Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You are talking now to everybody. Yes, for today it has gone, okay.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You left Arvind (Arvind Kejriwal) out! I am inside everybody and I am with everybody. Arvind is the common link between those who are walking the path against this corruption. See, corruption is present in many levels of society; the first level of corruption is in the minds of the general public and that needs to be eliminated. We even give bribe to Devi and Devatas. We tell God if you do this work of mine then I will offer that to you, I will offer a coconut, I will walk the staircase of Vaishnav Devi. People asking for mannat or wishes, that too is one kind of corruption. But it is okay if sometimes a normal person just wants to give God something. Don’t say I will give if my work is done. Whatever you want to give God, give God and that is nice, but connecting it to our work or needs, that is wrong. This practice is prevalent in all religions, not just Hindu religion; it is in Christianity, in Islam and in Buddhist followers. This frame of mind that after my work gets done I will do this or I will do that is wrong. This should not happen. So if the general public stands up against corruption by not giving bribes, then how will anyone take? So first we need to fix those people who give bribes. Tell them not to give. We need to raise a wave of spirituality. That is when we will have more inner strength and that is when people will refuse to give bribes. When each one of you go back, each one of you will have to make at least 100 people take an oath that they will not give any kind of bribe to anyone. If you show some money to somebody, he remembers his wife and children and thinks let me take it. So it is important to stop the people who are giving bribe. Secondly, there are bribes that happen on the official level. Already there are many volunteers who are doing this practice, they go and stick a label on the desk of government officials that states ‘We do not take any bribe’. This has been started here but in many states it has not yet been started. It has not started in Maharashtra; wherever it has not started, there, we, volunteers must go to the desks of officials and stick a label on their desks that states ‘We do not take any Bribe’. If you go and stick this on their desk no officer can refuse you; stick it anywhere on the desk or chair or the door that here we do not take any bribe and so the people who give bribe will not give after reading this label. Okay, the third level of corruption, on the ministerial level, for that quite a bit of work is happening with the Lokpal Bill and Arvindji, Annaji, Swamiji, Kiran Bedi, everyone is working day and night for this cause. So the Lokpal, once it has been passed will bring about the change. But the bill alone will not work; awareness needs to be created in the society towards the bill, what it is and how you can be punished by the law if you engage in corruption. This is being done at the moment. So like this work needs to be done on all levels of society and most importantly the mindset of the people needs to change and that will happen with the help of spirituality only because corruption starts there where belongingness ends. Nobody will ever ask for bribe from their family or own people. And the means through which we can spread belongingness is spirituality and this we will have to do. In everyone, we have to instill this belief that whatever is yours you will get. You work hard and be self-sufficient and stand on your own two feet. Whatever is yours you will earn. This way, this inner strength and awareness needs to be awakened in people, yes! With this we need to bring a big change in the country. Now see, in Tamil Nadu there was so much corruption, before the elections, people were given money and made to promise by their children to take it and then these people take the money and give that candidate the vote. I arranged for people to go to each district and tell the people take the money but don’t give them vote because they are giving you your own money back. They are such poor people so they will take it. But I told them not to give a vote in exchange and don’t worry about the sin, give the sin to me and I will bear all the sin, no problem. And we were successful in Tamil Nadu. We were lucky that the election commissioner very strongly stood by us and gave his agreement and support. But each and every one of us have to work. We have to go to each village and bring this awareness that we are against corruption, and we need to bring a big change in the way society thinks and feels. Each person should feel that we need to move together, taking everyone with us. There are so many different kinds of people, beliefs, communities, we need to embrace everything and move together. We must not say, ‘Only my way is the correct way', no. The beauty about India is even though there are so many different communities, religions and beliefs, we respect all of them and together in unison we are moving forward.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Chant ohm namo shivay and meditate.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
If someone is a compulsive liar, what to do? Somebody asked me a question yesterday, “Guruji, are you angry with me?” I said, “No.” That does not mean you can go on lying. Now, I know some people do wrong things, say wrong things and misuse the trust of other people. They say, “I have just spoken to Guruji on the phone and he has said like this.” I forgive and I don’t get angry but I feel compassion for them because they are putting mud on their own heads. They are causing trouble for themselves. So why should I spoil my mind getting angry with such people? I don’t feel angry but feel compassion that they go and create trouble here and there. Pitaji had written a quote, ‘The world is full of people and mistakes. Forgive the mistakes and love the people.’ What a wonderful thing he has said!'Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Where did these thoughts come in your head? It came in your head, right? Better find that out yourself. Before it comes, try to catch it. When you look inside, you will find that the thought is coming from an empty space. An empty space. And that empty space is the mother of all inventions, all creativity.That’s why, time and again, experience silence. You will get creative and innovative thoughts will come to you. Our mind is chattering all the time, 24 hours. That’s why be silent. Silence increases our energy level, our sharpness and awareness level. It has enormous potential. Imagine someone with insomnia – they are tired the whole day and are unable to sleep at night too. They don’t know how to rest. They chatter and chatter.
