Rishi Vidhyadhar ji on Sudarshan Kriya

Rishi Vidhyadhar ji in the universal quest for wealth, health and happiness, has been a successful businessman, aerobics instructor, interior designer and Ayurveda. The first breath he took with awareness at the Art of Living course in 1998, gave him his life’s mission. As he puts it, ‘The feeling of Emptiness gave way to a sense of completeness and fullness the moment I experienced the Sudarshan Kriya‘, the profound breathing technique gifted to the world by Sri Sri RaviShankar. He found ‘the fountain of inner pace and joy. A sense of fulfillment 24×7 – sense of – and is it and I don’t want anything further’ says Rishi ‘Wealth is essential but is useless without health and happiness.’

He found the practice of Sudarshan Kriya transformative and ‘When you find something wonderful, we want to share.’ So began Rishi Vidhyadhar’s journey to teach this amazing technique to bring the fountain of happiness within reach to thousands of people, as a faculty member at Art Of Living organization, founded by Sri Sri with centers in 155 countries around the world.

The mind is like a kite flying with our breath.

The Sudarshan Kriya is a breathing exercise based on rhythmic breathing that anybody can learn through a course at AOL. As Rishi Vidhyadahar said ‘You only value something if you contribute something to attain it. In this modern day, the most precious thing is time. It only takes 3 hours a day, for 3 days to learn this technique. In just 9 hours, we learn something so natural and easy, which brings you the profound knowledge of being in the present.’

Every emotion is defined through a different breathing pattern. Anger and fear leads to rapid and shallow breathing, whereas calm and peace leads to deep and long breathing. He used the beautiful and visual analogy of a kite and its string to describe the relationship between the mind and the breath. So when the string is short, the kite falters and is unstable, whereas when the string is long the kite can soar high ‘just like the mind – composed, centered and creative. The world is a beautiful place.’

This breathing practice allows us to be in ‘total awareness’ or being in the present and thereby plugging into the power of now. He explained that most of us are always living in the past, which is ‘dead’ and worrying about the future which merely ‘an imagination of the future in the past,’ and leads to stress.

Rishi Vidhyadhar defined stress ‘as the difference between imagination and reality.’ And further explained that stress needs to be eliminated, not managed. The only way to eliminate this difference between imagination and reality is to be present and accept reality as it is. ‘The self inside us has the power to accept anything and everything if you can get into touch with it. It requires courage to accept reality.’

Question Answer with Rishi Vidhyadhar ji

Q. How can we be like you - so much knowledge and such strong faith?
A.Be doing nothing. do 2 sahaj daily and you will find that your faith is increasing. With meditation you would be more in present moment and the more you are in present moment the knowledge required at that moment will come to you. Intellect is powerless.

Q. What is the best way of doing work?
A. Doing the action and not bothering about the results. When you are not bothered by the results you are more in present moment and do the best possible work. Number of registrations are just to give a direction to your work, don't keep it in your head.

Q. I become feverish when i have to do many things, is there a quick fix?
A. Do one thing at a time.

Q. How to increase discipline?
A. By being disciplined. Whatever you want to do can be done only by doing :). Another way of increasing discipline is by being with disciplined people! Entire Yog Vasistha talks about two things majorly - Self Effort and company of Wise people.

Q. I tend to run away from difficulties?
A. Don't facebook it face it. Do your sadhana it will give you strength to face it

A Talk by Rishi Vidhyadhar ji

We base our happiness on factors which are outside our control. Life is ever changing and full of opposites. Basing our state of mind on such factors outside our control leads to depression, frustration and unhappiness. For e.g.; if we are happy because of good health then we are sure to lose our happiness as and when our health deteriorates. If we feel secure because we have money then its opposite is also not far away. If we are in high spirits being in love then whenever we are alone again due to death or separation from partner and without any assurance that the partner will ever come back, we are bound to be depressed. If we are contented because of our progeny, then losing our progeny to death or separation due to some other cause will lead to utter discontentment. If we are happy due to fame and power then their lack will also cause total unhappiness. All these factors are outside our control and hence basing our mental state on any one of these is dangerous and is bound to end in unhappiness.

