Aho....Niranjano !!!

Q: I don’t have a job and parents and relatives worry about it and keep on asking, ‘Where am I? When am I going to have a job?’ What to do?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You don’t have a job (Yes, came the reply). Keep looking for a job. Don’t be too choosy. Once you get a job that they won’t ask the same question. They will ask something else. (laughter) When are you getting married? And once you get married, the question will be, ‘When will you have kids?’ One after another, people will keep asking questions and you are not to satisfy them all. Count on those paths, status. (Then the person asks, ‘Guruji, I am contented but my parents…’ to which Sri Sri replies: There is no but - if you are contented - the ‘but’ disappears!)

Q: Why does our mind run after fame money and glamour? Is it necessary?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Well, you got this question! First, you understand that the mind is running. Then you get this question, ‘Is it necessary?’ I leave this question to you. It is very personal, very individual. I don't think it is necessary. But my answer will not necessarily suffice for you. It is has to come from within. Otherwise, it will be just a mood making. ‘Oh, I don’t want money’, but one part of the mind will say, ‘No, I need money.’ One mind will say, ‘I don’t need fame and another will say, ‘No, I need fame’. Like this, the conflict starts happening. But when you wake up and see, and see those people who have had all this - how shallow and hollow they are, then naturally you find there is no significance in all this. Then neither will you crave for it, nor will you make any effort to renounce it. People who say, ‘I don’t want fame’, inside, somewhere, the mind is saying, ‘Oh, I want fame, I want fame’. When the sun has arisen, what is the use of a torchlight? You are moving with a torchlight and suddenly you realize there is no meaning in moving with the torchlight, when the sun is there. Then that is your experience, your true experience. So when you run behind things which are illusive - you will realize that it is causing more pain, more suffering and ‘it is not giving me what I really want’.

Then there is fulfillment, centeredness, a subtle solid strength comes from within. Then if fame comes, money comes, it doesn’t touch you. It comes or doesn’t come, doesn’t matter to you. ‘I want it’ or ‘I don’t want it’ are two sides of the same coin. Somewhat we need to be – let it be.