Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Q:
Sometimes, I feel that you are with me and watching me all the time. At some other times I feel that I am not connected. I feel distracted during those times. I am unable to do sadhana also in such times. A lot of thoughts come in the mind. What should I do then?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
: you have given answer in the question itself. Nature of devotion is such that you feel longing in its absence. Once you get a glimpse of devotion, then its absence causes perturbation in mind. It is not that devotion is absent there but you feel as if it is not there, and you feel restless with this feeling. If we look in the light of knowledge, Shri Narada has said in Bhakti Sutras that the very indication of devotion is that you experience bliss in its presence and its absence makes you restless. This shows that you have devotion, and consider yourself as lucky when you experience such restlessness in mind. You feel absence of devotion only for some time. Devotion is anyway always there, it never dies, but you may feel that it has decreased. This is natural. This happens only to those who have a very good luck. Otherwise, inert person doesn’t feel any devotion. Mind of such a person is tormented with worries.Q:
We are trying to reach to our seventh level of existence. Do we have to cross the all levels, or balance all to reach the self?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
They all exist simultaneously.Q:
His Holiness, how can I concentrate in spite of my workload? At times, I get so upset and disturbed with customers’ complaints, esp. with those which are totally untrue.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Complaints are opinions. Listen to them carefully, and if there is something good in it then you can take that. If it is just a biased opinion, smile at them. That’s my policy. You can take something on board. I suggest you should take criticism with open mind, and also give criticism with open mind. You should never be shy about criticism.What is great is, when you can smile at complaints. That means you have achieved something.
Q:
Because I travel a lot to places where vegetarian food is hard to find, and I have to eat with office colleagues. I eat wrong foods and find energy is really low. What to do in such situations?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You know when people have some allergies, they don’t eat those foods for which they have allergies just because of company. Suppose you have milk allergy, and because the company is all drinking tea and milk, you’ll not say, ‘Ok, I’ll also drink.’ Because you’ll suffer. Right?So similarly, you can choose your food in any company, you can say, ‘Ok. I am going to eat only chips, or vegetables, or bread..’ You are not compelled to eat non-veg if you don’t want to. Ok? Or unhealthy food. You don’t need to drink Pepsi or Coke if you don’t feel it’s good for you. Right? See, when people drink lots of Pepsi and Coke, it burns the lining of the stomach and the intestine.
Later on you develop so many problems. All these carbonated drinks should be avoided. Someone had demonstrated, in a cup of Pepsi they put a tooth, a tooth which had fallen, and it dissolves! If teeth can dissolve (which stay for a long time in nature) in Pepsi Cola then.. It is so corrosive. And that corrosive fluid can cause so much damage to our intestine, our brain, our nerve cells. So, we must keep healthy eating habits and propagate them.
Today is much better than 30 years ago. 30 years ago, when we started, people were very allergic to vegetarianism and spirituality. But today, it has become a fashion. Because we make a trend. And we create a trend and keep it moving.
Q:
Your naughtiness makes everyone dance. The whole world is going crazy. Tell us something about this naughtiness of yours?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Naughtiness is not to be talked about, it is to be done! Everyone has child-like qualities in them. Not childish but Child-like. When one is a yogi, this happens automatically. There is naturalness in life. Everyone seems to be one’s own. This happens naturally. Ego, any kind of self identity that one has, gets dissolved.Q:
I cannot think of moving away from ‘Art of Living’. Is it attachment or restlessness of soul?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Once you have learnt a language and started to converse in it, you cannot forget that language. Same way once you have acquired knowledge, there is no question of losing it. It gets solidified in you.Ancient people of India were so intelligent that they kept Laxmi(goddess of wealth) on lotus, and Saraswati(goddess of knowledge) on stone. Lotus does not remain stable on the surface of water and it moves as the water moves. But a stone is solid and stable. Once you get knowledge, it becomes part of you, not only for this lifetime but also for lifetimes to come.
Q:
I’m very afraid of flying. The fear controls me. What can I do to control my fear?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Observe the sensation. Fear is the opposite of love, yet fear can transform into love. You can also go through and move beyond all these cycles by taking the ‘Advance Meditation Course’ .Q:
What is the solution for peace in Afghanistan?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Remember there were Buddhists there. The forefathers of Afghanistan were pioneers of yoga and meditation. Just realizing this, people would become less fanatical and more broad-minded. By thinking only they will go to heaven and all others go to hell, they create hell for others. We need to be broad-minded. Every child should know a little about the Upanishads, Quran, Guru Granth Sahib and so on. The holy book Guru Granth Sahib, for example, contains the essence of all the Upanishads. So it is very important that every child should know about the Guru Granth Sahib. They will grow up with a broad mindset. The sacrifice that Sikh Gurus have made is unthinkable. Without that, yoga and meditation would have disappeared from this planet. The Sikh Gurus lived a life of sacrifice. They protected the Brahma knowledge, the universal knowledge. Every child should know a little bit about this.Q:
Is world peace possible?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
World peace comes with individual peace. If individuals become peaceful, communities become peaceful. Then the leaders of the world will also become peaceful, and we can have world peace. When people have broad vision for the whole world, world peace is a possibility. We need to spiritualize the politics, socialize the business and secularize the religion.Q:
The Bhagavad Gita is very close to my heart. And yet there is a passage in it that confuses me. It is when Arjuna wishes to flee the battle and renounce the world. But Krishna urges him to fulfill his duty by staying put and fighting.How is this advice understood with the principle of non-violence, a concept also central to the Gita? Is it similar to the notion of a just war in Christian and Islamic theology?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
The whole essence of the Gita is to act without being attached to the action. It's all about yoga, not about war but your attitude. When you are faced with a situation like war, how do you manage yourself? The worst situation in life is when you have to face a war and when you have to fight not with an enemy, but with some of your own people. When you have to fight with your own brothers and sisters, how do you handle the situation? It's easy to fight a war with an enemy, someone you don’t like. But fighting with someone who is part of your own family is the worst thing.If you can manage your mind in the worst scenario, then you can manage yourself in any situation. Given the extreme example of how you can manage the mind, the consciousness, yourself, that’s the whole essence of the Gita, not the war. Skill in action is yoga.
A similar knowledge was taught by Ashtavakra, in the palace. When your spirit is very high and you want liberation, that was Ashtavakra's state. And when your spirit is so low, totally desperate, completely broken and depressed, that was Arjuna’s state. At that time the same knowledge of the Self was given to him in the Bhagavad Gita.