Satsang began with devotees from all over the world singing hymns and songs in their national languages. The crowd from various countries around the world and from all parts of India united with one another through music and singing. This is the true spirit of Navratri - Uniting the whole world. Even in the ancient days, each person would specialize in a different Veda, in one particular branch of knowledge, and in Navratri everybody would converge and everyone would bring their part of knowledge, music, dance, culture, and everything together. You must have seen, day before yesterday, we had the flute music, the string instrument, the tabla, the drums, and singing. The variety that is present in the Universe is all converged with the knowledge that there is One Spirit; One Universal Consciousness, i. Read Complete Post at Q: Sometimes I wonder, I have so many unending desires and you keep on fulfilling them. This makes me smile. How to get rid of hankering over desires Gurudev? Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You know your desires are getting fulfilled, that is enough. Be busy in fulfilling the desires of others, not your own desires. See, what is the significance of the Guru Discipline Tradition? It is for the Disciple to realize that desires are endless. That is why I must keep my desires aside and do as per the Guru desires. Life then moves beyond joy and sorrow, and all craving and aversion automatically disappear. This is the only way to remove cravings and aversions. So leave everything on the Guru, and surrender to the Guru. Fulfillment cannot be achieved through desires because if one desire is fulfilled another one comes, and if that is fulfilled another one comes. And then the mind keeps wandering between desires. Some desire or another will keep troubling your mind day and night. Do you know, if there is anything in this world that troubles you, the topmost on the list is your own mind! I am saying topmost because you do not see this. You feel that someone else is bothering you. You think your mother in law is troubling you, or your daughter-in-law is troubling you, or your wife or husband is troubling you. Keep all that as second on the list. It is your own mind which is troubling you; there is no other enemy out there. Once you realize this you will understand that it is not the other, all the botherations are of the mind. Read more on Sri Sri says looking towards the sky See, clouds are already there. It will rain well by the end of this month. If there is unrighteousness and decreased moral values in the country, nature also shows its anger. When all the corrupt people, whom we have made to sit on the top, do injustice to the country, nature also shows its anger. The farmers of our country are committing suicide. If there is injustice to the farmers, it will result in nature showing its anger. That is why righteousness must increase in people. If the people who rule the country are not righteous, the country will be ruined, the people of the country will be ruined. This is not something new; this has been going on since ages. Farmers should not be subjected to injustice. Let the farmers who provide us food be happy. Let the merchants who ensure that the food is transported and supplied to us be happy. Thirdly, let the women of the house, who cook and serve food to us, be happy. If these three are happy, the world will be happy. If the women of the house are happy, there will be happiness at home. If the women of the house cook food with sadness, frustration or anger, the food does not digest properly and it affects the mind too. If the merchants are happy, they will not cheat or adulterate food. We will get pure and clean food. Also, they will not loot and increase prices exorbitantly. Since ages, merchants used to do a lot of social service activities, like constructing tanks, temples and Dharmashalas Righteous schools. If the merchants are not happy and become greedy, it affects the people a lot. Similarly, farmers must be happy. It is very important. Q: Dear Gurudev, love, respect and attachment, how are these three connected. How we can we keep these in balance in relationships? Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: I think you have too much free time. You should get busy. Do not sit and worry. Love, respect, all these feelings and emotions remain in you. When your heart and mind are clear, then the right emotions will come at the right time. Love, respect — all these happen. You cannot make it happen. You cannot make respect come into you. If you make an effort to feel love or respect, it will be a failure. So, all that you can do is free yourself from stress and have wisdom in the mind. Wisdom is seeing the world from a bigger perspective. See what is temporary and what is permanent. All the opinions of people are temporary. They come and they go. This you must remember. Do not crave for respect. Some people give respect, some do not, it is fine. It is their choice. But if your life depends on respect from others then you are a weak person. You will feel weakened more and more, and when you are weak, you will be miserable. You should know that you do not need anybody to respect you. So when you go back from here, that does not mean you behave disrespectfully. You give respect, but do not expect respect in return. Sometimes people will not have even a little respect. That is how they are, never mind. If others do not give you respect, never mind. It shows their culture, their evolution. If you are highly evolved, you will always respect everybody. Whether they are sane or insane, you will respect them. Then
