*Chapter 1 - The Mind Facing Inwards Is Always Happy*
*Day 2*
What attracts the mind outward? It is prosperity, wealth, success and beauty. The sight of anything beautiful draws the mind towards it.
Whether money or fame, the mind gravitates towards it. The whole world revolves around only one thing, and that is "Sri," or prosperity.
Yearn for knowledge, yearn for
happiness, yearn for beauty, wealth, success, advancement - whatever you long for, it is only for one desire, and that is sri.
However, the more intensely people long for it, the more difficult it is to attain. That is why everybody wears such long faces, as if everything were shrouded in misery.
This is why Buddha concisely said, "Desire is the root cause of misery." Go anywhere and look at what the people talk about, and you will find that it is all about sri.
Go to any chamber of commerce or film industry meeting, and what do they discuss, but ways to become rich and famous. That is sri.
Or go to any legislative body, and they talk about political power. Even that is sri. The whole world revolves around sri, but how do we acquire it?
Even if we do get it, it will turn out not to be satisfying. If one is to find sri, one's mind must turn inwards. When we are in a state of namah, when we are introspective, we find sri and true wealth is born.
Real wealth is within us, and when we turn inwards, we can access real happiness and pleasure. Although the richest of the rich may smile outwardly, peep into their minds, and you will not find any cheerfulness or contentment.
Without satisfaction, what is the use of such a life and such wealth? It is nothing but worry, worry, and to die with worries.
What kind of sri is that? Sometimes, people do gain wealth and fame, but even that is followed by problems. Once, when one of our ex-prime ministers met me, he confessed, “Before, in summer I used to sleep outside the house on a cot”.
“Now, you can see 50 people around me and security all over. Now I am a prisoner, more so than the actual prisoners in Tihar Jail”.
"Shambhave" - Wealth and prosperity should bring peace. However, many times one acquires wealth and many problems follow it.
Quarrels start between parents and children and between husband and wife. If you examine the pending court cases, you will find that 75 to
80% of the cases arise out of disputes over money.
Most of the conflicts between people happen over money, is it not? Even if we were to gain so much wealth, what is the point?While we do need money, along with wealth we also get diseases like stomach pains, ulcers, diabetes, heart attack, etc.
Once, a man won 10 lakhs in a lottery. His wife worried how she should break the news to her husband because it might give him a shock or he might even suffer a heart attack due to sheer excitement.
So she went to a priest. He said, "Don't worry. I will come with you, and together we'll give him the news." So the next Sunday, he went to their house and asked him, "My child, suppose by the grace of God you were to win 10 lakh, what would you do with it?"
The man answered, “I'd give half of it to the church, Father”. No sooner the priest heard this, he had a heart attack. Wealth should bring peace.
Being wealthy should not bring arrogance, hostility, jealousy, disgust or boredom. Many times, when you receive a gift from someone, your state of mind changes as soon as you receive it.
Have you observed this? When you receive certain things, you receive not only the gift but the intention along with the gift.
That is the reason why, in the past, people accepted things from others only after careful observation. If they did accept, then they would immediately give a gift in return.
An old saying says, "Why should we take others' things that we do not want?" It is because such wealth might bring peace or disturbance. Nobody wants a disturbed mind.
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji
Shiva Sutras
