Ayurveda Initiative For Global Health

When you get too concerned, ‘oh I have to improve the world; that is not ok, this is not ok, that is not ok’, and then what is happening? Your mind gets too much caught up in that and you are losing your energy, your strength, your balance, everything. Then you are not going to make the world a better place.  At that time you should remember, okay I will make seven million people good in the world now, but then what? After a hundred years there will be a different seven million people. You can’t correct them, you won’t be here.  So when you are getting tired then you should know, well the Divine is taking care; I am not going to impact a change. Then you are able to be calm and strong. So there are two attitudes, one is pravriti action, when you find this is not ok, this is not ok and that is not okay and then you act. And then nivriti action when you say everything is okay, everything takes its time, everything has its one role. Then it is nivriti, then you retire and when yo...

Only speak Knowledge. Don't repeat anything that someone tells you or opinions about anyone that someone states -- “That so-and-so said such-and-such about you.” If someone comes to tell you such things, discourage them. Don't believe it. If someone blames you directly, know that they are taking away your bad karma, and let it go. Don't believe in it, and if you're one of the Guru's close ones, you will take all of the blame of the world with a smile. Conflict is the nature of the world; comfort is the nature of the self. Amidst conflict seek comfort. When you are bored with the comfort, get into the games of the world. When you are tired of the games of the world, get into the comforts of the Self. If you are one of the Guru's close ones, you do both simultaneously. Trying to end a conflict, prolongs it. Face the conflict by seeking the comfort of the Self. God is alive in the world, and has been putting up with all the ongoing conflicts throughout the ages. If...

You are right for your partner when you can adjust. Relationship means adjustment, it is giving.  You give what you can to your partner and wait for them to give back to you. If you are demanding from the others, the relationship is not going to last long. Demand destroys love. Love is always about giving. Known that you have come here (on the planet) to only give love and demand love from anybody. Demand and blame destroy relationships. Just imagine yourself in their situation. How would you feel if someone doubts your love for them, and you have to make an extra effort to make them believe that you love them? Is it not a burden? Learn to praise your partner and uplift a situation instead of blaming and finding fault. Uplifting your partner should be your commitment . Then you are the right person for anybody, and everybody will love you when you don’t hurt them intentionally.  Be open to correction and changes, and have the patience to listen to crit...

I have this crazy idea… a world without violence. This might appear to be utopian thinking, but we need to dream and we will get there! If we instill pride in being non-violent, in being compassionate, in being helpful to others, our lives will take a new direction. And that should be our unwavering commitment. ⠀ It is saddening to see the impact of gun-violence on our families and society. An ABC news report indicates that there are more gun retail stores than grocery stores in the U.S. When we have not provided education in non-violence, or equipped people with tools to control their aggressive tendencies, we cannot afford to have so many gun stores making it easy to pursue deadly acts of violence.⠀ ⠀ Aggressive tendencies can occur in anybody; it is quite natural. But one should be taught how to handle that aggressive tendency in a healthy way. When conflict arises in the mind of an individual, perception, observation and expression are impacted. This in turn impacts communication w...

The second wave of the Coronavirus is a critical challenge for humanity and calls for a heroic response to overcome it. From availing of vaccinations, which is a must, it is necessary to cultivate hygienic habits and a disciplined lifestyle to stem the spread of this highly contagious virus. Our foremost responsibility is to strictly follow all prescribed protocols to keep ourselves and those we come in contact with, safe.There is no vacation from wisdom. Bringing the pandemic under control requires collective action. Everyone must do their bit. The escalating global health crisis has reinforced the need for equipping our inner self-defence mechanisms too. Make sure you sleep enough, work out and meditate. Stress and anxiety weaken your immune system. Making asanas, pranayamasand meditation an integral part of daily life can change not just one’s physical chemistry but also make the mind peaceful and resilient.  A strong mind can pull a weak body, but a weak mind will mess up even ...

There is motherhood in each and every one of us. Motherhood is wanting the best for others. Mothers bring together the finest aspects of society; the ability to create and the transformational ability to make a difference. They bring us to the planet and teach us how to live. A mother is our first guru, our first teacher. Women teach us our first behaviour, help us take our first step in life. And then mothers also have a great role to play in society. She can be a strong peacemaker; at home, in the community, in society and in the world. Women can glue differences and bring people of diverse nature together – she does it in her home all the time! Every mother wants the best for their kids. Sometimes children don’t recognize it. There is a verse in Sanskrit written by Adi Shankara in which he said, “Bad sons are born, but a bad mother has never been born”. So there is a certain sweetness with mother, and whatever she says, we take it. In these times of pandemic, mothers and home makers...

