Your Central Channel and you

I like to share this knowledge with everyone, it is just too good to miss, please enjoy!

Thank you

Love 

Alan

Together-Divine

Every situation contains blessings, if we'll pause for a moment and pray to see them. For example, this situation may be pushing you to step up and find your strength, or to make a healthful life change. Once you find the blessing, fear is replaced with love, which opens the doorway to healing and solutions. 

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in satsang today

"There is this central channel of energy in us that gets activated during yoga. Yoga means not just asanas but during meditation and spiritual practices. That central channel of energy runs like a pillar inside you. When it runs you feel very strong, very committed, everything seems to be in its right place. How many of you have felt like that? At some time you have felt very strong, very committed, everything is very clear. That is when the prana or the central channel of energy is active. Now the central channel of energy falls weak when we overuse any of our senses. If you eat too much, if you worry too much or you are too ambitious, if any of the five senses are overused then the prana does not move in the central channel, the central channel becomes weak, then you feel that becomes sort of broken, the flow of prana seems to be broken. When the flow of prana appears to be broken and haphazard then the mind is all over the place. You can’t focus, you can’t learn, you can’t express, you have all sorts of issues. Good company brings back the channel in its right perspective. So your own prana will dictate to you, if what you are doing is right or wrong. If the prana breaks and you don’t feel one continuous flow in the central part of your body, then you feel weak. Truth, commitment, courage, confidence, compassion, everything comes up in life, happiness, when the prana is flowing uninterruptedly in the central channel. And all the spiritual practices help you to bring the prana in the central channel."

Ques: Why was Arjuna petrified of beholding the Viratroopa? Why would seeing God’s form invoke fear?
‪#‎SriSri‬: Fear is caused by something that is unfamiliar. Anything new, anything unfamiliar causes fear. Children you see when they see a new person feel fear. In a new situation they are afraid, they are scared. After the age of three a child doesn’t want to go to a new person. It will take couple of days to adjust to the person. So our nervous system also takes some time to hold the knowledge. That is why a teacher is essential, Guru is essential, absolutely essential. It’s like jumping into a swimming pool without a coach, without a life guard there! You feel more fear. Even if the lifeguard is there people feel fear to jump into a small thing like a swimming pool because it can take your life away. In the same way, when a huge bolt of energy hits you, it shakes the small mind, it shakes the ego and so fear comes up. It is quite natural.

Ques: Out of the seven levels of existence, who meditates?
#SriSri: When all the levels are in harmony meditation happens. There is no who there. When there is meditation, it is only meditation that is there. It happens. When it happens, it shows up in the body level, in the breath level, in the mind, intellect, in the ego, in every level it shows its impact.

Ques: If the only source of contentment is the Divine, then what is the purpose of relationships?
#SriSri: Well, you have to ponder on that. It’s totally an individual assessment and opinion.

Ques: Does renunciation bring arrogance?
#SriSri: Definitely. There are two types of arrogance. Arrogance is of having and another arrogance is of letting go. There is an arrogance of possessing and there is an arrogance of sacrifice. Both are equally bad. In fact, the arrogance of possessing sometimes is easy to overcome but arrogance of sacrifice is much more difficult, I tell you! That may just stay on for quite some time. And it’s difficult to overcome that.

Ques: How can we make Sanskrit more fashionable and cool like French or German?
#SriSri: I leave it to you to think about it. There are many ideas, a million ideas. See what can be applies, what works.

Ques: Could you please explain the journey of the Ego to the Self and how to accomplish this easily?
#SriSri: If ego is making the journey, then the ego will say see I made a journey to the Self. Then it has not even moved an inch. It’s not a journey from one to the other. If you have find you an ego then just let it be there. Why do you worry about it? Don’t try to meddle with it, don’t try to erase it or do anything with it. Just be natural. The antidote for ego is being natural, simply be natural. And you cannot get out of Self! Self is that consciousness of which everything is made up of, including you and that which is all around you. If you say ‘I’, the ‘I’ is made up of the Self. Even your body, mind, everything is made up of Self. Self is like space, you can never get out of it or can never do anything about it.

