Knowledge is structured in consciousness

Chapter 7 - Merging With The Divine 

Day 59

The scriptures which talk about love will have to be learned and heard, understood and digested. And the actions that they say there will have to be followed. Here Narada says this, because you can say that this also is a logic. 

'If you say you don’t have to apply logic, that is also logic. Say, yes, yes, of course, I say no need of studying books and scriptures and this and that, but still you need something, so learn these sutras, learn this knowledge. When you are listening to it, just don’t think you have listened to it once, and finished. 

These 84 sutras that he has said here, listen to them again and again, because every time you hear it, every time you practice it, it takes you deeper, it uplifts you to another level. Knowledge is structured in consciousness. And as you grow, your consciousness expands, the knowledge also changes. 

You need to do all the service activity and the actions that have been prescribed in your path, that have been asked of you to do. If you have to do pranayama, continue doing pranayama. Don't think, “Oh, there is no qualification needed in order to be in love. I don’t need to do anything. Gurudev has said no need to. Why should I sit and meditate at all?” No, do it, because it will take you deeper. 

There is no need to get caught up in pleasure and pain, in desires. “I want this, I want that,” these desires, pain, pleasure, this tendency of wanting to know, what will I gain no need to get caught up. Buddha was asked, “What did you gain in your Enlightenment?” He said, “Nothing. But I lost a lot of things.” “What do you gain by meditation?" 

He said, “No, I lost a lot of things.” The goal is right where you are. What you want to gain is already there. Just stop, relax. Once a devotee was given a boon. A devotee was praying and God was pleased with his prayers and said, “Okay what is that you want? "He said, “God, I want plenty of land.” 

God said, “Okay, do one thing. As far as you can run, that much land is all yours. How far can you run? Go that far upto that point all the land belongs to you. You can own it, you can take all the riches from the land, the goldmine and whatever is present, it is all yours.” So he ran and ran and ran and ran. But wherever he would stop, he would say, “Oh, I see more mountains there, maybe I can go up to that mountain.” 

So he would run up to that. When he went there, he found other landscape even more beautiful. So, the farther he went, the farther he found it much more beautiful. Then he found the sea. He said, “This sea is So beautiful. I must have this sea because this has oil, this has pearls, fishes, this has everything. How can I refuse the sea. I need the sea also”. 

So he swam across and he went round and round and round and nonstop. Finally He dropped dead in one place. Greed made him run and run and run and finally, when he came back, he just dropped dead. How much land he had wanted, just that he occupied. 6 feet 2 inches. No more. For this much land he ran all over the world, the whole time trying to possess it.

Truth is beyond arguments

Chapter 7 - Merging With The Divine 

Day 58

Logic has many possibilities. You can use the same logic to prove something or to disprove something ask lawyers. Any point can be taken to prove something or to disprove the same thing. There are so many possibilities in logic. I have said earlier there are three types of logic. One is Tarka which means pure logic. And then Kutarka, wrong logic. And Vitarka is qualified logic. 

I will give you an example. If a door is halfopen, that means it is halfshut that is logic. Wrong logic - if the door is half open, we agree it is half closed. So if it is fully open, then it must be fully closed. This is called kutarka, wrong logic. The flower is on the table and the table is on the floor, so the flower is on the floor. This is wrong logic. 

Through this wrong logic, or Kutarka, only ignorance increases. And Vitarka is such a logic, such an inference, it simply amazes you. “Who am I?What is this all about? What is life? Who are You? Who am I?” This is called vitarka. This understanding that you are going through now, this moment, is also logic, but it is vitarka, qualified logic. So do not depend on arguments. 

Argument indicates lack of unity from the level of the heart. Often when you are studying under a teacher, under a Master, especially in the Zen tradition, they would never allow you to argue. If it is said, “It is sunny outside,” maybe even in the middle of the night, You would have to say Yes, I'm sweating". 

Truth is beyond arguments, beyond discussions. Arguments are in vain. It is all just words, trying to convince someone that you are right. But in the field of love, that does not work. That is why so many love affairs break, because they start depending on some logic, some arguments. 

Arguments to convince that they love the other person much more. “No, I really love you, because, see, I did this, I did this, I did this, took you to this place, I took you. You think I don’t care for you?” Arguments and arguments and arguments. Vado navalambya - There are so many possibilities in logic, in arguments, do not sit and argue. 

If someone is negative or accusing you, give them a smile. They are venting it all out. This is the first procedure to adopt. “Oh is it so? I acknowledge your feelings, I honour your feelings.” 

And reflect within yourself what is that you feel is there any truth to what the other person has told you? If there is truth, thank them. If there is no truth in it, be compassionate to them, give them more wisdom. Help them to uplift their own state of mind. 

There is no better service than helping someone to uplift their state of mind, because that will make them stand on their feet, that will make them come out of their own misery. 

Otherwise you give people everything else but if you do not tell them or teach them how to come out of their own misery, they will still be in misery. Each person will have to take the responsibility for their miserable attitudes, miserable conditions. Don't depend on arguments because there are so many possibilities. 

Someone says, “You have to go west in order to go to Los Angeles.” Another person says, “No no, you can go through east also.” Tell them, “Yes, I agree, it is a longer route, but you can go through east also.” There are so many possibilities.

Consciousness is indestructible

Chapter 7 - Merging With The Divine 

Day 57

Consciousness is indestructible, like the bones in your body are indestructible. That is how they could find the bones of dinosaurs even after several million years. In the same way, if they were just left on this planet, your bones would stay forever. 

Like the bones, which are the grossest of your existence, and the subtlest, your consciousness, also the eternal, the mind, the consciousness which harbours the thoughts and feelings, emotions, everything, is eternal, that stays forever. And all those whose body and mind, their body and spirit have separated, that spirit still exists, the soul still exists. 

