Rishi Tid Bits

• Om Namah Shivaya chanting is very powerful - (not the 108 one, the prolonged one which is available on a CD in divine shop) - Om Namah Shivaya chanting has the power to nullify karma dosh and vastu dosh! It reinforced what Guruji had said when he came home. We told him about some vastu abnormalities in the house & asked what to do and he said "kuch zaroorat nahi, roz om nimah shivaya chanting karo, sab theek ho jayega"
• Mind's tendency is to become obsessed then possessed. We want to get something in a hurry, we become obsessed by it and then when we acquire it, we become possessive about it
• Leaders first participate and then contribute; this is a key attribute of leaders; participation is the first step towards effective leadership and then second step is contribution
• MBA = mujhe bohut aata hai :-)
• All of us must memorize all the 365 knowledge sheets given by Guruji! 
• One who has 50 desires in a day = Bhogi ; One who has 1 desire in 50 days = Yogi ; One who has no desires = Bhakt ; One who works to fulfill other people's desire = Bhagwan (example Guruji) ; Which category are you in?
• Guru se maangna hai to teen cheeze mango - Aseem Bhakti (infinite devotion), atoot shraddha (Unbreakable Faith) and Moksha (Liberation)
• To keep mind in present moment 24 hrs, devote 10% of time in sadhana i.e. 2.5 hrs every day
• Mind's tendency is to keep accumulating (sangraha karna) - we keep accumulating objects, peoples and situations - this is a great fallacy
• We face exactly 10 negative emotions not more not less and these are the 10 heads of Ravana - Anger, Regret, Fear, Hatred, Jealousy, Greed, Lust, Lethargy, Moha and Ahankar; The first eight can be experienced within our body at different chakras; the last two are very subtle
• Regret is nothing but comparison of our existing actions with our past actions  
• Fear is nothing but comparison of current event with future event \
• Hatred is nothing but comparison of someone's current actions with his/her past actions 
• Jealousy is nothing but comparison of what we have with what another person has 
• Greed is nothing but comparison of what we have currently and what we want in the future  

Superb na??

That's why he is a Rishi - A river of knowledge!! Gyan Ganga!! A disciple in the truest sense - a thorough disciplinarian - lives by Guru's words - lives the knowledge!

Rishi Ji's Snippets

People should not have fear of your anger, they should only have fear of losing your love. Your love should be so unconditional that someone would think before doing something, that this act should not make me lose his/her love for me.

Four modulations of mind:

1. not being in present moment:- leads to problems related to stomach…!

2. getting bored:- this is at the intellectual level. —>>> This leads to problems related to heart, chest.

there are four ways people can get together:-

I. common likes

II. common enemies or complaints

III. common ambitions

IV. coming together in knowledge, for knowledge. only the fourth way will keep two people together… even if there is some problem, it will go away with the knowledge. with commitment and dedication, if you can surpass the boredom, then you attain love. otherwise its just common likes.

Sadhana consolidates the boredom. continuing Sadhana, you surpass the boredom.

3. holding on to something negative.—->>this leads to problems related to neck. ten compliments and one insult, what does your mind chew on to!?

4. the likes and dislikes of the mind. it leads to problems related to face, head. What you dislike now, you used to like it sometime back. and what you like now, you may dislike it later. all your feelings change in 2 and a quarter days! You can’t be happy or sad all the time. Like Moon causes tides on the ocean, we being 75% water, it causes high and low feelings… and if you observe, you feel High on full moon and low on new moon! the moon goes round the earth in 28 days, and there are 12 constellations. 28/12 is 2 days and five hours. in that time, your moods change. and if you meditate, these changing moods won’t affect you at all !

Q:- How to become a good leader!?

Ans: Make leaders.

Leader is not someone with great qualities, but who can bring out the best qualities in all.

*There are exactly ten negative qualities:*

Those who love perfection get angry

Those who love past get hatred

Those who love something become greedy

Those who love fantasy get lust

Those who love their appearance more than it should be loved, become jealous

Those who love status get arrogant

Those who love the result of action get fear

Those who love some people get attachment

and two more!

Those who love to serve, get devotion. The ten negatives are not our nature. The human nature is to be generous, happy, loving, grateful, full of awareness and being in bliss. And that is what happens when we do the Sudarshan Kriya.

