SRI SRI SATSANG

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in Satsang 5.12.14

"There was a king and he ordered some exotic vegetables from another country… The vegetables came and then the cook prepared and served him. The King enjoyed and by the way he asked the minister who was sitting next to him, “Look at these vegetables, they are very nice.” And the minister said “Yes! They are so nice, so tasty”. And then every day same vegetables were coming to him, third day, fourth day, fifth day. And then on the fifth day the king really got upset and said “I don’t want to see any more of these vegetables! They are hopeless, no good at all.” And the minister says “Yes my lords, you are absolutely correct! These vegetables are hopeless.” So when someone agrees with your statement you cool down.. And so then the king cooled down but then he said, the other day you were vegetable so much? The minister said “My lords, I am your servant not the vegetables’! My loyalty is towards you, not to the vegetables. If you say they are no good, they are no good!” So similarly in life, we have our loyalty. Where your loyalty is, where your attention is, that is what we need to look into. That is what we need to set right."

"Everyone learns a lesson by the mistakes they do, blunders they do. Intelligent people they learn from other’s mistakes and then they avoid them happening in their lives. This is a sign of intellect. If you have a sharp intellect, you will not repeat the mistakes that others have done. Unintelligent one repeats the same mistakes and they go through the same ordeal. The sign of intelligent people – you are alert, you learn from everywhere, learn from everyone. In fact you learn more from the wicked than the good. In Sanskrit there is a beautiful couplet that says first I salute the wicked for he is teaching me at his own cost. And then to the noble for he showed me the path.. So the whole life is a learning process. And its not like I learn and then live sometime in the future. No. Learning and living will go together. You learn as you live and as you’re living, you start learning. When you are vibrant, when you are awake, alert, then every moment you learn something, from someone."

"There is another couplet in Sanskrit that says, lions are lazy, snakes are scared and the difference of opinions amongst intellectuals is the cause of happiness on this planet. The planet is happy because, the lions are lazy. Just imagine if the lions are very active, they will finish the forest in no time.. so laziness of lions is a boon to the forest. Similarly snakes are so scared, because of their fear, you are saved. They are so scared they run away from anybody. And different thinking of intellectuals, they all have their very different ideas. And so the world is a better place. In the think-tank, everyone has different ideas, otherwise you will not find diversity on this planet. If suppose everyone goes to the restaurant and eats only one thing, the restaurant will not have any diversity then. So differences of opinion or diverse view points, make the world a better place. These are timeless wisdom. They apply to any place, anywhere at any time."