Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Q:
How does one get rid of lust in the mind?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
If you suppress lust totally, you won’t be able to rise high. Also if you indulge too much in it, then also it is not going to work. Adopt the middle path. You can progress on the path being a family man. Neither you should force celibacy on you nor should you indulge too much in it. If you see the faces of people who visit these night clubs, you will not find even a glimpse of happiness on their faces. It is like sadness and heaviness are dropping out from their faces.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:
How can I free myself from fears that seem to have settled into me years ago? I know they are irrational and just in my head. Yet here they come up over and over again. They are distracting and feel binding to me!
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Meditate! Sit quietly and meditate, or listen to some chanting music. All this will help. Meditation, some pranayama, Sudarshan Kriya, some excercises, ujjayi breath are very good for fears. Don’t think that fear is somewhere deep inside you. It is an erroneous notion of Psychology that fear and guilt are deep down. I tell you, deep down there is only a lot of joy; a lot of bliss. And in that centre – no fear, no guilt, no anger, no lust can touch you. Deep down you are wonderful. So never think you have all these anxieties. Those who say that there is something wrong deep down are blind. It is all there just on the surface. If they call that deep, then I will suggest to go deeper. In the centre of your being, you are a fountain of joy. Saying, “Oh! My Mind! Deep down there is anxiety!”is ignorance; a wrong idea and concept. The moment you accept these words as truth, it starts becoming more difficult to get over those emotions. They become more permanent there. Do you see that?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 often talk to you in heart. How do I satisfy myself that my words have reached you?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
My job is not to satisfy you but to make you restless to get the Highest knowledge. In that restlessness you achieve awareness.Q:
How do we get rid of expectations or get free of worry? Also how not to get bothered by the expectation that passes again and again?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Never mind, let it be there. Why do you want to get rid of all the expectations? When it is troubling you, then you want to get rid of it. Right? You know, when you have nothing much to do, then you worry, then you sit and expect, or day dream. When you are busy, it is a different story all together.Q:
How to achieve excellence while following the middle path?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
It will happen. Your intention is enough. Main thing is Sadhna(Practices and self effort), next is awareness, and third is - no feverishness.Q:
How does television affect our minds? When I watch movies why do I feel that the Divine is at a distance, away from me? When I do sadhana, satsang and seva I feel connected. Why is there so much of a change of a feeling?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Never mind. You watch television but don’t watch too much. It has a strain on the brain. It’s very tiring. Anything too much is tiring.Q:
Effect of one life’s karma is carried on to another lifetimes. How do we understand this?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You sow a coconut tree two years back and it has grown today. Same way, until the impression of your previous done karma is there on your mind, that karma manages to exist. That impression can only be erased through meditation, pranayama and service. You are freed from that karma when the impression is erased. All this is there on the mind only. Karma is nothing but an impression on the mind. When you wake up and see that mind is a part of you and it is your mind, but you are not your mind, and you have an untouched existence which is much greater than your mind, then all karma automatically dissolves.Q:
last night you told me that choice is mine blessing isyours. Does that mean whatever I decide, your blessing is there?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You are putting me in a toughsituation. If it is related to your profession then choice is yours, blessingis mine. If it is a relationship, then also choice is yours and blessing ismine.