they will appear as your enemy to you even if they do not do anything. It is said – ‘Yatha drishti tatha srishti’ (Meaning: As is one’s vision, so does the world appear to him). 
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Being In The Present Moment

Do you know when do you worry about the future? 
You worry when there is no faith or confidence about it. When you have faith that your car will be there outside (in the parking lot), that is why you are sitting here without worry. Isn’t it? If you have fear that somebody will tow your car away then though you are sitting here, but your mind will go on worrying about your car outside. Having faith frees you from worrying about the future. And forgiving and forgetting your past will free you from (the regrets of the) past. When does our past overwhelm us? When we do not forgive people or ourselves for whatever happened in the past, then the past becomes a heavy burden on us, and we stay stuck in the past. When we are fully in present moment, only then do we go deep within. That is meditation. 
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Balance of Sensitivity and Sensibility

The moment you scold somebody, even if you are giving them a productive or creative suggestion, they push it away. The purpose of your shouting is to bring sense into that person, and when by shouting it is not achieved, what is the use?
You can't expect a donkey to run like a horse. You sit on a donkey and expect it to run like a horse, that is not possible. So accept a donkey as a donkey and a horse as a horse. Where is the anger then? This is sensitivity - being sensitive to the feelings of others and their needs. This is the quality of the heart.
There are people who are too sensitive. They lose their logic. They become an emotional soggy noodle. This is no good either. You need the perfect balance of sensitivity and sensibility. 

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Dealing with Arrogance

If they are arrogant, there are two ways to deal with them. 
One is to just neglect them and ignore them. They will react very fast. The other is to boost their ego. Say, ‘You are so good, so nice. How can you be so efficient? I need to get some training from you.’ Then they will become happier with you. Got it? 

You don’t lose anything by giving them a few compliments. One should praise fools and get the work done. Good people anyway do the work whether you praise them or not. Arrogant and foolish people succumb to praise, so you praise them and get your work done. 

Their arrogance will bring them suffering, why should you be worried about it? And it is good because the suffering will bring them back to their senses. Suffering also has its own significance. 

Those times have gone where one would break a person’s arrogance and show them the path of knowledge. Nowadays, it is difficult to break anyone’s ego. The ego somehow manages to show itself. So it is better that you praise them, they will automatically learn. 

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Knowledge Sheet

Simple or complex?

Life is utterly simple and yet most complex. You have to simultaneously attend to both facets. When life appears most complex, turn to simplicity; simplicity brings peace. When you are peaceful, attend to the complexity; that will make you more skilful. If you are only with simplicity, it makes you lazy and dull; growth is not there. Being only with complexity makes you angry and frustrated; then there is no life at all. The intelligent ones skilfully balance these two and rejoice in both. When you recognise both the simplicity and the complexity of life, you’ll be skilfully peaceful! White is the pure simplicity. Colours are the complexity of life. When your heart is pure, your life becomes so colourful. Vikram: Guruji, you are all white and yet so colourful... Pramila: Like our Knowledge, which is profound yet so simple!

Four Levels of Speech

There are four levels of speech - 

1. Vaikhari is the level of speech that we are all using now to communicate. 
2. Madhyama is subtler than Vaikhari, where you don’t need language to communicate, but just intentions or feelings help to communicate. It is like you would communicate with people who don’t understand your language or with babies who throw tantrums to tell you that they are hungry or sleepy, or communicate through different signs. Madhyama is subtler than speech, even animals and trees use Madhyama to communicate. 
3. Pashyanti is where you simply recognize the knowledge without words or language. It is like deep intuition. Sometimes, when you go deep into meditation, you may hear some chanting or words, or you might get some ideas. When ideas come without language, it is called Pashyanti. A seer would recognize a little bit of that, from somewhere deep. All scientific discoveries happen from the Pashyanti level. 
4. Para, beyond Pashyanti, is the universal language or the source of all expressions. In deep Samadhi or total stillness, you are connected with Para. No verbal communication is needed. Actually, real communication happens from Para, it is just the vibration that communicates. All the other talking that we do, from the Vaikhari level, is only to keep the mind engaged. The mind cannot capture communication from the level of Para, only the soul understands it. Para is the language of the soul. The mind needs some entertainment; the entertainment of the mind is Vaikhari, the language that we speak.
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Three Levels of Spiritual Practices

There are three levels of spiritual practices. The first one is called Anva Upaya. The second is Shakta Upaya, . and the third one is Shambava Upaya. . Shiva, Shakti and Anva. All practices in the world can be categorized into these three categories. So, Anva is the lowest; means the very beginning. All the japa, mantras, poojas, yogasanas, breath control, everything comes under Anva Upaya. They are called Upayas, which means remedies. Above this is Shakta. Shakta is only mental, i.e., inside. There is no outer thing, no mantras in it. It is the effect of the meditative state, that is Shakta Upaya. When you do singing, meditation, pranayam and Sudarshan Kriya (Kriya begins with Anva Upaya but then), it leads toShakta Upaya, when you are just energy. Here there is no effort, there is no doing. Just a little bit effortless effort is there. Then the Shambava or Shiv Upaya is just pure awareness. Just a state of awareness. Shambava Upaya means that there is no means (way) to do it, it is just a happening, it will just happen. Even then it is still called an Upaya. So the purpose of Anva and Shakta Upaya is to go to Shambava Upaya wherein you become one with Shiva (the fourth state of consciousness). There is no two, there is no doer, you are Shiva, and that is Shambava Upaya.
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What Is Seva (Service)?

 If you do something for which you don’t want anything in return, but you just want to be useful in life, that is called seva (service). An action for which you are not expecting a reward, but you are happy just by doing an action, which would bring benefit to others, that is seva. An action for which you do not want any benefit for yourself, but instead you want to be beneficial to others, that is seva.
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An Astonishing Secret

We call something astonishing or wonderful which is not ordinary. But if the same event happens every day, then we do not call it a wonder because we do not find anything really astonishing about it. When you suddenly see something different to what you usually see, then you say ‘Oh! This is surprising! This is a wonder’. So a secret is also like that. It is out of the ordinary. A mango tree will only bear mangoes as fruits. This is no secret. A coconut tree only bears coconuts. Is there anything secret about that? But if one day you see a mango growing from a coconut tree, then it is a wonder. You would say, ‘This is a miracle! It is such an astonishing thing to happen. It is extraordinary. If you observe carefully, many astonishing events are happening all the time and everywhere in this creation, and throughout Nature. But you need a special kind of vision to be able to see these astonishing events.We have to change the way we see things (meaning to shift towards a broad vision). That is called Yoga. It is said, when you see this creation from the perspective of Yoga, you find everything so wondrous; so astonishing. And even more astonishing than this is how everything in this creation is a manifestation of that which cannot be seen; a manifestation of the unmanifest consciousness! Everything in this creation has come out of empty space.
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Dealing With Negative Thoughts

 Negative thoughts come due to several reasons:
1. Lack of good circulation in the body, and improper proper breath or not enough oxygen supply to the brain.
2. Lack of good bowel movement; if you are constipated, you can notice negative thoughts coming.
3. Low prana or no energy.

The remedies for this is:
1. Improve circulation. Get up, do your exercise, sing, dance, do yoga, meditation, pranayama; all these will help.
2. Do some cleansing once or twice a year. If you have not done Sri Sri Yoga Level II, where you learn to drink water and cleanse your whole system through Kunjal (cleans the throat and the stomach) and Shankha Prakshalan (cleans the complete elementary canal, from mouth to anus), you should do it.
When you drink a lot of water and do a set of exercises, the water will cleanse your body and flush out the entire system. This is the reason why yogis advised these kriyas since ancient times. It has helped many people to clear thoughts.
3. Keep good company. Company can also pull down your energy.

In spite of all this, if you get negative thoughts, never mind, as they come they will go. If you get scared of them, they will stay with you. If you are not scared, they just leave you.

I am not discouraging you from praying. Prayer can precede meditation. You can pray, and then sit and meditate. 
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Prayer

Prayer is a spontaneous thing. It happens on two occasions, when you are very grateful, and you are expressing your gratitude. And when you are totally helpless, and you beg for help.

Prayer just happens, you cannot cultivate it. At the most what you can do is, look back at your own life and see where you were and how you have moved. Alternatively, look at other people’s lives and see how many people on this planet are miserable, and how fortunate you are! This gentle awareness will make you prayerful or thankful.

Prayer is the beginning, and meditation is its culmination. Prayer is thanking God for all that is given, and meditation is to be there, ready to listen to what God is saying. Meditation is a matured form of prayer. 

Narayana is not a person. Narayana is the consciousness which is present in the human nervous system. Narayana is made up of light; a body that is made up of light. When you become totally hollow and empty, you incorporate that light body within you, and that is Narayana. That is why when anyone sees a monk in India they say 'Namo Narayana', I adore the Narayana in you.
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Boredom

When you have a passion or a commitment in life for a bigger cause, boredom will vanish. Boredom comes because you are only focused on your own pleasure. If you are only thinking about yourself, about how much more joy or pleasure you can get for yourself, you will get bored, because you will not get it anywhere. However, when your heart beats for others, for something higher, something finer and something more meaningful, then there is no boredom. The commitment level in our life indicates our enthusiasm or our boredom. If our commitment is low, boredom is bound to set in. If our commitment is higher, then boredom will never be anywhere around the corner. Boredom will never be anywhere near you. 
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Strength of a Relationship

The strength of a relationship lies in its ability to accommodate rough patches. How well you handle it gives you skills. See the situation as an opportunity to learn to adapt, to be accommodating. Excel in exhibiting your character rather than changing the other person. 
If the relationship comes from a space of giving rather than need, it is a good quality relationship.
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Dependency

Some people are emotionally dependent, some people are intellectually dependent, and some people are physically dependent. There are many different levels of dependency. Instead of focusing on the relative and changing aspect of life which is always dependent, put a little more focus on that aspect inside you which is independent, which is eternal and which is the same throughout.

