Seeing Something BEYOND!

There are two kinds of minds. One is an open mind, another is a closed mind. Closed mind is that which says, “This is how it is”, “I know it. That is it”. It gets hardened. An open mind is, “Oh, may be! Perhaps! I do not know!” Limited knowledge and conformity to it makes a mind very hard. Whenever you seem to understand a situation and label it – “This is how it is”, that is the beginning of your problem.

- Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

All problems arise from knowing, not ‘not knowing’. If you do not know, your mind is open, you say, ‘Oh! May be! Perhaps something I don’t know.’ You wait. You do not label something you do not know. Whenever you think injustice has been done to you, or whenever you think you are suffering, whenever you think you are a victim, whenever you think something bad has happened to you; all this falls in the category of ‘I know it, this is how things are.’ Whenever we attach a label ‘not good’, it comes from thorough knowledge.

Suffering is a product of limited knowledge. A question is a sign of limited knowledge. But when there is amazement, patience, joy, you are in a state of ‘I don’t know, may be, something, Oh, what is it? I don’t know.’ Something you cannot pin point. The whole life is a shift from limited ‘I know’ to all possibilities. You think you know the world and this is it! That is the biggest problem.

This is not just one world, there are many layers in this world. When you are upset, you are not just upset for no reason. There is some string that is being pulled. That is why there are stories. Children say, there are guardian angels, the angels who give you gifts and there are angels who give you trouble. We do not call them angels, we call them devils. The devils who bring you temptation.

When your mind is open for all possibilities, an event happens and there could be many possibilities for that event to be that way, not just in the gross but in the subtle also.