*Chapter 4 - Contentment*

In the earlier days, it would take many years to build a house. It would take many generations to build a temple. An example is the Brihadeeshwara temple in Tanjavur, Tamil Nadu. 

It took nearly 3 generations to complete its construction around 300 years? It is so surprising that it took 300 years to build a temple.

The task started by one has to be completed by somebody else. In the same way, if the father is an astrologer, the son continues as an astrologer. 

If the father is a doctor, the son becomes a doctor too. The one, who continues the task started, is known as disciple, son or progeny.

It is said that children should give ablutions to elders, it implies that the elders should be made contented first. 

If the elders wanted to do a task and if it is incomplete, then completion of the task was giving them ablutions. Completion of the task itself is equivalent to giving them ablutions. 

If you have to give ablutions to

elders, it means that you have to make them contented. This is because they have a lot of faith in you. 

Their faith is that the future generation will take the world forward, that they will uplift the society, strive for uplifting the country and continue the family tree. 

Fulfilling this faith of the elders in you is giving ablutions. Just offering sesame seeds and water is not ablution. We have to get contented and give them knowledge. 

Contentment can only be got through knowledge. That is why it is said that even if one or two people in a family meditate and practice samadhi.

Then seven generations before

you will get contentment. The karmas of the seven generations before you will be destroyed and their minds will be purified. 

There is so much power in meditation. It is not an exaggeration. It is mentioned in the shastras (scriptures). Tarpan is telling the departed that we are contented here and that they should be contented where they are. 

We have to be contented before we make them contented. Therefore in every satsang, meditation and knowledge session you attend, feel that you are contented. 

The more our consciousness expands with love, the more the Gods are contented.

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

Waves of emotions

When you rejoice in beauty, the entire creation rejoices with you.

*Chapter 14 - Pride, Humility & Luck*

We need to look deeper into pride. Often we think it is arrogance and those who have arrogance think that it is their pride.

They take pride in it but there is a clear distinction between the two. Arrogance is insensitive. When there is no humility or awareness in pride, it turns into arrogance. 

When there is no love or service along with pride then, too, it turns into arrogance. It is a knife. 

You can either cut the butter or hurt your finger. There is just a little twist to it. You become insensitive and get lost in your joy and your pride. 

Pride also brings joy. In joy there is pride, but without humility and awareness it turns into arrogance. 

This is exactly what is happening in today's world. Arrogance goes with the small mind. The small mind, being unaware of the magnitude of existence, thinks it is the greatest, the biggest, and the highest. 

But pride is the very awareness of goodness and beauty and of one's luck. Luck is the language of the heart. It is the heart that decides if something is lucky or unlucky. 

Lucky or unlucky means - beyond one's capability, beyond one's capacity, beyond one's mind, beyond one's abilities and beyond the smallness of mind. 

You call something lucky that is

far or enormous. The heart always makes everything big. Poetry comes out of the heart.

The mind knows only the facts. Poetry is exaggeration and beauty is nothing but exaggeration. There is no fact in beauty.

If you try to analyse beauty, you will be lost and the beauty, too. It is the language of the heart. It decorates, it elaborates, it exaggerates, and it's 'airy-fairy'.

When you read poetry, when you sing a song or when you describe something, it's always from the heart. 

Analysis and explanations are from the mind, from the head. Justice and equality is from the head. From the heart comes uniqueness and speciality. 

Everything is made special. But

what do you often do? If there is any negativity, you deal with it with the heart and if something is positive, you deal with it with the head.

If there is a problem, you exaggerate it - suffering, mistake or misery. You blow it up beyond proportions. 

Right from the childhood, a small scratch would become a problem and misery. We eternalise and exaggerate it.

All newspapers thrive on this. They exaggerate the negativity. They see it from the heart. But when something beautiful and wonderful is happening, you look at it with the head. 

We need to switch. Even if you see one beautiful quality, decorate it, exaggerate it and make it very big. So and so is great, excellent and marvellous. 

See the negative quality in a person through your head and your mind. Analyse it. Reason out their behaviour considering that, maybe, they are tensed and stressed.

Analysis of negativity brings compassion in you. Exaggeration of the good brings waves of beauty. Whether a person is beautiful or not, it makes you more beautiful. 

The one who praises becomes more beautiful. Have you seen the faces of people who are always praising? There is a beauty in them. 

The bodies of those who exaggerate positive qualities get filled with it. The body which is nothing but space gets filled with that praise, and when the body gets filled with praise, divinity dawns. 

That is beauty. That is what a gopi is. It means being drunk with knowledge. Their whole being is drunk. But can you be drunk if you are complaining?

People who are drunk, don't complain. They are so happy. Everything is blissful. The mind shuts off and the heart takes over. That is what a gopi is. 