Those souls, those units of energy, those units of consciousness, simply rejoice in love. One ultimate question remains how much love you have gathered in your life and have given in your life. The flow of consciousness is towards that love, towards the Divine love, because that is the source from where it has come. 

In this universe everything is in a cycle. Everything goes back to its source. A deep yearning for the pinnacle of love makes this world move, move in cycles. And the angels dance, they rejoice such a presence and the Earth finds a caretaker. The earth as a whole is a living organism. 

Don’t think this earth which harbours so many varieties of life is dead, is just an object. No, it is conscious, it has life. Only life can bring up life. If this planet is dead, if there is no feeling, no consciousness in the earth as a whole, how can it harbour so many species which has consciousness? 

Do you see what I am saying? Like your body do you consider it only as matter? Is your hand only matter? No doubt it is matter, but there is consciousness in it. Like your physical body, though matter, harbours life, this universe, this world, this Earth harbours a big mind, the consciousness, it has its own life. Don’t depend on logic. 

You cannot catch love through logic. Logic cuts, logic analyses, it tears things apart. But love is just the opposite, it brings everything together. Love is a process of uniting, logic is a method to analyse, to separare. Arguments are not to be depended upon. 

The moment you start arguing, you simply indicate that you are not in agreement, isn’t that so? You know, when you argue, you think the other is not getting you right. That is when you try to convince them and argue, explaining to them. 

To clear misunderstandings you sometimes start arguing or explaining which creates more confusion, misunderstanding. How many of you have had this experience? If you just keep quiet, everything would have cleared by itself. But we argue and make our position correct. 

We want to convince someone of our correctness and we fail miserably. Even if you convince the other persons of your correctness, they are really not convinced because this argument you had has already created a distance, has already put a sourness in the milk.

Divine beings

Chapter 7 - Merging With The Divine

Day 56

The devas, the divine beings, they dance and this earth finds their lordship. Among those devotees, there is no difference of race, caste or race, or from which family they have come-high class, low class, middle class, nothing of that sort. Nor have they studied do they have Ph.D. or are they Doctorate? 

The same thing said from a Doctor has a different value, as said by someone who is not a doctor. The world does not hear them. A psychologist may not know much about the mind at all, but he carries more clout than a wise person who has more knowledge about the mind. 

But in devotees there is no such difference. Religion or race, vidya-knowledge how much they know, how much they do not know, or how they look, or whether they are rich or poor, or what job they do. It is immaterial. Devotees, from whichever background they come, are all the same. 

Because they belong to someone, they have become His. Once the devotees have become His, become Divine, there is no distraction whatsoever, because they all belong to him, this is how it is. In order to do certain jobs, you need certain qualifications, to do certain jobs, you need certain abilities and you need strength. Strength, ability and qualification are essential for doing anything. 

If you want to lift 100 kilos or 100 pounds of weight, you need that much strength. Not everyone can do it. If you try and you cannot, you may sprain your back, your knees, or whatever. So, if love is a question of ability, strength, then not everyone can love. But love transcends all ability. 

Whether you are a fool or a wise man, you can still be in love. Whether you are a rich person or a poor person, you can be in love. Or whether you are sick or healthy, you can be in love. Whether you are strong or weak, you can still be in love. Love transcends all these conditions. 

Love does not depend on your ability. It only needs a simple recognition, an acknowledgement and to acknowledge doesn't need to take a long time. Time is not a factor at all. But what can really hasten the process is the company of wise people. 

The company you keep can uplift your consciousness, your mind, make your heart blossom or make it shut down. The devotees are filled with Him, like burning charcoal. Charcoal is black, but burning charcoal is all red. No doubt there is charcoal in it, but every particle of it is filled with fire. 

So you never call burning charcoal as “charcoal”, you simply call it fire. Similarly, an iron rod, when it is red hot, you just call it an iron ball, it is a fireball. Though there is substance, though there are particles of iron inside, they simply get submerged in the fire, they simply get soaked in it. 

‘Soaked in fire’ is so poetic, they are glowing with fire, every particle of the fireball. And you simply call ita ball of fire. Similarly, devotees are soaked with Divinity. Every particle of them is only saying, singing the name of the Divine. And the presence of such devotees on this planet makes the souls rejoice of all those who are dead.

Four types of people who pray to God

Chapter 6 - Love Is Beyond Proof 

Day 47

There are four types of people who pray to God. In the world you can categorise 4 types of people : Aarta - One who is miserable, one who has problems nobody else can solve no doctors can, nobody can do anything about you, then you pray to God. Aarta-those who are miserable, they pray to God. Artharti - The second type of people who pray to God are those who want something, some gains, some material benefits, or whatever, satisfaction. 

You will see just before the exams, students go to places of worship and pray, just before exams or just before results come out. Or if they have to go to an interview, people pray. Sometimes even for lottery tickets. While buying a lottery ticket people pray and say, “If I get the lottery, 10% I will give to you, God.” 

If you go to shops, retail shops, even wholesale shops, they all have altars. And there they worship, they pray that the business should be very good, that they have more profits or benefit sartharti. And jigyasu, the third category of people, who are inquisitive, who want to know whether there is a God, or what is it? And they are also in a prayerful mood, seekers, spiritual seekers. They don't want anything material, but they want something. 

A space in heaven to the right side or left side or wherever. Enlightenment, praying for something, but they are not clear what it is. That is jigyasu, one who is aiming at something. But they don’t know what it is. It is nothing tangible. They are neither miserable nor do they want anything material, they do not know what they want, but they want something. They are called jigyasu, the seekers. 

Gyani - It means the enlightened, the knowledgable ones, those who have attained wisdom, they also pray. ‘Pray’ not in the sense we think about “Oh God, give me this, give me that,” no, no. Pray commune, the wise commune with the Divine. They just know the Divinity is their very nature. So, the four types of people and the three types of love : satvik, rajasik and tamasik. Tamasik love is when you love somebody because you both have common enemies. 

