Great Quotes - from - Sri Sri Ravishankar - Art of Living - dt 24.05.2013

Great Quotes

From

Sri Sri Ravishankar

                                                                                                                        DT:24.05.2013

Ø  Feelings make you spontaneous. Children feel, so they are spontaneous. Adults put brakes on their feelings and they start worrying.

Ø  When you gain respect, it is often detrimental to your freedom. Wisdom is to place freedom first and not to bother about respect. And when there is real love, respect simply follows you.

Ø  Tolerance and acceptance are the fruit of judgement and separation. We think these terms are positive, I tell you they are not!
Q: But aren't we supposed to accept people as they are?
Sri Sri: If you don't love them, then you have to accept them. Don't accept people as they are, just love them as they are.

Ø  India and China are natural allies; very similar culturally, socially & religiously. The continent can flourish with more bonding between the 2 giants - India and China. The Chinese Premier's Indian visit is a significant step.

Ø  When in our life, personal needs disappear and desires no longer exist, an extraordinary, mystical ability is awakened within us that enables us to bless others. When we do not want anything for ourselves, we develop the strength to fulfill the desires of others.

Ø  Q: How to conquer ego?  
Sri Sri: Ego is just a feeling of having a wall between you and others. There is no wall. You belong to me and I belong to you. You are accepted the way you are. Naturalness is the antidote for ego. Be spontaneous! Ego cannot stand spontaneity. Children are so spontaneous. Be like a child.

Ø  As the only speaker at Hangzhou from the Indian subcontinent, I was pleasantly surprised that many people spoke on spirituality, love and consciousness. Love & Spirituality, that were considered taboo some years ago, seem to have found a rightful place now at the World Cultural Forum in China.

Ø  Relationships can either take the form of strength or weakness depending on the mind. If the mind is strong then relationships can be like a gift to us, but if the mind is weak and not in control, then relationships can feel like bondage... Full article in Indian Express: http://bit.ly/16yhzgl

Ø  Just drop all that is bothering you. If you are not free today, you can never be free anytime. Don't expect freedom to come to you. "Today, I am free! Everything is going to happen the way it is going to happen."

Ø  A sense of offering comes up in you in a state of fullness, of gratitude. "You gave me this world and I offer it back to you. I have been given this body and every particle of this body, I'm offering back to you. I am yours." This intense feeling of total offering, merging, giving everything to the Divine, not saving anything for oneself, becoming the offering itself, is Pooja.

Ø  'Should I do this? Should I not do that?' Divided mind is misery. One-pointed mind is joy. All those moments when you have been very happy, it is the mind becoming one whole.

Ø  The world is as you see it. A hungry man looks at the moon, he sees it like a doughnut. Someone in love looks at the moon, it reminds him of his beloved's face. Having attained Divine love, one cannot but see only love everywhere. When you attain perfection, you see only perfection.

Ø  (Mai Tera) in Hindi means "I'm yours." So many of you who wished me in words and thought, I would like to reiterate that I am yours, now and forever.

Ø  The very joy of giving love is so much that it does not matter who is at the receiving end. When this space comes into your being, then you will go on giving love to everybody and everything - not only human beings but to animals, to trees, to distant stars. Love can be transferred to the farthest star by just your loving look, to a tree just by your touch. It can be conveyed in absolute silence, without a single word.

Ø  When you acquire self-knowledge, then you feel that your birth and your actions are both Divine. This understanding comes to you. Not a single bad word comes out from your mouth. There is no hate or ill feelings in your heart towards anyone. It just cannot happen because everyone feels part of you; like your very own. This is the pinnacle of Love.

Ø  Just like we have a Parliament, the subtle beings also have a Parliament. This Parliament of the Gods has assembled here today. An idol becomes a deity when a realized person invokes life in it through mantras. Every village has a deity that is worshipped. Leaving aside all differences of caste and creed, we are all under one Divinity. The purpose of this event is to remind us of this. [A thousand village deities or gram devatas assembled at the Bangalore Ashram today]

Ø  We don't have to be Danish to eat Danish cookies nor do we become Swiss if we eat Swiss chocolates. We accept food, music and technology too from every part of the world. Then, why don’t we accept wisdom from every part of the world and from every tradition?