One who deals with the heart - gopi. Make this shift. If you see one good quality in somebody, catch hold of it. Exaggerate it. 

You will see that your word, your thought and your intuition has power. That person will become the way you think. You create your world with your word. 

When you see a negative quality, analyse it. Ask yourself what that person wants? And how he can get rid of it? Try to see what is behind it. 

Don't see negativity with the heart. Otherwise your heart will become sore. You will have it and become miserable. 

Life is very short. Time is running on. Why, should you be worried and bothered in this short period of time? 

Look at your life with a broader vision, a wide angle lens. It will give a bigger picture. Then life rises in waves of beauty. If you are a small pond, shallow waves will not rise. 

There will not be even a ripple. But you have great depth. Take out all the extra silt and you will see you are so deep, so beautiful.

There is nothing much to be done. That is the power of knowledge. Praise the Lord. God will not become greater by your praise but by that praise you become beautiful. 

Each hollow and empty space in you gets filled with it. Whenever you have felt a sense of great beauty, that's when you have reached your home. 

That's when you have been in touch with yourself, because you are so beautiful. Whatever beauty you see here and there, is only a projection of the self. 

You get a glimpse of the self. A little shower comes from the self and that's why everything in the world looks beautiful. 

In the experience of beauty, all 5 senses merge and whichever is dominant, that projects a little bit more. 

Example - if you're hungry the moon may remind you of pancake or cheese. All the 5 senses come together in the experience of beauty.

Beauty is beyond the senses, beyond the mind. Beauty is beyond the intellect. It is in your very being. When you rejoice in beauty, the entire creation rejoices with you.

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

Waves of emotions

I would say that you should own all the wisdom in the world as yours.

*Chapter 12 - Loss*

Do you really own anything in order to lose it? It was never yours in the first place. Everything comes to you, including your body. 

How long do you think you will have your body? The body belongs to the earth. It belongs to the creation. It is part of it. 

However hard you try, you cannot hold on to it for too long. When you have to let go of your own body, then what can be said about other bodies, however near and dear and beautiful they are. 

They are all so separate. Understand that everything is separate but one thing is not - the spirit. It is never away from you. 

It is part of you and whatever is part of you can never be away from you. Life is such a mystery, you cannot understand it in a linear way. Truth is not linear. It is multi-dimensional. 

You cannot question mysteries. You can just wonder about it. Pleasant things do not happen always. Unpleasant things also happen in the world. 

It's part of the whole set-up. What you can do is to reduce the unpleasant as much as possible. This can be done by spreading love, knowledge and education.

There is crime in the society because of lack of education or wrong education. One thinks that one is a 'somebody' - a Hindu, a Muslim, a Christian, a Jewish etc. 

Whatever I identify myself as,

I eliminate the others from me. If I identify myself as a Muslim, I eliminate the non-Muslims from me. 

I don't have a sense of belongingness with them and even if I die it does not matter. I have to identify myself as a Muslim, or a Hindu, or a Christian, etc. This is an ego trip that is happening in the world today.

People say that the Bible is great, not because they feel that it is great, but because they are Christians. 

Some may feel that the Koran is great and the last word of God, that it is final because they are Muslims. They want to say that they are great.

Instead they say that the Koran is great, the Bible is great, their religion is great or their country is great. If they are not great, then something that they possess is great.

If you realise that you are great you don't have to hook on to something else to prove your greatness. In the world people are on a trip to prove they are great. 

They don't find anything great in themselves. So they hook onto their religion or politics or countries or whatever and die for it. This is because of lack of education. 

Identifying yourself with race, religion, culture, nationality, etc, limits your awareness, limits your humanness. First and foremost, you are part of the Divine and then you are a human being.

If you can understand and attend to this truth within you then you can bring lot of peace in the environment. I would say that you should own all the wisdom in the world as yours.

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

Waves of emotions

More meditation, satsang and kriya can change habits

*Chapter 13 - Habits*

When you are pained by a habit very deeply, then you don't justify it. Usually you justify your habits. 

Without justifying, if you really feel the pinch of the habit, then its pain becomes rare to you. At that moment the habit drops. 

If you go to the extent of intensity of feeling the pain and dropping the habit, it leaves you. 

More meditation, satsang and kriya can change habits. Proper company, restrictions in your attitude or keeping yourself busy in some creative work will also change your habits. 

Do you know that chain smokers smoke less when they have a lot to do? When they have nothing to do, they smoke continuously. 

If you keep totally busy, then your habits will drop. They will also drop if you are pained by them. 

If you really feel the pinch and want to get over it then the surrender and prayer wells up. When prayer comes up, it changes your chemistry.

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

Waves of emotions

*Chapter 14 - Pride, Humility & Luck* 

The very purpose of so many varieties in creation is to somehow bring you back to yourself. 

You are beautiful, you are beauty and in that bliss, all that you need, all that you would want, simply keeps happening. 

