Six Signs Of A Seeker

Acknowledging that one knows very little

Many people think they know, without knowing or they get stuck in their limited knowledge. So they never learn. So the first thing is to acknowledge that one knows very little.

Willingness to know

Many people acknowledge that they do not know, but they are not ready to learn.

Being non-judgmental and open-minded

Some people would like to learn but their judgmental attitude and close-mindedness does not allow them to learn.

Total commitment and one-pointedness to the path one has chosen

Some people are open-minded but lack commitment and one-pointedness. They keep shopping here and there and never progress.

Always putting truth and service before pleasure

Sometimes even committed and one-pointed people stay away from the path in pursuit of momentary pleasures.

Patience and perseverance

Some people are not swayed by pleasures and are committed and one-pointed, but if they lack patience and perseverance, they become restless and dejected.

Respect and Ego

Weekly Knowledge #335
16 Dec 2001

Respect and Ego

There are two types of respect.

1. Respect that comes to you because of your position, fame or wealth. This type of respect is impermanent. It can be lost once you lose your wealth or status.

2. Respect that comes because of your virtues like honesty, kindness, commitment, patience and your smile. This respect, no one can take away.

The less you are attached to your virtues, the more self respect you have. If you get attached to your virtues, you look down upon everybody else and they (the virtues) start diminishing. Non- attachment to virtues brings the highest self respect.

Often one confuses ego with self esteem. Ego needs the other for comparision, self esteem is just confidence in oneself. For example, a gentleman claims that he is thorough in Mathematics or Geography, this is self esteem. But to say that I know better than you, that is Ego.

Ego simply means lack of respect to the Self.

Ego upsets you very often. Self esteem is immune to getting upset by external factors. In self respect, everything is a game, winning or losing has no meaning, every step is joy, every move is celebration.

In Self esteem you simply realise you have it.

Jai Guru Dev

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!