This one is from Rajesh Bhaiyya’s blog. Have you ever thought what are the things which are very personal to us in our lives. Your house, fame, power, secrets and attachments. What are the things which are universal in our lives? Guruji, Sun, Air, Earth, Water, and atoms. Which of the things are essential to live? Does the first category give us life or takes away the zeal from life? What the Art of Living courses have done is made the universal very very personal through Surya Namaskar, Kriya, Bowing down and the hollow-empty meditations. Greed, jealousy, fear and lack of contentment arise when “what is mine” and “what is universal “ are completely opposites. Sharing inculcates an attitude of personal becoming universal. As once someone had asked Guruji “Do you love everyone equally?” He replied “No, I love everyone uniquely?” Personal love in an universal crowd. And as He said the mind is the wave and the ocean is the consiousness, the ocean can live without the wave but the wave cannot live without the ocean. Become personal with the five elements and the Guru, become open to sharing everything personal. While orchestrating the notes of your life, make the personal universal to find peace, love and compassion.

Shiva is not any person sitting in some hill, kailas hill, he is not that. What does Kailas mean? Kailas – ‘Las’ means what, where there is celebration, happiness. Where there is a festive atmosphere. Where there is frolicsomeness / intoxication. Where there is celebration and only celebration. That is Kailas. Vaikunth is where there is nothing short. Kunth – is shortage. Vaikunth is where there is shortage of nothing. Where there is only celebration that is kailas. So, Shiv ji is seated in such kailas. Aatma only is Shiva.

Q: Guruji, after having tried various means I am not able to come out of entanglement what do I do, Please help ?

Sri Sri: It maybe some Karma from the last birth or some samskaras. Do seva . Maharajji was saying that Seva (Service) would definitely remove karma of entanglement. If Seva cannot remove then Knowledge will remove entanglement. If knowledge cannot remove, then Bhakti (devotion) can surely remove entanglement. Even if Bhakti is not able to remove entanglement then leave it to time. With time entanglement will surely dissolve.

But don’t just live it to time without trying all the other means (laughter!!) . Do seva be in knowledge, have Bhakti and even after that, if you are not able to get rid of your entanglement, then you just leave it on time.

Q: Guruji, how to always keep up with enthusiasm and joy?

Sri Sri: Leave always. If you think of always, then craving comes. If it is always there then you would not even know that it was ever there!! Like you take a dip in a river, you feel cold and when you come out you feel warm, and again do dip in water, you feel cold, and so you experience cold because you experience the warmth.

Leave it to the divine. Our nature is joy and enthusiasm. However sometimes it gets clouded but it can never go. Our consciousness is ‘nitya-nutan’ (Ever fresh) this is with us forever.

Q: Guruji, they say that if you are with Narayana then Laxmi follows. So should we not follow Lakshmi?

Sri Sri: Some people don’t understand this. I would say pray to lakshmi. If you don’t pray to either but just do some show off with some rituals, then that is of no use. Then you land up being nowhere!! I would say, do ‘upasana’ (prayer). If you do upasana, then how do you get corrupt and dishonest? Don’t blame wealth, pray to wealth. In Sanskrit it is said everything is wealth. That doesn’t mean only the note of money.

Health is wealth, Victory is wealth, Courage is wealth, you know the Ashta Lakshmi do Upasana and you will get the benefit. Just to fulfill our financial desires, you run behind lakshmi. Use skill; pray with devotion, lakshmi will come. It will never come with foolishness.

Q: Guruji, why do we want to spend time more with the person, we are in love with?

Sri Sri: It would be unusual if you don’t want to spend time with the one you are in love with (laughter)!! Similarly when you love yourself, you spend time with yourself. When you do that, it becomes meditation. Then it is wonderful.

We like everything else, but ourself. The one who is resting inside, love that, know that!! Some people say oh ! I am bored with myself, cannot spend two hours alone. If you are bored with your self, how much boring will you be to others!! If you are not able to spend time with yourself, how will you manage to spend time with others? If you get to spend time with yourself, then I tell you are lucky. You will be contended. When this feeling comes, then no power in the world can make you shake and cry. Then Bhakti (devotion) comes, mukti (freedom) comes and then moksha (liberation) happens. Two hours you cant spend alone!! You start sending sms to your friends; you start calling them, talking, restless.

