Ayurveda Initiative For Global Health

What is health? Health is having all these – a disease-free body; a quiver-free breath; a stress-free mind; an inhibition-free intellect; an obsession-free memory; an ego that includes all, and a soul that is free from sorrow. Only a healthy bud can blossom into a beautiful flower. In the same way, only a healthy being can achieve the goal they want to achieve. The Sankrit word for health is ‘swastha’, which means to be established in one's self. The ancient scriptures mention that our body has five levels of existence – the environment or the atmosphere: our physical body; life force or prana; mind, which includes our thoughts, ideas, memories and emotions; and the intuitive body, which subtler. Illnesses manifest in the body either when you violate a natural law, or as a release of past impressions or karma. Karma is nothing but the impressions in the consciousness that can get released through some illness. Another cause of illnesses is violation of the laws of nature. For examp...

How To Attract Grace Into My Life? Whenever there is victory, it is due to some grace. Whether it is victory in sports, in a lottery, in studies, in a competition, or in politics – all of it happens through grace alone. When a person forgets that and gets into ego, then it results in their downfall. So always remember that whenever and wherever there is victory, it is through grace. What is Grace? There is a commonly-used phrase – “God's Grace”. What does this mean? Whenever you achieve something very significant that felt like it was beyond your capacity, which was worth having, but came to you not by your doing alone, that is Grace. You feel, “I am not capable or qualified for this, yet I got this”. When you recognize the Grace in your life, you feel very grateful, because you feel you have been bestowed with things that you were not worthy of. And this is the language of a wise person. A wise person never says, "Oh, I earned it. This is my right". When you think it is ...

After food and sleep, what kids really look for is attention. They will be playing at home, but the moment some guest comes, and the parents start talking to the guests children will start their tactics to draw the attention of their parents. Because the parents' attention is somewhere else and children are unable to tolerate that; they want to draw the attention towards themselves. This hunger for attention is there in every child. Wherever you've already got attention, the mind doesn’t stay there. It looks at places where you are not getting attention. Sometimes when people give you too much attention also, you are unable to take it, digest it, handle it. This is also an issue. Many marriages break because of this. Not because of some dispute, but because they feel stifled. Husband loves the wife so much, or wife loves the husband so much, that they start policing each other. Then at times you feel it’s so suffocating and break up. Similarly, with parents, where mother or fat...

Nature has built a little fear into all living beings. This fear makes life defend itself, protect itself. Like salt in food, a little fear is essential for people to be righteous.Fear of hurting someone makes you more conscious. Fear of failure makes you more keen and dynamic. Fear moves you from carelessness to taking care. Fear moves you from being insensitive to being sensitive. Fear moves you from dullness to alertness. Total lack of fear may lead to destructive tendencies – a distorted ego knows no fear. Nor does one with expanded consciousness. While the ego dismisses fear and acts in a destructive manner, the wise one acknowledges fear and takes refuge in the Divine. When you are in love, when you are surrendered, there is no fear. Ego, too, knows no fear. But there is a difference – like the difference between heaven and earth – between these two types of fearless states. Fear makes you righteous; fear brings you close to surrender; fear keeps you on the path; fear keeps y...

Surrender means an unshakeable confidence. Surrender simply means unconditional love. When there is love, there is no fear, know it is one energy that functions in three forms, either love, fear or hatred. When there is hatred there is no fear. When there is fear, there is no love or hate. With all these three, the sensations in the body are at a particular place, the heart, whether you are in fear, in deep love or in hatred. And they are interchangeable. One changes into the other. You love somebody and that love slowly changes into hatred or you love something very dearly and the fear rises, thinking, "Oh, I may lose it." Whatever you love most you hold onto. So, the same love has changed itself to fear.  So, true surrender happens. You cannot do anything about it. If you love something, very deep, true surrender. Surrender is not a burden, not a fear, not something which comes out of force. It is a spontaneous happening. Only the strong can surrender, the weak can never s...

