Ayurveda Initiative For Global Health

Chapter 6 - The Nature Of God  Day 15 There is a story of two lizards. One lizard was up on the ceiling and another came up from the wall and told the first lizard, "Why don't you come for a walk? It is a nice sunny day outside.  All winter we have been inside. Why don't we go out in the sun?" The first lizard said, "Oh, no, no. What are you saying? If I move, the ceiling will fall down. How can I move out of here? Don't you have any sense?" This is what we also think.  You make no difference in the world whether you live or you don't live. Whatever is happening, happens. Even that is not under your control. Whatever has to happen for you is going to happen. You have this big question, what is free will, what is destiny? When things happen according to the thought that came to you, you claim it to be your free will. When your thought was contrary to what happened, you call it destiny.  People write big volumes on free will and destiny. Yo...

Chapter 6 - The Nature Of God  Day 14 Somebody came to me the other day and said, "I am going to separate from my wife." I asked, "What is the problem? How long have you been married?" He answered, "12 years, but you see, Gurudev, we never went well together a single day."  But how could they live for twelve years? I said, 'If you lived together for twelve years, why don't you live together for another twelve years? You suddenly discovered today that you never went well with each other for so long?" The small mind changes. But when the small mind is unaware of the big mind, then it becomes unstable. The big mind is an expansion. When the small mind becomes silent, it becomes the big mind.  Your experience is that whenever the small mind becomes quiet, you go to sleep. You are never aware of your big mind, the infinite mind, cosmic mind. Jesus said, "My Father and I are one. God and I are really one."  There is this Sanskr...

Chapter 6 - The Nature Of God Day 13  God is the junction of presence and present. Whenever every cell, every atom of the mind and body get totally immersed in the presence and present, you experience something ecstatic, something beyond this world.  An experience of eternity comes. This "Me, Me" dissolves. You say, "I am." This "I, I, I." You find there is nothing like "I'. "Is-ness" dawns. Is. There is something. And what is that something?  You don't know. Tat is presence. A presence where on v knower remains is God. Many people talk in terms of "God is speaking to me, I have a message from God." It is your own consciousness split into two.  One part of your own consciousness becomes God, another part becomes your mind. That is not God. God is the totality. Everything is in God. There is nothing that can be outside God.  Whether good or evil, both exist in God. Which thought is there which has not come from G...

Chapter 5 - Dealing With Feelings  Day 12  Question - Gurudev, when vou have fallen out ot that state of just being and vou are trving to get back to it, is one of the secrets of life learning to love that getting to it as much as loving being, loving the trip back to being as much as being itself? It would be like loving the depression as much as the joy. Gurudev Sri Sri - Yes. When love dawns in you, all these questions do not arise at all, because then this forgetfulness will not come. When we are in joy, we forget. You forgot yourself, you become unaware when you are very happy.  When you are unhappy, you are less forgetful. It keeps you in touch with the mundane but in joy you tend to lose yourself. If you don't lose yourself in joy, you will never be unhappy either.  That means when you are happy, remain in gratitude. That is the only way - when you are happy, feel grateful and serve. How can you then be unhappy? Impossible. If you are unhappy, go o...

Chapter 5 - Dealing With Feelings  Day 11 When we feel high, we have no problems. The problem comes when we feel low. No one wants to feel low. When one feels low, then the more one tries to feel high, the more the low feelings persist.  This seems to be the biggest problem. Vat is important about the reelings? They never stay the same. Feelings are fluid. See, you feel good now, later you don't feel good.  Then again you feel good. This continues in life. If we base our life on our feelings, we will be ruined. You feel good about something now and a little later you feel bad about the same thing. Then those feelings change yet again.  Have you noticed feelings changing? Many people are unaware of the nature of feelings. Everywhere you will hear people say, "Follow your feelings, go by your feelings, do what you feel like," etc.  What will you do? Be independent? People misinterpret what independence means. They think it means following your feelings...

Chapter 4 - Real Laughter  Day 10  Question - Do you mean just the observing from some centre is enough, rather than trying to change it? Gurudev Sri Sri - Yes. The very observation changes it. When you observe, all that is negative falls away. And the nature of positive emotions is - they grow. If you observe when you are angry, the anger will fall away. And if you observe if there is love. love grows. Question - And the attempt to erase simply strengthens the negative?  Gurudev Sri Sri - Just observing and letting go is the simplest? That is the best and only way. Observe. Observe that thoughts come and they pass. A negative thought comes because of stress.  If you are put under great stress, on that day, or the next day, you will get negative thoughts and become frustrated. All negative thoughts come out of your frustration. Instead of trying to do something with those thoughts that have already arisen, which are of no use, attend to the source from wh...