What is it that you are unhappy about? You are unhappy about the situations and circumstances around you. You are unhappy about the people around you. Are they going to be there permanently or forever? They are moving and changing. It is all like a flowing river! Wake up and see the person you saw yesterday night is not the same person this morning, this evening or tomorrow. Why are you unhappy about other people? Know they are all like bubbles on the surface of water. They are fleeting; they are moving. You are unhappy about situations and circumstances. How long are they going to be there, not forever? They all move and change. What else are you unhappy about the health of your body? How long you can hold onto your body even if it is very healthy? Can you hold on to it, forever? One day it is going to drop. If a body gets sick, attend to it, that is all. Getting mentally agitated makes it even worse. It is the nature of the body to be sick and healthy. Now trust my words: 'you ar...

Being centered when everything around is calm and peaceful, has no meaning. That is dull and boring. When everything is falling apart, then being quiet and peaceful, has value.  A bottle of water has more worth in a desert than when you are surrounded by water. When you are sitting by a spring, then a bottle of water is of no value to you. A handful of water from the spring is good enough to quench your thirst. When there is chaos and confusion; when there are problems all around you, then calmness is needed the most; wisdom is most valuable then. When people blame you, when they don’t understand you, that’s when you need the inner strength to smile through it. When things don’t go the way you want them to, that’s when you need the endurance, the strength and courage to remain unperturbed. Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji 

Every creature on this planet brings down a particular electromagnetic wave on the Earth. And even if one creature goes missing, the Earth would not be able to sustain itself. There is snake, mouse, lion, cow, cat, fish and so many others, and all play an important role in maintaining the balance on the planet. That is what scientists say today. According to the laws of nature, everything radiates energy. In the middle ages, people never understood that butterflies have very specific things to do. If there are no butterflies, food cannot be grown. People with less knowledge question what butterflies have to do with having more food. In the US, when the pesticides were spread, they never considered butterflies or insects as an important phenomenon. So what happened? All the butterflies disappeared! Now they are bringing butterflies in containers and leaving them in the fields so that pollination can happen and food can be grown. The quality of food suffers a lot when pollination does no...

Time is one of the great mysteries of life. It is the best storyteller and there is no witness like time. It is an objective truth in the outside world, running uniformly for everyone but depending on one’s state of mind, it can fly or drag on. Time is the distance between two happenings. At one level, everything is changing every moment and at another, nothing really changes. Linear logic dictates that only one of these two contradicting views must hold good but the reality is that they are both undeniably true. There is a very intricate connection between time, the mind and events. Like events, time too impacts the mind. Liberation is freeing the mind from time and events. While you cannot ignore all that is happening around you, you cannot afford to get consumed by it either. Often it is past events and mistakes that occupy the mind, causing pain and regret. Reviewing events in time with the right perspective frees your mind from them and also provides valuable lessons to learn. The...

Love is the finest, but the most powerful, feeling. But love cannot neither be fully hidden nor expressed. The more you try to hide it, the more apparent it becomes. Love expresses itself in so many ways. You don’t have to tell anybody you love him or her: your walk, your talk, your look will all convey that love.  One who has attained the fullness of love, his throat chokes, and joy manifests itself in all his actions. Your love has the power to purify everything around you. Narada in his aphorism of love says, “Panthavarodha romanchashrubhih parasparam lapramanah pavayanti kulani prithvim cha.”  The tears of love purify families, traditions, towns and villages, they purify this earth. Even places where some lover spent his life longing for God become pilgrimage centres. But the tragedy is that very few do it because of love. Many shed tears of misery. The power of love actually transcends the worlds. When you meditate, or do any spiritual practice, a portion of the merits go...

You may have gotten angry many times, but do you stay angry forever? The Shiv sutra, ‘Atma Chittam’, conveys something very important. Day, night, clouds and colours all appear in the sky, and later disappear. Similarly, the mind imagines many things, which disappear just as they came. Just as light fades in the evening, anger also fades. It is the same with envy. There is a limit to everything. When one thought arises, another falls away. Where does it go? All is in our mind. That mind is the Self. Clouds may cover the sky, but the purity of the sky remains untouched. Whatever may be the state of mind, the Self is pure. There is no such thing as a bad Self. As anger is a quality of the Divine, it is also a quality of the Self ! That is why it is said, ‘Atma Chittam’ —the mind itself is the Self. The mind is part of the Divine. When we say ‘Do your sadhana,’ it means sadhana needs to be done daily. This is because there are millions of cells in our brain. Some work today, and others wo...

