Art of Living Burlington & Oakville

05/15/2026

“When you feel low on energy, see if your diet is balanced and in moderation; see if you are sleeping enough (about 6-8 hours a day); see if you are practising breathing techniques like pranayamas and Sudarshan Kriya; and lastly, see if you are meditating daily to settle the mind and bring it back to the source.”

— Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

05/06/2026

Gurudev, I feel that emotions overpower the intellect. Knowledge is only at the level of intellect, so can I assume that knowledge cannot help when my emotions are overpowering me?

Sri Sri : Knowledge does help you. If you are just flowing with emotions alone, you will be an emotional wreck. But time to time, it is knowledge which steps in and reigns in the emotions. May not be all the time, but most of the time it does. Many times you get so angry but the knowledge comes, "Okay, cool down". When your intellect says this then you cool down.
So intellect cannot win all the time, but most of the time that is why you are sane. Insane people have no intellect, they are only ruled by emotions.
🆂︎🆁︎🅸︎ 🆂︎🆁︎🅸︎

04/22/2026

Q: Gurudev, What is the best way to deal wisely with mistakes I have made?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar ji - In the ‘Srimad Bhagwatam, ‘there is a story of King Ajamila. The king had many vices. When he was on his deathbed, he called his son, who was named ‘Narayan’. And when he uttered the Divine’s name, he got liberated. This story assures people that, however their past has been, turning within and moving towards the Divine, even at the last moment, can bring them liberation. The story teaches u not to be guilty of the mistakes u have committed in ur past.

You realise a mistake when u are innocent in the present moment. When u are innocent in the present moment, then u are already out of the mistake. Instead of brooding over the past, just wake up and acknowledge it. Move forward and don’t get stuck in blaming yourself or others. It is like u are sitting with a garbage can, ready to throw the garbage at someone. But it all comes back to u, like a volleyball. This game goes on.

If you want to get out of this game, acknowledge the mistake. What we normally do is justify our mistakes so that we can avoid the guilt. It doesn’t work. Whatever justification u give, the guilt lingers beneath the surface. You resist the guilt, and it continues to exist, distorting ur behaviour from within. You have the right to feel miserable for the mistake u have made. Remain totally miserable for one whole moment, ten minutes, or twenty-five minutes, not more. And then, come out of it.

Acknowledge a mistake without justifying it. A justification does not remove the guilt, as it is superficial. It makes u feel even guiltier. Be one hundred percent with the guilt, and that pain will become like a meditation and relieve u from the guilt.

Do not lament over ur mistake. Just take the lesson from it. You will not be judged by ur mistakes, but by ur virtues. Mistakes are of the earth. Virtues are of the Divine.

Wise is the one who learns from other's mistakes.

Less wise is the one who learns from his own mistakes.

The fool keeps making the same mistakes again and again and never learns from them.

When the mind is established and centered, u cannot make mistakes even if u want.

Follow for more such amazing wisdom by Gurudev

04/11/2026

7 GURU MANTRAS TO A PROSPEROUS LIFE

1. Time and again, reflect on your life in relation to the cosmos. It is not even a drop in the ocean. This awareness will simply drop all the smallness in you and you will be able to live every moment of your life.

2. Remind yourself of the highest goal in your life. You are not here to grumble or to complain. You are here for something much bigger.

3. Serve! Engage yourself in community service to whatever extent you can.

4. Have faith that the Divine loves you dearly and is taking care of you. Have the trust and faith that you will get whatever is needed in life.

5. As we flip the calendar, we need to keep flipping our mind as well. Often, our diaries are full with memories. See that you don’t fill your future dates with past events. Learn and unlearn from the past, and move on.

6. Smile more! True sign of prosperity is an unconditional smile on your face.

7. Take some time to walk by yourself. Nurture yourself with music, prayer and silence. Do a few minutes of meditation, pranayama and yoga. This heals and rejuvenates you, giving you depth and stability.

