Ideally, as we grow older, our contentment should also increase. The more content we are, the more mature we are. There are two kinds of joy: one of receiving and the other of giving. In our childhood we experienced the joy of receiving. If you give anything to children they are always ready to take it. But as we grow older, we experience the Joy in giving.
For example, in a home there is a mother or a grandmother; when the grandmother is alone in the house, she does not prepare five different kinds of vegetables and four different sweets for herself. But when children come to the house or guests come, she cooks many different kinds of dishes and serves them. So in giving there is joy and this is a mature joy and pleasure. But many times we lose sight of this and we keep looking to receive all our lives, and we remain dissatisfied and a kind of misery pervades.
For wealth to come, the mind should be content. The more satisfied we are, the more we progress. In order to receive blessings, one should be deserving. How will that happen? By keeping your mind pure and clean. How to keep the mind clean? First of all have faith – God is my very own, and I belong to Him and He loves me. To look after my happiness and sorrow is His job and He will do it.
Second, we need to perform seva (service) in society. As human beings, we all have some needs and some responsibilities. If our responsibilities are more, and our needs less, then in life we remain peaceful and content. If our responsibilities are few but our needs are many then we remain unhappy.
Third, for short periods of time, do pranayama, and meditation and a new wave of contentment, joy and bliss arises in our lives. If you practice these three things, you will see that whatever work you desire will begin to get done effortlessly. Stay in the present. Whatever is the past, drop it all. Put aside all the matters of the past, and sit and meditate.
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji
