Entanglement, whether out of craving or aversion, clouds the intellect. Entanglements confuse and distract those they impact. They keep one involved in minor issues, diverting them from reality, truth or things of more important value.
Understand the dynamics of 'Entanglement' with some inputs from Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You are the source of energy. Attraction happens when the energy on you wakes up. It is just electromagnetic energy. One energy manifests at various points in the body (the seven chakras) as different flavours, different colours. When attraction gets satisfied very quickly, then love does not blossom in life. When attraction is difficult to attain, it turns into love; and when that love matures, it becomes unconditional, it turns into dedication or devotion, the ultimate.
Love and longing go together. If there is no longing, if you kill the longing, then love also dies slowly. How can you keep the longing alive? By being centred, by being in yourself. Do not get completely lost in the other person, this becomes too much for the other person as well. Getting lost in the other person is called entanglement. If two lines run parallel, with some goal ahead, they will always be parallel, but if they focus only on one another, they will meet, cross and go in opposite directions! So, with attraction, you come together, meet and then separate; but if there is a goal, then the attraction remains forever. That's why, in life, your charm is never lost when are well-founded and centred, when your attention is on the knowledge.
Love has no completion because it is infinity. Something which has no boundary also has no completion. Radha is the longing, and Krishna is love. Sometimes, longing brings pain. To avoid the pain, you try to fill your space with something, but that pain makes you deep.
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: If we get attached to something which is beyond our reach, then it is not a problem at all, because of that life moves on. If the attachment is with that which is within our reach, then there may be pain later on.
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Do chanting! If you are chanting you cannot be depressed. When you chant ‘Om’ it calms down those centres of emotions and once that is done the depression vanishes.
So if you are depressed it is because you are so engrossed in the material world. Day and night thinking what about me you get depressed. What you should do is, in the morning when you wake up, say, ‘what service you can do?’ How best I can be useful to all these people or to the world; to this knowledge or to this organization. If none of that comes, then how can I be useful to Guruji. At least think that way. If your focus is on this direction and you continue your chanting and meditation, knowing this life is temporary and everything here vanishes, and chant ‘Om Namaha Shivaya’, you cannot be depressed. Depressive negative energy will simply vanish.
That is why in ancient days people would do Sandhyavandanam three times. In the morning you wake up, look at the Sun and think of the beautiful day it is going to bring you and thank the Sun for life and for the planet earth. Our life and planet are dependent on the Sun, so you thank the Sun. Again in the afternoon, you do Sandhyavandanam and again in the evening you thank the Sun for the beautiful day and feel connected to the whole universe. When you do this, there is no question of getting depressed. When you don’t know that you are connected with the whole universe and you think you are just some small person wanting small little things and you are bickering on your own weaknesses saying, I am weak, I don’t know this and I don’t have that, I sit for meditation and I did Kriya but nothing happens to me, this type of bickering in the mind shows the small-mindedness. You have to come out of that. You take responsibility, I will come out of this and I’ll dedicate my life.
All these people who want to commit suicide, I tell them it is such stupidity. You want to commit suicide because you are so bent upon your own pleasure, your own happiness, and your own comfort. You dedicate your life for a greater cause then depression will vanish. When you say, I am not going to take my life away but I am going to dedicate it for the world, for humanity, for the country then so much happiness comes. Come what may I am going to fight. I think all the depressed people should be made to realize this truth and chanting will elevate them. Either you dedicate yourself to the world, to the nation, to culture, to dharma or you dedicate yourself to God, to the Supreme Being, to the sacred knowledge. That dedication can pull you out of this rut.
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: It may be some Karma from the last birth or some samskaras. Do seva. Maharaj ji was saying that seva would definitely remove karma of entanglement. If seva cannot remove then knowledge will remove entanglement. If knowledge cannot remove, then bhakti (devotion) can surely remove entanglement. Even if Bhakti is not able to remove entanglement then leave it to time. With time entanglement will surely dissolve. But don't just live it to time without trying all the other means (laughter). Do seva be in knowledge, have bhakti and even after that, if you are not able to get rid of your entanglement, then you just leave it on time.
