Our consciousness is very ancient

Bali, Indonesia

Wisdom from Sri Sri post

See the ocean, how non-stop the waves keep coming. It doesn't get bored.
Birds sing the same song, they don’t get bored. Every morning birds sing, all their life. They don’t get bored. It is human beings who get bored. ’Oh once again the same thing.’ And why do we get bored? It is because of memory.
You remember what you have done before and so you get bored. Memory is a blessing and also a curse. It is both. It is because you get bored that you feel the need to look for something different, something new, and that is how creativitycomes up; you look for the ultimate. Otherwise you could have remained like an animal doing the same thing every day. But you can’t do it because you get bored. Isn’t it?!
So in that sense boredom is a blessing. Because you get bored, you move on, you look forward, you become a seeker and you rise higher. At the same time, boredom is also a curse because it doesn’t allow you to be stabilized in one place; stabilized in yourself, and your mind keeps jumping from one place to another aimlessly. You get bored about everything and you can’t enjoy anything. Do you see what i am saying?
Boredom is a blessing when it leads you to wisdom. And boredom is a curse when it leads you to frustration and depression.
These are the two different paths that boredom leads you to.

You are bored and so you can’t enjoy, and when you can't enjoy you get depressed and frustrated. You go into that direction. Or, because you are bored you wake up and you start with a quest. You move ahead and you look into the self which is fresh all the time! The self is ever new. Because you are bored with the ephemeral, the surface, you go deep into the self.
Are you getting what I am saying?
So boredom is both a blessing and curse. A blessing because it takes you away from the routine monotonous life, makes you aware and brings life into you. And it is a curse because it doesn't let you stabilize; both!

People who are in love don’t get bored. Heart knows no boredom. Head knows boredom. But in life both are essential, the heart and the head. If you are only in the heart, it is no good. You become mushy mushy. And if you are only stuck in the head, that is also no good. Balancing both, that is yoga. Spirituality is balancing the heart and head together.

This is especially for those people who feel they are a failure in their life. Anyone who feels that they are a failure, just wake up! So what?! Life is so eternal.
We have 365 days in a year and there are so many years in your life. For one day or two days you feel you are wasted, life is a failure, never mind! Similarly, so many lifetimes we have come here; we have been here so many times and our consciousness is very ancient.

See, the full moon is there. So on one full moon, if it is cloudy and the light cannot shine on the earth, the moon does not get upset. Never mind if on one full moon you cannot see the moon rising, so what? The moon is still there. Like that, inside you there is potential, there is divinity which is so complete. If it has not come to the surface on one day, never mind!
You have all the great qualities. If some does not exhibit on some particular days, never mind.
Don’t blame yourself, don’t analyze yourself too much. Are you getting what I am saying? We start analyzing ourselves too much to the extent that we feel so upset and we go down. We are so hard on ourselves.
Never mind, in so many lifetimes, if one life is wasted, so what?! I am saying this only for those who are feeling very down. Don’t mis-quote me and take it for everybody and then say, ‘Guruji said waste this life time. Let me drink and make make merry and forget about any practices.’ No!
I am saying this to those who are desperate. Who are feeling so bad about themselves. I am telling them, never mind, wake up! These many years are wasted, never mind, don’t worry. Future days will be bright.
All regrets happen only when you are looking towards the past. If you are walking and your head is turned backwards, then that is called regret. Turn your head and look forward, then it is always bright. If your head is twisted, then you will regret, regret, and regret. Just drop it and move on.

Your own doubt can act like applying a break & driving the car

Wisdom from Sri Sri: Your own doubt can act like applying a break & driving the car

Secrets to success

Wisdom from Sri Sri: Secrets to Success

Secret of material prosperity & spiritual blossoming

Wisdom from Sri Sri: ‘Secret of material prosperity & spiritual blossoming’

Smile is our trademark

Wisdom from Sri Sri: Smile is our trademark

Attaining those higher states of consciousness

DNA, 16th May, 2010

H.H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

The higher state of consciousness is somewhere in between the waking, sleeping and dreaming states

We lead life through three states of consciousness - waking, dreaming and sleeping.

In the waking state of consciousness, we experience the world through the five senses. We seek elevation and joy from these senses. If any one of the senses is missing, the entire dimension of that sense is lost. One who can't hear is bereft of the whole arena of sound. Similarly, he who can't see is deprived of all the beautiful sights and colours. So the sense is more important and much bigger than the object of the sense.

