OVERCOMING OBSTACLES ON THE PATH by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (January 1997 Santa Monica, California)

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

In your life you do face obstacles right? Both in personal and social life. Anyone here who has not faced any obstacles in your life? (laughter) You can raise your hand. We do face obstacles. First of all you identify the obstacle, where is it coming from. What is the source. You find two things, one is in our own mind there is a seed and that seed is reflecting in our situation, in our environment, in our work place, in our activity. Of course we recognize obstacles when they are in front of us. Takes a little bit more to recognize the seed of the obstacle in our own mind. What are the obstacles? Obstacles are something’s that do not let the life energy flow easily and allow you to be in an expanded state of yourself. Its something you want to get rid of. An obstacle is always to the joy or happiness or success. We never say I have an obstacle to get sick and it is always related to a time factor. You cannot have a single obstacle through life. There is a gap. The gap makes you feel that obstacle. If someone has no job through out their life they never lament about it. There is nothing to complain about. You know when you complain, when you don’t get the worst. Suppose you have the worst, how can you complain? Isn’t it? Complaining is you want to improve it, we don’t want that thing to be the way it is. It’s not yet the worst, its not yet hopeless. You want it to be better, the wanting to be better brings out the complain. If the bagel is hard you’ll complain, you’ll never complain about a stone. Cant say the stone is too hard. So when you face an obstacle, first of all know that it is not the worst. Its not hopeless, there is a hope that’s why you say there is an obstacle. Now to overcome the obstacle either you become hopeless. You know when we feel hopeless, that’s when a sincere prayer arises from us. A total helplessness will bring forth 2 situations. One is either frustration or prayerfulness. Are you getting what I’m saying? When all doors are shut you have done all that you could do to improve a situation and its not happening what do you do? You get frustrated. When a situation is boggling you like that, frustration is one, the other hand is deep prayer. Prayerfulness, giving the power over or recognizing that there is a bigger power. In fact this word giving our power over doesn’t mean anything. We don’t have any power at all to give over. It’s that infinite divine consciousness which has the total organizing capacity. Total organizing is happening through a higher force, power. Recognizing this aspect gives rise to deep prayerfulness. So obstacles do come, you can face is with a smile or frown. Let us see what could be different obstacles in our life.

First is disease. Any illness. We don’t have to get into much detail you know how to take care of it. You get a cold, cough, flu, muscle pull, or something you take care of it. These things are part of life, they do happen. And when we violate the laws of nature we fall sick, definitely. No? Over eating, over sleeping all that. Sleep heals us but sleeping too much is also an obstacle. Suppose you sleep for 10-12 hours, you wake up and feel more dull. Haven’t you experienced this?

And then laziness. Second obstacle. Like a block. Something that blocks you from doing anything creative.

The 3rd obstacle is doubt. Doubt in yourself, doubt in other people and doubt in the happening of the existence. Are you all here? See this moment has a mind of its own and it is responsible for all the happening in the world. Are you getting what I’m saying? This moment has a big mind, a mind of its own and a lot is happening in this moment all over the world. Whether you call this moment as god or spirit doesn’t matter. But there is something that is responsible for all the activity in this entire creation. Doubt in the existence of such a mind or consciousness, this is very common. If we overcome this doubt and accept that this moment is perfect and it is running and it knows how to run things, there is no fear of whatsoever in life. So you move with absolute confidence. See one who knows how to swim just jumps in the ocean but one who does not know is just tip toeing on the shores. It’s like wanting to learn swimming before getting into the water. So the faith in the existence and it is running everything and it is full of love and it cares for you. This confidence. Now the second doubt is doubt in the people around you. We doubt something that is positive. We doubt in the honesty of people never doubt in the dishonesty. You doubt your capabilities, you think you cannot do certain things. And you never doubt your incapability. Our doubt about society and people around us. No one loves or likes to be doubted but yet we doubt everyone else. How would you like a doubtful eye on you? Without trust nothing in the world can run. You are sitting here with the trust that your cars will be there when you go out. You have trust in a social structure. You know you go home you’ll find it there. And then the doubt about the self brings a lot of inferiority complex. Doubt in the self and self’s connection with the totality of existence will lead us to a sort of paranoia and we come back to sickness. How to overcome this doubt is understanding doubt that it is always about something that is good and being alert. See when the prana level or life force in us is low that is when we get more doubts. Have you observed this? By raising the level of prana or the mental energy the vital energy in you, the doubt vanishes.

