Guiding Light by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: All virtues are in you, they only have to blossom

You should note that there is no virtue that you are going to cultivate from outside. All the virtues are in you, they only have to blossom. If you think you don’t have virtues or if you think you have no faith, nobody on earth or heaven can make you have faith. If you think you don’t have it, you don’t have it! That is it!

If you keep telling a child, “You are stupid,” he/she will soon internalise it. Always tell your children, “Oh! You have such capabilities, but you are not using them. You are very intelligent. Why are you not using it? Come on. Use it.” I tell many volunteers, “You are so brilliant, but why don’t you use it?”

There are two ways to teach. One is saying, “Oh, you are stupid. “You are an idiot,” etc. People use all these words to put someone down. This is tamasic, a very gross way of dealing with people. The sattvic way, which is more refined, is saying, “Oh, you are beautiful! You are wise. Come on, wake up!,” The way of Upanishads is: “You are beautiful. Come on, wake up!” Even to the stingiest person, say, “You are so generous! Come on, wake up, let the generosity in you blossom; you are so righteous. Come on, wake up to this reality.” This is the sattvic way of uplifting someone.

For some people, the tamasic method works but for many, the sattvic method is best because a good horse just runs when it sees the shadow of the whip. This means that the Upanishads are not for people who are gross and spend all the time thinking, “What about me?” “Am I good or am I bad?” Such people can take a different train. The way of the Upanishads is an express train, fast moving. And the path, the way is just to say, “It is all present. All this dharma, righteousness and wisdom is present in my Being. Let it get established in me.”

All the virtues that are present as a seed in me, let them blossom. Let them grow. Only after you have sown a seed, can you water it. There is no point watering, if you have not even sown a seed.