Shiva Sutras

Shiva Sutras

शिव सुत्र

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Sri Sri Publications Trust, India

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Contents

Title

Preface

The Mind Facing Inwards Is Always Happy

The Energy Centres

Bubbles on the Water

Honour Desire

Rest Within

Guru is The Way

From Darkness to Light

Play of The Divine

Liberation From Lust

Life is a Play

Complete Happiness

The Body is a Temple

Embers Covered in Ash

Offering to Shiva

The Art of Living&The International Association for Human Values

The Founder

Follow Sri Sri on:

The Art of LivingIn Service Around The World

The Art of Living Programs

International Centres

Landmarks

Cover

Preface

In this edition, below the sutras is a paraphrase of each sutra in English. This addition will be useful for readers wishing to review the sutras and their meaning without having to re-read the whole book. True to the meaning of a sutra, the translations capture the essence of each sutra in few words full of meaning. The paraphrase in most cases has been taken directly from Gurudev’s commentary, and where necessary, slightly edited for conciseness.

Sanskrit words have been written in italics and spelt in a regular fashion. This will help those who may be unfamiliar with the sutras but still wish to read them with correct pronunciation. An appendix explaining the spelling and pronunciation is located at the back. Proper names have been made an exception to this system, and have been written according to common conventions.

It is our great pleasure to present to the English-speaking public a translation of Gurudev’s Kannada talks on the Shiva Sutras. We hope it faithfully delivers the timeless, yet ever new message of the original commentary by Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar to all seekers on the path.

Jai Gurudev

The Mind Facing Inwards Is

Always Happy

yasya niścasita vedā yo vedebhyo akhila jagat

nirmama tamaha vande vidyātirtha maheśvara

In order to fly a kite and guide it from the ground, we need a thin thread. While this thread stays on the ground, the kite soars in the air. That thread is a sutra. Likewise, for our life to soar higher and expand into the vastness of infinity, what is needed? We need a sutra that acts as a link between earth and sky, between humanity and Divinity.

Panini describes a sutra as:

Alpāk aramasa digdha sāravat viśvato mukha

Astobhamanavadya ca sūtra sūtravido vidu

"Alpāk ara asa digdha sāravat viśvato mukha" - A sutra is described as that which contains the essence and expresses the full meaning in a few words. The nature of the sutra we hold on to decides the direction and the quality of our life. In everyone’s life there is some spark of goodness or auspiciousness. We should reflect whether we are holding on to the good and positive or misfortune and negativity. Regardless of which part we tend to focus on, if we search we can definitely find happiness, pleasure and fortune in some measure. Yet, if you look now, this is not the case. Actually, there is so much that is positive. Life is made up of eighty percent positivity and only twenty percent negativity, the part that causes problems. Yet we make this twenty percent into two thousand percent; usually, we cling to the negative.

In every life some good must have happened, but the nature of mind is that it ignores everything positive and clings only to the negative. Suppose someone approaches you and gives you ten compliments and one insult. What will you remember? The mind’s nature is to cling to the negative. In order to change this mindset, we should hold on to the Shiva Sutras.

We should hold on to truth, beauty and śivatattva, auspiciousness or innocence, wherever they appear in our life. That is the reason for listening to the Shiva Sutras. If life does not have a sutra to guide it, it is not possible to find happiness, and the kite will fall to the ground. A kite may have everything, including a tail, but without a thread, how can it take off? The Shiva Sutras run through everybody’s life. That is why it is said:

Namah śrī śambhave svātmānanda prakāśa vapuśe

I bow down to the wealth that brings peace and fills the body with joy.

How does auspiciousness begin? It happens when the mind turns inwards. When the mind goes more and more outside, it gets caught up in problems and confusion. Do you know what misery is? Misery comes when the mind gets caught up in the world and forgets itself. Happiness can be described as remembering yourself.

Suppose a close relative or friend visits after a long time. You prepare sweets, arrange everything nicely to welcome them and go to the railway station with a bouquet of flowers to greet them. You eagerly look for them, checking whether or not the train is running on time and whether they have arrived. How do you feel when you finally meet them? Thrilled! The mind instantly blossoms. Where there is no eagerness and anticipation, there is less love.

The mind naturally flows towards that which you love. When you are with a dear friend, your mind stays with you and does not wander elsewhere. Observe that when you are joyful, you become one with your self. Your nature is joy, and this is the reason you experience joy.

