Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
If you see those who smoke, are they in bliss? No, but if you tell them not to smoke, their face shows anger and hatred. There is no joy in smoking but there is sorrow without it - this is a bad habit.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Sattva means that which brings harmony, that which makes you happy, that which makes you enthusiastic, that which brings knowledge in you. This is all sattva.Rajas makes you go too much up and too much down. Either you get too excited and you feel I can’t even handle this excitement or it is so down. This is rajas.
Tamas is when you feel so lazy and so negative that you don’t want anything. You dislike everybody. That is tamogun. So When you feel tamogun get up and start working, then rajogun
will come. Then when you are too much into action, I would say just sit back and
relax then you will get into satva. So, before meditation do some exercise. When
you do all this the restlessness or rajas in you calms down. Then you are able
to meditate. Didn’t it happen to you today? (Audience:Yes). How many enjoyed the
meditation. Raise your hands (Lots of people raised their hands). You meditated
nearly 20 minutes.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Good. Keep wondering. Wonder in anyone’s eyes is a charm in itself. Children look so beautiful, you know why? Because they have a wonder in their eyes. Wonderment. So I am happy you are keeping that wonder in your eyes and making yourself much more beautiful, much more charming. Everyone should wonder about something or other. Wonder indicates liveliness. When you lose all wonder in your life, you become very inert, dull and lifeless. Sign of life is wonderment and thats why nature has created so many things to wonder about and make life wonderful!Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You know whatever waste is given to Dharti ma (Mother earth) is returned back to us as manure and flowers! So, if Mother Earth takes your rubbish, am I any less? (Roaring laughter and applause). We carry the power of transforming all your sorrows to happiness and joy. No matter how much darkness there is, it does not affect the Light. When you come to the ashram, don’t you already feel good? (a resounding YES!).Devotee: We know you are the Light Guruji!
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
The mind is fixed in different type of habits, thoughts and feelings. That’s why Maharshi Patanjali* has given so many techniques for samadhi. Maharshi Patanjali says you can attain it by meditating on God or breathing in different ways. Gorakhnath (a 11th century yogi) has given about 108 techniques for meditation. In our country, since centuries, different techniques have been used for meditation. People have different habits, thinking patterns and feelings - that is why we have meditations with different ideas. So that people can experience meditation, through one technique or another.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Something deep inside is coming out, so let it come out. It is like vacuuming the carpet, and removing the dust mites. So, never mind, let it come out. From meditation, the practices, it will come out.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You have to make an effort and change it. Serve, serve and serve. In serving you are giving, when you are in the trip of only getting, then you cannot get over your patterns. But if you say: “I don’t want to be like that, I only want to give, I want to serve,” when you make that big shift, everything changes.Why are you going to Satsang, for example? Are you there to get joy for yourself or are you going there so you can help, contribute. You go to Satsang and give some juice and cookies to everybody or do you just go and enjoy your meditation and kriya and walk out? These delicate, small things make the difference.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Who said it is not popular? It is very popular. What Buddha said not just stayed only in India. It went far and wide to Vietnam, Korea, Japan, China and Indonesia, it spread all over the East. From Afghanistan to China to Bahamians Buddhas. Recently, till ten years ago the Bahamians Buddhists statues were there. So people had carved huge statues of Buddha on a mountain, it must have been very popular there.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
When someone asked Mullah Naseeruddin why he fought with his wife so much, he replied, “Because I love her so much. I fight with someone and love someone else? That is not done! I do everything with one person.” Fights are also a part of life.When you focus on each other too much, then fights happen. If you both have a common goal, to serve, to uplift the society, then fights don’t happen and love blossoms and there is plenty of work for every couple.
In the Indian marriage tradition, there is a ceremony called the saptapadi, the seven steps, which the couple has to take together. One of these steps (signifying vows) is that the couple work together for the upliftment of society.
Q: There is a lot of information about the transition of human consciousness, which is part of evolution. They say it will happen in 2012. Can you comment on it?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
As I said, the evolution of human consciousness is a continuous process. It is happening even now. They are right. In the next two years, 2012, that’s when Jupiter comes to Aries, the first point of Aries, people will be more spiritual. They will be inclined towards spirituality. Spirituality will be the fashion and it will become the necessity. People will start walking the path. I remember in 80s and 90s people doing Yoga were considered to be little out there. Not normal. It was not a dignified thing to sit in the lotus position or stretch your legs and hands and knees and sit on the floor. Today many companies - when they want to depict relaxation - they make someone sit in a yoga posture. Today’s advertisements show people sitting in the lotus pose.Paradigms have changed. People’s thinking has changed. Prejudice has reduced. I won’t say it has gone totally, but has reduced to a great extent. Interfaith dialogue is the talk of the world today. I was recently in Australia, in the Parliament of the World’s Religions, and there were people from all over the world, of different faiths, 600 people, started respecting each other’s faith. This time I received a greetings letter from the Pope. He sent me Diwali greetings and I sent him Christmas greetings. He addressed me saying, “Holiness, we all have to work together in the world to do a great job to uplift the human consciousness.” Today they have recognized there are all other faiths and many ways. So the world is changing already. Isn’t it?