You continuously talk and listen to the television and radio. We get immersed in sound from morning to night, from the time we get out of bed till we go to bed again. Chatter, chatter! How much wear and tear would’ve happened to our brain! We don’t give it any time to rest. There is so much disharmony around you. You know why you like music? Because music is a harmonious sound and all disharmonious sounds gets submerged in it.
You will start enjoying that quietness. That inner harmony and serenity is much more pleasurable than the best music you can ever listen to.
I am not saying you should never listen to music. It is necessary but don’t overdo it. You should eat, but you shouldn’t overeat. Similarly, you should listen to music, but not get obsessed with it.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
That’s good. I am happy if you feel happy and when you move on the right path, right knowledge and engage yourself in sadhana, seva and satsang, it’s very good for you and everyone.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Yes, they say everything is fair in love and then it turns into a war! (laughter)When they say everything is fair in war, they, in turn, get jailed. That’s what happened to Miloshevich and many other people who just didn’t care for any rules and thought everything is fair in war and love and finally, they landed up in jail.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Why should we not? Listen, now why should we have so many types of vegetables? You should have had only one egg plant. You should have asked why there are so many types of fruits. There are grapes, oranges, so many types of oranges, so many types of bananas. You should have had only bananas. Nature should have created only bananas. You eat the banana and go bananas. You would have really gone nuts. Nature loves diversity. So nature made so many types of rice. You know, in rice there are 152 types in India alone. World over if you count there are thousands of types of rice. There are types of rice, types of cows; different types of vegetables, fruits. The Divine loves diversity. So the Divine can manifest itself in so many diverse forms. That is what the ancient people said. You should give the freedom for Divine to wear whatever clothes it wants to wear. Don’t say that the should come in the same dress all the time.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You need the four things curiosity, fear, greed and love.Remember the planet has faced worse crises than these. If you have a crisis you only have to look at a bigger crisis – start to serve the bigger ones and yours seem smaller and you overcome it effortlessly. When a crisis seems too humungous for you and you feel you cannot handle your own, focus on a bigger one. Have you noticed how children come to you with a big problem, and it turns out that their friend doesn’t want to speak to them. It seems so big. Or you argue with your neighbor, your girlfriend or boyfriend. The problem seems so big but this planet has had so many crises. The tsunami, war, famine, economic meltdown and still we overcome them all. Have faith and confidence.
1. Have confidence in you. You have the strength to manage the problem. If the problem is the tail then the body is the solution. So have confidence.
2. If this doesn’t work then know that there are people with greater problems and start serving them. It will make you feel better.
3. Surrender to the bigger power. Feel your helplessness and offer the problem to God. The sincere prayer will make things turn around. You don’t have to think about what denomination to pray. Just from helplessness arises the spontaneous prayer.
4. Know that it is a passing phase. It will always go. See life in the bigger picture. No problem stays forever. It came and it will go.
Read more: https://www.artofliving.org/intl/Portals/0/founder/ontour/09April0SpiritualityIsRelevantToSociety.pdf
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
It is a matter of great concern that violence has taken over 300 of 600 districts in this country. It is a serious concern. This is because we have brushed aside all spiritual things. We have been educating people in a system that does not inculcate human values and spirituality. All of you must insist that spirituality takes a front seat in everything.Around 150 saints were born in Tamil Nadu (an Indian state). They have all written many songs, spiritual treatises and books. The education system in Tamil Nadu has removed all this spiritual knowledge from these books. As a result, today, people don’t even know that they are groping in a rootless system. A similar situation is seen in Hyderabad. There were so many saints who would sing the Vedanta – the highest knowledge. All the literature has been bundled aside.
Even in our school – we rarely read about Kabir, Gorakhnath, Meerabai. We read about other things.
If spiritual education is encouraged then Naxalism and Jehadi terrorism will all go away.