Ques: How to achieve total fearlessness?
#SriSri: Read Patanjali Yogasutra. It says even in the most wise, that which lingers on is fear. Nature has kept that somewhere. And it is the deep sense of belongingness, love, dedication, a sense of wanting to sacrifice, all this will help one to overcome fear.

Ques: Having a Guru means a devotee is protected. Then why do bad things happen?
#SriSri: The Divine loves everybody, whoever they are, whatever they are. Now, bad things happen and if that takes away your faith then your faith is no longer a faith. But if the faith stays in spite of all the bad things that are happening, I tell you the end result will always be great and wonderful. The mother of Pandavas, Kunti, in the end asks a very peculiar boon to Lord Krishna. She says, ‘Lord Krishna, you give me bad things in life.’ It was shocking! He asked, ‘Why do you ask such a boon?’ She said, ‘Whenever bad things happened I know that you were with me and you helped me to get over that. So I don’t mind that you give me bad things all my life because every time I was in trouble, in danger, you were always with me.’ That realization is something that’s very unique. Someone says give me trouble because you will be with me to solve the trouble. Bad things happen, not because you are good or because you did some good things. Bad things have to happen because you must have done some bad in the past. That karma is showing up now. Because of some karma, something that we have done, you have to face the consequences. You have had wrong food that will show up as some problem, some disease. And if your state of mind is very stressed, very tensed then that will show up on your body as some disease.

Ques: Why is India the favourite destination for enlightened masters?
#SriSri: There have been saints in almost every part of the world. If you go to California, every city is named after a saint. You go to Quebec in Montreal, it is all named after different saints. Of course yes, India tops that list! It’s like asking why the Alps are in Switzerland. Why the Great Lakes are there in America. That’s how it is. Every land has been gifted with something special. The geysers are found in Yellow Stone Park. Why only there? There is no answer. Why does only Niagra have such a big falls why not every river? And India for ages has been a land of knowledge, wisdom and enlightenment. Perhaps that is why, even today, India tops the knowledge industry. When it came to IT, naturally India became number one because it is a knowledge based industry. Perhaps this land is more accustomed o r it’s the DNA of this land to have higher wisdom, enlightenment. But I tell you no part of the world is devoid of wisdom. If you go to China, if you go to Japan, many, many saints are there.

Ques: Why is Bhakti Yoga considered to be above all Yogas?
#SriSri: It’s more juicy and easy. So anything that is juicy, easy and much quicker to attain people love it. Because people want to do less and accomplish more. This is the tendency of intelligent people!

Ques: Is there an expiry date for blessings?
#SriSri: I want to ask you, is does gold and diamond have an expiry date? You think blessings are anything less than gold and diamond, some stones and some yellow metal? No, no way!

Ques: On a scale of one to five, how difficult is your job?
#SriSri: This is really a difficult question to answer! It’s a mixture of everything, one to five!

Ques: If Sadhana is the wealth that we take with us when we leave the world, then why don’t we invest our whole time on it?
#SriSri: You cannot because your body cannot do that all the time. It’s like you can’t eat the whole years food in two days or in a month. Everyday you have to eat only that much. Same way with Sadhana also, you can’t hurry up and do a lot of sadhana, then you will be out there!.. Once, in the beginning years of Art of Living, a gentleman took the Sahaj Samadhi meditation. He found it so great he said I want to be enlightened today. So he started sitting for eight, ten hours saying unless I get enlightened I will not get up. So he went to Rama Krishna Ashram in Delhi, to meditate. He used to go in the morning and people had to push him out when they had to lock the place. And suddenly he started feeling he is Hanumanji! And he went to Pusa road temple and felt why are they not worshipping him and worshipping the stone! Just imagine what would have happened, twelve policemen had to come and take him and he landed up in the hospital. I was going somewhere.. but we went to Delhi and people there felt so relieved because nobody knew how to handle this boy. Of course we calmed him down, brought the energy down and he became normal. That is why I am saying, Sadhana also is to be done progressively, step by step. Yes, you can do a little more when you come for advanced meditation programs, do three to five in a year is ok. But only sitting in sadhana the whole time, no. the growth has to happen gradually. Suddenly you will realize, I am so changed, Nothing disturbs me anymore, I am happy, nothing can take away my happiness. This sort of wow comes to you when you look back at yourself.

