August 13, 2012
Bangalore, India
Yes, today your silence is over! (Sri Sri says to the Advanced Course Participants)
I heard two Advanced Course participants who were walking towards the lakeside. One asked, ‘When will the silence be over?’
The other one said, ‘Tomorrow morning! It will be over tomorrow morning.’
(Laughter)
So, some people have kept such silence as well!
There are three types of faith. Faith in yourself, faith in the goodness of people around you and faith in the abstract power which seems to be running everything. The first two are very essential; the third will make life much better.
And some people kept silence with full devotion.
In silence you conserve your energy. With talking a lot of energy gets spent that is why sometimes it is good to be silent for some time.
Two or three times a year, or once in four months, it is very good to take a silence program for three to four days. There is a lot of advantage in doing this. There is physical and mental advantage. All the stress in the nervous system gets released; your batteries get charged and you become joyful!
Also with silence, our speech gets purified, and then whatever we say starts happening. That is why Sadhana has its own importance.
Q: How important is faith?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You cannot exist without faith!
Listen, suppose you have come here in a car and you have parked the car in the parking area. Now when you are sitting here you have faith that the car will be there when you go back, isn’t it?! So, without this faith can you exist? No!
First, you should have faith in yourself.
There are three types of faith which are important
1. Faith in yourself. If you do not have faith in yourself it is called paranoia. It is a disease.
2. Faith in the goodness of people around you. There are good people in the world, you should have that faith; otherwise you cannot move one inch in society.
3. Faith in the unknown; faith in the abstract power which seems to be running everything. That is the third type of faith.
So, of these three faiths, the first two are very essential; the third will make life much better.
Q: Even after putting efforts I do not get success?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You cannot get success with effort alone. Along with effort you need faith and devotion. If you have faith and devotion and both go together then you will get success.
Also, it is not that if you only have devotion, you will get success, no! You need devotion and effort; a combination of both is required.
Q: Please tell us about ego.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: In love a loss is also a win, and in ego a win is also a loss!
Q: Gurudev, in the Bhagavad Gita Lord Krishna says that whatever comes naturally keep doing that, even if it is not the perfect thing to do. Please advice.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yes, be in your nature, don't be unnatural. What is not in your nature, do not project that. But that does not mean you be foolish, okay!
Let us say you are attending a funeral and you feel like dancing. You think, ‘Gurudev said be natural’, and so you start dancing and clapping. No, this will not work. You have to maintain decorum as well.
You think, Gurudev has said, ‘One world family, embrace everyone and move ahead’, and so you see a woman walking on the road and you go and hug her thinking, ‘Anyways, everything is mine only!’
If you do this then you will get a stick. So don’t do that.
Yes, it is good to cultivate Brahma Bhaav – everything is One; it is all a part of me. But that does not mean you steal from someone’s pocket and say it is all mine only.
To get rid of any addiction the only thing that can help is Sadhana. Come here, sit and do Sadhana. Do Advance Courses. Not just one or two, but keep doing, and then the addictions will go away.
Q: Gurudev, I feel people don’t accept me because I am boring. What should I do?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Don’t worry what people think about you. Have a goal and march ahead. If you have to walk alone then walk alone and achieve what you want to achieve in life. Then everyone will come along.
I also thought that I was very boring because I could never talk about cricket and in those days everybody would talk about cricket and I would just stare. It never interested me, when I was a teenager. I would not enjoy it but people were going crazy. For five days continuously they would put the radio on to their ear, listening to the commentaries.
At that time, I used to feel, what to talk. Everyone was only talking about cricket, no other talk.
You make your path and walk on it. Do not judge yourself and do not judge others.
Q: Gurudev, how do we know what is the right thing to do when there are so many choices? Also when all of them are equally good, how do I pick the right one?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: The right choice will appear on its own. When such a situation arises, have patience, wait a little and it will happen.
Q: Gurudev, my brother and me received the same upbringing, but at the same time we both are very different, how is it like that?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: This is very deep science. You need to think about it some time.
The microcosm and the macrocosm are united. In fact it is only one thing. But there is a link from the microcosm to the macrocosm. Every little grain on this planet is linked to the universe in some special manner.
The ancient people knew this. So they said that in our solar system there are nine planets, and these nine planets are linked to nine different grains, nine different animals, nine different shapes, nine different colors and nine different substances.
It is amazing how they traced the connection from one to another. It is simply amazing!
We have studied in our college and schools that it was Galileo who first found out that the Earth is round, and the Earth is going around the Sun. In the west they always thought the Sun is going around the Earth. But if you go to any temple in India they know that the Sun is the centre of the solar system.
This has been practiced from thousands of years in India. They put the Sun in the middle and the planets all around.
And what they also did is they connected each planet with a Mantra (chant) and a Yantra (diagram). And the Prana Shakti is connected with a particular gem and a particular grain. Like Mars is connected with Bengal Gram, Mercury is connected with Moong Dal, Saturn is connected with Sesame Seeds, Sun and Moon is connected with Rice and Wheat.
Rahu and Ketu, the nodes of the moon are also connected with different grams.
So each planet is connected with a particular grain, a particular shape and color, and a particular part of our body.
Each part of our body is connected with a particular planet. So in your body all the planetary systems are present. It is an amazing science.
There used to be this science called Samudrika Lakshana. In that, they would look at your face and make your horoscope. Sometimes, they look at your teeth and tell you exactly which year you were born in. But this science is somehow lost. A lot of knowledge has been misused and lost.
Today, pundits from different temples have come and they are doing a Yagya of the nine planets for the welfare of the world and people. The coming few days could be very tough, so to bring more of a positive influence in the world and reduce the negative vibrations, they are doing this Yagya today and tomorrow.
Don’t worry what people think about you. Have a goal and march ahead. If you have to walk alone then walk alone and achieve what you want to achieve in life. Then everyone will come along. You make your path and walk on it. Do not judge yourself and do not judge others.
So these are ancient things. But nobody understood them properly and there were no proper people to do this either. That is where we need to encourage the youngsters.
So, I thought that we will bring all these pundits and ask them to train the youngsters.
Q: How does one get out of addictions?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: By doing Sadhana. To get rid of any addiction the only thing that can help is Sadhana. Come here, sit and do Sadhana.
Do Advance Courses. Not just one or two, but keep doing and then the addictions will go.
Keep asking, ‘Who am I? Who am I?’ That is the best. From that only you will get the answer.
Q: Gurudev, I have only one daughter. She has moved to Canada after her marriage and I have not been able to meet her since one and half years. Will I be able to meet her?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yes, go meet her!
Your daughter also should feel, ‘I want to meet my mother.’
What has happened is that we sometimes raise our children in such way that they don’t have any feeling or compassion. We have not given them the right values or taught them any virtues, and so, when they go abroad they forget everything and become selfish.
You let go and be peaceful! Everything will be fine!
