You know sometimes it is very difficult to talk to someone who is very sad or upset. You tell them anything it just doesn’t get into their head; it just goes above their head. They just cannot digest. They’ll hear from this side and then it will just fly away. It is useless talking to people who are sad and upset. And it is equally useless to talk to people who are ecstatic, so full of joy. You know if someone comes into the satsang for the first time they’ll wonder, Guruji simply said, ‘hmmm’, and then everybody started laughing. He hasn’t cracked a joke, he hasn’t said anything still everyone is laughing, everybody is happy. What is this? Looks very crazy!
People who are in deep ecstasy and knowledge or deep love and fulfilled, for them also, it is difficult to talk to them because they are not in a listening mode; they are in an enjoying mode. So what I am saying is there is no dearth for grace, we have plenty of grace. Blessings are there in abundance. We simply have to keep doing our work, keep doing what we have to be doing. You should continue doing your karma, your work, that’s important yes! There is no dearth; there is no lack of anything at all, isn’t it? Yes! There is abundance.
So like how everyone has some difficulty, my difficult is how to really convey to everyone that there is something so beautiful, something so inexpressible that can manifest in peoples’ lives and transform our planet into heaven. It is very difficult to convey this, isn’t it! So difficult to convey this truth, this knowledge when people are just in their head, they don’t understand. Don’t understand that there is something more than what they have just thought or understood in their little mind.
See our consciousness is so magnificent and so inexpressible. Its beauty, the meditation and the joy of it only one who experiences knows, so it is difficult to convey. Someone asked me to please make their family member also come into it. I know that is the wish of many other people that others also join. Let others also enjoy these blessings, this grace that I am enjoying, isn’t it! And I said that is my difficulty also, how to convey the inexpressible glory of the Divinity to the mundane world where people are just bothered about the mundane things. Just eating, sleeping, gossiping; just the routine thing you know, isn’t it. So immersed in the routine, and that world is so dull and so boring. For me it appears to be so dull and so boring, I don’t know how it is interesting for someone else.
Without this knowledge, without this experience, life does not gain that depth and that’s what is needed now, that depth you know. Conveying that depth to the world, that life is much more than what you think it is. There are so many things that are unseen, honor it, accept it, adore it and that is what is called shraddha.
Guruji you said do your karma. Now karma as we know is a vicious circle. So is there any karma, is there any action which gets us out of the vicious circle. Is there a karma free action?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You know you cannot be but do some action, some karma. It’s part of our nature. We have to keep acting. And if you consciously take a decision and act it is different than unconsciously doing something. So you consciously take a decision to go on the treadmill, this is an action. Otherwise you sit and you feel so restless, you keep shaking your hands and your legs the whole day sitting in your office at your table. This only shows restlessness. You are moving you leg so many times. You are compelled to do so because your body wants that circulation. You never gave that circulation time for the body so you feel restless. This is not happening as an exercise, it is not benefitting you but it is an action which you cannot stop. So some actions you consciously choose to do, that also cuts the karma.
(A member of the audience asked a question and it was inaudible)
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Listen, now don’t say I want more faith, I want more devotion. Never should we ask for more devotion. You should know it is there. You should know faith is there. Let it be. Wanting more is an obstacle by itself. Do you see what I am saying? Simply relax, that is good.
Gurudev, can you tell us what Yogic flying is. Maharishi used to teach it, why don’t you teach it too?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Yogic flying is nothing, just the body lifts up. But it takes six weeks. Six weeks you meditate, go deep in meditation and your body can just shake, life, hop. But meditation is the main thing; the flying phenomenon is not what is so important. Nobody has suspended and started flying, so far I have not seen someone do that. Someone says then bring them to me, I will find out.
(A member of the audience asked a question and it was inaudible)
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
What you people do is, while in meditation a little commotion occurs and you get distracted. If disturbance happens, let it be. Patience! Those who have gone deep during meditation, they have been given the title of ‘Mahaveer’, meaning what? In meditation, a certain amount of courage is needed. A ripple arises, there is some motion, doesn’t matter, you just keep on doing.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Oh you have no choice. Me too, neither I have any choice.
