the ashram web log

Q. Is interaction possible without ego?

Ans : Yes, it’s possible. Interaction between mother and a child is an example. There is supposed to be no ego between husband-wife. Ego is necessary in case of business and politics. In military there is no ego for the seniors but it exists for their subordinates.

Q. Guruji, We did some good karmas so we got you. But what karmas did you do, so you got us? J

(Laughter)Life is mixture of sand and sugar. Wise picks up sugar as an ant. If you find someone as fool then either you can uplift him or you can get angry. It’s up to you.

Q. What is significance of tortoise in a temple?

Ans: It signifies the tendency to go inward. A series of lamps is kept on his back which tells that when one goes inward knowledge dawns in him.

Posted in: on Wednesday, November 28, 2007 at at 7:26 PM 2 comments  

Guruji has told everyone to take extra care while driving vehicles on
17th and 18th of November 2007.

Posted in: on Thursday, November 15, 2007 at at 10:14 AM 0 comments  

Today, 12th Nov- 2007, Patanjali Yoga Sutras were visited again.. Here what we understood, not the exact verbatim!

One third of our life we spend sleeping, one third in dreaming and day dreaming. We hardly spent any time in present moment except our childhood. Though we have been sleeping for quite a long time but we didn’t get to know about our sleep and our dreams. We never shook hand with our sleep.

When we are dreaming we are somewhere else, when we dream we are at other place,

We live in three Pur (City)

1. Awake
2. Sleep
3. Dream

There is no need to analyze your dreams, nowadays there is a new research going on dreams in America. I’ll say it’s useless. We are sleeping 6-8 hours a day but we don’t know our sleep. Some people sleep even 10 hours or more. Do you see a child sleeping! How innocently he sleeps, do you see?

But a yogi should sleep for 4-6 hours.

Some people can’t even sleep. They would be lying down on bed while tired and in tensions, and would not know when they go into sleep. And when they get up same things again pop up in mind.

Posted in: on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at at 6:10 PM 0 comments  

Guruji’s Diwali message

“We don’t have to get satisfied with lighting one lamp, We have to light thousands of lamps. Not only one person but also everyone should have smile on their face”

Significance of Diwali

There are four aspects of this festival

1. Laxmi puja ( worship the goddess of wealth)

Inner meaning of it is honoring the wealth you have, We spend the whole time in acquiring wealth and some time we may not even aware of how much we have? So this day we take all that we have and become grateful for what all we have. We feel that abundance in ourselves. When we feel abundance, more come to us. There are 8 types of wealth and nine types of “nidhis”. Water and earth are wealth. And we honor them by not polluting them, not using pesticides.

2. Firecrackers

We accumulate lots of anxieties, frustration, anger. So our heart burst out with the explosion and we become friendly.

3. Sweet and Gift exchange

The inner meaning is that feel the sweetness in you. And speak with sweet voice.

4. Lightening

Light the lamp of talents in you. If you do seva, then learn singing, If you are a singer then do sdadhana and so on. Light the lamp of knowledge, meditation.

Before that we had a wonderful pooja and then unique meditation.

Q. Guruji, What are 8 wealths and nine nidhis?

Sri Sri: I have spoken about it in ashtalakshmi cassette.

Q. I find difficulty in accepting your ways?

Sri Sri: We have mainly five points

i. Accept people as they are

ii. Live in present moment

iii. Don’t be football of others opinion.

iv. Don’t see intention behind other’s mistakes.

So if you are happy not following these points then don’t follow it, but smile. Only thing I care of is your smile.

Guruji said, for fool diwali come once a year but for wise people every moment is diwali.

Q. What we can do for Global warming.

Sri Sri: Plant more and more trees, Consume less fuel.

