Q. 297: Gurudev, what is your attitude towards mistakes? Are you angry when you see me making mistakes over and over again?

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Not at all. Do you know that devotees are more powerful than the Guru himself? Do you know this? It is so. You must have heard of my Guru stories, but I have many devotee stories. I will share one with you. In the last week of November, I was touring to some remote places in Maharashtra. Some villages and districts that I have never been to. There were a lot of people who came to meet me. When your feelings and your emotions are so intense, I become only a puppet then. When your feelings are very strong and when your love is so strong, it can even make stones melt. In one village, I told my secretary, ‘Three people have lost their mobiles and they are very poor people. So put three new cell phones in my bag.' So I carried three new phones because I felt that three people had lost their mobile phones. So, when I went there, in the volunteers' meeting after the program, I said, ‘Some of you have lost your mobile phones. I know about it. Those of you who have lost your mobile phones, please stand up’, and only three people stood up. There was a lady who had stood up, and I told her, ‘Look, you were crying in front of my picture last Thursday. You did not know what to do, how to face your family because an expensive mobile phone was lost, which must have been worth two to three months of earnings. Here, take a new one.’ When I was doing this, one boy from the group came up to me and he shared his story. He was in an advanced course and his wife was at home, and he had to talk to her. There was no battery on his phone and he had forgotten the charger at home. So he put the phone in front of my picture and asked, ‘Gurudev, let the phone be charged.' The next morning, when he woke up, the phone was fully charged. This boy showed me his phone and said, ‘Look, for one and a half years I have thrown away my charger, and now I only keep my phone in front of your picture and it gets charged.’ He threw his charger away! I said, 'This is really something. Even I need a charger for my phone, and my devotee charges his phone by keeping it in front of my picture.' See how powerful devotees can be. Why I am saying this is because it is our feelings, our devotion and our love that makes this happen. I will share another story with you. I was in South Africa, as a guest in somebody’s house. This was about 10 years ago. So just before leaving for Johannesburg, we were packing all our luggage, and suddenly I went into the other room where some of the devotees were staying and I started looking here and there in that room. Usually I never go to somebody’s room like that. People were shocked and wondered why Gurudev had come into our room. Just imagine, I come to your room in the hotel suddenly, you will be shocked. So people were shocked, 'Why has Gurudev come here and he looks very restless. What is he looking for?' Then I saw a packet of tea and I asked them, ‘Whose is this?' They said, 'We don’t know. It is somebody’s.'

I never drink tea, but I took a packet of tea and put it in my suitcase and closed it. Then I could breathe. I was so restless till I could get that packet of tea. People found it a little strange, how could Gurudev steal a packet of tea, after knowing, it is not ours, it is somebody’s, he didn’t care, he just took it and went away. So when we landed in Johannesburg from Durban, an elderly gentleman met me at the airport and he said, ‘Gurudev, did you get the packet of tea I sent for you? It is a special tea. I myself went and picked it up and I wanted to give it to you. I couldn’t come to Durban so I sent it through somebody.' So it was sent through somebody and they put it in another room because they know that I don't drink tea, and so they didn’t even tell me. This was the case. Then I said, ‘Yes, I got that packet of tea.' This means that when your feelings and your emotions are so intense, I become only a puppet then. So I had to get that packet of tea. So, this is the story on how I had to steal a packet of tea, which is not really stealing. It belonged to me but at that moment it appeared as though I was stealing something that did not belong to me. Like this there are many incidents.

As you do meditation you gain the ability to bless and curse. First the ability to curse comes, and then the ability to bless comes. That is why, the rule for any practitioner is not to think bad about anybody, not to say bad words to anyone and from your side, stay positive. You know once, I was in Delhi in a big hall. There was a lot of crowd in the hall and after the program, the people were all lining up in the hotel lobby. The people who wanted to escort me, they said ‘Oh, there is too much crowd. This will take too much time and Gurudev has to catch a flight.' So they decided to trick the people and they took me from the basement directly to the car and we left. You know, there were a thousand people who were disappointed because I was not there and I became sick. The people were angry, they were upset, and that whole day my head was throbbing and I became so sick. I asked the people who took me directly to the car and directly to the airport, 'Why did you that? I don’t want to disappoint anybody. I never disappoint anybody.' Why I am saying this is because when your feelings are very strong and when your love is so strong, it can make even stones melt. Got it? So there are so many stories.

That is why, as a practitioner of meditation, you have to be very careful. You should not curse anybody anytime. Don’t say any bad words. Nothing bad should come out of your mouth. You know, I have never said one bad thing in all these 56 years. I have never ever spoken any bad words. I can’t take credit for it; it simply doesn’t come. The worst thing I have said is, ‘You are stupid’. You would never have heard me swearing or speaking any kind of bad words about anybody, anywhere; even to myself. So, as a practitioner, you should keep your speech free from any kind of bad words as far as possible because there is energy in your words. As you do meditation you gain the ability to bless and curse. First the ability to curse comes, and then the ability to bless comes. That is why, the rule for any practitioner is not to think bad about anybody, not to say bad words to anyone and from your side, stay positive. I am not saying you should never get angry. Anger is part of life. But even when you are angry, keep your lips and your tongue under your control. You have to get angry sometimes in life, it is necessary, but don’t allow filthy words to flow out of your mouth. Why? Because you will be spending too much of your good energy when you say all those bad words. Just imagine if you lose one month of your meditation with just a few words. Is it economically wise? It is like spending a thousand dollars to get a coke which is worth one dollar.

So don’t underestimate your power, your energy, and your determination. When you meditate, you really have so much power. That is why in Ancient India, all the Rishis and Masters would not take on disciples because they knew they would become very powerful, and if they don’t follow the rules, it can be a problem. So they would not give this knowledge to everybody. They would first put them through a lot of tests and if they passed all the tests, then they gave them meditation and all that. But I said that we will give this knowledge to everybody. It is essential. Otherwise it will be like a catch 22 situation. Only if you are good will you get knowledge. Unless you get knowledge you can never become good. So I took the second route.

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