Ques: Lord Krishna says that, that devotee is very dear to me who is content with what comes his way, without asking. I am so used to asking from you, am I not dear to you?
#SriSri: You have not fully read it. Krishna says four type of people. One who is said, one who wants different things, one who wants to know and then the Gyani, wise. So if you are categorizing yourself as one who is desirous of some fruit, something then move on from there to one who wants to know ‘who am I, what is this Universe’, interested in knowledge. And then the Gyani, who doesn’t want anything, who doesn’t ask anything, who is just there. But all four are dear to Me.

Ques: In what way is the fire element present in the Earth?
#SriSri: The fire element is present everywhere! If there is no fire element, there won’t be humidity in the atmosphere. If there is no fire element, there will no water, everything will be ice. If there is no fire element, you can’t speak, you can’t hear, you can’t do anything! If your body temperature goes to zero, that’s it, finished! Your body has a temperature, that is how you are able to do anything. Got it? Why are you asking me small questions like this! Primary school children can answer this. I have passed primary, middle school, high school, everything. You are testing me!

Ques: It is said that the worship of the formless divine takes you to a different state than the worship of the form.
#SriSri: You have to go from form to formless. If you jump only to the formless, that path is full of misery. Lord Krishna said in Gita, there are people who worship the formless but the path is full of pain and sorrow. And you see this! Take Moses for example, his path had been very miserable, very sad. Take Jesus, so sad. Take Mohammed Paigambar, he had to undergo so much pain and struggle. And bloodiest of history was his. And after that it continued, his family members had a very painful time. That’s why Buddha said, Buddham Sharanam Gachchami, Buddha is a form, formless in the form. Then he says Sangham Sharanam Gachchami and then Dhamam Sharanam Gachchami, to get away from misery. Buddha says four things, recognize there is misery and there is a reason for misery and it is possible to get rid of misery and so for that he said Buddham Sharanam Gachchami, take refuge in the Buddha. Again Buddha is the formless in the form. Same thing was said by Lord Krishna, come on to Me, aham tvam sarva papebhyo moksayisyami. Lord Krishna very clearly said, those who worship the formless, their path is very tedious and full of misery. Which is true.. So any worship is only for the formless, but the path to form makes it easier, makes it more joyful, makes it more perceivable, makes it easier for people. You know you can go on a path with just some gravels, with lot of pot holes or you can go on a nice highway with a smooth road, makes the difference. That’s why all the saints in the world have said that.

Ques: Is it possible for breath to flow equally in both nostrils?
#SriSri: Yes, in meditation it flows equally in both nostrils. It’s not just related to the flow of breath, it’s the inner feeling of prana or something that you feel is a straight movement of energy with it. And even the breath is a very smooth flow of breath along with it. Hiccups and broken breath indicates the prana is not flowing in one straight line.. And that is what happens, in all the pleasure the prana gets broken.

Ques: The mind says move one, the heart says to hold on. What to do?
#SriSri: well, it’s always a compromise between mind and heart. See what is long term benefit and what is the short term consequence of it, accordingly you take a decision. Don’t ask a very vague question and look for a concrete answer and apply it the way you like it! I am not going to be a pawn to this game. Be specific, ok?

Ques: How to become like You?
#SriSri: Have patience and learn.

Ques: Is fate real?
#SriSri: Is this question real? Is it not my fate for you to be asking Me this question? But my free will is whether I should answer this or not! And it is your fate for you to get an answer. Whether I answer or don’t answer, both is your fate. Got it? Think about it.

Ques: Why did God create us?
#SriSri: For us to remember Him and enjoy!