! Wish you a very very HAPPY DEEPAWALI to YOU ALL !

Some wisdom from Guruji  on Diwali

Light dispels darkness and when the darkness within you is dispelled through the light of wisdom, the
good wins over the evil in you

Diwali, the festival of lights as it is known the world over, celebrates the victory  of good over evil, light over darkness and knowledge over ignorance. Lights are  lit on this day not just to decorate homes, but also to communicate a profound truth  about life. Light dispels darkness and when the darkness within you is dispelled
through the light of wisdom, the good wins over the evil in you.

Though there are many legends about the festival, Diwali is essentially celebrated to  lit the light of wisdom in every heart, the light of life in every home and bring a smile on every face. Diwali is the shortened form of Deepavali, which literally means rows  of lights. Life has many facets and stages to it. It is important that you throw light on
all of them, for if one aspect of your life is in darkness, there can be no complete expression of life. That’s why rows of lights are lit on Diwali to remind you that every aspect of life needs your attention and the light of knowledge.

Every lamp that you light is symbolic of a good quality. There are good qualities in every human being. Some have forbearance, love, strength, generosity; others have the ability to unite people. The latent values in you are like a lamp. When they are lit, awakened, that is Diwali. Don’t be satisfied with lighting one lamp; light a thousand.
If you have the value of service in you, don’t be satisfied only with that. Lit the lamp of wisdom in you, acquire knowledge. Awaken all the facets of your being.

Another profound symbolism is wrapped in the firecrackers that go off during Diwali. In life, you often become like a firecracker, waiting to explode with your pent-up emotions, frustration and anger. When you continue to suppress your emotions such as cravings, aversions and hatred, they are bound to reach a bursting point. Bursting crackers is like a psychological exercise created by ancient people to release bottled- up emotions. When you see an explosion outside, you feel similar sensations within you as well. Along with the explosion, there is so much light. So when you let go of the suppressed emotions, you become hollow and empty and the light of knowledge dawns.

Wisdom is needed everywhere. Even if one member of the family is shrouded in dark- ness, you cannot be happy. So, you need to lit the light of wisdom in every member of your family. Extend it to every member of society, every person on the planet.
When true wisdom dawns, it gives rise to celebration. Often in celebrations, you tend to lose focus or awareness. To maintain awareness in the midst of celebrations, the ancient rishis brought sacredness and puja (rituals) to every celebration. For the same reason, Diwali is also a time for pujas. The spiritual aspects of Diwali add depth to the celebrations. Any celebration has to be spiritual as a celebration without spirituality has no depth.

Celebration is the nature of the spirit and every excuse to celebrate is good. In celebration, you should not only have a party; you must remind yourself of the wisdom. For the one who is not in knowledge, Diwali comes only once a year, but for the wise, Diwali is every moment and every day. Be wise and celebrate Diwali every moment and everyday of your life.

Om Shanti Shanti Shanti ! Honorable Minister, His Excellencies and Dignitaries on the dais, friends and distinguish guests.

As I was listening to our Honorable Minster of Health speak about mental well being, it came to my mind, you know the word for health in Sanskrit is SWASTHA that means one who is established in oneself, SWA means self STHA means one who is established in self, If you go to Bali island in Indonesia they greet you with OM SWASTHI RASTU – (may you have health), meaning well being, mental, physical, emotional, it includes everything, total well being.

In the east, as it was being earlier mentioned that 2500 years ago we have had this education, common masses, I would take it even further back 5110 years it was in Bhagvat Gita concept of well being, social well being is mentioned and even earlier Maharishi Patanjali made this whole treatise on yoga and how you can be happy physically, mentally and socially. If someone is obsessed with hatred, anger and jealousy they are not considered to be socially well, of course it is an ancient concept to have this mind which is a container of all knowledge, which is a container of intelligence, emotion and life force as such cleansed to keep it healthy and to get rid of this jealousy, hatred etc.

If you analyze today’s problem there is hatred in society, there is greed, there is fear and because of this, depression sets. It was appalling to hear that depression will be the Number 1 disease in the coming decades in the

world.      In Europe nearly 30% of the population suffers from mental depression,

30% of the population!!! I was invited to address the psychiatrists in  Europe

and they said you know “we expect this rate of mental depression to go up to 48% in the coming decade” and you can’t feed half the population Prozac or other anti depressant, you need other ways, you have to change life styles, bring certain changes in our life styles and educate our self, what I would call as mental hygiene, you know dental hygiene, oral hygiene we teach people how to keep their teeth intact but we are not teaching how to keep our mind SANE or behavior pattern SANE.

I am happy that the World Health Organization has taken up this project now. It should have been taken a few decades before. We could have saved our planet from so much of this terrorism, hatred, ethnic conflicts, religious strives and emotional upheavals, traumas, but never the less we are now taking action. It has to take a fast track -educative and preventive programs throughout the world, even if one small pocket of the planet is left uneducated about mental well being you are not in a safe world. Terrorism is one such example of extreme mental sickness. So, in this august meeting, we will all have to sit and think of how we can reach sanity to every nook and corner of the planet.

