Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Q:
I feel fear of you leaving me. What can I do?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
When Earth, air, Sun, stars cannot leave you, then how can I do that!Q:
How can I get close to you?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Assume that you are close to me. It is you who thinks you are not close.Q:
What is spirituality?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You are both matter and spirit. Are you only matter? Your body is made up of matter – carbohydrates, minerals, amino acids etc. Your spirit is made up of joy, peace, enthusiasm, intelligence and other distortions like anger.Anything which enhances the spirit is spirituality.
Anything that brings energy in you is spirituality.
Anything that makes you intelligent is spirituality.
Anything that uplifts life force in you is spirituality.
Anything that brings care and compassion is spirituality.
Anything that connects you with the universal spirit is spirituality.
Q:
How can I cope with the anger that comes with seeing so much injustice to so many people?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Don’t just feel the anger. Take action. You don’t need to lose your balance of mind. Rather, you should respond. This is a skill. Be calm, and united in yoga. That is the message of the Bhagavad Gita.Q:
How can one experience true love in a relationship?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
I can give you three suggestions. One is for men, one for women and one for both. Women should never step on the ego of a man. Women should always boost the ego of a man. Even if the husband is a stupid, the wife should say, “You are the most brilliant man I have ever seen.” You should always praise him. He shouldn’t have to prove himself to you at home because the world requires him to prove himself. He should find peace at home. You should say, “You are the most brilliant man I have ever seen. Just the fact that you don’t use your brain doesn’t mean that you don’t have it. You are the most brilliant.” So, praise your man all the time.Now there is one suggestion for men. Never step on the emotions of a woman. She may complain to you about her family but you should better not join the bandwagon. She may turn it around. She may take a U-Turn and say, “How dare you say such things about my family. What do you know about my family?” So if she is complaining, you just listen. She is paying lip service. If you say something and you hurt her, it is not worth it. When she wants to go for a religious service or a meditation program or retreat, don’t stop her. And when she wants to go for shopping, just give her your credit card. This will keep peace at home.
There is a suggestion for both men and women. The key to keeping peace at home is that you stop demanding love. You normally say, “Do you really love me? You don’t love me the same way. You have changed. You are different.” Asking people to prove their love for you is such a psychological burden. Just imagine yourself in their place. Imagine if someone demands from you to prove your love for them. What would you do? You’d say, “Oh my God, how long do I have to prove my love for this person?” One day, two days, three days, four days and then you feel like enough. This is what happens. There is a book called ‘Celebrating Love’ that you can read. There are many ideas about love in the book. We don’t know how to receive love unless we know how to give love. How can we express that love? Our expression is something that we keep looking for. So, don’t demand that others express their love. Instead, you should ask, “Why do you love me so much?” Especially on a day when you disagree or they are being nasty, you can say “why do you love me so much? I don’t deserve it!” Even for someone who is angry, you say, “you love me much more than I deserve”. Their attitude would change. Love would spring up in them. If you start demanding, you are destroying love.
Q:
Can a person struggling for livelihood progress on the spiritual path?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Some people say that to walk on the spiritual path you have to abandon your professional life. But I say you can continue pursuing your profession or business, and progress on the spiritual path as well. In fact, they are complementary to each other. Pursuing the spiritual path makes it easy to accomplish tasks in your professional life as well. Only listening to this knowledge doesn’t help. Doing your practices along with it is equally important.Q:
If there is something that we are not getting from God, will we get it if we make our Sudarshan Kriya and sadhna strong?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Have patience, keep up the hope that it may happen. Know that whatever is good for us will be given.Q:
Why are there so many catastrophes in Poland, China and Iceland?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Because we are misusing this planet. We are mining this Earth so much, we are putting so many dynamites, and we are testing so many nuclear bombs. So, the Earth starts shaking. We have to honor mountains, rivers, trees. If we don't exploit this planet, then there will be less and less natural calamities.Q:
There are some blind faiths like not doing certain things on Tuesday or Thursday, or not crossing the path when a cat passes by. Do these carry any truth in them?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Nothing in all this according to me.Q:
I want to do so much but I feel burnt out. Please help.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
These feelings come up. Sometimes the mind says: ‘I want to run away from everything’. This is stress. Don’t take any decisions at times like this. First come back to the Self. Meditate.