17 Feb 2012 - QA 3

Dear Guruji, we are all the same at the very core. Then, why do some people long to know about the self and spirituality and other people do not? Isn’t it the same spirit in them too?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: See, it varies. Different people have different interests. Some people are so fond of mathematics. Ask Bawa (Khurshed Batliwala); he is so fond of mathematics. He did a video on mathematics ((a+b)2 = a2+2ab+b2) and there were so many hits that the server crashed! There were two and half lakh hits on that website.
So, he (Bawa) is a genius in mathematics and he goes into it. And ask D.K. Hari, he has explored history so well! Hari has made a book on corruption called ‘U Turn India’. It is a very well thought about plan on how India can turn around to make a better economy; change the economy of the whole state from the very basis.
The Ganges, which we think is a natural river, he has proved that it is a man-made river. It is an artificial river, with all proof and evidence. If you go to bharatgyan.com, it is amazing work that Hema and Hari have done.
So, it is the interest, and some people get this inquisitiveness, this interest to know ‘Who am I?’ ‘What is this consciousness?’ ‘What is this Self?’ ‘Who is this Self?’
‘I eat, sleep, drink, and do all this activity, but finally who am I? One day I am going to die; after death what will happen to me? Where do I go?’
These questions come. They are very natural and they show the sign of maturity of intellect. Only a mature intellect can fathom into spirituality; the quest of spirit of enquiry comes then. So, when India was materially very prosperous, spirituality also dawned. When India was spiritually at its peak, it is exactly then when it was also materially very prosperous. But today, it has gone down in both; it needs a U-turn.