You love someone because they will help you to fight your enemy. Or the love of terrorists, you know terrorists have got a deep love for their cause, but their love is mixed with hatred . They are ready to give up their life for the cause. The cause may be very foolish, but for that cause they are ready to kill anybody or kill themselves. 

Their love for the cause is so strong and they are so stressed out. This is the tamasik love. Rajasik love is the barter system. “If you love me, I'll love you. If you smile at me, I'll smile back at you. If you do this thing to me, if you are nice to me, then I'll be nice to you.” This type of conditional love, or conditioned response, is rajasik love. 

In rajasik love you're either very high or very low. You get high one moment, the next moment you're down. You are excited, very happy, you jump up and down, and then you are completely down. One moment you are full of enthusiasm, next moment you are depressed. This is rajasik love.

Narada Bhakti Sutras | Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

Having attained that love, that Divine love, one sees only that everywhere

Chapter 6 - Love Is Beyond Proof 

Day 46

Having attained that love, that Divine love, one sees only that everywhere. Cannot but see only love. Even if someone is blaming you, you see some good in it. “See this person is pointing that out, it is good.” You don't see blame as blame. 

You see that blame as an effort from that person to point out a mistake, which nobody dares to point out, or at the most, you see they are taking away some bad karma of yours. It is said if someone blames you for no reason, you should thank them twice. If anyone blames you, they are taking the bad karma away from you. 

Someone who praises you, they are taking the good karma away from you. Now you choose what you want. So someone praises you, better praise back immediately. But when someone blames you, better keep quiet, otherwise you may take more bad karma from them, they may have bigger stock than you, bigger stuff, heavier duty than you. 

You see only that perfection. When you attain perfection, you see only perfection. Tadeva shrunoti - And you would like to listen only to that, “Tell me more about love, tell me more about what is the secret, the mystery of this universe.” 

Otherwise inquisitiveness is always about something that is negative, some scandal, “Oh , tell me what it is. What happened? I would like to hear from you what happened.” Gossip is most of the time about scandals, because that is what you nurture.

You seem to enjoy it. But attaining Divine love, that is not what you are interested in. You are interested in knowing more about love, more about the leelas, more about the happiness. “Tell me more what has happened, tell me more, what more new knowledge has come today?” 

This interest in knowledge, interest in the mystery of the universe, interest in listening to the glory, is what you come up with not the complaints, not the problems, not the unhappiness, not the wrong happenings, not the imperfections. Interest in imperfection is a sign of sickness. 

Even if someone calls you ‘ghost’, you will hear mentioned holy ghost. You would like to hear the best from them. When people go to talks and lectures, you ask them afterwards, “What did you hear?” and you will be surprised. 

They will pick up some negative things here and there, “Oh, this is what I heard.” This indicates the interest in negativity of the mind. This interest in negative things indicates the stress level of the mind, the smallness of the mind, how one is not yet open to the ocean of love. 

You only talk about it, talk about that alone and think about that alone. You dwell, you read, just think about that, you are in awe every moment. This is unconditional love. This is the love that is beyond all characteristics, beyond all the gunas, beyond all conditions. But lesser than this is the three types of love, that is, the satvik, rajasik and tamasik love, as we already heard.

Narada Bhakti Sutras | Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

If the vision is divine then the divine is everywhere.

Chapter 6 - Love Is Beyond Proof 

Day 45 

Attaining which you are compelled to talk about it all the time. You only think about it and nothing else. And you see only that everywhere the impact of that love is so strong. You see only that everywhere. Your world is your own projection, your own creation. When you feel negative, you see all that negativity in everybody. 

If you are upset, you feel everybody is upset with you, the world is a hopeless place for you. When you feel down, you feel everything is hopeless, isn’t it so? When you are high with energy and enthusiasm, nothing matters to you, you just move, you feel you can move the world, isn’t it? 

When you are in love you only see that. You only speak about it, you only immerse in it. Every particle of divine love. And that is what is worth attaining. There is a proverb that says, “The world is as you see it.” 

If you feel good in you, then you see good everywhere. If your mind is bitter, you see everything is bitter. The world is as your vision. A hungry man looks at the moon, he only sees it like a doughnut or it reminds him of a bagel. Someone who is in a new love affair, he looks at the moon and it reminds him of his beloved's face. 

If you feel negative, then you see everything as negative. Often when people get sick, they feel everybody is falling sick. They telephone and talk to a few people and they are also sick. In a town of a million people, they might have spoken to 10,15,20 people, most of them are sick and then they conclude everybody is sick. 

We generalise, eternalise the problem. Sometimes when you are upset you Say, “I've always been like this,” don't you? But if you have always been upset, you will never even notice that you are upset. For you to be miserable, you should have some gaps of happiness, some relief somewhere. 

If you are in a continuous state of misery, you cannot know misery at all, you cannot even feel it. But the mind usually generalizes the problem and eternalizes it, “It is always like this, I'm always doing mistakes.” If you are always doing mistakes, that won't be a mistake. 

That is how you are. That is your nature. And nature is never a mistake. Nature is nature, it is not a mistake at all. If everything is wrong, remember something is basically wrong with you. Not everything can be wrong, not everybody can be wrong. 

As is your vision, So is your creation. Set right the vision. If the vision is to the divine, the divinity deepens. Then you see the divine everywhere.

Narada Bhakti Sutras | Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

What is illusion?

Chapter 6 - Love Is Beyond Proof 

Day 44

It grows moment by moment, it does not diminish. Often in our relationships love seems to diminish. At least the intensity goes down a little, in all relationships when a child is very small, it cannot move away from it’s mother even for a few minutes, a few hours. Then it starts becoming independent. 

Then once in a while the child sends Mother's Day cards. You are more attached to your children than to your own parents. Your whole attention, that was So much with your parents when you were a child, gets diverted to your spouse after you get married. 

