January 25, 2014
Bangalore, India
Gurudev, when we put our focus on others, we get weak. Like when Yudhistira (character
from Indian epic Mahabharata) put his focus on the Pandavas (Yudhistira's brothers)
he got weak, but Krishna told him to be centered. Does this mean we should not
be sensitive to others?
Sri Sri: You must know the difference between being sensitive to
others and getting caught up in the emotions of others. These are two
different things.
You can easily get caught up in someone else's emotion, and lose your
centeredness. Then your perception gets dull, your judgments become hazy or
erroneous. And you don't get that clarity. Like a father or mother, they know
their kid is crying and then they know that the kid will stop crying. And they
attend to its need. They don't get emotionally involved, 'Oh the baby is crying
so I will also start crying'.
Just imagine, every day a newborn baby cries, now if the mother also cries with
the baby the whole time, what will happen! Disaster! The baby cries almost
every hour or every two hours, just imagine the mother crying every hour or
two!
You
have to be sensitive. It doesn't mean that the mother is insensitive to the baby
crying. The mother is all the more sensitive, but she doesn't get carried away
by the emotion of the baby. When someone is crying, you also start crying, that
is getting totally sucked into someone else' emotion. The mother is sensitive,
yet she is not sucked into the emotion of the baby. In the same way, that is
what Yoga does. It keeps you centered, yet sensitive and sensible.
There
are two kinds of people:
1. People who are very sensible. They are cerebral people, very sensible but
they are not sensitive because they think what they know is right.
2. Those who are very sensitive, but often are not very sensible. They get
carried away by emotions. They talk only through emotions.
You
know, three months in a year the male elephant gets a secretion. The testosterones
increase, so they get some secretion in their head. And those three months, the
big elephant doesn't even listen to the mahout. He becomes a little wild, so
they chain him at that time. So a lady who came for the first time saw that the
elephant had been chained, and she started saying, 'Oh this animal is being
chained', and started crying.
If that animal is not chained, everybody else will have to cry because he is
not in his senses in those three months, and he will do anything! Even the mahout
cannot control the elephant at that time, so they put chains. And the chain is
not a big thing for an elephant. It's just a few kilos; an elephant can carry
tons. So it is not a big burden on it, but it looks like the elephant has a
chain on its leg.
So,
people who are emotional, sometimes they are not sensible. What is really
needed is sensitivity along with sensibility. A perfect combination of head and
heart, to say in the layman's language.
So, women already have a lot of sensitivity, they can be more sensible. And men
already have a lot of sense, but they should me more sensitive. This is not a
general rule, by the way. Many times it is the other way around also!
I have to put a safeguard on! (Laughter)
Gurudev, my problem is I doubt my convincing capabilities. I think
I can't convince people, especially for this lovely Art of Living course which
is so superb. What should I tell them.
Sri Sri: No need to try to convince anyone. Even I don't know how to convince
people. Don't convince anybody. If you are convinced, that is good enough. If
you have the conviction, that is good enough. And if you have the heart that
others should also benefit in their life, there should be a smile on their
face, everyone should benefit from knowledge, that very intention will carry
on.
But
if you are trying to convince somebody, when you want to convince somebody, you
think they don't know it. Or they don't believe in it. Everyone wants to be
happy. Every single human being on the planet want to be kind and loving, and
be loved. They want to explore their depth. Who doesn't want happiness? Who
doesn't want a clear mind? Everyone wants clarity in their mind! So, this is a
need of everybody.
Who doesn't want a healthy body, tell me. Everybody wants it! Who doesn't want
to feel pleasant in all situations? Or have positive vibes in them? Everybody
wants it.
So when you are trying to convince somebody, you think they don't want it and
so you have to convince them to want it. That's where we do a mistake.
I feel you shouldn't convince anybody, you should just live the knowledge,
smile and serve. And say what you feel like saying. If you want to tell
something to others around you, don't be shy in speaking your heart out. Speak
out, and that's it.
Dear Gurudev, whenever we ask our teachers about Karma (doership),
they reply, 'Gurudev says that it is a complicated play'. We want to know more
about this complicated play.
Sri Sri: Karma is very complex.
There are so many types of Karma, there is individual karma, family karma,
society karma, karma of the nation, karma of time.
Then there are karmas which are Sanchita, i.e., karma which have
been accumulated; and Prarabdha karma, which are already
giving fruits. Then there is Aagami karma, which is going to
come in the future.
So it's very complex, almost like how food gets digested. When you take food in
the mouth, first the saliva digests the food, a lot of the starch in the food
is digested by the saliva. Then it goes to the stomach, and the stomach juices
digests it further. Then it passes through the duodenum, and the pancreas.
You know, if you look into the mechanics of how a piece of banana gets
digested, it is a huge factory! It is a huge factory to make a piece of banana,
or apple to a drop of blood. And that's what our body does effortlessly.
Similarly karma is enormous. That is why Krishna says in the Bhagvad
Gita, 'Gahana karmano gatih'. It means, unfathomable are the
ways of karma. So the best thing is, don't sit and worry about
karma, just do what is in front of you, and be spontaneous.
Clear
head, pure heart and spontaneity in action, this is the sutra (rule)
we must follow. We must have a clean heart, a clear mind and spontaneity in our
action, and this will take care of all the karmas.
Bad karmas will go away when you do meditation, when you become hollow and
empty. When you meditate, when your intentions are clear, then many of the bad
karmas get dissolved. So, this is what it is. Knowledge, awareness, seva,satsang, sadhana –
all these help in dissolving bad karmas.
I want to get married to a Christian guy. Is it necessary for me
to get converted into Christianity?
Sri Sri: You should ask that to the guy and his family.