There is something within you which is continuous; the same all through. Put more attention there and you will find that life is becoming more powerful, more independent, more fulfilling and more satisfying. All these aspects, all that you aspire will continuously blossom. It will blossom without effort.
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Who and what is Narayana?

Now where is Narayana?
Narayana is in a king, because a king is the collective consciousness. He is not supposed to think about himself but he has to think about the entire country and all the people, and maintain them. So because of the love and compassion that a king has for his own people, he is elevated to the level of Narayana; the pure light.

Then it is said, Vaidya Narayana. A doctor is Narayana.
A doctor while treating his patient does not think of how much he is earning. His total concern is in the well-being of the person. Narayana is in every doctor, every doctor is Narayana.

Who else is Narayana? (Audience says: The husband)
Yes, if he’s totally committed to the family, and if he is there for his wife.
The wife has to consider him Narayana! He cannot proclaim himself to be Narayana. (Laughter) The husband maintains the whole family and he doesn’t want anything for himself. He wants for everybody. So he is a Narayana.

A saint is Narayana because a saint wants the welfare of everybody. A doctor is Narayana. A selfless king is a Narayana. Guru is Narayana. A teacher is Narayana. A guest who comes over is also Narayana because Narayana comes in many forms.
Anyone who helps you in need without any selfish motive is called Apath Narayana. A Narayana who comes in when there is a problem is Apath Narayana.

There is one more term called Daridra Narayana. One who doesn’t have anything, one who is poor, he is a Narayana without money (Lakshmi).
So when you do charity, see that he (the poor man) is Narayana and do charity, and don't see him as a worm out there and do charity. So do charity also with a sense of sacredness. See even the poorest and the less fortunate ones as Narayana.

So you can see Narayana in a miserable person, Narayana in a doctor, in a saint, in the head of the family and in a king. They are all Narayana. Everywhere is Narayana.
In the Narayana Upanishads it is very beautifully said, 'Narayana is in the front, at the back, on the sides, on top and at the bottom. Narayana is everywhere!'
Narayana Parojyotih Atmanarayanah Parah

Narayana is the Brahman (divinity). Narayana is the atma (soul), the Self in you. Narayana is the light. This entire universe is existing in a milky ocean and that ocean is called Narayana. 
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Three Stages of The Evolving Mind

When we are caught up in a delusion and we are not aware of it, then we feel troubled by the people around us. This is the first stage.
When we come to know that this is all the creation of our own mind, then we feel angry with ourselves, and we feel troubled by our own mind. How many people have had this experience? You know that you are miserable because of your own mind and not due to others. This is the second stage

In the first stage, a person is caught up in delusion and is not aware that he is caught up, and so he blames the world rather than his own mind for his circumstances. And because he cannot correct the world, he starts feeling helpless, and angry. And this increases the violent tendencies in him.

Those who are at least aware that they are troubled by their own mind are slightly more intelligent than those in the first stage. Such people do not blame the world for their circumstances, or their misery. Instead, they start blaming themselves, and this is where they get stuck. They blame themselves and get caught up in feelings of guilt.

The third stage which is above these two stages, is where one is unaffected by Maya.
In this stage, a person is fully aware that everything that happens is because of Mayaor because of the mind, and he does not get entangled into it.
He knows that this is the nature of the mind, and delusion is the nature of Maya. Yet he also knows that he is not the mind, and neither is he the one trapped in delusion (Maya).
So he does not resist or interfere with the nature of the mind, and neither does he get caught in Maya. He lets both of them function the way they do.
Such wise ones know that the mind can be influenced by multiple factors.
A good example of this is the food you eat. There is a saying, ‘Jaisa Ann Waisa Mann’ (which translates as ‘You are what you eat’. Here meaning, what you eat influences your mind and your behaviour).
So the mind is influenced by the food you eat, by the environment you are in, and by the particular phase of time you may be in.
Time also has an effect on the mind. There are instances when your mind is caught up in storms of emotion because of the phase of time that you are in.
So time, food and the environment, are the three factors which influence the mind. 

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Fire

The senses are like fire. Your life is also like fire. In the fire of senses, whatever you put in burns. If you burn tyres, it creates pollution and bad smell. But if you burn sandalwood, it creates fragrance.
Celebration happens around the bonfire. Grief happens around the fire of cremation. The same fire that supports life in winter, can also destroy. One fire, like a ghee lamp, lights your way and purifies. Another fire made of toxic material creates pollution.
You are also like fire. Are you the fire that creates smoke and pollution or the flame of camphor which creates light and fragrance? A saint is like a camphor flame that creates light and the fragrance of love. He is the friend of life.
The fire that creates light and warmth and is useful is of higher quality. The fire that creates light and a little smoke as well is of medium quality. The fire that creates darkness and only smoke is of low quality. Learn to distinguish the different fires. If your senses are engaged in goodness, then you will create light and fragrance. If engaged in impurity, you create smoke and darkness. It is samyama that transforms the quality of fire in you. Next week we will discuss samyama.

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Friendship for a cause

Examine your friendships, they are often for a cause. There are several reasons for your friendships:

§ You make friendships because you have common enemies. Fear and threat to survival can bring people together. 

§ You make friendships because you have a common problem. You talk about your problems and become friends. For example, sickness, job dissatisfaction, etc.

§ People get together because they have common interests. For example, through business or a profession (doctors, architects, social workers, etc.)

§ You make friends because you have common tastes. You have similar tastes in sports, movies, entertainment, music, hobbies, etc.

§ People become friends because of compassion and service. Out of compassion and pity for someone, you become friends with them.

§ People become friends merely because of long-term acquaintance.

Brave are those who nurture friendships for only friendship’s sake. Such friendships will never die nor become soured for it is born out of one’s friendly nature. Only through wisdom can one become friendly by nature.

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Attachment and Suffering

You are eternal, but you are not aware of this, which is why you get carried away by storms of emotions – like misery, happiness. This is because you are caught up in attachment. It may be attachment towards your children, your husband or wife, your friends, or toward wealth, or anything else.

It is because you are caught in attachment, you are not able to recognize your true Self. In such moments, your situation seems to be so big to you that you are unable to see anything else.
For example, one whose mind is feverish about money can think of nothing else. He cannot think of his relationships, his friends and family, not even his own health and wellbeing. Such a person ends up losing everything because of being stuck in attachment. Brothers fight among themselves because of money. Children fight with their parents because of money.

Even attachment to religion brings misery. All suffering happens because of attachment.

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Fulfilment of the desires

Fulfil those desires which you can fulfil, and surrender those which you can surrender. Fulfilment of any desire requires effort and time. When you surrender, your desires automatically get fulfilled. Some desires are fulfilled after desiring for long time. And some are not fulfilled even then. Sometimes you find it good later on that some of your desires were not fulfilled. Have this faith that Divine knows what is best for you. Neither criticize desires nor get swayed with the desires. Is it ok? This is the middle path. As you become more aware, everything else automatically starts becoming peaceful. 

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Five sheaths to the human existence

There are five sheaths to the human existence: the environment is our first body, the physical body is our second body, prana or energy is the third body (the Chinese terminology is chi; when the prana or energy is high, there is enthusiasm, creativity. When the energy goes down, that is when depression, suicidal tendency and the tendency to harm nature and oneself arises.) So, developing this body of prana is essential. The fourth sheath is the mind, which plays an important role. The fifth is the consciousness, which plays an important role, both, in protecting the ecology and nurturing human kind. To sum it all, I would say pollution-free environment, disease-free body, confusion-free mind, inhibition-free intellect, trauma-free memory, and sorrow-free soul is the birth right of every individual. 
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Secrets of Relationship

 If in the relationship, both come from a sense of giving then there will be no problem. But if both want to take, there will be fights for sure. ‘I am here to contribute, what I can do for you?’ - your relationship will last longer with this attitude. Similarly, don’t be feverish about a relationship, just relax and you will find your relationship with people will improve and become better. If you are like a leech, clinging on to somebody and bugging them, even though you say all nice words, that person will run away from you because they can’t handle it. One aspect is to give love, and another is to know how to handle love, receive love as well. It needs only a centered, enlightened person. You have to be very much at ease with yourself. If you are at ease with yourself, everyone will be at ease with you. Just be yourself. Be natural and simple. Relationships develop naturally. If you try to build a relationship that is when you become a little artificial and unnatural. You like someone to be very honest, open, natural, unassuming with you. That is exactly what others also want from you. If you are a boss, what type of assistants or subordinates would you like? Someone who is open. And that is also what your boss wants. Don’t try hard to impress your boss, or impress your girlfriend or boyfriend. That is when everything goes wrong. The best is to be yourself, natural, to be forgiving and to be in the present moment. It makes a big difference. 
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Handling Criticism and Praise

Many times we analyse ourselves too much. We keep thinking, this is happening to me, that is not happening; or I want this, and I want that; or what I did there was so wrong, what I did here was right, etc. We get so entangled into too many thoughts about ourselves; this we should not do.

See, when the wind blows, what happens? Everything gets carried away with it, isn’t it? Everything flies away with the breeze.
So whatever happened in the past, whether good happened or bad happened, whether right happened or wrong happened, whether pleasant or unpleasant events happened, it all happened and it is all gone now. Just like how the air comes and blows everything away, in the same way, all of life’s events come and go. But what is important is that you should not get stuck anywhere, move ahead. Just become hollow and empty, and then you will be joyful.

Tell me, is there anyone who has not had any problems? Problems come in everyone’s life. Is there anyone who has not experienced happiness? Everyone, sometime or the other has experienced happiness.
Is there anyone who has not received praise? Everyone has been praised sometime or the other. Even a dog gets praised! People say, ‘What a nice dog’.
Is there anyone who has not been criticized? Everyone has been criticized at some point or the other. Isn’t it so? Everyone gets criticized.