Then after you have children, that same attention you had for spouse gets diverted to your children. There is a shifting in all different types of love. But Divine love grows all the time, moment by moment. Every moment it grows, it increases, never decreases. 

There is no gap. It cannot be destroyed by anybody, it cannot be taken away from you and it is very delicate. To experience it you need to be very quiet. Love itself is so delicate. That is why when you feel love, you feel so delicate, so vulnerable. And that is how you can get hurt. Hurt is part of love. When you love somebody, you feel so delicate, so vulnerable. 

And a small simple gesture from them hurts you. When one whom you love does not smile at you, finished, your mood is off. Small gestures, insignificant things can hurt you because love is so delicate and finer than the finest. It is said that to know God, you need to be in love. Why should you be in love in order to know God? 

Because love makes you very fine, refined, so delicate. In that delicate state of consciousness alone can you be united with this whole Universe. Then you can say, “Me and my father are one.” Unless you are in that state of love, you cannot proclaim, “Me and my father are one,” you cannot say “Aham Brahmasmi” - I am that. When can you Say it? 

When your consciousness becomes so refined. From the molecular state to the atomic level to the sub-atomic level then you can say there is one field. On the gross level you cannot say ‘ one field’. Only on the subtle level you can recognize there is one field, the oneness in creation. 

It is experiential, not an intellectual analysis. It is a synthesis of the finest order. It is not the cloud which is there one day and which breaks another day, with some conditions, with some feelings. People often fall in love and then say they got disillusioned. That ts really no disillusionment, it is re-illusionment. 

If you break away from love and fall into a state of apathy or negativity or dullness, it is not disillusionment. Disillusionment is when you completely immerse yourself in love and you recognize there is only one love in this universe. Then you are disillusion. Real disillusionment is when you realize the sun belongs to you, when you realise this whole planet is your own and you own the air you breathe. 

That is disillusionment. Otherwise you are an illusion. Small identity is what is your illusion. Me, mine, my thing. This experiential Divine love brings you the reality. But it is so strange that when people fall out of love, that is when they say, “I got disillusioned. "When they become indifferent, they say they are disillusioned. That is small mindedness, small love. Then they have not had a taste of what Divine love is.

Narada Bhakti Sutras | Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

Divine love is devoid of any strings, any desires, any conditions.

Chapter 6 - Love Is Beyond Proof 

Day 43

Such intense love for the Divine shines through here and there, somewhere and sometimes. Every human being is nothing but a vessel to hold the consciousness. There is no difference between me and you and you and him and him and her. We are all just empty bowls. 

Everyone is nothing but an empty bowl, and the same space is in all the bowls. In ancient India, the example of the earthen pot was given. The body is like an earthen pot and the soul is contained in the earthen pot as an individual soul. 

The moment the pot is broken, the space remains in space. Nothing has happened to the space. We are all pots. Every living creature is a pot. But such Divine love shines though only in some pots. Prakashate kvapi patre - Not that it is not there. But it shines through in some pots. 

It is present everywhere, in all pots. But it only shines through, manifests somewhere here and there, on a rare occasion, once in thousands of years, once in a few centuries. Such deep Divine love shines through, so that all other pots also can get inspired to shine that same. 

It is free from the three types of different love. There are three types of loveSatvik love is unconditional love. I love you for what you are, not because you did something for me. You helped me so much, so I love youthis Rajasik love is the second type of love. 

I love you because you did this for me. Tamasik love is the third type of love. Tamasik love is love because we have a common enemy - "I don't like that person. Oh, you also do not like that person? Come we are friends, we love each other.” 

The first category of love is “I love you because the way you are is simply lovable. What you did to me is not a matter of concern at all.” "Because you give me some pleasure, because you helped me, because you care for me, I love you,” is Rajasik love. 

There is a string attached to Rajasik love. Loving because you hate somebody else is Tamasik love. Making friends to gain strength to hate is Tamasik love . Do you see what I am saying? Often two people get together just because they have a common enemy. 

Their common goal is to eliminate or destroy something, so they get together. That bonding out of ignorance, out of dullness or destruction is Tamasik love. Divine love is beyond it transcends all these three types of love.  

There are no Strings attached in that love. “If you love me, I love you, if you do this thing to me, I love you. If you are nice to me, then I love you.” How about if I am not nice to you, would you still love me? No question.

These conditional strings are attached to your expression of feelings of love. Divine love is kamanarahitam is devoid of any strings, any desires, any conditions.

Narada Bhakti Sutras | Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

Love Is Beyond Proof

Chapter 6 - Love Is Beyond Proof 

Day 42

Throughout the ages, with all gestures, man is trying to express love but it has remained inexpressible. Love is so deep somewhere in you, and you find all your expressions just a shadow of it. Often teenagers say that nobody understands them it is a normal complaint. 

Just remember when you were a teenager, what was your complaint? “Nobody understands me.” isn't that so? Nobody understands you or you find yourself incapable of expressing what you feel? If the feeling is so superficial, then it can be expressed. 

But the feeling that is so genuine, so deep, so authentic, is hard to express. It cannot be expressed That is the nature of love. Tears will come, a glow comes on your face, the smile comes up. But words fail to express. Often all these outer expressions give you a glimpse of love, but not really the experience of it. 

It cannot be expressed by words. Language is of the mind, of intellect. You can express any theory, theorem, philosophy through words. But feelings can only be felt. Communication on that level is beyond speech. And when lovers speak, they don’t make much sense. 

Like when a dumb person tastes something great, how does he say that? Like the taste of a dumb person, like the joy of one who cannot speak. Those who have eyes can see, those who have hearts can feel. Love is what you are. Love is that energy which is the basis of this whole creation. 

How can that be confined to a few words that we blabber through our mouth? Forget about it, if you think you are just going to understand love through words. You expect people to tell you, “I love you, I love you” and all such phrases. Many times you say, “I love you” but it doesn't really carry that feeling, that energy behind it. 

