Confidence, Commitment and Responsibility - Sri Sri

A Talk by H. H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

I once happened to meet a fragile-looking woman from a cottage industry. She had stitched a handkerchief, and she had 17 points on why her handkerchief was the best in the whole world. It was just a handkerchief after all, but the way she presented it made all the difference! She was so confident and she took so much pride in sharing it's size, colour, stitching, corners and other qualities - 17 such points that made her handkerchief the best in the world. When people take such pride, then they can come up very well. Set goals in life and then revive them. What are the goals that you have set in life? There may be many obstacles, but don't drop your highest goals in life - they bring direction to life. I don't say life will be smooth always: It will not always be a bed of roses, but if your vision is large, and if you go on - if you continue with the same zeal, you will be given the strength. What stops you from taking responsibility? Sheer laziness; or fear - whether it is right or wrong, whether you will be able to complete it. You are afraid of failure. Even if there is no failure, just an indication of failure upsets you. If you can merely become aware of this, it is good. Support needs to come from within. It's not just food and water that is needed. Spiritual strength is something that can lift you. In order to find satisfaction in life, you need to do some service and to sustain seva activities, you need sadhana (spiritual practices), otherwise you will experience burn-out. Also, be ready to take criticism. Whenever you do public work or social work, you should be ready to take criticism. You need to be like a solid rock. Nothing can shake you! You should welcome criticism. Sometimes, criticism can come out of anger or jealousy, but no criticism should make you fade or shy away. When someone criticises you, behave as if you are the third party. Then, you will be untouched. You will take something from it, but you will not fume; you will not burn inside. You will be able to drop it. You should be able to give criticism as well. Friends who do not criticise when needed are useless. The purpose of criticism is to improve, adopt, change. But if your mode of criticism is unpalatable, how will others accept it? An arrow should reach it's mark. See that your criticism is not wasted. You need to develop this skill; it cannot be learnt. By fostering a sense of belonging, see that the person is in a mood to take criticism. When you want to do something, look at your strengh. Your weakness is that you start looking at other's strengths! When you running, you can only look at the track below, not at who is next to you! Like a horse with blinders, look at your path only! Let anybody else do whatever he or she wants to. Also, any job that you do, should be done with commitment. Otherwise, you will do the job when you enjoy it and stop doing it when you don't. Our likes and dislikes change so often. You can find real joy only in service. Responsibility and commitment do generate some stress and worry. The best way to handle this is not to resist stress. It is okay to be stressed for a while, but don't get distressed!

Thanks & Regards., Ln.Ch Mohan Vamsi Krishna M.C.A 9379911234 9902371777