The Spirit Of Enquiry

Compiled from talks by Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

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Everyone wants happiness. Everyone is looking for love, but are they finding it? Are people finding love without all the imperfections of love? No; that is not happening. When happiness comes, it comes with a tax and the tax is unhappiness - misery. You love, and with the love comes jealousy, possessiveness, anger, greed, and hatred. Excessive love without understanding, causes lust, anger and arrogance - ahost of negative qualities. And the negative qualities in turn distort love, destroy happiness and bring inertia and dullness in life. The goal of spiritual practices, of spiritual life, is to have happiness without misery.

Life is not a small thing; life is not just a few years spent on this planet. Life goes beyond time and space. Now, how do we go about developing the spiritual dimension in our lives? Start from where you are by asking yourself this question: “What is it that I want in my life?”

There are six kinds of people who ask questions:

The first type is those who are sad or unhappy. Unhappy people ask questions, but they do not listen to the answers. This is a fact!

Old people, especially when they are at home, suffering, say, “Oh, I have this problem, why has God been so unkind to me? Why this problem? I did everything good, why this suffering for me?’

So, sad or unhappy people ask questions, but they do not expect an answer. And if you give them an answer then you are foolish. You should simply keep quiet. Just smile at them. Your simple presence is good enough for them.