Inspired By a Talk by Sri Yadhava ji (Senior teacher Art of Living)
Suppose God came to us one fine
day and gave us a boon so that we instantaneously achieve all our goals , each
and every one of them , what further role would we have then? We would have missed those rich experiences
we would have undergone in the process of achieving those goals, the joy of a
minor success, the pain of a small failure , the struggle of analysis, self
analysis and analysis of the situation, the development of the skills which are
required to deal with that situation...Thus when we achieve our goal after a challenge, a struggle , the satisfaction we get is much deeper than if someone just hands it over to us ... We also develop into a much more skillful and balanced
person in this process .
The purpose of human existence is
to have more and more varied experiences. At the end of your life, Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi
Shankar ji says you will have a minute of flash back of your entire life , in
that minute you will ask yourself only 2 fundamental questions, how much
knowledge you have got and how much love you have given. The purpose of human
existence is to have more and more varied experiences, as they say the joy is
in the journey and not just in the destination
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar ji says
A
willingness to share what we have and to help others is called Seva. Seva
connects us to others and makes them a part of us. The barriers dissolve that
separate our happiness from their happiness. Lingering moods of unhappiness or
depression dissipate when our focus is on helping someone else.
While doing Seva, though we might be helping the people / situation for whom we
are doing Seva for , the main beneficiary is our self.
The skills we learn by overcoming
the challenges we face in doing the Seva , the qualities we develop will help
us be successful in all spheres of life. As Sri Yadhava ji says so beautifully, many corporates spend lakhs on
training programs to teach their employees to develop the skills, like goal
setting /communication/ team management . These qualities we naturally develop
when we do Seva . So we should be grateful to Guruji for creating such a
wonderful platform like Art of Living where in we get the opportunity to do Seva.
In doing Seva we should not
develop a ego that we are helping the person concerned . If not thru us the
person concerned would have got the help from some other source. Rather we
should be grateful to the existence that we got a chance to contribute a small
bit in Gurujis great work of bringing smile to every face.
We can only spread what we have.
To spread joy we need to have joy in our heart first. This Joy we can easily
cultivate within ourselves by doing spiritual practices like Yoga/Pranayama/
Meditation.
All of us have vehicles and we
regularly check the tyre pressure on a weekly or monthly basis. Its a easy task to fill the air regularly in the tyre. Suppose we neglect to
fill air regularly when we become busy in our work the chances of a tyre
puncture increase dramatically and then its a much more difficult task to
repair the puncture. And at that time we also have to stop using the vehicle
for some time. If
Punctures start happening in a regular basis the tyre if of no use to anyone
and we will be forced to replace the tyre itself.
By doing Sadhana ( daily
practices like Sudarshan Kriya/ Meditation) / by being in Satsang regularly i.e. being in knowledge by reading Books/Hearing
Talks given by Guruji, singing Bhajans,
chanting stotras etc we are maintaining our tyre pressure ( balance ) of self
and ensuring the journey of our life goes smoothly. A puncture in form of a big
problem can still happen but the chances/frequency reduces dramatically if we
regularly maintain the tyre pressure.
So whenever we ourselves notice
that there are issues creeping up in our life, we can just be aware that are we
neglecting our sadhana/satsang and make the necessary changes.
When we have got so much joy
/wisdom in life from The Guru it is but natural that you would want to spread
it to other people . Secondly when you
see the Guru and how much he is tirelessly working for the upliftment of the
world, naturally we will get inspired by him and want to at least do a small
part of what he is doing.
Even when we are doing Seva we
should develop the habit of taking challenging goals. All limits are kept in
the mind, what the mind can conceive it can achieve. Thus whenever we plan to
do Seva we should take some Seva
projects which are challenging , put our 100% best efforts and then surrender
the results to the divine...This will
help us overcome our self limiting attitudes which might be hampering us in all
spheres of life...
Everyone who regularly does at least a little Seva knows that joy in Giving
is much more than the joy in Taking. Even
in our homes the elderly people find so much joy in giving gifts / making tasty
food for the younger lot. The Joy in Giving / in bringing a Smile in some ones face
is Mature joy, it gives a Pleasure which is indescribable in words and which is
long lasting.
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravishankar Ji says
Service is the expression of love. Serve in whatever possible
manner you can. Ask yourself, “How can I be useful to people around me, and to
the whole world?” Then your heart starts blossoming and a completely new level
begins. Otherwise we’re always thinking, “What about me, what about me?” It’s
nothing! Ask, “How can I be useful, how can I give to the world?
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