Adi Shankaracharya describes it so beautifully - "There is a wish-giving tree in a small island right there in an ocean of milk.

In that island is a beautiful house called chintamani gruhe (awareness) or house of wisdom. In that ocean surrounded by the wish giving tree, is the bed - the couch of Shiva. 

O Mother you are sitting there smiling. And who would worship you? If someone is not lucky, he cannot. Who can love you? Only those who are lucky."

Even to experience beauty you need to be lucky. Don't think of luck in terms of justice or in terms of the analytical mind. 

It is just an expression of the

heart. You realise that you cannot do it with your mind, your abilities or your capabilities. 

It is beyond your comprehension and wildest imagination, then one calls it luck. You can find out 1000 reasons why you are lucky. 

You could be lucky because you are not a frog. Or you are not a fish about to go into the frying pan, then into somebody's stomach, then through the intestine. 

You could feel you are lucky that you are not a lamb. There are innumerable reasons to be lucky. 

Reasons are peripheral, the sense of feeling lucky is primary and vice versa. You could also go on feeling or enquiring why you are unlucky. 

Don't you see this gives a new direction to look at things? Amidst plentitude is the wish-giving tree. So when you feel a lack, then it is a desert. 

But when you feel plenty Jesus also said more will be given to those who have there is abundance. The ocean is a symbol of abundance, meaning everything is present there. 

The consciousness is always referred to as an ocean of milk. In our own consciousness when there is abundance, amidst it is the wish giving tree called siddhis. 

Before you need anything, things keep coming to you. In the midst of that is - knowledge, wisdom, discrimination and sharpness of intellect.

It's not completely spaced out. There is total awareness, aloofness, discrimination and sharpness of intellect. 

In that is house 'shivaakare manch', in that bed which is Shiva innermost innocence, inside wisdom.

Often people who have a lot of wisdom become crooked. There is no innocence. The more one is wise, the more he starts thinking, plotting and manipulating. 

In that bed of innocence, of purity, of transcendental bliss, lies the power of creation, the secret of spiritual glory. The shakti resides in that innermost core. 

And who can worship? If you are not lucky, you cannot be here at all, you could not even do the Sudarshan Kriya. You cannot experience the joy. it is out of question.

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

Waves of emotions

If we do it consciously, it is mediation. It is much more powerful than sleep

*Chapter 7 - Alignment Of Planets*

There is a story in the Puranas. There was a couple who did not have any children. So they prayed and it is said that God came to them in a dream and asked them what kind of son did they wanted.

A stupid son with 100 years of life or an intelligent one with only 16 years of life? They opted for an intelligent boy with only 16 years of life. 

Of course they got a son and they believed that when he was 15 years old he would die in one year. He was extraordinary, brilliant, and a genius and naturally the parents didn't like the idea of losing such a wonderful son. 

So they prayed and it is said when the death call came, the boy sat in deep meditation and prayed and recited some mantras. He was granted another 16 years. 

Today, people still recite the mantra made by this boy when there is some danger to life. It is well known in India. 

One can remedy the effects of the planets by going beyond time, going beyond body consciousness and the breath consciousness, like in sleep. 

When you sleep, you are not aware of the body, you are not aware of the breath and you are not aware of the world around you. You transcend these. 

You make a shift. It gives you rest and refreshes you. It brings back more life energy into your life. Most of our illnesses are healed just by sleep. 

This is because, in sleep we go beyond time and space, but we do it unconsciously. If we do it consciously, it is mediation. It is much more powerful than sleep

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

Waves of emotions

In Sanskrit the word for health is Swastha. It means the one who is in the Self.

*Chapter 6 - Coping With Fear*

Often you think you are a slave of your feelings. If you feel terrible, why do you feel so? You know you have the key and the capacity not to feel terrible and to come out of it. 

This is because the core of our existence is much more powerful than our feelings. It is connected with the infinite energy, the source and the field that we are. 

Then this - our very consciousness - the presence by which our body has grown in the womb and from childhood to adulthood also has the power to heal. 

Our body has everything needed to repair it. Of course from time to time you can take some herbs, vitamins, medicines and food. All this will help. 

There are four sources of energy. They are food, sleep, breath and meditation. You take help from these. 

At the same time know that,

it is the consciousness that is healing, and keeping you healthy. Just close your eyes for a moment. 

Consider who is looking at what's happening. Of course you see with the eyes and listen with the ears. 

But what is that - that mind, that 'I' that 'You', behind those eyes and ears. Just consider the mind behind the senses.

You may be sitting on a chair. Do you need any external aid to know that you are sitting? You don't. You know you are sitting. How do you know? 

Just feel yourself. Feel the mind through which you sense things. Now, open your eyes. The mind is seeing through our eyes. 