I think you should keep your own faith. Whatever is your own faith, stick to
it. I don't think you should compromise on that. You should keep to your faith
because that is healthy in many ways– psychologically, spiritually.
If you are a Hindu, it is no problem because in Hinduism we accept everybody,
all the prophets. Hinduism is like the grandmother of all faiths. It never says
any faith is no good, it embraces everyone. It is the oldest faith. So, if you
are a Hindi, there shouldn't be a problem for you, there is no conflict.
If you are a Muslim and there is a problem, that is only social or maybe from
the tradition, but even then I think you should honor your tradition.
: Gurudev, being a bhakt (devotee), I only love
to do bhakti (devotion). Am I escaping from my
responsibilities? Are there any responsibilities of a bhakt?
Sri Sri: Oh, yes. Bhakti doesn't means irresponsibility, bhakti means
total responsibility.
You cannot say, 'Oh, I love plants but I don't want to do anything about it. I
love people but I don't want to do anything for people', no. When you love
something you will do. If you love plants, you are bound to take action. If
someone is cutting a tree, you will go and stop it, and you will plant more
trees. That is a sign of your love for trees.
If you love people, you will do something for people. If there is a problem,
you cannot say that you only love people, you won't do anything about it. It is
not correct, sounds very absurd, right? When there is love, there is
spontaneity in action.
Gurudev, what should a person who is physically, mentally and
socially weak do to become strong in all the three areas?
Sri Sri: First of all, you should not brand yourself that you are very
weak. The moment you brand yourself as weak, you find yourself even weaker.
Know that you don't know yourself, you don't know your strength. You will find
that you have enough strength to do what you want to do.
Gurudev, when I do meditation in the ashram it is effortless but
when I go home it is not the same. Is there any way I can cultivate the same
aura at home?
Sri Sri: Yes you can, in a particular place at home, or in a particular
room. That is why people used to have a pooja(prayer) room in their
home. In a corner, the north-east corner they would devote for the pooja room.
Like that you can place any one corner in your room, and regularly sit there.
Put one carpet or asana (mat) and sit there and meditate. You
can do that.
Jai Gurudev. After coming to the Ashram I just feel like running
behind you. I don't even feel like doing any seva the way I do in my hometown.
What should I do?
Sri Sri: By the way, I'm not running anywhere! (Laughs) I'm very stable,
you better be stable. I don't run after anything, it is better you also don't
run after anything; just be! Know that whatever you have to get, you will get
it. This is a place to just settle in the depth of yourself, and be content,
and then do whatever seva there is. You must do seva. A physical activity is
essential for everybody.
Gurudev, the UN recognizes happiness as the basic birthright of
every human being. How do we move forward to be a happier country on the
occasion of 26th January (Republic day of India)?
Sri Sri: This question first has to come in every citizen of this country: How
can we find happiness in our self, and how we can see that happiness increases
in our society. So, first that thought should germinate in every mind, and
then action will follow soon.
We
live as though we are on a conveyor belt. Things are moving, things are going,
we don't even think about it. Almost a directionless, aimless life. Maybe the
only aim is to make more money, by hook or by crook, that's all.
The corruption in this country should first end, it has reached its peak. I
think it cannot go any higher. From top to bottom it is corrupt.
Today,
I had a meeting with some of the industrialists and business people. Do you
know what they told me? India has the highest deposit of coal, still we are
importing coal. We have oil and natural gas here, still we are getting it from
outside. And we have so much iron ore, still we are importing steel here. Also,
Bauxite, we have plenty of it in our country, we are sitting on a mine of
bauxite, but we are importing bauxite.
See, there is gas and oil in the middle east, and in Malaysia and Indonesia as
well. We are on the belt, right in the center, but these corrupt politicians
have made it so hard for people to move anything. For their personal gains,
they have stalled the growth of the country, and the common man is in trouble.
When
food prices around the world has dropped, it is so strange the food prices in
India have gone up. All over the world the prices have come down, only in India
the price of grain has increased. One day suddenly the onion prices go up, and
then couple of days later it falls like the Niagara falls. And the farmer is
caught in between. It is not tears he is shedding, it is blood in his eyes! And
in this situation, how can we keep quiet without talking?
People
say, 'Gurudev, your job is only to talk on spirituality, and to give comfort to
people; don't talk about corruption and all these social issues. This will
affect somebody, so don't say anything about it'.
I say, 'No, I don't think about what anybody thinks or does not think, a fact
is a fact. We have to make people aware that this is injustice being done to
people'.
Corruption
begins where the sense of belongingness ends.
Unfortunately, in a country where Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and
Rajaji had set up such good precedence, some of the current politicians in
power today have misused the trust of people and mismanaged the whole country
of 1.2 billion people; made a fool of them. So we must stand up against such
injustice. Don't you think so? And this is the time.
Now when the voting time has come, you should say, 'I will not vote for these
corrupt people again'.
Our
only fight is that nearly one-third of the parliament is occupied by the
corrupt and criminal elements. In this coming Lok Sabha (Lower
house of Indian Parliament) elections we should flush them out; all the corrupt
and criminal elements. No more apathy. See, all that we can do is only during
election, that is when we have the power to vote. Don't think that this is
because of this particular caste or community. If they are corrupt and have a
criminal record, we should keep them away from politics.
In
the country, they have removed all ethics and moral lessons from the public
sphere in the name of secularism, which is against what Mahatma Gandhi stood
for.
Mahatma Gandhi did satsang every day. He preached moral and ethical values
every day. But now, alcohol consumption has gone up three times in the country
in the last few years. And that is why women are not safe.
You read in the paper everyday about assault on women, it was never the case in
this country before. 5-10 years ago, have you heard about so much crime against
women? And the main cause of this is alcohol.
I think it is time the country wakes up.
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