Life is incomplete without union with God. It is quite natural that a matured mind and a receptive heart strive for this union. Since long, philosophies were born, debates happened, music, art and literature evolved from this very need. Religions, philosophies, practices, customs and austerities have all pointed to one thing: union with the Divine. On an average, any person who wakes up to suffering in his life wants to be free from it. For this, he looks to the superpower of creation. The more he looks at the misery and shortcomings in his life, the farther away he feels he is from the Divinity that is his very nature. His heart yearns to establish contact with the Supreme. Since ages, we’ve been striving to reduce the gap between ourselves and God. There are two ways to do this: one way is to elevate humankind towards Divinity — this is called Siddha, and the person who achieves this state is believed to have attained perfection. The second way is to bring God to human level in avata...

The greatest fortune in this world is to be a disciple or a devotee. Those who have become a disciple or a devotee alone know the value of it. A disciple in Sanskrit is called antevasin. Antevasinmeans one who dwells inside the Guru. It is not just the master who is in the heart of the devotee, the devotee also dwells in the heart of the master. There is nothing other than the Guru. Everything around you is Guru. You dwell inside the heart of the Guru all the time. The love of the master is surrounding you at all times. The one who realizes this, is a disciple or a devotee.  What else would you want once you realize that you are surrounded by unconditional divine love all the time? No lack remains in life. It is all bliss. Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji 

When you meditate what do you feel? When you take a dip in the emptiness that you are - that emptiness is full of all glory, all bliss. We get so fried by our desires and fears and our anxiety and wants and dislikes we need to rest. That rest is what meditation is. Meditation is that which leads to ShivaTattva, Shiva principle. For a moment you see the whole world as ephemeral, as temporary. The dream nature of everything lifts you to the reality that you are. The way is devotion.  Divinity accepts everything. You have guilt, offer it. You have thorns or flowers, they belong to the divine. Anything that you hold on within you, know that it is not yours, it belongs to Shiva. It all belongs to Shiva.  With surrender, you experience saamipiya. Shiva accepts everything. In life wanted, unwanted things happen. There’s happiness, there’s sorrow, anger, greed, lust - all of them arise. We get entangled in it and get frustrated. Don’t try to get rid of them. Surrender them. Surrender ...

Shivaratri is when you repose in your being. You know night gives you comfort however frustrated you are. When you sleep you are not touched by frustration; sleep relieves you of pain, suffering, frustration, desires, fear, everything. There is no fear in sleep, there are none of these emotions in sleep because it relieves you from all these and it comforts you.  When we are awake we are so busy, we are caught up in so many things and when we are tired we fall asleep, we get into inertia but there is something in between. When you consciously repose in your being you encounter that which is magnificent, that which is universal, that which has no boundaries, that which has no time.  Shiva is beyond time and yet he is called Maha (grand) in time. You know you feel the timelessness, isn’t it? When you meditate what do you feel? When you take a dip into that emptiness that you are, that emptiness is full of all glory, all bliss.  We get so fried by our desires and our fears a...

It’s not just the planets that affect you. You can also affect them. It’s not just that the stones you wear that will affect you. You can also affect them. In fact, your effect on them is much more powerful than their effect on you. You can touch a stone or crystal, and they can absorb your vibration for quite a while. In India, there are crystal Shiv-lingams, the idols that are kept in temples. Whenever a saint makes an offering or worship or consecrates it, the place becomes holy. And the energy there is sustained for a long period of time. When people visit these places, they feel calm, quiet and happy. When our mind is really centered and connected to the source of energy within us, then we affect the planets. In astrology, there is a chapter called Upaya, which means remedies. Suppose there is a bad effect of a planet on a person at some time, it is possible to correct it. A person can meditate during bad times. He goes beyond time and space when he meditates – beyond the inte...

In today’s world often there is pride associated with aggression. We can learn how to be gentle while showing great strength, from women. The biggest strengths of women are their emotions, feelings, motivation and inspiration. Men can inspire to fight but women inspire to unite. There would be less conflict in the world today if there was more feminine leadership to unite people, overcome differences and remind us of the purpose we are all born for. In today’s war-torn world, we need women to come to the forefront and take more responsibility. When women are determined, they can do wonders. Given the wealth that is inherent in them, it is very important for women from all over the world to sit together and see what they can do to reduce stress and violence. Women by nature are multi-talented and multi-faceted. They possess the intellectual prowess in planning and execution. You see any department headed by a woman; chances are that her department is much ahead of others. Women display ...