The same mind is hearing through the ears. Take your attention back to the source, to the 'someone', the 'something', which is instrumental in gaining all the information.

The mind, the I the memory that registers it, compares it and judges it. This will bring health. In Sanskrit the word for health is Swastha. It means the one who is in the Self.

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

Waves of emotions

Karmas are impressions in the mind and Love can eliminate all karma

*Chapter 8 - Karma*

Karmas are impressions in the mind. If you watch box office movies, 10 times in a month, then even when you are somewhere else and you look at the sky or close your eyes.

All the box office movies that you saw, roll through your mind. They may come to you in a dream too. These are deep impressions in the mind and they are the karma. Sometimes they get released. 

Sometimes they get reinforced again and again. So we have to make a little effort to release them and the best way is with love. 

Love can eliminate all karma. The second is with breathing. The breath will eliminate it. The third is with meditation, which can also eliminate karma. 

The fourth is with service - any kind of service where you do something good to someone else. And when the soul in that body gets relief, there is a blessing that comes from that soul which brings you good karma. 

The soul of someone who is suffering and to whom you give some relief, will bring blessing to you. Of course, if you are

doing service in order to get some good karma then it is not a service. 

Service is done when you do it as your nature, not even thinking you are doing it. All this is included in love.

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

Waves of emotions 

Loneliness can only be filled by being alone

*Chapter 10 - Loneliness* 

Someone's company cannot get rid of your loneliness. Even if it does so, it is very short-lived. In spite of being in company, you can be lonely. 

So loneliness can only be filled by being alone. If you can be comfortable being alone for some time, then you will not feel lonely. 

When you don't feel lonely you can spread joy around you. You will not be a boring person. If you are lonely then you can be boring to others and that will make you lonelier. 

If you see that you are bored with your own company then how much more boring must you be for others? There is something common between boredom and love. 

Have you thought about it? It is repetition. When you are in love you repeat. It doesn't make any sense but you go on repeating. 

Have you seen people sending cards on which they write love, love, love,' so many times. If it is written once, it is enough.

But the mind does not get satisfied. It wants to write so many times. Repetition. Repetition brings boredom too. 

So it is a cycle. If you're bored and get more bored and then a spring of love opens up within you. That was the purpose of the rosaries people used. 

When you use a rosary you get so bored, saying the same word a million times. You are so bored that the boredom simply bursts out. 

And then something happens, a fountain of energy rushes through you. Then you come to love.

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

Waves of emotions

Why do we have depression? We have depression if we don't do any service,

*Chapter 11 - Depression*

Why do we have depression? We have depression if we don't do any service, if we keep thinking about ourselves. 

If you want to get depressed, just sit in a corner and think only about yourself. It is the best way to get depressed. 

Go out into the world. It needs you. Anyway, you are going to die. Before you die at least make this breath and body, useful to people around you. 

If you do so, there is no way that you can get depressed. You get depressed because you are seeking love, joy and comfort somewhere out there. 

Knowledge of the self is just the opposite. It turns the whole thing around. The sign of enlightenment is an absence of depression, because there cannot be darkness in light.

So, the first step is to understand that you are going to die anyway - maybe in another 10,20 years. You

may mark it on a calendar. 

You know the scale may move up and down. This is going to happen anyway. But, feel that you should be of some service to people before it happens and do so. That is something that will really give you a high.

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

Waves of emotions

What is fear? What are the symptoms of fear?

*Chapter 6 - Coping With Fear*

What is fear? What are the symptoms of fear? The symptoms are - an intense sensation in the body.

It trembles and the breath is ragged and there is a feeling that the ground is loose under your feet. 

There is a feeling of contraction. There is a tendency to hold on to something. There is a feeling of non-belongingness. 

There is a sense of void. There are all these feelings and an intense sensation between the navel and the heart or the throat area.

This is fear. When does this begin to develop? Very young kids do not have fear, but as they grow older, they develop it. 

Fear is directly related to the ego. As the ego develops, the fear also develops. What is ego? 

It is a boundary, a dissection from the universal existence. It is a feeling of being in an illusory compartment created by ourselves in the infinite or vast field of existence. 

It is a feeling of being somebody. Fear is only possible in the waking or dreaming state, not in sleep. 

But when fear intensifies you cannot even sleep. It leads to insomnia. We can connect this sensation, which is so intense to a particular event or a particular thing. 

This is where we perpetuate it. Suppose, we think the fear is because of heights then we are

anchoring this sensation or linking it with a particular situation. 

Trying to get rid of the situation does not eliminate the fear. There is only one thing that can eliminate it and that is awareness. 

When you become aware of it or if you are ready to experience it intensely and just accept it. You will find that the fear flips over and becomes love.

Love, fear and hatred are not different energies. They are the three different forms of one energy. 

That's why when you feel love or intense hatred the sensation is in the same area - between your navel and heart.