Rated higher than the senses is the 'mind'. The mind is infinite, its desires are many - but the capacity of the senses to enjoy is small. Greed is to want more of sensory objects - even though the amount (of money) that can be spent by an individual during a lifetime is limited, he wants all the wealth in the world. Giving too much importance to sensory objects leads to greed; giving too much importance to the senses leads to lust; and giving too much importance to the mind and its desires, leads to delusion. We hold on to the concepts of the mind and want things to happen in a certain way. Thus, the concepts in our mind impede us from perceiving the infinite consciousness that is a part of us.

I'm not saying that the senses or the mind are bad. But we must learn to discriminate between things and be aware of what is happening at all times; that is when clarity dawns on us. This is the first step towards the higher state of consciousness.

In the waking state, one is constantly engaged in looking, eating, etc. The other extreme is the sleeping state where one is completely cut off and dull. The dullness and heaviness linger even after waking. The more one sleeps, the duller one feels since a lot of energy is expended in sleep. Then there is dreaming state where one is neither asleep nor awake. Here you neither feel at rest nor are aware of your surroundings.

The higher state of consciousness is somewhere in between the waking, sleeping and dreaming states. Here, we know we 'are' but we don't know 'where' we are. This knowledge that I 'am', but I don't know 'where' I am or 'what' I am, is called 'Shiva'. This state gives the deepest possible rest that one can experience. And one can achieve this through meditation.

Meditation helps in two ways - it prevents stress from entering the system and simultaneously releases already accumulated stress. With the assimilation of meditation into daily life, a fifth state of consciousness called cosmic consciousness, dawns. Cosmic consciousness perceives the whole cosmos as part of oneself. When we perceive the world as a part of us, love flows strongly between the world and us. This love empowers us to bear with the opposing forces and the disturbances in life. Anger and disappointments become fleeting emotions that occur momentarily and then vanish.

A higher state of consciousness will not drop on your head from heaven one fine morning. The sapling of consciousness is within you - it needs to be nurtured with simple techniques of meditation. Some palm trees yield in three years, some in ten years. And those that are not nurtured never yield, they simply exist...

Attaining higher states of consciousness does not require any complicated strategy; one just needs to learn the art of letting go. This confluence of knowledge, understanding and practice makes life complete. When you grow into higher states of consciousness, you find that you are no longer thrown off balance by different situations and disturbances. You become strong yet soft - a delicate and beautiful blossom capable of accommodating different values in life without any conditions. As your consciousness opens and the whole system gets physically, mentally and spiritually elevated, your life becomes worth living.

Wisdom from Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Ego is getting stuck with any one identity

Everytime you get confused, know that you are growing.

Wisdom from Sri Sri

Charity purifies wealth (April 23rd, 2010)

Back to nature

Deccan Herald, 3rd May, 2010

H.H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Ancient scriptures have it that human beings have five sheaths: the environment, the physical body, the mind, the intuitive sheath and the fifth sheath is purushartha, i.e., the blissful state. The environment is our first body and one of the most important sheaths. If our environment is clean and positive, it has a positive impact on all the other sheaths and they are in balance.

Environment consciousness is inbuilt in the human system. Historically, nature has always been adored in India; mountains, rivers, trees, the sun, the moon, have always been honoured. It’s only when we started moving away from nature that we started polluting nature. We need to revive the ancient practice.

Today man has become greedy, he wants to make quick profits and achieve quick results. This obstructs preservation of ecology. It not only pollutes the physical environment but also stimulates negative emotions in the subtle level. These negative emotions do not stay limited to that one person but rubs off onto all those who he comes in contact with. These negative vibrations once compounded are the root cause of all disasters and misery in the world.

Most of the wars are triggered off by such feelings; which is always accompanied by waste and natural disasters that take ages to balance out. We need to attend to the human psyche which causes pollution, whether physical or emotional. If compassion and care are kindled within the self, they reflect in the environment.

Just observe nature; the five elements of nature are opposed to each other. Water destroys fire, fire destroys air. Then there are so many species in nature - the birds, reptiles, mammals; all these different species are hostile towards each other and yet nature balances them out. We need to learn from nature.

In ancient times, if a person cut one tree, he planted five in return. The ancient people did not wash clothes in holy rivers; only ashes of cremated bodies were to be submerged in the river so that everything gets digested back to nature.

We need to balance our views with a free mind. We need to work out ways and means of protecting our beautiful planet earth. For this to happen, human consciousness must rise above greed and exploitation. We need to revive the ancient practice of honoring and conserving nature. Spirituality has been a time tested answer. It eliminates all the negative emotions; it elevates one’s consciousness and promotes a sense of caring and commitment for the whole planet.

Make your anger expensive

Deccan Herald, 19th April, 2010

H.H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Every sincere seeker wants to get rid of anger and reach a state of perfection, but is often swept by his or her emotions. What can you do when anger rises in you? You may remind yourself a hundred times that you shouldn’t get angry, but when it comes, you are unable to control it. Emotions are much more powerful than your thoughts and the promises you make.