If anyone remember some more please send it to us

Posted in: on Saturday, November 10, 2007 at at 8:02 PM 0 comments  

8 November, 2007 10:20:04 AM
Q & A with Guruji!

Q: How can I be assured of salvation and a perfect life on this planet?
Sri Sri: You need a warranty on the spiritual path also, don't you?!
Examine how much time you spend on the spiritual path...
Evaluate the seva (service) you are doing...How much are you
meditating? There should be a balance between seva and meditation.
Those who do a lot of service get burnt out, if they don't make time
for meditation, and those, who only meditate, become 'dry', if they
don't make time for service. So you need both - service and
meditation.

Q: What is the best way to reach bliss?
Sri Sri: What is the best way? - One is, by meditating, and the other,
is by serving the people around you - by getting into some service
activity. You know the technique to get depressed is to sit and only
think: "What about me? What about me?" - all the time! That's good
enough to get thoroughly depressed! Seeing God within you is
meditation. Seeing God in the people around you is love, is service.
They go hand-in-hand.

Q: How to pray? I was raised in a non-religious environment.
Sri Sri: Meditation is the best form of prayer. In meditation you
surrender, you say let thy will be done. You may light a candle, chant
Om Namaha Shivaya.

Q: What is more important - career or family?
Sri Sri: When you watch TV, what is more important - the scenes or the
sound? Both! One supports the other. Similarly, when one has no
family, what is use of a career? Career is for supporting one's
family. To support oneself, a career is not required. Likewise, when
one has no career, how can one support one's family?

Q: How can we change our karma?
Sri Sri: By experience and wisdom, and some karma you just have to
overcome it and work through it. Strange are the ways of Karma. The
more you understand it, the more amazed you become. It brings people
together and separates them. It causes some to be weak and some to be
strong. It makes some rich and some poor. All the struggle in the
world, whatever it may be, is the bondage of Karma. It cuts across all
logic and reasoning. This understanding will lift you from getting
stuck to the events or personalities and help you in your Journey to
the Self.

Q: So a thief can say it is my karma to steal?

Answer: Then the police have the karma to catch him too!
Only human life has the ability to be free from Karma. And only a few
thousands aim to be free from it. Only through Grace can the bondage
of Karma be burnt. Performing actions cannot eliminate Karma.

Q: How to overcome homesickness?
Sri Sri: See, I consider that every tree in the planet is in my
garden. When the whole world is your family, there can be no
homesickness. Feel always at home -- it is all your attitude.

Q: Are faith and belief the same?
Sri Sri: Belief is a little diluted, faith is little strong, more
concrete. Our beliefs can change, faith is firm. Faith is yogurt,
belief is buttermilk. Like a child has faith in the mother, the child
does not make the mother into an object of knowing. The child does not
try to know the mother, it simply has faith in the mother. When you
have faith, what is the need to know it? You cannot make love an
object of knowing, if you try to make love an object of knowing, if
you try to know it, it will disappear.

In the same way you cannot make Self, or God an object of knowing.
God, love, sleep, and Self are beyond knowing. If you try to analyze,
doubt comes in and faith will disappear. So whatever you want to have
faith in, do not want to know it or analyze it. The moment you make
something an object of knowing then analysis starts and then doubt
follows. Analysis creates a distance, synthesis brings it together.
Faith is synthesis, knowing is analysis.

Q: Why bad people are happy and good people are suffering?
Sri Sri: This is an illusion. It appears that the bad people are
enjoying. But I tell you it is temporary. Good people need not be
foolish. They can be intelligent. If someone says I put my finger in
the fire because I was so good, I tell you it is foolishness. Good
merits will give good result one day be sure of that.

Q: Which is better, to thank deeply or superficially?
Sri Sri: No, superficially. Thanking needs a separation. Thanking
means there are two. If you are deeply thankful, it means you deeply
feel the separation. Deep within there is no need to thank, because
there is one-ness. But superficially you can thank. Thanks are like
ripples on the surface of the water.

When you say "Thank you," you complete something. You are finishing a
transaction, a relationship, a process. "Thank you" is like "good
bye." You can complete all transactions at a surface level, but deeper
inside is only one-ness.

Thankfulness always exists in relation to something else. You don't
thank for nothing at all, you thank for something. But in this case,
something is less than nothing!

