It is a slow day in the East Texas town of Madisonville. It is raining, and the little town looks totally deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt and everybody lives on credit. On this particular day a rich tourist from the East is driving through town.

He enters the only hotel in the sleepy town and lays a hundred dollar bill on the desk stating he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one to spend the night.

As soon as the man walks up the stairs, the hotel proprietor takes the hundred dollar bill and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher. The butcher takes the $100 and runs down the street to pay his debt to the pig farmer. The pig farmer then takes the $100 and heads off to pay his debt to the supplier of feed and fuel. The guy at the Farmer’s Co-op takes the $100 and runs to pay his debt to the mayor, who has also been facing hard times and has lately had to offer services on credit.

The mayor then runs to the hotel and pays off his debt with the $100 to the hotel proprietor, paying for the rooms that he had rented when he brought clients to that establishment. The hotel proprietor then lays the $100 bill back on the counter so the rich traveler will not suspect anything.

At that moment the traveler from the East walks back down the stairs, after inspecting the rooms. He picks up the $100 bill and states that the rooms are not satisfactory…… Pockets the money and walks out the door and leaves town.

No one earned anything. However the whole town is now out of debt, and looks to the future with a lot of optimism.That, ladies and gentlemen, is how the United States Government is conducting business today.

1) Why did God create us? What was the purpose of God in creating us?

Guruji says this is a very precious question. The question is very valuable so  keep it with you. Dont exchange it for an answer. Everytime you ask yourself this it starts a very beautiful process. Do not be in a hurry to get the answer. Recently in a satsang Guruji did answer this question. Here is the reply :

The purpose of life is to give love and gain knowledge and do service

2) Is soul a part of energy? As Krishna says in Gita, soul cannot be transformed. Whereas we know energy can be transformed from one form to another. If soul is not a part of energy, then what is it?

Really! where does Krishna say that soul cannot be transformed. In fact the soul goes through so many bodies. Just like energy is energy and it goes through various forms in the same way the soul IS and it goes through various forms. Even though electricity takes various forms like light in the light bulb, wind/movement in the electric fan etc it remains the same. In the same way though the soul takes many forms IT remains the same. Thus it is

Acchedyo’yam adaahyo’yam akledyo’shoshya eva cha;
Nityah sarvagatah sthaanur achalo’yam sanaatanah.

Q: Why do people stop behaving like normal people as soon as they think Sri Sri will turn up the next moment?

G: I have no idea. (laughter) There is a story. It is very famous in India. There was a king called Vikram Aditya. He was known for his righteousness and piousness. He was a saint of a king. He had all the characters that were required of a king – wise man, saint, good human being, intelligent human being also. There are many good human beings, but they are not intelligent (laughter), and intelligent human beings who are not good. This king had all the aspects. He was very patient. After he died, there was nobody who could take his place. His seat was so powerful, nobody could get on the throne. After some time, the throne got buried. Many years passed. There was a garden, and in the garden, a small hillock. The gardener would go sit on the hillock and have a big smile on his face. From there he would invite everyone he would see on the road, the passers by. He would invite people to come and have fruit from the garden – mangoes, coconuts. When they came, he would take a stick and chase them. He would fight with them. ‘How dare you come to my garden? How dare you trespass?’ People would not understand his behaviour. Some thought he was mad. Others thought there must be something else. So, they decided to dig the hillock and find out. They dug the hillock and found the throne of the king. It had such an impact on him, the vibrations. If you sit in negative company, you feel negative. If you sit where there are doubts, then this is what you will feel. That´s why Buddha said ‘Sangha’. The company of people who are positive, focused on the higher goals of life, is important. If someone is always thinking money, money, or of cheating, those vibrations will have an impact on you.  If you sit in joyful company like here, you will feel joyful.

Arosa, (Switzerland), May 10, (Sunday): It is easy to tell someone not to hate. How not to hate? Why does hatred come? Because you think that they are the cause of our misery. That is why problem, pain, and loss arise. When you get a glimpse of consciousness deep inside, the Self is in everyone, taking care of all events. It is I who is playing that role. Me, in that person. Hatred disappears from the world around you. One who sees the being in oneself and oneself in all beings is like a director, he plans the roles. So he does not hate the villain. Your approach to events and personalities changes. We are like rag dolls. There is one consciousness in all.
It is not only humans, all elements are part of that consciousness. Whether water vapor, ice or water, all are One. All five elements are nothing. All are a part of that something that is nothing. This is the heart sutra by Buddha. So all is nothing.

