The Psychology of Inner Peace | Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

0:00Stress should be like the pinch of salt in the food, not more than that. If it's more, it's unconsumable. And today what has happened is exactly this. Too much stress we have taken in, we don't know how to get rid of that, so it has taken a big toll on our mental health. One of the most recognized prominent spiritual leaders in the world, spiritual guru, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar,

0:25Dr. Michael Gervais:founded the Art of Living and has grown to reach over 182 countries and 1 billion people. When is the last time you experienced acute stress? I have not had that. I'm sorry, I've never had that. You've never had that experience? See, if my time is up now, if I have to catch a flight, I have to run. But at the same time, you know, if you are meditating regularly, there is certain calmness inside of you that prevails throughout. You're doing it fast, and if not this flight, I will catch the next one. Do you see what I'm saying? I do. Yeah, there's an ease and an agility in the way that you approach life.

1:03Dr. Michael Gervais:Agility is the word. If there's one hope or thought that you would like to leave our community. Let's all get together with one message, a world free of violence, and make each one of us feel a part of a global human family. It all comes down to? Being a human. I am? Infinity. Your favorite place to live? Inside. When you sit with the most ancient of questions, who am I? What have you come to understand? That's the most valuable question that everyone should ask. The answer to that question is, that's it. All the best, Mikey. Thank you. Thank you so much.

1:48Dr. Michael Gervais:First and foremost, I'm excited to sit with you because of what you have contributed to the wellness of millions of people. And so thank you for spending the time to have this conversation. We spend most of our time thinking about mastery of self. So when you hear the phrase mastery of self, how do you conceptualize it? Getting rid of all that extra things we have been accumulating and just being natural, be yourself. Being yourself. And then one would say that being yourself is one of the hardest things to do because of the social pressures and, you know, the stress in the world. what are the best practices that you've developed to be yourself?

2:33First thing is seeing life from a broader perspective. You have to keep in mind the context to life. What does that mean? Context means seeing life in the context of time and space. Everything is changing in the world. And your mind is changing, your thoughts are changing, your emotions are changing. So when you get bothered by something, you know, this will also pass. This will change. That awareness that everything is changing and there's something in me that is not changing and latch on to that something that's not changing gives you enormous strength. That stress does not even catch on to you.

3:17Dr. Michael Gervais:When you think about latching on, what are most people grasping and latching on to? You have to latch on to something that is not changing in you. There is something which is not so tangible. But, you know, which is because of which you see all the changes. The perception of change is because there is something that is not changing. Right? So the old kind of Zen koan that good news, bad news, life is like falling through the sky with nothing to grasp, nothing to hold on to. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The good news is that there's no bottom. There's no bottom. There's no bottom. So how do you help people practice the ability to have a non-attachment or non-grasping?

4:01First of all, don't take attachment as a botheration. Don't take it as a... Don't take it as an impediment, as a botheration. You are attached to what? It's okay. It's okay to be attached.

4:17Dr. Michael Gervais:Which is totally counterintuitive. Yeah, okay. Yes. Do what? You know why you want to get rid of attachment? Because you feel it's going to give you pain, right? When you see this attachment, it's just one part of life doesn't matter. And you are attached to something bigger. Then it doesn't bother you anymore. And then, okay, you may intellectually know all this concept and everything. You will see that, oh, you have to accept things, I have to be living in the present moment. But it doesn't happen. That is where attention to your breath plays an important role. Few minutes of breathing technique transports you to a space which puts you in a very comfortable position within you and makes you so free.

5:10Dr. Michael Gervais:Of all the practices, you have invested most in a breathing practice. Breathing and meditation. Not just breathing, but breathing combined with meditation. Breathing and meditation practices have been around for thousands of years. What is your unique approach to meditation? There are a number of different breathing techniques, many different types of meditation too. But what suits today's busy life and the amount of pressure that people have is what I've been promoting and teaching which suits people and make them go deeper. Otherwise you can say that you sit and meditate for eight hours, nine hours, then you will feel sensation.

5:57There are many, many such techniques. Ancient days, people had nothing much to do. They'll sow the seed and they'll sit on the bank of the river or on the bank of the field and they can sit for meditation for hours together. Today, people don't have that type of time or patience. the mind is not ready for it or used to it. So this type of meditation, which I recommend, are that which is very profound and simple as well.

6:26Dr. Michael Gervais:Before we get into kind of the mechanics of it, what are the pressures that you're finding that are happening for most people today? What are the leading pressures? Mental health issues and pressure of being successful. How do you define success? If you ask me, I would say success is exhibiting your limitation. Oh, exhibiting your limitation. Wait. You know, I would say I successfully lifted a bottle of water. No. But if I feel my limitation is I can't lift more than 50 kilos, I lift 60 kilos, I said, oh, I successfully lifted it. So success is the progression of growing. It's the going just beyond what you thought was possible.

