Ayurveda Initiative For Global Health

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:  Why do you want to change someone else’s nature? If you want to change someone’s nature because what they are doing is troubling you, then it is never going to change! However, if we wish that they change their nature because it will harm them, if this is our perspective, then there definitely is a possibility of change. Why is it that people are unable to bring about a change in another person's behavior? This is because they are caught up with themselves. If you say, ‘Change for me’ then nobody is going to change. Why or how is it that only a Guru can bring about a change in a person? It is because a Guru never wants anything for himself. A Guru wants transformation in someone only because what the person is doing is harming himself or herself. A Guru looks at people with this compassionate perspective which is why people transform when they come to Him.

Don’t leave the rose because of the thorns! Even the thorns have a purpose, else the rose cannot exist! So, a rose cannot exist without thorns. If you keep looking only at the thorns then you will lose the beauty of the rose. If you go to the garden, and look only at the thorns without enjoying the flower, then you will become unhappy. Small things are enough to make the mind lose it’s center. Just become aware of it, then you will win over it. So there is beauty in every person. Look at that, not at the thorn, look at the flower. This is important to understand. Nobody is less or more. Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji 

When we fail, who is the doer? When I’m successful, I say it’s God’s grace or that Gurudev did it but when I fail, then God does not seem to be around me to take the responsibility!  Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:  Look back and reflect on the many times you have failed. Don't you now feel that those failures were good for you. How many of you feel this way? (Many in the audience raise their hands) When you look back at your failures, you will see that you have learnt something from them, and they have been stepping stones for you to move ahead. I tell you, when you are on the path, when your heart is clean and when you are meditating, there is no way that you will fail, or go down. It will appear as though you are failing but that little failure is only to get you towards higher success. This is for sure. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna promised the world that 'My devotee will never perish'. It is impossible for a devotee to perish! A devotee is the one who has a pure heart. If you a...

When you are neither clear nor confused, only then can you be a perfect instrument of the Divine! How would an instrument know what is going to be, and when? How can an instrument be confused, and how can an instrument be clear! This state is called Nimit - just being an instrument of the Divine. Being very clear means not opening to new possibilities and can lead to limitations. Unlimited possibilities are open to one who is not clear and not confused. Your mind swings from clarity to confusion and confusion to clarity but the state in which there is no doership nor inertia is the most creative and progressive state. Sharmila: Will this not lead to lethargy? Sri Sri: No. A sharp instrument does its job perfectly, effortlessly. Sharmila: What about focus? Sri Sri: Focus is natural to a dynamic consciousness. Confusion arises when new information flows in and clarity is lost. Then confusion again seeks clarity. Clarity constricts the possibility of new information. A confused consciousn...

You should never doubt anyone’s love for you, take it for granted that everyone loves you, that’s it!  Sometimes some people don’t express love. Some may express every now and then, some others may express in another life time! Sometimes, someone who is rude and rough and does not behave nicely, they do have love for us, but they have reserved it for the future years or for future lifetimes. When you look at it from this perspective, then from your side you will feel secure, complete, accepted, and you will feel that oneness with this whole universe. Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji 

Faith and alertness appear to be completely opposite in nature. When you are alert, usually there is no faith and you feel restless and insecure. When there is faith, the mind is secure and rested and you are not alert. There are three types of faith: Tamasic faith which is because of dullness. Like when you do not want to take responsibility or action and you say, "Oh it doesn’t matter, anyway God will take care of all these things!" (laughter) Rajasic faith which is brought on by intense compulsion of desires and ambition. The ambition keeps the faith alive. Satvic faith is innocent and is born out of fullness of consciousness. Faith and alertness, though apparently opposite in nature, are actually complementary to each other. In the absence of faith, there can be no growth, and there can be no correct understanding without alertness. Faith can make you complacent. Alertness makes you tense. If there is no faith, there is fear. And when there is no alertness, one cannot per...

Don't Be Disturbed by Foolishness What really perturbs you? Isn’t it the foolishness that goes on around you? It is foolish to be perturbed by the foolishness. Foolishness cannot overpower or annihilate wisdom nor does the foolishness stay all the time. When you are not well-founded in wisdom, then foolishness perturbs you, throws you out of balance. When you create space for foolishness you do not get perturbed by it, rather you will laugh and move on. Otherwise you hate, get angry or become stressed by foolish acts. When you know that truth is eternal and invincible you take foolishness as a joke and remain unmoved by it. Those who are averse to foolishness or get irritated by it are members of the fools club. Beware! Do not sign up.  - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Q: How to overcome negative thoughts affecting the mind.  Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Time and life is such, it comes like a storm and swabs your mind. Let me put it this way: the negativity comes like a storm and takes over your mind and swabs you out. Hasn’t this happened to you? It does happen. Negativity just comes and takes over your mind. When you are under the influence of a negative cloud, you will find everybody is wrong. You will find mistakes in the best person. You will find fault with everybody including yourself. First you will blame others, you will say, “This person is wrong, that person is wrong”, because you don’t see your fault. And if you see your fault, you will start blaming yourself also. And then the next step is getting into depression. This is the mechanics; this is the way it happens. Just being aware that this is happening itself is a big step. It is like an airplane having the facility to takeoff in spite of all the dark clouds. The airplane pierces through t...

