Life And Love

Life and Love ---------

Quotes by Sri Sri Ravishankar

" If you just look into all the pleasures or joy that you get in life from the world, from anything---they all come with a tax. You have to pay a tax for them. And this tax is sorrow. The direction of life is towards one thing: that is love. You be prosperous and have no love, that prosperity has no value. You are on spiritual path but you don’t experience love, then that spiritual path is no path, it is very dry. When we express love too much, then also it disappears, dies out. It’s like when you keep the seed on the surface of the soil, not a little deep inside, it doesn’t grow.All these different desires for experiences, for living, for knowing -- they arise and they get fulfilled and they move. Is there anybody who has not fulfilled any desire? Or is there anybody who has fulfilled all the desires? Is there any end for it? Want, or desire, arises when you are not happy. Have you seen this? When you are very happy then there is contentment. "Contentment" means "no want."To your very dear and loved ones, you say this: "If you need me, I am here. I am here for you. I am here to make you comfortable." Those are the moments that you have really lived your life. There is no way---not by any action or by words---that you can ever convince anybody that you really love them. The more we try to do it, the more we are doing the contrary. When you tell somebody you love them, make sure you are not saying it out of your "vasanas," your own cravings, your own impressions, your own craving for some joy.If you make someone feel guilty about their mistake, then you have not forgiven them. That guilt itself is a punishment. See a mistake as a mistake , not as "my" or "his" mistake. "My" mistake means guilt over oneself ; "his" mistake means anger towards the other person. Someone else throws a garbage and we are ready to take it all in. Someone got hurt and they are throwing all anger, frustration; and you hear [them]. You say, "Oh, why did so-and-so say such things!" And you immediately grasp those things, and you store it in your mind. Now not only that person has been in misery, you have shared that misery with that person, taken it on you.Why ? The question mark is like a hook. That means you hook the past. So you ask, "Why did it happen?" and you hook the past, hook with a question, and you go on grumbling and grinding and grinding in your mind. If you are against someone, you have no freedom from them. If you find fault in someone, and your mind is set against them, know that you are stuck with them, glued with them! Super glue!See the nature of mind: if there are ten good qualities and one negative, the mind clings on to that one negative. Ten compliments and one insult, the mind will forget all the ten compliments. It hangs on to the one insult and goes on and on and on about it. To break free, you have to totally surrender. There is no freedom at all without surrender, and when you surrender you get infinite freedom. The greater your surrender is, the greater your freedom, that much the load is taken off of you.The greatest power is in surrender---surrender to the Divine. How can we not see this? That everything in the body is happening by itself. Everything in creation is happening by itself. The flowers are blossoming, the leaves are becoming green, the petals are becoming yellow, the sun is rising, setting---how could one be so blind not to see an "unseen hand" behind this whole creation? If a flower does not remind you of the eternal Truth, then it has not fulfilled its purpose.Life begins when we step out of the small chattering mind. How do we do that ? Through samadhi ! When you meditate, you are not just bringing a harmony within yourself, but you are influencing the subtle layers of creation, the subtle bodies of all the different levels of existence in the creation. The very purpose for being in this body, for every one of us, is to live and rejoice in that virgin area, that untouched, pure and ever green, blissful area of our Self. Bondage is not anywhere outside. It is in the mind, in the consciousness. The transcendental principal, the fourth state of our consciousness, rules over all the other influences of all the planets or cosmic rays. So, if you could meditate, you nullify all the undesirable effects of the cosmic rays, the cosmos. Singing, chanting, meditating can eliminate all those undesirable effects.The purpose of every practice — spiritual practice, meditation,breathing techniques, and kriya, all this — is to uncover something that blocks the expression of Divine Love.Let go of all your efforts, searches and desires, for God can be felt only in deep peace and stillness.Our senses have a limited capacity to enjoy, but the desire in the mind to enjoy is infinite. This is where opposition begins: the mind wants to enjoy, but your body is too tired to enjoy. You sit and think; you sit and feel. Do you think that feeling just remains with you? It reaches far beyond this Universe. Your intentions, your feelings get spread much faster than the radiation. It is spread all over this globe and far, far beyond.When you see this whole flow of events in life as temporary, as nonexistent, then, even when someone scolds at you, you smile.The Divine is only waiting for you to dig a little deeper into yourself, that is all.

Jai Gurudev !