7:18Yeah, that is, I would say, ignorance of your potential.

7:21Dr. Michael Gervais:How do you imagine people understand their potential? Potential is a double-edged sword. It's a very dangerous and wonderful idea to consider because there's this idea of what you should become, who you should become. If you only knew what you were capable of, you would be more and do more. That is the dark side of potential. But the light side, the beautiful side of potential is like you are capable of so much. So how do you think about helping people understand what they're capable of? When you claim success, that means you are limiting your capability. You are not seeing that you are capable of doing much more than this.

8:07and every failure I would say you must be proud of because you have stretched your limit you have made an effort to go beyond your limit if you have been sincere you put all your effort and you find failure you should be saying oh yeah I tried my best and now at least I am making an effort to go beyond my limitation you know this I mean this could be a very revolutionary attitude This is not what normally people would feel, but I would say that can orient your mind to a very different attitude in which you don't think into depression. You don't blame yourself, blame others for your failures. You see what I'm saying?

8:55Dr. Michael Gervais:I do. And I think that most people in our community are trying so hard to live a great life. They're investing in their psychology. They're investing in their craft. and they really want to live a great life. That's good. That's quite natural. And they're deeply afraid of not being good enough. They're deeply afraid of trying their best and publicly failing. So when you say mental health, mental health for our community are people that are trying very hard to be their best and are afraid to come up short and are tired. They're anxious. They're overwhelmed. You understand those pressures. Yeah.

9:33And how did you... That's where the meditation, breathing, little bit of yoga, all this will help you.

9:39Dr. Michael Gervais:Okay, so then when we will introduce best practices such as breathing and meditation, and people say, yeah, I get it, but I don't have that kind of time. I'm too busy. I know you've heard it before. Actually, people come to you for the solution, but out in the wild, that is a common answer. How would you address that concern? It's like saying, I'm so hungry, but I have no time to have food. You know, having no time, I feel, is only an excuse. If you want to do something, if you see the benefit of it, you'll always find time. When you know that what you invest is going to pay much more than what you even, widely you could imagine, then why would you not invest?

10:24I think that that's the gap for most people, is that... They don't give much importance to it. That's right. They're not aware what it can do to you.

10:33Dr. Michael Gervais:How long did it take you to become aware of the power of tapping into awareness? You know, awareness doesn't take time. It doesn't take such a long time to become more aware of what is. It takes time to quiet your mind, to be with awareness. It takes time for me to quiet my mind, to be with awareness. This is why I've started meditating. I've been practicing for 20-some years. And I've now shifted my meditation to the morning. because I'm a little bit more quiet. I'm a little bit more in tune. So your answer is... You know, actually, when you are very restless, when you have too many things to do, that's when meditation is most needed.

11:12Yeah, when you're busy in your mind.

11:16Dr. Michael Gervais:How long does it take to feel the impact of a meditation practice? In the very first sitting, you can feel the impact. And for some people, the very first sitting is overwhelming, right? Because there's so much happening. How do I quiet down? How do I get still? Am I doing it right? That is why I had to train. We train 38 ,000 instructors around the world. You sit with an instructor and he knows where exactly to put that mind and make it quiet in just a few minutes. Binding Master is brought to you by Granola.ai. Some of the most important work we do happens in conversation. It's in the meeting.

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14:10Dr. Michael Gervais:In fact, those hiring with LinkedIn are 24 % less likely to need to reopen a role within 12 months when compared to their leading competitor. Join the 2.7 million small businesses using LinkedIn to hire. Get started by posting your job for free at linkedin.com slash mastery. Again, that's linkedin.com slash mastery. Terms and conditions apply. It is remarkable the impact you've had. At the age of four, you are understanding the Gita? Well, I could decide the Gita. Beethoven was said to perform at age three on the piano. How do you explain that capability that you have? You know, our consciousness has been there for a long time, and it has impressions.

14:55Dr. Michael Gervais:And what you're suggesting is that this is not the first time you've been here? Absolutely not. We have all been here many times. It is a foundational belief in Hindu, is that reincarnation is part of the process. Yeah, you can say an awareness about reincarnation has been there. An awareness of reincarnation. Reincarnation. When you answer the most... But today, even science has come up with this. You know, there has been many, many experiments out there. On consciousness. On the consciousness and reincarnation. It is one of the hard problems for humans is what is consciousness and where does it come from?