4th obstacle is disinterestedness in anything you do. Suppose you take up a job and that job loses all its charm in a few weeks or months and then you look some other job then you go to the other job and there also you lose the charm and joy… you know what you call a rolling stone. Unable to find any satisfaction in anything is an obstacle by itself. I wont ask you to raise your hand for this. These obstacles, you know, in a way help you to move ahead. Obstacles are not just impediments they are a step towards progress. You know when water flows and there’s a stone it flows over it. When we have that connection within us, towards us, with ourselves then there’s confidence, this existence loves us. Nature loves me, God loves me and you’ll see that no obstacle is really an obstacle, it just makes your life more beautiful. Just look at the events in your own life, 15-20 years ago you thought this is the end of the world I cant handle anymore, you still existing. Those moments have passed, you don’t know from where the strength and from somewhere you got the strength too. There is a proverb in India, it says every animal has its tail measured. Nature doesn’t give a tail, which it cannot carry. So your load is just like a tail, which you can definitely carry. Whatever you think is a load, you can wag it easily. It is not a problem, it is in our mind. Patanjali Yoga Sutra he calls it avirati – unable to enjoy anything, inability to enjoy.

I remember a classmate in a school got a radio as a present. He would go on changing stations constantly. He would not even listen to a song, 4 lines and he’d change in just when we got interested to listen to it. He’d go on changing it so you don’t enjoy any music anywhere. Coz the mind thinks maybe that station has a better song so you turn there and you know you go on like that. I heard of someone who said they went to restaurant looking at the menus, couldn’t make up their mind what to eat. When you’re sitting in the beach you think of Switzerland, in Switzerland you think of somewhere else. What will you do next year, and then next year you’ll regret oh last year was better. Same with job situations, same with marriage partners, think that other person would have been better for me. Here I’m doomed, I fooled myself, I was in a daze, I could not judge properly. (laughter) Where is joy? Is it in a object or situation? This is a big question right? Sound very philosophical. But in reality you see, the change brings you joy, happiness. You’re doing something and then you do something else, that change seems to bring you some thrill, some joy. What happens during this change? Mind has left one object, it is not yet used to the second. In between it experiences that gap and the joy wells up from within us in that gap but we think it is because of that thing. We associate that joy to that thing. And we go on with that and then after a while we don’t find that joy there. We want to jump on to another thing, another thing, another thing like that. Joy is really nothing, got that? Joy is NO-thing.

It is the no-thing that you experience in between things, that brings us joy. And experience of this no-thing is yoga, is meditation, is spiritual practice, is nirvana, call whatever it is, doesn’t matter. Transcending, going within, even for few minutes. Now even there, there are obstacles. You sit with your eyes closed and 100 thoughts come, all unwanted images, all past, all future plans. They bombard your mind, what to do now? Feel like opening your eyes and switching on the TV at least you’ll see something out there. See a new soap opera there. Not watch the same all repeats, inside thoughts where you’re not even watching you become a part of it. What to do? There you can attend to breath, coz breath is the link in-between body and mind. If you cannot attend to mind directly, through breath it becomes easier, deeper breaths.

Or do something that brings you boredom. You know one of the things we resist in life is boredom. You know boredom has a secret, boredom is the key to love. There is one common thing between love and boredom you know what that is? Repetition, when someone is in love they go on saying it so many times. Love is not satisfied by saying it once it wants to say it so many times, a million times. Repetition is something that is nature of love, part of love. And that is the same thing that is part of boredom too, so if you just be with the boredom little longer and dive deep into it, you reach the other end that is love. That was the secret that the ancient people knew and that’s why they have rosary. You keep on chanting that you get so bored. (laughter) The secret of mantra is that first of all you get so bored saying it again and again and again. And then that boredom brings in a flood of energy, opens a flood of energy within you. And that allows a fountain of love, then you realize that you are nothing but love, you are made up of a substance called love. And when there is love, there is no obstacle whatsoever. Love is that sustaining power within us that takes us through all obstacles.

Suppose a situation is there in your job or at home, you want someone to change, you want some situation to change. Just look at it with patience. Don’t be shaken by the situation, the first thing to overcome the obstacle is not to be shaken by the situation coz when we get shaken by the situation it takes longer for us to get back. And just stick on to what you really want and it will happen. And then going deep within. So when you sit for meditation and all these things come, they could be attended through breath, through diet, proper food, a little exercise. Walk on the beach, watch the sunset. And finally knowing that you are going to say goodbye to the whole stuff one day. This is final isn’t it? Is anyone not going to say goodbye? If you don’t say goodbye anyway you will go. (laughter) That gives us enormous strength. And finally the repetition of the memory or the feeling of the divine, that’s why it is called mantra. Means that which energizes the system, that would help. Singing, that would help. Any questions you have?

