This Begins a New Practice
This begins a series of daily notes of knowledge from Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.
Beyond an event is knowledge.
Beyond an object is infinity.
Beyond a person is love.
Knowledge is beyond events. Every event colours your awareness in some way: pleasure, pain, joy, sorrow, anger, jealousy. Each event gives you a false notion if what reality is. Truth is beyond all the colours of particular events.
Behind every object is infinity. Objects are limited and changing. Yet they exist in infinite space that never changes. Reduce any object to atoms; you will find that within each atom is contained infinite space. Beyond all objects in infinity.
Beyond each person is love. A personalized changes. A body, a mind, a complex of behaviors is always changing. Beyond each personality there is unchanging love; love is what you are. When you lose your self, you will find your Self !
The event behind the event is Knowledge. The object behind the object is infinity. The person behind the person is love.
Maya - delusion - is when you are stuck in events, personalities, or objects.
Brahman - divine consciousness - is seeing beyond all these.
See? Just a little shift.
*An Intimate note to The Sincere Seeker
Beyond an event is knowledge.
Beyond an object is infinity.
Beyond a person is love.
Knowledge is beyond events. Every event colours your awareness in some way: pleasure, pain, joy, sorrow, anger, jealousy. Each event gives you a false notion if what reality is. Truth is beyond all the colours of particular events.
Behind every object is infinity. Objects are limited and changing. Yet they exist in infinite space that never changes. Reduce any object to atoms; you will find that within each atom is contained infinite space. Beyond all objects in infinity.
Beyond each person is love. A personalized changes. A body, a mind, a complex of behaviors is always changing. Beyond each personality there is unchanging love; love is what you are. When you lose your self, you will find your Self !
The event behind the event is Knowledge. The object behind the object is infinity. The person behind the person is love.
Maya - delusion - is when you are stuck in events, personalities, or objects.
Brahman - divine consciousness - is seeing beyond all these.
See? Just a little shift.
*An Intimate note to The Sincere Seeker
Prarabdha Karma and Sanchita Karma
Some karma can be changed and some cannot.
When you prepare a dessert, if sugar or ghee is too little, you can add more. If some other ingredient is too much, it can all be adjusted and repaired. But once it is cooked, it cannot be reversed.
Milk can become sweet yoghurt or sour yoghurt, and sour yoghurt can be sweetened. But neither can be reversed back to milk.
Sanchita karma can be changed and adjusted by spiritual practices. Parabdha karma cannot be changed. And Satsang* burns the seed of all negative karmas before they are given a chance to sprout.
* The complany of the Master, also refers to a group of individuals who come together to celebrate the knowledge
When you prepare a dessert, if sugar or ghee is too little, you can add more. If some other ingredient is too much, it can all be adjusted and repaired. But once it is cooked, it cannot be reversed.
Milk can become sweet yoghurt or sour yoghurt, and sour yoghurt can be sweetened. But neither can be reversed back to milk.
Sanchita karma can be changed and adjusted by spiritual practices. Parabdha karma cannot be changed. And Satsang* burns the seed of all negative karmas before they are given a chance to sprout.
* The complany of the Master, also refers to a group of individuals who come together to celebrate the knowledge
Close to The Master
If you are not
feeing close to the Master, it’s because of you – because of your mind, your
ego concepts.
Just being on the levels of formal and informal communication cannot make you feel close. “How are you?” Where are you going?” “How have you been?” Stop these formal and superficial conversations with the Master. Speak with your heart what is deep in your life, what is important and intimate to you. Don’t just say how much the squash costs – 30 cents or whatever.
Share what you have and don’t judge, “Oh this is garbage.” The Master is ready to accept garbage of any extent. However you are, he will embrace you. Do not feel shame, shy, or judgmental about yourself.
If you don’t feel close to the Master, there’s no point in having a Master. He is just another burden to you, and you have enough burdens already. Just say, “Goodbye.”
Question: When you play little games with us and push us away, how can we feel close to you?
