Only a healthy bud can blossom. Similarly, only a healthy person can succeed.
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar explains that health is just not the absence of disease but it is also being mentally serene and emotionally soft. If the mind is stiff and unsteady, one is not mentally healthy. When the emotions are rough, one is not emotionally healthy.
The state of good health is called “swastha” in Sanskrit. It also means ‘being established in one’s Self’ and is not just confined to the body or mind. It has to come as a gift from the cosmic mind- from the innermost of one’s being to the outermost and vice versa.
Sometimes when you enter a room inhabited by a disturbed person, you start feeling disturbed for no reason even if the person is no longer in the room. You have the same feelings, same thoughts and same emotions as that person. Similarly, when there is a harmonious vibration like a place of satsang (chanting or singing), you feel good for no reason.
Feelings are not isolated to only one’s body, they are all around. It is the same with the breath and the mind. They are in the whole environment. If there is a fire the heat is not just inside the fire but radiating throughout the place. If one is unhappy or depressed, the feeling spreads to the whole environment.
Other people’s words and actions create jealousy, anger, frustration or sadness in a mind that is not centered. The unstable mind contributes to the process and hence, we become responsible for our negative emotions even though it appears that someone else has triggered it.
When we meditate and do pranayama, we increase Prana or the subtle life energy. When we attend to the subtler, the grosser is healed. The breath is subtler than the body and when attended to, it heals the body. Similarly, Prana being the subtler heals the emotions.
Being individually happy is not enough. A frustrated man will spread frustration; a jealous person will spread jealousy. Everyone we meet has to be happy and radiate happiness. This is the only way we can have that unshakeable peace and happiness.
If somebody is shooting an arrow at you, insulting you, realize that they are doing it because they are miserable. They are pouring out their stress, tension and anxiety. When you have blossomed from within, you can take any insult and turn it into your advantage.
When someone commits a mistake, he is not the culprit; the stress within is the cause. Once he gets rid of the stress, then there is no culprit- no one needs to be forgiven. We begin to realize that the whole thing is just a game in which there is no winner or loser. It’s just playing and having fun.
The objective is to have joy in life and make sure that the knowledge we gain permeates within us. As we learn more about life, the mystery of the whole creation unfolds. Then the question in the mind is: What is the meaning of life? And what is its purpose? What is this world? What is love? What is knowledge?
Once these questions arise in you, know that you are very fortunate. These questions need to be understood; you cannot find their answers in books. You have to live through them and witness the transformation. That is perfect health; you are transformed from within. And the bud becomes a totally blossomed flower.
The author is a humanitarian leader and the founder of The Art of Living organization. He can be followed on @srisri (on Twitter) & facebook.com/SriSriRaviShankar (Facebook).
For more information http://www.artofliving.org
