Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Q:
Guruji, please comment on this: act don’t react.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
It is very simple. When you react, what happens? You regret afterwards. Reaction happens through an emotional upsurge. When someone says something you don’t like, your emotions swell up. Anything you do in an emotionally disturbed state, you repent afterward. When emotions are on peak, the intellect goes in background.Your actions are from the intellect and your reactions are from emotions.
Q:
Could you please explain the five elements?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
The whole world is made up of the five elements. Honoring the earth element means that we don't pollute the earth with plastic, poisonous fertilizers and chemicals. It means that we are environment conscious.Honoring water does not mean putting flowers into water. There is a shortage of clean drinking water. First, we pollute water and then water pollutes the earth. In the last century, people did not know anything about soaps. In this country (India), people used only charcoal ashes, soapnut powder to clean vessels. They would use turmeric and many other herbal elements, which are bio-degradable.
There is a great tradition of honoring rivers. The river does not want you to offer flowers or fruits. This is not the way to do pooja (worship). Also by putting sewage or garbage into rivers, how can you say that you are doing pooja? Pooja means honoring and you can only do full honour once you stop dumping sewage, garbage, plastic into the rivers.
Nowhere in the scriptures is it said that you have to put flowers or fruits into the river. Of course, one way of honoring is with flowers and they are bio-degradable. However you have to stop dumping garbage.
A few years ago you could directly drink from a river. Today, no river is fit for drinking even from a hundred kilometers away from its source. Earlier even thousand kilometers away from its source, the river water was fit for drinking. We are pouring so much industrial waste into the rivers. This is not honoring the jal tatva (water element). The five elements are part of the creation. You have to honor this beautiful creation and sustain it.
Then there is the air element. We need to have clean energy. We have provided smokeless stoves in the villages of Maharashtra, which have been very successful.
Then there is the space element. This is very abstract. You cannot catch space. When you save your mind from negativity, you are filling the space with joy. Then the air around becomes like that. You can create a space of mistrust, anger, greed, jealousy and selfishness. Or you could create a space of fun, joy, confidence, and coherence. You could create an accommodating space around you. If we always speak negatively about all mistakes, then there is nowhere on earth you can really survive. Everybody is imperfect. When we try to see perfection in others, then we forget to see our own imperfection. Protect the space, save the mind at any cost.
Q:
Guruji in Orissa, the Sri Sri University is going to be established. How can we connect to it and get benefitted?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Bhubaneshwar is not that far from this place. You should all join in and contribute. I invite all of you there. You send your children to study there and you also visit the place. It’s not my university but yours.Q:
Does God sleep, and get tired of us?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
God sleeps only in India. Here, as we know that God is sleeping, we don’t have any fear. We believe that since God is sleeping, we can get away with anything.This is a very deep topic. God is sleeping, and you are awake. Yet, you wish God a Good Morning, sing Suprabhatams, Balaji Suprabhatam, do Devi jagran. Scholars have established this –Humanity wakes up first and then they awaken God. This is a unique ritual among humans. Yet, there is something very subtle in this. These rituals signify that:
In a stubborn individual, awaken humanness.
In a human being, awaken the Divinity.
Like a seed that sprouts into a bud first, and then a flower, a human being blossoms only when humanness, and Divinity is awakened.
God is present in every cell of your body. We think God is resting because he is tired. But no! Lord Vishnu (a Hindu God) is depicted lying down, and a lotus comes out of his navel, followed by Brahma. Creation came later, first the strength to nurture was born. (In Hindu philosophy, Vishnu is considered to be the Sustainer of the Universe.)
Many people believe that God is tired after working. No, no! For God, creation is effortless. Like for a housewife, making tea is effortless – she can talk, sing and still make the tea.
Q:
If I am you and you are me, then when will my mind become your mind?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
All the difference is only on the gross. The subtler we go, we see there is only one consciousness.Q:
Guruji, you said tear is ego. In front of you- uncontrollable tears come up. What to do?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
No, No, this is different tears. There are many types of tears- like crocodile, then salty, sweet ones are of gratitude, love. Angels long for it. It is very good- the mind is healed and purified.Q There are dilemmas in life and I lack decision making power. What should be done?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Wherever there is duality(Dvet), there will be a dilemma . Whenever you are in daily activities(vyavahar), there will be dilemma. There is no choice, accept it.
Q:
Why do some people love others so much, knowing that they have nothing to get from them?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
There are two types of joys – one joy is that from getting, another joy is giving. That’s a more mature joy. When grandfathers and grandmothers come to meet their grandchildren, they are not waiting for some gifts. They just want to be with them.With children, it’s the other way around – children wait for their uncles and aunts to get gifts.
So the joy in giving is more mature than the joy in getting.
(A child from the audience shouts out - Happy b’day, Guruji! {It was Sri Sri’s birthday on May 13}.)
Q:
When a mother denies love, and tells her child that he is an unwanted one, what should the child do?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You should know that the mother is saying this out of too much love. If the mother says ‘Get lost!’, and you really get lost, then she would be more worried than you. If a mother is saying this– know that she is just very stressed, and that she needs your care and help.Q:
If we are all God, then why do we have so many Gods and Goddesses?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
The sun’s light is one, yet when it goes through a prism, seven colors come up. All gods and goddesses are part of one truth. One Supreme Self is referred to as Devi, Shiva, Ganesh, Kartikaya. Lord Krishna says rudranam shankaraschasmi, of rudras, I am Shankara. I am the moon, the sun, I am Shiva, I am the Ganges river, I am everything.Q:
God is all-abundant, totally full, and we are all connected to God. Then why are we in debt, except for some? Why do they have, and we don’t have?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Is it only money you lack? When you say you are indebted, that means you have received something! Otherwise how can you be indebted? Those who have received should feel indebted. Be thankful for having received. The more abundance you have, the more indebted you will feel. And when you feel indebted and grateful, more abundance comes to you.Feel indebted. Feel grateful.
Then abundance grows.
Abundance and indebtedness coexist.
Someone in the group: An abundance of indebtedness!
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You think you are indebted, but you really are not.
Yet it is better to feel totally indebted, because every bit of what you have doesn’t belong to you anyway, including your own body. When you are infinitely indebted for your body, for Knowledge, for things you have received, and for your own life, then you bask in the abundance of the Creator.
Someone in the group: I feel very indebted. Thank you!
(February 8, 1996 - Miami Beach, Florida)
Yet it is better to feel totally indebted, because every bit of what you have doesn’t belong to you anyway, including your own body. When you are infinitely indebted for your body, for Knowledge, for things you have received, and for your own life, then you bask in the abundance of the Creator.
Someone in the group: I feel very indebted. Thank you!
(February 8, 1996 - Miami Beach, Florida)