In this Weekly Wisdom, Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar shares beautiful wisdom about reincarnation, liberation, desire, and contentment.
In response to questions about why we don’t remember our past lives, Gurudev shared the following:
If you still carried those memories, you couldn't live happily. Thank God for erasing past memories, so you can enjoy life afresh, here and now.
Something is on the blackboard. You dust it off. You clean it to write something new. Suppose it was not clear and clean. You would keep overwriting the old impressions. It would be confusing.
Do you want to carry those old impressions? How much money you earned in a previous life, where the buildings you bought are, and whoever is enjoying them today? You would be burning with memories. It's good not to remember, so your life is fresh and alive.
You've had so many dreams. Have you counted the dreams you've had? Or are you trying to relive your dreams from a few nights ago? No, dreams are dreams. They come and go, and you've forgotten them, right? You wake up and you're active.
It's good you don't remember the past. It's a boon.
My strongest impression is my wife. Will I be born again as her husband?
If your strongest impression is your wife, definitely you will have a connection, maybe in different forms. That is why, when someone gets married, there is a saying in India, "Seven lifetimes we live together."
They don't count just this one lifetime. “In the past, there were so many lifetimes. In the future, we'll be there.” All these things we say in India.
But you have a choice. You don't have to have that strongest impression until the end. Let your mind reflect your true nature. You're beauty, truth, compassion, love, and much more than a husband or a wife.
You're a beautiful human being on the planet. We must learn to connect with the entire creation, with nature, and see ourselves through the eyes of quantum mechanics. Do you understand?
See the entire universe as a field of energy. Then, a big shift happens in your own identity. That's how to be free.
How do we get out of the endless cycle of life and death?
First of all, why do you want to get rid of life and death? Because it's miserable. You want to get rid of misery, not the life and death cycle.
Suppose you are asked to come back to this planet and do good work. Suppose you have to become an Avatar. Why wouldn't you do it? These issues come to us when we are self-centered. We only focus on, "What do I want? What do I want?"
But if your purpose is to do good to others, you should come back. Why not? We want to be free from the cycle of life and death because it's causing misery, and we seek pleasure.
The day we say, "I want nothing. I'm happy now and here," that shift has already happened. Your liberation, your freedom has come to you. Your desires are bondage, and contentment is our liberation
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