Two things make you dance in your life. One is your desire, another is love. Your desires keeps you on your toes, makes you dance all your life. A desire gets fulfilled and gives rise to ten more, and you run all your life to fulfill them one after another. It makes you go on a merry go around(misery-go-around). If you look into it and become aware of the dance that your desires make you do, you will be amazed. It may be a very subtle desire and they get in to your heart and make you dance. Then there is another type of dance that comes out joy, that comes out of love. That deep love makes you dance. In this dance, you do not get tired. Shradha(faith) grows when a desire is fulfilled but when one desire does not get fulfilled the faith gets shaken. In love you don’t get shaken. You shake the whole world. Not just the world, but the entire universe. You make the angels and the Gods dance. You are supposed to dance after Chandi Homa, in the evening. Usually when people do yagyas they for...

Q. Dear Gurudev, when and how many times should I meditate? A. To the extent that even if you had to forsake food, then do so...but do not leave meditation!! The more regular you are with meditation, the greater the depths you will achieve. Meditation is such a subtle phenomenon that... it takes months to become strong, but neglect it and within a few days it will wilt like a delicate flower! Meditation requires a lot of discipline and consistency. If you sleep a little less for one day, you don't lose much. Anyone can be without sleep for 5 to 7 days. If you miss one meal it is still ok, a human being can survive without food for upto three months. You can survive without food and water for many days. Your important work...???? They cannot be that important that you do not get any time to meditate, but your mind tells you that this work is extremely important. Usually people give importance only to these trivial things. And they think that even I don't meditate for one or two ...

Having said all that He had to, at the end of the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna tells Arjuna, 'Sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam sharanam vraja, Aham tvam sarva-papebhyo mokshayishyami ma shucah' (V 18.66). Drop your religion or any other belief you have, and take total surrender in me. O Arjuna. I shall liberate you of all your sins and sufferings. Religion is like soap. But just because you have washed you clothes with an expensive soap worth 100 Rupees, you will not say that ‘Oh, I am going to keep the soap on my clothes because it is such an expensive soap’. You have to wash it off. There comes a stage when one moves above such attachments and entanglements in life (here referring to religion), and becomesSharanagat - surrendering totally to the Lord, with this deep feeling of devotion that 'O Lord! I am yours and yours alone'. This is what has been explained in this verse. Lord Krishna had to say this to Arjuna, otherwise, no matter what knowledge He gave to Arjuna, ...

Abhishekam is a process to get into meditation, the way the water flows, similarly, knowledge flows into the mind. This is not done for Shiva, this is done for ourselves; to meditate. When we do Rudra Abhishekam everybody gets a good meditative experience. Shiva exists in the five elements, would he get happy when you pour water? No! But when we do it with reverence and feeling, an environment is created and when we chant, its vibration gets absorbed into the water. It is scientifically proven that chanting this Mantra restructures and improves the crystalline sequence of water. When Om Namah Shivaya is chanted it changes the structural nature of the water crystals, manifesting an incredibly beautiful sequence. When we use bad language, the structure gets distorted. You should check out the website, “Secrets of water”, it shows how water absorbs our feelings. Doing Abhishekam is like a tradition The chants are so beautiful; we pray that our bodies be strengthened, our minds be strong; ...

As an individual, we are inspired by many people. Whether through their actions or words, inspiring and helpful figures in our lives guide us. When we are lost or are battling the tough times, these people rekindle our faith and reassure us that everything will be alright. Such inspiring people are precious stones who leave an indelible mark on us. We, for a moment or more, witness ordinary beings transform into our guides or gurus. Spiritual teacher, Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, explains, “A Guru is simply someone who is there with unconditional love and support.” While we have many such ordinary folks around us who guide us during the trying times of our life, there are also people who guide us to understand life better. These learned people are the ones who know more about life, its mysteries and the unknown realms of consciousness. They are identified as spiritual gurus or sadhgurus, referring to the ancient Indian tradition of paying homage to learned people. A sadhguru helps one...