Sri Sri: You should feel more close if you are scolded or ignored, because to ignore somebody takes a lot effort. When a Master does not even ignore wrapping paper or a vase, how can he ignore a walking, talking, breathing human being who is connected to him? Once you understand this, you immediately feel close.
You are with the Master to share the joy of the Master, to share the consciousness of the Master.
For this, you have to empty your cup of what is already in it.
The Master is ready to share. You have only to share from your side.
Just being on the levels of formal and informal communication cannot make you feel close. “How are you?” Where are you going?” “How have you been?” Stop these formal and superficial conversations with the Master. Speak with your heart what is deep in your life, what is important and intimate to you. Don’t just say how much the squash costs – 30 cents or whatever.
Share what you have and don’t judge, “Oh this is garbage.” The Master is ready to accept garbage of any extent. However you are, he will embrace you. Do not feel shame, shy, or judgmental about yourself.
If you don’t feel close to the Master, there’s no point in having a Master. He is just another burden to you, and you have enough burdens already. Just say, “Goodbye.”
Question: When you play little games with us and push us away, how can we feel close to you?
Sri Sri: You should feel more close if you are scolded or ignored, because to ignore somebody takes a lot effort. When a Master does not even ignore wrapping paper or a vase, how can he ignore a walking, talking, breathing human being who is connected to him? Once you understand this, you immediately feel close.
You are with the Master to share the joy of the Master, to share the consciousness of the Master.
For this, you have to empty your cup of what is already in it.
The Master is ready to share. You have only to share from your side.
Only Speak Knowledge; Find Comfort In Conflicts
Only speak Knowledge. Don't repeat anything bad that someone tells you about someone. And don't listen to someone who tells you that "so‐and‐so said such‐and‐such" about you. When someone comes to tell you such things, discourage them. Don't believe it.
If someone blames you directly, don't believe in what they say. Just know that they are taking away your bad karma and let it go. And if you're one of the Master's close ones, you will take all the blame of the world with a smile.
When you blame someone,
you take on their bad karma;
When you praise someone,
you take on their good karma;
Surrender both good and bad karma to the Divine - and be free.
Conflict is the nature of the world; comfort is the nature of the Self. Amidst conflict, find the comfort.
When you are tired of conflicts and the games of the world, get into the comforts of the Self. When you are bored with comfort, get into the game games of the world. If are one of the Master's close ones, you do both simultaneously.
People who love peace do not want to fight, and those who fight do not have peace. What is needed to be peaceful within and and then fight. just trying to end a conflict only prolongs it.
Instead, face the conflict while seeking the comfort of the Self. Does this ring a bell? This is the whole message of the Bhagavad Gita - Krishna tells Arjuna to be centered in peace and to fight at the same time.
God is alive in the world and has been putting up with all conflicts throughout the ages. If God can put up with all this conflicts, you can too. And the moment you agree to be with a conflict, it no longer appears as a conflict to you.
The nature of this world is that once you resolve one conflict, another arises. For example, Russia is solved and then Bosnia is in trouble. Or you get a cold, then you get better - then you back hurts, then it gets better. And when your body is fine, then the mind goes. Things in the world run this way, don't they?
Without any intention, misunderstandings simply happen and conflicts arise. It's not up to you to resolve them. Just be with them and be alive!
*An Intimate note to The Sincere Seeker
If someone blames you directly, don't believe in what they say. Just know that they are taking away your bad karma and let it go. And if you're one of the Master's close ones, you will take all the blame of the world with a smile.
When you blame someone,
you take on their bad karma;
When you praise someone,
you take on their good karma;
Surrender both good and bad karma to the Divine - and be free.
Conflict is the nature of the world; comfort is the nature of the Self. Amidst conflict, find the comfort.
When you are tired of conflicts and the games of the world, get into the comforts of the Self. When you are bored with comfort, get into the game games of the world. If are one of the Master's close ones, you do both simultaneously.
