SRI SRI PUBLICATIONS - Enlightenment

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Enlightenment

1st edition: November 2010

Copyright 2010 All rights reserved.

Printed in India by :

Elegant Printing Works, Bangalore - 560 004. Ph. : 080 26615507

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system without prior permission in written form from the publisher.

eISBN 978 9 351 06634 7

Sri Sri Publications Trust,

The Art of Living International Centre,

21st km, Kanakapura Road, Udayapura, Bangalore - 560 082

Phone: 080-32722473

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Website: store.artofliving.org

O ne of the worlds most inspirational and dynamic leaders His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, is also one of the most original thinkers of our times. Emphasizing practical wisdom, he has transformed millions of lives all over the globe. His talks are a blend of knowledge and guidance, delivered with simplicity and humour a powerful, unbeatable combination that touches lives and hearts, wherever heard.

It is with great joy that we offer this inspiring collection of talks on enlightenment by Sri Sri given over a period of time. With effortless wisdom and grace, he shines a light for us to follow and move, all the while deepening our understanding as we move along this path.

T here are three ways to address people-in the first person, second person or third person. Most are so comfortable in addressing God in the third person, as He, that then it becomes difficult to address God as I. Intellectually we can understand this, but inside, the consciousness does not let you do it because it sees imperfection. In coming from He to I, you pass through You. This means having a direct relation or direct relativity. What happens then is that the limited knowledge about Me opens up and dissolves.

You are not just your mind or your body complex. You are a field. You are all over. Everyone is in you. The whole world is in you. But what you think of as being You is only your little mind, thoughts and concepts. How do you come out of that? Through a connection and that is only through love What is love?

You! You are everything and everything is love. When you love somebody, what do you say to them? You are my life. I love you more than my life. You are part of me. You are my breath. That You means that the I - the small I or ego I - dissolves. When the ego dissolves, all discomforts go away with the ego. Discomfort is not because of something. It is because of the ego, the separateness.

What does ego mean? Just separation, i.e. I am different. While sitting in satsang, you are part of everybody and you are nobody.

Enlightenment or evolution has two steps.

The first step is becoming nobody from being somebody. I want to be somebody important. Many people are stuck here. Even teachers get stuck here. If you dont give them a proper seat, it pushes their button. No matter that they might have won everything else over, but they will become attached to the seat, to their position. This is getting stuck in being somebody. What difference does it make if I sit on the sofa or if I sit there out on the carpet? It doesnt make any difference! I remain what I am.

Someone asked me why there are so many flowers all around me. I said, It is for you to look at so that you dont get bored by just looking at me all the time. If it was for me then it would be in front of me so I can look at them. I dont see any of the decorations behind me here; I only see your faces. I know so many people who feel very uncomfortable and ask; why I have the big high chair? I have it so I can see everybody.

You get stuck by being somebody. Either: I am too special or I am hopeless or I am nasty, I am useless or I am no good. This is also being somebody. Therefore being nobody is the thing. Going from being somebody to being nobody is the first step. Then the second step is going from being nobody to being everybody - part of everyone - and that is love.

Meditation is becoming nobody from being somebody. Dissolving the ego is the first step i.e. from being somebody to nobody. From nobody to everybody is the second step and then you really start loving everybody. And then it is love, not just as an act; but you realize that you are a part of everybody. They are part of me, they are part of me and they are part of me. Look at any body or any pair of eyes and you will see they are not any different than you. They are part of you, like your own limbs.

That is the reason Jesus said If you have to go to my Father, there is no other way. You have to go through me and me alone. And this is exactly what all the other teachers, from all over the globe, right from Buddha to Jesus to Krishna have said. Krishna said the same thing to Arjuna. He addressed him three times in three terms. First he said, Surrender to Him, the God who lives in everybodys heart. And then he said, Just surrender to me. And finally he said, Surrender to the Divinity that is deep within your Self, and get out of this illusion of you and me and this separation.

The universe is one organism. The world is one organism, one living Being and each mind is just a part of that. This is the highest knowledge and all knowledge has to lead to this universal truth.

Where are you?

Everywhere! Just like space, you are here, you are there; you are in everybody. Once you realize this only then service begins and that service is really authentic. When you see someone suffering, you feel you are suffering there too. You might have experienced this? When you see somebody getting hurt, you also feel the pain, dont you? You see an accident or someone breaking their limbs or blood coming from their knees, you feel that pain in you too.

There is so much suffering in the world and thats why we need to be very active in giving the knowledge to as many people as possible. So invite your friends for satsangs. Dont tell them too much about the course. Tell them to just come and do it! Just tell them that, Well sing, do some reading, meditate together, eat together and share our lives together. This would bring so much harmony into our lives.

As a group even you can get together and call all those who have learned meditation and those who have not learned meditation, do a short meditation and eat together once in fifteen days or once in a month. Have a sort of community life and talk about knowledge.

Everyone is fond of talking. When you gossip you talk about inane things, Where did you buy these clothes, which movie did you see? Or talk about politics or the weather. We spend so much time talking about such trivial things. Why not talk about knowledge at those times? What life has given me, how I have accepted life? Have all the points given to me worked or not? Is my mind in the moment or not? Put your mind into something that is eternal like knowledge and wisdom. That is worth doing.