Vishayatyagat sangatyagat cha - it is one thing to enjoy the object of the senses. Okay, you can listen to music, you can eat food, you can smell fragrance, you can enjoy touch and taste. But if it is in the mind, if you keep thinking all the time about the objects of the senses, then it is even worse. From morning till evening you just think about what food you are going to eat - this obsession cannot bring you rest. Obsession with sex, food, clothes or music, television or sightseeing, or anything, will only drain you of your precious energy. Are you getting what I am saying? Thinking about it constantly - obsession is not letting go; vishayatyagat sangatyagat cha - it is coming back to the source. This is one method. See, the objects of senses create an attraction in you, and if you immediately gallop on your attractions, that attraction does not bring fulfillment; it dies out and leaves you in a state of inertia. Any one sense, if you use it too much, will only cause inertia, dullness. If you are listening to music from morning to night, your brain will become one sided - only your left brain will function, the right brain will not function.You cannot think, logic dies out. You cannot perceive things properly. Your observation, your expression, everything suffers. And it is the same way with all other senses. If you are using any one sense too much, that particular sense becomes dull and ineffective. Moderation is required. And moderation can come when you retire back to the self. Vishayatyagat sangatyagat cha - get back to the source that you are.
Next method is : Avyavrat bhajanat
Uninterrupted sharing. The word bhajan means sharing. Sharing what? Sharing that which the Divine is. The Divine is peace and you are peace - you share that peace with the Divine. What is it that we can all share together? That is one sound. See, when we sing the same song or same sound, it resonates in the mind, but when we are thinking, each one will think differently. That is why singing is called Bhajan, because you can very easily share that with everybody. That same sound, Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya everyone is singing. That is in every mind, in every consciousness. So if everyone is laughing, that is also Bhajan. Don’t think that just singing is Bhajan. Everyone together just laugh, laugh your head off - really laughing, rolling on the floor. That is Bhajan, too.
Avyavrat bhajanat - constantly share all that you have, not that one day you do bhajans, one day you share, other days you don’t. Have a sense of one-ness with everything - share yourself with the trees, the mountains, the sky, with people, with animals.
Sharing your life is bhajan.
Avyavrat bhajanat - uninterrupted sharing of all that you are.
Lokepi Bhagavadguna shravana keertanat
Also, in the world, praise the Divine. Sing the glory of the Divine in your day to day activity. Lokepi - in your daily activity, in your normal life, in your social life; Bhagavadguna - talking abut the qualities of the Divine, the glory of the Divine; shravana - listening about it, hearing about it.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, spritual leader and founder of the Art of Living Foundation