People who love peace do not want to fight, and those who fight do not have peace. What is needed to be peaceful within and and then fight. just trying to end a conflict only prolongs it.
Instead, face the conflict while seeking the comfort of the Self. Does this ring a bell? This is the whole message of the Bhagavad Gita - Krishna tells Arjuna to be centered in peace and to fight at the same time.
God is alive in the world and has been putting up with all conflicts throughout the ages. If God can put up with all this conflicts, you can too. And the moment you agree to be with a conflict, it no longer appears as a conflict to you.
The nature of this world is that once you resolve one conflict, another arises. For example, Russia is solved and then Bosnia is in trouble. Or you get a cold, then you get better - then you back hurts, then it gets better. And when your body is fine, then the mind goes. Things in the world run this way, don't they?
Without any intention, misunderstandings simply happen and conflicts arise. It's not up to you to resolve them. Just be with them and be alive!
*An Intimate note to The Sincere Seeker
Master Is The Door
Being in His (Master) Presence...
You are lost on the street. There is rain, thunder, wind and
cold; you need shelter. You look around and you find a door. You come to the
door because it is more inviting, more charming, more joyful that anything out
in the street.
When you enter the door of the Master, you come Home. You see the world from a new perspective. From inside you can still hear the thunder and see the rain, but it no longer disturbing you. Inside there is warmth and security. The world looks much beautiful – not a nasty place, but a place filled with love, cooperation, compassion. Your fear drops away.
When you can see the whole world through the eyes of the Master, it is a sign that you have come to the Master; you have entered the door. This is the purpose of having a Master.
If you are still seeing the world as before, then you have not yet come to the Master; you are still standing out in the street, cold and wet; you are only looking at the door, you have not yet entered in.
When does it mean to “see through the eyes of the Master’? Just this: Every situation that you face, you are thinking – If this situation comes in front of the master, how would he handle it? If this complication comes to the Master, how would he take it? If someone blames the Master, what would he do?
The key is to feel the Presence of the Master. The Master is the Presence, not a relationship. Relationships can be broken, mended, and broken again. There is craving and aversion in every relationship. This is the wheel of sansara, the misery of the world. All relationships go topsy‐turvy, whereas the Presence is vast, infinite, stable and centered.
Don’t make the master a worldly relationship. “Oh he looked at me.” “He didn’t loot at me”. “Oh, he said this.” “He didn’t say that.” “Somebody else is close; I am not close.” All this garbage comes into it.
Just enter the door of the Master and come Home. Only the Presence of the Master will bring fulfillment to your life‐and to all your relationships.
*An Intimate note to The Sincere Seeker
When you enter the door of the Master, you come Home. You see the world from a new perspective. From inside you can still hear the thunder and see the rain, but it no longer disturbing you. Inside there is warmth and security. The world looks much beautiful – not a nasty place, but a place filled with love, cooperation, compassion. Your fear drops away.
When you can see the whole world through the eyes of the Master, it is a sign that you have come to the Master; you have entered the door. This is the purpose of having a Master.
If you are still seeing the world as before, then you have not yet come to the Master; you are still standing out in the street, cold and wet; you are only looking at the door, you have not yet entered in.
When does it mean to “see through the eyes of the Master’? Just this: Every situation that you face, you are thinking – If this situation comes in front of the master, how would he handle it? If this complication comes to the Master, how would he take it? If someone blames the Master, what would he do?
The key is to feel the Presence of the Master. The Master is the Presence, not a relationship. Relationships can be broken, mended, and broken again. There is craving and aversion in every relationship. This is the wheel of sansara, the misery of the world. All relationships go topsy‐turvy, whereas the Presence is vast, infinite, stable and centered.
Don’t make the master a worldly relationship. “Oh he looked at me.” “He didn’t loot at me”. “Oh, he said this.” “He didn’t say that.” “Somebody else is close; I am not close.” All this garbage comes into it.
