Devotion and organisation
Organization is control. Devotion is chaos!
Organization needs attention to details, a material awareness. Organization is being worldly.
Devotion is getting lost, forgetting the world, being in ecstasy.
These are opposite in nature. They don't go together, yet they cannot be apart or exist without each other. No organization can arise without devotion. When there is so much devotion, you simply want to organize. Devotion brings faith, compassion, and responsibility. With responsibility and caring, you want to give knowledge, wisdom, and love. Then organization happens. So organization exists through devotion.
If you are devoted, you won't just sit. The nature of devotion is to give. If you think you are devoted and you are not caring for the world, then you are merely selfish. Real devotion means being one with the Divine, and the Divine cares for the world.
Often you lose devotion in organizing. And often in the name of devotion you create chaos and disregard the organization. You have to be a saint to be both in organization and devotion. If you have both, you are on the mark. So . . .
Get lost and be guided
By Sri Sri Ravishankar ji
Organization is control. Devotion is chaos!
Organization needs attention to details, a material awareness. Organization is being worldly.
Devotion is getting lost, forgetting the world, being in ecstasy.
These are opposite in nature. They don't go together, yet they cannot be apart or exist without each other. No organization can arise without devotion. When there is so much devotion, you simply want to organize. Devotion brings faith, compassion, and responsibility. With responsibility and caring, you want to give knowledge, wisdom, and love. Then organization happens. So organization exists through devotion.
If you are devoted, you won't just sit. The nature of devotion is to give. If you think you are devoted and you are not caring for the world, then you are merely selfish. Real devotion means being one with the Divine, and the Divine cares for the world.
Often you lose devotion in organizing. And often in the name of devotion you create chaos and disregard the organization. You have to be a saint to be both in organization and devotion. If you have both, you are on the mark. So . . .
Get lost and be guided
By Sri Sri Ravishankar ji
The Perfect Relationship
Wisdom Card
If you know how to row a boat, you can row any boat. But if you don’t know how to row, changing boats isn’t going to help.
Similarly, changing a relationship does not solve the issue. Sooner or later, you will be in the same situation in any other relationship.
Most people look elsewhere for a perfect relationship, but few look within themselves;at the place from where we relate. What is your relationship with yourself? Who are you to yourself?
People think, ‘Oh, I’m single. I’m so bored being by myself. I need a companion. I need a relationship.’ If you are so bored by your own company, think how much more boring you must be for someone else. And two people bored with themselves getting together, will completely bore each other!
If your relationship is based on personal need it may not last that long. Once the need is fulfilled, on a physical or on an emotional level, the mind will look for something else and go somewhere else. If your relationship is from a level of sharing, then it can last longer.
When you’re looking for security, love, and comfort from your partner, you become weak. When you are weak, all the negative emotions come up and you become demanding. Demand destroys love. If we just know this one thing, we can save our love from getting rotten.
It’s the limited awareness of yourself and the limited experience of love that encapsulates you in a tiny compartment where you start suffocating. We can’t even handle the love we are asking for because we have never probed into the depth of our own mind; our own consciousness.
By Sri Sri Ravishankar ji
Wisdom Card
If you know how to row a boat, you can row any boat. But if you don’t know how to row, changing boats isn’t going to help.
Similarly, changing a relationship does not solve the issue. Sooner or later, you will be in the same situation in any other relationship.
Most people look elsewhere for a perfect relationship, but few look within themselves;at the place from where we relate. What is your relationship with yourself? Who are you to yourself?
People think, ‘Oh, I’m single. I’m so bored being by myself. I need a companion. I need a relationship.’ If you are so bored by your own company, think how much more boring you must be for someone else. And two people bored with themselves getting together, will completely bore each other!
If your relationship is based on personal need it may not last that long. Once the need is fulfilled, on a physical or on an emotional level, the mind will look for something else and go somewhere else. If your relationship is from a level of sharing, then it can last longer.