Let us celebrate with this one intention that let’s bring home (Spiritual) Knowledge to everyone - that life, events are impermanent.
What is permanent is our spirit, our consciousness. It has no birth and death.

Life at a higher plane is eternal. So celebrate every moment knowing that every moment is a gift to us.

Gurudev Sri Sri

04/04/2026

FACING THE WORLD TAKES FAITH

Mankind is passing through difficult times. With rising stress levels, terror attacks, environmental pollution, there are dangers lurking in every corner.

When times get difficult, we need to renew our faith. It’s faith that pulls one through difficult times. It brings out the hidden courage and potential in more ways than one.

Another thing you need to have in order to sail through difficult times is a calm mind. When the mind is calm and you are centred, it’s much easier to face any situation. For this, you need to train the mind a little to live in the present moment and drop the stress. This can be done by attending to your breath.

Combine the inner calm with your faith, and then you have a formula to face any situation. Having faith is to realise that God’s protection is there for you. This much faith is enough to move ahead in life. During the time of reaping the harvest, the farmer holds a broad sieve and puts all the grains into it and stands on an elevated platform and shakes the sieve. If it is mere husk, it just flies away in the air and is lost.

If grain is present, then it falls to the ground and stays. If your faith shakes very quickly, then you are akin to being like the husk.

If your faith shakes quickly when difficulty strikes, you will not be able to face it with your smile intact. If you have faith, you will be able to find ground. And when you have faith that everything will be all right, everything will settle down.

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Ji

02/05/2026

*Question - Gurudev, how can I become as strong as you?*


*Gurudev Sri Sri - The greatest strength is rest, deep rest and love. If you have these two things in life, everything else will come. It will happen. Look, now you are mine and I am yours, you should feel abundance. Make sure you have everything and do not lack anything.

If you see any deficiency or shortcoming in yourself, meditate and practice your sadhana. With your practice, you will overcome it. Why do you want to be famous? Instead of thinking about becoming famous, think about what you can contribute to this world.*

🌿🌿Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

01/13/2026

01/09/2026

Whenever you are disturbed, know that you are holding on to something! Whenever you are disturbed, it doesn't matter about what, ask yourself this question; “Did I let it go or am I holding on to it?". That determines your state of mind, that determines your peace or lack of it. By letting go, you will get deep peace.

Better than the practice is knowledge or wisdom, and better than wisdom is deep meditation and letting go of the fruit of action. Because when you let go, you renounce the whole past. What is karma? The whole past; that burden we are carrying in our mind.

When you let go of that, you get eternal peace, the peace that you are craving for.

- Gurudev Sri Sri Ravishankar

01/01/2026

New Year Message from:

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar ji

This year, let knowledge dawn in your life. The most important thing is that knowledge takes the forefront of our life. We all have knowledge, but sometimes this goes in the background. He's not in charge. When knowledge is asleep, it is ignorance. When knowledge is in the background, it leads to repentance later. When knowledge is in charge, it brings joy and celebration. We celebrate in every situation. Because life is a celebration.

So wish knowledge take the forefront in this new year.

May the rising sun from the East bring wisdom to you and all in the New Year. Happy New Year to everyone!

Your life generally revolves around money, relationships and reputation; Chasing them makes you lose your health. Instead, if life revolves around commitment, wisdom, service and celebration, you will automatically receive money, reputation, health and relationships will improve.

May your life revolve around wisdom, service, commitment and celebration in the new year! Ancestral wisdom tells us to appreciate good qualities wherever they are, even in our enemies. May this year bring us the ability and strength to make it!

Dear, you have so little time on this planet, why do you make so many people around you miserable and you are miserable too? Life doesn't depend on what they say or on your reputation. It goes way above and beyond. What you think of life is just the tip of the iceberg.

If life revolves around the four principles, then money comes, reputation strengthens, relationships improve (and you relate to everyone) and health stays robust.

- Acquire wisdom and knowledge in life.