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People normally ask questions after the knowledge sessions and Guruji answers aptly.

Will the healing breath help to heal the severe trauma from childhood?
Definitely. You know the impression in the mind can be healed through the prana/life force. Mind is nothing but energy, and body is also energy, and breath is also energy. So the events in the mind can be erased by the power of the breath, certainly. Why is there sickness, doubt, problems, obstacles in the first place right? To glorify health. Suppose there is no sickness at all, who would care for health? How would you even know health? Opposites are there to make you aware of each other. Do you see what I’m saying? Health and sickness. Light and darkness. Good and bad. All these opposite values, they glorify each other. They make you aware of each other, I cannot say they glorify each other, they only glorify that is good. But they make you aware of/bring the knowledge of the other. Now instead of asking why they are there, we see that it is there right. How to deal with it? This is wisdom. See animals don’t have freedom, nature runs their life. Human beings we have freedom. Devotion is nothing but our nature. The love for the all, the infinity you call it devotion. Love for your children you call it affection. Lovers call it love, for elders you call it respect. What do you call the love that you feel for the totality of all? That you can call devotion. Or put all these things together and if you need to give it a name. You can call it devotion.

Guruji what do you say to people who want to end their lives because of obstacles?
See often people who want to end their life want some sympathy/attention from you. Oh don’t go, don’t do that, when you say that it gives them little more foot to sustain for some more days. Self-pity is bad and it is bad to encourage self-pity in others, but in some subtle way we keep to be feeding the self-pity of people. Its very subtle, you don’t know when its coming up. Really takes some skill to deal with that situation. It is that intense adamant seed that brings such depression in a person. They are very adamant about the way things should work and the way things should happen. Instead of getting frustrated on that level, if they take just a dip inside and become a little calm and do a little meditation. You will see that they come out of it and things start dissolving. Every obstacle can bring something great out of a person. You can open your eyes and look at the situations. Look at Mahatma Gandhi how many obstacles he had. Nelson Mandela he had so many obstacles in life. But you know when you sustain and go through those things, something big is going to come out of you. Just this confidence or this faith, if it is there then you will see that other things are not, they’re just transitory. Every moment is running by itself, you don’t make it run. Now the choice comes into the mind, you know the choice is always between bad and worse, choice is never between good and bad. When there is good and bad in front of you, there is no choice. Your choice is only between bad and worse or good and the best. And when it is good and best why do you have to worry so much. Anyway it is good. The choice is always the confusion of wanting more, you know, more joy, more something. It is good to have that up to a certain limit. Beyond that it becomes the cause of tension.

Should we fire the mind when something goes wrong?
Yah. You know we convey/communicate more through our presence not so much through our words. Do you see what I’m saying? So you may say to somebody oh I love you very much but if your presence doesn’t radiate they don’t get it. In your presence there is anger, frustration, feeling of failure then it doesn’t catch on to the person. So we have to cleanse our presence, just like a child, see in a child’s presence there is love. Its no good just talking about love but cleansing our presence, our vibrations, of negative impulses, that will help.

When we are young we face less obstacles as we grow we seem to face more obstacles the more we set the goals and certain patterns in life the more obstacles we face, what is the relations between this?
Yes. There is. That is innocence. As we become more intelligent we seem to lose our innocence. And that innocence which is devoid of any intelligence is of no use and that intelligence which is devoid of innocence is good for nothing. So life is a skill of combining intelligence at the same time not losing that innocence. (Paras note: Best example is The Doc!) Not losing that presence that we are. Children don’t feel so many obstacles, the reason is that they are more connected to the being, they are more in touch with the big mind. The big consciousness.

Can pleasure be obstacles?
Obsession about pleasures will definitely be an obstacle. See any pleasure you experience you close your eyes, have you experienced that? See suppose you smell a fragrant flower as you smell, you close your eyes. When you taste something great you say yummy and you close your eyes. Oh it’s delicious. Touch you close your eyes. Good music your eyes just close. Don’t they? What does that indicate? It tells you the whole secret there. It says the joy is coming from somewhere within. The pleasure you’re finding in the music, touch, taste, smell, any of the senses is from somewhere within. The source is there. A meditation in a sort is happening there. But we seldom attend to the source, we look outside. That’s the whole skill. When we are obsessed about any pleasure, that it no longer gives any pleasure to us but it forms a habit, which we cannot get out of. Just like smoking, people don’t get into bliss just by smoking cigarettes but dropping and leaving them gives them lot of pain, discomfort. That’s a hook. That’s why it’s called Maya, means that which gives you an idea of pleasure but really doesn’t give you pleasure. You have got to be open in your mind and in your heart. Both alertness in the mind and openness in the heart are essential. You know you can make anything an obstacle, its up to you, and when you face an obstacle you can attribute it to anything. Suppose you get into a problem but you think you’re innocent. Its not because you’re innocent that you were in a problem, its because you were careless. You were not attentive. Do you see what I’m saying? Is it a guarantee that you will remember this? You may forget this. Isn’t it? I tell you a solution now. You think you will remember the solution? (laughter) Just be playful now, this moment and if you’re totally playful at this moment you will see when that moment comes it will also become playful.