Wisdom from Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: There are some people who believe that they are always right. They somehow convince themselves that whatever they do is always right, and so they don’t learn anything from their experiences and repeat the same mistakes. There are also some people who think that they are always wrong. They feel everything that they do including their sadhana is incorrect. Both these attitudes are not good. You should take the middle path. Learn from mistakes made and go ahead with the conviction that God is on my side and will not allow me to fail. Have this faith. Have faith that there is success behind every failure, that there is a reason for every difficulty that comes your way; that these are steps for you to climb up and reach higher. Move ahead with this type of strength and conviction. Life has given us a lot of good things, and of course there have been some difficult times, but those are faced by everyone. And whenever difficult times came our way, an invisibl...

The mission in your life is to leave a better world behind than what you inherited. Don’t you want to leave a better world for the coming generations than what you inherited? Look back and see, how the world was ten years ago, or fifty years ago - wasn't it better? If it was better, then we should leave a better world in the future. If you feel today is better than before, then you should strive to give an even better world for the coming generation. This is a broad outline. From this broad vision, you can choose what you want to do – you want to bring peace in society, you want to see a stress-free and violence-free society, you want to see a happy society around you. These are the things we should strive for. According to your tendency or your taste, you should choose the field. Some of you may want to be a doctor, some of you may want to be a social activist, some of you may want to work in the social field, some of you may want to go into politics, some of you want to do busine...

On his trip to India, a German once visited a temple that was under construction.  He witnessed a sculptor, making an idol of a Goddess that was to be later installed in the temple. While looking around, he suddenly noticed a similar idol lying nearby. Surprised, he asked the sculptor, "Do you need two statues of the same Goddess?" "No," replied the sculptor, without even looking up at him. "We need only one, but the first one got damaged at the last stage," he reasoned as he worked on his new masterpiece.  Curiously, the gentleman went near the previous idol and examined it. To his surprise, he found no apparent damage in the previous one.  "Where is the damage?" he asked confused. "There is a scratch on the nose of the idol," replied the sculptor, very casually, as he remained busy with his work.  "May I ask where this idol is going to be installed?" the gentleman inquired. The sculptor answered, "Sure. It will be insta...

This story is about a woman named Sindhutai, who lived in a poverty stricken village in Maharashtra, India. She never really had any education. When she was a little girl and wanted to go to school, her family made her take care of the buffaloes. When she was 9 years old, she was married to a man who was about 30. By the time she was 19, she had three sons and was again pregnant.   A Mafia type of person, who was exploiting the people of the village was especially forcing the women of the village to work really hard, and was paying them practically nothing. Everyone was afraid but Sindhutai complained to the local collector who was overseeing the police, and that person was stopped from what he was doing.  This made him so angry that he went and told Sindhutai's husband a lie : "You are such a fool! Your wife is having affairs with so many men! In fact, the child in her womb is my child, not yours. You have to kill that child! If you don't, I will kill it and you too....

Once in a physics class, the teacher asked the students, “Why do we have brakes in a car?” A student got up and answered, "Sir, to help stop the car." Another student replied, "To reduce and control the speed".  Yet another said, "To avoid a collision".  Soon, the answers started repeating. Hence, the teacher decided to answer the question himself.  With a smile on his face, he said, "I appreciate all of you trying to answer the question. However, I believe it's all a matter of perception! The way I see it, *we have brakes in a car to enable us to drive faster!*".  There was deep silence in the classroom. No one could have imagined this answer. The teacher continued, "For a moment, let's assume that we have no brakes in our car. How fast are we willing to drive our car now?"  He further said, "It is because of the brakes that we can dare to accelerate, dare to go fast and reach the destinations we desire!"  All the stu...

In a mother’s womb were two babies.  One asked the other:  “Do you believe in life after delivery?” The other replied,  “Why, of course. There has to be something after delivery. Maybe we are here to prepare ourselves for what we will be later.” “Nonsense,” said the first.  “There is no life after delivery. What kind of life would that be?” The second said, “I don’t know, but there will be more light than here. Maybe we will walk with our legs and eat from our mouths. Maybe we will have other senses that we can’t understand now.” The first replied, “That is absurd. Walking is impossible. And eating with our mouths? Ridiculous! The umbilical cord supplies nutrition and everything we need. But the umbilical cord is so short. Life after delivery is to be logically excluded.” The second insisted, “Well I think there is something and maybe it’s different than it is here. Maybe we won’t need this physical cord anymore.” The first replied, “Nonsense. And moreover, if there ...

