Service without attitude
Love without reason
Knowledge without intellect
Life beyond time and events
Is what you are
-H H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Bangalore Ashram, May 16, 1996.
The book Celebrating Silence, authored by His Holiness SriSri Ravi Shankar, who is fondly called ‘Guruji’, is a collection of excerpts
from his spiritual discourses. In this book Guruji discusses topics ranging
from doubt and fear to love and dispassion, while very subtly giving the reader
an idea of the essence what it means to be on the spiritual path or on the path
of spiritual enquiry. A great introduction to the teachings of Guruji,
Celebrating
Silence tells the reader the importance of and the
significance of the values attached to Seva and Sadhana. Everyday, we all
encounter something I like to call ‘Trigger situations’- we go about our lives
very normally, but there are those moments in which something in us just snaps
and causes us to explode.
Here’s a recount of one such experience- It was the end of
another mad day at work, and I faced the drive back home- from Bellandur to
Vidyaranyapura (a distance of 35 kM in peak hour traffic) a massive undertaking
in any situation, especially given the notoriety of Bangalore’s traffic.
Eventually, two hours later, after battling horrendous traffic jams at every junction
(the flyovers and underpasses were still under construction then), I reached
home. As expected, I was ready to pull my hair out while cursing the infrastructure
of the city. Reading Celebrating Silence was my daily ritual, and as was my
usual practice, I opened up a random page. Those few sentences I read
immediately changed my perception- I suddenly realized that nothing was
permanent. Every day, every minute, every second is a new one. What is causing
hardship today may very well change in the future. I realized the value of
staying in, and enjoying the present moment. I realized the frivolousness of my
frustrations- not just that day’s, but of all those I could recount.I would
like you to look at another, very significant aspect of this situation. All the
knowledge and the wisdom is from the ancient Vedic Scriptures and Guruji’s
study of them. But, it proved effective and applicable to a situation observable
in almost all of our lives on a daily basis, even today, in the 21st
Century. Knowledge really is, beyond time!
Celebrating Silence is a must have for those just venturing
onto the spiritual path. For those already on the spiritual path and lookingfor profound yet subtle knowledge, it is the gateway to a warehouse of
knowledge and wisdom.
