May 9th is Guruji’s Star Birthday per the Indian Vedic calendar and May 13th ( Mein Thera !) is his birthday per the Gregorian calendar. i ll meet him tomorrow and will be part of the Grand bash in Washington D.C . JaiGurudev.

We were asking Guruji about the difference between a desire and an expectation…He said, Desires are always for something nice or good, but an expectation can be for something bad… Like you may expect the share market to crash, i dont think many will desire that!

Then He went on to say that there is really no difference between desire, fear and anxiety!!

He said that the mind (or that aspect of yourself that manifests stuff into the physical realm) cannot distinguish between a desire, some fear or an anxiety… so for example, if you are riding a bicycle, and are
thinking, oh i should not bang into the pavement, i should not bang into the pavement, i should not bang. The mind incorrectly assumes that that’s exactly what you want and manifests that! and so you bang!

This little byte of Knowledge, this insight can explain every single happening in our life! The mind CANNOT differentiate between a desire, a fear or an anxiety, and will merrily manifest whatever it is that you are feeling and thinking strongly about.

We have the utsav in Bangalore in an open air place, and off late there have been a few clouds and some rumblings of thunder… Rashmin was listening to me while i was talking about what Guruji had said and
remarked oh i hope there will be no rain… and i said thats it! if you think that, there is going to be rain!

and he said, oh this is complicated… what do i think!?… Think about clear skies! is what i told him…

We are all so used to thinking “negatively”… hoping, wishing for things NOT to happen… and exactly that manifests into our lives!

Reprogram yourself to wishing and hoping for certain things to happen!! and then let go of the desire, ‘coz feverishness for the desire will make you go for certain into “what ifing” … and soon the thoughts and
feeling about it not happening become strong.

Guruji once had remarked, whenever you wish for something, always wish, “Let me have this or better!” You may wish for a million dollars and the Universe actually wanted to give you a 100 million, but since your
wish is for just a million, thats all you get.

Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavantu!!! …or better!!!!!

Q: I am married. I do everything to please my wife…and also praise that you are the QUEEN of my life. But still we go through fights. How much should I surrender? My wife fights that she will go to her parents house.
Guruji: This is a very complex situation (laughter). You are ready to do everything, but still your wife wants to go her mother’s house. Well every lady loves mother’s place and would like to spend as much time there. How many agree (all ladies lifted their hands up So, dont worry much. Also ladies, you form a club…and help out some needy husbands like this to provide a solution

Q: My 5yr old is mischievous and restless, and sometimes I lose patience…and get angry. Even though I am aware of all the knowledge points…at that moment they dont seem to help Also, I see that he gets involved a lot in watching TV. What to do?
Guruji: What can you expect from a 5 year old. They are mischievous…and LET them be mischievous Yes! important to not let the kid watch TV for more than 1 hour. Else, they will develop Attention Deficiency.

Q: What is absolute truth? Every person might have an understanding about Truth…and their own justification. So, its all relative right? How do I know what is the Real truth ?
Guruji: You know that you are standing right? Even if the whole world says you are NOT standing…you say “YES! I AM STANDING” How do you say that?? Because you KNOW ! That is Absolute truth. (eruption of claps)
If you agree to someone else’s opinion….then it is Relative truth. If you are sure about your opinion…then it is Absolute truth (claps)

Q: From past 4 days I have been meaning to ask this: In the course they say BECOME A LION. All my family members are doing the course…and if all of them become Lion…it will be a problem right. How do I handle this problem? (laughter)
Guruji: So, are you saying that you want to be a mouse instead (laughter). Well its your choice. Have you heard of LIONS CLUB (this is very common club in India)…everyone is a LION there. Make your family a Lions Club :))

Q: (was asked in Telugu) Ladies are not able to rise in power because of lack of political connections.
Guruji: Why? The whole India is being ruled by a Lady (indirectly And there are so many ladies who are in POWER right now. They are chief ministers etc., And also do you think males donot have any problem? Ask them…they will say that “My own wife doesnt listen to me” (laughter)

Q: Whenever I fight with my husband…I say that I am going to Ashram. It is becoming more common these days. Will this be a problem later on? Will my husband ask me to stay here ONLY (laughter)

Guruji: Dont worry. Nothing like that will happen. After a while, he will say that he will join you to the Ashram (laughter)

He mentioned 3-4 times to read “Celebrating the Silence” for many questions asked !

