Posted: June 27, 2019

Mistakes happen all the time. But for Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, founder of the Art of Living Foundation, your past mistakes weren’t made by you, but by who you were at that time.

The following passages reveal how you can move beyond your mistakes, regardless of the blame people may place on you. Furthermore, he explores the best way to correct others’ mistakes with a balanced combination of love and authority.

If people keep reminding you of your past mistakes

Smile and move forward. If they aren’t able to forget the mistakes of the past, then that’s their problem. You should forget the mistakes of the past, just drop them and move ahead. You aren’t the same person as you were in the past when you committed those mistakes; you have changed. When you came to the spiritual path, when you gained this wonderful knowledge, then your entire life changed. So have complete and unshakeable faith in this fact.

In ancient times, when people used to approach a Guru, they would even change their birth names. Why was this done? It was to signify that they’d taken a new birth altogether when they came to the Guru. You become a new person when you gain access to this knowledge. The mistakes you committed in the past out of ignorance don’t exist anymore in light of the knowledge you’ve now received.

Ignorant people around you may sometimes keep reminding you of past mistakes, but you should have compassion for them instead of feeling hurt or angry. Think, “Oh, they’re still stuck and don’t know that I’m a totally different person now. I’ve changed.”  You must develop this faith in yourself. There’s no need to fall into self-pity.

Correcting others’ mistakes

Mistakes happen all the time. Often you get irritated by mistakes and you want to correct them, but how many can you correct? You correct others’ mistakes for two reasons.

The first is when someone’s mistake bothers you, and the second is when you correct someone for their own sake so they can grow, not because it bothers you. Correcting mistakes for the first reason – when the mistake bothers you – doesn’t work.

Authority and love 

Authority and love seem to be contradictory but in reality they aren’t. Authority without love is stifling and doesn’t work. 

Love without authority is shallow. You need both, but they need to be in the right combination so you can be successful in correcting others’ mistakes. This can only happen if you’re totally dispassionate and centered. 

When you allow room for mistakes, you can be both authoritative and sweet. That is how the Divine is – the right balance of both. Krishna and Jesus had both. People in love also exercise authority with those they love. Authority and love exist in all relationships.