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

Waves of emotions

If a person is stressed, how can he/she be happy? How can such a person be pleasant?

*Chapter 5 - Cry Your Heart Out*

Many times, you put a carpet or a mat in your house and only when you lift it, do you realise that there is dust underneath.

When you dust it, only then do you realise the amount of dust it has accumulated. Similarly, our mind has many feelings and emotions which we have suppressed.

Certain things are such, that we can confide in somebody about them and we cannot confide in anybody about certain other things. 

All such things and many other internal matters which we have suppressed inside us, lead to the diminishing of our personality day by day. 

If a person is stressed, how can he/she be happy? How can such a person be pleasant? 

Therefore, when you do all the

practices and the Sudarshan Kriya, all the stress and dirt in the mind come out. 

You should not suppress them. If you feel like crying, you should cry and not think about other’s opinions. 

If you do care Sudarshan Kriya is therefore very significant and important. Sudarshan Kriya, even if done once in 6 months, has its effect. 

If you practice it regularly, all the dirt, unwanted things and dualities in the mind and the body get washed out and the mind becomes peaceful and happy.

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

Waves of emotions

What is a gross mind?

*Chapter 4 - Contentment*

What is a gross mind? A gross mind is one which assumes that everything in the world is happening mechanically. Such a mind assumes that the body emerges only due to many chemical reactions. 

It is not aware of the consciousness or does not give importance to it. In countries where science is at its heights, importance has begun to be given to consciousness. 

In our own country, where we should give importance to the consciousness, we have begun to confine ourselves to the gross mind. Understanding this mind is enough.

This mind sees the whole world through the eyes. But there is an eye in a dead body. What is the difference between an alive human being and a dead body? 

The difference is the consciousness. And awareness is understanding that the whole world is filled with consciousness. It is the knowledge of the self.

Your understanding should be on this level instead of assuming that everything is limited to science. Such limited assumptions will only lead you to more grossness and you will have only loss from such incomplete knowledge.

People with the real spirit of scientific enquiry will continue to delve deeper into the mystery and will become believers. 

Do you know who atheists are? They are half- boiled people. Something which is half boiled can neither be eaten nor stored. 

If something is not cooked then you can assume that it may be cooked sometime in the future and continue to store it in the container but half cook food cannot be stored.

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

Waves of emotions

What is the meaning of giving ablutions to the sun everyday?

*Chapter 4 - Contentment*

What is the meaning of giving ablutions to the sun everyday? Sun is the source of our life. What gives contentment to the sun? 

As soon as you get up, the first thing you say in the morning is - "I am contented today. I will make you contented too. 

Whatever your intention is today, let that be fulfilled through me and through all my activities." With this feeling in the mind we have the tradition in this country to give ablutions to the sun.

“My whole night went off contentedly, I slept well. Today's day will be good. Let the evening too progress well”.

“I am contented. Let everything be contented and full" - is the attitude with which ablutions must be offered - to the sun. 

What is our name? Contentment. If you are not contented take a deep breath and let go. Assume that you are contented. 

As the God Vaishwaanara gets

contented after you have your food, in the same way, there should be contentment in the mind of a human being.

Some people have a disease called bulimia. It is prevalent in the western countries. People's stomachs are full, but they are not contented. 

They vomit everything and then eat again. It was prevalent in the olden days in Rome, too. There would be an enclosure next to their dining hall, where people could go and vomit after eating food. 

Then they would eat again and vomit. This way they would eat around six times. By doing this they develop ulcers in the throat and mouth.

These unfortunate people suffer a lot. There is no contentment in the minds of these people. All sorts of medicines have been tried on such people. 

There is no treatment for this disease. But after doing Sudarshana Kriya and meditating, some people have been cured of it.

Similarly, some people are crazy about sex. It is more common in the west. Anybody can do anything, anywhere, anytime.

There is no contentment in sex at all. What happens when there is no contentment? Small children get molested, things which cannot be imagined or thought of, begin to happen.

No mother can leave her child safe with her husband. Two, three or four year old children cannot be left alone with their fathers. 

This is the situation. There are such terrible conditions and diseases in people. All types of diseases appear because there is no contentment in the mind.

When will there be contentment? It will not be there till something has been achieved or experienced. It will be there only when you understand that it is your very nature.

We are striving hard to prevent these diseases and conditions in our country. It is why we have decided to spread this knowledge. 

In our society, knowledge sessions, bhajans and satsangs should be taking place somewhere all the time. It has already begun to happen. 

That is why in the divine world a lot of miracles keep happening. When people get to know about such miracles, they begin to have faith and sincerity in their prayers.

If Ganesha has to be given milk, it does not mean that Ganesha is very hungry and that you have to give him milk to fill up his stomach. 

It is just to show people the existence of something about which they do not know, that such miracles keep occurring. 

