Moksha.....Freedom

Q: Dear Guruji, I want to know why do we have to get moksha?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: It is a natural tendency of every human being to be free. Freedom is not luxury, it is a necessity. Not just human being even animals want freedom.
Babies want freedom. If you tie a scarf on the neck of a baby it just wants to remove it. You put a chain on a baby’s neck and the baby wants to pull it out.
It is the adults who put jewelry around their neck but children want freedom, they don’t want any restriction that is why they throw their hands up and down; free!
 
Wanting freedom is innate to human beings as well as animals. Every life wants freedom and moksha is nothing but freedom. You take a deep breath in and you can’t hold it there, you want breathe out. Only when you breathe out there is freedom. When you breathe out you want to take a breath in and that is freedom.


Freedom is a natural desire in every human being but when the mind get so muddled up in unnecessary day to day things, it forgets that it wants freedom. It is as good as someone who wants to sleep but has forgotten how to sleep. So every life or human being craves for freedom. It is impossible to not want freedom.
 
Freedom is not running away from situations and circumstance. Sometimes the situation is stifling or unpleasant and we run away from it and think this is what is freedom, but that is not so.

Freedom means being unphased by circumstances, situations and the people around you; freedom from your own emotional garbage; freedom from the jungle of your thoughts that bother you; freedom from all the entanglement that you harbor in your head and freedom from fear and anxiety.

Anything that stifles you makes you small and you want to be free from that. 
Freedom (mukti) comes first and then bhakti. Only when you are free does love well up in you and bhakti comes. If you think you are bonded labor you cannot be grateful.
If someone has brought you freedom you feel grateful, ‘oh I am so free. I feel happy!’
 
Only one who is happy and one who is centered can have gratitude or be in the space of love.

Consciousness...It is all about raising your Vibration

10 Ways to Raise your Vibration

1.Forgive yourself and others:
Life is too short to hold on to regrets, grudges, miscommunications, or disappointments. Free yourself by forgiving and letting go of any negative energy you’re holding on to about yourself or others. The process of forgiving yourself and others will result in your feeling light and free; it will raise your vibration.

2. Practice gratitude and appreciation:
Whatever you focus on grows. So, when you focus on every thing in your life you feel grateful for all and the wonderful people you appreciate, the universe hands you more to feel grateful about.

3. Live each day as though it were your last:
Then you will be living in a state of light, love and unconditional
contribution. What would you say to the people you care about ..
4.Meditate or pray:
You open up a direct link between yourself and the spiritual realm when you meditate or pray. You will come closer to your creator energy, raise your vibration experience, peace, clarity, joy and connection, as well as a perfectly balanced state between your mental, physical, emotional and spiritual realms.

5.Suspend judgment:
One judges another to feel less guilty about one’s own misgivings. Judgment energy is dense, dark and heavy. On the other hand, unconditional acceptance is light, free and accepting. Let go of judging and criticising yourself and others. Everyone is on a different path and some appear to be farther ahead on their path than others. Neither path is better nor worse than another. Raise your consciousness to one of acceptance.

6. View every experience as a gift:
If you look back at occurrences in your life, you can easily see how even the worst situations you experienced in your life ended up teaching you invaluable lessons and therefore resulted in putting you in perfect place for your continuing development. When you view every experience — the good, the bad, and the ugly — as a gift, life flows more like a gentle, inspiring breeze.

7. Stay consciously aware of all your thoughts and feelings:
It is easy to fall into negative patterns of complaining and feeling like a victim of society and your life. When you catch yourself in the negative zone, don’t feel badly about it and beat yourself up. Simply choose to switch your consciousness to one of gratitude and positive thinking.

8. Treat your physical body as your temple :
Your body is the only vehicle you’ve been given for this ride called life. The better you care for your body by eating a healthy, balanced diet, and by implementing a regular exercise routine, and by giving your body the rest it requires, the more you will experience increased energy, vitality, joy and freedom.

9. View the world through the eyes of a child:
Children are enthralled by the process of observing and experiencing the wonder and beauty in every single thing. They can’t get enough. Look at every tree, sunset, cloud and human being as a child would and you'll be in a constant state of wonder, joy, surprise, acceptance and enlightenment.

10.Give love, love, love from your heart:
It’s all about love. Love is the highest vibration. Allow yourself to receive love unconditionally from others. Give love from your heart unconditionally to yourself and others and you will experience the highest state of consciousness possible.

Bang on the door......

Be grateful for whatever God has offered you today. And you will see that He goes on offering plenty. Never a lack. But if you go on seeing the lack, then that continues. Your attention on lack allows lack to continue in life.

The more you possess, the more you feel lack. But when you open your eyes and see that you are part of everything, a sense of belonging dawns. And in that belonging there is contentment.

You belong to this whole universe. You are like the cherry on the top of a cake. You complete this existence. You being here on this planet, at this time, brings the time into a fullness. You are here to crown this universe, to crown this existence. This very moment that you are observing in this universe is so precious.

When this awareness dawns in you, where is sorrow? Where is the problem? Where are you caught up? Where have you lost yourself? Some small happenings here or there, a few words from this person or that person? Your prestige or respect is tarnished? You feel you are lost?

What is this foolishness in you? Wake up and see this whole creation. Open your eyes and you will see the Divine in every particle of creation. You are here now today. You crown this creation.

In front of such infinite joy, all other joys here and there are nothing. Other joys are like dust in the ecstasy of your Being.

Spirituality is like a banana and religion is like the banana skin. People today have thrown away the fruit and are left holding tightly to the skin.

Jesus said, "Knock, and it shall be opened unto you." Two thousand years ago the human mind was simple, natural, closer to the source. One needed only to knock on the door and grace would flow.

Today the mind has become more complex, more confused. Today the door to our innermost chamber is so tightly closed that we have to bang it down. Bang on your inner door. See that there is no lack of love in you, there is no lack of anything whatsoever inside you.

You can experience God in the depth of your heart. Do not delay a moment. Bang on the door. All the wealth is within you.

-- Sri Sri Ravi Shankar