The only happiness which is stable and free from external influences is the one which is what we feel when we do sudarshan kriya, which is without any reason.The happiness based on the 9 factors- pleasures based on 5 senses, fame, love, progeny and money is short lived and leads to pain whenever one of these factors is missing from our lives.On 26th June, 2000, Gujarat lost 120,000 people due to earthquakes but was back on track in an year’s time. In 2005, in Tsunami, a lady in Nagapattinam lost both her sons and when she met Gurudev sometime after she was all smiles. In contrast, USA is still reeling under the effects of 9/11 even after 5 years. This is the power of spirituality which allows us to come back from setbacks and be happy.

Imagine being in an environment which is stinking with smell of dead bodies some of whom are your relatives and loved ones, very very unpleasant to the eyes, a depressing scene. This is what Krishna stood amidst and was smiling still. This is the power of spirituality. When you can smile through all these situations in life- losing a loved one to separation or death, losing fame and status, losing money and there is no hope for any redemption, then that state is of a liberated person. This is enlightenment and this is the Art of Living.

Quotes by Rishi Vidyadhar ji

• Om Namah Shivaya chanting is very powerful - (not the 108 one, the prolonged one which is available on a CD in divine shop) - Om Namah Shivaya chanting has the power to nullify karma dosh and vastu dosh! It reinforced what Guruji had said when he came home. We told him about some vastu abnormalities in the house & asked what to do and he said "kuch zaroorat nahi, roz om nimah shivaya chanting karo, sab theek ho jayega"
• Mind's tendency is to become obsessed then possessed. We want to get something in a hurry, we become obsessed by it and then when we acquire it, we become possessive about it.
• Leaders first participate and then contribute; this is a key attribute of leaders; participation is the first step towards effective leadership and then second step is contribution.
• MBA = mujhe bohut aata hai :-)
• All of us must memorize all the 365 knowledge sheets given by Guruji!
• One who has 50 desires in a day = Bhogi ; One who has 1 desire in 50 days = Yogi ; One who has no desires = Bhakt ; One who works to fulfill other people's desire = Bhagwan (example Guruji) ; Which category are you in?
• Guru se maangna hai to teen cheeze mango - Aseem Bhakti (infinite devotion), atoot shraddha (Unbreakable Faith) and Moksha (Liberation).
• To keep mind in present moment 24 hrs, devote 10% of time in sadhana i.e. 2.5 hrs every day
• Mind's tendency is to keep accumulating (sangraha karna) - we keep accumulating objects, peoples and situations - this is a great fallacy.
• We face exactly 10 negative emotions not more not less and these are the 10 heads of Ravana - Anger, Regret, Fear, Hatred, Jealousy, Greed, Lust, Lethargy, Moha and Ahankar; The first eight can be experienced within our body at different chakras; the last two are very subtle.
• Regret is nothing but comparison of our existing actions with our past actions.
• Fear is nothing but comparison of current event with future event.
• Hatred is nothing but comparison of someone's current actions with his/her past actions.
• Jealousy is nothing but comparison of what we have with what another person has.
• Greed is nothing but comparison of what we have currently and what we want in the future.
• Comforts which you work for gives you discomfort - e.g. nano is sufficient as a car but wanting an audi causes you to work more to earn money and then spend on its servicing.
• Aahar shuddhi satva vruddhi se hi karya siddhi hoti hain.
• Fake it till you make it do it till you become it.
• Someone raised point about volunteers getting stressed due to seva on which rishiji told us to walk the path of karma yoga - the purpose of seva is to bring you in present moment but what volunteers do is thinking about future while doing seva. He told us to gain knowledge on karma yoga
• Whenever you are with realized people you should only talk about what you want and it will start happening, people tell what is happening and that increases in their life. This is the secret of asking something from guruji.
• Shreyas - working for your happiness and preyas - working for others happiness. If there is a conflict between then you should choose shreyas!
• There are 12 nakshatras and 9 planets, so a person can be affected in 108 ways by them. Understand that each combination is like a folder with some of your past impressions stored in it and there is one folder called "AS U WISH". Now whatever troubles we face in life are due to our past karmas and their impressions. By Sahaj we delete the impressions and the folders start getting empty so whatever folder has to open at whatever time of life according to planetary configurations open up. With Sahaj either the impressions are negligible or wiped out. So the planetary config has no or minimum effect on you. And there is one key to unlock the "AS U WISH " folder - "INCREASE UR SATTVA.... more you increase it more you can access it.
• There are two types of devotion towards the Guru: Radha and Meera. Radha - Doing all your duties as well as being devoted to the Guru. Meera - Surrendering yourself completely to the Guru
• To maintain every relationship, you have to compromise. Do not get into confrontation and take a stand. Put forth your views, listen to others and find out a middle path. If you are taking a stand, you are holding on. Let go! Always put love above everything else. Love is Supreme!
• Your relationships get affected because of you - your desires, habits, samskaras and doubts.
• Centeredness, which is the goal of spirituality, is attained only when there is a balance of all the seven elements in the body. Don't bother about there names - even I don't remember them. Ayurveda helps to balance them and without ayurveda it is impossible to attain the highest, or why else Guruji would start Sri Sri Ayurveda?
• Number of times you take sahaj mantra is an indication of your spiritual progress, as you progress the number of time you take sahaj mantra decreases from 3->2->1 and then you just close your eyes and you will slip into meditation. If you have to take 3 mantra to get into meditation then you still are crawling on path forget about running
• Your efforts should be to become effortless - when you are completely in the present moment the things you have to do in the next moment come to you in this moment. The seed of all knowing is in you, you have to nurture it by Sadhana, Seva, Satsang, Sri Sri Ayurveda, smile, surrender. I never put effort in intro talks. I put efforts to increase my Satva.
• Existence is a fact but living is an art.
• The mind like a kite flying with our breath
• Wealth is essential but is useless without health and happiness.