One idea is to bring the spiritual knowledge, ancient knowledge we have in this part of the world, bring a more secular, scientific attitude or temperament so that spirituality is accepted by all sections of society.  It has to be free from dogmas. Scientific and secular spirituality is what we need, that would give to the world a mind which is healthy which can take any stress or pressure that the modern society is posing in front of us.

It is unfortunate that in some countries yoga is banned. Yoga is a very simple way to keep your system free from stress, to keep happy, to keep contented. I think it is just because of lack of education. If the World Health Organization takes such a role to convey to the people, countries, and the health ministers of the various countries where they are trying to ban or partially ban yoga and yogic practices, to realize the importance of it. And usually we say there are

4 sources of energy, 1st source is food that everybody agrees and we all know and there is lot of education on nutrition today and the 2nd source of energy is sleep, you give someone enough food and you don’t let them sleep they go mad, they go insane. A good amount of sleep, not too much and not too little, someone sleeps 10hrs everyday they get duller and duller day by day.  So the right amount of sleep 6 to 8hrs of sleep would give you enough energy not less.

3rd source of energy is breathing as our honorable guest from Thailand emphasized on the breathing. I would say most of the illness can be handled through breathing exercises, proper breathing can improve the blood circulation, neurological health, physical health and mental health – breathing is very important for energising our system. 4th source of energy I would say is a happy mind, meditative mind.

A meditative mind gives you so much energy. You might have experienced in your own life you know, when there is a function at home and you have to work 16-18hours a wedding or housewarming ceremony or any new project which is very emotionally dear to you, you work 18hours, 20hrs you don’t get tired but in the office you are asked to take 2 more hours to work you feel exhausted, so the mind plays an important role. The commitment in the mind, the focus in the mind brings lots of energy too. So meditation is the 4th source of energy. So you need to educate the population on this, and all the 4 different sources of energy so that they can benefit by attending to them.

Mental well being to me is improved perception, improved observation and improved expression. Like, the body grows from the time you are born to the age 21, 22 and then the body starts deteriorating, our mental age, our mental well being should grow simultaneously from childhood we need to keep improving our perception, observation and our expression this has no age, usually psychologists say 50 or 40 it stops, middle age our mental observation, expression starts deteriorating. I say if you are practicing yoga or meditation this doesn’t happen. There is no decay of your mental well being. You know the other day a psychologist came to me, he has opened a clinic and says ”Guruji, please give me blessings ”. I said ”what?!!’’, I don’t get patients, please bless me so that I get at least 3-4patients, I can break even, I can make some money”.  Asking me to give blessing so that patients come to them, probably the psychologist would be happy to hear that there is one suicide every 40second so that there is dearth for patients.

There is a taboo about mental well being, it is not that there no mentally sick people but unlike going to a doctor if you have some other illness, if you are mentally not well you go to a doctor then that is taboo, there is stigma attached to it, so you feel very down, the family and the society looks down upon you. We need to correct this through education, educating people you know it is ok to go and see psychiatrist / psychologist and it is normal. In some countries it is a fashion, at least one member in a family goes to a counselor in Argentina, if you go to Buenos Aires you find lot of people go to psychologist even though they are well, they have no mental illness. It is a sort of fashion to go to a psychologist / psychiatrist / counselor, to talk about how you feel and what’s your problem in your life, but in South Asian countries you have big taboo about it. We have to get rid of this stigma , we have to get rid of the stigma no doubt, also, we have to educate people in our own ways of meditation, of yoga, breathing techniques, of spirituality of community living, community service, singing, dancing, participating in social activities, games, all these can help in the mental well being.

You know, I heard that a very well known industrialist in India, he would call all doctors at his house, anyone says he is a doctor he would invite him / her and give them the fees, take the prescription whatever they give and then get all the medicines as well ! So his attendant asked him,” why do you call all these doctors?” , he replied,” so that they will live, make a living” Then the attendant asked, ‘why do you buy all the medicines they prescribe – Unani, ayurveda, alopathy, homeopathy- why do you buy all the medicines sir ???”. He replied,” so that the pharmaceutical companies can live”. ”But sir, you don’t take any of these medicines??”…he replied,” So that I could live myself!”(laughter). You know the irony is medicine is not the answer for all this, placebo effect has demonstrated to the world over and over that it is not just swallowing pills that you can get well or taking more and more of these vitamins and minerals that you are going to be better. You need to attend to lifestyle, you need to attend to your food habits, you need to attend to how you interact with people, what are you taking from every interaction.

As I am speaking, see if you observe the mind, mind is saying ”yes or no”, mind is accepting that which it already agrees and knows, or every few minutes mentally we go for a cappuccino or a cup of tea, or presence of mind is not there! And this is a problem in our schools and colleges, children say we study for whole day but nothing remains in our mind, retention power has become so less, you ask today’s youth to narrate one movie or story he has seen, you know he can’t do it completely he will mix it up with 2/3 movies that he has seen, because the stimulus bombardment to our mind is so high we are not recuperating that energy, that mental energy, a sense of well being. We are not attending to the container; we are simply dumping things into the container. Information is being pumped into the container; we are not expanding the capacity of the container or attending to its cleanliness.

