*Chapter 1 - The Mind Facing Inwards Is Always Happy*
*Day 1*
In order to fly a kite and guide it from the ground, we need a thin thread. While this thread stays on the ground, the kite soars in the air. That thread is a sutra.
Likewise, for our life to soar higher and expand into the vastness of infinity, what is needed? We need a sutra that acts as a link between earth and sky, between humanity and divinity.
A sutra is described as that which contains the essence and expresses the full meaning in a few words. The nature of the sutra we hold on to decides the direction and the quality of our life.
In everyone's life there is some spark of goodness or auspiciousness. We should reflect whether we are holding on to the good and positive or misfortune and negativity.
Regardless of which part we tend to focus on, if we search we can definitely find happiness, pleasure and fortune in some measure.
Yet, if you look now, this is not the case. Actually, there is so much that is positive. Life is made up of 80% positivity and only 20% negativity, the part that causes problems.
Yet we make this 20% into 2000% usually, we cling to the negative. In every life some good must have happened, but the nature of mind is that it ignores everything positive and clings only to the negative.
Suppose someone approaches you and gives you 10 compliments and 1 insult. What will you remember? The mind's nature is to cling to the negative. In order to change this mindset, we should hold on to the Shiva Sutras.
We should hold on to truth, beauty and sivatattva, auspiciousness or innocence, wherever they appear in
our life. That is the reason for listening to the Shiva Sutras.
If life does not have a sutra to guide it, it is not possible to find happiness, and the kite will fall to the ground. A kite may have everything, including
a tail, but without a thread, how can it take off?
The Shiva Sutras run through everybody's life. That is
why it is said - I bow down to the wealth that brings peace and fills the body with joy. How does auspiciousness begin? It happens when the mind turns inwards.
When the mind goes more and more outside, it gets caught up in problems and confusion. Do you know what misery is? Misery comes when the mind gets caught up in the world and forgets itself.
Happiness can be described as remembering yourself. Suppose a close relative or friend visits after a long time. You prepare sweets, arrange everything nicely to welcome them and go to the railway station with a bouquet of flowers to greet them.
You eagerly look for them, checking whether or not the train is running on time and whether they have arrived. How do you feel when you finally meet them? Thrilled.
The mind instantly blossoms. Where there is no eagerness and anticipation, there is less love. The mind naturally flows towards that which you love.
When you are with a dear friend, your mind stays with you and does not wander elsewhere. Observe that when you are joyful, you become one with your self.
Your nature is joy, and this is the reason you experience joy. If you read the word "mana," meaning mind, in reverse, it becomes "nama."
When people visit various temples and pray, they say, "Namah." What does it mean? When the mind turns inward it is namah, but when the mind goes outward, it is manah.
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji
Shiva Sutras
