Excerpts of Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's talk in Hamburg, Germany
You know, why are children all over the world so attractive? Because their presence is so pure! Their presence, their vibration is so positive and clean. As we grow older, we forget how to make our vibrations more positive. In our presence, in our vibration, there is stress, tension and worries. Ya? And that is where these breathing exercises, Sudarshan Kriya, pranayama, meditation help –– All these help to uplift our spirit. Make us feel very positive.
We all are entitled to a violence free society, disease free body, confusion free mind, prejudice free intellect, trauma free memory, and sorrow free soul.
We need to wake up. When we are deeply relaxed, we suddenly realize that we are connected to this entire universe. We are part of this universe. You know, I feel at home wherever I go in the world. I am at home with everybody in the planet. I am sure everyone has this ability. Every child does it. And we have to invoke or awaken the childlike innocence in our hearts. To do this, we get doubts in our mind first of all. Mind says, “Is it possible?” Yes, it is possible. And then the doubt is, “Whether I can do it? May be I cannot do it. May be it’s not for me.” I would say, you should think of the impossible. You know if we dream of the impossible, one day we will make it possible. Ya?
You know, when I first came to Hamburg in 80s, we were doing meditation camp there with about 200 people. And I said, ‘Let us all put an intention out there – East and West Germany should become one. We don’t want these borders, fear and tension here. Let us put this intention.’ At the end of that session, I said, ‘You will see within a couple of years, it will become one. Within two years East and West will be one.’ At that time Dr Aber Hart, Carl, Fetra, Riketta were all there. They said, ‘It is not possible.’ Everyone thought, “Oh Guruji is from India. He doesn’t know what the situation is. This is an impossible thing to do.” But I said, ‘It is going to happen before two years.” And that intention manifested itself. So, we need to put our intention. When our hearts are pure and in a calm state of mind, we put an intention and put attention on it, it will manifest. Nature has provided such a technology in our brain, in our consciousness. The ancient Rishis in India, they called it sankalpa-siddhi. That means fructifying an intention, manifesting an intention. How is it possible? Only when the mind is absolutely still, calm and serene, intention gets fructified. And we all have this ability. But we have not learnt how to calm the mind. Though this knowledge was known to ancient people, they used to keep it as a secret. It was not given to everybody in the world. They used to wait for a capable and qualified student to come and learn. I felt that this should be given to everybody, because this will make everyone positive. I believe, ‘Anything that is useful for people should not be the property of one community or one nation. It should belong to the whole world.’
You know, the ‘World Health Organization’ has declared that 30 percent of Europe is suffering from depression. And they said, the second biggest killer in the next decade of the world will be depression. In the next ten years, this will go up to 50 percent with the stock markets crashing, value of money going down, uncertainty in every field… There is so much anxiety and uncertainty. People don’t know how to handle the mind! That is why this knowledge is so essential. With this knowledge of meditation, breathing and mind, one can keep oneself happy all the time. Come what may! Isn’t it so?
When do you need the strength? You need strength when everything is falling apart around you. That strength comes attending to your own breath, your own mind. It’s so useful, I tell you! When people start learning about their own breath, they feel such a transformation, feel so blissful, feel that we all have a responsibility.
You know there are two types of joy. One type of joy is that you get while getting something. As a child you always wanted to get something. Getting something used to make you happy. You know, we wanted to get toffees, toys, visit different places..But the mature joy is that you get when you give something. When you share, you feel happy. When you see a good movie, you force everybody, ‘It’s a very good movie. You must see it.’ You tell everybody. The movie-maker is not giving you any commission. But you just feel good because you have seen a good movie and you want your loved ones to experience the same. This joy of sharing is much superior and the world is forgetting that joy of sharing, especially youngsters. Isn’t it? We have to bring it…just make them aware of it, that’s all. Everyone has this tendency. They simply have to be encouraged.