That's why he is a Rishi - A river of knowledge!! Gyan Ganga!! A disciple in the truest sense - a thorough disciplinarian - lives by Guru's words - lives the knowledge!

Few lines from Rishi Vidyadhar ji

Like a bath near the origin of Ganges, we got soaked in fresh, rejuvenating and sparkling knowledge, that was so freely flowing from Rishi ji. Here are few snippets:

People should not have fear of your anger, they should only have fear of losing your love. Your love should be so unconditional that someone would think before doing something, that this act should not make me lose his/her love for me.

Four modulations of mind:

1. not being in present moment:- leads to problems related to stomach…!

2. getting bored:- this is at the intellectual level. —>>> This leads to problems related to heart, chest.

there are four ways people can get together:-

I. common likes

II. common enemies or complaints

III. common ambitions

IV. coming together in knowledge, for knowledge. only the fourth way will keep two people together… even if there is some problem, it will go away with the knowledge. with commitment and dedication, if you can surpass the boredom, then you attain love. otherwise its just common likes.

Sadhana consolidates the boredom. continuing Sadhana, you surpass the boredom.

3. holding on to something negative.—->>this leads to problems related to neck. ten compliments and one insult, what does your mind chew on to!?

4. the likes and dislikes of the mind. it leads to problems related to face, head. What you dislike now, you used to like it sometime back. and what you like now, you may dislike it later. all your feelings change in 2 and a quarter days! You can’t be happy or sad all the time. Like Moon causes tides on the ocean, we being 75% water, it causes high and low feelings… and if you observe, you feel High on full moon and low on new moon! the moon goes round the earth in 28 days, and there are 12 constellations. 28/12 is 2 days and five hours. in that time, your moods change. and if you meditate, these changing moods won’t affect you at all !

Q:- How to become a good leader!?

