Ayurveda Initiative For Global Health

Chapter 8 - Play Of The Divine  Day 46 Your mind is your self. Do not leave your mind in search of the divine. This mind also belongs to God, and the disturbances in the mind are also a play of the divine. We should treat them as a play or entertainment.  If you read any old purana, or ancient story, you find only anger and jealousy. Lakshmi got angry with Sarasvati. It was a fight between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law.  Sarasvati is the daughter-in-law of Lakshmi. That is how we trap the Gods in the anger and hatred that is in us. All the puranas contain anger and hatred - whatever happens on earth also happens in heaven.  Chandra stole the wife of Guru, also known as Brihaspati. A fight ensued between Guru and Chandra. "Chandra" in Sanskrit means the mind, and "Guru" knowledge.  Knowledge says one thing, and the mind says something else. That is why everyone knows that smoking is a bad habit, but people cannot stop.  Day, night, clouds and...

Chapter 7 - From Darkness To Light  Day 45  What is a sign of arrogance? Continual dreaming that this or that should happen. The second dream is for money- I should have bucketfuls of money.  How much is not at question, but it should be lots of money. How much do you need? One lakh? Two lakhs? One million? Two or three million?  Lots of money - there is no end to "lots of money." "Lots" is a word for lawyers. Someone might file a case against God, saying, "I asked for lots of money, but you have given me less."  This "lots of money" is one of the reasons for our unhappiness. The mind that is not full wants more. When the mind is full, it is contented.  The other preoccupation is for authority. What is this desire for authority? Only the weak, who lack strength, want authority. A strong person does not desire authority, but instead desires to serve. Understand this fundamental difference. Those that feel that strength comes from a gro...

Chapter 7 - From Darkness To Light  Day 44 Every time a fire-cracker is lit, it creates a loud sound, bringing your mind and consciousness into the present moment. That is why we use fire-crackers. It is like shock therapy.  Without the noise from the bursting fire-crackers, the mind does not come into the present. The mind is constantly dreaming and wandering elsewhere.  Observe the mind's fantasies. We have no time to study them, though dreams constantly come up. When knowledge is lost, dreams start.  You are continually day-dreaming. This fire-cracker is only there to wake you from your dreams. Every sutra is a fire-cracker. It should bring light to darkness.  Do you know why we celebrate Diwali, the festival of lights? The month of Karthik has the longest nights of the whole year. It is the month of darkness.  In this darkness we need to light lamps. There is no point lighting a lamp where there is light everywhere. Darkness is not unnatural...

Chapter 6 - Guru Is The Way  Day 43 We need to remember one thing that our body is pure. "Havih" is the offering we put in a yajna or homa, the sacrificial fire. A yajna is happening in this world, and your body is just an offering. Your body is offered in the flames of time. Time is moving just like you are moving. In front of our eyes, 20, 30, 40 years have passed. Yet you have not woken up.  There is no time for knowing where you are. Life is coming to an end, and the body has become an offering. Look with honour at this passing life.  Offer it as it is and do not cling to it. For this to happen, you need a feeling of surrender. We offer our body at night, but take it back in the morning.  That is how people surrender. Someone told me, "Each day as I go to sleep, I surrender my body and the next morning I take it back as I have more work to do."  But this is not how it is. When we make an offering into fire, once it enters the fire it becomes ash,...

I see life as a miracle. The blooming of flowers, colours in nature, the diversity in flora and fauna is all a matter of wonder and an absolute Miracle.    Being on the path I am ever so grateful for this miraculous journey of life. I feel each moment is a Miracle, it’s just a matter of opening our eyes and seeing life with a sense of wonder that miracles manifest again and again.  Sharing one such miracle of Grace in my life for which I am so very grateful to my Guru, Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. Guru Poornima 2004 : An auspicious day to honour and commemorate one's Guru - a day of gratitude and joy in every Sadhak’s life. It was a day full of excitement as i was so looking forward to attending the Guru Poornima satsang with my friends in the evening. It was around 4 pm that evening, as I was readying my saree whilst simultaneously finalising pick up points for the long drive to the venue, that my husband Satish complained of extreme discomfort in his ...