Lot of people are dying of heart attack, how do we heal their mind and heart?
Definitely through proper food, proper rest, breathing techniques and a little bit of meditation. See we have 4 sources of energy. 1st food, 2nd sleep, 3rd most important and most neglected is breath, 4th is a meditative mind, calm mind, pleasant mind. Attending to these 4 sources you can definitely improve your health. Many people have experienced this.

Isn’t the fear a base of all obstacles?
Yes. And fear is nothing but lack of love. Or love upside down. Suppose your car broke down on the way over here. (Guruji jokes) What would I think? What I would think then, I cannot tell you now. (laughter) Let us see what I would have thought. You are sitting in a broken down car you will look for a taxi that moves around. If not you’ll show your finger like this, I suppose they’ll stop the car if you show like this. If not you see how far the place is and start walking. There is no point in getting frustrated. You see what I’m saying? You are stuck in the traffic and you’re later, you have to go to catch the flight, what do you do? You know in this situation if your faith is strong, when you’re really composed and collected you go you’ll find the flight is delayed. Once I tell you I had to come for an assembly like that from Montreal to Washington and there was only one flight, and we were delayed. When we went to the counter the lady said the plane has just moved. You cannot go in. We were stuck there and the plane had just moved to the runway. So we were there and the flight came back to pick us up. For some reason the pilot backed the plane. She spoke to the pilot in French and we were able to get in that flight. So there is a possibility coz you are connected with that infinite consciousness and you are made up of that same substance. So when there is harmony within you not only your jobs get done but people who you want their job to be done also happen. That’s why its called blessing you know. How does it work? The mechanism is very scientific, that there is a harmony and from harmony there is a flow of intensions. There is a flow of thought. Obstacles are removed.

What do you say to someone who is unaware of this knowledge, how do you get them across this knowledge?
You know actually knowledge is not just in hearing and listening and understanding. It is in the very quality of peace. Do you see what I’m saying? The peace within you carries the knowledge. So if you are peaceful with a person who is dying, just sit there, tell him ‘anyway, never mind I’m also coming there. You go earlier I’m coming later’. (laughter) Don’t pity people who are dying, tell them ok goodbye I’ll see you there, maybe in few years time. An attitude of peace within you that brings so much calmness and peace to them. It’ll help them, definitely.

How do you totally surrender and let go?
Know you cannot surrender. What are you going to surrender? Do you have anything to surrender in the first place? Surrender is also an illusion coz you think you have something and then you feel you are giving it away. So if you cannot surrender know by knowledge that there is nothing you possess. What do you possess? The world? Your body? Its all been given to you. Right? Isn’t it? If surrender is hard, then knowledge would be better. In knowledge you know you have nothing. You are no-thing and you have no-thing. And that brings the surrender. The quality of the consciousness automatically. So either through knowledge you attain surrender or if you are an emotional person through surrender you say ok I’m giving everything over to you then you attain the same knowledge that you are nothing and the divine is all that is.

Do you believe that most energies are psychosomatic?
You know I don’t believe it, you know why? I know it. (laughter) So what you know, you don’t have to believe, and what you believe, you really don’t know. Definitely most of our problems could be psychosomatic. Psychosomatic means what? Mind has a say in that situation right. Body-mind cannot be separated like that coz body-mind is a complex. Or life is not linear, it’s multidimensional. Truth is not linear its multidimensional. So any health situation definitely the mind has a role in it. So mind has a role to play in any health situation. So it is a combination of both something physical and something mental.

What’s your opinion on western medicine?
I have no opinions. You know opinions are fleeting ideas, which are never permanent. If we are stuck with opinions then we are stuck with some paradigms. Coz as time goes the opinions change so don’t have to give too much weight for opinions. But at this moment of time because all opinions should always be time bound, I say there is a lot in the western medicine and we need not be dogmatic about the herbal medicine or alternative medicines, we need a holistic approach. Take all aspects of medicine. That would be the opinion for now.