Ans: Make leaders.

Leader is not someone with great qualities, but who can bring out the best qualities in all.

*There are exactly ten negative qualities:*

Those who love perfection get angry

Those who love past get hatred

Those who love something become greedy

Those who love fantasy get lust

Those who love their appearance more than it should be loved, become jealous

Those who love status get arrogant

Those who love the result of action get fear

Those who love some people get attachment

and two more!

Those who love to serve, get devotion. The ten negatives are not our nature. The human nature is to be generous, happy, loving, grateful, full of awareness and being in bliss. And that is what happens when we do the Sudarshan Kriya.

Parents are at least 20 years elder to us. So they have much more experience of life than we have. Also of course they have gone through the phases of life that we are going through. So we need to listen to them and obey their wishes.

One who doesn’t learn from his mistake is a fool. One who learns from his own mistakes is a intellectual person. One who learns from the mistakes of others is wise. A Mistake is a happening, not an intentional action. When some person A is doing something that hurts you or is wrong, go and tell that to person A directly, not to tell it to B. When you tell it to person B, it is a complaint. When you tell it to A, it is a responsible action. When you tell it to A directly, in 99 percent of cases A will change. if you tell B and B tells that to A, then A will in fact get more angry and situation doesn’t change.

If we don’t learn from the words of the Sages, the Time will teach us, our own experience will teach us! There is no difference between Time and God. Kalay Tasmai Namah.

Move on from looking good to feeling good. Make choice based on what makes you feel good, rather than what makes you look good.

He told a nice joke in Hindi, with all special accents: A wife told her husband… “Hello, please get me a new Saree.” Husband replied, “but I have already got you 200 Sarees.” Wife said, “But all those have been seen by my kitti party friends!” Husband said,”ok, then instead of buying new sarees every week, it will be less costly to change the locality!”

Walk like an elephant, full of peace and strength. And, if needed, Roar like a Lion, and everyone else will listen to you… Sadhana Seva Satsang and Self Knowledge make you feel good. Surrender Smile and Silence are for preserving that feel good state. Practicing these 7 gives you 8th S: Sri Sri. [image: :)] The entire creation is inexpressible. That inexpressible has become expressible in the form of Sadguru. Loving the Sadguru you will love the entire creation. If you don’t love the Sadguru, forget about love.

These are just a few of the words he spoke. However, Behind the talk was his charming, eloquent, peaceful, playful presence, which made us stay glued to him for long time! His Gestures, quotes and jokes were simply amazing!

Power of Sattva

This should be your goal: Becoming ‘MUKT’ (free) from the 5 deepest, strongest and oldest impressions: Food, Sleep, Sex, Fear and Laziness. He added that once you have become free from these impressions then you will know what your real purpose in life is. The humour and liveliness with which he explained this was exemplary.

Q: How to avoid being conscious when amongst people?

A: Rather than bothering about looking good, focus on feeling good. In looking good you lose your naturalness and peace. When you feel good then you will NOT become a football of others opinions and will be more effective.

Q: Should we be perfectionists?

A: Rather than looking for perfection, be with that which is perfect.

Q: How to handle competition as it involves comparison with others?

A: Competition is sugar coated greed and jealousy. A person who is caught in competition is a victim of greed and jealousy. He tries to do several things 100% and gets stressed. Its important to BE (not necessarily DO) 100% in whatever you do.

Q: I am confused about marriage. How to decide whether to marry or not?

A: * If one or more of the following five are of concern (needs) for a girl, then she should marry: Security, Companionship, Sex, Progeny and learning surrender.

* If one or more of the following four are of concern (needs) for a boy, then he should marry: Companionship, Sex, Progeny and learning surrender

Q: While on my way to meet Guruji, the excitement I feel, is it feverishness or longing?

A: While on your way if you are relaxed then its longing, else its feverishness. And on meeting him, if Guruji doesn’t look at you and you don’t mind it as you are happy that YOU saw HIM, then it was longing and if you feel upset or disappointed that HE didn’t look at YOU, then it was feverishness.

