Sri Sri Ravishankar spoke about Jyoti Basu, shortly after his death. Sri Sri Ravishankar said “Jyoti Basu was a fan of Swami Vivekanada”. Then Sri Sri went on to remember his meeting with the former West Bengal chief minister a few years ago.
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Sri Sri Ravishankar’s Video message for new year 2010.
Every
excuse to celebrate is good. there are two aspects of true celebration. one is celebration as thanksgiving, as an expression of gratitude for the divine. the second celebration is to move forward by dropping the past, knowing that life is eternal. welcome the new year with either or both of these true celebrations. Like the christmas tree, life is evergreen. no storm or snow can weather away its leaves. similarly, our spirit is eternal and though time and some adversities may try to cloud the spirit, it still moves forward through personal or social grief and emerges powerful. The nature of spirit is celebration. celebration is the best medicine to help you move forward in life - it gets you out of the gloom after a crisis. in celebration, don’t just concentrate on having parties. when celebration has a tinge of sacredness and prayer, it gains depth and dignity. then, that type of a celebration is service, it is sacred. it is not just entertainment for the mind or excitement for the body, but nourishment for the soul. in such celebration, guilt will come nowhere near you. Instead of beginning the new year with an intoxicant, if it can begin with an act of kindness, a moment of reflection and even a second of introspection, we can call ourselves far more civilised. your guilt for celebration is only if your celebration is for your own pleasure. if celebration is aimed at uplifting and uniting the hearts and minds of people around you, if it is to help them to let go of the traumatic past and kindle a ray of hope for the future, if your celebration is aimed at uplifting society, then that type of celebration is service, it is sacred. don’t feel stingy. share what you have with others. turn your celebration into a sacred offering for society rather than make it a self-centred pleasure-seeking one. To celebrate life, you don’t have to spend a lot of money. celebration comes from enthusiasm and joy, celebration is an attitude and that does not need resources. when things are depressing, celebration is needed even more. a visit to the slums makes you realise that one can celebrate even during tough times. look at those people. they still celebrate. Let time celebrate your presence. when you let time celebrate you, you are a witness amid celebration. welcome the year 2010 with a genuine smile from within. that smile comes when you know for sure that you are loved. if you don’t know you are loved by the divine, you will not be able to celebrate life. you will live in insecurity. with insecurity comes greed. with greed comes selfishness. and with that comes anger. with anger comes lust. and with that comes sadness and misery, one behind the other, like a chain. In the past year, check how many days you were entangled in maya? turn back and remember the whole year. when you do this, do not reject anything. let your attention be on the self. this is a delicate balance. this is yoga. this balance is spirituality. spirituality is a harmonious blend of outer silence and inner celebration, and also inner silence and outer celebration! celebration that comes out of silence is real celebration. The year gone by has taught us many lessons: what we should be doing and what we should not be doing. every pain that we went through in 2009 brought us some depth, and the joy and pleasure gave us a new vision of life and hope for the future. difficulties give you depth and joy gives you width. one thing you must know is that life will always be better. it moves in the direction of the best. on the way you may find some rough roads, but it’s for the better. reconcile with the past and move on to the future with enthusiasm. The wise will see their past as destiny and the future as free will, and be happy in the present. the unwise regret the past and think the future is destined, and become miserable in the present. in 2010, you have the choice of being one of the two. This new year, let there be sunshine - both in our lives and in society. let us all have the determination to create a violence-free, stress-free society. may your life be filled with peace, joy and true celebration. happy new year! — Sri Sri Ravi ShankarSri Sri Ravishankar’s previous new year messages: I have created a new blog artoflivinginfo.blogspot.com on Art of Living. All the posts in this blog are available on this new blog. Also the previous blog art-of-living-blog.blogspot.com has been shifted to the new Art of Living blog. I am replicating this blog to artoflivinginfo.blogspot.com as blogspot has better features and flexibility than rediffiland. New posts will be posted there. Check it out. Does Congress buy votes? Yes, congress is trying to buy votes for Rs 500 each in Anaparti constituency in Andhra Pradesh. We keep seeing news in the media about
the corrupt ways of the political parties to buy people’s votes. Although the election commission is trying to enforce strict election regulations, it by and large fails in taking action against those who violate the regulations. We keep hearing about political parties Why don’t the election commission and the In a nutshell, most of the politicians in As responsible citizens, we Tags: Indian National Congress distributes cash to buy votes.
Dear Ones, Go through each and every link in my post on classified information about the present congress government in my other blog. Our country’s Future is in our hands! Become Aware of the current situation of our Government and you have the power to bring about change!! As a true citizen of this country, you should share this information with ALL NOW, only few days remaining for voting! Vote for Change! Please share this information with all your friends. The Power of your Vote - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar India’s problems are complex. And unfortunately these are compounded by vote-bank politics. Instead of uniting the different sections of society, many politicians divide it to keep their vote banks intact. If people are united, politicians won’t be able to get votes through divisive politics.In such a situation, the only way for them to win votes would be through good performance. As citizens, we must protect our country from those who manipulate issues for their personal gains and who lead by playing vote-bank politics. Those with vested interests support insensible decisions and oppose sensible ones. We have to steer clear of such leaders. We must encourage broad-minded politicians and leaders to come forward and take charge, and to educate and uplift the society - spiritually, morally and socially.
We must elect leaders who will do away with policies based on caste, creed, religion and region; who will ensure that every child gets a multi-cultural, multi-dimensional education. When good, intelligent and well-educated people don’t vote, they play into the hands of politicians, who use money and vote bank politics to seize power. People should not lose hope. Good politicians exist. And they must be given a chance to do the best they can for the country, for its people. We have seen the shortcomings of capitalism, communism and socialism. Now is the time for humanism and spiritualism. Politics without humanism and spiritualism is bound to be dirty. Many people believe that spiritualism is not for this world, that it is not a practical tool to bring about societal transformation. But that’s a misconception. Mahatma Gandhi was spiritual. He conducted satsangs every day and played an important role in bringing freedom for our country. |
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