Q & A: Some Sincere Questions

One participant of my early Art of Living course raised these questions which I thought is worthwhile to answer here so that it can be helpful to others too.

Q. 1. What's the difference between a Guru, Yogi, and a Swami?

Guru: First of all I feel this space is too small to talk about Guru and the glory of Guru. Just one advice if you are walking on this path don't see Guru as physical identity. Guru is one who makes you realize there is no difference between Guru and you. Like Guruji (Sri Sri) says Guru, God and Self are synonymous. Now since God is one who is omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient and We as 'self' don't realize that omnipresence, omnipotence and omniscience BECAUSE we are asleep. The Guru is one who wake us up and give us this realization that there is no difference between God, Guru & Your own Self :-) Guru doesn't make the follower rather he brings us up to realize our true 'self'

Yogi: Yogi is one who is practicing any kind of yoga for a long period of time without a break to evolve his consciousness and to realize his/her true 'self'. So we can count ourselves as Yogi.

Swami: The word Swami comes from the sankrit root word Swa which means self so Swami is one who is firmly established in the self and not swayed by craving and aversions of the world. It means Swami is one who has advanced on the spiritual path.

Q. 2. Why are there so many? And how should I take it?

We live in free world and everybody has Freedom to choose to act like what ever they wish to act like whether Guru, Swami or Yogi. But just realize that on this path there is no room for Hypocrisy so better you behave for what you are. I would prefer to be Yogi for this purpose :-) and rest let my Master decide for me :-)

Q. 3. Should I have more than one guru? I have noticed many people with more than one. It's confusing me. Not to mistaken that I did not appreciate and love AOL and Guruji... just noticed that even some in AOL that are close to have more than one.

I am aware the many people have this fix in there mind I have seen people in AOL as well outside. They are all searching. My personal take is One real guru is enough to fix your life forever while hundred of fake guru can put in FIX. So better to go with one Guru.

Also see the quality of mind of people who says they have more than one Guru. Why do you need more guru. Since you don't have complete faith on any one. Take a example if you sick you go to one doctor take prescription and complete the whole course or you keep jumping from one doctor to another one, it will spoil your health conditions. In similar way One should 100% follow one Guru since different Gurus may have different way to approach the truth and in the process you might get utterly confused and it will spoil your case rather than help your recovery faster.

Now what is the Guru is fake. Guruji (Sri Sri) has talked about the two qualities in seeker which seems very opposite in nature: Faith & Alertness. Once we have faith we keep our mind shut and resting and become blind follower while on the other hand if we do not have faith, we are fully alert and keep judging things. Guruji says for sincere seeker what is needed is faith with alertness and awareness. So that you are not trapped :-)

Further more when I meet other spiritual leaders, Masters I respect them, relish their company and have pleasant interaction and do the mutual exchange of ideas & blessings and come back and take all the spiritual advices from Guruji (Sri Sri ) because it is for my own Good as I have complete faith that I am in right boat :-) It will take me to destination.

Also you forget about other people whether they have one guru or many you fix your life first :-) That is sutra you can't fix others if you haven't fixed yourself.

4. Remember a few years back when I had initially taken the part one course with you, I had traveled to OH, and a friend had taken me to an ashram of another guru. I felt really uncomfortable with the whole thing, and told you about it. I mentioned this to you before, this guy, Dhyanapeetam Nithyananda Swami... recently came to light the issues with small thing mentioned in news about him and Guruji... wanted ur take on it from a AOL teacher point of view. I am aware of the controversy of Dhyanapeetam Nithyananda Swami.

Guruji has talked about Dhyanapeetam & Nithyananda here is the statement: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar said that Swami Nithyananda has violated UNAIDS guidelines as well as the rules of tantra. Only a house holder is entitled or tantric sex. Claiming to be a monk and using so many people for one's pleasure is unpardonable. "He should have had one partner and announced himself as a tantric guru. It has caused damage to the faith of people in the institution and traumatized many."

I hope if you contemplate on the answer I wrote above and what Guruji is saying. See what your conscious is telling. Have faith and Be alert too and at any cost save your mind :-) and BE FREE.