Know yourself by yourself. “Khudi khud mein khud ko pao….”

Q: Guruji, my mind wonders everywhere how do I meditate?

Sri Sri: Take a stick and start chasing your mind. See where it goes. If it goes to Goa chase it to Goa, if it is going to Bhavnagar, chase it there, if it is going to bhelpuri, chase it to bhelpuri, if it is going to Bhagdad, chase it to Bhagdad….. Chase, keep chasing and you see your mind is so tired that it will come and fall at your feet. That’s why Maharshi Patanjali says meditate on everything, meditate on elements, on Rishis, who are out of craving, even if you meditate on Rishis who are out of craving, you get into meditation. And when you sit for satsang, you get into meditation. But sometimes if you sit for santsang, and you are not there 100%, you count the ceiling, you look here and there. You have to bring interest yourself, You have to bring the juice (ras/ necter) yourself. It is already there, you have to see the one behind. The one who put the juice. Don’t think I have to do, I tell you need not do anything its all burning for you, you don’t have to lit it at all. When you are in Gangaji, you don’t need a shower, when you are taking a dip in the Ganges, why do you need to have a tap and a shower? Become effortless. Just know that I am nothing and I don’t want anything. But don’t start thinking about it continuously, this is also a Maya.

That’s why Adi Shankaracharya says it is foolish to even think that I am Zero.

Q: Guruji, I enjoyed my silence, I really found peace. So if I become dumb, will I get moksha?

Sri Sri: (Laughter!!! ) Oh ! God, if you find something good you will go on doing it!??!?! There are so many dumb people in the world, is everybody enlightened. Extremity is a problem in our country. There are some people who keep silence for 12 years. And after that their voice box don’t function, looks like almost rusted. They cannot speak God has given an instrument, use it. Otherwise it would get rusted. But don’t speak too much, and don’t speak less as well. It your words are able to bring happiness, solace, definitely you should speak. Silence is also important. At least two to three times a year. Silence helps us to become more competent, become more courageous and efficient. So do both, keep silence and also speak. If you speak for 24 hours, then you loose your creativity.

Four types of people come on the path of gyan or even bhakti (knowledge or devotion).

1) First are the Aart (suffering from pain or misery) and they come on the path to get rid of the misery

2) Second are Artharthi (who desire something from this world) come to the path to obtain that.

3) Third are Jigyasu, those who want to know something more about life, they are curious, enquiring kind.

4) Finally Gyani, those who have already learnt or known about the meaning or the lack of it (of life).They come on the path to progress.

The fourth type are the ones who are steadfast on the path, but the other types remain on the path till their needs get satisfied. This does not mean they are bad. One can start from anywhere and with effort the status can also change quickly from one to the next category.To make you more free, refined and skillful to tread this path and to lift the level of consciousness (chetna), whatever ingredients are required will be available automatically, so should not worry at all.Similarly for Seva, satsang or Sadhana- one can start anywhere but a balance is what is needed. Seva alone can get you tired quickly. The energy levels lifted in Sadhana will not be useful unless utilised in Seva. Similarly Satsang is required to have the celebration (utsav). Balance!

In Seva, it is good to provide food, clothing, waterto the hungry, naked or thirsty, for sometime the need is quenched but only for sometime. After sometime their need arises again. However if you are able to get the same person on the path, you are opening a door to infinity. This will influence his or her life till infinity, in this life and beyond.Samarpan is not contrary to using intellect, this is a wrong notion. Many say that ‘do not use your mind just surrender’. Actually only those who have intellect can surrender. Surrender of an Agyani (deluded or person not in knowledge) will be temporary.

They would often complain, ‘despite so much prayer I have not got the result that I wanted’ as against the firm conviction that ‘He is always with me, nothing can shake me’. Once in Rishikesh I shared my thought with Gurudev that we have lot of celebration (utsav/masti) in Art of living but less seva or knowledge. And you see, in recent times you would be amazed at the amount of seva projects and knowledge sharing that is happening. The depth of the questions during satsangs indicate this. How about some questions now.

Q: Out of the 7 levels of existence which one goes with you?
(for those who have forgotten, the 7 levels of existence are the Body (Sharir), Mind ( Man),Intellect (Buddhi), Breath ( Saans), Memory ( Chitta),Ego (Ahankar) and Self ( Atma)

Nitin bhaiya: Body is connected with the other 5 equipment though breath. When you die only the body is left behind as the breath stops. Remaining 5 continue to exist. Right at this moment there are so many people ( jiva) who are living without a body.

