In Search of Bliss

By His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

The Divine has given you all the small pleasures in the world, but has kept the bliss to Himself. To get the highest bliss you have to go to Him and Him alone. Don't be too smart with the Divine and try to fool Him. Most of your prayers and rituals are just attempts to trick the Divine. You try to give the least and get the maximum out of the Divine and He knows. He's an astute businessman; He will trick you even more. If you go underneath the carpet, He will go underneath the floor.

Be sincere in your attempts. Do not try to outsmart the Divine. Once you get the bliss, then everything else is joyful. Without the bliss, joy in anything in the world will not stay. What type of time do you give the Divine? Usually you give the time that is leftover, when you have nothing else to do, when no guests are coming, there are no parties to go to, no nice movies to watch, no weddings to attend. This is not quality time. Give quality time to the Divine. It will be rewarded. If your prayers are not answered it is because you have never given quality time. Give spiritual practices your highest priority. Give prime time to the Divine. You definitely will be rewarded.

Have 'eternal wait', infinite patience. Then you will realize God belongs to you. Either through awareness or through practice you reach the same spot. It's not like shopping at the supermarket in a hurry and rushing back home. When you see the whole store is at home, you are not in a hurry to shop. You are at ease.

When you know you are part of the divine plan, you stop demanding. Then you know everything is being done for you. You are taken care of. Usually we do it the other way: we hurry the mind and are slow in our action. Impatience means hurrying the mind; lethargy means slowness in action. Patience in the mind and dynamism in action is the right formula.

The Divine does not test you. Testing is part of ignorance. Who will test? One who does not know will test, isn't it? God knows your capacity, so why does he have to test you? Then, why the misery? It is to bring out the forbearance in you. And forbearance could be increased by prayerful surrender or vigorous challenge for patience!

Strange are the ways of karma. The more you understand it, the more amazed you become. It brings people together and separates them. It causes some to be weak and some to be strong. It makes some rich and some poor. All the struggle in the world, whatever it may be, is the bondage of karma. It cuts across all logic and reasoning. This understanding will lift you from getting stuck to the events or personalities and help you in your journey to the Self.

You may think that a thief can say it is my karma to steal? Then the police have the karma to catch him too! Only human life has the ability to be free from karma. Only through Grace can the bondage of karma be burnt. Performing actions cannot eliminate karma.

Prarabdha [Sanskrit] karma cannot be changed. Sanchitha [Sanskrit] karma can be changed by spiritual practices. Satsang [Sanskrit] or Company of Truth, burns the seed of all negative karma. When you praise someone, you take on their good karma. When you blame someone you take on their bad karma. Know this and surrender both good and bad karma to the Divine and be free.

Attachments cause feverish breath and feverish breath takes away peace of mind. Then you are in pieces and fall prey to misery. Before you get scattered too much, gather yourself and rid your breath of the feverishness through surrender and sadhana [Sanskrit] (spiritual practices such as Yoga and meditation). When someone is drowning in the ocean of attachments, surrender is the life jacket they can put on and wait for the rescue team. Without fighting the attachments, observe the feverish breath and go to the cool place of silence within. Your first step in this direction is directing your attachment to the Knowledge, to the Divine. Your non-attachment to the mundane is your charm. Your attachment to the Divine is your beauty.

His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is a spiritual teacher and the founder of the Art of Living Foundation, an international nonprofit educational, humanitarian and service organization with centers in over 140 countries. His Holiness is visiting Atlanta from May 24 - 26, 2005 and giving a public talk at King International Chapel at Morehouse College on May 24th at 7:30 PM. For information and tickets call 770-218-3135 or email Atlanta@artofliving.org.