Chapter 4 - Real Laughter Day 9 If you ever happened to meet God, do you know what you would tell him? "Oh, I have met you inside." God will dance in our life when the day dawns in laughter and love. The true prayer is laughing in the morning.  Don't just be laughing outside but from deep inside. The laughter comes from the center of our being, from the core of our heart. Our belly is so full of laughter that the laughter permeates and comes out of every cell of our body.  True laughter is true prayer. In nature everything is just waiting for you to laugh. When you laugh, the whole of nature laughs with you. It echoes and resounds and that is really the worth of life.  When things go all right, everybody can laugh, but when everything falls apart, and then if you can laugh, that is evolution and growth. So there is nothing in life that is more worthy than your laughter. Never lose it for anything, whatsoever. Events come and go. Some are a little pleasant, som...

Chapter 3 - The Four Approaches To Practical & Spiritual Life  Day 7  Dana, that is surrender. Surrender is the most misunderstood word in the world today. Surrender is not slaverv. surrender Is not something vou can force upon someone, surrender Is a happening.  Surrender happens out of love, gratitude and trust. When there is fear, drop the fear. The dropping of the fear happens with the trust, and that is surrender. If doubt still remains, do nothing, just watch.  Breathe, meditate. That will clear your doubts out. There is no other way to come out of your doubt. Four types of doubt will arise in your mind. The first doubt is about yourself, ‘Don't think this is for me. There is still time for me. I think I should go very slowly. Maybe it is not the right time’. ‘It doesn't suit me at all, I am not the person for it. I can never have it. I have my old patterns. I will never come out of it’. These things, doubting the very self, doubting your abilit...

Chapter 3 - The Four Approaches To Practical & Spiritual Life  Day 6 A wise man is said to have four things. Both inwardly and outwardly there are four techniques. They are called Sama, Dana, Bheda and Danda. To deal with people in the world, to be wise in the world, the first thing you use is Sama.  Sama means in a peaceful and understanding way. When that doesn't work out, then you go to the second method as the rescue. The second method is Dana. Dana means allowing it to happen, forgiving, creating a space.  When people don't recognise your generosity in allowing them space, then the third principle comes, Bheda. Bheda means to create a discrimination, make a difference, intentionally create a gap.  If somebody is at loggerheads with you, first you talk to them. All problems arise because of lack of communication. If you communicate properly, talk to them with love, evenness starts. When that doesn't work out, then, with the same love, you just ign...

Chapter 2 - True Intimacy Day 5 For a seed to sprout, first it has to be sealed somewhere inside. Then it sprouts. True intimacy is a combination of all emotions and feelings. Everything will be there. There can only be two things in the world-one is indifference, another is love.  You can be indifferent to somebody, or you can love somebody. Love can take any flavour. You can be angry with someone and there Is love there. see, you only get angry at people whom you love.  You won't be angry at someone on the street with whom you have no connection. vhen vou have something to do with somebody, when you relate vourselt witn someone, then you get angry at them. So two things are there - indifference and intimacy, or love. Indifference means inertia, like a table. When indifference has died in you, you see that every one of us is connected. We are all intimate.  So we don't try to connect ourselves. We are very natural. See, you know some people for a long time, m...

Chapter 2 - True Intimacy Day 4 When a bud breaks, it becomes a flower. When a heart breaks, it becomes divine. A flower cannot break. What breaks is the bud. And it breaks for good. What you thought was love, was not love. In true love there is no heartbreak.  A broken heart means broken demands, broken expectations, broken hopes. How can love break? Love cannot break. Can water break? Water is fluid. Love is fluid. Whatever is fluid is not brittle. Something that is stiff is brittle. It can be broken. Life is a totality.  It is like a stream. It carries the leaves, sometimes a log, sometimes a frog, sometimes swans, sometimes fish, sometimes dirt, all the industrial waste, everything. It doesn't mind.  Does it say," Oh, you are a flower, I will carry only you. You are dead logs, I won't carry you?" It doesn't make any distinction. If you pour wonderful things, such as milk, into the water, it will carry that, too. You place a flower there, it will ca...

Chapter 1 - God Loves Fun  Day 3 People are not really aware of the very mechanics of what the psyche is, what the Being is, what the mind is. You try to think positive and see if it leads to positive thoughts. It creates more negative thoughts deep within you.  Somewhere in you it starts boiling up. The fear comes and your mind is divided into two. One says, "Be positive. I will be healthy." What healthy? You are unable to do something.  Somewhere your consciousness is slipping down. In your mind you are trying to say, "I am healthy, I am healthy," and deep inside something else is cooking. Fear is coming up, all sorts of duality and conflicts arise. It happened to one lady. This lady had this positive thinking, "I'm happy, I'm happy, I'm always happy and nothing can touch my happiness." And it so happened, her son died in an accident. When a son dies, a mother is not happy.  Now she became very unhappy, but her old habit continued...