GURU KRIPA .............

[ShAivI]

OM SAI RAM!!!

Q: Why is it so that we don’t feel same for a person all the time?
Sometimes we are angry with the same person whom we love.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

You know we go through all different types of emotions.
We like somebody and the same person we dislike.
We trust somebody and same person we start doubting
and so all these mixed emotions keep rising and falling
in our mind. Don’t be scared. All these emotions make
you strong somewhere deep inside. Somewhere you will
come out a very powerful human being. When you are
aware that all these moving emotions are just a temporary
phase, and that you are much bigger than this, you become
strong and centered. Don’t get stuck in any of these emotions
or make a concept in the mind.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

OM SAI RAM, SRI SAI RAM, JAI JAI SAI RAM !!!

[ShAivI]

OM SAI RAM!!!

Q: Can spirituality save the world?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

What is destroying this world? It’s the greed, jealousy,
hatred, narrow mindedness, selfishness, and all these
negative emotions and qualities which are destroying
the world, right? Because of greed of few people,
anger and hatred of few people, lack of awareness,
lack of understanding or misunderstanding and narrow
mindedness of a few people, the world is getting destroyed.

How can these negative emotions be overcome?
Is there a way? Yes, SPIRITUALITY. It is only spirituality
which can turn hatred into love, anger into awareness and
selfishness into compassion. It is only spirituality that can save
the mind of the people, isn’t it so?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

OM SAI RAM, SRI SAI RAM, JAI JAI SAI RAM !!!

[ShAivI]

OM SAI RAM!!!

Q: There are many things in my life which I think are not ok.
     I don’t know what to do about these things.?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

When you say, ‘It’s not ok, it’s not ok’, the seed of ‘not ok’ is not
letting your mind to relax. When do you go to bed? When everything
is ok, and when there is comfort. When you are hanging on to the
discomfort, how can you ever be comfortable? You have to accept things
as they are.

‘It’s not ok, it’s not ok’ keeps you all outside. Those imperfections are
there for a cause or purpose. It is going to be ok, it will take some time.
Things are ok the way they are now, They will be ok in the future Whatever
happened in the past was ok. When you understand this, you relax and in
that relaxation you can meditate.

When you want to retire, its nivriti but when you want to come out
(of rest) its pravritti. Then you can act. When you are tired but you are
hanging on to what is not ok - then you cannot retire. When you have to
chill out, what do you say?

 ‘Everything is perfect,’ otherwise you can’t chill, you can’t act! It is neither
pravritti, nor nivriti. Dhyan yoga is nivriti, Karma yoga is pravritti.
Most people are hanging onto the ‘not ok’ and are unable to relax, to enjoy life,
to chill, to be creative. They are holding onto the seed of ‘not ok’.

That person, this situation, the government, the administration - everything
is not ok. Then it comes to you - I am not ok. Subtly, it reflects on you that
you are not OK. Then you don't like that feeling, and to cover that up, you
make up many justifications and the mind is all confused. If tamogun is too
much, you don't know the pravritti or the nivriti. When there is Satva,
then we know what to act, when to act, whether to act or not. When Rajogun
prevails then its half way through - you regret and act. Many of us act and then
 we regret.

Mother scolds her child, regrets it and then becomes nice. In Satva,
you don't regret, you retire and relax, there is clarity. In Rajogun, there
is confusion and chaos. In Tamogun, there is total inertia and lethargy.
There is no strict border between the three gunas. It is very fluid,
one flows into another.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

OM SAI RAM, SRI SAI RAM, JAI JAI SAI RAM !!!

[ShAivI]

OM SAI RAM!!!

What is action in inaction and inaction in action??

Sri Avadoot Baba :

It is very clear. This is the whole secret.

When you are acting with hundred percent attention, something in you tells,
‘I am not doing it, I am not acting. It is just happening'. How many of you have
had this experience? (Many in the audience raise their hands). This is seeing
inaction in action.

Sometimes you get angry, or you behave in some manner and you feel that
you are not doing it, it is happening. Someone comes in front of you and you
just blow up, knowing very well that you are not doing it purposely. Something
in that person triggers something in you, and you start behaving like that.
How many of you have has this experience? (Many raise hands). You wonder,
‘My God, I never wanted to do this!’ That is seeing inaction in action.

You act because that person had to get those words, or that karma from you.
So he just pulled out those words from you, and you never really wanted to
say it. That incident had to happen and it was a karma. This is a little higher
knowledge.

