Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Riddi and siddhi come with the divinity. They are part of it. Even if you don’t want siddhis, they will come. Same with riddhi. Riddhi means abundance, various kinds of abundance andsplendor.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
When you see a culprit from a broader perspective, forgiveness becomes natural.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
I see violence in a bigger context. I am concerned about all violence. Violence in the red corridor (Maoist)...Even domestic violence. I am also concerned about the increasing suicidal tendency in the country. Suicide is violence against the self.. When mind is stressed, it leads to violence. Depression leads to suicide. We have to work together. We have to bring back the human values. Education about human values...The world is undergoing an identity crisis!.. A reversal of identity is needed.. First of all, our identity is that we are all Divine.. then we are human beings, then our gender, religion, country and so on..
We have to educate the society about the ONE divinity.. When that shift happens, we can relate to anybody, whatever be our ideology. Fear will be eliminated. Inside every culprit, there is a victim crying for help...what is troubling him?...He could have been a victim of ignorance or brain washing or violence...
This education is the only way to bring peace around us, to make this world a beautiful place to live in...Thank you.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Well, you got this question! First, you understand that the mind is running. Then you get this question, ‘Is it necessary?’ I leave this question to you. It is very personal, very individual. I don't think it is necessary. But myanswer will not necessarily suffice for you. It is has to come from within. Otherwise, it will be just a mood making. ‘Oh, I don’t want money’, but one part of the mind will say, ‘No, I need money.’ One mind will say, ‘I don’t need fame andanother will say, ‘No, I need fame’. Like this, the conflict starts happening. But when you wake up and see, and see those people who have had all this - how shallow and hollow they are, then naturally you find there is no significance in all this. Then neither will you crave for it, nor will you make any effort to renounce it. People who say, ‘I don’t want fame’, inside, somewhere, the mind is saying, ‘Oh, I want fame, I want fame’. When the sun hasarisen, what is the use of a torchlight? You are moving with a torchlight and suddenly you realize there is no meaning in moving with the torchlight, when the sun is there.Then that is your experience, your true experience. So when you run behind things which are illusive - you will realize that it is causing more pain, more suffering and ‘it is not giving me what I really want’.Then there is fulfillment, centeredness, a subtle solid strength comes from within. Then if fame comes, money comes, it doesn’t touch you. It comes or doesn’t come, doesn’t matter to you. ‘I want it’ or ‘I don’t want it’ are two sides of the same coin. Somewhat we need to be – let it be.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
By being relaxed. Have an attitude where nothing matters - only then humor arises. When things matter a lot, then your mind is tensed, you are goal-oriented. There is a part of you to which nothing matters. You are a combination of the nothing matters to everything matters. Have both! If everything matter, then there is no humor. If nothing matters then too, there is no humor. Don’t try to impress somebody. You will be fail miserably. When comedians try to make someone laugh - it appears unintelligent and foolish, childish humor. Those who are intelligent and mature, humor is natural to them.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
When someone dies you realize that this is the truth. One day everyone is going to die. When you are alive you don’t realize the truth. You are caught up in unwanted things.Truth is something which you cannot avoid.
Beauty is something which cannot be renounced.
Love is something which cannot be expressed.
These three things are more than enough to remember. It enough to digest.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
It is good to praise fools but for the intelligent there is no need to praise. He will work either way.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Whatever work you do you’re not able to sustain it for too long. You don’t need to sustain it for too long. Do you sustain it for sometime at least? Sometime? Good. Then slowly increase that sustainability little longer, little longer, little longer.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Lessons are an automatic phenomena, what you have experienced is the past. Living in the past means cribbing about the past. Life has much more to offer you.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
We have to spread spirituality. We have to make people realize the importance of spirituality. They will have to meditate. Only through meditation would they ever feel the inner richness, inner abundance. Whatever you feel inside, that’s what you project outside. If you have fear inside, you will project it outside. You feel lack inside, and you will feel lack everywhere. So, that abundance has to arise from within. For that, one has to do meditation course like this, no?