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Memorial Lecture given by His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar at S. M. Medical college, Jodhpur ( 23 February 2005) (H H Sri Sri Ravishankar, Art of Living Founder spoke in both Hindi and English. Wherever spoken in Hindi has been translated in English here. By the way, Government of Maharashtra (an Indian state) plans to make mathematics an optional subject from 8th standard! This ridiculous! It will have disastrous implications on the society in the long run. It will take us several centuries backwards in time. All those who are aware of this should oppose it. Read an interesting article on this by my colleague Sai at: http://saisureshsivaswamy.rediffblogs.com/2006_16_04_saisureshsivaswamy_archive.html#1145456911 – Krishna) Science And Spirituality Listening is also an art- there is an art of listening. Are you all listening? It can be any speaker who may speak for ten minutes but we actually hear for about three minutes; this is a statistical figure! The remaining seven minutes, the body remains there but the mind goes out gallivanting You always complain if someone speaks in the language you don’t know. When you sit and gossip for 2-3 hours, you don’t know how the time flies but when you are sitting and someone is speaking for a couple of minutes in a foreign language you don’t know, even those couple of minutes seem to be very long, hasn’t it been our experience? Whenever your mind is engaged, you do not feel the time but when the mind is not engaged, you feel the time is too long, correct? Are you all here? What is happening now? Waiting- waiting for a phone call, waiting for someone to come, waiting for something. But you know what’s interesting is that we don’t know what waiting itself is! If you can experience the pure waiting- that becomes meditation. Suppose I am not going to speak for next 20-25 minutes, are you willing to be here? Yes! Waiting for infinity is meditation and if we don’t understand what waiting is, we tend towards frustration. See, waiting is the junction that either leads you to frustration on one side or, on another side, takes you to a meditative state. If you are a meditator then you know what ‘dhyaan’(meditation) is, then nothing can frustrate you because every moment that you are free and have to wait for something, you drop into meditation ! We become carefree when we realize that waiting can lead to either meditation or frustration. You can be free from frustration if you meditate and be happy and joyful. Many moments come in our lives, when we have to wait and with this waiting we are filled with frustration, anger, restlessness – all kinds of disorders of mind. So to become free from all such disorders it is very essential to know about meditation. “What is this?”- is Science ; ” Who am I?”- is Spirituality. It is only in India that from ages the science and spirituality said the Earth and other planets are From the times of Vedic age itself, our ancient people knew the placing of the sun and the planets. In today’s time too we worship the same way by placing the sun in the center and all planets around it. Long ago, from ancient times, we knew that the sun was the center of our solar system yet we teach wrong and give credit to Galileo for discovering it! We need to change such history now. Similarly the value of ‘Pi’(p) and its formula were known long ago. They were well advanced in mathematics . All geometry, trigonometry etc was given in verses with not just formulas but also with detail and diagrams. So we were never ignorant but very advanced in Science from ancient time but unfortunately what is being taught is that our ancestors were ignorant and foolish. It is heard that a professor of History, in Delhi University, is teaching the children that the What is spiritualism? To understand this, ponder over this – Who am I? What am I made up of? This body is made of food we eat etc but then consciousness, the spirit within it is made up of what? What are its ingredients?- to know this all is spiritualism. Our ancestors have given the beautiful explanations of it. Asti, Bhati, Preeti , Naam and Roop – these are the five ingredients/elements or aspects of self. Asti, Bhati, Priti- are the three forms of our consciousness, our mind . Asti meaning “I am”, bhati is realizing that it is and preeti , the love with which it is made of –these are the three forms with which our consciousness is Are you all listening? Still here? The mind has not gone out for a tea break na? Yes! So ,when you say you are listening to me you , you realize your presence that is bhati. And your nature is love- that is preeti. So these are the three aspects of our consciousness. And the body or matter has two aspects- naam or name and roop or the form. Every thing has a name and a form. With a form or property and a name different things exist in the world. Science examines or studies on name and shape, while Spirituality on asti, bhati and preeti. And what is happening now? As I am speaking you are also thinking in your mind- Sri Krishna also said in Geeta- “ Gyaan vigyaan pratyaatmaâ€. One gains the Complete knowledge only if gets the knowledge of both science and spirituality. From our four “Darshan shastarsâ€- the first three are of science only! How to achieve it? Put your attention to know one thing fully. Understand an atom. What is your body?-a heap of atoms. When all atoms embraced and combine with each other- a body is formed Belongingness is the sign of spiritualism. In today’s life, man has become rigid like a stone living in a small world of his own. We convey more through our presence than through our words. We live whole of our life in a formal atmosphere and lose the naturalness and belongingness. One can have a simple, lovable nature or personality through spirituality only. Truth is multidimensional. This is a gift given to the world by India. Knowledge or Truth is not linear but spherical. Isliye virodhaatmak batein sath sath hoti hein. That's why controversial things co-exist- and that's what we teach in the Art of Living course-that opposite values are complementary. Unless you take both approaches, knowledge will be incomplete. Any life devoid of Spiritualism is dry and lack of knowledge makes one sad, and sorrowful. Some question/ answers – Q- What is God? Patience like the Earth, Glow of the Fire, light like the Air, humble like the water(which flows downward) and present every where like space- the one having all these elements is God! Q- How to realise faithfulness? Q- Guru se bada kaun? Who is above Guru? |