Now don’t try to apply this knowledge to every mistake you do. You yell
at somebody and say, ‘I didn’t mean it. It was karmic and you had to get it,
so I had to yell!’ This is misuse of knowledge. Don’t do that. Don’t misuse
knowledge in that sense.

Sometimes without your wanting to do an act, you do it. You don't want
to do it, but you feel helpless, and you are just watching the act happening.

You see that you are not doing it, yet an action is happening, this is seeing inaction
in action. You are sitting with eyes closed and meditating. You are not doing anything,
yet the vibration that you are generating from within you is changing the world.
This is action in inaction.

You’re sitting and meditating, you’re spreading the waves of compassion,
waves of pure love and devotion, waves of harmony, and that harmony is hitting
others and it is changing their mind-set, it is changing the atmosphere, it is removing
the negativity, it is making things more positive. You’re giving blessing to people.
With your blessing things are changing. This is action in inaction. You sit in samadhi,
you sit in deep meditation, that samadhi is definitely creating a lot of action in the
world. That is action in inaction.

This is very difficult to explain. I have made an effort to explain it with whatever
little examples.

Sri Avadoot Baba

OM SAI RAM, SRI SAI RAM, JAI JAI SAI RAM !!!

[ShAivI]

OM SAI RAM!!!

Q: Sri Bhagavan speaks of the Heart as the seat of consciousness
and as identical with the Self.
What does the Heart exactly signify ?"

Sri Ramana Maharshi :

Call it by any name, God, Self,
the Heart or the seat of consciousness, it is all the same.
The point to be grasped is this,
that Heart means the very core of one's being,
the centre, without which there is nothing whatever.
The Heart is not physical, it is spiritual.
Hridayam equals hrit plus ayam;
it means `this is the centre'.
It is that from which thoughts arise,
on which they subsist and where they are resolved.
The thoughts are the content of the mind
and they shape the universe.
The Heart is the centre of all.
That from which beings come into existence is said
to be Brahman in the Upanishads.
That is the Heart.
Brahman is the Heart.

~ Be as you are



- Sri Ramana Maharshi

Source: Ramana Hridayam

OM SAI RAM, SRI SAI RAM, JAI JAI SAI RAM !!!

[ShAivI]

OM SAI RAM!!!

Q: How can I trust anybody?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Actually, you don’t trust yourself. If you trust yourself, you can trust anybody.
I am not asking you to be naive; be intelligent, be sharp, be alert, and understand people
from a bigger perspective.

When you’re too emotional, you fail to see things as they are.
Why do you have this issue of trust?
It is because you get into an imbalanced emotional outburst or outrage.
You don’t see things as they are.

There is a fine balance between enriched emotion and a sharp intellect,
and that is what yoga is all about. When it comes to perception,
you have to have that gentle enriched emotion, a sharp intellect,
and on top of this, allow your intuition to work.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

OM SAI RAM, SRI SAI RAM, JAI JAI SAI RAM !!!

[ShAivI]

OM SAI RAM!!!

Q: Does satsang mean 'association with jnanis',
    or
    can it also mean 'association with good people' ?

Annamalai Swami:

The real Sat, which is being, is within you. You associate with
it and get satsang every time you turn your attention towards it.
You do not need a jnani for such satsang. You can get it anywhere.

On the other hand, worldly people who are living near jnanis are
often not getting satsang because they are not tuning in to the
jnanis Sat.

Some people who live near saints are just like little insects
called 'unni' (cattle tick) which live on the udders of cows.
They drink the blood there instead of the milk. Some people
who were physically associated with Bhagavan ignored his
teachings and failed to make contact with the grace he was
radiating. They worked and ate at the ashram, but they got
little benefit from being there. These people were not having
satsang, they were just human unni.

There was a group of brahmins who were associated with Bhagavan
who did not subscribe to the advaitic view, 'All is Brahman.
All is the Self.' In those days we used to read a lot from the
Ribhu Gita, a text which repeatedly says 'All is Brahman’.

These brahmins refused to join in because they didn't agree
with the philosophy. 'Where is this Brahman you are talking about?'
they would say. 'How can it be everything? How can you go on
chanting "All is Brahman" when that is not your experience?
Maybe these teachings are useful for people like Bhagavan,
why should people like us parrot these statements endiessly?’
Bhagavan himself encouraged us to recite this text regularly.

