BENGALURU: All the problems in the world are caused by love! Jealousy is because of love. Greed is because you love objects too much. Anger is because you love perfection and you are angry at imperfections. Pride and arrogance come because you love yourself too much.
So, every distortion of love causes problems not only for us, but for everybody. Even though this is the case, without love what else is there in life? Does life have any meaning, any purpose without love?
It appears absolutely depressing, boring, uninteresting. But how do we get to that point of love where it is free from distortions and we are able to be at ease with ourselves?
This is where a little knowledge about us, about our mind, our consciousness, and the root of distortion will help. Every individual is bestowed with all the virtues in the world. They simply get covered by lack of understanding. All that is needed is to just to uncover the virtues that are already there.
Learning something about our breath is very important. Our breath has a great lesson to teach us, which we have forgotten. For every rhythm in the mind, there is a corresponding rhythm in the breath and for every rhythm in the breath there is a corresponding emotion in the mind. So, you may not be able to handle your mind directly, but through breath you can handle it.
Neither at school nor at home does anybody teach you what to do when you are upset or angry or depressed. The first thing we did when we came to this planet is that we took a deep breath in and then we started to cry. The last thing we’ll be doing is breathe out and make others cry. In between these two, our whole life, we are breathing in and out, but, we have learnt very little about our breath.
No breath, no life... know breath, know life! The rhythm in breath can help us get in touch with the depth of ourselves, our soul, our consciousness, our being and we feel connected with everybody, with everything in the world.
Deep within, every one of us feels that we have not grown, we have not changed. This indicates that the spirit in you doesn’t change, doesn’t grow old. The body is aging but something in you is not aging. Getting in touch with that something that doesn’t age brings beauty in life. That is meditation.
What I would suggest is to take one week off every year for yourself, like you take your car for servicing. During that time, align yourself with nature — wake up with the sun, do some exercise, eat proper food, just as much as necessary, practise a few minutes of singing and keeping silence. Aligning ourselves with nature, our whole system gets recharged and makes us feel vibrant and enthusiastic.
To me, a successful person is someone who has no fear, who feels at home with everybody and has a smile which no one can take away. We do not have to go anywhere in search of success. The road to success begins from our very own breath.
No breath, no life...
know breath, know life.
The Happiness Program with Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on May 15, 16 and 17. The Art of Living Ashram, Bengaluru.
Morning batch: 6 am to 9 am. Evening batch: 6 pm to 9 pm. Call 78940 78930 or log onto www.artofliving.org/srisrihappiness
Courtesy: The New Indian Express