Maharaji asked Guruji how to invoke love? How can you experience love?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
When you are tired and so exhausted if someone talks about love you say forget about it and let me sleep. You know sleep is very important but when you are well rested only then a thought of love can be of any significance. So, when you are well rested, body is rested and you are not restless then love dawns in you.
And then company; you look at young children, small kids that can kindle the love inside you. In one in whom the energy is high and the love is already kindled, that also is contagious, it catches on to everybody else. In that way also it dawns, so there are many ways.
Also when you do pranayam; there are 1,72,000 nadis in the body, in the system and when some of them are blocked then you don’t experience love. When they open up then you experience that, ‘oh wow’, something happens. Suddenly people start talking, ‘oh we are friends from many life times. Oh I know you from forever before and we are made for each other.’ All those talks start when the nadis in the system open up. It’s interesting and so with pranayama also you can get those nadis to open inside you and with meditation.
With the company of those in whom the nadis are open, company of saints and prophets and sadhaks, then also something triggers and you feel, ‘oh wow!’ feeling arises.
And when we try and catch hold of it, then it just slips away. So just let it be. That’s a good mantra; just let it be, let it be! Very nice.
Gurudev, I want to ask the connection between breath, soul and space. What is the connection? Are they the same?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Very connected, they are cousins. Soul, the individual self is space with some impressions. Breath is that which manifests that in the body so breath is definitely connected to the soul (atman). In German language, ‘atman’ means breath. In Sanskrit ‘atman’ means the soul, spirit and ‘Paramatman’ means the Divine, the total space.
Gurudev, does the witnessing self ever rest? Does it rest when one is asleep or is it always resting?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
The witnessing consciousness, the one that witnesses is always at rest. The witness does not perform any action. If in the state of being a witness, the intention to act arises, it is performed by the mind. That activity happens in the mind or the intellect. Mind being transparent, it appears that the witness is witnessing through the mind. Then mind can get tired, mind can become active or can be in a state of rest. However, the witnessing consciousness is always at rest, it is never engaged in anything. That is why the best of the best deeds performed by anyone or the worst of the worst actions do not affect the witness. It always remains untouched, unperturbed and pure.
Gurudev, is there any effect of karma on enlightenment?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Praarabdha karma has a little bit effect. After full enlightenment also, a little effect of Praarabdha karma remains. For as long as the body is there, a few karmas have to be retained, it is necessary.
Gurudev, sometimes in a business environment we are forced to bribe someone to get a project. Is that correct and how should be position our self in our mind and in our heart?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Yes, otherwise you will lose your business right. You know alone it is difficult for an individual especially if you have a business to fight corruption. It’s okay for an NGO, it’s okay for a recluse, it’s okay for someone who doesn’t have any such responsibility to fight. But for an individual with responsibilities, it is like swimming against the current. When there is so much corruption, one man cannot swim against the current. That is why it needs an uprising. People will have to rise to the occasion. If there is a group of people all committed for this and united like the labor unions that would work. There should be unions for corruption; anti-corruption unions. This anti-corruption union can just make sure that nobody loses their business if they don’t bribe. So it takes some of that social effort from your side to do that, to take that step.
Gurudev, yesterday in the prayers, three or four times when you were in a state of transcendence. It seemed as if you were also experiencing a lot of pain and you also had tears in your eyes.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
That’s ecstasy, tears of love and joy.
Do the karmas of others affect me as well?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Yes it does. You are not in an island of karma. Others’ karma definitely affects you. You cannot say only in my room there is smoke. If there is smoke in your room it goes to the next room also. If there is smoke in the next room, that smoke comes to your room also. Yes, there are so many layers to karma but right now our karma is run to the dinning hall, already many are hungry.