Jai Guru Dev

Your comments are welcome! :-)

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's message of non-violence in response of Attack

An unidentified gunman attacked on Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on 30 May in Art of Living Bangalore Ashram. Sri Sri again showed that the path of non-violence can only be achieved by collective effort of practicing meditation and taking the knowledge of life & self to every single human being on this planet. Then automatically this kind of incidents will not happen. Guruji (Sri Sri) next morning responded to press conference and again he proved to us that he is an ocean of compassion and embodiment of love. Sri Sri simply forgiven the gunman and invited him to sit in satsang in Art of Living Ashram in Bangalore. See video

Get Inspired Series Video-1

Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch (Oct. 23, 1960 - July 25, 2008) gave his last lecture at the university Sept. 18, 2007, before a packed McConomy Auditorium. In his moving presentation, "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," Pausch talked about his lessons learned and gave advice to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals.

for more information visit: http://www.cmu.edu/randyslecture

Guruji's Message on Birthday

"The greatest fortune in human life is to be able to say that ‘I want nothing. I am here for you’. I have been having this luck from a long time, from the very beginning. And I wish more and more people to have this fortune to say ‘I want nothing and I am here for you’. Just imagine how a family would be in which every member could say this. It is already there, but hidden underneath somewhere. When the head of a nation or a company says that ‘I want nothing and I am here for the nation/employees of the company, the nation/company automatically prospers. Is there any chance that the head would suffer when the nation/company prospers? No way! Your needs will automatically be taken care of. But if our attention is only on our needs, we are restricting ourselves, our scope and our abilities. We should have that confidence that our needs will be taken care of. There is no need to even think of that. It does not mean imposing on yourself that you want nothing when you need something. ‘I want nothing’ comes from a state of fulfillment and not that of denial. Fulfillment comes through spiritual knowledge. When you focus on the highest, you see that your needs are taken care of before they arise.


The consumerism which is eating the society today can only be checked by inner fulfillment, by quenching that inner quest for the human kind, being, the self, spiritual energy or the inner joy. You can call it whatever. We are very glad today that the ‘Art of Living’ is bringing together all the beautiful pearls, the cultures of the world, together, and stringing them in a beautiful garland. We are the string, the center of the garland. Center of every culture is love, whether it is Mongolian, Saudi Arabia, South America, Indian, German, Scotland or any other culture. The very core of humanity is love. That is what the ‘Art of Living’ is all about. More and more people in world should gain this ability to say ‘I want nothing and I am here for you’.

May 13 in Hindi is ‘Main tera’ which means ‘I am all yours’. So, May 13 should not happen once a year, but every day and every minute should be May 13. ‘I want nothing and I am all yours’ - We don’t have to make it a wish, because wish again means wanting something. If at all we have to make a wish, it should be “May more and more people in the world have this fortune to sat that ‘I want nothing and I am here for you’ ”. When everyone comes from that space of love, this planet will become a heaven.

If everyone is trying to grab something from others, then it is already in a state which you see today. We are making progress on the path to make this world a heaven, and it is so beautiful to see that. So, we celebrate everyday in our life like this. There is love, action, fun and celebration in this knowledge. Everything comes with this knowledge."

“May the joy be with you.”

Jai Gurudev!

Appeal for HAITI Refief

Dear Blog Readers

we know last week that Haiti was struck with one the most horrific earthquake where more than 100,000 people lost their lives and most of the national infrastructure collapsed. Art of Living and IAHV (International Association for Human Values) along with its team heading for relief work. If you can spare few dollars to help less fortunate who have lost everything, it will be great help for somebody. For you it might be little stretch but for somebody it might be new life again. Organization has set up online donation for the cause please donate on the following link.

HAITI EARTHQUAKE RELIEF

Martine leads a group of Art of Living youth leaders in Carrefour, Haiti, near Port au Prince. She emailed a report and pictures of the street children the group is working with. She signed off with "I love you. Big kisses." This email was sent just hours before the earthquake ripped open her neighborhood. Martine, 22, wants to dedicate her life to empowering her people. She is starting her teacher training this summer. We haven't heard from her since the earthquake.

"My Haitian students are fierce and proud, with incredible devotion and resilience. When they smile, they light up a room. There's a depth in their eyes that comes from a deep connection with both pain and love. Whenever they start any activity, they pray. When hardship comes, they pray. God is almost always on their minds. They are praying right now." - Uma Viswanathan, Art of Living Teacher

Dr. RoseMarie Toussaint, a surgeon and Art of Living teacher, talks lovingly of her homeland. "Being born and raised in Port-au-Prince, I am devastated by what has happened to my people, my friends and family. My country is suffering. I want to jump on a plane right now to help. But I need help to make a real difference."

- Immediate supplies and food
- Trauma relief programs
- Long-term rehabilitation programs

Volunteer. Especially seeking French-speakers. Contact: jonathan.woodward@gmail.com

Fundraise. Host a Fund raising Event. Spread this letter.

For more information: umav@artofliving.org

Thank you for your continued support and dedication in uplifting the people around you.

Living a Purposeful life

A pianist without a piano, a businessman without business, a coach without trainee, a temple without deity, food without nutrients, a music without rhythm, a book without knowledge and a life without purpose are same. They are not what they are. They looses their relevance.