Such words go in vain. Like a dumb person, be silent. When two people are in love, there is a demand that arises between them. Let the other Tell me something more. And however many words you hear, it is not enough, still you feel inadequate. “Today you didn't talk to me. Why you didn't talk to me? You don't love me”. 

Love is like the taste of a dumb person. A dumb person who can taste but cannot express in words how wonderful the food is.

Narada Bhakti Sutras | Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

Love is having a sense of oneness, belongingness

Chapter 5 - Crossing The Ocean Of Maya

Day 40

Another meaning of ved means knowledge. One who goes even beyond the vedas. That is why it is called vedanta where knowledge ends. Going beyond knowledge. You know a student wants to gain knowledge, but a devotee doesn't care for knowledge. He just loves, that is all. Love is beyond knowledge. 

That is the difference between a student and a devotee. A student's goal is to gain some knowledge, gain something out of it. But a devotee, a beloved is one who simply loves. When there is love, you don’t need to know anything about any of it. Like a child is not interested in knowing how the mother is, isn’t it? 

A child can never make the mother an object of knowing. A child never gets curious about the mother. Knowing is a curiosity, love is uniting. Knowing is analysis, love is synthesis. One who is beyond analysis, one who doesn't sit all the time doubting “Oh what is he up to, what is she up to, who is there, what is that?” is simply in love. 

Love is having a sense of oneness, belongingness. Same with the mother. However the child is, it is part of her. A mother never becomes curious about the child. “What does my son thinks about me, what does my daughter think about me,” she does not sit and worry. You must cultivate this in your relationship. 

Often newly married couples become too curious about each other, they try to dig each other's history and each other's background, each other's activities. And in this analysis they become separate. Doubts come, problems come, mistrust comes and they blame each other. You know, in rural society in India, this is not a question. 

Once someone is married, there is synthesis. They take each other for granted, they don’t question each others integrity or any such thing. There is synthesis there. Ofcourse, in today’s society it is turning around. 

East is no more east, west is no more west. Even in the eastern part of the globe cities are almost like in the west. And in the west, values are turning back. Family emphasis is growing much more than what it was a couple of decades ago. You cannot understand love through your intellect. It is something to be felt. And anything that needs to be felt, needs synthesis, not analysis. 

You have to become one with it to know it. Someone asked, “How to know Brahman, how to know God?". It is said you have to become Brahman in order to know Brahman. Or knowing which you become That. And how do you know? Not through the head. Because whatever you know through the head, you always keep at a distance. You are separate. The subject object difference will remain. But feeling is not that way, love is not like that. 

Love is the knowledge that comes out of synthesis. The taste of the pudding is in tasting, music is in hearing it. In the same way, feeling. If you know Brahman, you have become Brahman. Synthesis is the language of love. And for that you need to transcend knowledge, the analytical aspect of life. And you can only transcend what you have gone through, you can only leave what you have. 

If you say leave the fruit of action means if you never act, you never have a fruit of action to leave. How can you leave something which you don't have? This is so beautiful. Dropping the attachment to the fruit of action means if you have never acted, how can you drop the action or the fruit of action? 

So be active. Keep doing your work and drop the fruit of action. When you have to act, in the beginning you have to be motivated.

Narada Bhakti Sutras | Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

Pure love is beyond duality

Chapter 5 - Crossing The Ocean Of Maya 

Day 39

Be so centred in the action. Relax, let go of the action. When you are in conflict, any activity you do, you will be ina bigger conflict. When you have a choice in front of you and you choose one, you will always find the other side is greener. 

The other choice seems much better. This thing will bother you, will not let you enjoy what you have in your hand, not let you focus on what is right now in your hand. So when you are bothered by a choice, relax. The choice is never between good and bad. There is no choice between pudding and a plate of clay. 

The choice is between whether you should have pudding or apple pie. Never mind, today you have apple pie and tomorrow you have a pudding. So what? Your confusion is always about bad and worse or good and better. The conflict is because of the choice. Narada says relax. 

You can have conflict throughout your life from choosing what subject you want to select in your school to what job you should do and which partner you should have as a life partner. There is ample amount of choice. 

One woman came to me for blessings saying, “Gurudev, Iam going shopping today, please bless me. I always do the wrong shopping. I buy the wrong saris, the wrong garments. Then I come back home, again I have to go back. So please bless me that I make the right selection.” 

Our childish mentality has not gone. Just like children you know-you take them to Toys ‘r ‘us and they don't want to go back home. Either they want to take the whole shop home or they choose one toy and then they get confused. And they end up crying in the end. 

Choices are what bring conflict in your life, that enhance the conflict in life. Where there is conflict, there is no love. How can you be centred when there is conflict? And how to be centred? He says relax. One who can just let go of that. 

But that doesn’t mean he does not act. In the previous sutra he said though one who is wise, who has attained knowledge, Divine love is beyond all action, he continues to engage himself in it. To maintain a discipline, maintain the shastras, the scriptures. 

One still follows them, though one is above all that. One who is not concerned about the outcome of an action, one who is centred while in action, and one who reposes in the self, He goes beyond the dualities, beyond the conflicts. One who even rises beyond the vedas, beyond the knowledge, he attains the pure love. 

Vedas means injunctions. “Do this, you have to do this” - laws and rules and regulations for the betterment of oneself, one’s society, one’s environment. This is one meaning of the vedas.

Narada Bhakti Sutras | Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

Be aware of your potential and do action

Chapter 5 - Crossing The Ocean Of Maya

Day 38

The who is not worried about what people tell them or talk about them can be free. You don’t worry about what people think about you. They may think good about you, they may think bad about you. Why sit and worry all the time about what others think about you? 