At the deepest level, thanking has no meaning. Does one hand thank the
other hand? The deeper you go, you see there is no "other" to be
thanked.

Q: How come enlightened masters come from the East, especially India?
Sri Sri: It seems to happen like that. There is no reason. There was a
time that lots of merchants came from Europe. And there was a time
that lots of Scientists came from west. In America, there are lots of
Oak trees. If we ask why, what can we say? It seems to happen that
way. East seems to provide Enlightened Masters. But an Enlightened
Master himself doesnt belong to East or West. He belongs to the whole
world. His knowledge is universal !

Q: What is difference between Skill and Manipulation?
Sri Sri: That is a good question. In manipulation, there is
bad/horrible intention. In skill, there is good intention. In
manipulation, there is guilt. In manipulation, you are not honest to
yourself. When skillful, you get a pat from your heart "Go ahead...".
You are honest, when skillful. In skill, your heart will not prick
you. But finally, ONLY YOU know whether you are skillful /
manipulative.

Jai Gurudev
------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- ----
(Contributed by :Jyothsna)

Thanks Jyothsna, :-)

Posted in: on Thursday, November 8, 2007 at at 4:29 PM 0 comments  

We're fortunate!

Listening to Guruji on Patanjali YogaSutras, live!
Exploring the depths of Yoga in his gracious presence is so beautiful.

And thus Yoga sutras are continued:

Talked about Abhyasa or practice.

Habits are nothing but practices done over a period of time so that become your nature.
Good as well as bad practices take time to become habits. The only difference is that bad practices take less amount of time ot become habits. No one likes smoking when they fag for the first time. It is only habituating yourself over a period of time that you really start liking it.
Restraining of thought waves is called dispassion or which you need a lot of practice or abhyasa over a long period of time.

Lalsa kab paida hoti hain, when we smell something. If you want to create the lalsa then you show something that is seen and heard to them. Your mind hibernates when in greed, when your mind has the 'tadap'(longing) towards the materialistic things then it is called a-vairagya (non dispassion). This is because the 'trishna'(longing) is not in our control. When it is in our control then it is called vairagya (dispassion).

Vairagya is like finding treasure in ourselves then there is no need for bothering about things outside. Like when you have 'gulabjamun' then you will not bother about sugar, when you have sunlight then you will not bother about the lamp.

There was a saint who was asked by someone whether he remembers them or not. To which the saint replied that 'muje mere bare main sochne se fursad nahi hain to main aapko kaise yaad karu?'

A sentence which says a lot – 'khud vyakti ke hone par koi parchai kyon dekhega?' (If we're having someone in person, why we'll look for his shadow?) This is called para vairagya which is of the highest quality.

Smashan vairagya is low quality when the things which we do not get we say that we anyways don't need it.

Q: Someone from Corporate Workshop asked that AOL has a lot of research done on the Sudarshan Kriya and other aspects of effect of breath on body and health then why is it not called Science of Living?

Guruji: Look, Art is common to everybody. 6 billion people in the world and out of that atleast 5.99 billion people listen to music or watch movies or enjoy some form of art. Great scientists also say that and if you see many of them used to either play some instrument or enjoyed some form of art. Dr Kalam who is a great scientist, also plays Vina too.

Music or art is prevalent to mankind, inclination towards science is very low. Science of brain is logic and music both and it nurtures both. AOL reaches more people in need of science.
Art is nothing but appreciation like a piece of cloth when decorated in a particular way becomes a beautiful 'paghadi'. Life when appreciated is art, when life is not honored or appreciated then it is a crime.
That is why it is named AOL and that also I have not given the name. I just started teaching and then the first few people called it the intensive program,meditation program and things like that till we came to know that this is actually the real art of living and then 'the real' dropped and so it is now called the Art of Living.

Q: What is the truth?

Guruji: You want me to give you a simple answer? (Questioner nodded for yes!).

Then truth is that which is not false. It is as simple as it can get.
What is false- it is that which is affected by time and space.
This definition is still mind boggling to all the scientists that someone could actually define it so simply.
Adishankara gave this definition of truth is that which is not affected by space and time.
For eg we say that it is raining outside now. Take the sentence word by word.
Was it raining yesterday- no, is it true that it was raining an hour back- no, but when it is raining for that time it is true.
Similarly when you are dreaming. The experience you have when you are dreaming is true but the moment you get up that is false. For as long as it is there it is true. Even while dreaming , your sleeping is false.
Defining truth like this is a brilliance by itself. There should be an urge or the quest for this truth, when you get it then nobody can take that smile from you, you become absolutely unshakable.

Q: How should one wake up from this dream before this lifetime?
Guruji: Are you dreaming now? When answers in affirmative then it means that you have already woken up.

Q: Comments on Global warming~ What Art Of Living has role to play in that?

Guruji: It is there, that there is global warming happening. That is a fact but what is happening now is that this fact is being exaggerated . 6 years back it was told in America that the everything is going to be lost and people had stacked up months of food and water and withdrawn money from the accounts and basically gone beserk. But what happened… nothing much
Similarly to global warming, this has become a business for some ppl.
Like for AIDS also the statistics quoted kept changing. They, the bodies who were doing the research, said 2.5 million people and then said the whole village and then went on to 3 million and in this way the figures kept changing.
They had claimed that the whole village (in UP) was AIDS infected. The village was so conservative and there was no chance that this kind of thing to happen. Later on it was found out that the antibody test which they were using to determine was giving wrong results.
Same thing about dying out of starvation in India.
It is all wrong and highly exaggerated. You claim of half the country dying due to starvation? That is not possible. I have been to so many villages and I have not seen people die due to starvation.
People do starve but there are much more people there to serve. Someone comes along and gives them food. In India we care and share and so out of 100 crore 50 crore agar bhookhe hain to kaha jayenge. That is sheer exaggeration of the numbers. In Vidharba there are 4000 farmers who I just met and all of them were happy and were dancing and enjoying the satsang. There is 4000 crore allotted by the government for the agricultural sector but nothing reaches the farmers. In that 507 villages which AOL volunteers have worked on have now 0% suicidal death. Global warming and these things are hyped up and very less work is done on the cause.

Someone commented that they are living so much in the present that now they have forgotten all that He has told them in the past (sutras).

Laughter….

(And Look what Guruji has for him .. )

See for example if you have an exam (for yoga teacher) tomorrow then you can not say that you forgot what you have studied. This should not happen. You intellect gets sharper when you live in the present moment. So many people think that I am not listening to them so they repeat the questions 4 times to me and I have to tell them " bas .. abhi aap mujhe 4 bar yeh poonh chuke ho aur main yeh bhi bata sakta hoon ki kaha par apne muze kya kaha tha. " (Look, you've already asked me this 4 times , and also I can tell you where did you ask what?!!!!")

I remember when I met someone and it doesn't matter how long back and where. Hain ki nahi?

Q: Why is there conflict in the name of religion when it was created so that one attains peace?
Guruji: Religion is devoid of spirituality that is the reason for conflict today. That is why there is identity crisis rather than a journey for betterment. Emphasis should be on spirituality so that all religions will merge.

Q: Do we attain abhyasa and vairagya through self effort or the grace of the Guru?
Guruji: Abhyasa is through ones effort and vairagya is awakening to reality.
For eg when you are watching the TV do you say I will watch the TV first and then listen to it. No, it is a simultaneous happening . Just like that Grace helps you be in vairagya after you do your abhyasa.

(Contributed by : Gauri Parashare)

Joy GuruDays~

Posted in: on Sunday, November 4, 2007 at at 2:12 PM 0 comments  

Today's Satsang began with Guruji annoucing that he will first talk in Kannada, then in English and finally in Hindi. Fortunately or Unfortunately he told the Patanjali Yog sutras in Kannada and we were still all smiles and GAGA at the end of it.

The English session began with a question like -
In Astavakra Geeta,Mahatma Gandhi is said to have preached non violence but it is also said that he was very violent on himself/ his body. His death was also very violent. Vishal added that it is similar to Jesus's death, which was also very violent.

