10 commandments of joy: 4. Nuture your emotions

A person without emotions is like wood without any juice. You need to make your life interesting to draw people to you. This will happen when you nurture yourself with music, prayer and service. The way to expand from individual to universal consciousness. To overcome personal misery is to share universal misery! The way to expand personal joy is to share universal joy. Ask yourself what can you do for the world? When you show kindness, your true nature comes into play. Do some random acts of kindness without expecting anything out of it. You don't have to plan your acts of kindness. Just do something spontaneously. When you do random acts of kindness, you come in touch with your true nature.

10 commandments of joy: 3.Make your smile cheaper

A baby smiles 400 times a day, an adolescent 17 times and an adut doesnt smile at all! The more successful one becomes, stiffer the person is. Is being stressed a sign of prosperity, growth or dignity?

You should smile more. Every day, every morning, look at the mirror and give a good smile to yourself. Dont let your smile be snatched away by anybody. Usually you give your anger freely and your smile rarely as though a smile is costly. In ignorance anger is cheap and smile costly. In knowledge smile is free like the sun, air and water and anger is very expensive like a diamond. Make your smile cheaper and your anger costly.

You are here for a greater cause. Just remember that.

10 commandments of joy: 2. Take time out for yourself

If for the whole day you only engaged in gathering sources for creativity, sometime during the day sit for a few minutes, get into the cave of your heart, eyes closed and kick the world away like a ball. But during the day be 100% attached to the work. Eventually you will be able to be both attached and detached at the same time. This is the skill of living, art of living.

You have to renounce all work you have done the whole day, only then can you rest in the night. Creativity springs up when you are relaxed. Taking out sometime for yourself improves the quality of your life. Learning something about the breath and other levels of our existence is very important.

10 commandments of joy: 1. Give the divine a chance

In the New year, let your devotion flower and give it a chance to work. Prayer is a vital tool to improve your life. It also nourishes values like integrity and honesty. If you are not grateful and prayerful, you will be miserable. What you can do, you do and what you cannot do you pray for. The feeling that 'I am blessed' can help you overcome any failure. Once you realise you are blessed all complaints disappear and all the insecurities disappear.

The higher goals in life can only be achieved by a few minutes of meditation and introspection. Meditation brings deepest of deepest rest. The deeper you can rest, the more dynamic you will be in activity. Even though deep rest and dynamic activity are opposite values, they are complimentary.

10 commadments of Joy

Article published in Arunachal times on 31 dec 2008:

Welcome the year 2009 with a smile from within and wish everyone with a sankalpa for peace and prosperity for all the people on the planet. Make a resolution to do more good to society, help the people who are in need and bring solace to who are suffering. Let our life be useful to one and all.

Today, most people are confused because there is no direction in life. The difference between flood and a normal river is that water flow is regulated in a river. Similarly, the energy in our life needs some direction to flow. If you don't give direction, it is all confusion. When you attend to the spirit, life attains its highest and becomes a celebration. Here's how you can nurture the spirit in the New year....

The ten commandments fo joy will follow in the coming posts...

Om Shanti

Om shanti is said three times.

The purpose is to wish for peace in the world. Only when there is peace around you, you can be peaceful. When there is a war in the world you cannot be peaceful.

The second is to wish for peace within you. If the world is peaceful but your mind is not peaceful that is also not useful. So there is a wish for peace to your mind and body.

The third is to wish for peace in your soul or atma.

So let there be peace in the world, in the mind and in the soul. Om shanti, Om shanti, Om shanti.

(Excerpt of talk given by Guruji in Trichy in Jan 2009)

Studies

This post has been taken from the blog: Hues of Joy (http://ratnaabhishek.blogspot.com/2009/02/studies.html).

Around 7 years ago, Guruji was meeting a group of young adult participants in Narayana. I also got in with them, for i just wantedddd to meet Himmmm. In the QnA, one girl asked, "Guruji, how to become perfect at studies?" Guruji asked "What?"

"How to become perfect at studies Guruji?"

"What?"

"How to become perfect Guruji?"

"Come again..."

"Guruji how to become perfect?"

"What?"

By now the whole group (mostly girls) were giggling...

When the girl started to ask again, Guruji, who had been looking right into her eyes all the while, abruptly asked "Got it?"

So, got it?