So if anyone praises you or criticizes you, knows that it is like the air which comes and goes. They are just some passing thoughts that came and went. Thoughts arise in peoples’ minds about you and they go. Some are good thoughts and some are bad thoughts. Now when people themselves are not going to be here forever, what permanence can you attach to their thoughts? What are you going to do with their opinions, when they themselves are not going to be there forever?
So why do you worry about some thoughts from here and there? You should just keep moving on in life. Whatever happens, just keep moving ahead, like air. The air never stops at one place, it keeps moving; water keeps flowing.

Just like how nature follows certain laws, thoughts also follow a particular pattern; they come and they go. Sometimes they bring praise and sometimes criticism. So praise and criticism are part of life. You just move ahead. Don’t get caught up in it.
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Doors to heaven

The door to heaven is a broad mind that digests everything from the past, a mind that is broad enough to digest mistakes made by others. Not keeping it in our minds and chewing on it. This is called Vairagya or dispassion. Digesting the past; however it was.
Being like an elephant. Do you know elephants eat the leaves, the bark, the fruit; they eat absolutely anything from coconut leaves to bamboo to bananas. The banana is so soft, the bamboo is so hard, yet they eat and digest it all.

Similarly, in life, there are many pleasant things and unpleasant things, good people, bad people. (In my life, there are no bad people. There are only good people, who sometimes behave badly.) Thus, whatever has happened, happened, digest it all. Digesting the past brings happiness and relief in the present.

We should become strong, like an elephant; digest everything; the soft fruit and the hard bark, i.e., digest everything of the past and move on. That is called dispassion.

What happiness will dispassion not bring you? All types of happiness come to you in dispassion.
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Sign of Intelligence

If somebody says something bad, you keep thinking about it over and over again in your mind, and become restless – He did this, and that person betrayed me.
But see, they only acted in accordance with their nature!

One whose nature is to betray, will betray. What else will they do? Now by thinking about, why he did this, and why he did that to you, will only spoil your own mind. This is not a sign of intelligence.

Do you know what a sign of wisdom and intelligence is? A true sign of wisdom is realizing that good events come and go, bad events come and go, and as we move on, we come out even more beautiful from these happenings. We blossom even more. We need to stay in touch with this consciousness and keep it alive within us.

Never lose your smile for anything; never let your enthusiasm come down, just keep moving ahead.
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Handling Criticism

You know, somebody is talking negative about you, they are dumping garbage. You should not hold your gunny bag and catch it. When somebody is dumping garbage, you simply move away from there. Don't take it in.

If they say something negative about you, there are two reasons: one is, either they are doing it out of jealousy, or they are doing it because they love you very much. They are good friends with you and want the best for you, so they show your negative points or your weak points.
So if they say something negative, either you thank them because they took the guts and said it, which others normally don't want to say to you.

If someone criticizes you, they gathered the courage to do so, and they put their friendship at risk to criticize you. So thank them. And if they are just saying it out of jealousy, just forget about them and move on with a smile.
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Doubts

Only one whose doubts have disappeared can attain knowledge.
Usually we think it is the other way around. One who receives knowledge is relieved from all his doubts. Here, there are two things. First, one who gains the knowledge is relieved from all doubts – this applies to the material world; it is limited. The other is, one who is freed from doubts; meaning one whose Prana (subtle life force or energy) is very high, becomes capable of understanding knowledge at a deeper level. Such a person is one who truly knows.

We often think that our doubts can be resolved by questions and answers, isn’t it? But it is actually not so. Answering one question leads to ten other questions in the mind. One pair of question and answer gives rise to ten other new questions, and then this chain of questions and answers continues endlessly, but the doubt does not go away.
The very reason we ask questions is to clear our doubts.

Doubt means that your Prana has not blossomed fully; it has not reached its peak. The Prana has gotten stuck somewhere in the body.
When you are full of Prana, all doubts automatically disappear. That is why when you are very happy, there are no doubts in your mind. When you are deeply in love, no doubts arise in you.
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How to control the mind?

Why do you want to control the mind?

The mind always goes where it finds more happiness and more joy. Let it go!

You will find that real joy is not outside, it is inside. The mind will go everywhere outside, and when it doesn’t find joy, it will finally go in, spontaneously.
Where there is love, you don’t need to try to control the mind. Where there is interest, you don’t need to control the mind. Do you have to make an effort to love your child? No! Love for children is so spontaneous, so natural.

In the same way, when everything appears empty, the mind will go to that higher knowledge, wisdom, and energy. It is quite natural.

Handling Stress

Do you know what stress is? Too much to do, too little time, and no energy, that is called stress.
So, either you increase your energy, or reduce your work load. You obviously can’t reduce your work load, or increase the time, but you can increase your energy levels. If your energy level is higher, then you can do the job easily.

All these breathing techniques help to increase the energy levels. Just do ten minutes of pranayama breathing in the morning, and then you can go and do any work. When you come back from work, do another ten minutes.
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Dealing With Botherations

Three types of thoughts or blames bother you.
First, you have so much talent, but you are unable to use it or bring it out, you feel that you are not being used; that causes frustration in you.
Second, you think you know, but nobody understands you. This is another point of contention where you feel miserable.
Third, you feel you are lost, you should have done better, or differently; then you blame the past, oneself and everybody else around.
These three types of blames or thoughts bother you; they can pull your energy down. There could be a million reasons for you to feel down on the planet. Anything can pull you down, because things are not happening the way you want them to happen.
Using knowledge, just sail over it all, forget about it, it doesn’t matter, so what! So many people use their talents, they all died, and they all have been forgotten!
Who sits and watches Michelangelo’s paintings every day? Once you watch it, then it is forgotten. Beethoven was such a talented musician. Do you think people are sitting every day and listening to it? People listen, and then they forget.
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Dealing With Problems

Look at those who have more problems than you and you will
find your problem is nothing.
The world is all problems. Who does not have problems? That is
why I say, don’t look for any perfection here, this world is imperfect. Whatever perfection you can bring in the world, bring it, and then wash your hands and enjoy yourself.

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Settling The Mind

There is a story of Lord Buddha.

Buddha was walking with his devotees and disciples. He wanted some water and there was a pond, but just then a buffalo entered the pond and got out of the pond and stirred the whole thing, and so the clean water became muddy water.
So Buddha wanted some water from the pond, but his devotees said it has become dirty; we will find some other pond further.
Buddha smiled at them and kept walking.

There was no other pond further, then Buddha said, ‘Go back and get the water from the same pond’.
The devotees said, ‘No, it’s dirty’.
Buddha said, 'Now you go check’.

When they went back, the water had settled and they could take the water. When the water was taken in a cup, it settled down even further and clear water was on the top.
Buddha then said, ‘Mind is like this. If the mind is in a mess, wait for a while, it will settle’.

Leave the mind for a little time and it will settle. It cannot be disturbed forever. All these disturbances are momentary. Just how it has come, it will go.
Every disturbance is momentary. So nothing to be done, just give it a little time, wait, and it will settle.

That’s the same with everything in life, sometimes you have to learn to be with it and allow it to settle. If you are in a hurry for the water in the pond to settle, it won’t settle, it will get dirtier.
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Five Sheaths

The first sheath is the environment. If the atmosphere is filled with poisonous gas, can your body exist? No! Because there is air, your body can exist. So, the environment is your first body. Annarasamaya kosha, anna means food, andrasa means juicy. The outer environment is juicy; it attracts your eyes, captures your nose by fragrance, and enthralls you with sound. All this is rasa, means juicy. The environment is full of juice and food. They are also food for the body; for example, sight is food for eyes.
So, our environment, annarasamaya kosha, is the first kosha. Some people think it is the physical body, but I think it is the environment that is the first kosha.

The second sheath is the physical body, Pranamaya kosha.

The third sheath is Manomaya kosha, which is the mind, thoughts, and emotions.

The fourth sheath is Vignyanmaya kosha, which is subtler than the mind, the intuitive feelings. It is something that is beyond thought, beyond reason. There is a body inside you, from where all innovation and creativity comes from. It is from the Vignyanmaya kosha that every discovery, innovation, new art, poems, come from, and not from the Manomaya kosha.

The fifth sheath is Anandamaya kosha, the blissful body. Actually, the blissful body is much bigger than the physical body, which is why whenever you are happy you feel a sense of expansion. Isn’t it? When you are unhappy, what do you feel? You feel like you are being crushed.

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Ethics Are Universal

Ethics are universal. Ethics is that which you want others to follow as well. For example, ethics are exactly those things which you expect from others who are working under you, or are working above you. You don’t want your boss to be unethical or those below you to be unethical towards you.
When you expect a certain standard of behavior, an etiquette, integrity from people working around you, you too will not do the same things to someone else. This is common.
You don’t want your employee to lie to you. Do you like them to lie to you? No. You too follow this in your life. This is ethics. As simple as that.
Ethics is universal. There is no Japanese lie, Indian lie, or American lie. A lie is a lie. Integrity is integrity. In this sense, ethics is universal.

