Most of the people these days are suffering from DEPRESSION due to some personal or professional reasons. Here are the 2 answers given by Guruji about depression.
1. Guruji I feel very depressed these days and I want to commit suicide?
Sri Sri : Just relax! and be dead now! shareer ko kyun marte ho (why do you want to kill your body ?)Restlessness is in your mind. By destroying your body you are not going to get anything. Kill the mind , that is there real death you are looking for. If your mind dies you relax. If this does not happen you cannot relax. By destroying your body don't think you will be at peace. You have come to the right place. Killing your body your restlessness remains. Your body is a sacred thing. It belongs to God ! What makes you so restless is your desire. Drop that craving of yours and your mind becomes calm. You want to compete with someone and when you cannot you become restless. All ambitions make you restless. Kill your ambition , throw your ambition out. If you are peaceful from inside you can do anything . aatma hatya karoge tho 400 -500 saal ghoomte rahoge (If you commit suicide you will keep going round and round for 400-500 years !) It is like - when you are feeling cold do you need more blankets or u taking off your clothes will help ???!!!
Suicide is taking off your clothes when u are already feeling cold !!!
There is a story I want to share. There was an earthquake in Gujarat many years ago. Our volunteers went to work there. They met an elderly lady who had gone to the temple and on her return found that she had lost everyone in her family. She had lost her sons, daughter-in-law and husband. Her home had crumbled. She had only a little amount in her purse which she wanted to give as a donation. Our volunteers refused her donation and said that they had come to give and not take. She said, “Nature has taken everything away from me. Don’t take away my right to give as well. Please accept my contribution, it is my dharma.” Our volunteers had tears in their eyes. When you have and you share, it is not a big deal. When you don’t have and you share, then that is something.
2. Guruji, they say the recipe for depression is to only think about oneself. But at the start of Mahabharata war, Arjuna was thinking about others, yet he was depressed. Please explain.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Well, the mantra for depression is - “What about me, what about me”. And Arjuna was thinking how he could do the work which he was supposed to do, and what people would think of him. It was again about himself only. It is not just thinking about oneself, but your other different attachments and lack of understanding can also lead to depression. But one sure technique to get depressed is- Just sitting, doing nothing and thinking, ‘what about me, what about me, what will happen to me?’ You are sure to get depressed this way! The most difficult thing to do is to express our feelings correctly, and to understand others’ feelings correctly. Lacking this skill is the biggest issue faced by the society today, and this has to be developed. It is never perfect, some ups and downs do happen in this matter. Like, what we feel, we cannot express fully, and cannot understand correctly what others feel. This keeps happening in life but when we become more calm and happy, we are able to understand other’s mind more and more. That’s why it is very necessary to do meditation, pranayama etc. That gives more inner clarity, and then we feel that others can understand us better, and also we can express our views better.
