Who Are You and What Do You Want?

It is so nice to be here in Japan - The land of the Rising Sun!

The dire need of today is to awaken the society and the world to the reality of who we are, and what do we want! If you ask anybody, why do they do what they do? And if you ponder on this question, the answer is happiness. Everybody is looking for happiness. Spiritual people are looking for happiness in liberation. Religious people are looking for happiness in scriptures. Socialists are looking for happiness as absolute comfort in technology. Commerce and industry are looking for happiness by making more profits. Politicians are looking for happiness in creating a happy society, and by making the country stronger. So, who does not want happiness? Everybody wants it! But, are we finding that happiness?

If you are not happy, why is it so?

The answer is we have too much to do and too little time and little energy. As a result of this, we are getting stressed, and we are not reaching where we want reach.

There are certain questions which we need to ask ourselves as human beings!

From an age of three, we started asking questions about life – where did we come from, what is this and what is that… these questions indicate that our intellect is maturing. These questions are pure and inquisitive questions. But later on in life, we don’t ask these questions, instead, we ask questions which indicate misery and sorrow. We ask questions that have no answers – ‘Why am I having this problem, why am I not happy? ’

And we don’t ask these questions to others, we ask ourselves! Unanswered questions ferment in the mind and become violence.

From low energy to high energy.

Are you all here? Are you listening? (Audience respond saying, 'Yes, we are here')

See what is happening, when your presence of mind is complete, then questions transform into wonder.

When the energy (prana) in us is high, we ask questions that lead us to the truth. When energy is low, we ask questions which only bring us more misery.

So, what is that one thing that can shift the energy (from low to high) and make us more positive? What can bring that sense of happiness that we all had when we were children? It is meditation.

Meditation is that which shifts our energy from negative to positive; from a state of despair to a state of hope and joy, and from a state of worry to a state of vision for a better life!

Tap into the enormous strength within you.

Take an oath today – come what may, I am going to be happy! I am not going to lose my smile no matter what happens. If you do this, you will see that your life starts taking the direction which you always wanted!

You may have several failures, you may come across several stumbling blocks, you may not be able to be happy every day and all the time, but this very commitment that – I am not going to lose my peace for anything in the world – will bring such enormous strength from within you, that it will start changing the situations around you. 

One very important thing we need is the faith that only the right thing will happen! 

Today, can we all make this commitment (to be happy)? Can we instill the faith within ourselves that only the right thing will happen to me? Once you start on this journey, I tell you, things will fall in place. 

Stop counting your failures.

We keep doubting ourselves and we keep remembering all the failures that we have had. When we do this, we are sowing seeds of doubt and failure into the consciousness. Right away, stop counting your failures. In fact, don't even look at any setbacks as failures because they are all stepping stones towards progress.   

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji