Q: Change is threatening, what to do?
A: For children, the universe is wonder-filled because they don't have logic. They don't think that this is the same Sun which they saw yesterday. They don't think that this was the same chair which was there yesterday. They don't think that this is the same room which they sat in yesterday. They know the Truth - the Sun is new, this room is new, this chair is new, I am new, you are also new! You are changing continuously; continuously you are getting updated.
A Western philosopher said, 'You can't step into the same river twice.' Why? Because the moment you put the second step, the water has already flown. But I tell you, you can't step into the same river even once, because the moment you put your feet in, by the time you travel from the water level to the ground level, the water has already moved! You can't put your feet even once in a river; where is the question of twice!
Existence is continuously changing. If you trust that Existence changes and you also change, you can never get settled with your ego. Your ego is nothing but a rigid mechanism, a definite pattern. Only a person who is ego less can trust that the universe is changing and he is also changing. The man who sells his time will never understand that the universe is changing because he is caught in a routine. Not being caught in a routine is a basic discipline for enlightenment!
If you are in a routine, you become so unaware that you stop believing, you stop realizing that Existence is changing. I have seen some government servants working for 30 years in the same office. They would not even have moved their table from one place to another and eventually forget that their table can be moved! Even in your house, don't live with the same kind of furniture arrangement for years together. Shuffle it so that your mind does not get stuck with a single attitude. Once in a few months, change the order; create a little bit of chaos! Otherwise you will become dead. I have seen people - they will have ten rooms and because of their habit, they will follow a certain track in their own house and as a result would not have stepped foot on eight rooms for months together. How many of you have not gone to the extreme of your own garden in the last two years? This is because you live on a certain track.
The mind feels comfortable if it has got a definite system. That is why rituals are so popular today. Rituals are so complicated and yet people do them with all difficulty, but when they come out of it, nothing would have changed in them. But in meditation, they are not sure of the outcome. Some personality change may happen. Going into meditation is seen as a risk! People are comfortable seeing Gods in temples because the Gods don't speak; because they don't change your life; but here I will ask you - what are you doing? How is your life? There comes the trouble. Either consciously or unconsciously you might start changing because I am such a solid force and I may start penetrating you.
```markdown Be very clear - the most definite thing on planet earth is your tomb, your graveyard! The more you live with definition and security, the more you are dying. That is why, when you live with a definite track in your house, your house will have the vibration of a graveyard. Once in a while, dance in the main hall of your house - the space will be purified. If you live with the same things, you will create a track of memory. You will then have very less access to your own Being. Your mind and your house are one and the same. Your Being and your house are one and the same. If you don't live in your whole house, be very clear, you are not living with your whole memory. Drop your rigid ego, break free from your mental patterns, understand change and discover the reservoir that you have within yourself. Explode in all directions and realize your unlimited potential!
Q: How to be a leader without ego?
A: When you live with the attitude that you are responsible for everything, your whole life will change. When you take up responsibility for everything that happens around you, you will start expanding.
Expansion is the only growth; contraction is death. The more responsibility you take up, the more you will expand and grow. You will become a leader. Most of us wait for the status to descend on us and then take up the responsibility. Be very clear - Only if we take up the responsibility, the status will come! People who wait for the status will not take up responsibility even after they get it. They will simply find another reason or excuse, that's all. An ordinary sweeper in an organization who takes up responsibility and performs his tasks can inspire an entire organization into becoming more responsible. The person who passes the buck and relaxes will never progress significantly in life.
Responsibility is Consciousness. The moment you feel responsible for what is happening around you, that moment the Divine Energy will rush into you! These are all basic secrets of Life that I am giving you.
As long as you are self-centered, you will be nothing more than a blocked bamboo stick that serves only to carry the corpse. When you shed your ego and stand up with responsibility, you will become the hollow bamboo that serves as a flute! Like how the air that enters the flute leaves it as music, the air that enters you will flow as Energy! A cognitive shift will happen in you. Your mental setup will change.
When you work with no feelings of responsibility, you will work and feel like a slave. When you work with responsibility, your capacity will expand and you will flower and radiate Energy. Your worries and sorrows will dissolve and all unfinished work will get finished. Umpteen excuses can be given for dodging responsibility, but they will remain poor excuses.
With responsibility, a new kind of joy will engulf you. You will become a natural leader and life will become a celebration! There is a beautiful story on Buddha: It is said that when Buddha goes to beg, he would appear as a King and the kings who gave him alms would appear as beggars! Seeming like a beggar or a king is not in the property that you hold but in the state that is within you. When you take up responsibility for the entire Cosmos, you will expand and look like a leader!
Feeling that you are responsible is the greatest quality you can possess. When you stand up with a sense of responsibility, a new intelligence will awaken in you!
```sanskrit pa,aNaayaamaM p,tyaaharM ina%yaaina%ya ivavaok ivacaarM jaaPyasamaot samaidivaQaanaM kuva-vaQaanaM mahdvaQaanaM || ```
pranayamam pratyaharam nityanityavivekavicaram, japyasametasamadhividhanam kurvavadhanam mahadavadhanam.
The regulation of breath, the withdrawal of the senses from objects, the inquiry consisting in the discrimination between the eternal and the non-eternal, the method of mind-control associated with the chanting of mantras - perform these with great care.
Bhaja Govindam 30