If I say that I am grateful, I am thankful or anything else for that matter, it does not suffice. Nothing that I say can ever express the love that I feel for Gurudev. I was suffering for 2 long years with bleeding in my intestines. Surgery did not help, and neither did the various medicines that I kept trying. I ate healthy and worked out, but all in vain. On the outside I was a fit young lady, but inside I was broken. The breaking point came when one day, in January 2013, I suddenly could not breathe. As my husband rushed me to the hospital, my breathing became very laborious and my body became paralyzed. But through my struggle to breathe, I kept hearing a voice telling me not to worry as I had experienced something similar (fast breathing) in the Sudershan Kriya. It kept getting tougher and tougher to breathe, with each breath. In a matter of minutes, I could see my world crashing and I quickly started bidding goodbye to my husband and my young children. In my mind, I s...

Question - Gurudev, how can one experience the mind, intellect, memory and the self as separate from each other? Gurudev Sri Sri - When you are listening to whatever I am saying, your mind is the one that is listening through your ears. When you listen to music, you hear it through your mind. But when you ask questions about something, you do so through the intellect. So it is the mind that is responsible for listening to the music that is playing, it is the mind that experiences the hotness or coldness of touch. But the faculty, or the level of existence that tries to understand what you experience (through the mind), is the intellect. Then, when you feel, 'I want this', or, 'I don't want this', then that 'I' reflects the ego. Remembering this entire experience is the function of the memory. These are really four different functions of one consciousness.

Question - Gurudev, when I do my Sudarshan Kriya in the morning, I feel very sleepy after that. Please advice what do I do? Gurudev Sri Sri - See, if you are not sleeping well at night, then this could be a possible reason. If you have time, then after Sudarshan Kriya just lie down. You may take a short nap of 10-15 minutes, or you must meditate. If you don't do this, then it could happen that you feel sleepy. After Sudarshan Kriya just sit and meditate for some time. Sudarshan Kriya should always be followed by meditation. When you come back home in the evening, do your Sudarshan Kriya then, if feeling sleepy is bothering you at work. If you don't do this, then it could happen that you feel sleepy.

Question - Gurudev, in one of the meditations you say, "The nose is hollow and empty, the throat is hollow and empty'. When everything already is hollow and empty, then what is the use of taking our attention there during meditation? Should we not meditate upon God instead? Gurudev Sri Sri - To get there, at least make yourself hollow and empty first. First you must become hollow and empty like a flute. Then you will see that the harmony of the Divine will flow through you. This is why in the great tradition of our Masters, it is said, 'Neti Neti' (not this, not this). It means, 'It (Divinity) is not this, and it is not that also'. So in this way, they went on negating and rejecting every limited understanding of God, until they finally realised that everything is one Consciousness, and there is nothing beyond it. God is not a person or some limited form, He is the Supreme power behind everything in this creation. God is the melodious harmony playin...

The Master makes sure that Fun and Chaos go hand in hand. Just fun is like the plain vanilla version – which He does not like serving His devotees with and chaos devoid of fun is not in His nature. Guru Stories are ongoing sagas and sharing them each time fills my heart with gratitude. My marriage to Vivek is also His story and even post-marriage, He did not stop, instead the Guru Stories are increasing more and more. So here it goes – straight from the heart! After the beautiful trip at Kashmir, we had our flight back to Delhi from Jammu ( nearest city from kashmir that has an airport ) on the 10th of June at 8am. Luckily, we happened to scroll through our mailbox on the 9th night at our cousin’s place and realized that our flight had been rescheduled to 12 noon on 10th June. Our travel agent had dropped a mail 3 days back for the same. We were grateful for the suddenly peeping our mailbox else the following day would have come into trouble. So we got ready the next day to...