It may not be true at all. One who is free from this bondage of the surroundings, of society. One who is beyond all the three gunas - the satva, rajas and tamas. Satva guna - knowledge, Rajo gunadesire, ambition, restlessness and 

Tamo gunadullness and sleep. The three gunas bring different tendencies in you and you are not attached to any one of them. Know that it is easy to be detached from negative qualities, but you get attached to positive qualities. You think you are the only righteous person and then you get upset about everybody else who is not righteous. 

Feeling that you are the only right one, the only honest one, the only correct person, others, naturally, become bad. That is attachment to the positive qualities. One needs to be free from attachment to the positive qualities, also. Then you will really be free. One who is free from acquiring and maintaining whatever has come in life. 

There are two worries-one is to get what one doesn't have and the other is to maintain what one has. These two worries eat you up. And one who does not worry about them, really crosses this ocean of misery, of maya. Who brought the ocean of conflict in life? 

One who is not after attaining what he does not have, achieving what he has not achieved, is not feverish about holding on to what he has. One who is free, light, easy. In the next sutra, he explains - When we act, behind every action there is a motivation. And the motivation is to get a specific result. 

There is no action that we do intentionally without an eye on a specific goal. That achievement affects our process of action. Are you getting what I am saying? Okay, let us see it from this angle. 

There are some actions which you do as an expression of joy in which you are not bothered about the result of the action. There are some other actions which you do expecting to get a certain result out of it, a joy out of it. The expectation of joy in an action makes the action inferior. 

But an action which happens as an expression of joy has no fruit of action, no result that you are looking for. When you are happy, you want to spread that happiness, and if you are keenly observing whether the other person has become happy or not, you get entangled in their vicious circle. 

When you are in conflict, what can you do? There is a Chinese saying, “Take a pillow and go to bed.” Narada says a similar thing, with a little difference. He says you rest. Take a break from the action. Take a break from the activity. Not just the activity, but the fruit of the activity, the result of the activity. 

The concern about the outcome of your activity is what pulls you down, what bothers you. Suppose you want to take up a project, want to do some work. Now whether it will happen or not, if you start putting your mind on all these concerns, then your whole enthusiasm gets dampened. 

When you are aware of your potential and you want to do an action, just jump into it. Go into it, is what Narada says, without having a concern about the outcome.

Narada Bhakti Sutras | Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

Sevate who enjoys being alone

Chapter 5 - Crossing The Ocean Of Maya 

Day 37

You know that story of an elephant and the fly on It’s leg? A fly was living on the leg of an elephant. Once the fly got so angry at the elephant, it said, “I am leaving you today. Finished. Enough is enough. I'm done with you ." It got so angry, it left. 

At that moment, just by accident, the elephant moved it's leg and some dust arose. But the fly thought that the storm has come because it is leaving the elephant. It told the elephant, “Yes, you see, the storm has come? I am leaving you suffer from the storm.” 

The elephant didn't even know that the fly was sitting on its leg. And that is how nobody really cares what you are, what you do, what you don't do. And all impact gets wiped out by the flood of time. Time comes and just floods you, wipes you out. 

It wipes all the memory out of this planet. This me, me, me can only dissolve and you serve. He becomes free from this identity of ego, identity of the smallness. Identifying yourself with the smallness because this smallness is the cause of misery. “ I was not recognized. Nobody looked at me, nobody loves me.” 

Come on, wake up. You are love. Love is in giving, not in demanding. Recognize how much love there is for you. The air loves you, that is why it is getting into your nose and coming out of it. The earth loves you, that is why it is holding on to you with it’s gravitational force, otherwise you would have become like a helium balloon crying and yelling, going up, up or your head would be sticking to the ceiling. 

The day the earth stops loving you, just imagine, what would happen if the earth loses it’s gravitational force for you? You will cry, “Hey, hold me” The sun loves you, that is why the sun shines on you. This entire creation is filled with love. But this little foolish mind says “Me, Me, I, I, I did this, I did that, I want this, I want that, I like this, I don’t like this”. 

This identity is what suffocates you, what limits your potential. You are much more than what you think you are. You are so vast, you are so great. And this little dust in your eyes makes you unable to see the vastness that you are. This little dust that gets into your eyes prevents you from seeing the vastness of the sky. 

Who becomes free? He is talking about those who become free. Freedom is a necessity. Politicians say freedom is your birthright. I don ‘t say it is your right. I say freedom is your necessity, your need t is not a right. You cannot live without freedom. 

And the spiritual path is not that which makes you more bonded, it releases all the bondage and makes you free. The goal of a spiritual path is to bring you freedom, which is the need of every soul. That is why we come to this planet to be free. One who reposes in that corner deep inside oneself, where there is nothing else. 

One who is alone, who sits alone, can never feel lonely. If you cannot be alone, then you will start feeling lonely. Viviktasthanam means where there is nobody else. That doesn’t mean you run to the forest. You may even be sitting in a forest, or alone in a desert, but your mind will be filled with all the things and events and people. No. 

When you can settle into that space where there is nobody, when you become hollow and empty, you can be free. And get into that place again and again. Sevate who enjoys being alone, one who is not worried about what people tell them or talk about them.

Narada Bhakti Sutras | Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

Good company is that which cheers you up, which elevates you, which brings a pleasant attitude and feeling within you

Chapter 5 - Crossing The Ocean Of Maya

Day 35

That company which gets you lost, which doesn't let you learn from your own experience, is bad company. You can gallop on such a horse forever without being aware of anything in your life. That is how people commit the same mistake over and over again and get totally dejected and depressed their whole life - and they do not even know that they are miserable. 

They are no doubt miserable and they make everyone around them miserable, isn’t that so? That is bad company. They forget all about themselves. There is no memory of them left, of who they are, what they are, what they want, where they are heading. They have no idea who they were, how they were. 

All adults forget that they were teenagers once, and that they, too, had problems as teenagers. When they have teenage children, they think the children are not doing well. Every adult feels that the children don't listen - they forget that they, also, did not listen to their parents at a particular time. 

