Faith (Continued)

Los Angeles, California,

United States

7th August 1996

Chapter 1 - The You That You Want To Change

Day 63 - Faith (Continued)

A particular knowledge brought faith, yet when the knowledge

changed, then the faith also changed. The knowledge and faith of science is from an isolated ‘happening’ instead of from a fully blossomed knowledge of life. In spirituality, faith is first and knowledge comes later. 

Just as in Sudarshan Kriya, yoga and meditation, first you have faith and then knowledge follows. If you do pranayama faithfully, then you get the knowledge of the prana, life energy. If you do your meditation faithfully, the knowledge of consciousness follows. Even an illiterate person, through faith, attains deep knowledge. 

Science regards life as matter and spirituality regards even matter as life. Science sees even human beings as matter, and spirituality considers even the earth to be a mother, even rivers and mountains become living beings. If you think your faith in God does God a favor, you are mistaken. Your faith in God or your guru does nothing for God or guru. Faith is your wealth. 

Faith gives you strength instantly. Faith brings you stability, centredness, calmness and love. Faith is your blessing. But here is a paradox, if you lack faith, you have to pray for faith. Yet to pray, you need faith. People put their faith in the world, but the whole

world is just a soap bubble. 

People have faith in themselves, but they do not know who they are. People think they have faith in God, but they do not really know who God is. There are 3 types of faith -

1. Faith in yourself - Without faith in yourself, you think, “I cannot do this. This is not for me. I will never find freedom in this life”. 

2. Faith in the world - You must have faith in the world or you cannot move an inch. You deposit money in the bank with the faith that it will be returned. If you doubt everything, nothing will work for you.

3. Faith in the Divine - Have faith in the Divine and you will evolve. All these faiths are connected. You must have all 3 for each to be strong. If you start doubting one, you will begin to doubt everything. 

Someone in the audience asked, Atheists have faith in themselves and faith in the world, but not in God. Then they do not have complete faith in themselves. And their faith in the world cannot be constant because the world is always changing. Lack of faith in God, the world or yourself brings fear. 

Faith makes you full, faithful. Having faith in the world without having faith in God does not bring complete peace. If you have faith and love, you automatically have peace and freedom. People who are extremely disturbed should only have faith in God.

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji 

Celebrating Silence 

Faith

Delhi, India,

29th March 2000

Chapter 1 - The You That You Want To Change

Day 62 - Faith

False securities do not allow your faith to grow. Faith grows only when you have dropped your securities. False security is keeping faith where it does not belong. It is the illusion of security in having a job, a house, friends. Even if you have all the material securities, without faith, you will still reel in fear. 

When you buffer your life with securities, you keep faith away. Faith is your greatest security. Faith brings perfection in you. Keep the money in the bank or in the pocket, not in the mind. Keep friends and family where they belong, not in the mind. You must let go of all possessions in the mind. Keep the house where it belongs, not in the mind. 

The Divine is your only security. Your body belongs to the world. Your spirit belongs to the Divine. Faith is realizing that you always get what you need. Faith is giving the Divine a chance to act. Have faith in sound and then move on to have faith in silence. Have faith in sound when it is pleasant and have faith in silence when sound is unpleasant. 

People seem to have more faith in chatting and gossip rather than in chanting and knowledge. When someone says something bad, you immediately believe it and your mind becomes more disturbed. Believing in an unpleasant sound creates turmoil in your mind. In that situation, shift your faith to silence. 

Have faith in sound like the chanting of mantras. Have faith in knowledge. Have faith in silence. Faith is the subject of the head, devotion is the subject of the heart and meditation connects them both. A mature intellect is devoted, a mature heart is full of knowledge and meditation matures your intellect as well as your heart. Head puts more faith in matter and the heart puts more faith in the abstract. 

