guru tattva

‎“Guru is a tattva — an element, a quality inside you. It is not limited to a body or form. Guru comes in your life in spite of your refusing or being rebellious. The guru principle is so vital in life. There is an element of the guru in every human being. That wisdom in each has to be invoked, awakened. When this element is awakened, misery in life disappears. In our consciousness, wisdom comes to life when guru tattva comes to life. When we have no desires of our own, then the guru tattva dawns in our life. Wake up and see that our life is changing every moment and feel grateful for whatever you have received.”

~Sri Sri~

 

***If you are inside the house, the doors don’t mean much to you. You don’t need the door to be closed or open when you are already inside the house or inside the room. When you are not inside the room, you need the door to be opened. Jesus said “You have burnt enough in the sun, in the heat. You have roamed all over the place. Just come inside; this room is ready for you”. This is the confidence that a master gives you.

~ Sri Sri~

***

Many people pray and feel their prayers are not answered. Why? Because you don’t meditate. It’s like a cell phone with no sim card. You can keep dialing, but you cannot get through. We need to do some work for society, so that our battery keeps getting charged. For better range, you need meditation and sadhana (spiritual practices). For a sim card, you need to be on the path.

~ Sri Sri~

***

The master is presence. The world is relativity and relativity has its limitations. Presence is unlimited.  Presence is vast, infinite and comprehensive – all inclusive. And the presence of the master in one’s life will bring fulfilment to all relations. Every relationship will become complete with the presence of Infinity if the master is in your life.

~ Sri Sri ~

***

There is a crowd – a zoo – in the mind! Creatures of all natures are present in the human mind – that is the crowd! The whole purpose of our being here is to merge the different natures and tendencies in the mind into one “hollow and empty!”

~Sri Sri~

 

smiling through

It was during Guru Poornima 2006 – my first and only so far – with Guruji . In a huge hall at the San Matep Expo Center, CA. We were all participants in the “Yoga and Meditation Seminar” (also called PDS in India), being led by none other than Sri Sri Ravishankar.

About 300 of us were twisted like pretzels in a difficult pose – grunting, sweating and breathing at the same time, when Guruji’s soft ethereal voice wafted over the microphone “Smiling In a Difficult Pose Is Yoga” .

Boom..crash…flash of lightning…the whole town visible from a hilltop…..Aho !

Suddenly it was so clear what He was saying – If you can smile through tough times in life, you have attained that state called Yoga. This was the MOST amazing definition of Yoga I had ever heard in my life.

The essence of the Bhagavad Gita says the same thing. Krishna exorts Arjuna to fire the arrow, but from a state of calmness. In the midst of what would have been a world war in those days, when Arjuna was in the most tumultous of times in his life, Krishna asked him to be centered and do his duty – no matter how difficult.

Guruji says this very directly too – The sign of success is your SMILE.

Ah – that elusive SMILE 🙂 🙂 . Every week, at Long Kriya, the teacher asks us to do the same thing again and again – S M I L E. At times I feel like…Grr…just get on with the pranayams already, but its clear that the goal of Art Of Living is not just to teach folks a few asanas and breathing techniques – it is to bring back that lost smile on people’s faces.

Especially on faces like mine that look perenially like 😦 .

And this smile has to be from within – not the polite smile that masks the agony from within – not the “Tum Itna Jo Muskura Rahe Ho, Kya Gam Hai Jisko Chupa Rahe Ho” Smile, but the SMILE of the BEING ! The SMILE that shines through the clouds of darkness, misery, desires, failures, setbacks. The SMILE that makes others forget that they are in misery .

And after all who is not subject to miserable events ? Krishna had his uncle plotting his murder before he was even born and was hounded by him for years. Guruji’s own mother Amma fell a victim to cancer when Guruji was about to address thousands at a satsang hundreds of miles away. Buddha had to leave his family and kingdom and walk away to attain nirvana. Jesus was nailed to the cross for showing people the path of love. The difference between these noble souls and us : The SMILE never went away even in these tough situations. These situations were just events to them, not problems.

When Will I really SMILE ? Well until then as they say in the Art Of Living “Fake It Till You Make It” !!

” You sell you happiness for peanuts! You sell your smile for pennies! I tell you, it’s not worth it. The entire world is not worth your smile. Even if you are made the king or the emperor of the world, it’s not worth giving away your smile. “ – Sri Sri Ravishankar

Oh Gurudev, you have so much to give – am I ready to receive ? How much will I receive in this lifetime ? The Yoga Vasishta says “Self Effort” .

by Random Reflections

Act Without Expectation: It Relaxes & Rewards

From: Manisha <manisha18@gmail.com>
Date: Mar 3, 2008 8:11 AM
Subject: Times of India, March 03, 2008

THE SPEAKING TREE

Act Without Expectation: It Relaxes & Rewards

Discourse: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

It’s often believed that if people become spiritual and dispassionate about the outcome of their actions, they will stagnate; there will be no progress.  In fact, the opposite is true. Creativity and enthusiasm can spring only when you are well rested; and you cannot rest if you are anxious about the outcome of your actions.

When we perform every action with an eye on the end result, we get lost in the end and don’t enjoy the means of getting to the end. But when we perform some actions as an expression of joy and do not bother about the result, the action itself brings fulfilment.

When we act expecting joy, the action becomes inferior. For example, you want to spread happiness, but if you try to find out whether the other person has become happy, you get entangled in a vicious circle. In the process, you lose your happiness.  Anxiety about the outcome of your action is what pulls you down. At the beginning of a project if you start worrying, then your whole enthusiasm for the project gets dampened. When you are aware of your potential, just jump into action without bothering about the result.

When you are in doubt, any activity you do will bring more doubts.  When you have a choice, the grass on the other side will look greener and this prevents you from enjoying what you have in your hand. When you are bothered by a choice, relax.   The choice is never between good and bad; it’s always between bad and worse or good and better.

Choices bring conflict and there is freedom in ‘choicelessness’.

How can you be centred when there is conflict? There is a Chinese saying that when you are in doubt, take a pillow and go to bed.  In Narada Bhakti Sutras, Narada says, “Karmanyapi Sanyasyati”.

Take a break, not just from activity, but also from the fruit of the activity. It will bring deep rest from doubts and conflicts. One who is not concerned about the outcome and is centred on the action, goes beyond dualities, beyond conflicts.

The wise one is beyond all actions. Yet he continues to engage himself in action. You can only let go of what you have. So to let go of the fruit of action, you need to have the fruit and to have the fruit, you need to act!

This is so beautiful. If you have never acted, then how can you drop either the action or the fruit of action. So be active.  Keep doing your work, and drop the fruit of action. The fruit of action is there as the motivation for you to start acting.

Krishna used the fruit of action to motivate Arjuna to fight.  He told Arjuna that if you die in battle, you will attain heaven and if you win, you will rule the world. Jesus did the same. When you are bogged down by laziness, you need motivation to do something and the expected fruit of action acts as the motivating factor. But once you start acting, let go of the expected result. Just focus on the work on hand.    This is the way of the wise!