When the delusion comes, the memory loss happens. You lose your memory, you lose the knowledge of who you are. The intellect becomes clouded. When the intellect is hazy, not clear, not sharp, everything appears wrong. It is the intellect, the buddhi, that says, “This is good, this is not good; this is right, this is not right.” That which is, that which brings short-term joy and long term misery is bad. 

That which brings long term joy and short-term misery is good. This is the definition of good and bad. Good brings long-term joy and short-term challenges, problems, and bad is something that brings long-term problems and short-term joy. It is the intellect which decides whether this is good or not good, and when the intellect, itself, is gone, everything is lost. 

When the discrimination power in you is lost, then you are totally lost. This is what you will find if you go and talk to prisoners in jail. At the spur of the moment they lost their intellect and they lost everything. All crimes can only happen when the intellect or the discrimination is lost, and most of them lose it through bad company. That is why mobs create more violence. 

The individual person cannot do so much harm-in a mob they throw stones, put fire to buses and trucks and break things. The mob becomes more violent than a single individual person. It is the mob psychology-a mob is more violent because they lose their intellect, they lose their discrimination. That is why bad company is to be shunned. 

Good company is that which cheers you up, which elevates you, which brings a pleasant attitude and feeling within you. In the beginning it may be just like a small wave, a ripple, but when you are associating yourself with bad company continuously, it will become like an ocean. Don't think, “Oh, it is just one party there, just one little thing that I’m doing.” 

No, that one little thing can just rip you. That is how alcoholics who have recovered from being an alcoholic get sucked back into it. It is just one party, one peg-these sort of justification they give, they go for one little party once in a while and then that’s it, finished. And they end up again entering the rehabilitation centre.

Narada Bhakti Sutras | Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

Crossing The Ocean Of Maya

Chapter 5 - Crossing The Ocean Of Maya

Day 34

Shun bad company. There is a saying by someone, “If you want to Know a person, know him through the company he keeps or the books he reads.” Shun bad company. What is bad company? The company which solidifies your negativity is bad company. 

You have some problem, you have a complaint, you go and you talk to someone and they make your beliefs more strong in that negativity that is bad company. And you go to someone else with the same problem, same thought, same negativity. 

And they will just make you feel lighter and when you walk away from them you feel that the problem is not as big as you thought it was before. That is the right company. Don't think people who agree with your grievances, with your problems, are your friends. They are not. 

Those people who make your negative feelings and your frustrations grow more and more in you may appear to be friends, but they are your enemies. They are bad company. Right company, good company, is that which makes you feel the problem is nothing. 

“It is solvable, it is simple, don’t worry .” They pump enthusiasm in you. Haven't you had this experience? Many people you talk to confirm your negativity while there are others who simply dissipate your negativity. Shun bad company if you want to grow in love, because bad company provokes ambition. 

Why should we get rid of bad company? Why should we not keep bad company? It says it brings lust or ambition in you, feverishness in you. “That person has a Rolls Royce, I, too, should have one. That person has this, I, too, should have that.” And then behind ambition comes anger. Actually, if you look into it, it is your own mind which is either your friend or your enemy. 

The negative tendency in your mind is your own enemy. Don't think it is in the other person. You can turn around the other person’s mind too. If the other’s mind is negative, you can break the ice there, you need the skill to do that. 

Bad company brings ambition, desire, frustration, anger and delusion. You build a whole castle in your mind about negativity - how things are, how people are, how the whole world is. Haven't you had this experience before in your life? 

You thought such and such a person is hopeless and you made a whole concept about him in your mind just by listening to someone else and then suddenly you found out that all your opinions and ideas about the person were false. 

They fell apart. Your opinions prove to be wrong. How many times in your life have your own opinions failed you? Yet we do not learn from our own past.

Narada Bhakti Sutras | Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

Smile and be innocent

Chapter 4 - Glorify The Divine

Day 33

Smile and be innocent. Smile from the core of your heart, then you will see all the negativity will fly off, like when the sun shines, the dewdrops vanish, the darkness vanishes. Your smile is the light in your life. Stop fueling negativity, stop feeling obligedthen you are good company. 

Not only that, then you will be a good company to anybody. It needs skill to shun someone. When someone is so negative, if you just shun them, and say, “This is not right, what you are saying is hopeless,” they will just shut up and they won't really feel lighter. 

You need skill to deal with someone's negativity. Are you getting what I'm saying? They will just stop communicating with you because they are so convinced about their negativity. Unless you say yes to them, they don’t feel sympathetic. So you need skill to put down their negativity. That is satsang. 

And when you come from this position you will see that whatever complaints they have, as soon as they are aware of that feeling, they start dissolving, they start feeling lighter. It is the company which will pull you forward in life. Everyone needs good company to progress, isn't it so? 

The husband gets into a bad company or the wife gets into bad company the seeds will rip the family. Of course, when people are living together four, five, six, seven years, some misunderstandings creep up in any relationship, somebody says something and there will be an argument. 

Skill is needed to acknowledge the negativity, yet not agree with it. Acknowledge it, not agree with it, and then break it-like with a knife, remove it. And move on, feeling lighter. 

Your life on this planet is meant to bring peace and lightness to everyone's life, not to create more complications. What do you say? So, when you feel one with everybody, when you have that love for everyone, then you don't feel obliged. But you have to do it with skill. 

Question - What is someone's complaints are legitimate? 

Gurudev Sri Sri - That is how everyone feels. When they complain, they feel their complaints are completely legitimate. Wake up and see. If you see through knowledge, you always get what you deserve. Nature has that principle, that truth.

Narada Bhakti Sutras | Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

Obligation itself is an illusion

Chapter 4 - Glorify The Divine

Day 32

In the beginning It will be nothing of course, but it sucks you in and when you get sucked into that type of company, it becomes like a hailstorm. You are unaware, without your knowledge you just sit in the darkness of negative company and start saying, “Oh, he’s bad, he’s no good.” The other day someone said, “So-and-so is so jealous of me.” Come on. Even if they are jealous of you, you don’t recognise it. You know, recognising someone's jealousy puts you down. 