When you have been in love with someone, what happens to you? Nothing comes to your mind, nothing other than just how to impress the one whom you love. You are always thinking about them. Even if you think about yourself, you are thinking in terms of them. You like to wear the clothes that your beloved likes. You like to do things that they like. You like to see that they are comfortable, that they are not hurt, and that they are happy. In a subtle way you are dissolving. Look at yourself. What is happening when you experience that deep love. You start dissolving, disappearing. If you are really in love with somebody, are you there for them? Or are you thinking or making them as an object for you? That is the difference. The beloved says, “I am here for your joy, for your happiness, for your comfort. What is it you want?” That is love. “What is it I can do? I breathe for you, I live for you, I exist for you. Nothing other than that is important for me in this world.” That intense givin...

Yoga is the way to realize the ultimate truth referred to in Vedanta and universal energy field in Quantum physics. The sublime and imperceptible truth of Vedanta is made more concrete through Yoga. It is the launching pad for one’s journey into inner space. Yoga is the key that opens the floodgates of happiness ‑‑ for an individual as well as the community. It annihilates the personal and collective misery that comes through individualistic and egoistic tendencies. Yoga not only brings mundane benefits such as health and vibrance, but also uplifts the spirit and enhances intuitive ability which is much needed for governance. It brings skill in action, helping one manage challenging situations without getting stressed. Every child is a born yogi. Till the age of three children all over the world naturally perform many yoga postures and mudras. The baby’s state of mind and breathing patterns are very similar to that of a yogi. Yoga brings up that child-like beauty and...

Patanjali Yoga Sutras Vitrushnasya vashikara sanjna vairagyam The mind that gallops is an obstruction. An expectation in meditation is an obstruction. You have heard somebody's experience that light appears, somebody comes from heaven and takes them by hand and you see it with your eyes closed. All these ideas are the construction of fiction.  Your desire for pleasure or happiness makes you unhappy. You examine that whenever you are unhappy or miserable, behind that is your wanting to be happy. You got it? Craving for happiness brings misery. If you do not even crave for happiness, then you are happy. You crave for happiness and you invite misery. When you do not care for happiness, you are liberated and when you do not even care for liberation, you attain love. The first step is when you do not care for happiness. The second step is param vairagya (supreme dispassion). When you do not even care for liberation, then you are free. You are liberated. If you have whatever you wanted, ...

"Water is never scared of mud. If something is muddy, assume you are water – and you can wash it all off. Just remember this! #1 Wherever there are people, politics is bound to be there. Don’t shy away from it and don’t worry about it – you be rock solid. What appears to be politics will find its own way out. Have faith that only the best will happen to you and you will be able to do only the best! Keep these aphorisms with you like a treasure. #2 When you resist politics, then you get deeper into politics. Your perception becomes political and you will get paranoid about it. All those who are paranoid about politics get deeper into it. You should not mind it and then it will never bother you. What is politics? Different people have different mindsets, and they air their opinions. For a while, these opinions remain and then it all changes. Some people praise you and the same people will make nasty remarks about you – all this is very common. You should take this for granted or you...

When someone does something wrong or misbehaves with us, what do we do? In our day-to-day lives, we come across challenging situations or exchanges with people where we aren’t sure what the right approach to deal with the situation is. The following four techniques, in this particular order, have been prescribed by the Ancient Seers to deal with challenging people. Click To Tweet This Article #1 Saam – Gentle Persuasion When someone is making a mistake, the first step is to gently make them understand where they are going wrong. Many people commit mistakes unknowingly. Most of them will not repeat it the next time once they understand that they are making a mistake. Therefore, the first step is gentle communication. If you start off with a stick, it is not right. You cannot blame someone for a mistake that they have made unknowingly. So Saam means to explain to the other person the mistake he or she has committed and to make them aware of it. #2 Daam – Earnest Request Now, even after e...