When you begin your day in laughter and love, your life gets divinely enlivened. True prayer is laughing in the morning from outside and from deep inside. Laughter comes from the centre of our Being, from the core of our heart. Our belly is so full of laughter that the laughter permeates every cell in our body. True laughter is true prayer. When things go all right, everybody can laugh, but when everything falls apart, and yet you laugh, that is evolution and growth. Nothing in life is more worthy than your laughter. Never lose it. Events come and go. Some are pleasant, and others, unpleasant. There is an area deep in you that is left untouched. Hold on to what is untouched. Then you will be able to keep laughing. Sometimes you laugh just to avoid thinking or to avoid looking at yourself. But when you see and feel within that life is present and intense every moment, nothing can bother you or touch you. That laughter is authentic. You might have observed babies, six months or one year ...

Love is so enormous. And for ages, people have tried to express their love and finally, they felt they cannot. Even the great sage Narada said, ‘Anirvachaniyam prema swarupam’. You cannot express it. The nature of true love is that it is beyond expression. Love with wisdom is bliss. Love without knowledge or wisdom is pain. It is not the love that is giving you pain. If it is just pure love, that means you just care for someone, you want the best for them, and then there is no pain. But when you want something in return from them or you have demands from them, then there is pain. Jealousy, hatred, greed, arrogance and attachment are all love’s distortions. Love by itself doesn’t bring misery. That is why knowledge and centeredness are so important. If you are centered, you can handle all these distortions, they come for a while and they disappear. Feelings are like clouds. They are like the waves on the surface of the ocean. They arise, they come and they go. Love is a gift. You can’t ...

Time and again we should lift our eyes away from the mundane. The nature of the mundane, it just occupies you, swallows you completely. Small things can occupy your mind and your time. Simple things, daily things like cooking, of course here you don't have to worry about it (laughs), but cooking and shopping, washing your clothes and ironing them, all these trivial, small things eat up most of your time and sometimes they drown you. Daily routine can drown us, keep us so occupied, so busy we have very little time to look to something that is beyond, beyond the material existence. So the intelligent, wise people, while doing all this will time and again, shift their attention towards the subtle. Take your attention away from the mundane. This can happen during sunrise and sunset. When the Sun is rising, you just gaze at the rising Sun. At that moment you know there is a shift because there is a shift in the Universe from night to day. So in the shift, the mind also easily shifts fro...

What happens when you fall in love? After a while, the soap opera begins, you start demanding. When you start demanding, the love diminishes. The joy fades away.  So then you say, “Oh I have made a mistake in this relationship.” Then there’s struggle and pain to get out of that relationship. After getting out of it, you get into one more; and the same story repeats. Love is essential in relationships, not mere attraction. In love, there is submission. This is the difference between love and attraction. Though attraction forms the first step, you cannot remain on the first step for too long. You have to move on to the next. That is love. What is that you want to know about relationships? It is really to see how it can be long-lasting. Isn’t it?  Three things are essential in any relationship:  1. Right perception, 2. Right observation, and  3. Right expression.  Often people say nobody understands them. Instead of saying, “No one understands me,” you can say that...

The dynamics of how events happen is a big mystery. Only one who is 100 per cent in doing can recognise the happening. The healthiest way to apply this knowledge is to see the whole past as happening and the present as doing. If you see the past as doing, then ego and regret come along. And when you see the present as happening, laziness and unawareness set in. Let the happening be for the past and the doing for the present. And the future is a mix of both. The wise will see the doing in happening and the happening in doing simultaneously. One who does a lot of work will never say he did a lot. If someone says he did a lot of work, it that means he can do more. He has not done enough. Work does not tire you as much as the “doership” does. All actions happen through consciousness. The world moves because of consciousness. Consciousness expresses the three shaktis ¬- gyan shakti, ichcha shakti and kriya shakti. Knowledge, action and desire. If these shaktis are aligned, life becomes very...

Today is the day to bless the people you appreciate. I bless you With all my affection. With all my admiration. With all my respect. I bless your life. I bless your health. I bless your economy. Blessed be your house, blessings as you enter and blessed as you leave. I bless your family. I bless your children. I bless your work. I bless your spiritual life. I bless all your projects and purposes for this 2024 . Pray it always be like this. Today is "the day of blessing." It is recommended to bless as many people as possible with all your heart. The more you bless, the more blessings will come to you and your family. I am happy to bless your life today. Blessing Day....