If they are jealous, it is up to them. Thinking they are Jealous of you makes you all worked up, doesn 't it? “Everybody is picking on me,” Such an illusion. Don't think anyone is bad. We say, “Oh that person is bad, this person is bad, shun this company.” No. The bad company is within you, it is notin the other person. Bad company refers to your attitude. In our Bangalore Ashram we have two teachers, anybody comes to one of these teachers with any complaint, he will blow it up. 

He will say, “I agree with you. Yes, you are right”. But the other teacher, whatever complaints come to him, he will make sure that people feel lighter about it. Don't feel obliged to say yes to someone's negativity. This is another problem. When a friend comes and complains to you about anything, even the weather, you feel obliged to say ‘yes’ to that complaint and flow with them, rather than contradicting them. 

Isn't that so? How many of you feel that way? There is no rule to feel obliged to flow with their negativity. Obligation itself is an illusion. We shouldn't feel obliged to say anything. See, if you feel one with everybody, if you have so much love, you don't feel obliged at all. Obligation comes when you feel a little distance, right? If someone is really part of you , do you feel obliged? 

Absolutely not. I don't feel obliged to anybody for anything. Everyone is part of me, why should I feel obliged for anything? Obligation is an illusion, it makes you feel loaded. You have a load on your head and that makes you behave unnaturally, it takes you away from reality. What do you say? When you feel obliged, then you feel obliged to say ‘yes’ to their negativity. Then you become bad company for someone.

Narada Bhakti Sutras | Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

The company of the Divine, the Guru, or an Enlightened One

Chapter 4 - Glorify The Divine

Day 31

You cannot take credit that for doing this or that, you could get the company of the Divine, the Guru, or an Enlightened One. Even that is bestowed on you unconditionally. It has not come to you on your merits. You have done nothing to deserve it. 

Don’t think you deserve it. “Oh, I did this, this, this, I deserve this.” You don't. It is not coming to you because you deserve it. It is coming because of their Grace, because of their love for you. Between him and his people there is no difference-like a mother defends a child, like a father defends his son or daughter. 

If someone fights with a young child, what do the parents say? “Why do you blame them?” They take it on themselves. If your Beloved is blamed, you take the blame on yourself. If your Beloved is praised, you enjoy that praise. You think that you are being praised. In the same way, adoring the Divine is the same as adoring his people. 

There is no difference, no division between the Divine and his people, between him and those who are go and sit with some friends, talk to them, discuss your problems and when you go away from them you feel lighter, feeling all your negativity is just an illusion. That is being in good company. It is easy to get into bad company. 

There are people who fuel negativity. You say this is hopeless, they say, “Yes, yes, it is not hopeless, it is horrible.” That is bad company, yes? In good company when you discuss your problems you move away from them feeling lighter, feeling that the problem is really not that big, it is nothing, it can be solved.

By all means, shun bad company. Because it is the company that you keep that builds you up. What does bad company do? It creates feverishness and obsession in you, brings in you more and more desires, more lust, anger and delusion. Then finally you find yourself in a big soup-so far from love. It is like concrete negativity, frustration personified and that is bad company.

Narada Bhakti Sutras | Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

Grace of the Master, of Guru

Chapter 4 - Glorify The Divine

Day 30

Appreciating the beauty anywhere is appreciating the beauty in the spirit. All praise, all adoration goes only to one. In the world also, sing the glory, in the world, recognize the beauty. Glorify the divine. 

Every flower has to remind you of its origin. Every human being reminds you of your own origin. Every bird singing reminds you of that beauty of the infinity. See this Divinity and sing its glory in your day to day activity. Predominant of all this is the Grace of the Master, of Guru. 

Like a lit candle can light another candle, only one who has, can give. One who is free can free you, one who is love can kindle the love. Most important is the grace of the Guru and even that you can only get when you have some Divine grace. 

With just a little bit, a tiny drop of grace from God, you gain the merit of the grace of the Master, the Guru and such a company is difficult to get. Millions of people are there on this planet. Not everybody will get in touch with the one who has attained it. It is very difficult. 

And the Master, Sadguru does not come in all ages. He comes once in a while. Durlabha - it is difficult to get, Agamya - unfathomable is his being. Amogha - you cannot measure the depth or understand it easily. You cannot understand the Master easily, it is very difficult to understand his depth, his ways. 

You may walk by a Jesus, a Buddha ora Krishna and you may not notice him at all. Where can you know him in your time? Many think Krishna was what he was, only a few knew him. Others thought he was just a king, mischievous and cute, too tricky, sometimes very unreliable. Krishna was considered very unreliable. 

And he would just smile and everyone would forget all their problems. But later, when they would go away from him, they would remember, “I went to scold him-I forgot!” People used to go to shout at him, but when they were in front of him, they returned with a smile. He would make everyone forget. That is why he was called Manmohana. 

The mind would just drop, everything would be forgotten. People who never recognized Jesus, asked him, “Are you really the son of God?” as though others are not the son of God. Everybody is the son of God, who is not? 

That is why Jesus said, “To our Father in heaven.” He did not say only my father, not your father. “All is prayer to our Father” means what? You are also the son of God. But I know I am son of God, you do not know. Better you know. That is what his message was, but not everybody could recognize him, understand him. 

They put him in the category of thieves, dacoits. Durlabha - Very difficult to find, to get. Agamya unfathomable. Amogha - you cannot measure the deor understand easily. You cannot understand the Master easily - it is very difficult to understand his depth, his ways. 

You cannot say something that is similar, parallel to that Being. You cannot compare a Guru, an Enlightened one, with anyone else. There will be nobody you can see coming near that Being. Amogha - never think you can understand them. Impossible.

Narada Bhakti Sutras | Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji