THE ANCIENT NEW AGE by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (August 1996 Santa Monica, California)

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Theory of evolution often presents to us that time is linear within that man evolved from a stone age and became better and better. He was uncivilized in the beginning, barbaric, then he became civilized and cultured and better off. I see this as a short-sighted conclusion. You go little back, beyond the Stone Age, you find, then also, they were very intelligent people. Nature has not deprived any generation at any time, civilization, culture, refinement. Of course sometimes it is more, sometimes it is less. D’you see what I’m saying? In the ancient days they have said time is a wheel, is a circle, and circle means you always come back to the same point. So from the Dark Age you come to the golden age. And then as time goes and again the knowledge gets lost, again it gets revived. What we call new age today is nothing new. It’s very ancient. The shift from old age to new age is from prestige to self-esteem. Just look back in the past century or even in the past few decades, the values were different. People were more into showing off or very much concerned about what other people think about them. But in the new age the values have shifted. In the old age people were seeing God up in the clouds, in the new age says God is within you. You are the divine. The new age talks in terms of angels and consciousness, more emphasis on values and love and meditation. If someone would talk on love a few decades ago people just think its something phony. It’s something unscientific.

The previous age is more head oriented, the new age is more heart oriented. Isn’t it? But there is one thing here that our present so-called new age is searching, still searching. You find there is no backbone to it, so it’s little airy-fairy. But if we examine the so-called ancient times, they also spoke in terms of angels, but there was a definite understanding. In the previous age more emphasis was on pesticides and antibiotics in the new age the whole emphasis has shifted back to nature. Organic farming, you know, to be moved with nature, herbal medicines. This is again an ancient wisdom. A few decades ago yoga was thought to be something not so dignified. Sitting/squatting on the floor was not thought to be good manners, right? Using all your joints is not very good. (laughter) But today yoga has become a fashion almost, everybody does yoga to keep ones health and its proved by all the scientists. What was thought to be primitive has become meaningful now, today. Like what was thought to be very advanced/civilized/dignified technology today proves to be destructive. Isn’t it?

That’s why I say time is not linear, it is a wheel, it’s a circle, it comes back there. We say the people in the past were barbaric, but see the children and the toys they use… do they look refined? (Laughter) Are the movies and the pictures, are they refined or a sign of refinement. We are of the ancient new age because the time has come to the darkest, you cannot go any down. We have come to the end of barbarism. So anyway the wheel is turning back that’s why people are now aware of value systems. Parents are concerned about their children and their values. How to enhance the human values in us? Isn’t it? This is exactly what the ancient rishis/sages/saints have done 1000s and 1000s of years ago. You can find these records in ayruveda, in yoga, and many other spiriteratures. Which are just the same principles in a more profound and methodical way of what we think as new age ‘stuff’. You know even in India, a few decades ago, like singing was thought to be not a very nice thing to do. Especially for women folks, dignified women would not come and sing in the public. It was not thought to be a graceful thing. You know the first moviemaker in India has such a hard time getting a few singers to come and sing, and actresses to participate in their movies. Only the so-called temple would sing or dance or do something about it. But today the time has changed, today music has taken over you know people think it so. The value systems change, and the changing of value systems are tribute to change of time. And we are, I think, in a very fortunate time coz we’ve gone to the bottom end of barbarism. So we’re coming up from that with more trust, more love, more compassion, more service and caring for each other. Not only caring for each other, we started to care for the planted, which was never heard of a few decades ago. Environment has become the talk of this decade. 60s or 70s nobody ever cared about it, or heard this word even. It’s so popular with the common public right? What do you say? Other day someone said, there is no place on earth where there is no problem. The only place is when you go horizontal underneath the ground. Then you have no problem. Got it? (Laughter)

