Path of liberation explained in Bhagavad Gita

If you have the habit of drinking coffee/tea in the morning and if you do not drink it one day, you feel uncomfortable or restless. Though the habit of drinking coffee/tea is not giving you an ecstasy, you feel bound. When you feel bound by something or someone, the immediate thought that arises is – ‘How can I be free?’ This is a natural tendency of all the human beings.

 If you feel bound because of a disease or an ailment at the body level, you go to a doctor, take medicines, and feel relieved. When you feel bound by your own emotions and mind, you feel clueless. That is when you feel the need of a Guru because we never learnt how to handle our own mind.

The word liberation explained in the context of spirituality is nothing but the freedom all the distortions of love. The distortions of love are – attachment, entanglement, lust, obsession, greed, jealousy, anger, and arrogance. When we are troubled by these distortions, we feel bound. We seek liberation. In Bhagavad Gita, lord Krishna explained the path to liberation through the following yogas:

·         Karma Yoga: Often when we are tensed, we worry. If at all, we get into action and do needful, we can be free from worries. For example, if you are an employee and you are overloaded with work and stringent timelines, rather than working and doing whatever is possible through you, you tend to worry about the future. Your mind starts thinking –

• Will I ever be able to finish this work?
• If I don’t finish this work on time, what will be the consequences?
• Will I continue to have my job?

Your mind is bombarded with questions and you end up wasting time in worrying. In Bhagavad Gita, Krishna inspires Arjuna to get into action without worrying about the results. Krishna asks Arjuna to act spontaneously and do needful. This is very relevant even today for everyone – professionals, homemakers, students, and so on.

Bhakti Yoga: Life without love is very dull and boring. We all experience love but with an expectation. However, when you are in love with God or nature, you simply rejoice and stay happy. On the funnier side, you can’t be expecting God to come with you for a movie or party, answer your messages immediately and so on. So, love for God is hassle free.

Bhakti is synonymous to gratitude. Whatever you receive from the God or nature, you start nourishing it. Behind every pleasant/unpleasant event, you start seeing the love of God. All your complaints simply vanish in Bhakti. Grumbling is taken over by gratitude. That is Bhakti. Lord Krishna explained the different flavors of Bhakti in Bhakti Yoga. He asks Arjuna to surrender only to Him and have one pointed devotion towards Him.

·Gyana Yoga: Bhakti or love for God is very beautiful to experience. However, love which is devoid of wisdom causes all problems. So, Krishna emphasized the importance of Gyana or Wisdom in Gyana Yoga. Wisdom is nothing but seeing the origin of all happenings, thoughts, and feeling. Knowing more and more about the consciousness which is present all over and the reason behind all happenings. When wisdom dawns, the duality or dwaita disappears. For example, a goldsmith sees gold in all the ornaments. Rather than differentiating the ornament as necklace, bangles, ear ring and so on, goldsmith says this is all gold. In the same when you dwell in wisdom, you transcend all the opposites and start seeing everything as a part of one consciousness. Krishna explained this beautifully in Bhagavad Gita and said – though a devotee is very dear to me, a gyani (person with wisdom) is even more dear to me. In fact, there is no difference between me and a gyani because a gyani is never away from me.

Pondering the knowledge given in the Karma, Bhakti, and Gyan yogas, one can easily experience that there is no bondage in reality. It is advisable to read this knowledge in the presence of a Guru or an enlightened one who can interpret to you correctly.

How to lead a happy life?

Life is much more than whatever you can capture or define. It is so vast, so big, it can’t be encapsulated in a few words. When defining life you are limiting the scope of life. Happiness is a factor that we have to consciously pursue. Unconsciously we all are happy, but somewhere in the pursuit of happiness we get stuck and miss the goal. That is what spirituality is all about - bringing that one smile.

Once you are able to see the light, you see the entire past as a dream, move on. Wake up and see the present, you will find happiness is there, unconditional happiness. Then you are happy and not dependant on others for your happiness. Happiness depends only on your mind. When the mind is free of past impressions and future cravings, happiness is there.

There is Mullah Nasrudin story. He used to grumble all the time. He was a farmer, so he would grumble, “Oh, there is no rain.” There was no rain in California for so many years. He’d say, “Oh, there is no rain, no crops are coming, it’s so difficult and…” He was grumbling.

And that year, there was very good rainfall, and he had great crops in his fields. People thought, this year Nasrudin will not grumble, because his crops have come on so nicely, so good, and so high.

There’s no problem. They said, “He must at least be happy.” So people went to greet him, “Oh, Mullah, how are you? You seem to be doing very well, lots of crops. Your field is simply flourishing and so attractive.” But Mullah had the same long face. He said, “Yes, now we have so much work to do. All these years I didn’t have to do anything, with no crops. But now so many crops and I have to do this, go to market and sell them. It’s a big headache!” He was still grumbling. Whether there were crops or not, his grumbling continued.

It is the same way in your life. You are unhappy about things you have and you are unhappy about things you don’t have.

Develop the habit of being happy. You have to do it. Nothing else can give you that.

Nobody else can do it. If anybody else or anything else does it, it will only be very temporary. You take a step!

WCF- Kumbh Mela of Arts and Culture

Over 37,000 artists from around the world performed on the 7-acre stage, exhibiting their talent to echo the message of unity in diversity on the Art of Livings world cultural festival.

The World Culture Festival is a celebration of The Art of Living’s 35 years of ‘service, humanity, spirituality and human values’.Though the festival has come under fire for its ecologically-sensitive venue, it was given the go-ahead by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) saying that the Art of Living Foundation hasn’t done anything wrong.

The festival strives itself on creating a ‘stress-free, violence free-society, promoting peace, putting smiles on everyone’s faces and walking the path together’.

It aims to foster a deep understanding between different people and backgrounds, by showcasing rich cultural traditions of dance, music and the arts from around the world.

Honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi rightfully mentioned in his speech at the World Culture Festival that festival of such scale is like the 'Kumbh Mela' of Culture. And just like Indians believe that anything holy and noble is performed on the banks of a holy river similarly the World Culture Festival. A vision of noted humanitarian and spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the World Culture festival was perceived and implemented as a peace mission to bring the world closer.