15:35Dr. Michael Gervais:This is a hard problem in science. It sounds like it's not a hard problem for you. It is a challenge for one to, it beckons one to go deep and understand that. It's not a problem. Consciousness is not a problem. The understanding of it. It challenges you to know it. When you sit with the most ancient of questions, who am I? What have you come to understand? That's the most valuable question that everyone should ask. that chips off the extra marble around you and brings clarity and steadiness inside of you. How have you come to understand who you are? You know, it is not the answer to that question which is important.

16:24The question itself is important.

16:26Dr. Michael Gervais:Yeah. Does that lead me to believe that you are unclear of the answer? No, the answer to the question is what you are. Are you not wanting to share the answer when you answer the question? Or is it something that is difficult to put into words or impossible to put into words? Okay, so I'm not alone. It's difficult to put into words. Yeah. I started asking the question, what am I? And that is an unclear answer as well. You are lucky. You didn't get clarity there. I did not. You know, clarity means concept. You are so clear you got a concept about it. The experience of consciousness goes beyond your understanding.

17:15Experience and understanding are two different levels. One is you intellectually grab, you understand, but experience is something which supersedes it, which goes beyond that. You feel a lot of love inside of you now. if you try to define love or express love, you will be a failure because you cannot do it 100%. You can give little glimpses of what it is not, but what it is, is hard to say.

17:48Dr. Michael Gervais:When you think about joy, it's one of your first principles is to help people live with joy in a stress-free, nonviolent way. I want to come to the stress in a minute. how do you think about expressing the path to joy? You know, you don't need to learn that you are born with it. It's a default. Every child born on the planet is born as a bundle of joy. And when you drop the stress, when you get rid of all that boundaries that you create around you, you are simply a joy. Is that why stress-free is so important to you? is if you de-stress a human, that you are left with the essence, which is a state of joy.

18:35Yeah. It's a stress which obscures one's love, one's joy, one's compassion. All the qualities that you value in your life all gets obscured by stress, right?

18:49Dr. Michael Gervais:Yeah. Stress also helps me understand my actual skills, my actual capabilities. So when I'm put in a high stress situation, whether it's a real stress environment or I've made it so, it helps me develop an understanding of what I'm capable of. Stress has a value, like the gymnasium. You know, you go to gym, you lift the weights and you build a muscle, but you can't do it the whole time. Okay, I'm really relieved because I've been able to research you but not meet you up until this point. And when you had a position on a stress-free approach, it does not make sense to me. But now that you're saying, wait, stress is required.

19:35Dr. Michael Gervais:Working well with stress? Occasionally. Acute stress. Occasionally stress. For a limited period of time, it gives you a contrast. Yeah. You see, you will never appreciate stress-freeness if you have never experienced stress. Okay. But that is not your original state or natural state of being. That's why you can't be there forever. Then, you know, it destroys your nervous system. You go completely crazy. Too much of stress is no good. I would say stress should be like the pinch of salt in the food, not more than that. If it's more, it's unconsumable. And today what has happened is exactly this.

20:21Too much stress we have taken in. We don't know how to get rid of that. And so it has taken a big toll on our mental health and our social behavior. You see? A little bit stress in the exam, or you have to deliver things in time. that pressure of time you deliver. You do act on that. But you are given a deadline. You have to finish this by tomorrow. So you put extra effort. Putting that extra effort may look like stress. But if it is too much, if you have to do that day after day after day, you'll become a nervous wreck.

21:02Dr. Michael Gervais:Are you more interested in helping people be great with stress or to dissolve the majority of stress in their life by changing the way that they use their mind? We don't have to tell them to accept stress today because even if you don't want, it comes up somehow, right? So all that you need to know is how to release stress, how to make yourself more strong, sane. you know, the stress obscures your perception, your observation and your expression. It can also heighten your ability to focus. It can heighten your... Momentarily. Momentarily. Yeah, that's true. And if you have to do it the whole time, that's it.

21:45You will not be able to do that.

21:47Dr. Michael Gervais:Yeah, that's right. When is the last time you experienced acute stress where your body went into fight flight? I have not had that. I'm sorry I've never had that top of you've never had that experience not that that too my body went into like a rigidity or anything no no no no you've never had that no I have never had that wait wait wait I have you've never had a breakdown moment of stress if you're talking about the breakdown moment of not a breakdown but like a moment where oh yeah see my if my time is up now if I have to catch a flight. I have to run. Okay, so you have had that. I will run, but at the same time, you know, if you are meditating regularly, there is certain calmness inside of you that prevails throughout.

22:42Do you have... Your action may be faster, but the calmness inside of you doesn't get rattled. What do you call that? You can call whatever it is.