When you’re looking for security, love, and comfort from your partner, you become weak. When you are weak, all the negative emotions come up and you become demanding. Demand destroys love. If we just know this one thing, we can save our love from getting rotten.
It’s the limited awareness of yourself and the limited experience of love that encapsulates you in a tiny compartment where you start suffocating. We can’t even handle the love we are asking for because we have never probed into the depth of our own mind; our own consciousness.
By Sri Sri Ravishankar ji
7 billions act of goodness
you eat fruit and you throw seed that's not seed that's responsibility that God has given us to protect the planet.
Plant more trees. Mission 1 trillions trees world-wide. 🌲🌳🌴🌱
you eat fruit and you throw seed that's not seed that's responsibility that God has given us to protect the planet.
Plant more trees. Mission 1 trillions trees world-wide. 🌲🌳🌴🌱
Divine in the Form and Formless
Wisdom Card
Divinity is unmanifest, but man has an innate desire to perceive the divine in the manifest creation around him. He creates idols, breathes faith into it and requests divinity to be present in that idol for a while, so that he can worship, express his love and play with it. At the end of his worship he requests divinity to go back into his heart from where divinity manifested. This is in all puja practices.
They are not actually worshipping the idols but worshipping the unmanifest divinity which has all the divine qualities. So, the idol worshippers of the East are not the same as the ones in the Middle East as described in the Bible, because they are not just worshipping different gods and different idols, they are worshipping the ONE divinity in many different forms.
Paganism, Satan and animal worship, without the knowledge of the one divinity is very different from seeing the divine in every form of the manifest universe. In the eastern tradition, gods and goddesses are part of the one divinity like the different colors of white sunlight, whereas in the Greek tradition, gods and goddesses are in themselves different entities.
Worshipping Satan and different entities is totally different from worshipping divinity in its various forms. Every form belongs to the divine. When you adore the form, you are adoring the divine behind the form. With this knowledge, the very act of worship, which is more an inner phenomenon, assumes a more colorful and vibrant expression, indicating that both the form and the formless are all divine.
By Sri Sri Ravishankar ji
Wisdom Card
Divinity is unmanifest, but man has an innate desire to perceive the divine in the manifest creation around him. He creates idols, breathes faith into it and requests divinity to be present in that idol for a while, so that he can worship, express his love and play with it. At the end of his worship he requests divinity to go back into his heart from where divinity manifested. This is in all puja practices.
They are not actually worshipping the idols but worshipping the unmanifest divinity which has all the divine qualities. So, the idol worshippers of the East are not the same as the ones in the Middle East as described in the Bible, because they are not just worshipping different gods and different idols, they are worshipping the ONE divinity in many different forms.
Paganism, Satan and animal worship, without the knowledge of the one divinity is very different from seeing the divine in every form of the manifest universe. In the eastern tradition, gods and goddesses are part of the one divinity like the different colors of white sunlight, whereas in the Greek tradition, gods and goddesses are in themselves different entities.
Worshipping Satan and different entities is totally different from worshipping divinity in its various forms. Every form belongs to the divine. When you adore the form, you are adoring the divine behind the form. With this knowledge, the very act of worship, which is more an inner phenomenon, assumes a more colorful and vibrant expression, indicating that both the form and the formless are all divine.
By Sri Sri Ravishankar ji
You have five aspects to yourself: Asti (is-ness); Bhaati (Knowledge, expression); Preeti (love); Nama (name); and Rupa (form).
Matter has two aspects: name and form.
Consciousness has three aspects: "is-ness" - that it is; knowingness/expression - it knows and expresses; and love - it is loving.
This is the secret of the whole universe.
Maya is not being aware of the three aspects of consciousness. Ignorance is when one is caught up in the name and form.
Question: Why are we imperfect?