Anger is a distortion of our true nature. We call it a distortion because it doesn’t allow the self to shine forth fully. And this is what sin is. Anger is a sin because when you are angry, you lose your centeredness; your focus is not on the infinite. You are limiting yourself to the small mind to an action which has happened. Sin is just the wrinkle in the cloth. It needs proper ironing.

Anger is a sign of weakness. It takes a while to raise the temper of a bodybuilder while a weak person can get angry very fast.

Often anger comes because you don’t accept the present moment and get stuck in the past. Have you ever observed that all your anger is about something which has already happened. Is it of any use getting angry about something which has passed and you cannot alter? No, it is meaningless.

Anger comes when one seeks too much of perfection; that is why you are angry at imperfections. Keep a space of imperfections in your life. If you leave some holes of imperfection, then you will see that your ability to hold anger becomes much greater.

The cause of anger is the lack of total knowledge of what is happening inside that person. Even when someone commits a mistake, know that he or she is not the culprit; the stress inside is causing him or her to make that mistake.

Showing anger itself is not wrong, but being unaware of your anger hurts you. There is a place for showing anger, but when you get angry without awareness, what happens to you? You are shaken completely. Look at the consequences of getting angry.

Spiritual practices help you maintain your centeredness and not be shaken by small events. This is where a little knowledge about us, about our mind, our consciousness, and the root of distortion in our nature will help. Our breath has a great lesson to teach us, which we have forgotten. Breathing techniques and meditation are very effective in calming the mind.

Usually, you give your anger freely and your smile rarely as though a smile is expensive. In ignorance, anger is cheap and a smile is costly. In knowledge, a smile is free - like the sun shine and air - and anger is extremely expensive, like a diamond. Make your smile cheaper and anger expensive.

Higher states of consciousness

Deccan Herald, 14th December, 2009

H.H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

We lead life through three states of consciousness - waking, dreaming and sleeping.

In the waking state of consciousness, we experience the world through the five senses. We seek elevation and joy from these senses. If any one of the senses is missing, the entire dimension of that sense is lost. One who can’t hear is bereft of the whole arena of sound. Similarly, he who can’t see is deprived of all the beautiful sights and colors. So the sense is more important and much bigger than the object of the sense.

Rated higher than the senses is the ‘mind’. The mind is infinite, its desires are many - but the capacity of the senses to enjoy is small. Greed is to want more of sensory objects - even though the amount (of money) that can be spent individual during a lifetime is limited, he wants all the wealth in the world. Giving too much importance to sensory objects leads to greed; giving too much importance to the senses leads to lust; and giving too much importance to the mind and its desires, leads to delusion. We hold on to the concepts of the mind and want things to happen in a certain way. Thus, the concepts in our mind impede us from perceiving the infinite consciousness that is a part of us.

I’m not saying that the senses or the mind are bad. But we must learn to discriminate between things and be aware of what is happening at all times; that is when clarity dawns on us. This is the first step towards the higher state of consciousness.

In the waking state, one is constantly engaged in looking, eating, etc. The other extreme is the sleeping state where one is completely cut off and dull. The dullness and heaviness linger even after waking. The more one sleeps, the duller one feels since a lot of energy is expended in sleep. Then there is dreaming state where one is neither asleep nor awake. Here you neither feel at rest nor are aware of your surroundings.

The higher state of consciousness is somewhere in between the waking, sleeping and dreaming states. Here, we know we ‘are’ but we don’t know ‘where’ we are. This knowledge that I ‘am’, but I don’t know ‘where’ I am or ‘what’ I am, is called ‘Shiva’. This state gives the deepest possible rest that one can experience. And one can achieve this through meditation.

Meditation helps in two ways - it prevents stress from entering the system and simultaneously releases already accumulated stress. With the assimilation of meditation into daily life, a fifth state of consciousness called cosmic consciousness, dawns. Cosmic consciousness perceives the whole cosmos as part of oneself. When we perceive the world as a part of us, love flows strongly between the world and us. This love empowers us to bear with the opposing forces and the disturbances in life. Anger and disappointments become fleeting emotions that occur momentarily and then vanish.

A higher state of consciousness will not drop on your head from heaven one fine morning. The sapling of consciousness is within you - it needs to be nurtured with simple techniques of meditation. Some palm trees yield in three years, some in ten years. And those that are not nurtured never yield, they simply exist.

Attaining higher states of consciousness does not require any complicated strategy; one just needs to learn the art of letting go.

Have a pure heart then everything in creation is significant for you

Wisdom from Sri Sri: Have a pure heart then everything in creation is significant for you

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