Q: Gurudev, can you please talk about the chintamani in the center of the brain, and the tip of the nose, where the subtle body is connected to the physical body?   Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Scientists say that the tip of the nose has a lot of information; we have not yet been able to process all of it. Any knowledge that you get, should pass through the test of scientific methodology, and that includes spirituality too. Scientific methodology simply means going through a logical, sequential understanding, and then coming to a conclusion. Once you get to the conclusion, you still have to keep an open mind because there are many possibilities. Where is chintamani? The ancient scriptures have said that there is a point in the center of the skull, perhaps, just below the hypothalamus. Hypothalamus is a point that controls the entire body; all the voluntary and involuntary activities in our system. This is what they meant by chintamani, the spot which scientists have called hypothalamus i...

Love is not a business. Love is not a career. love is not even an act. So there is no success or failure in love. Love is your nature my dear! Whether you express it or not, it is there. If you realize that love is your very nature, you will not think of it as success or failure. Some people may understand you and some may not. When someone loves you, you cannot say that they will be in love with you forever. People who have lived together for 20 years, and had said at one point of time that they were made for each other, suddenly find that they were never compatible, and that they never got along. Suddenly people feel suffocated and want to go their own ways. Love is not an act, love is not even a situation, it is our very nature. If you are in love with somebody don’t think that it will be forever, unless and until there is knowledge or wisdom in it. Love with wisdom is eternal bliss. Love with selfishness or love for individual pleasure, sooner or later will bring mise...

When the mind dies, love dawns. Whenever there is love, the mind dies and this is painful. That is why love always brings pain with it. Something in you is dissolving – the ego, the mind – and this dissolving is painful. The mind does not want to dissolve. It wants to emphasize its existence. It doesn’t want to bear the pain of dissolution, the pain is unbearable. You often find people who love each other fighting, and you really don’t understand why they should fight when there is so much love. These are the mechanics. The love is so strong and so powerful, the mind cannot hold it. It wants to hold. It cannot stay. It cannot exist. It dissolves and this brings pain; unbearable pain. So, in order to get rid of the pain, it rebels. And that rebellion is the fight. When you surrender to somebody, this is more evident. It is clearer. The mind wants something impossible! The mind has a peculiar nature. It desires something, and when it acquires or achieves it, it no longer finds it interes...

Q: How does being spiritual add beauty to a person?  Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You know, people who are on the spiritual path, they feel young and alive all the time. They overcome senility. This is one thing for sure. People who meditate, who engage in seva, who have a goal in their life and who live for others and not only themselves; you will see that they have a glow in their life, and on their face. If you look at Mahatma Gandhi, or Nelson Mandela, you see that there is a glow in them. That is because their life is dedicated to something bigger. In Bhagavat Gita Lord Krishna says, 'One who comes to me will never have this (jara) old age. There is no death for them and they feel liberated'. Coming to the master is not being bound but feeling the inner freedom. It is not slavery, it is mastery over oneself. It is freedom from our own mind; Freedom from craving and aversions; Freedom from feeling of 'I can do this' and 'I cannot do this'. So those who take refuge ...

Here in India, beauty is attributed to Divinity. And so, it said – Satyam Shivam Sundaram which is also a topic that has come here today. Beauty is benevolence and beauty is truth, that’s what it really means. Satyam is truth which is beautiful and benevolent. If you have ever gone to Bali in Indonesia, they greet you saying, ‘Om Swasti Astu’. This is an ancient Sanskrit term which means may you enjoy the heaven and may you be established in yourself. Being established in yourself is real heaven. Not only physical healthy but also mental, emotional and spiritual well-being.   Today the World Health Organization has recognized the role of spirituality as that which bring you a sense of satisfaction, wellness, connectivity, and confidence in whatever you do. Internal beauty reflects outer beauty Beauty has several dimensions – one is external beauty and one is internal beauty. Inner beauty reflects on the outer beauty. You look at any child fro...