Q: When the body expires where is it that the memory or the experiences of the past kept, is it in the brain?

N: Is it the brain or the mind, which remembers, is the ears that hear or the mind that hears. Have you noticed that? Did you notice that the even the newborn have a nature (swabhav). Some kid keeps on crying without any apparent reason, others keep smiling. This is no coincidence. Effects of memory of past life iscarried on in the child’s behavior who has no experience in this life. Scientists are also beginning to accept this.

Q:Will we be born as human beings in the next life?

N: Most of the human beings will be born as human beings unless ofcourse some very grave misdeed has got performed in this life.The jivas who have understood to experience in this life only through senses, in the next life also aspire to donn another body. They crave for a body the moment the body is no more.

For a meditative jiva the interest in the world reduces gradually and involuntarily. Mind matures and even the place where to look for joy changes. He no more looks in the object of senses for joy. Such a jiva has experienced in this life the Joy as if not in the body, while in meditation.A secret. When you leave the body, it is a freeing experience. No visa or passports here. But this exhilaration is only for those who are not connected to the body.

There is no desire to come back to a body. I will however came back if Guruji asks me to come! Sure! Another secret, When a body is being born, many jivas try to occupy the body. I do not know the criteria yet. They look for a environment of their liking. It is therefore customary to ensure that the expectant mothers are kept in happy and comfortable state so that the environment of the to be born is peaceful and the jivas who try to occupy such body are also noble ones.

There are five occasions when a soul enters a body.
1) At the time of conception, when the union of sperms and eggs happen
2) 3 months after conception
3) 5 months after conception
4) 7 months after conception
5) at the time of birth
So it is advised to have a peaceful ( sattvic) environment while the mother is expecting.

This happened during the YES+ course conducted at NIT Trichy from 4th to 11th Sept over the phone .

Definitely not verbatim and i may miss many questions …. ( sry )

Q:Dear bau ,  I am in Production Engineering but am really interested coding , (stuff related to computers )etc . What should I do be very practical and follow my branch or realise my dream ?

A: Go realise your dream . Dont let anyone obstruct you in realising your dream. Dont be too practical. People who are practical always dont achieve much in life and miss out on life as an adventure.

Q:Dear bau , I loved every bit of the course. I have also done an Isha Yoga basic course. What should i do ? Can i follow both paths ?

A: Follow the one path you are most comfortable with. See , yopu have many schools in your locality which educate you till the tenth standard. How many schools did you go to ? …. A: 1. Thats it . Art Of Living , Isha Yoga are all schools which take you to one goal.But follow any one of them . You dont go to different schools for clearing your 10th board exams.

Q:Dear Bau, I had a experience during the SKriya . It was considerably different than the previous one. Was it right or wrong?

A: its perfectly right for you. Your kriya experience is meant for you.Dont compare experiences of the kriya.

Jai Gurudev!

Gurudev gave this knowledge during the recent Tamil advance course…

Q: How to increase Bhakthi (Devotion), Shakthi (Power) and Yukthi (Skill)?

A: don’t ever doubt if you have bhakthi or not. Know that you have it in
plenty. The same is the case with love. You are made up of love. Like the body
is made of carbohydrates, proteins and minerals (also bones, flesh and blood),
you are made up of love. You don’t doubt shkathi either. You have so much of
power. You can actually supply one month of electricity to Chennai with your
power. Even that is just a small amount. Every atom has that much energy. The
power of the mind is so much more than the atom. Cloud veils the sun and in
sun’s presence moon cant be seen. But it is there.  Shakthi is also like that.
It may not express now. But it may manifest later. But you need to make effort
to increase your yukthi. Bhakthi and Mukthi come on its own (almost
automatically). You make effort to increase shakthi and yukthi.

Doubt is a big problem. What is doubt? What are the types? You
analyse and see. You doubt only good things. If someone says he is a bad person
you don’t doubt that. But at the same time if someone says he is a good person
you doubt that. If someone says I love you too much. You ask Really? You don’t
doubt the anger that someone has. You doubt love, honesty. We doubt ability and
don’t doubt our inability. Once we feel we can do something we don’t doubt that
anymore. You doubt the doubt. That is wisdom. You doubt God? Why? Because god
is truth! A depressed person does not doubt his depression.

