Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Only those who have eyes can see and only those who have ears can hear. Life has five dimensions or five senses – sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. But there is one more dimension that has gone out of our reckoning; that is feeling. Feeling the Presence. Light cannot be heard through the eyes; it has to be seen through the eyes. Sound cannot be seen through the eyes but heard through the ears. Likewise, the presence has to be felt by the heart.
God is not an object of senses but the feeling of feelings, the presence of presence, the sound of silence, light of life, the essence of the world and the taste of bliss. And our human life is enriched only when we can live this sixth sense of existence, of feeling.
If you are feeling depressed and continue to feel depressed, you create particles of depression around you. Those ions of depressions around you go and stick to the environment.
If someone walks into that place, even after you have left, that person for no reason would start feeling depressed. Have you experienced this? You walk into a room and suddenly feel angry vibes. You were all right a few minutes ago but the moment you walk in, all the anger, stress and tension overtakes you.
Today there is a lot of talk about environment, about protecting the forest, bringing up more greenery, recycling of things, materials, plastics and use of more natural and organic substances. A few years ago, this was not an issue at all, was it? Now all nations are coming to an agreement to save planet earth. Like we pollute the earth and water, we also pollute the subtle environment of feelings and emotions.
Man has become a victim of his environment. He is not in control of his mind but a victim of the environment. Is it not so? We pollute our environment in a very subtle way through our negative emotions. But it takes quite sometime to clear the environment of this. It is inevitable that sometimes you feel stressed, sometimes you feel negative and sometimes you have doubts and so on. It happens. Nobody wants it. But when it happens how do we handle them?
We hear a lot about other things in life but we spend very little time to hear about ourselves; how to handle our mind? How to be in the present moment? How to be happy and grateful? This we have not learnt. This is the most unfortunate thing. Then what is the solution? This is where we miss a very fundamental principle that governs our environment, our mind our emotions and our life in general.
Our body has the capacity to sustain the vibrations of bliss and peace much longer than negative emotions because positivity is the centre of our existence. Just like in the structure of the atom, protons and neutrons are the centre of the atom and electrons are only the periphery, same is with our lives.
The centre core of our existence is bliss, positivity and joy but it is surrounded by a cloud of negative ions.
Through the help of the breath we can easily get over our negative emotions in a short period of time. Through meditation and certain breathing techniques you can clear this negative cloud.
In future, I think there will be a rule: anybody who feels depressed will be fined! Ten thousand rupees fine for getting depressed! Then you will be asked to go and breathe and meditate and get rid of all your depression without swallowing any tablets. What is there for you to get depressed? You are here for a few years anyway; just a few years on this planet. And as long as you are here, you can as well be happy.
This life has so much to offer to you. You can see this once you take some time off, rejuvenating the soul. You soul is hungry for a smile from you. If you could give this, you feel energised the whole year and nothing whatsoever can take the smile from you.
Everyone wants to be successful in life. But without knowing what is success. What are the signs of success? Just having a lot of money, is that success? Why do you think money means success? Because money gives you freedom so that you can do whatever you want. You may have a big bank balance but, you have stomach aches, ulcers, you may have to go for bypass surgery. Can’t eat this, can’t do this, can’t do that.
We spend half our health to gain wealth and spend half our wealth to gain back the health. Isn’t that ironical? Is this success? It is very bad mathematics.
Look at all those who claim to be successful. Are they successful? No, they are miserable. Then, what is the sign of success? The sign of success is overwhelming joy, right? It is confidence, compassion, generosity and a smile that none can snatch away, being really happy and being able to be more free. These are the signs of a successful person.
Take some time off to look a little deep into oneself and calm the mind down. Thus erasing all the impressions that we are carrying in our minds and experience the presence, the divine that is the very core of our existence. This is feeling the presence.
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