Just enter the door of the Master and come Home. Only the Presence of the Master will bring fulfillment to your life‐and to all your relationships.
*An Intimate note to The Sincere Seeker
Doubt
A doubt is a grey area. Gray is something which is neither white nor black. Now, how to solve a doubt?
Accept a doubt as either black or white.
See your doubt as white and there is no doubt. See the doubt as black and accept it. Either way you accept and move on.
See someone as either honest or dishonest and accept him. Then your mind is quite. Then you are not in the gray area of doubt. have conviction: "He is dishonest and yet he is still part of me. i accept him as he is." That's it. Finished.
Doubt is an unstable state with footing neither on the shore nor that shore. From there tension arises. One way or the other, take a direction and regain your footing.
Have you noticed that you usually doubt only things that are positive in your life? Negitve things you don't doubt. You doubt a person's honesty, and you believe his dishhonesty. When someone is angry with you, you have no doubt about his anger. But when some one loves you, a doubt creeps in: Does he really love me? When you are depressed, do you ever think am I really depressed? No, you take your depression as a fact. Yet when you are happy, you doubt: Am I really happy; is this really what I wanted? You doubt that you are capable, but do you ever doubt that you are incapable?
See this tendency to doubt the positive things in your life.
Put doubt in its proper place and doubt the doubts.
Doubt the negative and put your trust more in the positve.
*An Intimate note to The Sincere Seeker
Accept a doubt as either black or white.
See your doubt as white and there is no doubt. See the doubt as black and accept it. Either way you accept and move on.
See someone as either honest or dishonest and accept him. Then your mind is quite. Then you are not in the gray area of doubt. have conviction: "He is dishonest and yet he is still part of me. i accept him as he is." That's it. Finished.
Doubt is an unstable state with footing neither on the shore nor that shore. From there tension arises. One way or the other, take a direction and regain your footing.
Have you noticed that you usually doubt only things that are positive in your life? Negitve things you don't doubt. You doubt a person's honesty, and you believe his dishhonesty. When someone is angry with you, you have no doubt about his anger. But when some one loves you, a doubt creeps in: Does he really love me? When you are depressed, do you ever think am I really depressed? No, you take your depression as a fact. Yet when you are happy, you doubt: Am I really happy; is this really what I wanted? You doubt that you are capable, but do you ever doubt that you are incapable?
See this tendency to doubt the positive things in your life.
Put doubt in its proper place and doubt the doubts.
Doubt the negative and put your trust more in the positve.
*An Intimate note to The Sincere Seeker
Fire
The senses are like fire. Whatever you put into your senses burns in this fire.
A fire of toxic material creates pollution and bad smell. But if you burn sandalwood, it creates fragrance.
The same fire that supports life can also destroy. A fire can heat your home or burn it down. Celebration happens around a bonfire. Grief happens around the fire of cremation. A burning tyre creates toxic fumes. A ghee lamp lights your way and purifies the surroundings.
Does your fire create smoke and pollution - or are you like a camphor flame that creates light and fragrance? A saint creates light and the fragrance of love. He is the friend of life.
A fire that creates light and warmth is of high quality. A fire that creates light and little smoke is of medium quality. The fire that creates smoke and darkness is of low quality. Learn to distinguish these different fires.
When your senses are engaged in goodness, then you will create light and fragrance;
When engaged in impurity, you create smoke and darkness.
It is sanyama* that transforms the quality of fire in you.
*An Intimate note to The Sincere Seeker
A fire of toxic material creates pollution and bad smell. But if you burn sandalwood, it creates fragrance.
The same fire that supports life can also destroy. A fire can heat your home or burn it down. Celebration happens around a bonfire. Grief happens around the fire of cremation. A burning tyre creates toxic fumes. A ghee lamp lights your way and purifies the surroundings.
Does your fire create smoke and pollution - or are you like a camphor flame that creates light and fragrance? A saint creates light and the fragrance of love. He is the friend of life.
