Namaste!
This week, we’re honored to have the renowned Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar joining us on the Soul Boom podcast.
Gurudev is a beacon of wisdom, known worldwide for his teachings on inner peace, spirituality, and the art of living. The conversation dives deep into the essentials of living a conscious, joyful life—exactly the kind of spiritual life hacks we all could use.
In the same spirit, for this edition of the Soul Boom Dispatch, we're thrilled to share with you an excerpt from Gurudev’s latest book, Notes for the Journey Within: Essentials of the Art of Living.
In these short excerpts, Gurudev unpacks simple but penetrating insights on moving from imperfection to perfection, finding true nourishment through meditation, and mastering the delicate balance of being fully engaged in life while maintaining inner peace.
These reflections are more than just words—they’re an invitation to shift perspective and connect with the deepest, most expansive parts of our true self. If you try some out, we’d love to hear your experiences.
Your friends,
The Soul Boom Team
Wisdom Beyond Words
Excerpts from Notes for the Journey Within: Essentials of the Art of Living
By Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Why Are We Imperfect?
Question: Why are we imperfect?
Gurudev: So that we can grow to perfection. Life is a movement from imperfection to perfection. A seed contains the tree, but to become a tree, it must cease to be a seed. In life, you can either see imperfection at every step—or you can see a movement from one perfection to another perfection.
Wherever you put your attention, that will grow. If you put your attention on the lack of something, the lack will increase.
Meditation: Food for the Soul
Meditation is food for the soul. When you’re hungry, spontaneously you go to eat something. If you’re thirsty, you want to drink some water. In the same way the soul yearns for meditation and this tendency is in everyone.
The problem is that we try to look for that satisfaction where it isn’t available. It’s like going to a grocery store when you want to put gas in your car. So the right direction needs to be found.
Meditation is uplifting the energy and mind and spreading it out. There is something in you that expands when you’re happy and contracts when you’re unhappy. But we never pay attention to what’s contracting and expanding on the inside—we only focus on the outside. We don’t pay attention to the reason.
Even a glimpse of this consciousness, this energy inside you, can make the smile on your face so strong that nothing whatsoever can take it away from you. Life assumes another dimension suddenly. You don’t have to abandon everything. Just being amid all the noise and still recognizing that beauty, that thing that’s so beautiful, so wonderful, so fascinating, right here and now, is meditation.
Kick the Ball and Be in the Goal
Do you know why the earth is shaped like a ball?
(Silence . . .)
So you can kick it, and it will roll away!
From the moment you wake up in the morning, you’re with people, and your mind is caught up in worldly thoughts. So, sometime during the day, sit for a few minutes with your eyes closed, get into the cave of your heart, and kick the world away like a ball.
But as soon as you open your eyes, hold on to the ball because you need to kick it again in the next session. (Laughter)
During the day, be 100 percent attached to the work; don’t try to detach yourself. But when you sit for meditation, then totally detach yourself. Only those who can totally detach can take total responsibility.
Eventually you’ll be able to be both attached and detached simultaneously. Kick the ball and be in the goal! This is the skill of living—the art of living.
Negativity Needs an Anchor
Negativity can’t remain without support. Positivity and happiness can exist without any reason.
The mind goes on trying to find support for its negativity. It looks for a hook to hang its negativity—if not this person, then that thing or that person—this perpetuates maya (delusion).
The mind goes on trying to find support for its negativity. It looks for a hook to hang its negativity—if not this person, then that thing or that person—this perpetuates maya (delusion).
All negativity is an indicator for you to move to your center and broaden your vision to cosmic intelligence. So instead of focusing your attention on support for your negativity, look to the seed of negativity.
SKY breathing, meditation, and silence help you transcend negativity.
Which Is More Expensive: Your Smile or Your Anger?
Usually, you give your anger freely and your smile rarely, as though a smile is costly. In ignorance, anger is cheaper, and a smile is costly. In wisdom, a smile is free—like sunshine, air, and water—and anger is extremely expensive, like a diamond.
Conclusion: Be generous with your smile and frugal with your anger.
Words
We attach meaning to words and distort them.
For example, the word disillusioned. It’s good when you become disillusioned. You’re out of the illusion and have come to reality. The meanings of words change over time. The word enthused came from ancient Greek, meaning “God is within us.” Then enthused came to mean “crazy,” and today the meaning of the word has changed again.
Don’t be stuck with words. Your worries are words; your ideas are words. Wisdom is beyond words. It’s your very Being, the essence of all that’s expressed in words. See and relate beyond words—then truth dawns in your life!
If you manipulate words, it’s a lie;
If you play on words, it’s a joke;
If you rely on words, it’s ignorance;
If you transcend words, it’s wisdom.
What Makes a Real Vacation?
Rest and happiness make a real vacation. Often people go on vacation and return tired and tanned, needing a few more days to recuperate. A true vacation energizes you and doesn’t wear you out.
Remember, nothing energizes you like wisdom.
Doubts and complaints are impediments to rest.
The moment you set out on your vacation, know that it has begun. Often people expect to find a pinnacle of happiness. Enjoy every moment of the journey as children do; don’t wait for the destination.
If you can’t be happy in one place, you can’t be happy in any other place. If you don’t know how to row one boat, you won’t be able to row any other boat.
To get the most satisfaction out of your vacation, you need to do something creative and engage in seva (service).
Don’t ever forget to make meditation and gratitude to the Divine a part of your vacation. If your days are holy, then every day is a holiday!
True Love Expects Nothing
True love is always one-sided. True love is not expecting anything in return from the other person.
If you want something in return from the other person, it becomes a barter system. Doing something to get something is business. You give, then demand. Demands destroy love. In demanding love, you are destroying it.
Excerpts from Notes for the Journey Within: Essentials of the Art of Living. Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is a globally renowned spiritual leader, humanitarian, and author celebrated for his work exploring the intersection of spirituality, inner peace, and the art of living. Find him on Instagram: @gurudev
P.S., If you find yourself yearning for ways to awaken your brain but would like to deploy some easy-to-use and scientifically backed up approaches, you may want to try out the Waking Up app from the renowned neuroscientist Sam Harris. As one of our sponsors, you might have heard Rainn talking about it on the Soul Boom Podcast. This app offers a nuts-and-bolts approach to cultivating the skills of mindfulness and peacefulness. Friends of Soul Boom using this link get their first month free and save $30 on the in-app price.