If you analyse such situations only with your mind and brains, then you will continue to live in the gross state of existence.

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

Waves of emotions

What is boredom? There is boredom when there is no interest

*Chapter 3 - Boredom*

From Waves of emotions

What is boredom? There is boredom when there is no interest, when you don't like or love. Suppose you have to sing a song and you don't like it or if you have to sing it several times, then you get bored.

Suppose you like a song, then it doesn't bore you. You can sing that song the whole day. Boredom is lack of interest and love. 

There is boredom if you keep doing all your practices again and again. What is a practice? It is repetition of the same thing. Repetition of anything to the extent that it surpasses interest is boredom.

What is the purpose of practice? It is to destroy boredom. The purpose of sadhana is to first bring up boredom and then destroy it. 

The self is all love. If the self is all love then how can you be bored with your self? It is not possible. You are bored with your mind and not with yourself. 

Mind always wants a change. It is bored without a change. Practice is repeating the same thing without any change so that the mind gets thoroughly bored.

You keep saying 'Om Namah Shivaya, Om Namah Shivaya, Om Namah Shivaya.' You get bored and the boredom becomes so much that nothing else can really bore you. 

So the purpose of sadhana is to bore you so much that you cannot get bored at all. When you cannot get bored with yourself, you cannot get bored with anything else in the world. 

If you have to say the same thing over and over again you will say it with the same enthusiasm. Have you noticed a child? It never gets bored. It says the same thing again and

again. 

A child keeps asking a question

again and again. You get bored but the child doesn't. The child is not bored of opening the same book several times.

There is nothing new in the book, but he opens and closes it again and again. This is how mothers get time to do their work.

They give a toy to the child e.g. beads in a string and the child goes on stringing the beads from one side to the other while the mothers work.

If you take children to an fair and they see a roller coaster or merry-go-round, they want to try it. 

You try to convince them not to go on it, that their heads will spin, but even after all your talk they will continue to repeat that they want to go on it. 

Repetition is children's nature.

You get bored listening to the same thin repeatedly. All of you come for satsang once a week and listen to all that we say. 

If we were to say the same thing every time, then none of you would come. We need something new. What is the nature of the mind? 

It constantly needs something new. It wants something today, something else tomorrow and an entirely different thing the next day. 

You get bored if you have to eat the same vegetable everyday. You want different vegetables. You want to eat different varieties of food every day. 

The mind wants something new, new and new. But tell me how much new can exist? The wanting for new has to stop somewhere.

When nothing new can be got, the mind gets bored. The cause of boredom is repetition. There is no boredom in love. 

There is repetition in love and this is known as practice. The goal of practice is to root away the boredom within us.

In our food only the vegetables served are different, but the rice is the same. People who are used to eating rice everyday never get bored of it and will feel odd if it is not there for even a day.

The mind never gets bored of what it gets used to because of practice. If you are used to your husband's grumbling, then you don't feel that there is anything new about it. 

If you are used to somebody shouting at you all the time, then you will let him go on as long he wants to and you will continue with your work.

When you are used to anger, the heat of anger does not affect you. So there is a close relationship between practice and love. 

There is repetition in love and there is repetition in practice. A boy may write a letter to a girl with love' written all over it. In college hostels the names of loved ones are written all over the place. 

Their names are written in every page of note books. They never get bored of it. As you keep repeating and doing your practices again and again, the boredom vanishes and love rises. 

What do you feel when you do the same practices everyday? You recite the same thing like ‘Ram, Ram, Ram' or 'Shiva, Shiva, Shiva' and bore your mind thoroughly. 

Only when you penetrate this boredom does love arises. Why do you do pranayama everyday when you feel bored doing it. Practice is boring. 

That is the purpose of it. Sometimes you hum a line of a movie song, bhajan or traditional music which suddenly flashes to you while bathing.

You later realise that you have hummed the same line whole day. This is because there is love and practice. 

So sit for half an hour every day and say something - Ram, Ram, Shiva, Shiva, Shiva - or at least keep groaning and moaning. 

It doesn't matter. But do some practise for half an hour. Patanjali said, 'Wherever your mind goes meditate on that’s If your mind is very much drawn towards your grandchild then meditate on your grandchild. 

See God in your grandchild and worship the child. Do whatever pleases you. At least let your mind get used to that half an hour of practice. Do whatever pleases you the most.

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

How do you get rid of your boredom? You will be rid of your boredom by the consciousness, by awakening, and by knowledge

*Chapter 2 - Offering & Gratitude*
From Waves of emotions

When you go home after attending a satsang, have you ever thought that you are really a fortunate person to have been able to attend it? 

If you have ever thought that you were fortunate, then you cannot get miserable. What is the reason for misery? 

It is forgetting that we are fortunate people. The ash is covering the live charcoal. It is not just a little bit here and there. 