- An excerpt from HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s commentary on the Isha Vasya Upanishad

Saints can foresee future of an individual as well as the world. now it is only possible if the events are pre destined and fixed? Then where is the free will of an individual? If everything is a Leela,  if everything is predestined to happen, then what is the crime of terrorists? A thought comes and the person who is so called terrorist in this Great stage called ‘world’ acts according to that thought and kills people who are destined to die anyhow.

Here is the link. Presentation on the Vedas

Vivek Pradhan was not a happy man. Even the plush comfort of the air-conditioned compartment of the Shatabdi express could not cool his frayed nerves. He was the Project Manager and still not entitled to air travel. It was not the prestige he sought, he had tried to reason with the admin person, it was the savings in time. As PM, he had so many things to do!!

He opened his case and took out the laptop, determined to put the time to some good use.

“Are you from the software industry sir,” the man beside him was staring appreciatively at the laptop. Vivek glanced briefly and mumbled in affirmation, handling the laptop now with exaggerated care and importance as if it were an expensive car.

“You people have brought so much advancement to the country, Sir. Today everything is getting computerized. ”

“Thanks,” smiled Vivek, turning around to give the man a look. He always found it difficult to resist appreciation. The man was young and well built like a sports man. He looked simple and strangely out of place in that little lap of luxury like a small town boy in a prep school. He probably was a railway sportsman making the most of his free traveling pass.

“You people always amaze me,” the man continued, “You sit in an office and write something on a computer and it does so many big things outside.”

Vivek smiled deprecatingly. Naiveness demanded reasoning not anger. “It is not as simple as that my friend. It is not just a question of writing a few lines. There is a
lot of process that goes behind it.”

For a moment, he was tempted to explain the entire Software Development Lifecycle but restrained himself to a single statement. “It is complex, very complex.”

“It has to be. No wonder you people are so highly paid,” came the reply.

This was not turning out as Vivek had thought. A hint of belligerence crept into his so far affable, persuasive tone. Everyone just sees the money. No one sees the amount of hard work we have to put in. Indians have such a narrow concept of hard work. Just because we sit in an air-conditioned office, does not mean our brows do not sweat. You exercise the muscle; we exercise the mind and believe me that is no less taxing.” He could see, he had the man where he wanted, and it was time to drive home the point.

“Let me give you an example. Take this train. The entire railway reservation system is computerized. You can book a train ticket between any two stations from any
of the hundreds of computerized booking centres across the country. Thousands of transactions accessing a single database, at a time concurrently; data integrity, locking, data security. Do you understand the complexity in designing and coding such a system?”

The man was awestuck; quite like a child at a planetarium. This was something big and beyond his imagination.

“You design and code such things.” “I used to,” Vivek paused for effect, “but now I am the Project Manager.”

“Oh!” sighed the man, as if the storm had passed over, “so your life is easy now.”

This was like the last straw for Vivek. He retorted,
“Oh come on, does life ever get easy as you go up the ladder. Responsibility only brings more work. Design and coding ! That is the easier part. Now I do not do it, but I am responsible for it and believe me, that is far more stressful. My job is to get the work done in time and with the highest quality. To tell you about the pressures, there is the customer at one end, always changing his requirements, the user at the other, wanting something else, and your boss, always expecting you to have finished it yesterday.”

Vivek paused in his diatribe, his belligerence fading with self-realisation. What he had said, was not merely the outburst of a wronged man, it was the truth. And one need not get angry while defending the truth. “My friend,” he concluded triumphantly, “you don’t know what it is to be in the Line of Fire”.