Few lines from Rishi Nitya Pragya ji

Experience of external world depends on state of internal world.

State of inner state creates quality of life from moment to moment. This is how life works. This whole path is making your inner world independent of outer world. In any situation, any state of outer world, when things are conducive or not as per your expectation, maintaining inner beauty, maintaining inner joy, pleasantness, enthusiasm, bliss, is all about this training.

Your perception of life: In different situation, different flavors in you get exposed, different behavior from people, different flavor from you get exposed. If you observe, there is a Specific repetitive patterns, specific tendency/ habit, your mind might have. In a particular type of situation these same pattern comes up, again and again. It is not we do this once or twice, or occasionally we do it, it is the same behavior is repeated.

If different people are criticized, their way to respond is quite different. Some people, as soon as they are criticized they go to defense mode, some people can go to victim consciousness mode, some people close themselves – aloofness.

These tendencies are called Vritties.

Sanskar leads to Vritti/ tendency/ flavor of consciousness. Each mind has its own pattern – Vritti/tendencies, habits, these vritties are coloring your Perception, Observation and your Expression.

Perception – outside to inside / Observation – inside to inside / Expression - inside to outside

All these things/behavior are instigated by these habits. If you understand mind, you will see there are Vritties.
Some Vritties are life enriching : Love, Joy, Bliss, Peace; and some Vritties are life diminishing such as Krodh which prevents us from enjoying true nature of JOY.
Klishtha Vritti – harmful tendencies/ patterns
A-Klishtha Vritti – beneficial tendencies/ patterns
If you are able to identify these Vritties, we can enhance useful habits and release harmful ones.

You can accelerate your path of liberation.
Learning to release harmful habits/ Negative patterns and learning enhancing habits is Art of Living.

Habit – Indulgence in repetitive activity.
Tamasik pleasure are actually negative pleasure (e.g. smoking does not give pleasure, but not smoking will be unbearable for a smoker), this is true for all addictions. Samskara – impressions on our consciousness through experiences of soul through many lifetimes. These impressions are exposed through various triggers from external world.

Love is a state of inner world, any situation can trigger it. Invoke love.

Rather than saying I love you, say you trigger love in me.
This is a path of self exploration – there are some qualifications – your level of intensity will determine level of results – intense results, accelerated progresses, casual approach, divine will say Tathastu.

Three Qualifications on this path:
Your intensity of commitment;
Your level of intelligence – identifying what is harmful and what is not;
Your connection with divine – feeling of presence. If you are connected your downloading is faster, especially if connection with divine is broadband connection.

Six enemies of consciousness: Kaam (Lust), Krodh (Anger), Lobh (Greed), Moha (attachment), Mad (I-ness/Ego), Matsar (Jealousy) leads to contraction of consciousness.

Life enriching Vritties will expand your consciousness, in such a state you have infinite options to see/respond to the world outside. Negativity limits our interpretation of external world.

Negativity prevents us from exploring world fully. Patanjali is Einstein of consciousness research. You cannot love others, others trigger love within you. Similarly negativity is not because of others, it is triggering of negativity within. Monitor your inner state and see if these negative states are being triggered.

Let go and be free.

I-ness (Guilt, Victim, Attack, Blame, Defense, Aloof, Lack) consciousness – negative patterns. Lack is a root of all I-nesses.

We can get rid of them: 3 step process (take a deep breath, connect with master, let go). Identify, Expose and Release/ Drop and be free. True nature of our internal world is JOY/ happiness.

Remove impressions (negative) from consciousness and enjoy JOY/Happiness. You need a reason for un-happiness, remove it and enjoy true nature. but not a reason for happiness, because that is the nature of consciousness. Habit – indulgence in repetetive activity. This path is helping us to see divinity within you.

We are on a Project Liberation.

