What is the Art of Living? It is understanding the truth in life. And what is the truth? Life is full of opposite values, highs and lows. Keep the mind steady in spite of ups and downs in life. During challenging times, have an attitude of sacrifice, face it, be with the knowledge that this will also change. During good times, have an attitude of service and serve everyone to your best capacity. This is the first point. Accept people as they are. We expect people to be like ourselves. Have you found anybody just like yourself? If you find such people, you cannot spend even five minutes with them. You will want to run away. So, however a person is, accept them. This is the second point.
Another very important point in life is not to let your mind become a football of others opinions. We always think: ‘What will this person think about me? What will that person say about me?’ The truth is that nobody has the time to think about you. Everybody is lost in their own world. You worry unnecessarily about what other people will think about you. Give people the freedom to think whatever they want about you. Opinions keep changing. This is the third point. If someone does a mistake, don't think they have done it intentionally. Similar to how you make mistakes, know that they made a mistake as well and move on. This is the fourth point. The fifth point is to live in the present moment. If you hold on to the past, neither can you be happy nor can you make others happy. Live like a child, in the present moment.
Our life must be without blemish. How is that possible? It is possible through devotion towards the Divine. When you get up in the morning, look at your palms and say, ’let nothing bad happen through my hands. Let my hands be full and have the capacity to share with others too.’ This is an ancient tradition in our country. When we get up, we look at our palms and say, ‘let Lakshmi (Goddess of wealth) reside in my hands. Let me bring wealth through these hands.’
One hand of Lakshmi is facing down, which denotes giving. The other hand denotes Abhaya Hasta, i.e., assurance that the Divine is with us and we do not need to be afraid. We also pray that our hands help us in gaining knowledge. Lastly, we pray that only auspicious work happens through our hands. This is a prayer which we do every morning as soon as we wake up will come true if it comes out of your heart. Even if it doesn't happen sometimes, we still pray to the Divine to take care of us and ensure that it doesn't happen in future. Dropping the past is the true offering. The Divine does not want any gift from you. The Divine only wants your worries.
The prasad you get is pleasantness of mind.
The Divine loves you 100 times more than your parents. I have come here only to tell you that the Divine loves you dearly. We will all die one day.
We may have kept all our valuables in a locker and keep the keys safely with us, but when we die, we will leave both the locker and keys behind. We do not take anything with us. When you travel in a bus, train or airplane, do you consider that as your home?
You may enjoy the services there for the duration of your journey, but what will happen if you consider that as your home? When you reach your destination, you will be forced to get out. No matter how much you protest, you will be forced to get out. You cannot say that it was your train or plane.
You may drive your car, but once you reach the garage, you have to get out of the car. You will be called a fool if you don't!
The ultimate truth of life is that we will leave everything behind.
Let us say that two people speak to you about Manas Sarovar (a popular pilgrimage centre in India). One of them has been there and is telling you his experience and the other is just telling you what he knows. Whom do you believe?
Obviously, you believe someone who has experience.
That is why I am telling you: The Divine loves you very deeply. You need not fear or worry.
Live your life with a smile. I have come here only to make you realize this. Though books help, they may not be able to bring about this realization. This realization becomes deeply rooted only when we experience it.
(Referring to the cold weather in the satsang) I'll give you a tip that will help you in this cold weather. If you keep your thumbs warm, you will start feeling warm. Nature has designed it that way. Don't you cross your arms and keep your thumbs close to the armpit when you feel cold?
When I visit Switzerland or Norway, I don't wear any warm clothes. People wonder how I do not feel cold in such freezing weather. Cold weather is my friend. I have an agreement with it! I have an agreement with nature. It doesn't affect me. J
ust for 10 minutes daily, do some exercises, some asanas. Do pranayama for 10 minutes. Pranayama makes your mind clean. All negative energy disappears. Have you experienced this: When you see some people you feel like talking to them. With some people, even if you don't know them, you want to be away from them. This is because of the energy radiated from the body. To ensure that we radiate positive energy, we must do pranayama and meditation, then our work happens effortlessly and naturally.
If you are angry or worried, others may feel the same about you. They may want to be away from you. You wonder why this person wants to be away from me. Neither at home nor at school are we taught how to transform the energy in our body. That is why meditation, pranayama, satsang are so important to uplift your consciousness.
Keep the environment clean. Ensure that there is greenery. Keep your body clean. Use Ayurveda. Take 3 to 5 Triphala tablets in a week. It will clean your digestive tract. If your digestion is good, your mind will be good.
Your feet must be warm, your stomach should be soft and head should be cool. This is the sign of a healthy person. Unhealthiness is when your feet are cold, head is hot and stomach is like a stone.
If your bad karmas have to go away, you need to do pranayama. ’Nasti tapah pranayamat param’
- There is no greater penance than Pranayama.
- With meditation, the consciousness gets purified
- With bhajans, emotions get purified.So Listen to music
- With knowledge, the intellect gets purified. (The knowledge that everything and everyone is temporary) - With charity, wealth gets purified. - Keep aside 2-3% of your income for charity - With Ghee(Clarified butter), food gets purified.
A famous cardiologist once said to me, ’people in our country are falling ill by eating rice without Ghee. Ghee ensures that the food becomes a complex carbohydrate and doesn't get converted to sugar immediately. It gets digested slowly and is very beneficial to the system. Diseases like Diabetes will not occur’. I said, ’our ancient Rishis have said the same thing!’. So, use a spoon of ghee with your food
- With Exercise and Ayurveda, the body gets purified
How many of you have the dream of a glorious and prosperous India, free of violence?
All the youths here, dedicate 6 months to one year for the country. How many of you are ready? There is a lot of corruption in the country.
Our culture and values have drastically come down. We have to preserve our culture. This is possible only through spirituality.
Corruption begins where belongingness ends. Nobody can be corrupt with people whom they feel connected to. All of us have to work together for this. We have to create a Divine society. We have to ensure that future generations get a better society than us. Our children must get a society where there is more righteousness, compassion and belongingness.
Bangalore has become a very unsafe place for senior citizens. There are a lot of attacks on them. We should create a society where we can live without fear. Police officials had once brought many rowdies to the ashram for reforming them. Within 3 days, there was complete transformation.
There is a lot of work happening in 40 slums in Bangalore. A lot of transformation has happened there. Form a group and go to a slum on a Sunday. Educate them, do some bhajans and distribute prasad.
Our country is in this state not because of bad people, but because good people are silent and are not doing anything about it. The number of bad people is just a few.
Just for 2 hours on a Sunday, form a group and clean up your neighborhood. Give education to kids who have been deprived of this. All the doctors, organize medical camps. Do whatever best is possible from your side. You don't need to go out of your way.
Second is to know what is permanent and what is ever-changing. When you know everything is changing it is because there is a reference point that does not change. That inference will come to you first. Then, without your very knowledge, you will feel the freedom and love. All this will become so spontaneous and natural in you.
Today millions of people in America, Russia, Poland and all over the globe have turned vegetarians.
Around 30 years ago when I used to go to other countries there were hardly any vegetarians. However, there are a lot of vegetarians everywhere.
Our country has 5600 varieties of vegetarian dishes. We have to popularize it.
