5 Secrets to Success

Q: Even after putting 100 percent effort, the work doesn’t get done. What does one do then?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: For success or work to get done there are five things you require. 

1. First the intention of the person who is doing,
2. then availability of the instruments or things needed to do the work, 
3. third is the willingness or mindset to do the work. 
4. Then doing the work at the right time, there is a time to do the work, if you don’t do it at the right time then there is no use. If you sow seeds in February then there is no use, you then cannot say that I sowed the seeds but nothing has come. You have to wait till April after the rain and then you sow the seeds and yield the results. So time is a very important factor.When we came to this Ashram this whole land was barren, there was not one leaf or one tree on this land. Today see how many trees and plants are there and these trees did not come in one day, so many people have put lots of effort and after some time the trees grew. So this is how time is an important factor 
5. and then grace. Without grace of the divine there will be no success, that is why you do Seva, Sadhana, Satsang and in time you will get the fruits of all your efforts. Okay! None of your efforts will go waste that you should be assured about, if not now you will see the results later.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Wealth is not just having money. You can have a big balance, you can have a big estate but on your face if you are stressed and you’re so miserable, no one can call you prosperous. Prosperity is not just having a fat bank balance. Prosperity is in acknowledging the magnanimity of life, honoring life. The confidence in a person shows his richness. What is wealth suppose to do to you? Enhance confidence right but if wealth has created weakness then it is no wealth, if wealth has created sickness then it’s no wealth, if wealth has created conflicts then it is no wealth, right! So one type of wealth is wisdom, knowledge is wealth, health is wealth, confidence is wealth, valor is wealth. If you have confidence you can manage anything, you can handle any situation that is wealth.

Q: What is Witness Consciousness? When does one reach such state? 

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: This is a state of consciousness where you realize things are not happening because of your effort, it is happening due to some law, due to some power in the creation which is making everything happen.
When you have given your 100 percent, physically, intellectually… then you realize you are not doing, but things are happening.

Is Faith Important?

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!

Burry the past and move on!

Burry the past and move on!

December 19, 2011

Q: Dear Guruji, can we organize a worldwide meditation on the stroke of New Year of 2012, as you state that this year will bring a great change to the world. Can we start the year with meditation across the globe?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yes we can do, why not! We will fix a time for everyone across the globe to meditate. We will work it out!

Q: Guruji, can you please tell me, what is time with respect to the whole universe?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Time is a dimension, space is a dimension, mind is a dimension and mind is linked to time. I have spoken a lot about time. There is a small booklet on ‘time’ available at the divine shop.

Q: Guruji, I always have confusion between ‘Dvaita’ philosophy and ‘Advaita’ philosophy. Madhvacharya has spoken about ‘Dvaita’ and Adi Shankaracharya has spoken about ‘Advaita’. Please explain both.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: ‘Advaita’ is like quantum physics and ‘Dvaita’ is like chemistry. In chemistry you say there are these many isotopes or you refer a periodic table where they categorize all the different elements. But if you go to a quantum physicist, he will say, ‘it is all just wave function’.
A periodic table does not exist for a quantum physicist. He says everything is only atoms; wave functions.
Both are right. Chemistry has its utility and physics has its reality.
It is really brilliant what Adi Shankara has said and it is equally very interesting what Madhvacharya has said.
He said, ‘everything exists at their different levels and at that level it is good.’
On a practical note, Madhvacharya emphasised on love and devotion. For love you need two and in devotion you need someone to surrender to; a higher power to surrender to.
So this is a practical thing that Madhvacharya said, ‘surrender all your troubles and difficulties’.
Adi Shankara said, ‘hey! Just wake up and see it is all nothing’.
That is what Lord Buddha also said.

Q: Guruji, it is said that taking a deep breath in when we are angry reduces our anger level. Please suggest a way to remember that when we get angry.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: There is a saying, ‘Yudh kale shastra abhyaas'.
If you walk into the battle field, and then you decide to learn archery, by then you will already have been shot by ten arrows. Go on doing sadhana, and your anger level will automatically decrease. There is no point in doing something after you get angry. Even if I tell you anything, it will not help.
So you must take action before.

