Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Q:
How to improve my self-esteem? Sometimes, I feel invisible. People forget about me, where I am.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Be useful to others. When you do that, they remember. If you only think about yourself, then they forget.Q:
In the Bhagwad Gita, Lord Krishna says that one must not care about the result of his work. But if we do not think about the fruits that follow our hard work, then what will motivate us to do that hard work?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
There is no control over the fruit of action. If the attention is only on the end result, then you can’t perform.Let us take a runner - if he starts looking behind at who is running, and not looking at the path he needs to run on, then ultimately he will lose, no matter how good the runner may be. You have to follow your own track, to complete the run whether you lose or win. Lord Krishna is utterly practical in his advises. Lord Krishna tells Arjuna: This is complex, but these are the ways to do it.
Q:
How to maintain consistency in whatever good work one does?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
After this (inconsistency) happens sometimes, then you get the answer as well. You come to realize that this should be done and it feels good to do it.You did something good and then left it. Leaving it gave you a pinch. Then you resumed it and then left it again. Two, three times when you feel the pinch, you understand that it (the good) should not be stopped. If we do not learn from our mistakes, we will never learn from someone telling us. Your own mistake can teach you more than listening to lectures for hours. What you learn from your mistake is permanent, the rest is just what you have heard.
So it is alright if you make a mistake, but do not keep on repeating the same mistake again and again. Then you have not learnt anything! Make new mistakes but don’t repeat the old ones. Learn from it and move on.
Q:
Guruji, many times you have clarified that the Master is the presence and not the physical entity but when I see you I get so mesmerized with your appearance, your actions. Please tell me what to do?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Simply realize that you appreciate what you have. You are also beautiful. Inside each one of us there is beauty. We all have all these virtues inside us. Some virtues are manifested and some will soon manifest.Q:
What is atma (soul)?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Who is asking this? Because you have life, you are asking. Since you have a mind you are asking this question and since you have a body, the mind asks.One way is neti neti ( I am not the body, I am not the mind). The other way is ‘I am all’ (I am the mind, I am the body, I am the life force). Atma (soul) is the ocean, the life force is the wave.
Who made this beautiful body? The atma has to create, sustain and destroy. Just like how the water becomes vapor, then forms a cloud. The cloud then gives rain. The power to move from the form to the formless is there in every cell.
Q:
How to react in a situation where one see injustice being done to people around us or to our self?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
When you see injustice, you must stand up to it. And stand up with skill, don’t be foolish. You need to have the skill, power and support to stand up and that you need to garner, when you stand up to injusticeQ:
How can love move science?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
When love for science is intense, it is already moving the world.The ultimate aim of a researcher is not to earn a livelihood. If the main aim of a researcher is to earn a livelihood, it is not a best quality research. It has to lead to a soul-search. Research is to know. The joy of knowing is itself the goal. Getting recognition is immaterial.
Q:
Lord Krishna has spoken about surrender to the only One. What is surrender and how do we surrender?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Firstly, surrender to only one. Everything is, anyways, only one. Understand that everything is only one and then surrender. When we try to surrender to too many, surrender does not happen. You can travel in only one boat at a time. You cannot travel is many boats at the same time. That is why Lord Krishna said, ‘I am only One and surrender to me.’Q:
Are you optimistic like Jimmy Wales?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
I am realistic. Optimism is just hope but when you see it is possible it is practical then I think I am realistic. It is going to happen. People cannot stand tension or stress for too long, somewhere one has to give up. You cannot hold a fist for so long at some point you have to relax and when you relax you see the whole sky is in your hands. This has already begun in the world. Take a look at France and Germany, and in Western Europe. There were so many conflicts in the previous era but now the borders are gone. It has become one currency yet it was unthinkable in the 19th Century. So in the same way I am sure the Middle East crisis could be solved through educating people with a multicultural, multi-religious and broader spectrum of knowledge.Q:
When a disciple is dead what is the role of the Satguru?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Satguru knows that there is no death to the disciple. Atma never dies. Even after death he continues to get direction on the path.
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Founded in 1981 by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar,The Art of Living is an educational and humanitarian movement engaged in stress-management and service initiatives.
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