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प्रश्न: मैं जानता हूँ कि मैं जो कर रहा हूँ वह अनुचित है| परन्तु मैं अपने आप को रोक नहीं पता| क्यों?
श्री श्री रविशंकर: यह इस लिए कि आपको कहीं एक छोटी सी आशा है कि आपको उस में खुशी प्राप्त होगी| परन्तु जब तुम ध्यान में उस से भी बड़ी खुशी पाओगे तो आप स्वयं ही उसे त्याग देंगे| इस लिए, आपको प्राणायाम और ध्यान करना चाहिए| लाखों लोग यह कर के अपनी बुरी प्रवृत्तियां छोड़ पाए हैं| चिंता मत करो|

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प्रश्न : गुरुदेव, इस संसार में प्रत्येक व्यक्ति किसी न किसी समस्या से परेशान है। क्या हम इस दुनिया में केवल समस्याओं का समाधान करने के लिए आये हैं?
श्री श्री रविशंकर : यदि आप उन्हें समस्या मानते हैं तो वे आपको समस्या की तरह दिखेंगे। पर यदि आप उन्हें सृष्टि के खेल की तरह लेते हैं तो वो आपको एक स्वाभाविक खेल की तरह दिखेंगे।
कई बार हम अपनी समस्याओं के इतने आदी हो जाते हैं की उनके बिना हम बेचैन सा महसूस करने लगते हैं| कई बार जब कोई समस्या नहीं होती तो हम अपने लिए खुद समस्याओं का निर्माण कर लेते हैं और फिर अपने आसपास के लोगों के लिए समस्या बन जाते हैं। हमें जीवन के प्रति अपना दृष्टिकोण बदलना होगा। एक व्यापक दृष्टिकोण अपनाना होगा।
यह संसार विभिन्नताओं से भरा हुआ है और प्रतेक व्यक्ति का स्वभाव और व्यवहार एक दूसरे से भिन्न है। इस बात को समझने की आवश्यकता है।

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प्रश्न : प्रिय गुरुदेव, आप ने अनेकों बार कहा है छोड़ दो, भूल जाओ पर अगर कोई व्यक्ति वही गलती बार बार, दिन प्रति दिन करता रहे तो क्या करना चाहिए?
श्री श्री रविशंकर : आप को उनको बताना चाहिए, सिखाना चाहिए लेकिन उनको अपने दिमाग से बाहर रखना चाहिए | मुक्त रहने का मतलब चुप रहना नहीं है |
अगर कोई गलती कर रहा है और आप उसको कहोगे “ऐसा मत करो, क्योंकि इससे मुझे कष्ट होता है”, तब वे कभी भी उसको करना बंद नहीं करेंगे| उसकी जगह आप उनसे कहें कि “आप का यह गलती करना आप के लिए कष्टदेह हो सकता है” तब वे नहीं करेंगे|तब उस व्यक्ति के अन्दर कुछ हलचल होगी और तब वह आपकी बात सुनेगा| तब वह अपना रास्ता बदल लेगा| याद रखो “एक पीड़ित व्यक्ति कभी किसी दोषी में सुधर नहीं ला सकता और अगर आप किसी में कोई सुधार लाना चाहते हैं और उनको कुछ सिखाना चाहते हैं तो आपके अन्दर एक शिक्षक जैसी उदारता होनी चाहिए| आपके अन्दर सहानभूति, एक खुला दृष्टिकोण और धैर्य होना चाहिए”|
तीन चीज़ें अति आवश्यक हैं, उदारता, धैर्य और कौशल्| तभी आप उनकी गलतियों को आसानी से आत्मसात कर पाओगे|

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प्रश्न : मैं इच्छाओं के बारे में जानना चाहता हूं, और ये कि हमें इच्छाओं के साथ क्या व्यवहार करना चाहिये? मुझे लगता है कि मुझे इच्छाओं में नहीं जीना चाहिये, पर मैं बहुत कुछ प्राप्त करना चाहता हूं, या खुद को किसी व्यक्ति के प्रति आकर्षित पाता हूं। अगर इच्छा ही ना हो, तो जीवन में कुछ भी करने की उमंग कहां से आयेगी? धन्यवाद।

श्री श्री रवि शंकर : ठीक है, इच्छायें रखो। किसने मना किया है? तुम में इच्छायें हों, पर तुम इच्छाओं से नियंत्रित ना हो जाओ। घुड़सवारी करते हुये तुम्हें घोड़े पर नियंत्रण करना है ना कि घोड़े से नियंत्रित होना है। अगर तुम घोड़े के नियंत्रण में हो जाओ तो ये मुसीबत वाली बात है।
मुल्ला नसरुद्दिन की एक कहानी है। वो एक घोड़े पर सवार था और घोड़ा एक ही जगह पर चक्कर लगा रहा था! तो, लोगों ने पूछा, ‘मुल्ला, कहां जा रहे हो?’ वो बोला, ‘मैं क्या जानूं, घोड़े से पूछो!’

हम भी अपने जीवन में अक्सर इसी स्थिति में होते हैं। हमारी इच्छायें हम पर सवार हो जाती हैं और हमें बर्बाद कर देती हैं। बल्कि होना यूं चाहिये कि तुम में इच्छायें तो हों, पर तुम जब चाहे उन्हें छोड़ सको, और जब चाहे उन्हें धारण कर सको! तुम जब चाहे घोड़े पर चढ़ सके और जब चाहे घोड़े से उतर सको, बजाये इसके कि घोड़े की पीठ पर ही तुम फंस जाओ, या जब चाहे घोड़ा तुम्हें नीचे गिरा दे! ठीक है? नहीं तो घोड़े पर बैठना दुखदायी है।

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प्रश्न: मन हमेशा नकारात्मक को ही क्यों पकड़ता है, सकारात्मक को क्यों नहीं?
श्री श्री रविशंकर: हाँ, यह उसका स्वभाव है| आप किसी की दस तारीफें करें और एक अपमान करें, तो मन उस अपमान को पकड़ के बैठ जाता है| जैसे ही आप इसके प्रति सजग हो जाते हैं, तो आप में परिवर्तन आ जाता है| जब आप इसके प्रति सजग नहीं होते, तब आप फँस जाते हैं और इसमें बह जाते हैं| लेकिन एक अच्छे वातावरण में, जहाँ उच्च प्राण शक्ति और उच्च ऊर्जा शक्ति है, वहां ऐसा नहीं होता|
गुरु आते हैं, आपकी प्राण शक्ति बढ़ाने के लिए| प्राण शक्ति और ऊर्जा शक्ति गुरु की भौतिक उपस्थिति में बढ़ जाती हैं| जब प्राण शक्ति ज्यादा होती है, तब नकारात्मकता कम होकर विलुप्त हो जाती है|
और यदि आप लंबे समय से निरंतर साधना कर रहें हैं, तब भी नकारात्मकता आपको छू नहीं सकती| आप इतने शक्तिशाली हों जाते हैं, कि आप जहाँ जाते हैं, वहां की प्राण शक्ति आप बनाते हैं!
अगर दिए की लौ बहुत ऊंची होती है, तो हवा उसे बुझा नहीं सकती| लेकिन अगर छोटी होती है तो हवा उसे बुझा देती है|

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प्रश्न: खुशी या अपने कर्तव्य में से क्या महत्वपूर्ण है?

श्री श्री रविशंकर: दोनों! आपको अपना कर्तव्य को पूरा करना चाहिये और साथ में खुश भी रहना चाहिये | आप इन दोनों में चुनाव करना क्यों चाहते है? यदि इनमे से किसी का चुनाव करना पड़े तो पहले अपना कर्म या कर्तव्य को करे क्योंकि यदि आप नाखुश है तो वह अस्थायी है | खुशी तो है और वह आ ही जायेगी | परन्तु यदि आप खुशी और कर्तव्य के मध्य में खुशी को चुनते है तो अंत में दुख ही मिलेगा | इसलिए शुरुवात में दुखी रहना ही अच्छा है, उसे लंबा कार्यक्रम बनाने की तुलना में |

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प्रश्न : कभी कभी मेरे माता पिता कहते हैं कि मुझे इतनी छोटी उम्र से ही ध्यान नहीं करना चाहिये। ऐसी बातों का क्या जवाब दूं?

श्री श्री रवि शंकर : मुझे ये समस्या नहीं आई थी! ऐसी बात का क्या जवाब हो सकता है? उनसे कहो कि उनकी उम्र तुम्हारे जैसी कम नहीं है, तो वो क्यों नहीं ध्यान करते? जब वे ध्यान करना शुरु करेंगे तो वे समझ जायेंगे कि ध्यान तुम्हारे लिए भी है। कई लोग जब ध्यान करना शुरु करते हैं, तो पश्चाताप करते हैं। तुम्हें पता है उन्हें किस बात का पश्चाताप होता है? वो ये सोच कर पश्चाताप करते हैं कि उन्होंने तुम्हारी उम्र से ही ध्यान करना क्यों नहीं शुरु किया।

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प्रश्न : भगवान तक पहुँचने का सर्वश्रेषठ मार्ग कौन सा है - भक्ति का मार्ग, यां ज्ञान का मार्ग?

श्री श्री रवि शंकर : तुम किसी को जाने बिना उसे पसन्द नहीं कर सकते। अगर तुम्हे गुलाब जामुन पसन्द है,तो उसके बारे में जानना ज्ञान योग है। उसे खरीद कर खाना कर्म योग है, और उसे पसन्द करना भक्ति योग है। भक्ति मतलब पसन्द करना। जब तुम किसी चीज़ को पसन्द करते हो तो उसके बारे में जानने की इच्छा स्वाभाविक ही उठती है। तीनो एकसाथ चलते हैं।

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प्रश्न : आप विश्व भ्रमण में इतने व्यस्त रहते हुये भी अपने स्वास्थ्य को कैसे बनाये रखते हैं?