A thick coating of ash has covered you. When you try to blow it away, it can fly up and get into your eyes. So, you should blow gently. 

Remember that we are fortunate, then you will not be miserable. What happens when you become miserable? In those moments you forgot that you are fortunate. 

However fortunate a person actually might be, the moment he or she forgets it, then there will be unhappiness. This is the misfortune that you are all thinking about. 

When you are unhappy, there is boredom. You feel like giving up everything. At such times, the mind should turn inwards. 

Then it will move towards its consciousness. This happens when you acquire knowledge. When knowledge mixes with misery, the mind goes towards the source of the misery. 

When knowledge does not merge with misery, then misery constantly keeps changing its form from one to another. You get bored. 

You are bored in one place, so you go to another. May be to a shopping centre. Do you feel happy the moment you get to there? 

You become even more bored there. You go somewhere else from there and your boredom increases. Finally, you return home exhausted after inhaling all the petrol fumes. 

And then you get so much more bored at home, that you go to sleep. You sleep out of boredom. That boredom in you sleeps well.

How do you get rid of your boredom? You will be rid of your boredom by the consciousness, by awakening, and by knowledge. 

Compressing the ash on to the live coal will not disperse it. That is what most of us do. What do people do when they get bored? They just leave everything and go somewhere. 

They try to do so many other things. They do not try to look at the situation with an alert consciousness, with awareness. 

They do not try to accept the boredom. They do not surrender to it. And then what happens? The misery continues to increase.

At the end of misery there is happiness again. How will there be an end? The end of misery is our true self. Our true self is nothing but pure bliss. 

It is completion. Blissful completion is the true happiness of our self. There is complete bliss in love and devotion and that bliss is filled with all the colours. 

The amount that you grasp depends on the amount of consciousness in you. If you let down a tumbler into a well, you only get as much water as the tumbler can hold. 

If you let down a small pot, then you get a pot full of water. If you let down a bucket, you get a bucketful of water. If you use a pump, the amount of water that you will get will depend on its capacity. 

So too, our consciousness has all the energies in it. And depending on how much force we apply, how much mind we apply to it, we gain that much.

What do we do? Satsang is last on our list of priorities. We decide to go to a satsang if we do not have anything else to do. So if you give such low quality time to satsang

then you only get back low quality results.

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

Offering & Gratitude

*Chapter 2 - Offering & Gratitude*
From Waves of emotions 

Why do you give flowers? Is it because others do it? Do you feel like a flower? Are your feelings just as light? 

Then your giving flowers to me is genuine There is no way that you can let out your feelings. 

You need a proper way to express them, and you think you can do it with flowers. But if you do not feel like a flower then the giving the flowers is no good. 

If a friend or a relative visits you after a longtime, you greet them with flowers because you feel the visit is very precious. 

Renew your spirit everyday. All that it needs is being blown on like hot coal or charcoal. You need to keep blowing on it again and again. 

There could be hot charcoal, but it may be covered with ash. You have to look at it and blow. It is of no use if you look somewhere else and blow. 

We usually do this but we look elsewhere and keep blowing. Blow at the source of the fire. That is satsang. 

At the satsang sing bhajans and the moment they are over, write down the knowledge given. When you go through it sometime later, you will remember. 

From the memory the intelligence is awakened. Otherwise, it will remain like a hot charcoal covered with its own ash. 

The ash, which is generated by the burning charcoal itself will finish it off. So too, the impressions which have arisen in the mind will swallow it. 

If you do not keep blowing away the impressions regularly, they, like the ashes of the charcoal, will suppress the mind. 

Then the fire will get put out and you will become depressed. What is satsang? It is the process to blow away the ash and expose the glowing charcoal again. 

The fire is present anyway. You just have to keep coming often and getting the ash blown away. So keep coming every week, get brightened and return happy.

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji 

Meditation is the technique we use to keep the focus

*Chapter 1 - Intense Love*

Waves of emotion by Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji 

Our consciousness expands when it is happy or in love. When we feel unhappy or sad, the consciousness contracts. 

Shrinking of the mind is unhappiness. Expansion of the mind is happiness. When the mind expands we often lose awareness. 

This is because we have only known expansion of the mind in sleep and in sleep the mind is expanded and relaxed. 

When we are happy, we are all over the place, not focused and not centred. We lose the quality of awareness, right? 

When we are unhappy we are very focused and keen, but we are shrunk. Meditation is the technique we use to keep the focus.

It is the fourth state of consciousness, the turya or Shiva. As we practice more and more, we start imbibing that consciousness into our nervous system. 

Different molecules in the brain are functioning all the time. There are zillions of molecules and only a few function at a time. 

Others take over when these few stop. This cycle goes on, so we meditate everyday, because we want all our neurons and cells to be educated and trained - to live in that awareness. 