Answer: So that we can grow to perfection. Life is a movement from imperfection to perfection. A seed contains the tree but the seed has to cease to be a seed to become a tree. The seed is not perfect. The sapling is not perfect. It has to cease to be a sapling to become a tree. So in life you can either see imperfection at every step, or you can see a movement from one perfection to another perfection.
Wherever you put your attention then that will grow. If you put your attention on the lack of something, the lack will increase
By pujya Sri Sri ji
Matter has two aspects: name and form.
Consciousness has three aspects: "is-ness" - that it is; knowingness/expression - it knows and expresses; and love - it is loving.
This is the secret of the whole universe.
Maya is not being aware of the three aspects of consciousness. Ignorance is when one is caught up in the name and form.
Question: Why are we imperfect?
Answer: So that we can grow to perfection. Life is a movement from imperfection to perfection. A seed contains the tree but the seed has to cease to be a seed to become a tree. The seed is not perfect. The sapling is not perfect. It has to cease to be a sapling to become a tree. So in life you can either see imperfection at every step, or you can see a movement from one perfection to another perfection.
Wherever you put your attention then that will grow. If you put your attention on the lack of something, the lack will increase
By pujya Sri Sri ji
Surrender
Wisdom Card
The main impediment of many seekers in the path is that they want to surrender. Don't say that you want to surrender; know that you already are surrendered. Wanting to surrender becomes an impediment on the path. This is like a child saying to the mother, " I want to love you." No child ever tells the mother," I want to love you", love is evident there.
Surrender is not an act, it is a state of your being. Whether you acknowledge it or not, it is there. The wise wake up and see, the unwise take a longer time. Know that you have no choice, you are in a state of surrender deep within you
By pujya Sri Sri ji
Wisdom Card
The main impediment of many seekers in the path is that they want to surrender. Don't say that you want to surrender; know that you already are surrendered. Wanting to surrender becomes an impediment on the path. This is like a child saying to the mother, " I want to love you." No child ever tells the mother," I want to love you", love is evident there.
Surrender is not an act, it is a state of your being. Whether you acknowledge it or not, it is there. The wise wake up and see, the unwise take a longer time. Know that you have no choice, you are in a state of surrender deep within you
By pujya Sri Sri ji
Ignorance Of Your Capability Can Expand You!
Wisdom Card
Always know that the Divine never gives you a responsibility you cannot fulfill. Nobody ever expects you to treat them if you are not a doctor. Nobody will ask you to fix their wiring system if you are not an electrician. Your responsibility is only what you can do. And you do not know what you can do! Always accept that you do not know what you can do. Ignorance of your capability can expand you!
When you know what you can do, you can progress. But when you do not know what you can do, you can grow by leaps and bounds! When you know what you can do, you can do things. When you do not know what you can do, you can do things even better!
By Sri Sri Ravishankar ji
Wisdom Card
Always know that the Divine never gives you a responsibility you cannot fulfill. Nobody ever expects you to treat them if you are not a doctor. Nobody will ask you to fix their wiring system if you are not an electrician. Your responsibility is only what you can do. And you do not know what you can do! Always accept that you do not know what you can do. Ignorance of your capability can expand you!
When you know what you can do, you can progress. But when you do not know what you can do, you can grow by leaps and bounds! When you know what you can do, you can do things. When you do not know what you can do, you can do things even better!
By Sri Sri Ravishankar ji
Death and Spirituality
Death brings you in touch with the reality of life. Death creates a vacuum, a void. Void is the fertile ground for the spirit to manifest. All talents, invention, creativity springs forth from the void, and creation has a tendency to return to the void.
Bharat says, "All the problems come when you avoid the void." (Laughter)
All the places of worship in all religions are connected with places of burial/cremation, as the awareness of death alone can bring dispassion and make you well grounded in knowledge. According to the Indian mythology, the abode of Shiva is in Mount Kailasa as well as in Smashana (the cremation ground).