The man sat back in his chair, his eyes closed as if in realization. When he spoke after sometime, it was with a calm certainty that surprised Vivek.
“I know sir,….. I know what it is to be in the Line of Fire……”
He was staring blankly, as if no passenger, no train existed, just a vast expanse of time.
“There were 30 of us when we were ordered to capture Point 4875 in the cover of the night. The enemy was firing from the top. There was no knowing where the next bullet was going to come from and for whom. In the morning when we finally hoisted the tricolour at the top only 4 of us were alive.”
“You are a…?”
“I am Subedar Sushant from the 13 J&K Rifles on duty at Peak 4875 in Kargil. They tell me I have completed my term and can opt for a soft assignment. But, tell me sir, can one give up duty just because it makes life easier. On the dawn of that capture, one of my colleagues lay injured in the snow, open to enemy fire while we were hiding behind a bunker. It was my job to go and fetch that soldier to safety. But my captain sahib refused me permission and went ahead himself. He said that the first pledge he had taken as a Gentleman Cadet was to put the safety and welfare of the nation foremost followed by the safety and welfare of the men he commanded… ….his own personal safety came last always and every time.”

“He was killed as he shielded and brought that injured soldier into the bunker. Every morning thereafter, as we stood guard, I could see him taking all those bullets,
which were actually meant for me . I know sir….I know, what it is to be in the Line of Fire.”

Vivek looked at him in disbelief not sure of how to respond. Abruptly, he switched off the laptop. It seemed trivial, even insulting to edit a Word document in the presence of a man for whom valour and duty was a daily part of life; valour and sense of duty which he had so far attributed only to epical heroes. The train slowed down as it pulled into the station, and Subedar Sushant picked up his bags to alight.

“It was nice meeting you sir.”

Vivek fumbled with the handshake. This hand… had climbed mountains, pressed the trigger, and hoisted the tricolour. Suddenly, as if by impulse, he stood up at attention and his right hand went up in an impromptu salute. It was the least he felt he could do for the country.

PS: The incident he narrated during the capture of Peak 4875 is a true-life incident during the Kargil war. Capt. Batra sacrificed his life while trying to save one of the men he commanded, as victory was within sight. For this and various other acts of bravery, he was awarded the Param Vir Chakra, the nation’s highest military award.

I decided that this was a question fit to be asked of Guruji. And one day I got my chance. It so happened that I was in a car with Guruji and the drive was a long one In a period of silence, I shyly popped this question to HIM.

“Guruji, how can my actions in my dream take me out of it? if they cant, then what is the point of doing sadhana to get liberation from this world existence?”

Guruji smiled and liberated me from the question very simply!

“In the dream, when a lion roars, you wake up!”

Here is the whole story in pictures…

Is everything I do His seva? When I do bonafide art of living seva , this is very easy to practise, for there is a sense of a higher purpose, and the support of the presence. On the other hand, say when I study, I dont do it thinking I am going to cure diseases with it, the only end I see is getting that degree. How can you let the purpose permeate all of your activities? Should you give up one for another or direct one toward the other? What would you do when faced with such duality?

Seva is not what action you do, but a state of mind. For example, you might only be able to do some actions attaching a higher purpose. When you do “bonafide artofliving seva” you feel a sense of purpose. Now is that sense of purpose in your head or is it in the action? Obviously whatever you are feeling is in your head. That is why the yoga vashishta says that the whole world is nothing but an ideation, a play of the mind. The problem is that it seems to be very difficult to realise this. That is why all the sadhana and seva and everything. This whole process is described beautifully in the Patanjali Yoga Sutras. Do listen to the talks on PYS by Gurudeva and you will see that it is so scientifically explained.

When faced with duality, you only have to balance. Guruji often gives the example of a bicycle. Just like we balance on the bicycle, we balance our life between the material and the spiritual.

When you dedicate your life to the Divine, then everything you do is for the Divine. Then there is no distinction between seva and non seva. So even if you are studying, it is for the Divine. That is the way I managed to finish my M Tech in IITBombay. After tasting the nectar of Art of Living, I really didnt want to do anything else. I would stay at the ashram, organise courses, go to satsangs and do everything except my acads. Then one day Guruji said, “Do your degree”. Those simple words made me realise that “Everything I do, I do it for you”. That realisation brought such freedom. I had no conflict left in my life. This shift is all that is necessary.