Guiding Light: Effort and effortlessness go hand in hand

Guiding Light: Effort and effortlessness go hand in hand

Sri Sri Ravi ShankarUpdated: Sunday, December 25, 2022, 10:50 PM IST
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In one year’s time, our body, that seems unchanging, undergoes tremendous change. With each change, the mind is affected, and the mind in turn affects changes in the body. If you spend one whole month in tension and worry, you can see it starts showing on your face and body. When you’re doing the pranayamas and the Sudarshan Kriya regularly, and enjoying wonderful satsangs – just look at the mirror – your face changes; within a few days, your face starts glowing!

Your body is a constantly flowing, changing river – that is why, it has an intelligence to heal itself. It is not just the medicines that help you heal but your mind also comes into play. Believe in the power of your mind in being able to heal.

All things in nature are complementary. See, only with contrast, can you appreciate something. It is because of the heat that you can appreciate the coolness. Opposite values are complementary. So is it with effort and effortlessness. When you want to work, you put in all your effort and then the work is done – but, when you want to sleep, can you put in effort and get sleep? There are certain things you can do through effort, and certain things that you do effortlessly, e.g. sleep – the less effort you put, the better sleep you get. Otherwise, your effort, itself, becomes an obstacle to sleeping!

The same, with memory – if you forget something, and you struggle to remember it, you will not remember! Your very effort becomes an obstacle for memory. So you just drop it, and when you drop the effort to remember, you get the answer! Remembering is something that happens effortlessly.

The third thing is appreciation and love. If you want to appreciate beauty, you cannot do it through effort. Simply and suddenly, the appreciation of beauty happens in you! And love? – You cannot try to love. The more you try to love, the more difficult it is. Love is effortless.

The next effortless thing is meditation. If you put effort into meditation, your meditation is finished! Meditation happens effortlessly.

All other things need effort – memorising anything requires effort, learning skills need effort. If you want to learn the computer, it takes you some time to adjust to the keyboard! If you want to learn some sport, you have to give 100% effort. If you want to play the sitar, you have to put in effort. And… if you need to tell a lie? – 500% effort! [Laughter!] This is because when you tell a lie, you forget what you have told, and it needs a lot of effort to keep it in mind!

Life is a combination of effort and effortlessness… and they are complementary! If you work dynamically, you sleep well. If you have memorised well, you remember automatically. If you are doing service, you are able to love more, because there is satisfaction and your heart is opening up. If you can see beauty everywhere, you can appreciate beauty! When you can do this, things become effortless – Even jobs, requiring effort, will not be strenuous. Do you see, when you want to do something, when the heart is in it, when there is an appreciation of beauty, then even effort is not strenuous?

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