Source : Many thanks to Prasad - ppeddama@gmail.com

Guruji was having His dinner last week in Taiwan and was carefully eating everything in His plate. He then told some of us sitting around - “We need to save every grain of food. There’s a shortage of food worldwide.” That evening, He personally made sure that every bit of food in the house was consumed by the volunteers and nothing was left over. He went around the house serving from each container of food to ensure that they were all empty! He was

It is important to know about interpersonal relationships. What keeps and what really disturbs interpersonal relationships? The relationship gets disturbed when disagreement begins.

Just look at yourself. Have you always agreed with yourself? You had some idea yesterday; today you may have a different idea. Five years back you had other ideas that do not necessarily agree with the ideas that you have today. So when you have disagreement with yourself, why should it not happen with someone else?

The ’someone’ you have a disagreement with is just a photocopy of your old or the new self. So you need to take a look at your own thought patterns and emotional patterns, there is a rhythm in them. And there is a rhythm in the consciousness. We need to find a harmony between all these rhythms within us and that’s what is called spirituality.

Spirituality is not just fantasising; it’s observing your own existence. Have we thoroughly known our body? You can know someone else’s body but have you experienced your own body? Experiencing your own body, your breath, your mind, your emotion and the source of your life is meditation. Meditation is experiencing the life force and being conscious of it; and it is done effortlessly.

Mind and body function on completely opposite laws. In the realm of mind, effortlessness is the key. You cannot remember something by putting effort. The moment you relax the memory comes back. Creativity, intelligence and memory ? all these faculties within us happen effortlessly. But you can build muscles only when you put effort.

How do you listen? The sounds come and fall on the eardrums but if the mind is elsewhere, can you hear? You are listening through that faculty in you that is called the mind. When you are listening, you are either agreeing or disagreeing. Notice whether you are saying yes or no. This something by which we say yes or no is called the intellect.
It is the same consciousness that functions as man, buddhi, chitta, ahankaara. Our ancient people have called the four different faculties as Antahkaran Chadushtaya. Similarly, if you observe memory, it clings onto something that is negative. Ten compliments you will forget from someone but his one insult will stick to the mind.

This needs to be reversed; and the process of reversing this tendency of the mind from clinging on to the negative and moving to something positive is called yoga. Yoga makes you like a baby again. It not only revives your nature, it also keeps your heart and mind young and bright. Yoga improves perception, observation and ex-pression.

For maintaining interpersonal relationships, you have to first have a relationship with yourself. Your relationship with yourself is called integrity. If you have no relationship with yourself, that’s called lack of integrity. Secondly, being informal keeps your interpersonal relationship strong, for it gives space for mistakes to happen. You cannot expect perfection in any relationship or situation.

Today one of the biggest problems with the world is emotional instability. When we create an informal outlook and cordial environment around us, we grease the friction and become the master of our environment and not feel helpless about what is happening around us.

Life is very complex. There is no set formula. When you think that you are very honest, that you are righteous, you become a little stiff inside without even knowing it. You point your finger towards others and become intolerant. When you recognise that there are flaws in you, you are then able to accommodate the flaws in other persons.

That’s why it is said, ”do a good deed and forget about it”. It is not only your vices or bad qualities that will harm you. Even your good qualities can make you stiff, rude and angry. That is why you should surrender both bad and good qualities. Relax and let go.

There are three types of perfection ? perfection in action, perfection in speech and perfection in feelings. Many who have perfection in their action and speech do not have that at their feeling level. Some have perfection in their feelings and also speak very good but their action will not be perfect. For example, tailors in India. They will speak sweetly but won’t give clothes for Diwali in time. They will smile but will not do work.

