Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Meditation is a better form of prayer. In prayer you are asking for something. Meditation is saying, ‘I am ready to listen’. Just imagine if somebody only keeps on asking and is not ready to listen to you. Don’t you get frustrated? In the same way, God also gets frustrated but when you sit for meditation, and ready to listen to him, He bestows all the favors to you.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
If it is just 25% of the people going outside, I would say it is good. They will create a sense of belongingness to their country, to the place of their origin. It is good that people go and spread this everywhere. At the same time, if it is draining the economy of a university, of a state – like suppose you support a child to get educated, but then the child goes elsewhere and does not contribute to the government or system – that drain has to be addressed. This is a universal problem. It is not just confined to Israel. It is there in Asia, Japan, everywhere. I would say it is the sense of responsibility to the university, to the government, to whosoever has given you education, to pay them back. That has to come into people.Spirituality is uplifting the spirit, the consciousness. Money is for your comfort. It brings you comfort on the material level. We spend half our health gaining wealth and then spend half our wealth gaining our health back, and usually it doesn’t work. So take care of your health because your health is your wealth. It is part of spirituality. Money should be kept in the pocket, not in the mind. If you keep thinking about money all the time, you can’t even enjoy the money that you have produced. So money is needed, but something which is more necessary than money is that humaneness and that happiness that money cannot buy.
The present generation doesn’t worry what others think of them. They are not interested in showing off as much as the previous generation used to. Wealth is a status symbol, a symbol of respect, but that is no longer so in the younger generation. This is something very good. They earn money just for themselves and not to show their status, not to show it to others. And the younger generation, I would say, has become much more intelligent because they see that many people have a lot of money, but no happiness. They are not friendly, not happy, and they are always stuck. The younger generation feels that they need to get the maximum out of their lives. That difference is there. The only thing is that the generation gap needs to be bridged. This can happen with understanding, through education. I would say that youth are very brilliant these days, very thoughtful and useful, if they don’t fall into the trap of alcohol and drug addiction. This is the danger for them – if they are deluded into all sorts of intoxication, which is a sorry state.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
(Jokingly) Ok, somebody didn’t smile at you and was smiling at himself being adjacent to you, is that your problem! (laughter) The world is like that, some people don’t smile at you, you don’t smile at someone. Leave others. Are you smiling? We maintain our smile that is good enough.Everybody has one’s own set of problems and if that much compassion has arisen in you then you go and ask, ‘What is your problem? Why are you not smiling? Do you need any help?’ But then see whom are you asking (laughter) and in case you are slapped by someone, then give them your second cheek too. (Huge laughter) If that compassion is there, then ask everyone, ‘Why are you not smiling?’
Once in Switzerland, we were waiting for some conveyance and we saw that nobody on the road was smiling. I thought, everything is here and still people are not smiling. I had so many flowers with me and so I asked the devotees who were accompanying me to give flowers to those who were not smiling on the road and ask them to smile. That was such a fantastic program. After that we raised a wave called ‘Spread your smile’ in Netherland, France, Germany, Switzerland where people give flowers and said, ‘ Please smile and make others smile by passing on this flower’. Some people were shocked initially that nobody till that day bothered about their smile and suddenly somebody coming and asking them to smile.
But if you are in India, take care before giving flower to anybody. (laughter) Be a little cautious before giving a flower here in India. In India, if a girl smiles at a boy it is taken in a different sense. It is not normal, and a boy giving a flower to a girl is not taken as a very nice gesture. (Huge laughter) But in Europe, it is not considered bad. (Somebody from audience asked, ‘Let’s start this in New York also’.) Yes, we are doing there also, something called ‘A Rose of friendship, Pass it on’.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Should we do something bigger than Silver Jubilee? (A big yes from the audience) Yes, why not? Next year in 2011, the Art of Living will complete 30 years, 3 decades . Let’s see. We will plan something. You also plan. Let us make a pool of ideas.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
If you are listening but the mind is still somewhere else then there is no receptivity.When your mind is clogged with too many ambitions, it does not listen properly if the subject is not linked with your ambition. Even if it is related, it goes on a day dreaming trip. It listens to one sentence and it goes on a trip. For e.g. if someone has an ambition to become a Chief Minister and he is told that you have all possibility of becoming a chief minister the mind immediately goes on a day dreaming trip. So simply listen, just listen.