- Make life a celebration and create celebrations around you.

- Uplifting the human spirit (Instilling enthusiasm in others and oneself).

- Commit to doing good.

So what you want you already have when you don't focus on it. When you focus on the first four principles and not the last four, you feel miserable.

So on your fridge you can put this: This year, may my life revolve around wisdom, celebration, service, and commitment.

Time presents itself to you. It involves challenges, charm and, of course, change. Change is part of time. But with wisdom one can sail with great comfort. Accept the challenge and appreciate the charm it brings.

12/09/2025

Q: Gurudev, How can we attain this altered state of consciousness (enlightenment)?

HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

This is why we say, 'Do meditation'.

Why do we sing? So that there is activity in the right brain. And why do we discuss knowledge and logical things? So that there is activity in the left brain as well. That is why we have kept both, logic and music in satsang, so that there is a balance between both sides of the brain. There is a complete science on this.

Now, if someone sitting somewhere says, 'It is not possible', then what can you say to them? You can only say, 'Well, that is your experience'.
What is important is that one should be open to experience. But if someone says, ‘This is it, I know everything’, then you can’t say anything to them. If people are fanatic and they think, 'This is it, I know everything', then it is not correct.

Lord Mahavira (spiritual master who propagated Jainism) gave the sayatva, which is one of the most scientific approaches of dealing with the intellect. It says, ‘Perhaps there is something that I do not know.’
If someone says, ‘This is it, I know everything', it is not correct.’
That is why he spoke of sayatva: perhaps it could be some other way also. All is possible. That is a sign of a mature intellect, otherwise it is an immature intellect.

One can use jargons and write lots of books. Some of these pseudo-intellectual people who claim to be enlightened, they are a big problem for the world. They call themselves as Gurus and all that, but they have big egos. They know the answer and they criticize everybody.

Someone said, being like a child is stupidity; innocence is stupidity. These people have no understanding of stupidity and of innocence, and they criticize! They piggyback on other’s popularity; catch hold of popular people and piggyback on them.

Someone who has confidence on them self will not piggyback on someone else’s popularity. They will just do what they know, and what they want to do.

So, there is no need to comment on what others are saying. The main thing is that everybody has a right to exhibit their knowledge or their ignorance. This is my contention. Everyone has their right to exhibit not only knowledge, they have the right to exhibit their ignorance also.

12/01/2025

*Volunteer*

Who is a volunteer? One who comes to help, without being asked to help; one who is self-motivated, inspired, becomes a volunteer.

There is the possibility of the inspirational motivation going down in a volunteer, which could bring frustration.

Usually volunteers come from the space of demand rather than humility – this dilutes the quality.

Another slack that could happen to a volunteer is that they could slip away from commitment, thinking there is no ‘boss’ – "If I like it, I do it; if I don’t like it, I don’t!" It is like the steering wheel of a car – if all the tires say they do not need steering, then the car cannot run smoothly. If you want to construct a building, you have to accept the authority of the structural engineer.

All these can only be overcome by being more grounded in spiritual knowledge. A volunteer devoid of spiritual dimension is utterly weak.

1) A volunteer needs to stick to his commitment.
2) The integrity in a volunteer comes from spiritual practices.
3) The authority needs to be acknowledged.
4) The strength of a volunteer comes from the challenges he is ready to willingly face.
5) A volunteer moves beyond boundaries as he finds he is capable of doing so many things he never ever thought of doing.
6) A true volunteer does not expect appreciation or reward.
7) A volunteer has such a joy – that joy, itself, comes as the reward.
If a volunteer thinks he is obliging somebody, he is thoroughly mistaken. He is ‘volunteering’ because he derives so much joy out of it.

The joy is immediate – it does not come on the first of every month in the form of a salary!

When a volunteer realizes this, he is filled with gratitude.

When a volunteer waivers from within, the support system is knowledge and good friends.

:Sri Sri Ravishankar Gurudev