1 If someone criticizes you, welcome it! If there is some substance in it, take it. If the criticism is coming out of jealousy, frustration, or anger, it is good to practice indifference. Don’t lose your equanimity. 2 If someone criticizes you and you counter it by criticizing them, then the chain continues. Instead, thank them for their kind words and see what happens. The day you drop your defenses, the other person will not know how to respond. 3 If someone is giving you constructive criticism, welcome it! They are taking the risk of losing your friendship and giving you criticism.  4 Don't defend your mistakes. Just accept them and move on. When you are totally defenseless, that's when you'll be strong. 5 Every time you face criticism, know that you are vast like the ocean and you can take in anything. When you feel small, that is when you don’t feel like taking criticism. When you feel very big, then you think, “I am much bigger than this criticism, let me take it in.”...

Significance of Akshaya Tritiya It is related with many stories. One of the stories is that, on this day the Ganges (a holy river in India) came to Earth to purify mankind. It is also associated with two instances of Lord Krishna. What happened is, once the five Pandavas, (the five brothers from the Mahabharata epic) and their wife were in exile. At that time a saint called and said, ‘I am going to have food with you.’ When the message came, they had no food. They had already eaten and had kept their pots away. Draupadi (the wife of the 5 Pandavas) prayed to Lord Krishna. At the same time, Krishna came to their house and said, ‘Oh I am very hungry.’ When he came in, he saw that there was only one grain of rice stuck to the pot. He picked that one grain of rice and ate it, and turned the pot into an Akshaya Patra. Akshaya Patra means that which never diminishes. When the saint came with 400 people, Draupadi could feed all of them from the same pot. The more ...

We have lived today’s life. Be happy today. And tomorrow’s life will begin with the next sunrise. And the next day’s with the next sunrise……! If you only had ten days to live on this planet, what would you want to do? Sit and think what your priorities are. Are you worried about your relationship? In ten days you are going to go away; kick the bucket! Are you worried about your property? Are you worried about your friends and foes? Are you worried about what you are going to eat, your eating preferences? What are your preferences? Ten days to live of your life, and what are you going to do? We keep living as though we will live forever. We hang onto things as though they will be there forever. We forget the sense of time and life –the flow of life. Isn’t that our only problem? You’re so concerned about your relationship. A girl didn’t smile at you or a boy went with somebody else! What are you worried about? Where will they be? People are burned down with this sense of relatio...

प्रश्न : घर में शांति रहे, इसके लिये कोई उपाय है? श्री श्री रवि शंकर : तुमने बहुत कठिन प्रश्न किया है! पर इसका उत्तर सरल है। तुम्हारे आस पास चाहे जो हो, तुम मुस्कुराते रहो। अगर शोर हो रहा है, उसे स्वीकार करो। कोई चिल्ला रहा है, थोड़ी देर चलने दो। ऐसा समझो कि तुम्हारे घर का माहौल एक टी वी सीरियल देखने जैसा है। क्या टेलिविज़न देखते व़क्त तुम परेशान होते हो? कुछ लोग बता रहे थे कि जैसे विवाद टी वी सीरियलों में होते हैं, ठीक वैसे ही उनके घरों में भी होते हैं। ऐसा समझो कि घर में किसी कार्यक्रम का सीधा प्रसारण चल रहा है। सिर्फ़ कैमरे की कमी है। जब तुम इस बात को याद रखोगे, और अपने आप को अभिनेता ना जानकर निर्देशक जानोगे, तब कम से कम तुम्हारे दिल में तो शांति रहेगी। और बाकी लोग भी आख़िर कब तक उस भूमिका में रहेंगे? वो भी कभी थक जायेंगे। ये सब परेशानी केवल जागृत अवस्था में है। स्वपनावस्था या निद्रावस्था में नहीं हैं। ईश्वर ने तुम्हें कुछ समय निद्रा के लिये और दैनिक कर्म करने के लिये दिया है। इस तरह कम से कम १० घंटों के लिये तो तुम शांति में हो। (मज़ाक में) बाकी के १४ घंटे टी वी सीरियल के सीधे प्रसारण क...