Do not know what question he was trying to ask (:-)) but Guruji's reply was like an exclamation mark, "This is for you to Ponder"

Second question followed and this was also related to Astavkra ," It has been mentioned that if you are caught in some sensory pleasure then you are bound but also those are bound who are against it. Is the same applicable to those who are against alcoholism, poverty etc? Gurudev answered: there is a difference between being against something and hating something. If you hate something then you are bound. The Kannada session began again with bits of the Sanskrit in it about the sutras. The again we started in English The TTC of SRI SRI yoga had another question where the relationship between the panchkoshas and the 7 layers of existence was explored?Admist giggles the answer was," you can make a relation wherever you want, All koshas are anyways interrelated. You can play with the relations as much as you want.

Q: What is that which we should be doing so that we see you in everyone?

Guruji: Question was interrupted and answered that you should not try and see me in everyone.
Don't try to do anything, just be natural and innocent as you are (sahajta se) and that will suffice .

Q: How to become centered?
Guruji: See what is it that is taking you out of the center. Living in the present moment is being centered. Holding anything against in your mind makes you decentered. Being free from opinions is being centered. Like when you have a fight, can you go to the person immediately after the fight with a smile without thinking what he or she will say and smile at them and start a new fight? That is being centered. Going from Gyana to Prema, Bhakti and love. Devotion has no opposite that gets you to the center, love has hatred but devotion has no opposite and that is why it takes you to being centered. When you see life as a dream then how can you live it like a perfectionist? When there is freedom to see the past present and future as a dream then your mind is free and your intellect sharpens.
Do you notice when you are witty what is the state of your mind. Dull person or sad person can never be witty, your mind needs to be free so that you can be witty which is nothing but a sharp intellect. Everyone must have experienced this sometime or the other.
See the people who commit crime can never be free, they don't have feelings for others, no compassion. They dont know that happiness is in them and to be free is going more into yourself and realizing that you are Joy and you are Happiness.

Patanjali Yog Sutra:It is a story about Ved Vyas who goes to Lord Brahma and asks to be given some Knowledge. Brahma then gives him the Vast Himalayas and asks him to take how much ever you can take.

So Vyas then takes how much ever he could with his four hand and thus were the four veds formed: Sangitha, Aranya, Brahman and Upanishads.
Sangitha is that which is born out of what the Rishis said when they went deep in meditation and their words were heard and then written thus it was called Shruti- suna hua gyan ( Knowledge which is born from hearing from others)
From the Sangitha the other three Veda's were born. Then there were the Up Vedas and the 6 upangs. Veda is from the upang which is the Patanjali Yog Sutra. Story goes that Patanjali Rishi used to teach around thousand children in the gurukul. There used to be a curtain between him and the students. He used to teach from behind the curtain. Soon there was curiosity that arised in the minds of the students and one fine day they peeked beyond the curtain. As soon as they did that there was a blinding light, which destroyed all of them. All but one, as he had gone on a nature's break so he was saved. Rishiji told him that he was lucky that he was not with them but none the less he will be punished. So he was made into the Brahma Rakshas and was told to sit and write of whatever he had been taught by him. So he sat on the tree and wrote everything on the leafs which then fell down and were eaten by a goat.
Now it is a Paheli which needs to be solved by us as to:
Why all the 999 were destroyed?
Why were they destroyed?
Why not the one who left the class?
Why make him brahma rakshas ?
Why make him sit on tree top and write on leaves?
Why does the goat eat the leaves?First sutra was:
Anushasan : Which means the Shashan which is made out of our will. Generally shasan is rules put by others, which is then not followed fully with 100% and these are the rules, which we try to defy. Thus there should be anushasan. Lucky is the one whose Anushasan is Yog.
Yog is about freeing your mind, ego and intellect from the past impressions.