Our consciousness is influenced by Food, People, place, time and Karma. Avoid Tamasik food – stale food, tea, coffee, alcoholic beverage, carbonated beverage, cheese, Avoid microwave food. Microwave can impair foods basic structure. Avoid people who are negative, complaining, whining who drain your energy. Avoid places with negative energy.

Learning should lead to Sankalpa for its implementation when learning is new it is fresh and has a power of transformation. If you re-learn it one may simply say you know it. It becomes an mind object.

When there is choice between convenience and beneficial, intelligent person will select beneficial rather than convenience. Three things to remember: Enthusiasm, Love and Responsibility.

Seven layers of existence

Spirituality is observing your own existence. Have you experienced your own body? Experiencing the various levels of existence - your own body, your breath, your mind, your emotion, and the source of your life - is meditation. Meditation is experiencing the life force and being conscious of it - and this is done effortlessly.

Have you noticed - that the mind and body function on completely opposite laws? In the realm of mind, effortlessness is the key. You cannot remember something by putting effort. The moment you relax the memory comes back. Creativity, intelligence, and memory — all these faculties within us happen effortlessly. But you can build muscles only when you put effort.

There are two worlds.

1. Outer world
2. Inner world

1. Outer world

It consists of people, situation and things.

2. Inner world

It consists seven layers as below. It is also called levels of existence:

• Body
• Breath
• Mind
• Intellect
• Memory
• Ego 'I'
• Soul or self

Body

With meditation, your physiology undergoes a change, and every cell in the body is filled with "prana". You bubble with joy, as the level of "prana" in your body rises.

On a physical level, meditation helps:

• To decrease any tension-related pain.
• To turn your body into a powerhouse, as you generate an inner source of energy.

Breath

When you sit for meditation, observe your breath.

Is your breath steady? Is the prana is haphazard or is it going smooth and normal?

When you are not feeling so good, or when you are down, unhappy or afraid, observe your prana - it is very shaky.

Steadiness in Prana is essential for meditation.

When the senses get steady - then the prana (which was shaky inside you) also becomes stable.

The four-fold inner equipment

It is the same consciousness that functions as mann (mind), buddhi (intellect), chitta (memory), ahankaara (ego). In ancient times, people have grouped these four different faculties as Antahkaran Chadushtaya (the four-fold inner equipment).

Mind

How do you listen? The sounds fall on the eardrums - but if the mind is elsewhere, can you hear? You are listening through the faculty in you - that is called the mind. Similarly, you experience all the other senses - through the mind.

Mind gallops towards world of five senses (sight, smell, sound, taste, and touch). You may sit quiet – with closed or open eyes. If your eyes are going all over the place, the mind is not in a meditative state. Only when the mind withdraws from the senses, it is ready for meditation.

If you have a positive state of mind you become creative, and successful in anything you do. People in the West, talk about affirmation. Affirmation is, you wake up in the morning, sit on your bed and affirm to yourself, ‘‘I will be good from today and that I will love myself’’. All these affirmations that you force on yourself – is not a healthy thing.

Meditation is the only way you can transcend the negative thoughts, and then positive thoughts will come spontaneously and automatically.

Stress and tension cause negative attitude. Suppose you don’t sleep for two days small things can irritate you. And if you have rested well, the situation is different.

With regular practice of meditation, the mind becomes fresh, energetic, and intuitive.

Intellect

It is discrimination or the understanding of how life functions.

When you are listening, you are either agreeing or disagreeing. Notice whether you are saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’. This something by which we say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ - is called the intellect.

Life is very complex. There is no set formula. When you think that you are very honest, that you are righteous, you become a little stiff inside, without even knowing it. You point your finger towards others and become intolerant. When you recognize that there are flaws in you, you are then able to accommodate the flaws in other persons.

That’s why it is said, ‘‘do a good deed and forget about it’’. It is not only your vices or bad qualities that will harm you. Even your good qualities can make you stiff, rude and angry. That is why you should surrender both bad and good qualities. With meditation, you can relax and let go - of the judging nature of the intellect.

