The Four Pillars of Knowledge by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar -1st Pillar: Viveka

1 – Viveka (Grossly translated as discrimination) It’s not just discrimination. Viveka is the understanding or observation that everything is changing. Whatever you consider as stationery or solid is neither stationery nor solid… they are changing. Every changing nature, ever changing reality. And a thorough understanding of this is called viveka. Everything is changing. Our body is changing, every cell, every minute new cells are being generated and old cells are dying. Every time you breath out old energy goes out, new energy comes into the body when you breathe in. Our body is a bundle of atoms. And atoms are always disintegrating, changing. As body starts growing. Same with the whole world, Universe. The Earth is changing. Our thoughts are changing, emotions are changing. You’re not the same person you were yesterday and you will not be tomorrow. You’re changing. You cannot maintain the same degree of sadness everyday. (laughter) You will see it fluctuates. Higher or does down. Or you maybe unhappy for different reasons on different days. You can never be unhappy for the same reason all through, there will be variation in degree. Same way for joy also. Your moods, feelings, emotions… everything is changing. (Paras note: So what he’s trying to say is Everything is changing) But there is something different from us that is not changing. This discrimination between something that is not changing and everything else is changing is Viveka. You do not know what is not changing, but you can feel and recognize what is changing. The moment you see things changing, simultaneously you start seeing that the one who is observing the change is not changing. Otherwise how can they say one is changing. The reference of change is non-change. Otherwise changes cannot be perceived at all. Viveka, recognizing the changes. Changing characteristics of our sounding, changing nature of our body, of our emotion, of life in general. This very thing would reduce 99% of the misery that you face. You have a fixed thought about your future and this will be like this and you foresee… all the fears, anxiety, unhappiness comes up in you. Because you’re foreseeing all that negativity come up in you. Who knows, how do you know that things are going to be bad. And in order to avoid that you try to affirm yourself… oh no no everything will be good. But deep inside you feel something is going to be bad. Or vice versa. You know all this positive thinking… it’s very… (laughter). It’s not a very intelligent thing to do you know, positive thinking is pulling you somewhere negative. Just see everything is changing. And changes happen. This is the nature of world, it is such. A great relief comes, unconditioning of the mind. This condition to fix things. Viveka.. the first pillar.