3 types of doubt. Self- doubt: It is a disease if it becomes too
much! People doubt themselves to an extreme. Once a couple had to reach a
satsang venue. What is supposed to be a 10-minute thing actually took 3 hrs.
the wife told guruji that the husband does not come easily from house. He
checks if he has locked 4 times. After a short distance of travel, he goes back
to check again. He repeated this exercise and it ended up taking 3 hrs!! In
Bhagavad Geetha, Lord Krishna says that if the Atma is immersed in doubts, then
that person cannot come up! The other type of doubt is about the people or
world or others. You begin to see everyone around with a suspicious eye. They
are here to do something to me, to take away something from me. You typically
see them as useless folks, thieves, and crooks. The third type is about god. Is
he there? You get such doubts even in meditation. How are others meditating?
You gently open your eyes and see what others are doing. They seem to be in
bliss and I am the only one who does not have any kind of an experience. I tell
you they also do the same when you keep your eyes closed.

Don’t think if you can medidate or not. We would have told you if
you are not elgible. You are actually fortunate to be here.leave self doubt.
Don’t doubt the technique or the practice. Your mind would go on asking why you
are wasting your time. Your mind would say observe breath when it stops. Now
when it is moving, you also run along. Doubts don’t allow you to progress in
life. Actually when you doubt, you don’t think it as a doubt. You believe in
that. If you become aware of the doubt when it arises, you are already out of
it!

Trust is key thing. You trust your company will pay your salary at
the end of every month. That’s why you work for them. It applies to the bank
with which you have deposited your money. With out much thought, people put
money in chit funds. They loot and disappear saying bye bye. You keep chanting
muruga muruga!! Then you get into astrology, horoscope and what not. We go to a
doctor with trust. If you ask him will it work? Its funny. Even if the doctor
provides you a guarantee you need to trust his words. You place more weightage
to the paper that he writes than his words!  You can’t live life in doubt.
Trust is the foundation of life. Without the foundation, can you build a
building? For that matter, don’t go to the other extreme of carelessness. You
start leaving thing where you wish. Then it will start disappearing (Author’s
note – Put your trust in god but keep the powder dry). You neither be an
ignorant one nor be doubting ghost. Balance and walk the middle path. You move
on without any prejudice in mind. Keep your mind clear and practices are for
that

At this point of time, Arunji the advance course teacher read out a confession
written by one of the participants I suppose. [Author's note: There is a reason
for my doubt as to who wrote it. You will understand as you complete reading
this portion]. It went on like this

One who surrenders only when he does wrong things is a fool.

One who surrenders whether he does right or wrong is ignorant.

One who surrenders knowing that he has done right is a Husband.

Roars of laughter erupted. Guruji was laughing like anything and then he turned
around to coolly pass a comment. “Oh! Today is Arunji’s wedding annniversary!”.
You can imagine what would have happened to the entire crowd. They became
uncontrollable and arunji was at the receiving end. Guruji can be very naughty!

Q: Isnt Self trust sufficient? Why trust in god in needed?

A:   Kadavul (God) = Kadal (Sea) + Ul (In). God is the ocean inside. God is the
all-pervading consciuousness. God is the light. God has no form. But you need
to celebrate the form so that you mind synthesizes. Mistake is to think that
god is inside form. We waste time dealing in the surface level. Whole world is
made up of love (God). Love is Supreme. It is the Supreme Light.

But then why there are so many devis and devathas? [That was the question
asked to guruji when he went to Pakistan]

If white light passes through a prism, 7 colors emerge out of it.  It is very
much like that. Each quality of god manifests through different devis and
devatahas.  Just like in Islam where you invoke 99 different names of God, we
chant 1008 sahasaranama or 108 ashtotram in India. Along with the name we gave
form. With the same wheat you make chapathi, Karachi halwa, poori, samosa and
naan. Why different things? Why not make the same thing. Similarly with rice we
make vermicelli, idly, dosa, lemon rice, curd rice, etc., we love variety. Isnt
it? God too loves variety. That’s why different kinds of people exist in this
world.  It goes with the vegetables and fruits. Creation is of multiple
varieties. So why not the creator? But don’t stop at the form. Go beyond into
the meditative state. Mantra chants has a definite effect on the mind. And then
light dawns on you.