Watch

Watch your 'thoughts', they become words.
Watch your 'words', they become actions.
Watch your 'actions', they become habits.
Watch your 'habits', they become character.
Watch your 'character', for it becomes your destiny.

Questions answered

Q: If happiness and sorrow are two sides of a coin, which are in compliment with each other, how can we remove sorrow or suffering from this world?

Sri Sri: It is dark in the night, but you have the intelligence and power to bring the light even when it is dark.

Q: Can you transform Osama bin laden to a good human being?

Sri Sri: If he comes to me, yes.

Q: Guruji, how can I have the serenity you have in your face?

Sri Sri: See your life in a broader perspective. Commit your life to service.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!!
Let this message of wisdom from Guruji guide you through the whole year.

So What?

Here is a gem of an answer to someone who might use spiritual teachings as an excuse for their lack of commitment.

So what if I become rich, so what if I become successful, So what.. So what …. So what…

Sri Sri: So what if I don't answer this question?

For whatever has happened you can say so what. But for things in future if you say, so what if I ate anything, so what if I get sick… it doesn't work like that.

"So what", is used to go inwards, not when you are active. When you want to rest, when going to bed, you can use "so what". You don't want to go to bed with your coat, shirt and tie. Just like this mind is clinging on to some events, so we drop it using "so what".

It's a technique. It brings freedom. But you can't apply "so what" in activity.

Credits : http://srisriravishankarquestionandanswers.blogspot.com

Check out the blog and if you subscribe for an email on the site so you get these Q n A to your mail box!!

Questions answered

Wait for the videos to upload...it is worth it!!


For the rest of the show....
http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/79034/web-exclusive-sri-sri-answers-your-questions.html

Shakti

Consciousness expresses the three shaktis - Kriya Shakti, Gyan Shakti and Ichcha Shakti. Kriya shakti is power to act. Gyan shakti is power of knowledge or wisdom. Ichcha shakti is desire. When these three shaktis are co-coordinated, life is very smooth.

Many times you say that, you will do certain things. However you never do that. You simply keep postponing the action. Excercise and yoga are best examples. You know that it is good for your health and you also want to do it, but you dont do it. This is lack of kriya shakti.


Some people have lots of kriya shakti and become restless. They keep working round the clock or keep wiping the same window again and again, but there is no knowledge in the action. This is due to lack of gyan shakti.

Lack of ichcha shakti means lack of strong desire. Such people keep changing their mindset all the time. Lethargy is also a lack of ichcha shakti. Some people have lot of knowledge but there is no desire to share with everyone. This is due to lack of ichcha shakti.

So a perfect balance of these three shakti is very essesntial and worth having. Take stock of yourself and make a balance.

Kick the ball

From the moment you wake up in the morning you are always with people and your mind is caught up in worldly thoughts. So sometime during the day, sit for a few minutes, get into the cave of your heart with your eyes closed and kick the world away like a ball.

But as soon as you open your eyes, hold onto the ball because you need to kick it again in the next session. During the day be 100% attached to the work; do not try to detach yourself. But when you sit for meditation, then totally detach yourself. Only those who can totally detach can take total responsibility.

Eventually you will be able to be both attached and detached simultaneously. Kick the ball and be in the goal! This is art of living, skill of living.

Meditate

The more we cultivate a seed, the more it grows. Similarly in meditation the more we practice it the more it cultures the whole nervous system and the whole body. Our physiology undergoes a change and every cell of the body gets filled with 'prana', the life force. The more prana there is in the body the more we are filled with bubbling joy and bubbling love.


Two things happen because of meditation. First it prevents stress from entering into the system. Secondly, already pent up stresses are let out. Both happen simultaneously and we tap the source and joy of what we are. We are then happy and fulfilled. As this state consumes us more and more we become happier. Anything we see, we feel becomes more intense and more beautiful.

On a merry go round

A desire fulfilled, is a desire that leaves you in the same place, where you were before it arose. A young girl sees an expensive satin dress. She tries to convince her father to buy it but he refuses. The girl gets so upset and every time she remembers that dress her heart tugs from inside. After a lot of tears and bickering, her father finally buys the dress. The girl is delighted and wears it to every party. But after six months, the dress lies in the cupboard. After two years the same dress ends up in a heap of clothes to be discarded. You work to fulfill a desire. The desire gets fulfilled and you are in the same place you were before. It is like a merry go round. You go for miles and get down just where you began.