We don’t keep things in mind; we speak right, but do not do work on time. People from other countries see this as a big problem with us. They say that Indians are very nice but they do not do work. On the other hand, the foreigners work on time, but have a lot of things on their minds. Anger and fatigue fill their minds. The three perfections are called trikarana shuddhi ? one should try to be perfect in all the three spheres.

If you have a positive state of mind you become creative, entrepreneurs and successful in anything you do. There are some books about positive thinking in the West such as How to Win Friends and Influence People. The man who wrote this book committed suicide. People in the West talk about affirmation. Affirmation is, you wake up in the morning, sit on your bed and affirm to yourself, ”I will be good from today and that I will love myself”. All these affirmations you put on yourself. This is not at all a healthy thing.

Meditation is the only way you can transcend the negative thoughts and then positive thoughts will come spontaneously and automatically. Stress and tension cause negative attitude. Suppose you don’t sleep for two days small things can start to irritate. And if you have rested well, the situation will be different.

Some people always blame themselves for something that goes wrong in a close acquaintance. Leave this ‘always’ ? like ”I want to be always happy”. Take life as it comes. Sometimes you are upset or angry; it is ok to be upset or angry. Life does not stop for anything; it moves. Just move with the flow.

–His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

Wonderful sutra from Gurudev. It amazes me that every line Gurudev speaks can be quoted as a Sutra. Anywhere , any context , every word and every line He speaks has a purpose and a meaning. Either its  profound with some inner meaning or its a practical tip to lead a better , smarter life. I am not try to exaggerate here beacause of my love and devotion for Him , maybe this is the case with all Enlightened Beings , but am sure of this phenomenon with Guruji. Am looking forward to meet him on his star Birthday on May 9th and have fun.

“Life gives you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness”

Ponder over this line and make it part of you , it will give us immense strength to face and handle any situation in life and “Accept people, things and situations as they are”.

The sattvic intellect is one that just does the job joyfully and is unmindful of the results. Let things happen or not happen—either way they don’t lose their enthusiasm.

- His Holiness Sri Sri Ravishankar

Question : Guruji, after having done so much of sadhana also I get negative thoughts. This leads me to very awkward feelings. What do I do?

Guruji: You know, don’t bother too much about the thoughts. I tell you it comes and goes. But if you see that you are still not able to handle them then… then you should run!! Just run for some few kilometers! And then you will feel so much out of breath that no thoughts can come to you.(Laughter!!) Or can you swim? Do you know to swim? Ok so swim… Swim for a few hrs and then you will see not a single thought is coming to you! Just do as I tell you. 5 kms of run. But do it in the daytime. At night if you run then police will follow you. (Laughter!!)

Question : Guruji I have seen you 13 years back once. And after a long gap I am seeing you now. Guruji am so shocked to see that age has not touched you. How have you kept yourself so young!??! Guruji, my next question is I am very restless. How do I handle this restlessness?

Guruji: Have you done the Sudarshan Kriya? No? You should do the Sudarshan kriya!

Same devotee who asked the above question: Guruji what else?

Guruji : What else? (Laughter!!) You are asking what else? (Laughter!!) Ok pranayama, Meditations. Are you in TTC? No? Then you should do the Teachers Training Course. It makes you so firm! Then nothing shakes you!! (Laughter!!) 15 days of grinding and grooming!! (Laughter!!) Its good! Very good!

Question : What is life force?

Guruji : How are you speaking? There is some life, that’s how, right? Are you alive? Yes you are. If you are not living you cant speak, right? So that
which is getting the drive in you to speak is the life force. When you in Satwa then your parana is high. You feel more energetic. But if you eat too much then it is not so high. And if you eat more than that then you know what happens to you!!

Question : Guruji, how to sharpen my memory?

Guruji : I’ll tell you the answer by 15th July 2019. (Laughter!!) When will I tell you I said? Let me see if you remember.

Question : Why is your name not there in any book?

Guruji : You asked me this question yesterday also right? And I answered you…

Question : Guruji, at times I get very angry, How do I deal with it?