If you read the word "mana, meaning mind, in reverse, it becomes nama." When people visit various temples and pray, they say, "Namah." What does it mean? When the mind turns inward it is namah, but when the mind goes outward, it is manah.

What attracts the mind outward? It is prosperity, wealth, success and beauty. The sight of anything beautiful draws the mind towards it. Whether money or fame, the mind gravitates towards it. The whole world revolves around only one thing, and that is "śrī," or prosperity. Yearn for knowledge, yearn for happiness, yearn for beauty, wealth, success, advancement - whatever you long for, it is only for one desire, and that is śrī. However, the more intensely people long for it, the more difficult it is to attain. That is why everybody wears such long faces, as if everything were shrouded in misery. This is why Buddha concisely said, Desire is the root cause of misery. Go anywhere and look at what the people talk about, and you will find that it is all about śrī. Go to any chamber of commerce or film industry meeting, and what do they discuss, but ways to become rich and famous. That is śrī. Or go to any legislative body, and they talk about political power. Even that is śrī.

The whole world revolves around śrī, but how do we acquire it? Even if we do get it, it will turn out not to be satisfying. If one is to find śrī, one’s mind must turn inwards. When we are in a state of namah, when we are introspective, we find śrī and true wealth is born. Real wealth is within us, and when we turn inwards, we can access real happiness and pleasure. Although the richest of the rich may smile outwardly, peep into their minds, and you will not find any cheerfulness or contentment. Without satisfaction, what is the use of such a life and such wealth? It is nothing but worry, worry, and to die with worries. What kind of śrī is that?

Sometimes, people do gain wealth and fame, but even that is followed by problems. Once, when one of our ex-prime ministers met me, he confessed, Before, in summer I used to sleep outside the house on a cot. Now, you can see fifty people around me and security all over. Now I am a prisoner, more so than the actual prisoners in Tihar Jail.

Śhambhave - Wealth and prosperity should bring peace. However, many times one acquires wealth and many problems follow it. Quarrels start between parents and children and between husband and wife. If you examine the pending court cases, you will find that 75 to 80 percent of the cases arise out of disputes over money! Most of the conflicts between people happen over money, is it not? Even if we were to gain so much wealth, what is the point? While we do need money, along with wealth we also get diseases like stomach pains, ulcers, diabetes, heart attack, etc.

Once, a man won ten lakhs in a lottery. His wife worried how she should break the news to her husband because it might give him a shock or he might even suffer a heart attack due to sheer excitement. So she went to a priest. He said, Don’t worry. I will come with you, and together we’ll give him the news. So the next Sunday, he went to their house and asked him, My child, suppose by the grace of God you were to win ten lakh, what would you do with it? The man answered, I’d give half of it to the church, Father. No sooner the priest heard this, he had a heart attack.

Wealth should bring peace. Being wealthy should not bring arrogance, hostility, jealousy, disgust or boredom. Many times, when you receive a gift from someone, your state of mind changes as soon as you receive it. Have you observed this? When you receive certain things, you receive not only the gift but the intention along with the gift. That is the reason why, in the past, people accepted things from others only after careful observation. If they did accept, then they would immediately give a gift in return. An old saying says, Why should we take others’ things that we do not want? It is because such wealth might bring peace or disturbance. Nobody wants a disturbed mind.

Today we have completely forgotten this tradition. However, there is one thing we did in the past and continue to do today: when we celebrate weddings, religious ceremonies and other rituals, whether on happy or sad occasions, we invite guests for food and after food give them each one rupee as dakśina, or offering. This practice is more prevalent in villages. Do you know the reason behind this? This is to express gratitude to the guests for attending the ceremony and eating the food. The belief is that the guests have given them peace, and in this way, certain negative karma leaves and positive karma is restored.

Śrī śambhave - wealth should be peaceful. "Svātmānanda" - filled with bliss, having a cheerful state of mind. There are some people who do very good acts, but do not have peace and joy. Instead, they are very serious and have long faces. If the world is serious, it cannot be enjoyable, it will be dry and dull. Look at children. They are not very serious. They are happy. What kind of happiness do they have? svātmānanda prakāśā vapuse - happiness overflows from their bodies. They send out vibrations full of joy.

