Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Q:
Dear Guruji, is it true that it is not the devotee who chose the Guru but the Guru chooses the devotee? If yes, then what took you so long to choose me?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
: Ha, Ha, Ha!! Let’s not go in the past! Let’s look ahead, having great times. Great days, yes?Q:
Why does love always come with attachment? Is it possible to love your partner and still bedispassionate?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Attachment brings pain, but nothing comes without pain. We came into this world in a lot of pain. The process of birth itself is very painful. For nine months, we were comfortable and then suddenly the ocean around us disappeared and we had to come out! Attachment happens whenyour focus is not on the Being, but on the outside. Wanting to control, possess and hold on bringspain. When we are relaxed and content, love transforms to bliss. Demand and control only bringpain. Wisdom, along with love, is the answer.Q:
I know that destiny plays an important role in life. Our failures and success in life are connected to destiny. But what role are we playing in our lives?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You make the destiny. What you did yesterday is a tomorrow’s destiny, and what you do now is destiny day after.Q:
Guruji, please promise to come to Vancouver every year now.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You know, my year has 700 days. (laughter)Q:
Why do people meditate? Is it alright to sleep during meditation?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
It’s fine unless you are snoring and troubling others! (laughter) Meditation is deep rest. What is samadhi? It is equivalent to a million years of rest. If you meditate even for a second and sleep before and after, never mind. Even if it is sound sleep. So what?Q:
Is there a higher purpose to art?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
There is no purpose to art. It is an expression of happiness. For the onlooker, art brings a sort of solace and comfort. For the creator, it is just an expression.Q:
Can you give me a suggestion – how to be calm when your spouse is always mad at you?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
: Well, an answer coming from me won’t be authentic! There are many experienced (spouses) ones here, you can exchange notes with them! But if someone gets angry so often then you get used to it, and it doesn’t bother you so much anymore, isn’t it? But if they are sweet and then get mad at you then you get more bothered about it, right?There is a very popular story in India. A gentle man got married to a woman who was very shrewd. She would do everything against his will. Whatever he will say, she would do just its opposite and he was so bothered and sad about it. Divorces were not that common those days in India, so he was stuck with this situation. Then, when you are stuck in a situation, you go to a wise man, so he went to meet a yogi.
The yogi whispered something in his ears and three months later when the yogi met this gentle man again, he was beaming with happiness. He came and told the yogi- “Your formula worked, now we have peace at home!” The formula was-whatever he wanted, he said just the opposite to his wife! So if he didn’t want to wear a green shirt that day, he would say- “ I want to wear a green shirt”, and she wouldn’t do that for him anyway! So, you only need to know the pulse and do accordingly.
If your spouse is all the time angry, then I know you might have experienced and found how to handle it , and how to increase or reduce the volume, right? Interesting!May be (with such people), you should try this for one month or two months, and take them by surprise. If they are angry, praise them, and love them so much. Don’t be too predictable with anger.
Q:
What is the whole point of this life? We are born, we study, we work and then eventually oneday we die. I am losing my passion for life.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Good. You are on track. What you are saying is like our intro talk. Imagine we live for eighty years. Out of that, twenty-five or thirty years we simply sleep. Ten years we spend in thebathroom. Another ten years, we are stuck in traffic. Then so many years we spend being sadand miserable. Ultimately, only some two or three years we spend in prayer, service and so on.Good that you are thinking along these lines. You are definitely on the right track.Q:
Guruji, what importance, if any, should we hold on to what the Pundits, Astrologers and the Psychics say about our future and its course?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Take it with a pinch of salt. Take it lightly, everything will change. You know, what your Astrologer says, you don’t have to believe one hundred percent. Astrology is a science, but not all astrologers are scientists. You have to take it with a pinch of salt. It can change also.Q:
Guruji, can you see the aura of other people?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Is this a big deal? You can also see.