Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Q:
Where do you get courage from?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
From Advaita - Knowing that there is something in you that is not changing. A little experience of silence, calmness and meditation will give you enormous courage from within.Q:
How can one find the purpose of life?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Become calm and listen to your inner self. Do you all have cell phones? What do you need for the cell phone to work? If there is no SIM card, will it work? If there is a SIM card, but you are far away, will it work? You need a SIM card, signal and the battery must be charged. So all three are required: battery, SIM card and closeness to the tower.Even if you have all three but you don’t dial, will it work? You need to do that much. The spiritual connection is the tower. Self-effort is that little dialing and meditation is charging. Then our prayers will be answered. Sometimes the prayers are not answered. Why? Because there is no SIM card. You have the ability to bless and grant others’ wishes when the mind is serene.
Q:
How do I know whether I will get enlightened or not?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Your doubt is always something about which is positive. We doubt in the honesty of a person. We doubt in the truth of a statement in which someone expresses love for us. We immediately believe if someone says, “I hate you”. How does one know if he/she has achieved knowledge or not? First, such a doubt arises. And its solution follows it. When your mind gets calm, you feel happy, such a fragrance comes from you, and love flows from you. Sometimes it happens gradually, and you don’t realize it. Then all of a sudden you find out that nothing can disturb you, you are happy and peaceful, and you are untouched by any events happening around you. This understanding gradually dawns in you. It can also happen suddenly. But it is good if it happens gradually.Q:
Saints say that suicide is a crime. Then what is jeev Samadhi?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Yes, suicide is wrong. Some saints take jeev Samadhi. They can effortlessly separate their mind and soul, and continue to live like that for 20 years or so. Saint Gyaneshwar and some other very great saints did that in the past. I am not in favor for it.One commits suicide out of sorrow, and tries to destroy the body. One tries to commit such a thing burdened with the sorrow, and in search of happiness. But committing suicide is like you removing your coat when you are feeling cold. There is only repentance after suicide, and one keeps on struggling to get a new body. Don’t try to finish this body, and also don’t hold on to it very strongly.
Q:
I don’t know what the aim of my life is? I lost my parents long ago, and I see them in dreams everyday. Sometimes I see you. What does that mean?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
That is ok. Dream is another dimension where all these things exist, all the experiences come. So, when you wake up, be fully in the waking state.Q:
We have you as Guru in the ‘Art of Living’, but in family there are family Gurus and traditional rituals, different style of worshipping etc. Should these be followed also?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
See if there is a family tradition being followed from a long time, then what is the harm in continuing that? One must keep up the family traditions.Q:
How do you define success in life?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Only in moments of true confidence do you recognize true success.Q:
There has been life for so many centuries on this planet. I wish to know why is it that some creatures live a prosperous and extravagant life, and yet there are some creatures who do not even have enough to eat? What is the basis on which a creature gets birth?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
This is one of the five secrets – the secret of birth. Nature has been very kind that birth has been kept as a secret. Otherwise, you would be living a miserable life remembering all previous incidents that happened in the past lives. But a time will come in your life when your mind would be completely established in the present moment, memory would awake, and you will remember what you were and who you were in your previous births. It is alright if it does not happen with some people.The whole world is made up of cause and effect. If somebody is rich, that has a reason. If somebody is poor, that also has a reason. But does that mean we don’t have any independence of Karma? You definitely have freedom. We have been given discrimination. So, we do have freedom of karma, and also we are bearing fruits of past actions also. It is like you get some capital from someone. Now, it is up to you what do you want to do with it. A poor man can become rich, and a rich can become poor. There are all possibilities. Your karma decided where you were born. But it depends on you where do you want to reach.
Q:
How is our life a holy scripture?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
All scriptures connect you with the Universal Spirit. The scriptures give you comfort, like an air conditioner (AC). The combination of knowledge and meditation is AC for the mind - Absolute Comfort.Q:
Does spirituality necessarily lead to inner peace and happiness?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Definitely spirituality is for peace. Peace, happiness, Joy and compassion - all these virtues are qualities of the spirit. There is not a single person on this planet who is not a spiritual seeker. You know why? Because everybody is seeking peace, love and happiness, and this is what spirit is.In India we say Satyam Shivam Sundaram. Satyam - truth, Shivam - Divine, and Sundaram - beauty. The divine is beauty, and the divine is the truth. So wherever you see beauty, behind that there is a consciousness from which the whole universe is coming into existence.
Have you heard of String theory in physics? If you study quantum physics you will find as if you are studying Vedanta – an ancient wisdom. The two are exactly the same.