When the river is bound between two banks and flow to its source, its a river and when the banks are dissolved and there is are no direction it become flood. Same resource which is so life supporting may become the cause of destruction to self and around. Isn't it! Same is the case when life force energy has no purpose and its wondering in this world its like flooded river, all over the places. Purpose is like banks which makes a river, river; similarly purpose makes life a LIFE!

If you look around you might find their are three kind of people to this reference
One- who doesn't bother about this topic, who doesn't care about having a purpose. For them life is eat, sleep, dance and die. For them life is routine everyday and life is driven by sensual requirement or sensual pleasures.
Two- who have some purpose in their life. They want to accomplish in this life.
Three- who have rose above this and know there is no purpose. We are here to celebrate the life, to be witness to the existence.

There is huge difference between the quality of consciousness of the first and third case. Sometime people get into conceptual knowledge and become inert, dull and lethargic saying that there is no purpose to this life, they are basically running away from outer dynamism which exhibit the selfless service with inner peace. To reach to this stage of selfless service one goes through the active dynamism which exhibits self-motivated goals (2nd stage). Most of time mind get stuck into the strong matrix (Maya) created by society or this world and start living in illusion of having a purpose which is nothing but conditioning given by society. For example when you say you want to be doctor because everybody is my class for medical school or you really want to be a doctor? or you want to get married because in society everybody is getting married or you really want to get married? You want to go for shopping why because everybody is going or you really want it? You want to earn money because you need money or everybody does that so you need to do? Do you see there is huge difference in actions also.

I remember a very interesting story which put some light about the discussion. Once the Creator of this creation thought enough of drama done. Lets dissolve this creation and universe. He called for a meeting and all creatures animals, plants, mosquitoes, butterflies, tiger, horses, cow, humans, billion of creatures, everybody came.
Then, He said, "now I want to dissolve this creation since there is no purpose but before that I want to ask you all about your purpose. Do you want to share."
Everybody said, "YES."
Then He asked butterflies what is your purpose.
Butterflies said we are here so that we can add color to this creation make the garden more beautiful. Everybody cheered.
Then He asked flowers what is your purpose of existence.
Flower replied so that I can add fragrance and beauty to existence. Again everybody clapped and cheered.
Then He asked donkeys what is your purpose.
Donkeys replied so that we can help humans to carry their weights we are useful for transportation.
Same way God went around and ask all the creation and everybody added something or the other. Then He came to Humans and asked what is your purpose of existence and there was deep silence. No humans knew why they are here. They started asking each other do you know, do you know? When no answer came then God turned to other animals, plants and asked them do you what is the purpose of human being? Then everybody was shouting yes I know, yes I know, flowers were shouting yes we know why humans are here, river was saying yes I know why humans are here, even donkeys were telling yes I know why humans are here. And story end. Do you see what this story tell us.


Ask yourself are you really living the life you want to live! Are you living a purposeful life or mere existing because somehow you landed up on this planet :-) I remember once Guruji saying don't think we are mere existing here on this planet, this body, this form has a purpose! Figure out what is your purpose and go for it. Then life will flow like a beautiful river rather than a horrifying flood.

All glory to Gurudev
Dinesh

PS: If your mind is on fire to find out your purpose to be here and question comes what is my purpose of life keep introspecting. In next post I will be writing from different school of thoughts about the same.

OM Shanti Shanti Shanti

You must have gone through some unpleasant, uncomfortable moments in life when you are not FEELING GOOD about things, about situation or about people. Whether its just about salt in food or somebody around you whom you don't want in the moment or you stuck in thick traffic or somebody behaving in a way which is disturbing you or sometime for no reason we don't feel good. The most often what we do we blame others and complain about things or people about the way we feel. And this happen to most of us and most of time without being even aware about it. So what is the way out?

Here is what you can observe. Whenever you are going through some unpleasant feeling. Just give a pause to yourself and obsever what is happening inside? How is the state of your mind? Is it cluttered, agitated, heated up or heavy. In principle this is what is reflecting out (if you not ready to accept this truth say it most of the time ). So when you become aware of this disturbed state mind, just remind your mind to be peaceful and calm right now. If its too difficult give a bigger pause and just tell yourself that you are commited to inner peace, you are peace :) and first become peaceful inside. You will see immediately things will be more clearer.

This I observe after reading Guruji's one knowledge sheet where He says, "Forget about knowledge, God, service any good thing in life, first comes the PEACE. If there is no peace nothing can happen." And to my experience this is so true and striking peace at first place make a tremendous difference. Its so amazing.

So next time you feel any unpleasant moods or moments: give yourself a pause and remind yourself about inner peace and chant inside Om Shanti Shanti Shanti! (Om Peace Peace Peace)

And Share your experiences.

All Glory to Gurudev