Q: Guruji, I get deeply troubled when I look at an elderly person's body. I realize that aging is inevitable, but it bothers me all the same. What can I do about it?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: When the beauty inside blossoms, the older you get, the more beautiful you look.
Sacrifice, love and service, these three things should be present in life.
Look at Mahatma Gandhi, did he not become more attractive as he grew older. His smile was so nice and he had beauty even in his old age. So beauty is reflected from within, it is not an outer phenomenon.

Q: Guruji, how to increase Vishnu Shakti?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: By increasing your patience level. Now, how to increase patience? That I will tell you next year.

Q: Guruji, all spiritual paths say that, ‘you are not alone and there is a higher power taking care of you.’ But what about those people who suffer in Africa. Why are they left alone to die from hunger?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: This is a big question, why is there suffering in the world. There are three types of suffering:
1. Suffering through natural calamities
2. Suffering through one’s own ignorance or one’s own laziness. This is man-made
3. Suffering due to karma where you don’t even know what the root cause of this kind of suffering is. It goes beyond the current framework of time. You have to go very much forward in the realm of consciousness to find out why this suffering is there now. There is no apparent cause for it. But the cause is hidden somewhere in the past. You need to dig into that cause
These are the three types. All these can be avoided, and rectified.

Q: Guruji, in the Bhagavad Gita there is a phrase, ‘sarvarambha-parityagi yo mad-bhaktah sa me priyah’ - one who renounces all beginnings and is not striving for some result is a devotee. How will such a person move forward, if he doesn't start doing anything?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: ‘I am beginning something’, leave this fact.
‘Everything is happening through me’, one who realized this is a devotee (bhakta).
A devotee understands that, ‘I am not doing anything, but through me it is being done.’
One who is in this witness consciousness is a devotee and this devotee is dear to me.

Q: Guruji, I had spoken to you several times and you said, ‘all this is maya (an illusion), leave it’. So what is maya, and why is it bothering me needlessly? I am looking at you now, is this also maya and all that is happening now, is that also maya? If it is, then what is the truth?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: This is all maya. Your desire to know what is truth is the beginning of the quest for truth. This is where the journey begins.
You want to know the truth not because someone said this is all maya but because you realize for yourself that everything is transitory. ‘All that I have been running behind lasts barely for two to three minutes and then disappears.’
When this realization comes to you then maturity dawns, and when we mature, we feel fulfilled. When there is fulfillment, then the realization dawns, ‘ah, this is what Guruji has been saying all this time.’

Q: Guruji, it is said in the Bible, ‘You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free!’ Even then there are so much lies in the world about so many issues. How can one live happily in a world like this where there are lies, injustice, violence and misery?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: When we ask these questions, we are able to point towards ignorance, lack of human values, and lack of spirituality in people.
If a person is sensitive, he will not do to someone that which he would not want another to do to him.
Why does a person commit a crime? This is because he is insensitive and some where he has lost touch of his humaneness. He has become like a beast. But that beast-hood is not a permanent thing. That is why I say, inside every culprit there is a victim crying for help. If you heal the victim, the culprit in him disappears.
That is where inner awakening or spiritual elevation or lifting of the consciousness to a higher level is absolutely essential. It is not just enough to make our children computer-wizards. We need to implant in them human values.
Our youth should feel for others, they should shun violence. And when can they shun violence? When they are free from stress. If they are stressed, they become violent.
There are two reasons for violence: one is stress and the other is ignorance or wrong indoctrination.

