Living the mystery of life

Deccan Herald, 17th May, 2010

H.H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

What is the purpose of knowledge? Purpose of knowledge is to make you feel that you don’t know! If knowledge makes you feel that you know it all, then it has not fulfilled its goal. The more you know, the more you become aware of the unknown.

There is one ‘‘I don’t know’’ that comes out of ignorance. But when one goes through knowledge then it becomes a transformed ‘‘I don’t know!’. This ‘‘I don’t know!’’ is wonderful. This is how you can turn every question into a wonder. The difference between a wonder and a question is that a question is associated with sorrow and restlessness whereas wonder is an expression of joy.

Purpose of knowledge is to create awareness of the Being. This creation is enormous and infinite. It is a mystery. Mysteries are not to be understood but to be lived. Love is a mystery, sleep is a mystery, your mind is a mystery and all that you see around is a mystery. Your life is also a mystery. Trying to understand mystery is confusion, but living it fully is called enlightenment.

What is your life? In the time scale, millions of years have passed and millions will come in the future. After all, how many years are you going to be here on this planet? May be 60 years, 70 years or 100 years? Your span of life is insignificant. It is not even a drop in the ocean. In terms of space you simply don’t exist! This understanding dissolves the ego.

Ego is ignorance of your reality, ignorance of your existence. Just open your eyes and see, ‘‘who are you? How are you on this planet? This brings awareness and then you do not worry about small things like, ‘‘this person said this thing to me and how could he do that to me” etc. You will see that all the smallness will simply drop away.

Ignorance has its necessity. Ignorance keeps the joy in the game. In a game if you know the result before you are playing you won’t be playing sincerely. If you know you are going to win or lose the game, there is no charm in playing. The game is joyful when its results are unknown. Nature is so kind and loving that it does not tell you about your future and does not remind you of your very old past. But, even with the short little memory it has given, you try hard to make your life miserable!

Have you noticed that the mind is not at all stable; it is like a roller coaster, crowded with thoughts going up and down. This is because you want to know all the time. You try your level best to understand your feelings and your emotions and get into more and more confusion. This is what has happened with psychology today. It tries to explain to you why you feel like the way you are feeling. The question ‘why’ arises always when you are unhappy. Nobody ever asks, ‘‘why am I so happy?’’ or ‘‘why is there so much joy and beauty in the world?’’ Everyone wants to understand, ‘‘why am I not feeling good?’’ or ‘‘why this pain is given to me? The more you try to understand and try to dig it; you seem to understand less and less. The mystery deepens and there is just an illusion that you know all. But that’s for a short while.

Just be in the innocent state of ‘‘I don’t know!’’ and you will see the mind becomes quiet. This makes life simple. This life is a beautiful mystery. Just live it! It is only when you live the mystery of life that joy dawns.

Two-and-a-half letters of love equal joy

DNA, 6th December, 2009

H.H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Being natural means accepting yourself, others and everything around you as it is. Not as a burden, but with a sense of understanding. When you feel that something shouldnt be like this or should have been like that, you become bound.

Boundary is the real cause of your disturbance as it brings limitation. Have you observed that you are peaceful, happy and calm as long as you have not come in contact with your boundaries? The moment you come in contact with them, the mind goes on a trip and you move out of your centre. At that moment you can just be grateful and pray for peace. Just turn the whole situation into a prayer. Pray that there be peace, not just in you but in everybody. That very moment you will start smiling. However hopeless the situation is, you will walk through it, sing through it, dance through it! This is love.

In Hindi, love is written with two-and-a-half letters. There is a saying — “Who is a master, who is a pundit, who is a wise person? Not one who has studied a lot of scriptures, but one who has studied the two-and-a-half letters.” Whenever a boundary is broken, it creates some fear. The fear creates dislike. This dislike puts you back in the boundary. And to keep yourselves in the boundary you put forth defenses. When you try to defend your position, it becomes stress.

Your knowledge of a mistake comes to you when you are innocent! Whatever mistake has happened, do not consider yourself a sinner because in the present moment you are again new, pure and clear. Mistakes of the past are past. When this knowledge comes, you are again perfect. Learn and unlearn from the past and move on with creative zeal and enthusiasm. The trying time brings out the best in you. Often, mothers get angry and scold their children. Afterwards, they feel so guilty. Anger is the cause of lack of awareness! Knowledge of the self, truth and skills can bring out the best in you. So, dont be afraid to make mistakes, but make sure you dont repeat them.

In a state of ignorance, imperfection is natural and perfection is an effort. In a state of wisdom or enlightenment, imperfection is an effort; perfection is a compulsion and is unavoidable! When you think that others are responsible, then your degree of responsibility diminishes. When you are in total vairagya (dispassion), you can take care of even insignificant things with perfection. Perfection is the very nature of the enlightened one. When we are joyful, we dont look for perfection. Joy is the realisation that there is no vacation from wisdom. The world appears imperfect on the surface but, underneath, all is perfect. Perfection hides; imperfection shows off.