Acha why do you need to clean this mind every time? Its like a slate and the impressions are like chalk on it. Like in the school if without using the duster you have the English class and the science and then the geography and the math as well then firstly you should be able to write all the classes and even if you achieve that then you really don;t know anything as it is impossible to make things out. Like we use the duster we need to clean or free our mind of this confusion. and freeing your mind of this confusion is called Yog.
You should shift from seeing the view to the viewer. So that you can experience happiness.
Here he said a beautiful thing. Like in a movie there are people who get so involved that they also start crying. That is getting caught in the view, people get so involved that they tear the screen if something doesn't happen the way they want it to be.
So one should come back to the viewer for bliss ( Anand swaroop) .Then He did a revision of Patanjali Yog Sutra.
Aho......

Posted in: on Saturday, November 3, 2007 at at 6:36 PM 0 comments  

Glimpses of Satsang on 31st Oct,2007.

For us, it was totally a surprise visit of guruji to the ashram and that gives so wonderful feeling when we see him in satsang.
Satsang is filled up with glory, as he moves in! And slowly he takes us to the Knowledge Ride, which is full of fun today...

Someone asks Gurudev regarding his trip to Bombay..
He says : Just Guess, how many programs did I attend yesterday? After a few guesses, he reveals, “14 programs”.. from morning 6 to night 10:30 .. !!
(And as you know, still he was bubbling with joy,smiles and enthusiasm)

Then some fabulous Q-A session goes on like this :

Someone asked guruji about Shiv linga to which he answered:
" linga has two meanings, one is the genitals and it also means symbol or something which symbolizes. Like when you look at a newborn baby the only thing, which tells you whether the baby is a boy or a girl is the genital. That is why it is called linga.
That is the place, which symbolizes the genesis of the being. Similarly one cannot see the divine, it cannot be experienced through the five senses, so to give it a symbol the same linga was used and thus we have the shiv lingam in this particular shape.
There should be a certain amount of sacredness to the lingam so the norms of pati vrata and monogamy were introduced in the religion so that people will respect it with some sacredness. The people who you see are promiscuous do not respect this aspect at all and that is why you have prostitution in the society.
Same person then asks why Shiva was the destroyer and how come Vishnu and Shiva are the same.
Shiva and Vishnu are so to speak two different avatars, but essentially they are the same.
There is no two. Shiva is shankara, which means peace and doing good to all.
Peace is also brought sometimes by destroying.
Someone else asked about how imp it is to eat, Maharaji doesn't eat anything other than ice and banana's?
Guruji goes on to explain that a true yogi is someone who can be balanced.
Not eating too much and not eating anything at all will make you loose your focus in your sadhana. Not eating will increase your Pitta and eating too much will increase your Tamas.
Similarly about sleep, enough sleep is necessary. There are people who don't sleep at all and there are some who sleep a lot. Both is not good.
A true swami is a person who has control over his tongue and mind.
If the mind gives everything what the tongue asks then there is no control.
You keep feeding yourself whatever your stomach asks you that means you have no control over your tongue and if you have no control on this then you should forget about having control over anything else.
He then told a story how he is fed so many times by different people and all will say that it is a small bite for him to take and he lands up having small bites of half a gulabjamun from 5 different people.
Once he knew he will be forced to have lunch so he skipped breakfast and he was hungry when for the lunch they served him only rice and dal as someone had said he likes plain food. The entourage with him was also very hungry and all they got was rice and dal in the plate. Then they asked what the others had eaten and out came all the veggies and other stuff.
There was another time when he already had dinner and was visiting someone in England; he was not hungry till he entered the house. By the time the food was brought from the kitchen to the hall where he was sitting he started feeling hungry.
So one should not do what maharaji is doing. We should do what he teaches and not try to imitate him. Similarly don't try and be like Krishna, bhari padega, krishna ne bataye hue raste pe chalo, usko banne ki koshish mat karo. Log bote hain dekho guruji ko, ek din main chowdah chowdah programs karte hain main bhi karunga. Yeh sab mat karo.

Yogi is a person who can walk the path between the two extremes.

Posted in: on at at 6:29 PM 0 comments