When legendary musician Warren Zevon was dying of terminal Lung cancer at the age of 52, he appeared on the David Letterman’s talk show and Letterman asked him, what he had learned about life. You know, what were Zevon’s parting words? Looking straight through the camera lens into every soul watching, he just said, *“Enjoy every sandwich.”* Oh, how we neglect the simple magic of each day in hot pursuit of the trinkets and fascinations that our culture sells us, as the gateways into happiness and inner peace. But, They are not. FFA (Fame, Fortune and Applause) will never bring you the sustained riches that JPF (Joy, Peace and Freedom) will allow. Real satisfaction and true tranquillity arise from savouring the basic blessings that hide in plain sight. “Enjoy every sandwich.” Please don’t wait until your deathbed to appreciate all the gifts that surround you. They are there in greater abundance than you know, just pleading for your attention. We sometimes get so wrapped up in our busines...

Once, the public jury in a village (panchayat) gathered to resolve a problem. At some distance, a saint had set up his abode. When the public jury could not reach any decision, someone suggested that they should consult the saint for the solution of their problem. They all went to the saint. Seeing so many of them, the saint asked them what was the matter. The villagers replied, "Mahatma ji, there is only one well in the village and we cannot drink water from that well." The saint asked, "why, what happened? Why can't you drink water from it?" The villagers replied, "three dogs were fighting with each other and fell into the well. Then they could not come out, and drowned in the well and died. Now the water stinks badly, how can we drink that water?"  The saint said, "do one thing, pour holy Ganga river water in the well." So, eight to ten buckets of Ganges water were poured into the well, yet the problem remained as it is. People again reach...

John D Rockfeller was once the richest man in the world. The first billionaire in the world. By age 25, he controlled one of the largest oil refineries in the US.  By age 31, he had become the world’s largest oil refiner.   By age 38. he commanded 90% of the oil refined in the US.                                            By 50, he was the richest man in the country. By the time he died, he had become the richest man in the world.  As a young man, every decision, attitude and relationship was tailored to create his personal power and wealth.  But at the age of 53, he became ill.  His entire body became racked with pain and he lost all of his hair. In complete agony, the world’s only billionaire could buy anything he wanted, but he could only digest soup and crackers.  An associate wrote, "He could not sleep, would not smile and nothing in life...

In a meeting, Guru ji asked a 30-year-old youth to stand up during his discourse.  - You are walking on Juhu Chowpatty in Mumbai and a beautiful girl is coming from the front, so what will you do?  The young man said - She will be seen, and he will start seeing her personality.  Guru ji asked - After that girl has moved forward, so will you look back too?  The boy said - yes, if my wife is not with me . (everyone laughs in the meeting)  Guru ji again asked - Tell me how long will you remember that beautiful face?  The young man said May be for 5 - 10 minutes, until another beautiful face appears.  Guru ji said to the young man - now just imagine.. you are going from Jaipur to Mumbai and I gave you a packet of books and said that this packet should be delivered to such a great person in Mumbai...  You went to his house in Mumbai to deliver the packets.   When you saw his house, you came to know that he is a billionaire.   1...

A gentleman was walking through an elephant camp, and he spotted that the elephants weren’t being kept in cages or held by the use of chains. All that was holding them back from escaping the camp, was a small piece of rope tied to one of their legs. As the man gazed upon the elephants, he was completely confused as to why the elephants didn’t just use their strength to break the rope and escape the camp. They could easily have done so, but instead, they didn’t try to at all Curious and wanting to know the answer, he asked a trainer nearby why the elephants were just standing there and never tried to escape. The trainer replied; “when they are very young and much smaller we use the same size rope to tie them and, at that age, it’s enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free.” The only reason that the elephants weren’t breaking free and escaping from the camp was t...

In the Indian Epic Mahabharata, there is an incident mentioned. Let me tell you that. A race was organised between Kauravas and Pandavas. The strongest kaurava of all was “Duryodhan” and the strongest pandava of all was “Bheem”. Now, when the race started, both Duryodhan and Bheem started running at an equal pace but after a few seconds, Bheem got ahead of Duryodhan. Seeing Bheem getting ahead, Duryodhana increased his pace but was unable to match the Bheem’s pace. Suddenly, this evil though crossed Duryodhana’s mind, “If I will trip him, he will fall and I will win the race!” And he did that same! Bheem fell down and Duryodhana took the lead. But after a few seconds, Bheem matched up to him, then took the lead and finally won the race! After the race was over, Duryodhana went to Bheeshm Pitamaah and this conversation happened between them, Duryodhana: Sir, why did I lost to Bheem in the race today? Bheeshma: I will answer it comprehensively now. See, both of you are equally powerful a...

A man was travelling in a boat with his monkey. There was also a philosopher with other passengers in that boat. The monkey had never travelled in a boat before, so it was not feeling comfortable. It was going up and down, not letting anyone sit in peace. The boatman was troubled by this and was concerned that the boat would sink due to the panic of the passengers. If the monkey doesn't calm down it will drown the boat. The man was upset about the situation, but could not find any way to calm the monkey. The philosopher watched all this and decided to help. He said: " If you allow, I can make this monkey as quiet as a house cat." The man immediately agreed.  The philosopher, with the help of two passengers, picked up the monkey and threw it into the river. The monkey started to swim desperately to stay afloat. It was now dying and struggled for its life. After some time, the philosopher dragged the monkey back into the boat. The monkey was quiet and went and sat in a corn...

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...