Preguntas & Respuestas con Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

P: Q: Dear Gurudev, I feel that the current education system is often more harmful to the children. We are taught to compete instead of cooperate and encouraged to study for grades and jobs instead of learning for the joy of understanding things. We are forced to absorb information and facts instead of pursuing things at our own pace and knowledge. What is your guidance on this, Guruji? Should we seek out schools without exams and a rigid syllabus?

Sri Sri: You know, though the education system is not perfect, we are compelled to go with the flow, because only then your child will get a job. They will get an academic recognition. Even in medical science, there are many textbooks that were written long ago but are being taught today. Today’s modern medicine has made many things irrelevant, but we still go on studying the old textbooks.
Yesterday, I heard that there are some 43 genes that cause heart problems, but our medical science only knows five or six. They think of only those parameters. They don’t know the other parameters.

So, science is being updated every day. New researchers are coming up and old paradigms have become obsolete. There is a paradigm shift, but children are still studying the same syllabus in schools and colleges. It takes quite a while for them to update the syllabus.
For example, in history there was an Aryan invasion theory, which said that Aryans came from central Asia and invaded India. Today, they have proved that to be wrong and a complete falsehood. But still, the textbook carries the same story. It may take another decade for them to change all this. But there is no option. If someone says, ‘No, I will not study this, I will do it on my own’, they will not get a degree. They will not get a job. They will not even be considered as an educated person, though they may be more knowledgeable. If you are just studying for your own hobby, for your own joy, for gaining knowledge and wisdom, you don’t need any academics. But when you are seeking it as a profession, seeking a job, you will have to go with the flow.

In the past, several wise men have tried this. Many people have been experimenting this, but the success of this project is a big question mark. We don’t know how many children who have studied there have gotten a job and have become successful in their careers. They may have, but it is a big question mark.
Home schooling is good in America; more and more people are doing home schooling. I am not saying no, but you may have to find out about it. If you have a family business, then degrees don’t matter at all, because your children will anyways manage the family business. Then they can do anything they want.

P: Is Atman one or many? If it is one, what carries individual karma and takes it from one body to another? What retains the individuality even after one is enlightened? Is there one enlightened being or many?

Sri Sri: With the questions you asked, we could write a book! We will take it all up sometime. Right now, you keep wondering about that.

P: At the time of death what is the ideal mantra to chant, or image to have? The scriptures say that if you do it right, you can achieve moksha (liberation). Also, what can the family members chant or whisper or do for the dying person to help liberate them?

Sri Sri: Om Namah Shivaya is what I would say. Om Namah Shivaya or Om Namo Narayanaya or Hari Om; any of these.

P: Is enlightenment achieved through meditation only?

Sri Sri: Is thirst quenched through water only? Is hunger quenched through food only? Or can you dance and get rid of your hunger? What do you say? Seva is essential; seva, meditation, all that are essential.

If you are doing everything
only to satisfy your own self,
you will be bored, because
nothing in the world can satisfy
you. Do something that is
good for others. Any seva
you do will always bring you
benefits, beyond your
imagination.

P: Dear Guruji, what is the meaning of the Shiva Linga?

Sri Sri: Lingam means an identification, a symbol through which you can identify what the truth is, what the reality is. What is not visible but yet can be identified by one thing that is Lingam. When a baby is born, how do you know whether the baby is a male or female? Only through one part of the body can you identify whether this baby is a boy or a girl. Otherwise babies look alike until a certain age. But one part tells you what the future is. And that is the reason the genital is also called Lingam.
Linga means gender. Streelinga means feminine gender and Pulinga means masculine gender. Gender means that by which you identify that which is not yet fully expressed. This is literal meaning of Lingam.
So Shiva Linga means the Divinity is not yet expressed. It is the Divine that is inexpressible actually; beyond expression; identifying that which is not yet expressed. Knowing something which is beyond with a symbol, that is what it is.
This ancient language is so powerful. Just keep a stone anywhere and it becomes a Lingam, which means, through the stone I am thinking of something which is not yet expressed.

P: What does Om mean when we chant it 3 times, what does it invoke in us?

Sri Sri: You know, somewhere in Boston during Guru Purnima in 2010, a lady from the Boston-Connecticut area had done a research where they recorded the sound Om, put it in the computer and found that the frequency of Om is exactly the same as the frequency of earth’s rotation around its own axis. So, in some sense, earth is saying Om. It is very interesting.
Om is called the sound of one hand clapping. Om is the eternal sound; Om is the sound which is there in the universe all the time.
All the saints in the past, when they went deep into meditation, they just heard Om. So, Om means many things. It means love, eternity, purity, peace. Om is made up of several dhatus: 'Ah' 'Oo' 'Ma'. Just ‘Ah’ has 19 meanings.
You can derive some several thousand meanings from Om. All those meanings are attributed to Om, so Om is the seed of the whole creation; Om is the sound of creation.
In Bible too, it is said, ‘In the beginning there was a word and the word was with God and the word was God’. That is Om.
There they don’t say which word; the word is Om.
It is in all the religions in some or the other form. That is the true name, ‘Ek Omkar Sat Naam’. Om means truth. It is the name of the infinity or the Divinity. It means love. It is the origin of the universe.
There is a beautiful verse in the Guru Granth Sahib, which begins with ‘Ek Omkar Sat Naam, Karta Purakh’ – From Om everything has come, in Om everything dwells, and into Om everything will dissolve; both matter and consciousness.
The best thing is that it is a complete vibration. ‘Ah’ affects the lower part of the body, ‘Oo’ affects the middle part, ‘Ma’ affects the upper part. The total prana is represented by one syllable Om. Before birth, we were part of that sound and after death we will merge with that sound; the sound of the spirit. So, you can say many things about Om. There is a whole Upanishad, the Mandukya Upanishad, which is all about Om.

