Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Q:
Why do you have so many followers? Are they following you because you are a master?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Well, that you have to ask them! They may all have different reasons to say, I can’t speak for them. One thing that I see is when people are so happy and grateful, they come to express their gratefulness. Transformation that is happening in the world is so much. Millions of people are getting transformed in their personal life, social life and professional life.And we have these courses happening all over the world in schools, in prisons and in corporate sector as well. And in the poor sections of society, we give them education and self confidence to be more self reliant.
Q:
How does one balance work and life?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
How do you balance on a bicycle? There is no “how.” You just do it.Q:
A lot of spirituality text talks about controlling our mind and channelising our thoughts. But practically for most of us that’s a difficult job to do. Request you to give us practical tips on this.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Ya, that’s exactly what we are going to do now. Meditation. You will know then how we will deal with the thoughts.Q:
How do you fan the fire of spirituality and not allow it to be inundated by day to day life. You don’t want to abdicate your responsibilities. What do you suggest, simple steps you as an enlightened person to keep spirituality alive in us. What I understood the way u expressed was very beautiful, to spread happiness, to be simple at the same time keep giving.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
I would give you 3 suggestions. One is spend 10-15 mins with yourself. What is it that you want? What is life all about? 50- 60 yrs ago, where I was and where I will be 50 years later? What is my origin? What is my definition? Just don’t look for an immediate answer. Even questioning yourself – ‘what is life all about?’ uplifts the spirit. This is what I would call as knowledge. Dwelling sometime with knowledge, you can read books like Yoga Vashista, Ashtavakra or even Geeta. Just few lines or any other uplifting knowledge books. And then 10-15 minutes of meditation. We will do a short meditation now. 10-15 minutes of meditation will give so much energy that it can refresh the brain, Refresh the spirit and energize the body. Fantastic! And the third thing is do some act of kindness, don’t have to be in the routine. Take some time out. Do some Random acts of kindness. Spend some time with music or art. These 3 things can bring you a lot of fulfillment and keep you away from stress.You would’ve seen in the last month, a month ago, there was a program in News 24 channel about a village Kathewadi in Maharashtra, near Nanded. One of our teachers went there. He stayed there for 3 months in the village. Transformed the entire village. 700 families. In this village, everyone removed the locks from the door. And they have a shop without a shopkeeper. People go and put the money in a box and take whatever goods they want to take. And the village is so self sufficient. The entire village went organic. All the farmers went organic. Everyday they come together and sing, they removed all the caste boards. Here now in the country, they are contemplating about reintroducing caste census. In this village first thing is they removed all the caste boards, Dalit, Kshatriya, Brahmin. All the caste boards were removed. Govt of India also gave them an award. It is a crime free village. This was the most notorious village which had so many cases. Today in 3 years time this village has stood up to be most self sufficient. Everybody has water. Roads are there. Every home has a toilet. And they have smokeless chullahs. Most honest village. This village inspired 118 villages to follow.
Not one person smokes or drinks in the village. Everybody abandoned the tobacco, tambaku, alcohol and drugs. So it gave a new energy and enthusiasm to all our teachers and workers. It is possible what Mahatma Gandhi had dreamt - Ram rajya. Where there is no dacoity, no crime. Today it is possible.
You can see in the youtube. They have done a beautiful program about that. I wish we can do many such, if all different corporate could take 10 villages each. It doesn’t cost much. It is just a matter of educating people on hygiene, educating them to keep their homes clean. Every home got painted in pink.
Q:
How to make someone dear to you understand that something is useful for themand they must go for it?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Keep pursuing gently and have patience, they will allunderstand. First you should have the conviction that this is good for them,and they will get it. How to get a thought or a desire manifested is verysimple. First intention and keep attention on it and then manifestation willfollow.Q:
How do I give more love to myself?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You want to give more love to yourself, IMPOSSIBLE. If an ocean says how can I give more water to myself, what can be said? If sugarcane says how can I give more sweetness to myself, what would you say? It is like sun saying how can it give more light to itself? It is impossible for you to give more love to yourself.In fact you love yourself too much, and that is the problem, you’re only thinking about yourself. Start thinking about everybody else, and give love to others. You are ‘love’ my dear, just relax and reduce your wants. Your wants and your desires are eating you up; you simply relax.
You should have wants. There is no problem if you have your desires, but don’t let the desires have you. I don’t mind you having desires at the initial stages. Later you find, before the desire arises in you, it gets fulfilled.
Q:
In order for people to feel better, is it a simple case of breathing, meditation and embracing intuition?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
“Correct!. We are not taught at school or at home how to manage negative emotions, like feeling unhappy, sad, jealous or angry. This knowledge has not been provided. But if you are taught how to manage your anger and your own emotions using your own breath, then it does a lot of good. Acquiring that knowledge is possible with the help of breathing and meditation.I have been in Buddhist and Hindu traditions for centuries, in China, Japan and India, through breathing and meditation. But the difference between our techniques and these old techniques is that ours suit modern-day people who have less time. This technique is so handy, useful and accessible in today’s modern society”.
Q:
Guruji how to handle a teenage child?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Teenagers, when you have to manage them, you should know how to ride a horse - neither too lose nor too tight! Some times you let it loose, sometimes you hold it tight. So keep a balance.Q:
How to do samarpan (surrender) in bhakti(devotion)?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
In the same way how we have sweetness insugar.
Q:
After some ‘Art of Living’ Courses, I have felt so happy. I thought I would explode. After a while, I realized that it was not only happiness, but also feverishness. Then I got depressed. It was like an emotional roller-coaster. How can I handle feverishness?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You have already become a witness to it. You have observed that you are on a roller-coaster. You observe these emotions are coming and going. Notice, earlier too the emotions were there. But now it is reducing. Before you were not aware, at least now you are aware of it. Just persistence on this path, in this knowledge makes you stronger, hmm!