He said that constant and frequent repetition led to samadhi. In
giving us this instruction Bhagavan was giving us a method of
experiencing some of the sat that was his real nature. In effect
he was offering us a highly effective form of satsang. But these
brahmins didn't want it. They wanted instead to complain about
the contents of the book. When such people willfully turn down
a method of associating with Bhagavan's Sat, how can it be said
that they are having his satsang?

Source: Ramana Hridayam

OM SAI RAM, SRI SAI RAM, JAI JAI SAI RAM !!!

[ShAivI]

OM SAI RAM!!!

What is Meant by God???

Sri Avadoot Baba :

If you ask me, 'Are you God?'
I would say, 'Yes'. I would say, 'You too are God'.

What is meant by God?

God is not somebody sitting up in heaven, love is God.

So in India we say, mother is the first God, and you must see God in your mother,
father, teacher and also in a guest. You must treat your guests as God,
because you don’t know in what form God will come to your door step.
So don’t see God as some separate entity sitting somewhere in heaven
trying to give you a little finger, which if you try to catch, he goes further
away. This concept of God has given rise to communism and atheism in
the world. If you understand God as energy, as love, as a presence,
as a being, as sum of the whole creation, then there can be no atheist
left on this planet. This is a scientific way of seeing what God is.

God is Love, can anyone deny love from existence?
Can someone say love doesn’t exist?
If they do, they are blind.
They don’t know.

So first you should know what God is.
God is not a person with too many legs and
too many hands sitting up in heaven.
A man with a long beard, no.
The concept of God is what has created lots of problems
in the world and divided people into religions and sects.

We should always think scientifically.
If you see scientifically, we are all made up of one thing and that is God.
That’s why the ancient people all over the world always felt
that God is in the mountains, trees, rivers.
The native people of this country believed that
God is present in nature, in the directions, in mountains
and rivers, and they are right.

The ancient Vedic system also says that God is present
in the creation, just like how oil is present in the sesame seed.
So see God everywhere. If you see God within oneself,
you will see God everywhere.
A Guru is one who helps you find God in yourself and in everyone.

Sri Avadoot Baba

OM SAI RAM, SRI SAI RAM, JAI JAI SAI RAM !!!

[ShAivI]

OM SAI RAM!!!

Q: Our horoscope is based on our birth time.
     If the birth time is unknown, does that mean our horoscope is wrong?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

If the timing is correct, interpretation is right.
You can never say that it is 100% right.
There is a probability of it being 80%-90% correct.
And there is always an adrushya (invisible),
i.e., an unknown influence.

It can happen anytime and that is what is called grace.
So grace has the ability to change anything at anytime.

Shastras (scriptures) have their significance.

Like for instance, a boy was born and the father
went to the astrologer to show his son's horoscope.
The astrologer said that your son is very great.

There will be many cars around him all the time around,
and he will have the ability to stop anybody at anytime.

So the parents thought that their son is going to become
a big minister, or the president, and he will be surrounded
by a fleet of cars but the son became a policeman.

Today of course there are traffic lights which have come,
but twenty years ago there were not as many traffic lights
but only policemen who direct traffic.

The father came and fought with the astrologer,
'You told me that my son will be surrounded by a fleet of cars,
but he has become a policeman'.

The astrologer said, 'See my prediction has come true even now.
He is a traffic policeman and he is surrounded by many cars'.

Another astrologer said to someone, 'You will be hit by a bullet in your head'.

But what happened one day, the person was wearing a big hat
and something did come, but it hit the hat and took the hat away.

So there is a saying in Tamil,
'What came to head went off with my hat'.
(தலைக்கு வந்தது தலைப்பாவோட போச்சு )
So a big trouble which would have come, by grace it went away
in a small way. So here the scripture is also proved right,
but at the same time you were in a right place at the right time.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

OM SAI RAM, SRI SAI RAM, JAI JAI SAI RAM !!!

[ShAivI]

OM SAI RAM!!!

Q: Is it enough if I spend some time in the mornings and
     some time in the evenings for this atma-vichara?
    Or should I do it always, even when I am writing or walking?

Sri Ramana Maharshi :

What is your real nature?
Is it writing, walking or being?
The one unalterable reality is being.
Until you realize that state of pure being you
should pursue the enquiry.
If once you are established in it there will be no further worry.
No one will enquire into the source of thoughts unless thoughts arise.
So long as you think `I am walking' or `I am writing', enquire who does it.

Q: If I go on rejecting thoughts can I call it vichara?

Sri Ramana Maharshi :

It may be a stepping stone.
But really vichara begins when you cling to your Self
and are already off the mental movement, the thought waves.

