Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Sri Sri: I want to ask you a question. Suppose there is a child who is running around on a small parapet wall, and there is a danger of falling, what will you do? Let the child have its freedom? No, you will guide the child and bring it back, right?
Similarly, if someone is into drugs, and you know it is harmful for them, won’t you go and help them? So, similarly we must try our best to you our skills to help people out of trouble.
Suppose someone is mentally ill and does not take medication, what does the family do? Allow him to be? He may get violent and hit everybody. The wise family members give his prescribed medication in juice or milk, and he feels better after drinking it.
So, there is nothing called ‘absolute’. You should always use your wisdom for the given situation. You cannot force someone in order to help them. Suppose someone wants to drive on the wrong side of the road, they cannot say it is my free will to drive on the wrong side of the road. When you are living in society, you have to follow certain norms. Similarly, even when you want to help someone, you have to follow certain norms. Don’t force, at the same time, don’t wait that someone will invite you to put out the fire in their home. If your neighbor’s house is on fire, you can’t expect a phone call or an invitation to go and put out the fire. You rush to put the fire off. You volunteer, right? Understand! So take the middle path.

Sri Sri: There are so many layers of karma. There is individual karma, family karma, community karma, nation karma, and also time karma. There are so many layers of karma. But all that can be changed.
When you sit and meditate, changes occur in so many ways. Don’t think that you are meditating just for yourself. When you do Kriya or meditation, you are not only making your karma positive, but you are also influencing the planet and you are also influencing the other subtler planes. When you do meditation, it has a very soothing and calming influence even on the people that are dead and gone.

Sri Sri: It is possible if the person is too attached to their grandchildren. If the only thought in the mind is ‘My grandchildren, my grandchildren’, then they will be born there. Our deepest impression causes the next birth.

Sri Sri: We have designed a course for that. It is called KYC – Know Your Child and KYT – Know Your Teen. It is just for two hours per day, for two days. You will get many beautiful ideas in this course. It has become so popular all over because it is very effective.
Our relationship with our children changes and the way they respond to you also changes.

Sri Sri: Do you have a dog at home?
(Answer: Yes)
See, when you go to the park, you go with a leash on the dog. That is legal. Now, the dog has freedom only for the length of the leash. Correct? It can sit very close to where the leash is, or go as long as the leash is. That much is its freedom. If you have trained a dog to be in one area, that is his freedom. He doesn’t go twenty kilometers away.
Similarly, in life, everybody has some freedom, and some things are fixed. Human beings have this freedom because humans have intelligence. The lives of animals are programmed. They never overeat. Their life is aligned with nature, but we have the freedom to align with nature or violate the law. Are you getting what I am saying?
When you align with nature, there is harmony, and when you go against the laws of nature, there is disharmony. So, in life, many things are fixed and a few things are free will.

I will give you another example. When it is raining to get wet or not is your freewill. You can take an umbrella or a rain coat and not get wet. So, life is a combination of freewill and destiny. The more you go deep into meditation, the happier you are, the more you align yourself with nature, the more you will have free-will.

Sri Sri: Listen, how are you now? Are you happy now? Forget about the past. Are you happy to be here? Are you enjoying? That is it.
Inside each of us there are two things. There is one thing that does not change. There is a constant flow of a consciousness that doesn’t change. Many other things around that keep changing. So, when you look back in your life, you are not the same person that you were. But at the same time, when you see, you are the same person. Both are there simultaneously.
When do you feel that you have not changed? When you get upset.
Suppose somebody pushes a button, and you get angry, you say, ‘Oh, I have not changed, I still get angry.’ That is the problem, right? That is not true. In the past, you got angry, but the anger stayed in your mind for months and months. You get angry even now, but it just stays for a few minutes, or till you do one short Kriya, and then you become fresh again.

Sri Sri: You should work for making a living. But for joy, you should do some service. Engage yourself in any social service. You will find that it brings you contentment and happiness. I knew this question was coming, so I said that there is joy in giving. Find the joy in giving rather than taking.

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.

Sri Sri: To realize one’s mission, your mind has to become clear. And doing Hollow and Empty meditation makes the mind very clear. When the mind is clear then intuition comes up.
Think how best I can be of use to people, and when you become useful to people around you, when your life is for seva, then you find that life is very meaningful and very fulfilling.
If your life is only centered on yourself, ‘What about me, what will I get? How much more joyful can I be?’ If you are focused only on that then you go into depression.

See, your strength and talents are meant to be put to good use for others. If nature has given you a good voice, is it for you or for others? Do you sing and listen to your own song? If nature has given you a good voice, that is for others to enjoy.
If nature has given you a good form, is it for you or for others? It is for others to look at you and enjoy.
So, any strength that you have is not for you; it is for others.
Any power or strength that you have can be used in two ways. Either you use the power to fight with others, or use the power to serve others. For centuries, people in the world have been gaining power only to fight with others, isn’t it? One gained power so that they could fight another, and whom do you fight with – with the one who is equal to you.
Definitely one does not fight with someone who has less power than them. One fights with someone who is on par with them. And nobody has found happiness in fighting with power. If the power that you have been given is put to good use, to serve, it brings you satisfaction and happiness.
So, everything that you have – power, beauty, money, appearance, voice, they are all meant to be put to good use, for the service of others. Then, you find life will be so fulfilling.