Guruji : You like perfection. Right? You are a perfectionist. If you leave a little space for imperfection then you will see things are different. Then you
can have but anger will never have you!!

Question : Guruji, what should we do for the less fortunate people?

Guruji : You are fortunate, you have the eyes the ears, the legs, the hands the tongue in place and perfect! You should use in a proper way to do good to others.

Question : Guruji, I don’t get sleep at night, Only get our thoughts of you at all the times.. What should I do?

Guruji : (laughter!!) That’s all right no?!!?

Question : Guruji, what happens when we die?

Guruji : You know I want you to have some surprise when you die. (Laughter!!) If I tell you everything right now then you will not enjoy the scene after death! Then you will feel “Oh! I already knew it!!” (Laughter!!)

Question : Guruji, what is the difference between Atma and Paramatma?

Guruji : Atma came in the beginning and Paramatama is beyond that. The in between the Atma and Paramatma is the Mahatma. (Laughter!!) So catch hold of the Mahatma and see the atma to ultimately reach the Paramatma.

Question : What is the spirit?

Guruji : Spirit is the life force. That helps you to see, helps you to function..Like the thoughts arrive. Its like electricity, it is there you cannot see it. But you can see the lights shining! The air condition working! The fans moving! But cannot see the electricity. Similarly the prana you cannot see. Do you see this?

Question : Guruji, how to realize the soul?

Guruji : Have you done the Sudarshan Kriya? Yes. Tell me how do you feel? Blank? That is it!

Question : Guruji, how can we prevent the mind going around the world?

Guruji : Have you done the advance course? The part II program? There are several meditations there to help you huh.

Question : Guruji, do you believe in rebirth?

Guruji : I don’t believe it. I just know it!

Question : Guruji, I have gone through several experiences, which are not so good. Some of them I am not able to forget. What to do?

Guruji : By experience you become mature. Every pleasant or unpleasant experience makes you strong!

Knowlege from His Holiness Sri Sri Ravishankar.

Don’t let politics sway you away from the path. If you are afraid of politics you cannot be successful in the spiritual realm. You have to cross the barricade of politics. It is the test of your strength, commitment, and your focus.

You cannot avoid politics, but to harbor it in your mind or not, is your choice.

There were politics among the 12 apostles, and among the followers of , Krishna was in politics from head to toe. And you say you don’t want politics?

The more you don’t want it, the more you will harbor it in your consciousness. When you recognize politics in any group or Satsang, that is a blessing for you to be centered and go inward. You can do that without blaming the group and running away from people. It can enhance your skill to act and not get attached.

Advantages of politics:

– Brings up diversity in people.

– Puts in front of you different viewpoints, ways, and tendencies.

– Enhances your skill to communicate and act.

– Brings centeredness and dispassion.

– Shakes you up and makes you stand up to the knowledge.

– Enhances your capacity to accept and tolerate.

– Makes you realize the whole life is a game.

Cross the threshold of politics and come to the Divine.

The strong will smile through politics and the weak will lament.

JaiGurudev

Guruji is on a tour of USA in May & July . The opportunity to be with Him, is NOT TO be missed by anybody. Especially folks who have experienced His Sudharshan Kriya. Money and Time are the top excuses people give to NOT make it to these events and be with HIM.

Guruji once said ( not verbatim) the money that has to be spent will be spent, it is upto us to spend it on Sattvic activities like these. Also it has been my experience and many thousands of devotees all over the world - the money and time that you spend for such rare events will come back to you in multi-fold. If, right now, your mind says “its IMPOSSIBLE to spend this kind of money or IMPOSSIBLE to leave work, kids, pets and go to meet Guruji “, i tell you for once act against your MIND and see what happens, it will be a turning point in your life, you will be breaking a big pattern in you life . You will STEP INTO THE BIG MIND . JaiGurudev.

I sincerely request you all to come and be in the presence of Guruji. His love for us is Soooooo..Much that he keeps running after us and comes to USA :-), come lets all Laugh Sing Dance & Meditate with the Divine.

Click this link to see more details of Gurudev’s 2008 USA visit

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