Q: Then vichara is not intellectual?

Sri Ramana Maharshi :

No, it is antara vichara, inner quest.
Holding the mind and investigating it is advised for a beginner.
But what is mind after all?
It is a projection of the Self.
See for whom it appears and from where it rises.
The `I'-thought will be found to be the root-cause.
Go deeper.
The `I'-thought disappears and there is an infinitely
expanded 'I'-consciousness.

~ Be as you are



Source: Ramana Hridayam

OM SAI RAM, SRI SAI RAM, JAI JAI SAI RAM !!!

[ShAivI]

OM SAI RAM!!!

When we are caught up in doubts and suspicion,
then we create that same feeling in others, around us.
When you are soaked in love, then you vibrate love
and people around you also reciprocate that same love.
This is a rule of nature ! 



Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

[ShAivI]

OM SAI RAM!!!

Q: The feeling of ego leads us to dominate others, or be disrespectful.
     What is the message of The Art of Living that would help bring us together,
     and be more respectful towards each other?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

One of the biggest crises on the planet is the identity crisis.
We identify ourselves as somebody, and those who do not
belong to the same identity, we think that they are against us
and we become afraid of them, or we want to dominate them
and so we show aggression towards them.

So what we need to change is: our identity.

There are several layers of identity:

1. We are part of one divinity
2. We are one humanity
3. Then comes whether we are male or female
4. The religion we belong to
5. The country we belong to

When these identity reverses, we forget the basic identity,
i.e., we are all human beings.

Those who we feel do not belong to us, we are not happy
with them. We want to dominate them. The tendency
to dominate is because of the ego, and the antidote for
this is having a sense of belongingness to everybody.

For me, wherever I go, I feel totally at home. Not once have
I felt that I am in a foreign land. I have travelled from North Pole
to South Pole, everywhere I feel absolutely at home. We can
cultivate this feeling within us; we just need to see life from
a broader perspective.

We must remember these three Cs:

1. Context
2. Commitment
3. Compassion

See life from a bigger context.
What is ego?
You think you have achieved something?
What are you?
Who are you?

You are nothing!
You are not even a speck in this creation!

Billions of years have passed, and billions will come in the future,
in this great span of time we are nowhere! So when we give a
bigger context to life, the ego simply starts dissolving or just
smiles – it is not an angry ego, but a smiling ego.

Then commitment; when life has commitment towards human
values such as compassion and nonviolence, then life flows in
a proper direction.

Then it is compassion, which is a natural thing. We all have
compassion. In fact I would say there is not one person who does
not have compassion on the planet; in some it is only not expressed;
it is covered and needs uncovering.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

OM SAI RAM, SRI SAI RAM, JAI JAI SAI RAM !!!

[ShAivI]

OM SAI RAM!!!

How To Accept Yourself??

Sri Avadoot Baba :

Every person you meet has something special to give
you—that is, if you are open to receiving it.

Each encounter offers you the gift of greater self-awareness
by illustrating what you do and don't accept about yourself.
An honest look will show you that the reactions you have to
others give you more information about yourself than about
them.

"If we learn to open our hearts, anyone can be our teacher." Pema Chodron

You can never know for sure what motivates other people.
But you can learn what you are accepting or judging in yourself.
For instance, if someone makes a remark about you and
it's something you also judge in yourself, it will most likely hurt.
However if they make the same remark and you don't have that
judgment about yourself, it probably won't bother you at all.

I once visited a new friend's house and everyone in the family
was shorter than me. Since I'm the shortest person in my family,
I never felt too tall.

When my friend's mother met me at the door and said with
a slightly disappointed tone, "Oh, you are so tall," it didn't affect me.
I was aware that she had some discomfort with my height,
but I didn't take it personally.

However, had she been tall and said, "Oh, you are so short,"
it probably would have pushed my buttons, since I do feel
somewhat short.

This point is valid for almost any interaction imaginable:
Reactions always have to do with our own self-judgments
and feelings of inadequacy or strength, not the other person.

Most judgments of others stem from one of three basic causes:

1- You wouldn't tolerate the same behavior or characteristic
 in yourself. For instance, you might be shy and encounter
a very gregarious person.

2- Your judgment might go something like this: What a show-off.
They are so loud and obnoxious. Because you would be embarrassed
to act this way, you resent somebody else doing it. This type of
judgment might reveal that you are not fully expressing yourself,
hence you feel resentful or put off by others doing so, even if they
do it clumsily. Becoming aware of the truth of this reaction and
working on expressing yourself more fully and authentically would
result in a valuable gift of freer self-expression.