Kailasa means "where there is only celebration", and Smashana is where there is only void. Thus the Divinity dwells in the void as well as in celebration. And in you there is void, in you there is celebration
By Sri Sri Ravishankar ji
Death brings you in touch with the reality of life. Death creates a vacuum, a void. Void is the fertile ground for the spirit to manifest. All talents, invention, creativity springs forth from the void, and creation has a tendency to return to the void.
Bharat says, "All the problems come when you avoid the void." (Laughter)
All the places of worship in all religions are connected with places of burial/cremation, as the awareness of death alone can bring dispassion and make you well grounded in knowledge. According to the Indian mythology, the abode of Shiva is in Mount Kailasa as well as in Smashana (the cremation ground).
Kailasa means "where there is only celebration", and Smashana is where there is only void. Thus the Divinity dwells in the void as well as in celebration. And in you there is void, in you there is celebration
By Sri Sri Ravishankar ji
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Our Afghan Brothers and Sisters are struggling and they need our help. People fleeing violence in Afghanistan have witnessed unspeakable horrors. As children and their families flee their homes, our teams are in Afghanistan, delivering life-saving assistance.
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I want to be able to send more emergency aid to Afghanistan in the next few days please donate generously, even if we can ease the suffering just slightly for some then we may be rewarded for it.
All I'm going to say is: these people are just like you and me. They cry, bleed and laugh.. just like you. This is not about religion, ethnicity or politics anymore- This is about HUMANITY. Afghanistan needs your help and it needs it now.
Please donate:
Bitcoin: 3Fv4i9ftBj8HZQrB8cxEA2u4yCPncFMqw3
Ethereum: 0x301Ff3cc554e7B336E20b0534c66046e56C3DC91
Litecoin: MJWZFkoTzu34PQirsmdBxV8Kzi1MC4Vb4E
Ripple:
rshvnxLDE9Jsm8sJxPxct425HhQC2tk5CV
Religion and politics
The role of religion is to make one righteous and loving And politics means caring for people and their welfare. When religion and politics don't coexist then you have corrupt politicians and pseudo-religious leaders. A religious man who is righteous and loving will definitely care for the welfare of the whole population and hence becomes a true politician. And a true politician can only be righteous and loving. He cannot be anything but religious. All the Avatars and prophets have been caring for people and so were in politics. You can find many examples to this effect.
When religions restrict the freedom to worship and restrict modes of worship they become unsuitable for creating a harmonious society. When religion becomes all encompassing and gives full freedom to pray and worship in any manner -- that religion will bring righteousness and peace in people and will be suitable for any society. People think politics and religion have to be kept separate because many religions did not give freedom to worship and did not care for all people equally. History has shown that religion has created conflict. But irreligious societies (e.g. communism) have created chaos and corruption.
Today both religion and politics need reform. Religion has to become broader and more spiritual to allow freedom of worship and broader to encompass all the wisdom in the world. And politicians have to become more righteous and spiritual.
By Sri Sri Ravishankar ji
The role of religion is to make one righteous and loving And politics means caring for people and their welfare. When religion and politics don't coexist then you have corrupt politicians and pseudo-religious leaders. A religious man who is righteous and loving will definitely care for the welfare of the whole population and hence becomes a true politician. And a true politician can only be righteous and loving. He cannot be anything but religious. All the Avatars and prophets have been caring for people and so were in politics. You can find many examples to this effect.
When religions restrict the freedom to worship and restrict modes of worship they become unsuitable for creating a harmonious society. When religion becomes all encompassing and gives full freedom to pray and worship in any manner -- that religion will bring righteousness and peace in people and will be suitable for any society. People think politics and religion have to be kept separate because many religions did not give freedom to worship and did not care for all people equally. History has shown that religion has created conflict. But irreligious societies (e.g. communism) have created chaos and corruption.
Today both religion and politics need reform. Religion has to become broader and more spiritual to allow freedom of worship and broader to encompass all the wisdom in the world. And politicians have to become more righteous and spiritual.
By Sri Sri Ravishankar ji