In life, happiness is the only attraction. You may have noticed that some people who are beautiful and have nice, fair skin are not attractive, while others who are not so pleasant to look at are still attractive. This is because of the vibrations they spread around them - "Svātmānanda prakāśā." Wherever a child comes from, whether from China, Africa or North America, it is attractive. Joy overflows from each and every cell of its body. A child’s mind is innocent and calm, with a blossomed awareness. This is life’s goal. One characteristic of life is that it should end where it began, and life is a cycle that starts with happiness.

Ānandena jātāni jīvanti - this is a quotation from the Upanishads: Life happens in joy and finds completion in joy. The soul should be filled with happiness - that is the goal of the Shiva Sūtras: svātmānanda prakāśa vapuśe.

That happiness is not limited to us, but spreads to all who come near us. Such happiness is the sign of real success. Some people who do sadhana, though they sit from morning till evening with their fingers on their nose doing pranayama, shout at anyone who comes close and disturbs them, even children. It means that there has been no reduction in anger. What are you doing? Sadhana? Is this a sign of sadhana? If this is what sadhana means, then it’s better to stay away from it.

Many youth have left sadhana because of this. In their homes they see their older siblings, parents, grandparents and relatives praying and applying chandan to their forehead and to others too. Yet their anger has not lessened, even a bit. Seeing this, young people lose faith. They say, If this is religious life, we don’t need it. It is natural. Many swamis who are in charge of mathas are like this. They show such uncontrollable anger! People come with devotion, but are revolted by the way they see some swamis treating people. They think, How arrogant! and become angry and afraid. There is a saying that people should have fear and devotion. This is not correct. Where there is fear, it is impossible to have devotion, and with devotion, fear cannot exist. Both cannot be together. Someone must have compiled that saying sarcastically, but the sarcasm in it has not been properly understood. Instead, people worry that a swami will curse them. Devotion vanishes, and only fear is left.

Vapuse - the body should radiate happiness. Life is complete when that happens. Then, we realise that the aim of life has been reached. "Svātmānanda prakāśa vapuśe." This is the goal of the Shiva Sūtras. We should read the sutras so that this happens. What can we do if this does not happen?

Atha śhiva sūtrah

Then hold on to the Shiva Sūtras

After we are asked to hold on to the Shiva Sūtras, they are explained one by one. Each sutra is complete in itself.

चैतन्यमात्मा

Chaitanyamātmā

We can realise our self to the extent that we raise our energy.

The first sutra is "Chaitanyamātmā." You are alive, but you are living as though you were dead. Sleeping, eating and talking - you are like one who walks in his sleep. Often, mothers feed milk to their half-sleeping children, who do not remember anything later. In the morning, they complain that she did not feed them food or milk. We also live like this, as though we eat while we are asleep and continue to slumber. We do not have knowledge of ourself. How do we get knowledge about ourselves and about the soul? Knowledge grows as our energy rises - "Chaitanyamātmā." This is the first sutra.

If we succeed in this sutra, then we become "Namah śhrī śambhave svātmānanda prakāśa vapuśe - we reach our goal. Chaitanyamātmā" - raise the energy in the body and in life.

The moment our energy is low, our speech gets confused, and we become lazy. When you talk too much, your energy lowers, and you get bored. If you have not experienced this, then do an experiment. Try to abuse someone for one and a half hours continuously, which may or may not even be possible - in a short time your stomach will feel sick.

We lose energy, which is required to digest food, and so the brain also stops working and starts functioning like a fool. Even if we eat more, vitality lowers. Have you experienced this? We are not at our best on a day when we overeat, isn’t it?

There are Brahmins who specialise in eating at death ceremonies, especially in Mathura and other such places. They are called "panda". Their only job is to eat wherever there is death ceremony. When many people die, they are in great demand and sometimes have to eat at as many as five or six places in a single day!

Once, a son accompanied his father to the ceremony and they had a competition to see who could eat more. During the meal, the son drank a glass of water. The father got angry and slapped his son, asking him, Why are you drinking instead of eating? But they were not able to talk about it then. On reaching home, again the father asked the son the same thing. I drank to settle the food I had eaten so I could eat more. The father slapped him again and said, Why didn’t you tell me there? I could have done the same and eaten more.

On another occasion two ladies, who were neighbors, were talking. One was making the bed for her husband at one in the afternoon and so the other lady asked her, Why are you making the bed so early? The first one replied, My husband has gone for food at a death ceremony. He will have to sleep as soon as he returns home. Hearing that, the other lady said, "That is better. For my husband, I have to send the bed to