Q: Q: There is a wrong comment regarding Bhagavad Gita in the Siberian court of Russia. So, please guide us regarding that.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: It is unfortunate that there is a move to ban Bhagavad Gita in Russia. It is not correct!
Because Arjuna has been asked to fight the war against injustice by Lord Krishna, some people are trying to ban it as a book which would inspire terrorism.
There has not been a single incident of someone becoming a terrorist after having read Srimad Bhagavad Gita in the history of five thousand years.
Mahatma Gandhi was a great fan of Bhagavad Gita and he wrote one of the many commentaries on Bhagavad Gita. There may be around a thousand commentaries on Bhagavad Gita.
So, if you take some phrase or paragraphs from here and there which says, ‘yes, fight the war, fight against injustice’, and call it a terrorist scripture, then it is not right. Now, you can’t call Bible a terrorist scripture.
There are similar verses are in Quran which says, if there is an unbeliever, chop off all his fingers. There are nearly twenty five verses in Quran which talks about severe punishment to non-believers. So you cannot label these ancient scriptures as terrorist scriptures and try to ban them.

It is the attitude of people; intolerance towards others that is terrorism.
Intolerance is the seed of terrorism, whatever religion it is in. If there is intolerance in people, they are going to sprout and become terrorists of the future. We must check the intolerance in people. Banning scriptures is not going to make anything better in the world.
In fact millions of people have been inspired by Bhagavad Gita, including Einstein, the greatest scientist of this century. He said, ‘when I read the Bhagavad Gita my whole life changed.’ So it will be a loss for the population of Russia if such a ban is implemented in the country.
I am sure the Government of India will take a strong stance. Not just 1.2 billion people, but a big population of non-Hindus also admire the Bhagavad Gita. When that is the case, such steps should not be taken by the government agencies of a country which has had a long-standing good relationship with India.

Q: Guruji, can you pull me out of depression that I am facing?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: There is no way you are in satsang and you are depressed.
See sometimes this is what happens when you go to psychologists. They give you an idea that you are depressed. And then you put this idea into your mind, ‘oh! I am depressed!’
So you are reaffirming something which is not a permanent thing. No mental state is a permanent state. So you are trying to reinforce and reaffirm, ‘I am depressed’ even when you are not. You start saying ‘yes, I am depressed’.
This is the danger when people who do not know anything about the mind, about the psyche and about meditation or consciousness, give advice in the name of psychology.
It is such a miserable thing.
I have seen relationships between parents and children get spoiled by psychologists and psychiatrists. A child had such a good relationship with his parents but after some consultation or counselling with the psychologists, something happened, and he started hating his own parents.

There was a businessman here at the ashram for the past one and a half months. He came all the way from Paris.
This person had a sleeping disorder. He was given so many medications.
Usually for sleep doctors give a dose of ten milligrams; this man was taking a hundred and fifty milligrams. Ten times the normal dose of the medicine. He looked like a zombie and kept having panic attacks and his whole system was bad.
I told him, ‘now, I want to take away all your medications.’
We took away his medications and he said, ‘but, I don’t sleep’. Our doctors attended to him, all our teachers attended to him. He was snoring loudly and when you snore loudly, it means you are sleeping. After snoring for four hours he wakes up and says, ‘I did not sleep. I have a sleeping problem.’
The doctors who attended to him said, ‘Guruji, he snored so loud!’
But this gentleman had this idea, I have sleeping disorder so I have to take this medication. Without this medication I cannot sleep.

Sometimes, you have this idea, whatever doctors say is absolute truth. Like the placebo effect. Doctor says, ‘take this tablet and you’ll be fine’, and you take a sugar pill and say, ‘ah! This is very effective’.
A sugar pill can take away your headache.
If the doctor tells you, ‘you suffer from deep depression’, you take it in your mind and in your heart. You say, ‘I suffer from depression’.
Your mind is like a river, it is changing all the time. That is what Lord Buddha said, ‘your mind is like a river’.
All the ancient people who studied consciousness have said, ‘you can’t take a dip in the same river twice’. So, don’t believe you are the same person. Your mind is changing all the time.
Be in the present moment, now! Now! Now!
Burry the past and move on. Where is the depression? Your depression is because you are hanging onto the past or you are over-ambitious. You have the capability to manage a school but you want to become the Prime Minister of the country. Then depression comes when you feel you cannot achieve it.
Don’t hang on to the past or don’t be too feverish or over-ambitious about the future.

