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Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Quotes

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Quotes

Devotion is ultimate love, The pinnacle of Love.
Today is a gift from God - that is why it is called the present.
Be in the now. Desire is wanting to be happy tomorrow. Be happy and joyful now.
Don’t go by appearance; listen to your inner voice.
Caring for the environment is a big part of The Art of Living. Plant trees; use less plastic, if possible, no plastic and use cloth bags. These are all very valid things to know. You have heard about that in the basic course so you all do it already. Keep the environment clean, if you find people littering the streets you should try to educate them. If you have free time wherever you find any littering, you stand there and call a few people and tell them, “Let’s clear this place”. Do something like that.
Look at the present moment - now, now, now! Wake up NOW! Everything else is stupid. All that has happened has gone into emptiness. Everything dissolves into emptiness. Your entire past - wiped out! All the things that you felt are gone. Good or bad, they are gone. So, wake up to the truth of the present moment. Divinity is in the present moment. This is yoga. Yoga is being established in the moment.
When you are in action, don’t get into this philosophy of doership or non-doership else the mind gets confused. When you act, you act hundred per cent. When you are acting hundred per cent, suddenly you will realize I am not doing, it is all happening. Non- doership is an experience; it is not something you try to do or achieve.
Mind means moods, thoughts, opinions, ideas, all these things that we collect. No mind is meditation. Dawn & dusk are considered very good for mediation. When you meditate you go off the influence of the mind & go into the self. The self is Shiva tatva. Shiva tatva means always benevolent, caring, loving, uplifing which is that consciousness deep within you. It will nullify the negative influences of the mind & time.
I tell you, deep inside you is a fountain of bliss, a fountain of joy. Deep inside your center core is truth, light, love, there is no guilt there, there is no fear there. Psychologists have never looked deep enough.
Nothing stays forever. Good as well as bad times go away. Be happy, reminding yourself of this again and again. Our life as it is, is Sadhana. True sadhana is relaxing, deep relaxation. Everything is destructible here. Everything is changing – your body, your intellect. Everything will dissolve. Time is running so fast. The only thing that is not changing, that is your consciousness.
Every human is pure but filled with dirt. Every human being is like a diamond. The fact that the diamond is in mud, does not make it mud. You simply have to pick it up and wash it. And it shines again. The shiny nature of diamond is always there but covered with mud and slush.
When mind is outward and is stuck in an outside event or incident, you have to retrieve it back. That's what you have to do. Either something good happens or bad, it stays in mind for some time, produces an impression in your consciousness. But nothing stays for long and it vanishes by time. Sign of waking up is that you don't hold on to it for long. Sadhana, meditation is the greatest tool for that.
There is no point in spending the whole of our earnings on ourselves. We have to keep two-three percent for social service, for dharma jagruti (awakening of truth) – so corruption can be minimized. We should all get together and inspire the people of our country.
Never link money with happiness. Even the poorest people are happy, if you see. In fact they are more happy. But money can create a false notion of security to you: You think if you have money, you have everything. The idea of money is for comfort. Isn’t it? Why do you want money? For comfort. But money can give you only one type of comfort. Physical comfort. It doesn’t give emotional and spiritual comfort.
The way u act, God awards the fruit of the action accordingly. If u steal, God will come to u as a policeman. Ur actions, good or bad, decide ur experience of joy & sorrow. Joy & sorrow are the outcomes of ur discretion; it depends on ur discretion in performing actions. It is ok if you drink 1 glass of milk. But what happens if u drink 3 kilos of milk? Without the use of discretion, nectar can turn to poison.
The effect of divine energy is such that it transforms all the negative tendencies in the mind. Whatever has been said in Yogasutras, “Tat sanidho vair tyaga”, is very true – One gets free from the feeling of animosity in the company of truth, in the company of those who practice meditation.
Nature has its own means of balance. If you observe nature, you will see that the five elements are opposed to each other. Water destroys fire, fire destroys air. There are so many species in nature – birds, reptiles, mammals; all these different species are hostile towards each other & yet nature balances them out. We need to learn from nature how to balance opposing forces within ourselves & in the world around us.
Life, when it is lived in its totality, is an end in itself and a beginning in itself.
Meditation helps to change your perspective. It improves the way you perceive things. It brings clarity in the mind. It improves your interaction with people around –what you say, how you react and act in different situations, you become more aware.
Acharya gives knowledge, and a Guru gives diksha. Diksha means the height of awareness and intelligence, and not information. A Guru does not simply stuff you with knowledge, but He kindles life force in you. What happens in a Guru’s presence? You become more alive. Every cell in your body becomes more alive. Guru invokes and awakes the intelligence, not just the intellect. The pinnacle of intellect is intelligence.
The self is like space. Thoughts come & go emotions come & go but when u go inside there is only empty space. Identification with thoughts, feelings & emotions, makes us feel we r stuck. The ‘Real Magnanimous You’ is that space inside where U feel totally at peace. In moments when u are totally at peace u feel an expansion. U feel boundless & limitless & that is our true nature. We r all one in that, there is no two!
Being silent and knowing that the divinity is taking care of everything - that is the best form of prayer; the best prayer is meditation.
Food is connected with God. In the Upanishads, it is said ‘Food is God’. When you consider food as God you will not over eat. You don’t simply stuff food but you eat food with so much honour.
The Lord is not somebody separate, but it is,‘what I am.’ If the wave asks, ‘Where is the ocean then what to say? The wave itself is the ocean. You have to only realize this. That is why it is said that while it takes a moment to break a flower stem, the Divine can be realized in a fraction of that moment.
An Ashram is a place where there is no shram/effort. Keeping the mind at peace and letting divinity flow through you is effortlessness. And when does that happen? When you are at ease with yourself and the surroundings. And this is, in fact, the significance of the Ashram – where you are at home.
World peace comes with individual peace. If individuals become peaceful, communities become peaceful. Then the leaders of the world will also become peaceful, and we can have world peace. When people have broad vision for the whole world, world peace is a possibility. We need to spiritualize the politics, socialize the business and secularize the religion.
Divinity permeates everything in this Earth. Puja is not complete without honoring the trees, mountains, rivers, Earth and the people living on the Earth. Honoring everyone is Dakshina. Da means to give and Dakshina means giving something that will cleanse us of all impurities. Offering with which all your sins vanish. No puja is complete without Dakshina. Give your tensions, worries and sorrows as Dakshina.
Don’t keep any corner of your existence away from Divinity. The Divine should be interwoven into every aspect of your life
In the morning, the mind is in a state of knowledge, alertness and wakefulness. It is action-oriented in the afternoon and in the evening, the mind is in a state of relaxation. One who wants to be unhappy can be unhappy the whole time, and one who wants to be happy can be happy throughout the day. A fool will be unhappy all the time and the intelligent one will be happy in spite of changing moods.
God is never an object of isolation but the very core of your being. The difference between Self and God is just like the wave and the ocean. Can there be a wave without the ocean?
Terrorists are cowards. Whenever terror has struck in any part of the world, we have heard people say it is an act of cowardice. A coward runs away from action but harbours all negative feelings and does it surreptitiously.