Parents are at least 20 years elder to us. So they have much more experience of life than we have. Also of course they have gone through the phases of life that we are going through. So we need to listen to them and obey their wishes.

One who doesn’t learn from his mistake is a fool. One who learns from his own mistakes is a intellectual person. One who learns from the mistakes of others is wise. A Mistake is a happening, not an intentional action. When some person A is doing something that hurts you or is wrong, go and tell that to person A directly, not to tell it to B. When you tell it to person B, it is a complaint. When you tell it to A, it is a responsible action.  When you tell it to A directly, in 99 percent of cases A will change. if you tell B and B tells that to A, then A will in fact get more angry and situation doesn’t change.

If we don’t learn from the words of the Sages, the Time will teach us, our own experience will teach us! There is no difference between Time and God.  Kalay Tasmai Namah.

Move on from looking good to feeling good. Make choice based on what makes you feel good, rather than what makes you look good.

He told a nice joke in Hindi, with all special accents: A wife told her husband… “Hello, please get me a new Saree.” Husband replied, “but I have already got you 200 Sarees.” Wife said, “But all those have been seen by my kitti party friends!” Husband said,”ok, then instead of buying new sarees every week, it will be less costly to change the locality!”

Walk like an elephant, full of peace and strength. And, if needed, Roar like a Lion, and everyone else will listen to you… Sadhana Seva Satsang and Self Knowledge make you feel good. Surrender Smile and Silence are for preserving that feel good state. Practicing these 7 gives you 8th S: Sri Sri. [image:  ] The entire creation is inexpressible. That inexpressible has become expressible in the form of Sadguru. Loving the Sadguru you will love the entire creation. If you don’t love the Sadguru, forget about love.

These are just a few of the words he spoke. However, Behind the talk was his charming, eloquent, peaceful, playful presence, which made us stay glued to him for long time! His Gestures, quotes and jokes were simply amazing!

About Guruji

The Art of Living was founded in 1981 by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. His work spans many roles - as a humanitarian ambassador, meditation instructor, spiritual teacher and a peace advocate. Sri Sri is committed to his vision of stress-free minds and a violence-free society and so works continuously on building peace among nations and individuals.

The Beginning

Born in 1956 in Tamil Nadu, Southern India, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar was a gifted child. By the age of four, he was able to recite parts of the Bhagavad Gita, an ancient Sanskrit text and was often found in meditation. He studied Vedic literature with his first teacher, Sudhakar Chaturvedi, who had had a long cooperation with Mahatma Gandhi and simultaneously went to school at MES in Bangalore. By the age of seventeen, in 1973, he had graduated with degrees in both Physics and Vedic Literature.

Founding The Art of Living and the IAHV

In 1997, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar co-founded the International Association for Human Values (IAHV) to run sustainable development projects, nurture human values and to coordinate conflict resolution in association with The Art of Living Foundation. The Association partners with governments, educational institutions, other NGOs, corporations, businesses and individuals. It also works in special consultative status with the Economic, Social and Cultural Council(ECOSOC) of the United Nations, participating in a variety of committees and activities, related to health and conflict resolution. It has so far reached over 20 million people in over 150 countries from all walks of life.

Current Activities

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar continues to lead the Art of Living Foundation and the IAHV and tours the globe working in many different capacities, every single day of the year. The self-development programmes he developed are now delivered by tens of thousands of specially trained Art of Living teachers in 151 countries, although whenever he can, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar often attends large courses to give talks and gives his time to participants.

Inspiring Service

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has initiated many programmes to provide assistance to people from a wide range of backgrounds – victims of natural disasters, survivors of terror attacks and war, children from marginalised populations and communities in conflict, amongst others. The strength of his philosophy has inspired a huge body of volunteers to get involved and drive these service projects forward, or initiate their own, around the globe. The majority of these volunteers are graduates of the Art of Living’s self-development programmes themselves.

A Figure of Peace

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has been globally recognised as an ambassador of peace, receiving numerous awards for his work. He plays a key role in conflict resolution and spreads his vision of non-violence at public forums and gatherings worldwide. Regarded as a neutral figure with a sole agenda of peace, he represents hope to people in conflict. He has received particular credit for bringing opposing parties to the negotiating table in Iraq, the Ivory Coast, Kashmir and Bihar. Fostering interfaith harmony and calling for multi-cultural education as the remedy for fanaticism are significant parts of his efforts to achieve sustainable peace.