The more sattva/purity rises in your life, the more easily your tasks get accomplished. The amount of sattva/ purity in us decides the productivity of our input. If you put in a lot of effort and the result turns out to be less or below your expectations, it means that there is a lack of sattva/ purity in life. When we meditate, then our work happens easily. How many of you have noticed this? (Audience raises their hands). People are unaware of this secret. They think why to spend 20 – 30 minutes meditating, when that time can be spent to earn them money. It is very important to meditate whenever we get time, so that you accomplish your tasks more efficiently and with ease. Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji 

The fear of the unknown is a very common human tendency. Most people are constantly engaged in making sure that their world plays out just like how their mind would imagine. However, the reality is that there is no possibility for growth without embracing the unknown. When we shut off the mystery or awe factor in life, we not only curtail growth, but also unknowingly make life mechanical. Just like there is no fun in watching a game whose result is already known, life will also be very boring and mechanical if everything were to be predestined. Life is a combination of what is certain and what is unknown. Though they appear to be opposite, life is incomplete if either of them is missing. Within the sphere of limited perception there is a part in us that is certain about some things. There is another part that is always probing into the unknown, triggering wonderment about many mysteries. The wise are the ones who acquire the skills to face and handle uncertainty. If one can become comf...

There is a lot to learn if you watch your breath, and see what is happening. I would like to share about some breathing techniques with you. One of them is about our two nostrils! Have you ever wondered why we have two nostrils? We could have had one big hole! There is a reason! When you breathe through your left nostril, it affects the side of your right brain, and when you breathe through the right nostril, it affects the left side of the brain. Scientists have recently found that when you breathe through the right nostril, the metabolism in your body is twice as much as when you breathe through the left nostril. Did you know the first thing that we did when we came to this planet was, we took a deep breath in and then we started crying, right? And the last thing that we will do in this life is, breathe out and then make others cry. In birth, you cried and made everybody laugh, and in death, you take the last breath out and make everyone cry. If you don’t do that, you have not lived ...

Our body is like a garland of letters, it is called akshara maalika (garland of letters). You are a mala or rosary yourself; different letters affect different centers.  Sanskrit, the oldest of languages, is organized in such a way that it fits Darwin’s theory of Evolution. The first letter of Sanskrit language is A, which is what every child says.  The last of the vowels is Aha. What is the sound that comes when you laugh? Aha ha ha! So, in laughter, the entire language is present, from A to Aha. In Sanskrit, Aha is used for wonder and for laughter. You cannot laugh without Aa and Ha in it, even if you try.  If you observe the Sanskrit vowels, which are A, Aa, E, Eee, Oo, Oou; observe how the sound is generated. The sound A comes at the root of the throat, Aa comes more outward. E comes from the palate, and Eee is more outward.  Oo comes to the lips, and Ruu, the tongue rolls. The rest of the letters are I, Ai, O, Au, An, Am, Aha.  If you move to consonants, th...

When you say, ‘It’s not ok, it’s not ok’, the seed of ‘not ok’ is not letting your mind to relax. When do you go to bed? When everything is ok, and when there is comfort. When you are hanging on to the discomfort, how can you ever be comfortable? You have to accept things as they are. ‘It’s not ok, it’s not ok’ keeps you all outside. Those imperfections are there for a cause or purpose. It is going to be ok, it will take some time. Things are ok the way they are now, They will be ok in the future Whatever happened in the past was ok. When you understand this, you relax and in that relaxation you can meditate. When you want to retire, its nivriti but when you want to come out (of rest) its pravritti. Then you can act. When you are tired but you are hanging on to what is not ok - then you cannot retire. When you have to chill out, what do you say? ‘Everything is perfect,’ otherwise you can’t chill, you can’t act! It is neither pravritti, nor nivriti. Dhyan yoga is nivriti, Karma yoga is ...