Memory

It is storehouse/hard disk, it has compartments: 1. Conscious memory – remembers events, address. 2. Subconscious memory – collects impressions from many life times, collects effects of events (Karma Fal), habits, emotions. This subconscious memory stays and propagates to next life.

If you observe memory, it clings onto something that is negative. You will forget ten compliments from someone, but one insult from a person will stick to your mind.

This needs to be reversed; and the process of reversing this tendency of the mind from clinging to the negative and moving to something positive is called yoga. Yoga makes you like a baby again. It not only revives your nature, it also keeps your heart and mind young and bright.

Memory can make you either sad or enlightened. Through meditation and pranayams, you can overcome painful memories.

Meditation can bring that shift in your memory – to let go of the trivial, and to recognize your infinite nature. With meditation, you can regain the memory of "Who am I”. When people get enlightened, they say, "I remember." They have remembered - their true nature.

Ego and your emotions

Soul Quality of your life, how you experience life, depends on inner world. You may be in best of outer world, in luxury but if your inner world is not happy, disturbed, your will not be able to enjoy.

You need to take a look at your own thought patterns and emotional patterns - there is a rhythm in them. And there is a rhythm in the consciousness. We need to find a harmony between all these rhythms within us - and that’s called spirituality.

Just look at yourself. Have you always agreed with yourself? You had some idea yesterday; today you may have a different idea. Five years back you had other ideas - that do not necessarily agree with the ideas that you have today. So when you have disagreement with yourself, why should it not happen with someone else? The ‘someone’ you have a disagreement with -is just a photocopy of your old or the new self.

For maintaining interpersonal relationships:

Have a relationship with yourself - this is called integrity.
Be informal - for it gives space for mistakes to happen. This keeps your interpersonal relationship strong. You cannot expect perfection in any relationship or situation.
Today one of the biggest problems with the world is emotional instability. When we create an informal outlook and cordial environment around us, we grease the friction and become the master of our environment.

Take life as it comes. Sometimes you are upset or angry; it’s OK to be upset or angry. Life does not stop for anything; it moves. Meditate and just move with the flow.

Self

The seventh layer is the self. Self shines through when you have dealt with Breath-Mind-Intellect-Memory-Ego.

Habits come in the way of us to connect with our self.

A little bit of knowledge about these seven layers of existence makes a big, big difference in our lives. It brings cheer, freshness, and we become so alive and childlike. If you are cheerful, you will be creative. Otherwise you are so dull.

We need to bring in creative ideas — it brings in self-esteem. Without self-esteem there is no creativity.

Karva Chauth

Q. Gurudev, today is Karva Chauth (an ancient festival where a woman prays for the longevity of her spouse and his overall well-being).

Sri Sri: Yes, today is karva chauth. You have already seen the moon, go and eat now. Even if you don’t get to see the moon, not a problem, think that you have seen the moon from within yourself and go and have your meal.
We have all these customs in our country, like Bhai Duj (on this day, sisters pray for their brothers to have long and happy lives) and karva chauth. These festivals make our relationships stronger. From many years, this has been a unique practice in our country to bring purity in relationships.
For karva-chauth, the wife prays and fasts for the well-being of her husand. Earlier, she used to pray for her husband’s longevity, good health and welfare; nowadays, she also prays for stability of his mind.

We have to make the right use of each and every opportunity we get to pray to God. This is one such opportunity. When you fast all day the body is cleansed, the mind is cleansed, and you are able to pray. It is a good custom.
Whoever does this fast, should not do so without water. I do not believe in fasting without water. Along with fasting it is necessary to drink some water. When you drink water, all the toxins in the body get flushed out and the body becomes pure. So water during fasting is necessary.

If you have any physical illness like diabetes or something, then fast only with the consultation of a doctor.
Even husbands can observe fast for their wives. Some men have already started observing karva chauth. Please continue, it is not a problem, it should be observed. This is necessary from both sides, it should not be one-sided.