Ø  You cannot understand love through intellect. It needs to be felt. And anything that needs to be felt needs synthesis, not analysis. You have to become one with it to know it. Whatever you know through the head is at a distance. The subject-object relation will always remain. But love is not like that. The taste of the pudding is in tasting, music is in hearing it. In the same way, feeling.

Ø  Q: What is the quality you need to love everyone?
Sri Sri: Be at ease with yourself and everybody, a simplicity. When you are open from within, you can't but love everyone and everyone can't but love you. Neither you have a choice nor do they. You have done this as a baby. Then, you were natural, simple, innocent and free with everybody. And everybody loved you!

Ø  Divine love is - "I have never seen your face but I have fallen in love with you. I have not heard your name but my heart beats by your name. I have never touched you but you are pulsating in every cell of my being. I have never met you but you are in me. All I want is to dissolve. All I want is to be one."

Ø  Throughout the ages, man has tried to express love, but it has remained inexpressible. Love is so deep somewhere in you that you find all your expressions are just a shadow of it. If the feeling is superficial, it can be expressed. But the feeling that is so genuine, so deep, so authentic, is hard to express.

Ø  If you are saddened by another's sorrow, then sorrow will never come to you. If you are happy at another's joy, then joy will never leave you.

Ø  Don't think people who agree with your grievances are your friends. Those who make your negative feelings and frustration grow more and more in you may appear to be friends but they are bad company. Good company makes you feel the problem is nothing. "It's solvable, it's simple, don't worry." They pump enthusiasm in you.

Ø  In order to do certain jobs, you need certain qualifications. If you want to lift 100kg, you need that much strength. So, if love is a question of ability, strength, not everyone can love. But love transcends all ability. Whether you are foolish or wise, rich or poor, sick or healthy, strong or weak, you can still be in love.

Ø  Life is full of interruptions but we need to keep moving. We park somewhere and then we move again. If you park your car in a wrong place, you need to move it sooner and if you park in the right place, you have freedom; you can move it when you want to. Similarly, you have to park your mind in a safe place. If you have parked your mind in your own garage, nobody can tell you when you should move it. But if you park your mind in somebody else's garage, they will be after you.

Ø  Our human body is made to bring heaven on this earth, meant to bring sweetness into this world, not spill venom. It is easy to put down anybody but it takes some guts, some intelligence and courage to uplift people, to bring out the divine quality in others around. By bringing out divine qualities in others, you will be able to see Divinity deep inside yourself.

Ø  Even if you see one beautiful quality, decorate it, exaggerate it, make it big, "So and so is great, excellent, marvelous." If you see a negative quality, analyze with your head, reason it out, "Why are they acting this way? Maybe, they are stressed..." The analysis of negativity brings compassion in you and exaggeration of good brings waves of beauty. Whether this person is beautiful or not, it makes YOU more beautiful. Those who exaggerate positive qualities, their bodies get filled with them. When this body gets filled with praise, the Divine dawns.

Ø  Devotion is very beautiful. A student comes to a Master, a Guru, with tears in his eyes - there are so many problems. And when he leaves, he carries the same tears. Tears still flow, but the quality is different - they are of gratitude, of love.

Ø  Love is that phenomenon of dissolving, disappearing, merging, becoming one with the Infinite. Love is that phenomenon of total letting go.

Ø  I have only two things to tell you. One is that there is no misery in life. Wake up and see. There is no sorrow, no problem. If that doesn't work, the second is, give your problems to me.

Ø  Asking for explanations stirs up all the garbage. They justify, you say something, then they feel guilty or justify more. In either case, it is of no use to you. Sometimes, it's alright to go and say, "I'm sorry." But don't chew on it more than it is needed. Going with a love, accepting space - "What can I do for you?" That is enough

Ø  Whomsoever we fall in love with, we are really falling in love with our Self.

With warm regards to

All of Guruji’s disciples and Adorers

From

(V.VIJAYAMOHAN)