Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
What is home? Home is a place where you are at rest. Where you can be yourself and feel comfortable. For me, the entire world is my home. Wherever I go, I feel the same belongingness with the people. The whole world is my family, my home.
I want every home to be like an ashram. Ashram means where there is no shram (effort); where all the efforts, all the strains of the mind, heart and body drop. All the fears, insecurities, stress, everything drops and you experience deep rest. Every home should be like an ashram.
People dream of beautiful homes. They spend so much time, money and energy decorating and re-designing their houses; or they keep changing homes. Yet they are not at rest. You can be at rest only when you are comfortable first within yourself.
The first step is to relax and the last step is to relax as well! The most relaxing or comfortable place is right within you. Repose in that peaceful, cool, calm, serene depth of your being – this is immensely valuable and precious. Book yourself in this most beautiful, most comfortable home in the whole universe. Bring the mind which is all over the place, back to its source. Welcome home! It is only when you come home to yourself that every place looks beautiful and you feel that every place is your own home. Then wherever you go, you add beauty and bring comfort to others.
When you are unhappy or tired, even sweet things are nauseating, music is disturbing, and the moon is irritating. When you are calm and centred, clouds are magical, rain is liquid sunshine and even noise is music. So it is important to take proper rest. But when can you rest? Rest is possible only when you have stopped all other activities. When you stop moving around, when you stop working, thinking, talking, seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, when all these voluntary activities stop, then you get rest. In sleep, you are left with only involuntary activities like breathing, the heartbeat, digestion and blood circulation. But this is not total rest. When the mind settles down, it has come back home. That is when one gets deep rest and this happens in meditation.
Right now you are on the doorstep. You are locked out of your own house. Bang on your inner door. Do not delay a moment. All wealth is within you. When your inner door opens, there is love, joy, peace and comfort. As long as desires linger in your mind, you cannot be at total rest. You cannot be at home.
Sri Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, “You cannot get into Yoga unless you drop the desires or hankerings in you”. You can see this from your own experience; if you go to bed with some restlessness or agitation you will not get deep sleep. Very ambitious people cannot have deep sleep because the mind inside is not free. Every desire or ambition is like a sand particle in the eye. One way is to extend your desire or make it so big that it doesn’t bother you. A big stone or a rock can never get into your eyes. The other way is to remove it. Dispassion is removing this particle of dust or sand from your eye.
Just let go of everything. The best way to do this is to feel that “the world is disappearing or dissolving…and feel that you are dead!” Unless you feel that, you cannot meditate or feel complete rest. For many, the mind doesn’t settle even after death. Wise are those who can settle their minds while alive! And for this, you have to merely come home to yourself.
Among all the planets in the solar system, the earth is privileged to host life in so many forms and among all the species, humans are the most privileged as they can host the knowledge. Again and again remember that you are peace and love and that you are hosting the creator. Like birds returning to their nests, come back to your source. Come back home.
Make your home Divine’s home and there will be light, love and abundance. Make your body Divine’s abode and there will be peace and bliss. Feel your mind as a toy of the Divine and you’ll watch and enjoy all its games. See this world as play and as a display of Divine Himself and you will repose in the non-dual self, which is your home!
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