Now, why don’t we take only Om as a mantra? Why do we need any other mantra to chant during meditation? Before meditation, you chant Om and create the vibration, but for meditation you need different mantras. Just Om is not used; Hari Om or Om Namah Shivaya, or something else is used along with Om.
Only recluses, those who want to do nothing with the world, or are very old are allowed to do chant Om. Even then, it is not advisable.

P: Is living a life as a celibate the middle path? How do we get to know of God’s expression in its totality without the feminine-masculine principle?

Sri Sri: See, you are made up of both, feminine and masculine. Both aspects are in you. Now, celibacy is not the only way. It is not a practice. Celibacy is something that happens, when you know that you are not the body. And the genders masculine and feminine are only to the body, it is not for the consciousness. The consciousness is beyond.
Now, when you realize this consciousness is beyond then you go beyond the gross pleasure. Otherwise we have been trying to know male and female in so many lifetimes being a cat, dog, horse, and whatever animal, and human beings as well. So if you just want to know that then keep knowing it. For how long will you want to know? At some point of time you will say, ‘Enough is enough. I want to just go inside.’ That is when the mind turns inward.
So you should not negate everything and go; but when the energy in you rises up then you want a joy that is free from feverishness and excitement. And that is what it is.
That is why it is said, a minute of Samadhi is equivalent to 1000 units of sex. How much joy you get in one unit of sex, a thousand units of sex is one Samadhi. And that one minute of Samadhi is equivalent to a billion years of rest.
So, do you want that? Then you have to go beyond these regular things. See, you have to give up something to get something.
If you want to really enjoy a nice good meal, you have to give up eating junk food all day. If you are stuffing yourself with a bag of potato chips from the morning, you can’t enjoy your lunch because you won’t have the appetite for it, right? When you are hungry, then you are able to enjoy a good meal.

P: Do you know which member in the audience is asking the question that is being read aloud?

Sri Sri: As long as you take the answer, it is good. Don’t think that answer is for someone else. That question is yours and the answer is just for you.

P: I am not sure about what I want to do in life. I want to ask you but I don’t even know what to ask and what exactly I want. I get bored doing anything in very little time. I find myself being very moody. I am not satisfied or happy doing anything. How can I live my life with this kind of mental state?

Sri Sri: You want comfort too much. Get out of your comfort zone. You are only thinking of your comfort and pleasure; that is when you get into this sort of stage or state.
You are here to be useful to somebody else. You are here to do something useful to someone. How can you be bored? Even if you are bored, you have to do that, because what you do is useful to someone else. If you are self-centered, and you think, ‘If I like it only then I will do it’, then that is not seva. That won’t bring you satisfaction. Do you see what I’m saying?
‘I don’t like meeting people’, but you are meeting people for your sake or for their sake? If you are meeting people for their sake, then your life is fulfilling.
You may say, ‘Guruji, you can do this, but what about me? I cannot do this.’ At least do something! You don’t have to do what I am doing; at least do a portion of it, maybe ten percent or five percent. See, I am very free, but yet I am not free. Every day of mine is bound. Do you see what I am saying?
You have all come here to be in satsang with me, I will say, ‘Oh, I don’t feel like being here. I feel moody. I want to go somewhere, to Shawinigan, Trois-Riveres’, and I take a car and just walk away and you are sitting here, waiting for Guruji, where is Guruji?
I don’t want to do this but I am doing it all the 365 days. I am answering the same questions; people are saying, ‘Will you find a husband for me?’ ‘Will you find a wife for me?’ or ‘Get me a job’, or do this, or do that, or take a picture with me, ‘You don’t care for me’, ‘You care for me’; all these stories. Do I feel bored? I have been doing this for 30 years now; more than 30 years, even before The Art of Living too, for 40 years!
I can’t say I want to go somewhere for a ride. So, do something that is good for others. I need so much of your time, your work. Don’t worry about whether you like it or not, just do it and see. Sometimes you don’t like doing things in the beginning, but later on, you will reap the fruit of that action. Any seva you do will always take you up; it will always bring you benefits, beyond your imagination. So don’t underestimate that. Do you see what I am saying?
Otherwise, if you are doing everything to satisfy your own self, you will be bored, because nothing in the world can satisfy you. And you are lucky in a way that you are getting so bored so quickly. You are so lucky; you are the right person as a seeker, you have the right ingredients to grow because you get bored with all these material things. That is good.
One very good thing with the kids these days is that they get bored with everything very soon, but instead of getting frustrated, they should move that whole energy in another direction of evolution, to go higher.

P: What causes me to lose my connection to you many times, only to find it again? Can you comment on this? Is this going to change one day?

Sri Sri: Know that the loosing of connection is an illusion and having the connection is the reality.
Sometimes, when there are dark clouds, the blue sky doesn’t appear. The blue sky has not gone anywhere. In a few moments, those dark clouds will disappear. Sky is always there. It is there before the clouds, after the clouds, during the clouds, all the time. In the same way, one’s connection is always there; it is an illusion that it appears to be disconnected.