श्री श्री रवि शंकर : मैं चिंता नहीं करता हूं! मैं बिल्कुल चिंता नहीं करता। और जब आप उच्च ऊर्जा के क्षेत्र में होते हैं, और सब खुश रहते हैं, और आप अपनी ऊर्जा के स्तोत्र से जुड़े होते हैं तो आप एक कठिन दिनचर्या भी संभाल सकते हैं।

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प्रश्न: गुरूजी अपने आसपास के संकीर्ण मन या सोच रखने वाले लोगों से कैसे निपटा जाये ?
श्री श्री रवि शंकर: उनके प्रति उदार रहें | उनके लिए सिर्फ मुस्कुराएँ | उनके लिए जैसे को तैसा वाला रुख न अपनाएं | इससे कोई लाभ नहीं होता है | उन्हें सहजता के साथ शिक्षा प्रदान करें और यह सुनिश्चित कर लें कि आप अपनी खुशी को उनके संकीर्ण मन या सोच के कारण नहीं खोयेंगे |

जब मन बेचैन होता है, तब फिर चाहे जो भी उत्तर हो, वह अंदर नहीं जाता| यही बात एक गुरु और उनके शिष्य में भी हुई थी|
एक बार एक शिष्य अपने गुरु के पास आया, और एक के बाद एक प्रश्न पूछने लगा | लेकिन गुरु उनका जो भी उत्तर देते, वह उनसे संतुष्ट नहीं हो रहा था| तब गुरु ने कहा, कि ‘ठीक है, चलो! चाय पीते हैं|’ गुरु ने शिष्य के प्याले में चाय डालनी शुरू करी| प्याला भर गया, लेकिन वे फिर भी चाय डालते गए| चाय प्याले में से निकल कर बाहर गिरने लगी, और टेबल पर गिर गयी, फिर ज़मीन पर| शिष्य ने पूछा, ‘गुरु, आप ये क्यों कर रहे हैं? प्याला भर गया है| अब तो चाय बाहर निकल कर पूरे कालीन पर गिर रही है!’
तब गुरु मुस्कुराये और बोले, ‘यही तो तुम्हारी स्थिति है| तुम्हारा प्याला भर गया है और अब इसमें कुछ भी नया लेने की जगह नहीं है, फिर भी तुम्हें और चाहिये| पहले, अपना प्याला खाली करो, जो तुम्हारे पास है उसे पियो’|

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प्रश्न: मैं परमात्मा पर केंद्रित हूं, फिर भी बेचैनी है। हालांकि बाहर से सब एकदम ठीक लगता है। 

श्री श्री: हरेक साधक के जीवन में ऐसा समय आता है जब दिल बेचैन हो जाता है। पश्चिमी देशों में इसे कहते हैं - आत्मा के लिये काला दिन।
ऐसा समय आता है जब सत्वगुण कम हो और रजोगुण और तमोगुण अधिक हो, तो बेचैनी का जन्म होता है। तीन तरह की ताप जीवन में आते हैं, जिनमें से एक है, आध्यात्मिक ताप। पर ये थोड़े समय के लिये ही होता है। इसीलिये सत्संग बहुत आवश्यक है, खासतौर पर तब जब तुम्हारा मन सत्संग करने का बिल्कुल नहीं होता। १२ वर्षों में एक बार आध्यात्म में कमी आती है। तब अपने आप पर, साधना के मार्ग पर और गुरु पर शंका होती है। शास्त्रों में ऐसा बताया है। इसीलिये कुंभ मेला १२ साल में मनाया जाता है और तब सब संत मिलकर अपने सभी पाप धो लेते हैं। ये परंपरा बहुत पुरानी है। जिस स्थान पर साधक सत्संग करते हैं और जहाँ वेदों का उच्चारण होता है, वहां कलियुग कभी नहीं आता।

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प्र : रिश्ते को सफल बनाने का क्या तरीका है? 

श्री श्री रवि शंकर : मैं रिश्तों के मामले में विशेषज्ञ नहीं हूँ ! पर मैं पुरुषों और स्त्रियों के लिए एक-एक सलाह दे सकता हूं | स्त्रियों को पुरुष के अहंकार पर कभी चोट नहीं पहुंचानी चाहिए | सारी दुनिया चाहे उसे बेवकूफ कहे पर तुम्हें उससे कहना है कि वह सबसे अधिक बुद्धिमान है| तुम्हें उसकी काबिलियत पर शक नहीं करना है| उससे कहो, "तुम सबसे ज़्यादा बुद्धिशाली हो| अगर तुम उसका उपयोग नहीं करते तो इसका मतलब ये नहीं कि तुममें समझ नहीं है|" अगर तुम उसे बेवकूफ कहती रहोगी तो वह सचमुच बेवकूफ ही बन जाएगा| अपने पति से प्रेम का प्रमाण माँगते रहना ठीक नहीं है| बस समझ लो कि वह तुमसे प्यार करते हैं| अगर किसी को रोज़ ये साबित करना पड़े कि वो तुम से प्रेम करते हैं तो वो उन्हें थका देगा| प्रेम को बहुत ज़्यादा व्यक्त नहीं करना चाहिए| बहुत बार समस्या ये हो जाती है कि हम अपना प्रेम कुछ ज़्यादा ही व्यक्त करते रहते हैं| अगर तुम बीज को सतह पर ही लटकाए रखो तो तुम उसकी जड़ें कभी नहीं देख पाओगे| लेकिन अगर उसे गहरे में गाड़ दोगे तब भी उससे अंकुर नहीं फूटेगा ! बीज को सही ढंग से बोओ| इस तरह से तुम्हें अपना प्यार जताना चाहिए| अपने प्रेम का गौरव बनाए रखो| 

अब पुरुषों के लिए एक सुझाव है कि स्त्री की भावनाओं पर कभी पैर मत रखना | अगर वो अपनी माँ, बहन, अपने परिवार वग़ैरह की शिकायत करे तो उसमें शामिल मत हो जाना| थोड़ी देर के बाद वो पक्ष बदलेगी और हो सकता है तुम्ही निशाना बन जाओ! अगर वो कुछ ध्यान करना चाहे, किसी मंदिर में जाना चाहे या कोई आध्यात्मिक साधना करना चाहे तो उसे रोकना मत| अगर वो खरीदारी के लिए जाना चाहे तो उसे अपना क्रेडिट कार्ड दे दो| इससे घर में शांति रहेगी|
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प्रश्न : हमें इस जीवन काल में मोक्ष को कैसे प्राप्त कर सकते हैं और हम आस पास के नकारक लोगों से कैसे छुटकारा पा सकते हैं?
श्री श्री रविशंकर : मैंने आपसे कहा है कि आप अपनी सारी समस्याएँ यहाँ पर छोड़ दें, लेकिन आप अपने परिवार के उन लोगों को छोड़ ही नहीं रहे जो आपको परेशान कर रहे हैं| एक बार ऐसा हुआ कि मैंने आश्रम में भी यही बात कही कि आप अपनी समस्याओं को यहीं छोड़ दें| तो एक महिला ने मुझ से पूछा कि मेरी सास मेरी सबसे बड़ी समस्या है और मैं उन्हें यहाँ पर कैसे छोड़ सकती हूँ? मैंने उससे कहा कि यदि मैं आपकी सास से यह सवाल करूँगा तो वह भी आपके बारे यही बात कहेंगी?
जीवन में चुनौतियाँ होती हैं| चुनौतियाँ आती हैं और अलग अलग मानसिकता के लोग मिलते हैं इसलिये आपको अपना दृष्टिकोण बड़ा करना होगा और जीवन को एक बड़े दृष्टिकोण से देखना होगा, फिर आप लोग इन छोटी छोटी बातों को छोड़ देंगे जो फिलहाल आपको महत्वपूर्ण लग रही हैं| आपको अपनेदृष्टिकोण को बड़ा करना होगा|
यदि आपको लगता है कि कुछ लोग नकारक हैं तो उनसे कुछ दूरी रखें सबसे पहले| फिर यह जान लें कि वे हर समय वैसे ही नहीं रहेंगे| समय के साथ वे भी बदल जायेंगे| और तीसरा विकल्प यह सोचना होगा, ‘उन्हें रहने दो’| वे मेरे भीतर के कौशल में निखार लायेंगे फिर सब से अंतिम बात होगी कि सब कुछ भगवान पर छोड़ दें| भगवान को सब कुछ ठीक करने के लिये छोड़ दीजिये|

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Why do you Worry?

What happens when you sit? All these unwanted things come in the mind, like a bubble. You are inside a bubble, where you are planning, you have thoughts for the future, you have some cravings, or you are regretting the past. Past experiences come to the mind as images. How to handle this? First, viveka (discrimination). Viveka is remembering that all this is not permanent; everything is temporary. When you are not going to be here, what about your boyfriend, girlfriend, prestige, honor, money, and all these things? We will die one day and leave all this. None of this is permanent; everything is temporary. When this realization strikes a deep cord within, then the mind becomes a witness. Why am I worrying? It is stupid of me to just go around in the mind! That is viveka. Second is vairagya (dispassion). Say ‘So what’, again and again, ‘So what. Okay this is like that, so what?’ Vairagya brings you freedom; it makes you subtle, it makes you free from within. Viveka is that which makes you understand, makes you larger, makes you understand something bigger, and not get caught up in small mind games. 

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Who is an Intelligent Person ?

You know, only intelligent people can become spiritual. I tell you, people with less intelligence don’t come to spirituality. This is the criteria – who is an intelligent person? One who has a little bit of spirituality. If they don’t have that, then there’s something wrong. They are like a horse with blinders. They don’t have the broad vision. They don’t see their life. They don’t know who they are.

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What is Truth?

Whatever you say has no existence, meaning it does not exist forever. Truth is that which transcends time - past, present, future. What is not truth? That which was yesterday, but is not there today, is not truth. What is today, what will not be there tomorrow, is not truth. The definition of truth is that which is not affected by time. Adi Shankaracharya was asked, ‘What is truth?’ He said, ‘yat...tat satyam’, which means, that which is not affected by time - by past, present, future, that is truth. Everything else that is being affected by time is maya, which means it has a relative existence.

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Yoga - The Science That Makes You Feel Lighter

Love means, when your mind becomes so light. In anger and hate, the mind stays lifeless, and heaviness is felt. When you are in love, the mind becomes so light. Have you experienced this? See when you are happy, what is the feeling that you get? A sense of lightness. And when you are unhappy, it feels like a stone is sitting on your head, right? Yoga is the science to make you feel lighter. It is not just weight loss programs, but it make you feel mentally lighter as well. You lose all that mental stuff of anger, jealousy, hatred, greed, etc, that you acquire from everywhere, and feel so light from inside. When can you feel light? When you know, when you believe, when you have the faith that the right will win – Satyamev Jayate (Truth alone wins). Then you have confidence that what you want will happen. 