Also if your mind is stuck with so many thoughts then also the perception is low.
Another reason for alertness of the mind to reduce is vata de-arrangement or kapha imbalance.
When the mind is bombarded with sensory stimuli then also it is not receptive. Have you observed after watching a three-hour movie if someone tells you something you say, ‘Tell me later on.’
To enhance receptivity what to do?
Silence, Pranayama, proper food, less ambitions in the mind will all help. If you like a topic/ subjects then you tend to be receptive towards it. Teenagers often face a difficult phase in life when they have to choose a subject - Math, Computer Engineering etc and if someone is good in all of these subjects then it creates even more trouble.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Dharma and sanga. Our innermost nature is what dharma is. Yes, our innermost nature is dharma and sangha is our association, our environment.So events and attitude are influenced by only two things.The first is by your own true nature and another by your environment, the people whom you are with, you know.In a group if someone says, ‘Come lets go and have a drink,’ we will say, ‘Ok, lets all go.’ We will go.In a group if someone starts talking negatively, slowly another person will join a little later, then the third and the fourth. Soon you’ll find that everybody starts talking negatively – this is the influence of the groupA child is influenced upto 25 percent by the environment, by the friends in the environment and the school they grow up in. Another 25 percent is from the parents’ genes and tendencies. The next 25 percent is their own originality, their karmas, their samskaras, the impression that they come into this world with. The remaining 25 percent is through their own self-effort and their understanding. So parents have got only one-forth influence on their children. Only one forth. Similarly, our sangha which means our association has an influence on us. Usually what we call sangha is a group of people who are on the spiritual path. People on the spiritual path can help you with that much-needed energy, biodiversity energy for you to move on that path. That is why when you sit and meditate in a group, it is better than when you are alone.How many of you feel that way? In a group you feel like doing yoga, pranayam, even service activity. When you are alone, you get tired. You don't feel like doing it. But few of you join together and you do a lot of work. If you have to wash the dishes alone, you will feel so bored. But if 7, 8 or 9 of us are washing the dishes, time just flies like that. You don’t feel tired. I have told you don’t feel exhausted isn't it? How many of you have this experience?At home if someone is asked to wash that many dishes, you would crib. And here you do it with the smile, you do it happily joyfully. So sangha can or the group sangha can help you move up in life. It puts you in touch with the dharma; and sangha only happen with the enlightened.That’s why Lord Buddha said Buddham, sangham and dharmam. Three things - the enlightened one, the company of people and your true nature - all these things important and they all are one and the same.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Even now you get tensed, but it goes away right? Anger, tension - many people don’t even know they are like this! At least you know. On a white clean cloth - a small dust particle is also seen. When the mind is clear, little anger or tension is also seen. Slowly you will see nothing is affecting you. A few months or years of practice and you will see that nothing can touch you.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Devotion is the zenith of Love. ‘Saa tvasmin panama prema rupa’ - Embodimentof supreme love for the divine is devotion. You can’t posses God. In routinelove affairs, you love someone and you expect the same in return. You can’tclaim a right on God. Love for that infinite consciousness is devotion.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Yes, only then is it grace.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
You don’t have to make it an experience. You simply have to wake up and see that life is a game. Wake up this moment as I am speaking. Whatever happened till now, is it not like a dream? You had dinner this evening, meditated in the morning, did yoga in morning and went to bed last night, and if you go over your own memory there were good / bad events, you had profit, you had loss but right this moment it’s all gone. Wake up this moment and you will see that tomorrow, the next 10 years is also like a dream! When you realize this whole phenomenon, that has happened in the past and future, it's all like a play, a game. You don’t have to think this is a concept and I have to experience it. My dear, memory is memory. Your thinking that you have to experience memory is a concept and your thinking that you don’t have it is again a concept. You simply have to realize right away that it is all a dream. This could be a dream. That very moment you feel a sense of relief. A soothing wave overtakes you. Don’t wait till someday you will experience - it’s all a game.May be after you leave the body you will experience one day. Then also you will realize I could have done that much before.