The Divine can come to you in any form at any time. Gurudev came to my rescue in the form of that labourer at a crucial time. About a decade ago, I went to Jaipur to teach a few Art of Living courses. On reaching my host family’s home, I left my suitcases in the room and rushed to the building across the road where lunch had been organised by some teachers.  I had barely reached the building, and slipped and fell on a small slope at the entrance. To my utter dismay, what i thought was a slight sprain, was actually a broken ankle - broken into two pieces. My left foot was kind of dangling on the side and here i was in a blanked out mindless state, making desperate attempts to straighten my foot. Some labourers from an adjacent construction saw me do that. One of them came running, sat down next to me and stopped me from trying to straighten my foot. He had a look of such concern and compassion on his face and it was his loving expression that pulled me out of my d...

Four years back I had a severe viral attack. I was taking treatment but there was no improvement in my condition. To my utter dismay, the situation worsened to herpes attack. One of my facial nerve could not be diagnosed in time and this led to a facial paralysis attack. These were very tough times of my life. I had almost lost all hope of proper recovery. Because of late diagnosis, the neurologist believed that only 60-70% of the face could be restored back to its normal condition. Waves of depression had started to grip my mind. One day, Guruji came in my dream and said, “Don’t worry, everything will be all right.” I hadn’t done any AOL courses back then, and neither did I know Him personally. I had only seen His talks on Shradha and Sanskar channel. I was mighty impressed by His conduct and way of answering questions, but nothing more than that. Little did I know that Guruji’s magic wand had already started having it’s effect on me. After 60 days of treatment, I got cured fully! I f...

💐☘🌾☘🍀🍁🍀☘🌾☘💐         🌺 ASHTAVAKRA GITA🌺                      🌿Chapter - 28🌿  ~ Seva And The Art Of Enthusiasm ~                   🌱 Day - 165 🌱 💐☘🌾☘🍀🍁🍀☘🌾☘💐 It's not the object of the enthusiasm that is important. However, we link our enthusiasm to this object and this leads apathy. But if you're just enthusiastic, then it can be directed to anything, in any way and in any direction. This is how multi-dimensional growth takes place. The fullness of consciousness blossoms in all aspects. स्फूर्तिमात्रो । You are just enthusiasm! It does not matter whether you are enthusiastic about food, a picnic, knowledge, singing, dancing, music, gardening or anything else. The source is there. You can direct it in any direction. That is when you are free from likes and dislikes. If you feel that you only like something and do not like something els...

💐☘🌾☘🍀🍁🍀☘🌾☘💐         🌺 ASHTAVAKRA GITA🌺                      🌿Chapter - 28🌿  ~ Seva And The Art Of Enthusiasm ~                   🌱 Day - 164 🌱 💐☘🌾☘🍀🍁🍀☘🌾☘💐 It is a futile exercise! So what if somebody recognizes you? In that person's mind that thought came and went, finished. That mind has gone. Maybe they have an attraction for you for some days, some months, so what? That also diminishes with time. What is there if you charm somebody? So what? Have you gained something then? Your hands still remain empty. You waste much energy in trying to charm others. And in wanting to charm others, just the opposite happens. People get into fights and conflicts. In most relationships, you want to keep your charm. But the closer you get, somehow the charm is lost somewhere on the way. You may want to maintain the charm and make it more vibrant. I...

💐☘🌾☘🍀🍁🍀☘🌾☘💐         🌺 ASHTAVAKRA GITA🌺                      🌿Chapter - 28🌿  ~ Seva And The Art Of Enthusiasm ~                   🌱 Day - 163 🌱 💐☘🌾☘🍀🍁🍀☘🌾☘💐 स्फूर्तिमात्रो । Just be enthusiastic! Like small children, you should become the embodiment of bubbling enthusiasm when you do something without a vasana, a latent impression of 'I' or 'mine'. Have you seen how enthusiastic small children are? Their enthusiasm comes out of every cell of their body. They jump and bounce on their feet. Do you remember being children? You hold them and they don't stand still. They bump and jump around, laughing all the time. They laugh looking at nothing! They don't need to look at something amusing to laugh! They don't need your silly jokes to laugh! They don't need to read cartoons to laugh! Just being is sufficient for them to be filled with enth...