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Temporary Life

जीवन में हर चीज अस्थिर है, पीछे मुड़कर देखें तो ऐसा लगेगा कि जो आपने अब तक किया वो एक स्वप्न के जैसा है। आप रोये, 
क्रोधित हुए और उत्तेजित हुए। परंतु क्या वह आपके साथ हर समय के साथ स्थिर रहा। यह सब गुजर गया है और सब चीज समाप्त हो 
चुकी है। भविष्य में आप अपने शहर के महापौर भी बन सकते हैं या किसी उच्च पद पर पहुँच सकते हैं या बहुत सारा धन कमा सकते हैं।  तो फिर क्या? वह भी सब चला जाएगा। कुछ भी हर समय के लिए नहीं रहता। यह वर्तमान क्षण भी चला जाएगा। हर क्षण में भी 
अस्थिरता को देखें। हर चीज में अस्थिरता को देखें।

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I know I am doing wrong but still cant stop my self

प्रश्न: मैं जानता हूँ कि मैं जो कर रहा हूँ वह अनुचित है| परन्तु मैं अपने आप को रोक नहीं पता| क्यों?
श्री श्री रविशंकर: यह इस लिए कि आपको कहीं एक छोटी सी आशा है कि आपको उस में खुशी प्राप्त होगी| परन्तु जब तुम ध्यान में उस से भी बड़ी खुशी पाओगे तो आप स्वयं ही उसे त्याग देंगे| इस लिए, आपको प्राणायाम और ध्यान करना चाहिए| लाखों लोग यह कर के  अपनी बुरी प्रवृत्तियां छोड़ पाए हैं| चिंता मत करो| 

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Sri Sri on Dealing with Botherations & Angerness

Dealing With Botherations

Three types of thoughts or blames bother you.
First, you have so much talent, but you are unable to use it or bring it out, you feel that you are not being used; that causes frustration in you.
Second, you think you know, but nobody understands you. This is another point of contention where you feel miserable.
Third, you feel you are lost, you should have done better, or differently; then you blame the past, oneself and everybody else around.
These three types of blames or thoughts bother you; they can pull your energy down. There could be a million reasons for you to feel down on the planet. Anything can pull you down, because things are not happening the way you want them to happen.

Using knowledge, just sail over it all, forget about it, it doesn’t matter, so what! So many people use their talents, they all died, and they all have been forgotten!
Who sits and watches Michelangelo’s paintings every day? Once you watch it, then it is forgotten. Beethoven was such a talented musician. Do you think people are sitting every day and listening to it? 

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·                     प्रश्न: आध्यात्म में होने से मेरे मित्र मेरा मजाक उड़ाते हैं। मुझे क्या करना चाहिए ?

·                     श्री श्री रवि शंकर: मुस्कुराते हुये आप उनसे कहे कि “तुम को नहीं पता कि तुम कितनी महान चीज़ से वंचित हो रहे हो” | “वैसे भी एक दिन तुम भी इस पथ पर आ ही जाओगे, यह सिर्फ समय की बात है” | “पाँच वर्ष उपरान्त तुम भी ज्ञान के इस पथ पर आ जाओगे” | “मैं हर बार सबसे पहला व्यक्ति हूँगा, मैं पहले स्वाद लेता हूँ और फिर जो बच जाता है तुम उसे लेते हो” | यदि आपका कोई मज़ाक उड़ाता है फिर भी आप मुस्कुराते रहें और अपनी मुस्कराहट को न खोएं | उनसे कहे कि “यह सिर्फ कुछ वर्षों की बात है, तुम भी यही सब करोगे” | “तुम्हे तो बासी खाना खाने का शौक है, और मैं अभी ताज़े भोजन का लुफ्त उठा रहा हूँ |
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·                     अपमान तुम्हें निर्बल नहीं बनाता, तुम्हें प्रबल बनाता है। तुम जितने अहंकारी हो, उतना अपमान महसूस करोगे। जब तुम बच्चों की तरह सहज रहते हो और आत्मीयता रखते हो, तब अपमान नहीं महसूस करते। जब तुम इस सृष्टि के, ईश्वर के प्रेम में ओत प्रोत हो, तुम्हारा कोई अपमान नहीं हो सकता। 
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·                     दुखी होने का केवल इतना अर्थ है कि विवेक ढक गया है। विवेक का अर्थ है यह जानना कि सब परिवर्तनशील है। तुम्हारा शरीर, तुम्हारी भावनाएं, आस पास के लोग, यह पूरा जगत - सब बदल रहा है। तुम्हें पुनः पुनः इस सत्य के प्रति जागृत होना है। प्रायः तुम परिवर्तन से भयभीत होते हो। जीवन सुधारने के लिए परिवर्तन की आवश्यकता होती है, पर तुम अपनी पुरानी प्रवृत्ति में सुरक्षित महसूस करते हो। इसलिए अपनी बुद्धि का उपयोग करो और जब भी आवश्यकता हो, तब परिवर्तन लाने का साहस रखो।
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·                     प्रायः क्रोध इसलिए आता है क्योंकि तुम वर्तमान क्षण को स्वीकार नहीं करते। तुम पूर्णता ढूंढते हो और इसलिए अपूर्णता पर क्रोधित होते हो। जब कोई गलती भी करता है, तो यह जानो कि वह दोषी नहीं है; उसके भीतर का तनाव उससे वह गलती करवा रहा है। केवल यह समझ और थोड़े दिन की ध्यान साधना तुम्हारे जीवन का स्वरूप बदल सकती है।
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·                     We are proponents of peace, but we are also from the land of Guru Gobind Singh. Today, we need Sant-Sipahi. We don't need only saints, we don't need only soldiers, but people who are both. Every human here should be a Soldier of Peace. Soldiers of Peace are those who have dynamism, a will to expose wrong deeds and doers in the society.

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·                     प्र: अहंकार और आत्मविश्वास में क्या अंतर है?
श्री श्री: अहंकार किसी और की उपस्थिति में असहज कर देता है। आत्मविश्वास हर जगह सहज रहना है। सहज रहना अहंकार की दवा है और आत्मविश्वास का पूरक। यह आत्मविश्वास से अभिन्न है। जब तुम सहज हो तो विश्वास से भरे हो और जब विश्वास से युक्त हो तो सहज हो। 
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·                     Question: What is embarrassment?

·                     Sri Sri: If you can embrace embarrassment, nothing can shake you. Embarrassment is a mild form of criticism, a mild form of feeling uncomfortable. Sometimes we need to get out of the comfort zone. Feel that little discomfort. Then abilities in us dawn.
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·                     Everyone wants to be successful. Have you ever thought about what success is? It’s simply ignorance of your capabilities. You have set a limitation on your self, and whenever you cross your own boundary or limitation, you claim success. Success is ignorance of the power of your Self because you assume you can do only that much.
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·                     सभी सफल होना चाहते हैं। कभी सोचा है सफलता क्या है? केवल अपने सामर्थ्य के बारे में अज्ञानता है। तुमने स्वयं पर एक सीमा लगा दी है और जब तुम वह सीमा लांघते हो, तुम सफल होने का दावा करते हो। सफलता अपनी आत्मशक्ति का अज्ञान है क्योंकि तुम मान लेते हो कि तुम उतना ही कर सकते हो।
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·                     असंभव का स्वप्न देखो, असंभव कल्पना करो| यह जान लो कि तुम इस दुनिया में कुछ अद्भुत और अद्वितीय करने आये हो| खुद को बड़ा सोचने की और बड़े सपने देखने की मुक्ति दो

·                     Dream the impossible. Know that you are born in this world to do something wonderful and unique; don't let this opportunity pass by. Give yourself the freedom to dream and think big.

·                     In a car, you have a windshield which is big, and a rear-view mirror which is small. Just imagine if your rear-view mirror is big and the windshield is small. That is the situation of your car now. Your rear-mirror occupies more than half the wind-shield and so you only keep looking back. That is not right. You need to look at the past a little, and forward most of the time.

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·                     कभी कभी तुम दूसरों से बिलकुल असंबद्ध महसूस करते हो, जैसे अलग छूट गए हो। ऐसे समय में उनसे संबद्ध होने का प्रयास न करो। तुम असंबद्ध महसूस कर सकते हो पर उदास मत हो। निद्रा में तुम अपने सबसे समीप के व्यक्ति से असंबद्ध होते हो कि नहीं? तुम किसी और को अपनी निद्रा की अवस्था में नहीं ले जा सकते। इसे मुस्कुरा कर स्वीकार करो और ध्यान करो; तुम्हारे भीतर से बल का उदय होगा।

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·                     यदि तुम किसी ऐसे व्यक्ति से मिलो जो तुमसे अधिक जानता हो, तो एक बालक की तरह रहो और अपने आँख और कान सीखने के लिए खुले रखो। यदि किसी ऐसे व्यक्ति से मिलो जो तुमसे कम जानता हो, तो विनम्र रहो और उन्हें अपने जैसा या बेहतर करने का प्रयत्न करो। अपनी आयु के व्यक्ति से ऐसा व्यवहार करो जैसे तुम उसके सबसे घनिष्ठ मित्र हो। जब तुम अपने केंद्र में स्थित हो तो तुम एक शक्तिशाली संचारक बन जाते हो
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·                     The technique to get depressed is to sit and think “what about me, what about me” all the time. To reach the state of bliss, meditate. And, serve people around you. Seeing God within you is meditation and seeing God in the people around you is love or service.
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·                     Peace does not mean inaction. We want a revolution, but a peaceful one. Mahatma Gandhi advocated peace, but he did not only sit back and allow injustice. Being in peace, he took action. He is the perfect example of being spiritual in politics. He had that sense of sacrifice.
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·                     एक है ईमानदार होना और एक है अपनी ईमानदारी जताना। जब तुम कहते हो, "मैं ईमानदार हूँ", वह प्रायः क्रोध से होता है। सबके प्रति सहज रहो, किसी धुन में मत रहो। अपनी ईमानदारी की घोषणा करने की आवश्यकता नहीं है। ईमानदार का अर्थ रूखा होना नहीं है। ईमानदार रहो पर कुशलता से।
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·                     One is being straightforward and righteous, another is asserting 'I am righteous'. When you say, ‘I am righteous', it is often out of anger. Be natural towards everyone, but don’t be obsessed. You don’t have to beat a drum to announce to everyone that you are honest. Straightforward does not mean you have to be blunt. Be straightforward but with skill.
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·                     प्र: मैं धर्म और आध्यात्मिकता के बीच रेखा कैसे खीचूं?