It is nearly impossible that an intellectual person has total lack of faith or total lack of devotion. In science knowledge comes first and then faith follows. In spirituality faith comes first and then knowledge follows. The knowledge that pesticides and chemical fertilizers are good for plants came through science. 

Based on this knowledge, people had faith in pesticides and fertilizers and they were used all over the world. Then a different knowledge came that these were not good and faith shifted to organic farming. The same with antibiotics.

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji 

Celebrating Silence 

Dispassion (Continued)

Lake Tahoe, 

California,

United States

15th July, 1998

Chapter 1 - The You That You Want To Change

Day 61 - Dispassion (Continued)

Question - Our work is very stressful. We don't get enough time for the family. What should we do?

Gurudev - If you spend quality time with your family? Even if you spend half an hour, are you cordial and fully attentive to the needs of your family?

It is not the length of time you spend with your family that matters. What matters is the quality of time that you spend with them. Thinking you need rest makes you restless. Thinking you have to work hard makes you tired. Thinking you have worked hard brings self-pity. Hide your dispassion and express your love. 

Expressing dispassion may bring ego. By expressing dispassion you lose enthusiasm in life and by not expressing love you feel stifled. Hide dispassion in your heart like the roots of a tree and express love like a ripe fruit. When you are in the grip of feverishness over the results of your actions, what should you do? Have faith and confidence that the results will be much better than you can ever imagine. 

With faith you can rid yourself of the feverishness of action and achievement. Feverishness can be a hangover from overactivity. Sleeping, listening to flute music and bathing in cold water can help. When you are doing something very important, take a moment to do something totally irrelevant and insignificant. For example, while decorating your house, take some time to mow the lawn or go shopping. 

Drop whatever you are doing and do something completely irrelevant. This enhances your creativity. Relevant action keeps you bound to the action. Irrelevant action makes life a game. Have dispassion. Know that the whole thing will be over one way or the other, and that it does not matter. Meditation and breathing can calm you down.

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji 

Celebrating Silence 

Dispassion

Vanprastha Ashram, 

Rishikesh, India,

9th March, 2000

Chapter 1 - The You That You Want To Change

Day 60 - Dispassion

The Divine can come only in deep rest, not by doing. All your spiritual activities are to help you become silent. You will go further when you do not stop to enjoy the bliss or the peace, otherwise cravings may arise. If existence wants to give you peace and bliss, then fine, your true nature is bliss. 

But by trying to enjoy the bliss, you step down from “am-ness’to “I am something”- “I am peaceful”, “I am blissful” this is followed by, “I am miserable.”. it takes courage to simply say “I am period” I am” is dispassion. Dispassion means welcoming everything. You can be anywhere and be dispassionate. 

Dispassionate and centeredness brings energy, a spark. Indulgence in bliss brings inertia. If you are dispassionate, the bliss is still there. When the freezer is full of ice cream, you need not bother about it. Dispassion takes away the sense of scarcity. Passion is a sense of lack of abundance. Whenever everything is in abundance, dispassion happens. And when dispassion is there, everything comes in abundance.

Question - What do we do when we catch ourselves indulging in bliss? 

Gurudev - Just this understanding creates a shift. There is no effort. Knowledge is better than action to make you free. Activity and rest are two vital aspects of life. To find a balance in them is a skill in itself. Wisdom is knowing when to have rest, when to have activity, and how much of each to have. Finding them in each other activity in rest and rest in activity is the ultimate freedom. 

More tiring than the work itself is the memory of hard work. Thinking you have worked hard interferes with the quality of rest. Some people take pride in working hard without any results. And there are others who crave for a long rest without knowing the true rest is in non-doership. 

It is the quality of rest, even if it is short, that helps you to recuperate. When rest is needed, your body will automatically take it. Resting without thinking about the need for it, is more restful. Dispassion and samadhi are the deepest rest.

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji 

Celebrating Silence 

Yoga Benefits Are in Breathing Less

Yoga Book 

Yoga Benefits Are in Breathing Less