A fire that creates light and warmth is of high quality. A fire that creates light and little smoke is of medium quality. The fire that creates smoke and darkness is of low quality. Learn to distinguish these different fires.
When your senses are engaged in goodness, then you will create light and fragrance;
When engaged in impurity, you create smoke and darkness.
It is sanyama* that transforms the quality of fire in you.
*An Intimate note to The Sincere Seeker
Habits & Vows
How to get rid of vasanas (impressions)? This is a
question for all those who want to come out of habits.
You want to get rid of habits because they give you pain and restricts you. The nature of vasana is to bother you – bind you – and wanting to be free is the nature of life. When a soul does not know how to be free, it wanders for lifetimes craving freedom.
The way to come out of habits is vows.
A vow should be time – bound. For Example, Suppose someone says,”I will quit smoking;” but cannot do it. He can take a time – bound vow not to smoke for five days. If someone is used to cursing and swearing, he can take a vow not to use bad language for ten days. Don’t take a vow for a lifetime – you will break it immediately! If you happen to break it anyways, don’t worry; just begin again. When you fulfill your vow, pick a new starting time and renew it again. Slowly increase the length of your vow until it becomes your very nature.
This is sanyama. Everybody is endowed with a little sanyama. When the mind falls back into its old patterns, two possibilities can happen. One is, you feel discouraged, you blame yourself, and you feel you have not made any progress. The second possibility is that you see it as an opportunity for sanyama and feel happy about it.
Bad habits will you and drain your life energy. Without sanyama, life will not be happy and disease-free. For example, you know you should not eat three serving of ice cream every day. If you do, you will get sick. Just give a positive direction to your life energy and you can rise above any habit through sanyama.
All those habits that bother you, bind them in vows, in sanyama. Take a time-bound vow today and make a note of it. If you break a vow, make a note of it and share the time and date at the next satsang. Continue it again. Tie those habits which bring you pain in sanyama.
*An Intimate note to The Sincere Seeker
You want to get rid of habits because they give you pain and restricts you. The nature of vasana is to bother you – bind you – and wanting to be free is the nature of life. When a soul does not know how to be free, it wanders for lifetimes craving freedom.
The way to come out of habits is vows.
A vow should be time – bound. For Example, Suppose someone says,”I will quit smoking;” but cannot do it. He can take a time – bound vow not to smoke for five days. If someone is used to cursing and swearing, he can take a vow not to use bad language for ten days. Don’t take a vow for a lifetime – you will break it immediately! If you happen to break it anyways, don’t worry; just begin again. When you fulfill your vow, pick a new starting time and renew it again. Slowly increase the length of your vow until it becomes your very nature.
This is sanyama. Everybody is endowed with a little sanyama. When the mind falls back into its old patterns, two possibilities can happen. One is, you feel discouraged, you blame yourself, and you feel you have not made any progress. The second possibility is that you see it as an opportunity for sanyama and feel happy about it.
Bad habits will you and drain your life energy. Without sanyama, life will not be happy and disease-free. For example, you know you should not eat three serving of ice cream every day. If you do, you will get sick. Just give a positive direction to your life energy and you can rise above any habit through sanyama.
All those habits that bother you, bind them in vows, in sanyama. Take a time-bound vow today and make a note of it. If you break a vow, make a note of it and share the time and date at the next satsang. Continue it again. Tie those habits which bring you pain in sanyama.
*An Intimate note to The Sincere Seeker
Dealing with Blame
When someone blames you, what do you usually do? You blame them back or you put up a resistance in yourself.
How do you feel when someone blames you? Hurt, unhappy, sad, heavy? This is all because you are resisting! What you resist, persists.
You get hurt because you resist the blame.
Know that when someone blames you, they take away some negative karma from you. If you understand this, you will only feel happy about it.
If you resist when someone blames you, you are not allowing then to take away your negative karma. even if you don't react outwardly, you may still be resisting inside.