·                     श्री श्री: इस पथ पर कोई रेखा खींचने या मिटाने की आवश्यकता नहीं है। धर्म जन्म से होता है और अध्यात्म पसंद से। यह एक जीवन शैली है।
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·                     Q: How do I draw the line between religion and spirituality?

·                     Sri Sri: On this path, there is no need to draw any line or erase any line. Religion is by birth and spirituality is by choice. It’s a way of life.
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·                     Honor your own body. Remember that when you eat, you are offering food to the Divine that resides inside this body. When people are agitated, they eat more. Take your food, not in a hurry, not with violence, but with a sense of offering. This also is puja (worship).
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·                     जब तुम बैठ कर सोचते हो, "मुझे ख़ुशी कब मिलेगी?", तो वह तुम्हें नहीं मिलेगी। जब तुम अपनी ख़ुशी दूसरों की ख़ुशी में देखते हो, तब तुम वास्तव में खुश होते हो। 
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·                     When the water flows within banks, it's called a river. When water is scattered all over, it's a flood. So when the emotions get flooded everywhere, the mind is in a mess. If it is intensely flowing in a direction, then that is Bhakti (devotion). And that is most powerful.
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·                     जब पानी दो किनारों के बीच में बहे तो उसे नदी कहते हैं। यदि पानी हर जगह फ़ैल जाए तो वह बाढ़ है। इसी तरह जब भावनाएं हर जगह फ़ैल जाती हैं तो मन उथल-पुथल हो जाता है। यदि वह तीव्रता से एक दिशा में बहता है तो उसे भक्ति कहते हैं। और वह सबसे शक्तिशाली है।
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·                     आहत होना प्रेम का अंग है। यह ऐसा ही है और हमें इसमें से होकर ही पार जाना है। चोट या दर्द के डर से प्रेम न करना, मन को बंद कर लेना मूर्खता है जो बहुत लोग करते हैं। पर जो इस थोड़ी सी तकलीफ से गुज़रते हैं, उन्हें वास्तविक, आनंदमय प्रेम मिलता है।
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·                     जीवन को एक रोमांचक खेल की तरह देखो और बिना परिणाम की चिंता किये खेलो। यदि किसी को गलती करने से डर लगता हो, तो उनमें साहस का अभाव है। किसी के पास धन न हो, पर यदि उनके पास साहस है तो उनमें सम्पन्नता झलकती है। यदि साहस का अभाव हो तो जीवन में आनंद नहीं। 
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·                     सम्बन्ध का अर्थ है समन्वय, देना। पर साथ ही दूसरे को भी देने का अवसर देना। इसमें थोड़ी कुशलता चाहिए - बिना मांगे दूसरे का सहयोग लेना। यदि तुम मांगते हो, तो सम्बन्ध अधिक देर नहीं रहेगा। मांगने से और आरोपण से प्रेम नष्ट हो जाता है।
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·                     Relationship means adjustment, it is giving. But at the same time leave some room for the other partner to give. This needs a little skill - to make the other also contribute without demanding. If you demand, the relationship is not going to last long. Demand and blame destroy love.
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·                     जब तुम ऐसे प्रश्न पूछते हो कि "मेरे साथ ही क्यों?" या "मेरा क्या होगा?", तो तुम बहुत उदास हो जाते हो। सेवा उदासी की सबसे प्रभावशाली दवा है। जिस दिन तुम बहुत निराश हो, उस दिन बाहर निकल कर लोगों से पूछो, "मैं आपके लिए क्या कर सकता/सकती हूँ?" जो सेवा तुम करोगे, वह तुम्हारे भीतर एक क्रांति लाएगी।
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·                     Often, you make a mistake and then try to justify it, because you don’t want to feel guilty. And this justification, does not remove the guilt because you know the justification is superficial. It makes you guiltier. It goes on and deep inside, it keeps distorting your behaviour. So when you feel guilt, don’t try and get over it. Be really guilty, feel it 100%, and that pain, that guilt, that sadness itself, becomes like a meditation, and will bring freedom to you.
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·                     यह जानो कि तुम सदा के लिए शिष्य हो| ज्ञान तुम्हें किसी भी कोने से प्राप्त हो सकता है| यदि तुम सदा सीखने के लिए तत्पर रहोगे तो दूसरों को छोटा नहीं समझोगे| जीवन में विनम्रता का उदय होगा| हर घटना और हर व्यक्ति तुम्हें कुछ न कुछ सिखाता है| यह सम्पूर्ण विश्व गुरु है| 
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·                     Know that you are a student forever. Knowledge may come to you from any corner. When you are always looking to learn, you will stop underestimating others. Humility will dawn in your life. Each occasion teaches you and each person teaches you. The world is your teacher.

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·                     प्र: गुरुदेव, श्रद्धा क्या है?Q: Guruji, what is faith?

·                     श्री श्री: तुम्हें कैसे पता है कि मुझसे पूछने पर तुम्हें उत्तर मिलेगा, कि वह सही उत्तर होगा| यह श्रद्धा है|Sri Sri: How do you know that I will give you an answer, that it will be the right answer? That is faith.
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·                     तुम धैर्य से कुछ भी करो, समय व्यर्थ नहीं कर रहे हो| तुम अधीरता से, व्याकुल मन से कुछ भी करो, जान लो कि समय व्यर्थ कर रहे हो|

·                     प्र: गुरूजी, यदि कोई मेरी आलोचना करे और वो सही हो तो ठीक है|पर अगर वो सच नहीं है, तो मैं वो आलोचना ले नहीं पाता और अपना संतुलन खो बैठता हूँ| कृपया मार्ग दिखायें|श्री श्री: जिस आलोचना को तुम स्वीकार नहीं कर पाते, उसे आरोप कहते हैं| आरोप से कैसे निपटें? धैर्य से| ये जानने के लिए अत्यंत धैर्य और श्रद्धा की आवश्यकता है कि सत्य की सदा विजय होगी|
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·                     Often people who are sensible aren't sensitive & sensitive aren't sensible, we need to combine both! 

·                     2 things are required for all of us to be here. A scissor and a needle. That's what made the clothes we are wearing. The scissor cuts fabric, a needle sews it back. Same with business and Spirituality. One cuts, the other joins. Business is about passion, Spirituality is about dispassion. Yet they are the same. It's like breathing... In breath is passion. But you cannot keep it in, you have to let go. That's dispassion. Out breath is dispassion. 5 things needed for business :

·                     1. Congeniality, a peaceful environment 

·                     2. Ethics: Base line of ethics is that don't do to others what you wouldn't like them to do to you. If you don't like others to cheat you, you don't cheat others. 

·                     3. Skill: Of course you need to be very good at what you do as well as have the skill to handle people and challenging situations. 

·                     4. Passion, The zeal to push thru 

·                     5. Luck: This is the one that's abstract, that no one can pinpoint, the unknown, it's about intuition... And all the others depend on it. Being spiritual brings you luck! Spirituality is about the unknown. Spirituality brings the heart to Business. Congratulations, all the best and God Bless everyone...
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·                     When you want to do something, look at your strength. Your weakness is that you start looking at others' strengths! When you are running, you can only look at the track below, not at who's next to you. Like a horse with blinders, you just look at your path and let anybody do whatever he/she wants. ~ Sri Sri
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·                     Just examine why your spirits go down? More often than not, it is because somebody said something stupid to you. And why did they say a stupid thing? Because they had some garbage and they needed to throw it out; and you were there, ready to catch it. And once you have caught it, you hold on to it so passionately. Wake up! Don’t let your smile be snatched away by anybody! ~ Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
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·                     Never eat on bed , never study on it even, use your bed only for sleep, it (sleep) is like mini death, its a place where you go in such a different level of consciousness, tamas is there, so touch it only for sleep.
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·                     दूसरों को सुनो ; फिर भी मत सुनो . अगर तुम्हारा दिमाग उनकी समस्याओं में उलझ जाएगा, ना सिर्फ वो दुखी होंगे , बल्कि तुम भी दुखी हो जओगे.
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·                     बुद्धिमान वो है जो औरों की गलती से सीखता है. थोडा कम बुद्धिमान वो है जो सिर्फ अपनी गलती से सीखता है.मूर्ख एक ही गलती बार बार दोहराते रहते हैं और उनसे कभी सीख नहीं लेते.
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·                     यदि  तुम  लोगों  का  भला  करते  हो , तुम  अपनी  प्रकृति की  वजह  से  करते  हो .
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·                     चाहत  , या  इच्छा  तब  पैदा  होती  है  जब  आप  खुश  नहीं  होते . क्या  आपने  देखा  है ? जब  
आप  बहुत  खुश  होते  हैं  तब  संतोष  होता  है . संतोष  का  अर्थ  है  कोई  इच्छा  ना  होना .
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·                     When you make a new mistake, it is not a mistake - you have learned a valuable lesson. But when you keep making the same mistake over and over, it is a BIG mistake. A mistake simply means you have 'missed taking' a lesson that came your way. Don't lament over your mistake. Just take the lesson from it.
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·                     Knowledge Is Like An UMBRELLA (Shelter)
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On the path, people even use Knowledge as a defense against criticism! Don't use Knowledge as a defense.
The Knowledge is like an umbrella for you; a shelter, not a weapon. 
I say, drop all your defenses. Anybody can make a mistake. Even you!
Don't defend your mistakes. Just accept them and move on.
When you are totally defenseless, that's when you'll be strong
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·                     We say, ‘Be God fearing; God will punish you’, no! This is a wrong idea. God will never punish you, but only educate & uplift you.
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·                     Any attachment, if it leads you to the higher self/goal, it is okay. But if it is pulling you down, you have to come back to wisdom.
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·                     : Please tell us about ego. Sri Sri: In love a loss is also a win, and in ego a win is also a loss!
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·                     "Each one of you is a leader, don't look for a leader.
What is important is to lead from behind. A real leader is not one who emphasizes, 'I am the leader, you must follow me', instead he says, 'Go forward', and he pushes others in front."

