The Best Way To Forgive

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:  Forgiving someone shows one’s compassion. Asking for forgiveness shows that you recognize your mistakes, and that you resolve not to repeat them in the future. Now to say, 'Only if he/she asks me for forgiveness will I forgive them', this is of a lower form of forgiveness. The highest form of forgiveness is to realize that the other committed a mistake out to ignorance, and having a sense of compassion for them. Forgiving others with a sense of compassion is the best for of forgiveness.
Cultivating this sense of forgiveness in oneself is a mark of being noble in character.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:  Fear is what you feel when you think you have no support. When you feel separate, you feel fear.
There is a beautiful saying in Sanskrit, 'Dvitiyadvayi bhayam bhavati'. Fear happens when there are two (meaning when there is no feeling of belongingness). We simply need to recognize our origin, our source and get connected to our higher Self. Then fear simply vanishes. It only needs this recognition that, ‘The Divine loves me very dearly; the Infinity is with me and all of Nature is a part of me. There is someone to care for me’.
Just these thoughts and positive affirmations are enough to make that fear run away.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:  That is in meditation. When you go into meditation, you should consider everything irrelevant. Only then can you become quiet. But do not think this when doing some activity. During activity, everything is relevant.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:  See, we have to begin somewhere. So we chose one river and started work. There are so many rivers that have dried up, and we are taking up the relief work gradually. For example in Maharashtra, we took up relief work for the river Dharani and five other rivers. In Karnataka, we chose three rivers to start work with, of which the river Kumudvathi was one of them.
The Kumudvathi project involves 268 villages as it will provide water supply to all of them. And 60% of the water shortage that is faced by the city of Bangalore will be solved by this. This is what our scientists believe.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:  For rivers that are still flowing and have not dried up, we need to protect their water from getting polluted. There is so much work that needs to be done to fight water pollution. We all will have to join in and contribute towards this cause.
Rivers like the Ganges and Yamuna need to be saved from pollution. This should be our aim.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:  You first do it and see. If they get solved, then that is good.
At least you will not be at any loss by doing sadhana. It will give you the strength to face those problems and overcome them. You are only going to benefit by doing sadhana. There is no loss or harm that can come to you by doing sadhana.
By sadhana, either your problems will ward off beforehand, or you will gain the strength to solve your problems.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:  You know, there are so many theories nowadays. At first people used to say that you should eat only low-fat, or no fat diet. Now they say that our body converts anything we eat into fat if we do not eat fat at all. So they say you must eat a high-fat and low-carbohydrate diet. There are so many different theories now. But the elderly Ayurveda doctors say that you should eat fat. They will often advise you to have a lot of butter! So there is a lot of confusion about what one must eat and what one must not eat. You should listen to your body, and have that which suits your body.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:  Well, when you say that is a constant struggle, then just let it be. When anything becomes constant, you get used to it. Then it is no longer a struggle. But anything is a struggle if you are not used to it.
If you are used to something, then you cannot be without it. Got it? So first of all, you need to take back your words that it is a constant struggle. If it is a constant struggle, then you do not even feel it is a struggle.