Share the wisdom of Sri Sri Ravishankarji - 17.

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Dear Friends and Devotees

 

Bhakti is eternal

 

Share the wisdom of His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji.

 

17.MISERY

 

Memory makes you miserable or wise. Memories of events and experiences of the

changing finite world bind you but the memory of your nature liberates you.

Memories of the ever changing relative- however good or bad – bring bondage.

Memory of the non-changing self elevates awareness.

Memories of the past events and worldly concerns constrict vastness of the

self. It is all a matter of where you are, of what you are. If you are ignorant,

it is because of your memory. If you are enlightened, it is because of your

memory.

 

Forgetfulness of the infinite is misery. Forgetfulness of the trivial is

ecstasy.

 

Know the impermanent nature of the world and events. Know that past events do

not exist in the present. Accept the past as it was. Be dispassionate and

centered. Do service to the noble. Increase prana – the vital breath, the force

of life. Be in the presence of Divine Company. Go to the moon.

 

When you are miserable, know that you have gone away from the self. This is

called ashaucha – becoming unclean.

 

In India when someone dies, the close relatives are said to be ashaucha for 10

days because they are very sad. They are impure because they have moved away

from the self. After 10 days of living through the experience and reading the

Bhagavad Gita, gaining the knowledge and pulling themselves back into the Self,

they become shaucha. They have purged the impurities that arose during those

events.

 

This happens again and again in life. You become ashaucha and then you must

get back to shaucha. Go deeper into yourself; then real shaucha happens.

 

Shaucha’s benefits are clarity in the intellect, a pleasing mind, focused

awareness, control over the senses and eligibility to realize the Self.

Shaucha is disinterest in the tendencies of your own senses and a sense of

non-association with other people. If some tendency arises in your body, just

have the understanding, “Oh yes, here is this old familiar tendency again. Come

on I have had this experience enough, and still my body craves for it again.”

Become disinterested in your own body- this is just an idea, a sort of distaste

– and in one moment it changes.

 

Why do people love each other so much, have such an intimate relationship, and

then fight? Ashaucha has happened. If you do not have distaste for the tendency

of the senses, then distaste for the object of the senses will come and you will

blame the object.

 

When ashaucha happens, quickly come back to shaucha. Suppose you feel drowned

in any worldly aspect, just know this is ashaucha- “That is why I am miserable.”

Then come back to shaucha.

 

Your attraction or carving can only exist only as long as you think someone is

“other”. When you think they are a part of you or your Self, then the

attraction dies out. That is why the husband and wife may not be attracted to

their partner but to someone else, because their partner has already become a

part of them. When you realize everyone is part of your Self, you enjoy the

whole world without a sense of craving.

 

When you share your misery, it will not diminish. When you fail to share your

joy, it diminishes. Share your problems only with the Divine, not with anyone

else, as that will only increase the problems. Share your joy with everyone.

 

Question: “How do we help people who share their misery with us?”

 

Listen to others; yet do not listen. If your mind gets stuck in their

problems, not only are they miserable, but you also become miserable.

 

The mind lives on “more”. Misery starts with “more and more,” and misery makes

you dense and gross.

 

The self is subtle. To go from gross to subtle, you must go through the finest

level of the relative – the atom. To overcome aversion, hatred, jealousy,

attraction or entanglements, you have to take yourself to the atom. Taking your

self to the atom means accepting a tiny bit of all of this.

It may be difficult to accept something you do not like but you can definitely

accept a tiny bit of it- an atom. The moment you accept that one atom, you will

see change occur. But this must be done in a meditative state.

 

Suppose you love someone. You want more and more of them, yet there is no

fulfillment. In anu vrat – the vow of an atom- you take just one atom of that

person and that is enough to bring fulfillment in you. Though the river is vast,

a little sip quenches your thirst. Though the earth has so much food, just a

small bite satisfies your hunger. All that you need are tiny bits. Accept a tiny

bit of everything in life- that will bring you fulfillment.

 

Each experience brings completeness. Completion means being led to void or

nothing. In the progression of life, you will leave behind every experience

saying, “This is nothing.” Anything that is completed loses its importance. It

leads you to void- it is nothing.

 

A sign of intelligence is how soon you arrive at this understanding. Examine

everything in life and say, “This is nothing; and what remains is love, and that

is everything. When “this is nothing” does not come out of knowledge, it will

come out of misery. Either through knowledge or through misery, you come to the

point of “this is nothing, this is nothing.” The choice of how you come to that

point is yours.

 

To be contd. . . . 18.

 

With love and regards,

 

Sastry.

 

 

 

 

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