We call a city totally literate when each and every person in the city knows to read and write. Just like that, in the city of your body.

Some people get to learn today, some people get to learn tomorrow and others the next day. 

So, everyday there are different people or different molecules going up front. And every time you meditate, you culture them. 

It takes some time to culture all the neurons in the brain. Once they are cultured, you live in bliss.

Intense Love purifies one's mind,heart,body and surroundings

*Chapter 1 - Intense Love*

From Waves of emotion by Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

Intense love purifies one's mind,heart,body and surroundings. If God longs for one thing, it is for intense love. God has everything, but he longs for it. 

The peak of love is silence, contentment, and a state of complete fulfilment. It is deep meditation. How do you feel when you think of someone you love? You feel so nice. 

And how do you feel when you think about someone you dislike? You feel your whole system contract. You feel unpleasant. You should not hate anybody. 

This saying is for your own good. It is not because you will do some harm to the other person by hating them. 

It is because when you hate somebody, you imbibe some of their negative qualities. There is a story in the ancient Puranas. 

The guards at the gates of Vishnu’s abode behaved in a disrespectful manner with some saints. It is said that, God is a servant of the servant and so, he is a servant of the saints. 

Now how could the guards repent for what they had done? They had two choices. One was to be born as a good person for 100 lifetimes, or to be born as a very bad person for three lifetimes. 

It seems they chose to be born for three lifetimes as enemies to God. They were born as demons, and they hated God so much that they got liberated. 

This is because when they hated God so much, they imbibed His qualities When you hate somebody, you imbibe their qualities. 

That is why it is said, ‘Don’t hate anyone, love everyone.’ So, start from somewhere. Think of someone whom you love. 

Feel all the love in you. You will see that their face and form fades away, what remains is just love, and that it is what you are. 

The Master would say, “Thou art that.” Do you see how much love you experience? “Thou art that.” Everybody is made up of this same love, and you are that love.

I am much, much bigger than all these emotions, commotions or waves.

Waves of emotions By Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

Life is found to be caught up in storms so very often. And you are not yourself when you are in a storm. You don’t know what to do. 

At those moments all your spiritual practices, concepts, ideas and ideals fall apart. Your devotion, your love and all the beautiful things you cherish in your life, simply don’t seem to be there or mean anything. 

You are under the influence of a big storm. A whirlwind rises in you and throws you off balance. What do you do? Nothing is helpful. 

You sit, close your eyes and try to meditate. But the mind is all over the place. You feel as though you are in a burning furnace, and you don’t know how to put the fire out. 

And the more effort you make to cool it down, and put it out, the more the fire burns, the more the restlessness and agitation increase. 

You are yourself only between the storms. How many storms rise in your life, and how frequently do they rise? The less frequent they are, the more you are yourself. 

At those moments you are happy, you are settled. You are calm. Just think of those moments of intense restlessness, agitation and feverishness. 

The breath becomes heavier. The body becomes unbearable. You are not at all aware of the mind but that is not what you are. 

You get a glimpse of the clearness of yourself between two storms. But life seems to be like the ocean, wave after wave lashing you one after another.

This is the only problem. This is the only basic problem in the universe. There is no other problem. 

You can attach it to one thousand causes or reasons, but the problem is how to free your life from this storm which has gripped it.

The first thing to do is to become aware of this. At that moment, the storm will subside. First, stop regretting things. 

For no reason, there is turmoil in the mind. When your mind cools down and you experience that inner cool, soft and delicate aspect of yourself, there is a big relief.

No one storm can be there all the time. It is impossible. It comes and subsides. Your mind is like a wind a whirlwind, subsiding and cooling down. That is your true nature. 

That is love. You have been resisting restlessness all this time. Now If you see it is there. Okay, so let it be there. It is a part of nature.’ 

The storm is also part of nature. Stop resisting the storm. Take it, gulp it in its totality, go deep into it and you will see it is nothing. 

It is just created out of yourself, your mind and your consciousness. In that aspect of you, you are your self. Know that there is a power, some power, someone who is really caring for you.

Not just someone there is only One in the whole universe. That One in the universe is caring and taking care of you. You can relax, rest and be peaceful.

There cannot be an ocean without waves. Every event touches life somewhere on its surface. It creates movement. 

Take all that comes with both your hands. Don’t say that it is impossible or not possible for you. This thought of something being not possible means that you are resisting. 

This is making the storms stay for long periods. Stand there with your arms open. Say, ‘Whatever storms come, let them, I’m here.’ You grow out of them. You become bigger. 

Tell yourself - “Come what may, there is nothing that can destroy me. It may be excruciatingly painful, but it doesn’t matter. It still cannot destroy or kill me. I am here”.

“I am much, much bigger than all these emotions, commotions or waves. They all rise inside me, in me, and in no way can they destroy me. I will let them be”.