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·                     How To Deal With Doubt?
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A doubt is a gray area. Gray is something which is neither white nor black.
Now, how to solve the doubt? An event, knowledge, convention cannot help. Then what can help? Accepting it either as black or white. And see the gray as a shade of black or white. Either way you accept it. Honest or dishonest - accept it. Then the mind is quiet. You are not in the gray area.

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·                     LET LOVE BE
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Let love be. Don't give love a name. When you give love a name, it becomes a relationship, and relationship restricts love.
There is love between you and me. Just let it be. If you name love as brother, sister, mother, father, Guru, you are making it into a relationship. Relationship restricts love.
What is your relationship to yourself? Are you your wife, brother, husband, Guru?
Let love be. Don't give it a name!

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Are You Soft Or Forceful? Certain types of people are soft and their softness comes out of lack of courage and forcefulness. There is yet another type of softness in people and this softness comes out of maturity, magnanimity, and the knowledge of the Self.
The people who are soft out of lack of courage suffer a lot. And sometime or other they become volatile.

Similarly there are two types of forcefulness in people Ö aggression or assertiveness. Some people are forceful in an aggressive manner out of weakness, lack of strength, or out of fear. Others are forceful out of care and love, out of compassion.

Guruji: So look into yourself and become aware of what type of softness and what type of forcefulness you have.

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·                     The Art Of Raising Children

Today, children, from the time they wake up in the morning, they sit like a non-participatory witness in front of the television; isn't it?
Children sit in front of the television and go on surfing channels. The mother comes and says, ‘Hey, come for breakfast’, and they just don’t move. Sometimes, mother has to bring their breakfast in front of the television. This type of culture is no good.
You should limit the time for television, otherwise children will have Attention Deficiency Syndrome.
The brain gets so bombarded with all these images, it fails to register anything else and the kids become so dull later on. They cannot attend to anything.
Not more than one hour of television should be shown to children.

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·                     How To Be A GOOD MANAGER?

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Remember one thing, the one who manages this universe does not make it so obvious that he is doing it; or that He is in control.
Similarly, manage from behind. Leading from behind is the best.

When you want to lead a project you should not emphasize your leadership too much. You should do it from behind.

There is a saying in Sanskrit, Paroksha Priyahi Vai Devaha, which means that the Gods like to do things indirectly and not so obviously.
A person feels, 'I am doing it', but it is the Gods who make them do it. So they give the people the joy of feeling that they are doing it, but in reality, it is the Divine energy that does it in a subtle manner, which is not so obvious.

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·                     This World Is A Transit Lounge!

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You know, in airports and railway stations there are lounges, and in a lounge, what do you do?
You keep your luggage and start eating. You use the bathroom and freshen-up; but you don’t open your suitcase and hang your clothes all over the place.
You don’t do that in a transit lounge. You keep your things packed.

So this world is just a transit lounge. Don’t mistake it to be your home.

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·                     Expressing Love The Right Way
Love and admiration too can become a burden.
When this happens, people try to unburden themselves by running away from it.
Many love marriages have fallen apart because of this only. One partner expresses too much love towards the other, and the other is not able to handle it. The other person then feels like running away. And they do run away!

How many people have seen this happen? (Many raise their hands)
We shouldn't talk too much about love because it is inexpressible, actually!

I feel that we should take a middle path; express a little, but not too much.
Do express, but you don’t express so much that you start with, ‘I can’t live without you’, and then later you say, ‘I can’t stand you.’

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·                     Every Day Is Valentine’s Day

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In the ancient times, they never said, ‘This is Father’s Day’, or ‘This is Mother’s Day.’
They never dedicated one day in a year to fathers and mothers, but they said, ‘Everyday you must dedicate some time to your father and mother.’
As soon as you wake up in the morning, spend a few minutes in the first hour as father’s minutes and mother’s minutes.
So, in every home, children should think, ‘This is my time with the parents.’

Children should start spending half an hour or one hour with their parents’ everyday in the morning or evening.

If everyone shares at least one meal together, then you would have successfully celebrated your Father’s Day and Mother’s Day.

Similarly, when you wake up and see the whole creation is my valentine, the country is my valentine, the Divinity is my valentine, knowledge is my valentine then Valentine’s Day will never end for you. All 365 days is Valentine’s Day.
That is how I feel – everyday is Valentine’s Day.

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Tips To Improve Your Relationship With Your Mother-in-law

 Listen, you have a different scale for your mother and a different scale for your mother-in-law. Now why do you do that?
When your mother used to scold you, it never really touched you. You are thick skinned when your mother shouts at you or scolds you. But when your mother-in-law scolds you, it shakes you very deeply, isn't it?
How many of you have this experience? Come on, tell me! Some of you are shy to raise your hands.
See, we have two standards, one for our mother and one for our mother-in-law. If you have the same standard for your mother-in-law as you have for your mother then the problem will be gone.

The second tip is, just don't argue with her. Win her over with love. Whatever she may say, if you say, 'Yes', what will happen to you? Arguments and misunderstandings happen when both sides cooperate to fight. If the one side does not cooperate to fight, there will be no arguments.
If your mother in law says, 'It is very hot', you say, 'Yes mother-in-law, it is.'
If she says, 'Day is night and night is day', say, 'Yes mother-in-law, you are right. I totally agree with you.'
Flow with her for some time and then you will see that you can win her over.

So, win her over with love and agreement.
See, when you agree, how can someone fight with you. Become soft from inside. This is the skill.

So you first try this and then you tell me.

This problem between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law is an ancient, eternal problem I would say.

In the ashram, there is a general rule, that you can bring your problems here, but you cannot take them back with you.
So one lady stood up and said, 'Then can I leave my mother-in-law here.'
I said, 'Let me ask your mother-in-law first, what is her problem.'

Getting rid of people and things is not the answer, but dealing with them with skill is the answer. And silence is the mother of all skills - silencing this chattering mind with a few minutes of deep meditation. Then you will see that everything changes.

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·                     Are You Worrying About Something? 

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Wake up and see, the whole world is like a dream. All the thoughts, opinions, behaviour of people will disappear, it is just a matter of time. 

Some people act good and some act bad, but everyone is going to die, and the world will be finished. This set of people will all go away and a new set of people will come, and they too will all die. Then another set of people will come, they too will fight among themselves, hug, love, kiss, do everything, and they will all die.

Seven billion people on the planet today and all these seven billion people will all die. It is only a matter of a few years. In another hundred years, do you think the same people will be here? Not one person who is here today will be alive. And two hundred years later, even the grandchildren will not be there.

See, the world is like a river, there is fresh water flowing every moment in this river. What is it that you are so bothered about?
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·                     Two Kinds Of Devotees - Which Are You?

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There are two kinds of devotees. Have you observed a kitten and a monkey? When a monkey walks, its child will cling to it. The monkey is not bothered about its child because the child follows the mother.
Whereas a kitten does not follow its mother. The mother has to keep an eye on the child, and so takes it in its mouth wherever she goes.
Are you a kitten or a monkey? Do you cling to the Divine, or do you let the Divine carry you?
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·                     अपमान तुम्हें निर्बल नहीं बनाता, तुम्हें प्रबल बनाता है। तुम जितने अहंकारी हो, उतना अपमान महसूस करोगे। जब तुम बच्चों की तरह सहज रहते हो और आत्मीयता रखते हो, तब अपमान नहीं महसूस करते। जब तुम इस सृष्टि के, ईश्वर के प्रेम में ओत प्रोत हो, तुम्हारा कोई अपमान नहीं हो सकता। 
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·                     When you feel anger inside, do you notice the sensation? Forget about the other person. It is the sensation which is giving you trouble. When you focus on the sensation, it gets dissolved. 
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·                     When we were born we were dependent. When we grow old we will be dependent. In these few years in between, we think we are independent. That is an illusion. Even at that time we are dependent on so many people for so many things. Some people are emotionally dependent, some people are intellectually dependent, and some people are physically dependent. While the spirit is independent the body is always dependent. Instead of focusing on the relative and changing aspect of life which is always dependent, put a little more focus on that aspect inside you which is independent, which is eternal. You will find that life is becoming more powerful and more fulfilling.
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·                     A person who cannot correct or act has no right to complain. And when a person can correct or act, he will never complain
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·                     Almost all relationships break down due to too much talking and explaining about oneself. "I am this way. Don't mistake me. Don't misunderstand me." If you had kept your mouth shut, everything would've worked out much better. I'm not telling you to shut off all communication. I'm just telling you not to explain things of the past, brood over them or ask for explanations.
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·                     Question : Astrologically I'm undergoing a bad time. What to do?

Sri Sri : You have understood this it is good enough. You know that it happens due to the planets. You know it is going to change. Hence You will not blame anyone or yourself and a certain sanity comes in your life. 
Secondly, You can turn it by adoring the divine, Lord Shiva. By chanting Om Namah Shivay. All these shani, rahu, ketu periods are very good for spiritual growth. The main purpose of Shani is to make u grow in spirituality. If you are already turned inward it can't do harm.
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·                     We often get attached to misery too. You know why? As a child, when you made a sad face, immediately someone patted you on the back and tried to cheer you up. When you cried, parents attended to you. So, there is a subtle sense of wanting attention whenever you are miserable. You have to get over that, grow beyond that and only then can you gain the power to renounce.