To get off the merry go round, just don’t give too much weight to your desires. When a desire comes to you, just surrender it and say to yourself, “Ok, if it is good, it will happen to me. Let it happen.” When you let go of it, there is more freedom and everything blossoms naturally.

But surrender doesn’t mean the absence of action. You need to do whatever is necessary to be done. Give all your actions that are required from you. Your karma for what you want to achieve is necessary. Be active, be dynamic, but not obsessed with the feverishness about fulfilling desire. This feverishness is the root cause of depression.

Two important ways

A state in which you feel absolutely comfortable is meditation. Unfortunately we think meditation is effort. Your body may be comfortable in a situation – you may be sitting in a nice sofa or lying on a good bed. But the mind will toss around in anxiety, sorrow and dejection. You may be watching an entertainment program and your mind may be at rest, but your soul is restless and hungry for something more.

Just open your eyes and see around. People who have wealth, fame and power are equally at discomfort as those who don’t have it. A seeker is at discomfort so also a non seeker. Then what can one do?

Two things…one is dispassion and another is practice. What is dispassion? You say, “Right now am not interested in seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling or feeling anything. This moment I want to be at rest. My mind is running after this and that. For twenty minutes or half an hour am not going to engage in any activity and want to be at peace.” This very thought bring you to centre. This is dispassion and deepens your meditation. The practice brings dispassion. They both complement each other. Krishna said, “Though the mind is restless, with knack and skill, with dispassion and practice, it becomes calm very quickly.”

This is very precious. A few moments of such stillness can transform life, can change our nervous system and change our attitude of looking at things. This can bring so much happiness and joy that nothing else can give us.

Jaigurudev…to the love in you…to the God in you…to the Guru in you.

Paani Bahe Kyon Nahi

Paani bahe kyon nahin
Satsang chale kyon nahin
Kitab phere kyon nahin

Water should keep flowing. If it stagnates in one place it gets muddied.

A satsang person should not get entangled, sitting with the same people, talking with the same people, being with the same people. If you always spend time with the same group of people then you develop anger or craving and aversions towards them. Satsang should keep moving. New people everytime.

Books should be revised. If you don’t keep revising your books (knowledge) you tend to forget it. You heard bhakti sutra, ashtavakra, yoga sutra and kept it aside. You are not dwelling on it. You think you know it and keep it aside. It should be reviewed.

Listen to this in Guruji's voice

http://fb.esnips.com/doc/afb6e7a7-0027-4752-bda4-ae4b4228df0b/Kitabe-Phere-Kyon-Nahin---Talk-by-H.H.Sri-Ravi-Shankar-Jan-23-2006

Joy of Giving

Seva and spiritual practices go together. As the urge to share increases, the deeper you go into meditation. It is tested and proven that when we make service our biggest agenda in life, it eliminates fear, brings focus to our mind, purposefulness in action and long-term joy.

Seva always seems to give one a big kick. It is the most effective antidote to depression. The day you feel hopeless and horrible, just get out of your room and ask people. “What can I do for you?” The service you then do will change the tape in your mental deck to a song of joy. There are two types of joy. One is the joy of getting. The child says, “If I get something, I will be happy. If I get a toy, I will be happy.” This is the joy of a child. We are mostly stuck at this level and don’t seem to grow beyond. But ahead of us is a mature joy, the joy of giving. When you do something just for the joy of it and not to get anything out of it, that is seva.

PS.: For starters all you iitk guys can volunteer some of your time for the bihar relief fund collection in iitk.

The Mind

Let us examine the five factors that influence the mind: space, time, food, past impressions, and associations and actions.

Space: The place you are in. Every place you are in has a different impact on the mind. Even in your house, you can see that you feel different in different rooms. A place where there has been singing, chanting and meditation has a different influence on the mind. Suppose you like a particular place, you may find that a little later it will not be the same.

Time: Time is also a factor. Different times of the day and year have different influences on the mind.

Food: Different types of food that you eat influence you for a few days.

Past impressions or karmas: have a different impact on the mind. Awareness, alertness, knowledge and meditation all help erase past impressions.

Associations and actions: The people and events you are associated with influence your mind. With certain people your mind behaves one way and with others a different way.

Although these five factors influence your life and your mind, know that the Self is more powerful. As you grow in knowledge, you influence them all.