Q: we stand for hours together to see the deity. But when we go near the
sanctum our eyes close automatically. Why so? Is it allright?

A: Yes, it is allright. You experience only when you close the eyes. Get your
mind inwards and worship. Mind runs. Where? Ornaments. People are so crazy and
they go for window-shopping. Go all around the market; see things and no
intention of buying them. These days you all get glued to the television. But
30-40 years back, window-shopping was the in thing. Mind gets glued to objects.
It goes after attractive things and glamorous things. Eatables, good mucic.. so
in the ancient days, they put everything in the temple. They used to decorate
the temple nicely; serve delicious prasad; fill the air with fragrance. All
just to unify the senses and take us into meditation. Without understanding
this, we go on celebrating radha kalyanam, seetha kalyanam, on and on and
on…Kalyan means that which is good for everybody. We get stuck in these
rituals. Once in a while it is good to do these things so that the children
know about it. We don’t do either pranayam or meditation. So the atheists begin
to question why all the pomp and show?

Guruji had been to a temple near chennai. The deity is called
Nithyakalyana perumal. The priest of the temple was so interested in telling
the story to guruji. Rishi Kalanemi was living in that area. There were 365
people girls who could not get married. The Rishi prayed to god and god agreed
to marry all of them, one each day. Every day in the year there was marriage or
anniversary. Hence the name NithyaKalyana. [Author's note: Nithya – Daily ;
Kalyana – Marriage]. The Rishi got liberation afterwards. And these innocent
people believe that the story is true. Then they begin to doubt. What is the
need for god to marry so many? Why god could not find suitable bridegroom for
these girls? We need to understand the secret. The whole world behaves
according to the laws of nature. If you think of god on a daily basis, everyday
is going to be celebration [Author's note: like marriage]. Then even the laws
of the world will join the celebration. Life will be a big celebration.

Kumbabhishekam is a custom followed in temples. Shakthi which is in
space form is brought into air form; the shakthi is then transformed into fire
elemt; and through an utensil known as kudam (in tamil) it is brought into
water element and then finally into earth element. Agamam is to create shakthi.
It is good to know about the procedures. Without understanding people practice
and follow things. It is good to understand and then do things. You do mantra
chants and then sit and medidate for some time. Every atom will then be oozing
with energy. The inner awakening will then materialize.

Got this from Bau’s blog , with Gurujis interpretation to it. His interpretation makes it so much more relevant to anyone today.

Many charming stories about Lord Krishna are told… One of them is about His fight with the Serpent King Kaaliya. The (very) young Krishna jumps into the waters of a lake known to be inhabited by an extremely poisonous many hooded snake called Kaaliya. He emerges victorious (of course!) and is seen dancing on the many hoods of the snake.
As a “punishment”, He charges the snake to become the guardian of the very waters he terrorized and protect the nearby villagers from other demons, etc.

Its a beautiful story… told to all young children in India and i think the world over to illustrate the bravery and spunk of Lord Krishna… but there is a fantastic interpretation that Guruji told us and it really blew my mind away when i heard it for the first time…

A snake signifies awareness, a heightened alertness, a desire for absolute perfection. And when a person has this, he becomes quite a terror to people around him, constantly berating them, scolding them because very few, if any, can live up to their standards. A person who is not so alert is very easy to get along with… but a person who has high standards and expects everyone around him to toe the line continuously becomes very much like Kaaliya the snake, spitting poison and fire on all around him

Krishna signifies Love. When Love is dancing on top of Kaaliya… When Love has defeated Kaaliya, then the same person who was earlier a source of fear to his surroundings, becomes a source of great peace…

Krishna brings about a very interesting equation:

Absolute perfection + Love = Bliss for the person concerned as well as the people around him!

Krishna doesn’t kill the snake, He just subdues it and then charges it to protect! So the Lord appreciates perfection, only by His presence (dancing on the heads of perfection) he converts a malignant terror into a benevolent guardian!

So all you perfectionists out there reading this… tinge your perfection with love (keep the Lord in your mind at all times, allow Him to dance on your head…) and give birth to Bliss inside you as well as all around you!

Jai Gurudev