Actually its fine to resist outside, but inside don't resist. You will feel immediately lighter. You can feel happy: Oh. good, somebody is blaming me and taking some of my negative karma.
The ignorant person says, "Don't blame me" because it hurts me. An lightened person also says, " Don't blame me." Do you know why? Because it might hurt you. You can tell someone not tot blame you out of anger or out of compassion.
*An Intimate note to The Sincere Seeker
How do you feel when someone blames you? Hurt, unhappy, sad, heavy? This is all because you are resisting! What you resist, persists.
You get hurt because you resist the blame.
Know that when someone blames you, they take away some negative karma from you. If you understand this, you will only feel happy about it.
If you resist when someone blames you, you are not allowing then to take away your negative karma. even if you don't react outwardly, you may still be resisting inside.
Actually its fine to resist outside, but inside don't resist. You will feel immediately lighter. You can feel happy: Oh. good, somebody is blaming me and taking some of my negative karma.
The ignorant person says, "Don't blame me" because it hurts me. An lightened person also says, " Don't blame me." Do you know why? Because it might hurt you. You can tell someone not tot blame you out of anger or out of compassion.
*An Intimate note to The Sincere Seeker
Krishna's Birthday: Birth of the Centre of Attraction
Krishna means the most attractive. He is the divinity, the energy, that pulls everything to it. Krishna is the formless centre that is everywhere.
Any attraction anywhere comes only from Krishna.
Often people fail to see the spirit behind an attraction and merely hold on to the outer shell. The moment you posses the shell, you will see Krishna has played a trick. You will be left empty with the shell in your hands and tears in your eyes.
Don't be tricked by krishna - be clever like Radha. Krishna could not escape from Radha, for her whole world was filled with Krishna. If you can see that wherever there is an attraction, there is Krishna, then you have become Radha. Then you are always in your centre.
The mind movers towards beauty, joy and truth. So Krishna tells Arjuna, "I am the beauty in the beautiful, the strength in the strong, the wisdom in the wise." In this way he attracts the mind so that it does not move away from him.
Krishna reveals this knowledge to Arjuna because he is anasuya.
*An Intimate note to The Sincere Seeker
Asuya and Anasuya
There is a certain mind set that always finds fault even under the best conditions. when you give such a person the best possible things, he finds faults. Even with the ideal companion or the most beautiful painting, he will still find some thing wrong. This kind of mind set is called asuya; it can never know the sacred knowledge.
Asuya is finding a fault or seeing a malicious intent everywhere. Suppose it is windy and you shut the door, but at that moment someone else was just about to walk in. He will think that the door has been slammed in his face! This is asuya.
You have a friendship, and after ten years you find a fault and decide to break it off. Now you do not see any good from that entire relationship. This is asuya.
The moment you are out of the spiritual Path, you feel that everything on the Path was all wrong. This is asuya.
Asuya is when a child says, "Mother, you don't love me!" The child's vision is wrong; if the mother does not love the child, who will? It frustrates the mother.
Knowledge is different at different levels of consciousness. At a particular point you become anasuya.
Anasuya means being devoid of fault-finding eyes.
Krishna tells Arjuna that he is giving him the Royal Secret because he is anasuya: "You are not finding fault in Me, even though you are so close."
From a distance, it is easy to miss a fault in somebody; us close, no fault escapes you. Even craters cannot be seen from afar; up close, even a smooth surface has imperfections. If you are interested only in holes, you will not see the large dimension of things.
Unless you are devoid of fault-finding eyes, there is no point in giving you knowledge because it cannot blossom in you.
If a mirror is dusty, you can clear it. But if your eyes have a cataract, any amount of dusting the mirror will not help. You have to remove the cataract. Then you will see that the mirror was already clean.
Asuya - fault - finding eyes, give you the idea, "The whole world is not sharp, the whole world is not good."
Anasuya is knowing, "It is my vision of the world that is blurred." And once you discover you have the wrong vision, half of the problem has already disappeared.
*An Intimate note to The Sincere Seeker