‘Ra’ means light, ‘Ma’ means within me, in my heart.  So,  Rama means the Light Within Me.. Rama was born to Dasharath & Kousalya. Dasharath means ‘Ten Chariots’ The ten chariots symbolize the five sense organs( Gnanendriya ) & five organs of action( Karmendriya ) Kousalya means ‘Skill’ The skillful rider of the ten chariots can give birth to Ram.. When the ten chariots are used skillfully, Radiance is born within.. Rama was born in Ayodhya. Ayodhya means ‘a place where no war can happen’ When There Is No Conflict In Our Mind, Then The Radiance Can Dawn.. The Ramayana is not just a story which happened long ago.. It has a philosophical, spiritual significance and a deep truth in it.. It is said that the Ramayana is happening in our Own Body. Our Soul is Rama,  Our Mind is Sita,  Our Breath or Life-Force ( Prana) is Hanuman,  Our Awareness is Laxmana and  Our Ego is Ravana.. When the Mind (Sita),is stolen by the Ego (Ravana), then the Soul (Rama) get...

Q: Gurudev, my husband hurts my feelings? How do I change his egoistic nature? Why do we try to change people? It is because they are hurting us. And the more we want to change someone because they are hurting us, they are not going to change. If you really want them to change, you have to wish for their welfare – because what they are doing is not good for them. If that is your intention, they will change. Your every prayer will make them see things differently and behave differently. So, it all lies in your intention. Q: How to be positive and strong when people start hurting me? How to love myself in such situations? Come on, you forget that you are a diamond! Nobody can cut a diamond or hurt it. Even if a diamond is cut, it shines more.  When anyone is trying to hurt you, they are not hurting you, they are only making you shine more. Anyone who brings down your prestige or insults you, they are only bringing up the best qualities that are hidden within you. Remember that every ...

It is so nice to be here in Japan - The land of the Rising Sun! The dire need of today is to awaken the society and the world to the reality of who we are, and what do we want! If you ask anybody, why do they do what they do? And if you ponder on this question, the answer is happiness. Everybody is looking for happiness. Spiritual people are looking for happiness in liberation. Religious people are looking for happiness in scriptures. Socialists are looking for happiness as absolute comfort in technology. Commerce and industry are looking for happiness by making more profits. Politicians are looking for happiness in creating a happy society, and by making the country stronger. So, who does not want happiness? Everybody wants it! But, are we finding that happiness? If you are not happy, why is it so? The answer is we have too much to do and too little time and little energy. As a result of this, we are getting stressed, and we are not reaching where we want reach...

You are creating a rapport with the other realms of reality.When your mind is still, when meditation is happening, you are not only purifying every cell of your own body, but you are spreading positive energy all around you. Your meditation brings peace and joy to people who have already passed and gone to the other side, which is very, very important. When you are silent, you are not putting things into the mind from the world; you are letting yourself free, cleansing the body, and cleansing the mind. During this time, some thoughts may bombard your mind. Some old things may just come and bother you. Never mind, don’t be scared. The fact you are sitting is good enough. Whatever happens is all for good. If old thoughts are coming and bothering you, never mind, they just come and they go. Nevertheless, keeping silent is very, very precious, not just for you, but also for the subtle creation. For the world also, because you are creating such positive vibrations every minute you are in si...

See there are two things Pravittri and Nivritti. Do not mix the two.  There are two attitudes that we have to pay attention to. One is, when you go inward (Nivritti) you think that everything is fine and I don’t want anything. That is called Meditation.  When you have to come out and work (Pravritti), then seek perfection in even small details. Put your full attention and take responsibility.  The message of Lord Rama and Lord Krishna’s life is this only. When you have to come out and work (Pravritti), then seek perfection even in small details. Whenever you see imperfection, you have to pay attention on how you can correct it. And when you have to retire then say, ‘Everything is fine.’ This attitude will help you go deep in meditation. This is the path of Nivritti. That is why one who knows the difference between Pravritti and Nivritti is said to have a sattvic intellect. He is called intelligent.  What is the other sign of an intelligent person – one who is able to...