💐☘🌾☘🍀🍁🍀☘🌾☘💐         🌺 ASHTAVAKRA GITA🌺                      🌿Chapter - 28🌿  ~ Seva And The Art Of Enthusiasm ~                   🌱 Day - 162 🌱 💐☘🌾☘🍀🍁🍀☘🌾☘💐 भ्रान्तिमात्रमिदं विश्वं न किञ्चिदिति निश्चयी । निर्वासनः स्फूर्तिमात्रो न किञ्चिदिव शाम्यति ॥ Seva is the only work done without vasana (latent tendencies), without the selfish wanting or craving. Everything else you do for yourself out of selfishness. Even when you meditate, you are doing it for yourself. You are meditating because you want to be enlightened and want joy. Meditation itself is a selfish act. You do sadhana because you want to end your misery; you want something! Behind every act there is "I want something". We do things through the vasana. You smile at somebody because you want something from that person. If they are looking good, you give a bigger smile. Notice ...

💐☘🌾☘🍀🍁🍀☘🌾☘💐         🌺 ASHTAVAKRA GITA🌺                      🌿Chapter - 28🌿  ~ Seva And The Art Of Enthusiasm ~                   🌱 Day - 161 🌱 💐☘🌾☘🍀🍁🍀☘🌾☘💐 There is another instance from the life of Buddha. The rule for every meditator (a householder) was that he should do some seva, contribution or service. Otherwise, the meditation would not be fruitful. There was a very rich merchant during Buddha's time and he was very miserable. It is usual for a merchant's life to become very miserable and uncertain, as there is no security in their lives. Someone took him to Buddha. He learnt and meditated. He felt so wonderful. Then he thought how wonderful it would be if this knowledge could reach many people! Many people would be relieved of their misery and suffering. So he started looking for a place for Buddha. It needed to be near a tow...

💐☘🌾☘🍀🍁🍀☘🌾☘💐         🌺 ASHTAVAKRA GITA🌺                      🌿Chapter - 28🌿  ~ Seva And The Art Of Enthusiasm ~                   🌱 Day - 160 🌱 💐☘🌾☘🍀🍁🍀☘🌾☘💐 A beggar bothers you. So you throw five rupees at him and tell him to get lost. You think you have done some charity! It's not charity. You have lost five rupees and also have gained that garbage of anger and frustration in your mind; in your consciousness. There was an instance in the life of one of Buddha's disciples. This lady started meditating at the age of ten. She got married and had a household which she managed skillfully. One day a beggar came along when her father-in-law was having his food. The dharma of a householder is that when they are having food and someone comes along, they have to share it with them. That is the dharma. But the father-in-law said he would not s...

💐☘🌾☘🍀🍁🍀☘🌾☘💐         🌺 ASHTAVAKRA GITA🌺                      🌿Chapter - 28🌿  ~ Seva And The Art Of Enthusiasm ~                   🌱 Day - 159 🌱 💐☘🌾☘🍀🍁🍀☘🌾☘💐 In your life, each one of you has uttered a few words to somebody at some time or the other. What are those words? You have told people with whom you have come in close contact with, " If you need me, I am here." If these words have not come out from your mouth then you have been living in fear and distrust. But if you have uttered these words, " If you need me I am here for you. I'll do whatever I can for you", have you observed your state of mind in those moments? To your very dear and loved ones when you say, " If you need me I am here for you. I am here to make you comfortable", those are the moments when you have really lived your life. Otherwise, it is just "I", "I", "I" and...

Chapter 9 - Combating Corruption Day 18  The big °C' of corruption can be countered by five other C's. Let us look at these other C's. 1. Connectedness - A lack of connectedness or sense of belonging breeds corruption in the society. That is why people often look to form connections, to avoid corruption.  That explains why corruption is at its lowest in the villages and much greater in the cities where there is, at best, a poor sense of community and minimal interaction between people.  Creating this sense of belonging is one of the greatest ethical challenges we face as a society. Corruption cannot be rooted out without this bonding. Today, we do not believe in investing in friendship. We only believe in investing in currency notes. Our security has shifted from friendship to currency.  Half a century ago, a person would feel very secure when he had a lot of friends. Friends were his constant social support system, so he was not easily corruptible.  He did not...