- He's a spiritual leader and the founder
of the Art of Living Foundation.
The Art of Living Foundation aims to relieve
individual stress, societal problems, and violence.
In 1997, he established the
International Association for Human Values.
He's Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
and here are his top 10 rules for success.
- I'm one who always welcomes criticism.
I encourage people you should welcome criticism.
And be bold enough to give criticism.
If the criticism is coming out of benevolence
that someone is criticizing me
so that I can become better,
then it is always welcome.
But if someone is criticizing just out of jealousy
or trying to pull someone down,
then that is not good.
Then that is coming from a malefic mindset.
So constructive criticism I feel everyone should welcome.
Criticism, compassion.
Criticism with love is most adorable thing
and it should always be welcomed.
If you can embrace embarrassment, nothing can shake you.
It's one thing that people try
to run away from is embarrassment.
Criticism, a mild form of embarrassment
is a mild form of criticism.
A mild form of feeling uncomfortable.
So sometime we need to get out of the comfort zone,
feel that little uncomfortable.
Yes, then, you know, abilities in us dawn.
If you are content, happy.
If you're centered,
everything will flow to you.
You don't have to go and grab something.
Things will come your way.
This is what I'm saying.
This is why this world is called, Maya.
Do you know what Maya means?
When you try to go and grab it,
it runs away from you.
What?
If you try to possess,
it you try to grab something,
it just runs away.
And if you are stable, still,
content within yourself,
they all run towards you.
You know I say we are all global people.
We have to learn something from every way in the world.
And I would say we have to learn the precision,
and the timeliness, and the commitment from Germans.
The world should learn.
I always say that perfection is always Germans.
Etiquecies is always from England.
The mannerisms, etiquecies, you know?
And business and salesmanship, Americans (laughs).
Teamwork from Japanese.
Japanese are so good in teamwork.
Similarly spirituality from India.
Human values, spirituality, compassion.
It all comes from India.
So we need to get the best from every part of the world.
In the next coming generation will see
that sort of global human being, you know.
Of course, technology has shrunk the whole world
into a global village.
Today through technology, once again,
we communicate with the whole world.
In the same way, if we can tune our minds
to the simplicities, the innocence.
To caring and sharing we will find the whole world
as one family.
Global family.
When you want to have balance,
you will definitely have it.
You can have it.
Just as "I want to have balance my life"
this thought itself is good enough,
you're already balancing.
You are moving in the direction.
Yeah.
This question simply arises "How do I do it?"
You know you can do it.
Ask yourself, your consciousness will tell you,
"I'm not balanced.
"I'm missing out on this."
Your consciousness will say.
Then you listen to your consciousness.
If you're attending to your work too much,
your consciousness will prick,
"Hey you're forgetting your family,
"your wife, your children, your husband."
And then you'll say, "Okay, I'll attend to them."
If you're attending too much, so much in the family,
and forget about all other things,
then your consciousness will prick,
"My God, what am I got into?
"What did I get into?
"Day and night I'm just emerged in this family affairs,
"I'm not being useful to the world.
"I have to do something.
"I have to pursue my cause.
"I have to do justice to my work."
The mind will prick.
Then you'll do that.
But this wanting to keep balance in life,
that very thought is good enough.
It's like the fuse in the electrical system.
You know the fuse in the electrical system?
Whenever electric current surges too much,
the fuse will break and save everything else.
Like that little amount of guilt must be there.
Like the fuse in the system.
You don't justify your work, but that little bit
is okay to have like the fuse in it.
You know the electrical system,
and on the electrical board,
there'll be one small box called fuse.
So whenever there is imbalance in current
the fuse will burst and save the rest
of the electrical system.
Like that in life, a little bit of guilt is okay.
But not too much.
Like salt in the food.
If there is too much salt, can you eat it?
No.
Got it?
So wanting to have balance is good to have.
Like breathing in and breathing out
we need passion, we need dispassion,
and we need compassion.
All three has to exist.
People without passion
cannot achieve anything in their life.
So you need passion.
Especially youngsters,
they need to have a passion.
They lack passion, they get into depression.
So passion is essential.
But only passion, this has been the problem.
Only passion will lead to disappointment and despair.
So you need to have little detachment,
that is dispassion.
And dispassion is when it's like,
okay you did a lot of activity
and you take some time to sleep, rest.
You let everything go and relax.
You switch over to this side,
and meditation is part of it.
The ability to let go and move forward,
that I would call as dispassion.
And in between we need compassion.
If you see you have a wrong decision,
you have to weigh the pros and cons.
"Should I continue on this all my life?
"Or should I change?
"If I change what is the loss that I will face?
"What is the problems I may encounter?"
You have to weigh it.
You have to see how much the change will make you better
or if the change even more problematic,
better not change.
Just carry on with whatever wrong decision you made.
You know.
Sometimes you can't change.
You have made a wrong decision,
you have to go.
You know.
You can't think of being a bachelor,
after you have had a kid (laughs).
Once you have a child,
then you have to be a father or mother and continue.
There's no point in regretting the past.
Similarly you wanted to be a doctor,
but you became an engineer.
And after 25 years of serving as an engineer,
you can't say, "No I made a wrong choice.
"I should've been a doctor." (laughs)
There's no point.
Now you can't go back to study the school
and become a doctor, again.
You are an engineer, continue on with that.
Got it?
So you have to weigh the pros and cons.
You see to achieve anything in the world
it needs effort.
To achieve anything in the world,
any pleasure on any material thing,
you want to achieve,
it needs effort.
If you look at the benefits
that meditation bring into our life,
you feel it is all the more relevant,
all the more needed.
In ancient times meditation was used for enlightenment.
For finding the self.
And meditation is a way to get rid of misery,
to overcome misery, overcome problems.
Meditation has been the way
to improve one's abilities.
Three things.
And today living apart, living aside enlightenment,
if you see the social ills of today,
the stress and tension,
it calls for one to meditate.
The more responsibility you have in your life,
more is the need for meditation.
Life is much larger than failure and success.
Life is much larger than birth and death.
We are much beyond them all.
Got it?
If you have the strength,
if you can understand this knowledge,
then you will walk like a king.
Nobody can shake you.
- Thank you so much for watching.
I made this video because Shagun Rawat asked me to.
So if there's a famous entrepreneur
that you want me to profile next,
leave it in the comments below
and I'll see what I can do.
I also love to know which of the top 10 rules
had the biggest impact on you.
Leave it in the comments
and I will join the discussion.
Thank you so much for watching.
Continue to believe
and I'll see you soon.