But this new age has brought us new hope, more promise. Today we recognize that there is something beyond the matter. There is something that is higher than day-to-day routine life. The previous decades business was the main talk, love was the secondary. Today love has taken more prominent place. You can talk about love without being shy about or shame about it. Emotions can be expressed today and they were not allowed to be expressed a century ago. Especially a man crying, it’s impossible, something wrong with them. But today that expression is acknowledged. You know love and business has got opposite arithmetic. Have you thought about this? They’re just opposite in nature so they cannot meet. Business is giving less and taking more, a banana worth 2 cents are sold for 10 cents or 5 cents. Whatever it is. So business is what? Giving which is less valuable and taking something more, otherwise business cannot work. You cannot buy something for 10 cents and sell it for 5 cents. So business is what? Giving less taking more. Love is taking minimum and giving maximum. Love is giving more but taking very little something. Because both business and love needs and exchange, a communication, a happening. When the sense of belongingness grows among us, then love finds its true expression. Not just a formality, but the presence of it in our very life. Love is seeing God in the person next to us and meditation is seeing God within us. And they go hand in hand, go together.

It was a coincidence today that the swamis from India are here, they have been representing or holding these ancient traditions, 1000s of ??? back. 1000 BC or more. So they happen to be there, very nice they are all here. They all represent different traditions in India, they said come the year 2000 we’ll take a round of the world. Said yes come here, the whole world belongs to us, to everybody. They also run many hospitals and schools. Also at the same time preserve the ancient knowledge of ayurveda, meditation, yoga, you know. You know the best thing is to combine the ancient and adapt the new to the modern day life and situation. It’s like see, when people started inventing aeroplane. It took them several decades to really come to the right design before a plane could take off, they had several struggles that they had to undergo coz there was no map available, there was no exact design available, there was no clue available, coz nobody else had done it in the past. Or even if they had done, they had no idea about it. (Paras note: He’s given us a clue there) What the ancient age offers us is a map, on which we can’t do our own research. The path of inner awakening is an individual research everybody has to walk the path and this will give us guidance. Will be like lampposts time to time. In new age community, I’ve had many people often talk about earthquakes and earth changes and the visions they get about this angel that angel. Lot of things like that. But one thing they don’t understand is called yog-maya, that’s one word used in the ancient text. There could be a sort of mental game that the mind plays, an illusion that comes in mind, brings it some visions, this is called yog-maya but unfortunately people just believe it as 100% right.

So people go on to psychics, and they some things, its not that they are not true, but they didn’t have something to verify their visions and test those things. But ancient wisdom tells you, look this could just be your mental hallucination. Separates your from hallucination to authentic reality. It saves one the research of many 100s of years. You see what I’m saying? If a herbologist has to make a research, find out which herb is suitable for what, it would take them forever, coz there are millions of herbs. But when there is guidance, there is a book available on herbology, they refer it and then they can experiment on which has been said there, it saves them a lot of time and effort. Don’t you think so? Any questions?

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

What is the healing breath?
You know there is one thing to know intellectually or reading books, another thing is to feel and experience and live that. You can talk about love but when you feel love, your whole body, every cell of your body is vibrant, its energized, is in flood. Do you see what I’m saying? In that sense, how to bridge what we want, we feel, we believe to what is. And our breath plays a very important role. Breath is the link between body and mind. If mind is a kite, breath is the thread. Longer the thread, higher the kite can go. For every emotion or thought pattern there is a particular rhythm of breath. So when we attend to our breath, it can heal us from all the past scars in the mind, all the past anger and future anxieties. So healing breath is setting up that rhythm in us, finding the rhythm in us. Helps us very much to calm the mind down and connect to your inner most. See often when we feel negative we just carry around that negative feeling and wait for time to take it away from us. Right? Neither at home nor at school has anyone taught us how to deal with our emotions, especially when they are negative. That’s where the breath comes to help, healing breath. We use those simple techniques.

