Day 12
Question - Gurudev, when vou have fallen out ot that state of just being and vou are trving to get back to it, is one of the secrets of life learning to love that getting to it as much as loving being, loving the trip back to being as much as being itself? It would be like loving the depression as much as the joy.
Gurudev Sri Sri - Yes. When love dawns in you, all these questions do not arise at all, because then this forgetfulness will not come. When we are in joy, we forget. You forgot yourself, you become unaware when you are very happy.
When you are unhappy, you are less forgetful. It keeps you in touch with the mundane but in joy you tend to lose yourself. If you don't lose yourself in joy, you will never be unhappy either.
That means when you are happy, remain in gratitude. That is the only way - when you are happy, feel grateful and serve. How can you then be unhappy? Impossible. If you are unhappy, go out and serve. You will become happy. Do some service. Unhappiness comes when you sit and think about yourself and worry about yourself.
The candle is burning for you, you don't have to do anything. The sun is shining for you, there is nothing to do. You have to be grateful, sit below it and enjoy and serve and be in love. It's as simple as that. If you want to make it without surrender, that is a very hard way.
You can get it also, but it is very hard. You feel all alone. Loneliness will come, fear will come, and a lot of strain and struggle. You can do that, go through all the processes. It is very difficult. But with devotion, with love, with surrender, it is very easy.
Question - Gurudev, I find that when I am stuck and not feeling in love, when I tell myself to surrender, I really do not know what the word 'surrender' means. I don't know how to surrender. I think I'm surrendering, but then I still don't feel any different. And every time I hear you, or anybody, speak about surrender, I say, "What does that really mean?" How do you surrender?
Gurudev Sri Sri - Don't try to surrender. Your trying to surrender is an obstruction. You are already a part of the whole, just remember that. Know that there is somebody who cares for you and who is taking care of you, and you will be all right.
Your life is not your life, you see? Your life is an event in time, which is infinite. Surrender has happened when you know your that life is insignificant in the span of time and space. When you know there are millions and millions of stars - just look at astronomy books and see how big the solar system is and where the Earth is - then what is one's life?
When you see this, surrender has happened. And when you know somebody is really behind you, who loves you so dearly you can't even imagine, then your surrender has happened. Feel the connection, then surrender has happened.
Don't think, "I am somebody separate". When a cup of water feels, "I am in the ocean," and the water in the cup knows that
"I am connected with the ocean," it gains strength. Belongingness happens. When there is belongingness , there is no fear. It cuts the root of fear.
How has fear arisen in your life, do you know? Up to eight months children are not afraid of anything. They fall down. Even then there is no fear. At six to eight months, the child does not know any fear.
Sometimes even up to three years, children don't experience fear. If they experience fear, it is due to some little traces from the mother. But when the separateness starts, when the child has to be independent for longer periods and does not get as much attention or love from the mother, then fear develops little by little.
Question - Guruduev, is there an alternative way to teach a child not to touch the stove? How should one approach that without giving unnecessary fear?
Gurudev Sri Sri - Now, I didn't say that it should not have been there. It is impossible for somebody to grow in life and not know fear. At some point or the other they will know it. It will come to them. I am just making you aware of how it starts, how it was not there in the original child when it was born.
I don't mean that you eliminate it or it should not be there. If you are aware, then you know it is not your nature. It can go away in life. In India there is Kali worship. Do you know Kali? There is a great significance behind that.
If you look at a Kali picture, it is dreadful. Anybody would be frightened looking at all the skulls and huge staring eyes. She holds a head in one hand and she has hands hanging all around the waist. If someone could love that fearful picture, then fear disappears from the mind.
The fear gets transformed into love. Because it is only one energy which manifests as fear or love. It happens in the heart region. When you are in love, there is no fear. When there is fear, there can't be love.
So, when the fear comes, surrender. This is the best thing one can do. When you surrender to Kali and love Kali, you become very brave. There is no fear in your life. That is the concept of it.
Kali means darkness. Darkness is the mother of light. There is darkness in the eye. Through that darkness, only, can we see the light. The pupil is dark in your eyes. If it is not dark, then you cannot see light.
Kali is the mother, the giver of knowledge. Through Kali, knowledge awakens, light awakens. Wonderful minds brought the symbol of Kali. It is very, very beautiful. God is conceived as beauty.
