Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Have you seen movies? There is a hero and a villain in the movie. Now what is the role of a villain? He creates some kind of entertainment. When do you feel your body is a burden to you? When you feel that your body is a suffering to the spirit. But you can’t call it a burden when it is a means to elevate the spirit. When you know the body is given to you as an instrument to elevate the spirit, would you still call it a burden? Shareer maadhyam paro dharma sadhna- This body is an instrument for dharma, all that uplifts the spirit. Don’t consider it a burden. Honor your own body. The soul comes to your body after great effort. There is a great rush. Many souls compete to get one body and one succeeds. So our body is a gift and not a burden.Gentleman asks: Is liberation from the body true liberation?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:What is burden? Desires, cravings and aversions in the mind are the burden. Your craving for something or your aversion for something makes you feel it is a burden. Losing your body doesn’t make you lose your cravings and aversions.
Question continues: Why is the material world considered to be a world of misery?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:It is the mind which makes you feel it is a misery. This world is a part of the divinity. So instead of blaming the world, look inside.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
No, no it’s fine. You know, when you are meditating sometimes the head will come down, or your body will rock. This is all normal. Different types of stresses when they get released all these different reactions can come up. That’s ok, nothing to worry about.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
If you put natural things, then there is no pollution. They are bio degradable. If you put soap or plastic, it harms the water. Since centuries, in the forest so many leaves and fruits fall in water, but the water is not contaminated. But when we throw artificial things, the water gets contaminated.When we put bowls made of leaves, and garlands made of real flowers into water, it doesn’t get polluted.
It is interesting , one who is familiar with the real stuff, to him even the fake thing seems real.
And to the one who is familiar with the fake thing, even the real appears as fake. This is maya. What is real and what is unreal has to be found out. Therefore you need an inward eye (antar drishti). This is possible through yoga and meditation.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Don’t worry. Everyone will come to the path slowly.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
No, when you are a witness (sakshi) to the thoughts coming and going, no karma is formed. When you feel sad thinking that your thought is bad, it is then when your mind gets affected.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
When someone near to you is leaving the body, your words would have no meaning. At those moments you just be there in silence. Those vibrations will work for them.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
To begin, look at it in the short term. Say for the next one month I am not going to do it. What gets us over an addiction?Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Do you know beauty lies in the beholder’s eyes? How are you able to see that everywhere? Consciousness is truth and beauty together.Real beauty is when you’re centered, when your mind is with the truth. That is how every baby is beautiful – because they are centered.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Open your ears wide and listen. You are a devotee and a true devotee. Don’t ever raise a doubt on this. The badness is imposed from outside. Inside you are one with the Truth. Your devotion is also true devotion. This is the way to think. Otherwise, the self doubt transforms into guilt and then you spoil your mind. Move with the belief that I am a true devotee. Hear this with open ears.Q- Krishna ki chaturta, Ram ki gambheeta (Lord Krishna’s mischievousness, the seriousness of Lord Rama) … Guruji, which way to follow?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:See there is no fight here. They came at different times, so that there is no competition. They came to tell us that, “We are all one”. Here there is no conflict of which is better which is worse, everything is essential. Each one has a style, place and time.
It is like you sing different songs for different occasions in life. In a marriage you don’t sing a song that is sung at funerals.
(The Kumbh Mela is one of the most sacred pilgrimages in Hinduism. The word Kumbh means 'pot' or 'pitcher' and Mela means 'festival' that is why it is known as "the pitcher festival". It is a fair that energizes your mind and soul)
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:
Wherever people come together and do satsang, that is kumbh.