How can love overcome the ignorance?
You know love is the culprit and the only culprit of all the problems in the world. Do you see what I’m saying? Your hatred is because of love, anger is because of love, jealousy is because of love, greed is because of love. Isn’t it? If you love perfection you’re angry at imperfection. If you love something much then you’re greedy about it. If you love somebody you’re jealous about them. All your emotions, so called negative emotions are offspring of love, or distortion of love, yet life is nothing without love. If we really ask what is that I want? 4 letters. L – O – V – E. God is love. Now it is the knowledge that can preserve love as love and doesn’t allow the love to get distorted. You know? Knowledge of who you are, what is the nature of the world. World is not just brutal, there is so much compassion also in the world. You know? Do you see that? There are so many people who have dedicated themselves for the cause of the world. Here there is a swamiji from Banglore, he runs a blind school, about 200 blind children. You see how much talent they have. And batch-by-batch he conducts his program. This cannot happen if there is no love. Do you see what I’m saying? And there are many many people around the world every corner of the world you find someone who is doing something for the sake of everyone. Right? Love with knowledge/discrimination/wisdom can world. Its not just an emotion ‘oh I love you so much, don’t go anywhere’. (Laughter) I can’t live without you… this is no love. One of the swamis is the disciple of his own disciple. When he was 3 years old he was brought into his seat. Just like you’ve heard about Dalai Lama tradition. (Looking at the swami Guruji laughs and comments). He looks like Yogananda, Paramhansa Yogananda. (Paras note: His laugh just fills you up, mischievous but with love). So when he was 3 his guru recognized him coz he’d given the signs of where he will be and how he will be. So since he was 3 he’s doing service. Schools, colleges and all. And these are some of the instances you know you find all over the world. I’ve seen people doing so much service, so much love. In Poland, Czechoslovakia, Croatia, Yugoslavia, Slovenia. All the countries. What we see in the newspaper, oh there war and people are fighting, all that, you know when you go there you find there is peace also. Thing is we need to take some time for that. We just sit and all the time think about ourselves. When life is very small so much insecurity comes up in you. And if you have lived all your life just thinking about yourself, you’re bound to be insecure, nobody to care for you. You see what I’m saying. You know there is a technique to get depressed, you want to know? (Laughter) Just sit and think only about yourself. What about me, what about me? Tell you will get thoroughly depressed. Life would appear completely meaningless. What you would do? How much can you eat, how much can you see, how much can you do what in the world. All around yourself, your friend will become your enemies, in fact all your enemies were your friends at some point. Someone who has nothing to do with you can never be your enemy. Do you see what I’m saying?

What do you think about people saying Jesus is the only way?
Jesus is the only way? Jesus is love. Yes love is the only way. Jesus has many names. He is Buddha, he is Krishna and he is You. Your name also belongs to Jesus. You think your name is your name? If Jesus is Son of God and he inherits everything that belongs to God. Do you belong to God? Then you belong to Jesus too, isn’t it? What d’you say? (Paras note: I get the point, but don’t get the words).

Some question about yog-maya?
You know you have heard about several people/evangelists and these people who get the vision that the world is going to end on September 21st 1994 or something like that. (Laughter) And tell everybody to come to the church and give up everything and they will be taken in chariot to the heaven. You know 20-30 thousand people believed all this stuff. Now these visions of such people is a mixture of ones own fears, anxieties and desires. See right vision can only happen when you’re thoroughly hollow and empty, what Buddha calls total emptiness of the mind. Do you see what I’m saying? So to check on the yog-maya, that’s why you need someone who can tell you, ok this is, your vision is right or wrong, there’s a little difference here. You’re making a little mistake there and examine yourself, meditate more, go deep into yourself. Take little time off and go. And then you’ll see you can make a clear distinction of yog-maya or an illusion of the inner visions and the reality. This is what the modern new new age has to take from the old old age.

What’s the fastest way to enlightenment?
The fastest way is to have infinite patience. (Laughter and applause)

Guruji note: There is a chant they were singing yesterday and it says the oneness, keep it as a secret in your heart, that God is within you, keep it as a secret to yourself and live in the world as everyone else.