Q: Guruji, I keep experiencing failure in whatever I do. How do I overcome this?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Every failure is a step towards success, keep that in mind. And be practical.
Failure happens because of two reasons:
1. You have great thoughts but your actions do not match the thoughts. Then failure comes
2. You put all the effort but you don’t think because you are obsessed with a goal or with a specific result and so you don’t think broad about the consequences of it. You are not flexible and have a rigid attitude. Then also failure comes.
Either you act too much without thinking or think too much without acting, that brings failure. Sometimes we sit and day-dream and we do not realise the ground reality. Match your vision with the ground reality. If you are aware of the ground reality and know how to match your vision with it, then failures will be reduced, otherwise failures will be there.

Learning the rules of life

Sri Sri fan blog: Learning the rules of life

Talk on Sadhana, Satsang & Seva (in Hindi) - Rishi Nityapragyaji

With satsang, sadhana and seva our faith becomes very strong

Wisdom from Sri Sri: With satsang, sadhana and seva our faith becomes very strong

Knowledge nugget from Delhi

Wisdom from Sri Sri: Knowledge nugget from Delhi:

Rest your mind & intellect in the Divine energy

Wisdom from Sri Sri: ‘Rest your mind & intellect in the Divine energy’

Consider your life as sacred

Wisdom from Sri Sri: ‘Consider your life as sacred’

A Perfect Life

Bombay Times, 21st May, 2010

H.H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

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! Perfection is the very nature of the enlightened one.

Perfection is, taking total responsibility. And total responsibility means working as if you are the only responsible person in the whole world. When you work this way and when you are in total vairagya(dispassion), you can take care of even the most trivial and insignificant things with great perfection.

In this perfect world, why is man so imperfect? It is so that he can become more perfect. Recognition of imperfection leads you to more perfection. This is a very delicate point. Usually when you recognise imperfection, you may just sulk and brood over it - ‘‘Oh, I am imperfect.” I would say recognise the imperfection, but don’t condemn or condone it; rather overcome it by focusing on the perfection around. It is important to become Anasuya (devoid of faultfinding eyes) otherwise you cannot blossom.

There are three kinds of perfection: Perfection in action/work, perfection in speech and perfection in feelings/intention. Some people are very good in their actions, but inside they feel very grumpy and angry. Some people tell lies, so their speech is not perfect, but they do their jobs with the right intention. For instance, a doctor may tell a patient, ‘Don’t worry, your disease will be cured,’ but that may not be true. Here, the intention behind lying is perfect. But if someone lies intentionally, then the feeling is imperfect, the speech is imperfect and the action will also reflect the same.

When someone makes a mistake and you get angry about it, then you are no better than the person who has made the mistake, because there the action was imperfect, but here your feelings have become imperfect. Any action will have some flaw. But when the feeling becomes imperfect, the innermost perfection is lost.

There are six ‘Vikaras’, imperfections or distortions of nature; lust, anger, greed, entanglement, arrogance and jealousy. The whole creation is made up of nature and distortions of nature. That’s why we call it Prakriti andVikriti. They are part of this creation, but we still call them distortions, because they do not allow the self to shine forth fully and lead you to sin. Lust is considered a sin, because in lust, you treat the other person like an object. Anger or arrogance is a sin, because when you are angry, you lose your centre; you lose sight of the self. Greed and entanglement lead you to possession and obsession.

If you nourish these ‘Vikaras’ inside, they change from one impurity to another and keep multiplying inside you. Understand that sin is not your nature and you are not born out of sin. Sin is just the wrinkle in the cloth. It needs proper ironing. Sadhana helps you maintain your centeredness and not be shaken by these distortions.

Deep inside, you are a fountain of bliss, a fountain of joy! Be thankful that you have been bestowed with the qualities that you have. When you understand this basic truth then your imperfections diminish and the inner perfection begins to blossom.