Trust

There is something called ‘gut feeling’. Don’t be paranoid if once or twice or ten times your trust has been broken. You know you have selected wrong people, that’s all. Remember that in the world there are good people, in abundance.

Just imagine if someone don’t trust you, how do you feel like? Put yourself in the shoes of someone who doubts you. You walk into someone’s house they doubt that you may steal something & walk away. How do you feel? Awful! Right? So, you must be careful, don’t be naïve at the same time you should not be paranoid. Yes.

Life moves with some amount of trust. You go to bank they take all the guarantees and then they trust you. And you vote for somebody, a politician, you put them in the Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha, you send them to Parliament, because you have put some amount of trust in them, right?

So, the whole society or system works on trust. And if you totally lack it, you will get into a sort of psychological illness, paranoia. At the same time I would say, you should not trust anybody or leave your cheque books or whatever your money to somebody.

Or on the other extreme, just don’t keep doubting, don’t make doubt a part of your nature to doubt everything and everybody.

Q. Dear Gurudev, I want to be always grateful, but then you said to drop this word ‘always’. But then this so called ‘mind’ has taken an excuse and doesn’t let me to be in the state of gratefulness, not even for two seconds. Even being aware of this isn’t helping me and then I regret. I take this life for granted and keep on complaining. Even the intention of being grateful doesn’t help. Please help.

Sri Sri: What if I refuse to help? What if I say, ‘No, I have no solution.’ What would you do? Suppose you go around the whole world everywhere looking for solution and you don’t get solution anywhere, what would you do?

My dear, any emotion, whether gratefulness, or love or liking something, you cannot force it on yourself, just relax. I think you have too much time in hand and sitting analysing yourself the whole time.

C’mon, wake up! Just start doing some good work, do some service activity, be part of some service project, see what happens, the whole energy in you starts moving.

You know if water remains as a puddle, it’s good for nothing, it remains muddy. But the same water starts flowing, then you can generate electricity, you can do many things, it becomes clear water, pure water.

I think you sit and sit and analyse ‘Oh, I feel grateful, I want to feel grateful.’ Never mind! Who is interested in your gratefulness?! Nature doesn’t care whether you are grateful or not, sun still shines on you, rain pours on you.

But I am telling you one thing, deep inside when you feel you are totally helpless or you feel that whatever you have received is much more than what you deserve, spontaneously gratefulness will come. You simply must realise, ‘I don’t deserve this, but I got it.’ Unless and until this situation arises in you, you can’t feel grateful. Got it?

And so what, it is just a ‘feeling’ that comes in you and feelings always change. Whether it is frustration or gratefulness, who cares! Let it come and go, you are much bigger than that. So don’t sit and brood over it and wanting to generate some feelings inside of you.

Life is moving at a very fast pace, in that movement put yourself and just swim with the current, float with the current. Do you see what I am saying? ‘Oh I feel this way, I feel that way.’ So what? They all change. Good feelings change, bad feelings change. Every feeling they change and once all feelings disappear.

Yoga is going beyond the feelings. When you go beyond the feelings, there is commitment, there is truth. Why you need commitment in life? Otherwise you can just float with your feelings. No! It’s the commitment which moves you beyond the feeling, it gives strength to you and make you realise you are much bigger than the feelings. Feelings are just the frills. When you have this big curtain, there are some frills on top, they are of no use, they are just like decoration. That’s it.

You may say ‘Oh it’s the feeling which propelled you to act’. But if your action is based on feelings, it’s a time bomb I tell you, anytime your feeling changes, your action also changes. It’s bound to happen. But if your actions are based on commitment, then you achieve something, then you rise above. And that’s what happens.

Ask any student who is studying Medicine. First one or two years they just want to run away. What I have heard from many, many, many students. They want to drop out from the medical school in the second year. Here I have encouraged them all ‘No, you must continue. It may appear to be little tough, but stick to it. Then you see, you will overcome those feelings, then you start enjoying.’

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji