Sep 24 2011
(A member of the audience asked a question and it was inaudible)
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
‘Swaastika’ symbolizes the cycle. ‘Swaastha’ means established in the Self. ‘Swaastika’ means that which is healthy for humanity; that which contains all the four aspects that puts you into yourself, ‘Dharma (righteousness), Artha (desires), Kaama(means), Moksha(liberation).’
Unfortunately, ‘Swaastika’ symbol was taken by Hitler. He put it upside down.
‘Swaastika’ represents peace actually, but when he put the whole thing upside down, it became war; the reverse.
That’s how it is! Time passes very fast when we are happy and it seems to be going very slow when we are unhappy and when we have to wait for somebody, right? So mind and time are connected.
Gurudev, should one keep on trusting the ones who have betrayed you? How many second chances does one give? What is the difference between acceptance and forgiveness?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Forgiveness is from the heart, it is an emotional one. Acceptance is from the mind, from the head. So both are essential, you accept and you forgive. If you don’t forgive you will suffer with all the emotional heavy load of garbage inside you. If you don’t accept your mind gets all agitated.
Gurudev, how to handle parents? Even after becoming a YES+ teacher, I still find it difficult. I have taken them to Seva and Rudra Pooja, but my dad tends to oppose everything. Please help!
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Thank him because he is increasing your patience.
Gurudev, after meditation I usually have a headache. What should I do?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
After meditation you feel headache! Do you have a headache now? Were you trying to shove the thoughts away? You should not suddenly come back, you should slowly come back. See from deep meditation suddenly you come back it is like when you are deep in sleep someone wakes you, suddenly you wake up, what happens? Headache comes, right? Like that, so take little longer time to come back. Take a little deeper breath, relax and drink a lot of water.
(A member of the audience asked a question and it was inaudible)
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You know Part I course has a good effect right and everybody enjoyed and there are more people who want to learn! So teachers’ training is meant for that. So, you can take a teachers’ training. Only then you can teach.
Gurudev, my thoughts and dreams are mixing up, and not so good ones. What to do?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Never mind! Clouds come and some are dark clouds and some are light clouds, so what! They come and they go, you carry on.
Gurudev, I have learnt the principle, ‘accpet people and situations the way they are’, but I am not able to apply it in all my situations.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
No, see! When you learn this principle you don’t have to apply everything immediately. You will see automatically this will start getting translated. Yes, impact will be there. You know, if you are getting upset, the mind will say, ‘Accept the situations’ and you will become calm. There will be a tape recorder inside you, a program inside you which will help you to become really stable and happy.
Gurudev, why, in this new age have relationships changed so much that to find love, people have to believe in Romeo and Juliet? Has love changed or have we changed so that we cannot understand love anymore?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Listen, one thing is constant in this planet that is change! Change keeps happening in every field. So, accept the changes and know that there is something that is not changing deep inside you. Everything changes, but inside us there is an element that does not change. Just know this and accept all the changes. Okay!
(A member of the audience asked a question and it was inaudible)
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
See love is not an emotion; it is just your state of being. So you don’t have to be wiggly, wiggly, goody, goody in order to be in love. You can be very straight-forward, strict, to-the-point and gentle and caring. So you don’t have to worry that this is not there in the corporate field. Suppose, you are a corporate person, someone treats you like a machine. Would you like it? No! After all you are a human being and you would like to be treated like a human being, right? So we think, ‘Since I am in corporate, I must treat everybody like machine. No, no, competitiveness is good. Let it be there. You see what I am saying?
(A member of the audience asked a question and it was inaudible)
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
This influence of karma affects body and mind. But, what was said in the Ashtavakra, in reality these are all external things. The effect of karma does not touch you at all.
This matter is one step ahead; so both are true. See, do you ever feel that, ‘I never grew old, or aged, I am the same?’ Isn’t that true? Ask any elderly person, no matter how old, he will tell you that he doesn’t feel he is going to die and poor fellow dies. And he looks at someone else and says, ‘Poor fellow died, I am not going to die’. Doesn’t it feel that way? It does!
There is something within us which never dies. That is why we feel that we are permanent. All others will come and go.
And then there is another thing that is true, that according to our karma and time, old age creeps into the body. Hairs fall off. In the past it used to take me one hour to comb my hair, then half an hour, and now, not even one minute! Maharajji doesn’t have to do anything! So some changes occur with time, we should observe that. On one level, if we observe, everything is changing, our thoughts are changing, and we are no longer the person we were yesterday. Isn’t that so? The person you were five years ago, and the person standing here today, are they different or not? Is that true or not? Yes! Yet it is not the same person who used to be; this is on one level. On another level, the same person is standing here who was here ten, twenty or twenty-five years ago. Isn’t it? So both are true, this is true and that is also true. Everything changes, this is true, and some things never change, that is also true. Ashtavakra emphasises on that which never changes. Gita also emphasises on that which is changing, such as karma, how to manage it etc.
Guruji, can you speak about Yoga Vasistha?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Listen, Yoga Vasistha is a very big thing. If we take it up, it will get very late. Yoga Vasistha needs to be read again and again, reading it once won’t work. If you read it every two to three years, something altogether different will come up. Okay! Read and ponder on it. You will gain new understandings. You will not understand it straight away.
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Gurudev, which do we attend to first, the mind or the body?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Okay between ears and eyes, which should be used first? When watching television, do you use both simultaneously or one after the other? It is not as though we decide, ‘I will watch first, then I will listen.’ Similarly, we will need to attend to both body and mind.