3- You display the same behavior and aren't aware of it so you
project your disowned behavior onto others and dislike it "out there."

Everyone has encountered the second cause at some point. Someone
is complaining about a friend or acquaintance and you think to yourself,
 "That's funny, they do the same thing they are finding wrong!"

Taking an honest look within to see if you share some of the characteristics
you dislike in others. You may be surprised to learn that you do, and it is
likely to offer insight into gaining greater self-acceptance and compassion
for others.

You are envious and resent the feelings that come up so you find something
wrong with those who have what you want and end up judging them.

Someone who has attained recognition may remind you of your own lack
of success in this area. You may resent their accomplishment and then
find something wrong with them in order to avoid your own feelings
of inadequacy.

Since inspiration is a much more effective motivator than competition,
you'd be more likely to experience success if you got inspired by
other people's victories instead of wasting time finding fault with them.
Most judgments of others are ego strategies to avoid uncomfortable
feelings. However, if you lack the awareness of where they come from,
they can lead to even more discomfort down the line.

Becoming aware of the nature of your judgments doesn't mean that
you no longer have preferences. You may still notice that certain types
of behavior seem unappealing. But with right understanding and a l
ittle work, discernment rather than judgment kicks in and causes
you to feel compassion for others, even if you're not enthusiastic
about their behavior. At the very least, you'll feel neutral.

Discernment is awareness and understanding without an emotional
response. Exercising discernment feels very different from getting
your buttons pushed. Judgments that cause emotional reactions
are clues to help you find personal insight.

When you explore beliefs and assumptions instead of judging people,
you open a door to expanded self-awareness and self-acceptance.
Rather than unconsciously delighting in the ego gratification of judging others,
let your reactions and judgments help you achieve greater
self-understanding—and accordingly, greater happiness
and success.

When you use your judgment of others as a mirror to show you
the workings of your own mind, every person's reflection can become
a valuable gift, making each person you encounter a teacher
and a blessing.

Sri Avadoot Baba

OM SAI RAM, SRI SAI RAM, JAI JAI SAI RAM !!!

[ShAivI]

OM SAI RAM!!!

Q: Why are some forms of Devi so ferocious like that of Mahakali?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Love and fear are two shores of the same consciousness.
If you can love such a frightening form of Divinity,
then you can love anyone. There is no fear left!
When the acceptance level has increased manifold to
accept both beautiful and ugly as your own forms,
you come up stronger and solid. So to present beauty
and ugliness as forms of the Divine is the intelligence
of the ancient seers.

Fear and even ego also is all of that one Divinty.
From serene to frightening, birth to death - when
someone is awakened to such a level of consciousness
that He sees divinity in all the forms, then only all this
can be seen as maya. When the mind is calmed then the
divinity is here only.

People decorate even with a cactus. So, recognizing beauty
in everything – Flowers as well, and thorns as well. If you
can accept such frightening aspect of divinity, it completely
removes fear from the mind and the body. One who has
undergone such states, their acceptance has become
so strong. Beautiful and ugly both are your nature.
Most beautiful and most ugly forms – everything is a
part of one truth.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

OM SAI RAM, SRI SAI RAM, JAI JAI SAI RAM !!!

[ShAivI]

OM SAI RAM!!!

Q: What is the purpose of all the suffering and evil in the world? ?

Bhagavan: There has been evil and sorrow since the beginning
of creation. You ask why the rishis do not put matters right.
The Vedas tell of the demons (asuras) who have existed since
the earliest times. There is a force of opposition in the world which
produces strife and suffering but it works to make humankind grow
and evolve. It is a force in nature which exists with the good.

Your question is itself an outcome of the suffering. Sorrow makes
one think of God. If it were not for the suffering, would you have
asked the question? Except for jnanis, everybody, from
a king to a peasant, has a certain amount of sorrow. Even in cases
where it seems to be absent it is only a matter of time­ sooner or
later it comes. Also, one may not question sorrow or God at the
first blow, but one is likely to at the fifth. We have taken this vehicle
(the body) in order to know our real state.

Q: But why should imperfection-come from perfection?

Bhagavan: Had it not been for the manifestation of the universe,
we would not have thought about the real state. The purpose of the
manifestation is for you to know the cause of it. There is no maya
when you know your real state. It is your fault if you do not know
yourself.

Source: Ramana Hridayam



OM SAI RAM, SRI SAI RAM, JAI JAI SAI RAM !!!