Mind is our container, container of our life, we need to expand it and this happens through a few moments of silence, few moments of meditation, few moments of deep relaxation and I am so glad that this breakthrough has happened in the world today through the World Health Organization recognizing this mental well being. Recognizing that the people’s behavioral pattern had to be attended to, otherwise they are not healthy. You know in many meetings people sit and talk for hours together and argue and counter argue really not being aware of what they are saying. I would like you to ponder on this, – come up with practical solutions, and create teams, combined efforts of NGOs, governmental agencies, civil society, everyone together, religious bodies, religious institutions should get on to this project, a combined effort of all of us, of this different aspect of society, to make society, the world, a better place, a better human being for the coming generations. THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

Q. I don’t know how to pray, I understand meditation but I don’t understand prayer. How does one pray?

Sri Sri: Meditation is the finest form of prayer. Prayer is ‘Oh God give me this, give me that’ or ‘Oh, I am so thankful to you because you gave me that or this’.
But meditation is just reposing and that is the best form of prayer. Prayer happens when you are utterly helpless or when you are very grateful. There are two situations in your life. Either you are so helpless, when you have no other way. Like if you are very thirsty and you need water, you say please give me some water. Please help.

Asking for help is one form of prayer.
Thanking is another form of prayer.
And the third is just reposing, being quiet.

The third is the most supreme type of prayer.

You can be grateful for all that you have had, that is a sort of prayer. You don’t have to use particular sentences or phrases or verses for it.

The yagyas that are being done here is not just some sort of prayer. It is a technique, a procedure. You don’t need to understand what those chantings mean. The chantings, the vibrations have an impact on our whole body, mind and the environment. That is the most important thing about yagyas. It is not asking God for this thing or that. It is just chanting those shlokas. Hearing the chantings is even more beneficial. You don’t need to chant with them. Simply listening to it, itself creates the vibrations in the consciousness.

This attitude will help you go deep in meditation.
I want nothing
I do nothing
I am nothing

These are basic principles of meditation. We have to pay attention to this thing.

By Poojya Gurudev Sri Sri Ravishankar

Nava’ means ‘nine’ and ‘Ratri’ is made up of ‘Ra’ which also means ‘night’ and ‘Tri’ meaning the ‘the three aspects of our life, Body, Mind and Soul. So ‘Navaratri’ means ‘giving rest to all the three aspects of our life,for nine days’.

The first three days of Navaratri, are ‘Tamasic’ days, followed by three ‘Rajasic’ days and ending with three ‘Sattvic’ days. At night all the artis are performed for the Devi – the enjoyer of everything. So there is classical dance, music and various musical instruments being played. Each day has special implications, yagnas, poojas and homas are performed. Among the things offered to the fire are hundreds of different herbs, fruits, garments, and mantras, all creating a gloriously divine atmosphere to drown in? Our ancestors felt the inadequacy of words and so they expressed themselves with symbols … for instance, we offer flowers and fruit to God. The ‘flower’ is a symbol of what we are – so full, attractive and so light – so beautiful. Fruits are symbols of completeness. In the life cycle of

a plant, fruits signify completeness. Also the fruit is the ultimate result. That is how we feel when we offer the symbolic fruit to God with all the gratitude for contentment in life.

We also light lamps. Indian tradition involves tall brass lamps with a swan carved at the top. This is a very beautiful symbol. It means that with the light of knowledge, one attains ‘Viveka’ a characteristic of the swan. In Sanskrit, it is called ‘Neerakshiraviveka’ meaning a swan can differentiate between milk and water even though both may be mixed. Similarly, in the context of Navaratri, there is a symbolism behind the ‘bull’ being destroyed by the ‘Devi’. What do we call someone who is very dull, thick skinned and insensitive? A buffalo! Only the Mother Divine can destroy this buffalo with the collective energy of Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh! Just as a baby takes nine months to be born, the Devi took nine days to rest and what was born on the tenth day was pure love and devotion, with which the Devi conquered the buffalo of inertia and dullness! Devi Ma is not somebody holding a big ‘trishool’ in one hand.

She is a form of energy, a manifestation of the Divine itself. Therefore, sometimes, the forms taken by this Divine may be that of Ganesha, Chandi (Devi), Vishnu, Shiva….. and the manifestation, in this creation, happens in a mother’s womb…. in silence, secretly. So during these nine days of Navaratri when the Master goes into silence, the energy is in the process of getting more and more refined, well-tuned, to welcome the Mother Divine. This is called ‘Aradhana’.

Now these yagnas are not for the sages who perform them, but for the entire Universe for all the misery, sorrow, and pain in the world. The blessings of the yagnas and poojas teach the whole of humanity and a lot of good comes out of these – peace, strength, prosperity, success and faith – which by itself, is the best blessing. Gurudev says that the ninth day is a day for honoring everything that we have, no matter how seemingly insignificant, and the tenth day is ‘Vijaya Dashmi’ the ‘victory day’. It is only after we have honored something that we can gain victory over it. This day is celebrated as the victory of the Devi over the evil forces – which is also just ‘Maya’.